medi-bee · 1 year ago
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just learned that the entire Creatures series is on steam and it feels like there's an alien about to explode out of my chest
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if you don't know what these are, they were one of the first life simulators ever. You hatch and raise these various little ai beasts called Norns in their funky spaceship and teach them everything they know and keep them safe, and they have emotions and personalities and families and can breed and have mutations and get sick, and there's medicine and chemicals and so much more brainy nonsense if you care to get into it, and it all goes SO IN-DEPTH... IT'S INSANE THAT THIS SERIES WAS FIRST RELEASED IN 1998!!!
and as far as i know there's still a semi-active modding community! LIKE THEY JUST RELEASED A NEW DLC SPECIFICALLY FOR MODDERS LESS THAN A DAY AGO ARE YOU KIDDING. HUH?? i didn't even know that until 2 minutes ago sorry that is my live reaction. what. 20+ year old game just got a new dlc 12 hours ago coincidentally just when i rediscover the series. okay. im being so normal right now👍
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k0yaz · 4 months ago
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HiIII i saw your wlw post and :3 :3c can I request Arlecchino with a quiet and stoic lover,, well usually stoic, but she opens up more to Arlecchino and the kids! However she gets really shy and embarrassed when expressing positive emotions or gives gifts, which is ironic bc shes also very affectionate towards her. Ik this might sound bland but giving you lots of freedom with this /w\ gl with your beidou fic!! (Love her smmm)
sweetheart.
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Pairing(s): arlecchino x fem!reader
CW: sfw, female reader, established marriage, arlecchino is referred to as your husband, soft arle yayayay, reader is slightly insecure, mentions of judgy ass bitches, another proposal woah, mention of arlecchino’s real name, pure fluffy, omg lesbians wowowoow
A/N: MAAM ARE YOU AN ANGEL FOR SENDING ME THIS REQUEST. Also I know this req sounds like head canons but I couldn’t help myself I wanted to write a one shot
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Blissful silence enveloped the living room space in such a way that it brought you a sort of comfort, sitting on the couch beside your beloved husband with no sound harbored between you two. You always bore a hint of stoicism in your nature, especially in your mannerisms. Expressing yourself specifically had always been a struggle for you. Many people tended to believe that you just didn’t care, or that you were coldly unfeeling.
Such presumptive pointers often circled your thoughts constantly, which you clearly had a strong distaste for. However, she had never assumed. Nor had she pushed you away for your reserved nature. Arlecchino had never let you go no matter what, that was for sure.
Arlecchino glanced up at you from her cup of tea, which barely brushed against her bottom lip as her x-marked dark eyes practically pierced into you. You simply stared back, unsure of what to say to her, before looking back down at the book in your hands at the scribbled words on the pages.
The soft clank of glass gently grazing against wood was heard once Arlecchino set her teacup down on the table. Your expression didn’t falter or bother to look up as your eyes continued gliding over the pages, completely absorbed.
Your husband never fell short when it came to showing you affection either. She would always deliver you tender kisses, combined with sweet praises whispered in your ear whenever you needed it, making your heart flutter at every little action. Her patience towards you, along with the way she blatantly showed how much cares about you, ignited a sort of small flame within you. You began to attempt to show at least a bit of emotion toward her. Hints of affection.
Simply put, you felt safe around Arlecchino. Safe enough to open up to her. Safe enough to allow those pure, warm feelings to slip through the cracks of your closed off shell in front of her. You weren’t used to expressing such emotions, resulting in yourself getting all bashful and embarrassed whenever you felt that smile curve the corners of your lips.
You almost jumped upon hearing Arlecchino abruptly call your name, now stood up and halfway across the living room. Closing your book, you gently placed it on the table and looked over at her, wondering what she called you for.
“(Name).”
“Yes, Arle?” You hummed, examining how her gaze practically traced every move you made intently. Steam from her freshly filled teacup fogged the atmosphere slightly, before disappearing as she gave a light huff to the cup carefully held by the handle between her fingers. She looked back up at you with a rather fond look in her usually cold and unfeeling eyes, taking a moment to gather her thoughts.
You cleared your throat, wanting to break the palpable tension in the air. “How are the children doing?” You began, still staring at Arlecchino’s focused expression with her teacup still in hand. “Fine. They’re currently out on a mission together, but nothing too serious nor life threatening.” She replied. After what felt like forever, Arlecchino finally set her teacup down and spoke up, seemingly able to articulate her thoughts properly.
“I was thinking that…perhaps the ring I bought you was somewhat unsatisfactory. Especially for something such as important as marriage.” She insisted, clearly wanting to keep her serious expression. Yet the faint softness present in her eyes clearly told you otherwise. Her hand lowered to her hip, to slip inside her pocket and pull out a small ring box. As she extended her palm holding up the ring box slightly toward you, you felt your heart pounding out of your chest and ringing within your own ears upon seeing her crack the box open.
Your eyes scanned over the stone on the burnished silver of the ring—it was nothing you’d seen before. A gleaming ruby with fades of black around the corners, posing a striking resemblance to Arlecchino’s eyes. A soft hue of red tints your face upon seeing the ring. Your eyes widened as you suddenly felt all warm inside and grew quiet, slightly feeling bad that you couldn’t exactly show your appreciation for the gift that made you feel all loved and fuzzy inside.
Arlecchino however, knew you all too well. The silence hanging in the was nothing but your silent appreciation for her. She proceeded to remove the ring from the cushioning of the box and reached out her free hand, prompting you to place your hand in hers. Immediately understanding her subtle gesture, you placed your hand in hers in a fluid motion.
Her nails lightly brushed along your knuckles as she wrapped her fingers around your hand, her grip gentle, yet firm. She slowly reached over to pull off the old ring on your finger and placing it in the box for convenience, before sliding the newly bought ring onto your ring finger toward the end.
It fit perfectly.
A warm, genuine smile made its way across your lips, your cheeks still flushed as well. Despite your initially bashful reaction, you finally locked your eyes with hers. A tender expression present in her eyes. You allowed your eyes to bore into hers for a few moments, staring at your husband with a loving gaze.
You began to take a few hesitant steps toward her, reaching your arms up bit by bit. Not even a few moments later, you practically threw yourself into her arms while wrapping your own around her neck in an embrace filled with adoration. Arlecchino simply exhaled a soft hum as she reciprocated your embrace. Her chin rested on your shoulder contently, her eyelids lowering in a more relaxed state.
Heat crept back up to your face upon feeling her plant a quick kiss on your forehead protectively, the affection just causing your smile to stretch a bit further near your cheeks.
