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being in both the ted lasso fandom and the critical role fandom is wild sometimes because i just saw a post that started out “my guess is that trent is still arrested” and i was like. he’s what. before i remembered that there’s a different fandom with a very, very different trent.
#best character vs worst character#the cherry on top is that the show i’m in tech week for right now ALSO has a character named trent#the name has officially lost any and all meaning#ted lasso#critical role#eli.posts
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ALL IS FAIR
a/n: woohoo!! finally a harry fic! lol sorry i got very into marvel these past weeks but im finally bringing you some harry content! this one was originally requested by an anon sometime and then we kept talking about it until i actually got around to write it! hopefully you’ll like it and if you do, please like and reblog!
pairing: ceo!Harry x ceo!plussize!reader
warning: sexual content
word count: 16.7k
masterlist
“Stop being such a stuck up dick, it’s your birthday, bro!”
Harry rolls his eyes at his friend who walks into his penthouse as if he owned. Niall Horan was so well-known in Harry’s building that he could have easily walked into any homes in the tower and people would still welcome him warmly. It might have a few things to do with the fact that half of the residents in the Compass Tower are women who are hopelessly in love with either Niall or Harry, hoping for a chance to drag either of them into their bed one day. They have a lot more chance to do that with the Irish bloke than with Mr. Styles. Not that Harry doesn’t find them attractive, but he is not the type to have one night stands, something his friend gives him quite a lot of shit for.
“Would you fuck off for twenty more minutes?” Harry sighs, shooting him a look as he covers the speaker of his phone, in the middle of a call.
“You have ten minutes and we are leaving. I’m not letting you work on the night of your thirtieth birthday!” Niall warns him before walking into the kitchen to roam the always full, neatly stocked fridge.
As much as Niall Horan comes off as an irresponsible cocky child, he is quite the businessman himself as well. As the Lawyer of one third of New York’s most influential people, he surely doesn’t have to worry about making a living, enjoying his luxurious apartment a few streets away from Harry’s place on the Upper East Side. It’s not as expensive and impressive as Harry’s penthouse on the top of the tower his father built in the heart of the posh neighborhood most people only know from TV shows, but he couldn’t complain.
“Another designer refused to sign with us, H. We are running out of options,” Lambert’s voice rings through the phone as Harry turns to the floor to ceiling window, staring out to the city skyline in front of him.
“We have quite a few left, right?” Harry asks clenching his jaw.
“Yeah, but I heard that Cometa is planning on announcing something big next week so I think a lot of them are waiting for that to happen.”
“Do you think it’s another collab? But they just had fucking Chanel have a line sold through them!” Harry growls, his blood boiling at even just the thought.
When it comes to fashion in the virtual world, there are two businesses that totally dominate the industry. In the men’s wear, Twisted is definitely the number one selling place. The idea started off as just a freshman school project that originally wanted to sell tech stuff, but a few years into the project Harry met Lambert who was already a rising star in the fashion industry and they joined forces, creating the most classic yet affordable and user friendly online empire: Twisted. Though Twisted mostly features men’s clothing, they’ve been trying to venture to the field of women’s fashion, but it hasn’t been as easy as they thought it to be. And the reason for that is Cometa.
Cometa was originally a website where anyone could sell their own clothes, make their online wardrobe sale. But eventually the business grew itself out and stepped up a few levels, collaborating with various designers and brands, selling exclusive lines and a highly praised seasonal variety four times a year, earning a well-deserved top spot in the online fashion industry. It’s hard to compete with what Julia Bianchi built up through sweat and blood and Harry Styles has been working on stepping up to be a major competition for Cometa in women’s fashion, with not much luck so far.
To top the cake with a delicious looking cherry, Cometa has been trying to set feet into men’s fashion as well in the recent years, bringing out several lines with some mentionable designers, but they never made it be as big as Twisted. The two businesses have been trying to outdo each other for about a decade now, with not much luck so far and Harry’s patience is running low by now.
“I don’t know what it is, but keep an eye out. I’ll call you on Monday, alright?” Lambert sighs through the line.
“Okay, thank you,” Harry nods, feeling a little defeated.
“And happy birthday, man. Go and celebrate!” he chuckles, making Harry’s lips curl up as well.
“Thanks, have a good weekend,” Harry bids his goodbye before the call ends.
Wandering into the kitchen Harry finds Niall with the thickest ham and cheese sandwich between his hands, sitting at the kitchen island.
“So where exactly are we going tonight?” he asks, grabbing himself a granola bar as he joins the Irish lad on the stool next to him.
“Oh, that’s a surprise,” he grins, mouth full as he chews mercilessly. Harry grimaces, not sure how this is the same man who can convince a judge about basically anything, wearing his designer suits, putting on an intimidating and serious act for his cases.
“I have a switch,” Niall once told him when he asked how he does it. “I just turn it off when I’m off the clock.”
“You know I hate surprises,” Harry informs him matter-of-factly, but Niall doesn’t seem to be bothered by his comment.
“You’re thirty now, no one cares what you hate.”
“Says who?” Harry huffs.
“Me,” he grins, making Harry roll his eyes.
The bass is throbbing, red tinted lights illuminating the exclusive bar in the heart of Manhattan where Niall chose to gather some of Harry’s close friends to celebrate his thirtieth birthday. Sitting in the leather couches at a restricted area at the back of the place, they are hidden enough not to draw too much attention to themselves but still feel like they are part of the party.
“Cheers to three decades of this cocky motherfucker!” Niall beams as their glasses meet in the middle, everyone laughing and wishing Harry a happy birthday before they all chug their drinks.
Harry is not necessarily the type of person to enjoy going out too often, but he admits it’s been a while since the last time he let loose. It feels nice to have the evening to himself, leaving the business behind for just a couple of hours before he returns to his busy everydays.
Though the occasion is Harry’s birthday, Niall is surely enjoying the evening a tad bit more than his friend. After Harry sees him send down three tequilas in a row he realizes it’s not gonna end well if he doesn’t get some water into his system as well. Excusing himself from the group he heads to the bar, pushing his way through the dancing bodies until he finally reaches his destination.
Given how it’s a Friday evening, the place is packed and he waits in the line patiently while the bartender is fixing up the order of a group of girls a few stools down from Harry. Leaning onto the counter Harry runs his gaze over the dancing crowd, tapping his fingers against the surface to the beat, even bopping his head a little when he feels a push from behind him.
“Oh, sorry!” A female voice calls out and as he turns around he spots the owner of it, a young woman, her curvy body wrapped in a tight mini dress that leaves very little to Harry’s imagination as his eyes run up and down her figure. He has never seen a curvy girl as confident as her, she is radiating, drawing every male’s attention to herself like she is feeding off the hungry stares and dirty thoughts birthed by her.
Her eyes meet Harry’s gaze and the sly smirk that tugs on her perfectly shaped lips gives it away that she is not that sorry to be bumping into him.
“No worries,” is all he manages to say, the urge to drop to his knees right then and there stronger than anything he has ever had to fight.
“He won’t notice you,” she tells him and his eyebrows knit together in confusion. “The bartender. If you just stand there like that… he will never come here,” she explains.
“I’m not sure I have what catches his eyes,” he jokes, making her laugh and he swears his stomach drops at the heavenly sound.
“May I?” she arches an eyebrow and Harry nods, letting her step in front of him. He stands tall above her, eyes fixed on her figure as she leans onto the counter, the marble pushing her breasts up just enough to spark the bartender’s fantasies when he glances in her way. She waves at him with a charming smile and a moment later the guy is standing in front of her, ready to please her in any way she desires.
“Three vodka sodas and…” she turns in Harry’s way, her lips slightly parted and his breath hitches in his throat. “What did you want, handsome?”
“Just, uhh—Just two water, please.”
Her eyebrows rise, but she doesn’t comment on it, just adds the two water to her order. The bartender nods and disappears to fix up her drinks. Harry takes a deep breath and sticking his hand out to her he introduces himself.
“I’m Harry, by the way.” She takes his hand, shaking it firmly.
“Y/N. Nice to meet you, Harry. Are you here alone?”
“Um, no. I’m here with a few friends,” he replies nodding towards the back of the place. “Are you here with someone?”
Please don’t say your boyfriend, please!
“A few of my girlfriends,” she smiles, brushing her hair over her shoulder, flaunting a better look at her naked neck and just one glimpse is sending a whirl of dirty thoughts into Harry’s mind. He wonders how soft her skin would feel under his lips, what her moans would sound as he sucks on it, leaving a mark on her, letting every man in the house know that he made her feel good.
“Are you guys celebrating something?” Y/N asks, a knowing smile on her lips as she most definitely saw Harry staring at her.
“Actually, yeah,” he chuckles a little nervously. “It’s my birthday.” Y/N’s eyes brighten up as she beams at him.
“Really? Happy birthday then!”
“Thank you,” he smiles shyly. “Are you guys celebrating something too?”
“Well, I…” she starts, her thoughts wandering off for a second before she continues. “I kind of got promoted,” she explains and Harry smiles down at her warmly.
“Congrats then!”
The bartender returns with the drinks and she is already about to get her card from her little clutch when Harry pulls his card out, handing it over to the guy behind the bar.
“Birthday boys shouldn’t pay for others,” she smirks, but doesn’t try to fight him that hard.
“You can pay me back later,” Harry shrugs with a suggestive smirk on his lips. He doesn’t want to part ways with her, but she is obviously expected to be back with her friends and he needs to get back to Niall as well before he absolutely loses control. Stepping closer to him, Y/N slides a hand up his chest, her palm resting at the base of his neck as she leans to his ear.
“Save me a dance, birthday boy?” she murmurs into his ear, her lips brushing against him for a split second before she steps back, grabs her drinks and winking at him one last time she disappears from the bar. Harry stands there for a few more seconds before the bartender hands him back his card and snatching the waters from the bar he heads back to his friends.
Luckily, Niall is slowing down a little, The water does him well and Harry finally doesn’t feel like he’ll have to take care of him, dragging him home once the night is over. Sitting by the table Harry is trying to focus on the conversation, but his gaze keeps wandering over to the dance floor, looking for one particular curvy figure in the sea of dancing bodies.
It takes him some time to spot her, but when he does, he is not able to tear his eyes away from her.
She is almost perfectly in the middle with her friends surrounding her, lips and shoulders swaying to the rhythm perfectly. He catches her chug down the last sips of her drink before she disregards the glass and gets back to dancing. Watching her every move intently, Harry feels his lips slightly part at the sight of this angel who is for sure a devil in the sheets. He can’t stop himself fantasizing about what it would feel like to dig his fingers into her thighs, kiss her neck, her cleavage that’s on show now, how her curves would fit into his hands perfectly. He wants to praise this woman, make her feel good and not just because he wants to be selfless and please her, but also because seeing this woman reach her high because of him would be the biggest ego boost for him and he just needs that.
“Go dance with her!” Niall wiggles his eyebrows at him when he catches Harry staring at her.
“What? No, I’m not a dancer,” he shakes his head, shifting his eyes away from the dancing goddess on the dance floor.
“Oh come on, don’t be a pussy!”
“I’m not a pussy, I just—“
“You’re a pussy. I saw her looking in your way as well, she wants your dick!”
“Jesus, Niall!” Harry whines rolling his eyes. He doesn’t like it when he gets so vulgar, but luckily no one heard their conversation. Glancing back in Y/N’s way Harry sees how men are eyeing him, probably building up the courage to go up to her and that has his blood boiling. He needs to be the one to touch her.
Chugging down the rest of his drink he snaps the glass on the table before standing from his seat, ignoring Niall’s cheering as he makes his way into the crowd.
Harry didn’t lie when he said he is not a dancer, he feels uncomfortable, awkward and uncoordinated most of the times he tries to dance, but he is pushing all of those to the back of his mind for now as his eyes are set on one person in the crowd.
When Y/N spots the man approaching her, she can’t push a pleased smile off her lips, slowing her movements down as Harry finally reaches her, leaning closer to her ear so she can hear his voice over the music.
“Here to collect that dance,” he smugly tells her, making her laugh, though the music is too loud to let him hear her. She just nods and turning around she presses herself up against him, her backside fitting his front perfectly. Harry’s hand snake around her waist, his large palm smoothly moving through the silky fabric of her dress as they start moving together.
She is intoxicating, makes Harry feel like he is some kind of horny teenager, like he hasn’t dealt with women before, but in a way, she makes all of his past flings appear to be only girls. Her confidence in her own body is easily one of her best traits, the way she handles herself, moves her body, the look in her eyes, Harry is getting drunk on just watching her and now he is able to touch her as well.
When he feels himself getting hard in his pants, he knows he should be at least a slightly bit embarrassed by himself, but as Y/N turns around in his arms and he sees the pleased smirk on her lips, the feeling vanishes in a heartbeat. She wraps her arms around his neck as she pulls him close, her lips brushing against his lips.
“Enjoying yourself, birthday boy?” she prompts before pressing a kiss to the soft skin under his ear and he can’t hold a growl back. The friction is almost unbearable, as his hands slide lower on her back, stopping on her ass, he knows he won’t be able to control himself any longer. Luckily, he is not the only one having this inner fight.
Snapping around Y/N grabs his hand and starts pulling him through the crowd towards the hallway of the bathrooms. He follows her eagerly, lucky for them, the club doesn’t have restrooms with several stalls, but single bathrooms with a lot more comfort and privacy. Just what they need right now.
They find the third bathroom empty, pushing their way inside and locking the door before Harry pushes her up against it the moment it’s just the two of them, their mouths hungrily meeting in the middle. He almost grunts against her lips, she tastes even better than he imagined and the way her tongue is the first one to come into action has got his mind blown. His hands roam up her body, running up all her curves until they reach her face and he cups it in his palms, pressing his hips against her. She moans against his mouth when his hard cock pokes against her, both of them desperate to take it further.
Tumbling further into the small bathroom, he helps her up to the counter next to the sing, her legs instantly opening for him, her tiny dress rolling up her thighs, revealing her clothed sex. Harry eagerly kisses his way down her neck and chest, her skin feeling so smooth under his lips. His fingers hook under the thin straps of her dress, tugging them down so he can push the dress past her full breasts and thank God she is not wearing a bra underneath!
“Fuck me, you are so hot!” he breathes out, making her chuckle at his reaction.
“That’s what I’m trying to do,” she cockily answers before Harry’s mouth attaches to her nipple, his hand working on her other breasts before he switches.
He quickly gets down on his knees, pushing her underwear to the side before his lips and tongue meet her sensitive clit.
“Oh shit!” she moans, a hand coming to tangle in his hair while she tries to hold herself steady with leaning on the other one behind her. There’s no time for teasing now and they both know that.
She is so lost in the experience, Harry is licking and sucking just the right spots and she tries to close her legs, locking his head between her thighs. His arms come to curl around them, ring clad fingers digging into her flesh and the situation might be a little suffocating for him, but he doesn’t mind it a bit. In fact, if he died this way, he would die a happy man.
She doesn’t let him finish what he started, pulling him up, his lips still glistening from her own juices as she kisses him messily, wiggling herself out of her underwear while he undoes his pants as well.
“Shit, do you have a condom?” he breathes out when his palm wraps around his throbbing cock. She nods, reaching for her clutch she dropped to the counter and digging into it she grabs the package, smacking it against his chest playfully. “Were you planning to do this tonight?” he grins cockily as he rips the package open and starts rolling it down his hard length.
“No, I’m just smart, unlike you,” she retorts, her sass dripping from her tone and it just riles him up even more.
Grabbing her thighs he yanks her to the edge of the counter, a gasp leaving her plump lips as she tries to find her balance quickly.
“Don’t be a brat,” he growl against her lips before kissing her, while he lines himself up with her, the head already pushing in.
“Then fuck me, birthday boy,” she challenges him again and it’s the last straw.
Harry slams into her, both of them moaning at the sensation before he starts thrusting in a fast pace, needing all the friction he can make to get them to finish as soon as possible. Y/N’s head falls back as she holds onto the back of his neck, her other hand on the counter behind her again and Harry glances down, watching her breasts bounce every time he rails into her, slamming his whole length into her every time their hips meet.
She reaches for one of his hands that’s holding her thigh and she boldly brings it to her core, tapping his fingers to her clit, letting him know that she wants some extra effort. Harry doesn’t say it, but he is blown how she didn’t just do it herself, she made him do it. It’s got to be one of the hottest things he has ever seen.
“Fuck, go harder!” she gasps, wrapping her legs around his waist as he picks the pace up, feeling his orgasm building rapidly with each thrust.
They both are a whimpering, moaning mess, the bass of the music is thumping outside and for a moment, Harry feels like he is finally living his life to the fullest.
“I’m gonna cum!” she breathes out, his name falling from her lips moaning after that and when she pulls him down to kiss him, biting into his bottom lip and tugging it, he loses himself.
He feels himself jerking inside her, still sliding in and out of her as he grunts, releasing himself into the condom. He flicks his fingers on her clit at the same time, creating just enough friction to push her over the edge as well. He is coming off his own high when her walls tighten around his cock, dragging his orgasm out even longer as she basically screams, gasping for air, riding her orgasm out to the last bit.
Leaning down he kisses her again though they are still panting, this time making it a lot less rushed than the time their lips met for the first time. Her legs fall from around his waist and he pulls out, both of them cleaning themselves up in the aftermath of their little session.
“I know this was quite rushed and all that, but can I have your number?” he asks, even feeling a little nervous. She puts her underwear back on, smoothing her dress down as she smiles up at him, cupping his face in her palm.
“I’m afraid we’ll have to skip on that,” she tells him simply, shocking him for sure.
“D-Do you have a boyfriend or something?”
“No,” she shakes her head and now Harry is confused.
“You didn’t enjoy it?” he then asks, trying his best to figure out the reason behind the rejection.
“I did. But it was a one time thing. If it’s supposed to turn into more…” she sighs, grabbing her clutch from the counter. “Then I’ll leave it to fate if we ever meet again,” she shrugs before turning around she just unlocks the door and walks out, leaving Harry stand there in complete and utter shock.
This is definitely a first for him, a woman who doesn’t want to see him again. He is not that egoistic to think that everyone is in love with him, but he never had an encounter similar to this. Not after the most amazing sex ever.
Harry fixes himself up, still not believing she walked out that easily, but there’s not much he can do now. Walking back to his table, he acts like nothing happened and when his eyes scan over the crowd again, he can’t see her anymore.
Harry lets out a tired sigh when Zayn, head of the graphic design department walks into his office with a familiar brown paper bag with the logo of Harry’s favorite Chinese restaurant.
“Has it started already?” Zayn asks, though glancing at the big screen on the wall he can see the stream is still waiting to be started.
“No, I’ve been staring at it for like twenty minutes,” Harry grumbles, pushing himself away from his desk to join Zayn on the couch in front of the screen as he unpacks the food. “What do you think it’s going to be?”
Today is the day of Cometa’s big press conference and no one knows what they are about to announce. It’s been keeping Harry on the edge for the past few days, because whatever it is, it has got to be major. Julia Bianchi is not the type of person to hold press conferences, she is a private person who has managed to keep most of her life behind closed doors. That’s something Harry admires in the woman even though they are competitors in the business. He can relate to wanting to keep her life just for herself, he has been doing the same thing. No public appearances, no lengthy interviews, no photoshoots. He likes to let his work talk for himself and it’s proved to be a successful move so far.
“I don’t know, but I hope they don’t suddenly announce a full graphic makeover right before our update,” Zayn chuckles. He has been working on an entirely new appearance for the website these past weeks and it’s supposed to go live sometime later in the month. A change for Cometa would totally throw their attempt off, making them look like they are just copying Julia’s move.
They eat and wait for the stream to start when the screen finally comes alive. There’s an empty stage shown with just two mic stands in the middle and nothing really happens for a few minutes before clapping is heard from behind the camera and Julia finally walks on the stage.
The woman is a real diva. Wearing a matching pant suit with bold floral print all over it, her short hair is neatly straightened into a bob cut, her red lips smiling lightly as she waves around in the room. Julia has been in the fashion industry for almost three decades now and she surely made a name for herself, sitting front row in every fashion show she attends, her words on any new trend being basically the standard.
Stepping to one of the mics, she clears her throat as the clapping dies down and her calm, gentle voice rings through the speakers.
“Welcome, everyone, thank you for coming, as you might already know I’m Julia Bianchi, head of Cometa, the world’s best online women’s fashion house.”
Harry leans back in his seat, eyes fixed on the woman on the screen as he is patiently waiting to hear what she’s got for the people this time.
“I’ve spent twenty-seven wonderful years in the business, building my own one for the past two decades. I fell in love with fashion as a child and moved to Milan to study designing from the bests. Though designing has always and will always hold a special place in my heart, I saw an opportunity in the early years for a brand that would hold together every other brand in the industry, bringing it to everyone’s home thanks to the rapidly developing technology. Cometa has always been my little baby and I’m proud of everything I achieved as head of such a great company.”
Harry realizes what it’s about before Julia could even say the words herself. The phrasing, the nostalgic tone, it’s all adding up to the obvious: Julia is about to announce her retirement.
“I gave the best years of my life for this company and I regret nothing, but recently I’ve realized that it is time for me to slow down for a little bit and enjoy a life that’s not filled with work anymore, and spend more time with my beloved husband, Fabio and my family who supported me on my long way here. Therefore, I am now announcing it with an aching heart and a lot of excitement as well that I am stepping down from my role as CEO of Cometa. I might be leaving now, but my business will not. So it is a pleasure to introduce you the person who will carry my legacy on, my amazing niece, the absolutely most perfect woman to carry on the work I started, Y/N Y/L/N.”
The moment another woman comes into the picture Harry almost chokes on his own saliva, seeing the same curves he had his fingers dug into last Friday. Y/N smiles and waves around as she steps to the other mic next to her aunt, exchanging a short look with her before turning towards the people in the room and the camera that’s streaming the event.
“Dude, you alright?” Zayn asks, patting Harry’s back a few times as he is still struggling to breathe normally.
He refuses to accept that the woman he fucked in a bathroom on his birthday, the one that made him moan like never before, is the same woman who is going to take over his biggest competitor.
“This has got to be a joke,” he breathes out with teary eyes from all the coughing.
“It is an honor to be here,” Y/N starts speaking as the clapping dies down once again and the two men are staring at the screen. “Just like to be the one to step into the perfectly stylish shoes of my aunt. I hope to live up to not just her and everyone else’s expectations, but also to mine as well. I grew up watching my aunt build up this empire with basically dust so to be the person to take her place is a dream come true. I promise to keep the quality the same and work on improving Cometa to its possible best while being in charge.”
As she finishes talking, questions are thrown in her way, but Harry doesn’t pay attention any longer. Standing up he walks to the window, staring out to the city as he chews on his bottom lip anxiously.
“What the fuck is your problem, H? It wasn’t as bad as we expected, right?” Zayn questions.
“It’s fucking worse!” he snaps turning around. “I can’t believe this is happening to me.”
“Would you just tell me what’s wrong?”
“What’s wrong is that… I told you about what… happened on my birthday.”
“The bathroom fuck, oh yeah,” Zayn chuckles with a playful shine in his eyes.
“Well, that woman… the woman I fucked was her.” Zayn stays silent for a moment before he turns towards the screen, eyeing the woman on the stage as she is still answering questions, standing confidently in her tight, black dress and red heels.
“You fucked Julia Bianchi’s niece? And she is now taking over Cometa?” he raises his eyebrows at Harry who just nods, pressing his lips together into a thin line. “And she is also the one who didn’t give you her number?”
“Don’t… bring that up. But yes, it’s her.”
Zayn starts laughing, clearly finding Harry’s misery entertaining, but Harry doesn’t feel like taking it that easy. He wonders if she knew who he was, if she did it on purpose or it was fate’s horrible joke on both of them.
“Ah man, that charity event on Saturday will be one hell of a show then!” Zayn points it out and Harry’s face falls. He totally forgot about the charity event he was invited to, one that would have the biggest names in the fashion industry together in a ball room to raise money for a chosen good cause. It happens every year and it’s a major event, the perfect place to network and also to see your biggest enemies. That means that Harry will see Y/N again in a few short days and if he is being honest… he is not ready to face her, not after the information he learned today. Sighing he steps to the minibar he insisted on having in his office and though he never drinks during the day, he now thinks that now might be an exception. He pours himself some whiskey and before he chugs it down at one go, he lets out a long, tired sigh.
“That’s just my luck…”
Leslie helps you with the zipper of your dress, the silky, red fabric hugging your body like a second skin. She smoothes the wrinkles out while you fix the straps, staring back at yourself in the mirror with judgment. You need to look perfect, this is going to be your first time appearing at an event as CEO of Cometa, your big entrance into the industry, you can’t let anything go wrong.
“You look gorgeous, babe,” Leslie smiles at you, bringing your hair behind your shoulders as her eyes meet yours in the mirror. Leslie might be your assistant, but she is a lot more than that. You’ve been friends for almost a decade and when she lost her job a few years ago you didn’t hesitate to offer her a spot next to you. You wouldn’t be here without her, she doesn’t try to use her privilege of being your friend to not do the work, she is always on top of her game and you’ll always be grateful for her to not make it awkward at all.
“I think you need some diamonds though,” she winks at you, stepping to the table where all kinds of jewelry is sprawled out. She reaches for a simple one, not too much, quite elegant and you nod as she holds it up for you. Walking behind you she brings it around your neck, the diamond brilliantly sitting on your chest now, giving that little extra shine to your outfit.
“You’ll make every man fall in love with you,” she smiles at you and breathing out you nod, hoping to believe that everything will go perfectly.
While you make a few last minute calls she gets dressed as well before the car arrives for the two of you. She is wearing a less daring but still beautiful black dress, her curly hair pinned up into a loose bun at the nape of her neck, her heavily freckled face bright from her happy smile as the two of you make your way to the event.
“I know it’s ridiculous, but I tried to memorize the faces and names from the guest list,” she grins at you, earning an eyeroll.
“Les, I told you, this is not The Devil Wears Prada,” you chuckle softly. She is obsessed with that movie and hasn’t shut up about feeling like she is literally living in it since your aunt has shared her plans with you about your future position last year.
“I know, but it might be impressive if you already knew everyone!”
You have to give that to her, it would earn you a few good points if you knew the names already, you’re just still nervous about the whole thing. So many things could go wrong and you want it to be perfect.
At first you feel intimidated by all the influential people around you. Everyone here is one of the bests in their own field and you feel like an impostor, but then you remind yourself that you earned your spot. Your aunt wouldn’t have given you the company if she didn’t trust you entirely with it. You worth no less than anyone else in this ball room and that reminds you that… you’re that bitch.
Leslie’s knowledge of names actually comes handy. You love seeing people get shocked when they try to introduce themselves to you, but you already greet them saying their names. It earns you some appreciative looks as you make your way around the room. Everything is going smooth, right until you spot one particular man in the crowd.
You’re in a little circle with a few designers when your gaze falls on Harry who is standing across the room, talking to two men. The champagne almost slips from your hand when you realize it’s him.
“Leslie,” you grab her wrist catching her attention. “Les, who’s the man in the blue Gucci suit?” you ask in a whisper and she follows your gaze, finding the man in talk.
“Oh, that’s Harry Styles, head of Twisted.”
“Fuck,” you mumble under your breath as you quickly excuse yourself from the conversation and head out to the balcony to get some fresh air before you faint right on the spot.
“Hey, what’s wrong?” Leslie follows you.
“I messed up,” you squeak as you step outside, the chilly evening air hitting your uncovered skin immediately. “I messed up big time!”
“What? Why? What happened?”
Stepping to the edge, you wrap your hands around the railing, staring out into the void for a moment. Leslie Stands beside you, quite puzzled about your sudden panic.
“Remember the guy I told you about from Friday night?” you ask, keeping your voice down even though there’s no one really around. Leslie nods. “Well… he was the guy.”
Leslie glances back inside and then at you before her eyes widen and lips part in shock.
“You fucked Harry Styles at a club’s bathroom?!” she whisper-yells at you and you feel like a teenager who is getting scolded.
“I didn’t know who he was! And I genuinely think he didn’t know me either, how could he?! But now he is here and… Oh God, this is so bad,” you whine, your head dropping backwards as you let out a frustrated growl.
“Okay, don’t panic. Maybe… maybe he doesn’t remember you.”
“You can’t make me believe he doesn’t remember me after fucking me on a counter,” you tell her giving her a look.
“Alright, alright. Then… you just have to suck it up. It’s not like you can unfuck him,” she shrugs and though you know she is right, you just wish you could leave right now.
You never planned on seeing him again. Your bullshit speech about letting fate decide it was just an excuse to not give him your number. You didn’t want to because you thought he is not the kind of man that would be good for you. From his look you thought that he was either a fuckboy, not willing to commit to anything serious, or the kind of man that seems all nice and respectful at first but then turns out to be a total asshole and you’ve had enough of those in your twenty-eight years.
Soon enough you head back as the auction is about to start. Luckily, your seat is far away from Harry and it seems like he hasn’t noticed you yet. Though you wish to keep it that way, you can feel it coming already.
The auction goes by fast, you buy a new painting that will look amazing in your living room and almost twice as much money is raised through the evening that was the goal. You leave Leslie behind at the table as you go to the bar to get yourself another drink, probably your last one of the evening if you don’t want to end up making a fool out of yourself.
Patiently waiting at the bar you’re already thinking about watching Grey’s Anatomy when you get back and out of this tight dress. You look hot, but it’s not the comfiest look, if you’re being honest. There’s only one more person in front of you when you feel a little tap on your shoulder and turning around your stomach drops when you see the man you’ve been trying to avoid all evening.
“Fancy seeing you here, Y/N,” he nods shortly, his expression is quite blank, but he is definitely not shocked to see you. You tighten your jaw before looking away from him, squinting your eyes a bit.
“You don’t seem surprised,” you point out.
“I was kind of expecting to see you here tonight.”
“So you knew who I was all along?” you snap at him, but he shakes his head.
“Not until the stream this week. I was pretty shocked when you walked on stage.”
Nodding shortly you brush your hair over your shoulder and you catch Harry glimpsing down your body, but decide not to comment on it.
“Did you know who I was?” he then asks, digging his hands into his pockets.
“No, I wouldn’t sleep with my biggest competitor willingly.”
“Just from the abrupt ending I had a feeling that you might have known me.”
“Just because a woman doesn’t throws herself into your arms after a fuck, doesn’t mean she had ulterior motives,” you scoff. “Get off your high horse,” you add before turning back towards the bar so you can order your drink. Unfortunately, Harry doesn’t want the conversation to end just yet. His hand is laid flat on the counter in front of you as he stands on your right, a little too close to your liking. You can smell the expensive cologne on him, the same that hit your nose on Friday as well and suddenly your body is betraying you.
However crazy the situation is, you can’t deny that he gave you one of the best times last Friday. Men you dealt with were more concerned about their own pleasure and most of them didn’t even get you to finish. But Harry made it happen so fast and didn’t even bitch about it when you made him rub your clit. He just obeyed like a grownup man who is willingly take care of his partner. That almost made you change your mind about leaving, but once you came down from cloud nine, you returned to your original plan.
But not as he is standing in front of you and you can smell him, your senses trick you into thinking that you’re in that bathroom again, almost aching for him to touch you the way he did then. He leans closer to your ear as he speaks up again.
“Leave the drink, dance with me,” he tells you as the bartender places your drink in front of you. You debate what to do before grabbing the drink and chugging it down in one go. You’ll need the alcohol if you are about to dance with your enemy.
Harry takes you to the dance floor in the middle of the ball room, one of his hands finds the small of your back while the other takes your hand as the two of you start swaying to the gentle music played by the band.
“Your aunt set my company back in women’s fashion every time I tried to take a step forward. Are you going to do the same?”
“She didn’t do anything to set you back but to build her own company. Not everything is about you.”
