#sorry this is abysmal I finally answered it on my lunch break! | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

rivalsforlife · 3 years

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The AAI Cast Takes On Twitter

Hello! For the release of ace attorney investigations 2 ten years ago, on the official AA twitter account, Capcom posted a bunch of tweets that were made to sound like they came from the characters themselves. You can still find them if you dig far enough, but it’s a bit of a pain to find and especially a pain to understand in English, so I decided to compile them all here and attempt to translate them. (They have also been “localized” in true ace attorney fashion.)

First, a disclaimer: I am absolutely NOT a translator and my understanding of Japanese is abysmal. I put the original tweets through google translate and then went through trying to make them legible, including looking up words and phrases when they didn’t make any sense. As a result, I can’t guarantee that this is completely accurate, and I definitely messed with phrasing a bit to get things to flow better or sound more in character. Hopefully the general gist of things should make sense! I’ll put the original Japanese text below the English one, and if you actually know Japanese and would like to properly translate it, please do so! I just wanted to get this out here as fast as possible.

If you want to view the original tweets, I’ve filtered them (mostly!) here in reverse-chronological order. There are tweets from the game staff at the end that I did not “translate”.

With that said, here are the tweets. (It is long, so most of it is under the cut.) The breaks are things I added that I believe were breaks in time on the actual account, and represent new scenes.

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<Edgeworth>: I was told to “tweet” what I usually think about to commemorate the release of “Ace Attorney Investigations 2”... What should I do?

<Kay>: Come on, Mr. Edgeworth! First, you need to introduce yourself!

<Edgeworth>: Oh. Sorry for the late introduction. My name is Miles Edgeworth, a prosecutor at the District Attorney's Office. Kay informed me that this is “Tweeter”.

<Kay>: No! It’s pronounced "Twitter"!

<Edgeworth>: Is it "Tweeter"? I'm not very good at this kind of thing ...

<Kay>: Okay, moving on. Ace Attorney Investigations 2 is about to be released, and Mr. Edgeworth has a lot to say, right?

<Edgeworth>: Mm. Certainly, there are few opportunities like this, so this should be a valuable experience.

<Kay>: Then this Great Thief, Kay Faraday, will teach Mr. Edgeworth the fun of tweeting!

<Edgeworth>: I’m not very interested in that… but alright. More importantly, Kay, do you want to start working soon?

<Kay>: Yes! Then, we can play later!

<Edgeworth>: (Well, if you have any questions, do not hesitate to tweet.)

<Kay>: Mr. Edgeworth ... Your inner voice is in the tweet! Isn't that neat?

<Edgeworth>: Ah! Tweeter… I shouldn’t underestimate it.

-----

<Edgeworth>: It's already 12 o'clock ... I wanted to take a break for lunch, but it seems that I won’t get the chance. The detective just reported a new case. I'm heading to the scene right now.

<Edgeworth>: Detective Gumshoe seems to have been in a hurry. He said he “lost something important”... It’s probably not something to worry about. I should concentrate on the investigation first. It takes a careful investigation to find out the truth hidden in the scene. There are many things that cannot be understood from desk work alone.

<Edgeworth>: I've arrived at the scene. Mm? It seems that some pencils have fallen near the victim.

<Edgeworth>: Search for the connection between information. That is the pursuit of "Logic". Assembling "Logic" is the key to the investigation even in Ace Attorney Investigations 2. “Something lost by Detective Gumshoe” and the “pencil left on the scene” ... There is one answer that can be derived from the two pieces of information.

<Edgeworth>: Detective Gumshoe! It seems that we found your lost pencil. ‥‥ Don’t leave extra evidence on the scene!

<Edgeworth>: Hmm ... Finally, the truth of the scene has come into view. This case will likely be resolved soon.

-----

<Kay>: Good evening! I came to play as promised!

<Gumshoe>: Welcome, Kay!

<Kay>: Huh? Gummy, are you also on Twitter?

<Gumshoe>: It’s popular among my detective friends. As long as my number of followers keeps increasing, I’m happy!

<Edgeworth>: What is a "follower"?

<Gumshoe>: Well, people who read your tweets. To put it simply, it’s like a friend group.

<Kay>: It seems that there are many people who are watching this tweet! Ehehe. That makes me kind of happy!

<Edgeworth>: Hmm. Friend group...? That sounds a little embarrassing, but thank you, followers.

<Kay>: Hmm. I feel that followers and friends are a little different. Well, as long as he’s happy.

<Edgeworth>: Let’s say that tomorrow we’ll spend more time with our followers on Tweeter.

-----

<Gumshoe>: I've been waiting for you, Prosecutor Edgeworth!

<Edgeworth>: Mm. Good morning Detective Gumshoe. It's rare for you to get to court earlier than me.

<Gumshoe>: That’s because I have to set a good example for my followers! I skipped dinner last night so I wouldn't be late.

<Edgeworth>: What does skipping dinner have to do with getting up early?

<Gumshoe>: Well, it sets a “belly clock”, so you wake up at breakfast time!

<Edgeworth>: (There are too many problems with that, and I don't feel like pointing them all out... I’ll just stay silent.)

<Gumshoe>: Mr. Edgeworth ... We can see the tweets of your inner voice, you know…?

<Edgeworth>: It's about time for the court to open. I'm heading into court without any uncertainty today.

-----

<Kay>: Hello everybody! I'm Kay Faraday, also known as the Great Thief Yatagarasu. Fufufu ... I’m actually in the gallery right now! I wanted to see Mr. Edgeworth and Gummy in court, and keep an eye on the enemy!

<Kay>: Oh! Mr. Edgeworth screamed, “Objection!” This is the 5th time today. The other lawyer is sweating now. The judge’s gavel is getting fierce! Eh -- what? “You can’t tweet in the courtroom…?” Hey!

<Kay>: Uh ... I was kicked out of the courtroom. As expected by the new rival of Ace Attorney Investigations 2, Justine Courtney! She seems like a kind judge, but also very observant.

<Kay>: This is an unexpectedly strong enemy! Mr. Edgeworth, are you okay ...?

<Edgeworth>: Kay. What were you doing in the gallery today?

<Gumshoe>: I was surprised to see Kay being kicked out of court!

<Kay>: I didn't think that tweeting was prohibited. As a Great Thief, this is the ultimate mistake!

<Edgeworth>: If you have time to regret breaking the rules of the court, use it to learn a little more about them.

<Kay>: If I had to leave the court anyways, I wanted to have a cooler exit, befitting of a Great Thief!

<Gumshoe>: … I don’t think she regretted breaking the rules.

<Kay>: Anyway! You’ve already finished your work today, right?

<Edgeworth>: Yes, I finished my work in the courtroom today. It looks like we can have a nice holiday.

<Kay>: So, why don’t the three of us go play together! Bowling, karaoke, game centers, etc.!

<Edgeworth>: No ... I'm not very good at such things.

<Gumshoe>: Since it’s Friday night, why don’t we play around and recover from working hard! I think watching movies would be fun!

<Kay>: Yeah, you worked so hard this week! Now, let’s go play!

<Edgeworth>: *sigh*. Whatever I say, it’ll be a waste of time… If we must, at least make it a movie.

-----

<Gumshoe>: This Saturday morning is a nice time for a walk! I sometimes take a walk with Missile to build strength and give him training. As the “partner” of Prosecutor Edgeworth, I want to be useful in Ace Attorney Investigations 2!

<Gumshoe>: When investigating with a metal detector or collaborating with Missile, I will be second to none! Hey, Missile! Hmm? Is a scent bothering you? Aaaaa! Mi-Missile has run away! He must’ve smelled food.

<Gumshoe>: When this happens, I have to rely on the odor to chase after it! This is part of the investigation process! Uh… I lost him right away. When this happens, I have to prepare sweets that Missile likes to lure him in! … I’m so overwhelmed.

<Kay>: It’s a shame to keep Missile as a police dog. He stole away Samurai Dogs from this Great Thief and ate them…! I was trying to eat with Ema.

<Gumshoe>: Sorry about that, pal. By the way, what were you doing together? Collecting fallen leaves…?

<Ema>: We’re grilling Samurai Dogs on this fire we made from scientific chemicals!

<Gumshoe>: Huh. Scientific chemicals, pal…? Mi-Mi-Mi-Mi-Missile! Do you feel alright?

<Kay>: It’s fine! He ate it before we started the fire.

<Gumshoe>: Oh. I wish I got to have some...

<Edgeworth>: It’s not good to use chemicals to play with fire, Ema. Scientific research is important, but please use moderation.

<Ema>: Yes! Moderation! By the way, are you going somewhere?

<Edgeworth>: Yes. I have some business. ... I don't have much time, so excuse me.

<Kay>: ... Mr. Edgeworth, where are you going?

<Ema>: Fufufu. In this case, we can follow his footsteps! Using the power of science… in moderation!

<Kay>: Alright! Let's follow him… in moderation!

<Gumshoe>: They both have a strange definition of “moderation”...

-----

<Kay>: That overwhelming scale! I think I’m going to cry! That’s a first for an orchestra concert!

<Ema>: The powerful sound of brass instruments and the splendid melody of woodwind instruments! Scientifically speaking, changing between different sounds is what makes music good.

<Edgeworth>: Umm. While I was looking forward to today, I didn't expect you two to follow me.

<Kay>: I wanted to bring Gummy as well, but he had to walk Missile, so he couldn’t come with us.

<Edgeworth>: The detective can still hear the “Ace Attorney Investigations 2 Orchestra Arrangement Collection” CD. You can pre-order one at E-Capcom.

<Ema>: I already pre-ordered it, of course! I’ll also get the 1:10 figure of Mr. Edgeworth!

<Edgeworth>: A 1:10 figure of myself? I don't remember measuring my height, but ...

<Kay>: That's because I stole Mr. Edgeworth's height perfectly!

<Edgeworth>: I'm a little hesitant to say it in the orchestra hall, but let me just say one word.

<Kay>: "Objection!"

<Edgeworth>: Wha…? How did you --!

<Ema>: This must be the famous technique of the Great Thief, stealing the words right out of his mouth! How informative!

-----

<Edgeworth>: I have no plans today, so I will spend my time reading at a nearby coffee shop. Naturally, I want to relax on Sundays.

<Edgeworth>: I’m drinking high-quality black tea in a comfortable sunny place. Today is going to be a good day off.

<Edgeworth>: Speaking of which, the other day, a follower named “Wendy” greeted me here on Tweeter. I don’t know how to return messages, so I haven’t done so yet. Let me thank you here. Ms. Wendy, thank you for following me.

<Oldbag>: E… Edgey-pooooooo! I finally found youuuuuuu!

<Edgeworth>: Gah! What are you doing in this coffee shop ...!?

<Oldbag>: No way, Edgey-poo! Just now, didn’t you say this on Twitter? Didn’t you just say “Ms. Wendy, thank you”? You made this old lady so happy! I just ran around all the coffee shops and searched for you everywhere, Edgey-poo. The power of lo

<Edgeworth>: Do you talk too much to fit on Tweeter? So, “Wendy” was you! No matter how many coffee shops you visit, there’s no way you found me so easily… Are you hiding something?

<Oldbag>: If you say that without evidence, you’d tarnish the title of “prosecutor!” I have nothing to hide from my dearest Edgey-poo!

<Edgeworth>: Hmm… Even without evidence, if I read your reactions and feelings, I can expose the truth while only using my words.

<Oldbag>: Oh, I heard about this, Edgey-poo! Isn’t it called “Logic Chess”? I know everything about you, Edgey-poo!

<Edgeworth>: What do you mean by “I know everything?”

<Oldbag>: You see, it’s because I’m a security guard. Recently, because the whippersnapper who was there before me got fired, I was temporarily guarding the prosecutor’s office. At that time, I just so happened to see your address, Edgey-poo.

<Edgeworth>: …………… I didn’t even need to pull out information, and you’re already telling me the answer!

<Oldbag>: Oh. It was a slip of the tongue. I thought I would get to see Logic chess.

<Edgeworth>: Well, could you see it in Ace Attorney Investigations 2? Please excuse me, I have very important business to attend to.

<Oldbag>: You mentioned that you have no business today! Today, I will never let you go!

-----

<Edgeworth>: Ngh… That was quite the disaster today.

<Edgeworth>: I was too careful just because it was a holiday. I was neglecting my remarks and wasn’t vigilant of those around me ...

<Edgeworth>: Mm? Now “Tweeter” is showing something from “Wendy”. … “Sorry. - Wendy.” … I’m not going to respond to that!

-----

<Gumshoe>: Prosecutor Edgeworth, did you hear? Agent Lang is coming from the Republic of Zheng Fa!

<Edgeworth>: Hm. Is he also involved in an international case? I didn’t have the opportunity to talk to him for long the last time. If I have time, I’ll go greet him.

<Gumshoe>: The last incident was a difficult one. I couldn’t talk much with Agent Lang’s subordinates, either.

<Gumshoe>: There are 100 people who know about it.

<Edgeworth>: If you tried to talk to everyone, the sun would set before you did.

<Gumshoe>: To be honest, I gave up trying to remember my own face and name.

<Edgeworth>: That’s just being lazy!

-----

<Lang>: Yo, Mr. Prosecutor. It's strange to see you in a place like this.

<Edgeworth>: It's been a long time, Agent Lang. I never thought we would meet again at a restaurant like this.

<Lang>: I just happened to see this place while I was looking for somewhere I could go alone.

<Edgeworth>: Alone ...? That’s unusual for you. Aren’t you usually with your subordinates?

<Lang>: Well… Lang Zi says: “To know the feelings of a lone wolf, you should leave the pack.” Sometimes I do things on my own.

<Edgeworth>: Is that so? However, I see a contradiction right there on your table.

<Lang>: Hah! Is that the prosecutor’s famous “deduction”?

<Edgeworth>: For someone eating alone, you ordered a lot of “platters”, which seem to serve over twenty people.

<Lang>: Arooooooo! ‥‥Oops. It seems I have a habit of ordering too much. If you don’t mind, Mr. Prosecutor, would you take a little?

<Edgeworth>: It seems that you’re not very good at acting alone.

-----

<Kay>: Eh? Agent Lang’s coming here again?

<Edgeworth>: Ah, yes. Unlike before, though, it seems like he’s acting alone for some reason.

<Kay>: Isn’t that because it’s difficult to sneak around with too many people? It’s an important rule for a Great Thief!

<Edgeworth>: He is an “international investigator”, not a “Great Thief”. … Anyway, he seemed to come to this country for some purpose.

<Kay>: Then, we might meet him again at a crime scene.

<Edgeworth>: Even if we both desire to pursue the truth, our paths often run counter to each other. If I meet him in the field, we may argue.

<Kay>: That’s nice. I also want a rival that will change me as a person! Ahh… I wonder if they’re out there… the rival who wants to hunt down the Great Thief!

<Edgeworth>: If you want to be arrested so badly, ask Detective Gumshoe.

<Kay>: Ugh! You just don’t get it!

-----

<Kay>: It's finally February!

<Edgeworth>: Oh. So it is...

<Gumshoe>: I'm looking forward to February 3rd!

<Gumshoe>: At our police station, we will sow beans for the bean-throwing festival! February 3rd is a precious day when you can eat soybeans for free!

<Kay>: Every year, I challenge myself with how many beans I can throw! “Out with the demons, in with the fortune, and in with the Great Thief’s treasure!”

<Edgeworth>: Did you forget the most important thing?

<Kay>: I was just kidding! Of course I remember what’s happening February 3rd!

<Gumshoe>: There is no reason to forget the release date of Ace Attorney Investigations 2!

<Edgeworth>: Mm ... I hope.

-----

<Edgeworth>: It’s three days before the game goes on sale. I hope the followers look forward to it as well.

<Edgeworth>: Investigating in winter is necessary, even if it’s cold, and you can’t catch a cold before the game goes on sale. Ergo, please take proper measures against the cold.

<Edgeworth>: Speaking of which, Detective Gumshoe wears the same coat all year round. Doesn’t that get cold? Ah… maybe it’s just that his salary is too low to buy anything else.

<Edgeworth>: ……… Should I invite Detective Gumshoe for dinner? What little I know about his eating habits worries me. I don’t think he’d eat instant noodles in winter…

<Edgeworth>: There is a handmade udon restaurant near the prosecutor's office. The taste is satisfying for a reasonable price. ‥‥‥‥‥‥ Though, when it comes to inviting Detective Gumshoe, I shouldn’t limit myself to just noodles.

<Edgeworth>: Mm. I tweeted that it was only 3 days before the game’s release, but it was 2 days. I worked all night in the office yesterday. It seems my sense of time has gone haywire.

<Edgeworth>: What I tweeted then was contradictory… Pardon me. Thank you, followers who pointed that out.

---

<Gumshoe>: This pork roast is delicious! This is my first one of the year!

<Edgeworth>: Detective Gumshoe. Stop eating while tweeting!

<Gumshoe>: I've been eating only plain pasta this year. I couldn’t help myself!

<Kay>: I could, but I still tweeted!

<Edgeworth>: It may not be instant ramen, but his eating habits are always in crisis.

<Gumshoe>: Ugh... every time I make a mistake while investigating, the cost of living becomes a crisis.

<Kay>: But the one who is in the most danger right now is Mr. Edgeworth, isn't it? I saw it in a commercial! He’s having his “biggest crisis!”

<Gumshoe>: I heard it too ... What kind of mistake did you make, sir?

<Edgeworth>: Don’t compare me to you! I don’t know what it is, but I’m not afraid of any crisis. No matter what happens, I simply do what I think is right.

<Kay>: As expected of Mr. Edgeworth! Well, you can always count on this Great Thief to help you in an emergency!

<Gumshoe>: Of course, I will help too! If you want to manage your living expenses in a crisis, sir, just leave it to me!

<Edgeworth>: First, could you try helping me as a detective?

-----

<Kay>: By the way, Mr. Edgeworth, what kind of person is your father?

<Edgeworth>: … Why would you suddenly ask such a question?

<Kay>: I just asked Mr. Shields. He said your father was a very good person! I also respect my dad, so I was a little curious about yours.

<Edgeworth>: When I was a child, he was someone I highly respected, and… the kind of man I aspired to be.

<Kay>: Huh? Is it different now?

<Edgeworth>: ……… About that… It’s difficult to explain. If you want to know the answer, please wait until tomorrow.

<Kay>: I see! The answer is hidden in Ace Attorney Investigations 2. I’ll be sure to steal the truth about Mr. Edgeworth!

-----

<Kay>: Gummy! Please decorate it from the right side!

<Gumshoe>: Here it is! Oh no, the decoration fell!

<Edgeworth>: What are you doing in my office in the middle of my workday?

<Gumshoe>: I’m off duty, but since today’s the eve of the release date, I’m preparing a party!

<Kay>: It's almost time to tweet! Mr. Edgeworth, please work and just ignore us!

<Edgeworth>: If you truly want that, then please stop climbing on my desk. … I’ll finish work soon, so please wait until then.

<Kay>: Eh! Are you going to help us?

<Edgeworth>: I would like to celebrate.

<Gumshoe>: That’s helpful, sir! Then, I’ll be sitting on the sofa and waiting until it’s time!

<Edgeworth>: ‥‥‥‥‥‥‥ Just wait in the corridor.

-----

<Gumshoe>: Cheers for the release of Ace Attorney Investigations 2!

<Edgeworth>: Hmm ... This party for the eve of the release is rather nice.

<Kay>: Ehehe. Tomorrow, we’ll give it our all!

<Edgeworth>: Umm. Thank you very much.

<Kay>: This is the last of our tweets ... It's a little regrettable.

<Edgeworth>: But I’m glad I had this opportunity to directly express my gratitude for the week. Those who were watching our tweets… let me thank you again.

<Gumshoe>: I still have something to talk about, but we’re already out of time!

<Kay>: But the eve of the release has only just begun! After this, you can talk to the development staff of “Ace Attorney Investigations 2” directly!

<Gumshoe>: Oh! Is that the plan?

<Kay>: I’m certain, because it’s information I stole from Capcom! It seems like it will start around 18:00!

<Edgeworth>: I do have a lot to ask, but let's leave that to the followers. Well then, excuse us for now.

<Edgeworth>: If you have any questions for the development staff, please quickly send them in!

------

Translation notes first:

The localized foods are as follows:

dorayaki -> Samurai Dogs (since Missile also has a habit of eating those, though I don’t believe the original was dorayaki?)

somen -> instant ramen

katsudon -> pork roast

shirataki -> plain pasta

The “bean-throwing festival” is Setsubun, a festival where you toss soybeans and eat some in order to toss out bad luck and bring in good luck (to my understanding, please correct me if I’m wrong). What Kay said (minus the Great Thief part) is one translation of a phrase you shout while throwing the beans. I obviously gave up on trying to localize this.

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Original Japanese (minus breaks):

〈ミツルギ〉：『逆転検事２　発売直前記念』として、私が日頃思っていることを“つぶやく”ように言われたのだが‥‥どうすればいいのだろうか？

〈ミクモ〉：ダメですよミツルギさん！まずは自己紹介からしないと！

〈ミツルギ〉：ム。紹介が遅れてすまない。私の名前は御剣怜侍、地方検事局で検事をしている。ミクモくんに教えてもらったのだが、これが“ついたー”というものなのだな。

〈ミクモ〉：違いますよ！“ツイッター”ですってば！

〈ミツルギ〉：“ついったー”か。こういったアレは、あまり得意ではないのだが‥‥。

〈ミクモ〉：まあまあ。逆転検事２も発売間近ですし、ミツルギさんも言いたいこといっぱいあるでしょ？

〈ミツルギ〉：ム。確かにこういった機会は少ないから貴重ではあるな。

〈ミクモ〉：それじゃ、この大ドロボウ・一条美雲ちゃんが、つぶやく面白さをミツルギさんに教えちゃいますよー！

〈ミツルギ〉：そちらはあまり興味がないが‥‥まあいいだろう。それよりミクモくん。そろそろ仕事を始めたいのだが？

〈ミクモ〉：はーい！　それじゃ、また後で遊びに来ますね！

〈ミツルギ〉：（まあ、気になったことがあれば気軽につぶやくとするか）

〈ミクモ〉：ミツルギさん‥‥。心の声がつぶやきに出てますよ！興味津々じゃないですか！

〈ミツルギ〉：なッ！ついったー‥‥あなどれんな。

〈ミツルギ〉：もう１２時か‥‥優雅にランチといきたいところだが、そうもいかないようだ。先ほど刑事から新たな事件の報告が入ったのでな。いま、現場に向かっているところだ。

〈ミツルギ〉：イトノコギリ刑事は、“大事な物をなくした”と慌てていたようだが‥‥どうせたいした物ではないだろう。いまは捜査に集中するべきだ。現場に隠された真実を知るには、入念な捜査を必要とする。デスクワークだけでは分からないことも多いのだ。

〈ミツルギ〉：‥‥現場に到着だ。ム？被害者の近くに“えんぴつ”が落ちているようだな。

〈ミツルギ〉：情報同士の共通点を探す。それこそが《ロジック》を追うということだ。逆転検事２でも《ロジック》を組み立てることが捜査の重要なカギを握っている。現場に残された“えんぴつ”と“イトノコギリ刑事がなくした物”‥‥２つの情報から導き出せる答えは１つ。

〈ミツルギ〉：イトノコギリ刑事！キミが無くしたというえんぴつが見つかったようだ。‥‥現場に余計な証拠品を残さないように。

〈ミツルギ〉：ふむ‥‥‥‥ようやく現場の真実が見えてきた。この事件は早急に解決できそうだ。

〈ミクモ〉：こんばんわ！約束通り遊びにきましたよ！

〈イトノコ〉：いらっしゃいッス！ミクモちゃん！

〈ミクモ〉：あれ？ノコちゃんもツイッターやってるんだ？

〈イトノコ〉：刑事仲間の間でも流行ってるッスよ。フォロワーもどんどん増えて、うれしい限りッス！

〈ミツルギ〉：‥‥“フォロワー”とは何なのだろうか？

〈イトノコ〉：えーと。自分のつぶやきを読んでくれる人たちのことッス。簡単に説明すると“トモダチの輪”って感じッスかねえ。

〈ミクモ〉：このつぶやきを見てくれている人たちも、たくさんいるみたいですよ！えへへ。なんだかうれしいですね！

〈ミツルギ〉：ふむ。トモダチの輪‥‥か。少々恥ずかしくもあるが、ありがたいことだな。

〈ミクモ〉：うーん。フォロワーとトモダチとはちょっと違うような気もしますケド‥‥。ま。喜んでいるみたいなのでいいや！

〈ミツルギ〉：明日も“ついったー”で、フォロワーに恥じぬ時間を過ごすとしよう。

〈イトノコ〉：お待ちしてたッスよ！御剣検事！

〈ミツルギ〉：ム。おはようイトノコギリ刑事。私よりはやく裁判所に着くとはめずらしいな。

〈イトノコ〉：フォロワーのみんなに、カッコ悪いとこを見せられないッスからね！遅刻しないように、昨夜は夕飯を抜いておいたッスよ。

〈ミツルギ〉：夕飯を抜くのと早起きをするのに、何の関係があるというのだ。

〈イトノコ〉：すさまじい“腹時計”で、朝ご飯の時間に目覚めることが出来るッス！

〈ミツルギ〉：（問題が多すぎて、指摘する気にもなれん。‥‥ここはあえて黙っているとしよう）

〈��トノコ〉：御剣検事‥‥。心の声のつぶやきが自分にも見えるの、分かってやってるッスよね‥‥？

〈ミツルギ〉：そろそろ開廷の時間だ。余計なセンサクをしていないで、法廷に向かうぞ。

〈ミクモ〉：みなさんこんにちは！大ドロボウ・ヤタガラスこと一条美雲です。ふっふっふ‥‥実はいま、傍聴席にいるんですよ！敵情視察も兼ねて、ミツルギさんとノコちゃんの法廷姿を見ておこうと思って！