“(Name). My beloved wife. My sweetheart. Just know I only want the best for you, and you only.” Arlecchino murmured in a quiet voice, as if she only wanted the two of you to hear the exchange of such sweet and sentimental words. She loved every part of you. Your stoic nature being nothing short of you caring for her. The way you reserved your affection and love for her, and her only. The way you warm up to the children as well. How you got all flustered and bashful upon experiencing any positive emotions, or when you handed her gifts with a loose grip and head turned away. She loved everything.
“Peruere?”
Arlecchino immediately fixated her attention onto your lips, caressing your cheek with her palm resting along your skin, and thumb grazing your cheek lightly. Her heart fluttered upon hearing you utter her real name. The way the name she buried behind fell from your lips like a sacred word that allowed her to lower her guard around you.
“Yes?”
“I love you.”
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A/N: I told yall if I like the request I get a lil too into it and cook up something ik I went overboard but idc
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Pinky Promise
Summary: Fred and Y/N have been rivals for a while, but no matter if it was pranks, or quidditch or something else, they always had their limits to not hurt the other. In fact, for the past few months Y/N and Fred have been growing closer, and even developing feelings for each other, but everything changes when one of Fred's pranks go to far, and he needs to find a way to fix it to save their relationship.
Warnings: Swearing, Fred being kind of a dick, Reader getting angry, confrontation, some angst, kind of a lot of angst actually, ends in major fluff though, also humor because I may not not how to spell but I’m hilarious.
Word count: 2.7K
A/N: comin at cha with ANOTHER ENEMIES TO LOVERS FRED WEALSEY FIC??? Why am I so uncreative? Idk, anyways I hope you enjoy!
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You were beyond furious. You didn’t think there was a strong enough word to describe how angry you were, and you were pretty sure if you were any angrier steam would be coming out of your ears. And the reason for all this anger you may ask?
Fred Fucking Weasley
You stormed through the hallway, heading straight to the dining hall. It was late, and you barely anybody would be in there, but you knew he would be. 
You stopped in the doorway, scanning over the tables until your eyes landed on a familiar mop of red hair. Locking your eyes on your target, you stomped over, clutching your bag tightly in your right hand.
“Oh shit- what did you do this time?” You heard Lee whisper to Fred, as you got closer, but you paid him no mind, eyes locking with Fred’s, who had that same stupid smirk that he always did. It made your blood boil.
“Good evening love, how’s your night going?” Fred asked nonchalantly, as if you were friends and not life long enemies.
“I have to say, it was going quite well, until I found this” You seethed, slamming your bag onto the table in front of him. “Say, does this bag look familiar to you?”
“Nope, can’t say it does” Fred shrugged, but the glimmer in his eye said differently.
“Really? Why don’t you take a closer look” You insisted, grabbing the bag off the table, flipping open the top, and flipping it upside-down, causing an eruption of water to fall from the mouth of the bag.
The water continued for what felt like forever, pieces of paper and pens falling out with it as the contents emptied out onto the floor, soaking yours and Fred’s shoes, but neither of you made a move.
After the water had finally stopped, you threw the bag into his lap, causing him to look down at it, a thoughtful hand on his chin.
“You know, now that I’m looking more closely at it, it does look a bit familiar” He said simply, and judging by the nervous looks on George, and Lee’s face when they saw you, you for sure had steam coming out of your ears now, but you kept your composure.
“Oh, well that’s good. You see, I’m trying to solve a bit of a mystery of who could have done this. Would you have any ideas?” You asked, crossing your arms in front of you.
By now, most of the cafeteria had cleared out. They have seen you and Fred get into heated arguments before. But this was different.
This was going to be fatal.
“No clue, but I have to say whoever thought of it is a bloody genius” He complimented, giving you a grin.
“Genius you say? So you think, flooding my one bag, and ruining all my homework, as well as my ten page essay that I’ve been working on all month, that’s due tomorrow... is Genius?” You asked, the calmness in your voice adding a coldness to the room that shot straight to everyone's bones.
And judging by the now terrified face Fred wore, he was feeling the effects of your voice as well.
“Oh, I see there's been a mix up, I’m actually George-”
“You are fucking not! Don't get me caught up in this” George interrupted, standing along with Lee to flee the scene 
“So sorry about him, Y/N, he can’t be helped. Try not to go to hard on him-” Lee started, but a quick glance his way shut him up instantly “Actually on second thought, do what you see fit, see ya Fred”
With that, George and Lee practically sprinted out of the dining hall, leaving you standing over Fred, who suddenly felt very small.
“I swear, I had no idea your essay was in there, if I had known I wouldn’t have-” Fred started apologizing, but was quickly cut off when your hand slammed down on the table beside you.
“You see Fred” You said, taking a seat on the bench next to him. “I think you did know. We’re in the same class, you’ve seen me working my ass off trying to get this essay done, and you’ve even asked for my notes, which I refused because of this kind of shit you pull” 
Fred swallowed thickly, his heart beating out of his chest at your anger. He had seen you angry before, and he’s been cross with you a few times as well, but those died down fairly quickly, and most of the time there weren't to many hard feelings. And you were right, he had seen you working on that essay, both in class, and at two in the morning in the library.
“Now” You continued “We’ve had out little quarrels in the past, you prank me, I prank you, you hit me with a quaffle at quidditch, I hit one back at you, nothing too serious. But this” She paused, picking a sopping wet pile of papers off the floor, and plopping it in front of him “Is really really fucking low. Did you know, I was already failing this class?”
The question put Fred on the spot, and he felt his heart sink to his stomach. He had always known you to be extremely smart and quick minded, so to hear you weren't doing so well in that class came as a surprise.
“Yeah, I’m failing because, fun fact, I’m fucking exhausted. I’m staying up till three in the morning every night, trying to get caught up in classes. I’m writing back and forward to my family constantly because they’re going through financial problems again, Umbridge is constantly writing me up for no reason, and on top of all of that, I still need to be worried about this” 
Your voice was beginning to shake a bit, and you both knew you were about to cry, but you were determined to keep the tears in until you were done. You didn’t want to give him the satisfaction.
“So... Fred, consider this little rival, or fight, or whatever the fuck this is, over. I’m done, you win, just please, for the love of fuck, leave me alone” 
With that, you stood up and left the dining hall, quickly wiping the stay tear that snuck out on your way. All the while, Fred sat in shocked silence. He had always seen your little back and forwards as friendly competition, and had even thought they were a bit flirty at times. In fact, you two had been getting a bit closer these last few months, and had even started hanging out as friends. But now, he had royally fucked that up, and he needed to fix it.
The next day, you were exhausted. You had spent a lot of the night crying, which you hated but all the pent up emotions just came flooding out. Yes, you were absolutely pissed at Fred, but most of all, you were hurt. In the last few months, you’re arguments had died down a bit, and you found yourselves hanging out from time to time, always accidentally, but you enjoyed his company none the less.