“You sound a little naïve, Love. It’s pretty clear you are new in the business.” This statement riles you up big time. How dare he degrade you like that? He knows nothing about you, yet he assumes things that are not at all real.
Smirking to yourself you lean back enough so your gazes can meet. Your hand slides up from his shoulders to the base of his neck so your fingers can gently brush against his skin and you notice the shudder than runs down his spine. He is not the only one having flashbacks from your last encounter.
“Wanna know what I know about business?” you purr, his eyes glued to your red lips as you speak. “I know that… Twisted was one of the last sites to participate in personalized ads on online platforms, failing to reach it’s targeted audience as fast as literally everyone else. I know that your company and my company use the same security system in our server rooms yet I can assure you that it cost me twenty percent less because we waited a month before installing it and got a huge last minute discount because the security company was trying to boost their numbers for their end of year closing. And I also happen to know that you are working on a new design for your website that could easily be outshone if I just did the same before you could do it.”
Harry’s lips part, probably mostly at the last information. He has no idea how you know these stuff, but you have a wide circle of connections in the city, you have an insider at every big companies in the industry without them even knowing. You’ve given countless tips to your aunt through the years, that’s how she managed to stay on top of her games.
Leaning closer your lips almost brush against him and you see how he weakens, he is expecting you to kiss him and he wants it. But you just smile at him, your eyes snapping down to his lips before up to his eyes.
“I will not do the same as my aunt, Harry,” you softly speak, your fingers grazing the back of his neck. “I will do way worse things.”
And with that, you slip out of his arms and walk back to your table, leaving him standing there alone at a complete loss of words.
“What the fuck had gotten into you?” Niall grimaces upon hearing everything he told you on the evening of the charity event. And quite frankly, Harry has no answer to that. He has absolutely no idea what had gotten into him to act like such a dick when you didn’t do anything against him.
The situation just messed with his head, seeing you in that breathtaking dress, mingling with everyone, smiling and laughing, oh how he wished you were laughing on his jokes! But then you seemed so tensed when he came up to you and something just switched in him. He wanted to take dominance, to somehow get out of it on top, but he miserably failed. When you brought up their plans to change the design he completely froze.
“No idea, okay? I just…lost it,” he growls, sinking into the couch. When Niall found out that Harry met the woman from the club again he insisted on coming over with some wine to talk it out, but he was not expecting this kind of story at all.
“Dude, you just put yourself on her radar big time, maybe she wouldn’t have even bothered to compete with you like her aunt did, but you surely changed her mind now.”
“I know, Niall!” Harry growls, not in the mood to be scolded like a little child. “Do you think she’ll change their design before we do?” he peeks at his friend, but Niall just shrugs.
“No idea, but I would try to speed it up before she actually does it.”
Harry made you into a ticking bomb and you successfully got under his skin about the whole design project so first thing the next morning he went to Zayn to discuss a possible earlier debut for the new designs. Though it would be a close stretch, they agreed that it would go live by the end of the week and that got Harry somehow a little relieved, but in the middle of that he failed to put the right amount of effort into finding designers for their female lines.
When he meets up with Lambert a few days later he is not there to deliver great news. Apparently, three out of the four designers they were negotiating with recently pulled out of their deal and signed a contract with Cometa.
“We have one last designer on the list, but then… we are out of the bigger names,” Lambert sighs as Harry chews on his bottom lip anxiously. He feels like he has fallen into a hole a while ago and instead of climbing out he is just digging it deeper underneath him.
“Okay, do we have an appointment with them?” Harry asks.
“Yeah, I’m meeting her this afternoon.”
“I’m going with you,” he nods before standing from his chair and opening the door he calls out for his assistant. “Rebecca, please clear my schedule for this afternoon, I’ll be out of the office.”
Rebecca nods behind her desk, already starting to make calls about Harry’s meetings and appointments.
It’s obvious he is anxious about the meeting, because if it falls through they are forced to look for less known designers and that won’t bring the change for the company they’ve been seeking for a long time. Arriving to the showroom where the designer is working, Harry is setting his thoughts straight, determined to convince her to sign a contract with them. The two men are let into the building by the nice assistant working at the front desk and she shows the way to the showroom where Kennedy, the designer is waiting for them.
Harry is confident, he trusts his skills to make this happen, but when they walk inside he instantly freezes upon seeing an all too familiar figure standing with Kennedy
A maroon colored pantsuit is hugging your curves, a Hermés handbag hanging from your arm, your hair falling in loose curls. As if you could sense his presence, you peek over your shoulder, a devilish smirk on your lips when you see the shocked expression on Harry’s face.
“What a great surprise!” you beam, selling how happy you are to see him and in a way, you are. You wanted to see his face drop when he realizes you snatched yet another designer from him.
“Oh, Mr. Styles!” Kennedy smiles nicely at him and he finally snaps out of his trance, shaking hands with her and then turning to you, doing the same but in a lot colder manner.
“Y/N, nice to see you again,” he fakes a smile as your hand falls from his palm.
“I could say the same. But I’m heading out now. Great talk, Kennedy. I’ll be waiting for your call,” you wink at the young designer who seems to be thrilled by your words as she walks you to the exit.
“Fucking hell,” Harry mumbles under his breath and Lambert shoots him a look before Kennedy returns.
The three of them take a seat on the couches in the corner of the room and Harry is quick to get down to business, trying his best to make his offer appear more appealing than anything you told her right before their arrival. Kennedy listens intently, even takes notes and then she shows him some examples of what she was thinking about for her next line and Harry is beyond thrilled.
Unfortunately, soon comes the painful part.
“Harry, I’m gonna be honest with you,” Kennedy starts and Harry already knows what she is about to say. “Your offer is very tempting and it would be an honor to design a line for Twisted, but in my situation it would be more beneficial if I collaborated with Cometa. It is nothing against your company, it’s more about my personal path and growth.”
Harry can feel his stomach dropping and he clenches his jaw as he listens to Kennedy’s worth. He understands, of course he understands, she has the right to selfishly look at her own benefits upon signing with a new company, but he wished she would take the risk and chose his company instead of yours.
“I’m keeping the offer open for you still,” he forces a smile on his face. “If you change your mind, Twisted would be more than happy to work with you.”
Kennedy walks the two men out and the fake smile quickly vanishes from Harry’s face upon stepping out of the building.
“What are we going to do now?” Lambert asks, clearly worried about how they’re gonna move forward with their last chance falling.
“If Y/N wants a war, that’s what she’ll get,” Harry growls, revenge burning in the greens of his eyes.
It’s a quiet Friday afternoon, only hours left from the day before you are headed home finally. You’re sitting in your office with Leslie, going over next week’s schedule to make sure everything is set and clear.
It’s been almost an entire month since you stepped into your aunt’s shoes as head of the company and though the start was a little rough, especially with finding out who Harry was, but you feel like you have everything under your control by now. After all, you didn’t learn business for years from the bests for nothing, right?
Harry’s comment on you knowing nothing about the industry made you bitter, because he knows nothing about you and the struggle you went through your life to get to this point. It wasn’t all sunshine and rainbow, being Julia’s niece might have been a hugely influencing aspect of you taking over, but you worked your ass off to be the best leader you can and not just ruin everything she built up through her whole life.
Though you didn’t always want to be the one following her, but you like to think that things worked out to your favor and you are where you should be.
“Alright, everything is looking fine,” Leslie smiles at you over her laptop. “I’ll send you the notes from today’s meeting.”
“Thank you. Can you call in with the delivery company about next month’s transactions?” you ask her and she nods, already adding it to her list of tasks for the rest of the day. “Alright. I’ll do the rest of the signings and then we can head out,” you smile at her.
Leslie is grabbing her things from the table when there’s a soft knock on the door. You give your permission and one of the tech support guys walk in with a worried look on his face.
“Miss Y/L/N? I’m afraid we have a problem,” he clears his throat and you can already feel your anxiety crawl up on your spine.
“What is it?” you ask firmly. The guy steps farther inside, fumbling with his fingers as he presents the issue.
“There’s been an attempt to break our software’s security system where we keep our data about the sellings. A-And I’m afraid it wasn’t just an attempt, they succeeded.”
You take a deep breath, glancing over at Leslie for a moment before you follow the man to the tech department to investigate the issue further. You don’t know shit about these stuff, but from what he said you know the trouble is huge and if you don’t solve it as soon as possible, valuable data could leak out to the public. They try to explain you what they are working on as of right now and that there’s not much you can actually help with.
“Make sure to put your extra hours on your attendance sheets and let me know when you are able to restore the system,” you tell them and you earn quite a few thank yous on your way out for actually paying the overtime. Then you turn to the guy that first came to your office. “Do you have any information about who it could have been?”
“We weren’t able to track them back, but whoever it was, they’re surely professionals and they might know the system from the inside.”
“What do you mean from the inside? Someone did it from the company?” you ask, eyebrows knitting together as you fold your arms on your chest.
“No,” he shakes his head. “We would have been able to track that back. I mean that they know the system, maybe they worked somewhere where the same one was used and they could see into it.”
It takes you a few moments before you realize what this really is and it has your blood boiling right away. Nodding shortly you exhale sharply through your nose.
“Thank you, please call me when it’s up and running again, I’ll take care of the rest,” you tell him before turning around you walk away.
When Leslie sees you approaching your office with a head practically turning red she is quick to jump to her feet, following you into the office.
“What’s happening?”
“Harry Styles, that’s what happening,” you snap as you grab your phone, purse and coat before heading out, not wasting another minute.
“What? Where are you going now?”
“To the devil himself,” you growl back and enter the elevator, leaving her alone with her questions.
Sitting in your car on your way to the headquarters of Twisted, you imagine every scenario you want to make happen when you arrive, most of them including hitting the man across his ridiculously handsome yet annoying face. He crossed a line with breaking into your system and stealing valuable data. Though you’re sure he wouldn’t dare to sell or publish it, because he would be in a big legal trouble if he did, he still had a glimpse into your numbers and that’s already an advantage. He is playing dirty and you’re not having any of it.
Arriving you burst through the doors and demand to see him. Though the woman behind the front desk tells you that you can’t see him without an appointment, you still get her to make a call up and naturally, Harry allows you to see him. The fucker might already have been waiting for you to show up. As you stand in the all glass elevator, on your way up to meet him you take a few deep breaths to keep your cool and not snap like a maniac, however it all vanishes when you see him waiting for you with that shit-eating grin on his face when you step out of the elevator.
“You’re lucky I didn’t go straight to the police with your little stunt, you fucker!” you snap, not able to hold back your swearing any longer.
“Do you have any evidence?” he tilts his head to the side and you don’t miss how his gaze runs down your body as you march towards him. You’d find it flattering in another situation, but right now you just want to punch him in the face.
“I’ll show some evidence down your throat, Styles, if you don’t stop messing with my security system,” you growl back, standing so close to him now that you see every tiny freckle and blemish on his face and the way how he clenches his jaw, holding his gaze on yours.
Without a word or invitation, you walk into the room that you suppose is his office and he follows with a soft chuckle.
“Did you hire a hacker just to mess with me?” you throw the question at him as he closes the door so his employees don’t hear everything.
“What if I did?” he shrugs, stepping to the tray on his desk that already has a glass of whiskey on it. He grabs the glass and simply lifts it to his lips, taking a tiny sip from it. “Oh, excuse my manners. Would you like a drink?”
“I’m driving,” you answer shortly. “You crossed a line, Harry,” you warn him.
“What line?” he chuckles, rather entertained by your rage. ��After what you pulled with Kennedy, I think I went easy on you.”
“I didn’t pull anything, I just gave her a better offer! It’s not my fault she has better chances with my company!” you snap back, feeling your heartbeat fastening from the anger that’s boiling in your veins.
“You knew I wanted her to design for me, why couldn’t you just let one person out of your endless list? You already have everyone else, she was my last fucking chance!” Harry barks back, clearly having some built up tension in him as well.
“If you didn’t act like an arrogant asshole at the charity gala, I would have happily let you work with her, but then you felt the need to fucking degrade me! That’s why I didn’t let you get away with it!”
Harry opens his mouth to answer, but he quickly closes his mouth, probably knowing well you’re right. He did act shitty towards you that evening and he has no excuse for his behavior. You walk closer until there are just a few feet between the two of you, your eyes glued to his burning green gaze that’s staring back at you, but before you could speak up, he cuts you off.
“Well, you know. All is fair in… war and business,” he shrugs and you honestly barely can stop yourself from laughing at how stupid that just sounded. You can’t miss the twitch in the corner of his mouth as well and you can’t believe how easily he made you break out of your rage.
“Don’t try to make money out of writing slogans,” you huff shaking your head and now he is grinning widely. “Do you have the data?”
“I don’t,” he answers and you narrow your eyes at him.
“You’re lying.”
“I’m not,” he chuckles. “I had it, but I already deleted it. I know it wasn’t ethical so as soon as it was handed to me I deleted it. I didn’t even look into it. I just wanted to scare you.”
“And how do I know your hacker doesn’t have it either?”
“Because he signed a contract that would cost him millions to break and I don’t think a junior in college who is still living in a dorm can afford that,” he points out and now you are somewhat convinced. You stare back at him for a few more seconds before nodding.
“Stay out of my way and I’ll stay out of yours, how does that sound?” you offer generously.
“Where’s the fun in that?” he questions with a smug smirk that makes your arch an eyebrow at him. “What are you doing tomorrow evening?” he then asks and you can’t mask your surprise in front of him.
“That does not concern you, Styles,” you scoff, though it boosts your ego that even through all the hate you’ve been targeting at each other, he still wants you the same way he did at the club that evening. You can’t deny, this rivalry has sparked a few thoughts in you as well, but you are not going to fall into the same mistake you made that evening. You pay him another smirk before turning around and heading towards the door. “Stay out of my way, Styles!” you call back without looking at him, but you just know he is grinning at you, a growing sexual tension thickening the atmosphere in the room.
“Or what?” he smugly questions and you stop at the door, glancing back at him over your shoulder.
“Or… You said it yourself. All is fair in war and business,” you smirk before walking out of the office.
Following your visit to Harry’s office things take a… playful turn in your rivalry. The attempts and competing don’t stop, both of you are on each other’s radar, ruining and messing with each other’s projects and works whenever and wherever it’s possible, but it’s not as hateful as it was at the beginning. If something, it even helps you to always be on your toes and watch out for possible threats, not just from Harry but from everyone else.
Neither of you succeeds in evolving in each other’s field, Cometa keeps thriving in women’s fashion with a quite small variety offered for the gentlemen while Twisted fails to grow out of men’s fashion and venture to the ladies, but somehow it’s not as frustrating as it used to be before.
Harry keeps up his flirty acts and tries to ask you out every time your paths cross each other, but you relentlessly turn him down every time, only fueling him to keep chasing after you more the next time. It’s a thrilling and flattering little game, knowing that even with all the rivalry between the two of you, being the biggest competitors in the business… he still wants you.
New York fashion week rolls around and it’s by far one of your favorite times in the year. You managed to snatch an exclusive deal with YSL to release a special line just for the fashion week and it sold out in the first two hours, now waiting to be restocked in a few days. Cometa is thriving and your aunt has expressed her pride towards the work you’ve been doing at the company, so things are heading the right direction.
You knew Harry would be attending the same shows as you, but it’s fate or just luck that you are seated next to each other at one of the shows, giving you the chance to talk without any of you attempting to corrupt the other this time.
Harry is already sitting in his seat when you arrive wearing a custom made Gucci dress, something that immediately catches his eyes since he is a huge fan of the brand himself.
“Your fashion sense never disappoints, Y/N,” he beams up at you as you take the seat next to him.
“Hope that’s not surprising, Styles,” You smirk at him, taking a glance at his own Gucci outfit, the checkered pants fitting him perfectly while the pussy bow adds some spice to the whole outfit, you have to admit. He looks good, he always does.
“Any plans after the show?” he asks right before the lights go out and the show starts. You leave him without an answer, just let out a soft chuckle as you glue your eyes to the first model who walks the runway.
Once the show is over you head out with Harry by your side, having an actually entertaining discussion about the designs you just saw. He might not be an expert in fashion, but he has developed a good sense through his years.
As you make your way out of the venue you are stopped by an interviewer and Harry remains on your side as the woman asks you a few questions about the show.
“I’ve always wondered, does it bother you that you couldn’t be on the runway yourself? You’ve been sitting front row the past years, but you once had aspirations of being a model yourself, is that right?”
The question makes you tense up and you can feel Harry’s puzzled look on you from the side.
“It’s not like it was my fault for not making it up there,” you sass back, forcing a smile to your face.
“Well, that’s not entirely true,” the woman chuckles and it has your blood boiling, because you know the real meaning behind her words.
It’s your fault you didn’t become a model because you were never thin enough to be one. It was your fault and not the industry’s to hold impossible standards to women who wanted to succeed as a model.
The smile falters from your face and you take a long, judgmental look at the woman in front of you. Because if she is brave enough to talk like that to you, you’re not gonna shy away from bringing her spirits down either.
“Judging from your appearance and attitude you wouldn’t make it either,” you spitefully reply and her smile quickly fades, clearly shocked at your answer. You open your mouth again, ready to continue, but then you feel a hand on the small of your back and you realize Harry is still standing next to you.
“Come on, we have somewhere to be, right?” he smiles kindly as you just simply nod and walk away from the woman before she could offend you again.
Harry senses your tension as the two of you leave the venue but doesn’t try to talk to you and that’s a wise choice from him. As you step out of the building you realize that if you went home now you’d probably get drunk on your own and let that comment get to you more than you should. So instead of doing that you turn to Harry.
“So, what are our plans?” you ask and you don’t miss the small smile on his lips as he stares back at you.
Not in the mood to stay around people at a bar you accept Harry’s invitation to his place, since it’s also close. The contrast between his extravagant penthouse and your cozy but still quite modern townhouse in Park Slope is major, but you didn’t expect anything less from the man.
You’ve managed to calm down since you left the venue, but you’re still quite bitter about the comment the woman made. Harry hasn’t tried to ask you about it, but you can tell he is dying to know more about the situation that’s behind the madness.
He fixes you a drink and you find yourself sinking into his comfortable and probably ridiculously expensive couch in his living room area.
“I used to want to be a model,” you start, breaking the silence that settled between the two of you. “When I was a teen. I was a lot thinner, I was a competitive dancer until I was seventeen, but I had a knee injury, so I had to quit.”
Harry sits on the other end of the couch, listening to you with patience as he sips on his own drink.
“I was never as thin as the other models at the agency I was trying to get into, but I definitely wasn’t overweight. Yet, they labelled me as a plus size model. I was a healthy, strong young girl with a perfectly good body, yet they told me that I was too fat to be a model.”
Glancing at Harry, you can tell that he is surprised at the information he just learned. He is probably picturing you thinner now, going to model castings and if you’re being honest you enjoyed that part. The trouble came when you got rejection after rejection, telling you to lose weight and come back after that.
“I quit my whole plan to be a model and studied fashion and business instead, consciously working my way towards this point. But I never got over how the industry made me feel less of a person because I wasn’t a size zero.”
For a few long moments Harry just stares at you and it’s actually nice that he doesn’t try to make you feel better right away, praising you how you are perfect just the way you are. Because you’re not, but that’s fine because no one is.
“I’ve honestly never seen a more cruel industry than fashion before,” he then speaks up. “I didn’t grow up in it and still don’t really have that much and deep connection with it, but I know how fucked up it is. And it’s nice to see that you know your worth even after everything that happened.”
Your gaze meets his and you’re looking for any sign that gives away that he is just messing with you, but it’s all genuine. You just shoot him a small smile before lifting your drink to your lips. It’s the most intimate moment you’ve shared with him, including the ones you had in that bathroom.
“Okay, now you tell me something about your life,” you prompt, wanting to divert the conversation on him a little bit.
“What do you want to know?” he asks with a soft chuckle.
“Why did you name your brand Twisted?” you ask. The question has been on your mind for a while.
“It’s coming from my mum’s name. Anne Twist.”
Your eyebrows shoot up, you weren’t expecting such a deep and personal reason behind the name, connected to a family member.
“Why her?”
“Why not?” he smirks shrugging his shoulders. “She raised me and my sister up, I wouldn’t be here without her. It was obvious I would make her be part of it in some kind of way.”
“That’s actually very nice. Who knew that you could be something other than an egoistic asshole!” you joke, making him laugh as well.
“Okay, what’s the meaning behind your brand?” he then turns it back around.
“Well, my aunt met her husband when they were very young, maybe eighteen. She fell in love with Fabio on her trip to Italy and being the impulsive and adventurous woman that she is, she stayed for a month there just because of Fabio. He is a very passionate man and he was always ready to bring the stars down for Julia. He always used to tell her that he would even catch a comet for her, if that’s what she wanted. And that was my aunt’s favorite saying from him. Cometa is comet in Italian. It’s her tribute to the love of her life.”
“That’s easily the most romantic thing I’ve ever heard,” Harry hums and you just smile nodding at him. It really is like a fairytale and it’s also one of the reasons why you were so happy to take her place at Cometa. Julia is still just as in love with Fabio as she was at eighteen and she deserves to spend more time with her beloved husband. She earned the time off after all the sacrifices she made for the company and all through them Fabio stayed by her side. It’s their well-earned happy ending now.
“You know a lot about romantic things?” you cock an eyebrow at him, finishing up your drink.
“Actually, I’m a quite romantic guy.”
“Are you now?”
“Yeah, you just never gave me the chance to show it to you.”
“Oh, so now I’m the bad guy?” you chuckle, handing him your glass when he stands from the couch to get you a refill.
“Exactly!” he chuckles holding up your empty glass on his way. “I hope you know you absolutely broke my heart when you didn’t give me your number that night.”
“Oh, you poor little thing,” you chuckle, resting your head in your palm, your elbow on the back of the couch. “I’m not sorry though. You didn’t give out the right vibes.”
“The right vibes?” he huffs as he returns with your drink and now sits a little closer to you. “What vibe did I give you?” “The vibe that told me I shouldn’t mess with you,” you simply answer as you take a sip from your refilled drink.
“You were so keen on hating me even before you knew who I was, I can’t believe you,” he chuckles shaking his head.
“I’m just cautious!” you protest. “I’ve dealt with some problematic men in the past, I can’t let myself walk right into another one that easily.”
“What did they do?”
“Some men just can’t treat women right. Especially confident ones with a body like mine,” you simply shrug.
Men like to think that bigger girls are so terribly insecure about their body that they need the validation of a male to feel good about themselves. But when you’re confident and feel good in your own skin without needing them to praise you, they think that you’re egoistic, so full of yourself and they are quick to try to drag you down. That’s something you can’t tolerate. You don’t need a man to feel good about yourself, you don’t need anyone for that. You know your worth and that’s all that matters.
Harry’s eyes travel down your body, taking his time on your curves and you smile shaking your head as you reach out and cupping his chin you pull his head up so he is looking into your eyes.
“I honestly can’t see what problem anyone could have with your body. I haven’t stopped thinking about it since our bathroom fiasco,” he bluntly comments making you chuckle, even flattered by his words.
“You are such a flirt,” you grin at him and he doesn’t try to protest.
You stay for a couple more drinks and you drop the heavier topics, venturing over to music, fashion and any funny stories that come to your mind. Harry is actually amazing company when you’re not trying to jump at each other’s throat and for a few short hours you forget that he is supposed to be your competitor.
You’re a little tipsy, but you are definitely not drunk, so when Harry offers you to stay the night you turn it down, calling yourself a car since you are not in the right state to drive.
“I’ll come and pick my car up in the morning,” you breathe out as you put your heels back on that came off your feet sometime during the evening, making yourself home in his place.
“I’ll text you the security number to the garage,” he nods, walking you to the elevator.
“Thank you. And… I guess thank you for the evening,” you smile at him, turning to face him. He is standing close, but still takes a step closer, one of his hands finding your waist as he pulls you against his chest. Your palms lie flat on his chest as you try to get yourself to the right mindset to leave now before you regret doing something. Leaning down his nose nudges against your cheek, before he presses a soft kiss under below your ear, a sigh escaping your lips.
“I should go, the car is here,” you breathe out, but don’t move.
“Mm, okay,” he hums, his lips peppering kisses on your jaw and your cheek, as if you didn’t say a word. You want to continue it, not just because of the alcohol but because the sexual tension between the two of you has been growing since that charity gala, but the remainder of your rationality stops you before your lips could meet.
“Bye Harry,” you smile at him softly as you push him away and you walk into the elevator, leaving him hanging. Again.
“Bye Y/N. I’m still going to try to ruin your company!” he calls after you as you turn around to face him, the sliding doors slowly closing between the two of you.
“Same back at you, Styles,” you smirk before the door closes and you are taken down.
Well, that was a lie. Following your evening at his place neither of you really tries to work against the other, leaving each other be without any fuss. It might also have something to do with how you kept in touch after that day. You’ve been texting occasionally, attending some events together, even had a business dinner together with a few other peers from the industry. Things have been quiet and you’ve been feeling content with the current state you’ve managed to reach. Or so you thought.
It was a silent agreement between the two of you. You both put your projects aside that targeted the other’s profile. Harry stopped looking for designers for his women lines and you put your men department to the side as well. There were a lot to work on beside these fields so you felt like you were in peace. Right until Leslie bursts into your office on a casual Tuesday.
“Have you seen this?” she asks, placing a tablet in front of you with an Instagram account open on it.
You want to ask what you’re supposed to look at, but then you realize what it really is. A shiny new account for a new brand that promises to take online shopping to the next level; female and male as well.
“You think it could be…?” you ask, not quite convinced that Harry is behind this.
“Well, the wording is similar to theirs and creating a new brand might be a solution to their gap in women’s fashion,” she points it out, though you don’t want to believe he could have been working on this all along, basically in front of your face.
But it’s a possibility and you have to consider this option before jumping into defending him without any proof.
“Men can’t be trusted,” you grumble under your breath before jumping into work.
What you didn’t know is that an eerily similar situation goes down in Harry’s office as well when Zayn bursts in, showing him the ad he found for the new brand called Farfalla.
Harry immediately digs up everything about the company, though there’s not much other than their new Instagram account and heavy marketing that started just yesterday.
“What is Farfalla even?” he grimaces leaning back in his chair.
“It means butterfly in Italian,” Zayn explains and Harry’s eyes flicker up to him.
“Italian? You think it’s her?”
“It’s possible,” Zayn nods. “Starting a new brand to finally reach men’s fashion is a good idea.”
“She wouldn’t have done this,” Harry shakes his head in disbelief. Could you be working on this all along? Was this your plan from the start? To make him fall for you and forget about business while you built up your new empire to ruin him?
“What if she did?” Zayn prompts and in a way his suspicion is valid, but Harry is having a hard time believing it. You would never play him this dirty, not after how the two of you have grown closer in the past weeks, almost became friends.
“What are you going to do?” Zayn asks him as he pushes himself away from the desk and quite obviously starts getting ready to leave.
“She is not getting away from this,” Harry mumbles under his breath as he grabs his coat and phone before storming out of the office.
It’s past six when Harry gets to Cometa’s building and he is informed that you’ve already went home. He could have just come back in the morning, but he knew he would just stew in his own anger if he didn’t talk to you as soon as possible. So using his charm he gets the woman sitting behind the front desk to share your address with him, saying that he needs to talk to you urgently. That’s how he finds himself heading to Park Slope, slightly surprised you are not living somewhere in the heart of Manhattan.
As the scenery around his changes, skyscrapers turning into brick buildings and townhouses, Harry tries to figure out what he even wants to say to you. Should he just get straight down to business and accuse you? Snap at you? Or should he give you the chance to explain yourself? He can’t really make up his mind, mostly because he still feels like you betrayed him even though he can’t be sure Farfalla is yours.
Parking down at the address he got from the woman, he stares up at the deep red brick townhouse, a simple, black door at the top of the stairs that’s lined with a few potted plants and flowers. This is not what he would have imagined your home like, but now that he is standing on your doormat, he realizes it kind of suits you.
Ringing the bell he hopes that you’re home and not out and about somewhere in the city, but when he hears the familiar sound of heels clicking on the floor he knows you are on the other side. When the front door flings open and you come into his sight, for a split second he forgets why he is here and his anger vanishes. As always, you look amazing, a tight, black dress hugging your curves, the middle part appearing like it’s a corset, emphasizing the dip of your waist. Your hair is let down in loose curls and your feet are bare, but he knows you probably wore heels all day. You must have gotten home not long ago and as your eyes fall on the man at the door, your expression hardens on him.
“You really had the balls to come her, huh?” you cock your head to the side, keeping your eyes on his green ones for a moment before you let him inside.
“Did you think you could get away with it?” he huffs walking into the hallway and stopping as you close the door and turn to him.
“Me? I could say the same! You thought I would just ignore it or what? I proved you a few times that I’m not stupid, Harry,” you retort, folding your arms on your chest as you walk past him, into the kitchen and he follows.
“You surely are not stupid, playing me so dirty behind my back!” Harry spats standing his ground. “Playing all friendly and nice and then make a fool out of me!”
“What the fuck are you talking about?” you question narrowing your eyes at him as you lean against the kitchen island’s counter. “If anyone played dirty it’s you! And you have the balls to come here and talk like this to me in my own fucking home?!” you snap, walking closer to him, keeping your deathly glare on him.
“What the fuck did I do?!” he scoffs throwing his hands into the air.
“You created a whole new brand just to fuck with me! Or did you think I wouldn’t find out about it?!”
“Me? You made a new brand! And you didn’t do a great job hiding the fact that it was your work, even the name is Italian, like your current one!”
You stare back at him, tilting your head to the side as you process what he is talking about. All along, the two of you were accusing each other of something neither of you did.
“Harry,” you breathe out, pinching the bridge of your nose. “Farfalla is not my brand.”
“And I’m supposed to believe it?!”
“Well you better be because it’s the fucking truth!”
“Prove it!” he hisses at you, taking a step closer, his face only inches away from yours now.
“Until about twenty seconds ago I thought that it was your new brand, Harry. I thought that you were the one who backstabbed me!” you snap back, standing up for yourself in this giant misunderstanding you fell into, accusing each other without any proof.
Harry stares back at you, his gaze burning into yours as he stands his ground and you can almost see the gears turning in his head as he processes your words.
“So… it’s not yours? You didn’t do it to fuck me up?”
“Of course not!” you breathe out, suddenly quite tired of all the anger that’s been eating you away through the afternoon. “I thought that we had a kind of silent agreement not to mess with each other so I wasn’t planning anything anytime soon. That’s why I got so mad when I thought you did it!”
“I thought the same!” he growls shaking his head. “I thought you did it all to just make me look stupid, that the friendly act was just so I wouldn’t notice a thing and I fell right into your trap.”
“There was no trap,” you simply tell him and you hope he senses the hidden meaning behind your words.
Luckily he does. But for your biggest surprise there’s no snarky comment or smug smirking, he just steps closer and before you could even protest, his hands find your waist and he pulls you against his hard chest, lips hungry attacking yours. He makes you back until you bump against the kitchen island, his hips pressing against yours as he pushes you against the hard surface, his hands wandering on your sides and back, up and down, exploring every curve of your body while his kisses never slow down, your tongues meeting in the middle.
Bringing up a leg you curl it around his hips, your heel digging into his round ass as he leans forward, making you arch your back, leaning onto the counter as his lips move from your lips to your jawline and neck, his fingers digging into your waist and the thigh that’s lifted by his side. He nibbles on the soft skin of your neck, definitely leaving a mark, but you just comb your fingers through his hair, letting yourself get lost in the sensation.
“As much as I would love to fuck you on a counter again, can we take this to a bedroom?” he mumbles as he kisses his way back up to your lips, smirking against them as he captures them again.
