#sorry to show feet on timeline but this story is necessary

[getting-messi]

Back in 2018, an Argentine journalist gave Messi his mom’s lucky red ribbon when the team was struggling.

Fast forward to 2022, Messi still has the ribbon as Argentina become World Champions🥹💙

[partycatty]

Hello!

I read your last story with the Lin Kuei brothers and it was really amazing. Could I please ask for a story with the Lin Kuei brothers (I love them❤) where they watch their s/o's dance performance at Madam Bo's? Kind regards!

GOD. YES. and thank you pookie :D

lin kuei trio > dancer

bi-han, kuai liang, and tomas vrbada watching the reader dance at madam bo's!!

notes: KUAI FAVORITISM AGAIN IM SO SORRY. this is a sweet change from the heinous shit i've been writing eeeeee kicking my feet and twirling my hair! also i know that says s/o but i had some ideas i just couldn't ignore..

masterlist <3

♡

bi-han >

• somehow, the lin kuei brothers are convinced by the earthrealm chosen ones to attend a dinner at madam bo's after their victory at armageddon. come on, just once! bi-han only attends because his brothers do, and because liu kang might show offense if he declined. so, here he was, pretending he wasn't enjoying the food as much as he was.

• as his mouth hung open to take a bite of a dumpling, kung lao and johnny find a couple of spare instruments and get that "you thinkin' what i'm thinkin'?" smirk. nobody in their sane mind thought either one of them were musically enclined, but then suddenly there was a two-man band singing and galloping about. you, as one of the earthrealmers, start laughing and clap to the beat, as does the entire group. kenshi, liu kang, kuai liang, and raiden chuckle, syzoth, tomas and ashrah get up to dance, and bi-han puts his chopsticks down with crossed arms and a frown.

• he couldn't help but be mildly amused at the ridiculousness, scoffing to himself. but his scowled expression turns soft when he glances over at you and watches you lift yourself from the chair you sat on and shimmied over to the dancing group, starting to enjoy yourself. you moved in such a coordinated way that bi-han was only accustomed to seeing in combat. he didn't think such elegance could be used... for fun.

• the entire group is mostly ignoring bi-han, but not intentionally. everyone's just caught up in their own enjoyment. you playfully dance to the impromptu rhythm, twirling ashrah and bumping shoulders with kung lao. as you twirl, you lock eyes with the cryomancer and he tenses up when he realizes he'd been staring.

• "come on, blueberry ice!" you shout over the crowd and music, extending an arm. "you're too damn rigid all the time. loosen up with me?"

• "no," he replies, accidentally far colder than necessary. you groan.

• "it's one night! i'll tell johnny not to record. you work too hard. shang tsung is in prison, and our timeline's intact. that doesn't deserve at least a little shimmy?"

• "i don't dance," bi-han again replies, leaning back in his chair. he wouldn't admit it, but he finds your persistence cute. perhaps he won't give in just to see you keep trying.

• you try to do anything possible to get him to join you without actually pissing him off. the lasso trick doesn't work, and neither does the "pass on the wave" trick. you give up, throwing your hands in the air in a surrendering pose before walking backwards back into the group.

• the dancing and celebrating goes well into the night, and the entire time, his icy ass is PLANTED in that damn chair. he eventually becomes a part of the furniture.

• kuai liang leans over to speak to his brother with a grin.

• "you aren't going to dance with her, brother?" kuai liang asks, cheeks tinted with pink from the alcohol. "i understand our clan has much work to tend to, but must you have turned her down on a night like this?"

• "i am not dipping so low as to act a fool," bi-han replies, eyes fixated on your dancing still. you're now dancing with johnny in a ridiculous duo choreography you're pulling from your ass as you go.

• "bi-han, you are as dull as you are sharp," kuai liang laughs. "she was showing interest."

• bi-han launches his glance to his pyromancer brother, eyebrows shooting up. he doesn't seem to believe it, but then it clicks. you wanted to dance with him! YOU wanted to dance with HIM! it wasn't just a kind offer, dammit, it was flirting!!

• you let out a loud laugh above the crowd as you enjoy the festivities. as you calm down, you once again lock eyes with the grandmaster. it feels like only you two know of this secret tension. you extend your arm with a raised brow and flushed grin.

• perhaps one night of foolishness won't hurt.

♡

kuai liang >

• a quiet night in the shirai ryu was unheard of, considering it's still trying to pick itself up. kuai liang was always so damn stressed with work, training hanzo and finding more recruits while also upgrading the compound.

• you were one of the first recruits, so you held a sense of seniority within the clan. kuai liang often confided in you regarding these aforementioned stressors. you were his favorite rubber duck to rant to while he tried to figure things out.

• his head was buried in his hands as he sighed deeply, books and papers strewn across his workspace. you frowned, standing in the doorway.

• "how about a night away from the clan, grandmaster?" you'd politely suggest. you didn't actually expect for him to agree so easily... or know a place... or invite you.

• madam bo greets kuai liang with a sweet smile, offering up whatever she cooked for the night. he insists that anything she makes is perfect, and requests one of everything.

• you sit across the table from your grandmaster, not really sure on what to talk about. it was always work, training, and hatred for bi-han. but now you had to talk about... everything else? even so, his tense shoulders easily surpass your own nerves.

• "at ease, grandmaster," you gently say, reaching across to put a hand on his arm. he visually does ease, comforted by your touch. "enjoy yourself."

• hold on sorry i'm tweakin rn he is so fucking fine i need to chew on his man bun

• "i appreciate you more than you'll know," he replies gently with a smile. "i needed this, i suppose. to be away from a table that isn't cluttered. to eat a nice meal..."

• the plates are cleared as you two chat peacefully about anything and everything. as it turns out, you actually had a great deal in common with your grandmaster. and damn, in the restaurant's dim lighting, his features really stood out..

• as the thought crosses your mind, a small band of fengjian musicians step up to the center of the room and start to play a slow, sweet song. kuai liang swivels in his chair to view the band before turning toward you.

• "do you dance?" he asks suddenly, a little smirk playing at his lips.

• "d-do i...?" you stammer out, almost choking on your tea.

• "dance," kuai liang repeats. "do you?"

• "i-i was a dancer when i was younger. on occasion. yes."

• suddenly, kuai liang stands up and holds his hand out to you. your jaw drops.

• "i shouldn't," you insist shyly. "you're..."

• "i'm your grandmaster," he finishes your sentence. damn, this guy does that often. "yes, yes, i know. but you said tonight is to enjoy ourselves. tonight, i'm not your grandmaster. i'm kuai liang, and i'm asking for a dance."

• he eventually pulls you into a small crowd of other dancers, and you two start with shy steps, eventually understanding each other's style and speed. you wouldn't believe it, but he's actually a good dancer! he follows your every move and allows you to lead. if he focused even a little bit more on you, he'd surely lose his footing. you were just so natural with your movements. there was an attraction there that wasn't there before, and it made kuai liang feel impossibly hotter.

• a small crowd gathers at your coordinated dance. anyone would've assumed it was choreographed ahead of time, but this was entirely you two having a deep understanding of each other's movements. the music felt like a fuzzy white noise and the people disappeared. it was just you and kuai liang.

• the songs ends with you in a dip. you're both catching your breath, flushed, and giggly at the spontaneity.

• "i need nights out more often, if they're with you," he'll mumble to you still in his dip.

♡

tomas >

• tomas only had one objective that day: to determine if kung lao and raiden were ready for to be recruited. what he didn't anticipate, however, was that tonight was the night you were meant to perform at madam bo's.

• a tiny stage sat in the center of the room, and you stepped atop the platform. a couple of men to the side played their instruments for you, and you instantly got to work. as your hips swayed, your flowy garments swung around you, like a perfect gust of wind twirling you.

• tomas stood on the roof alongside his brothers, ogling at the sight. his jaw dropped behind his mask, and his eyes softened. he was supposed to be the big strong leader of the staged confrontation, but god. it was just so hard to be stone cold in front of such a beauty.

• the entire room was so focused on your dance moves. tomas could only mentally equate you to a gorgeous swirl of smoke. or perhaps a cloud—?

• bi-han elbows him in the side with a scowl.

• "focus, you idiot. the farmers, not some foolish performer. do you see them?"

• tomas is that meme where the guy goes "SHE IS VERY GORGEOUS TO ME!!! ☝️"

• tomas shakes his head with a light blush, partially shocked with himself for being so distracted by just one person. he's a ninja. he's killed, defended earthrealm, seen so much shit, and yet he's winded by a dancer. he just had to know more, had to see if you were as alluring up close as you were from afar.

• the men drop from their position and wait outside of the entrance for a moment, mentally preparing themselves. once they are, tomas enters first and stands in front of kung lao and raiden menacingly.

• just as planned, him and madam bo go at it with a fake argument ending in a fight. madam bo gets flung over the railing, mere feet away from where you froze on your little stage. tomas stops completely, forgetting that the two farmers were charging at him. he glances over at you, and how your movement stopped and was now terrified. you scream and take cover behind the bar, peering over to watch the fight.

• he was so trapped in his adoration for you that he forgets to fight back when raiden lands a damn hard punch to his chest, sending him backward. groaning and standing up, he chucks a smoke bomb at the ground and vanishes completely.

• then, before you could process anything, a puff of smoke shrouds your vision and tomas is beside you. you yelp out and crawl backward, terrified by his strength and sudden appearance. making sure bi-han and kuai liang are adequately occupied, tomas leans down to you.

• "hey, hey," he'll say cautiously with his hands out. "shh. you're alright. you're in no danger." your breathing slows from the hyperventilation, looking up at him with innocent eyes. he almost melts then and there. if he could turn into a comical puff of smoke, he would.

• a lin kuei ninja crashes down the railing and lands on top of the bar. you flinch, tomas doesn't.

• "what do you want? money?" you reply in a weak voice, still uneased and confused. tomas frowns, coming up with an answer. he doesn't blame you for being confused when three colorful ninjas and their little sidekicks saunter into a small village restaurant.

• "no, no money," he replies quietly, now crouching down to your level. "everything will make sense in time. now... now please—" tomas gestures toward a nearby exit. "be safe. i apologize for frightening you."

• he extends a hand out, and you take it. for a moment, it feels like it's only you two in the room. no "dead" madam bo, no raiden kicking the shit out of scorpion, or kung lao flinging his hat at sub-zero. it's just you and this mysterious, muscly man in grey.

• "your dancing was... beautiful, by the way," he'll admit sheepishly, his eyes showing his smile behind the mask. "i hope to return to watch it, sometime."

[subbing-for-clones]

The New Apprentice Part 8

Maul x Sith!reader 

Word Count: 2k

A/N: Yall it has been a God damn week I'll tell you that. So sorry it has taken me so long to get this out. Fair warning, had to do some already known stuffs to move the story along the timeline and I just wasn't feeling it while writing, but it's important to the timeliness nonetheless.

WARNINGS: 18+ P in V sex, unprotected sex, Canon violence. Kinda angsty at the end? Idk.

PREVIOUS         NEXT          MASTERLIST

       The following morning you awoke alone in your tent. The cool morning air aiding to shake the fog from your mind as you thought of the previous night. A smile twitched on your lips that was soon replaced with a heavy eye roll. One of your pant legs had been torn up the seam by the medic who worked on you. Shrugging, you ripped off the tattered fabric and did the same to the other to match. Sliding on your now short one piece you pulled on your boots, hung your sabers from your hips and left your little shelter.

    You knew why Maul left; he didn't want anyone to think the two of you were involved until the situation was less vulnerable. You were thankful he waited until you were asleep before he absconded into the darkness. Maker, you had to stop thinking about it lest you rile yourself up again. It was time to go to work, continue to prove to your master that you deserved to be at his side. That he needed you there.

    You were relieved that Savage followed behind you a few minutes later. At least you weren't the last one up. Pre and Maul strode through the camp with you and Savage following closely behind.

"We will need an army if we are to successfully take back Mandalore." Your master rumbled.

"The people will support us once we remind them who they are." Pre retorted.

"Perhaps... but the Black Suns will be able to provide us with resources beneath the attention of the Republic."

"They're a crime syndicate!"

"Yes, and a powerful one that will lead to our victory. We have but one chance to pull this off."

      Boarding a Mandalorian starship with your Master and Savage was quiet. You had decided to keep your mouth shut and revel in Maul's ability to command and scheme. You stood at Savage's side with your hands clasped behind your back, back straight and chin high. Your weapons dangled dangerously at your hips. Every so often a Mandalorian would look at you curiously through their visor to which you responded the same every time. You gazed into their black where their unseen eyes lay behind, unblinking with a straight lip and an air of importance until they turned away. Savage quirked a lip slightly every time.

When you were alone he rumbled quietly.

"You make them uneasy. Much more than I do I think."

"I hardly doubt that my friend." Your voice soft and cold in the off chance someone could hear you.

"Possibly... they fear us."

"Good. Then they will stay in line under Lord Maul. A warrior should never show fear. They may be strong but they've shown a vital weakness we will exploit in time if necessary."

    Maul was the only one within ear shot and he silently listened to your words. Although he didn't show it at the time externally, his chest swelled in pride.

    After landing on Mustafar they were greeted with a battalion led by a tall Falleen male by the name of Vigo Ziton Maj. He chuckled when your master harshly requested an audience but he led Maul, Savage, Pre Vizsla and yourself inside the fortress anyway.

    Five more men sat at a long black table upon your entrance. When demanded that they join you, you were met with exclamations of amusement and they attempted to call for your deaths.

    Without hesitation you and Savage each tossed a spinning lightsaber in their direction. Effectively beheading each and every one of the leaders in single mirrored motions. After seeing first handedly that denial of an alliance would lead to death, Moj, the next in line to lead agreed to join your cause without hesitation.

    The Pykes practically handed themselves over to you once news about the Black Suns had reached their ears. The offer of their alliance was a grateful surprise to you. Recognizing the slow shift in universal power only spurred your attraction to your master. Visions of you riding his throbbing cock permeated your mind and drifted to his.

    On the ride to Nal Hutta these thoughts only grew in intensity as your sinful need grew. It had been days since he had last touched you and although you maintained an outward composure, your mind reeled. With only a few hours until your arrival, Maul strode past you, pausing momentarily to give you a knowing glance and ever so slight nod of his head. You waited a minute before following his force signature until a supply closet door hissed open. He grabbed you almost violently, pulling you within the small enclosure. He listened to be sure you weren't followed before he turned to you.

"My my what devious thoughts you project little one." He cooed as he pulled you into his embrace. With your back to his chest, he lowered his face into the crook of your neck, planting gentle wet kisses to your sensitive skin and lightly nipping at your ear. You took his hand and covered your mouth to stifle a whimper as he ground his hardening cock into your rear. You could feel the heat of your core as his velvety voice hummed in the ear he was toying with.

"Now, I'd much rather take my time with you but it seems you need some tension released. I'll need you clear headed on this venture. I believe the Hutt Clan will give us the most trouble in forming an alliance. Would you like my help my sweet little apprentice?"

    You nodded fervently, tears pricking the corners of your eyes as he slid your one piece down until it pooled on the floor. He bent you over infinitesimally, just enough to grant him entrance. He prodded his hot, firm erection against your folds letting out a silent groan feeling how wet you already were.

"God's I've hardly touched you and your soaking wet you naughty little girl."

    Without warning he slipping inside you, biting one of his fingers to keep from crying out. He thrusted into at a brutal pace, sinking to his hilt with every rut. It didn't take long before you were fluttering around him and tears streamed down your cheeks.

"Maker, you're going to cum for me.. I can feel it... Let go my dear. Cum all over my cock."

    The command he soothed had you unraveling faster than you thought possible. The excitement of the risk at being found out only encouraged your orgasm. Still shaking from the aftershocks, your master bit your shoulder as he throbbed and filled you.

    You hastily cleaned yourself, getting ready to leave before you were caught but Maul grabbed your wrist and brought you back into an embrace. Gently pressing his forehead to yours and wrapping his arms around you.

"Soon you'll be at my side at all times my dear. Would you like that?" His glowing amber eyes meeting yours.

"Yes Master, of course."

    You pressed your lips to his and trying to calm your flush you left the small enclosure with newfound resolve undoubtedly spurred by your bliss.

       Maul had been correct as usual. The Hutts were in fact quite resistant. After hearing that they wouldn't be paid and that the deal was an alliance for their lives, five bounty hunters and the whole guard rushed the room. Desperate for some leverage you deflected the barrage of incoming blaster fire along with your master while leading them slowly out to the landing platform.

Finally, she's good for something you thought as Bo Katan fired rockets into the fortress, effectively killing most of the guard.

    You gave chase back into the fortress and fought the remaining bounty hunters. Unwillingly admitting that they were giving you more trouble than you would've hoped. Darting away from a purple woman with orange hair you kicked a dog off of your master while the bounty hunters made their retreat. Maul was convinced that they wouldn't be a further threat so you let them escape with their lives and empty pockets.

    You ended up having to travel to the gods awful desert planet of Tatooine for Jabba to finally agree to your terms.

       Back on Zanbar you and Savage shared a meal while Maul oversaw the organization of the troops and mixed crime syndicates.

"You seem restless." Savage noted.

"Duuuh." You exasperated. "All this planning and waiting and organizing. Ugh, I wanna go fuck shit up. We've been so busy with the boring shit I haven't even had time to train. Aside from that bounty hunter scuffle."

"Worry not little one, you'll be terrorizing the Mandalorians planet side with everyone soon enough." You scoffed at his response to which he cocked his brow.

"No, I'm not. Master wants me in the shadows. Something about the people recognizing me later on being a problem with his grand scheme."

"He has a habit of only telling half of a truth. Trust comes slowly to him. You know this." You sighed, pushing away your plate and pinching the bridge of your nose.

"Yes, I'm well aware. More so than he would like I'm sure."

"He cares very deeply for you."

"And I him but all this sitting around will get me nowhere. I told you about what happened on Malachor... for the first time since I've joined you two it feels like my feet are taking me some where I'm not supposed to go... it's been weeks and the only thing I've learned in that time frame is how to take his cock in secret, away from prying eyes."

    Savage nearly choked and also disregarded his food and sat looking at you with a pained look in his eyes.

"What will you do then?"

"Honestly? I haven't the faintest idea. All I know is that I'm supposed to 'extinguish the fear but always remember that 'the shadow cannot exist without the light' whatever the fuck that's supposed to mean."

"If you don't know what it means how do you know you're on the wrong path?" You paused at his question.

"Jedi and Sith both always say to trust in the force... I need to meditate on this."

    Savage nodded as you stood from your seat walking back towards your tent. Your master was a strong force user and ever since that night you two had opened up your minds to one another, truly lay bare before the other, it was damn near impossible to keep him out. When you passed him and Vizsla you had known they couldn't hear your conversation but the way that his eyes followed you. A specific crease in his brow. You had no doubt it had anything to do with Vizsla's ramblings, you realized he probably felt your conflict.

    Disappearing into your canvas enclosure you tried to push the thought of your lover, no, your master; down and away from the forefront of your mind. Gods above though, he was your lover. You loved him, so much. What if he was guiding you away from the place you needed to go? Everything felt right before you allied with the Death Watch. The weeks you spent training and traveling to Malachor felt right. But this, this felt like it was his path not yours. If your destinies didn’t cross would he abandon his to join you? Could you abandon yours to join him? You knelt in the center of your tent and straightened your back, closing your eyes. Allowing your mind to rest, allow the wild eradications to still and drift away. This was important. This was your destiny. You suddenly realized why, although you'd never admit it, the Jedi forbid attachments in their freakish cult.

[tngrace]

Brotherly Comfort

Written for @911lonestarangstweek I used one of the alternate prompts for this because I thought it fit better with the direction of the story.

aided by @moviegeek03 who sent me the prompt list and encouraged the muse after the promo was released. your encouragement for all my writing means the world.  💙

@justkillingtimewhileiwait who always listens to my writing rambles and who was & is the angst queen to my fluff. Thanks boo for helping work out the opening to this. 

Spoilers for S2 E8 finale; not really speculation because I don’t think the show would go this direction, but it is set in S2 E9 timeline. I just wanted some more TK comforting Judd because we know that’s going to happen once TK learns what happens. 

Read on A03; my 911 LS masterlist. 

Judd can feel the discharge nurse judging him with her eyes, even though his head is bent over the forms as he hurriedly scrawls his name at the bottom. It took too damn long, over twenty-four hours, to argue with the doctors about setting him free from the jail that was the damn hospital bed. All he wants, no, all he needs, is to get to Grace. He knows what the doctors said about her condition but he needs to see her for himself. 

He grabs the clothes Owen had dropped off for him, and even though it's painful, he changes and heads up a few floors to the ICU ward. His mind is still struggling to wrap around the fact that his precious Gracie is in the ICU on a ventilator. He thought he'd gotten her above water soon enough. He'd done all he could to make sure he got her out of the truck. 

He takes a shuddering breath, trying to shake those thoughts off as he gets off the elevator. He's slow moving with his own injuries, but he finds the nurses station, and they let him back into her room. His breath catches when he sees her. Tears sting his eyes as he slowly sinks into a chair. He knows she hasn't been alone all this time, even though she is at the moment. Tommy would never stand for that. 

Judd scrubs a hand down his face to wipe the tears as he's still processing all the doctor had disclosed about both of their injuries. He couldn't take his eyes off his beautiful wife no matter how lost in his head he is with thoughts of the accident and Grace's injuries. She was just sleeping, that's all, he kept telling himself despite knowing different, despite knowing she was in a medically induced coma. He hated the sounds of the machines, but he knew they were necessary. "You gotta wake up Gracie," he whispered, squeezing her hand. "I need you." He knew his PTSD was kicking his tail at the moment, the accident flashing in vivid color any time he closed his eyes, but he didn't feel strong enough to deal with it without her. 

He zoned out for longer than he thought, maybe even falling asleep. He startled when he felt a hand land on his shoulder. "Sorry. We didn't mean to scare you," Tommy says quietly as Charles takes up a seat off to the side.

"I's fine." He checks his watch to see he's been in Grace's room almost twelve hours now.

"Any change?" 

Judd shook his head at Tommy, knowing she could scan the monitors herself and figure it out. 