You had even begun to like him a bit, maybe even more than a friend. He was nice, and charming, and wicked funny, and always tried to make you smile, but now, after seeing how careless, and almost mean he had been, you knew you needed to shove those feelings down. So you did. 
Your first class was potions, which of course you had with Fred. He sat behind you, and for a while, he made the class bearable, passing notes back and forward. But now you were absolutely dreading it.
Fred was sat in his usual seat, waiting for you to walk in. He had come in early, hoping to get the chance to talk to you, but when you walked in just as class began, he knew he would need to try a different approach.
Not even five minutes into the class, you felt a piece of paper land beside your elbow on your desk. You looked down, finding a folded up piece of paper, which you immediately knew was Fred's.
You could feel his eyes burning holes in the back of your head, but instead of turning around, you simply flicked the paper off your desk, returning your gaze to the chalkboard. A few minutes later, another piece of paper, this time on top of your notebook. Again, you flicked it off. 
Finally, five pieces of paper later, you smacked your quill down and picked up the newest piece of paper from your desk, unfolding it and looking it over, Fred watching you closely as you did
Can we please talk? I’m sorry
You finally turned around to meet the boys gaze, his eyes instantly lighting up at the change, but his spirits quickly fell when he saw your face, not angry, or frustrated, but sad.
You had had enough, facing the boy, you placed the paper back onto his own desk right as the professor dismissed the class, quickly slipping out of the room before Fred could follow you.
You avoided him like the plague the rest of the day. You didn’t have many other classes with him, and the ones you did share you made sure to find an empty seat far away from him, you even skipped lunch, choosing instead to read in your next class. 
You even skipped the class where your essay was due, not wanting to show up and hand over nothing, you decided to spend the rest of the day alone, and try to redo your assignment, even if you now only had a day to do it.
Fred only saw you again after class by the forbidden forest. He had found you pretty easily, you weren’t in any of your usual spots, so he knew this would be the next best spot to check. As he approached you, he found you had changed out of your uniform and were now in some joggers and a sweatshirt, sitting with your back against a rock as you scribbled in the notebook in front of you.
You chewed your lip as you tried to rewrite your essay, looking to your textbook and back every few second, before messing up on a word. Frustrated, you scribbled out the paragraph you had been working on and threw your notebook and quill to the side, resting your elbows on your knees as you held your head in your hands.
You quickly snapped out of it though when someone behind you cleared their throat, getting your attention and making you jump out of your skin. Panic surged through you, expecting a teacher, or worse, Umbridge, but the fear was soon replaced by irritation when you made eye contact with none other than the very red head you had spent all day trying to avoid.
“What do you want Fred?” You asked, turning back to face the forbidden forest, away from him. 
He didn’t answer, instead you were met with the sound of grass shuffling beneath his feet as he got closer, taking a seat before holding something out to you, causing you to look over at him.
It was your bag from yesterday, but now completely fixed and dry. It looked like brand new. 
You took the bag from him and looked it over, going over the seams and the straps before finally opening it, finding your notebooks, pens, and homework assignments all neatly tucked inside.
“How did you- When did-” you rambled trying to find the words and you shuffled through your belongings, finding them all intact and dry before finally turning to look at him “Why did you do this for me?”
Fred wasn’t expecting that question, but he still answered, looking down at the grass.
“I felt really bad after yesterday, and not just because of that stuff you... anyway, I know I went too far, and I shouldn't have done it in the first place, but I wanted to have a reason to talk to you I guess, and I did it in the worst way possible, and I wanted to make it up to you. I’m sorry”
You looked at him, before turning back to the bag, noticing there was something missing, but before you could say anything Fred continued.
“I was also able to save your essay, it took a while but it was all there. I was going to give it to you in class, but you didn’t show up so I turned it in for you and said you were sick. I got to read some of it by the way, its really good and I would be surprised if you-”
Fred was cut off by you moving your bag to the side and turning to face him, wrapping your arms around him to pull him into a hug. 
Fred was too shocked to move for a second, but quickly found himself returning the embrace, wrapping his arms around your waist and hugging you closer. You sat like that for a minute, your face buried in his neck as a thousand emotions flooded over you. Finally, you pulled away, looking him in the eye.
“I’m not saying I’m not entirely grateful” you started “But you could have just come and talked to me, why did you feel you needed to do that to talk to me?”
At this, Fred’s face began to heat up a bit and he looked back down, fiddling with the grass. He was hoping to fix your friendship and move on, maybe one day growing to be something more, but now he was faced with the choice to tell you his feelings, or lie, and he didn’t want to deny it anymore.
“We’ve always had our little competitions and stuff, ever since we were kids, and for a while we really hated each other. But then, these last few months I got to know you a lot more, and I always knew you were funny, but you’ve got a wicked sense of humor, and you’re super smart, and are always helping people, and you’re always kind to everyone you meet, and I thought I might have had a crush or something. And I didn’t really know how to interact with you in a not competition way, and I didn’t want to freak you out, but after the bag, seeing how it hurt you, it broke me. And I realized that I liked you a lot more than I thought I did”
Fred looked up at you, waiting for your reaction. Were you angry, upset, happy? Your face wasn’t giving him any signs, but then, a small smile crept to your lips, and despite how hard you tried to fight it.
You laughed.
“I’m sorry” You started, trying to fight the laughter bubbling in your chest “I’m not laughing at you, I’m not, it’s just-” Another laugh. “God were just a bunch of idiots aren't we?”
Fred was looking at you like you’d gone crazy
“What do you mean?”
“I like you too dumb ass” You confessed.
“You... oh... Oh!” Fred exclaimed, finally putting the pieces together. “Wow, I really fucked up didn’t I”
“Oh for sure” you nodded, causing Fred to let out a groan, shaking his head before looking back to you, a smile on his face.
Without thinking, you leaned forward, closing the rest of the space between you and pressing your lips to his. Fred returned the action, bringing a hand to the back of your neck to pull you in closer, deepening the kiss.
After a few seconds, you both pulled away, each with goofy smiles on your faces.
“Does this mean I’m forgiven?” Fred asked.
“Only if you promise to never do it again” you said
“Deal” Fred answered quickly, holding out his pinky to you, which you wrapped your own pinky around, shaking on the agreement.
“Wow a pinky promise, that's some hard core shit” You joked in a serious tone.
“Hey, if it means I get to spend more time with you, I’d pinky promise to anything” Fred replied, to which you gave him a feigned shocked expression.
“Anything?! Aww, you like me like me” you teased, laughing as Fred playfully pushed your shoulder.