You don’t answer, just grab his hand and pull him upstairs with you, right into your bedroom. He is all over you, lips, hands, tongue, pressed up against you as the two of you stumble your way to your king sized bed. Harry’s fingers fidget with the corset on your dress, but he soon realizes it’s a little trickier than he expected, so leaning back he furrows his eyebrows as he glances down at the dress, still trying to figure out how to get you out of it.
“Harry,” you smile at him softly. “It’s faux. There’s a zipper at the back,” you inform him and he sighs in defeat as he kisses you again, his fingers quickly finding the zipper. The dress pools at your feet and you rid him from his jacket and shirt, revealing his inked chest, a sight you’ve been thinking about way too much lately.
By the time the two of you fall to your bed, neither of you are dressed in more than just your underwear. Because both of you like to be in charge, you roll around for a while, trying to get on top of each other but eventually Harry stays up when he starts going down on you, kissing his way through your heated skin. You don’t shy away when his hands snake under your back and easily unclasps your bra, being bare in front of him is not something that makes you feel uncomfortable or insecure. The way he looks at you, the way he makes you feel brings you so much confidence, you have absolutely no problem being nude.
When your bra flies to the floor, Harry leans back a little to admire you lying there, before his lips find their way over the curve of your breasts, down your stomach. Hooking his fingers into the elastic of your panties he tugs them down easily as you lift your hips, your thighs parting as you bare yourself in front of him.
“Don’t be shy about screaming my name,” he smugly tells you before his lips and tongue meet your clit. Your fingers lace through his hair immediately as you gasp out at the sensation, his tongue drawing the whole fucking alphabet to your bundle of nerves. His arms curl around your thighs, ring clad fingers digging into your flesh as he sucks on the sensitive skin.
“Fuck, Harry! Yes!” you moan out, tugging on his locks when he teases his tongue around your hole, your walls tightening around nothing as you are growing desperate to feel something inside of you.
You pull on his hair, signaling him that you want to get it on with, Hands reaching down to get rid of his boxer briefs before you blindly pull out the drawer of your nightstand, grabbing a condom. His lips eagerly meet yours as he wraps his erected cock and though you would love to have a taste of him like he did with you, you just want to feel him inside you.
“Tell me how bad you want it,” he growls against your lips, teasing you with running just the head up and down your slit.
“If you don’t fuck me right now I’m gonna rip your guts out,” you warn him, earning a soft chuckle as he kisses you again, tongue pushing into your mouth as he finally pushes inside you, his long, thick cock filling you up perfectly and it somehow feels even better than the first time.
“Go hard,” you gasp, a hand coming to grab his ass as you push him even further into you. He doesn’t need more, he starts slamming into you, his hips meeting yours roughly with each thrust, his whole length disappearing inside you every time.
He buries his head into the crook of your neck, licking and sucking on the soft skin. You almost think about telling him not to mark you, but it just turns you on even more so you let him do whatever he wants.
“I want to see you on top,” he pants, lifting his head so his gaze could meet yours. You nod, before the two of you turn around and you straddle his hips, guiding him back inside you as you sink down his length. Your hands are sprawled out on his hard chest as you find your balance in the position, Harry’s eyes roaming your body up and down, not able to get enough of how blissful you look, sitting with his cock buried inside of you, enjoying yourself to the fullest. His hands run up your thighs and upper body until they find your breasts, kneading them as you start moving your hips up and down, back and forth. When you moan his name or gasp because his cock reaches that one particular spot inside you, those are the moments he wishes he could capture on camera and watch whenever he wants.
“I want it from back,” you pant as you lean down and kiss him roughly. That’s all he needs, he helps you get off of him before you get on all four, pushing your butt up in the air while Harry kneels behind you, the sight in front of him hardening his cock even more, if that’s possible. His hands grab onto your waist as he pushes inside you, making you both let out a satisfied moan before he starts moving again.
“Fuck, you look so good like this, Y/N. I love your ass,” he growls, giving it a smack that surprises you, but you absolutely love it.
“Harry, go faster!” you whimper, feeling your orgasm nearing as you grip the comforter on the bed, desperate to reach your climax. You’re just about to reach down between your legs to play with your clit when Harry not only picks his pace up but also reaches around you, two of his fingers starting the circling motions on the bundle of nerves, making your legs shake from the pleasure.
“Come on, baby. Cum for me, cum all over my cock,” he growls, railing you from behind without missing a beat.
“Harry!” you scream when he thrusts into you so harshly, your whole body rocking in the motion.
“Come on, angel. Cum for me,” he murmurs and leaning down he wraps his arms around you, bringing you up straight, your back pressing against his sweaty chest, his hands coming to cup your breasts as he keeps thrusting up into you, pushing you over the edge.
You moan and gasp and scream his name as your walls tighten around his length, riding out your bliss and it helps him reach his own high, his hot breath hitting the back of your neck and shoulder, grunting and cursing under his breath as he fills the condom.
As his thrusts come to a halt, he sinks into a sitting position, bringing you with him, you lean against him feeling like jelly as you’re still just trying to catch your breath. Harry peppers your shoulder with small kisses before you muster the energy to break the position and lie down on the bed.
“Towel is in the bathroom,” you tell him knowing that’s what he’ll look for as he stands from the bed and you point at the door that leads to the joined bathroom. Harry nods and pads his way in there, cleaning himself up before he returns with a small damp towel, doing the same for you. He drops it to the floor next to the bed before joining you, cradling you into his arms as you take a breather together.
One hand is on your shoulder, fingers dancing on the naked skin, the other one is holding your thigh that’s across his lap while your head is resting on his chest.
“You really thought I would backstab you like that?” he hums after a while, breaking the comfortable silence.
“You did the same,” you answer, lifting your head, resting your chin on his chest.
“Touché,” he chuckles, before leaning down he kisses you shortly. “So, if neither of us did it, then we have a quite major problem on our hands.”
“I know,” you hum. “That shit looks promising and they can easily ruin both of us.”
Harry stays silent for a little, but you can see the gears turning in his head. When his gaze snaps back at you, you know he has an idea.
“Unless… we join forces.” Your eyebrows arch as you stare back at him. “I know it’s a risky move, but this is the only way to stay on the top.”
“How much you want to be joined?”
“We could start with just one line, the men part designed by someone from me and the women by someone from you. And if it presents well we can just figure out where to go from there. Obviously, the men part would be sold by us and the women by you, but we could join the pages and direct users to each other’s sites in connection with the lines.”
“That could… actually work,” you nod shortly, thinking about the idea. It needs a lot of planning, but it could actually be a big hit if you do it right. “And you’re willing to partner with me?” you ask cheekily as you push yourself up into a sitting position, Harry doing the same.
“If you haven’t noticed, I’m willing to do about anything with you,” he chuckles, making you smile at his playful answer. “I hope you know I’m not talking about just business,” he then adds with a meaningful look.
“You are still so keen on this?” you sigh, tugging your hair behind your ear.
“Do you not like being with me?”
“I do, surprisingly,” you roll your eyes, making him laugh.
“Do you not like having sex with me?”
“I think the answer is pretty obvious to that,” you give him a look as he smirks back at you.
“Yeah, but I want to hear it.”
“I enjoy having sex with you, Harry,” you roll your eyes again, but he just kisses you short but hard before leaning back.
“So then why shouldn’t we date?”
“Because we are competitors?”
“We just agreed that we should join forces. We are partners now.”
“You are running a little ahead, Harry,” you cock an eyebrow at him. “I don’t know, I haven’t been in a relationship in ages. I probably suck at it at this point,” you shrug, but it’s just a lame excuse and you both know that. Leaning closer Harry smirks at you smugly.
“I have something else you can suck.” You smack his chest at his nasty remark, but can’t push a smile back. His hand finds the back of your head as he pulls you in for another kiss. “I want you, Y/N. I really do. You are all I think about even when you are an annoying piece of shit, getting under my skin. I still want you.”
“Wow, so romantic,” you chuckle shaking your head. “What if we can’t get over our differences in the business? That can easily poison any relationship.”
“Then we’ll have a lot of mind-blowing angry and makeup sex. Those are the best. We can put all our frustration into sex, I think that’s just perfect.”
“What are you, a horny teenager? Sex is all you can think about?” you chuckle.
“It is when I’m lying in a bed with you naked. You can’t blame me,” he grins smugly and you want to hate him, you want to hate him so badly, but you can’t. You want him just as much as he wants you.
“So… partners?” he prompts, tilting his head to the side with a sweet smile as he waits for your answer.
“Partners in business and life?”
“Mhm, that’s the plan,” he nods, his smile growing wider with each passing second.
“Alright,” you breathe out. “So… it’s not—All is fair in war and business?” you ask teasingly, using his own words from earlier.
“Just shut up and kiss me,” he laughs, pulling you in for another kiss.
Thank you for reading! Please like/reblog if you enjoyed!
#harry#styles#harry styles#harry styles imagine#harry styles au#harry styles oneshot#harry styles one shot#harry styles fanfiction#harry styles fanfic#harry styles x you#harry styles x y/n#harry styles x reader#ceo!harry#harry styles fluff#harry styles angst#harry styles smut
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Was Ich Liebe (P.3, Final)
Title: Was Ich Liebe (Part Three, Final) Summary: Fem!Reader x Dark!Tony Stark. Tony becomes enamored with a stripper at a club his hedonistic friend Thor owns. A casual sexual relationship quickly becomes possessive and the reader sees more of the underground mafia life than she would like to. The cherry on top is that Tony is married and so is she. Him to a woman who has no intention of losing her throne at any cost and the reader to a deadbeat alcoholic. Feeling trapped by both her previous life and the suffocating hold Tony is trying to put on her, the reader steals away in the night, which is not going to go over well. Words: 4,647 Warnings (for whole fic, more may be added): Dub-con, smut, infidelity, stripping, vaginal fingering, public sex, possessive behavior, angst, degradation kink, violence, physical abuse, domestic violence, language, drug use, alcoholism, death Warnings for this chapter: Mention of abortion! Author’s Note: As usual, this is 18+.
Part Two || Masterpost (mobile) || Fanfic masterpost
Tony was calling. He must have gone to the apartment and found you gone by now, especially since you had not been answering him via text or by phone. You sent him to voicemail letting your music start again. You had rented a car to drive away from the city.
The jewelry he had given you came in handy to get cash that you were using for gas and hopefully a down payment on an apartment somewhere. Stripping joints were abundant, and you were sure if you found a sizable city, you would find work without an issue. You were thinking about Milwaukee. It was far enough away from NYC and there was a college there too.
Your phone beeped with another voicemail from him. Signing, against your better judgment, you reached forward to press play, it coming over the car’s speakers.
He was pissed. Unsurprisingly. He had been tight on the last one he had left, wound up that you were not answering him. But this was a whole different level. He was practically shouting.
“This better be a goddamn joke, Y/N. My patience is already up with it though. Did you think I wouldn’t notice you had snuck out? Where the fuck is all the jewelry? Huh? Your clothes? If I find out you left and you’re cheating on me, I’m gonna kill them.”
You did not doubt him when he said that. And he confirmed he was at the apartment if he noticed your stuff was gone.
“And were you planning on telling me about the pregnancy?” Your eyes widened and then you swore remembering you had not emptied the trash in the bathroom. “Or were you just gonna keep that to yourself? Listen very carefully to me, if you do something drastic, I’m not gonna be nice about it. Not in the fucking slightest. You best believe that and take that to heart! Don’t be fucking stupid! Call. Me. Back.”
The voicemail ended.
Yes. The pregnancy. You were already thinking about which office you could go to. You had left a note for Thor about quitting and you wondered how quickly your health insurance was going to stay in place. Before after leaving a job, it had stayed on until the end of the month, but you were unsure, and you were not about to call him and ask. An appointment at a clinic though, that was something you needed to deal with quickly. You were sure there was a facility you could find when you got yourself established.
<><><>
“You’re a psychopath,” Carol said to Tony, smirking.
She was watching him put up security cameras around Y/N’s apartment, hidden from the normal eye with his technology. And when he had taken the lock apart on her door to install tech he could control himself from his cell, she had shook her head.
“I prefer creative,” Tony responded, as he tested it out. It worked perfectly. “Little bitch isn’t going to be leaving without trying extra hard.”
<><><>
You found a hotel in Columbus. You made sure to put a chair underneath the door handle on top of using both locks. It was scary to be traveling alone. And especially when you did not know the area.
The next morning, you woke up to another voicemail from Tony. You had reached over to silence it while you were sleeping, knowing damn well who would be calling you at 2:30am.
He sounded sloshed.
“Do you remember me telling you I was never going to let you go? Cause I said it multiple times. That hasn’t changed, Y/N. It’s been almost 24 hours since you answered to me!” Slip up there with that ‘to’ added in. “It’s really fucking frustrating, and you know goddamn well I don’t like being frustrated. It’s…you’re being disrespectful!” There was a slight pause and you heard him take a drink. He let out a humorless laugh. “You won’t run away from me. I’m going to find you.”
He hung up.
Hearing how mad he was, your stomach was twisting. He was not a man that liked to be thwarted or feel like he was being disrespected. Not to mention that he was a fucking mafia member. If he got his hands back on you, he was not going to be kind. And the time he told you he would never hurt you would be tested, you worried.
Why did you let yourself get so far involved with such a dangerous, jealous man? Again?
Forcing yourself to get up from the bed, you went to take a shower to try to relax in the hot water. Afterward, you walked across the street to the coffee shop. You wanted to get on the road again to put some more distance between you and NYC and ultimately between you and him.
<><><>
You drove around the edge of UW-Milwaukee, stealing glances at the campus. A city like this with a college surely had good clientele for the clubs.
Pulling over and parking, you opened your phone beginning to search for an apartment and a job. There had to be an abundance of apartments available around the college since it was summer and a class had just graduated.
<><><>
He kept calling and kept calling. He was not going to stop. It had been two weeks. You had been trying to convince yourself to answer him and tell him to leave you alone and that it was over. You thought about changing your number and you would, but after the conversation you needed to have.
Piqued, you answered, “Tony, I’m busy—"
“Oh, you’re busy? So busy you couldn’t fucking answer me? Over the last two weeks, you’ve been ‘busy’. Too busy for me? That’s hilarious! You should have your own fucking stand up show.” His tone was dripping with condescension.
Sighing, you said, “I’m getting ready for work! This needs to be quick.”
“Work?” Tony chuckled darkly. “Now you care about work? You fucked Thor over by quitting on the spot. How were you even able to get a reference?”
“I danced. That was reference enough.”
“Of course you did. Of course you’re stripping. Where are you?”
“I’m not going to tell you, Tony!”
“Y/N, baby,” he started, sounding like it was taking everything in him to keep his voice even. “If you just apologize and tell me where you are or just come back, I’ll be able to let this go easier. You can come back to me, and it’ll all be okay.”
You mustered out a strong, “No! I am not going to do that.”
His leash was back off. “Why are we playing this stupid game, Y/N? I can handle you being bratty — cause I love fucking it out of you — but this is really pushing me over the edge!”
“I’m not being a brat! You were suffocating me!”
“Suffocating you? I worship you!” He was so easily able to confuse his possession with love. He continued on irritated, “I shower you with gifts! I make sure you’re well taken care of! I’ve treated you better than anyone else has! And you’re coming at me like this? What is your fucking problem, Y/N? What? Is being on the phone instead of in person giving you some fake confidence? Don’t think I’m not keeping track of this ungrateful bullshit just because you’re not standing in front of me!”
He was quickly losing his temper. You had never made him this mad, had never pushed back.
You were shaking as you tried to stand up for yourself, “I’m not the one with a problem! I didn’t force you to move anywhere or—"
Tony interrupted you furiously. “Do you understand how much that apartment cost? How much that car cost? You barely drove it!”
Frustrated he was steam rolling you as usual. you said fighting to keep tears back, “Sell it then!”
“If that was supposed to be a joke, it was an awful one. This shit isn’t fucking funny, Y/N! When I find out where you are, I’m gonna drag you back by your goddamn hair!”
“Good luck!” you spat, it slipping out before you really thought about it. Your eyes widened at what you had just done, and you quickly hung up as he started to snarl something back.
He was immediately calling you back and you sent him to voicemail again.
<><><>
Tony let out an aggravated shout, throwing his phone down on the desk when she did not answer him back.
Good luck was right.
She had stayed on the line long enough to give him time to trace her down to the general area. Milwaukee. Near the university. He would find her, and he was gonna find her quick with getting eyes on the ground to spot her leaving her place wherever that was in the area. And she was not going to like it when he came knocking to collect her.
<><><>
The bag from the closest grocery store was heavy with groceries for the week. You had returned the rental car when you signed your lease, able to use the bus system until you bought your own car.
You noticed there was a man watching you across the street and you slowed in your pace, narrowing your eyes. He did not look away and you swallowed sharply before resuming your pace. You felt like you could still feel his eyes on the back of your head. You had felt like there had been eyes on you earlier this morning too. A foreboding feeling was creeping; you wanted to get inside and quick.
Entering your apartment, you kicked the door closed and struggled to lock it immediately. The bag crunched as you walked over to the kitchen and placed it on the counter.
You put the few groceries away and walked around the counter, tearing your shirt off and tossing it on the back of one of your chairs. It was hot since you were on the third floor and you had not been able to buy an air conditioner yet.
“This place is a shithole.”
You screamed, startled at the voice, whipping around, your eyes searching wildly.
Tony was sitting in the end of your bed in your room.
He had surprisingly not called you for the last few days, not after the conversation the two of you had. Not hearing from him had set you on edge just as much as him calling you did. You knew he was not going to give up easily and the silence was a trap if you fell into it thinking that it was done.
Your eyes flicked to the door, and he chastised you in low, dangerous tones, “Y/N, you’re already in enough trouble. Don’t make this worse for yourself. Carols outside. So is Rhodey. And a handful of other people I brought along in case you were gonna cause more trouble.”
The man outside. So, you had been being watched.
Tony stood up from the bed and came out of the bedroom, and up to you. You took a few steps back and he tsked you. You stopped immediately, knowing what he wanted. He closed the rest of the space and raked his eyes up and down you.
“Why did you have to go and cause trouble in the first place? You think I was suffocating you? That’ll seem like a cakewalk compared to when you come back with me. See, we’ve lost trust. I can’t have you running around when you know as much as you do. And you running off looks like you were going to squeal.” You opened your mouth to protest but he rose his voice, shutting you up. “And I can’t have that. Not when I have other people to answer to on the team. I will not be the weak link in the chain, which means you are not going to be running off in the middle of the night. Even if it���s not what you planned to do, it looks bad.”
His hands came to rest on your biceps, squeezing in tight, causing you to flinch slightly. His eyes were hard. “You could have had the world and you threw it away.” His thumbs caressed, his tongue slipping between his lips. “But I can be a forgiving man if you make me believe that you’re sorry. Just do that for me, beg for forgiveness, and I’ll take care of you and that baby.”
You gulped at the mention of the baby, and he noticed. His eyes narrowed. He leaned in, searching your face and you looked away, but he forced you to look back at him, his hand holding your jaw tight.
“Y/N, baby… you got something to tell me?”
You were silent, your heart starting to hammer.
“Y/N, you know I don’t like repeating myself.”
His grip tightened and you felt tears pricking, apprehensive of how he was going to react.
Your voice warbled, “I…I had an abortion.”
Tony was frozen, his eyes wide and incendiary. His grip on your jaw loosened and you took a step back away from him. His jaw clicked, eyes not leaving you. You saw he was going to explode.
Raising your hand shakily, as if that was going to hold him off, you started, “Now, Tony—"
His backhand sent you stumbling. He caught you before you could do it yourself and slammed you up against the wall.
“You’re lucky I didn’t cold clock you!” He snarled, his fingers digging in painfully to your arms.
“Tony, don’t—”
“Don’t? Don’t what? Be fucking furious that I told you not to do anything drastic and then you went and did just that? Without even consulting me? I have a goddamn right to be furious! How fucking dare you!”
You were sniffling now, terrified.
He gave you a rough shake before demanding, “What’s the lease on this place?” You took too long to answer. “Answer me!”
“Month to month,” you whimpered.
“Smart. Makes this easier.” His nose was practically brushing yours. “Look, you’re gonna be good and listen to me about exactly what is going to happen—"
“You can’t—"
“Did I tell you that you could talk? No! I told you you were going to listen. Keep your fucking mouth shut!” Tony lashed out. You closed your mouth, your lip warbling. “You’re coming with me. And I haven’t decided yet if I want them all to listen to you beg for forgiveness on the plane or if I’m waiting until we are alone. Not doing it here. Don’t wanna alarm your neighbors and have to injure any of them if they try to interfere. I don’t want, nor need that type of mess.”
He shoved you as he let you go, and you wiped at your eyes.
“I can’t fucking believe you. Can’t even follow simple goddamn directions. What are you? A child?” he snorted angrily. He snapped his fingers at you and pointed at your room. “Get your shit. We are leaving and going home. The jets at the airport.”
<><><>
He had not punished you on the plane. You instead had sat, curled in as tightly as you could to yourself in the chair across from him under a blanket, looking out the window as much as possible. You felt him watching you intensely the whole two hours. You could only imagine the deranged ideas going through his head about what he was going to do to you when he got you alone.
The moment you stepped into your apartment, he ordered you, “Get yourself done up. I want you to look nice for me. I’ll be out here watching the game.”
His goons brought in your suitcases and put them next to the kitchen table before leaving at his order. Tony grabbed the remote and turned the TV on. He saw you were still standing there, and he glared.
“Y/N…” he said dangerously. “I don’t see you moving.”
You grabbed your suitcase with your clothes and trudged down the hall, feeling his hard stare at your back until you disappeared into the bedroom. You had left a lot of your clothes here but there was a dress you had brought with you, one that he liked specifically. Which shocked you a little bit because it was loose and free; still short though.
Taking the time to shower, blow dry, do your makeup, and dress, you felt the anxiety rising about what he was going to do. You thought the extra time would calm you down, but it was doing the opposite because it was giving you more time to think.
When you walked back down the hall, your black wedges announcing your arrival, Tony looked over the back of the couch. You saw the bottle on the coffee table. He had been drinking, not a surprise. He gestured you over and you walked around the couch, coming over to him. He ran his eyes up and down you, taking you in.
“Well, don’t you look just perfect?” he asked, an edge underlying his tone.
He stood up from the couch and you stayed still. He pulled his phone out and took a picture of you without giving you time to prepare. He turned his phone around and you looked dumbstruck in the photo.
But he complimented, “Look at that. Pristine. That’s what good girls look like.” A cruel smile flashed across his features, and he tossed his phone down on the couch. “But you’re not a good girl are you, baby?”
You only had a moment to react before he was forcing you down to your knees. You hissed in pain as your knees slammed against the hardwood.
“You brought this on yourself. You think I like punishing you?” Tony asked, working on his belt with one hand as the other held you by the back of the neck. Your hands came up to grip his thighs, pressing back against the hold he had on your neck. “Ah ah, stay where you are.” He stroked himself with purpose, his hand moving at a steady pace. “Look at you. A pretty little slut that needs to be taught a lesson.”
He was hard now, the head of his cock pressing against your lips.
“Open your damn mouth!” You clenched your teeth, knowing he was gonna be rough and not wanting to choke. He let go of you to slap your cheek and sneered, “Don’t make me ask you again!”
You opened your mouth reluctantly, and he grabbed you by the back of your neck again and shoved his dick in all the way, your nose brushing his pubes. You gagged before he pulled back out, running his head around your lips. He groaned at the sight, slipping back in and using your mouth.
“Tell me you love me!”
“I love you!” you got out around his width.
“Look at me!” You forced your gaze up to meet his and he thrusted faster, hitting the back of your throat. Your hands gripped tight onto his thighs, eyes begging for him to slow down. But he was not relenting, and your throat was aching. Another groan left his lips as he demanded, “Tell me you love me, you little bitch.”
It was hard to say it, you choking now, tears stinging your eyes. “I love you!”
He pulled away roughly, his hand wrapped around your hair tightly, keeping you in place. Your saliva was stringing messily between him and your lips. Your chin as well as his pubes were glistening with your drool. You gasped for air, thankful for the reprieve from your jaw aching from being open so wide.
The reprieve was short lived though and you cried out in pain as he began walking, dragging you by your hair.
“Forgive me that I don’t quite believe you. But I’m gonna make sure I do believe you. I’m gonna get a genuine one out of you before I’m through.”
Tony sat on the edge of the bed and held you tight. “Give me a show. Take that dress off and let me see you. Let me see what I’m going to take.”
Shakily, you stood up as his grip laxed and he was watching you like a hawk. You wiped at your lips, knowing there was little to do about your eye makeup since he had made tears come with how hard he had been choking you. You started to sway your hips, trying to find a rhythm amongst the excitement. You turned away from him so he could not see your face as you struggled to calm down enough to dance.
It was sloppy, unconfident. But that did not seem to bother him. He pulled you into his lip and his hands slipped up your dress and into your underwear.
“Don’t get to tell me now that I can’t touch,” he husked against your cheek, his fingers slipping into your pussy. “All mine.”
He was stroking you, getting you worked up, making you lose focus on grinding. You bit your bottom lip, a strangled moan escaping.
Tony chuckled, nuzzling your cheek. “I know you like that. Gonna get you good and wet for me, sweetheart. Spread your legs further.”
You were falling so easily into his touch, your core wanting more. You were getting wound up and he was loving it. He worked quicker, his breath heavy as he felt how aroused you were, wetting his fingers.
“Maybe you are a good girl. Look how well you are behaving for me. Is this you apologizing?” He pulled away just to lay a hard smack on your cunt. You bucked, crying out and he did it again. You whimpered as his fingers entered again, focusing on your bud. “You’re a needy little slut, aren’t you baby?” You nodded and he sucked at your neck. “You’re repenting so well… but you’ve got a long way to fucking go.”
You were so close, but he suddenly shoved you away roughly, causing you to stumble in your heels.
“Strip.”
You did as he asked, pulling the dress up and tossing it behind you, leaving you in just your underwear. He rose his brows expectantly and you turned around, bending over slowly. You pulled your underwear down, feeling how wet they were at the crotch. You heard him hum at the sight of them and your glistening pussy. They fell to your ankles, and you turned around, kicking them off.
Tony stood up and pointed at the bed. “On your stomach.” You did as he asked and heard him getting undressed. You peeked over your shoulder at him undoing his tie as he walked towards your closet. He emerged again with a scarf, his eyes fixated on you. “Did I tell you you could look at me?” You turned back around quickly, butterflies swarming.
He grabbed one of your ankles and yanked you down the bed. You felt his tie around your ankle, and you tensed as he tied you to the bed frame. He was at your opposite ankle and tied your other leg with your scarf tightly.
“Tony…” you said hoarsely.
He did not answer you and you laid there, spread wide. The bed creaked with his weight and his thick thighs straddled you, holding you even tighter in place. You felt him pressing in and your fingers dug into your quilt. Each inch filled you up more and he exhaled as he reached his base.
“That’s the gentlest thrust you’re going to get, sweetheart. Enjoy it.”
Tony was not lying; he was pounding you into the mattress and you were not being quiet about the intrusion. You were already so wet, and he was adding to the sensation the way he was working you.
“You’re gonna remember who you loves you the most,” he groaned. The bed was shaking with how hard he was driving into you. “You’re gonna remember to behave!”
Pulling out of you, he smacked you hard against your ass. “Get up on your knees. Now!”
You obeyed, maneuvering with the restraints and his fingers replaced his dick, rubbing your clit. You keened, your back arching at the intense contact. You were ashamed that as usual you fell to the arousal, letting him take you over completely even when he was being as mean as he was.
“Fuck, you little whore. Look at you. So needy for cock. Why did you leave me in the first place? You were never going to find anyone that would love you like I do. You hurt my feelings, baby. And I don’t like having my feelings hurt.”
“I’m sorry,” you gasped without any prompting.
Tony’s fingers fell from your sex, and he was up, holding you by the throat. His breath was hot on your ear. “I might just leave you here on the bed right now. Tie those delicate wrists up too. Keep you on display for me. I’ll just walk by and see you stuck here, just dependent on me to come back to release you.”
You shook your head, begging pathetically, “No, p-please.”
“You want me to finish?”
“Yes!”
“Do you deserve it? Cause I don’t think you fucking do.”
You shook your head, “No. I don’t. But, please!” He brushed your pussy lightly with his fingers, teasing and you broke down even further. “I love you! I love you! Please!”
“You’re not gonna leave me again.” It was a statement, not a question.
You shook your head furiously again, gasping, “No! No, I won’t leave you!”
He yanked you up painfully by your hair again and new tears stung your eyes.
“I’m gonna make fucking sure of it. You’re gonna be on house arrest until I see fit to let you out! Face down,” Tony snarled, pushing you roughly down by the shoulders. He was behind you again. “You’re gonna be full of my seed when I’m done.”
Your chest hit the bed as the room filled with skin slapping skin loudly as he ravaged you. It did not take long for your body to tense up and a shriek left you as your pussy clenched around him. Tony’s breath was erratic as his pace lost control, his fingers digging into your hips. Broken husks were falling from his mouth, you could not make it out over the buzz in your ears. You felt the warmth though when he filled you up, his cock buried deep. He was making sure it was up against your cervix. His groan was long and loud, his hands squeezing your ass tight.
When he pulled away, you laid out flat, feeling worn. You heard him leave the room, the hardwood in the hall creaking with his footfalls. Your body was covered in sweat, heavy pants leaving your lips. For a moment, you forgot you were tied and tried to adjust and let out a sigh of disappointment when you felt the tug of the restraint on your ankle.
Tony was back with his phone. He cooed, “Oh, sweetheart. You’re so tired. Look up at me.” You lifted your head and saw him snap a picture of you. His lips curled into a smirk at the photo, and he turned it around to show you. Your makeup was ruined, tear trails on your cheeks, mascara and eyeliner smudged. You looked like a mess.
“Look at this lovely sight,” he purred. He flipped to the last photo of you looking made up and then back again. “Look how dirty you got pleasing me compared to before. I’m going to keep these.” A malicious glint flashed in his eyes, and he said, “I’ll give you a few to recover. But baby, there’s gonna be round two and no, I’m not going to let you clean up. Let’s see how much dirtier I can get you.”
~~~
Marvel tags: @coconutqueen21 @undecidedsworld @holl2712 @agustdowney @biiskuitx @buttercupfangirl
Fic tags: @buttercandy16
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🍒 Okay tub time with Kix? 😗👌🏻 Exquisite. So good. Where do i find such a caring man ugh and a clean bathtub chores suck
New Cherry Thot of the Week… This one’s hella self-indulgent but don’t worry bestie, i’m dragging you along for the ride too… Picture it: The Marauder, 19 BBY (did i spend 3 minutes looking that up for this dumb joke? yeah…) Somehow, you and I have joined up with the Bad Batch on some kind of mission. Details don’t matter because the important thing is we’re sharing a tiny spaceship with 5 hunks. 🥰 But obvs we have our favorites… I’m going with Wrecker for you (i know you love Hunter too, but just hear me out, this thot has a purpose) and Crosshair for me.
But here’s the thing. We somehow figure out they like us back (maybe Tech spills the beans), AND they have a bet going… Who can win us over first? Because these 2 are always competing over something with each other right?