〈ミクモ〉：あ！ミツルギさんがまた『異議あり！』って叫んでる！今日はこれで５回目ですねー。相手の弁護士さんも汗だらだら流してますよ。裁判官の木槌も激しくなってます！えーとなになに？“法廷内でのつぶやきは却下しま‥‥す？”え。ちょ、ちょっと！

〈ミクモ〉：ううう‥‥‥‥法廷内から追い出されちゃいました。さすがは逆転検事２の新ライバル“水鏡　秤”さん！優しそうな裁判官だと思ってユダンしていました。

〈ミクモ〉：これは思わぬ強敵ですよ！ミツルギさん、大丈夫かなあ‥‥？

〈ミツルギ〉：ミクモくん。今日は一体傍聴席で何をしていたのだ。

〈イトノコ〉：法廷から追い出されるミクモちゃんを見て、ビックリしたッスよ！

〈ミクモ〉：まさかつぶやきが禁止とは思いませんでした‥‥。大ドロボウとして、一生の不覚です！

〈ミツルギ〉：後悔するヒマがあるのなら、法廷のルールについてもう少し学んでおきたまえ。

〈ミクモ〉：どうせ退廷させられるのなら、もっとカッコ良く立ち去りたかったです！大ドロボウとしては！

〈イトノコ〉：‥‥そっちで後悔しているとは思わなかったッス。

〈ミクモ〉：それはともかく！　今日はもうお仕事終わりなんですよね？

〈ミツルギ〉：今日の法廷で仕事は一段落ついたからな。気持ちよく休日をむかえられそうだ。

〈ミクモ〉：せっかくだから、いまから３人で遊びに行きましょうよ！ボーリングとかカラオケとか‥‥ゲームセンターとか！

〈ミツルギ〉：いや‥‥私はそういったものはあまり得意ではないのだが。

〈イトノコ〉：まあまあ。金曜日の夜はパーッと遊んで、仕事の疲れを癒すものッスよ！映画とかもいいッスねえ！

〈ミクモ〉：今週もお仕事お疲れ様でした！さあさあ。遊びに行きましょう！

〈ミツルギ〉：まったく。いまのキミたちには何を言ってもムダのようだな。‥‥せめて、映画にしてくれたまえ。

〈イトノコ〉：土曜日の朝は散歩日和ッスねえ！ミサイル。体力作りとミサイルの訓練も兼ねて、たまに一緒に散歩してるッスよ。御剣検事の“パートナー”として、逆転検事２では自分も役に立ちたいッスからね！

〈イトノコ〉：金属探知機を使った捜査やミサイルとの連携なら、誰にも負けないッス！ねー。ミサイル！ん？何か気になるニオイでもあるッスか？ああああッ！ミ、ミサイルが走って行っちまったッス！ミサイルは食べ物のニオイがすると突っ走っちゃうッスよ。

〈イトノコ〉：こうなったら自分もニオイを頼りに追い��けるしか！こっちも捜査のプロッスからね！うぅ‥‥‥‥‥‥さっそく見失っちまったッス。こうなったら、ミサイルが好きなお菓子を用意しておびきよせるッス！‥‥本末転倒な気もするッスけど‥‥。

〈ミクモ〉：警察犬にしておくには惜しいですね、ミサイル。まさか大ドロボウから“どら焼き”を盗み食いするなんて‥‥！せっかく、あかねちゃんと２人で食べようとしてたのになあ。

〈イトノコ〉：おどろかせてすまねッス。ところで、さっきは２人で何をしてたッスか？落ち葉をこんなに集めて‥‥。

〈アカネ〉：ヒゾウのカガク薬品でおこした火を利用して、あったか～い “焼きどら焼き”を作ろうかと！

〈イトノコ〉：え。カガク薬品ッスか‥‥？ミミミミミサイル！お腹の調子は悪くないッスか！

〈ミクモ〉：大丈夫だよ！火をおこす前に食べられちゃったから。

〈イトノコ〉：ほっ。だったら良かったッス。

〈ミツルギ〉：ぜんぜん良くないだろう。カガク薬品を使って、公共の場で火遊びなど。あかねさん。カガクの研究は大事ですが、ほどほどにしていただきたい。

〈アカネ〉：はい！ほどほどにします！ところで、どこかにお出かけですか？

〈ミツルギ〉：ええ。少し用事がありまして‥‥。あまり時間がないので、失礼します。

〈ミクモ〉：‥‥ミツルギさん、どこに行くんだろうね？

〈アカネ〉：ふっふっふ。そんなときは足跡を辿ればいいんですよ！ほどほどにカガクの力を使って！

〈ミクモ〉：よーし！ほどほどに尾行しましょう！

〈イトノコ〉：２人とも‥‥ほどほどの使い方がおかしい気がするッス。

〈ミクモ〉：あの圧倒的なスケール！涙なしには語れません！オーケストラコンサートなんて初めてです！

〈アカネ〉：金管楽器の力強い音と、木管楽器の華麗な旋律！音のカガク変化を起こすことで、音楽は作られているんですね‥‥。

〈ミツルギ〉：うム。この日を楽しみにしていたかいがあったというものだ。‥‥まさか、キミたちまでついてくるとは思わなかったがな。

〈ミクモ〉：ノコちゃんにも聞かせてあげたかったな−。ミサイルの散歩があるから、一緒に来られなかったんですよね。

〈ミツルギ〉：刑事には、サウンドトラックＣＤ「オーケストラ・アレンジ楽曲集　〜奏でられし逆転〜」を聞かせるとしよう。いまからでもイーカプコンで予約出来るだろう。

〈アカネ〉：あたしはもちろん予約済みです！御剣検事さんの“1/10フィギュア”もバッチリゲットしますよ！

〈ミツルギ〉：私の1/10フィギュア？身長などを測られた覚えはないが‥‥。

〈ミクモ〉：そりゃもう、わたしがミツルギさんの情報をバッチリ盗んでおきましたからね！

〈ミツルギ〉：オーケストラホールで言うのはいささかためらわれるが‥‥一言だけ、言わせていただこう。

〈ミクモ〉：“異議あり！”‥‥ってね！

〈ミツルギ〉：な‥‥なぜキミが言うのだ！

〈アカネ〉：これが有名な大ドロボウの技“言葉を盗む”ですね。勉強になります！

〈ミツルギ〉：今日は特に予定が入っていない。近くの喫茶店で読書をして過ごすとしよう。‥‥さすがに、日曜日ぐらいは落ち着いて過ごしたいからな。

〈ミツルギ〉：心地よい日の当たる場所で、上質の紅茶を飲む‥‥。今日は良い休日になりそうだ。

〈ミツルギ〉：そういえば、先日“カオルさん”というフォロワーから、ついったーでアイサツされたのだが‥‥。アイサツを返す方法が分からなかったので、まだ返せていないのだ。ここで改めて礼を言わせていただこう。カオルさん、フォローしていただき感謝する。

〈オバチャン〉：ミ‥‥ミッちゃぁああん！やっと見つけたよぉおおお！

〈ミツルギ〉：ぐッ！ど、どうしてあなたがこの喫茶店に‥‥！

〈オバチャン〉：やだよミッちゃん！こないだこのツイッターとやらでアイサツしたじゃないか。さっきも“カオルさん、感謝する。”って言ってくれただろう？オバチャンうれしくなっちゃってねえ。ついついそこいらの喫茶店を巡ってミッちゃんを探しちまったのさ。愛のチカラっ

〈ミツルギ〉：は、早口すぎて“ついーと”におさまっていないではないか！しかも、“カオルさん”とは‥‥‥‥あなたのことだったのか！いくら喫茶店を巡ったといっても、こんなにカンタンに見つかるワケはない。‥‥何か隠していることがあるのではないか？

〈オバチャン〉：ミッちゃんったら、証拠もないのにそんなこと言っちゃ検事の名がすたれちゃうよ！オバチャンがミッちゃんに隠し事なんてするわけないじゃないのサ！

〈ミツルギ〉：フッ‥‥証拠品がなくとも、あなたの反応や感情を読み取り“言葉のみ”で真実を引き出してみせよう。

〈オバチャン〉：ああ。それならオバチャンも聞いたよ、ミッちゃん！《ロジックチェス》っていうヤツだろ？オバチャン、ミッちゃんのことなら何でも知ってるんだからね！

〈ミツルギ〉：“何でも知っている？”‥‥とはどういうことだろうか？

〈オバチャン〉：ほら。オバチャン警備員だからさ。このあいだ、前に勤めてた子がクビになったっていうから臨時で検事局の警備をしてたんだヨ。そのときにミッちゃんの住所がたまたま目に入っちゃってサ。

〈ミツルギ〉：‥‥‥‥こちらから情報を引き出すまでもなく、自分で答えを言っているではないか！

〈オバチャン〉：あら。つい口が滑っちまったヨ。せっかくロジックチェスが見られると思ったのに残念だねえ。

〈ミツルギ〉：そ、それは逆転検事２で見ていただけないだろうか。私は用事があるので失礼する！

〈オバチャン〉：今日は用事がないってつぶやいてたじゃないか！今日という今日は、オバチャン絶対に逃がさないヨッ！

〈ミツルギ〉：く‥‥今日はさんざんな目にあった。

〈ミツルギ〉：休日だからといって気を抜きすぎていたな。自分の発言や周囲の警戒を怠っていたとは‥‥。

〈ミツルギ〉：ム？また“カオルさん”から私あてに“ついーと”が来ているな。『残念無念　カオル』‥‥と言われても、断じて誘いに乗るつもりはない！

〈イトノコ〉：御剣検事、聞いたッスか？ロウ捜査官が西鳳民国から来ているみたいッスよ！

〈ミツルギ〉：ほう。また国際的な事件に関わっているのだろうか。彼とはあまりゆっくり話す機会が無かったからな。時間があればアイサツぐらいは行くとしよう。

〈イトノコ〉：前回の事件は大変だったッスからねー。自分も、ロウ捜査官の部下の皆さんとはあんまり話せなかったッス。

〈イトノコ〉：なんせ知ってるだけでも１００名はいるッスからねえ。

〈ミツルギ〉：‥‥全員と話そうとすれば、日が暮れてしまうだろうな。

〈イトノコ〉：正直、顔と名前を覚えるのもあきらめたッス。

〈ミツルギ〉：すべてをあきらめているではないか！

〈ロウ〉：よう。検事さん。こんなところで会うとはキグウだな。

〈ミツルギ〉：久しぶりだな、ロウ捜査官。まさか、このような飲食店で再会するとは思わなかったが。

〈ロウ〉：どっか１人で落ち着ける店を探してたら、たまたまここが目に入ったんでな。

〈ミツルギ〉：１人‥‥？キミにしてはめずらしいではないか。いつもの部下たちは一緒ではないのだろうか？

〈ロウ〉：まあな‥‥。狼子、曰く！“単独犯の気持ちを知るには、群れを離れるべし”ってな。オレだって１人になるときはあるさ。

〈ミツルギ〉：ほう？だが、それにしてはキミのテーブルにはムジュンがあるようだ。

〈ロウ〉：ハッ！検事さんお得意の“推理”ってやつかい？

〈ミツルギ〉：１人で食べるにしては、注文した料理は“大皿”ばかりで、量はどう見ても２０人以上に見えるのだが？

〈ロウ〉：うおおおッ！‥‥しまった。いつものクセでつい頼みすぎちまったようだ。よければ検事さん、少しもらってくれねえか？

〈ミツルギ〉：‥‥１人で行動するのは、あまり得意ではないようだな。

〈ミクモ〉：ええ！ロウさん、またこっちに来てるんですか？

〈ミツルギ〉：ああ。以前と違い、なぜか１人で行動していたようだ。

〈ミクモ〉：それは、やっぱり大人数だと忍び込むのが難しくなるからじゃないですか？大ドロボウの鉄則です！

〈ミツルギ〉：彼は“国際捜査官”だろう。‥‥なんにせよ、彼には目的があってこの国に来ているようだったな。

〈ミクモ〉：それじゃ、また現場で会うかもしれませんねー。

〈ミツルギ〉：真実を追い求める気持ちは同じでも、時にはぶつかることもある。もし現場で出会うことがあれば、戦うことになるかもしれないな。

〈ミクモ〉：いいなあ。わたしも自分を高めてくれるようなライバルが欲しいです。ハア‥‥どこかにいないかなあ。大ドロボウを追い詰める好敵手！

〈ミツルギ〉：‥‥逮捕されたいのなら、イトノコギリ刑事にでも頼みたまえ。

〈ミクモ〉：もう！そういうことじゃないんです！

〈ミクモ〉：ようやく２月になりましたね！

〈ミツルギ〉：ああ。いよいよだな‥‥。

〈イトノコ〉：２月３日が楽しみッス！

〈イトノコ〉：ウチの警察署では、節分の豆まきをやるッス！２月３日は、タダで大豆が食べられる貴重な日ッスよ！

〈ミクモ〉：わたしは毎年、投げられる豆をどれだけ受け取れるか挑戦してるんですよ！“鬼は外、福は内、大ドロボウは盗み”って感じで！

〈ミツルギ〉：‥‥一番大事なことを、忘れているのではないだろうか？

〈ミクモ〉：冗談ですってば！２月３日といえば、もちろんアレですよね！

〈イトノコ〉：逆転検事２の発売日を忘れるワケないッス！

〈ミツルギ〉：ム‥‥ならばいいのだが。

〈ミツルギ〉：発売まであと３日。フォロワーの方々も楽しみに待っていてくれたまえ。

〈ミツルギ〉：冬場の捜査は、寒くてかなわないな‥‥。発売前に風邪を引くわけにはいかん。しっかり防寒対策をしなければな。

〈ミツルギ〉：そういえば、イトノコギリ刑事は年中同じコートを着ているが、寒くないのだろうか‥‥。ああ‥‥単に、給与が下がりすぎて買えないだけかもしれないな。

〈ミツルギ〉：‥‥‥‥夕食はイトノコギリ刑事でも誘うとするか。彼の食生活は、はた目から見ていても不安になる。まさか冬にそうめんを食べていることはないだろうが‥‥。

〈ミツルギ〉：検事局の近くに手打ちのうどん屋がある。リーズナブルな値段の割に、味も満足のいくものだ。‥‥‥‥いかん。イトノコギリ刑事を誘うとなると、ついつい麺類にばかり考えがいってしまうな。

〈ミツルギ〉:ム。さきほど発売まであと３日とつぶやいたのだが、発売日はあさって‥‥あと２日だったか。昨夜は、執務室で徹夜仕事だったのでな。日付の感覚が狂ってしまったようだ。

〈ミツルギ〉:私としたことが、つぶやきが“ムジュン”していたとは‥‥失礼した。指摘してくれたフォロワーの方、感謝する。

〈イトノコ〉：カツ丼美味いッスぅううう！今年初めてのトンカツッスよ！

〈ミツルギ〉：イトノコギリ刑事。つぶやきながら食べるのはやめたまえ！

〈イトノコ〉：自分、今年は水炊き鍋で“しらたき”ばかり食べてたッスからねー。

思わず叫んじまったッス！

〈ミクモ〉：叫んだんじゃなく、つぶやきですけどね！

〈ミツルギ〉：ソーメンではなかったが、彼の食生活はいつも危機的状況だな。

〈イトノコ〉：うう‥‥捜査で失敗するたびに、生活費がピンチになるッスからね‥‥。

〈ミクモ〉：でも、いま一番危機が迫っているのは、ミツルギさんのほうなんじゃ？

ＣＭで見ましたよ！“最大のピンチ”だって。

〈イトノコ〉：自分も聞いたッスよ‥‥。いったい、どんな失敗をしちゃったッスか！

〈ミツルギ〉：キミと一緒にしないでくれたまえ！

身に覚えはないが‥‥ピンチを恐れていても仕方がないだろう。

私は、自分の信じる道を行くだけだ。

〈ミクモ〉：さっすがミツルギさん！いざとなったらわたしも力を貸しますからね。大ドロボウとして！

〈イトノコ〉：もちろん自分もッス！ピンチな時の生活費のやりくりならお任せッス！

〈ミツルギ〉：‥‥せめて、刑事として力を貸してもらえないだろうか。

〈ミクモ〉：そういえば。ミツルギさんのお父さんって、どんな人なんですか？

〈ミツルギ〉：‥‥なぜ、いきなりそんな質問を？

〈ミクモ〉：さっき信楽さんに聞いたんですよ。ミツルギさんのお父さんは、すごく立派な人だったって！わたしもお父さんを尊敬してたから、ちょっと気になっちゃって。

〈ミツルギ〉：幼い頃の私にとっては、尊敬すべき相手であり‥‥目標でもあった。

〈ミクモ〉：あれ？いまは違うんですか？

〈ミツルギ〉：‥‥‥‥どうだろうな。一言で説明するのは難しい。この答えを知りたいのならば、明日まで待ってくれたまえ。

〈ミクモ〉：なるほど！逆転検事２に真実が隠されている‥‥と。ミツルギさんの真実、私が盗んじゃいますよ！

〈ミクモ〉：ノコちゃん！そっちの飾りは、もっと右よりでお願い！

〈イトノコ〉：こっちッスね！あ、飾りが落ちたッス！

〈ミツルギ〉：昼間から、人の執務室で何をしているのだ。

〈イトノコ〉：今日は非番ッスからね！明日の発売日に向けて、前夜祭の準備をしてるッスよ！

〈ミクモ〉：そろそろ、つぶやく時間もなくなって来ましたからね！

ミツルギさんは気にせず仕事をしててください！

〈ミツルギ〉：そう思うのなら、机の上にのぼるのはやめていただきたい。

‥‥もう少しで仕事が片付くから、それまで待っていたまえ。

〈ミクモ〉：え！ミツルギさんも手伝ってくれるんですか？

〈ミツルギ〉：私とて祝いたい気持ちはあるのだ。

〈イトノコ〉：助かるッス！

それじゃ時間までソファーに座って待ってるッスよ！

〈ミツルギ〉：‥‥‥‥‥‥廊下で遊んでいてくれないだろうか。

〈イトノコ〉：逆転検事２発売に向けて、乾杯ッス！

〈ミツルギ〉：フッ‥‥前夜祭というのも良いものだな。

〈ミクモ〉：えへへ。明日には、わたしたちのカツヤクをお見せできるんですね！

〈ミツルギ〉：うム。感慨深いモノがあるな。

〈ミクモ〉：わたしたちのつぶやきも、これで最後になるんですね‥‥ちょっと名残惜しいです。

〈ミツルギ〉：だが一週間のあいだ、このような機会をいただけて良かった。直接、感謝を伝えることが出来るのだからな。私たちのつぶやきを見ていた方々。‥‥あらためて礼を言わせていただこう。

〈イトノコ〉：まだまだ話したいことはあるッスけど、もう時間ッスからね！

〈ミクモ〉：でも、まだ前夜祭は始まったばかりですよ！なんと！このあと「逆転検事２」の開発スタッフに直接質問ができちゃうんです！

〈イトノコ〉：へえ！そんな企画があるッスか！

〈ミクモ〉：カプコンから盗んできた情報だから、確実ですよ！１８時ぐらいから始まるそうです！

〈ミツルギ〉：私としても聞きたいことはたくさんあるのだが‥‥そこはフォロワーの方々に任せるとしよう。それでは、私たちはこれで失礼する。

〈ミツルギ〉：開発スタッフに聞きたいことがあれば、どんどん追及してくれたまえ！

#ace attorney #aai2 #(no spoilers though!)#miles edgeworth #kay faraday #detective gumshoe #my posts #really hoping there isn't some egregious error in there hahaha!#also hoping someone appreciates it half as much as I do #but even if no one does this was fun to look at

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atmostories · 3 years

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Your Yandere!Terry Silver ficlet was positively amazing and just so very detailed, nuanced and in-character that I absolutely must request more if you're willing to write more. Really, whatever comes to your mind, doesn't even matter, so long as you grace us with more material (greedy grubby hands) - Reading about this dark, evil man just being so sweet for someone melts my heart. 🖤

A gift to my dearest anon, @kingkarate and @villains-are-sexy ♡ ♡ ♡ The first time he noticed you was after Margaret had laid out your employee file in front of him. You'd been working in the logistics department for two years, your record was clean, all of your performance evaluations were very good, if not exemplary. Margaret had personally recommended you so really that was all the evidence he needed that you had at least some value. Her team needed an extra member due to an increased workload and a reorganisation of staff. Margaret was going to retire in a few years and needed to find a replacement before she left.