“Shut up you like me like me too” Fred argued
“That is true” you nodded, before smiling and grabbing the front of his shirt, pulling him into another kiss, smiling as he pulled you even closer.
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A/N: Heeey, so I was hit with the biggest surge of motivation today and I literally got two weeks of homework done, deep clean my room, and wrote this, so if I go dark for a few months its probably because I’ve used my adrenaline budget for the year lol.
But seriously, I know this fic gets a bit... deep ig? Idk, I’ve been going through it recently and I wanted some angst that would actually reflect how I would react in that situation if you know what I mean? Like I see a long of angsts where the love interest does something really mean, but a simple apology solves everything and yeah. No hate if that’s your writing style, its just not my thing, and I wanted to express my emotions through here, because nobody directly fucked up an entire month of my work but it certainly feels that way sometimes.
Anyways, rant over, I hope you enjoyed! Feel free to leave any feedback or recommendations you may have.
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honeypiehotchner · 4 years ago
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intelligence & issues (Hotch x Fem!Reader) -- chapter twenty-two
I’m liking this two updates a week schedule because I hate leaving you guys hanging like that!! I hope this chapter makes it all better xx.
Oh btw the title of this chapter and last chapter are lyrics from “Hold On” by Chord Overstreet! (Also I know the gif is irrelevant but the ~emotion~ of it is relevant)
ALSO (wow I have a lot I keep forgetting to add) I meant to @ her last chapter, but all of these medical scenes and things were 100% done with the help of @thedumpsterqueen​ because I know next to nothing about all this stuff and she was an angel and let me ask all the crazy questions <333 (P.S. she has a Hotch fic called Standards of Performance on her blog that you guys should alllll read if you haven’t already!! It’s SO good it’s one of my favorites)
Warnings: angst and sadness, but that’s pretty much it
Previous chapter || Fic Masterlist
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Chapter Twenty-Two: I can’t imagine a world with you gone
Everything is a blur in Hotch’s mind before and after the first gunshot rings through the air. He didn’t need to hear the buzzing in his ear to know it had hit you.
He took off at a sprint, as did the rest of the team.
His ears are ringing. His thoughts are racing. He’s never been a man who talks frequently to God, but he’s praying. Hoping you’re alive. Begging you to not be dead.
Aaron would never forgive himself if you died. As it stands, though, he won’t ever forgive himself for this.
Prentiss, Reid, and Rossi take off in one direction. Hotch and Morgan take the other. Police officers fill the gaps and follow behind, everyone searching for you and Savannah.
Morgan is the first to stumble on the room. His throat aches when he screams for Hotch, keeping his weapon aimed at Savannah.
“Put the gun down!” Morgan yells.
Hotch comes skidding to a stop in the doorway a second later, weapon raised, but his eyes are focused on you. Savannah’s boot is pressing into your thigh, blood oozing from your wound, soaking your pants, spilling onto the concrete. Hotch’s heart drops at the sight. He’s seen enough bullet wounds to know how much blood should come from them. That is too much.
The bullet must’ve hit the major artery. And the thought terrifies him.
Morgan takes the shot when Savannah refuses to move. It hits her stomach and she stumbles for a moment before falling. Morgan yells for the paramedics again, distantly thinking they should be in here by now.
Hotch falls to the ground beside you, his hands cupping your face, not caring who sees. His thumbs tap your cheeks, willing you to open your eyes. You have a pulse, but it’s weak. Weaker than what it should be.
He presses hard over your wound, hoping to slow the bleeding, but there’s more surrounding your leg than he wants to see.
“Y/N?” He says, his eyes watching your eyelids for any movement. He lets out a momentary sigh of relief when your eyes open. “Y/N, please, can you hear me?”
You stare back at him, no signs of his words registering in your eyes. They’re empty. Haunted, again, but for a different reason this time. This time it’s different. “Aaron…”
“I’m here,” Hotch says gently, pressing his hand harder, his heart breaking when you groan in pain. “I know,” he says, shushing you.
Your eyes travel around the room then, and Aaron follows. Morgan is pressing his hand over Savannah’s wound, speaking into his wrist, asking the others where the hell the paramedics are at.
But Aaron doesn’t want you to see that, so he cups your jaw again, turning your eyes back on him. He smiles as best he can, the tears beginning to spill from his eyes as he takes in your face.
“There’s my girl,” he says softly. “Keep holding on. They’re almost here.”
“Aaron,” you try to say, your voice low and strained, and Aaron shakes his head, trying to get you to stop talking. “Aaron...I don’t wanna go without-- I need to tell you that I--”
“Shhh,” he tries again, not wanting you to waste any energy. “You don’t need to.”
“I love you,” you finally get it out. And he’s stunned to complete silence and tears. “I love you so...so much. It hurts.”
“Y/N,” he says, panicked. Your eyes are closing. “Y/N! Come back, Y/N, come back to me. Y/N. Y/N, please.”
Hotch is too caught up in holding your face and keeping pressure on your wound to notice the paramedics have arrived. One team goes to Savannah, relieving Morgan, while the other comes to you, trying to usher Hotch away, but he doesn’t budge.  
“Hotch,” Morgan tugs on the unit chief, grabbing at his arms, his heart breaking for the both of you. “Hotch, you need to let them get to her.”
Reluctantly, Hotch backs up, clenching his bloodied fist, grimacing at the way your blood sticks his skin together.
Everything else is a blur.
What does it need to be clear for, anyway? If you’re not here?
+++
You’re still in surgery.
It’s been an hour. But it feels longer. It feels like it’s been an entire twenty-four hours.
The entire team has taken up camp in a waiting room at the hospital.
Reid is reading and rereading every magazine he can get his hands on to distract himself, never mind the fact that he reads them so fast that he rips a page on one from turning it so quickly. Morgan has Garcia on the phone and has left to get coffee at least three times, the first time returning with a tray of steaming cups and the next two times returning with only one, but two tearful eyes. Emily has been pacing and will wear a hole into the tile at this rate if she walks for another hour. JJ has been staring at the wall, chewing so hard on the inside of her cheek that she flinches when she draws blood.
Rossi has been staring at the wall, too, but mostly he’s been worrying about and watching Hotch.
Aaron has been biting his nails, tugging at his hair, angrily wiping away tears, and left once to go on a walk before returning two minutes later, asking if they had heard anything. Those two minutes had felt like two hours and he was worried sick for all 120 seconds that he missed something.
Dave hasn’t tried to say anything to Aaron, though he wants to. It’s heartbreaking to watch Aaron like this.
You’re going to pull through. Dave — and the rest of the team — can’t afford to think otherwise. And they refuse to think otherwise, unable to imagine what it would be like if you weren’t here.
But it seems like Aaron is thinking otherwise.