Tommy let's out a soft sigh as she shares a look with Charles. She knew Judd had signed himself out that morning, and from the looks of it, he had not moved from that chair all day.  She knows what she says next will be met with a lot of fight and resistance, but it has to be done because she knows he has to be hurting. Charles gives her a subtle nod letting her know he's got her back, as always. "Judd?" 

He finally meets her eyes. 

"You need to go home and rest. You're healing too, and you're no good to Grace if you're not taking care of yourself." 

"No. Nope. No way. I'm not leaving her. I won't." His reply is instant and full of conviction. 

"She's right brother. You need to sleep," Charles finally speaks up. "Tommy and I are gonna stay. She's not gonna be alone. The girls are taken care of, and we need to take care of you. Go get some rest. You know we'll call." 

Judd cuts his eyes between them seeing an impassable wall. He turns back to Grace as he shakes his head and squeezes her hand. "Judd. I'm serious," Tommy says, breaking out her mom voice. "When Grace wakes up, you're going to be dead on your feet if you don't go. Let us help." 

Judd finally hangs his head in resignation knowing she is right. "Ok... ok just for a little bit." He stands up and leans over kissing Grace's forehead. "I'll be back darling," he whispers. 

Tommy pulls him into a tight hug, as does Charles, before Judd glances back at the bed once more before he heads out. He makes it to the elevators before the tears fall. Walking out of that room is one of the hardest things he's ever done. He wipes at his eyes as he steps into the elevator. He can't go. It doesn't feel right to go home when Grace is laying in a hospital bed with a tube breathing for her. 

He pushes the button for another floor as he scrubs his face. He tries to ignore his racing heart and headache as he gets off on the correct floor. He knows Tommy is right and he needs to rest, but he can't. It's too much, and his rock, his steadfast, always there wife is not there right now, and he feels himself breaking. He walks down the hall, lost in the thoughts of his racing mind. He finds the room easily enough, and he hates that he's just now making it up there or that he even has another room to visit. The room is dim, and Reyes is passed out in the sleeper chair. He knows how uncomfortable that is, so he knows Carlos has to be plum exhausted to be that asleep. 

He knocks softly on the door frame, and green eyes shoot straight up to him. "Judd! What are you doing?!" TK asks bewildered, before he remembers Carlos sleeping and winces hoping his boyfriend stays asleep. 

Judd shakes his head, walking into the room and taking the chair on the opposite side of the bed. Carlos thankfully had stayed asleep. "Came…" his voice is shaky so he clears his throat and shakes his head. TK is looking at him with so much concern it's almost overwhelming. "Came to check on you. Sorry it's taking me a minute to get up here." TK's been there two full nights and days already, this being the third since time got away from him earlier, and he's just now checking in on him. 

"Judd what the hell? No, don't apologize to me. Christ you should still be in your own room!" 

"Signed myself out," he says with a shrug. 

"I know! I heard this morning after you did it. What are you doing up here? Is Grace ok?" TK hates seeing Judd so down, and he's a little surprised to see him, figuring Judd would be holed up in Grace's room. He just wants to make him feel better any way he can. 

Judd just shakes his head and scrubs at his eyes some more. TK swings his legs out of the bed, being careful of all his wires. He squeezes Judd's knee wishing he could make this better. "Please tell me what happened so I can help you feel better." 

"Tommy…" he takes a shuddering breath and shakes his head wiping his eyes before looking up at TK. He hates worrying him, when TK is hurt, so he releases a deep breath. "Tommy and Charles wanted me to go home and rest. But I just…. I can't. It doesn't feel right to go home without her." 

"Makes sense. But you still need to be taking care of you."

Judd nods, but doesn't say anything. TK can sense his need for a distraction. "Alright how about this, since you should be in a bed. You take the bed and I'm gonna sit up for a bit." Judd starts to protest, but TK silences him. "Seriously. I can sit up for a bit, and you should lay down." 

"TK. I'm fine." 

"Judd! You have 3 broken ribs and a broken arm. You have 15 stitches that I can clearly see," he says pointing at the bandage on Judd's head. "And who knows what other injuries I don’t know about. Lay down for a bit. I'm fine. I should be discharged tomorrow. The headache is lessening and so is the dizziness, hence being able to sit up." 

"Fine. But I'm not staying here long." 

"Of course not," TK says with a pleased grin as he switches places with Judd. Carlos stays asleep, much to TK's pleasure because he knows his boyfriend needs all the sleep possible after the last couple days of barely any sleep. Once Judd is comfortable, TK starts talking. He talks about anything that comes to his mind. He tells Judd about the kidnapping, the rescue, Carlos's parents wanting to meet him for real. The longer TK talks, the sleepier Judd gets, and it doesn't take much of TK's rambles before he's asleep. TK sends Tommy a picture of Judd asleep in the bed so she’ll know he’s resting.

Carlos wakes not long after Judd falls asleep, and his face is adorably confused, making TK chuckles softly.

"Hey babe," he says quietly, as Carlos reorients himself. 

"What did I miss?"

"Tommy tried to make Judd go home. But he couldn't. So he came up here, and I got him to rest." TK is rather proud of himself, and it makes Carlos chuckle softly. 

"You're a good little brother even if you're a brat sometimes," he teases. 

TK sticks his tongue out in return, but he feels light and relieved to finally have laid eyes on Judd. He knows Judd's not ok yet, but he will be because he has a family that loves him and supports him, no matter what. 

[set-phasers-to-whump]

trying

prompt: collapse

whumpee: nick burkhardt

fandom: grimm

hiiiii! i have been told that making nick collapse is my brand so i figured here is a fic entirely about nick collapsing! it’s a bit softer on whump than my usual stuff but i had a very nice time writing it and i hope you like it!!!

One second, Nick is fine. He and Hank are sitting on the couch in the break room at lunch, discussing the most recent complication of their current murder case. 

“Hank, I just don’t think we’ve got the timeline right,” Nick is saying. “I think we’re missing something between the time Collins was killed and when his body was dumped.”

“But what is it?” Hank asks. “I’m not saying I disagree. What could we be missing, though?”

Nick shrugs. “I wanna go back to the murder scene,” he says. “Maybe we’ll find something new.”

Hank checks the time. “If we go now, we’ll be back with plenty of time to finish that report the Captain wants.”

“Sounds good,” Nick says, and he gets up quickly off of the couch. 

Hank moves to follow him up, and then Nick says, “I think I’m gonna -” and before Hank has time to figure out what that means and help, Nick goes silent. 

And then he just collapses.

--

Nick stands up, and suddenly feels like all the blood in his head has left it quite quickly. He feels briefly disconnected from his body, then extremely dizzy, then nauseous. He’s going to throw up. 

He tries to warn Hank about this, manages to say, “I think I’m gonna -” before realizing that actually, what he’s about to do is faint. But by then it’s too late to say anything else. His vision blacks out and then there’s nothing. 

--

He wakes up on the floor with no memory of how he’d gotten there. He’s achy in various places, like his whole body has smacked into something hard. He feels kind of dizzy, which strikes him as odd because he’s lying flat on his back and staring up at the ceiling tiles of the break room. There’s something beneath his feet, lifting them up, and as he looks slowly around, he’s startled to find that, for whatever reason, he has an audience. 

Hank is crouched next to him, looking horribly worried. Renard is above him, a critical sort of expression on his face. And Wu is near his feet, looking intently at something on his phone. 

“What happened?” Nick asks, trying to sit up despite the dizzy feeling. Hank’s hand pushes him gently back down before he makes it to a sitting position, which he thinks might be for the best. He feels…a little off. 

“You collapsed,” Hank says. “And you're not going anywhere for at least ten minutes.”

“I…collapsed?” He doesn’t remember that. He remembers talking to Hank, standing up, and then…nothing. Had he really collapsed?

“Yeah, you did,” Wu says, although he’s quick to add, “It’s most likely nothing serious, though, people faint all the time for simple reasons. You probably just stood up too fast.”

That’s…incredibly embarrassing. Nick suddenly really wishes he was alone, because he’s pretty sure he’s turning pink at the thought of having been taken down by something as stupid as standing up. 

“You’re going to get checked out, anyway,” Renard informs him, giving him a preemptive stern look, like he knows Nick will protest (which he will, obviously). “To make sure that it’s nothing serious.”

“Is that really necessary?” Nick asks, again trying to sit up.

Hank pushes him back down again, a bit more roughly than before. “Yes, it’s necessary, Nick. You collapsed. Whatever the cause may be, that’s not good.”

“It’s also an order,” Renard says. “Just in case you thought there was any way you could avoid it.”

“I’ll go,” Nick agrees. It’s pretty obvious he’s not getting out of this one. 

“Good,” Renard replies. His next remark is directed at Hank: “Make sure he stays down for a few more minutes, and then he can move to the couch.” 

He turns back to Nick. “You are not going to leave this room until the end of the day, when Griffin will accompany you to the doctor. You may do some paperwork and discuss your case, but don’t even think about going anywhere.”

“Captain -” 

“That’s final, Nick. You’re lucky I’m not sending you to the ER right now.”

Nick figures he’d better take what he can get, so he doesn’t bother arguing. He’s kind of too tired to bother, anyway. To be honest, sitting down and doing paperwork sounds perfectly fine to him. 

--

A few minutes later, Renard and Wu have gone back to their own work. Hank has stayed with Nick, making sure that he remains lying down, making small talk and not being at all offended when Nick hardly replies. 

“You can get up now,” he says, finishing up a story that Nick has heard probably fifty times before. “Slowly.”

Nick pushes himself up off of the floor, pausing for a moment as he gets into a sitting position and then slowly getting to his feet. His head spins a little, but he feels alright otherwise, and he carefully makes his way to the couch, sinking gratefully down into the cushions. 

“You good?” Hank asks, crossing the room to the kitchen area and opening the fridge. 

“Yeah,” Nick replies, closing his eyes and leaning his head back against the couch. He’s fine. A little dizzy and unnerved and embarrassed, but fine. 

“Good,” Hank says, returning to Nick with a bottle of water, which he holds out. “Drink this. Last thing you need is to get dehydrated and pass out again.”

“I’m not going to,” Nick insists, taking the water. 

Hank sits down next to him, suddenly serious. “You don’t know that, Nick. Sure, it’s probably nothing life-threatening, and sure, people faint all the time for non-serious reasons, but we don’t know what this was. If it’s a sign of something really wrong. If it’s going to happen again.”

“Hank, really, I’m -”

“You were unconscious, Nick. You didn’t have to watch yourself suddenly fall to the floor. You didn’t have to sit there and worry and panic and wait for you to wake up and wonder if and when you should call 911.” Hank’s voice is raised, but not exactly angry. Afraid, Nick thinks, which makes him feel really bad. The last thing he wants is to scare anyone, especially Hank.

“I’m sorry,” he says quietly, and Hank lightly touches his shoulder. 

“You don’t need to be sorry. You just need to take this seriously. You need to care about yourself.”

Nick wishes it was as easy as that. It’s not, and he thinks they probably both know it, but he figures he can at least attempt it. “I can try,” he promises, and he knows it’s not exactly what Hank wants, but it’s something, and it’s the best he can do. 

“That’s all I need to know.”

thanks for reading this!!! this is written as pre ship bc i am physically incapable of not writing that rn apparently....what can i say i am soft and gay and it is Showing lmao. anyways i hope you liked this fic and thank you for reading it!

[perpetuelledaydreaming]

Back to you (Chapter IV)

Summary:  Y/N Stark and Peter Parker are unconditionally in love with each other, being friends for years was just the step before making it official. BUT, just the weekend they became official Thanos and the snap happened, leaving Y/N broken: without friends, avengers family or Peter Parker. So, she has to move on, at least that’s what everyone’s telling her and she really tries to do it and who better to help her than Harry Osborn. But, has she really let Peter go? What if Tony Stark -genius, billionaire, playboy, and philanthropist- knows how to bring Peter back? And what happens when he does? Is Y/N going to avenge again? Who’s going to lead the avengers now? Who is she going to choose? Harry or Peter? and who the hell is mysterio? *He doesn’t even go here*

word count: 8.2k

author’s note: Okay honestly this chapter was so hard to write because I was re-telling endgame from Y/N perspective and obviously, after a long of thought, I wanted to somehow stick to the cannon story although I hate it BUT  I think is easier for the story I want to tell PLUS you don’t know what’s coming.  I’m so sorry this is soooo late but honestly next chapter is going to have more Peter and Harry and ANGST and HARLEY.  I’m sorry I made Y/N cry so much but it was necessary. I’m so happy i got this chapter out of the way so I can let my imagination go wild for the next chapters.  Please let me have your feedback, I love to know what you want to heart and yes. Love, -J. 

series masterlist

                                                __________________

You felt your feet hitting the ground and you bend your knees a bit as you landed on a street full of rubble in New York, well it wasn’t technically your New York, it was 2012 New York. The red and white suit quickly dissipated from your body and left you on the sweats that your dad had created for both of you to be more comfortable whenever you wore your suits, you had to adjust to your size since you hadn’t worn yours for over two years now.

It was extremely strange to wear it again, to wear your necklace with the charm that had your suit but then again, this whole time-traveling thing was outlandish, to say the least. As you were getting used to the commotion surrounding you and New York, Steve began talking.

“Alright, we all have our assignments” Steve commanded, he turned around to face the four of you: Tony, Bruce, Scott, and you. “Two stones uptown and one stone down. Stay low, keep an eye on the clock”

You were about to nod in affirmation but before you could even press the small charm, you saw Hulk, not Bruce, smashing one of the Chitauri soldiers with a car multiple times before another one backed off before Hulk send a wheel towards it and then proceeding to jump over the car with a growl that shook you to the core.

You remember Hulk during this time, how out of touch he was from everything and how when you first saw him come out while training, it scared you. You had only told Nat about this, not even your father or Bruce for that matter because you didn’t want to hurt his feelings. Once you grew comfortable with Hulk as time passed, you felt kind of dumb for feeling that way but seeing him at that exact second, assured you that you didn’t need to feel that dumb.

All of you looked back at Bruce who was hiding his face.

“Maybe smash a few things on the way,” Steve told Bruce, who sighed and began ripping his shirt off before “smashing” if you could even say that it was somehow close to what 2012 Hulk was doing.

You felt someone touching your shoulder, you turned around to see your dad.

The conversation between both of you regarding the time travel had lasted more than you had expected, but one of you being part of the team recovering the stones was longer than any other thing. First, you wanted him to explain to you from beginning to end how could this possibly work out without horribly messing up with the timelines or being trap forever in the quantum realm. In all honesty, you were afraid of the possibility of being solid enough to put a plan in motion, it scared you a bit because hope had run out of you the moment you saw those chocolate brown eyes turning to dust. But as soon as you got it, you knew you had to be part of the team but that was another whole thing with Tony, to put it simply: he didn’t want you to join. See, Tony had seen you not being an avenger and you were happy and living the life that Tony once wished you had before you convinced him to be part of the team; but honestly, he couldn’t expect anything different from your constant affirmations that you were going whether he liked it or not. In the end, it was obvious who had won the argument.

But at the end of the day, neither of you brought Peter up during the time of training, neither of you wanted to do it although you knew he was the reason for it because it still hurt. Your lingering looks could tell it all and you could feel the weight in both your chest.

You wanted it to work.

He sighed, “Okay, you know your plan, be safe. I know you are an adult now bu-“

“Barely”, you interrupted him while you placed an assuring hand on his arm.

“Sure, but you are growing and just…”

“I know dad, I love you too”, you muttered before you pulled him in and he embraced you in his arms.

Tony didn’t have much to say because it was hard to be there again. It had been over two years since he had seen you with your suit since he had seen you fighting. It wasn’t the same, it was never going to be the same and after you left it, he thought it was for the best but at the moment as you had shown him: he needed you, they all needed you, Peter needed you.

But sill he hated taking you out of the life he had wanted for you at some point when you were younger; you had been MIA from Harry a couple of weeks, except for a few phone calls and Tony knew that this was having a toll on you and he didn’t even want to imagine what would happen if this work.

You let go of Tony with a smile as Bruce called you.

“y/n, let’s go”

You nodded. …

You had never tried drugs and you weren’t interested to do so, but you were sure as hell this was even more strong than what you could ever experience with them as you saw your body falling in the ground while you… your… your soul was levitating above it. You wanted to say that panic had rushed through your bloodstream but you were so shocked that it didn’t even pass your mind that you were scared, your brain was too busy trying to explain how you were seeing your body.

The Ancient One was peacefully looking at you, she seemed to have a Monalisa smile but in between her calmness, there was a striking force within her. Her stand was strong and ready to fight if needed too.

“What is….”, you managed to mutter before you felt, felt that Bruce was behind you. His body, Hulk was on the floor next to yours. Both of them seemed to be sleeping.

“Let’s start over”, The Ancient One said calmly as you or Bruce felt unable to close your mouth. “Shall we?”

In between the feeling of lightness in this new form you found yourself, in the whole mess going inside your head about going back in time to save the world or at least try to do it, the even messier state that your heart was in because you had lost all hope of seeing Peter again but now having the chance to actually bring him back made your heart beat faster than it had for the last years but without discounting how you had grown to love Harry…

You didn’t know how your tongue didn’t manage to get twisted while you word vomits the most vulnerable thing you had said ever since you talked with your father after the snap.

“We are from the future, we are here to save you, to save everyone, to save the earth from this horrible future and I’m begging you, I need to get that stone, we need that stone, please help us, I need to get Peter back”

“Who do we need back?” The Ancient One said quietly as you opened your eyes with regret.

Nat had always taught you not to let people see your weaknesses, you knew you couldn’t show your physical or emotional weakness in front of any enemy and at the moment The Ancient One had managed to immobilize both you and Bruce, so it wasn’t like she was an ally but right now you couldn’t help yourself.

Maybe your best chance at the moment with The Ancient One was to be as honest as you could.

“Please, we are here because everyone lost someone, a lot of people lost their lives”, you said as your new form or soul managed to finally settle in the ground again. “We are here to save everyone”

Bruce followed your pace as you got closer to The Ancient One, who was looking sternly at you.

But she turned around and walk off, you closed your eyes trying to manage your exasperation and Bruce panicked, following The Ancient One.

“Please, please”, Bruce begged as he stayed a few moments watching his body.

“I’m sorry, I can’t help you with this”, she repeated herself as Bruce chased her through the roof and you watched her with a hunted expression. “If I give up the time stone to help your reality, I’m dooming my own”

“With all due respect, I’m not sure the science really supports that”, Bruce contradicted her.

She stopped for a moment as she watched Bruce intensely and her hand performed a simple swift; from nowhere, a long line of golden light appeared between the two of them. A gasp escaped your lips as you followed the line carefully while trying to get closer to them.

“The infinity stones create what you experience as the flow of time, remove one of the stones and this flow splits” The Ancient One explained, she removed the light that appeared as the time stone and a new, dark, line appeared from the action. “Now this may benefit your reality, but my new one not so much. In this new branch reality, without our chief weapon against the forces of darkness, our world would be overrun. So, tell me, doctor, your science can prevent all that?”

Bruce stayed silent for a second.

“No, but we can erase it because once we are done with the stones, we can return each one to its own timeline at the moment it was taken. So, chronologically, in that reality it never left” Bruce explained as he took the stone from thin air and placed it back into the golden line, making the darker one disappeared.

The Ancient One remained quiet for a moment before her eyes linked with Bruce’s

“Yes, but you are leaving out the most important part; To return the stones, you have to survive”, she explained and it hit you in the gut her words.

To be completely honest, you didn’t know how quickly you got behind Bruce but the need of getting that stone was overpowering any common sense you had. All you could think about was how you could help the whole world and her, a hero in your eyes, wouldn’t budge.

“We will, I will. I promise”, Bruce affirm and his voice woke you from your trance, he was pleading and it wasn’t new to see Bruce in this light but promising to win this?

Yes, you hoped that all the hours you had actually put into it along with your father and all the team that had survived. All of you were ready to avenge the ones that were lost, you had faith that they wanted to. But after the events of two years ago, they had changed your perspective, it had made it a bit smaller and darker and although you had returned to a good place, you weren’t sure anymore about winning. But then again, you would do anything for Peter Parker and The Ancient One was getting under your skin by denying you the chance.

“I can’t risk this reality on a promise, it’s the duty of The Sorcerer Supreme to protect the time stone”, The Ancient One muttered and gave you her back.

Are you kidding me? you thought to yourself. Maybe it was that it was the start of summer and you felt a little too hot, maybe it was because you had gone back in time eight years, maybe it was simply your outfit but your head began spinning around. Then it all came back to you and hit you like a train: Peter and you on your first mission, Peter and you sleeping, Tony and Peter on the lab, The Avengers movie night, Peter and you training, Peter and you kissing, Peter turning into dust.

“Then, why the hell did Strange give it away?”, you shouted as your eyes screwed shut to stop the memories, to stop your brain from overworking.

The Ancient One turned around, she blinked a moment with a deadpan expression on her face and you saw as if hope had left her eyes as she watched you and Bruce. It was like someone had punched her in the gut as she analyzed your words.

“Willingly?”

“Yes. I saw it with my own eyes”, you answered back, annoyance lingered in your voice, “He gave it to Thanos”.

But the Ancient One wasn’t looking at you, it was as if she was trying to find something as her eyes moved frenetically, her mind processing your words. You watched her carefully and it was as she was as shocked as you were the moment that Strange had decided to give it away, the same perplexity that you felt when he had stopped you from moving.

“Why?”, she asked and you felt something in her voice.

Right then and there you realize that she was afraid too.

“I have no idea, maybe he made a mistake”, you replied honestly because you were sure that if Stranger hadn’t given it away maybe things could’ve been different but it was at the end of the day without you or Tony in the world.

The Ancient One remained quiet as you and Bruce burned her with your gazes.

“Or I did”, she muttered.

Suddenly, she brought both of your bodies and made them crash with your souls, you felt as if all the air on your body had left your lungs as you breathe deeply trying to fill them in, your whole body was buzzing but it seemed like it had affected you more than it had affected Bruce. Soon, The Ancient One opened the necklace -The Eye of Agamotto-, the same one that Strange had been using that fatal day two years ago, the time stoned glowed and you could swear you could hear a metal sound coming from it while she made it levitate.

She placed in your hand the stone.