Terry tried not to think about her being replaced, it irked him greatly to be losing such an asset, and a good friend. There was still plenty of time, for now. You were moved into Margaret's team on a trial basis in order to assess your suitability. Whenever Terry would look across the office, you were always working. You seemed to speak to other coworkers only when necessary. At first he assumed you were being studious and trying to make a good impression for Margaret, but he soon realised that that was simply how you were, quiet, withdrawn. You also treated people the same, no matter who they were or what sort of social rank they held, you would give the same polite smile to him as you would to one of the office cleaners. It was odd. He expected you, like most other rational people, to show him greater respect, he did own the entire company after all. A few words from him and he could render you jobless and homeless, begging for scraps out on the streets. And yet you seemed so unphased by the power he yielded. He got into the habit of calling you into his office for updates on the various projects you were working on. Margaret would always keep him informed of the latest developments, but he liked to hear how you would describe them. He also liked hearing you call him Sir. He'd corrected you when he first met you in person. "Thank you, Mr. Silver," you had said. "No. . .thank you, Sir," he murmured softly, hoping to provoke some reaction. "Of course. Thank you, Sir" you replied plainly. No one else called him Sir. He wondered how long it would take for you to notice that. During your lunch breaks, rather than head off with other coworkers or go to the staff room, you would leave by yourself to take a walk when the weather was decent or you'd eat at your desk. Before you were offered a position at DynaTox Industries, a background check had been carried on you to ensure that you would be. . .malleable if certain circumstances arose. If you found out something you shouldn't, you would be in a weak position, easily blackmailed. Terry requested a more in depth background check and was rather pleased when one of his private investigators handed him a sizeable file containing all of the facets of your life, along with a fortnight's worth of photos while you were under surveillance. It outlined where you went aside from work and as anticipated, it was all very dull. Your financial situation was practically destitution in Terry's eyes. What was most intriguing about your file was your ex who was currently in prison for assault and battery. You were the unlucky victim. As he read the police report and saw the pictures of your injuries, he ignored the swell of anger in his gut. The transcripts of your interviews detailed the abuse you had endured. Was this why you were so withdrawn? So focused on your work rather the people around you? While you were at the office, he broke into your apartment for further investigation. It was comically small. Your possessions were, he supposed, modest for someone so economically challenged as you. Your taste in music was not as sophisticated as his own, hardly surprising. There wasn't much food in the refrigerator or in the kitchen cupboards. He pulled out his wallet and grabbed a hundred dollar bill. Perhaps you didn't see these very often. After scrunching up the bill, he threw it haphazardly onto the floor, wondering whether there would be a smile on your face when you found it. What was he thinking, of course you'd be happy. He made a note to bump your salary enough so that you could move somewhere else, somewhere safer, somewhere which didn't automatically make him want to shower and scrub himself clean. Rather than have Margaret give you the good news, you were called into his office. Terry explained that you'd be permanently assigned to Margaret's team due to your performance. He mentioned a report you did the week prior, highlighting that it was good work. Rather than thank him, you responded by saying that the conclusion needed to be improved and you weren't sure about certain aspects of the analysis. “I said it was good work,” he told you with blunt finality, giving you a harsh stare. Your lips parted open slowly, your eyes were wide, your expression almost one of disbelief. Was it so difficult for you to accept a compliment? To accept praise when it was given to you? “Did I not?” He asked, prompting you to speak. “Uhh, yes. I'm sorry, Sir,” you mumbled back, shoulders hunching even further. Something seemed to twinge in his chest and he wasn't exactly sure what it was. Was it pity? No, it wasn't that, it was almost disappointment, like seeing wasted potential. He invited you along to an executive meeting, his excuse to include you was to take minutes, but really he wanted your opinion on the people who were present, their behaviour, their opinions. Terry wanted to assess how observant you were of other people, and he also wanted to test how candid you would be with him. The meeting went on as usual, dull, insipid. At least your presence offered a little distraction. After it was finally over, he invited you to join him for lunch at one of his favourite restaurants. He could see you eyeing the place curiously, taking in its lush décor and finely dressed staff. The purpose was to put you on edge, to make you feel abysmally underdressed and out of sorts. He had the whole corner of the restaurant cleared for just the two of you, he wanted to examine your every reaction without any disturbance. With drinks and appetisers ordered, he began his questioning. “Do you think Mr. Elroth would be suitable for the New York merger?” He asked, sipping some champagne. “I don't think he likes you,” you responded without hesitation. He pulled the glass away from his mouth, rather taken back by your honesty. “Why do you say that?” “He didn't like listening to you. He kept looking away, he even rolled his eyes a few times.” “And why do you think that is?” “Well. . .maybe it's because you're too young and you're too willing to take risks. He seems very traditional and set in his ways.” “Hmm.” Terry drank the rest of the glass, motioning to a waiter for a refill. He continued to ask questions throughout the main course and dessert. Your answers were always honest, you didn't try to soften any of your responses for him. He liked that. You reminded him of Margaret. Unblemished opinions were hard to come by for someone like Terry. They were always marred by people wanting to impress him, people trying to make the best impression possible, people looking for favours. He was beyond the grasp of normal society and yet you sat in front him, eating several courses which cost most, if not all, of your monthly salary, totally unphased and giving your opinions freely. He'd never once thought it possible for Margaret to be replaced by someone of her calibre, but perhaps he'd been too quick to make that assumption. When you moved into a new apartment, he had a forged deposit and contents insurance rebate drawn up and sent to you. The next day you had actually gone out and bought lunch rather than bring your own. He'd followed you to the little cafe and he noticed a small, satisfied smile on your face as you tucked into the food. How curious that something so insignificant would give you such joy? Was it really so difficult for you to get by? He bumped your salary again, you were supposed to be happy, but instead Margaret had told him that you went straight to the finance team to query it as a mistake. He scoffed out a laugh, incredulous at your behaviour. Was it so hard to accept when something good happened to you? He had you brought into his office, explaining to you clearly that any future queries regarding your salary would be directed to him personally. “But it's almost triple my original salary, I'm not sure that. . .” you trailed off when he stared down at you. He watched your throat as you swallowed nervously at his proximity. Raising an eyebrow at you, he waited for the proper response. “Thank you, Sir.” He didn't bother to stop himself from smiling. A few seconds later, a shy smile pulled up your lips. Financial security might have offered you some peace of mind, but Terry knew there was more work to be done. He looked over the police reports again, thinking about disposing that piece of trash who had hurt you. Surely that would make you happy? No longer living in the same world with the person who had almost beaten you to death? He had Dennis make some enquiries, found a trustworthy guy who was in the same prison as your ex. After that it was simply a matter of payment for services rendered. He had requested a slow, painful death and the photos from the autopsy showed just that. The unfortunate incident happened over the weekend, ensuring that you would have found out by Monday morning. Instead of happiness on your face, you seemed sad, lost even. He called you into his office, trying to hold back the rage growing in his gut. He had gotten rid of someone who had inflicted so much suffering on you, why weren't you happy? Why weren't you pleased? Surely you couldn't still care for that bastard? Did you really love so carelessly, so irrevocably? “You're distracted,” he stated. Your eyes were focused on the floor, you were making an effort to stop your leg from shaking. “I'm sorry, Sir. I received some. . .news yesterday.” “Bad news?” “I'm not really sure.” “Tell me what happened.” You looked up at him, your eyes were filled with hurt. This wasn't meant to happen, why the fuck were you upset? “Someone I knew. . . passed away. But he wasn't. . .he wasn't a good person.” “And you're grieving him?” “No,” you replied softly. “I should but. . .is it wrong to feel glad when someone's died?” “Not when they're bad.” You nodded a few moments later, a small grin finally lightening your expression. Terry had to repress a laugh. The only thing you were upset about was that you didn't feel upset, you didn't feel bad at all. The thought made him preen in delight, he'd done right by you after all. It took a while, but you were finally starting to lose that heavy burden you'd been carrying all this time. The change in you was not particularly obvious, you didn't start to suddenly make friends with everyone in the office. Your smile was a little wider, you walked with more confidence. In one of his meetings, as you sat right next to him, he whispered an amusing observation about one of the investors into your ear, and you snorted out a laugh, barely able to contain yourself. A week after that, something unexpected happened, something he still didn't quite know how to feel about. Mr. Elroth stood in front of Terry, blabbering on about nothing of interest. He'd gestured for you to come over to give him a point of interest. You stood dutifully by his side, but when Mr. Elroth reached out his grubby hand, about to touch Terry's forearm, you quickly stepped in front of him, blocking Mr. Elroth from touching him. You interjected yourself into the conversation, successfully distracting Mr. Elroth and causing him to lower his arm. Terry dismissed him a couple minutes later and pulled you to one side. “What was that?” “I thought you might have wanted a distraction, I didn't mean to be rude, Sir.” “Why did you move in front of me?” “Mr. Elroth was going to touch your arm,” you explained like it was obvious. “And?” “You. . .you don't like to be touched.” “Excuse me?” “You always initiate, you don't like it when other people touch you. I'm sorry if I've made the wrong assumption. It wasn't my intention to cause any offence, Sir.” He continued to stare at you, letting the words sink in. Margaret most conveniently called you away like she could read his mind and Terry nodded at her in thanks, thinking that he'd have to review her retirement plan, add in a couple more vacation options, maybe an extra masseuse for the weekends. He didn't know how he felt. He was agitated by what you had said, almost uncomfortable. That wasn't something you were meant to notice. Terry took great lengths to not show any kind of weakness, and shying from physical contact was certainly one. For you to not only see it, but then to try and protect him? Even though you’d been abused in the past? Even though you shied away from physical contact yourself? He clenched his fists, his heart aching in a way it never had before. That night, he broke into your apartment. It was thankfully a significant improvement to the last one. After looking over the kitchen and the living room, he went to your bedroom, watching you sleep soundly and peacefully. Part of him wanted to sink his hands around your neck, make you experience every bit of discomfort that you had made him feel. He slowly sat down on the mattress, his gloved hand gently caressing your cheek. You cared about him, but how much of that was the same sort of empathy and respect you'd show to everyone else? How much of it was just for him? He needed all of it, your heart, your mind, your soul. He'd been so used to taking everything he ever wanted, there'd never been anything worth his patience. . .but you? Watching you emerge from the shadow you used to be gave him a deep satisfaction that nothing else came close to. Destroying you would be too easy, you were already so broken, even now. Making you whole again? Now that was a challenge he'd accept, a challenge that he was going to excel at. No one else was going to hurt you again. He recognised the value of your devotion, craved it like nothing else. His fingers traced over your lips as he imagined the moment you were going to kiss him of your own accord. What a sweet, precious moment that was going to be, he would wait for it. He was going to wait for you. And when you were his, he was never going to let you go.

#terry silver #terry silver x reader #cobra kai #karate kid III #thomas ian griffith #atmo

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random-mha-thoughts · 4 years

Text

Culture Clash (Bakugou x Reader)

Pairing: Bakugou x Fem!Reader

Anon asked: "OH MY GOODNESS I FREAKING LOVE YOUR WRITING.💜🧡❤️💚 I have a request!! Would it be possible if you did a scenario with Bakugou x Female Reader where the Reader is a transfer student and comes from a country where is normal to kiss people in the cheek to say hello and kisses Bakugou but then she is told of the culture difference in Japan, then she is embarrassed but Bakugou is even more. HOPE YOU HAVE A GREAT DAY!!"

Genre: Fluff

Word count: 1,565

Tags: @yuki-osaki @liviitehe @iamsoftsodonttoucheume-blog @bunnythepipsqueak

a/n: Thanks for the request anon dear! I hope I did it justice and it makes you feel good inside. 😊

Very quick and breezy Bakugou fluff. Honestly, my Bakugou list seems to be catching up to Todoroki (meanwhile poor Shinsou’s list is abysmal T.T But my next post will be an angst post for him, which is still a win), you guys just really love requesting for Boom Boom Boy, don’t you?

As I said on my last ask, after the Shinsou post, I’ll take a break before answering the next 2 requests I got, because I have a few of my own original ideas that I’d like to write, so look forward to them~

"You must be nervous to start school so far away from home," Yaoyorozu touches my hand gently. "I do hope you find yourself at home here at our school and here in Japan."

"Oh, it shouldn't be a problem at all!" I beam at her. "I'd say I'm a friendly person, I can talk to people easily."

Transferring schools in the middle of high school is daunting for most people, but I have no problem with it. One of the admins from UA were attending a conference in my country and put a recommendation for me to transfer schools at the start of the second year. Yaoyorozu, as second in charge in class, was assigned to be my buddy to ease me into the rest of the class. We've been talking since I was overseas and I was overjoyed to meet her in person.

"Are you nervous about staying in the dorms?" she asks me.

"Not at all! I've always wanted to try going to school and staying away from home. Do you guys get along well together?"

"We all have our own friend groups, but we spent time with each other as a class a fair amount of time as well." She eyes my suitcase rolling behind me. "Did you already receive your uniform?"

"Yup, they sent it over! The rest of my stuff for the year should be coming in another shipment from my parents."

Finally, the dorm building I will call home for the next two years looms in front of me and I can't keep the dumb smile off my face. While Yaoyorozu's talking about my sleeping arrangements, a boy swagger towards us from the opposite direction wearing just a black tank top and dark joggers. My eyes glance over his toned physique before studying his face, a slight scowl even at rest, crimson eyes staring at the ground in thought.

"Oh, (Y/n)-san," Yaoyorozu calls him out of his thoughts. "This is Bakugou-san, one of our classmates."

The boy looks down at me and I smile, leaning up to place a kiss on both of his cheeks instinctively. "Pleasure to meet you, Bakugou!"

His resting bitch face freezes and he stiffens. "Y-Yeah, same. See you in class." With that, he walks off quicker than his former pace.

I cock an eyebrow. "He seems like a tough guy, but quite strange. Is he nice?" I turn back to face Yaoyorozu.

Her face has turned a rosy tint of pink. "I-I wouldn't say that. He's a bit rough at the edges, but he's gotten a lot better since last year, I admit."

She seems a little uncomfortable, did I do something? I roll my luggage up the stairs. "I can't wait to meet the rest of the class!" The door opens with a flourish, and I meet the eyes of about half the class. Some of the girls were reading magazines on the couch and the boys were playing cards or games at the table.

The blond boy with a black streak in his hair and a small, purple haired boy immediately stand up. "Who're you?" they boy ask a little too eagarly.

I wave at the group, excitement bubbling in me at the site of my new classmates. "Hi everyone! I'm (Full Name), the transfer student! Please take care of me!"

"Oh, yes, we heard you were arriving today," another boy walks up to me, adjusting his glasses and extending his hand to me rigidly. "Welcome to Class 2-A!"

I shake his hand, leaning forward to greet him, "Nice to meet-"

"Um, (Y/n)-san," Yaoyorozu's hand pulls my shoulder slightly. "I hope I'm not rude in asking, but is there a particular reason you do that?"

She still a bit perturbed since we met Bakugou outside. "Do what?" I don't think she means to be impolite, but I'm still confused.

The girl hesitates as if she can't bring herself to say it. "Kiss people on the cheek. Is it a custom of some sort?"

My body relaxes. I thought there was something terribly wrong. "Oh, that's how we greet people in my country. It's something I appreciate about my culture, it shows how friendly we are!"

"Yes, I see that." She rubs her hands up her arms. "It might seem to be a problem here though, I'm sorry to say."

I blink. "I did it when I greeted you and there was no problem though?" The fog of perplexity returns to me. I know there are rules in other countries different to my own, but surely I haven't done something unforgivable?

"Yes, but," her eyes dart around and her face flushes more, "It's not exactly custom for members of the opposite sex to interact with each other like that even if they're friends, let alone if you've just met them. That's more reserved for um...public displays of affection."

It suddenly dawns on me the weight of what I've just done, especially to Bakugou. "Oh. I...see."

"Your face is all red now, (Y/n)-chan, ribbit," one of the girls with long, dark green hair chirps from the couch.

The bright blond haired boy's eyebrows furrow in concentration. "Hey, you guys didn't happen to run into Bakugou, did you?"

"We did," Yaoyorozu answers while I'm frozen in place, heat still blooming across my cheeks.

The two boys and another one with short, black hair and large elbows burst into uncontrollable laughter. "We were wondering why his face was so red when he got back from practice! You must've kissed him, right?"

Oh no, I did. The panic continues spreading up my body.

"She totally did!" the black-haired boy guffaws and the other two follow suit.

"Bakugou was that flustered by a little cheek kiss!"

"WHAT ARE YOU IDIOTS LAUGHING AT?!"

The first exposure to his screaming makes me jolt before I feel a debilitating mix of embarrassment and guilt, I don't even have the courage to look him in the eyes. "Hey, you wanna lead me to my room? I'll go unpack and settle in," I reach for Yaoyorozu, trying to compose myself back to normal.

"Of course, let's go up this way."

I'm grateful for her judgement of avoiding the chaos about to ensue. The laughter from the boys and the teasing coupled with Bakugou's defensive screams still follow us while we're in the elevator. What have I done.

On the first day of classes the next day, I try to avoid Bakugou as much as possible. I know his angry, violent type well. He dislikes me for embarrassing him in front of his friends and giving them fodder to make fun of him for. If he decides to confront me, I know I'll crumble into a mess of apologies.

Which is exactly what happens when we both happen to see each other in the halls during lunch. There's no avoiding him as we were the only two people there; I turn around and suddenly he's there, staring down at me with those piercing eyes. I don't have it in me to fake my bubbly small talk and slip my way out, I have to own up to it.

"I'm sorry I made you embarrassed like that, it wasn't my intention, it was all out of instinct. Please forgive me, don't be mad!" The words fly out of my mouth and I scrunch my eyes shut for fear of what he might say next, steeling myself for his angry yells.

They never come, instead there's just an exhale in the form of a thoughtful "Hm." I slowly wrench open my eyes, only to see him quirking an eyebrow down at me curiously.

"You don't need to be sorry about it, it's fine." Evaluating my still-cautious figure, he leans back a little to relax. "Yeah, I was taken off guard by the kiss, I admit, but my friends are also idiots, I can easily just bust them up a bit and they'll leave me alone."

I breathe a sigh of relief. "I see." The last thing I want is to be that cliched transfer student who gets bullied and becomes the outsider.

Bakugou swipes his tongue over his lip quickly. "That was...pretty ballsy of you to do, actually. I think it's cute. It's a shame our cultures clash like that."

I'm taken off guard by his sudden change in aura, the cockiness that twitches the corner of his lip up compliments his rugged, boyish charm, especially with his unbuttoned and untucked uniform. His eyes glance over me teasingly before he walks past me. "Y-Yeah, it's a shame," I finally conjure up words to say, even if they're a lame response.

His body turns back halfway. "In a way, I'm glad I was the only guy who you got to do it to," he smirks at me.

That kind of sign is interpreted the same way regardless of the culture, so I decide to return it, gathering up the same energy. "I wouldn't mind doing it again, just for you since you're okay with it."

"Doesn't sound like a bad idea," he chuckles low before facing forward and leaving. "See you in class."

I watch his receding back, leaning against the wall behind me to steady myself as the excitement grows weightlessly within me. The smile on my face refuses to be brought down. I guess there are some things that are just universal.

#Bakugou x reader #bakugou fluff #my hero academia #boku no hero academia #bakugou katsuki #request #female reader #bakugou scenario #bakugou imagine #mha bakugou #bnha bakugou #mha x reader #bnha x reader #mha fanfiction #bnha fanfiction

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saiilorstars · 4 years

Text

Dare To Forget Me

Ch. 24: Detective What's His Name?

/ Previous chapters /

Fandom: Law & Order SVU

Pairing: Rafael Barba x Female OC

Warnings: Due to the nature of the series’ plots, I do have to rate this as ‘mature’ for constant mentions of rape.

Taglist: @ocfairygodmother @anotherunreadblog @maaaaarveeeeel

~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ` 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~

Chapter Summary: Montserrat's old Homicide partner visits SVU and brings with him a series of questions that might just pull Montserrat back into her old habits.

When Montserrat left Queens, she did it in a 'running away' type of way. She sealed away her Queens Homicide job, along with her co-workers and friends. She had no desire to return to the city, but some of the people living in that part...she probably could do with seeing again.

Jonah Sanders was a lively man who seemed to laugh with ease. Either he was too kind or he really did think things were funny coming from Fin. They were cracking jokes in the break room while they got some drinks out of the soda machines.

Montserrat had walked out first and found Amanda huddled in front of her laptop. "DMV?" her voice startled the blonde way too much. "You okay?"

Amanda gave a quick nod of her head. "Yeah, yeah. I'm... you know, a friend of mine keeps getting tickets even though he parks in a garage. So I'm just... I'm checking it out for him."

"Careful with favors. You know how I.A. can be," Montserrat opened up her soda and leaned against her desk.

Amanda gave another nod then looked over her shoulder to see the men starting to walk into the bullpen. "Your friend's cute."

"Mm," Montserrat shrugged.

"So you were Montserrat's old partner?" Sonny pointed at Jonah as they joined the women.

Jonah nodded his head. "Yup. For four years it was me and her. But don't worry, I'm not here to steal her back or anything."

"Not that I'd let you," Montserrat pointed out. Jonah agreed there, remembering Montserrat's tough personality.

"We have a visitor?" Olivia's voice drew the group's attention to the entrance where she and Rafael were coming in. They'd finally settled Clare Wilson's case with the Hudson County. Fraud charges begone!

"Detective Jonah Sanders," the man in question introduced himself and shook hands with Olivia first. As they did, Olivia's eyes seemed to squint while she tried to place his face.

"That's our Sergeant Olivia Benson," Montserrat said, "And our ADA Rafael Barba."

"I know," Jonah surprised Montserrat, and the others, and chuckled at the expressions he got. "Your reputations precede both of you." He shook hands with Rafael next, but somehow Jonah's demeanor did not strike well with Rafael.

Wonder why.

"Jonah's my old partner from Homicide," Montserrat added in and missed Olivia's brief flash of panic on her face. Olivia now knew where she recognized him from. "He stopped by for a visit."

"On a loan for Manhattan Homicide, actually," Jonah explained. "Thought I'd stop by and see how dear Montse was doing since she cut ties with me."

"I did not...ish," Montserrat knew very well that she had.

"You're not getting rid of me for the next few days, fair warning," Jonah said, chuckling afterwards.

"Well, you're welcome here, then," Olivia said politely, though she sincerely hoped he wouldn't stay long. Beside her, Rafael thought the same.

"I'm heading out for lunch but Montse...you want to come?" Jonah asked.

"Sure," she nodded. "Liv?"

"You're good," the Sergeant nodded for her to go.

Montserrat grabbed her coat and walked along with Jonah. As she did, the rest heard a warning she was making to Jonah. "There better be barbecue on my menu."

"Jesus, Montserrat, I see your likes are still abysmal," Jonah's exclaim echoed from the hallway.

Rafael rolled his eyes as they continued to hear the clueless man go on and on about the taste Montserrat would never give up on. For a partner who'd spent a lot of hours with Montserrat, it didn't sound like he knew her very well.

~ 0 ~

Montserrat graciously accepted her plate from the waiter and readily picked up her fork to begin eating. She stopped, however, when she noticed Jonah's crinkled nose. She was having barbecued chicken.

"That's disgusting," he said flatly.

"You're just being a baby," she pointed her fork at him. "But I know you did not come here to pick a fight with me."

"Never," Jonah smiled back. "So, your SVU crew seem nice."

"They are...something," Montserrat nodded slowly. "But they are wonderful people to work with."

"And your new partner? Seems like a nice guy."

"Sonny? Yeah. Too much sometimes. He and my roommate are dating, actually, so we do spend a lot more time than the others."

"Really? Isn't that kind of weird?"

"Yeah, but, like you said, Sonny's a nice guy so it's alright," Montserrat shrugged.

"What about the others? Are they like our squad?"

"Well, there's definitely no one matched like Eliza," Montserrat thought about her old co-detective. "Eliza's got a temper that not even Nick can outmatch."

Jonah laughed. "You know she's pregnant, right?"

"Shut up!?" Montserrat gaped for a full minute. "Is she really!?"

"Oh yeah. She got married a couple months ago."

"My God, what else did I miss?"

"Um, Everett transferred to Narcotics last month. He wanted to be like you and explore new openings," Jonah shrugged. "We got a newbie, Detective Hunter. He's okay but he's got some learning to do."

"What about Colette?" Montserrat remembered the petite brunette who always had a snippy remark for their smartass suspects.

"She's there. She's actually studying for the Sergeant's exam," Jonah smiled. "We think she'll make it."

"Oh she definitely would," Montserrat said with a happy sigh. Whether or not she wanted to, she started thinking about her old squad, her friends. She hadn't talked to them in over a year.

"They miss you, you know," Jonah said, as if reading her thoughts. "We all do. The way you left, it was...it was pretty sudden, Montse. Felt like you wanted nothing to do with us anymore and we didn't even know why."

Montserrat sighed again, more weary than the first time. "That wasn't what I wanted, but...I had to."

"It was that Hallie D'Amico case, huh?" Jonah watched Montserrat wince at the name. "You were in too deep in that case."

"Yeah, I was," Montserrat honestly agreed. "Learned my lesson."

"What happened?" Jonah asked. "I mean, one moment we were celebrating D'Amico's arrest and then the next...you were gone. You didn't even testify against her."

"I couldn't look her in the face," Montserrat said quietly, her fingers gripping her fork in her hand. "I...I couldn't look any of her workers in the face." And the only one she would've liked to see in court hadn't even been caught.

"Montserrat, we were all really worried about you. You changed numbers, right?" Jonah's question was that and partly an accusation. "I called you, Eliza did, Colette...we all did, but you never tried calling us back."

Montserrat swallowed hard and, without realizing, she began to pick at the skin around her fingers. It was the habit she took to doing whenever her anxiety over her rape got too close to her. "I-I'm sorry. I...it was a hard thing to do, but I needed to do it."

"You keep saying but why?" Jonah begged for the answer. It was a question the entire squad had asked each other and never got an answer for it.

Montserrat shook her head. She couldn't answer it, even if she'd wanted to. Because, answering meant telling him the truth and she didn't want that getting out there.

Jonah seemed to have something else to say, despite not getting an answer from her. "There's another reason why I stopped by to see you. Your Sergeant came to visit Captain Carroll last month." He could instantly tell Montserrat hadn't known about that. She was giving him a look of disbelief, ready to argue against him. "I don't know what she had to say, but she looked pretty mad yet satisfied when she left Carroll's office."

"Olivia wouldn't have any necessity to talk with Carroll," Montserrat said quietly. "She doesn't even know Carroll."

"Look, all I know is that three weeks later Captain Carroll retired," Jonah leaned forwards on the table. "And we all know Carroll was intending on staying until she was forced to leave."

"How do we know that's not what happened, then? They could've just--"

"--because Carroll started acting weird after Benson visited her," Jonah answered. "She looked kind of guilty, if I had to say it. She was distant, out of place...not the Carroll we knew. She left, Montserrat, just like you did. No one's been able to get in contact with her."

Montserrat stared at him with glossy eyes. She wished, wished, it wasn't true but...Jonah wouldn't lie about something like that. And knowing Olivia, it did make sense.

"But you know why," Jonah said, startling her out of her thoughts. There was a growing accusation etching across his face and it made Montserrat shift even when she tried to fight it. "God, I know there's something you're keeping from me and the rest of the squad at Queens. You know why Carroll left. Why she doesn't want us to find her."

"I don't know," Montserrat shrugged, but Jonah wasn't having it. She felt her food coming back up her throat. Should she run? That would make you a child, she berated herself.

"I'm not an idiot, Montserrat," Jonah snapped. "You left us. Why would you do that?"

Montserrat opened her mouth, but as much as she wanted to...she couldn't say anything. That fact only irritated Jonah more.

~ 0 ~

Montserrat practically stormed into the bullpen, making a beeline for Olivia's office. She ignored Nick's calls of 'where was Amanda?' and went straight for Olivia's door.

"We need to talk!"

Olivia, on her part, was pretty rattled to find a fuming Montserrat in front of her. She pulled her glasses and settled them on the desk. "What's going on, Novak?"

Montserrat made sure the door was closed behind before she got started. "You visited my old Captain? Morgan Carroll?" Olivia's eyebrows raised together but she didn't look like she would be denying it. "Oh my God!"

"I had to do something, Montserrat," Olivia started getting up while Montserrat entered a frantic state.

"You didn't have to do anything! It wasn't your call to visit Carroll! That's why Jonah's here! Carroll retired because of you, Olivia!"

"She took the easy way out again, then," Olivia moved around her desk, reaching out to calm Montserrat down but the detective shook the hands away.

"You didn't have to do that!"

"I did because someone had to let Carroll know you were not alone. Just because she forced you to stay quiet about your rape, doesn't mean-"

"-she didn't make me do anything!"

"She did! That's exactly what manipulation is, Montserrat and I know that you know that."

Montserrat stayed quiet for a few seconds to give Olivia a look. "Carroll made the call she thought was right for the case."

"But not for you. Montserrat, a good Captain makes the best call for their squad."

"She brought down D'Amico because I kept my mouth shut. We got that terrible drug lord out of the streets. Don't tell me that coming forwards and pressing charges would've been better. Least this way we got one of them in jail."

"But your rapist is still out there, free," Olivia gently reminded. She noticed Montserrat picking at her fingers and realized it was a nervous tick. "Carroll was a terrible person and I am so sorry that I couldn't do more than getting her to retire. If it was up to me, she'd be put in jail too."

"For what?" Montserrat wearily asked. Her eyes were getting teary the more she thought about things. It was horrible thinking about this stuff all over again. She hadn't actually done it in weeks now, a full month even. "She's not the one who raped me. She's not the one who hurt me, my soul…"

Olivia looked at the woman with sympathy. "No, but she let him get away when she could've brought him in. I wish I could do that for you, Montserrat. I really wish I could."

Montserrat's shoulders shook lightly while she tried to contain her tears, but thinking about Carroll, D'Amico, her rapist and Olivia's kind words…

Her tears spilled from her eyes as she burst into tears. Olivia took the woman into a tight hug, much like she did with other victims.

~ 0 ~

The next day, Montserrat (and unknowingly to her, Amanda) called in sick. Montserrat didn't even bother getting up from bed. It seemed like it was just so easy to fall back in that funk. She avoided calls from Kara -- who was outside in the hallway -- she avoided Olivia's, even Jonah's.

"Montserrat?" Kara knocked on her bedroom door. "Please come out. You haven't done this in a while, girl. What happened?"

"Just leave me alone!" came the snap from Montserrat. And after the third time, Kara seemed to get the message.

But still, it didn't stop Kara from attempting to call all day that day. By the time she locked up the salon, she felt like it was worry-worthy now. And that's exactly what she told Sonny when she visited the precinct.

"She hasn't done this in months and suddenly today she doesn't want to come out of her room?" Kara looked as concerned as she was sounding.

"Maybe she just wasn't feeling well?" Sonny offered the alternate thought, but Kara shook her head.