And like hot damn, but also ohh there’s so much we can do with this info 😈 We both start teasing our respective guys, leading them on a little, not giving in to their flirting or anything so they can’t say they’ve won the bet for a while. They get more frustrated. More… pent up… And… well… so do we…
Uh oh. Maybe we can’t play this much longer. Maybe one day it’s too much, and one of us races to our crush prepared to just kiss them silly, only to find they had the same idea. And then afterward we try to find the other, and discover they couldn’t hold out with their guy either 🙈 And maybe it’s awkward, maybe Wrecker and Crosshair argue over who actually won forever, but it was kinda weirdly fun anyway. We’re happy, and happy for each other. /EndofSappyStory 🍒
cherry. my love. my life.
this might be the best thing that you have ever gifted me holy fuck the way i BLUSHED while reading this??? whooooooo jesus i love this so much!!! 😭 okay lots to unpack here:
1. excellent golden girls reference again. made me giggle and i appreciate the research tech would be proud of u hehe
2. you and i being bffs in this thot made me so happy aw
3. EXCELLENT CHARACTER CHOICE FOR US OMFG i couldn't stop thinking about the "don't worry wrecker you'll top him next time" "no he wOnT" while reading bc omfg those lines applied to this kind of bet????? AAAAHHHHH IM HAVING A CRISIS
i'm gonna write this in sections, actual encounters with the boys happen in sections 3 and 4 with our sexy murder toothpick man being up first! also this is gonna be pre-omega but post-echo joining the batch
self indulgent filth and fluff in the form of some reader insert thots below ;)
18+ as always kiddies. i really hope you enjoy! this was so fun to write
section 1: the bet
so i imagine this happening right after you guys joined the squad
and it certainly didn't take long for crosshair and wrecker to realize their feelings for you two beautiful women, although one was more brazen about his feelings than the other
one day when hunter had sent you and your friend into a market to pick up a short list of supplies, they got to talking
crosshair made an offhand remark about his girls’ ass which made wrecker fidget, he never was very composed when it came to pretty girls and this caused all the other members of the batch share knowing looks and smirks
“wrecker if you’re trying to be discreet about your feelings for ___ you’re going to have to do stop fidgeting.” tech noted, rolling his eyes when wrecker started stuttering out excuses but he was cut off by echo
“give ‘im a break. at least he isn't as vulgar as crosshair”
“you’re just jealous she doesn't flirt with you, mir'osik” (i had to search up insults in mando’a and this one means shit for brains and when i tell you i died laughing okay anyways sorry)
this made echo roll his eyes, deciding it wasn't worth it to fight over whatever stupid insult the sniper threw at him
wanting to stir the pot juuust a bit, hunter proposed a challenge for his vod. he should be the good influence on his brothers, but he couldn't help but want to see where these crushes would take them
he could hear the girls’ heartbeats intensify around their respective crushes anyways, so he had a pretty good feeling that they felt the same about his batch mates
“don’t know about the rest of you, but i want to see who can win his girl over first” this was met with a smirk from crosshair, a blush from wrecker, and side glances shared between echo and tech
“easy.” crosshair drawled, he knew he had this in the bag
he may be quieter than the others but boy was he was observant, taking note of the way her words had a hard time flowing out of her pretty mouth when he was in close proximity of his girl
wrecker on the other hand didn’t want to make her uncomfortable, in his eyes she was just so sweet. innocent, really. she wouldn’t want the same treatment he knew crosshair had in mind for his girl
the peering eyes of his squad made the large man cave with a sigh, “fine.”
section 2: the slip up
weeks had gone by since the boys established their little competition and you, your friend, and tech were working on some small repairs around the ship
you and your friend had noticed some increased...flirting from your respective guys
crosshair paid more compliments and lingering touches that seemed genuine
and wrecker flirted the best way he knew how; lifting too heavy objects and reaching for items in the tall cargo holds, handing them down with a gentle smile
tech, being the most blunt member of the squad, commented on the whispers you exchanged, dropping a surprising truth on both of your ears:
“well of course they are trying to flatter you. how else do you settle a bet to win each of you over the fastest?”
tech watched the two women freeze before him, sharing shocked looks before turning their attention to him, realization hit his gut like a crate of durasteel, and he swallowed under your stern gazes
“what do you mean, goggles?”
“they...like us?”
tech’s cheeks burned red hot, was his brow beginning to sweat? maker, it felt like it
this was the one time he didn’t feel like explaining himself, instead choosing to coyly excuse himself from the two pairs of watchful eyes
he left you and your friend to stare at each other before both rolling your eyes, “well now we know who spills secrets the easiest” your friend chuckled, shaking her head
after a few moments of silence you both spoke up, deciding there wasn’t that much harm in playing along with the two members of the batch. you were fond of them, after all
you both continued chuckling about the situation, mostly out of disbelief that the flirting and teasing wasn’t just a hopeful facade your minds made up
once the repairs were completed, you both retired to opposite ends of the ship, minds full of deliberation of how you would handle this new information
section 3: the gunport
you were sat in the gunport, musing the situation you found yourself in, hands picking at your fingernails in an effort to curb your nerves
on one hand you didn’t want to ruin the bond you had with the marksman
what if he was just flirting out of pure boredom? there isn’t much to do in a confined ship like this anyways, he might as well pass the time flirting with a woman in his general vicinity
but it just had to mean something
no way the whispered compliments - most of them accompanied with a wink, no less - meant absolutely nothing to him
you decided that you had enough, this was going to eat you alive if you didn't get to the bottom of what was going on in that head of his
with a huff, you stood straight and turned around to exit the space
but you were met with a silver haired man climbing up the ladder
you both froze, both internally freaking out at the basically forced confrontation
oh gods what is he doing up here? did he read my mind??
...shit what do i do i forgot everything i was going to say to her
you nervously chuckled, figuring that you were going to go talk to him anyways so might as well get this over with
“crosshair... um i need to ask you something”
“no, i need to tell you something cyar’ika. i’m tired of sitting here and watching you walk around all day, not being able to show you how i feel.”
now that left you speechless, mouth slightly hanging open in shock to which he deeply chuckled at, “hope this isn't the first time i leave you speechless.”
there it was, that smug attitude that made you roll your eyes but also ignited a heat in your lower abdomen
with a smirk, you decided to play it back to him. two can play at this game, lanky
“well it’d be pretty rude to not demonstrate what you had in mind, trooper”
this was the green light crosshair needed, quickly heaving himself up the last few rungs of the ladder, his hands immediately finding your waist and snatching you close, pressing a firm kiss to your lips
your hands flung up to catch the sides of his sharp cheeks, humming at the feel of his scruff under your palms as you coyly push your tongue through his lips, hoping he’ll welcome your tongue into his mouth
he does, and you are exploring each other in the most delicious way, causing soft moans and sighs to leave both of you
while you were entranced by crosshair’s mouth on yours, you didn't realize he was pushing you back onto the chair of the gunport until you were sat down and he was kneeling in between your legs, his nimble fingers clutching your thighs and hips
in a matter of minutes crosshair had managed to get your bottoms completely off, your slick panties hooked on one ankle, and your thighs over his shoulders
for a man who could run his mouth, he sure proved it
expert fingers entered your weeping cunt while his tongue prodded your bundle of nerves with sharp, quick strokes
he’s beaming at the way you’re trying to support yourself on shaky arms and trapping his head to your cunt with the backs of your calves, the sight of your head thrown back and the whimpers coming out of your mouth making him harder than he had been in a looong time
his fingers and mouth brought to your orgasm quick and hard, nearly screaming his name as your toes curled in bliss
he took his time in working you through it, making sure he could draw it out. he could get used to this.
when you can finally open your eyes and look him in the eye, you’re kissing him again, enjoying the moan he lets out at the feel of your tongue tasting yourself on him
you decide it’s his turn, and you’re pushing him into your previous spot, smiling at the way his eyes slightly widen at the way you took charge
crosshair wants to say some sexy remark, something that he knows will get you to sheepishly smile and look away but he can’t, not with the sight of you sinking down to your knees and slowly pulling down his blacks, keeping eye contact and granting him a playful glint in your eye
you can't help but want to tease him just a bit, running your tongue over the bulge in his blacks
he tries his hardest to not be loud but maker, is he loud when you finally take him into your mouth and down your throat
you’ve quickly found that he enjoys eye contact while in this vulnerable state, nearly shaking when he sees your eyes brimming with tears trying not to choke on his length
one hand sneaking down to alternate cupping his balls is what pulls him over the edge, crying out with your name living on his tongue
you swallow his release, again utilizing eye contact to your benefit and drawing out another prolonged moan from him
it makes you smile in pride, loving how this hard, unyielding man turned into such a mess while you had your way with him
crosshair pats his lap and expectantly looks at you, waiting for you to perch up onto his lap, straddling him
despite being a skinnier guy, crosshair wraps you up in the warmest, most secure-feeling snuggle you have honestly ever experienced
after sharing such an intimate moment with you, he began whispering sweet nothings into your ear, about how gorgeous he thinks you are, how much he cares for you
it’s honestly kind of shocking but welcome nonetheless, cross can be kind when he wants to and you are very glad that this was the outcome of your dancing around each other for months
section 4: the interruption
you retreated back to your room, honestly just wanting to sleep and get your mind off the day
it was becoming harder and harder to not just pounce on wrecker, but you didn't want to just give it up so quickly
and to be honest, you had a bad feeling that tech was full of it
you struggled with self esteem issues for as long as you could remember, so it was difficult to believe the 'genious’ of the batch when he said that wrecker had feelings for you
despite your trepidations, your mind couldn't stop thinking about him, his broad shoulders, toned arms, huge thighs...
your hand slithered down your torso, slipping underneath the waist band of your bottoms and slowly circling your clit as images of wrecker effortlessly lifting anything that crossed his path filled your mind, honestly wishing it was you he was lifting
perhaps lifting you to brush your pussy on his nose, his tongue exploring your womanhood enough to make you shout his name
but apparently that last part was not all in your head
although you didn't shout it, wrecker definitely heard the way you whispered out his name in a moan in the dark room
he really hadn’t meant to barge in, but after a few knocks with no answer he began to worry
he came by to tell you how he felt with absolutely no expectation of sleeping with you. truthfully, he gave up on trying to get into your pants, he was willing to lose the bet with crosshair, he knew he wasn’t as smooth as his brother anyways
while he obviously would never be opposed to making love with you, he figured that you deserved to be courted beforehand, and he thought there was no way you’d want to share your body in such an intimate way with somebody like him
but the sight he was greeted with was enough to prove himself wrong
you, spread out on your bed with your hand moving diligently under your thin lounge shorts and you moaning his name made him subconsciously let out a loud gasp
that you absolutely heard, eyes snapping open and hand coming to an abrupt halt, ripping out from under your bottoms
“wr-wrecker! what are you doing here?!”
“i- uhhh- i didn’t see anything! erm, i'm sorry, mesh’la”
by now you had your blankets covering you, despite being fully clothed, and were looking at him with mortified eyes
wrecker still stood in the doorway, unsure if he should let this opportunity pass him by
if you had told him to leave he would, he’d do anything you said, but the fact that you made no move to force him into leaving made him linger
“i'm...sorry if im overstepping mesh’la but i just- i can't stop thinking about you. and well,” he gestured to your form, still cradling the blankets to your heaving chest, “i think you think about me too”
of course you couldn't deny it, he had just seen you pleasuring yourself and moaning his name, what the hell kind of excuse could you come up with? none, that's what
his sheepishness made your heart soar, realizing he probably was just as nervous as you
deciding to cut him some slack, you slowly rose up, blanket falling to the ground as you sauntered over to his frozen frame
whispering, “you're right. do- do you want to stay?”
you had the poor man at a loss for words, eagerly nodding at your proposition and allowing you to take his hand and lead him to your bed, pushing him down so you could straddle his lap
his large cock bulging through the thin fabric of his blacks and pushing against your already hot cunt made you cry out
pure adrenaline coursed through both of you, hushed moans leaving your mouths as you steadily ground down onto him, his hand tangled in your hair and the other kneading your breast
your lips broke away from his mouth and you smirked at the look on his face, absolutely fucking giddy that this was finally happening, he had been dreaming about this moment since he first saw you
the sounds he made while you sucked on the sensitive skin of his neck encouraged you to slip a small hand down the front of his blacks and pull his thick cock out, heat flooding your body at the hiss he let out when you started slowly jacking him off
your legs were in the perfect position for him to push your shorts down and over your ass, fingers picking up where you left off and circling your clit, working you open to take one of his massive fingers
the more you squeezed his throbbing shaft, the louder wrecker became
and not wanting anybody to hear you two fooling around, you glued your mouth to his, tongues mingling in heat
the excitement of the entire situation made it not last very long overall, but you both had intense orgasms regardless
wrecker curled his - now two - fingers inside you just right, and your continued squeezes and strokes of his cock made him finish, his cum coating your palm
both of you were shaking, muffled groans and gasps filled the room until you were coming down from your simultaneous orgasms
after coming back down to the moment, wrecker chuckled and flopped down on his back, bringing you with him to crash onto his chest
you both giggled like a couple of smitten teenagers who were experiencing their first love, relishing in the butterflies in your stomachs, we just did that
“been waiting a long time to do that, doll” wrecker’s big hands rubbed up and down your curves, closing his eyes and smiling at your laugh, “i know”
his head shot up at that, “you know?” the way his eyebrows furrowed up made your chest tighten with admiration, smiling cheekily down at him, “of course i do. tech told us gals.” you leaned down to place a peck on his chin, “you think you won the bet?”
“dunno. but I feel like i just won the entire galaxy.”
it honestly didn't make much sense in your post-orgasm daze, but the endearing tone made you smile and kiss him once again
section 5: the hallway
after your respective encounters with your boys, you ran to your friend, bumping into her in the hallway, the tight space echoing your giggles and shrieks of excitement throughout the entire ship
you both were so flustered and giddy that you were talking over each other, just needing to tell her about what just happened
“i just sucked-”
“you will not believe-”
you both stopped and laughed even harder, holding onto each other for support, then your friend took a deep breath and smiled, “you first.”
the sounds emitted from you two not only made your boys smile and their chests swell with pride but also coerced some chuckles from the other members of the batch
they all knew how long these...events were in the making and how eager cross and wrecker were becoming
and in all honesty they were glad their brothers had found happiness in two girls like yourselves
nice, funny, and obviously in love with their brothers
they really could’t have asked for better women to take care of their family
~
taglist! (fill out this if you’d like to be added):
@djarrex, @pastelpanda19, @rebelpitstop, @sageislostinspring, @shiny-mando
#ily babycakes hope you liked this#thank you for giving me such incredible thots#you're the best#🍒 anon
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FEMSLASH FEBRUARY 2021 #5: In which Donna’s wish is Cameron’s command
[CN: food, eating mentions, and descriptions of food displays]
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After Donna asked her if she might consider putting up Valentine’s Day decorations for February of 2021, Cameron went directly into research mode. She didn’t plan to admit it to Donna, but Cameron felt like a holiday decor project was exactly what she needed. From the comfort of the living room couch, Cameron began her hunt for useful information on her laptop.
She became frustrated much more quickly than she thought she would. Eyebrows scrunching behind the frames of her reading glasses, Cameron griped, “Okay so the first problem here, is that the origin of Valentine’s Day isn’t anywhere near as compelling as the origin of Halloween, or ghost stories. I mean, a Christian martyr? Really?” Wrinkling her nose skeptically, she scrolled further down the webpage she was on, and said, “Not only am I not moved by his story or his proselytizing, but none of this has anything to do with love or couples or even fertility or family!” Clicking back to the search engine page, she said, “The second problem is that doing research used to be satisfying, but now it sucks. And it’s all because of the internet. We ruined everything with the internet and search, Donna.”
Donna, sitting several feet away on their recliner, looked up from her crossword puzzle. “So, no decorations then?”
Cameron sighed. “I didn’t say that. I just think that I’m gonna have to take a different approach. The literal origins of the holiday are not the angle for this particular project.” Quietly, she switched over to researching the origins of the commercial version of the holiday. “Maybe,” she said to herself, “a more aesthetic-based approach?” She looked up at Donna, and said, “Do you mind if I turn on the tv and stream something? I was thinking about putting on the more recent Picnic at Hanging Rock.”
“Oh, that’s perfect! That literally starts on Valentine’s Day!” Donna enthused. “We should sit down and rewatch it sometime in the next couple weeks!” Then, calming herself down, she added, “But sure, go ahead. Whatever your research requires,” Donna smiled at her.
Cameron picked up the remote, turned on the television, searched for the show, found it, and started the first episode. She went back to looking at her computer, and searched for basic decor ideas. After a few minutes, she said, “The third problem is that traditional Valentine’s decorations are just, like, red. Like really, extremely red.”
“What’s wrong with red?” Donna pouted.
“Nothing, but I just don’t feel like it really goes with the whole ‘I throw stones and I live in glass houses because I’m a modern woman who has it all!’ thing you have going on in here?”
“Hey, it���s your house, too!” Donna chuckled. “You have a point, though.”
Defiantly, Cameron said, “That’s okay. I will figure something out. My wife asked me to decorate for Valentine’s Day, and I don’t plan to let her down.”
Cameron spent the next morning sorting through their collection of fall and winter holiday decorations, and pulled out items to be repurposed, and wound up looking through their other supplies for inspiration. In the afternoon, she was back on the computer, searching this time for items to buy. Sitting at the kitchen island, Cameron sighed heavily. “I wish…” she started. She sighed again, and said, “I really wish that we could just go to a craft store and wander through it for hours.”
Donna, who has sitting across from her, and scrolling through one of her social media feeds, looked up, and snorted, “What, so you could complain about how everything looks ugly and cheap under the fluorescent lights, only to then buy a ton of it, take it home, and then somehow make it look beautiful and amazing?”
“Yes,” Cameron replied. “Exactly.” It took over an hour, and much agonizing, but eventually, she made her selections, entered her billing information, and closed her browser. She managed to stay offline for the rest of the day.
Early the next morning, Cameron asked Donna, “A great big outdoor garden store, that should be like…relatively safe to go to, right? As long as we wear our masks and gloves? And we go early?” Donna didn’t have to be asked twice. They got dressed, and arrived at their favorite garden store a few minutes after it opened. Cameron hurriedly bought a large quantity of potted violets and a bunch of metal flower pots before hustling Donna back to the safety of their car.
Over the next few days Cameron began to work on crafting, baking, and candymaking, as deliveries of her ordered craft supplies started to trickle in. (She compulsively wiped every new item down with disinfectant out of an abundance of anxiety and caution.) By the next weekend, she had everything she thought she needed. On the first Saturday of the month, a week before Valentine’s Day, she gathered everything that she’d amassed so far in the dining room.
She set the last of several boxes down on the table, and Donna, who was drinking a second cup of coffee, looked up just in time to see Cameron tying her bandana around her head like a headband. The bandana, which had accompanied Cameron all the way from Tokyo, was white, and it had the red circle of the Japanese flag, or the Hinomaru, on it. On both sides of the red circle there was lettering, Japanese kanji. The first time Donna saw Cameron put the bandana on, just before they deep cleaned Donna’s house together for the first time, she had asked Cameron what the kanji said. Gravely, through gritted teeth, Cameron had replied, “Kamikaze.” Donna had laughed, and then realized that she was being serious.
Putting down her mug, Donna exclaimed, “Daniel-san!”
Cameron took a deep breath, and said, “I’m trying to center myself and focus, Donna. Please.”
“I’m flattered by all the work you’ve already put into honoring my request,” Donna said. “But I think I’m gonna go upstairs so you can decorate in peace. I’d like to be surprised when I see the final result!” She stood up, taking her mug and phone with her, and headed toward the den, stopping to kiss Cameron on the cheek on her way.
When Donna returned to the kitchen several hours later to make lunch, the dining room table was covered in silk flowers, jars, doilies, and print outs and paper lace and all sorts of colorful paraphernalia. “How’s it going?” she called out.
“Slowly,” Cameron answered, “but it’s going. And it’s not like I’ve got anywhere to be, so!”
She took a quick break to eat a sandwich with Donna, and then went back to the dining room, and Donna went up to the bedroom, where she checked in with Joanie and Haley and their families, sent text messages to Tonya, Risa, and Katie Herman, and then started reading about current tech and social media platform news. She was clicking out of an article on Section 230 reform when Cameron knocked on the door frame.
Looking up from their bed, Donna asked, “Is it done? Can I see?” She jumped up from the bed and ran toward the door.
“I need you to adjust your expectations,” Cameron said, walking her down their hallway. Cameron stopped by the door to the den and switched on the light. Donna peered in, not seeing any difference at first, and then she noticed the faux ivy that Cameron had carefully attached to their bookcases. She stepped into the room, and then noticed the doilies on every surface, and the mason jars of high-quality pink and white silk peonies, which were surrounded by cards from a Victorian-themed tarot deck, which Cameron had stuck down to the doilies under them, to make them look as if they’d casually been left on the table. There were two sets of gloves by one jar, an aged-looking leather diary by another one, and a small framed print of a hand-drawn portrait of two Gibson girls by another.
“It’s subtle, or subtle-ish,” Donna smiled back at Cameron, “but it’s really nice. It’s very Picnic at Hanging Rock, but with maybe a better adjusted headmistress, right? I love it.”
They went down the hall and down the four steps to the ‘first’ floor, and then into the kitchen, where Donna’s eye was drawn to the centerpiece Cameron had arranged on the island. She’d repotted the violets into three of the metal pots, and had made and cut out a silhouette of two young women in full-length Victorian dresses, hand in hand, attached them to skewers, and stuck them into the flower pots. It looked almost as if the girls were walking through a field of purple-blue flowers.
Donna went to smell the flowers, only to be distracted by the display on the dining room table. Eyes wide, she instead walked toward the table. She turned to look back at Cameron and said, “Did you make all of this?”
“No, some if it I definitely ordered off the internet,” Cameron admitted. She’d set up an elegant silver multi-tiered pastry stand and loaded it with paper cups full of homemade white and milk chocolate truffles and squares of peppermint bark that had red and pink swirled into them, squares of milk, dark, and peanut butter fudge, bite sized anatomical hearts molded from red-tinged milk chocolate, and red cinnamon candies, cherry sours, and raspberry flavored hard candies. Next to the pastry stand was Donna’s trusty cake server, which was piled with red velvet crinkle cookies. Both were set up on top of large doilies, underneath their accompanying glass covers, and both were surrounded with red silk flower petals and an eye-catching design of heart and diamond and playing cards, all of which Cameron had somehow sewn down so that it would lay flat, but somehow still look slightly rumpled.
“Remember a few years ago when we did Penny Dreadful Halloween for the trick-or-treaters? During our Vanessa Ives phase? A lot of that stuff came in handy for this,” Cameron helpfully explained.
“Did I miss anything?” Donna looked around. She turned toward the living room, couch, and then noticed a large heart-shaped box placed in the center of the coffee table, with Donna’s pair of good candlesticks and brand new red candles set up on both sides of it, yet another doily underneath it all The box was anchored by a large, white, ceramic anatomical heart, and surrounded by shells, smaller porcelain rabbits and birds, and dried flower petals.
“It’s not much, but, it was fun to try?” Cameron shrugged.
“Oh, shush!” Donna threw her arms around Cameron’s neck, kissed her, and said, “It’s beautiful, and I love it. Thank you for trying to make things feel festive even though almost everything in the world totally sucks.” She kissed her again, and said, “Wanna go celebrate by making out?”
“Yes,” Cameron said, “but, I haven’t eaten in hours, can we have dinner first?”
“Yes, absolutely! Whatever my doting wife wants!” Donna agreed.
#the headband bit is totally jacked from an ep of sailor moon in which makoto ties on a kamikaze headband before cleaning#and the heart-shaped box is inspired by THE original heart-shaped box because the dream of the 90s is ALIVE yalce!#happy february bbys!#femslash february#femslash february 2021#fan fiction#cameron howe#donna clark#donna emerson
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Tired but Loved (Natasha Romanoff x Reader)
Request by @lucdarling: request for reader being sweet with Natasha in private but also exhausted because you've both been doing overtime for Fury's projects (set pre-Avengers)
Summary: Europe is the most romantic place to be when you’re with your loved one. Except when you’re a different person every night and the only time you can interact is when you’re fighting the bad guy of the month. It gets tiring very quickly.
Word Count: 1519
The countryside of France was nowhere near as romantic as the brochures had you believe. You sat at a rusty table with lukewarm coffee and the smell of cow shit in your nose with none of the offenders in sight. The only thing that made it worth it was when you leaned your head slightly to the left and, in the very corner of your eye, you were able to see a glimpse of red hair. "You keep doing that and our cover is gonna be blown," Nat whispered into her mic. You sighed, looking straight ahead into an empty field once more and went back to pretending you were a tourist admiring the scenery.
"Italy was better." You leave it at that, not able to risk long sentences as she could. It seemed a bit unfair that she was allowed to read a book while you had nothing but she was supposed to be a regular. Regulars read, tourists awe. There was a hum of agreement in your air and you found yourself smiling at the sky. The two of you had found a moment of peace in Italy, something rare ever since you stepped foot in Europe. Even though you were still on a mission, there was always a mission it seemed, you had to be a couple to find your target. She had worn a long, brown wig that skimmed the bottom of her back and a red dress that reminded you of her signature color. She spoke in another language the entire night, wrapped in your arms as the two of you moved across the dance floor and pretended to be enamored by only each other and not looking for Shield's most wanted. It was hard to know how she felt, what was fake and what was real, but you were sure that you weren't the only one who got a little lost as you danced the night away. It only took two weeks, another country, and a small hum for your suspicions to be proven right.
The small bubble that had surrounded the café you were at popped suddenly when a group of sleazy men walked in. You refrained from rolling your eyes at the sight of them. It was one thing to be a bad guy but it was almost worse to be such a stereotype and look the part. You sipped your drink calmly as you watched them approach Nat, pushing your protective side down and letting her handle the situation until she said the code word. "Do you speak English, mon ange?"
You roll your eyes then, his fake French accent leaving you no other choice. It was almost sad how easy these missions were and all because men seemed to think with what was in their pants instead of what was in their heads. Fury sent the two of you out because you were the perfect combo of beautiful and deadly so even if they didn't take the bait, which so far hadn't happened, you'd be able to get the job done. "Almost as good as you." She giggled, no doubt pushing her fake glasses up further to seem nervous.
The second sleazy man stepped closer, standing behind Natasha without her knowing and you felt your hackles rise. But you waited. The first man leaned forward, grabbing a strand of her hair and tugging slightly like a third-grader, "Come with me and maybe I'll show you a thing or two." You heard the whirr of a weapon behind you but both you and Natasha pretended you didn't. There was someone in Europe smuggling alien tech and the two of you had spent months jumping from country to country collecting the stolen weapons and getting closer to the main source. These two idiots were the last ones before the boss, you had to be careful.
"But, I'm still on chapter four." She pouted to the man above her though mischief glinted in her eyes. In the blink of an eye, you stood up with mug in hand and slammed it into the second guy's head. At the exact moment, Natasha had slammed the first guys head down onto the steel table and you understood that he was hers to deal with. Which meant you had to get the weapon. You ducked as he threw a punch, lunging for his other hand that he seemed to forget about in the heat of the moment. He wrapped around you the moment you were close, keeping you to his chest with an arm clamped around your neck. They were always so predictable. You brought your head forward, pushing back as hard as you could, effectively breaking his nose. He flinched, dropping the weapon into your waiting hand as he stepped back. As the cherry on top, you swept his feet from under him and held him under your foot, staring him down as the blood pooled from his face.
"I'd say that was pretty easy, love. How about you?" The first man made his way into your sight as she kicked him into the chair she once sat in.
"Walk in the park." She smirked. She leaned towards the man, much like he did minutes ago, and the confidence in both of them faded quickly. "Now, tell us where your boss is."
You pointed the weapon towards the man under you and watched him shiver in fear. You wouldn't use it, you needed them alive and well, but fear was the easiest way to get answers. "You heard the lady. Talk."
----
It took three months before you were allowed back to base. Someone had warned the smuggler and he had stopped all business, leading the two of you on a wild goose chase from Poland to Ukraine. You stepped off the Quinjet, pushing the smuggler roughly into some lower level's arms, and headed towards the exit. "Y/L/N, Fury requires a debrief of your mission!" The lower level, Mark might've been his name, yelled after you. You almost felt bad with how panic he sounded, not knowing what to do with a wanted criminal in his care and disobedient agents. He had to learn one way or another.
"Don't lose that asshole and that's all the debrief he'll need!" You responded, not even looking back to know that Nat was following right behind you. The two of you were tired, physically and of Fury's bullshit, and the only thing you wanted to do was go home and take a nap. Fury had other ideas.
Coulson stood in front of you, blocking the exit with nothing but his attitude, and you wanted to scream. It had been half a year of smelly hotel rooms and stupid men, you just wanted to make dinner for your girlfriend that wasn't frozen. "We need Romanoff."
"Like hell you do." You weren't one to talk back, you had always been the one to stay silent and glare when things weren't going your way. Even Nat was surprised, never seeing you so exhausted.
"Agent." Coulson's voice didn't waver but you knew that you were about to cross a line if you continued. No one called you Agent unless you were in deep shit. You couldn't find it in yourself to care.
"You have your big bad, that's all you need." You grabbed Nat's hand, a rare display of affection as if that would stop them from taking her. "Now, if you'll excuse us, we're heading home and she won't be available until next week." You walked past Coulson, not seeing the smirk shared between Nat and him as you did, and headed to wherever your car was.
"He's gonna be upset," Nat said after a while, not letting go of your hand as the two of you walked through the compound. It was almost funny how many people did double-takes to see if what they saw was real; the two most ruthless spies shield had, holding hands? Impossible.
"He can tell me all about it when the week is up." You smiled, kissing her temple as the two of you made it to your car.
"And what exactly do you have planned?" She leered, or at least tried to. It was a sweet sentiment and while any other time you would jump at the chance to be with her intimately, all you really wanted was to sleep forever while holding her in your arms. You leaned over the gearshift, kissing her gently as a promise, and when you pulled back the mask she kept on for too long was finally gone. In almost an instant, the bags beneath her eyes became more defined and her shoulders slumped as she looked at you with a soft smile. The two of you never needed words. "I'd like that." She whispered. She kissed you quickly and settled against the window where she would no doubt fall asleep on the way home. You smiled, beyond happy that you had her in every part of your life, and started the car. The two of you wouldn't be going to Europe again any time soon.
#natasha romanoff#natasha romanoff x reader#natasha romanoff x you#Black Widow#black widow x reader#black widow x you#marvel#mcu
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Silicon Valley’s imaginary Q2 2020 earnings call
[switch to long version]
CEO, MEGA TECH CORP - Hello everyone. These aren’t normal times. We’re not going to talk about our 10Q on this call. We’re here to talk about the next 10 years. So if you’re here for DAUs, ARR or CPC, you can drop off now.
We’ve been doing a lot of thinking about the race, health and economic crises our country faces. Over the last few weeks, I’ve asked our exec team to leave their homes, their [Zoom alternative] calls and their DoorDash deliveries to join protests and explore our community through new eyes.
What we now see - more clearly than ever - is that our entire company, industry, and Valley - are built on flawed foundations. A flawed social contract.
We can no longer just focus on the magical software bits and hope someone else figures out racial equity, employment, climate and health. This is Joel Spolsky’s Law of Leaky Abstractions on the ultimate scale. The abstractions are failing - and we’re seeing bugs and unintended consequences all around us. And the more we invest to deal with one-off bugs, the more likely we are to calcify change and imprison ourselves inside a failing stack. It’s like we decided to build the world’s notification service on Ruby on Rails - or building an iPhone competitor on Windows CE. Fail Whale everywhere. Unfortunately, America’s democratic institutions are in poor condition. They are struggling to deal with inequality let alone looming environmental disaster. A polarized electorate - particularly at the national level - leads to populism and makes it hard for these institutions to execute meaningful, long-term plans.
We talk a lot about speech, misinformation, fairness of targeted ads etc. But it’s becoming clear that UX, linear algebra/training data and monetization in our products is just the tip of the spear to address polarization. We believe polarization is a product of the underlying conditions of civil rights, education, health and climate debt that affect Americans differentially based on race, wealth, neighborhood and region.
So will today’s peaceful protests for racial justice expand into tomorrow’s revolution(s) for economic freedom? If you don’t think things are bad now, think about what happens when the stimulus checks run out. Take a look at the amount of debt in the public sector, use any imagination about COVID, work out what happens to their tax base / pension returns and consider the impact on public services, public servants and their votes. MMT better be a real thing. Maybe we didn’t start these fires, but that refrain won’t save us when the flames come our way.