You held your breath as you watched the stone carefully in your hands that had quickly been covered by your suit to hold it. The energy on the stone was really strong and you felt anxious, but your thoughts went away as soon as The Ancient One place her hands over yours.

“Thank you”, your voice was shaky and you felt like your hands were trembling a bit.

Bruce and you, you completed your mission: you had it.

“I’m counting on you Y/N, we all are”

…

You landed on the platform of the -it was still weird to say it- a time machine that Tony had created. The movement through the quantum realm was a little bit vertiginous while you saw these colors and lights and shapes that your mind couldn’t even begin to construct, it left you lightheaded for a few seconds. As soon as your feet touch the ground, you focused on the metallic twirls that surrounded you, accompanied by the sound of the power going out as you breathe deeply. It was your first time traveling through time and although you had been prepared for a lot of things in your time as an avenger, you didn’t think you could get used to this one.

After a few seconds, the mask of the quantum suits disappeared from your face and as you opened your eyes you linked them with Tony’s. His expression turned blissful as he smiled at you and you felt yours growing, it was as if you could breathe again knowing that he was okay. It was as if the tension had left your body as you ran towards him and he caught you as you wrapped your arms around his waist and he reciprocated with a sigh, holding you strongly as you heard him mutter something about god.

“Are you telling me this actually work?”, you heard Rhodey asking with happiness lingered in his voice.

Maybe it was because of the quantum realm or because you were feeling a little light-headed but you felt your heart beating extremely fast in your body as if something was waking up and as you closed your eyes for a second you could see those chocolate brown eyes that gleamed each time he looked at you and, a little bit in the back you thought about Harry’s smile but there was no denying it was being eclipsed by the thought of Peter Parker.

But then you heard a thud against the metal and you quickly let go of your dad as you turned around to find Clint kneeled with a somber expression drawn on his face.

“Uncle Clint?”

Sometimes your mind could go a thousand miles per hour, but at the moment you wished it didn’t because after two seconds of examining Clint, of seeing the doleful way his lips fell into a line, of seeing how his body lumbered in almost a painful way -like he couldn’t hold himself anymore-, of seeing how dull his eyes were -even more after losing his family- and how vacant they looked; you knew what had happened but you didn’t want to acknowledge it.

You could’ve sworn that you heard your heart-shattering in your chest as you shook your head and placed a hand over your hand to prevent a sob to come out of your mouth.

“Clint, where’s Nat?”, Bruce asked as if he was hoping for a different answer.

But as the seconds passed and Clint remained silenced, you thought that everyone knew what happened. Tears began spilling without previous notice, Steve looked down in defeat and Bruce fell into the floor. In all honesty, you wanted to contain your tears and your sobs but it was too hard.

Bruce formed a fist with his hand and at the same time that he struck the platform your tears began falling.  

…

Natasha Romanoff was one of the best women you knew, to be honest, she was a close second to Pepper Potts and Pepper only won for a bit because she had helped raise you but Natasha, she was another story. This woman that had entered your life so young, and she had changed your view of what you had expected your life to be. Before her, you didn’t really know if you could ever be like your father as Ironman, you didn’t even know if it was your place but when she came along, she assured you with her example that you could. Natasha Romanoff was an example of survival, not vengeance, she was an example of how you could change your story if you tried hard enough, because she made the hard calls when they needed to be done, because she turned her weakness into strength. She taught you how to be an avenger and although you gave your dad most of the credit of the desire to be one, it was when Nat arrived that you thought it was possible for you too. She was a mother, she was a sister, she was a mentor, she was an example of the women you wanted to become and losing her, it was as if another part of your heart had been taken away without previous notice.

“Do we know if she had a family?”, Tony muttered as your eyes blinked trying to get back into reality.

The sound of the water was the only one you could hear and although it was peaceful, the heaviness in the air felt like it could drown you. After Clint had explained what happened to Nat, you had clung to Tony as if you were five again and needed to hold his hand after a bad dream. Nat’s smile and last words appeared in your head more than you wished they had and the more you thought about it your throat felt like it would close.

“Yes”, Steve answered back and you turned around to face him, “Us”.

And it all came back like a train for you. One of the last conversations with Nat and how she had mentioned that this was it, you were her family and she was yours. The reason for her sacrifice became so obvious the moment you heard Steve’s words that it somehow angered you that you hadn’t realized it before. Her sense of self was found on being an avenger, she was one of the faces of the avengers, she was a founder and a leader and even after half of them were gone she was still trying to be better for all of you. She needed this; she was lost before the possibility of actually making things right. When Nat sacrificed herself, it was because she believed in you, in all of you, she believed.

She had realized that she had clean her ledger, she knew she had become better as you had assured her that night and that’s why he had done it.

“Yes, it was us dad”, you said as you finally stood up, letting Tony go and everyone, except for Bruce, turned around to face you.

Maybe it wasn’t your place, you maybe didn’t know Natasha at the extend of Clint, Steve or Bruce, or even your dad but you knew what she had mean to you and at the moment, you knew you had to speak your mind, to reinforce that she had done this for you.

“Y/N…”, Thor muttered softly as if he was scared that you might break.

He had been out of it for the last month while you built the machine but now it was as if the fog in his brain had dissipated and he was seeing you again, maybe it was because of the actual time travel that he was more awake and finally realized you had grown quite a bit since the last time he saw you but that he still desired to be somehow careful with you like when you were younger.

“She sacrificed herself for us, for everyone, for this family”, you explained as you watched them all intently, they needed to understand. “We have to honor that”

…

The sound of the thud of metal against the ground was the thing that woke you up, making you take a breath as if you hadn’t breathed for months. It felt as if a tsunami had come crashing down on you, on your body, everything was somehow hurting, not a lot but just enough for you to take a minute or two before opening your eyes. All these things were running through your head as your eyes tried to examine the debris that you were surrounded by, it was almost too much for your senses that were still dulled by the impact of… in that second you were reminded of where you were and what had happened, how you had been thrown out from Tony’s lab in the compound to a whole other floor, and how you fell as if the earth had eaten you whole because of the missiles. The last thing you remember was Scott, saying something that you couldn’t make up and after that everything just turned dark when you were thrown. The drops of blood that fell on your silver suit made you realized that maybe the mask hadn’t come on your face as fast as it should, it must have been a cut and you didn’t want to think on any other possible injury that you had sustained because on your mind you could only think about everyone the gauntlet.

“Toes, feet, legs”, you repeated to yourself as you moved each one of them to check if they were actually okay and although it hurt a bit, you stood up.

It was dark, everything was dark and the only thing barely lightening the debris that surrounded you were the sparks of the electricity cables that had been destroyed in the process. It was hard to breathe with all the dust that surrounded you and you felt claustrophobic being under the debris. Suddenly, you could make out from the dust the red and yellow that was so familiar to you, the thud of the metal getting stronger and you felt like if a wave of relief washed over your body when you saw Steve and Tony.

“That’s my girl”, Tony muttered as you walked towards him, as he held your hand and with the other, he promptly took a strand out of your face.

“Thank god”, Steve let out.

“Wha-what happened?”, you replied as you cough a bit while staring at Steve, maybe your eyes were a bit frantic because Steve placed a hand over your shoulder as fast as he could in a reassuring way.

Both of them remained silent for a moment but as you gaze back at your dad, he didn’t have another option to answer.

“We messed with time”, Tony stated firmly and you weren’t sure what he meant but a part of you honestly didn’t want to know just yet. “Come on”

Silently you followed him and Steve, you knew better than to doubt what they decided because they were the leaders, they had always known what to do but for some inexplicable reason, your most basic instinct inside of you screamed for you to grab them and walk the other way. You tried to quiet it down by focusing on your surroundings, recognizing what this new territory looked like, so your eyes were trained in the smoldering fires that surrounded you, the sounds of ominous thunder, the sparks jumping from unexpecting places and the rubble under your feet. Soon, you looked at the grey sky, finally out of the wreckage and you felt the daunting breeze on your hair, you turned around to see Thor, his eyes fixed in something in front of all of you.

Tony and Steve took their places next to him while you walked towards Tony but as he recognized the thud of your metal steps walking to be next to him, he signaled you to stop.

And so, you did but your gaze following his and you felt like vomiting.

The Mad Titan was there, Thanos was sitting down in front of you, with his large sword buried deep in the ground next to him while he seemed like he was waiting.

It hadn’t passed your mind that somehow you could see him again, not anywhere except your nightmares. As a result, the feelings that had persisted after Nat assured you that Thor had decapitated him were based on fear and grieve, because most of those nightmares were based on you trying to hold Peter together as you begged The Mad Titan not to take him.

Therefore, your brain had calculated that you might be frightened or feeling the kind of rage that consumed your body but as he stood before you, you felt the same fire that you had felt during your battle in Titan because it wasn’t about him, it was about doing your part, doing your work. It wasn’t the fire of revenge that flooded your veins or the panic that would throw you to the floor but somehow the peaceful knowledge along with a decent amount of fear and anger, it was time to stop him.

“Y/N, go find Clint, he was close to the gauntlet”, Tony ordered you but you didn’t budge.

In all honesty, you didn’t hear him, it was as if your brain was too busy trying to figure out how you could -as disgusting as it sounded-end him. All the techniques in training came back to you as you thought of ways that could be used to finally get rid of him, you tried to replay as best as you could your fight in Titan, trying to remember what his weaknesses were and how you could stop him.

“Y/N…”, Steve insisted but yet again you didn’t move.

Tony turned around, glowering at you while your eyes were still fixed on Thanos.

“Y/N, it’s an order go and find Clint”, Tony demanded and your eyes quickly connected with his.

But this was your battle too.

“I’m not going anywhere”, you snapped as the three of them looked at you again.

Steve and Tony looked at each other, both had a hunted look while Thor seemed stolid while his eyes were trained in you but he quickly turned around. It was as if Thor had accepted and understood that you were not moving, it didn’t have senses to put you in the back burner again, you had made your choice but it was so difficult for Tony and Steve, although you had your fair share of missions and training, it was different and the fright in your dad’s eyes was obvious as if he had been transported to the time where you stood up against Thanos in front of him, ready to die for him if it was needed. But as each second passed, they knew you were determined to stay there.

“You know it’s a trap, right?”, Thor asked gravely as Tony and Steve moved their gaze towards the Mad Titan.

“Yeah”, Tony said with a sighed as he looked at Thor. “I don’t much care, as long as you stay out of it”, Tony said to you with a glare but you glared right back at him.

Your breath hitched as the wind picked up, whipping your hair as your eyes moved up, the sky becoming light blue as Thor extended his hands and his eyes turned the same color.

“Good”, he muttered, “As long as we are all in agreement”

Steve suddenly turned around, his eyes narrowed and his stand fixed. He was going to give and order, you knew how his body language worked so you looked right back at him.

“Y/N, stay back and only intervene if there’s not another choice” Steve ordered and you simply nodded, while Tony sighed in discontent but there was nothing more to do. “Promise us”

“I promise”

Suddenly, lightning could be heard loudly and the sky moved at an incredible pace, lightning and sparks began surrounding Thor as a lightening quickly struck him and both, Stormbreaker and Mjolnir, came to him. The wind hard while your fist became tighter.

“Let’s kill him properly this time”, Thor added.  

The waiting lasted a hundred years, at least for you. It was as everything was moving in slow motion, every step that Tony, Steve, and Thor gave was so slow that you could barely let a breath out as each one of them surrounded Thanos while he talked.

H.A.P.P.Y asked you if you wanted to hear, but in all honesty, your mind was too busy trying to prepare mentally what was your next move, when were you coming in. The more you thought about your last encounter, the more you realized how much you had changed in a couple of years because you knew if you were thinking like two years ago you wouldn’t even blink at the chance to shoot your repulsors against Thanos, you wouldn’t even blink but now you waited until the right time. But was there honestly ever the right time to fight for the people you loved? No, there wasn’t but you couldn’t be reckless, not now when the whole universe depended on you when the possibility of Peter coming back hanged by a threat when Nat had given up her life for this.

And so, you waited as long as they needed to finally talk but as soon as Thanos stood up and placed his helmet on his head, you felt like your body was going to give up by how tensed it got, the sky began swirling again with Thor’s lightning and there wasn’t much thinking to do after that after his warrior cry.

It was fast, how you blasted towards them while Tony and Steve were already on it once you arrived, each one taking turns on fighting Thanos while he deflected each and every one of the attacks towards him. Quickly, six’s small rockets exited your back and flew towards The Mad Titan but as they went off near him, there was no actual effect because as the smoke dissipated, he was still there with a few scratches on his purple rough skin. He looked right back at you and smirked, he didn’t know who you were and you were sure of it but somehow it seemed as if he was going to enjoy killing you.

Before he was ready to give any steps towards you, Steve threw his shield towards the Mad Titan, stopping him mid-walk while you flew backward, unbalancing him and just enough for him to get his shield back and giving you the time to use your super-jet boot configuration to punch Thanos in the stomach and making him fall on his back for a second while he tried to block Tony’s repulsors with his sword.

It was chaotic but somehow there was an order and a rhythm as each one of you took turns to give your best shot, but as the minutes passed you start seeing how he was blocking and throwing punches that were hitting you. Thor kicked in the stomach against the debris that was next to you, Steve covering himself with the shield but flying away as Thanos strike it with his sword, your dad shot his repulsors as best as he could so he could finally hit him and you tried to do the same while engaging into hand to hand combat when you got too close. It was a dangerous option and it seemed like only Steve was actually doing it but you had learned from Nat to be as sleek as you possibly could.

But in all honesty, you knew you were struggling.

Two kicks in his jaw. Fly away. Thor’s throwing Stormbreaker, help him get more energy, blast repulsors, you though every and each one of the movements.

Until he caught you.

“Fuck!”, you shouted as you felt the strength of his grip on you.

“Got you”, Thanos growled with a dark sneer.

It brought you right at the exact moment in Titan where he had done the same, your right leg was stuck in his hands as he smirked, he suddenly tore the nanobots from your leg and you screamed because as he moved it was more than probable that you had sprained your ankle. You quickly saw how his hand wanted to grab you again but you gained some time while the suit recovered and re-formed your right leg and Steve stopped him as he kicked him on his face simultaneously with a twirl that you knew only he could perform as easily and you felt like you could breathe.

“H.A.P.P.Y, I need some juice on the left leg”, you yelled to your AI.

“As you say, Mrs. Stark”

Quickly, it became a cannon that drove you away, fast, from Thanos as you tried to keep it together while Thor sent Mjolnir towards Steve’s shield, sending a shock wave towards Thanos. Making him fall forwards, giving your dad the chance to pushed him down even more with his repulsors, but still being propelled by Thanos. He was powerful, he was too powerful and it dawned on your mind how on earth were you going to defeat him. He still threw Thor down for a second time and Steve was throwing punches but getting them right back.

“Y/N, you okay kid?”, Tony asked through the com and you could see him flying above Thanos, blasting his repulsors but far enough for him to take the time to ask you.

“’M fine dad”, you winced, feeling a sharp ache on your right ankle but at the moment you couldn’t care less, you needed him down for more time to get him. “Get him”

Tony simply nodded as he blasted towards the ground in front of Thanos and his back opened with solar modules and raised his hands towards Thanos.

“Hit me, Thor and Y/N”, Tony yelled and you followed suit.

The beams of light were more potent than ever as the energy traveled, all the angled energy pushing Thanos as best as it could but as soon as the beams were trying to hit him, he swerved them with his sword. Tony didn’t move as you pushed your suit for more and more energy while Thor was still redirecting the lightening’s was still striking the modules but as Thanos started walking towards your dad, your body shaking as your eyes glazed from your dad to Thanos.

He was getting close, dangerously close.

It was in a blink of an eye, how you went right up to Tony and pushed him away before Thanos could actually snatch him and he instead grabbed you by the neck. The tight grip wasn’t letting you breathe and you could see how H.A.P.P.Y was putting all the screen in red as you felt the nanobots getting dangerously tight around your neck. You tried to fight with your hands to get his paws off you but it was barely impossible to move, you began coughing as the pressure on your neck increased.

“Not our kid”, your father yelled, with was left from you not to pass out you gazed back at Tony that had Steve and Thor behind him.

It was the last thing you heard before Thanos threw you to the ground with all the force that he had. Everything then turned black, your body went limp and your last thoughts were Peter, Morgan, Tony, Pepper, and Harry.

…

It was barely a whisper; it was feeble and weak but it made your eyes fluttered open and you saw Tony with a smirk. He had been crying, you could see the tears waddling on his eyes as his mask quickly dissipated from his head but the smirk was so Tony that it made you smile too as your helmet dissolute as well. You were tired, so tired. Maybe it was how much you had cried or the actual fighting you did, but you felt your body -especially your ankle- screaming.

His hands were shaky and you could see he had gone through it, the cut on his eyebrow was still streaming a bit of blood and you could see a dark eye starting to form, “Thank god”, he let out with a breathe as he helped you stood up.

Maybe they had won, they had done it, with an inexplicable reason they had managed to defeat the Mad Titan with a swift set of punches after you blacked out but as you turned around and faced the enormous spaceship, your stomach drop as you saw the army of outrides, growling at you. It was way worse than you had imagined, than what it could cross your mind as Thanos glared at Steve.

Steve.

He was alone, facing him, facing the entire army. It didn’t catch you by surprise, you knew your uncle, you knew that if you could hear his thoughts it would’ve been, I can do this all day, even with such overwhelming odds, he got to his feet.

But now as you faced hundreds or thousands of outrides, it actually crossed your mind that you wouldn’t be able to do anything about it. Try and lost again, and now the consequences were death for everyone.

Tony held you back as he stood in front of you as if he wanted to protect you but you shook your head as you walked beside him. Ready to face the threat but as the seconds passed, you heard something on your com, a muffled voice.

“On your left”

Suddenly, a portal like the ones that you had seen Doctor Strange perform on Titan appeared on Steve’s left. It was a radiant golden light and it could blind you if you stare at it for too long, you hold your breath as Sam soared over the field. You followed him with your eyes and as he turned you could see more portals were forming.

“What’s happening?”

It was T’Challa, Shuri, M’Baku, Bucky, all the army from Wakanda walking through it, standing next to you in this fight and you wanted to cry as you hold Tony’s hand with hope.

Then Pepper on her rescue armor landed in front of you with a set look on her eyes as she smiled to Tony and he walked towards her and pressed his forehead against his.

Maybe it hadn’t registered what was happened, if it was you could’ve been prepare for it but you were too busy gazing at the sky that when another large portal opened behind you, you felt a bit blinded for a second. From it, Doctor Strange was levitating with Peter Quill, Drax and Mantis before him walking towards the battlefield, standing in front of Thanos army ready to fight and you were sure that you looked slack-jaw because it was never how you dream about seeing them again, at least for the last month. 

But then you heard the familiar thiwp! that you hadn’t heard in two years and you felt your heart on your mouth.

With a swirl, he landed on the rubble and his mask went off from his face.

It was as if you were seeing him for the first time, it was overwhelming how many emotions were going through your mind that you could hardly process them. Maybe it was the light of the portals but his curls look like gold caramel the more you looked at them as they fell on his forehead, that coy smile that he always carried so gracefully was there, that smile lighted up your face every day was there and those damn chocolate eyes with gold specks that you had dreamed about seeing for two years were finally there in front of you. You were too in awe to realize how he was getting maybe too close while he ran towards you. He jumped through the crowd of heroes that were appearing left and right but you only had eyes for the boy.

He quickly lopped his arm and pulled you in without previous notice.

The way his lips rolled against yours, capturing your upper lip to then open your mouth made you want to melt into him right at the moment. It was such a fervent kiss but not lust-filled and you couldn’t help but to whimper as you placed your hands on his shoulders. You knew you had the suit but at the moment it was as if you were burning by the tenderness of his touch and then his hand slid up to your face, cupping your cheeks.

It was soft and timeless and slow.

But as the seconds passed, your mind began screaming because you knew it was not the time and that damn smirk that Harry gave you appeared, making you pull back.

“Hey”, he muttered and you smiled, those chocolate eyes with golden specks were piercing you, the way no one had looked at you.

“Hey”, you replied as you felt the blush creeping up your cheeks turning around to see almost everyone looking at you but especially Pepper tilting her head and Tony frowning at the scene.

You had a boyfriend and you were kissing Peter Parker.

Sam was giving you a blinking look as he landed next to you and you grimaced because of the embarrassment, “I don’t if you’ve been on a fight before, but there’s usually not this much kissing”, he declared while your mask covered your face to stop anyone to see that blush and just in time before Steve spoke.

“Avengers…”, he shouted as everyone waiting for his sign and you felt Peter next to you like in old times and the feeling of comfort washed over you, “…assemble”

…

Maybe if your suit had more capacity if you had waited longer to fight you might have been able to help, maybe if you weren’t so tired for the crying or stressed of the time travel or the fighting you would’ve been so awake, maybe if you hadn’t been too busy carrying the gauntlet and, in consequence, being blown by the lasers that were fired by Thanos ship before Carol arrived, maybe if you hadn’t tried to help Hope and Scott get the mini-time machine for Carol to enter and then subsequently, being blown by Thanos, just maybe you could avoid Tony taking the gauntlet, effectively sacrificing himself for the universe.

All the maybes and what-ifs were eating you alive as you saw Tony, fall back against an upturned root of a tree, armor smoking and arm withered and blackened as half of his face were. It felt like your whole body gave up as you fall to your knees in front of him because you knew it, you knew it right away as your eyes connected and the tears began streaming down your eyes, your father was dying and there was nothing you could do.

“Dad?”, you asked, finally stepping forward and taking his hand. It didn’t even register that that was your voice, watery and unsteady as you shakily reached towards his arch reactor and you knew it was too late. “I love you”

He smiled but there was no real answer, his eyes were glazy and he exhaled, almost as he let go.

A hand rested on your shoulder and you turned around to see Rhodey but with one look, Rhodey shook his head knowing that it was too late and you whimpered, your body spasming as you cried with too many emotions for your body to be held, they were too big and it felt the same way when you saw Peter turning to dust but as you watched your dad and held him, it felt so final and it was crushing.

It was your worst nightmare since you remember since he became Ironman you always feared the day that Tony might not make it and it came to life.

Then Peter landed next to you, his eyes glazy and full with the injuries as a result of the fight, he was swallowing hard as he stared at the scene, tears began falling from his eyes because he was seeing his mentor, another father figure laying limply and emotionless in front of him.