"No, I know this believe me," she looked at the others. "Did something happen yesterday? Something that could've upset her?"

"No, she looked pretty good to us," Fin shrugged then looked to Nick for some help. "Right?"

"Yeah," Nick agreed. "She talked with Olivia and then she went home."

"Olivia?" Kara repeated, her eyes flickering to the sergeant's office. "What about?"

"We don't know," Sonny knew exactly where Kara's mind was going to. "But Olivia would never do anything to upset Montserrat."

"Well somebody did something -" Kara gasped all of a sudden and raised a finger in the air, "Where the hell is that snarky, yet good looking, ADA of yours?" She did an actual spin just to see if Rafael was anywhere nearby.

"He's not here and you need to calm down," Sonny tried to reach for her arm but she took off.

"I don't know what Barba did but he's going to get it," Fin said with a sneaky laugh.

Sonny shook his head and rushed after Kara. And even as he tried to stop her, she made a very determined trip to the DAs building. When she was mad as hell, she could be quite scary.

"What are you even going to do?" he trailed after her in the hallway. "Yell at Rafael for something he probably has no clue about?"

"You men always stick together when you shouldn't," she scoffed at him.

"I'm not picking sides, I'm just saying a big possibility-"

"-oh just leave me alone! I'm trying to help Montserrat!"

Sonny stopped at the threshold and gave a nod at Carmen. "And somehow, I don't think this is going to help," he mumbled.

Kara marched herself right into Rafael's office without so much of a knock. "You need to fix this!"

Rafael looked up from his paperwork with the same confused face the others had after Kara visited them. "Excuse me?"

"Don't play dumb with me!" she went up to his desk and slammed her hands down on the desk. "Montserrat suddenly chooses not to leave her bedroom at all? Right after you two 'decide'-" she did air quotation marks with her fingers, "-not to date? Seriously? What did you do to her?"

It was in that split moment that Rafael wondered how the hell Sonny and Montserrat put up with this woman. "Okay," he let his pen drop on the desk. "You want to tell me what the hell is going on? It's always so lovely when you visit."

"What did you do to Montse?"

"Nothing. I haven't seen her since she went out to lunch with her...partner," Rafael couldn't help the sour tinge in his tone. It's why he was engrossed with paperwork. Signatures here, signatures there, details over there...all of it just to keep his mind occupied.

Kara raised an eyebrow at him. "Are you lying?"

"No! You think I'd let you yell at me if I did something like that? Contrary to your thoughts, I don't enjoy hurting Montserrat."

"...okay…" Kara leaned away from his desk. "On an unrelated note, I totally do not support your decision but right now I'm really worried about Montserrat. Something upset her yesterday."

"Was it that overly-cheery detective from Homicide, maybe?"

"What overly-cheery detective from Homicide?"

It was Rafael's turn to give the woman a look. "Jonah what-ever-his-name is from Queens Homicide. He was here. Imagine he still is."

"I don't - okay," Kara let herself fall into one of the chairs behind her. "So, I'm not the culprit, neither is the rest of SVU, though Olivia is still pending-"

"-Olivia's what-"

Kara raised a finger for him to stop talking, "-and you're head-over jealous about this Jonah guy so it's definitely not you-"

Rafael glared at her but she ignored that as well. "-I am not-"

"-so then I gotta talk to this Jonah and then maybe bang down Montserrat's door or something." She folded her arms and sighed. "I feel like I'm gonna go crazy."

"Really? Cos I feel like you already are," Rafael mumbled that not so quietly. She threw him a look for his words but all he did was give one back.

"This is pointless," she pushed herself up from her chair. "Sorry for bothering you...and for shouting at you...and accusing you…" she turned to leave and go find Sonny when Rafael called out for her.

"Is Montserrat really that bad?"

Kara turned sideways and nodded. "Yeah. She's doing that thing where she locks herself up, literally. When she first moved in, she did that a lot. Kind of like she was...depressed or something. She'd have her ups and downs but it seemed to decrease when she started working here. So I'm a little worried that she's...falling...again."

Rafael could understand that. It would definitely explain her endeavor to get answers from him. "If you need any help…"

Kara nodded. "Thanks. I'll let you know."

When Rafael was left alone, he started to think about Montserrat's odd behavior. If he was being honest, he had to agree with Kara in that it'd been a pretty long time since Montserrat exhibited any weird behavior. The times where she would lose herself in thoughts had been shortened almost to the point of being non-existent. Her cryptic words had seemingly disappeared as well. Something had to trigger her and for a trigger to even be needed meant Montserrat dealt with something big.

Rafael couldn't go back to paperwork for that night. He began to doubt he'd get work done the next day as well if he didn't do something.

~0~

It was near noon when Montserrat got up from bed, but even then it was in pajamas and only because someone was relentlessly knocking at the door. She grabbed a robe and tied it close to her body then dragged her feet out of the room.

She didn't know what to do when she found Rafael standing on the other side, except say, "Oh God, did Kara put you up to this?"

Rafael shook his head. "No. I don't get influenced so easily."

Despite her mood, Montserrat had to scoff. "Do you not work with Olivia Benson?"

"Yes, and one Montserrat Novak too." He gave her a teasing smile she rolled her eyes to. "Can I come in?"

"Sure," Montserrat sighed and turned away.

Rafael closed the door behind them and watched her languidly walk for the kitchen table. "Still in pajamas?"

"Aren't you supposed to be working or something?" Her snap seemed to be part of a low tolerance for pretty much anything right now. She seemed agitated as well.

"It's lunch," he reminded. "Have you had any?"

"No. I'm not hungry. What did you need?"

"To see you like this in order to believe it." Montserrat threw him a look for his blunt words but being who he was, Rafael didn't waver. He meant exactly what he said. "Kara's right. It's been a long time since you've acted like this."

"Like what?" Montserrat took a seat at the table. She brought a hand to the side of her neck and rubbed her fingers over it, but even the languid manner was off.

"Odd," Rafael sat next to her and watched her carefully. "When you first started working here, there were a lot of moments where you would get lost in thoughts. Hell, you did that when we got lunch or dinner. And then when you would come back, it was like an entire wave crashed over you because it looked like you were ready to fall."

"I'm fine-"

"Do not belittle my intelligence, Montserrat Novak," Rafael expected her to go off with that warning, but instead she leaned her arms on the table and rested her head over them.

"Okay," she flatly said. She seemed so lifeless, it was…

Familiar, actually. It was too familiar. He'd been right before when he once compared her to the victims he often saw. It was the same distant eyes, the same languid movements, the lifeless tone...

"What happened?" he asked her, trying to keep some of his urgency hidden. He was beginning to understand...

Montserrat shifted her head to meet his expectant look. "Nothing." But the more she looked at him, the more she started to think he was suspecting. The mere thought made her immediately sit up and change her entire body demeanor. Her shoulders seemed to raise while her head lowered a bit. "Why are you asking it like that? I'm just having a bad day. Am I not allowed?"

Defensiveness. Montserrat was timid right now - an act alone that set off alarms - yet there was a fierceness ready to defend herself from any accusations thrown at her.

Something happened. Now Rafael wasn't sure what it was but he knew it had to be big enough, something strong enough to impact her like this; something that made her have setbacks once in a while. And if he kept prying when she wasn't ready, she'd hate him forever. So, he did what the situation offered at the moment.

He placed one hand over hers on the table and looked at her with kindness. "You're right. You are allowed. I just ask that you do not seclude yourself. There are so many people around you, Montserrat. Don't forget that." Montserrat nodded a shaky nod. "And if this whole thing has to do with that Jonah guy, you remind him you don't owe him anything. You can also shoot him if you need to. I'll look the other way. So will Casey."

Montserrat's face slowly formed a smile before it became an actual laugh.

Yeah, so maybe Rafael was just a little bit jealous. But she'd never know. He would just make sure he was there when she needed him.

#ocappreciation #svu #rafael barba #svu fics #rafael barba fics #svu imagines #rafael barba imagines #oc: Montserrat Novak #fic: dare to forget me

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Text

“Abysmal”

Link to original r/nosleep post:

https://www.reddit.com/r/nosleep/comments/o4mdi8/my_husband_and_i_checked_into_a_new_underwater/

______________________________________________________________

My husband and I are the first guests to check into a new underwater suite with a full glass display. Yet, all of the fish are missing… but I don’t think we’re alone down here, either.

“No peeking still,” my husband nagged, his hands still over my eyes as he guided me.

“How can I peek with your hands literally over my face,” I remarked. He chuckled.

After what felt like forever with him making sure I didn’t bump into anything up to the mystery destination, my husband Jackson assured me that we were finally there. Thank the Lord…

“Alright, open up!” he said as he unveiled his hands from my face.

Now that we were here, I felt the rush of excitement again, and a shy yet exuberant grin grew over my face as I slowly opened my eyes. Once they opened, however, they widened tenfold at the sight before me.

“Whoa,” I exclaimed.

Jackson chuckled. “Soooo, did I pick out a good birthday gift or what?” he teased.

It was truly a sight to behold. An underwater luxury hotel suite, with all the delicacies and comfort a guest could dream of, encased entirely in an underwater tank with a view to die for at nearly every angle. Undoubtedly, it was a great birthday gift.

“Baby, this is amazing,” I spoke. I turned to look at him. “I-I was just kinda joking when I said bring me the ocean if you could, you know?”

He and the usher who led us to the room with our luggage exchanged laughs.

“You should know by now I take almost everything you say literally,” Jackson said as he stepped my way, towering over me by merely two inches.

“Mmm-hmm,” I uttered through my smile, and we both leaned in for a kiss.

The usher awkwardly rolled our luggage over to the king-sized bed (really, it looked even bigger than king-sized) and neatly set them to the side.

“Happy birthday,” Jackson said.

“Thanks, Babe,” I replied, as we both went in for another kiss. Poor usher, I thought. I know it must’ve been awkward for him right about now.

“Um, sorry to break the moment,” the gentleman timidly noted, “But if you two would like, the kitchen staff has prepared a lovely four-course lunch, which should be about ready in the next 30 to 40 minutes?”

“Oh,” I uttered.

“Nice,” Jackson followed. “What do you think?” he asked me.

I gave him a crazy look. “Shit yeah,” I replied under my breath, but quite loudly. I noticed the usher, “Oops, I mean-”, clearing my throat, “Yes, my husband and I would love to attend,” changing my whole demeanor.

Me and him both chuckled like idiot children. That’s simply how we were together. Like children. Though, when it was time to be adults, I was usually the parent in the relationship. He was a messy eater, I used proper dining etiquette. He needed a haircut, I did it for him. He got bruised up or injured doing god knows what, I fixed him up. He wants to travel to a random city over the weekend, I do all the planning (except this time, to my surprise).

Jackson was smart - very smart… but dumb at the same time. He was like a golden retriever. Had lots of energy and charisma, always the center of everyone else’s attention, yet, he couldn’t hold his own to save his life. Very all over the place. In a way, however, that’s what I find attractive about him. His zest for life and a childlike curiosity outlasting his years. I liked to have my fun as well, don’t get me wrong. But I was more Virgo-like in my ways, even though I’m a Pisces myself.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Lunch was held in the hotel’s center aquarium, giving us a full view of the ocean around us. Glass surrounded us with a bright blue luminescence as the sun reflected light through the large sea.

We were presented with a lovely four-course meal of seafood selections. Both of us got the seafood chowder as a starter. I got spicy Caribbean shrimp and he got oysters for appetizers. For the entrees, I got a nice big baked salmon, and Jackson got a huge lobster tail with a side of melted butter and mashed potatoes. It was all delicious, needless to say, and to top it all off, we had carb-packed tall slices of strawberry cheesecake. I could barely get up from the table after we were done.

After congratulating the head chef for such a fine meal, Jackson shot the question.

“Where are all the fish?” he asked.

It was one of those things I didn’t even think to ask, yet it was so obvious. Where were the fish? I didn’t know we were coming here until just a while ago. Had I not seen any pictures from the brochures in our room, I’d think this place didn’t have any fish at all. It was a good question.

“Ah, the fish,” the chef said. “They’re usually out most of the day and usually at night, they’ll obviously be harder to see and go elsewhere. But today must be one of those days where they’ll just… sorta hide.”

“Hide?” I remarked.

“Yes,” the chef replied. “Mostly from predators, if they’re around. But that’s strange, there usually aren’t any around. There’s the sharks, but even still, nothing that’s a serious threat to make the others leave.”

“There’s sharks here?” Jackson asked in a tone that I couldn’t tell was either amazed or afraid.

“Oh yes, a couple of them will show up from time to time. No great whites, or hammerheads, or anything crazy of the sort, but yes, there are a few.”

“Hmm,” Jackson uttered.

“Well, hopefully they turn up soon,” I added. “We gotta get some pictures, right Babe?”

I nudged Jackson at his side, to which he didn’t noticeably return much of a reaction.

“Mm-hmm,” he noised passively.

Maybe he was starting to get a food coma, too, and needed to lay down. I know I did. We’d gotten back to the room and done exactly that.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

After a pleasant nap, I woke up to the magical view of the suite being illuminated with hidden LED lights outlining the bed, walls, and other pieces of large furniture. The room held a bright gold luminescence along with the now dark blue to almost pitch black abyss of the ocean. I wonder if that was something that could be turned off or it just stayed like that. Either way, I wasn’t complaining one bit.

Jackson woke up not too long after, and I barely saw him shuffle over to the bathroom in a hurry, as I was on my phone with my back turned. Was he sick?

“You all right, Babe?” I called to him.

“Yeah,” Jackson replied. “Had to piss.”

Oh, well that made sense. With that, I turned on camera mode for my phone, and began snapping random pictures, and was getting ready to do a panorama view. I had the lens set at one side of the room, starting at the edge of the first wide window, then began to drag across the room. I made it past the first window, then past the walls and door to the bathroom occupied by Jackson, then to the other side window, and was about to come around to the end of the last huge display behind me, until I noticed something through the lens.

I lowered my phone to get a look with my own eyes and saw that there was an enormous shadow of space outside the glass. It could’ve been the lack of sunlight reflecting down on that particular spot, but then I thought, was it really that dark already? It was only a half ‘til six, so it made sense for the water to be dark, but not that dark. The thing was, it stood out from the rest of the area like a sore thumb. You could still tell apart the ocean floor from other sections of the room, as well as the tiny rocks at the bottom. But over in this particular spot, it was near-total blackness. An abnormally large disquieting contrast in the area around it.

Maybe it was just a large rock structure. Like a fjord, maybe? No, those are like mountains or something, I think.

Then I heard the toilet flush. I waited for Jackson to come back out, but a couple of moments kept passing longer than expected. I was getting suspicious again.

“You sure you’re okay?” I called again.

“Yeah,” he answered.

It would make sense if he got sick from the food, perhaps. It was seafood, after all, and that among other recipes could have a tendency to make anyone’s stomach queasy if not properly prepared. But I didn’t have any issues so far. We ate nearly the same thing, as we picked from each other’s plates all the time.

I went ahead and gave him another minute, but as more time kept passing and I didn’t hear from him, I decided that was it.

“Hey, I gotta piss, too,” I announced, as I got up and started approaching the door.

No response. Then, a few seconds later, “Okay,” I heard him respond. Weird, I thought.

I slowly turned the knob and opened the door slowly, as not to budge right in. To my confusion, he wasn’t in the bathroom anymore at all. Huh?

“Jackson?” I called for him.

I looked across and saw that there was another door leading to a different room, or closet maybe? It was cracked open.

I went over and swung open the door to find a nice tidy compartmentalized space, the only room that wasn’t encased in glass, with Jackson loafing around. It had a nice window seat cushion that extended along the side of the walls of the entire room, and a circular window that simply showed the outside view of the ocean, which was also nearly pitch black as the shadow that cast over near the bedside window I’d a moment ago. Perhaps I was right. It was just large boulders or rocky structures blocking the light on those specific sides of the glass.

“You know this wouldn’t be a bad room to crash in,” he said, as he kept aimlessly searching around for something.

“I guess not?” I awkwardly replied.

“Could be a good place to do… other things, too, yeah?”

“It’s kind of a tight space, don’t you think?”

“We’ve managed with worse.”

“You know, there is a whole bed back there,” I said, pointing my finger to the door.

“Yeah…” Then his mind trailed off elsewhere before he looked at me again. “I’m done in the bathroom. You said you needed to go, right?”

I gave him a certain look. “I lied,” I answered. “You okay?”

“Why wouldn’t I be?” he responded, but I knew when he was playing clueless.

“You’ve been acting kinda strange since lunch.”

“Oh?”

“I mean, we both know you’re strange as it is, but… earlier you seemed sort of all right, but now since the sun is starting to come down, I don’t even know.”

“True,” he said, still not actually paying attention as he was still searching around the room.

I was getting a little fed up. “What are you looking for?” I asked.

“Something to cover this window with,” he said. “Can we get seasick from this? You know, with us being underwater and everything?”

“… Maybe?”

“There’s nothing but towels and a bunch of useless crap in here - are there any like really big pillows out there in the bedroom?”

My gosh, he was acting strange. The obvious question came next.

“Why do you need to cover the window?” I asked.

“Because… I don’t want anyone spying on us,” he answered.

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

“We’re underwater.”

“I noticed.”

“Who’s gonna spy on us? The fish? There aren’t any.”

“You don’t know, there might be people with submarines or something down here trying to capture a couple of lovebird guests having a good ole time down here to sell on the internet or who-knows-what.”

“Okay, one, I’m not fucking you in this room, and two, what is going on with you? You’re just acting so weird. What’s wrong?”

He looked around nervously, biting his lip like a child keeping a dirty little secret. Then, he finally fessed up.

“I have… thalassophobia,” he guiltily admitted.

“What?”

“Thalassophobia.”

“What’s that?”

“Fear of the ocean. Like deep water, all the shit that lurks in it, you know? Being stranded at sea, even. I’ve always been afraid of the water, babe. I tried to work on it, believe me, but nah. It’s just always been that one thing I can’t get over.”

I was dumbfounded. “Wh-” I started, trying to find where to even begin. “You have a fear of the ocean and you booked us an underwater hotel with literally a 360 view of open water?”

His face was red. “Yeah,” he muttered.

“Why?” I asked.

“‘Cause, it was for you. It wasn’t about me. I wanted you to be happy, and I wanted to get you something nice for your birthday, something I knew you’d love.”

It was one of the many sweetest things I’d ever heard him say that I almost forgot how dumb he initially sounded at this moment. I went over to him and gently cupped his face with both my hands, my back facing the window now and his facing the door.

“Okay,” I started, “Baby, you didn’t have to get me anything - though, I’m very grateful for all of this. And besides, I still don’t want you to be uncomfortable even if I’m not. We’re… you know, a marriage. A unity, or whatever. A team. I wouldn’t do something for you if I didn’t like it either.”

Jackson arched a brow.

“Okay, I didn’t mean for that to sound as bad as it did. Of course, I’d make sacrifices for you, too. But you get my point?”

Then I realized he wasn’t reacting to what I said at all, and was looking across the room past me towards the glass.

“The rock is gone,” he whispered.

“Hmm?” I uttered.

I turned to face where he was looking and saw what he meant. The black abyss of space beyond the glass was no longer there, and instead, we saw the faint blue glistening of the evening once again. Strange… it’d been black as night a moment ago, I thought. But Jackson said the same thing I was thinking. He, too, thought it was a rock.

I looked to him. “Tell you what, I’ll order us some drinks - you pick - and I’ll bring them back and we can just hang out here, okay?”

His face lit up with excitement again. “You don’t have to do that, Babe? Don’t let me ruin your b-day.”

“To me, it’s ruined if you’re not happy.”

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

I’d gotten room service to order us a tray of varied alcoholic beverages (only under his card, Jackson insisted). Champagne, Moscato, Grey Goose, and a few other cocktails, along with some crackers and cheeses to go along. We hung out together in the small enclosed room with our backs facing the window atop a fortress of pillows I pulled from the master bedroom and threw into the other room. I even fulfilled his request to cover the window with other stacks of pillows and whatever else I could find so he wouldn’t have to look outside.

We cuddled in the pillow fort we’d made and watched a movie on his phone. Any other person might view this as a complete downer to their vacation, but for me, I actually enjoyed every second of it. We never usually partook in high-end sort of living activities, even with me thoroughly planning and making sure we budget down to a T, so they usually ended in us doing things like this instead where we much preferred the comfort of doing things the unconventional way, such as sleeping in another room aside from the bed on a stack of pillows. Plus, it made Jackson feel better, and he was usually always braver than me. For once, I saw a true vulnerability in him.

“We’ve been to the pool and stuff together,” I said.

“Mm-hmm,” he replied. He drank way more than me. He’d answer anything at this point.

“You didn’t seem scared then.”

“The pool isn’t scary, the ocean is. Remember though, I couldn’t go past six feet?”

Then I thought about it. He was right. He never went too far to the deep end of any pools we got in.

“Huh,” I expressed. “I never noticed ‘til now.”

We kept on watching the movie for a couple more seconds before I had the urge to ask more questions.

“What about it scares you the most?” I asked.

He shrugged. “I mean, a lot of things. Like the thought of how deep it is… you never know what could be down there - here. The feeling of being surrounded by a vast bunch of endlessness, and being so small…” He shivered with chills. “Yeesh. Fuck that.”

“Yeah, when you put it that way, that does sound pretty scary.”

“Nah, you love it. You and the ocean have a pact.”

“What?” I smiled.

“Admit it, you would love to be a little mermaid just swimmin’ along in the abyss, waving at seamen - haha, seamen - passing by on their little boats and just having a grand time-”

“Oh shut up!” I laughed.

“-Just floating around with your long red hair collecting seashells singing, ‘Unda da sea!’-”

“Whatever!”

“-Unda da seaaaa!”

He was hysterical, and we were both having a good time. At least he was enjoying himself now.

I had to get up and use the bathroom again. After doing so, I decided to go get my phone that I’d left on the charger from the bed. But when I stepped into the room, it was nearly pitch black. I couldn’t see a damn thing.

What happened to the LED lights? Did they automatically turn off by themselves? It’d be weird if they did, though, because it wasn’t at our discretion to do it ourselves, and who’s to say we still needed the light or not?

I decided to use the bathroom light by swinging the door wide open to let the rest seep into the room and illuminate. Now, I could discern where everything was, if only faintly.

I went over to the bedside and pulled my phone from the USB. 100-percent battery life. Nice. While I was over there, I also turned on the lamplight perched next to me, and saw that it emitted a bright enough radiance to fill the entire corner of the bedroom. Might as well leave it on.

Then a thought occurred to me to check on the vast space I’d spotted earlier through the window. It would be directly in front of me. So I lifted my head to take a look, and to my stupidity, of course, it was indistinguishable now at this time of night. Some hours had passed since I last saw it, making the entire perspective a dark blue tint.

Though I loved the ocean and all the creatures that inhabited it, after hearing Jackson’s opposing view on the subject, in a weird sense, I was now starting to get what he meant. The vast darkness of the underwater. The endless abyss. I could imagine how terrifying it must be to swim in such a colossal space with no sense of direction, no other object in sight. No way out…

And what made it more frightening, I think, wasn’t that the water was pitch black. No, it was the fact that it was nearly complete darkness, but not entirely. You could observe the murkiness of the depths shift from light blue to an uncanny shaded indigo. Were the shadows underneath simply an indication of how far the light could reach from above? Or, could it be that something waited - patiently - down below?

Geez, I could have quite the imagination when I got to thinking too much by myself. I was even getting scared at my own thoughts. But if anything, I could now sympathize with my husband’s dread.

I turned to walk back to the bathroom door when another thought struck me, stopping me in my tracks. The rock Jackson and I noticed earlier, or at least what we thought was a rock… wasn’t it black? Like, entirely black. Black as night? And we both thought we were seeing things, where the rock had suddenly moved and we couldn’t identify it anymore through the window of the back room. It was hard to say if it was a bad memory or the alcohol, but I could swear…

I went over to the telephone next to the bed and decided to call room service again.

“Hello?” the female clerk on the other line answered.

“Hi, yes, I was just calling because I noticed the lights in our room aren’t working anymore. Not the main lights for the lamp and bathroom and stuff, but for LED lights, you know?”

“Oh, I see. Yes, there’s a switch on the wall right next to the thermostat where you can turn them on. It has a knob where you can adjust the brightness, and another one that lets you change the color to whichever one you’d like also.”

I shifted my eyes over to where she was referring to and found exactly what she meant. I could’ve found that if I bothered to look first.

“Oh, I see it now,” I laughed. “I guess I’ll check and make sure it’s on or off.”

“Okay,” the clerk responded, sounding pleased. “But that’s strange. They normally stay on unless of course, the guests decide to shut them off or when they automatically shut off at sunrise.”

“Hmm… maybe there was just a short power outage?” I suggested, though, it was probably unrealistic.

“Could be,” the clerk fancied. “But either way, hopefully you and your husband can enjoy the lovely moonlight from above as well.”

I was confused. “Moonlight?” I said.

“Yes. From where your room should be, it’s placed in the perfect spot for the moon to be seen from the top of the glass.”

“Really?” I replied, very puzzled. I looked up to see if I could maybe notice it through the top. “I don’t see any-”

At the sight I was now witnessing, I felt every bone, every muscle, every nerve in my body turn cold. There was something on top of the glass. Not just on top, but engulfing the entire tank. Above were faint details of what I could only imagine was its mouth. It was circular almost, with rows of what looked like razor-sharp teeth getting smaller at the center.

“Hello?” the clerk said on the other line.

I couldn’t move. A sensation more than just fear overcame me. I was petrified. At this moment, I never felt so small.