We’re done debating why we need to act. It’s clear America needs our help. Let’s talk about how we’re going to rise to the occasion. Our mantra will be “internalize, innovate, institutionalize”.
First, we’re going to internalize our problems. I’m here to tell you that issues of racial and economic justice are not just moral issues but they’re financial issues. Racial debt, education debt, health debt, climate debt will hit us harder and harder each year. (By the way, revolution probably won’t be great for your DCF models.) So we’re going to recognize these off-balance sheet liabilities - which amount to a few hundred billion in the US alone over the next 10 years for a company at our scale. You should assume other CEOs are thinking the same things - even if it takes them a few more quarters or years to say it.
Second, we’re going to innovate against these systemic problems - but our only shot at making progress is if we realign the entire company’s mission to address them. This is not about optics. This is not about philanthropy. This is not another bet. We have no choice but to put all our chips behind one bet - America - at least to start. It's the country that backed us in the first place, it's where most of our people are and most of our profits. The job for our existing products, platforms and cash flows will be to advance four areas: place / race, skilling / manufacturing, health / food and climate / mobility - starting in America. The board will measure me based on job creation and diversity. It should go without saying that we’re pausing dividends and buybacks for the foreseeable future. Every dollar will serve our mission. Every senior leader will need to sign up for our new mission - and those who choose to stay will receive a new, back-end loaded, 10 year vesting schedule. We want them focused on the long-term health of society - not the whims of Robinhood day traders or strengthening the moats of existing products. We will need to invent entirely new ways to operate and ship products. As Joel Spolsky said, “when you need to hire a programmer to do mostly VB programming, it’s not good enough to hire a VB programmer, because they will get completely stuck in tar every time the VB abstraction leaks”. We need engineers, designers and product managers that will look deep into the stack, confront the racial, job access, health and climate debts that our products, our companies and our communities are built on top of. This is not about CYA process to protect cash cows or throwing things over the fence to policy. We will need to innovate across technical, cultural and organizational lines. This requires deep understanding and curiosity. Systems and full-stack, not just pixels. This will bring more scrutiny to our company - not less. Change must not be the burden for only our Black employees or other subsets. Everyone must be on board - so for the next 12 months, we’re giving folks a one-time buyout if they want to leave.
Third, we can’t do any of this by ourselves. The problems are too big. Our role will be to provide enlightened risk capital (from our balance sheet or by re-vectoring operating spend) alongside R&D, product, platform leverage to help leaders and innovators pursue solutions in these areas. We will work with our peers and the public sector wherever possible - buying/R&D consortia, public-private partnerships, trusts, etc. Collaboration is the default, not the exception. But the new era and landscape demands that we explore institutional models beyond global capital/startups, labor unions, NGOs or government. We need models that can more flexibly align people and purpose, that innovate on individualized vs. socialized risk/reward - and that ultimately help build and sustain local, social capital. It’s difficult to say what these will look like - but increasingly figuring this out will be existential for our core business. Right now, it doesn’t matter if you’re designing the best cameras in Cupertino or the best ways to see their snaps in Santa Monica - we’re all just building layers of an attention stack for global capital. Our Beijing competitors have figured this out. ByteDance is already eating our lunch. They’re using the same tech inputs as us - UX, ML and large-scale systems - which are now a commodity - but with vastly lower consequences for the content they show - creating a superior operating / scaling model. They’re not internalizing social or political cost. What we need in this era is the accumulation stack - where each interaction builds social capital. This is not about global likes. This is about local respect. We’ll create competitive advantage when we build products that reach across race / economic lines to harness America’s amazing melting pot and do so in ways that build livelihoods / property rights for creators and stakeholders.
With this operating model in place, we’re committing to fundamental change in four areas:
Place & Race - Over the next 10 years, 100% of our jobs will be in diverse communities that embrace inclusive schooling, policing, housing and transit policies. (Starting tomorrow, we’re putting red lines on our maps around towns with exclusionary zoning.) This is not about privatizing cities or an HQ2-style play to extract concessions. This is about investing our risk capital and our reputation to innovate alongside government. How do we bring world-class education to neighborhoods with concentrated poverty? What is the future of digital/hybrid charter schooling? Unbundled public safety? We’re done with de facto segregation. We’ll embrace “remote-first” with physical centers of gravity as a means to this end. The Bay will become one physical node alongside several others (e.g. Atlanta, DC, LA) creating a strategic network to develop diverse talent across the country. We’re going to coordinate our investment with leading peers - since after all, this isn’t about cost or cherry-picking. It’s about broadening our country’s economic base.
Skilling & Manufacturing - We’re going to 10x the tech talent pool in 10 years - by inventing new apprenticeship models that bring women, minorities and the poor into the workforce. We’ll start with our existing contractor base, convert them to new employment models with expanded benefits and paths for upward mobility. Next, we will invent new productivity tools for all types of workers - from the front office to mobile work to call center - that brings the power of AI and programming to everyone. These will be deeply tied into new platforms for work designed from the bottom-up to build social and financial capital for individual workers and teams. Last, we’re setting a goal to manufacture most of our hardware products - from silicon all the way to systems - entirely in the US in 10 years. This will require massive investment, collaboration and innovation. It may require a revolution in robotics - but we will pursue this in a way that makes the American worker competitive - not a commodity to be automated away. If we’re successful, the dividends of our investment here will have massive spillover benefits to every other sector of manufacturing in the US - autos, etc. - including ones we have yet to dream up.
Health & Food - We’re not going to tolerate a two-class system for healthcare. As we convert our contract workforce to new employment models, we’ll innovate on the fundamental quality/cost paradigm. This may feel like a step down but it will put us (and the rest of society if we’re successful) on a fundamentally better long-term trajectory. Can we use AI to help scale the reach of community health workers? Can we help them create co-operatively owned care delivery orgs that offer new ways to share risk and support behavior change? Local, social capital is critical. Food is part of Health, and we’re going to innovate there too. Free food for employees is not going to come back post-COVID. Instead, we’ll use our food infrastructure to bootstrap cooperatively-owned cloud kitchens. We’ll provide capital to former contractors - mostly Black and Hispanic - to invest and own these. We’ll build platforms to help them sell food to employees (partly subsidized), participate in new “food for health” programs and eventually disrupt the extractive labor practices we see across food, grocery and delivery.
Climate & Mobility - Lastly, we’ll be imposing a carbon tax on all aspects of our own operations - which we’ll use to “fund” innovation in this space - with a primary focus on job creation. This is an area where we’re going to be looking far beyond our four walls from the beginning. As a first step, we’re teaming up with Elon and Gavin Newsom to buy PG&E out of bankruptcy and restructure it as a 21st century “decentralized” network of community utilities. It will accelerate the electrification of mobility - financing networked batteries for buses, cars and bikes along with charging infrastructure - and lead a massive job creation program focused on energy efficiency. It will use its rights of way to provide Gigabit ethernet + 5G to everyone - which will help people and help fund some of this. Speaking of mobility, private buses aren’t coming back after COVID. Instead, we’re teaming up with all of our peers to create a Bay-wide network of electric buses (with bundled e-bikes) that will service folks of all walks of life - including our own employee base. Oh and one more thing - we’re bringing together the world’s most advanced privacy/identity architecture and computational video/audio to bake public health infrastructure directly into the buses. For COVID and beyond. None of this is a substitute for competent, democratically accountable regional authorities. This is us investing risk capital on behalf of society - with the goal of empowering these authorities.
Open technology for global progress - While we have to prioritize America given the scale of problems, the intent is not to abandon the rest of the world or hold back it’s progress. We feel the opposite - that over the coming decades each country’s technology sectors will thrive. To get there, we will continue to invest patiently - hiring, training, partnering, investing and innovating - but with a clear north star to help each country develop local leaders in new areas. Long-term, we’ll continue to contribute open technology that others can build upon.
America should be the proverbial city on a hill for everyone - not a metaverse for the rich with the poor dying in the streets. We don’t have much time so we’re getting to work now. See you next quarter.
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Case Closed ~ Chpt 5
Previous Story Catch Up Masterlist
The next morning, Mike came into his office and noticed an envelope sitting on his desk. He hurried over and opened it, silently thanking Bex. On the top page was a sticky note signed PG.
Be careful. Bex doesn’t know the grisly details.
Well, that certainly got his attention. Flipping through he stopped on the page he figured Garcia was talking about. Waterboarding - that didn’t put him at ease. He tossed the sticky note and put the papers back in the file. Sure, he didn’t really know what was going on between him and Laurel. He figured working her would help since she continued to be linked to his case. Not to mention his feeling towards Bex. No matter what was going on, he had to let Laurel know since Anthony was looking into her as well. On his way to her office, he texted Bex, thanking her.
She replied with her own gratitude as they were now looking for rehearsal spaces. While she was grateful for Mike’s idea, Bex was growing frustrated. Once again each building they checked showed no sign that anyone was using it.
That was until she and Emily checked a stand alone building on the edge of the city. It was their last stop for the evening and when Bex noticed a soft light on inside, she couldn’t help her excitement. The pair decided to split up, taking note of the mini van in the parking lot next to the building. Bex was just about to open the side door when it burst open, hitting her in the head.
She fell backwards, groaning in pain. She searched for her gun but with no such luck for soon all she could see was a man with piercing blue eyes and a small smirk. “Well, I guess I could have timed that more perfectly. Then again, I thought you could travel by bubble, Glinda.”
Bex’s eyes widened. She was face to face with her sister’s killer. She tried to scramble away, call out to Emily but everything seemed to be happening in slow motion. The killer picked her up and tossed her over his shoulder. She started to squirm, pounding on his back, demanding him to let her go. Surely she was being loud enough for Emily to hear her.
Bex hit the back of the van with a thud. The last row of seating had been folded up so that there was the optimal amount of space in the trunk. She tried kicking him, doing everything she could to make it harder for him to take her away and give Emily plenty of time to try and find her. “Will you stop? You’ve been the best Glinda I’ve seen in this city. It’s even better because you do good. You work with the FBI and just think, I’ll be reuniting you with your sister. She was such a brilliant Tinker Bell. You can help her tell stories to my Ben and Jamie.” The killer said as he tied her hands and feet together.
“Who - who are Ben and Jamie?” Bex asked, trying her best to stay awake.
“My children, of course.” He smiled down at her before getting out of the van.
As she watched him close the trunk, realization struck her just as the darkness finally claimed her. He was doing all of this to tell stories to his children.
Emily looked up at the sound of the van starting. She had found the fourth victim, thankfully still alive. “Where did he go?” She asked the man and he pointed towards the side door. Fear and panic went through her body. “Bex!” She called out as she ran in the direction she was pointed to.
She couldn’t see her partner anywhere so she burst out the side door, scanning the area, gun at the ready. That’s when she saw it: Bex’s gun. “Bex!” She shouted once more, running towards the parking lot. She arrived just as the van pulled out. She went to shoot at it but knew that she wouldn’t be able to get a clean shot from where she was standing.
Mike had just finished making Laurel a drink when he felt his phone buzz in his pocket. He ignored it at first, figuring it was something he could get to at a later time. He continued to talk with Laurel but it kept buzzing. “You should probably get that.” She pointed out, taking a sip of her drink.
He gave her an apologetic look before pulling his phone out of his pocket. He had a few missed calls from an unknown number and a news notification from Kansas City. FBI AGENT KIDNAPPED BY STORYBOOK KILLER. When he read the headline, he filled with immediate dread. His heart sank to his stomach and his stomach then dropped. He quickly scrolled through the article but he didn’t need to know more than who the agent was. They had an APB out already but even that didn’t put him at ease. He had to go out there. He had to go help them find Bex.
“Excuse me.” He said, moving past her to where Red was having a heated debate with Anthony. Laurel grew worried, this wasn’t like him.
“Sir, I need to leave. There’s been a family emergency and I need some time off. I should be back in a few weeks. I’ll send everything official in the morning and I’ll keep working on the grassroots initiative when I have some down time.” He promised.
“Of course, of course. Anything for my best chief of staff.” Red clasped Mike on his shoulder. “Hey, why don’t you take some of that smoothie. It’ll help calm your nerves and don’t forget the cherry blossom.”
Mike nodded, fully planning on not doing anything that Red suggested. “Thank you, sir.” He hurried out of the room.
“Gareth, wait!” Laurel called as she went after him.
He silently groaned. “Are you sure this can’t wait? This is really important.”
“What’s going on? Are you okay?” She asked him, concern written all over her face.
Mike sighed and shook his head. “A really good friend of mine has gone missing.” Just then his phone began to ring again with the same unknown number flashing on his screen. He answered the call without any apology before continuing on his way, Laurel following behind.
“Gareth Ritter.” Mike answered.
“Oh, thank god you finally answered.” Penelope sighed in relief.
“I’m sorry, who is this?” He asked, not recognizing the voice.
“Right! Of course! We haven’t actually properly met yet. I’m Penelope Garcia local tech wiz at the BAU. I came to pick up Bex at the start of the case.”
“Have you heard anything from her? I saw where she’s been taken. Any ransom notes or calls?”
“See this is why I called you. We’ve not received anything. We are under the impression though that he’s taken her to be his latest character. She’s probably being prepped on how to be Glinda as we speak.”
That made him pick up his pace even more. “That’s not normal right?”
“No, it is not. I’ve got a plane ticket all ready for you. I’ve sent it to your normal email address and I’ve also sent over all information you might need.”
“Thank you, Garcia.” He hung up, pocketing his phone. “Why are you still following me?” He asked as Laurel finally caught up to him.
“You really expect me to just stay behind after you tell me that a friend of yours is missing? Maybe I could help. Has an alert gone out because I haven’t gotten one yet. Maybe they just haven’t come back from the store yet?” Laurel suggested, thinking that the friend was in D.C.
Mike shook his head. “You won’t get one. She didn’t go missing in this area.”
When he said she, Laurel blinked a few times. She didn’t know how she felt about that new information. Surely she couldn’t be jealous though. “Then where did she go missing?”
“Kansas City. Now just go back to the party, Laurel. You can’t help.”
“You’re really about to go to Kansas City? If I can’t help, then what will you be able to do?”
“Yeah, I am because I know her. She’ll want a friendly face to see when she’s rescued and I know how she works. I’ll know what kind of clues to look for because she wouldn’t have gone down without a fight.” Finally a cab stopped to pick him up.
“Well, then I hope you find her.” Laurel said as he climbed into the back seat.
He gave her a curt nod, wishing her a good night before closing the taxi door. Laurel watched as the car drove away. She tried to ignore the feeling that there was something more that he wasn’t telling her. The bits that she overheard when he was on the phone made it sound like this was more than just a simple missing persons case, not to mention the questions he asked seemed like he had dealt with this sort of thing before. She had been worried his friend had been taken by what Gustav calls the bug people but this didn’t fit into the normal pattern of things. Besides for all she knew, the screw worm problem was only happening in D.C.
Laurel sighed and began to walk back towards the capitol building. She had far more pressing issues than worrying about what Gareth was doing. She still hoped that his friend was found though. She didn’t think that she had ever seen him so fearful.
“Garcia, what are you doing here?” Jennifer asked as she noticed their friend walk into the conference room.
“My little sugar plum has gone missing. Did you really think I was going to stay behind?” She hugged the other woman before motioning towards the man behind her. “Everyone, this is Mike, Bex’s usual partner. Mike, this is everyone.”
He gave a small smile and waved as everyone introduced themselves.
“Why don’t you tell them your theory while I get set up?” Penelope offered before asking Spencer to help her set up all of her electronics.
Rossi chuckled and motioned for Mike to have a seat. “I can see why you two were paired together. She’s always coming up with something.”
Mike laughed slightly. “Yeah, she’s pretty good at looking at everything. So my theory actually piggybacks off of one of hers. The unsub takes about two years in between each story, right? So since we know that he used a separate rehearsal space, he maybe wouldn’t need a whole lot of room after all. He would just need enough room to hold them overnight, maybe. So I thought that we look at those spaces but confine it down to those who have recently moved there in the past three years.”
“You didn’t tell them the best part.” Penelope spoke up.
“Right, if the list is long, then we do that to each city he’s been to and whoever’s on all of the lists will be our unsub.”
“That’s actually a pretty solid theory.” Tara commented.
“What if he’s used aliases?” Luke asked.
“I don’t think he has.” Jennifer answered instead, everyone turning to look at her, waiting for her to continue. “I mean think about it. There’s so much time in between each case, why would he feel like he’d need to change his name?”
“So how much time do you think it’ll take Garcia?” Emily looked over at the woman who was busy plugging things in.
“Once I’m set up, it shouldn’t be long at all. An hour, maybe two.” She replied as an officer came in.
“The van’s been found. Would you like to take a look at the scene before we bring it in so forensics can take a look?”
“Yes. Mike, JJ, come with me. Rossi, speak with forensics so they know what they’re gonna be looking for. Reid, Alvez and Lewis, stay behind and help Garcia with whatever she needs.” Emily ordered and soon everyone went in their different directions.
Light streamed in onto Bex’s face. She groaned trying to turn away from it when she felt a tug at her wrist and a sharp pain in her skull. Her eyes opened and despite how sensitive her eyes were to the light, she looked towards her hands. The bed didn’t look familiar and neither did the sheets. Of course the most alarming thing was that her hands were tied to the head board.
Then everything came back to her. She glanced down at her feet and when she saw them covered by a blanket she tested to see if they were tied. She lifted one leg and then the other. Not tied, okay, she could do something with that. She twisted to her side to take in her surroundings. It was then she noticed that she no longer felt her slacks. Her legs were bare until her knee when a slightly rough material started. She looked towards the mirror she saw and noticed that she no longer wore her typical office attire. She was now in a strapless pink dress.
Bex returned her attention to the rope tied around her wrists but before she could even try to start getting herself free, the door opened. “Ah, you’re awake. Good.”
“Tell me about Ben and Jamie.” She asked, hoping to keep the man away from her.
“So you do remember. You hit your head so hard after you fell I wasn’t sure. Maybe travelling by bubble isn’t the best way to travel after all.”
“It’s usually just so quick. Don’t have to worry about any traffic.”
“You’re taking onto this so well compared to the others. You’ll be able to get everyone together and play their part right. I really should save you for last. I was going to but you were right there. I couldn’t let you leave.”
“Where am I meeting the others?”
“Why in heaven of course. The grandest stage of all. Now no more talking, I’m going to read you the story so you’ll know every single detail.” He sat down on the other bed and opened up his copy of the Wizard of Oz, starting to read the story Bex knew so well.
Mike had been the first of the three agents to glove up. While Emily and JJ walked the area, he went through every bit of the car. “Are you thinking they were much more than partners?” Emily asked her blonde friend when they were far enough away that Mike couldn’t hear them.
“I’d say so. I mean he’s zero focused, came off his own case to come help. Did you see how Reid reacted to Garcia introducing him?”
“Yes! I knew our boy genius always had a soft spot for Bex but I’ve never seen him get that way unless it’s about you. So do you think Bex and Mike are a thing or no?”
JJ shook her head. “I’m going to go with not yet because Bex deflects any and all questioning. He’s definitely impressed her though so who knows.”
Emily nodded, agreeing with what her friend had said. “You think he’ll be the reason she doesn’t come work with us?”
“I think that’s what Reid’s worried about. He’s been trying to talk her into transferring since the first time we worked together.”
Emily nodded once again. “Bex doesn’t seem to be the type to have her relationships be a determining factor for her. She also seems the type to fight so the fact that the only sign of struggle we’ve seen is where she supposedly backed away from the door last night, worries me a little.”
“I don’t think we should be worried. Bex is smart and I don’t think a concussion would keep her down. My guess is that she’s playing along.” JJ said as they walked back towards the van.
“You’d be right.” Mike said, sitting in the trunk, holding pieces of jewelry in his hands. An arrow charm dangled from his palm. The matching studs were laying in his hands. “I’m assuming she’s supposed to be Glinda?”
They were now all fixated on the arrow charm, knowing how special this set was to Bex. It originally belonged to her sister. She wore it for good luck on major cases and the fact that she took them off to keep as close to a Glinda appearance as possible was promising. “Arrows aren’t very Glinda like. Were they laying in any particular way?” Emily finally asked.
Mike shook his head. “And it didn’t seem like they were aggressively removed either. The clasp is together and there’s no blood on the earrings although there is blood on the carpeting.” He motioned behind him. “Was there any evidence at the studio to suggest that she was hurt?”
“There was blood on the door. We think she was about to open it as he came out.” JJ answered.
He nodded. “So she’s with a serial killer with a concussion at best, great.” He looked up at the two women. “Can I hold onto these for her?”
Emily nodded. “Of course. Let’s head back to see if Garcia has come up with anything yet.”
He had been gone for a few minutes now, claiming he needed to go find a new space for them to rehearse. Bex took it as her chance to escape. She twisted her wrists hoping to loosen up the ropes around them just enough to get her hands free. Growing frustrated as it became clear that the killer knew how to do this well, she began to look for other ways out. She tugged experimentally on the head board, testing how easy it would be able to break. When that didn’t look promising, she maneuvered herself so she could try and reach an end with her mouth.
Bex nearly cried when she finally got ahold of the rope end. She tugged and tugged until the rope loosened. While her hands were still tied together, she was no longer tied to the bed. Seeing that the knot was in a hard to reach place, she threw her arms about in a frustrated manner before taking a deep breath. She just needed to get to the kitchen.
On her way she made sure to take note of everything she could possibly see. How high up she was, the surroundings of the building she was in, any detail she could remember so if by chance she found a phone she could call in a rescue. Luck to seem to be on her side and she felt tears stinging her eyes when she found her phone when looking for a knife to cut through the ropes. The battery life was low but it would give her all the time she needed.
The sound of Spencer’s phone ringing cut through the silence of the conference room as everyone was looking up potential addresses while the other list was being made. Spencer’s eyes widened as he answered, placing it on speaker phone. “Bex? Bex, is that you?”
Everyone turned and focused on Spencer, waiting with bated breath to hear her response.
“Yes, yes it’s me. Listen I don’t know how much time I have left before he returns but I’m in an apartment or condo complex on the third or fourth floor at least.” She answered and the group collectively sighed.
“Can you give us any more specifics, Bex?” Mike asked.
Bex looked at her phone in surprise. No, it couldn’t be. “Mike? Mike, what are you doing here?”
He let out a chuckle. “We can talk about that later. We need details, Bex.”
“Right, right. It’s a newer place and there’s not a lot of traffic noise so I’m not in the city but close enough because I hear cars passing frequently. Garcia’s tracking my phone now right? How much - No!” She shrieked, causing all of the agents to stand at alert.
“Keep the phone on, keep the phone on, keep the phone on.” Penelope prayed as they all listened to the struggle between the killer and Bex.
“You were supposed to be different! You knew your role!” He yelled as he threw her to the ground. “What am I supposed to think now that you can’t listen to simple directions?”
“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I was just thirsty.” Bex pleaded.
“You should have waited.” He then picked up the phone and laughed. “Your sister did this too, you know? Did you teach her this trick?” He then brought the phone up so he could speak directly into the phone’s mic. “It didn’t work for her either.”
The agents all shouted as the call ended before turning to look at Garcia who sadly shook her head. Mike growled in frustration as he began looking through the addresses he had. “We can throw out the house addresses now. That should shrink the list. Then we look to see which ones are newer.”
Emily reached over and placed her hands on top of Mike’s. “Garcia’s already made changes and is updating our other list.”
“Besides she’s more than likely being taken to another location.” Luke said.
“Not exactly,” Spencer spoke up. “He could either be keeping her there to make sure she returns to being in character or he’ll take her up to the roof for preparations.”
“Why the roof? That doesn’t exactly fit his pattern. It’s not as personal.” Tara said.
“Sure it is. He has all the control if he holds her on the ledge. He can get off on that fear.” JJ answered.
“Not to mention, Glinda travels by bubble so unless he’s planning on drowning her in bubble soap or suffocating her in one of those giant bubble things the roof will be the best bet. Especially if he’s now on an accelerated time table.” Spencer further explained his theory.
“Are we just going to talk about the ways he could kill her or are we going to go save her?” Mike asked, growing frustrated. He pulled his hands away from Emily and walked over to look at Penelope’s computer screen.
“Going to save her, obviously. Address just sent to your phones.” Penelope looked up from her computer screen and shooed everyone out of the room.
The agents geared up and raced to their SUVs as Emily called out orders to the local officers. They were going to bring Bex home.
#mike warren fic#gareth ritter fic#braindead fic#graceland fic#criminal minds fic#mike warren#gareth ritter#case closed#moving on series#mike x bex#kim writes things#this is my queue song
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Dream a Little Dream (of me)
This fic was written for @beckzorz and her 1K writing challenge! My prompt was Drive Through. Thank you for being so kind and welcoming to me as I’m coming into this side of the fandom!! *mwah*
[One Shot: Bucky Barnes x Reader, 4679 words, Mature/Explicit Rating]
You’re lying on the couch in the common area, with nothing to do and nowhere to be. It’s a gorgeous day, the first day of Summer, and you’ve got that itch in your bones to get out and get moving. Nat is watching something ridiculous on the enormous TV, Thor’s making cookies and you’re not entirely sure what Bruce and Tony are doing over in the corner, but it involves a fair amount of swearing and the occasional small explosion, but when you look over, there are no visible flames, so you figure they’ve got it under control.
“What the hell is that?” you hear a gruff voice ask, and you sit bolt upright to see Sergeant James Barnes, Bucky to his friends but not to you, not yet, hanging over the back of the sofa where you’ve been lounging, staring at the television.
You’re newer to the team, Tony originally brought you into Stark Industries to work with him on tech design, but you were folded into the Avengers when a latent precognitive talent became not-so-latent after a slight electrocution mishap. You’ve been working closely with Wanda, but it’s a difficult gift, not easily subject to control.
It’s given you one thing, though. You’ve known for a while now what Bucky will be to you, you’re just waiting for him to catch up. You know what you've seen.
“It’s miniature golf,” Nat replies, not lifting her eyes from the screen. “It’s the International Finals.”
Bucky stares for a moment and then nods in recognition. “Putt-Putt, I remember.”
Your heart breaks a bit. You know his story, of course, there’s not a soul in America who doesn’t, and you’ve been witness to the battles he’s fought to come back to himself. He’s the bravest person you’ve ever met, and you’d want to know him even if… well, no matter what. He tends to stick closest to the people he trusts - Steve, of course, Nat, and Sam. But you’ve had a couple of late night conversations over ice cream, and you know he’s smart as hell and has a dry and sharp wit that’s left you laughing. He’s not bad to look at either, and your eyes widen as you glance up at him leaning over you.
“You shaved!” you say without thinking and he glances down at you.
“You keeping an eye on me?” he asks and you can feel your cheeks heat up.
“Maybe.” You toss him a wink, and he just stares at you. “Got a hot date?”
He snorts, and says only, “Nah, got nothing going on this week,” not looking away.
You see the moment it happens, as he looks at you, really looks at you, and you watch his expression change from that of a leader appraising a teammate to something else. Something new. You see the way his eyes drop from yours, down to your mouth and the way they flick back up. Your smile widens.
You sit up and stretch, watching the way he watches you, and nod towards the TV.
“You’ve played?”
He shrugs. “I don’t know. Can’t remember.”
You get to your feet, suddenly itchy to get out and hit the road, have some fun. As you make your way over the stairs that lead up to your quarters, his voice stops you.
“Where’re you going?”
You shrug as he wanders closer, and you pause, halfway up the staircase. You can tell Nat’s listening to every word, even though she’s still watching the TV as if fascinated.
“I need to get out. Take a drive. Go see something of the world.”
He looks intrigued. “You drive?”
Tony snorts from across the room and you laugh. “Do I drive? Sergeant Barnes, it’s like you don’t even know me. Yeah,” you give him a bold once-over. “I drive.”
He lifts one eyebrow and then shocks everyone in the room (including himself if his expression is anything to go by) when he says, “You want some company?”
You freeze, wondering if this is it, if this is how things change and then you let the smile spread over your face.
“Meet me on P3 by the elevator in an hour.” You turn to head upstairs and then toss over your shoulder, “Oh, and Sergeant Barnes? Bring an overnight bag, we’ll be staying the night.”
An hour later you head to the elevator, butterflies jumping in your stomach. You’ve checked the weather and it’s gorgeous where you’re headed. You’ve showered and changed, and you’re wearing a shirtdress in a cheerful green floral print and your favorite comfortable ballet flats. You’ve got your purse over one shoulder and you’re carrying your battered leather duffle bag in one hand. When you exit the elevator to the parking garage, you see Bucky standing there waiting for you.
His eyes widen as he takes you in. He’s obviously showered and changed as well, wearing dark wash jeans, and a white t-shirt under a black leather jacket. There’s a bag sitting at his feet and he’s leaning against the wall waiting for you, and your heart starts to race.
You feign nonchalance as you approach him, pulling your keys out of your purse as you do so.
“You ready, Sergeant?” you ask and he smiles.
“You think you might see your way to calling me Bucky?” he asks, and the sight of his grin makes something inside you take flight. “Seeing as we’re going on a road trip?”
“You ready for an adventure?” you ask, and he nods. “Well then, Bucky,” and you see his lips quirk at the sound of his name, “Follow me.”
You make your way down the dimly-lit walkway towards the far corner of the garage, Bucky walking quietly next to you. As you get closer, you click the lock and grin at the answering flash of tail lights ahead in the darkness.
“All right,” you say grandly, as you approach the car, “I want you to meet my baby. Baby? This is Bucky.”
“This is your car?” Bucky breathes, and you meet his eyes. “I’m impressed.”
You pop open the trunk and toss your bag in, and Bucky does the same.
“I don’t suppose...” he says with a grin, and you start to laugh.
“Nope, not a chance,” you say, opening the passenger side door and he laughs and climbs in.
You hop in and start the car. You pause to tie a scarf around your hair, and then, glancing sideways at Bucky, you hit the button and the cloth top of your ‘85 classic cherry red Mercedes convertible starts to fold down and he looks up with such a look of delight that you catch your breath.
“Tony get his hands on this?” he asks as you back out of the parking space, and you snort.
“He’d love to. I let him install a security system and he insisted on upgrading the stereo.” You laugh, remembering the day Tony had come across you tinkering under the hood, how he’d insisted on you taking him for a ride immediately, the way he’d Facetime’d Pepper from the car to show her.
“But other than that, no. No one gets under my Baby’s hood but me.”
Bucky looks impressed. “You do all your own work.”
“Do my own work?” You scoff. “Barnes, I rebuilt this baby from the engine out.”
You’re out of the garage now, and you shove on your favorite sunglasses as you make your way east across town to get onto the FDR. You’re surprised that he hasn’t asked where you’re going, and you have to admit, you’re impressed, and you say as much to him.
He leans back, watching the city streets slide by as you drive.
“What can I say? A beautiful woman invites me on an adventure, I figure, I’m putting myself in your hands, and besides,” he shrugs and you glance at him as you stop for a red light, “I trust you.”
You cough, to hide the way your voice breaks as you say, “You do?”
Bucky nods. “Anyway, I got nothing going on for the next couple of days, and really, there’s nowhere I’d rather be.”
Conversation flows easily as you leave the city behind, and make your way to CT and then north. You argue over music, movies, and books, and Bucky has you laughing as he describes some of his adjustment woes to this century.
You can see the way he watches everything around him: the other cars on the road, the scenery flying by. He doesn’t miss anything and you wonder what it would be like to have his laser-focus attention trained on you.
Before you know it, a few hours have passed and you see the sign for your exit. You feel him turning to you with a questioning glance as you make your way onto a small state highway that hugs the coast, the ocean sparkling off to your right. You know exactly where you are, navigating easily as you smile at the familiar landscape. Finally, Bucky caves.