“Mr. Stark… Tony…it’s okay, it’s okay”, he whimpered and it was so raw and torn as he kneeled next to you. “…Mr. Stark, we won. You did it, sir…”

Tony gazed at him for a second and then past him, Rhodey quickly placed a hand on Peter’s shoulder, guiding him away as Pepper arrived.

Pepper gave you a quick look, her eyes watery but tears yet to fall. It was more than a look because you knew how this was Pepper’s nightmare as well and you shook your head as you felt like your lungs were going to explode because of how you couldn’t stop crying.

Pepper kneeled, heartsick as she sighed, trying so hard to keep it together, “Hey”, she whispered softly as she placed her hand on the arch reactor, next to yours.

Tony’s gaze quickly linked with hers and you backed up a bit so she could say goodbye to him. But as best as you tried, you couldn’t stand up as you kneeled next to them, it was crushing you the guilt and the grieve. It was as if you were broken, not numb, but completely broken as you watched Tony’s eyes glassy as if life was leaving him and at the end of the day it was.

“Pepper”, Tony whispered with a smile and he placed his working hand over hers.

Pepper swallowed hard as she gazed at the arch reactor. “Friday?”

“Life functions critical”

And it was a punch in the gut as you heard it as your hands quickly came to your head as if to protect you, you wanted to scream, you wanted to fly away, you wanted to go back in time but there was no way to avoid this and you knew it. You were going to lose your father, heart-clenching on your chest as you saw it before a sob could escape your lips you felt Peter’s hand wrapping you and, at the moment, it was all you needed as you buried your face on his neck and clung to him like you never had before.

Pepper stared into Tony’s eyes and she knew. Tears threatening to fall from Tony’s eyes as he looked at her, almost as if saying sorry.

“Tony, look a me”, Pepper said seriously, “We’re going to be okay”, tears welling on your father’s eyes as his face fell to the side. “You can rest now”, Pepper muttered as she touched his face.

She smiled before his eyes went past her and you could see how she was holding her sobs in as you finally turned around and watched him.

The light in the arch reactor went out and his hand fell from hers.

There was only silence as the heroes gather around you, the full weight of what was happening dawning on them.

She leaned in to kiss him and as she pulled back the tears and sobs came crashing down as she buried herself on his neck.

And you let out a cry, it was so loud that you felt like it ripped your chest.

Tony Stark was gone.

_______________________________________________________________________

TAG LIST: @erindanus​ @spideylovin​ @zlamaneserca​ @bethanystan​ @cedricisnotonfire​

[fragilevixenfic]

Chasing Your Silhouette

Read on AO3

Rating: M

Classification: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, UST, RST, Post-Episode Zebras, Flashbacks

Summary:  They’d learned each other’s quirks and intricacies on the job—but when did it become over the line? When did physicality become a detriment to them once they’ve taken off their shields? When did they realize the line in the sand no longer existed? (This is meant to take place a couple weeks after “Zebras” – had to assume a timeline, I don’t remember actual dates)

Notes: “Sometimes a change of perspective is all it takes to see the light” – Dan Brown

Mild description of sexual assault/violence (purely as a device not as an action) – it is not meant to trigger. Please proceed with caution.Also, I’m definitely on the EO ship but I don’t necessarily ascribe to the idea that Elliot would ever cheat on his wife. Creative liberties have been taken to alleviate such issues. Eli was never conceived and the marriage has never recovered since the initial separation in 2007, the status of their marriage is unresolved but in limbo. Don’t come for my head.

No one else can disarm me

No one else has your light

-Edward Gamper “Stranger Love”

               “Put your gun down.”

               It couldn’t be real.

               The blood, the wound duct tape around Elliot’s wrists and across his mouth, the click of a bullet sliding out of the clip and into the chamber. The only sound that inspired any sense of clarity was the thudding of Olivia’s heart in her throat as she stopped dead in her tracks. She tore her focus off of Elliot for just enough time to bear witness to O’Halloran’s lifeless eyes. She walked right into it and let her guard down as the distress in his eyes pulled back her layer of protection. How could she be so stupid? Stuckey had her in the wrong spot and Elliot had already begun to pay the price as the punctures and slashes continued to bleed through his striped shirt.

               “Okay, Dale. Okay,” Olivia blinked and relinquished her sidearm, the shaking of her digits barely noticeable as she kept them extended.

               Don’t flinch. Don’t flinch. Do not flinch.

               Her inner mantra was stuck on repeat as the reminder of O’Halloran’s corpse laying just feet away and her partner hung in the balance as some sick offering to the one holding all of the cards. She couldn’t tell if it Stuckey or herself that had everything to gain. She knew she had everything to lose. The line began to blur as the business end of Elliot’s gun got a little closer and Stuckey’s stance became a little less sure; he was shifty, aching to pull the trigger. Stuckey was capable of burying a bullet in the middle of her back, or her head, and leaving her for dead in the middle of the tech lab. Collateral damage. She was in the way. Her head was swimming, battling against the current as her blood pressure skyrocketed.

               Think…What would Elliot do?

               “What are you doing here, Liv?” Stuckey had disappointment flaring from behind his rage as he digested her arrival. “I didn’t want to have to hurt you, too.”

               “Then, don’t,” Olivia’s voice wavered, the scenario playing out in a dozen different ways as Elliot’s muted breaths were audible from across the room.

               “I don’t have much of a choice now,” Stuckey had that gun aimed high and true, inspiring nothing less than a hefty dose of tension as she swallowed more of her fear. “You’ve seen a little much.”

               “Let’s all calm down,” Olivia’s method of reassurance was hovering between collected and methodical as her chest heaved, opting to pivot to look him in the eye with a certain level of assertion. “Okay, Dale? Just relax. Because you did good. Really good.”

               “What?” The confusion was real but he held his ground and stared her down.

               “Well, I think it’s pretty clear what happened here, right?” Olivia didn’t think about it as she chose the only feasible way to undo what had already been done as she made a gesture toward O’Halloran’s body on the floor then Elliot in the chair. “One of Harrison’s crazy followers must have gotten in here. He attacked these two, you found the bodies, you secured the crime scene, and then you called me. Right?”

               “I did?” Stuckey’s eyes couldn’t stay still as Olivia weaved the careful tale for him, desperation in her eyes.

               “That’s what I’m going to tell Cragen,” Olivia nodded, squeezing the last bit of calm from her expression as she elevated her eyebrows and made eye contact with Elliot. “And then, you can finagle the forensics so everyone else believes it, too. SVU hero is killed in the line of duty. It’s perfect.”

               God, I���m so fucking sorry.

               Olivia knew it was a mistake to look at Elliot but it was a necessary evil to drive her point home. He would’ve done this and more if it were her in that chair; that fact was never in doubt. He’d been through the wringer and now she was twisting the blade a little further into him to really make it count. She’d give her life up to save his and that was the more acerbic part of the situation as she pushed her tongue against the roof of her mouth. It wasn’t like refusing to take the shot but it almost felt worse as the silence from Elliot was deafening. He would just have to trust the method even if it betrayed every fiber of his being.

               “You’re lying,” Stuckey’s finger was lingering a little too long over the trigger, his tone elevated as he stared her down. “You’re lying.”

               “You think that you’re the only one whose life is hell because of this prick?” Olivia didn’t waver with every syllable as she began to back up and let the first heavy-handed slap bite hard on Elliot’s skin before it blurred into the second and third strike as she read him the riot act. “…’Liv, do this. Liv, do that.’ I’m sick of it.”

               “No, don’t,” Stuckey wanted him muffled but Olivia’s wheels were turning as the panic set in. “Don’t!”

               “Sick of it,” Olivia muttered and gave the tape a firm, unforgiving tug from her partner’s lips. “I want to hear him scream!”    

               “Don’t you touch me, y—” Elliot’s growl was cut short with Olivia’s hand pushing against the knot of his tie as she wrapped her fingers around the material of his shirt and pushed her knuckles into his Adam’s apple.

               Olivia’s knees cried out, yearning to buckle as she let the words slip free, the effort to keep a domineering stance faltering with every breath while towering over her seated partner. “Did somebody say you could talk?”

               “Both of you, shut up!” Stuckey’s face was red, the adrenaline pumping as the agitation nagged and nipped in the air, pushing the envelope a little further as he tested the boundaries. “Hit him again.”

               Elliot’s eyes were locked on Olivia’s. There was an immeasurable level of strength hidden beneath the glaring amount of vulnerability she possessed—it’s what made him choose her too many times. It’s what made her everything that he needed right next to him. It’s exactly what drove him crazy. Her eyes glassed over and her lashes twitched as she held onto her control. She didn’t need to say ‘I’m sorry’ out loud. It had already been scrawled all over her face as she gradually blinked and exhaled slow. They were stuck in a perpetual nightmare and the aggressive show was becoming difficult to maintain. He could see it in the depths of those deep, brown eyes. All he could do was narrow his stare and will her to finish what she’d started.

              A means to an end.

               “Don’t do it, bitch,” Elliot muttered and squeezed his fingers against the chair, bracing for the inevitable as Olivia’s hand met his face again, encouraging a little more than a groan in the process, “Don’t hit me ag—”

               Olivia cut him off and gripped his neck, pressing the curve between her index and thumb against his windpipe to keep him from speaking. “No more orders out of you, pal!”

               “I don’t believe you,” Stuckey was breaking, finally, and Olivia had finally gotten underneath of his skin. “I don’t believe you.”

               “If you knew half of what this prick has done,” Olivia had her index directed firmly at Elliot, digging deeper as she rationalized every word and let them move her, cutting open another wound as each phrase became an excruciating plea, “Somebody needs to take him out. I just didn’t know you felt the same way as I did. I never had—anybody that I could trust.”

               “Stuckey, don’t listen to her, she’ll turn on you the way she’s turned on me,” Elliot talked right over the top of her, adding to the torment that they were inflicting on each other as they laid it on thick and went to the extreme.

               “Dammit, just shut up!” Olivia shouted and glared, sweeping her index at Elliot as Stuckey took particular offense to the outburst.

               “We told you to shut up!” Stuckey pistol-whipped Elliot across the left side of his face, throttling him solidly before aiming the gun at Olivia.

               Olivia’s voice was ragged as Stuckey kept the gun trained on her, the wretchedness breaking free as she kept talking. “And when this son of a bitch is out of the picture, I’m going to need a new partner.”

               “What about Cragen?” Stuckey’s eyebrows went up, attracted to the notion.

               “I’ve got Cragen wrapped around my little finger, the same goes with Munch and Fin,” Olivia was hopelessly clinging to getting him to lower the barrel as she held up her finger and attempted to ignore Elliot’s disapproving groans. “Dale, if I say the word, you’re it. Think about it, Dale.”

               “I like the sound of that,” Stuckey tilted his head and smirked, his focus off of Elliot entirely as he nodded eagerly.

               “You like it because we get each other…We’re connected,” Olivia knew how contrived it sounded but her body told a different story as she held out her hand and softened her facial expression to drive the point home, “We’re connected.”

               “We are connected” Stuckey was still teetering on apprehension but his grip on that gun was softening, his enunciation faltering.

               “Yeah,” Olivia reached for his hand, moving just close enough to graze his fingers and get him to hold hers with a semblance of affection.

               Come on, come on, come on.

               “Let’s take care of the third wheel,” Stuckey rubbed her fingers and nodded his head as he started to move toward Elliot, a determined look on his face.

               “Wait, just wait one second,” Olivia was at a turning point as recklessness took over and she forced a smile while her fingers smoothed across the top of his hand, tugging Stuckey’s focus back to her, “I want him to watch.”

               The knock at the door nearly took her breath away and elicited an involuntary gag as a wave of dizziness washed over her while she stood at the sink with the water still running. She splashed herself again with more urgency and wiped away the stray droplets as she turned the spigot until the flow stopped. That was all she needed tonight. Instant replay of one of her less graceful solutions that had the palm and back of her hand sore for two days. Olivia would’ve liked to admit that she knew why it was still rolling around in her brain but she couldn’t pinpoint it even as the knocking continued with a little more urgency than the first time.

               “Liv, a bathroom break shouldn’t take this long. Are you ready for round two?” Elliot opened the door and raised an eyebrow at her as she palmed the porcelain, staring at her reflection in the mirror. “You can do whatever you’re doing later. Russell is getting antsy and whining about sweat pooling in his asscrack.”

               Olivia shook her head and scoffed, the smirk resting on her lips as she tilted her chin to look at him. “He still hasn’t waved the white flag and asked for counsel?”

               “Nope,” Elliot pushed the door against the stopper and leaned against the iconography, waiting impatiently for her. “There’s a solid chance he’s got a thing for you, though…might be why he’s not asking for a lawyer.”

               “He’s either brave or stupid,” Olivia dragged her feet as she moved into the dimly lit hallway, shaking off the last of the flutter working through her belly. “I’m his type—let’s not make this deep, El.”

               “Oh, by the way, Liv,” Elliot stood in front of her as they approached Interrogation One, a crooked smile creeping across his face as he encroached on her personal bubble. “You better not go ducking out on me again because it’s too hot in there.”

               “You turned on the heat again, didn’t you?” Olivia slipped out of her jacket and swatted him with the overheated leather before he could reach for the door handle. “You’re a royal asshole, you know that, right?”

               “I’ll see you inside, dear,” Elliot shrugged his shoulders, laughed, and dodged the slap of leather against his exposed forearm.

               “You’re lucky I’m too hot to bruise your other cheek and match them up,” Olivia turned around, flipping him the bird as she came to the end of the hall to put away her coat.

               “You keep your hands to yourself,” Elliot called out after her, a guilty smile across his face as he twisted the handle and gave it a push.

              He really had jacked up the temperature. It was excruciatingly hot in the interrogation room. Olivia gripped the back of her neck and swallowed a groan as the wave of heat spread across her skin, awakening every pore as a bead of sweat kissed her brow as she went from the cooled space of the hall to the sweltering cage the interrogation room had become. Elliot narrowed his eyes at her, a not-so-subtle reminder that she wasn’t going to go escaping their interrogation over a little sweating. She shifted her weight in her ankle-high boots and cleared her throat as Elliot’s eyes burrowed a hole straight into her soul, refusing to back down. She would’ve been lying if she said the look he just gave her was ineffective but it was shifting her focus and tugging at the last of her sanity as their suspect continued to stonewall them.

              Cat and mouse. The bait was out and he wasn’t biting.

              “You look really uncomfortable, Olivia,” Russell had already, expertly, pushed every one of Olivia’s buttons before she had made a rather prompt exit just thirty minutes earlier. “Can’t take the heat?”

              His inquiry wasn’t without irony as he wiped the sweat from his neck and dried his palms on his pants. His skin had developed a reddish hue in patches and the staggered pattern of his open-mouthed breaths hastened. Of anyone in the room, Russell was the least skilled at executing a poker face. He grinned, his sleepy gaze fixated on Olivia as she moved behind the chair opposite his. He licked his lips as he immersed his attention fully on her; studying the sway of her hips even as Elliot’s jaw tightened with displeasure.

              “Oh, focus on yourself for a little while, Russell. The only words I want to hear out of your mouth is an explanation of why you restrained, raped, and mutilated four women in the last six weeks,” Olivia snapped and slammed both hands on the edge of the table, barely making a hair flinch on her partner’s body.

              “You really don’t want to keep pissing her off,” Elliot had both sleeves rolled up, a light sheen of sweat across his brow and down the curve of his nose, still favoring the healing flesh wounds across his chest and ribs as he winced with a flex. “Playing games with her is a bad idea, buddy.”

              “That sounds like you’re speaking from personal experience, Detective Stabler,” Russell lit the match and ignited another fire as Elliot balled up his right hand into a fist.

              I want him to watch.

               “That shit isn’t going to work on me,” Elliot gritted his teeth, a flash of Olivia’s fingers stroking Stuckey’s cheek moving into his consciousness as his patience wore and the affliction twisted at his guts.

              Elliot couldn’t let it tug at him any further as he centered his concern on Olivia. Elliot already knew Olivia’s breaking point and she was comfortably residing at the edge of it even as Russell Miller continued to man spread in his seat, a delightful sneer aimed at her. She was thoroughly done with his shit but four hours of interrogation needed to be worth something more than a foul taste in her mouth. He wasn’t going to get away with this. Olivia’s knuckles went white as she gripped the cold steel with the tilt of her head as she dug her chin into her shoulder. The slow blink was satisfying as her back went rigid after a necessary release of the palpable grip from the tabletop.

               “How many false confessions have you inveigled from men in my position, Detective Benson?” Russell had gotten her attention with that one as she laced her fingers through her hair and snagged a couple of knots in the process. “Tight slacks. Low cut, tight tops that leave next to nothing to the imagination. Repeating the action of running your pretty, delicate fingers through hair that most red-blooded men would love to pull. I’m sure that it’s done a healthy amount of coaxing.”

               “Well, I’m sure this is no surprise to you, Russell, but you’re a predator and only predatory men would make something so innocuous become a device or a motivator for their fetishes…” Olivia couldn’t help but laugh as she crossed her arms, letting sections of softly highlighted locks fall around her face. “Is that your motivator?”

               “Oh, you’re not going to redirect this, Benson. I have too many curiosities that need satisfied,” Russell scrambled as Olivia found the trigger to flip the game on him, making him more irritated than she had earlier. “You like the attention, don’t you? I bet you love knowing that you get stared at by that uptight mother fucker over there, huh? How many times do you think he’s imagined undoing the zipper on those slacks?”

              “Have I touched a nerve?” Olivia could feel the burning stare from Elliot as she diffused the bomb and stepped directly into his line of sight to soften the temper that was beginning to boil. “Sounds like I touched a nerve, doesn’t it?”

              “That’s what it sounds like,” Elliot had to move as he paced the floor and watched her tongue graze the edge of her lip.

               I want him to watch.

              Russell’s left hand banged against the surface of the table, demanding their energy anchor on him as he scrutinized Elliot’s movements. “Come on, Stabler, tell me how much it kills you that you haven’t taken the initiative and sampled the product?”

              “You fucked up son of a bitch,” Elliot had done his best to not let it get to him but Russell had sent his rationality flying out a window.

              “El…don’t,” Olivia grasped his bicep and redirected his torso, absorbing more of his heat than she’d bargained for as his chest thumped against her own.

              “Oh, no way,” Russell’s laugh was entirely too loud as Olivia’s grip persisted on Elliot’s arm, the balance of her intensity meshing with a more frenzied one from her partner. “…You already have, haven’t you?”

              “Alright, enough,” Olivia veered, converging at the edge of the table with a little more intensity as she gripped the table. “Was that the problem with your victims? Were they wearing tight, low cut clothing and suggestively touching their hair? Did you think it was all for you? Just couldn’t stop yourself, could you? They were all there to be your playthings, weren’t they?”

               “You know it’s always all for me,” Russell lacked self-control and a filter as he jolted from his chair, lunging at Benson as his shouts echoed through the room. “Always!”

               Elliot had been waiting for him to make an ill-advised maneuver for hours and all it took was getting a weak grip on Olivia’s shirt to flick the switch. The sound of cotton and polyester ripping immediately preceded the haphazard and quick extraction of Russell’s form from Olivia’s immediate vicinity. Elliot knocked over two of the chairs in the tussle and took an elbow to the face as he wrapped his arm around Russell’s torso, tugging him just enough to stop the flow of air to his sternum. A last hoorah of Russell’s strength came in the form of a shift of his arms in such a way that the contents of the file went flying into every direction before landing in a scattered pattern on the floor. Russell flailed as Elliot swung him toward the table as the clang of cuffs reverberated in the air. Elliot bumped against Olivia’s side as he secured Russell’s hands behind his back. Elliot couldn’t help himself as he took a whiff of her deodorant stifled sweat, citrus, and faint coconut while his partner beat him to the punch with the slapping of her own pair around Russell’s wrists.

              Her timing, as always, was impeccable.

               “You know I could’ve gotten him just fine without you knocking him around,” Olivia breathed heavily as she elbowed him and went to the glass to give it a couple of sharp pounds before moving back toward the mess they’d made. “Couldn’t just let me have this one, huh?”

               “Not that it matters but I had a little bit of a vested interest in putting a little bit of a hurt on him,” Elliot tilted his chin, gesturing toward her ripped shirt as he caught his breath and heaved Russell to his feet as Fin and Captain Cragen opened the door. “It’s exactly what it looks like this time…”

               “Are you okay?” Cragen was parental in his assessment of the situation as he passed Olivia first, his voice barely above a whisper as she awkwardly held torn fabric between her fingers.

               “I’m fine,” Olivia said and turned her head toward Elliot. “He’s the one that’s doing all of the manhandling with fresh scabs on his chest and abs…I’m just peachy.”

               “Fuck you both,” Russell fought against the cuffs as two uniformed officers pulled him toward the doorway, the spittle running down his lip as he struggled.

               “Sounds like the conversation got a little dodgy in here?” Fin and Elliot had butted heads more than enough but the concern for Olivia was paramount as the reddened flesh of her ribcage peeked out from the ripped portion of her shirt.

               “Nothing that we couldn’t handle,” Elliot sniffed the stale air in her absence from his proximity and dabbed the perspiration from his forehead, never once taking his eyes off of his partner.

               Elliot’s yellowed bruising across his left cheek stood out in the light as Olivia took a step closer, reminding her for the second time of the game they’d play to get out of a jam. It reminded her of every gamble she’d taken to save him even though she knew the reversal was bitterly true. The thought alone stole her oxygen as she contemplated the reaches of her partnership. She made eye contact with him in spite of her best efforts not to and the doubt crept in. She bit down on her bottom lip, held the ripped open section across her midriff closed, and ducked out of the room before Elliot could fully fathom what she had just done.

               What Olivia hadn’t anticipated was that he’d follow her around every corner.

               “Liv, come on,” Elliot pushed the door to the cribs and found her sifting through a duffel bag for another shirt, her back to him with the ripped section of her top hanging off to one side. “Cragen’s going to want to talk to us about what just happened in there and you ran out a little quick…”

               “Can a girl change shirts so she’s not flashing her fucking stomach to the whole fucking precinct or is that too much to ask?” Olivia was terse as she pulled a fresh top from the bag, refusing to grant him the courtesy of looking him in the eye. “I’d like some privacy.”