Then, the creature began to shift its entire body away from the glass, sending a near-seismic rumble throughout the suite. I dropped the phone onto the floor, and I followed suit as I got down, raising my arms as an instinctual reaction to try and shield me from whatever was about to happen next - as if that would do anything. I was in the presence of something further up the food chain than myself. Further up than any other predator that I knew that walked or swam the face of the earth.

As it released its grip from off the glass, shapes of monstrous tentacles began to flail about, leaving behind a powerful swooshing noise through the water, along with a resonant sound that the only way I could describe it as is something that couldn’t be replicated. Not on this planet. It was deafening, earth-shattering, like something from a different world.

MuuuUUUuuuuuh

MuUUUuuuUUUUUUUuuh

It was so alien-like. It seemed to be coming from the thing itself. So powerful, even more so than the call of a blue whale or the roar of an earthquake. It was truly one of the loudest sounds I’d ever heard.

Suddenly, pure blackness no longer surrounded the view, as shades of the natural lighting of the ocean floor began to form again, and instantaneously, a white glow emitted from the glass ceiling. There it was. The moon. It had been there the whole time… and so had this thing.

As the creature rose higher away from my view, I was starting to get an even better look at its size. I still couldn’t even grasp its entire shape. It was huge. A behemoth of an unknown force lurking down here, waiting to be discovered.

I was amazed, astonished even, but not in a positive manner. The same sensation kept overtaking me as I began to curl up into a ball next to the bed. The sensation that I’d never felt so small…

I planned on staying there and hiding under the bed until it was gone. Then I’d be safe. But Jackson…

I got up and immediately ran towards the bathroom and over into the other room, shutting the door behind me. He was still lying against the pillows watching the movie on his phone, not noticing a thing about what lies beyond the glass. I couldn’t have been the only one to hear it, I thought.

“Baby,” I panicked.

He looked at me, concerned. “What’s wrong?” he asked. I guess he didn’t hear what I did after all.

But I couldn’t tell him, I thought. I was already scared as it was, but telling him might be catastrophic, and he’d never want to leave this room.

“I-I…” I stammered. “… I saw something.”

It just came out. What was I supposed to do, lie?

“What?” he said, now growing nervous as I was. Fuck, why did I do that?

“Th-There was something outside the glass, um…” Then I realized, I hadn’t told him the whole truth. “A shark or something. Like, a big shark.”

Jackson arched his brow, like he always did when he thought I was crazy.

“Are you pranking me?” he asked, his whole demeanor changing from worried to a perky suspicion.

I was dumbfounded. “Huh?” I said, still in a state of clear panic.

“I thought you loved sharks? Go play with your new friend,” he joked.

Without a doubt, the alcohol took the edge off of him from earlier, but he had no idea just how serious I was. Maybe that was a good thing, but right now, I needed both of us to leave this room asap.

I kneeled in front of him, looking him in the eye.

“Listen, I don’t wanna be in here right now. I’m getting… claustrophobic,” I lied. “Let’s just go to one of the lounges and hang out there for a bit where there’s no open water outside to look at, okay?”

He still wasn’t buying it. I’d be skeptical, too, if I were him. I never expressed fear of any sort in regards to the ocean. Even all the scary creatures he feared that swam in the sea, I took a liking to. But not that thing. Not that thing that waited outside…

“Your acting never fails to impress me, dear-

“Jackson!” I snapped.

He turned straight-faced again. I never snapped at him like that before. He knew I was serious this time.

“You’re serious,” he said. I nodded.

“Just put on your pants and let’s go,” I insisted. “I-I’ll cover your eyes so you don’t have to see out there when we cross the room.”

“Okay…”

He got up and started to put his hands on.

“By the way,” he started, “Did you hear something a minute ago? Or was it just the movie?”

“Hear what?” I asked, a noticeable fear in my voice.

“Well I don’t know, I thought I heard something, like a loud rumbling noise. Thought it came from the movie, but then I was like, there’s no way, because-”

MuUUUuuuUUUUUUUuuh

We both felt it rumble down in our feet and up to our rib cage, and stared at each other for a moment. Aware of precisely the same thing now, Jackson whispered under his breath, “Honey… what was that?”

Suddenly, the rumble sounded again, and was followed by both of us losing balance on both of our feet, and we both began to stumble. We both struggled to hold on to each other while simultaneously trying to grab onto the wall for support. Jackson managed to clutch one of the beams sitting atop the wall, and his strength alone was enough to hold both of us. I held onto him for dear life as the suite kept violently shaking.

His back was to the window as my arms hooked around him for balance. But I could see ahead that the barricade of pillows we’d put up on the window had now fallen, leaving the glass open for a full display of the outside. And to my confusion, I couldn’t see anything beyond it. It wasn’t a dark blue or black tint this time, but instead, a bright yellowish shade that now covered the window.

The rumbling had now stopped, and it was quiet as a mouse.

“You okay?” Jackson asked.

I didn’t say anything. I was too fixated on the window. Why was it that color? It’s like we shifted into a different environment altogether. Like a whole new backdrop.

“What the hell?” I muttered.

“Hmm?”

He turned to what I was perceiving and shared the same confusion. It was a strange sight indeed. Then we saw a black circle shift from nowhere and down into different corners of the circular window. The direction of the circle bounced randomly from corner to corner as if it were a corrupted game of Pong, until finally sitting dead center on the glass, facing us.

I felt a sick sensation in my gut, and Jackson’s jaw dropped in terror at the realization of what we were now both seeing. It was an eye… and it saw us.

MuUUUuuuUUUUUUUuuh

The sound rumbled the whole area again.

“Go, go!” Jackson shouted, trying to lead us both out of the room, and we did just that.

We’d crossed into the bathroom when the lights cut off. There was darkness again. We were blind to the lack of light as we both tripped into each other, him almost knocking me down completely. I grabbed onto what I could only guess was the sink as Jackson quickly grabbed me to keep me from falling.

“You all right?” he said.

“Yeah.”

“What the hell is that thing?�� His voice trembled.

“I don’t know,” I cried.

We needed to get ahead into the room and out into the main lobby and let someone know what was going on. But the lamp I’d left on in the bedroom ahead was out, too. Otherwise, there’d be some lighted path for us to distinguish. It was pure darkness. The only faint light, if any, came from the dark hue of the water surrounding us.

I pulled out my phone and turned on the flashlight to lead us.

“C’mon,” I demanded.

Jackson followed closely behind with his arms still over me for protection. Though, I’m sure it was more for him than it was for me. I could only imagine…

We raced through the bedroom and for the door in a matter of seconds. But in that time, we caught a glimpse of the outside. It was a nightmare. Just an endless void of murky dark water that appeared to stretch for an eternity. We were two small, meaningless creatures in the center of the vast universe.

When we got to the door, I turned the knob and pulled back without hesitation, as Jackson reached over and helped by yanking it back into the wall, and we both hauled ass out of there. In the halls, the lights were out as well. No source of illumination anywhere except the faint moonlight protruding the ocean’s horizon. Like the suite, the halls were made entirely of glass like a giant walkthrough tube to behold the ocean life exterior.

“Which way is it?” I anxiously asked.

“Here,” Jackson said, pointing down to the left corridor.

He and I made our way down the halls, but slowly this time. Something outside caught our eye. Indescribable. Countless dark silhouettes of fish. Hundreds of them. The ones that had been gone earlier were now all here for us to see beyond the glass. However, something was wrong.

The way in which they swam didn’t align in a fluid horizontal motion. Some of their bodies were positioned diagonally, vertically, and in a strange sense, seemed to be floating rather than swimming…

Then the realization hit me. They weren’t swimming at all. They were dead. Lifelessly drifting in the water down to us.

“Jesus,” Jackson gasped.

“L-let’s just keep moving,” I said, trying to be brave.

Then to our left, the creature emerged from below, its massive tentacles and fins rising into view, its bright yellow eyes glaring into us. The hall began to shake as the earth-shattering rumble sounded throughout the structure.

Without hesitation, the two of us raced down the hall to reach the next corridor that would eventually get us to the lobby. We just needed to make it. Where that thing could no longer see us.

All throughout the long glass tube, it followed from the outside. But not like a predator chasing its prey, but in an unsettlingly forbearing nature, as if it knows its place in the animal kingdom hierarchy. We were no challenge for it. It wanted to taunt us. It knew…

We’d managed to run down to the lobby and thankfully, one of the clerks was still there at the counter, likely the one I’d spoken to earlier on the phone. The woman saw us in our state of panic and immediately stood up to ask what was the matter. We told her of the creature that was terrorizing us, to which she was understandably struck by. We even told her about the fish we’d seen that were now regurgitated from the monster. It was hard to say if she bought our story or not, but based on her facial expressions, she innately knew we were dead serious.

The two of us refused to spend another night in that room. We asked if there were any other rooms available that didn’t involve windows of any sort, or better yet, any that were at the surface, but truly, Jackson and I both wanted to get the hell out of this place.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

A couple of hotel staff offered to take our belongings out of the room and personally hand them over to us in the main lobby, as the clerk informed us that there was a vacancy in the only other room available at the top above the water, on top of the fact that neither one of us agreed to enter that hellish fishbowl again.

In our new more relaxing suite on the surface of the land, it’d taken a while for either one of us to fall back asleep. Jackson, in the shock of it all and for good reason, had taken it harder than me. I lied there with him in bed and stayed until he felt comfortable to drift off.

At some point in the night, I’d got up to peer out the window, which gave a view of the ocean’s horizon under the full moon. Any other day, I’d find the sight to be an ethereal beauty, not one to literally die for. What was supposed to have been a beautiful day for the two of us, at the expense of Jackson going out of his way to try and make me happy, was now ruined by the untethered force of nature that resided beneath.

I began to quietly sob, as not to wake Jackson from his slumber, my vision becoming blurred from the muddiness of tears.

But as I looked down again at the ocean below, I could sense that somewhere in my line of sight, it waited. And with a startling revelation that haunted me from when we first looked the creature in its eye, there was an undeniable fact that it knew.

It knew…

#writer #story #horror stories #nosleep #scifi #scifi story #thriller #thalassophobia #ocean horror

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missnmikaelson-main · 4 years

Text

National Anthem

6. October 22, 2020 🌶

Voices whispered around her, bombarding every inch of Belmont University’s auditorium with an anxious hum of energy. She had a pretty decent seat, all things considered. Most of the journalists sat scattered around the place with views that ranged from abysmal to ‘is-that-him-behind-the-pillar’. She got the coveted spot reserved for candidate family and team members so she could see everything and it only came with a single drawback.

Being backstage meant her view was from the side, and the view she wanted, the image of Kol in his clean cut suit - the one she wanted to peel off piece by piece - was blocked by a man she really didn’t want to see.

“He’s doing a good job,” Cami mused from beside her, “open and engaging. That’s excellent.”

“Open and engaging, and witty are only gonna get him so far today,” Elena breathed. She would rather gauge her eyes out than look at his opponent, but she had to admit he possessed many of the same qualities. “Damon Salvatore can be just as charismatic.”

“I gotta believe people can see through the show,” Cami sighed, tapping her foot against the floor. She tossed her hair over her shoulder as she glanced around the backstage area. In the corner she spotted Marcel talking in a low voice on the phone jammed between his shoulder and ear while his hand took quick notes.

Elena followed her look and gritted her teeth.

Which of course, Cami saw.

Stupid psychologists.

“Are you going to be angry at him forever?” She hooked her finger under her watch chain.

“He ripped my world apart,” she inhaled sharply, exhaling in a controlled rush. “He took everything I knew about myself and scribbled it out with a red pen.”

She licked her lips and sniffed, dropping her eyes to her lap. It had been months since she found the file, months since her heart shattered to pieces and she relived her teenage grief.

She had told Caroline after a few days, and Rebekah, and her brother. The memory of that lunch when the campaign bus swung through Mystic Falls still made her emotional.

And it was only partly because Kol deliberately altered their course of travel to give her that moment with her friends, and with Jeremy.

Everyone who mattered knew, and that went a long way to fixing the damage done.

She was adopted, but she had been loved.

She was adopted, but she had her friends.

She was adopted, but she had her family.

Her friends had squealed happily when she showed up for the unexpected lunch and told them she had something to tell them. They had sat on the edge of their seats while she picked over her burger and fries then poked at a slice of apple pie. When she took the deep breath that came before her admission they both fell silent, but she got the sense her words weren’t what the girls had been expecting.

Jeremy had declared loudly and with particular vehemence that it changed nothing. She had always been his annoying big sister. She always would be his annoying big sister.

They loved her.

She was still her.

She was still Elena Gilbert.

Later, on the bus, she had marvelled over Caroline refraining from asking about what she witnessed with Kol. And after Kol admitted none of his brothers mentioned it she had to conclude that for once Caroline had kept her mouth shut.

Maybe she was waiting until it was clear she was better before dropping the bombshell that would have Rebekah climbing down her throat. If that was the case then Caroline had a new record for keeping a secret: four months.

“He broke me and left a giant question mark over my life,” she came back to the present, rising from her chair.

“For what it’s worth, Elena,” Cami pushed her hair behind her ears, “I’m sorry for my part in this. I all but confirmed you were together when I said you two were cute, and set Marcel on his hunt.”

“Thank you,” she crossed her arms, hugging her elbows. Her fingers tugged gently at the indigo sleeves of her sweater.

“And for what’s it’s worth, knowing what you know shouldn’t change anything.”

“I know,” Elena nodded. “It took me a little time to get there, but I know. I’m still me, but that doesn’t erase the giant question that nobody, not even Marcel with his vast resources, seems to be able to answer.”

“I guess her name was pretty common,” Cami crossed her legs.

“Fourteen of them across the country near enough to the right age when you take in alternate spellings,” Elena murmured, leaning against a pillar to get a glimpse of Kol cutting a remark towards Damon. “Half of them grew up close enough to fit the bill of teenage runaway.”

“Marcel will find her,” she watched him talking on his phone. “He’s really good at what he does.”

“I’ll believe it when I see it,” Elena caught Kol’s eye when he glanced in her direction. She offered him a small smile that grew bigger when he went back to slapping Damon down in the debate. She couldn’t wait to get him alone.

“Elena?”

Her heart skipped a beat and she jumped, spinning towards the voice at her side.

“Stefan?” Her brows rose, though why she was surprised she couldn’t say. His brother was on stage.

“I thought that was you,” he smiled, tilting his head. “But I couldn’t be sure when I saw you from the other side,” he gestured with one hand to the other end of the stage.

“What are you doing here?” She swept her hair behind her ear.

“Shouldn’t I be asking you that?” He smirked, eyes sparkling.

“I meant over here,” she laughed, shaking her head and lowering her voice to a whisper, “this is the opposing side.”

“So, just because Damon’s my brother I have to support his political party?” Stefan lifted a single brow.

“Does that mean you don’t?” She mirrored his expression. Outright detestation from family probably wouldn’t work in Damon’s favour.

“Are we on the record?” He countered, leaning a little closer.

“I’m not here as a reporter Stefan,” her stomach shifted with the admission. “I’m here as a friend.”

“Well, its not a friend to Damon,” he stole a quick glance on stage, catching Kol’s attention for a split second. Taking half a step closer he whispered softly. “Did you know he cracked three of my ribs?”

“Damon broke your ribs?” Her brows rose into her hair line.

“No, not Damon, Kol,” he held her gaze, “a few days after you and I broke up. It was at that start of summer party and everyone was drinking. I think I was flirting with someone, might have been Valerie, and suddenly Kol was there. Didn’t say anything. Punched me once, hard, right here,” he gestured to his side.

“You never said anything,” her brows lowered.

“I always thought you knew,” he shrugged. “I got the sense he did it because of you.”

“What do you mean?” She leaned a little closer.

“I mean,” Stefan whispered, “that anybody who dated you learned quickly to never break your heart, especially when he was around.”

“Still, opposition would have loved to get their hands on that scoop,” she ducked her head, feeling a slight flush stain her neck.

“Who hasn’t gotten in a fight in high school?” Stefan chuckled. “Besides if I’d come forward with that it would have come out why he did it, and then I never would have heard the end of breaking up with you two days before your birthday through a text message.”

“My birthday cake tasted like tears,” she pushed her tongue between her teeth.

“I knew we weren’t working out and I didn’t handle it very well,” he said by way of apology. “I assume you told Rebekah all about what a jackass I was, and then she told her brother, or he overheard, but somehow he found out about it and took revenge on your behalf.”

“You probably got off easy,” she huffed a laugh, “if I’d found you flirting with Valerie a couple of days after dumping me I probably would have kicked and ensured the Salvatore line ended.”

“You’re forgetting Damon,” he winced.

“What woman in her right mind is gonna have kids with him?”

“Fair enough.” Stefan nodded, smiling as he turned around. “Anyway, I just wanted to come and say hello, since I haven’t seen you in so long.”

“If I absolutely had to converse with a Salvatore today, I’m glad it was you,” she frowned towards the stage.

“What exactly happened with you and Damon?”

“It’s not what happened with me,” her eyes narrowed, “and it’s not my story to tell.” She turned fully to face him. “It was nice to see you.”

“Likewise,” he nodded.

The air thickened with awkward tension then and Elena resisted the urge to fidget.

How were you supposed to say goodbye to the person that took your virginity? A handshake felt too informal, and a hug way too intimate.

Luckily Stefan felt it too and kept his departure to a short nod and kind smile.

As the debate wound down she stepped back from the crowd of people coming forwards to offer congratulations. She had her own celebration in mind that had absolutely nothing to do with a crowd of people. That was one fantasy she never felt the need to experience.

Plus a sex scandal less than two weeks before the election would not be good.

She could wait.

Slipping down a side hall she stepped into a restroom and examined her reflection in the mirror. Her lipstick had worn down, so she reached into her handbag for the tube. After replenishing the dark red she pulled the hairpins so the pinned locks tumbled around her shoulders and went about pulling them into a loose ponytail she could already feel him wrapping around his hand.

The restroom door opened behind her. She thought nothing of it until she heard the click of a lock and caught the reflection in the mirror.

“I’m pretty sure this it the ladies room,” she caught his smouldering eyes in the mirror.

He was on her in a second, spinning her around and crashing his lips to hers in a kiss so punishing and hot that she felt a rush of arousal and feared there would be a dark stain on the crotch of her skinny jeans. It only got worse when his tongue forced its way into her mouth.

Not that she had a thought to stop him.

She was too busy trying to keep up with every bite and suck. And what exactly had she done to finally draw the rough side out?

She kind of liked it.

She felt him push her sweater down. It caught at her elbows.

That was when he had to breathe.

“You’ll really do it anywhere won’t you?” She panted.

“Stop talking,” he growled, ripping open her white blouse.

She might have protested then, because dammit she liked that blouse and now it was in tatters, but he yanked down her bra cups and savagely sucked her nipple into his mouth.

“Fuck, Kol,” she arched, pushing her breast further into his mouth. His teeth nipped down and she cried out grasping the back of his head.

“That’s right,” he growled, switching breasts, “say my name.”

“Kol,” she whimpered, gladly obliging.

He popped open her jeans and shoved his hand into her underwear, rubbing hard at her little nub.

She moaned, clutching at his suit jacket, scrabbling at the fabric, wanting it off, not wanting to be the only one half naked and going crazy. He refused to oblige her desperate attempts so she settled for palming his bulge, squeezing him through his trousers.

He pushed at her hands.

She got the message and set them on the bathroom sink. Her breasts glistened with his saliva when he leaned back to stare at her.

“Moan for me, Elena,” he moved his hand further. The tightness of her jeans meant when he pushed a finger into her wet cunt his palm pressed down on her clit.

She wasn’t sure how he did it, but somehow his palm rubbed her perfectly while his finger fucked her.

“Kol,” she moaned his name, “more, please?”

“You want more?” He growled, pinching her right nipple with his free hand.

“Yes,” she gasped. His rough treatment had her so close to the edge. She was ready to tumble over it and he had only begun touching her.

He tugged hard, twisting her nipple so her entire breast rose. She came with a scream that he muffled with his mouth. She whimpered, slumping against the counter.

Her body shuddered with her release.

Thank goodness her jeans were dark and her sweater long.

“We’re not done yet,” Kol pulled his hand from her pants. He spun her quickly, smearing her juices over her hip.

A hand on her throat forced her chin up so she could see his reflection. The lust in his eyes held her in place when he bit at her ear.

“I’m gonna make you come so hard right here, over this sink, until you’re writhing with pleasure.” He released her throat and ripped her jeans down her legs until they caught on her knee high boots. “I’m gonna fuck you so hard,” he tore her thong from her body, dropping it on the counter, “and so good, that you forget everyone else because they could never bring you the ecstasy that comes from our coupling.”

Metal clinked as he removed his belt.

She looked back when his pants hit the floor, watching as he pushed his boxers down to his knees and fisted his hard cock.

A hand on the small of her back pushed her down.

She braced her hands on the mirror for balance.

“You might feel the need to scream your pleasure,” he bent slightly and bit her shoulder.

Her breath caught. She pushed her ass back into his hands, desperate for friction.

“Someone will hear me,” she whimpered, closing her eyes.

“Then I shall have to gag you,” he snatched up her discarded panties, shoving them into her open mouth.

Her own arousal coated the dark material and she moaned at the taste, sucking to get as much of it as possible.

Kol flipped the end of her sweater and ruined blouse up, exposing her to his gaze. With the fabric in one hand and his cock in the other he pushed forward, sheathing himself in one hard thrust that months of near constant intercourse made possible.

The sudden intrusion made her scream into the gag.

He set a punishing pace, pushing in and out with every ounce of strength he had.

Elena tried to keep her eyes open, but it was difficult when he was fucking her so hard. With every deep thrust his balls slapped her clit and her thighs hit the counter.

He hooked his arms around her front, bringing one hand up to further muffle her screams as the other palmed her bouncing breasts.

“That’s it love,” he sucked at her throat. “Moan for me. Scream into my hand. Because you’re mine.”

The possessiveness of his growl went straight to her cunt; she throbbed around him, tightening until he hissed.

“Damn,” he pushed in and out, groaning when she gripped him like a vice. “You’re so bloody tight like this. So bloody tight,” he shut his eyes, rotating his hips when he was seated inside of her. “So bloody tight, and all mine.”

Unexpectedly he ripped the panties from her mouth and curled his fingers lightly around his throat.

“Who’s are you?” He snarled, squeezing gently.

She arched into him as her vision started to blur and her body shook.

“Who’s are you?” He repeated.

“Y…” she wheezed for breath. “Yours,” she choked out. “I’m yours.”

“That’s right.” He released her throat. He could feel a layer of sweat adhering the back of his shirt to his damp skin. “You’re mine, darling, only mine…”

Stars exploded behind her eyes, turning her vision to a blinding white as blood rushed in her ears, blocking out all but the possessive growl of ‘mine’.

Her forehead rested against the cool glass.

She felt the first spurt of his release hit her cervix before he pulled his cock from her body. Warm seed streaked across her ass and lower back while her juices rolled down her legs.

He took her shoulders and moved her, dropping her until cold linoleum hit her butt and hot cunt. The floor ground the mess into her skin.

She lifted her eyes and saw his erection in line with her face. Her fingers shook, closing around his length and pumping.

“Who’s are you?” He grabbed her ponytail, forcing her to lift her eyes up and meet him.

“I’m yours,” she swore breathlessly, suspecting she had a drunken expression on her face. “Mark me.”

He swore as the last of his release coated her breasts.

He sank to his knees when he was spent and just stared at her as he caught his breath. And she was sure she made quite a sight in her torn clothes with pants around her knees and his cum covering her chest.

She scooped up some of his cum form her nipple and popped her thumb into her mouth.

“Fuck, that’s hot,” his hand curled around her ankle. “Stop.”

“Why?” She sighed, letting her eyes drop to his soft cock. The sight of him coated in her made her heart flutter; he had marked her, but she marked him in turn.

“I want you to leave it all,” he crawled up her body. “I want you to button up that sweater and hide the ripped blouse, and then I want you to go to dinner with my cum on your tits and ass. I want you to feel it on your skin whenever some man or woman flirts with you tonight. I want you to remember who you belong to.” He hovered over her body, staying clear so he kept his shirt clean. “Because you are mine darling. And when Stefan or Damon look to you in that restaurant and you feel me clinging to you, you’ll remember that I alone can bring you pleasure so great you’re reduced to a quivering mess in a public restroom.”

And then just to prove what a mess she was he pushed a finger between her legs. The quick contact with her clit brought her a mini orgasm that made her melt after the way he took her.

After a moment she managed to grasp at a train of thought.

“Wait a minute,” she pushed at his chest. “Are you freaking kidding me? I’ve been trying for months, tormenting you at every corner, to make you bend me over and take me like that. For months I’ve done everything I could think of to illicit the kind of desperate fucking that leaves me like, well,” she waved a hand to her loose body, “like this. And you’re telling me all that I had to do was have a discussion with an ex?”

“If you still remember him,” Kol growled playfully, pushing on her clavicle to make her lay down, “then we’re clearly not done.”

“Oh we’re nowhere near done,” her eyes glittered, “but we are done in here. People are bound to notice we’re missing and I don’t even want to think about how many people have walked on this floor today.”

“I’ll just have to banish him from your mind after dinner,” he smirked, “or maybe in the restaurant bathroom when I follow you to admire this handiwork,” he trailed his fingernail between the valley of her breasts.

“I won’t wash off your claiming mark until we get back to the hotel,” she promised, “but you can’t wash off mine either.”

“Counter offer,” he cocked an eyebrow. “When we get to the hotel you and I will take a nice hot bath in the suite’s garden tub I know you’ve had your eyes on, and we’ll wash each other. Maybe enjoy some wine and a second round while we’re at it.”

“Mm,” she nodded, “that sounds like a plan. Oh, and uh, if I smile at anyone while we’re out feel free to construe it as flirting.” She kissed his cheek. “Cause I think I like jealous Kol,” she winked as she stood, “the sex is hot as hell.”