“Okay, where are we going?”
“Truman’s Bay, Rhode Island,” you says easily. “Small beach town, about a half-hour south of Narragansett. The most amazing burgers you’ve ever had from Ivy’s drive-through, and the biggest mini golf course in the state.”
Bucky snorts. “I mean, it’s a small state.”
“Hush, you,” you say with a laugh and you hear his chuckle.
You glance over and Bucky’s looking out the window at the rolling surf, and you can see by the curve of his cheek that he’s smiling.
“You brought me three hours for burgers and mini golf?”
“I did,” you agree, and turn onto the street where you can see the sign for Ivy’s up ahead. “I like to get food and then drive out to the picnic area at the point. You can’t get down to the beach there, but it’s awfully pretty.”
Bucky shrugs. “It’s your party, sweetheart, I’m just along for the ride.”
Twenty minutes later, you’re sitting at the picnic area, the bags of food on the table in front of you. The wind is kicking off the ocean, and you grab your sweater from the car, dropping the scarf onto the front seat.
You hand Bucky his double cheeseburger and fries and take a sip of your iced tea before biting into your own burger and moaning with pleasure.
Bucky takes a bite and then closes his eyes in appreciation. “Jesus, Y/N,” he breathes, “This lives up to the hype. How do you know about this place?”
You swallow, look away. “Spent my early years here,” you say finally. “My mom took off when I was born, so it was just me and my dad. He died when I was 10, and I went into the system, spend the next eight years in Providence.”
There’s a long pause and then Bucky says only, “That sounds rough.”
You shrug, not meeting his eyes. “When I was 18, I aged out. I’d been in trade school, auto mechanics. My foster mom at the time, she’s a good one, hooked me up with her brother. He runs a shop in Brooklyn.”
“Oh.” Understanding fills Bucky’s eyes. “You worked on Steve’s bike.”
You nod. “I had no idea who he was, the first time he came by. I didn’t figure it out until he brought Tony in. He was just, you know, Stevie from Brooklyn.”
Bucky grins. “He loved it, that you didn’t know. He talked about how smart you were, and then when you got hurt, man.” He shakes his head.
“Well,” you say, looking around, not wanting to follow those memories, “It all turned out okay.”
“You miss working in the shop?” Bucky asks casually, finished his burger and wiping his chin.
You laugh. “Nah, I still get over there to see the guys, but man, the tech I get to work on now.”
You describe some of your current projects, waving your hands excitedly as you talk about the things you’re helping design, and you look up to see Bucky gazing at you fondly.
“Anyway,” you say, crumpling up your trash. “What do you say to some mini golf?”
He just smiles at you, lazy in the bright sun of the gorgeous afternoon and then says, “Anything you want, just lead the way.”
When you pull into the mini golf place, the parking lot is almost entirely full, and you frown in surprise. “I didn’t think it’d be this busy, it’s not even 5:00 yet,” but as you approach, you can see the reason why. ICE CREAM FESTIVAL a large sign proclaims, and you can see tables and vendor booths set up at the edge of the parking lot.
“Oh, man,” you say, grabbing Bucky’s hand without thinking and tugging him forward, his fingers curling firmly around yours. “I’d forgotten about this. I remember my dad bringing me to this years ago.” You turn to Bucky, grinning. “I puked right over there,” you say happily, pointing over to a large tree at the far edge of the lot, and Bucky laughs.
“I bet you were a cute kid,” he murmurs and you roll your eyes.
“Maybe I’ll show you pictures someday,” you say casually, and he just looks at you and for a moment, it’s as if the whole world stands still, and his eyes meet yours and neither of you looks away, neither of you even breathe, and then he exhales.
“I’ll hold you to that,” he says and raises your hand to his lips to press a kiss to the backs of your fingers, and a feeling of deja vu comes over you and you realize, you’ve Seen this.
“What?” he asks, seeing your expression change, but you just shake your head.
You get in line for mini golf, and you laugh at Bucky’s face as he takes in the course, with the windmill and the huge sphinx and the waterfall. You play the course, and it’s clear that you’re both competitive. You’ve got more experience but Bucky’s got that whole super soldier sniper thing on his side, and you end up neck and neck as you come into the 18th hole. Bucky makes his shot in two moves and you frown.
“Okay, Barnes,” you say, wiggling your eyebrows at him. “This one’s for the game, big boy, and I’m feeling lucky.”
“Hmm,” Bucky says, coming up behind and leaning in to say in your ear, “What would you say to a friendly wager?”
“Like… loser pays for dinner?” you ask, focusing on setting up your shot.
“Boooring,” he sing-songs and for a moment you think you can feel his breath on your neck and you shiver. “Loser grants the winner… a boon.”
“A boon?” you snort, lining up, “Yeah, that’s fine, that’s…” and then just as you go to take your shot, you feel Bucky’s lips brush across your neck and your shot goes wild, caroming off the green and into the river running merrily through the course, and mournfully you watch your little purple ball sail away.
You turn to Bucky who is studiously looking away, whistling a bit, and you advance on him, waving your club.
“You did that on purpose,” you shout, trying not to laugh at the look of feigned innocence that he plasters across his face. “Jerk!”
“Did what?” Bucky laughs, ducking out of the way as you take a half-hearted swing at him. “You can’t prove anything! Bad luck and all that, but I think this means… I’m the winner?”
“Uggh, fine,” you say, turning away, “I’ll pay for dinner.”
“Oh no,” Bucky says, falling into step next to you, tossing his ball nonchalantly, “A boon. You promised me a boon.”
The two of you turn in your clubs and as you leave the course, you grumble, “What even is that, a boon?”
Bucky shrugs and threads his fingers through yours. “I’ll let you know when I think of it. What now?”
You consider for a moment. “Get ice cream and I’ll show you the walking path along the ocean. Then we can find a place to stay for tonight. Have dinner and wander around town? That’s about all there is to do.”
Bucky smiles at you, slow and sweet, and you realize as he pulls you towards the ice cream vendors, that after this trip, nothing will ever be the same again.
After you finish your ice cream, strawberry for Bucky and Earl Grey tea for you, you hop back in the car.
“There’s a hotel in town,” you say, “We can see if they have rooms.”
The parking lot of the hotel is crowded, and you feel a bit anxious. You’ve always been somewhat of a spontaneous sort, and you’ve never had trouble finding a place to stay, but that looks like it could change tonight. You hope not, you’ve always loved this hotel, with its large back patio and old-fashioned carousel overlooking the ocean, and for some reason that you really don’t want to examine too closely, you want to share this with Bucky.
******
“One room,” you repeat blankly and the clerk nods.
“It’s the Festival in Narragansett this weekend, we’re pretty booked up even this far away,” she says, sounding bored. “You want the room?”
You stare at Bucky and he stares back, and you realize, he’s purposefully not saying anything, letting you make the decision. You could get back in the car, keep driving, try and find another place, or you could just… surrender, and you realize as you take a deep breath, you already know what you’re going to do.
You turn back to the clerk with a smile. “We’ll take the room,” you say, and hand over your credit card.
It’s quiet between you as you ride the elevator to the 5th floor, but you can feel the anticipation rising in the way Bucky glances sideways at you, the way his hand brushes yours as you stare straight ahead. You make your way down the hall, and then you open the door, and Bucky waves you in ahead of him.
You walk in and drop your bag, turning to survey the room, and you swallow. There’s only one bed.
The room is beautiful. It’s large, facing the ocean and when you open the curtains, you’re delighted to find sliders out to a small balcony with two chairs and a tiny table. It’s also, you realize, familiar. You’ve Seen this room, this view to the ocean, this bed. You open the doors to hear the ocean, and then set down your purse on the dresser and turn to find Bucky watching you.
“Y/N,” he whispers, walking towards you. “Is this…? Are you…?”
“Yes,” you whisper as his hand reaches up and he drags his fingers across your jaw, “Oh god, Bucky, yes,” and then his mouth descends to yours and you’re lost.
He kisses you fiercely, and you give back just as much, threading your hands through his hair as he pulls you close, his hands firm against your back. He kisses you breathless, and you realize, to have all of his focus, all of his attention, it’s beyond anything you’ve dreamed.
“Y/N,” he whispers, his voice hoarse, “What do you want? How far do you want this to go?’
You don’t even have to think now, because you know. You know exactly where this is going, and you realize, maybe you’ve known since you stepped off that elevator in New York. There’s no other place this could have gone but here.
“You,” you whisper, pressing a kiss to his chin, “I want you.”
“You sure?” he asks, and you nod.
It’s easy between you two, you realize, as he unbuttons your dress with shaking fingers, eases it up over your head. He whispers a heartfelt “Jesus Christ” and then runs his hands down your back to curve around your bum as you press against him. It’s exciting, to be so close to naked while he’s fully dressed, the scrape of his jeans against your thighs enticing as he kisses you again and again.
“Off,” you say, tugging at his shirt, “Take this off,” and he grins, yanking the shirt over his head.
You lean into him and begin pressing hot, open-mouthed kisses across his collar bone, making your way to the scars on his shoulder. He stiffens and then when you flick your tongue across the ridged flesh you find there, he groans.
“You’re so beautiful,” you say, looking up at him, hoping he hears the truth in your voice, “So fucking beautiful, Bucky.”
“James,” he whispers and there’s a look of such vulnerability on his face that you feel your heart breaks just a bit, in the best way. “Can you? Would you call me James?”
“Of course,” you whisper and he kisses you again.
He walks you towards the bed and when the backs of your legs hit the mattress, you tumble down, pulling him on top of you as he laughs, and suddenly you feel so full of feeling. It’s beautiful, the way the afternoon sunlight streams in over him, turning him golden, the way the infinite ocean rolls in the background, the screams of gulls and the sound of waves.
It’s beautiful the way he kisses his way down your body, stripping you bare as he goes, pressing his mouth to the core of you until you’re shaking and shuddering underneath his tongue. You collapse back against the pillows as he moves back up, and when he presses his mouth to yours, you taste yourself on his lips.
“What do you want?” he asks and hisses as you slide a hand down to cup him through his jeans.
“You’re wearing far too many clothes for this next part,” you inform him and he laughs and sits up, then stands and wiggles out of his jeans and boxer briefs.
You let your eyes roam freely, from his strong jaw, the glint of his metal arm in the sun, the curve of his hip and the way his cock juts out from his body, so hard for you. He moves away, rummages in his bag and pulls out a condom and you grin.
You grab the packet from him and he freezes as you carefully roll it on over his length, teasing a bit as you go and he presses your hand for a moment.
“I won’t,” he gasps and takes a deep breath, visibly working to control himself, “I won’t last long if you keep doing that, darling.”
“I don’t care,” you say, and pull him down to kiss him again. “I just want you. James.” You say it again and he shudders. “James, I want you.”
He lines himself up and looks at you, watching your face as he presses in and you inhale on a gasp. The feel of him is overwhelming, solid and real as he moves against you, over and in you. The room is filled with the sounds you’re both making, gasps and a moan, long and low. You trace your hands over his arms and then down to his back, where you can feel the muscles bunching under your fingers as he moves. He kisses you, deep and wet, mouths along your jawline as you arch under him, calling his name.
He slows for a moment and then grins, raises an eyebrow and then rolls, settling you on top of him. He curves one hand around your hip and whispers, “Go ahead, baby,” and you move, chasing your own pleasure now as he thrusts into you. His fingers ghost over you, dipping into that heat at your very core, and you groan, shocked at how ragged your voice sounds in the room, and then, it rises from the very center of you, wave after wave and you contract around him as he gives one last shout and yanks you close, pressing his face into your shoulder as he comes, your name on his lips like a psalm.
For a long moment, there’s no movement, no sound but the two of you gaspings, and then you shudder and collapse gracelessly onto him.
“Fuck,” Bucky whispers and you murmur wordlessly in agreement and then slide off of him to cuddle into his side, and his arms tighten around you.
After a moment, he gets up and heads into the bathroom and when he comes back, he slips in next to you and wraps his arms around you, pressing a kiss to your forehead.
“That was,” he says quietly, and then sighs. “That was amazing.”
There’s a long moment of silence and then he asks, “Did you See this?’
“Parts,” you whisper, wondering if he’ll be angry. “I saw the sunlight on the ocean, the bed.”
“When?” he asks, and you roll over to prop yourself up and look at him. He smiles at you and you feel something in you relax.
“A while ago,” you say finally. “Before I met you. It’s one of the first things I saw, actually. Right after the incident.”
Bucky huffs out a surprised laugh. “The incident? That’s what we’re calling it?”
You shrug and reach other to trace one hand across his chest. “I mean, no lasting damage done, right?”
He covers your hand with his own, brings it up to his lips to kiss your palm. “I remember the first time I saw you, you were going toe to toe with Tony over… something, I don’t remember what, and it was like,” he pauses, shakes his head. “It was like I was poleaxed or something, watching you stand up to him, and then you looked over at me, and you just grinned, like you’d seen an old friend or something.”
“Or something,” you whisper.
“Anway,” he shakes his head again, “I just thought, anyone who can yell at Tony like that, that’s someone I need to get to know.”
“And now?” you have to ask. “What now?”
“Well,” he says slowly, “I’d like to take you to dinner, walk through the town, kiss you by the ocean if you’re amenable to that.” He looks at you. “You going to tell me what else you’ve seen?”
“Not much,” you say. “Mostly I just saw us like this.”
“Well, then,” he says, “Let’s see what happens next.”
*****
You wind up sitting outdoors at a small cafe downtown, laughing over salads and steaks, and sharing a bottle of wine as you talk and people-watch. It’s getting dark now, and as you finish up, you hear music start up in the park across the street.
“Want to check it out?” you ask, as Bucky slides his credit card back into his wallet.
“Sure,” he says, and slides his hand into yours. “Lead the way.”
The park is on a bluff overlooking the public beach, and the breeze off the water is cool as you make your way towards the bandstand. There are people on blankets, kids playing on the playground equipment and the rotary club is doing a brisk business selling popcorn and lemonade. As you get closer, you realize it’s a jazz band and you grin.
“Hey, they’re singing your song,” you say with a laugh and Bucky grins.
“There’s a lot I don’t remember,” he says, “But somehow, I still know the music.”
Suddenly he stops and holds out a hand. “My boon,” he says and you quirk an eyebrow at him, not understanding.
“Dance with me,” he says quietly and you nod, heart in your throat as he wraps you in his arms.
As you dance, your bodies moving together in rhythm and harmony, you see the way he looks at you, feel the way he pulls you close, his body brushing yours, and the whole world falls away, until it’s just the two of you, this moment, here under the stars and the rising moon, and you realize.
This is just the beginning.
Stars shining bright above you Night breezes seem to whisper I love you Birds singing in the sycamore tree Dream a little dream of me
#beccas1kwritingchallenge#my writing#one shot#bucky x reader#bucky x you#bucky x y/n#bucky barnes x you#bucky barnes x reader
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The Billionaire and The Mechanic / STONY
Summary: Steve is a billionaire who worked hard to get where he is. He meets Tony, the mechanic, and falls in love faster than he ever thought possible. But Tony has some issues to work through, and some secrets he’s clearly not ready to share, and Steve’s friends, ever so overprotective, are not really trusting of this strange mechanic who seems to have the billionaire wrapped around his little finger.
They soon find out that loving someone isn’t always easy, but it might be worth it in the end.
Chapters: 6/?
Tagging: @huntersociopathavenger @inmyownweirdworld
Read it on AO3
---
They were about to celebrate their one month anniversary and Steve could not be happier. After that particular night in his apartment, where they spent the night together in each other’s arms and Steve had woken up to a very eager Tony kissing his way down his body, they’d had a very frank talk over breakfast. Steve had opened his heart to the mechanic without fear or hesitation. Tony, on his part, had listened intently with a smile on his face and, when the blond was finally finished with his speech, had simply replied with a very emotional I love you too. Needless to say, neither of them made it to work that day.
As the weeks passed, they grew even closer and, slowly, Tony started to share more and more of his previous life with his boyfriend. My father was not a very nice person, he’d said one day while they made dinner, he beat me and always made me feel like I was a failure. Steve had listened, nodding when necessary, and when Tony was done, he’d merely hugged him tight, kissing his hair. We had a butler and he was the one who raised me, he told Steve another time, when they were watching a movie, I considered him my father and he considered me a son. He died of a heart attack while I was at MIT and my parents didn’t even have the decency to call me and tell me. I didn’t go to his funeral, he said sniffling, with tears in his eyes, while Steve pulled him closer, touching his forehead with his lips and murmuring words of comfort.
Tony also got closer to Steve’s friends. He had insisted they invite the others over for dinner and refused to take no for an answer. Defeated, Steve had agreed with him in the end and invited the gang over, but not before having a very long conversation with them about respect and boundaries. They all came over on a Friday night. They ordered some pizzas and played board games. At first, they were all very nervous and stiff, and made very little eye contact with Tony. By the end of the night, Bucky was standing on the table, pointing his finger at Tony and screaming that he was a freaking thief while the others laughed and told him he was a sore loser. After that, they decided it would be better to stop playing Monopoly.
Overall, Steve could not be happier. Everything was working perfectly in his life. His boyfriend, who he loved very much and who loved him in return, was starting to trust him enough to share more and more about his previous life. His friends not only accepted his boyfriend, but also welcomed him to the group with arms wide open, treating him like he was one of them. And, of course, the cherry on top: Steve and Tony had confessed their deep feelings for each other and were now officially a couple. Life could not be more perfect, which was probably why destiny decided to throw some rain on their parade.
It was a Thursday when things started to get complicated. Tony had slept over at Steve’s the previous night and left the next morning, after some shower sex and a very nice breakfast. Steve had insisted on giving him a ride, but the mechanic had adamantly refused, assuring the blond that he was more than capable of taking a cab. They parted ways with a kiss and a promise to see each other later that night. Steve watched the cab go with a longing smile on his face and, when it turned the corner and disappeared from view, he finally checked his phone.
>>Stane called. He’s insisting you meet him at his new tower. – M.
Steve frowned, typing a reply.
<<Did you tell him I don’t usually make house calls?
He got in the car, eyes still on his phone as Happy closed the door.
>>Yes, I did. That’s why I said he was insisting. He says he’s very busy today and that he’s sure you’d make an exception for him because you two are, and I quote, “more than just business partners”. – M.
Steve rolled his eyes. They were definitely not more than just business partners. In fact, they were barely that, especially now that Stane had been selling them old tech and trying to pass it as new. Still, the blond sighed and replied.
<<Yeah, tell him I’ll meet him there. Might as well, since we’re probably gonna drop him when the contract’s over.
>>Sending the address to Happy’s GPS right now. – M.
It didn’t take long for them to arrive at the big, ugly tower with a huge Stark Industries written on the top. He exited the car, buttoning his suit and walked inside the building. A red headed woman in a suit quickly came to greet him.
“Hello, Captain Rogers. I’m Virginia Potts, Mr. Stane’s personal assistant. Please follow me, he’s in the workshop waiting for you”.
“A pleasure to meet you, Miss Potts”, Steve nodded and followed her to the private elevator. They rode it in complete silence. When the doors opened minutes later, Steve couldn’t help but look around with wide eyes.
The workshop, as Miss Potts had called it, was like something out of a sci-fi movie. Steve couldn’t name half the things in there.
“Ah, Captain! I’m so glad you could come”, Stane exclaimed in a welcoming tone. Steve knew he was being polite, but, for some reason, every time that man opened his mouth the blond would get chills, and not the good kind.
“Mr. Stane. I don’t usually make house calls, but I was nearby so it was no trouble”, he said, shaking the man’s hand, “I would like to know why exactly I’m here, though”.
“Yes, yes. Virginia? Please, bring us some scotch”.
“Water for me, please, Miss Potts”, Steve intervened.
“No drinks before lunch, Captain? What, the missus will be mad or something?”
“Just not much for drinking in general, Mr. Stane”, he replied, trying very hard to sound polite, “Now, the purpose of this meeting?”
“Yes, yes, of course. Have you seen our newest weapon? I call it the Jericho. It should be operational within a few weeks”, Stane said, gesturing to what seemed to be a simple missile.
Steve got a bit closer and looked at it, frowning. “A missile? Mr. Stane, I don’t see how my company would need missiles. We’re not going to war with anyone”.
“Oh, no. I didn’t bring you here for the Jericho, Captain, but for a… let’s say business proposition. Just hear me out. SHIELD trains the best people. And I happen to know a few people in very high positions in our government who would be very interested in a… let’s say… merger”, he started, gesturing to the chair nearby. Steve sat down, still looking very suspicious. “We both know how the world works. Civilians think it’s all black and white, good and bad, but we know better. There is a lot of grey out there. And sometimes there are missions, things that must be done, that the public would never understand. So they have entire teams for it, teams that remain in secret and do their jobs in secret”.
“Are you suggesting SHIELD should become some sort of shady organization?”
“All I’m saying is that SHIELD trains the best people, Captain. You’re not just training security agents, you’re training spies”, Stane said in a soft tone, “Yes, I know about your friend, Miss Romanov, is it? She was KGB, was she not? And now she trains your people”.
“I’m starting to sense a little threat in your words, Stane, and I gotta tell you, I don’t do well with threats. So you should measure your next words very carefully”, Steve replied in a warning tone.
“No threat here, my boy!”, he said with a booming laugh, “No threat, just a business opportunity. Think about it… SHIELD could be the next CIA”.
“We are not interest in that. We do security, that’s it. And if that’s all you called me here for…”
“Calm down, my boy, it was just an idea. I have some new tech I need to show you”, he said, typing something on his phone, “The engineers should be here in a minute”.
“I’m not interested in any new tech…”, Steve started to said, but was interrupted by something grabbing and pulling him by the shirt. He turned around and found himself face to face with what appeared to be a very big robot.
The robot in question let his shirt go and raised its claw ― or was it its head? Maybe it was both ―, opening and closing it as if he was blinking at Steve.
“What…?”
“That’s DUM-E”, Miss Potts answered, having suddenly appeared with a tray. She gave Stane the glass of scotch and offered Steve the bottle of water, which he politely accepted. And then suddenly, it hit him.
“I’m sorry, what did you just say?”
“That’s DUM-E”, the red head repeated with a small smile.
In a blink, a memory from a few weeks ago suddenly appeared on his head. I had a robot, I built him myself from scratch, he saw Tony say with sad eyes inside his own mind, His name was DUM-E. He’s probably been destroyed now or sold for parts.
“His name is DUM-E?”, Steve asked, softly petting the claw, who chirped as if it were happy.
“Yes. It’s just a dumb robot. We’ve tried shutting it down or dismantling it for parts, but it gets aggressive every time someone gets close”, Stane explained, taking a sip from his glass, “I’m actually surprised he’s letting you touch him”.
Suddenly, everything made sense. He eyed the missile, the Jericho, on the table and clenched his jaw.
“How much for him?”
“I’m sorry?”, Stane asked, feigning surprise.
“How much for the robot?”
“You want to buy the robot”.
“Yes. Was the question not clear?”
Miss Potts was staring at them, apprehensive.
“This is a special robot…”, Stane started, but was interrupted by the other.
“How much?”, Steve repeated.
Stane smiled as if Christmas had come earlier this year.
---
Tony exited the car, looking around with a suspicious look. He hadn’t told Steve, hadn’t wanted to bother or worry him, but for some time now he’d had the feeling he was being watched. Whether it was at the car shop, at his apartment or when he was arriving at Steve’s building, it was look he could feel someone’s eyes trained on him. It was disconcerting to say the least, but every time he looked around and searched for the source he found no one. By now, Tony was convinced his mind was playing tricks on him. So, once again, he shook his head, trying to get his paranoia out of his mind, and walked inside the building.
He took the elevator to Steve’s apartment and opened the door with a smile on his face. He couldn’t wait to see Steve and hug him and kiss him. Tony had had boyfriends before, but none of them had been even remotely like Steve. He was sweet, kind, understanding. Sometimes, Tony just had to look at him and his heart would fill with so much love and happiness he actually felt like he might explode. And being able to see him, everyday, to sleep and wake up in his arms, it was just the best feeling in the world. He was amazing. And he’s mine, he thought to himself, locking the door behind him and taking his coat off as he walked towards the living room.
“Honey, I’m home”, he called out in a playful tone.
He heard a loud crashing sound, as if someone had just dropped something very happy, and then suddenly… Was that… beeping? Tony turned around, confused, and saw it. Looking at him like a child who has finally found his long lost father, was none other than DUM-E.
“DUM-E?”, he asked in a whisper.
DUM-E beeped loudly and happily, running over to Tony while its claw head like a kid. He stopped right in front of the mechanic, beeping away as if he was trying to talk. Tony touched him softly, making the machine beep even more, and then hugged him awkwardly. The mechanic had tears in his eyes. He looked up to see Steve on the door to their bedroom, a small smile on his face.
“How did you find him?” Tony asked, letting go of the robot. DUM-E, who was apparently already over the whole reunion thing and very curious about his new home, rolled away to the lamp nearby and started pressing the button, turning it on and off and on and off again nonstop, beeping excitedly.
“About that…”, Steve said, walking closer to Tony and taking his hands, kissing one softly, “I think I know who you are, Tony. And, if you let me, I think I can help you”.
Tony sniffed, glancing at DUM-E, all happy and clueless. “How did you find him?”, he repeated the question, looking at Steve once more.
“I bought him from Stane. And I don’t think it was just a coincidence. I think he called me to his new tower today for this exact purpose. I think he knows where you are and what you are to me, Tony”.
The mechanic whined as if in pain, hugging himself with both arms, stepping away from Steve.
“I need… I need to run. I need to go, I need…”
“Tony”, Steve said firmly, holding the smaller man by the shoulders, “If you want to run, I won’t stop you. We’ll run together. We’ll go to London, Paris, even freaking Siberia if that’s what it takes. But I need you to listen to me… You don’t have to run anymore, Tony, because I’ll protect you. I’ll fight whoever I need to, I promise you, and I’ll rip them apart if I have to. I will never let him hurt you again, Tony. I promise you”.
Tony was looking down. He took a deep breath and nodded, looking up to meet Steve’s eyes. “I trust you”, he whispered.
“Do you want to run? Or do you want to stay and fight them? It’s your choice, love”, Steve asked softly, cleaning away a tear with his thumb.
Tony took yet another breath and closed his eyes hard, before opening them with a determined look. “I want to stay and fight”.
Steve smiled. “First thing we’re going to do… We’re going to hire the best damn lawyer in this country and we’re going to take a look at your father’s will. Because I know your father was an asshole, Tony, but from what you’ve told me, and what I’ve heard from him, he was all about legacy and names. And I seriously doubt he’d leave everything to someone other than his son”.
“Rhodey said the same thing”, Tony replied, nodding, “But Stane has a legion of lawyers. It’s hard to go against rich people. Trust me, I know”.
“He’s not the only rich people around”, Steve joked, kissing his boyfriend’s forehead and pulling him to his chest, “You don’t have to be afraid anymore, Tony. You have an army now. We’re going to get you justice. We’re going to avenge you”.
Sir? Sir, are you there?
Tony opened his eyes and untangled himself from Steve. Both turned their eyes to DUM-E, who seemed confused.
Sir? Is that you? I recognize your voice pattern. Please, respond.
DUM-E started to turn around on himself, searching for the source of the voice, unaware that the voice was coming from his own sound box.
“Is DUM-E talking?” Steve asked, confused, but Tony was too stunned to pay any attention to him.
“JARVIS?” He asked carefully, taking a step closer to DUM-E.
Yes, sir. I must say, it is a pleasure to talk to you again ― DUM-E, for heaven’s sake, stop moving, I have told you a million times, it’s ME.
DUM-E stopped moving, but turned his claw, still confused.
“Jarvis? Who’s Jarvis?”
Tony turned back to Steve. “Remember the something I created, the thing my guardian… Obadiah wanted… It’s a missile”.
“The Jericho”, Steve supplied, and then explained upon seeing the perplexed look on Tony’s face, “He showed it to me, said it would be operational in a few weeks”.
That is a lie, sir. Mr. Stane has brought many capable men and women to try and get rid of me, but I assure you all of them were unsuccessful.
“Wait. Is JARVIS…”
“JARVIS is the one thing keeping Stane from accessing the Jericho. I’m the only person that can activate it, get it to work”, Tony confirmed, “and when all of that happened, I created JARVIS to protect it from him. The reason no one can crack the code is because he’s an AI. He is always rewriting himself”.
Indeed I am, sir.
“JARVIS, how did you do this? How can you be inside DUM-E’s program?”, Tony asked, curious and astonished with his creation.
I simply hacked him, as the young ones would say. Not only DUM-E, however. Sir, I control the tower. The elevators, the computers, every electronic inside. I have infiltrated their system and they are unaware of it.
Tony’s mouth fell open. “You’re in the tower? How the hell did you manage to do that? The Jericho wasn’t connected to any networks, that’s not possible”.
I had help, sir. And she recorded a message for you as well. A moment, if you please.
There was a minute of silence before a very familiar voice filled the room.
Tony? Is this… Do I just talk? DUM-E’s sound boxes were not exactly the best, so the voice sounded a bit off, but it was still unmistakable. Tony, it’s Pepper. I just helped your… AI… thingy get out. If you’re listening to this, than call me, you absolute prick! I miss you and I’m worried about you! Rhodey won’t tell me where you are, says he promised, that traitor! Please, just call me, alright? I’m his assistant now, I’m on the inside. I can help bring him down, Tony! Just, please, let me know you’re alright, ok?
“Oh my God. That’s Pepper!”
“Pepper?” Steve asked.
You know her as Miss Potts, Captain. Sir, I must tell you… Miss Potts and I have uncovered some very interesting documents on Mr. Stane’s computer.
“What kind of documents?” Steve inquired, stepping closer to Tony, who had just sat down on the couch, looking absolutely overwhelmed.
Documents that could prove Mr. Stane has been double dealing for years now. I cannot take the information from his computer, however. Said information must be manually transferred to a secure hard drive.
“Tony… Tony, I know a lot just happened all of a sudden”, Steve said, kneeling down in front of his boyfriend, “But this is good. Tony, we can fight him. We can get you your life back. What do you say, love?”
Tony stared at his hands for a long moment, looking deep in thought. Then, he raised his head, looking into Steve’s eyes before smiling, determined, a fire burning in his brown eyes.
“I say let’s get the son of a bitch”.
---
Leave a comment and/or ask to be tagged // Feed my caffeine addiction
If you liked it, reblog so other people can see it! :D
#stony#stevetony#superhusbands#steve rogers#tony stark#avengers#billionaire steve#mechanic tony#the billionaire and the mechanic#fanfic#fic
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Player Profile: Hang
avid modder, occasional TO and montage video producer from Germany top 12 in the Jawbreakers Stunfest Qualifier (artwork of Drop by Kagu)
What names do you go by?
I used to go by Troke for the entirety of April. Which was based on a dumb coincidence where I talked to Neer and had one of my usual mobile spelling errors and I wrote "I'm having ha troke" instead of "having a stroke".
I wanted to go away from "Hang Boy" since quite some time as I specifically wanted to get rid of the "Boy" and just "Hang" felt wrong and was still associated to Hang Boy anyway. But I guess I'm back to that now.
Reason to why I wanted to rid myself of "Boy" was as simple as me linking my online persona to my OC (By choosing her for profile pictures on basically any platform) which then of course lead people to believe she is a male based on the thought "Hey this is Hang Boy. So the profile picture must also be Hang Boy".
The name Hang Boy btw occurred just as I started my first step into the internet, when I was a big fan of the Binding of Isaac. So i needed an online name and I ventured through Isaac related things. Which was when I came across the Tarot card "Hanged Man". So I just took that and adjusted a bit.
How do you feel about your performance in this tournament?
Was pretty okay. I didn't expect to get far into it. Although I'm a bit sad I didn't make the Top 8 picture. Only needed one win more as well.