               “I’m sure you would but you’re not going to get it,” Elliot was unintentionally rough with her wrist as he spun her around, encouraging a yelp from her. “You act like I’ve never seen what you’ve got on under there.”

               “El…Jesus,” Olivia let out an exasperated sigh and pivoted in her shoes as the cot rail pinched the backs of her legs until it dug against the material of her pants. “Why are you doing this? Wasn’t all of that in there enough for today?”

               “You can act like everything is fine and dandy, but I see right through your bullshit, Liv,” Elliot was less concerned with the concept of her personal space and more focused on driving the point home as his knees brushed against hers. “Every single day, I’m running after your shadow, and even when I am facing you, you’re pretending. Why?”

               “If you’ve got something to say then just say it. Contrary to popular belief, I’ve never needed you to coddle me and that’s not going to change anytime soon,” Olivia squeezed the shirt between her fingers, frustration brewing as her partner’s behavior seemed less like an unusual outburst and more like he’d been holding it in.

               “So, you don’t think about your power play with Stuckey at all?” Elliot took a step back from her and wiped the thin layer of sweat from his face as he craned his neck back, angling his eyes toward the ceiling. “I mean, really, Liv.”

               There it was. They’d tiptoed around it and pretended as though it didn’t exist but it was real. It had taken weeks to talk about it and they’d both let it fester for a lot longer than they should have. The wound was open and Elliot wasn’t going to let it go. Not that Olivia was doing anything about forgetting it. It been haunting her and invaded wandering, waking thoughts on a daily basis. Olivia crossed her arms and shrugged her shoulders, the distant look in her eyes less than inviting as she trapped her tongue against her cheek. She didn’t want him to know that she’d replayed the scenario a thousand times but the outcome was still the same every time. That acrid taste on her mouth, that look in Elliot’s eyes, and a pang of agony over not being able to look away or close her eyes.

              It was strategic. It had to be.

              She did it all for him.

               “What do you want me to say?” Olivia dodged him and moved toward the exterior wall, winding the fabric of the shirt around her hand while the ripped shirt continued to hang freely from her torso. “That slapping you around and saying really fucked up things about you didn’t bring me personal joy? I certainly didn’t want to force you to watch that cretin stick his tongue in my mouth, either. I thought you knew me a little better than that, El.”

               “I want you to tell me the truth, Liv,” Elliot took a breath as he lowered his voice, the agony having its way with his senses as he stared at the floor. “I can’t get the image out of my head and I had to ask myself if it was out of sick possessiveness but I don’t think it’s that.”

               “Why are you telling me this now?” Olivia leaned against the cold finish of the painted, cement brick and bit down on the swell of her lip. “I can’t be your little sibling that you tower over and stifle whenever danger gets too close. I’m not property, Elliot.”

               “Eleven years, Liv,” Elliot was fiddling with the tip of his tie, winding it around his fingers as he shook his head slowly, grappling with the words. “Eleven God damn years. Enough to go from zero to sixty and lose control of all of my faculties without so much as a lift of your fucking pinky. Eleven years of tucking away so much of my sentimentality when it comes to you that the sight of your lips on anyone else’s…Despondency doesn’t go far enough and all I can do is pretend that it doesn’t piss me off. It does. It torments me. It kills me…it breaks my heart.”

               “You’re a fucking piece of work, Elliot Stabler,” Olivia’s voice strained, a swarm of trepidation whirling through her chest as she fought the desire to hit him as his sky and steel lifted to stare into her soul. “I walked away from you once and I can do it again just like that.”

               “Just like that? No hesitation at all?” Elliot refused to shrink as his speech did nothing but piss her off as he groaned into the atmosphere. “I can’t say that I wouldn’t deserve it, Liv.”

               “I meant what I said, Elliot, about having rules and not breaking any more of them,” Olivia had already broken them for lesser men but she let the comment slip free as though it carried a semblance of conviction. “It can’t get personal.”

               “We’re a little past that, Liv,” Elliot wanted to shout at her but he held it in as he watched the indignance cover for confusion as he groaned, popped his knuckles, and pushed his sleeves up toward his elbows. “Everything fell apart…except for you. You were still here. You are personal and I don’t want that to change.”

               “Whatever you’ve done with the Elliot Stabler I know, I need you to bring him back because this convoluted and confusing sender of mixed signals is like riding a roller coaster and I’m sure my lap belt is broken,” Olivia hated being the equalizer but she was witnessing her best friend fall apart before her eyes as she shoved past him and reached for the door handle.

               Elliot wasn’t good at grandiose gestures or elucidating the details of his feelings until they were boiling over like a screaming kettle but he couldn’t let her slip away again. He snagged one of her belt loops and tugged her backward, demonstrating one of his more agile qualities as he braced her back from smacking against the wall. Olivia’s knees betrayed her as they shook, reverberated the sensation as the gooseflesh covered all the way to her neck. He made her feel gossamer and ethereal, unnerved and out of control, while understating the actuality of her height as he tilted her chin with the tip of his index. It wasn’t demanding but the craving was irrefutable as he sought out a silent acquiescence with the softest graze of his mouth on hers.

               Her answer wasn’t so quiet as the utterance came out in a soft, breathy gasp.

               “Don’t ruin it,” Olivia was already drunk off of him simply by his touch and his heat radiating against her, both of which were consuming her as his name came out in a moan. “Elliot.”

               Elliot’s lips were already tracing the curve of her jaw all the way to her ear while his fingers gathered along the small of her back, tangling around the strip of ripped fabric. “Tell me to stop and I’ll stop, Liv.”

               Olivia’s eyes rolled back and the Earth tilted on its axis as she didn’t give two shits if anyone walked in or not while her back involuntarily arched, pushing her forward, against his chest. “No, no, no, don’t stop. Please, don’t stop.”

               The protective line between them had dissolved with the return of a gaze that seemed to last forever. They’d tiptoed around the broken glass and still came up with shards as Elliot’s mouth crushed Olivia’s, pushing her lips apart as though he’d replayed it in his head a thousand times. Perhaps, he had and knew, deep down, in the depths of her mind that she’d done the same as her fingers gripped his bicep, drawing him closer. Her heartbeat thrummed against him, the frenetic rhythm building with that of his own. He loved her so much more than he could ever say in words as he directed her motions and dragged his fingers over the material of her shirt until her moan vibrated against his mouth.

               Elliot savored the taste of a mint’s remnant on the tip of Olivia’s tongue as he felt the chill of the night air radiating through the windowpane as he pressed his palms against the glass. It suddenly didn’t matter that only a singular door separated them from the outside world—for a moment, they existed wholly for each other. Even as Elliot leaned in a little further and bowed his head as if to pray, he simply craved more of her. Elliot tilted his chin and encouraged Olivia onto the tips of her toes while his arms memorized the curve of her spine down to the swell of her hips. There wasn’t anything to pull them back, convince them of an alternate path, or deter them from simply being. There was nothing left to prevent either of them from feeling something real.

               “El, we still, ah, have work to do,” Olivia’s eyes were dreamily in reset, lashes aimed down, lips swollen and bruised while reality crashed back down around them in the dim, her fingers gliding along the chiseled edge of his jaw. “Captain will send Fin or Munch out after us and we’ve already been gone too long.”

               Elliot groaned and dragged his lips down her cleavage as he pulled her close and buried his face against the soft, hot skin above her shirt, generously squeezing her backside until the grunt was audible. “I know…But I don’t want to.”

               “We have to,” Olivia bit down on her lip, the chill of the wall finally touching the exposed skin at her side while she traced lines around the remnants of bruises on his face. “As much as I’d like to keep going, we have to get back to our job.”

               “It’s worse than a little taste,” Elliot set his teeth against the material of her shirt before standing upright, applying a soft, completing kiss to her temple as his embrace slowly unwound. “A tiny tease of you.”

               The absence of his heat against her tugged at the strings of her ailing heart as she ran a hand through her hair and unfurled the shirt to swap out, a smirk residing on her lips. “You know, it’s only a tease if it doesn’t lead anywhere, El.”

I wouldn’t know where to start on tagging this one. Just hope you’ll check it out.

[writing-frenzy]

Alternate Perceptions- AHiT Idea

So, after accidently smashing head first into A Hat in Time Fandom and all their good shit, I got ideas some that refuse to be written, and one of them I thought I note out. (heavily inspired by doodledrawsthings, seriously, there stuff is so good.)

So, welcome to Alternate Perceptions! We can have multiple POVs here, so lets have fun with this.

First up, we have Prince Luke, who is taking a break from Law School for the summer to spend time with his fiance, Vanessa. Everything is just fine swell, normal carefree days, when the Prince and Princess starts to hear about rumors about a look-a-like. Sure, he’s heard some things while at the University, one person even said he looked so weird with a smile on his face ?? but Luke didn’t really question or think long on it... at least until someone, a noble in fact, asks if the Prince has a brother?

-

Luke blinked in surprise at the question, Vanessa even paused as she considered the man.

“I do not believe so...” Luke answered slowly, even as carefully took in the now sweating noble. Vanessa, do you really need to stare so hard?

“Ah, I see; sorry, just met an older chap and some girls, his daughter and her friend I believe, and he looked incredibly like your father.” the man excused, even as Luke tried his best not to twitch.

His father, the former and now retired King of another kingdom close to Subcon, while now known for his loyalty and incredible love for his wife... was formerly a rather... free young man in his youth.

‘Hopefully not another claiming they are the rightful heir to the thrown, there is a reason Uncle is in charge.’ Luke smiled, even as he felt Vanessa hold his hand in hers. It was a well known trouble that occasionally popped up here and there, people claiming to have raised a Royal’s bastard or claiming to be such even after the tests failed.

(At least his father had been careful, if not smart in his youth.)

“I’ll probably have to send a letter to Uncle later about this, I’m sure he’ll appreciate the warning of someone coming.”

-

The thing is, no one ever pops up. Oh, apparently this potential headache did go to his Uncle’s Kingdom, but never went to the castle at all. In fact, from what he heard, the man and two girls ended up saving a square full of people from some sort of explosion in a plaza, accepting thanks and food from the happy citizens, but actually refusing to go a step closer to the castle.

(There is much to say from the citizens, those who managed to take a peek of the man who managed to keep a heavy cloak on even in all the chaos, only for it to get knocked off in accident by a rescued child.

With those features, glowing golden eyes and a heavy scowl, one would almost think they were looking at the Former King in his youth.)

That was... suspicious. If the Prince wasn’t assured that the perpetrator of the explosion was caught, he might have thought the man was involved somehow. but as it goes, more and more stories come out, about this unusual trio going around, helping out here and there, even unearthing corrupted nobles and becoming one of the most talked about subjects since the Subcon Duchess’s scandals.  

And yet, it seems besides occasionally seen entering in Subcon Forest, this trio hasn’t actually stepped foot in Subcon itself.

Not until one unusual event.

-

Prince Luke gasped, for a good minute thankful for the harsh taskmaster his sword instructor was, insisting that the rest of the body needed to be just as trained as his hands and feet. Otherwise, carrying his beloved to safety might have been just that bit harder, what with all the finery her station required her to wear, though it was still a relief when he could finally set her down. But watching how the manor warped and twisted around them, the floor seeming to turn into actual lava, even ice in some places, the young royal couldn’t help but feel his stomach drop, even as him and the remaining nobles in the room clung to their last piece of safety in the ballroom that, that monster just transformed.

For a good minute, Luke just felt himself breathe, trying to calm down and think of a solution, only to be shocked when two children, just little girls at that, ran past him. He made to reach out to them, to maybe stop them, just about to call out to them, when he heard-

“My Prince, what are you thinking? We just barely escaped with our lives!” Vanessa exclaimed, holding on tight to the arm at his side.

“But those girls-”

“The kiddos will be fine; might want to worry about yourself more foool.” was cut in, the voice harsh and grim, but ever so familar in a way?. Turning as one, the nobles and Royals took in a heavily cloaked figure, golden lights the only thing one could see in the darkness of their hood.

“Snatcher! Do you think you can reach that lever over there? We’ll need that if we want to beat this guy and seal the rift!” one of the girls called out, the bow wearing one in fact.

“On it.” and with that, the other was moving, up and away from them (almost like they were running away it seemed).

-

With the trio coming in, they stop the being, and even return the place back to normal, much to everyone’s gratefulness.

But in all the confusion and chaos, the one called Snatcher and once Dad by the hat wearing girl, gets his cloak blown off, revealing their face to all.

Its.. it’s like looking in a twisted mirror in a way, because he sees in him the features of his father easily, it’s the same Luke had inherited, but where Luke has his mother’s smile and soft brown eyes to soften his features, you can see none of that in this Snatcher’s harden, tired face and glowing amber golden eyes.

The Eyes only Royal’s in Luke’s family can inherit. Eyes that show the Magic in their line, making them able to inherit the throne...

Things just got that much more complicated.

(Meanwhile, a Queen to be looks at this impostor, seeing this similar being to her perfect prince and inwardly seethes... and yet... Shows her sides she has never seen of her dear sweet Prince... It is a conflict of emotions she feels; does she want this man gone and buried, for twisting her beloved Prince’s image... or would he be a nice addition to the dungeons, for her to appreciate when her longing grows?) 

-

Meanwhile, the Other POV we can have!

So, normal day for Snatcher and the kids, just chilling in the pillow pile, getting ready for another exploration on the planet... when some idiot a world over plays around with time pieces, accidentally piercing through to them, the only other time that so many time pieces were gathered in their world and planet. This unfortunately drags the three over there, meeting the idiot and their plan to get revenge on the kingdoms around them any means necessary. 

So, their is some good news, bad news, and just oh good moon why.

Good news! It will not ruin their time line, their past has long since set, and they have no worries about messing with things here too much.

Bad news! If they happen to get too involve here in this world (i.e. forming magical bonds, eating magical food, using to much or many magical items that were created in this world) they risk never being able to go back home!

Oh good Moon Why News: it is a near perfect replica of Subcon Past, with Crazy Vanessa and a whipped Prince Luke running around, still ‘happy’ as it were. And they have to fix all these rifts in this world, along with stopping the head idiot in order to fix everything and go back to their own, meaning they will have to explore everywhere around them, Subcon and it’s terrible memories included.

Alternatly, this could also be called~

Snatcher’s no good, terrible, horrible, truly abhorring, detestable time in an Alternate Universe of Subcon and the Kingdoms around it.

The Snatch is not a happy camper, especially since he is now stuck in a meat suit. Luckily, he can use minor, low, low powered version of his powers. (now, I don’t know if he got transformed before or during all this, because both would be juicy, so I won’t say.) otherwise, Snatcher would be very tempted to listen to that dark little voice inside that says screw everything and one. 

He is not smiling, there are no smiles to be found, and everyone who meets him doesn’t mistake him for the prince. (because I find the thought funny on just how different a person can look with a whole different outlook and expression on their face.) Ironically, he gets the cloak because he doesn’t want to be mistaken for the prince or be accused of being a body snatcher or something, only for it not to even be needed for that in the end, though he doesn’t know this for a good, long while. (To not be mistaken as a illegitimate child or possible lost royal heir on the other hand... yeah.)

(The girls are doing their best to help how they can, providing distractions and just being themselves, getting a now rare smile out of the glowing eyed man before them.

It... it really helps)

Also, at one point, I want both Bow and Hat to just go yeet with Snatcher or vice versa, something all three trouble makers agreed to do if needed. Also, Snatcher Carrying one girl over his shoulder while the other under his arm as they run from something is a need as well.

(And maybe, in a moment of panic, of triggers and shaking, where Snatcher finds he can’t move, the two girls get protective, using a cheat or natural strength, they end up carrying their purple dad somewhere he can stress and panic in piece.)

Just, we can see the perceptions of everyone around us, with all these outside points of view, and we can really explore all the fun and tears to be had... welp, it’s at least fun to think about.

(also, interaction between Prince and Snatcher, with Snatcher having no worries of affecting the timeline... are fun to think on as well...)

[lswritingdesk]

4. Dreamscape

LOL so much for posting on a regular basis...oops.

Here you go!

-

About a month after she entered the Fragment, Kyrie was falling asleep when she slipped into her Dreamscape. She hadn’t made the conscious decision to enter it, so she figured that it was the Fragment making contact for her. She felt soft grass beneath her bare feet and noticed that she was in her sleep clothes. That wouldn’t do. Elder Rhea had warned her that Community Rules still applied even in her Dreamscape. If Daniel was here, she couldn’t meet him like this. She closed her eyes and concentrated. When she opened them again, she was wearing the soft-soled shoes, leggings, and tunic of her Tethyos home. She ran a hand over her head, and her braids were pinned up, and a veil band was secured to her head. 

Kyrie emerged from the falls of vines that covered her side of the garden and ran her hand along the ornamental shrubs that formed the outer barrier. Across the garden, she could see Daniel on his usual bench, back to her. Unlike the times before, there was sound. She could hear running water and birds and the usual sounds of a garden. 

She approached Daniel cautiously, not wanting to startle him. “Hello,” she said quietly, when she came up to his side. He jumped slightly anyway. 

“You,” he said, rising to his feet. He was about a head taller than her when standing. He looked at her like she wasn’t real. If she were in his shoes, she probably wouldn’t think she was real, either. 

“I’m real,” she said, just as quietly as before. “I didn’t get to tell you my name before. It’s Kyrie. You’re in my Dreamscape.”

Daniel stared at her, his mouth slightly open, before speaking. “A few days after you…appeared...an old family friend showed up in my office and told me all of my theories were correct. And then the US Air Force put me on a plane to Colorado and took me to a secret installation. There was this thing called a Stargate, and it…”

“It took you to another world,” Kyrie said, her face glowing, though he couldn’t see it through her veil. She tried to put as much of her joy in her voice as she could. 

“How did you know? That someone would come? That the Stargate took me to a different...world.”

“I told you that the right people would come for you. And my planet has a Stargate, too. I’ve never been through it, but I was taught what it does. What was the other world like?”

“I’m…still there. I didn’t go back to Earth. I couldn’t, not after everything that happened. I live in a desert with a tribe on a planet called Abydos.” Kyrie committed the name to memory, intending to research it when she woke up. “We liberated the people here from the rule of these awful fake gods who called themselves the Goa’uld. Apparently they’re all over the galaxy. We drove them off of Earth centuries ago in a revolt, but they’re still everywhere else. There’s so much to learn. That’s why I stayed here. My life was over on Earth, but here I can do so much more.”

Kyrie smiled sadly beneath her veil. She wanted to tell this man that his life on Earth was certainly not over, but that would go against revealing too much of a person’s Timeline to them before they were ready. There were less invasive ways to study someone’s Timeline besides going into the Fragment, and she had dedicated some time to Daniel after learning his name. She now knew a whole lot more about him, but it was nice to hear him talk about his life instead of reading it from a cold holoscreen.

“What about you? Is your job over now that you got me to Abydos?”

Kyrie gave a long, low chuckle. “Not in the slightest. Abydos is not your ending, Daniel. It is just your beginning.”

“And I suppose that’s all you can tell me, otherwise you’re meddling in my Timeline?”

“You catch on fast, but yes. I’ve known pieces of your story since I was a little girl on the cusp of adulthood. I waited ten Cycles to finally meet you. Imagine how drawn out this is for me.”

“Is a Cycle like a year?”

“Yes, though it lasts longer than one of your Tau’ri years. It’s roughly equivalent to ten of them.”

“Tau’ri. Is that what you call us?”

“That is your name in my language. I did not know your language when I first had visions of you. All I had to identify you was your home symbol from the Stargate.”

“What is your name in my language? You said your planet was called Illyria.”

“I cannot tell you the name of my people at this time. It would put you at too much risk. I should not have even told you the name of my planet, but it is too late now. One day I will be able to tell you what I am, but for now, you must promise me that you will keep the knowledge of my planet to yourself.”

“I promise, but I still don’t understand.”

“My people withdrew from the galaxy as a protective measure, both for ourselves and for others. The time is not yet right for us to reintroduce ourselves.”

“Alright. I will respect your wishes. Not that I really have anyone to tell. Why do you clothe yourself the way you do? Is it because of your belief system? The...Eternal Alchemy?”

“Partly. During your Thirteenth Cycle, you enter the Fragment and see your sacred geometry, which is basically just you seeing your future. When you exit, you receive your veil, which signifies you taking on the responsibilities of becoming an adult. It’s largely symbolic now that we are a closed off society, but occasionally we all veil. Only Seers, like me, and Elders wear the veil all the time. And Seers cover all of their skin because, well, you wouldn’t like it if my skin touched yours. I would be able to see and feel everything in your mind because of my abilities.” Daniel winced at the thought of this. “Yes, it is as uncomfortable as you would think. We only exercise the ability when absolutely necessary.”

“So what do you do when you’re not inside my head or being my temporal guardian angel?”

“I’m a Scholar. I’m on a Krewe studying one of our oldest Cities. I spent years learning ancient dialects of our language to be able to translate manuscripts, artefacts, and other things we find. I’m a lot like you, actually. Maybe one day they’ll assign me to a Krewe that goes through the Stargate to study our ancient settlements. I sometimes go to my old City Cube for vacation. I grew up by the ocean. My House is made up of Wavewalkers- people who control the sea. I was an anomaly, to be a Seer in a House of Wavewalkers. They had to send me to school in another House’s City Cube after my Thirteenth Cycle to learn how to be a Seer.”

“Your community structure seems somewhat complicated. You come from a House that generally produces people with the same abilities, and each house controls a City Cube…”

“It’s not complicated. If you manifest a different ability after your Thirteenth Cycle, you just go to school in a different City Cube. The manifesting House takes care of your education. House Jezerinac taught me how to be a Seer. Then in my Eighteenth Cycle, I exited the primary schools and went to College. There are three- Statics, Dynamics, and Synergetics. I attended Statics. In my Twentieth Cycle, I was assigned to a Krewe. I have been with it for three Cycles now. It’s just like you have primary school and university and then you get a job. Our primary schools are just tied to abilities for a certain number of years.”

“Your society sounds quite interesting. I would be interested in studying it.”

“Perhaps someday you will have the opportunity.”

“Is that a thinly veiled way of saying that one day I will be able to study your society?”

“I can neither confirm nor deny.” 