@kol-and-elena-fanfiction @elejahforever @elejah-wonderland @cry-btch @geekofmanyfandoms @morsmornte @xanderling @bellemorte180 @iw1shiknew @blndbandt

#kol mikaelson #Elena gilbert #kolena #kol x elena #stefan salvatore #Damon salvatore #Camille O'Connell #marcel gerard #national anthem fanfic

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dwaynepride · 5 years

Text

Some Bad Advice

Summary: “i like seeing you smile.” for jimmy Palmer please :) he has the best smile / Jimmy desperately wants to impress you. And his plan backfires; or does it?

Words: 2,421

Warnings: None

Tags: @pageofultron @stanathanxoox @dressed-up-just-like-z1ggy @ms-allenbrown @ikbenplant @dylpickles1267 @diaryofafan17 @specialagentlokitty

“The leg bone's connected to the knee bone, The knee bone's connected to the thigh bone, The thigh bone's connected to the hip bone, Now shake dem skeleton bones!”

Jimmy's light tune rings out in a silent autopsy, the only light coming from the lamp above so he could focus on the work.

Bones. So many bones. Enough for two people, at least. And with Dr. Mallard away, it'll only take longer to separate them all and determine a cause of death.

The daunting amount of work doesn't put a damper on Jimmy, though. He continues to hum the bone song under his breath as he carefully places a finger bone at the end of a radius stub. That particular song wasn't all too medically accurate, but still fun to sing along to when it was just him in a big empty room.

Though, Jimmy's tune is cut short when he hears the doors to autopsy hiss open. He breathes out a little, eyes rolling good-naturedly. "More bones?" He asks, meaning to joke around in light of the heavy case.

But when his head pricks up to greet the visitor, Jimmy's smile falters just a bit. The easy comfort that came with singing to himself and his bones disappear when he meets your amused gaze. "Thankfully not. It looks like you have your work cut out for you."

He blinks once before realizing he was supposed to smile and reply. “Uh, yeah! It’s just a skeleton, so it really shouldn’t be too hard to organize what goes where. But there’s just a lot of bones, you know?” Jimmy’s rambling again, and you’re just too polite to cut him off, like Gibbs or DiNozzo would’ve done.

So he shuts him mouth and puts on a big smile. And despite the accidental rambling, you’re smiling back. “Well, I’m sorry for interrupting, but Gibbs wanted me to find out if you know anything about a cause of death yet.”

Jimmy’s shoulders slouch a little, eyes flickering to the autopsy table with dissatisfaction. “Nothing yet. Some of the victim’s ribs seem to have little knicks, which could suggest a stabbing.”

And there it is; that adorable little quirk in your eyebrows when you’re being serious. It squeezes his chest all tight, and Jimmy is thankful that you’re too busy studying the half-done skeleton to notice his staring. Well, not staring. He’s definitely not staring like some creep. But there was definitely something different about you today. Maybe a new way you styled your hair? Or-

“Jimmy?”

“Yeah?”

You’re looking at him again, the serious expression gone in exchange for a wide, amused grin. Jimmy clears his throat as his cheeks warm up. “I said that you’re doing a great job. With all the bones and stuff.” You repeat, motioning out to the table.

A compliment. That doesn’t help Jimmy’s fluster, at all. “Uh, thanks. I’m glad someone appreciates the work.” He replies with a single shrug of his shoulder. And hey, Jimmy seems to recognize that he’s in a good light. You were impressed with his work, so far. And if you had given that same compliment to somebody like Tony, he would completely milk it.

And Tony never had any problems picking up dates, right?

“Not that it’s a lot of work, y’know. I know where every single bone in the human body goes, so it really shouldn’t take me too much longer.” A bit of a bluff, but your smile was widening, just a bit. So he continues. ��I’ll keep working for the answers until I’m bone-tired.”

The pun slipped out before Jimmy could stop it. His forcibly-cocky demeanor deflated once you erupted with laughter, head shaking while you make for the exit. “Thank you, Jimmy. Keep me updated?” You asked him over your shoulder.

And Jimmy wasn’t completely sure what you were thanking him for; the update, or such a lame joke. Either way, he puts on a friendly smile and waves his hand. “Sure thing!” He manages to reply before you’re out the door.

The memory of your smile and laughter sticks with him for the next couple hours, and Jimmy decides that his stupid pun was good enough.

Having been stuck in autopsy all day, focused so closely on his bone puzzle, Jimmy had almost forgotten how busy and bustling the upper floors can get. He almost bumped into somebody on the way out the elevator. Barely had time to throw an apology over his shoulder before the doors closed.

He should go and get some lunch. Take a walk outside for his break so he’ll be renewed for his work. But Jimmy seemed to be on a mission as he entered the bigger officeplace. Eyes immediately scanning the tops of heads in the bullpen of his team.

It seemed like some sort of minor miracle that Tony was there and you weren’t. Better still, the other desks were empty. Jimmy couldn’t ask for a better time to talk to the field agent.

Tony knew he was there without even looking up. “You got some news for me, Palmer?” He asks, eyes still focused on a file he was reading.

His question puts Jimmy to a stop, mouth dropping open as he struggled to answer. Was it unprofessional to put his work on hold for a piece of advice? “Well, n-no. Not yet.” Jimmy manages to answer.

“Then why has the little Autopsy Gremlin strayed out of his cave?” Finally, DiNozzo lifts his head and smiles. Though, his amusement is most definitely at Jimmy’s expense.

He sighs a little, letting his eyes dart around the office before coming closer to Tony’s desk. Leaning in, as if telling him a secret. “I need help with something, and I think you’re the only person who can help. You date a lot, right?”

Suddenly, Tony’s eyes brighten with interest. He immediately nods his head. “I do.” The agent answered, reclining back in his seat with an easy smile. “You need help from the Love Guru, huh? Who are you after?”

Jimmy hesitates at giving up your name. Wonders for a brief second if it would be worth it before his eyes avert away. “Y/N. I need to know how to...I don’t know, impress them? Make them like me? And since you two are on the same team...”

“You came to the right place, Palmer.” DiNozzo immediately rises to his feet, sending Jimmy to stand straight up with wide eyes. “We’ve been working together for years; as an experienced cop and a good friend, I know exactly what you gotta do.”

Jimmy’s gut had been tight with anxiety since his talk with DiNozzo. He repeated the advice he got from the field agent over and over in his head, reciting it like a mantra as he continued his work on the tables of bones. Would it really work? It had to, right? Tony never has any problems in the romantic department, so Jimmy had to trust the advice. It will work.

And he finally got the chance to find out when you entered autopsy with Gibbs. Jimmy straightened up from his awkward pose over the bones, almost failing to hold back a grin on his face. Don’t act so eager when they come in the room, DiNozzo said. Act like you don’t care one way or the other.

“Oh, hey Y/N.” Jimmy says, his tone adopting an uncharacteristic neutrality. A shrug followed it. “Gibbs.”

He looks away before seeing your slight frown. But Gibbs doesn’t seem to care too much about Jimmy’s change of character. “You find anything out yet?” He asks, approaching the table.

Jimmy’s stomach is still fluttering around, but he lets out a hum, as if thinking of an answer. “Somethin’ in particular you want?” He asks, looking back up. His eyes briefly glance to you, wanting to know if his new aloof trick was working. But the eye contact doesn’t last a single second before Jimmy looks to Gibbs.

And the expression that the Marine wears chips away at his confidence in the act. “Yeah. A cause of death.” Gibbs barks out, wearing a very visible frown.

For a slight moment, Jimmy recoils back, his feet shifting as he looks down at the bones laid across the table. “Uh, there’s some knicks in the bones.” He reports. His words were a little shaky, but then Jimmy’s eyes rise to yours. And when your head tilts, he breathes in to push down his anxiety. It had to be working, right? Jimmy was doing exactly what Tony said. “I guess Abby can match them to a knife or something. That’s not really my job, you know?”

The image of your eyebrows furrowing lasts just a moment before Jimmy sees movement out of the corner of his eye. Gibbs is approaching like a predator, and Jimmy instantly feels small when his voice booms out. “Your job is to find cause of death. Something definitive. Do your damn job, Palmer!”

Jimmy’s eyes avert down, and he feels Gibbs’ stare on the side of his head before the Marine turns and stalks toward the door. He snaps out your name to follow, and while Jimmy can feel your eyes on him, he doesn’t look up.

He’s thankful when the doors close behind you, leaving him alone with the skeletons who are probably laughing at him.

Autopsy had been silent and mostly empty since the humiliating incident from earlier. And was that a good thing? Possibly. Jimmy was sure that news has spread of his abysmal attempt at getting you to like him. The embarrassment of Gibbs yelling at him, rightfully telling him to do his job.

On the other hand, Jimmy hated the silence. The scene kept replaying in his head, over and over and making it difficult to concentrate. In the end, he was able to determine a cause of death for one of their victims. Somehow, Jimmy figured that Dr. Mallard would’ve been able to do it much faster and without hassle.

What an awful day it’s been. Jimmy sighs as he pushes the final skeleton into the locker and closes it, letting the dead sleep until tomorrow. He turns to make the journey across autopsy, eager to get out of his scrubs and just go home.

That is, until the doors slide open, and Jimmy’s attention is dragged away from the tile floor. The sight of you padding carefully into autopsy makes him freeze, eyes growing wide in surprise. “Uh, hey.” He utters, wincing a little at the higher pitch of his voice. Surely a far cry from how he was this afternoon.

But you smile anyway. That sweet little smile that always seems to make Jimmy feel better on the worst of days. Even now, the sight of it lightens the weight of a bad day. “Hey, Jimmy. I came by to check to you.”

“Check on me?” He repeats, head giving a little tilt. You were worried about him?

“Yeah. You weren’t really acting like yourself earlier. And then after Gibbs, well, I know how scary he can be when he’s mad.” You continue, taking a couple steps closer.

Jimmy doesn’t reply right away. He’s touched at your sympathy; touched that you were so worried that you came down here to make sure he was okay. And suddenly, he decides that DiNozzo’s plan is what caused all this. A dumb piece of advice that Jimmy wishes he hadn’t listened to.

So instead, he nods his head. “Yeah, I was a little bummed out over making him so mad earlier. But that’s not the whole reason why today’s been a bust.” He says. Jimmy watches your head tilt, eyes both patient and curious, so he continues. And this time, he’s going to be honest.

Jimmy feels himself blush uncomfortably as his eyes avert. “I, uh- I talked to DiNozzo earlier today. I asked him for some advice.”

You give an amused snort. “Well, there’s your problem. Advice on what?”

“On how to get you to like me.”

That was as honest as he could be. Part of Jimmy wished he hadn’t been so blunt, but after today, he didn’t want to skirt around his feelings anymore. Though, his eyes are still pointed to the floor as he continues. “I mean, he’s usually really good at that kinda stuff. And plus, you two work so close together. So, I figured if there was someone who could help me impress you, it would be him.”

Saying it out loud somehow made his plan sound more pathetic than it did in his head. You’d surely think it was creepy; going behind your back to your friends and trying to figure out how to woo you-

“You didn’t have to do all that, Jimmy.”

He blinks, eyebrows knitting together in confusion before finally looking up. You’re still wearing that soft smile, with no trace of disgust to be found. Honestly, it shocks the hell out of him. “What?” Jimmy says dumbly.

You huff in laughter, shrugging. And if he didn’t know you any better, Jimmy could swear you looked embarrassed. “I mean, Tony’s not my type. He’s a good friend, but anything he told you to do wouldn’t have worked.” You explain. And then your own eyes avert. “I like you how you are. Your cheesy jokes. How much you love your job.” There’s a pause before you meet his eyes again, and Jimmy had to remember to blink. “And I like seeing you smile, so I’m not a fan of that whole aloof act.”

There’s a bit of silence while Jimmy tries to think of a response. Had he fallen asleep without remembering? This had to be some kind of crazy dream. Though, as soon as that possibility popped into his mind, Jimmy knew it wasn’t true. Because his heart was beating way too hard to be any kind of dream.

He finally smiles, mirroring yours before he exhales in relief. “Do you want to get some coffee?” He asks, and then realizes that maybe the question was too blunt. Jimmy backpedals instantly. “I mean, I don’t think it’s too late for coffee. And if you’re too tired, that’s fine-”

“Really? I thought after today, you’d be the one who was bone-tired.” You cut him off with a grin.

It takes a moment for Jimmy to realize why you were smiling so hard. And the melancholic mood that’s taken hold of autopsy for the last few hours is replaced by laughter.

#ncis imagine #ncis x reader #ncis reader insert #jimmy palmer imagine #jimmy palmer x reader

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a-robin-among-thorns · 5 years

Text

In The Shadows of the Rising Sun: Chp 9

Chapters 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6, Chapter 7 , Chapter 8

Once again so sorry for the delay on the chapter its been really crazy on my end. My sister had a baby, I got a new job and just the holiday to name a few ^^;

Chapter 9: Alone Together

Word Count: 2,210

Chise was hasty but diligent as she checked the apartment’s vacancy, silently thankful for the absurd lengths her cousin stretches out her business ventures. Seconds after the door clicks shut Elias emerged from the shadows in a rush and Chise sighed in relief. Although he had been present all day his long bony face is a sight for sore eyes. The sentiment was one he evidently shared for as soon as he was solid again he cupped her cheek in his right palm in almost reverent gentleness. He echoed her sigh, his breath sweeping over her red face in a rush, fanning the tips of her hair between his fingers.

It was so strange to be so sure that his feelings were exactly the same as hers. She blinked slowly, caught in the moment and hypnotized by his earnest gaze. The pads of his fingers fit in the curves of her jaw like she had done when she awoke beside him. She absently wondered if he recalled the action from his subconscious.

Belatedly, Chise pursed her lips and gripped her book bag tighter. If she wanted any hope of finishing her three days of math, not to mention her other subjects, she would have to start soon.

Her books spilled across the coffee table in a series of dull thuds. Fortunately, both science and history were reading assignments and the professors would never call on her if their lives depended on it. English was similar, translate and transcribe a paragraph of your choice from the provided kabuki play passages from hiragana to informal English. She normally dreaded this process, but her past days of constant English moved the work from a sluggish crawl to a leisurely walk.

All the while Elias hung just to the side of her. Although he sat corporally, he took the role of her shadow, all the same. Entranced in her movements eyes following where she goes, silent but ever-present.

Once the last character was redrawn as a letter she grumbled knowing it could be ignored no longer. Consulting her yellow sticky note, Chise split open the algebra textbook and set to work.

The process was slow and grueling. Finicky obnoxious measurements slowly scratched out to produce something that looked like effort went into it. She hated math on the best of days, this stupid fake math that can’t even be bothered to use numbers makes her want to pop a vein. But something about this assignment, aside from its extended length, grated at her nerves.

When it came down to it no matter how hard she would work on this assignment she would never understand it. She would work stressfully for several extra hours and receive a grade only slightly less abysmal than if she turned in nothing. It felt so pointless to toil and struggle for someone who wouldn’t pay her a passing glance. Who acted disgusted when she asked for help.

A hot gruff groan built in her chest and slipped through ground teeth, burning her nostrils. Distractedly she adjusted her bangs harshly and repositioned against the coffee table. In her shuffling, she didn’t hear Elias shuffle closer, peering over her shoulder. She jumped slightly when his hand slipped past her, the plum pad of his finger landing in between the unknown X and a pair of parenthesis.

“This one needs to be applied to all of the numbers inside the curves. It’s not a number, but it can still act like one.” He said simply. No trace of judgment or impatience could be found in his voice.

Her eyes followed his hand as he retracted. When their faces fell on each other he made a small nod in gentle urging. Her gaze returned to the paper. It couldn’t hurt. Slowly she applied his suggestion, more came as she worked, and the picture became clearer and clearer.

“Don’t forget to add and subtract this value because there are two possible answers.” She did just that and wrote out what had to be the closest thing to a properly done solution she had ever written. Another sigh spilled out, not of frustration but relief.

She leaned back on her elbow to look up at him fondly. “How do you understand math so well?”

His eyes crinkled in that glowing smile she had come to recognize. “When working with the fae, especially finicky ones, one must understand proportions and numbers. Even across different understandings. Many humans have met their end by accidentally slighting a proud spirit.” She chuckled at this, the absurd image of a faerie angrily stabbing at a calculator coming to mind.

As they worked together the heat of her frustration subsided. Her jaw relaxed and her breathing became less forced as her effort no longer felt futile. One after one they marked off the assigned problems until all 30 questions have a line struck through them.

The textbook closed with a satisfying thump as she brought the halves together like a grateful prayer. “Thank you for helping me. I couldn’t have done that on my own.”

His head tilted, “What have you done then?”

She shrugged, “I just turn in the best I can figure out.”

Elias looked back to the book between her hands. “And your teacher does nothing if you haven’t learned it?” He questioned.

“Pretty much.”

He was quiet at this looking pensive. As Chise began to put her work away the English assignment caught her eye reminding her of their conversation at lunch. “Would you like to look at this assignment with me? I can start teaching you Japanese.”

How could someone incapable of moving their face smile so plainly? “I would like that.”

He resettled again as she fished out the dictionary. “It’ll kind of be working backwards,” she mused aloud realizing the difficulty laid in front of her. “I’m probably not a very good teacher.” She admitted sheepishly.

“Any teacher is better than nothing.” He pauses, “Better than the teachers you have by the sound of it.” Chise stuttered unsure what to say when her attention snapped to the door and her heart stopped.

Tapping heels resounded through her eardrums like bass drums. In their shuffling the rattling of keys had been lost. Reina fidgetted through her purse and Chise and Elias were petrified as she looked up to the living room. Then back down at her purse.

She frowned and looked up again to Chise alone. She blinked in bewilderment looking to and fro as she skeptically walked forward. The frown on Reina’s face wanted to set in deep but her face was too confused to do so. “Were you...talking with someone? I could have sworn I heard…”

“I was just reciting my English,” Chise interjected forcing the most natural tone she could muster, “we have to read our translation aloud in class.”

Her cousin’s dark red lips pressed together disdainfully as her eyes searched the room. But nothing was disturbed, no exit could be that quick. And there is nowhere to hide in the barren apartment.

“Is...something wrong?” Chise probed in hopes of invoking her pride.

Reina’s posture realigned, regaining its commanding indifference as she unknowingly swallowed the bait. “No everything is fine.” She turned on her heels to place her purse on the kitchen counter. With her back turned, Chise steadily relaxed against the coffee table and stretched her fingers flat against the carpet. A warm shifting murmured against her palm, seeping between her digits.

“You spent a lot more than normal.” Reina’s sharp probing drew her out of the private moment. From the counter she stood with the remaining bills in hand, eyeing the child in her care like a hawk.

“I-i,” Chise gulped, mentally fumbling to come up with an explanation. “S-since it was my birthday Saturday I wanted to get something a little special.” Chise stutters, “Is that ok.”

Her predatory stare breaks as she blinks in realization. That had been this weekend, hadn’t it? “Um yeah, I guess.” She adds under her breath, “saves me from having to get a present.”

When Reina finally settled along the coffee table with takeout curry in hand, Chise felt as though she had lived through five separate heart attacks.

She was somewhat nauseous from the continuous back and forths but partook of her curry all the same. A few spoonfuls of spicy rice made the flip-flopping in her belly cease very quickly. The savory flavors danced on her tongue as she actually tasted a meal she should have been well familiar with. Although she would have happily devoured the entire container, a slight shift of her left hand reminds her to stop halfway.

As impatient an eater as she is everything else, Reina finished her rice soon after Chise and moved to throw away their containers.

Like a started rabbit Chise flung forward to guard her bowl from Reina’s grip, blocking her fingers from the plastic rim. Her brain catches up with her body as she slowly met her cousin’s eyes. Wide eyes narrowed like a bow pulled taunt, aimed at its kill. “What are you-“

“I was just wanting to save it for later,” Chise blurted, “maybe for breakfast.” She strained under the probing glare until Reina huffed and rolled her eyes. “Sure, that’s fine.” She sharply plucked her own bowl, standing in a fluid motion where Chise lay in her line of sight all the long way from the table to the trash. The timid clicking of the top and bottom of her plastic bowl resounded in the apartment as Chise watched Reina retire to her bedroom.

An eternity after Reina sealed herself in her bedroom the light under her doorway finally extinguished. A smaller eternity later, during which Chise showered and readied for bed, Elias had still not emerged from the shadows. From her futon, she ran her fingers all through the carpet. They met no resistance.

Suddenly nervous, Chise looked over her shadow. No red lights.

Her throat constricts in anxiety. Her mouth suddenly very dry, she croaked out quietly, “Elias?” Nothing.

She sat up like a shot, searching frantically. Red hair whipped from side to side before swishing toward the small hallway. A thicker patch of darkness slithered from the direction of Reina’s bedroom. Her heart relaxed once the shadow knitted itself back into her strange friend. His jaw parted in oblivious confusion. “Is something wrong?”

“No, but...I didn’t know where you were.”

His posture relaxed as his jaw clacked together in understanding. “I needed to be sure she was asleep before I emerged.”

At this confession her insecurity quelled and she found herself feeling oddly guilty. And clingy.

She wrapped her arms around his torso letting the warmth of his body permeate the icy chamber of her lonely heart. He gasped and returned the gesture, tucking his long jaw against her back. A light rumbling sigh vibrated against her sternum.

A similar rumbling from his stomach reminded Chise of the earlier injustice, prompting her to reluctantly untangle herself and make for the fridge. She tried to hand Elias the container of remaining curry but he refused. “You need to eat more.”

She frowned. “But you haven’t had any.” She pushed it toward him again. He held his palm up to push it away. “You haven’t eaten enough.” His eyes bore into her stern and urging.

She huffed and relented, prying the container open as quietly as she could. She dipped her fork in for a few more bites and swallowed roughly. She rubbed her mouth against her fist. “There,” she shoved the container somewhat defiantly at his chest, “now you have the rest.”

Elias nodded and made quick and quiet work of the food.

She sighed harshly as he ate, before returning to the futon. Deliberately she lowered herself onto her back, hair splaying across the ground and staring at the ceiling. Her mind felt both restless and sluggish while she deliberated what she should say. But as he laid nest her on his side nothing she has thought of felt correct. Chise looked up to Elias with guilt still lingering in her eyes. “Elias,” she whispered, “I’m sorry you had to hide here too. And that I didn’t teach you as I promised.”

He stared at her for a moment before finally answering, “it's not your fault.”

She opened her mouth but choked on her words. Chise knew it would be polite, right, if she told him that he did not need to stay if he wished not to. That he did not need to be tied to a place where his actions and presence were so harshly limited. But she was terrified, horrified, that he would take up the offer and leave her as she was before. Leave her like everyone else. Leave her...alone.

“I’ll make sure we have time tomorrow.” She promised in a small voice.

He hummed in agreement. She was not the only one feeling needy she realized as Elias settled himself to lie against her, his head tucked along her neck and his left hand taking her right. As her hand clasped back comfort washed over them. Chise still wished they had been given more time today, but with each other held close, she could be held content until tomorrow.

#The Ancient Magus Bride #mahou tsukai no yome #chise hatori #elias ainsworth #robinthorn #chise x elias #elias x chise #fan fic #fan fiction #stormy writes #I'll need to clean up those links at the top sooner or later :/

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vinniehatesyou · 6 years

Text

heart to break.

i found the video, and the thing is - it’s not the video that broke my heart. it was filmed before we even knew each other. i can’t really be mad at what happened before me. we all have a past.

but i could tell you’re trying to fill the void. let me love you. let me fill the void that only true love can. but yet you’re pushing me away so hard.

months ago, we were in your kitchen, naked - in Stockholm. we were making dinner when you started.

“i don’t know why it’s so difficult with you. i love kissing you. holding you. being with you. i just don’t know why i can’t get hard.” you clamored.

“do you think it’s because you have feelings for me?” i asked.

“i don’t know what I feel for you. i don’t know why i’m not sick of you yet, or why I feel this way.”

“have you ever had sex with someone you’ve had feelings for?”

“no....what does it feel like?”

“it’s different. good different.”

You went for a cigarette on your balcony as I finished chopping the onions exactly like how you instructed me to do - first horizontally and then vertically.

you came up from behind me and put your arms around me, crying. I could feel your tears on my back.

“thank you for coming into my life. i never want to lose you.” you sobbed.

“don’t cry. i’ll never leave you. whatever happens, even if we don’t end up together. you’ll always be dear to me.”

that night it changed. that night everything worked like it should. everything was perfect. i thought maybe we had finally fixed your Madonna-Whore complex.

Then I left for New York.

And when I came back to you three months later, you were disgusted by my touch. You pulled away and pushed me off every chance you got.

You broke my heart that night. My first night in London. I flew across the ocean for you, and you broke my heart.

“I think with time I just because sure I didn’t want to be with you. I know myself and I’m a super sexual person and I just have no sexual attraction to you.” you said.

“Walk me through this, because the last time I saw you you were crying in my arms and now you’re telling me you’re not sexually attracted to me and that you don’t even want me near you? I worked out non-stop for the past three months so when I saw you again I’d be buffer than I was before! You even noticed it!” I said.

“Thing’s changed. I can’t help but feel like I led you on. Maybe I just thought you were so endearing how much you wanted me, that I could try but...”

“Fucking walk me through this Jimmy.”

“I thought what we had was really special, and then as the summer wore on I thought about you less and realized that you weren’t that special.”

“What the fucking hell. No. I don’t accept that. It’s you and me! In the end! It’s you and me!”

“I don’t know what to tell you. I just don’t want to be with you.”

“No. Get over your fucking self. We have baggage. We all have baggage, you just don’t want to work on unpacking yours.”

We went to bed, next to each other. The way we would sleep for the rest of my nights there with you.

The next day was your birthday. It was abysmal.

My heart had just been broken, and now you were upset that I was quiet.