Truthfully, he is. But he’s thinking about so much more.
You love him. You love him. You love him.
And he was too stunned to say it back. The one chance he had, and it might be gone now. Ripped away. Forever.
He sent you in there. He did this to you. He had his reservations, but the call had already been made. You seemed so sure. You wanted to do this so badly. He didn’t want another fight about him not trusting you because it’s not about his trust for you, it’s about how terrified he was for you.
He’ll never forgive himself for this now. Not ever.
It’s a world he can’t even bear to imagine. One without you in it.
Yet here he is, grappling with the fact that he might not have to imagine it soon. He sent you in there. He knowingly put your life in danger. And now he’ll have to live with the consequences.
+++
Aaron is shaken from his trance by the doctor and a nurse coming in to inform the team that you’re out of surgery and that it went well.
But you’re in the ICU.
“She lost a great deal of blood,” the doctor says gravely. “But we think she’ll pull through. She just needs to be watched closely for the time being.”
Everyone nods silently, not sure of what else to say, other than feeling relief that you’re alive.
“Visiting hours are long over, so I recommend you all get some rest,” the nurse says. “She’s in good hands here.”
“Thank you,” Rossi replies.
The doctor excused himself, but the nurse stayed, offering to answer any extra questions. “Visiting hours start at seven a.m.,” she says first. “And in the ICU, only two visitors are allowed in her room at a time.” She doesn’t voice an apology, but one is in her tone as she glances between the six team members.
“Can I stay?” Hotch blurts out of nowhere. The team member’s heads all turn to look at him in surprise. “Can anyone stay the night, I mean.”
“Uh, yeah,” the nurse nods. “One person can.” Her eyebrows furrow sincerely. “Are you her dad?”
Morgan internalizes a snort.
“No,” Hotch replies kindly. “I’m not, but I’d like to stay. I’m her boss.”
Still the nurse looks skeptical. “Would she be okay with—”
“She’s his girlfriend,” Emily blurts out, tired of waiting. And when Hotch sends her a look, she says, “What? It would’ve taken you hours to say it.”
“Oh,” the nurse chuckles, embarrassed. “I’m so sorry. Yes, of course you can stay.”
Hotch lets a tiny smile shine through, but it’s not much. Truth is, he’s terrified to see you. But leaving you here alone – even if this is a hospital – terrifies him more.
The rest of the team says goodbye to head back to the hotel for some much-needed rest, if they can sleep at all. They know they’ll wake every couple hours to worry about you before sleep consumes them once more.
In the meantime, Hotch will be here to look after you for all of them. You’re like a little sister to the rest of them, even though Morgan is the only one to have voiced that. You’re loved here. Loved more than you’ll ever be able to comprehend.
You’re loved by Aaron much more than he’ll ever be able to articulate to you. But he’ll try. He’ll try to help you see.
+++
Hotch is finally walking to your room in the ICU after another half hour of waiting. The nurse said they had to get everything settled in your room before he could come back, which only made Hotch’s worry spike even more.
But eventually, he’s in your room with you. A pillow and blanket is in the chair by the window, but he’s not paying attention to it.
You. You’re asleep, of course, and probably will be for a few more hours. The nurse said you had already woken up once, but because of the pain medicine and the overall stress your body has been under in the past few hours, you fell back to sleep almost instantly.
Tears well in his eyes at the sight of you, laid up in the hospital bed, IVs and wires all over you. The beeping of the heart monitor is the only real sign to him that you’re even alive. Your chest is rising and falling, but it’s barely visible underneath the gown and blankets and wires.
You have one regular IV placed on the top of your left hand. Some other line is in your upper arm, and another in your wrist. He has no idea what they’re all for, he just knows he hates seeing you connected to so much.
Aaron wipes at his eyes angrily. Does he have a right to be this upset when he’s the one who sent you in there?
He turns and sets the pillow and blankets in the other chair, knowing he won’t sleep tonight even if he wanted to. Instead, he pulls the chair closer to your bed, where he can place his hand next to yours.
And, if you happen to wake up, you can reach for him if you need to.
+++
Three hours pass and you still haven’t woken up. Aaron knows. He’s been watching you the entire time.
The nurses have come to check on you a few times, assuring Aaron that it’s normal for you to be sleeping like this. But he just nods silently.
He wants you to wake up. Just for a minute. He needs you to just open your eyes and look at him, just once. That’s all he needs.
But it’s wishful thinking as the sky begins to lighten, showing the first signs of dawn.
Aaron links his pinky with yours, afraid to do much else and risk messing up your IV. Holding pinky fingers is enough right now. Or at least, it’ll have to be.
“I’m sorry,” he says out loud, to you, or really to no one at all, because he’s not even sure you can hear him. “I’m just so...sorry, Y/N.”
Stupid tears gather in his eyes again, clogging his throat, stopping his words.
But he keeps going.
“It’s my fault,” he says. “And I know you’ll try to convince me that it’s not, but Y/N, it is and I’m so sorry. I can’t believe I let this happen to you.”
He leans his head into the palm of his free hand, tightening his pinky finger’s grip on yours.
“I love you,” he blurts it out, tears warming his palm as they cascade down his cheeks. “I love you and I need you to wake up because I need you to hear it. I love you. I don’t think there’s ever been a day that I’ve known you that I haven’t loved you.”
He sniffles, loud and body-rattling, glad he’s alone in this room with you because he’d never let anyone else see him like this. No one but you.
“I tried to get it out before, but you were already gone, and I— You need to wake up. I need you to wake up. Please.”
Aaron keeps his eyes closed and head down for a few minutes longer. He doesn’t even see that you’ve opened your eyes.
Until your pinky finger gently squeezes his.
He lifts his head quickly, eyes wide and wild when he sees you’re looking back at him, eyes glassy with tears and exhaustion.
And just like that, just seeing your eyes open and looking right at him, the dam breaks once more. He’s a mess of tears when he leans his head down onto the bed. You lift your hand and thread your fingers through his hair, closing your eyes as more tears slip down your cheeks.
You scratch a soothing pattern on the base of his skull, moving your other hand over your body to hold onto his arm. He senses the movement and lifts his head, grabbing your hand and pressing it to his lips.
He’s not sure how long he stays there, all he knows is his back aches when he straightens up again, and you’ve fallen back asleep.
Next chapter
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mochiimiiki · 4 years ago
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| Act one: Possibility |
[Xiao x F!reader]
[Pyro vision reader]
Summary: Feelings are something of a concept, humans determine their meaning and everyone else simply accepts. But what if he has no concept of emotions and you’re in denial? What becomes of it then?
Warnings: spoilers for xiao’s story, angst, violence, blood, slow burn
A/N: first time writing a proper fic sooo be nice! also italics are being used for past events!!