“Of course you can’t. So you just...created this place? And it’s ours to meet in?”

“I made it while in the Fragment for the first time. It exists as part of my mind and part of the Fragment. I can consciously pull it up, but in this case, the Fragment summoned me here, and I suspect you as well. I’ve never tried to summon you here myself.”

“I see. It’s a little unnerving that you can just pull me out of my dreams and into this place.”

“I assure you it’s only ever out of a specific need that you are summoned here. Tonight, I guess it was so you could tell me that you were found and that you went through the Stargate.”

“Can you summon other people here? Could you tell Catherine that I was okay, for example?”

“No, that’s not how it works. I’m not bonded to her like I am to you.”

“Oh, I would have liked for her to know that I was well. She would like this place, too.”

“I’m sure that she knows you’re fine.”

“The rest of the team was instructed to say that I died here.”

“Oh, I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay. I didn’t have much going for me on Earth, so really the only person who will miss me is Catherine.”

“I wish that I could contact her for you, but…”

“I know you have rules. I wouldn’t ask you to break them for me.”

Kyrie felt a lightening sensation in her head. “I think our time here is drawing to a close for now. I can feel it in my head. If you concentrate hard enough before going to sleep, you might be able to summon this place up. I don’t know. I’ll have to ask if anyone has ever shared a Dreamscape with a Tau’ri before. But I’ll be able to manifest this place whenever I want, so...I guess I’ll see you when I see you. I hope that Abydos is kinder to you than Earth was.”

“Thank you, Kyrie. I will see you...later, then.”

--

@heathenterkin​ @luckyninetales @logicheartsoul​ @sky-of-starflowers​ @kirazalea​ @star-fish23

[theawkwardterrier]

things left behind and the things that are ahead

Summary: Steve goes back. Some things are the same. Some are different.

AO3 link here.

The problem with deciding not to come back from returning the stones is that he has no one to consult about what exactly that means. Bucky, the only one who knows, the only one who guessed, has no expertise in quantum physics or advice about what exactly he’ll be doing to the timeline.

“You’re taking all the stupid with you,” he’d said, and part of what he meant was this: going off half-cocked as always, Rogers. Seat of your goddamn pants. He isn’t wrong about that part. For a strategist, Steve spends a lot of his time winging it.

(He tries not to miss Sam. He misses Sam.)

Even once he’s taken the leap, used the Pym particles to land himself so far back that he’ll only make it to the twenty-first century again by living through until then, he doesn’t precisely know what to do about it all. He spends a week alone, and then another. He does odd jobs to make money for food and a room to sleep in. He’s forgotten how different something like finding work had been, in the days before resumes and networking and the necessary google of someone’s name and background. People look at his eyes and assume he’s a vet, they look at his arms and assume that he can lift and carry things; they’re right on both counts, and that’s enough.

He already took the chance, just coming back here, but he worries about what he might do to Peggy’s future - her amazing, groundbreaking future - if he tries to slip back into her life. But he is also so tired, so encompassingly tired. He has helped to hold the world up for what feels a lifetime: Atlas with arms exhausted and shaking. He imagines how sweet it will feel to rest with her beside him. He knows he has to try.

(He must have known it all along. He brought himself to Washington D.C. in 1949. Peggy’s lived here for just over two years.)

He knows her address. He can remember the exact pattern of the heart monitor, the precise places where she laughed as she told him about the K Street apartment that had first been rented for her.

“Ghastly place,” she had said, smiling even as she did. “Everything dark wood, with barely a window for a bit of sunlight. And practically on top of scandal: I couldn’t go out my front door without thinking of Teapot Dome! So I had the housing stipend rerouted to a lovely little place on 11th Street and things worked out rather nicely. I didn’t feel quite so miserable about coming home, and there was a grocery and a café right across the street.”

He waits for her in the café, tucked in the back. Peggy comes in promptly at seven in the morning. She speaks to the woman behind the counter, a young black woman with a wide, sweet smile, and carries a cup of tea over while her breakfast is being prepared in the kitchen. She sits down at one of the tables entirely automatically, picking up a newspaper and not even looking as she slides into the booth seat facing toward the door. Her regular spot, then.

(Nat always said he made a terrible spy, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t be observant.)

He means to come sit on the seat opposite from her. He pictures it minutely, down to the way the vinyl will rub and give as he slides across, but he finds that he cannot picture how she will look at him, what she will say. In the moment, he freezes. He ends up looming awkwardly over her for long enough that she looks up at him, a polite smile on her face as if she expects to be handed a plate of bacon and eggs, or perhaps to need to turn down a request for a date.

But then she takes in what she’s seeing.

She breathes in a sob. Her teacup is already sitting on the tabletop, but she sets down her folded paper as carefully as if it were made of porcelain too.

“Steve?” He feels the echo of the fragile word through decades. He thought he knew, when he saw her for the first time barely able to lift her head from her hospital bed, when he found the photograph that she kept so boldly on her SHIELD desk twenty-five years after he'd been gone, that they would be like this in any time. Apparently he didn’t truly know until he hears it. He is shaking.

She stands abruptly, pushing herself out of the booth and catching his hands in hers. She is so very close to him.

“Am I going to have to murder Howard for keeping secrets?” she asks quietly. He shakes his head. She traces over the skin of his forehead, no longer as smooth as it had been. She runs fingers through the front curve of his hair, strange to her, with such perfect delicacy that he almost flinches away.

“No,” she agrees quietly, and takes her handbag from the table. “Come with me. I have to set a terrible example for my employees.”

Later, after Peggy calls in pretending to be sick to a Howard simultaneously suspicious (when was the last time Peggy was ill?) and totally heedless, probably already thinking of what kinds of explosions he’s going to be taking on today, she makes them fresh tea. He can tell that it’s just a distraction. The kettle is whistling for nearly a minute before she breaks their gaze and goes to pour the water.

When they are across from each other at her small kitchen table, she says, “Tell me,” and he does, a bit.

When he has finished his brief sketch of things, she takes a sip of tea. “So, the future,” she says, her voice musing rather than judging.

“You seem to be taking this pretty well,” he tells her.

“Yes, well, I’m not entirely sure that this is real, you see,” she explains.

He looks out her nice little window for a moment; when he leaves, he’ll have no memory of the kind of view she has. “If I’d showed up and said that I’d been dug out of the ice and came to find you, would you have believed it more?”

“Perhaps,” she admits. She looks into his eyes, though, and adds quietly, “But perhaps not.”

“I understand. Even where I’ve been, time travel is a pretty new development.” He pushes back from the table, carefully so as not to rattle Peggy’s pretty blue-edged china. He looks down at her, and she looks back, a bit of tilting evaluation in her eyes. “The Dodgers are going to lose the Series to the Yankees, four games to one. It’ll all be over Sunday night. The score of the last game will be ten to six.”

She swallows. “Then I suppose I shall see you Monday morning?” Her hands, with their neatly manicured nails, rest solidly on the table in front of her. Her knuckles are pressed tightly together.

“I’ll see you on Monday,” he says, nodding slightly to her, and sees himself out.

She is already waiting when he enters the café on Monday morning. The only clue to how she’s feeling is the way her head pops quickly up whenever the door swings open.

“I’m sorry about your Dodgers,” she says as he sits down across from her.

He shakes his head. “The Yanks will do even worse to the Phillies next year,” he says, and she covers her mouth with a trembling hand.

When she speaks again, it is aching. “Let’s go home,” she says.

“Don’t you have work?”

“I planned ahead this time. As far as anyone knows, I’m scheduled to be out of the office in meetings all day.” She examines him again. He understands the urge; he thinks at this point he could describe where each of her curls lies against her shoulders, and if he couldn’t, he’ll just need to take her in a while longer.

“Are you sure?” he asks.

“Of course I am.” Humor, just the most hidden hint of tears. “It seems that you’re still a bit hopeless, I see, even after all this time.”

(Tony would have said the same thing. Tony.)

“Probably.” He gets to his feet, offers her his hand. She takes it, lightly, more formality than anything else, and stands beside him. “I’ll work on it.”

“I’m sure you will.” She leads him out again, toward her apartment. “And I’ll certainly be happy to assist.”

They settle into something. It’s so easy that Steve catches his breath from it sometimes, exultation with a bold edge of fear. She goes to work, and he stays in their neighborhood. He does the shopping at the corner market and learns, after a fashion and several borrowed library books, how to cook. He does the laundry, and learns the hard way which of Peggy's suits need special care. He walks around getting to know the area.

He overhears two of Peggy’s neighbors whispering about him as he helps a little boy fix his bike chain on the street corner.

“I always thought she must have a man somewhere,” one says to the other.

“Well, he’s lucky she took him back. She’s been here two years, nice, polite girl with a good job and that wonderful smile, and he turns up now? Where has he been?”

“I’m not much sure it matters, looking at him.”

Steve tucks his head and grins.

He stops by the newsstand for a paper enough times that the owner, an older guy named Al, eventually asks if he’d like to do a bit of work. Steve knows it’s mostly pity, but he’s restless. He takes Al up on it, working pasted together hours so Al can take breaks during the day and get home a bit earlier in the evenings. He hangs around and chats other times. They talk baseball (Al’s a Chicago transplant, a heart and soul Cubs fan) and world events and dabble a bit into politics (Steve has to read the papers closely to try to keep his stories straight). Al had a son who never came home from Guadalcanal, and maybe that’s why, when he sees Steve sketching between customers, he asks him to fix up the sign above the stand, just a little refresh on the paint and maybe a nice little drawing.

Steve guesses that he does a good enough job, because the owner of the cafe and the drugstore ask for him to come over to their places, to do bigger murals inside. He starts to get asked to do all sorts of things, from house painting to pretty watercolor cards. He’s still home in time to make supper and talk to Peggy every evening.

He knows, now, that Peggy has a thick quilted dressing gown that looks like something a grandmother would wear, and doesn’t make him feel like a grandmother’s wearing it at all. He knows how she takes her tea and that she likes a square or two of chocolate at the end of the day. He knows how it feels for her to rest her feet in his lap as they read on lazy Saturday afternoons, and what it’s like to walk arm in arm back home talking about the film they’ve seen on a Sunday. He knows the giddiness of automatically calling her “sweetheart” as he asks her to pass the salt. He knows what she looks like when she first gets up, and the careful, precise order in which she applies her makeup and styles her hair. He knows what it’s like to kiss her on waking and as she leaves for work, as she arrives back home and before they go to bed. He knows what it is to fall asleep beside her, smiling.

He wakes himself up, shuddering, at least three times a week. Sometimes he is gasping. Sometimes he is crying. Most times he wakes Peggy too.

Early one Saturday morning, she switches on the light as he tries to calm himself. She rubs his arm for a moment before standing from the bed and putting on her dressing gown. He can hear the sound of her preparing tea in the kitchen, but when she doesn’t come back, he follows her.

“Sit,” she tells him, gesturing to the chair across from her at the table, and when he does, “Drink,” her voice firm and compassionate. He listens to her, taking a sip and then staring into the depths of his cup. She’s put in just the right amount of sugar.

After a moment, she says, “I haven’t asked you very much about where you’ve come from, but I think we both know how untenable that is. You need to talk. I’d like to hear it.”

He takes another sip, then a third. Finally, he hoarsely, “I don’t know if I can tell you. I’ve already changed your life just by coming here. I don’t know how much I can do without ruining things.”

“Steve.” She leans across the table, touches his arm, his face. Her disheveled hair falls forward a little, framing the warmth of her eyes. “You are the best man I have ever known, and perhaps the strongest. And I don’t think you need to go through this alone. Let me help you.”

He almost laughs. How many times did he say something like that to people grieving a disaster that won’t happen for decades? How many times did he ignore his own advice? He thinks, again, of Sam. “Some stuff you leave there, other stuff you bring back. It's our job to figure out how to carry it.”

He thinks that Sam also meant that sometimes you find someone to carry it with you.

They don’t get out of their pajamas until well into the afternoon. Once Steve starts talking, he finds that he can’t stop. He tells her about Hydra (“Get up with bloody fleas, I told them”) and about Bucky. He tells her about Korea and McCarthy and Vietnam and the civil rights movement, about Betty Friedan and President Kennedy and President Nixon, about AIDS and global warming. He was in the twenty-first century for over a decade. He reads fast and doesn’t sleep much, and his memory is excellent.

He tells her about the snap. He tells her about his friends.

Finally, with darkness outside their windows, he says to her, “I keep thinking about Maya Lin. She’ll be an architect and a designer. She becomes famous for making the memorial for the war in Vietnam. I know it’s right to do what we can to avoid that war, to minimize that damage. Making that choice could be wrong for Maya Lin. It will change her life. How do we know which strings we can pull without letting everything fall apart?”

Peggy looks down at the notes she has started taking. She flips over one page, then another. “Well, we shall think and strategize and try our best to do the best for the most people.” She taps a finger on one paragraph. “I think that this is one string we should start tying up as quickly as we can.”

"If I see a situation pointed south, I can't ignore it," he told Tony once, and that was true. It still is. It's just harder when south isn't a clear direction on the compass, when trying to fix things could only make things worse. This is why Steve could tell her, why he had to. Because he believes in her mind, in her ruthlessness and her clearheadedness, but in her goodness too. He doesn't think he could have done any of this alone.

(He must have known he would do this all along. He brought himself to Washington D.C. in 1949. Zola was brought here just over two months ago.)

They tell Howard. Partly because they need him, to provide documentation for Steve, for resources, for cover. Partly because Peggy says that he’s a friend and he’s trustworthy, and Steve trusts Peggy. For his own part, though, Steve needs to work to remember how much hasn’t happened with Howard. He hasn’t become who he’ll become yet.

Steve sleeps better knowing that they’re doing something. He doesn’t sleep well until they have Bucky back.

“Any idea what he’ll be like after rise and shine?” asks Howard, checking once again the pulse of the man lying unconscious on one of his many guest beds. To everyone else, Bucky’s hair is long, unkempt. For Steve, it’s shorter than he’s used to now. The arm, high tech for this time, looks especially ugly and primitive.

Steve thinks back to all the information they gained after the fall of the Triskelion. Nazi records have always been blessed and cursed. “He hasn’t been under for too long. It won’t be pretty at first, but we’ll be able to get him back.”

In bed that night, Peggy holds his hand beneath the blanket and whispers, “Hopefully we’ll get him back back without you trying to sacrifice yourself,” and he doesn’t know whether she’s talking about Azzano or the helicarrier, and he likes that she has the option for either.

They count on the minimization of Hydra’s influence to help stabilize things, and they’ll prove to be right. Peggy also cultivates herself a reputation for sound, nearly prescient, advice to other agencies. It will help them influence things they need to in the future, but it’s already believable, based on a solid foundation. No one suspects the man who’s occasionally seen on her arm at functions or visiting her office - bearded, older, bearing only a passing resemblance to the lost Captain America - of having anything to do with it. He barely talks shop with the guys, usually ends up recommending recipes to the wives.

“I do prefer you in an apron and pearls,” Peggy says as Steve rubs her feet after one such night out, her heels discarded beneath the kitchen table.

“It’s the natural order of things,” Steve tells her solemnly.

“Too right, pal,” Bucky calls from the bathroom. (He heard from Al at the newsstand that they were having trouble with their sink and came over to help rather than let Steve take care of it. “Flood the whole place, more like.”)

Neither of them quite knows who proposed to whom. Steve claims he did it, Peggy attests with equal vehemence that she took the initiative. Neither of them much cares when it comes down to it.

They invite the Commandos to the wedding. Or, rather, Peggy invites them, and then when they all show up with faltering, incomplete smiles, Steve comes over to say hello.

“If it was anyone else but the two of you, I don’t know that I could believe it,” Monty says, dazed.

Dugan wants horse racing tips. Morita wants to know if he ever makes it with Ava Gardner. “Already tried asking that one, pal,” says Howard sourly.

“Sometimes you just have to live it,” says Steve, and goes to take another turn on the floor with his wife.

They move to Jersey in ‘52. Steve’s afraid that Bucky’s going to have an aneurysm over the betrayal, but the commute’s easier on Peggy now that SHIELD’s working out of Camp Lehigh most of the time.

(Buck ends up living in Brooklyn near his folks and goes back to school to get his engineering degree. Howard says he doesn’t care, he knew how much schooling Bucky had when he offered him the job, but Bucky wants to earn it, and he likes to learn.)

Somehow, it takes three days to pack up the apartment in DC and three weeks to unpack in their cozy little house in New Jersey. Peggy’s pulling late nights all the time as she gets things put together, but she refuses to let Steve do much during the day: they both have extremely strong opinions about every little thing, and she wants to be there to decide which cupboard the glasses will go in, or how far the sofa will be placed from the window and how far the armchair from the sofa.

They finally get things sorted one Saturday when it’s nearly autumn. They leave the door open to let in the air, still warm with just the beginnings of a chill. Peggy stands with her hands on her hips in the middle of their living room. Steve watches from the doorway, loving the way the light filters over her hair, loving the way he already knows exactly how it will.

He steps into the room with her, selects a record and sets the needle carefully. He holds out a hand to her.

They’re practiced at this now. They’ve been to the Stork Club and danced at their wedding and done a thousand other things in between. Peggy jokes that Steve only breaks her foot once a month now, twice if she’s very lucky. But there’s no showing off today. He holds her in his arms and they sway, turning in slow circles, the music washing over them as they stand in their new home.

“The war's over, Steve. We can go home. Imagine it,” she had once said to him in a vision that had taken his breath, a vision that might never exist.

He doesn’t have to imagine it anymore.

[the-dragon-central]

How about hiccstrid teaching their kids to fight and maybe one of them gets hurt?

Hey! @chiefhiccstrid​ here! :) Here ya go! Hope you enjoy and thanks for the ask! It was fun getting the chance to write the haddock kids a bit older since I haven’t got the chance to do that yet.

Also, thanks to @saieras​ for sharing some of his headcanons! :) They were great and really helpful! Also, you sent me this same ask in my own inbox but I answered it for you here!

Fighting with your Family

It was the kids favorite day of the week.

The day their parents took the afternoon off and they all spent time together as a family.

Some days they’d take walks down to the beach and tell and listen to many different stories. And some days - like today - they’d go out to the large field behind their house and learn how to fight and spar and do all the tricks that went along with that.

Hiccup and Astrid were both good fighters with different strengths that each would teach their kids - both for fun and because they wanted them to know just how to protect themselves and fight for and with their people, if the need arose.

Astrid and Hiccup usually taught their kids as a team, but Astrid was always better at it. Ever so often he’d stand on the sidelines and watch with a proud fatherly smile.

Nuffink was best with swords. He had started with a tiny wooden one that he carried with him everywhere and slowly worked his way up to the real one he got for his tenth birthday.

Zephyr was fast and sneaky and always had a trick up her sleeve, one that hardly anyone could ever see coming until it was over.

Today was hand-to-hand combat - the one thing Nuffink hated the most. Not because he was bad at it, no, but because he felt more comfortable and more confident with his sword in his hand. That was also a habit that Astrid was trying hard to break and usually reminded him that he may not be lucky to always have it with him.

So, the family paired up in teams - Hiccup with Zephyr and Astrid with Nuffink.

Hiccup was sparring with his thirteen-year-old daughter and refreshing the basics. Punches and knee kicks and so on. Zephyr and the use of her father’s favorite tactic - the element of surprise - had her winning quite a few rounds, which caused her arms to go up as she cheered in excitement.

It wasn’t going so well on the other team, however. Astrid had her son a few feet away and was teaching him how to knock someone off their feet and send them tumbling to the ground to help give him the advantage. But Nuffink was starting to get frustrated the longer it took him to get the move right.

“Finn,” Astrid spoke when he’d failed. Again. “Just focus. Getting frustrated is only going to make it worse.”

Another cheer from his sister and a laugh from his father caused him to roll his eyes, “Can’t we just do something else?”

Astrid was never one to give in, “No.” She responded sternly.

“Why not?”

Her serious gaze softened as she looked down at her frustrated son, “Because you’ve almost got it. You had it up until the very last part.”

And that was the most frustrating part of it all. He couldn’t seem to find enough strength to swing his legs around as far as he needed to.

Nuffink sighed, “Show me again.” He’d always learned better if he could see it first. He had never been the best listener and found it a lot harder to remember something if he had just been told instead of shown.

“You remember how to land?” Astrid asked, eyeing him closely, “I don’t want you getting hurt.”

“I know, mom.”

Astrid nodded once before getting into position.

Nuffink was watching her moves so closely that he wasn’t paying enough attention to the timeline of things and he flew into the air before he had time to prepare his landing. The kick behind his legs took him by surprise and he landed on his side, his left arm crushing his fall.

“Finn!” Astrid yelled as she heard her son cry out in pain.

She kneeled beside him at the same time her husband and daughter ran up. She tried grabbing the arm that he was holding close to his chest as he squeezed his eyes shut tightly, but the touch made the cry worse and Astrid jumped back.

“Finn?” Zephyr asked, her voice shaking with worry. She’d never heard such a painful sound come from her little brother and it terrified her, “Is he going to be okay?”

Hiccup knelt down next to Astrid, “It’s probably broken.” He spoke to both his wife and daughter as he looked down at his son clutching his arm with tears streaming down his cheeks.

“Oh gods, I’m so sorry, Finn,” Astrid said as she ran her fingers through his blonde hair.

And Nuffink couldn’t hear anything any of them were saying because the pain in his arm was so bad it was causing his ears to ring. All he knew was that he must look really bad for his parents’ faces to be so riddled with worry.

Then suddenly he was lifted off the cold and wet grass and into his father’s warm arms.

And Astrid didn’t take her eyes off her son for one moment. Not the whole walk to the healers.

Not the whole time his broken arm was being wrapped up.

Not even the whole walk back home after it had all calmed down and the stabbing pain had turned into more of an uncomfortable throbbing.

“How’re you feeling, buddy?” His father had asked him for the hundredth time since they’d come home. Nuffink was lying in bed and looked up from his book to see Hiccup standing in the doorway with Zephyr right next to him.

“Fine,” Nuffink replied. He was a tad agitated that he kept getting asked that question.

“You want us to bring you some dinner?” His smiling sister asked as she stepped in his room and plopped down on the edge of his bed.