“I hate it when you’re quiet. Please talk to me.” you begged.

“I’m just processing. I’m okay with saying goodbye to you on Sunday, but let’s try and make this a good weekend at least okay?”

The day dragged on. The tension in the air was so thick you could cut it with a knife. I saw you looking at me from the corner of my eye, your eyes watering. Would I care if you cried now? I don’t know.

We went to the museum, we had lunch with your friends, I bought you that Calvin Klein coat you wanted so badly. I took you to a Michelin Star restaurant. On top of my original birthday present - a ticket to Tokyo.

We were supposed to go together, remember?

We tried to clear the air but we couldn’t.

We got into bed.

“Goodnight!” you grunted.

“What is it Jimmy? Just tell me.”

“Today was awful, I know I just hurt you but it makes me hurt to see you like this.”

“Well then that’s a Catch 22 isn’t it? Don’t be selfish. You’re telling me to stop being sad so you can feel better about yourself. You just fucking dumped me and I’m still sleeping in your damn bed.” I quipped back.

“I don’t know what’s worse - the dread of having you near me or the guilt I would feel if I asked you to leave.”

I started to cry.

“I’m damned if I do and I’m damned if I don’t! Everything I have ever done was to make you happy! You said you needed space, I gave it to you. You said you weren’t done being single, I let be free. You wanted that fucking Calvin Klein coat - I bought it for you. So you know what? You figure out which of these you can live with and I’ll do it. I’ll try and find a place tomorrow.”

“I’m sorry. It came off wrong, I didn’t mean it like that.” you apologized.

I went to bed.

The next morning you turned over.

“I’m sorry I put you in this situation. Because I was in it too. I know what it’s like.”

“Tell me about that, Jimmy.”

“I went to New York, and a guy kicked me out. I had no where to stay, and then angel saved me.”

“Who saved you?” I asked, knowing the answer.

“You did.”

“That’s right. I gave you a place to stay when you had no where else to go, and the irony is no that you’re kicking me out after I saved you.”

I got ready and left for the day. I didn’t want to be around you, and I know you didn’t want to be around me.

I went to meet up with a friend and walk around Selfridges when I got a text from my sister.

I began to cry profusely.

I quickly found my way to the Korean dessert shop we went to that first night I arrived, on our double date with Willis and Ailton.

There in the corner, I facetimed with my mom and sister. I began to cry uncontrollably.

“He was different, He was like Alex.” I sobbed.

My family knew what that meant.

“We know. We felt it. You haven’t been like this about a guy since Alex. We’ve never seen you cry in your adult life, so we know the kind of power it took to break a heart like yours.”

I went back to the house, shortly before your party guests arrived.

We did a line of cocaine and smoked a cigarette on your balcony.

“What did you do today?” you asked.

“I went shopping, facetimed my family, cried in Selfridges.”

“Tell your mom I’m sorry.”

“Tell her yourself.” I quipped “You can tell her at our wedding, about the time you broke my heart when you were 27.”

“You’re so sure it’s me - why? I think you like the idea of me, or that we’re good on paper.”

“I could go on about why I want to be with you, and just you. But not tonight. For the record, we’re not good on paper. We just make a cute couple online. Joey Kim and I are good on paper. You and I are good because you make me a better person, and deny it all you fucking want but I’ve changed you too.”

The doorbell rang and people started to come in.

You began your duties as party host and left me to the sidelines. I didn’t care, I can handle my own in a crowded room. I didn’t work in PR for nothing.

I met Nathan, a former fling turned friend.

“It’s not you, you know. It’s him.” Nathan whispered.

“What?”

“It’s Jimmy. He has blinders on right now, he has a one track mind and can’t see what you’re offering. I know you see the crack in his wall. I know you’re sitting there waiting for it to come down. It’s no way to live your life - but know that you mean something more to him than any guy before. I’ve heard about you from the beginning. You’re different, yes. But you can’t wait for him.”

I felt comforted, but still broken.

The night wore on and we ended up at that club. 4 of your friends made their move - telling me how attractive I was, feeling me up, and eventually going in for the kiss.

I did it just to make you jealous. But I suppose you didn’t care.

The party moved to Matt’s house, where we all got so high. You, in particular, dropped out.

I had had enough, I was taking you home. It was 8:30 AM. the party was over.

Unable to walk, I hoisted you over my shoulder and carried you out to the Uber, you throwing up on the way.

You put your head on my lap and held my hand.

“Thank you for treating me like a Princess.” you slurred.

“When will you realize that I’m your White Knight? When I told you I loved you, I meant I would love you unconditionally. Despite the shit-storm you put me through, I will always protect you.”

I carried you up the stairs, put you in bed and took off your clothes. I crawled in next to you and wrapped my arms around you. For once, you didn’t push me off. You held me, wedging yourself into my nook. I always loved how perfectly you fit in there.

Then the high wore off, and you pushed me away again.

My phone went off.

“How as last night?” Nathan texted.

“Um.”

“Want to get lunch and talk about it?”

“I’ll be there in 20.”

Nathan and I went some local diner he loves, where I poured my heart out. About our entire relationship from start to finish and all the troubles along the way.

He had a lot of insight, including the fact that we never really had a chance to start normally. we were long distance from the start which puts a lot of pressure from the beginning. Or the constant need for attention and validation. But his most poignant question left me speechless:

“Do you think he can’t see you sexually, in addition to emotional commitment, is because you’re Asian?”

I wanted to say no. But, you did grow up in Stockholm, the only Chinese kid in a sea of white blonde masses. You only moved to London a year ago. You lived your life among all whites. I didn’t know.

I left and went home, and saw you and some of your friends. We hung out for a bit until they left and you and I were on the couch watching movies. I moved my arm around you and you whined.

“What the fuck Jimmy?”

“What are you doing? Don’t cuddle me. There are friends I just don’t touch! I don’t touch Olaf!”

We got into it. We hashed out everything, I was leaving tomorrow and didn’t want to do it then. We talked about your change of heart, why it happened, what happened. I told you why I believed why you were the one, and why we should try again after you’ve unpacked some of your emotional baggage. And most importantly when we live in the same city.

But then I asked the question that had been on my mind all day.

“Is it cause I’m Asian?” I asked.

“I don’t know.” you said.

I don’t know who I felt. It was a fair response. It was an honest response. But it was also an answered filled with self loathing and lack of self worth - which made everything so clear. Your behavior towards me, the video I found, your weird comments about my ex’s being so attractive that you felt flattered you were in their league.

“You need to fucking unpack that shit.” I demanded.

“Don’t try and cuddle me tonight.” you said.

“I’ll try not to.”

The morning came, and my flight was in the afternoon.

I put my arms around you and slid my hand into the waistband of your briefs. I stroked you until you got hard and removed your underwear, and proceeded to work my mouth down to your ass.

“Are you saying goodbye to my butt?” you asked

“I’m going to miss it.”

I slid two fingers in until you told me to stop and turned over. I asked to blow you and you rejected my offer.

So we just lied there - naked in each others arms.

“Don’t ever fucking tell me like I’m Olaf ever again, cause you and Olaf would never get as far as you and I just did. Also, you’re able to get hard - so what the fuck Jimmy?”

“I haven’t cum in 4 days and I’m always horny in the morning.” You replied.

‘Why are you fighting so damn hard against me? Why are you pushing me away?”

It got quiet.

“I believe you when you say you love me. Your love is so selfless.” you muttered.

“I won’t stop loving you. But I know you need to figure out how you love. So fall in love, and figure that out. And when you’re ready to be loved by me, I’ll be back for you. I’ll give you everything I promised - the fancy measuring cups, the guesthouse for your mom to live with us, and our two kids making fun of our outfits.”

You began to cry. I could see your pillow damp with tears.

“Don’t cry.”

“I’m just thinking about how much love I could give to a child.”

“One day we’ll know together.” I kissed you and we got up. I was running late for brunch.

By the time I came back I had packed up and was ready to leave. You gave me a hug goodbye.

“This isn’t goodbye” I said. “I’ll see you again. I know I will. Unpack some baggage and I’ll be back for you.”

You nodded and kissed me.

“Be good to your mom, she loves you.” you said.

"I will, because one day she’ll be yours too.” I replied.

You pulled me in tightly. I begged for one last kiss - you were reluctant but gave in.

I came back to New York. My feelings were all over the place. I was broken, but I realized it was not me. You’re so complicated. You’ve got tons of baggage. I know we just scratched the surface, but this is a journey you have to take yourself. I can only hope you grow out of this, or you learn to love yourself. I know your parents are difficult. I know your trauma.

If we accept the love we think we deserve, I hope you know that you deserve love. And if I should be so lucky, to provide that for you one day.

1 note · View note

concussed-to-pieces · 7 years

Text

Deadline

Fandom: WWE

Pairing: Irwin R. Schyster/Unnamed OFC

Rating: Holy shit M.

AN: Thirst Party Saturday ahoy! In honor of April fifteenth (the usual filing deadline for U.S. federal income tax returns), I give you an incredibly indulgent installment. Because I am a terrible person and I make no excuses for myself. Tagging the usual suspects @tox-moxley, @oraclegazes and of course the incredibly courageous @hardcorewwetrash (who will probably keelhaul me for this installment...I may in fact deserve it but after all this Wattpad malarkey I figured some levity would not be amiss).

Enjoy!

Irwin R. Schyster was a simple, orderly man. He liked his receipts signed, his socks matched, and his tie tied just right. He came to work every day, ready to get down to business. Tax fraud and evasion was at an all time high and he was more than happy to lay the smackdown on the miscreants who tried to falsify important documents or claim more than two percent of their gross income as deductible.

It wasn’t often that clients came knocking on his door this late, though.

It was timid, almost didn’t catch his attention. He glanced at the clock. After nine already? Probably the janitor. “Sorry Gene, I’ll head out.” he called, starting to shuffle the papers on his desk back into their folders.

“Excuse me, uh, Mr. Schyster?”

That was not Clean Gene’s voice. Irwin looked up, startled. Standing in front of his desk was a young woman in a denim jacket. Attractive enough, but it was very late. “Miss, my consulting hours were up at four.” He said bluntly, unable to keep the irritation out of his voice. “You’re going to have to come back in the morning.”

“I’m sorry. I saw the light on and figured I’d give it a shot. I promise I’ll be quick.” She seemed nervous, wringing her hands. “I just needed help and a few of my friends recommended you specifically.”

Irwin felt a rush of pride at that, pushing his glasses up his nose. “You have five minutes. I’m listening.” He propped his hip up against the side of his desk, crossing his arms over his burly chest. This was highly unorthodox but he was intrigued to say the least. Never mind the fact that his own methods were incredibly unorthodox in and of themselves. Effective, but unorthodox.

“I have…numbers don’t cooperate with me.” She began. “I’m afraid that between this year and last year my finances have gotten a little tangled, so I need a professional’s help.”

“What do you mean ‘numbers don’t cooperate’?” Irwin asked, thoroughly confused. “Numbers don’t change. They’re the only constant on this planet.” He tapped the toe of his shoe on the ground, a little annoyed with this woman. She was starting to sound like one of those cheats when they tried to weasel their way out of an audit.

She winced. “Numbers have always been a difficult area for me. You should see me trying to figure out change. It’s a mess.”

“So you need a tax preparation? A consultation?”

“Yes, as soon as possible. I know you must be very busy with your current clients. I promise I’m not trying to cut the line. I also know this isn’t exactly a service you advertise specifically, so I wasn’t sure if you were even able to help. I didn’t see a number to call though…” She trailed off.

Irwin blinked. I never actually put my number or specifications up, did I? Just my general ‘financial services’ sign. “Well Miss, I’m in by eight and I close up shop at four. I break for lunch at noon. Exactly noon.” There was nothing worse than having his routine interrupted. “If you arrive during the half hour between twelve and twelve-thirty, there are seats in the hallway. I have an open schedule tomorrow, so whenever you have the time you’re free to stop in.”

“Really? That’s wonderful! Thank you!” she said excitedly, bouncing in place and then hugging him tightly like she was a child.

Irwin stiffened in surprise and pushed his glasses back up on his nose after she released him, clearing his throat awkwardly.

…

At twelve o' clock on the dot the next day, Irwin flipped the sign to his office around to the 'out to lunch!' side and locked the door behind him. He strolled off down the hallway and out of the building, whistling a tune. The sun was shining brightly; it was another beautiful day in early spring and Irwin felt remarkably good about the work he’d gotten done so far.

He settled down on his usual bench in the park, unwrapped his usual peanut butter sandwich (no jelly, it always dripped onto his shirt so he chose to forgo it), and took a bite.

A body landed solidly beside him on his bench and he almost jumped out of his skin. No one ever sat next to him. That was how he liked it. Irwin sighed, shoving his glasses back up on his nose and taking another bite out of his sandwich.

Abruptly a hot cup of coffee was waved in his face. “Figured I’d come pester you on your lunch break, seeing as how you’ll be helping me out.”

Oh. “Miss, this is technically harassment.” Irwin said sternly, trying to ignore how delicious the coffee smelled. He was failing. Coffee was one of his few vices, but he usually only indulged in a single cup every morning. Being overly caffeinated led to shaky hands, and in his line of work that meant mistakes.

Her laugh almost got him to smile. Clearly she was dangerous. “Yeah yeah, isn’t that supposed to be my line? I brought my lunch too. There’s no law saying I can’t sit next to you on a park bench and offer you one of my two suspicious coffees.”

“You don’t even know me, Miss. What if I don’t drink coffee?”

“I saw the way you ogled the cup. Nice try, Mr. Schyster.” She tugged on his hand and put the second coffee in it gently. “Here. You’re doing the world a service by keeping me from drinking two cups in a row.”

Irwin momentarily debated dropping the coffee and running for his life. This was quickly turning into a social situation, and he knew full well that he was outmatched. “Thank you.” He finally replied.

“He’s got manners! Your mom must be so proud.” She teased, tucking in to her own sandwich. It looked like a somewhat revolting mixture of cheap white bread, marshmallow Fluff and...were those cornflakes? Schyster only barely managed to contain his gag, hurrying to finish his sandwich before his stomach lost its nerve.

“How long have you been doing this, Mr. Schyster? What got you into it?” She asked after slogging through a few bites of her thick, sticky mess of a sandwich. “The tax stuff, not eating your lunch alone.”

“I…” Irwin paused, his brow furrowing. He had found himself opening his mouth to answer without a second thought, which was rather startling. He had never been much for conversation. “My father would sit at the kitchen table late into the night, doing all the taxes out. He was abysmal at them but having someone else do it was too expensive for him to justify.”

She nodded. “Understandable. You guys probably got audited a lot, huh?”

Irwin shook his head. “Only two or three times. But it was legitimately terrifying for my parents when it did happen. I decided…I mean when I was relatively young, I realized that this wasn’t a good solution. I’ve always been a number-minded individual, so I went to the library and got out everything that I could on the I.R.S., on tax systems and financing...how it all works. I was a child. I wanted to know everything. I dedicated time after school, studied through the summers. It really is a fascinating subject, so many things constantly in flux while others never change. I went to college for it and I guess the rest, as they say, is history.”

“So you were the family hero, huh?”

Irwin frowned. He’d never really thought of it that way. It made sense though. “I prefer the term ‘savior’. Paints me in a better light.” He replied dryly.

She almost spat out her coffee, giving him a sideways glare. “Was that a joke?” She coughed. “Warn me, I could have died!”

Irwin couldn’t help his smile then, successfully camouflaging it by taking another sip of coffee.

“What would you have done, if you didn’t succeed at being the family savior?” She asked when a minute or two of quiet had passed.

“I’m not sure.” Schyster mused, crossing his arms over his chest. “Maybe take up sailing. The idea has always appealed to me. I think I’d like to be the captain of a schooner.”

“The captain, huh?”

“Naturally! I would be the most knowledgeable. Obviously the captain.” Irwin glanced at his watch and got to his feet, dusting the crumbs from his sandwich off of his trousers. “Lunch time is over. Shall we get started, Miss?”

She quickly crammed the remainder of her sandwich into her mouth and practically jumped up off the bench. “Fin’ly!” She mumbled, grinning.

…

He had originally thought that perhaps she was just lazy when it came to numbers and that this would be a quick fix. Not that it mattered, that was how he made a living, after all. But her taxes from last year had been improperly filed. To the point where Irwin would suspect it had been deliberate. There were the marks of a professional all over her forms but they had been botched so royally it was incredible.

There was an ex-husband involved, maybe just an ex-fiancé or ex-boyfriend, one that made her an absolute mess when she realized that his name was still on some of the paperwork. They didn’t share a last name, but apparently they had shared a life. Irwin had never heard somebody apologize so many times in his life, continuing to silently fill out his forms while she interacted with this…cretin over the phone.

“I...I understand. I’m sorry I bothered you.” She sounded close to tears. Irwin glanced up, instantly made uncomfortable by her facial expression. She placed the phone gently down on the receiver and then dropped her head into her hands. “Mr. Schyster, I’m so sorry, he won’t-“

“Then we make a new account at a different bank under your name.” Irwin said curtly. “Standard procedure.” Which wasn’t technically true. In his experience though, if people thought it was anything but the standard they tended to ask for more. And nothing irritated Irwin quite like blatantly greedy people.

She looked up at him with her face all tear-streaked and Irwin was struck by how young she seemed. “You can do that?” She asked.

“What kind of question is that?” Irwin pushed his glasses up on his nose.

It was entering his busy season and the clients started piling up, but Irwin always found himself making time for her. One day he even took his lunch ten minutes late, which was unheard of for him. She’d promised she would be there with coffee so he waited though, and sure enough she showed up. Schyster wondered in the back of his mind when she would stop this…whatever the hell it was. Were they friends?

Not that it mattered, he was a grown man after all.

…Acquaintances maybe. Associates.

The day finally came to put the finishing touches on her forms. Irwin knew he should be relieved, it meant he could bid her farewell and not have to worry about her damn screwed-up, numbers crossed-through and crossed-through again, ‘initial here here and here’ paperwork. At least until next April. But all he felt was melancholy, straightening his suspenders with a quiet snap and rising from his desk to stare out the window to the street. It was raining. Irwin wasn’t a man prone to poetry or moping, so the effect the dreary weather was having on him was immensely worrisome.

It’s not the weather and you know it, Schyster.

Irwin shook his head, busying himself with watching the morning traffic go by. He couldn’t really afford this little break. He had so much catching up to do but his body seemed unwilling to move, keeping him rooted by the window.

He was just returning to his desk as she erupted through the door, making him almost miss his chair when he went to sit. “Raining cats and dogs out there, Mr. Schyster!” Her grasp of the obvious was absolutely impeccable.

Irwin did his best to look severe, peering over his glasses at her. He had been told many times that he had a glare that would stop misbehaving children in their tracks, perhaps it would work on a confusing (yet damnable attractive) woman as well.

“Geez, what’s with the look? Is it because I’m dripping on your rug? Are you okay? You sick?” She sloughed off her sopping jacket and then leaned over his desk to press a hand to his forehead. Irwin flinched away, making her pause. “…Mr. Schyster?” Her voice had gone soft. She looked worried, of all things.

Irwin cleared his throat. “Just tired. It’s been busy lately.” He started shuffling the papers on his desk aimlessly, trying to look occupied so he wouldn’t have to maintain eye contact. “We need to get your papers signed. Hopefully if you return next year this won’t be such a damnable fiasco.”

“Oh I’m definitely coming back if you'll have me. You’re an absolute genius when it comes to this. You even explain stuff sometimes and I can understand it. You’ve totally earned that ‘savior’ moniker.”

Her praise made him flush. Irwin tugged nervously at one of his suspenders, feeling a little overwhelmed. Usually he got a handshake, a promise to come back the next year. This was…unexpected. “Miss, we need…I have a lot of other clients and you’ve taken up an exorbitant amount of my time as is. So please.” His pen clicked loudly in the silence of his pause. “Sign your papers so you can be free of this.”

So we can be free of this.

She took an eternity to sign everything, reading and rereading and asking questions. But then again, not double checking her papers last time had gotten her into this mess to begin with, so Irwin could understand her care.

“What are you going to do now?” Irwin didn’t know why he asked. It was pointless, a few more minutes and she would be gone.

She looked up, pausing to smile brightly at him. “Get my own apartment, of course! Get an apartment, get a better job…having someone hold financial sway over you is an absolutely terrifying experience. I want to be secure so that it never happens again, Mr. Schyster.”

“Why did you…” Irwin trailed off, flushing again. It was hardly his business, what did he care? Just finish signing the papers, woman!

“Because I thought he was someone else.” Her smile had gone wistful. “I believed what he said. I let myself get caught up and…well, full of silly ideas and then before I knew it I was stuck in a nightmare.”

Schyster snorted, pushing his glasses back up on his nose. “You sound like an adolescent.” Christ, he hadn’t meant to vocalize himself in such a cruel way. But...the idea of getting all tangled in emotions, to the point where you would believe anything the other person said? It just seemed so childish.

“I was, actually. Only fifteen.”

Irwin wasn’t sure what hyperventilating felt like, but it had to be close to this. Her birth-date was all over her papers, hers and that man’s. There was a twenty-two year difference between them. He hadn’t really ruminated on it but now it made sense. She had been too young to know better, probably surviving on pretty words and promises of affection alone. Maybe her home life was troubled, maybe she’d had nowhere else to go and had clung to an older man who made her feel special or safe and then…

“Christ.” He muttered. He felt nauseous.

“Oh God, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make you upset, Mr. Schyster. That’s just…” She shrugged. “I mean, that’s how it was. I have to figure out how to live on my own now. I was allowed to have a job, of course, but it's not one that will support me. Just give me a little spending money or something. I’ve applied at a couple of places, although without a home address it’s been-”

“You don’t have a place to live?!”

“I do! I definitely do. I…I stay at the women’s shelter.” She sounded defiant, almost like she was daring him to judge her. Schyster had more pressing matters to worry about, though.

“Christ.” Irwin put his head in his hands. “Where the hell are they supposed to mail this? You don’t even have a P.O. box, do you?”

“...I hadn't thought of that.” She admitted weakly after a moment or two of silence. “I guess it'll go to him, won't it? To my old address. God, God I'm so stupid.”

Schyster could tell before he even moved for the first drawer that this was a terrible idea. Rifling through it, he selected a different pen with great care. The second drawer was the one that held all his forms. Hopefully this would go much quicker when he was just copying down the information instead of deciphering it from the previous year's forms.

“What are you doing?” She asked warily, getting to her feet and leaning over his desk so she could see the papers better. “Oh no, you're-”

“I have to do this all over again. Correction fluid isn't allowed on documents like these.” Irwin was proud of himself for keeping his voice steady when what he really wanted to do was lose his goddamn mind for a few minutes. Then, have a cup of coffee and get on with it.

Christ. All that time, wasted. She at least looked properly chastised. Well...she looked like she was going to burst into tears, really. “Don't cry.” He said sternly when he heard a threatening sniffle.

“S-Sorry.”

“You don't need to apologize, but you don't need to cry either. It'll be alright.” When the hell had he turned into someone who gave reassurances? Irwin was appalled at himself. “Crying solves nothing.”

“You've just been so patient with me for this and I don't...I can't even help with any of it.” She mumbled, wiping at her eyes with the sleeve of her threadbare denim jacket. “If I hadn’t been so stupid--”

“Now you know better, though.” Irwin pointed out. “’Fool me once, shame on you’ and all that. God willing, for both of our sakes, something like this never happens again.”

“Yeah.” Her voice was forlorn as she curled up in the chair. Having her knees up with her arms wrapped around them appeared to be her favorite position, regardless of how uncomfortable it seemed. If it had been anyone else Irwin would have been furious about having those mud-caked sneakers on the seat, but for some reason when it came to her he couldn’t bring himself to say anything.

The slow drip, drip, drip of her jacket on the edge of hardwood floor beside his door practically echoed in the silence. Schyster was more than thankful that this was essentially brainless work, otherwise that might have been incredibly distracting. He had a ‘flip’ clock for a reason; he couldn’t stand the monotonous ticking of an analog clock in the relative stillness of his office.

He could have told her to come back later, once he was finished with everything. Where the hell is she supposed to go, Schyster? It’s pouring out. You love your solitude that much, that you’d send this poor woman off into the rain for an hour or two? Schyster winced inwardly, a little ashamed of himself.

She had fallen asleep by the time he was done, her cheek resting on her knees while she dozed. Something, Irwin wasn’t sure what, tugged at his chest, and he found himself stapling her papers together and carefully putting them off to the side before opening up his next file. Her being here wasn’t hurting his progress at all, what was the harm in letting her sleep a little longer?

She woke herself up almost four hours later when one of her feet slipped off the chair. The disgruntled look on her face almost made Irwin laugh.

Almost.

She signed the amended forms without studying them at all this time. Irwin wanted to scold her for it, but she was obviously saddled with more pressing matters. Plus, if he was being honest, it was a bit of an ego boost to know that she trusted him to the point where she didn’t think she needed to look everything over. “I need to--“ She yawned widely, stretching her arms after she dropped the pen. “'Scuse me, sorry. Need to get back to check in for the night.”

“You…do you want me to call you a cab? Is it a far walk?” The half-incredulous, half-grateful look she gave him almost made up for the extra paperwork he’d dealt with. Irwin cleared his throat, looking back down at his desk. “A-After all, it’s still raining you know.”

“I should be okay. It's not too far.” She started putting on her coat, yawning again.

Irwin still felt like he ought to do something, logic and common decency practically demanded it. He stood from his desk and walked over to open the door for her. “Use this.” His umbrella hardly saw the light of day, usually just sitting forgotten behind the door to his office. “It's pouring out, and you catching cold isn't going to help you find a better job. No potential employer will look at you twice when you have to use a Kleenex every minute.” His smile was brief but warm as he pressed the curved handle of the umbrella into her palm; hopefully it was enough to soften the blow of his less-than-charitable words.