Masterlist
- - - - - -
Your encounter was an accident. A mistake, a flaw in the matrix. However, It was a memory you held onto even after all of those years. Staring across Dihua Marsh, your mind couldn’t help but wonder, wonder all the way back to the vigilant yaksha. Whom refused to converse his name. His real name.
It was in the depths of night where the demons lurked, and as an adventurer you often encountered such mutated creatures. It was not your duty to defend the land nor protect the innocent from the midnight stalkers. Yet, you felt obligated to. Perhaps it was a form of misconception or the chivalry in which your father had brought you up with. Nevertheless, you found yourself stalking a possessed abyss mage. In hopes of vanquishing it before the mutant could perform damage upon any civillians.
The moon guided you, luring you to where the beast crept. Through squinted eyes, you could just about see a sleeping village a few hundred metres from where you stood. Determination pumped through your veins, urging you onwards with a singular goal; vanquish your opponent.
In the brief moments that you were distracted the target had vanished. Frantically, you begun searching. ‘Where’d it go...?’ You breathed to yourself. Fear creeping along your spine and infecting your mind.
Suddenly, a cryo shot sent you flying back into a rock. Your back hit it with a thud and the wind was knocked from you. Dazed it took you a moment to adjust your senses. As your vision became focused you quickly rolled out of the way as another cryo shot narrowly missed you. Reaching for your bow you aimed at the abyss mage.
You scoffed. A cryo abyss mage? The fight would be over in no time. Your bow charged quickly and you launched your attack. You jumped with glee, You’d hit the shield directly in a patch you’d grown accustomed to know as a weak spot. However, as the steam cleared from the melt combination you realised you’d done little to no damage. The unsettling anxiety seeped it’s way into your heart once more. “I-Impossible!” You declared, to no one in particular. “I hit you!” The abyss mage let out a low chuckle. It’s sonar voice vibrating off of the trees and rocks that littered your midnight hunt. However, you realised something was off with this mage. Not only was it’s voice an octave lower but a strange black mist eminated from its being. Was it possible this was the kind of creature your father had warned you about...?
Before you got a chance to react the abyss mage launched you backwards once more. This time you landed in the soggy pits of the marsh. You blindly fumbled with your bow attempting to ignite it with your pyro element. However, the dampness of both yourself and the weapon caused evaporate. You silently cursed. No, no, no! This couldn’t be happening not now, not when you were so close. Repeatedly you tried again. Only looking up as you heard the familiar chuckle of your enemy.
Squeezing your eyes shut you begged Rex Lapis to not let your life end so soon. You had so much to learn! So many places to be and you still had to find the truth of...
You thoughts came to an abrupt end.
Suddenly, a gush of wind sped past your face, in turn your eyes shot open. It was just in time too, as you witnessed your saviour.
In the moonlight his hair appeared dark grey and his clothings multiple shades of silver however, black and turquoise mist eminated off of his being. Your eyes widened in shock as one blast of his power shattered the cryo abyss mage’s shield. “EVIL CONQUERING!” He cried throwing it back into the same rock it had once thrown you into.
Pulling enough energy from your damaged body you limped over to your saviour. “You saved me!” Exclaiming in delight. “How did you... no I should be thanking you! Thank-” Yet, before you could continue your praise a final blast of cryo hit you from the dying mage. Falling to the ground you felt your senses dim. Blurry vision caught sight of your masked hero finishing off the job only to finally pass out. A deep, charcoal black enveloping you in an everlasting grip.
- - -
Upon awakening you had found yourself placed in a bed in a familiar building. One you had only viewed on the outside: Wangshu Inn. Clambering out of the comfort of the bed you stumbled to the doorway.
A violet sky was clear from the room in which you occupied. Dim stars twinkled as a rouge sun dawned. You stumbled over to the balcony, confusion clouding your thoughts and erroding the pain.
You collapsed onto the railing of the balcony, thanking the red painted wood for the sturdiness it granted. You glanced out across Dihua Marsh. It’s landscape accentuated by the red light from the dawning sun, her face glowing brightly and guiding adventurers and monsters alike into the unknown.
“What are you doing?” A low voice growled behind you. Instantly you jumped from the disturbance to the peace, immediately after regretting it as a sharp pain jolted through your side. Glancing down your eyes settled upon a bandage wrapped around your waist. You realised the only material shielding you against the harshness of the cool autumn morn was the bandages that started at your chest and ending at your waist. Instantaneously a flush crept over your face and along your neck. “Y-You did this? Pervert!” You shouted, a finger pointing accusingly.
For a moment the boy appeared taken aback before scoffing. “First of all.” He growled taking a menacing step towards you. “I didn’t do that.” He glanced down, taking another step. “Second I saved your life, so even if I had you should have been grateful.” Another step. “And last of all, it was the Inn keeper who helped you. You can thank her later.” He was inches away from you, his brows furrowed in irritation and it was clear your comment had irked him.
You swallowed thickly and uncomfortably. You pushed against his chest, attempting to create distance between himself and you. However, he remained rooted in place. Whether, or not he intended to intimidate you or was simply setting straight facts you were unsure of.
Eventually, he acknowledged your efforts and with a grunt stepped backwards. You tried to steady your thoughts, and clear your mind. Up until now you’d been thinking irrationally and it had ended with you in a critical state.
You opened your mouth to speak once more when with a dismissal of his hand the man spoke first, “Unfortunately, there are other matters that require my assistance. If you’ll excuse me.” Though he seemingly asked for his departure you knew that it was more of a statement than a request. “W-wait!” you cried suddenly, grasping his wrist as he leaped onto the railing of the Wangshu inn.
The man stared puzzlingly at your hand, almost in a way that suggested he’d never been touched by a mortal before. “I didn’t ask your name.”
“I go by many names.” The figure retorted bluntly, an action that caused your hand to retract and your face to drop. With a sigh he spoke once more, his tone etched with a little less aggression. “However, you may call me vigilant Yaksha Xiao. Or for short Xiao. Should you ever need my help, or cannot face killing a monster call my name. I will aid you.”
With that he vanished before your eyes. Taking on the form of shadows and fleeing into the Abyss.
- - -
Staring across the Marsh now it appeared so different. Not only had it been two years since your return to Liyue but it was also daytime upon your arrival, a splintering summer sun sparkled brightly amongst the leaping clouds. It suddenly occurred to you amongst your reminiscing that you had never gazed upon the marsh in the daylight. To bestow it the title of breath taking was an understatement, to simply put it, it was exquisite. How the summer rays of light bounced across the murky waters of the marsh and that they illuminated the once gloomy surroundings. It was a sight to behold, it was beyond enchanting as it bewitched its onlookers and lured them to an untimely death.