However I would have been disappointed in everyone else, if they allowed for me to reach Top 3. So good that didn't happen.
What was your strategy preparing for and competing in the tournament?
I haven't played Blaze in weeks. The only times I played recently was to get some recordings for a Toxic montage. Right before the tournament I was more worried to finish my Isaac run. Which I did win!
And during the tournament was pretty much just "Turn some nice music on, jam to it, play some Nitro, do some silly cuff shenanigans, do dumb parry grab down throws so the viewers can laugh over something".
I did "fly" with Nitro in one match but sadly it wasn't streamed so only Hellraiser was able to see the glory of Flying Cuff™.
youtube
Which was your hardest match of the tournament?
Hellraiser I suppose. He did kick me out of it. I never really played him or saw him play and he didn't fall for my aggressive playstyle, so it was a tough time.
What surprised you most about the tournament?
Cherry's second place finish. I know he's good, I think he's underrated even.
But second place is a really good finish. Even more so beating JawDrop since, in my opinion, he has some of the craziest tech and can be really really confusing to play against.
(Yea he also has weird lag even tho he lives in France but whatever :p)
Is there anyone you didn’t face that you wish you did?
I would have wanted to play Defur if possible. To some degree I see his entrance as a sort of meme entry. But jokes aside and game aside, I can only take my hat off to this man and his effort for the tournament scene.
Sadly didn't get to play Daio. It feels like a tradition to face off against him in FellowsTV hosted tournaments. Which always goes the same way tbf. He counters my playstyle hard, I'm annoyed to play against him, don't bother changing my playstyle in order to win, get demolished. But the tradition counts!
I'd put Neer in the same boat. Hate playing against him but it just kinda has to be.
How did you get into Lethal League?
A friend bought it for me. We played a couple of games, he had to leave. I went into QM, found Garu, got absolutely demolished, he friended me and pulled me into it.
I specifically remember seeing his Latch corpse juggles and thinking "Man this is so cool, I want to be able to do this too". So right of the bat I started to play for the style, which is what I still go by.
Style > Efficiency
It feels bad not having paid for LL nor Blaze but I bought LL for a bunch of friends so guess that checks out.
What's your current Lethal League experience?
450+ hours in LL 340 hours in Blaze (As of now. 26.4.2019) And a giant bunch of hours of community interaction and modding.
I was very excited when asked to be beta testing and it fulfilled a childhood dream of being in video game credits.
Despite only getting into Beta a month before release, I stacked up 90 hours before the game came out. Lots of 9 hour playtime days. It was massive fun.
I bought almost all of the merch...got most signed by Tim & Dion too. I went to the Netherlands twice to meet TR. It was fun, they are cool people. Watching Dion doing a live dance off was pretty rad ngl.
I brought self made cheesecake the second time, but Tim had to get it into the building since they check your bags for normal visitors and it wasn't allowed to bring food.
I'll never forget the sight of Tim with his big bag looking like he's smuggling a bomb into a convention.
Who are your main/side/counter character picks?
Everything. So yes random, it's random.
However I most enjoy playing Nitro because of all the dumb things he can do. Especially flying, cuff storage (specifically for down angle on the ground, to just pull a little bit forward) and half pull.
Doombox is also very fun. Special>bunt>smash>parry>special>repeat can chain pretty often on some opponents and is hilarious.
The only characters I "despise" playing are Toxic and Sonata. But only because I'm really bad with them.
What are your favourite character outfits?
Dust and Ashes. Just their whole design.
For real tho. There's not really skins that stick out to me since I use my own modded ones.
Can you share your favourite/most used custom outfit?
Hm I missed that that's not "outfits"...well take a load of skins! In order
Mothyman Jeviman Spacetor Golden Switch Drop Palette Sonata Supercharged Latch PaDice-a the Rapper Skull Grunt Supercharged Grid Supercharged Doombox Dropbox FYouBox Nitro with a blue, white and mint color scheme I made for every character and lastly my Toxic skin with that same color scheme
What are your stage preferences?
Idc. I play random so who really cares. I guess insert the usual "Paradise field eclipse succs!!!"
What input method do you use?
PS4 Controller Dpad for movement L1 Bunt R1 Swing R2 Grab
I used to play LL on a cheap SNES controller using only face buttons. When I was over at Dutch Comic Con with Serchiot I played a couple games of Blaze with his PS4 controller and really liked his layout and the feel of the controller. So I just sneakily stole his layout and got myself a PS4 controller.
Coming from all face buttons, I needed some time to get used to it. But in my opinion it's just superior this way.
How do you make your character montage videos?
I have two ways of recording clips. Just consciously recording with OBS or putting Shadowplay on and saving every time something cool happens. I usually just boot up Blaze and jump into ranked to get some games in. With the Toxic montage it was a bit different since I now have a 4K monitor but 4K can hardly be recorded at 60fps and setting the output resolution in OBS to 1080p got me weird screen effects. So every time I went to record, I put the resolution of my monitor to 1080p in order to at least get that in good quality. Then I just cut all the good clips out of the recordings and mix ‘n’ match ‘em. What's usually the hardest decision is what music to use. There's been a couple of songs that I'd like to use, but they either don't fit over Blaze gameplay, don't fit my playstyle or were just the wrong length.
My two favourite Montages are definitely for Candyman and Nitro. Candyman took a long way to develop, because I just wanted to show off so much. It's one of the few montages where I actually asked higher skill players for games instead of jumping into ranked. Picking the song was really hard, I was only sure I wanted a Klaus Veen track, but OD V2 was too mainstream and most others were too short. So in the end I opted for two songs with a break in between the montage. Splitting the clips into two sets, each song one. With the second part containing what I considered the more hype bursts.
And for Nitro I actually had the montage pretty much done, but I wasn't too happy with it. Still planned to just upload it like that tho. However when I saw the Nitro voice actor interact with a community member in a way that could only be described as "incredibly wholesome", I was inspired to redo most, if not all, of the clips and do the best I could. For the first time actually going into training mode to lab some combos (mostly corpse juggles tbf) and eventually learning Flying Cuff™ too. Watching JawDrops Blazin' Combo video and taking a slice off the Nitro plays there. Which resulted in a montage I am very happy with.
youtube
What other games do you play?
It differs from time to time.
The only games I always come back to are retro games like SMW, CTR or something like Mario Kart 8D. Which I always enjoy playing at local tournaments and pretty successfully so even. People just can't handle it when someone plays with one hand.
Atm I also like playing TBoI Rebirth.
Will you come to Stunfest?
Probably not. Driving/Flying over to France is just very expensive. I would love to meet all my Baguettes (Lusked, Jawdrop, Aru and Lalou, who stated he can't make it due to exams, yes I know). But exams and the neer-ing end of my apprenticeship is leaving a lot of work to be done.
So it probably won't fit into my schedule. However never say no! Trips to Blaze events aren't uncommon for me.
Is there anything else you’d like to say to the community?
Play the game for fun, not for glory.
Stop rubbing yourself for an imaginary title that doesn't mean anything as there's not even any competition for it.
I can't stress enough how great Soda City Funk by Tim Legend is. Go listen to it right now.
And for my last words. Be more like Kota. And remember, We love Ramkat <3
#Jawbreakers#Lethal League Blaze#Player Profile#Hang Boy#Hang#Europe#Jaw Breakers#Lethal League#Team Reptile
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I Bought $500k of DOT for its Unparalleled Potential
Cardano is finally poised to possibly pass Ethereum in the next year. It has almost everything it takes, especially if Ethereum is not able to scale with the ETH 2.0 upgrade. Which, by the way, we will have a big ETH 2.0 content for you next week detailing everything you need to know about the changes. But there’s a shadowy figure lurking underneath the surface for not just Ethereum, Cardano also. It’s called Polkadot.
While many people have been focused on the next Ethereum killer, Polkadot could be the single blockchain smart contract platform, killer. Today, I’m going to explain to you what that means and why Polkadot could be the No. 1 coin you need to be looking at. I’m actually so bullish on Polkadot that I just put $500,000 worth of Bitcoin into DOT. Let’s get it! BitSwap is the hottest new way to trade tokens.
Crawling all the top decentralized exchanges, BitSwap gets you the very best price and value for your trades. BitSwap is changing the game. Try it now at bitswapdex.io. Welcome to BitBoy Crypto! The largest crypto channel in all the Interwebs. My name is Ben. Every day on this channel, I show you how to make money in cryptocurrency. If you like money and crypto, make sure to subscribe to the channel. Subscribers are also eligible to win one full Bitcoin when we hit a million subscribers.
Details down below in the content. Now, in this content, I’m going to be explaining why you should be watching Polkadot to become the giant in cryptocurrency. And at the end of this content, I’ll be discussing what I expect from DOT in the short term, which you’re definitely not going to want to miss out on. Also, make sure to smash the likes if you want more Polkadot content and want me to go over some major players in the Polkadot IDO space next week.
So, let’s get into it. Why do people love Polkadot so much? Well, it’s pretty revolutionary really. Technology development is a tricky game. You can create the greatest technology ever seen, but you see, technology begets more technology. And faster technology.
And more advanced technology. One instance of this is called Moore’s Law. It refers to the phenomenon in technology and computer science where basically the capabilities of technology double every two years, while the cost to produce it decreases by half every two years.
Pretty insane really. But it isn’t just with computers, we see it with calculators, cars, phones, and everything in between, of course, all those that use computing power, but you get the point. When Ethereum debuted as a decentralized blockchain platform that powers smart contracts, it was also quite revolutionary.
No one had ever done this before! Brand new technology! Immediately, applications of this technology were imagined and suddenly the thought of a utopian decentralized internet sprung up. Now, that’s one of the biggest things that truly attracted me to Ethereum in the first place. But quickly after its creation, even some co-founders of Ethereum began having doubts. They created a Frankenstein monster, but once it became alive, they realized there were several things wrong with it.
One of these co-founders is Dr. Gavin Wood, a man so brave, he wears sunglasses on the top of his head during a TED talk. But he set out to conceive a better technology than Ethereum, but he also understood that Ethereum is going to be a massive player in this space for a long time. So not only did he create a new technology called Polkadot, but he also created it to be backward compatible with Ethereum, something that could end up being the sole force to drive Polkadot to the top.
For someone fully invested in Ethereum and Cardano, I believe the most concerning thing for ETH and ADA is the structure of Polkadot itself. If you think of Ethereum and Cardano as stand-alone interstate highways, Polkadot is basically the “Spaghetti Junction” here in Atlanta. It’s the entire interstate road system connected. It’s a multi-chain network that’s all interoperable. If you’re on I-75, you can go one specific route from Canada all the way down to Miami, Florida. There are a lot of things you can do and a lot of places you can stop, but you can’t stop by the Statue of Liberty.
You also can’t stop by the Golden Gate Bridge. Even when those states finally do open. But with the entire interstate system, you can get to any major destination in America. And that’s the power Polkadot represents. Many people are starting to believe that multi-chain ecosystems are the future. And this works by something called parachains. This actually shows the full structure of Polkadot in this diagram. You have the relay chain operated by validators.
Within that network themselves, there is a parachain and then collators. Now, I could completely bore you by telling you all the details of the tech, but it’s not why you watch this channel. You want to know why this is important and how you can make money with it.
Well, the best way to think about it is in terms of limits of potential. With Ethereum, there are limits for what can be done on its chain without having to create what we call layer 2 solutions, which we’ll talk about more next week. But with Polkadot, everything’s done on layer 1. It was designed like this. This means more potential reach and use for anything built on its network.
And this could be enough to tempt many people and many businesses and many crypto projects to come on over to the DOT’ed side of things. In fact, some say Polkadot DeFi is going to be the home of DeFi instead of Ethereum. Many of the problems that the Ethereum network has suffered such as scalability and gas fees are some of the strengths of Polkadot. They were actually the reason that it was built. Those flaws. And no area will get as big of a boost in crypto other than DeFi by taking advantage of what Polkadot DeFi has to offer.
This was detailed recently in a Cointelegraph article. Its fundamentals are strong, and it’s practically solved the crypto market’s central problem— cross-chain compatibility, which is the ability to transact across blockchains. As a nice cherry on top, Polkadot presents DeFi projects with the opportunity to migrate to a high-performance parachain for improved bandwidth and transaction speeds. As you guys know, we’ve discussed in depth before how the gas fees on ETH have made the whales richer and the retail investors poor.
Imagine being able to go into a time machine and go back to the days of early 2020 when DeFi was basically in its infancy. DeFi projects existed, but yield farming and staking were not really hitting their stride yet. Imagine investing in Compound, YFI, or SUSHI at the very beginning. Imagine being able to yield farm with the highest returns split between the fewest investors.
That could be the opportunity we have soon with Polkadot. While everyone is focused on NFTs right now for good reason, many will miss the opportunity a lot of these Polkadot projects present. But not only is DeFi going to be a huge opportunity for Polkadot, but IoT will also be a huge focus for DOT. Internet of Things devices will be one of the most explosive technologies over the next several years.
In fact, this industry will grow by almost 50 billion devices in the next several years. But hidden within the context of this article is not only what many believe will be the key to IoT growth, but the key to Polkadot’s growth and what makes it so special. It says, the founder of Robonomics, Sergei Loshankov, believes that Polkadot is set to boost the development of open blockchains that have a number of incremental benefits compared to the private, conventional blockchains we’re all used to. He further states that the future of collective governance should not be built around enterprise blockchains but around the distributed ledger ecosystems like Polkadot, which is more cost-effective for the end-user.
That’s right, guys. Polkadot is the key to an open blockchain explosion. While enterprise has been using Ethereum more than anything else, Polkadot could be the new home of enterprise, which was actually the original reason I was bullish on the use case for ETH. Follow the money. If businesses and enterprises use Ethereum, then it will moon. Same for Polkadot. And also, you can think of this as with the end-users getting a huge benefit as well, so it’s a win-win.
But what can we expect to see in the near term for Polkadot? Well, Binance Coin and Cardano have both spent time at the No. 3 spots. Polkadot, of course, did have a turn already at No. 3 a few months ago but fell back all the way to No. 6 as of today. The four top smart contract platforms are all trading turns and spots. So because of this, it’s pretty easy to see that Polkadot at No. 6 is prime to move north again. As an investor, I’m keen to see where DOT will move to.
It’s coming in at almost $10 billion underneath Binance Coin’s valuation at which point you have to ask yourself, with all the development on Polkadot and the capabilities of the multi-chain ecosystem, how in the world is it so far behind Binance Coin’s market cap? The facts are, it shouldn’t be that far behind.
So I fully expect it to pump past all-time highs upwards of $50 per coin in the short term and take that No. 3 spots again shortly. But what do you think about DOT? Will it continue to pump until it becomes the coin of the future? Or are Ethereum and ADA simply superior products? Let me know down below. Smash the likes if you want more Polkadot content. That’s all I got. Be blessed. BitBoy out.
Read More: Dogecoin outperforms Ethereum, BNB, Cardano, and XRP
via I Bought $500k of DOT for its Unparalleled Potential
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of all
Of All
Characters: Leati/Addison/wwe wrestlers..
** Warnings**
: Smut, XxX etc
:Authors Note::
This is my first story in YEARS upon YEARS. but with the help or the motivation, of Raven and countless others but i'd be writing everyone, forever but i read a few of hers and said, to myself
_ GET TO WRITING YOU FOOL!_
So here we go!
Addison just started, her new career finally starting fresh she always remembered Leati but it's been forever since she seen him does he remember her? does he even know she's back, her now job now is to cater to hospitals all over the tampa/ penscola area. treating sport injuries on the side.
5am wake up call:
_ SIERRA, HOTEL, INDIA_
briefly went off, her alarm when she knew leati was starting his profession in the world wrestling entertainment she couldn't help but fear for him the last time they spoke he was at georgia tech playing football and the wrestling world was where he wanted to be They last spoke on christmas before he left for his big break in football
** Forward to 3 years later**
Addison got up and thought to herself "
_ Today is going to be the day i take that ring tone off!!_
she found the carol of the bells play list and clicked through the 250 songs of christmas music but couldn't find something, so she left it on jingle bells. She then proceeded to start the shower, only to hear the same ring tone that she got woken up to, she answered," Hello this is nurse Addison Jess how can i help you what hospital are you located at". the man on the receivng end couldn't help but laugh his dark, low chuckle.. Addison yes i'm at the Leati Emergency Room.. they're treating me fare but you could help.. he said before she cut him off with "Leati"? as in the " i want to be a professional wrestler, cut off the girl and never talk to her again Leati"? she could hear the sigh in his voice, He then sighed and came back with a
_ "I'll let you go. sorry i bothered you. i'll get in contact with the doctor here_
Addison cut him off, and said
wait No. No you'll wait forever with them. i'm on call i just, didn't expect to hear from you. i didn't know if you had my number. I can come see you at your hotel. And we can go from there. Can i meet you in the lobby Leati at 6?
Leati smiled as big as a child at christmas, and said
_ Addy, it's almost christmas. Are you sure? Your probably really busy? but if you insist doc, 6:00 sure. I'll see you then_
https://i.pinimg.com/564x/8d/09/9a/8d099a20e6537a5d4a54f69b31483cab.jpg
She finished her day at clincials and decided to check the weather, Naomi her friend at the hospital in Tampa kept looking over at Addison all day wondering why she was so excited and why she had to be out by 4:00.
_ Addy girl, you know it's almost christmas we're not going to get out of here until at leat 530, maybe even later girl your crazy to be thinking your going to get out of here at 4_
Addy just smiled and sipped her coffee,
_ I just don't know how else to tell you this Naomi.... _
Naomi laughed and turned her chair around to Addy,
_ Girll, you better spill or that coffee is going to be spilt and i know you and your cofee not to mess with you until ast least 4 cups!_
Addison, sighed and said
_ "Girl you remember Leati right? Leati Anaoi naomi asked? Addy nervously smiled and said "Mhmm. thats the one". Naomi laughed and said "girl, jon and him go way back i'd be stupid, to not know who that guy is,why though what's going on". Addison began Well, he called me and i was short with him, and now i don't know what to say to him because i'm not even interested but i answered my phone, because he called and you know when a patient calls i'm ** #1** it just kicks inside me, and i become this new person._ Naomi smiled and said _ Simple girl. Call him back and diagnose him as your date._ Addy smacked Naomi, and laughed as the two got back to work. Addy became nervous all day and didn't even know if she could pick her phone up to even dial his number she had his number and was nervous to even help him. nervous that he'd still be the same, Nervous that he looked the same, smelt the same. Nervous over a guy thats becoming a wrestler. Maybe he's made it to the big time and just has an injury and she would treat him and never hear from him again. She wasn't ready to let him go.
3:30 pm
_ Hello this is Addison Jess. how can i help you. what hospital or facility do you need_ she sounded so professional so intimidating, So sexy, Addison didn't get any response? she took the phone off from her ear, connection was strong. She decided to try again. _ Hello this is addison Jess. do you need emergency medical attention_ He finally spoke _ I don't know if its emergency, but i need attention, Addison it's me Leati. I have a left leg injury happened 2 1/2 weeks ago at a house show. I didn't get any medical treatment because Doc Anderson, wasnt around so i just haven't seen anyone. I'd like to see you so you can see it better, I'm no medical tech talker here. When can we set a time up._ She was happy he stopped talking, not like his voice was soothing and it sent shivers up her spine and in her most sensitive spots, because that was not even the case ( trying to be professional and not wanting to ask him where he was staying because she was going to make him feel better in ways no doctor could) She replied with a Yes leati, i can come meet you in say about an hour or two i have a few more patients and a couple write ups to write would 5:30 be okay? You could tell by his response, he was grinning ear to ear and finally spoke _ Yes. 5:30 sounds great Doc. I am at WillowSpring suites Room 1616.. My leg already feels better, maybe some dinner might be in an order and i'll be back in no time._ Addison laughed and said _ leati, i'll see you soon try not to move much and i'll see you around 5:30_ They both hung up Addison smiled all thorugh out the later parts of her shift, Naomi stopped by the station, as Addison was finishing up her last note. _ So me and jon are trying out this new cafe after he gets done at the gym he was wondering if you wanted to tag along, i also wanted to go to the new christmas store 2 blocks over and jon doesn't like shopping did ya wanna go?_ Addy looked up, and said _ I'm going to have to have a rain check.. i'm going to make a "Hotel, run safety protocal, on someone, new athlete in town thinks he broke his leg or hip. _ Naomi smiled and knew what her plan was but went along with it, _ Plus girl i gotta change. i smell like children, and germs from god knows what!_ they both laughed and started to shut their site down and walk out for the evening before leaving they hugged and naomi said for her to call her
** Getting in her white Jeep. Addison, ouldn't wait to see Leati. wondering what he'd look like wondering, what he smelt like wondering if he wanted the same things she wanted. She wanted him She wanted to help him she didn't know, why she wanted him she just knew she was ready to see him.**
https://i.pinimg.com/564x/ad/d1/c7/add1c7914f79e1d7fe7726cb2b05ba1d.jpg
She pulled in to the hotel, and was taken back by the hotel and it's beauty she thought to herself well he is in the business backed by the McMahons so they wouldn't put their talent in a shank but by god this is top of the top. She wore her dark purple scrubs and her columbia jacket her hair was just freshened colored a blonde with dark underneath and her nails we're painted a cherry red color to match her toes. She looked at herself in her mirror about 50 times thinking to herself _ I' look fine. i'm a nurse. I'm not here to be his escort and sleep with him. But what if i am?_ She was hoping his injury wasn't serious, as she walked in the lobby she was seriously taken back by how spacious and beautiful it was. She asked the recepitionsit if there was a elevator near by the lady working the desk, replied with _ Yes Mam'm down the hall, on the right._ Addison thanked her and walked down the long corridor and pushed the elevator door.
She couldn't believe how beautiful this hotel was. She was so taken back by the rooms and how the structure was so breathtaking she couldn't wait to get back to Naomi and tell her about this one. She came to his room and her breath was gone she had nervous hands and she didn't know if she could even do this she looked at the room number 1616 she was hoping he wasn't in there and that it was a complete set up. she knocked and a soft voice
_ Come in please_
She smiled before walking in, knowing how polite he was was a shock. She shut the door behind her, and walked closer to him he was beautiful seriously so beautiful for the first time, her lower regions ached and she wanted to smack herself,for being this gullable she was a nurse she did this daily at the hospital She began her exam of simple questions. that she knew like the back of her hand but protocol. she had to ask.
_ "So mr. Anoai, i'm going to need you to just ask the simple questions, i do appologize for them, its just protocol". _
he laughed and said
_ Whatever you want doc. but please, before we start, can you call me Leati._
Addison smiled and wrote a heart and leati. like a 5 year old child. She said sure Leati, So now i start, she swallowed what seemed to be everything she needed to say. as she began, How much do you weigh: Leati said on average about 255 pounds. she smiled and wrote that on her piece of paper, and your allergies. he replied with lemon pepper and lemon oil. she then wrote that, and began to lick her lips praying he didn't see, what she was doing but he did (Busted) She thought She started but she stopped,
_ I can't ask this question Leati, but i have to and just know I am in no, way interested but, as she stopped mid sentance, she w went with the burning response, Whens the last time you had sex_ He shot his brown/blue eyes up at her, and said _ 2 1/2 years_ Happiness came rushing over her, she had to make sure she kept her happiness about that to herself and calmy restored back and wrote what he said. She then asked what kind of diet he was on and other questions. it was nearly 8:30. and she was starving, She glanced around the room and noticed a suitcase and leati was only wearing a tight fitted Black shirt with black basketball shorts. his hair was tied back in a low bun, she asked him where a good local bistro place was, he stopped her and said are you amplying we go grab dinner nurse? he smiled big by this time, and said _ I don't think the nurse is supposed to take the patient out for dinner_ Addison replied with "i'm breaking #231 rule of, conduct. Lets go for dinner it's part of the ritual. i need to uh see if you can eat. Leati laughed and said _ Ohhh i can eat_ Addison smiled and said lets see..
They walked down to a nearby cafe called LinPas Leati seemed to know where to go. They both grabbed a booth and looked at the menu's Leati ordered a medium Hazelnut coffee and Addison had the same but large, and both shared 2 large egg and cheese danish's with donuts. Addison felt like this was a date, she asked him about his family and he began with a _ My family is in the professional wrestling business My father, My late brother and I are in it, I'm in a bloodline of wrestling. I know when i last saw you I was in georgia tech playing football but that was forever ago. I feel like i don't even remember you from that. We have changed so much. My brother i think you remember him, more than you remember me. Yeah Matt passed hard time for me, my mom dad they took it the worse. Losing my brother the way we did made me think of coming back to georgia tech to teach, being in this business scared me of losing myself like we did Matt. _ Addison smiled and rubbed his hand as he began to tear up, she felt this overwhelming care for him. They began talking about what he's been up to in the business, _ "You know the positive stuff, been working for him. Been doing it for him, you know he would of wanted this more than anything, Been with the shield, for about 2 years Colby and Jon they're great theyre brothers to me especially since matt's been gone I feel that Matt sent them to me"_ ( THANKS BRO!) as he began to laugh Addison laughed leati said, enough about me. what about you. Addison smiled and said well i went to nursing school and began this crazy ride with Naomi. and shes been my partner in crime for years, I of course remember matt and when i heard the news it broke my heart I did send flowers to your parents and they thanked me for them. Leati smiled, and said yeah they mentioned you. i i I just couldn't bring myself to see you. but here we are. "Should we get back to the hotel? So you can finish your exam Doc?" Joe said Addison laughed and said we should, _ I wouldn't want you to miss the best part of the exam._ Leati laughed, and said _ WHAT? the shot? Yeah i'm pumped about that Doc._ Leati payed for the meal, and they both walked back to the hotel. Hand in Hand, Leati felt warm inside and really hoped this wasn't going to be the end. Just then, Addy's phone rang. I have to take this, we can continue walking, though we're almost there, _ hello this is " Addison Jess how can i help you. Oh hey! yeah, oh yeah still up for that one. Of course I can yeah i'll see you soon. Thanks for calling."_ Addy looked up and smiled, sorry friend of mine we haven't seen each other in a long time good to hear from old friends you know. Leati smiled as he held the door open for her, into the hotel. Leati stopped her, in the lobby, and took her hand in his, _ Look Addy you don't have to be my doctor if he...._ Addy looked at him confused? _He? Leati. it wasn't a "HE". it was a SHE. it was Naomi. she wondered if we had fell into a bliss, you know how she is you know how girls are. they're like trained gossip writers for STAR! and Entertainment weekley I want to be your doctor Leati. Lets go on upstairs where it's more quiet.
** ** ** 10:30 pm. the exam was over, and Joe was pretty tired. Addison diagnosed him with a Incarcerated hernia, His first concern was having sex. he blantly asked her, " Can i still engage in sex_ she sighed and said, I'll let this slide, Your not that bad YET but thats my diagnosis I need you to go see, my actual doctor that i work with so he can better run tests, and make sure But if your finding someone to get the last one in, i'm sure you will be fine. He smiled and she noticed him looking at her in a way.**
He was anxious to even try the thing that he's longed for the most. They got back to his room, and she sat on the couch as he walked into the spacious kitchen as he ran his hands over his face he was so nervous not wanting to mess anything up. Leati heard clinkings of keys he thought she left he walked in the room, with 2 glasses of wine and felt relieved she was still there. she smiled up at him, and noticed the white wine she smiled and took her glass he sat next to her, and asked who she was talking too she smiled and said naomi you know she worries I just said i was staying late and i'd talk to her tomorrow i hope it will make her back off shes so protective but she has her rights. Leati smiled and took her glass from her and sat the glass down on the table, he smiled and went in for the kiss, addison he breathed into her mouth, You taste so good all she could do was moan back into his mouth of appreciation, he was such a good kisser one of those that you watch on a movie, his tongue tasted like heaven, and she wanted more but she could feel the wetness beneath her she hated herself for making him stop but she couldn't take much more, she removed her scrubs and kicked her pants off and sighed a relief revealing, her black bra and thong leati licked his lips and, smiled at what he witnessed addison asked You like? he choked on his breath and moaned and led her back to the bed Addison, took his sweats off, and revealed his boxers and his harden cock, she asked my patient ready for me i can see, he smiled and said you have no idea, how ready i am for you. *Concentrate, by Demi lovato started playing, Don't love ya cause i need to, but it's everything you do to me, make music when ya moaning from night until the morning.. just tell me when your ready and i'm going to paint your body with my lips... baby i do anything you want, lock me down like i'm your slave he slipped from his wallet, and grabbed a condom. Leati, moaned as he rolled the condom on, he was already swollen, and his cock was mad at him for protecting his hood, with a slight move she was on top of him, slow at first she couldn't bare the pain he was huge, he went slow at first but quickly picked up pace matching, her moans, he slowly started moving his hands freely and found her left breast she took his hand and firmly positioned it so he had to massage what was finally his. he slowly moved her over in the middle of the bed, and postioned himself in front of her, she couldn't help but pull him down so he was as close to her chest as he allowed himself, and began thrusting deep, giving her no warning that he was in charge, her moans became louder as he kept hitting every single wave of emotion that they had together, he came back up and started trailing kisses from her stomach, to her nipple, to her other and to her neck, all while thrusting deeper into her. Addison's body started convulsing more and more with each deep thrust he threw into her, she stopped, as leati asked Was it too much she didnt answer and got on all fours as, she instructed him to enter he asked are we sure we're ready for this? he grabbed the lube from her side of the bed and applied some, and entered her slowly as she moaned Don't go slow. i'm ready and i need you she said, Leati burried himself inside her as deep as her behind would allow. she began with soft moans of pleasure, as the moans became louder the screams we're right with the moans, Leati felt himself almost ready to cum but couldn't its too soon, he pulled out and addy sighed of disbelief he brought her down to him as she, was now instructed to lay on his side, as he began to fondle with her ever so swollen parts with one finger of his one move, and she was done for she licked her lips, and begged god and begged him to not stop. her toes curled and she threw her leg over his to give him more space his fingers quickened as he invited two inside her she came with seconds after he tried a third as she grabbed his cock it only took two to three pumps and he came hard and fast she enjoyed his juices all over her You taste so good leati, Your sweet on the inside and outside he smiled a sleepily smile, and laughed and said ditto doc, i only wish i could of came inside you. But that's next... they soon caught their breaths and driftedd into a sleep, For the first time Leati had it all.... okay okay okay this is my first story, in i don't even know. 3 -5 years i wrote actively when myspace was around. i miss those stories so much and i wish i saved them. I wrote heavily on randy orton. ( I blame my 2003 era) for him and my writings but thank god i upgraded to Roman. I hope my people that i tag enjoy this I know it's not as great as ya'lls. but Hallmark christmas movies inspired me and Jake, ( Long story on him) And Sex inspired me. I'll think about writing another part to this if anyone thinks i should. Thanks guys Enjoy
#wwe imagine#roman reigns#personal#wwesensualfanfics#lavitabella87#danii#raven#smut#roman reigns imagine story#roman imagine story#mine#story
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Prompt: a group of boys find a dead body
for my writing challenge
Kell puts his phone down on his desk, having just finished a phone call with a client. He had good news for her today, happy he was able to let her know that the opposition had decided to settle [description of case here]. It had been nice to hear her happy and grateful voice when he call, but he admitted it had been far more satisfying to see the opposing lawyer’s face when he had executed the winning move. He shrugged his suit jacket back onto his shoulders, having removed it early when he felt warm. But now he wanted to feel put together, as he headed to his managing partner’s office to report the good news.
He swept through the doors, not bothering to knock as he could see through the glass that she wasn’t busy.
“I settled the London case!” he declared, dropping the file on Astrid Athos’ desk and plopping into the seat across from her. She didn’t look up from where her eyes were fixed on the screen of her laptop.”