“Sure, thanks.” He replied, pushing away his sister’s hand that was ruffling his hair with his arm that wasn’t resting in a sling hung around his neck.

Hiccup walked into the room as his children lightly bickered back and forth. He stopped by the chair that Astrid was sitting in as she worked on sorting through different piles of paper, “You want us to bring you something too?”

She looked up at him, “Yeah.”

The smile she gave him didn’t reach her eyes. He leaned down and pressed his lips to her forehead and ran his hand down her one of her braids, “This wasn’t your fault, you know. It was just an accident.” He reassured her, knowing her well enough to know exactly what was going on inside that brain of hers.

“I know.” She replied, looking back down at the papers in her lap.

“Do you?”

“Yes.” Astrid snapped, flipping one of the papers over with more force than was necessary.

“Then why haven’t you left his room all evening?” He asked, kneeling down in front of her so she’d have to look at his face.

“I want to make sure I’m nearby in case he needs something.” She responded like it should’ve been the most obvious thing in the world.

Hiccup sighed and took her hand, “He’s going to be fine, Astrid. You know how I know that?”

She raised her eyebrows and waited for him to continue.

“Because he reminds me so much of you and you’re the strongest person I know.”

And she didn’t argue with that so she just rolled her eyes and couldn’t stop the smile from breaking out onto her face.

“You know I’m right.” Hiccup laughed.

“I never said you weren’t.” She quipped and leaned over to brush her lips against his.

The sweet and tender moment caused a groan from their two children across the room.

“Oh, gross. I definitely don’t want dinner now.” Nuffink complained.

And the two parents laughed before leaning in to kiss each other once more - this time a little longer - just because it made their kids as grossed out as possible.

[theavengerfairy]

One Step Closer - Prologue

Previously known as “Gravity”

Before we start the story, I just wanted to give you, my readers, a couple disclaimers. First and foremost, this fanfiction and pairing is NOT AN ATTACK ON RUTHARI OR ANY OTHER RUNAAN SHIPS! Second, this story takes place in a parallel but alternate timeline where Runaan isn’t married or in any prior relationships and his sexuality is open to the interpretation of each individual reader. Please think before you comment and just be kind to one another, myself included. Next, there is an original species of Ocean elf in this story as opposed to a Tidebound elf character because I started this story and created the particular character long before the name of the Tidebound elves was released. Lastly, the time frame for this story is between seasons 2 and 3. That is all; now please enjoy the story.

Opeli just had to pick him. Given the nosedive that his luck had been taking as of late, Marcos shouldn't have been surprised when the aforementioned advisor of Katolis' High Council chose him out of all the other competent souls in the Royal Guard to go seize from Viren's former study any magical objects that could prove potential dangerous to the kingdom, a category to which the mage's entire collection more or less belonged to, and dispose of them, but as the soldier drove along the bumpy, winding trail through the woods that enclosed the castle, his internal organs continued to twist themselves into a knot so complex it would have baffled even the most proficient pretzel chefs in all of Katolis.

"You need to relax, Marcos." he tried to reassure himself as he gripped the reigns of the two slow but stocky Clydesdale mares pulling his cart so tightly that his knuckles were turning the color of alabaster, the tightness in his chest leaving him feeling somewhat winded since he couldn't draw in a deep, solid breath of crisp air. "Viren is locked up tight in the dungeon, and without him, none of these items can hurt you....probably."

Glancing back at the bed of the wagon behind him, he half expected to find that one of Viren's trinkets had managed to wiggle its way out from underneath the large tarp that he had secured over his load and snuck up behind him, ready to pounce, but he found nothing out of the ordinary. Maybe he was just being paranoid. Maybe this was just going to be another ordinary assignment where nothing went wrong.

Then the horses gave a frightened shriek, and Marcos' voice along with two others screeched out an equally shrill reply as the guard yanked sharply on the reins, bringing the cart to so abrupt of a stop that he nearly went tumbling from his seat onto the two mares' backs.

"Benny! Jaime!"

Once he had managed to settle down the startled horses with a few gentle pats and soft shushes, Marcos shifted his attention in the direction from which the other voices had come only for his heart to drop like a stone in his stomach when he saw two identical little boys sprawled in the dirt in front of him, their caramel-colored eyes brimming with tears behind their slightly long, unkempt hair as one caressed his left shoulder and the other clutched his right arm tightly to his chest. Hearing the rapid thumping of running feet and heavy panting, the soldier's hand instinctively flew to grasp hold of the hilt of his sheathed sword only to fall back his side when a slightly older youth, likely the two boys' brother given his similar hair color and skin tone, broke out of the brush and dropped into a slide, throwing his arms around the two kids as soon as they were within reach.

"This is why I told you two not to play near the road! You need to be more careful!" he scolded them, his voice reprimanding but gentle as he drew the twins to him.

"W-We're sorry, Luka!" they blubbered in reply, clinging to him tightly as he helped them to their feet.

"Don't be upset with them. I should've been watching where I was going." Marcos exclaimed as he leaped down onto the forest floor and made his way towards the huddle of siblings only to stop when the older boy, Luka, shot him a warning glare. "They're not hurt, are they?"

"They're just a little bruised, lucky for you!" Luka snapped sourly as he positioned himself protectively in front of his brothers, his leery eyes flitting back and forth between Marcos and the two horses, who had begun to munch innocently on some tufts of grass that had shot up in the middle of the road. "You should keep those beasts under better control before they actually harm someone!"

Marcos blinked slowly once, twice, three times before quickly throwing his fist over his mouth to try and suppress the surprised chuckle, causing Luka's scowl to deepen.

"You think this is funny?! You royal guards really are just a bunch of insensitive, pompous boneheads, aren't you?!"

"No, no! I'm sorry, I didn't mean to laugh. It's just that Momo and Bae-Bae here are the most docile horses out of the entire royal stable; they wouldn't hurt a fly. Your brothers just startled them is all." Marcos hurriedly apologized. Noticing the skepticism still painted on Luka's face along with the fear radiating off of Benny and Jaime, who peered at him nervously from behind their brother, he removed one of his armored gloves and stooped down along the side of the road, plucking a handful of the dandelions growing there, "Here, I'll show you."

Though still somewhat scared, Jaime and Benny leaned out a little bit farther from their hiding spot and watched with interest as Marcos held the flowers out to the two mares. Lured by the sweet aroma, the two horses raised their heads and tenderly nibbled on the treat until there was nothing left, followed by gently licked the soldier's open palm to make sure they got every trace of the taste.

"See? Nothing to be afraid of."

"Uh huh. Whatever you say. Come on you two, we better get home." Luka griped rather loudly as he grabbed his brothers' hands and started pulling them in the direction from which he had come.

Marcos' brow creased with concern. "Are you sure you boys are okay? Why don't you let me escort you home? It's not safe for a bunch of kids to be wandering alone in the woods."

"We're fine. Besides, I'm sure whatever royal mission you're on is much more important than us." Luka crowed back before disappearing into the foliage with his brothers, the leaves and branches concealing them so well that the only evidence left of their presence was a steadily fading rustle as they left Marcos alone without another word.

"O-Okay! Just be careful!" he called after them, though he figured the effort was likely futile. Heaving a heavy sigh, he started to climb back into the driver's seat of the wagon only to halt when a potent uneasiness washed over him. Biting the inside of his cheek, he swiveled his head to look scrutinizingly back at his cartload of magical knickknacks, but once again nothing appeared to be out of place.

"You're being paranoid again, Marcos! You'll never make a good guard if you don't stop being such a scaredy cat!" his conscience squawked irritably, its voice sounding oddly similar to that of his disapproving Aunt Cadence who had always insisted on him becoming a healer like his uncle. The likeness made him shudder and he hastily spurred the two mares forward before his mind had any more reason to scold him, ignoring as best to could the nagging dread that continued to construct a bird's nest for itself out of his stomach and intestines.

Luka's eyes did not leave Marcos until he and his cart were no more than a speck in the distance, and as he dropped down from his hiding spot in the large oak tree that overlooked the road, his lips twisted into a wicked sneer.

"All clear!" he shouted.

Immediately, Benny and Jaime darted out of the bush at the base of the tree and scrambled to their brother's side, eyes gleaming with excitement as each boy nudged the another aside so that he was the center of Luka's attention.

"How did we do, big brother? Huh, huh? Were we good?" Benny chattered eagerly, his words all tumbling together into one giant, incoherent heap as they flew from his lips at inhuman speeds.

"Well, the two of you smearing your snot on my shirt wasn't really necessary, but other than that, you devils weren't bad." Luka clucked smugly, lovingly ruffling the boys' hair before resting his hands on his hips and leisurely throwing back his head. "What a dolt! That was almost too easy!"

"Too easy?! If it was so easy, you should've been able to keep him occupied for longer!"

Luka's smirk wavered slightly as his eyes flitted over to the raven-haired girl emerging from another one of the nearby bushes, meticulously plucking twigs and brambles out of her two stubby braids and brushing the dirt off of her skinned knees and elbows, but but it soon returned when he caught a glimpse of the sack dragging in the dirt behind her.

"Maybe you should've just worked faster, Lennie." he taunted her in the way all brothers do, snatching the bag out of her hand and surveying what was inside. "Still, it looks like you managed to scrounge together a decent haul....."

His voice trailed off as he stared into the sack, disbelief and disgust distorting his imp-like face to such a degree that the twins' couldn't help but grow curious and try to catch a glimpse of their sister's gains as well.

"What the heck is this? What garbage did you grab, Lennie?" Luka sputtered, his lips puckering and nose wrinkling as though the articles in the bag were actually emitting so horrid order that only he could smell.

"It was all garbage, Luka; that guy had nothing on him but junk! You picked a dud target!" Lennie trilled defensively.

"Okay, maybe I did, but you're the one who still snitched some of this rubbish!"

"Well we can't exactly go home empty handed! I grabbed whatever I thought looked restorable!"

"Restorable? We're thieves, not artisans, Lennie! These scraps are useless to us!"

Benny shot Jaime a perplexed look, "What's an artisan?"

Jaime shrugged his shoulders, "Beats me. Hey Luka, can Benny and I at least look and see if Lennie grabbed anything that we might want to use for our fort?"

"Psh, knock yourselves out. Go ahead and pitch whatever is left over, but don't throw away the sack this time, alright?" Luka grumbled before tossing the stolen scraps at the twins' feet and resuming his argument with his sister.

Benny and Jaime pounced on the bag faster than a pair of famished dogs, nearly ripping in two in their haste to flip it over and empty its contents onto the ground. To anyone who did not know their magical value, most of these items did indeed appear to be no more than worthless trinkets, but two innovative, imaginative mind of a child, even a bag of trash can prove to be a treasure trove.

"Jaime, look at this! It looks like a finger!"

"Why would there be a finger in a jar?"

"Because it's cool!"

"Hey, this looks like one of those rune stones from the book we snitched from the old librarian!"

"No way! That's totally fake!"

"Well so is your finger!"

"Is not! Hey, look at this-"

And so the boys continued to examine and sort each object as Luka and Lennie bickered, completely oblivious to their younger siblings' enterprises as they hurled petty jabs and insults at each other much like kids themselves, and aside from the occasional squabble over an item's identity or sorting, little trouble arose between the twins until they both grabbed hold of the last item, a small purse made of stormy gray cloth.

"Hey, hands off! I touched it first!"

"No way! You got to hold the last one!"

Clenching their tiny jaws in determination, the brothers pulled on their side of the purse, straining against one another till the bag finally tore in half and a flash of gold caught their eyes.

"Benny, Lennie actually got money!"

"Shh! Don't shout it!"

"But-"

"Shh!"

Glancing back at the two older children to ensure that they hadn't heard Jaime's outburst, Benny hurriedly began stuffing the handful of coins into the pockets of his pants, much to the astonishment of his lookalike.

"What are you doing?"

"Lennie and Luka always get all the credit even though we do all the hard work, but if we give these coins to Papa..."

Jaime's eyes brightened when he caught his brother's implication and his plump, youthful lips curved into a broad smile. "Let me hold onto some! Let me hold onto some!"

"Alright! Alright! Keep your voice down!"

After checking again to ensure that Lennie and Luka were still fully engaged in their spat, Benny quickly handed Jaime two of the four coins in his pocket only for the latter to suddenly scream and drop one of them, startling his brother in the process and thus rousing a squeal from him as well. Ironically, it was this unified exclamation that finally earned the attention of the other siblings.

"What the heck are you two squawking about?! Are you trying to get somebody's attention?!" Luka barked.

"S-Something moved!"

"What?! Where?!"

"O-On the coin!"

"Coin? You guys found coins?!"

"What were you saying about my haul being nothing but garbage?" Lennie quipped smugly before strutting over to the twins and plucking the discard coin off of the ground, "You probably just saw your reflection, you big baby-"

Her words were cut off by a surprised gasp as she too dropped the coin, though she hastily snatched it up again before it could hit the forest floor. Bringing it close to face, she stared at the glistening surface in disbelief, unable to believe her eyes.

"Oi, could you all stop screaming?! I'm starting to go deaf here!" Luka lamented, but his remark flew right over Lennie's head.

"...Luka, you know anything about coins with moving pictures on 'em?"

Brow furrowing skeptically, Luka strolled up alongside his sister and leaned over her shoulder, but all suspicion left him when he saw firsthand the blinking eyes, silently babbling lips, and flailing fists of what appeared to be an elf rippling along the surface of the coin.

"...I've never seen anything like this in my life...." he drawled, his jaw agape with disbelief. However, after a moment, a mischievous glint ignited in his eyes. "I bet Pops hasn't either! He's gonna love this!"

Lennie barely had time to comprehend what was happening before Luka suddenly ripped the coin from her hands and took off in a sprint, leaving her frozen in a state of shock until her mind finally caught up and she darted after him with an angry screech.

"Luka, come back here! That was my find! I'm giving it to Papa!"

In the blink of an eye, they both were gone, and Benny and Jaime simply stared at one another in silence for a moment as they too tried to process all that had happened. Lifting up his right hand, which still held the other coin, Jaime slowly opened his fist and stared down at the golden piece.

"Does that one have-"

"Uh huh. Do yours?"

Checking his pockets, Benny nodded mutely, and slowly, the two boys started to smile.

[razieltwelve]

The Hamster (Fate/Stay Night/Final Effect)

There were a great many timelines where Rin Tohsaka’s attempt to summon a Sabre went awry. This was one of them. It was also the only timeline in which she summoned a hamster.

Fortunately for Rin, however, it was no ordinary hamster.

X     X     X

Rin assumed she must have done something absolutely awful in a past life. It was the only way to explain how she’d summoned a hamster as her Servant in the Grail War. Sure, the little guy was incredibly adorable, but what on earth was she supposed to do with him? If the situation weren’t so dire, she might actually have laughed. As it was, she wanted to cry.

She probably would have too, if an enemy Servant hadn’t chosen that exact moment to ambush her on her way home from school.

“You might want to duck,” Professor Cuddleborough drawled.

By some miracle of magic, Rin could understand the hamster she’d summoned. From what she’d seen so far, he was cute, cuddly, and came with a dry sense of humour. He also had good instincts.

She ducked.

And a spear went through the space her head had occupied a split-second later.

“Not bad,” Lancer said as Rin rolled away and then leapt back to put some distance between them. “But I’m afraid this is where the Grail War ends for you.” He shrugged and gave her an apologetic smile. “Sorry but my master’s orders were quite clear. It’s a pity you’ve only got a hamster to fight for you. I would have liked a challenge, but orders are orders.” He took up a fighting stance. “I’ll make it quick. I can do that much.”

“Hmmm…” Professor Cuddleborough hopped out of her pocket and landed on the ground in front of her. “You might want to take as step back, Rin.”

“What? Why?” Rin’s heart was beating so fast she was afraid she was going to faint. The only thing standing between her and certain death was a hamster! She was so screwed.

“Because I’m about to show you what makes me different from a normal hamster.” Professor Cuddleborough struck a pose. “For I am no mere hamster… I am… a war hamster!”

“A war hamster?” Rin wailed. “What does that even me?”

Lancer blurred forward…

There was a flash of light, and the Servant was suddenly flying backward. He flew through the air, smashing through a streetlight before continuing to tumble end over end until he hit the next streetlight and thudded to a stop in the wall behind it, hitting the wall with enough force to leave a crater in it.

“Hmmm…” Professor Cuddleborough’s voice was suddenly much deeper… and he was much larger. Instead of the cute and cuddly hamster that had spent the day in Rin’s pocket, he was now the size of a tank and covered in advanced power armour that absolutely bristled with weaponry. Lowering the enormous paw he’d used to bat Lancer away like a pingpong ball, the colossal hamster gave a sound of acknowledgement. “Not bad. You were able to block with your spear at the last moment. Otherwise, I’d have ripped you in half.”

Far away, Lancer stumbled to his feet. His chest was a mangled wreck, and his spear bore the marks of huge claws. Somehow, though, he managed to retain an air of confidence.

“Oh? A giant hamster? I can’t say I’ve ever faced one before.” Lancer chuckled. “I’ll admit you took me by surprise. But you’re no mere beast. That strike wasn’t simply powerful and swift… your technique was excellent.”

Professor Cuddleborough chuckled. “Well, you’re definitely one of the better spearmen I’ve faced in my life although I’d have to fight you properly to see how you really rank.” He stomped on the ground, and the concrete cracked. “Although if we were to fight properly, it wouldn’t be just my claws you’d have to worry about.” On his back, a pair of cannons began to whirr, the ominous glow coming from them hinting at their power.

“Hmmm…” Lancer’s eyes narrowed. “It seems my master has seen enough. I’ve got to run for it.” He nodded at Rin. “It seems you’ve managed to summon a formidable Servant after all.” And then he was gone, vanishing in a blur of motion.

“…” Rin looked at her Servant. “A war hamster? I think you need to tell me a little bit more about who you are and where you’re from.”

X     X     X

“Yes,” Rin said. “He is apparently a war hamster from something called the Arendelle Empire that is, I think, an empire from another galaxy in another universe.”

“He’s a giant hamster.” Shirou stared at Professor Cuddleborough. The massive hamster had come to his and Sabre’s aid during their scuffle with Berserker. He had forced the other Servant to retreat although that had done nothing to quell Shirou’s curiosity. Berserker’s master had known who he was…

“He is a truly noble beast.” Sabre had spent the last ten minutes running her hands through Professor Cuddleborough’s fur before simply giving in and wrapping her arms around the huge hamster, so she could bury her face in his fur. “A truly noble beast indeed.”

Professor Cuddleborough simply gave Rin an amused smile. This was, evidently, not the first time he’d experienced this. “We should be head home,” he said. “I’d rather not use any of my bigger guns in such a crowded area.”

“He has guns?” Shirou asked.

“I’m basically the equivalent of super-advanced heavy artillery,” the hamster replied. “Where I come from if you need something really, really dead, then you send in a war hamster. We’re often the first into battle and usually the last to leave.”

X     X     X

Author’s Notes

Although many hamsters over the years have carried the name of Professor Cuddleborough, this particular war hamster is the most famous of the lot. During his life, he earned the nickname “The Cuddle Hammer” due to his incredible war record. A hero famous through the Arendelle Empire, his deeds in combat were unmatched even amongst war hamsters, and he distinguished himself in countless battles.

Perhaps his most famous feat was singlehandedly saving the life of the emperor after the emperor’s dreadnought was brought down by Grimm during a massive battle. Heroically standing guard over the wounded emperor, the Professor Cuddleborough fought endless waves of Grimm for the better part of three days before reinforcements finally arrived. 

In the Empire’s long and stories history, it is not an exaggeration to say that he might be its most famous war hamster.

In the Fifth Grail War, Professor Cuddleborough was summoned by Rin Tohsaka. He is classified as an Archer due to the overwhelming ranged weaponry at his disposal due to his super-advanced power armour, which was the finest such armour in the Arendelle Empire during his lifetime.

However, as a war hamster, his physical prowess is unreal compared to a human, even a Servant. As a war hamster, he is fully capable of shrugging of artillery even without his power armour, and he can fight giant Grimm barehand. His stats are as follows:

Strength: A++ Endurance: EX Agility: A++ Mana: A++ Luck: A Noble Phantasm: EX

Abilities

For the Empire. Professor Cuddleborough once famously claimed that “As long the still Empire stands, I cannot fall… and as long as I still stand, the Empire cannot fall!” In life, he was a hamster of unshakeable faith and determination, which allowed him to emerge victorious in situations that would have defeated countless others. The greater his belief in the cause he fights for, the stronger he will become. 

Cuddle Factor. Despite his immense combat power, Professor Cuddleborough is a descendant of Professor Cuddles, the cutest, most adorable hamster in history, and he is said to resemble him a great deal. Cuddle Factor grants him an A+ in charisma since all who look upon him will be captivated by his cuteness and adorability should he wish it. 

Mind of the Dia-Farron. As one of the greatest war hamsters in history, Professor Cuddleborough was also a scientific genius with intellect capable of matching even the illustrious Dia-Farron of the Empire. He can easily understand and replicate any technology that he is likely to come across.

Noble Phantasms

Power Armour. The power armour that Professor Cuddleborough uses is unique power armour that was crafted by the finest minds of the Empire using the finest materials in the galaxy. It is considered by many to be the greatest suit of power armour ever donned by a war hamster. In practical terms, the combined nuclear arsenal of the Earth could be launched at it, and they’d be lucky to scratch the paint. Given how much time he spent battling Grimm, it is also designed to withstand more esoteric attacks. When activated to its full extent, it can withstand even planet-buster level attacks.

Power Armour Arsenal. The offensive capabilities of his power armour are equal to its defensive capabilities. His default weapons include plasma cannons, laser cannons, warp claws, missiles pods, and gravity lances. However, he can scale up to weapons designed to break planets if necessary.

Once again, Rin manages to luck out when summoning a Servant. Sure, he’s a hamster, but he’s quite possibly the most badass hamster who ever lived from a galaxy full of badass hamsters.

You can find me on fanfiction.net, AO3, and Amazon.

[mysaldate]

headcanons on how the slayers would react to an impossible battle situation - facing an upper moon. they do have the option of running, but innocent lives might be at stake owo for isanami, sasuke, saizo, kakei-san, and rokuro

I was trying to look up about when did Muzan create the Demon Moons but the timeline is so messy and makes so little sense that the best guess is it being some 120 years before the main story or somewhere around that. Since Brave10 timeline comes way before this, I don’t think Demon Moons would be around at that time but it’s not unlikely that demons of similar power levels were around – they just didn’t give the warning with their eyes.