“Ma’am?” A voice called for you, intruding your thoughts. She gave you a gentle smile, one you knew was plastered on to appease customers. “Your room is ready madam.” She spoke so softly that had you been immersed in a conversation with another you may not have heard her. You exchanged a polite nod as she led you up the stairs of the Wangshu Inn.
Despite your absence from Liyue for two years the Inn had not particularly changed. It was still lined in the same ruby red railings albeit faded to a salmon blush. And it had the same wooden floors, that creaked and squeaked ever so slightly under foot.
“Here is your room, I hope you enjoy your stay.” Quietly excused the girl as she departed. Leaving you standing alone in the doorway to a room too large to fit a single person.
Hauling in your luggage you flopped down onto the bed. The scent of Fresh linen tickled your nostrils, a particularly summery smell.
As the night progressed you had departed from your room and explored a little more of the grounds belonging to the Wangshu Inn. Fully satisfied with your miniature expedition you retired to the cafe and settled in for a long night.
- - -
The evening wore on tranquility reflected in the expressionless faces of the Inn stayers and keepers alike. As the café grew quieter you had taken it upon yourself to mark out your journey on your map. Small red exes marked the spots of your previous journeys, and although you wanted to pursue the land of the unmarked you had unfinished business to complete in Liyue harbour. Tapping your pencil on the page as you pondered your next move a shout caught your attention. Your quiet night had come to an abrupt end when a face you believed you’d never set your eyes on again appeared before you.
It was the dead of night. The only two souls that remained in the lobby of the Inn were you and the owner’s wife. When suddenly, a third party joined.
In stumbled an extremely battered and bruised man. His hair was knotted in scruffs and a deep gash seeped into the skin in his chest. With a startled cry the woman behind the reception desk ran to his side.
You stared in horror into the cat like eyes of this man. A flash of a familiarity flickered in them, in a brief possibility that he recognised you a bubbling emotion of hope fluttered in your stomach. However, the feeling was all but short lived as his eyes fluttered closed and he collapsed, toppling to the floor. Completely unconscious.
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honeyxmonkey · 3 years ago
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Whumptober Day 5: I've Got In My Red Ledger
Douxie gently cupped Nari’s frozen cheek, feeling the stinging burn of the ice practically eating away to his bone… but he couldn’t find it in himself to care. He stared at Nari’s face which was permanently fixed in an agonized scream.
Douxie found that despite the horror that was right in front of him, he almost couldn’t believe it.
“No… Nari…” he choked out before a broken sob clawed its way out of his throat and he flung his arms around her tiny frozen form and let out a wail of grief and horror. He couldn’t protect her.
His friends found him clinging to her frozen form as it was crumbling and cracking right in his grip. They could see the frost crawling up his fingers and arms, spreading across his whole body, slowly freezing him right along with the little goddess. Even with Skrael dead, his magical ice was deadly and consuming.
Jim and Toby had to yank Douxie away from Nari before the ice could eat him whole. He fought them, screaming and thrashing in their grips the entire time, ice cold to the touch.
Aarrrgghh eventually had to grab him tight, holding the distraught wizard to his chest to keep him still. Douxie’s struggling began to cease and soon he was just sobbing against the troll’s stone chest.
He not only lost his sister, but also his familiar.
He didn’t stop crying but it dwindled down into shallow and quiet sobs and Aarrrgghh didn’t let him go.
The others stood around awkwardly while Douxie had a full on mental breakdown, not knowing what to say or do.
_______________________________
After too many minutes to count, Douxie had spent his tears, sinking to his knees, wrapping his arms around himself as he stared off into space. Aarrrgghh had a permanent hand on the wizard’s head to give him something in his grief. Just a reassurance to try and let him know that he wasn’t alone.
_______________________________
“Great gronka morka!” Blinky gasped, eyes wide with horror as he stared down at the newly revealed page. “The titans don’t need to unite with eachother, they need to unite with a Heartstone! That actually makes horrible sense!”
All eyes turned to Douxie, waiting for some sort of outburst again but he just looked up at Blinky, eyes red rimmed from tears, still crying silently. “So she died for nothing?” He asked, voice broken and quiet.
And that was it. No magical reaction to his emotions. He was too mentally and emotionally drained to spare an ounce of a magical outburst and that in of itself was terrifying for his friends because it was like this was his breaking point. He didn’t even seem to have the same urgency as they did about the situation. He was just… there, eyes distant and cloudy. He didn’t care anymore because everyone he loved and cared for more than anything in the entire world was gone. And what kind of world would it be without them?
He lost his best friend and his little sister all in the same day and he couldn’t handle it. He doesn’t care. He doesn’t care that the world is ending because Archie and Nari are gone.
This was it for him. He’d lost everything.
The crushing weight of the reality that he couldn’t protect any of them is breaking him. The team realized that if they were going to finish this, Douxie wouldn’t be able to help.
"Aarrrgghh, you take him back to Barbara. We can't fight until we know he's safe." Jim instructed softly, glancing at his distraught friend with sorrow. "When this ends we can help him. But only once it ends."
_______________________________
They needed him for the ninth configuration.
"How do we know he'll come?" Toby asked desperately as Claire opened a shadow portal.
"We have to trust that he will." Claire said before jumping through.
She entered the castle to see that Barbara had been semi-successful in calming Douxie down. He wasn't crying anymore but he looked so… empty. Claire wasn't sure which she preferred.
The shadowmancer cleared her throat, catching their attention. "Douxie," she said softly. "We need you."
Claire half-expected him to say no, but to her surprise Douxie silently got up from his chair and nodded grimly, a sort of set determination coming to his eyes. He may not have been the most cheery but atleast he was going to help. She wasn't sure if they could do it without him.
Little did she know what Douxie planned to do.
_______________________________
Douxie spit blood onto the steaming rock, seeing Bellroc flinging his friends off the titan out of the corner of his eye. Jim was the only one left standing, holding Excalibur out at the demigod with rage, standing over Douxie protectively. Jim knew he was hurt… knew he couldn't fight anymore.
"The last remaining pieces of Merlin's legacy die together." Bellroc cackled. "How fitting."
Jim snarled at them. "Try it you little bastard."
Bellroc tilted their head to the side with an amused smile before flicking their wrist, sending the injured wizard flying towards the edge of the titan.
Jim shouted his name, running forward to catch him but he was just too late. Douxie fell a long way towards the ground, no one to catch him.
_______________________________
Despite his injuries, he managed to catch himself on an anti-gravity spell, crashing onto the hood of a car with enough force to dent it. Douxie felt his back flare with pain but he ignored it as he hauled himself up, seeing a flash of blue ignite from inside the titan.