“That’s great,” she said. Kell frowned. “But it’s just pro bono. None of that money is going to the firm.” At this, she finally looked up and took off her glasses. She was unimpressed.
“Yes, but it does make our firm look good, doesn’t it, to be taking on all these pro bono cases, and not only that, but also winning them. So spectacularly as well!” Kell laughed. “You should have seem opposing counsel’s faces-”
“Yes it’s all very well a good that we won, but it needn’t have been you.” Kell sighed as Astrid launched into a well trodden argument. “As a firm, I agree we have to do pro bono, but that’s what we have associates for. You don’t only don’t pass off your mandatory two cases per year to associates as most partners do, you’ve already taken on triple that number this year. And it’s only March.”
“What can I say, I’m a benevolent guy,” Kell quipped. It was lighthearted in delivery, but they both knew it wasn’t truly. Astrid got up from behind the desk and walked over to where Kell was sitting. He stood up, uncomfortable with her looming over him. This way, he was taller and felt more in control, and so when she put a hand on his cheek gently, it didn’t sting as much.
“Son, you are a good person. You don’t have to keep making up for the past.” She let her hand and her words linger for a few seconds, before retracting her arm and turning back to her side of her desk. “Besides, you left your silly dreams of civil law behind a long time ago and are a corporate lawyer. And in this field, you do what is best for the firm. What is best for this firm is for you, our highly skilled junior partner, to continue winning cases for paying clients. So I ask that you focus on that for the remainder of the quarter. Do you understand me?” Kell sighed and then nodded sharply.
“Yes.”
_____
Delilah is in the kitchen when Kell finally gets home around 8 PM, the table set and the food cold on top it. She’s not mad though, just greets him with a kiss, asking him how work was and chiming, “You work so hard!” when he told her briefly about his day. They eat dinner in silence, a simple pasta salad. Delly had grown up in a house with not one, but multiple maids to clean the large rooms and cook for her family of six. When they moved in together, Kell had refused Delly’s inquiry of hiring a maid for themselves, citing that two young professionals should be able to also keep the house clean and cook for themselves. When she had accepted his marriage proposal though, she had made him promise that they would at least get a nanny when they eventually had a child. He had agreed reluctantly, supposing that hiring on one staff wasn’t all that uncommon and would necessarily write them off as rich and out of touch. He hoped.
He asked after Delly’s day as well, which had ended at 4 pm as it always did. She informed him that she had lunch with a number of sponsors, pitching to them the mission of the non-profit that she worked at rather successfully too. Delly was good at her job, and people instantly took to her, charmed by the story of the daughter of the CEO of one of the largest tech companies in the world using her business degree to work for a non-profit that paid far less than reasonable to support the luxuries that she was accustomed to. What was often left out of the conversation was hefty trust fund that had be deposited into her account at the age of 25 and the company shares that her father had bought in her name since she was four years old.
Image mattered though, and Delly was perfect for Kell, not only because she was genuinely kind and wanted to help people, but also because she was beautiful, well-connected and had a do-gooder reputation. And Kell was perfect for Delly, a lawyer at a firm that often took on high-profile pro-bono cases, showing they cared about the public, but also a corporate lawyer, with a salary that meant they and their children would never want for anything, even without any of Delly’s family money.
“Dinner with your parents tomorrow,” Delly reminded him once they had finished dinner and gotten ready for bed. They were lying together in the center of the bed, with his arm around her and her head tucked against his chest. They felt perfect together like this, Kell thought to himself. The kind of couple you would see in a movie, the couple you would root for because they just seemed to fit.
“Right, 6 pm yeah?” Delly hummed in agreement before extracting herself briefly from his arms to turn off the light on the nightstand. Then she was back again and Kell found himself drifting off to sleep.
***
Delly and Kell have dinner with his parents once a month, and have dinner with her parents once a month as well, alternating every two weeks to be fair. Today is a Tuesday and they make the forty minute drive from their condo downtown to the very outskirts of the city, watching as the skyscrapers vanish and are replaced by highways, trees and hills, and grand mansions. They park on the driveway of the largest one on the block, a pure ivory two story with five garages and a lakefront view. The first time Kell had brought Delly over, she had spent most of the meeting gushing with his mother about interior design, complementing her exquisite and classy taste in decor, and gathering inspiration for their future house. Kell knew that Delly was already scoping out the market on top of her involvement in their wedding preparations, and had even gone to a couple of open houses with her mother.
Astrid and Athos greeted Delly and Kell with hugs, before graciously accepting the cherry pie that Delly had baked, instructing the maids to take it to the kitchen to keep warm until it was time for dessert.
They settled down for their meal and made idle small talk, before Athos spoke more purposefully.
“Kell, I heard that your highschool class is having their ten year reunion this weekend?” He looked pointedly at his son. “Are you planning to make an appearance?”
“Oh we should! It would be so nice to meet some of your old classmates!” Delly exclaimed before Kell could respond.
“Yes, I think it’d be a good opportunity to touch base with them, reminisce on old times and also, show them your achievements, how much you’ve changed and grown since you all saw each other last.” Athos gives Kell a meaningful look and Kell understands what he’s getting at. He considers for a moment and then says,
“I’d forgotten that was coming up. Yes I agree, it’d be good to make an appearance.” Delly made an excited noise at that and they continued on with their meal.
Later, as they were getting ready to leave, Astrid took her son aside.
“I’m proud that you’ve decided to see your highschool classmates again. I know it must have been hard for you to make that decision.”
“I think it’s time to confront them, don’t you? I’m a different person now, and it’s time to show them all that.” Kell’s voice was steady with conviction, but inside he felt a bit uneasy, a ball of anxiety starting to unfurl. He tapped it down and smiled at his mother. “I’m sure it’ll go fine. And Delly’s so excited to meet everyone, I’m sure she’ll smooth over any awkward moments.”
“Yes I’m sure it’ll go great, you’ll both impress everyone. Delly was such a good choice for you, she brightens your whole demeanor.” Kell sniffed at that remark, but gave his mother a kiss of the cheek goodbye and his father a hug, finally leaving with one last remark that he would see Astrid bright and early tomorrow at work.
Scene 3 (unfinished): The reunion happens and goes well. Catches up with boys. No classmates approach them at first, but then slowly some people integrate. Main character repeatedly points out good deeds he has done. Gets internally angry when another classmate takes attention off him recounting his probono work. But halfway through, some of the classmates take the stage to commemorate the death of one of their classmates. Fiance, “you never told me someone in your class died?”. The word “suicide” is explicitly used at one point. When getting refreshments, Fiance asks him if he knew the other boy well bc he seems “sad”. He mutters not really, is overhead by another classmate. They confront him about it, fiancé finds out.
The reunion is on Saturday, so Wednesday morning, Kell reaches out to his old crew from highschool, asking if any of them are planning on attending as well. When he’s
“The people here are so rude.” Delly interrupts him and Holland with a sniff and a light stomp of the foot. Kell asks her what she’s on about. “We were chatting so nicely and then they asked who I was with, so I told them I was your fiance and then they suddenly made up some sort of excuse and left! I was just in the middle of convincing them to become donors too.” Delly tried to use every opportunity to promote her causes. As shallow and airheaded as Kell thought she could be, it was moments like this that reminded him why everyone else bought into her passion for making the world a better place. She put so much effort into it that how could anyone doubt her intentions?
“You never told me someone in your class died? Is that why you’ve been so off today? Did you know him well?” Her beautiful face turned inquisitively towards his, her face scrunched in empathy. Kelly adjusted his tie uncomfortably, lowering his voice.
“Uh, no we weren’t close. I barely knew him,” he lied, trying to keep his voice down. But clearly someone heard him.
“Excuse me?” Kell and Delly turned to face a red headed lady with a wine glass in her hand. She looked irate and her face was red, a juxtaposition against the cream white of her business casual dress.
“I’ve heard you! Boasting about all your achievements, all your phony do-gooding. You’re trying to erase what you did in the past, but we all remember. No matter how many cases you win, how many donations you make to anti-bullying campaigns, how many[...] we won’t be fooled again. You’ll always be a cruel, hateful boy and someday, you’re going to trip up again and show those you’ve fooled who you really are - a mean, hateful man, and now a liar and phony.” Kell thought she was done speaking but then she turned to Delly and said, “I’m so sorry honey,” before turning to him again to finish off with, “Go home Dane. Nobody wants you here.”
A crowd had gathered around them, and Kell could see in the eyes of his former classmates and just as they hadn’t wanted him at their school graduation, they didn’t want him at their reunions either. It didn’t matter that some of them had been genuinely interested in talking with him about the various non-profit initiatives he was invested in and the one he was setting up at his firm, now they were reminded of their shared past and everything he had done since was tinged with insincerity. So he lifted his glass in acknowledgement, set it half empty down onto a nearby table, before taking his leave, sweeping a slightly starstruck Delly against him and towards the exit.
******
Delly was quiet in the car and didn’t speak until they got home. She took her heels off in the front entrance and then dropped onto the couch in their living now. Kell hovered into the kitchen, but could still hear her when she said,
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Kell flipped the kettle on and let the sound of the water heating up fill the space between them for a few moments.
“I didn’t want you to think any different of me.” He sighed as he walked towards her and then sat down on the coffee table in front of Delly, taking her hands in his. She didn’t look at him. “We were silly teenage boys back then, too caught up in our own worlds to understand the effect that we were having on him. If we had known how sensitive he was--”
“Sensitive?” Delly interrupted, and the tone of her voice would have keyed him into the danger of the situation he was stepping into. He hurried to correct himself.
“My point is that I understand what we did wrong back then, I wouldn’t do it again. I regret it every day. I’ve changed.”
“Have you? Do you regret what happened because a boy died or do you regret it because your classmates think you’re a terrible person? You know I always did wonder if you truly wanted to do good why didn’t you go into civil law? Why corporate? It never did make sense to me. And now I know! You don’t really care about the less fortunate, you only care about your image! It’s not about helping your client out, it’s about winning, and showing the world how many pro bono cases you’ve done so that they’ll all say, Wow look at Kell Dane, such a champion for the voiceless! You’re a fraud!” Her voiced gradually got louder as she spoke, to the point where she nearly screamed her last accusation at him.
“You’re one to talk! You’re always going on about new initiatives, and helping those more fortunate than you and then turn around and buy clothing that has been created in sweatshops by the very people you say you care about. I may be a fraud, but you’re a hypocrite!” He lashed out. Delly stared at him with wide eyes. Kell had never yelled at her before, had always made sure to never raise his voice, present himself as a soft hearted, but capable, man. She slowly crumpled, like a butterfly with a broken wing would, and he saw one tear start to fall, and then she slapped him. The force of it whipped his head to the right. Kell didn’t go after her when she ran off to the bedroom.
Delly cries herself to sleep and Kell waits until her tears subside before crawling into bed next to her. He wonders if this is the beginning of the end again. Everyone had been so quick to turn against him in high school, the students, the teachers, the administrative staff, and especially the school board who were only negotiated into allowing him to graduate with the contingency that he was homeschooled for the rest of the year, didn’t attend the ceremony and didn’t speak to the press. The other boys were treated the same way, and they barely talked to each other either, too shocked about what had happened and each ruminating on their own role in Rhy’s fate. Kell spent the next year, next few years, angry with everyone. He was angry with himself for being so stupid as to not have seen it coming, for his friends for the same, at his parents using their money to get him out of any consequences, at everyone at school for deeming him a villain. He vowed to prove them wrong, show them that he wasn’t bad, that he had just been a normal teenage boy, maybe with a bit of a mean streak, but really he was quite decent, good even. He would show them, he had thought.
But now it was clear that he had failed.
Kell tried not to think about Rhy before, because thinking about him made him sad and angry and hopeless, and Kell was trying to remake himself so he could not afford to feel sad and angry about hopeless. Maybe that’s why he never told Delly, because he didn’t want to believe that it had happened, choosing to remove those moments in highschool from his character. But now, after being rejected once again by his classmates and lying in his bed with his fiance turned away from him, he does think about Rhy. Specifically, he thinks about how Rhy had felt when it had happened, if he had been scared. Or if he felt all those years ago the way Kell does now, empty and hopeless, as he set the scene and pulled the trigger on himself.
#frostweeklychallenge#did better this week#outlined earlier and wrote a lot more#but didn't actually finish the story - i ran out of time#i actually really like my idea for this week? may return to this#unfinished may return#also have not read this over at all oops#I think I've started to understand how to structure my time for writing throughout the week
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Kyirisan (Washington, DC)
Kyirisan Restaurant 1924 8th St NW, Washington, DC 20001 202.525.2383 www.kyirisandc.com Thu 07/26/2018, 08:10p-11:20p
For the third and final dinner of my latest DC visit, I chose a lesser known restaurant that sounded interesting to me. Kyirisan was opened in March 2016 by Chef Tim Ma and wife Joey Hernandez and serves Asian-French fare in the northern portion of Shaw. A note about the name: it's formed from a combination of "Kun" (the generational name of the couple's three children) and the numbers 1-2-3 (yi-er-san) in Chinese.
About the Chef: Ma was born in 1978 to parents who immigrated to the US from Taiwan in the 1970s, and he grew up in the midst of their Chinese restaurant in Maumelle, Arkansas. The family eventually moved to New York in the 80s, where his uncle ran the well-regarded Paul Ma's China Kitchen in Yorktown Heights. Later on, they relocated to northern Virginia, and Ma attended Centreville High School in Fairfax County, where he excelled in math and science. Following, he chose to attend the Georgia Institute of Technology, majoring in electrical and computer engineering, and graduated from Georgia Tech in 2000 after spending five years there; he later went on to attain a master's degree as well. He then became a government contractor, working in engineering for Raytheon in Falls Church.
However, Ma was always drawn to the kitchen, and, after a sushi meal with his sister and brother-in-law in LA in 2006, declared that he wanted to have his own restaurant. His family was not pleased, but he pushed forward, moved to New York with Hernandez, and enrolled at the French Culinary Institute in 2008. During this period, he externed at David Chang's acclaimed Momofuku Ko, and upon graduating, cooked briefly in Saint Thomas. Ma and his now-fiancée subsequently returned to NoVa and opened their first restaurant in August 2009: Maple Ave in Vienna. Located in a former donut shop in a somewhat odd part of town, the spot started out slow, but eventually made a name for itself for its Asian-inflected new American cuisine. After leaving the day-to-day running of Maple Ave to CdC Nyi Nyi Myint, the couple followed up with Water & Wall in Virginia Square, Arlington. The restaurant bowed in November 2013, and was named after the NYC intersection where the two lived while the Chef was attending culinary school.
In 2014, the Mas began looking for a home for Kyirisan, and after passing on the location where The Dabney now resides, signed on for a space in the yet-to-be-built Shay apartment complex. February 2015 saw the duo leave Maple Ave (as did Myint, who joined Water & Wall), while the Chef kicked off the Gather + Feast supper club on Kickstarter a month later. In November that year, Ma teamed up with Michael Amouri of Caffe Amouri and launched Chase the Submarine (a sandwich shop named after his son) in Vienna. As for Kyirisan (its original name Freehand was nixed by the Sydell Group), it ended up debuting in March 2016 with Myint once again on board. Not long after, the place drew a 2.5 star review from The Washington Post's Tom Sietsema, while Michelin bestowed a Bib Gourmand in October 2016. Shortly after the Michelin nod, it was announced that Ma would be consulting on the menu for the upcoming Ten Tigers Parlor, a bar with Asian-y fare that ended up opening in December that year with Myint at the helm yet again.
Some bad news came in February 2017 with the shutter of Water & Wall, though that same month saw Kyirisan on Washingtonian's "100 Very Best Restaurants" list. In June 2017, Ma and company decamped from Ten Tigers, replaced by none other than Erik Bruner-Yang. Meanwhile, in November it was announced that Ma and Derek Brown (who's no longer involved, sadly) would be opening concepts inside the upcoming Eaton, a hotel project from Katherine Lo (daughter of Langham Hospitality Group chairman Ka Shui Lo). Chase the Submarine ended up closing the same month, while Michelin once again deemed Kyirisan Bib Gourmand worthy in October.
Kyirisan is located on the ground floor of The Shay apartment building and was penned by Grizform Design Architects, a local firm that was also responsible for Doi Moi, Estadio, and Fiola, among other projects. The space is supposed to have a homey sort of feel, with blue being the dominant hue it seems. Note also the "Cook Nook" in the photo above, a communal table that can accommodate up to a dozen diners.
Kyirisan's fusion-y menu is refreshingly brief, which I'm appreciating more and more these days. In addition to dinner, the restaurant also serves brunch on weekends, and has happy hour at the bar every day except Saturday. Drink-wise, you get a small array of cocktails along with a handful of beers/ciders, not to mention a compact wine list featuring smaller producers from France and the West Coast US. Corkage, meanwhile, is $25 a pop, with no limit on the number of bottles, which is nice. Click for larger versions.
Way Off Base [$15.00] | Mezcal, Scotch, Falernum, Lime, Bitters The evening's first cocktail was a winner. I definitely got a smokiness on the nose, joined by plenty of contrasting citrus. Taste-wise, things were fruity from the falernum at first, but then the spicy, boozy nature of the mezcal-whisky combo made itself known on the finish.
Chinese Smashed Cucumbers [$7.00] | Crispy Garlic, Benne Seed, Fresno Chilies Cucumbers were delightfully crunchy, their tart, refreshing flavors well matched by a smidgen of heat and the nuttiness of those sesame seeds. A fun, promising start.
Fried Okra [$12.00] | Cauliflower, Feuilletine, Cilantro Fish Sauce Okra and cauliflower were doused with a heavy helping of fish sauce, which gave the dish a decidedly salty, savory funk. It was pretty intense, so I could've used some additional herbs or something to balance things out more. I also would've liked less cook and more crunch on the veggies.
Whiskey & Weird [$13.00] | Rye, Becherovka Herbal Liqueur, Sage Shrub The next cocktail showed off a somewhat "eggy" aroma, with notes of sweet citrus and sage as well. Its taste was definitely on the sweet side, and not boozy at all, with some herbaceous notes providing a modicum of balance to the drink.
Tuna Carpaccio [$19.00] | Kabosu Shoyu, Thai Chilies, Ground Cherries, Avocado Slightly gristly cuts of tuna certainly took on some umami notes from the shoyu, while the cherries added a surprisingly floral touch. I did get the citrusy character of the kabosu on the finish, but did feel that the dish needed some more acidity, more brightness to really make it pop.
Golden Tilefish [$22.00] | Bacon & Chive Dashi, Savoy Cabbage, Green Tomato Tilefish was cooked just right, coming out properly flaky and flavorful, with a wonderfully crisp skin to boot. The dashi worked swimmingly as a complement, but the tomato, I will say, did seem a bit out of place.
Manhattan [$11.00] The classic Manhattan cocktail made a worthwhile showing tonight. I got lots of bitters on the nose, along with moderating elements of dark fruit. In terms of taste, think spirit-forward, and quite spicy from the rye, the vermouth peeking through just a bit.
Hanger Steak [$23.00] | Green Tomato Salsa Verde, Kohlrabi, Turnip, Mint Hanger steak was quite tasty, and made sense with the zippiness of its paired salsa verde. However, I wasn't as keen on the kohlrabi-turnip combination, as the root veggies just seemed bland here.
Duck Confit [$22.00] | Brussels Sprouts, Black Truffle Aioli, Apple Cider Gastrique A duck confit was as rich as you'd expect, with lots of salty, savory flavors amped up even further by the char of Brussels and a restrained muskiness from the truffle. The cider gastrique did provided a touch of tartness to the mix, but overall the dish felt heavy and could've really used something to brighten it up.
"Unnamed Cocktail #1" | Rum, Tawny Port, Amaretto, Kalamansi At this point, I asked my server (who was also a bartender) to whip up something on the fly, and this is what he came up with (which ended up being comped). It was a combination of Smith & Cross rum, ¼oz amaretto, and ½oz tawny port, along with kalamansi purée. Its aromas were citric and bitter, the richness of the port showing through. Taste-wise, I got the deep, caramel-y notes of the rum at first, joined by a bevy of sweet, nutty flavors that worked out surprisingly well.
I made sure to save room for the desserts, which basically follow the same theme as the savory menu. Click for a larger version.
Kabosu Lime Pie [$11.00] | Pistachio, Thai Basil, Gooseberry This citrusy pie delivered. The tartness of kabosu was front and center, linking up beautifully with the pistachios while the crumbly crust served as a moderating element.
Cherry Sundae [$9.00] | Black Cherry Ice Cream, Puffed Buckwheat, Chocolate The reimagined sundae was even better, and actually one of the stronger desserts I've had in DC. The ice cream was pretty marvelous by itself, but was even better when paired with the Nestlé Crunch-esque shards of chocolate. Excellent use of the buckwheat too as a nutty, crunchy component.
"Unnamed Cocktail #2" | Fernet, Arrack, Sweet Vermouth, Hopped Grapefruit Bitters We ended with another complimentary cocktail from my server, and for this one I requested something that would work as a digestif. It was a combination of 1½oz Fernet Francisco, ½oz Batavia arrack,
I had a lot of mixed feelings about my meal here. I feel like there were some good ideas, some intriguing ideas, but many of the dishes just fell short. Perhaps the kitchen simply wasn't in top form given the impending opening of Ma's restaurant inside the Eaton, which should be dropping in the coming weeks. The spot, called American Son, will be an all-day affair featuring the Chef's take on "comfort food," but informed by his immigrant background. It sounds pretty promising, and I may have to give the place a go on a future trip despite any misgivings I have about Kyirisan.
Source: http://www.kevineats.com/2018/07/kyirisan-washington-dc.html
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Rating: General Audience Relationships: Tenth Doctor (duplicate)/Rose Tyler Characters: Tenth Doctor (duplicate), Rose Tyler, Tony Tyler Additional Tags: Crack, Humor, What is this even?, Transformers - Freeform, Optimus Prime - Freeform, evil emporor zorgon, Princess Leia - Freeform, Bumblebee - Freeform, mr. potatohead, Fluff Series: Part 4 of Whoville's Follower Milestone Celebration Summary:
The Doctor and Rose babysit Tony Tyler and play with Transformers. Crack.
Written for @ofstormsandwolves, winner of the Tentoo x Rose ficlet from my Follower Milestone Celebration. Prompt was, “Tentoo and Rose babysit Tony.”
“Doctor!” Red-headed Tony Tyler jumped into the Doctor’s arms.
The Doctor swooped Tony up and onto his shoulders. “What do you want to do today?”
“Play with toys! I brought Bumblebee, Mr. Potatohead, and a Bad Guy. We can play Transformers!”
“Sounds brilliant.”
“Your dad and me, we haven’t had a date in ages," Jackie told Rose. "Going to see a film -- and one that's not animated, thank heavens, and then down to the pub for a pint and a quiz. Shouldn’t be out too late.”
“Have fun, Mum. Don’t worry about the time. Tony can spend the night even.”
Jackie handed her daughter Tony’s Transformers-themed rucksack. “He brought his whole room with him, I think. And there’s a surprise in there from his Dad. Spoils him rotten, that man.”
“And you love it.” Rose hugged her mother. “Have fun!”
oOo
“It’s Ultimate Prime! It’s Ultimate Prime!” Tony exclaimed, tearing open the package to get to his new toy.
“It’s from Dad. Make sure you thank him, Tony,” Rose said.
“I will." He grinned. "Doctor, let’s play Transformers!”
“Oh! Transformers are brilliant! Who do I get to be?”
Tony ran to get his bag of toys, and pulled out a Mr. Potato Head. “Give him a scary face. He’s an alien potato.”
“Oh! I’ll make him a Sontaran!” the Doctor squealed as he opened the flap in back and dumped out the silly pieces.
Rose laughed in the background. “Lunch will be ready in about ten minutes, boys. Cheesy noodles.”
“Oh, brilliant!” the two ‘boys’ drawled in unison.
“I am Staal!” the Doctor said in a deep voice. “Sontar ha!”
“Sontor ha!” copied Tony.
“Did I ever tell you about the time that a Sontaran named Skunk—“
“Skunk!” Tony giggled. “Was he stinky?”
“Was he stinky? He stunk worse than a Blorgallian Bog Dog, and that is very stinky. Rose got licked by one once, and she stunk for days. Bog Dogs are very affectionate.”
“Oi! I heard that! You pushed me into that bog, if I recall,” she called from the kitchen.
“To save you from that herd of Areyouesses that was coming for you!”
“Yeah, whatever.”
Tony covered his mouth and laughed. “Was that Leather You or This Hair you?”
“Leather.”
Tony leaned in close. “Rose took me to Henrik’s last week. She was looking at leather coats. She kept sniffing 'em. Isn't that strange?” Tony whispered into the Doctor’s ear.
"Not strange at all," the Doctor grinned.
“Well I think it's weird. Did you know your birthday is coming up? You’re gonna be one!” Tony giggled. “I’m older than you are! I’m older than you are!” he sang.
The Doctor winked at him. “That’s my spy — you just keep your eyes open.”
Tony picked up his new toy. “I’m Ultimate Prime, and I’m going to save the universe from the evil emperor Zorgon!”
“Zygon?” asked the Doctor.
“No, Doctor." He rolled his eyes just like his big sister. "Zygons look like a boy thing.”
Rose snorted a laugh, and the Doctor choked.
“A Zygon tried to infiltrate 10 Downing about two years ago,” Rose called from the kitchen, still laughing. “I didn’t know that Tony was peeking over my shoulder. The little spy."
The Doctor elbowed and winked at Tony.
"He saw a picture of the thing on my laptop. He laughed about it for days.”
Tony picked up a figurine with a long pointy beard and arched eyebrows. “I’m the evil emperor Zorgon! I’m here to destroy your planet!”
“What is Skunk the Sontaran supposed to do? Jump on him? Clone him?” asked the Doctor.
“Nothing. He watches. Ultimate Prime is the hero.”
The Doctor frowned.
Playtime continued for a few more minutes until Rose called them for lunch. The toys were abandoned on the floor.
oOo
“I’m an Ood,” Tony said, mouth full, spaghetti noodles hanging down his chin.
“Put those back in your mouth, little man,” Rose admonished. “What would Mum say?”
“Mum would put me in time out, but Dad would laugh and do it too. And then Mum would say, you keep doing that and you’re cut off. What does cut off mean, Rose? Mum would never cut off Dad’s arm or something, would she?”
Rose shook her head forcefully. “No! It’s like grownup time out.”
“Do you ever get grownup time out, Doctor? You’re always doing messy stuff like Ood noodles.”
The Doctor tugged on his ear, and Rose raised an eyebrow and smirked. His head snapped towards the lounge.
“What’s wrong, Doctor?” Rose asked. “I know that look.”
“Did you hear something, Rose? Tony? I heard something. Like a high-pitched zinging sound. I haven’t heard the sound… in years. Very distinctive.”
Rose and shook her head, and Tony continued to slurp noodles.
“I didn’t hear anything, Doctor,” said Rose.
“I know I heard something.”
“Maybe it was Ultimate Prime. The package says he talks and makes sounds,” Rose suggested.
“You’re probably right.”
“Hurry up and eat already, I want to play!” Tony nagged, his plate now empty.
"Tony, you go wash the cheese off of your hands and face, and then we'll play."
Tony scurried off.
“Rose, I’m serious. That robot toy? Alien tech.”
“Come on, Doctor,” she drawled. “It’s just a toy. It whirrs and walks and talks. I put the batteries in myself, and there’s a gift receipt. Mum got it at We B’ Toys.”
“Not a toy.” The Doctor crossed his arms. "Transformers do not emit a level two sub-sonic universal greeting."
"Is it dangerous?" she asked.
"No, no, no!" he grinned. "Very friendly. The friendliest of greetings! Usually precedes the offering of gifts or blessings."
“All right, then. You try and take it from Tony.” Rose crossed her arms right back at him.
oOo
“Chhhhssshhhhhh!” Tony flew the robot toy above his head. He came to a screeching halt and held Bad Guy Zorgon face to face with Ultimate Prime.
“I’m Emperor Zorgon! And you will obey me!” he hissed. “Evil Ultimate Prime, I command you to fire!” Tony held the red robot high above his head.
“Tony, we have a surprise for you. Rose is going to take you to get a treat.”
“A treat, Doctor?” Rose asked.
“Yep. Ice cream.” The Doctor leveled a look that meant business.
Rose nodded, and then swept her five year old brother into his arms. “Go on, give your toys to the Doctor. Can’t have the evil robot and the emporor Zorgon threatening innocent people at the ice creamery.”
“Awwww, do I have to?” Tony whinged.
“Yep.”
Tony handed the toys to the Doctor, a thick lower lip pooching out.
oOo
Tony held the maraschino cherry above his mouth and then grabbed it with his teeth before sticking his finger into the generous dollop of whipped cream on the top of his chocolate-caramel swirl banana split.
“…so Evil Emperor Zorgon shot Ultimate Prime with his sigma ray gun, and BAM! Ultimate Prime turned evil! He can’t even transform into a train engine anymore! Now he transforms into a big roller thing like the ones that make roads! With spikes! And laser beams that shoot out of his eyes!”
“Well that is certainly terrifying, Tony. Do you think the Doctor could save him?”
“Of course he could! The Doctor can do anything.”
“Can I have a bite of your sundae?”
“No. Get your own,” he said, caramel dripping down his chin.
“Oi! You’ve been around the Doctor too much. Rude.”
“Rose, I want to be just like him when I grow up.”
“Of course you do.” Rose smiled at him fondly.
Tony dropped the spoon on the table. The chocolate ice cream quickly melted into a sticky puddle. He sighed, “I’m done. I can’t eat anymore. Can we go home? I want to play with my new toy.”
“Told ya not to get the large.” Rose rolled her eyes.
oOo
“Hey Tony! Go into the lounge. I put Transformers on the telly! It’s the new-new series, and you get to see it two years before your mates.”
“All right! Woo hoo!” Tony ran into the lounge area of the open loft, and jumped onto the enormous beanbag that was reserved just for him.
Transformers! Robots in the Skies! he sang along as he transformed Bumblebee into her VW Beetle form. He rolled the yellow car over the bumps and valleys of the beanbag as the action began to play out on the holographic screen.
“Psst, Rose,” the Doctor motioned his head towards his lab on the far side of the enormous, formerly industrial space.
Rose crossed her arms. “You’re not gonna tell me it’s alien are you?”
“Most definitely alien. Rose Tyler. I just finished fixing his universal translator. Looks like it was damaged by some sort of a laser weapon."
"You're having me on," she guffawed, but then she saw a flickering hologram projected onto the table, but glitched.
"Hold on." The Doctor pressed his sonic against the side of the robot's armour. "Let's try this again."
"Rose Tyler, you've served the universe as Defender of the Earth. Now I beg you to help us in our struggle against the evil Emperor Zorgon. I regret that I am unable to present my request to you in person, but my ship has fallen under attack, and I'm afraid my mission to bring you to Cybertron has failed. I have placed information vital to the survival of the Transformers into the memory systems of Ultimate Prime. This is our most desperate hour. Help me, Rose Tyler. You're my only hope.
Rose stared for a moment, and then burst into hysterics.
"You heard him, he needs you, Rose, and this is his desperate hour."
"Right," she drawled. She picked up the toy, turned it over, and showed him the back. "*Press here to record your holographic message* Tony's been begging for this toy for a year. You think I didn't know it could do this? Mum's refused to buy it 'cos it cost a hundred and fifty quid. He must've worn Dad down."
"Tony, you can come out now," the Doctor called. "Rose figured it out."
"Aww," he complained. "But it was a good trick, wasn't it Rose?"
"It was a great one, Tony."
A conspiratorial grin grew on Tony's face. "Doctor, let's do another one. But this time, let's trick Mum!"
#tentoo x rose#ficandchips#kid!fic#onelifenet#tony tyler#crack#fluff#what is this even?#silliness#whoville milestone celebration
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