Also I will open each character up with some basic info on their general battle style since I haven’t mentioned it yet but it will affect their reactions.

I’m also writing this to calm down after my rant so sorry if some of them feel just a little out of place. I’ll be trying hard for that not to happen though.

Brave10 Demon Slayers facing a certain defeat headcanons

Isanami

She usually leaves the fighting to Saizo and makes sure the people are alright but at the off chance they got separated and she is forced to fight, she can be surprisingly capable. Her small build and amazing flexibility are her main advantages in a fight and she also has a surprising amount of stamina.

With that all being said, she is still quite weak so even a demon of slightly lower power levels than those of an Upper Moon is already a serious problem for her. However, if a demon that powerful was to show up, the gap between them would be enormous.

If there are no civilians at the scene, Isanami might use the sixth form to attempt to blind the demon and then escape using the fourth form. How successful she would be depends mostly on her surroundings. She’s quite capable of disappearing from sight in a forest and thanks to her being very light, she doesn’t make much noise either. In an open field however, she might not be that lucky.

If innocent lives are at stake, Isanami will go on defense, trying to protect them to the best of her ability. She might even offer to give up without a fight if the demon spares the people around (have I mentioned she’s quite possibly a marechi?). If the demon allows it, she will then write a letter to Saizo and Sasuke since she doesn’t want to leave them without a goodbye.

She still won’t let the demon eat her until she is absolutely certain all the people are safely gone. She may be naive when it comes to her fellow slayers but she knows well enough not to trust a demon just that easily.

Sasuke

Sasuke specializes in a stealthy battle style. He stays hidden as much as he can and deals surprising attacks that bring most enemies down before they even realize what hit them. He uses his connection with nature to read his enemies’ movements and figure out the best course of action.

As such, the demons he would have most trouble slaying would be either those staying in a house or mansion (like Kyogai) or demons capable of manipulating nature around them. The later especially could pose a serious threat to him as his most important source of information and cover would be completely cut off.

He generally tries to get fights as far away from civilians as possible so he doesn’t have to worry about protecting them while fighting so it’s more likely he would find himself in such a situation aside from people. Sasuke doesn’t have an ego that would prevent him from running from a fight he clearly has not chance of winning. Thanks to the footwork of his second form, he might manage to get far enough from the demon’s immediate reach to then make a run for it. He’s quite fast on his feet, even faster than most demons, so he has high chances of making it out alive.

However, if a fight was to break out around other people, things get a little more complicated. Sasuke would constantly have to switch between offensive and defensive style, trying to both protect the people with him and keep the demon at bay. He knows he can’t send the people ahead of him since the demon is so strong he couldn’t keep it away from them anyway so the best he can do is fight with all his might to protect everyone.

He will send one of his owls, or possibly the messanger crow, to bring help. He doesn’t really count on making it out alive but if someone can come and protect at least some of the people there, then that’s enough for him.

Saizo

Saizo tends to push his limits as far as they would go in every fight. Even when fighting weaker demons, he’s not exactly good at saving his energy. His fighting style is powerful but not efficient. He rushes to end every fight before the demon can properly warm up and before it can drag out for any longer than necessary.

He doesn’t do very well in long fights but he’s pretty durable so sheer raw strength won’t be enough to knock him down. It’s much more dangerous if the demon merely blocks all of the incoming attacks and tires him out first. While this was already pointed out to him, he doesn’t really know how to fix this little problem and still charges in head-on. The fact that he can’t use the full potential of Breath of Darkness also plays its role.

Like Sasuke, he much prefers to fight aside from any human community, though it’s more to fit his lone wolf aesthetics (shattered when Isanami insisted on joining him) and his general dislike of crowds. While he doesn’t mind to fall back for a while, he’s not used to leaving a fight unfinished so he might pretend to run, only to then turn around and try again, using the increasing speed of fifth form to at least deal as much damage as he can as well as block the enemy’s attacks.

While he would complain about having to protect someone, he’s not about to let women or children just die, especially since he’s a demon slayer. He struggles with defensive techniques though and his only real solution would be luring the demon’s attention away by relentlessly attacking. He would leave the people with Isanami and just hope she will leave with them and won’t come back to help him fight.

He has also thought of sending the crow to get help but in the end decided against it. The demon is already most likely going to kill him and help wouldn’t get to the soon enough anyway. If another single slayer was to face the same demon alone, it would be a pointless loss. Rather, he will have the crow record what went down and report everything properly so adequate actions can be taken.

Kakei

His style focuses mostly on the advantage he can gain by keeping his distance from the demon. Kakei doesn’t posses extraordinary speed or stamina but he’s extremely durable and quick to get back up after receiving a blow. Thanks to mastering the Breath of Fire as well, he can use combined techniques, either using Saya as a blade or taking up the sword of one of his fellow slayers – though he doesn’t do that often.

His weakness would most likely be close combat so if a demon is quick enough to avoid his shots or can block them effectively enough to get close, he might get into trouble. It’s also particularly dangerous if a demon can use long-distance attacks with a range superior to Kakei’s.

His fourth technique will get used a lot if the demon gets close and he’s alone. Saya is, unsurprisingly, great at breaking bones and can be used as an extremely violent stabbing weapon if used with enough strength. And Kakei certainly has this sort of strength. Even if he knows he has no chance of winning, there’s no way he’s just giving up. If he has to, he will take the demon to hell with him.

This goes all the more if there are innocent bystanders nearby. No way in hell will he allow anyone else to get hurt on his watch. He will take even close-range shots, no matter how much the recoil damage hurts him. And if worse comes to the absolute worst, his fifth form is on the list as well. He will blow the demon’s head to ribbons if it’s the last thing he can ever do.

Rather than sending his crow off to get back-up, he will order it to take the people to safety. With his bullets, he can prevent the demon from going after them and take it on by himself for long enough for them to escape. It still would bother him that he never got to make up for his failure as a father (in his eyes at least) and that he will die before ever doing that but he also understands that there are bigger things in life than himself. Protecting more innocent lives is one of them.

Rokuro

He is an incredibly balanced fighter. One of the few who can keep up incredibly well on both offense and defense, he’s also fast and agile. With his excellent eye-sight, he’s definitelly one of the strongest demon slayers of his generation. When on a mission with Yukimura, he also makes the best of his excelent insight into the enemy techniques and weaknesses. They make a great team but some would argue Rokuro is more efficient on his own when he can focus solely on fighting and less on protecting his master.

As such, there’s not really a particular set of abilities a demon would have to have in order to gain any advantage over him. That’s not to say he can’t be simply overpowered but unlike Kakei or Sasuke, this pillar has no clear weakness. Meeting a demon who can surpass him in one or more ways, of course, is entirely possible and if separated from Yukimura, it’s not improbable he might even make a mistake of judgment.

If he realizes he’d be overpowered on his own (and believe me, he would realize that before the fight even starts), he’d probably fall back, sending a message out and asking for further orders. He will try to collect information on the demon without being seen or felt – and he’s probably quite successful in that area as well. He’s deffinitelly not seeking a fight and if it seems neccessary, he will take the chance to flee.

Things take a turn if there’s a chance of the demon going after other people. If Rokuro is given enough time ahead before the demon can reach them, he is likely to find a safe hiding spot for them to stay at or to organise some sort of an escape. He’s likely to stay behind and distract the demon, even if just for a short while. But he also has no intention of dying there so he will just hold the demon off and then flee the scene as well.

If he’s not given any time, however, he will need to think on his feet. And his first priority, of course, is ensuring the people’s safety. He would most likely use his second additional form way more than he normally should, exhausting himself thoroughly but there’s no way he’d give anyone over. He might switch into other forms briefly to recover at least a bit of his stamina but he will most certainly remain on the defense. At this point, the crow is sent out. Not for back-up but to warn any lower-ranked slayers possibly in the area. Though don’t get it wrong, he’s not telling them to run, just to be careful. It’s in his best interest to have more hands to use to protect everyone and hold off the demon after all.

[theincompetentgenius]

Hey, could you give me a match up or life generator for IkeSen? Anything is fine. I'm like 156cms (I know ;_;) I'm introverted but curious by nature. I'm also much of a talker when I become friends with someone. Kinda sassy, likes cats,dogs, raccoons (you get it) and philosophy. I get frightened easily, a box falling from my shelf suddenly can get me screaming 😂 I am a dork. Just found your blog btw and I love it 😭💖

Thanks for sending in the request and I’m sorry about the wait! Also, can I say thank you because your request saved my writer’s block because I got carried away?

Thank you for your interest in the world of Ikemen Sengoku. You will shortly be reborn in your new life. The simulation will begin in 3..... 2..... 1.......

B A C K G R O U N D

Your story began right before your first job interview in Japan. You had graduated from college a few months ago with an economics major and a philosophy minor. Many considered it a peculiar blend of studies, but the contrasting subjects allowed you to enjoy your time at college while maintaining the image of a unique candidate. All throughout school, your academics were fairly strong. It wasn’t the golden 4.0, but high enough to land you your first job. The only issue was that your Japanese wasn’t the strongest, so you were worried about not being able to convey your thoughts properly. To deal with this, you practiced in advance. 

On the way to your interview, you noticed that the clouds had become larger and darker. You didn’t want to be reckless, but there was lots of traffic on the road and your interview was in fifteen minutes. If it started raining, then traffic would probably stop moving and you would be late, so you looked for an alternative route on your GPS. Luckily enough, there was a route that would get you to your destination in time. So you took the closest exit and left that mess.

The streets of the detour were small and narrow. The clouds had become so dark that it looked more like midnight than an afternoon. A shiver ran down your spine. The faster you got out of there, the better. It was not long before the rain started, thunder echoing in the background.  You slowed down the speed of your car and proceeded with caution. 

Your car broke down halfway through the detour. After jamming your keys to start the car (with no results), you got out of your car to search for help. You saw a man in a white lab coat with glasses on the porch of a quaint cottage and rushed to him.

“Can you help me? My car broke down in the middle of the road. ” Your voice was filled with desperation.

He was startled by your sudden appearance. “Ma’am, you need to leave. There is a wormhole that is going to open in a few minutes.”

“I can’t leave if my car doesn’t start.” A clash of thunder echoed in the background. You jumped from the loud noise and looked back at the man.

“Alright, I’ll look for some numbers that you can call to help you. However, I think that this area is extremely unsafe for you,” He said, pulling out his phone.

You nodded. As you waited for the young man in the lab coat, the storm intensified. Hints of blue and green sprouted from the clouds. Was this from the wormhole thing that the man was talking about? You wanted to ask but you didn’t want to burden him more than you already had. But the colors were rapidly spreading across the sky, forming a circle. 

“Sir? It that the wormhole you were talking about?” You pointed to the colors.

He pushed up his glasses with his fingers. His eyes widened. “You need to leave now. Just run away from here.”

Although you had no idea where the wormhole would take you, you knew it was nothing good. So you ran as fast as you could, but the wind ran with you. It grew stronger until it lifted you from your feet and threw you into the glowing wormhole. 

F R I E N D S

Date Masamune

After saving Nobunaga’s life at Honno-ji, you tried your best to adjust to the Sengoku Era. However, the different expectations, mentalities, and social concepts made it almost impossible. Your introverted nature made it harder to talk to the other warlords and your fear only added to the distance. There was Ieyasu (who felt that Nobunaga made a mistake in keeping you around), Hideyoshi (who was still suspicious about your affiliations), and Mitsuhide (he’s the one who caused the fire at Honno-ji in our timeline, so you’re suspicious of him).

Your relationship with Masamune was interesting, to say the least. He nearly chopped off your head when confirming that you were from the future, smashed your arm because you had gotten to close to him during his training, and served you the spiciest dish that was reserved for Ieyasu. Yet he still dared to flirt with you, as if he hadn’t nearly killed you three times.

However, he was the friendliest out of everyone else. He would offer to take you around the town and helped you get settled in your new life. For that, you were extremely grateful. Sometimes the two of you would be out all day, as Masamune would bring Shogestu in the forests. You would point out the different animals around the area. Although he knew the forests very well, your observations made him feel that he was the foreigner. 

“Did you see that deer?” You said.

He spun his head around. Then he looks back at you. “Yes, I do. There’s a beautiful doe sitting right in front of me.”

You give him a playful shove. “That’s not what I’m talking about, you idiot.”

“Oh ho, our little lassie is getting feisty!” He laughs.

“I am not little!” You try to shove him, but he doesn’t budge against the weight of your arms. Instead, he howls with laughter.

You stand up straight and clear your throat. “The only thing that’s little is your manhood!”

He freezes in the middle of his laugh. His face momentarily warps with awe and you feel good about sassing him for once. But his face turns into a smirk. 

“Is that so? I don’t recall ever showing you anything.” He moves closer towards you. “Unless we had an encounter that I don’t remember.”

Your face turns red as you push him away. “I think I’m done here.”

He turns away with laughter, calling for his tiger cup. You dust off your kimono and look one last time into the woods, searching for any other animals. There aren’t any.

Except for the one-eyed beast who disguised his feelings of love in the form of friendship. A friendship he could never escape.

Other friends: Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Sanada Yukimura, Oda Nobunaga

**Quick Note: Basically he’s the other suitor in love with you during your time there, but he’s also your closest friend.

R O M A N C E

Akechi Mitsuhide

Although you spent lots of time with Masamune, your sights were set elsewhere. At first, you weren’t interested in this silver-tongued snake for romantic purposes. You assumed he was the one who tried to kill Nobunaga due to the events in our timeline, so you wanted to learn more about his schemes. At first, you kept your distance-- there was no need to interact with a shady traitor. Instead, you got your information about Mitsuhide from other people. The best source of information was the maids, but they had too much information (which were nothing but rumors). When you asked the warlords, they couldn’t tell you much either. He was a mystery waiting to be caught.

At one point, you decided to tell Nobunaga about the future and how it was Mitsuhide that set the fire at Honno-ji. However, you had no proof to back your claims. So against your better nature, you went and tailed Mitsuhide. This was the worst mistake possible because he figured you out within seconds of your investigation. When he asked you questions about your investigations, you didn’t give him any answers. However, that wasn’t necessary because he had you all figured out. 

Soon, the tables turn on you. Mitsuhide investigated you because you had investigated him. While you cluelessly walked around the palace, he followed you to ensure you weren’t a threat. Once he assessed that you weren’t an assassin, Mitsuhide began to talk to you in public. At first, his conversations caught you off-guard. But you grew more comfortable around him, despite the warnings from everyone else. Mitsuhide himself warned about his other side, but you were giving him the benefit of the doubt. After all, your curiosity had shown you that he was much more than his reputation.

You spent your time trying to sass him, causing him to outwit you almost every time. Some times he’d let you have the last word, but you knew when he let you win. Instead, he was drawn to your dorkiness. It was a rare sight in the Azuchi Palace for someone to be so dorky. However, he realized that there was a more mature side to you when serious conversations arose. The mix of purity and realism surprised him; you were less naive than he expected.

However, the worst part of your relationship was when he tried to scare you. Once he figured out that you were easily startled, Mitsuhide used against you with no limits. One day, you were delivering a message from Masamune to Hideyoshi when you felt a cool breeze rush by. 

You spun around. “Whose there?” 

There was no answer. You shivered but continued on your journey to Hideyoshi’s room. Then, you heard soft footsteps behind you.

You jumped. “I know you’re following me! Show yourself!” You voice waivers.

Nothing. You let out a sigh, telling yourself that you were overreacting. A few steps later, you felt a tap on your shoulder. A scream escaped your lips and your feet tripped over each other. You closed your eyes, preparing yourself for the collision between your nose and the floor.

Instead, a pair of light arms grabbed your waist and draws you upwards. You open your eyes to find yourself face-to-face to Mitsuhide. Blood rushes to your cheeks as you are at a loss of words

“Careful, princess. Is that how you want to fall for me?”

F I N A L   F A T E

As you spent more time with the warlords, you felt more at home. The world you once knew had become a distant memory; one that you weren’t sure that you wanted to return to. Time passed as you and Mitsuhide officialized your relationship, you and Masamune bid farewell as he returned to Oshu to take care of some business, and you became acquainted with the Uesugi-Takeda forces. Throughout all these changes, your love for your lover never waivered.

However, when Sauskue informed you that the wormhole to the present would appear in the next month, your whole life fell apart. While you wanted to stay at Azuchi with Mitsuhide, Nobunaga, and everyone else, you had left another set of relationships behind, Your friends, family, and that new job you wanted. Although you had found everything that you wanted in the Sengoku Era, you still wanted to accomplish your 21st-century dreams. So you packed your bags and prepared for the journey. Although Mitsuhide was devastated with your choice, he chose to accompany you until you stepped through the wormhole.

Once you arrived at your destination, you began having second thoughts. Your life was perfect in this era, you had everything. Why should you leave now? As Sasuke entered the portal, he held his hand out to help into the portal. You looked from his hand to your lover.  Your mind was set.

“I’m sorry Sasuke, but I’ve changed my mind. I think I’ll stay.” You run to Mitsuhide and embrace him in a tight hug. 

Sasuke nods with a soft smile. “You do what’s best for you.”

With that, he disappears along with your old life. And you couldn’t be any happier.

[adashofstarshine]

kicks up my feet. I want the director's cut on the whole first section of ToTS. The first 17-20 chapters or so, when Jace and Vraska are being teen hellions. What goes into reimagining how two characters interact and play off each other? Things like the bath scene, and going deep into the scams... all these new and exciting character moments, I want the Deep Lore on them.

Sure! This will probablyget quite long.

The premise of ToTS liesbehind the one quote from “The Flood”:

“Sheremembered her own young street rat years and grinned at the thought of howwell the teenage her and the teenage Jace would have gotten along. We’d have torn up the town, she thought withmirth. No bookshop would have beensafe.”

At the beginning of ToTS, Jace has only been on Ravnica for amonth. He’s mostly been lingering about the Rubblebelt, having just got histattoos. If Vraska hadn’t met him, he would have gone deeper into society, andended up meeting Emmara like he does in canon. It’s that meeting that sets offthe whole AU and every difference from then on.

Fun fact – When ToTS began, there was never any plan for chaptersin Jace’s POV. That happened once, people liked it a lot, and it continued.However the story was supposed to be 100% focussed on Vraska, and that’s why shegets the most airtime.

As for Vraska’s childhood, we don’t know where exactly shewas at this age in canon. In ToTS, her timeline goes like this

Raids on Dredgefold Docks started when she was four.

Her mother was killed when she was six. From then on, shelived with Sven and his mother, who also managed to hide during the raid thatkilled Yveta.

Everyone inDredgefold got rounded up and arrested when she was eight. Sven got away byhiding in the river, his mother didn’t

Vraska doesn’tknow how long she spent in the Azorius prison. She thinks it was a few months,it was in fact most of a year. So she was nine when she sparked.

She spends afew months walking blindly about the multiverse, until she stumbles acrossTamiyo, who heals her and tells her what she is.

She returns toRavnica, finds that her home is gone, the docks have now been turned into alabour camp. After trying to beg on the streets of the Undercity, she istargeted for being a gorgon so goes above ground.

Vraska at the beginning ofToTS is fifteen (but she thinks she’s fourteen). She’s chosen Tin Street as herterritory because it is full of food and plenty of places to hide. She tried toget charity from the Selesnya but got rejected for being a gorgon. So she’sbeen by herself since she returned to Ravnica. When she meets Jace, she’s incrediblylonely. After all she’s been through, she has resolved the stand up for the lessfortunate, the same quality that defines her as an adult. So when she finds someoneher own age, who is skilled but needs help to survive, she welcomes thecompany.

The bath scene shows herneed to talk to someone, to share what she’s been through. She doesn’t want toadmit it, but she desperately wants sympathy, anyone to feel sorry for what she’sbeen through. Because up to this point, no one has. Even though Sven feelssorry for her loss, he wasn’t there, he got away without ever having toexperience being in the hell that was prison. She feels like he doesn’t understand.However, Jace is lost and desperate, which is a feeling she knows very well, andshe feels like he might understand how she felt back then. Because he’s thenthe only person she has, she becomes very emotionally reliant on him, which causesmany problems throughout her life. Thus her many arcs about wanting to be withJace, but learning to be her own person with her own goals.

Their scams arise from two factors – Jace’s talents and amutual anger at how society won’t help people like them. By herself, Vraska cankill, but she doesn’t have the necessary investigative skills to blackmail.Blackmail and extortion is something Jace canonically does when he arrives onRavnica, so these missions combine their two skills. Jace can blackmail, Vraskacan do any legwork/killing if required. When Vraska starts working for theOchran, they get their targets given to them making life a lot easier. (This isalso when the Orzhov and Dimir take notice of Vraska, which is an essay foranother time.)

As for how the two interact with each other. From theirfirst meeting, Vraska assumes the role of protector. This is initially becauseJace is new to Ravnica, and he was also a very small teenager. (He got hisbiggest growth spurts about 17/18, which is why Ral called him Pipsqueak alot.) He was smart but fragile, which made Vraska feel like he neededdefending. She also wanted to be like her mother – the strongest person sheknew, and someone who always protected those around her.  (Someone ask me about Yveta, she has such agood story but I can’t fit it in anywhere.) When she assumed the protector role, Vraska became harsher on herself – unableto excuse her own weakness in fear of letting him down. Jace, upon realisingthis, took it upon himself to try and keep her confidence up. They are bothstill doing this.

Jace, during their teenage years, idolised Vraska more thanwas probably healthy for either of them. He started crushing on her as soon asthey met, but viewed her as something beautiful and untouchable. (Which is abig issue in current chapters now Vraska has decided he can’t possibly likeher.) When she breaks down, be it through pain, fear or anger, it’s a hugeshock for him and that forces him to consider that she isn’t just a support forhim to rely on, she has her own needs too. So he tries to support her back. Theyprop each other up, so when they are apart, they both fall over. They are both happierwith themselves and with life, when side by side. Even adult Jace falls backinto his thinking of ‘she’s strong, she’ll be fine’, which really doesn’t workbecause of Vraska’s deep-seated self hatred.