She stared up at him for a minute, full-blown stared, her mouth slightly agape. Irwin didn't know why he finally reached out but he did, gently closing her mouth with his index finger on the underside of her chin.

“You…I-I’ve never seen you smile before. It’s…you have a nice smile.” She stammered.

Everything seemed to grind to a halt as Irwin processed this information. A nice smile wasn’t exactly something you could take to the bank, and yet it was apparently important enough that she felt the need to mention it. As if it was a good quality, or one worth commenting on at least.

He raised an eyebrow and she flushed bright red, then headed off down the hallway without another word.

Clean Gene was thoroughly unamused by the puddle of water that seeped out from beneath Irwin’s door into the hallway.

...

Irwin scolded himself for days, weeks afterwards. What the hell had he been thinking? Touching a client, and in such an inappropriate manner! The audacity of his actions knew no bounds. He’d probably terrified her. He didn’t know why that concerned him so much but it did, it did.

Hasn’t she been through enough, Schyster?

Irwin knew he was…odd was probably a kind word. Obsessed with his work, paranoid about money to a fault. Growing up with so little had forced him into a vicious cycle of prioritizing needs almost exclusively, while wants were left in the dust. Any and all luxuries were agonized over, budgeted for. Hell, he’d waited for almost six months to buy a new pair of suspenders because he knew there would be a spring sale and he just…the old ones still worked alright, the teeth were a little worn and the elastic was starting to sag but they worked.

He was odd. Private and severe, dressed in a manner that fit more in the ‘Big Band’ forties than it did the early nineties, egghead to a fault, he knew he was odd. But it had never bothered him before.

She liked my smile.

Why the hell was that a sticking point? Never mind that no adult had ever commented on any part of his physical appearance, just on his incredible mind for numbers and his dedication. Never mind that her words had made him feel warm inside in a way that Mr. DiBiase had never managed with his long-winded motivational speeches.

Never mind that the way she had looked up at him, mouth slightly open and eyes wide, had made him want to…hell, it made him want to kiss her. Which was ludicrous, she was a client and no compliments or kind words on her part would change that.

When her refund check arrived in his mailbox, he brought it to his office and sat, staring at the phone for over an hour while clenching and unclenching his fists at random. He loathed talking on the phone with a passion.

Suspender up on one shoulder, down on the other, switch sides indefinitely. If he kept fidgeting maybe he would run out of time in the day to make the call.

I stay at the women’s shelter.

Irwin grimaced. It wasn’t exactly fair of him to withhold her only method of attaining security just because phones made him nervous. The number of her workplace was scribbled in the margins of his notes, he could at least leave a message.

Of course, someone picked up.

“Diesel's Pizza, what can I get for ya?”

Without intending to Irwin rolled right into the usual spiel he left on his clients’ answering machines. “Hello, my name is Irwin Schyster. I’m calling because-”

“Wait, didja’ say Schyster? Hang on a sec.” There was a loud scuffing noise, like the man had covered the receiver with his palm. His words still came through though. “'Ey yo! Kid! It’s for you!”

“What do you mean ‘it’s for me’? I don’t get-”

“I mean, it’s for you. It’s that guy, the one you ain’t shut up about.”

“Ramon! Give me--he can probably hear you!” She sounded panicked.

Irwin pushed his glasses up on his nose. ‘The one you ain’t shut up about.’ Him? She was talking about him? At her workplace? But why?

“H-Hi, Mr. Schyster. Is something wrong again?” Irwin distinctly heard some strange smacking noises in the background. “Knock it off, Razor!”

“Not at all, I just have your check here. When can you pick it up?” Irwin tugged at one of his suspenders. “Would it be easier for me to bring it to you directly?”

“Oh no, I don’t want to bug you with that! I’m sure you’re busy, I can come over on my lunch--”

“She’s just leavin' now, aren't you sweetie?” Another deep voice butted in, softer than that Ramon character.

“B-but Kevin, I’m-”

“-Just leavin' now, yeah, I know. Get a move on!” The phone clicked and Irwin was left with the dial tone beeping in his ear.

She seemed exhausted when she made an appearance. Irwin noticed that she still had a dishrag sticking out of the back pocket of her jeans. “I…oh my God, thank you.” She looked at him like he was the best thing she’d ever seen. It made him feel immensely uncomfortable but also a little...a little good. “You won’t get in trouble for having them mail it to your apartment, will you?” She asked tentatively, making no move to take the check from his desk.

Irwin shook his head, clearing his throat and rustling some papers around. “No, I believe the check going into your account will be proof enough that I’m no cheat.”

“I…this is so much money.” She sounded lost, the tip of one Band-Aid-wrapped finger smoothing over the check. Like she was afraid to touch it.

“Do you have a budget planned out? Investing ideas are a little bold at this stage, but have you thought about them, about the future at all?” Irwin frowned when she shook her head. “You may want to look into your options. I know…” He hesitated, not wanting to sound inadvertently cruel again. “I know that seems like a lot of money, but before you know it, it’ll be gone again and you’ll be left with nothing but an empty stomach and an apartment you can no longer afford.”

“You’re right, of course.” She said softly after a minute, sitting heavily in the seat across from him. “I’ve got no real plans, I haven't had hardly a free minute to think. Kinda’ been winging it. It’s worked out alright so far, Kevin's given me a lot more hours and stuff. I haven't learned how to throw a pizza right yet though.”

Irwin could feel a headache coming on. He leaned forward, lacing his fingers together on the surface of his desk as he fixed her with a stern look. She briefly held his gaze, before ducking her head and starting to pick at the already-frayed hole in the knee of her jeans. He wasn't expecting the quiet, “I'm sorry,” nor was he expecting the feeling he got in his chest at the words. “It's alright. Being on your own teaches you a variety of fast, hard lessons. You've made it this far.” He cleared his throat. “When is your shift over? I'll see if I can make a rough budget draft up for you to pick up on your way home.”

“You...really? You'd do that for me?”

“It will be very rough.” Irwin warned her, trying to stall whatever outburst of gratitude would come next. “Bare bones, I'm busy today and I-”

She got up from her chair and essentially threw herself across his desk to hug him fiercely. She nearly broke his glasses when her shoulder bumped his nose. “You're the best.” She said, her voice sounding a little quavery. “I know you don't want anyone else to know that, but you really are. I should be out around te-”

The customary knock on Irwin's door was the only warning they got before Mr. DiBiase was opening it and stepping in. “Whoa! Am I interrupting something?” The self-proclaimed 'Million-Dollar-Man' held up his hands, chuckling incredulously. “Schyster you sly dog, didn't think you had it in you!”

“I believe it's time for you to leave, Miss.” Irwin couldn't tell whether he was embarrassed or infuriated, but either way, enough was enough. She went absolutely scarlet, obviously just as flustered as he was and stammering out an apology before making her retreat.

Ted swatted Irwin on the shoulder after she was gone, propping his hip up on the desk. “Whoops, looks like she left something--”

Schyster quickly snatched the check away from Ted's questing fingers, whipped open a drawer at random and dropped the check into it. “Can I assist you in any way, Mr. DiBiase?” He asked through gritted teeth.

“Aw come on Irwin, don't be like that! You know all you'd have to do is mention that you had uh...company, and I'd leave you alone.”

“Charming policy.” Irwin replied dryly. “You tell all of your employees that rendezvous in their offices are allowed with proper notification, Mr. DiBiase?”

Ted laughed again, a good roaring one this time. “You're a card, Schyster! Nope, I'd only make that kind of exception for you. No offense, but you seem like you could use it!”

“I'm honored sir, truly, but I don't fraternize with clients on the clock.” Irwin straightened his glasses. He didn't know why he bothered with Mr. DiBiase, sarcasm always seemed to fly over his head. “She's just...odd in the way that she expresses her thanks. Juvenile.”

“I think I could live with a little more oddness in my life, if that's the case!” Ted grinned, giving Irwin a wink. Irwin sighed heavily and DiBiase relented, starting to rattle on about how he was trying to buy more property upstate, “They keep saying they won't sell, but everybody's got a price, Schyster!”

…

Irwin ended up working long past four. Ted had a way of demanding all his attention, regardless of whether he could afford to spare it or not. So here he sat at quarter to ten, several sheets of graph paper spread out around him as he made the finishing touches on the budget that might never see the light of day. Factoring in food and miscellaneous expenses was always the hardest part for him when it came to his own budget, he could only imagine how much worse it may be for her.

His irritation had cooled a little. More than a little, if he was being honest. He was too tired to be annoyed with her behavior, childish and compromising though it had been.

Irwin tucked everything into a file that said 'Budget' on the tab in small, red letters and put her check in the pocket of his shirt for safekeeping, then pulled on his long overcoat and turned off the desk lamp. I have to be back here in less than twelve hours. Ridiculous.

Diesel's Pizza was relatively close by, a short walk up the street and into the plaza it resided in. Schyster felt like his legs were betraying him, as he was there long before he was ready. The neon Open sign flickered in the front window of the establishment, a few patrons still lingering inside with their preferred slices.

He was startled by the ringing of the bell attached to the door as he pushed it open, wincing at the noise and the way it instantly drew attention to him. But he wasn't nearly as awkward in person as he was on the phone, only just resisting the urge to glare over his glasses at the large man in the violently pink shirt behind the counter.

“Christ, you're a cheery-lookin' guy ain't ya'? 'Ey chica, he's here!” Irwin recognized Ramon's voice from the phone call earlier. But how on earth could the man know who he was?

“Who's...oh.” She looked like she wanted to vanish through the linoleum flooring, twisting the dishrag between her hands as she stood on the threshold of what Irwin could only assume was the kitchen.

“Everything okay? You need me to toss him out?” Another man even taller than Ramon stepped out from the kitchen, resting a hand on her shoulder. He narrowed his eyes at Irwin, who stopped resisting the urge to glare.

“No no, it's okay Kevin. I um...I had something to take care of still.” She said, trying to wiggle out from beneath Kevin's hand. “Tax stuff, y'know.”

“Oh, more of that fuckin' Greek.” Ramon groaned, “Let her talk with the poindexter, Nash. Keep all that mumbo-jumbo outta' your 'stablishment.”

“If you need us...” Nash trailed off, his lip curling.

“I assure you gentlemen that there is nothing shady going on with our interactions.” Irwin went full stiff-business, figuring a little formality couldn't hurt in this place. Judging from the two men behind the counter, it wasn't exactly their bread and butter. “I am merely here because she forgot her paperwork earlier. I also included a few beginner investment ideas, something I'm sure neither of you are interested in.”

“Whoa there chico, hold up, you callin' us dumb or somethin'? Nash, I think-”

“Razor, please.” Kevin interrupted the other man, tilting his head to the side as he studied Irwin. “You aren't here to fuck with the kid?”

“Hardly.” Irwin wasn't sure what the hell possessed him to raise an eyebrow. “She's my client.”

“Alright then. Go ahead, sweetie.” Kevin gave her a gentle push forwards, making her stumble. “Talk to your nerd man.”

“Kevin!” She hissed, obviously mortified.

Nerd man? Really? Maybe it's the suspenders. Irwin opened the file up on the counter, helping himself to the space there. If they wanted to alpha-male posture by all means he would posture. “So here's the rough budget draft, it doesn't factor in all the details but I left portions blank for you to fill in on your own.” He tapped a finger down on one such blank area. “I tried to do as much with as little as possible. I'm not sure what you're doing in terms of a living situation, electricity may be more than I factored but it's also a necessity so you'll have to adjust. I...” Irwin slowed to a stop as he realized that he'd garnered an audience. She looked overwhelmed, biting her lip while she just...stared at him again. Razor and Nash hung over her shoulders, Razor chewing on a toothpick avidly.

“You catch any of that, big guy?” He asked after a second or two, shooting Nash an incredulous look.

Surprisingly, the other man nodded. “It's good, Ramon. He's takin' care of her. C'mon, we've got the uh. Oven. Need to clean the...the brisket. Chef stuff, he wouldn't understand.” Kevin winked at Irwin, catching one of Ramon's lapels and hauling him back into the kitchen.

Irwin sighed. “Look, if this isn't making sense or if it's too much right now I can give you this and be--”

“No no, it is! I'm just...I'm...you didn't get in trouble earlier, did you? That guy was your boss, right?” She asked timidly. “Would it be a good idea for me to maybe come in and try to explain myself, or will that just make things worse?”

“Mr. DiBiase has been my employer for a few years now. I detailed the situation to the fullest extent of my abilities, and I believe he understands.” Irwin ‘harrumph’ed. “You coming in after the fact would probably be more detrimental than anything else, considering the fact that DiBiase was incredibly willing to encourage illicit behavior in my office.”

“He…what?” She sputtered.

“Well, perhaps I worded that poorly. He seems to believe that I need to ‘relax’, to put it in layman’s terms. Regardless of the method.” Irwin was startled when a hysterical little giggle exploded out of her. “Miss?”

“Well shit, anybody could see that you need to relax Mr. Schyster!” She snickered. “Just by the way you freeze up when I hug you, never mind anything else.”

Irwin tugged at the collar of his shirt self-consciously. “I had no idea there were so many people concerned about my...well-being.” He remarked dryly after a minute, making her snort.

“Once I’m settled in and stable, you can bet your ass that I’m buying you dinner.”

“Miss, that’s technically--“

“Yeah yeah, bribery, harassment, whatever Mr. Schyster. I already know I’m a bad person, I just want to say thank you. And give you the opportunity to loosen up a little.” She lightly punched his shoulder. “So it’s a date. I’ll keep you posted. You can’t refuse. It’s bad manners.”

“I--”

“She’s stubborn man, give up!” Kevin called from the kitchen.

“…We will be splitting the bill. I’m not allowing you to pay for everything. That’s rude.” Schyster said finally, trying to sound more annoyed than he was. He definitely wasn’t pleased by the way she smiled at him.

Definitely. Wasn’t.

…

He hadn’t meant to forget. He’d actually been looking forward to their little outing, planned for a Friday evening at a hole-in-the-wall style Italian place. But one thing led to another. DiBiase had finally gotten what he wanted when it came to the land he’d been trying to purchase and Irwin was kept so busy drafting the papers for the agreement that he lost track of time.

The thunderous knock on his door made him jump, and his brow furrowed when he looked at the clock. That couldn’t be the time, four fifty-six? It was dark out!

“Irwin I know you’re in there, I saw your light from the street!” She sounded furious.

“It’s not locked! What time is it?” He asked when she had opened the door. Judging from the expression on her face, it was…late.

“What is all this?” She gestured at the uncharacteristically cluttered surface of his desk with quick, jerky motions.

“A personal project from Mr. DiBiase. You didn’t answer my question.”

“It’s…well we were supposed to meet at seven, Mr. Schyster.” She had her hands on her hips and she looked about ready to tear him a new one. She’d dressed rather nice, much nicer than usual. A black skirt which bordered on being too short, but her nylons kept it decent. A button-down shirt, top two buttons undone. Just enough. She had obviously put some thought into this. She huffed out a breath and tilted her head up to stare at the ceiling.

Irwin was awestruck and a little terrified, taking a second to collect himself before stating, “That would imply that it is later than seven.”

“Irwin, you...I mean, if you didn't want to go out with me all you had to do was say so. I looked so dumb, sitting there all alone. And I felt dumb, too!” She covered her face with her hands. “The waiter kept on coming over and asking me what I wanted and it was one of the most embarrassing moments of my life!” Her anger seemed to have gone more the teary route. He knew he would have to work quickly to nip that in the bud, she would only feel worse if she started crying. Christ, did he feel like an asshole!

“It was not my intent to stand you up.” Irwin said firmly, getting to his feet and turning the clock on his desk around so that it faced her. “I've actually been looking forward to this all week, if I'm going to be honest. You look absolutely lovely.” She snorted, probably in disbelief. Irwin carried on. “Mr. DiBiase is finalizing a sale and paperwork tends to occupy most of my attention in this field. Also it seems that my clock is broken. Not an excuse, mind you, an explanation. I...I offer my most sincere apologies, and I ask for another chance.”

Footsteps approaching in the hallway interrupted what promised to be a great answer. The expression on her face changed rapidly from irritated to worried. “Oh shit, is that-?”

“If it’s late, he’s the only one in the building norma--what on earth are you...?” Irwin sputtered as she shoved him out of the way and ducked beneath his desk.

“Shh!” She hissed, pressing a finger to her lips. “I don’t want to get you in trouble!”

“You didn’t the last time! Will you-”

“Yeah, but I wasn’t dressed like this last time now was I, smartypants? Just shush!”

Before Irwin could respond the knock on his door came and then Ted poked his head in. “Schyster! I didn’t think you were still here. How’s it coming?”

“As well as can be expected, sir.” Irwin stood awkwardly beside his desk, barely daring to lean against it for fear that he might draw attention to the woman beneath it. Thank God the front of it was solid! Her ducking under there had escalated this whole situation, if only she’d stayed put! If she was found now--

Well, it wouldn’t look good, that’s for sure.

Ted planted himself in the chair in front of the desk, waving his hand. “Sit down, Schyster, I need to talk with you about a few things.”

Christ.

Irwin chanced a glance down at her and she offered an incredibly helpful shrug in reply. He gingerly sat in his chair and scooted it in as far as he dared. He couldn’t help his flinch when her hands gripped the underside of the cushion, urging him closer. What the hell was she doing?!

Irwin coughed, opening the top drawer on the left and flipping through his files until he came to the one labeled ‘DiBiase Land Venture’.

“Ah, that’s what I like to see Schyster!” DiBiase said approvingly, craning his neck to study the documents. “Impeccable, but then I’d expect nothing less from you.”

Irwin felt her cheek rest against his thigh and had to grapple with the armrests of his chair momentarily. Having her that close…he could feel the heat of her skin even through his pants. He swallowed hard. One of her fingers started tracing slow, torturous circles on the inside of his left thigh.

“You know Schyster, I’ve been thinking. Maybe, if you retooled the writing here, and here, we could get a few more acres out of these tight-fisted idiots.” Ted tapped the paper in two different spots, oblivious to the fact that Irwin was having a bear of a time trying to pay attention to him.

Her nose was abruptly nuzzling at his groin. Irwin sucked in a startled breath and Ted looked up at him for his input. “I uh…yes, absolutely sir. I can get it done.” Schyster fumbled, attempting to remember what the hell he’d even been rambling about.

“Good man!” Ted grinned and then returned his gaze to the papers in front of him.

Irwin risked dropping a hand underneath the desk. He wasn’t really sure why, maybe to push her back. Maybe to pull her in. He brushed against her hair and then, in a fit of desperation, he cupped her cheek blindly. She suckled his index finger into her mouth, teasing the pad of it with her tongue.

“Schyster, are you even listening to me?” Ted asked, raising an eyebrow. Irwin flushed, nodding, and it seemed to satisfy Mr. DiBiase as he started talking about having potential investors look over the documents. “Warrior and Steiner will probably lose their minds once they find out that I finally bagged this.” Ted said gleefully. “I told them time and time again, Schyster, everybody's got a price. They never listen!”

Irwin chewed on his lower lip as he felt the button and zipper of his slacks come apart. She was...strangely gentle, stroking his cock through the slit in his boxers. He was embarrassingly hard already, the nearness of her combined with the thrill of getting caught no doubt to blame. When she took him into her mouth though, was when things got a little...intense. He couldn't stifle the groan he let out, attempting to camouflage it into a yawn after Ted gave him another look.

“Sorry Schyster, I promise I'll let you go home. I just need to confirm the wording on the last portion...here! We need to change that to something a little less vague, don't you think? The last thing I want is them trying to weasel their way around a negotiation.” DiBiase pointed out, tapping the sheet beside him.

Irwin, in one last bid to pretend that he was paying attention, tried to lean forward over the desk . All he succeeded in doing, however, was thrusting his cock further into the warm, velvety embrace of her mouth. He fought for control, his hips shuddering as he wrestled not only with himself but also her, because she seemed more than content to swallow him down as far as he decided to go. “O-Of course, Mr. DiBiase.” He cursed inwardly, that hitch in his breath nearly did him in. She'd started worked the base of his shaft with her hand and it caught him off guard, having a mouth and hand moving in unison on his cock. Was this his punishment for getting caught up in his work? Because if so, he might lose track of time more often.

Finally, finally, Ted stood up, straightening his tie. “Well Schyster I think I've taken up enough of your night. You know what you're doing! I'll be in bright and early tomorrow morning to give everything another once-over, and hopefully we'll be done by lunch.” He held out his hand and Irwin almost bit a hole in his lip in an effort to keep silent while he shook his employer's hand. “Get some rest soon, Schyster. You deserve it!” Ted said warmly before closing the door behind him.

“Christ.” Irwin snarled once he was sure DiBiase was far enough down the hall that he wouldn't hear him, pushing his chair back just a fraction so he could see her, so he could card his fingers through her hair.

“Hi.” She seemed almost shy, which was absolutely moronic to think when her tongue had been on his cock mere seconds ago. “Sorry.”

“You are not, so don't lie. I can't stand liars.” Irwin replied shakily, making her giggle. “I'm the one who's sorry. I honestly didn't mean to abandon you to dinner alone. There's no need to torture me.”

“Mm, maybe I'll take a rain check.” She teased, thumb swiping back and forth directly beneath his cock head. “If you make it worth my while.”

“How can I convince you?” This game definitely had merit, if it was going in the direction Irwin thought.

She bit her lip, looking up at him through her lashes. “On your desk?”

Schyster swallowed hard. “My--”

“Yes.”

Irwin shoved his chair back even further and stood, then caught her around the waist. She practically melted against him as with one quick motion he pushed hours of his hard work off the desk and onto the floor. “Are you sure about this?” Irwin asked, tilting her chin up. “You're not obligated just because you've 'gotten me started', so to speak. I'll probably miss more things, you know. Anniversaries.” He warned. “I've...I've never had to worry about anyone else before. This isn't exactly something I do lightly.”

“I don't either.” She breathed, taking his glasses off for him and slipping them into the front pocket of his shirt. “Please.”

“We'll have a real date next time.” Irwin promised quietly, fingers slowly and carefully rolling her nylons down her thighs. She whimpered at his words, grabbing his shoulders when he crouched and lifted her up to lay on the desk. He quickly shrugged his suspenders off over his shoulders so he could pull down his slacks and boxers, hissing out a breath at the feeling of the cloth on his aching cock. “Christ, you're so beautiful.” Endearments were normally difficult for him, but when it was the truth it made it easier. “May I kiss you?”

“Irwin.” Her exasperation was oddly heartwarming. Her fingers dug into the skin on the back of his neck as she pulled him down to her mouth. “All the time. Whenever you want.” She murmured between kisses.

Irwin wasn't sure if it was appropriate to laugh in relief so he stifled it, focusing on tugging her panties down and dropping them on the floor with her shoes and nylons. “I look forward to it.”

“Good.” She reached down and gave his cock a few lazy strokes, her boldness probably the most attractive thing he had ever encountered in his life.

He couldn't help the way he surged forward hungrily, all but pinning her hips to the desk while she guided his cock into her cunt. She was wet, tight enough that he lost his breath for a second as he wondered at that, at the fact that she wanted him like this.

He knew for a fact that even without the oral warm-up he probably wasn't going to last very long. He debated warning her but then she arched up against him, moaning and raking her fingers down his back as her walls gripped his cock rhythmically. “Christ, Christ, I--” Irwin shook his head and hooked one smooth leg over his shoulder, pressing kisses to her thigh as he pushed her skirt up a little higher. His fingers sought out her clit with relatively minimal fumbling and she bit her lip, her eyes rolling back.

Her hands fluttered restlessly over his shoulders, her voice whimpering his name and please the sweetest thing he'd ever heard. Irwin was legitimately lost, just moving with her body and feeling everything, every breath she took and every sound she made singing across his nerves. This was juvenile, it was frenzied and it shouldn't have been this good but it was, it was and it was so confusing, so beautifully overwhelming that he hardly knew what to do with himself.

“Thank you.” He finally panted, his fingers working in small circles over her clit and making her squirm. “Thank you so much.”

“Yes-!” She gasped, her body shaking underneath him as she came. She grabbed the collar of his shirt and dragged him in for a kiss, using his mouth to muffle those wonderful moans she kept making. Hopefully in the near future he would be able to focus on coaxing more of them out of her. “Please come, please, I need you to, I need you to, please.” The way she begged him, egging him on with trembling fingers kneading at the fabric of his shirt was too much for him to resist. She wanted him.

The realization hit Irwin like a punch to the gut, leaving him all breathless and light-headed as he spilled into her. She buried her face in his neck, crooning soft nonsense words to him while he groaned and rolled his hips and just was, for a moment.

“Oh my God.” He managed to say when he could speak again, tenderly brushing the hair back from her face like he'd wanted to so many times before. “You're amazing.” She went bright red and he couldn't help his smile, his laugh. “Especially when you look like that. Amazing.”

“Shh, what if your boss hears?” She whacked his shoulder, unable to hide her own smile.

“I don't care.” Irwin replied, kissing her fiercely. “You're amazing. I'm just sorry it took this long for me to realize.”

“So...you want to come back to my place? I promise you can continue to be as amazed as you want.” She teased, wrapping her legs around his hips and pulling him in closer. “And I'll have you up in time to get back here for eight. Sound good to you?”

“Mm, the idea has merit.” Irwin bumped their foreheads together, giving her a serious look. “Thank you.”

Her eyes softened and she rumpled his hair, taking his glasses back out of his pocket and settling them onto his face. “Any time, all the time.”

#irwin r. schyster #thirst party saturday #i make no apologies for this #mostly feels #also taxes #wwe #wrestlers without the wrestling #irwin r. schyster x OFC #irwin r. schyster smut #this was way too much fun to write #i.r.s. (wrestler)

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