The amulet.
Douxie staggered towards the rest of his friends, all of them watching the battle from the ground. A tugging feeling in his gut told him that Jim needed help and he wasn't about to let another one of his friends die. Not when he could instead.
Taking a deep breath, Douxie limped forward, scrolling through the runes on his vambrace. Coughing up a little more blood, he started to draw the sigil in the air, murmuring the words under his breath.
He held a hand out towards the magic nullifier, drawing on its energy, letting it flow into him. With another hand outstretched towards the titan, he twisted his hands, the glowing runes in front of him moving in sync like a giant clock.
He heard Blinky gasp behind him, and he should have guessed the old troll would have known what he was doing.
"Ultima Frecanta!" Douxie shouted before Blinky could even attempt to stop him.
An explosion welled within him, magic beyond his control pushing and clawing and tearing its way out. Douxie forced it to flood down his arms and towards his hands where it pooled out and shot towards the titan, engulfing the entire thing with a ragingly hot dome of magic that crashed and tore its way through the creature and through Bellroc, fighting and distracting the demigod to hopefully give Jim a chance at victory.
Douxie couldn't help the agonized scream that burst from his throat as the magic he was using tore him apart from the inside out. He felt every inch of him being consumed by it and it was excruciating. Magic too strong for him to handle pulsed and webbed its way through his veins, his heart, his lungs. His very bones began to crack and shatter like glass as the magic crashed over him like a wave.
Finally, when his body had nothing left to give, Douxie fell to the ground, twitching with convulsions from the power he'd just exuded. He couldn't breathe, his lungs feeling like pure fire. What was left of his magic pulsed beneath his veins, trying to repair his broken body but there was no coming back from this.
That was good… that was okay. He'd be with them soon. He'd see them again. That's what he wanted.
"Douxie!" Claire shouted with despair, running towards her teacher, dropping to her knees beside him. She shakily brought him into her arms, not caring about how scorchingly hot to the touch he was.
She could hear Jim making his way down from the titan, not knowing what had just happened. What was happening.
"You absolute idiot!" She seethed, sobs wracking her body. "What did you do that for?"
Douxie was gasping and choking for breath but he smiled all the same, looking like he was happy with the outcome. Oh for the love of God he was, wasn't he?
"Its okay Claire." He gasped, irises and pupils still glowing blue, even the blood vessels on the whites of his eyes were glowing blue. Every vein in his body was glowing blue, every part of him was taking on an aftermath shock of the magic overuse. His hair had turned white much like hers but every strand was devoid of the color it'd once had. He lay limp in her arms, blood… god even his blood was blue, bright and glowing like everything else that was left of him… dribbled from his mouth. "I can see them again."
"No, don't say that please." Claire begged, sobbing. "We can fix this. We can fix you Douxie. You'll be okay! You'll-"
"No." Douxie rasped. "Please let me go… I want to go…" He glanced over at Jim who was watching with absolute horror and guilt. He saw Jim's gaze turn to the chronosphere, which was laying forgotten on the cracked asphalt. "Don't you dare." He croaked out. "I need to see them again… don't bring me back… please."
Jim wanted to ignore him. He wanted to grab the damn thing and reverse time, stop all this from happening but he didn't. He just nodded at his friend grimly, joining Claire at his side instead. "Why?" He asked, voice cracking with tears.
"There's nothing left for me to do…" Douxie explained, glow beginning to fade and they all knew it was because he was dying. "You need to carry on, Jim. Lead them… keep protecting the earth. Promise?"
"I promise." Jim said with tears beginning to stream down his face. It was a promise he couldn't keep.
"Good…" Douxie said and slowly took in another breath, and when he exhaled it… he didn't breathe again.
_______________________________
Jim glanced over at Douxie as he sipped his coffee. He knew the wizard probably thought he was being weird, having been watching him for a few weeks now but Jim hardly cared. Watching his friend die had been too much and he knew the world wouldn't be able to get on without him.
Yes, he'd done the one thing Douxie had asked him not to but Jim didn't care. His friend was alive again and that was all that mattered.
The Trollhunter jumped when Douxie stopped in front of his table and angrily slammed something down in front of him. He stalked off without another word and Jim looked down at the paper to see two words that had been scrawled down angrily.
Alley. Now.
Jim sighed and stood up, precariously following where Douxie had gone. He wasn't surprised to find the wizard waiting for him with crossed arms and a rage in his eyes that would make any sane man run in terror. Jim, however, wasn't sane.
"How dare you?" Douxie hissed, hands forming into fists at his sides. "The one thing I specifically asked you not to do!"
"Douxie I-"
"You meddled with time again." Douxie growled. "You not only reset the timeline but you also erased the victory we all clawed out of hell to achieve!"
"You died!" Jim tried to defend himself but Douxie roughly shoved him against one of the brick walls, eyes flashing blue dangerously.
"I WANTED TO!" Douxie yelled, an arm pressed to Jim's throat. "Don't you get it!? I wanted to die! I lost everything! I just wanted to see them again! I wanted to finally rest!"
"And you expected us all to just move on!?" Jim demanded, shoving Douxie away.
"Yes!" Douxie looked like he could punch him. "That's exactly what I expected!"
"Well it's not what you're getting." Jim growled, standing his ground. "You can't ask me to stand by and let you get yourself killed. Because I don't know about you, but you're pretty fucking important to the rest of us." He stuck a finger in the wizard's face. "I dare you to do it again, Douxie. You can sacrifice yourself in battle all you want, Hisirdoux Casperan. Because I'll reset the timeline as many times as I need to to make sure all of my friends make it through alive."
Douxie sharply grabbed his wrist, shoving his hand away from his face. "You're messing with powers you don't understand, Jim."
"Maybe so," Jim agreed. "But I'd rather die a hundred deaths than watch you do this to yourself. The Trollhunter answers every call and you may not realize it, but you're calling pretty loudly."
Douxie glared at him, taking a step back. "This could turn into something even worse than the Arcane Order. Are you prepared to be responsible for that?"
Jim grit his teeth. "Absolutely I am. I'm not going to watch you die again."
"You can't save everyone."
"I can try."
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writer-k-pop · 4 years ago
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Train Rides
낮잠은 어땠어? How was your nap?
Description: What is hoped to be a quiet train ride down to your grandparents’ is interrupted by a loud business trip with an intriguing conversation with a business man who’s apart of the group that’s creating chaos in the train car. Warnings: Swearing Genre: Fluff, Non-idol!Minghao x Fem!Reader ft. Non-idol!Seventeen Word Count: 3k
Seventeen Masterlist | Masterlists
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My duffle bag bounced against my hip as I did a weird jog shuffle down the train platform in search of the train car where my seat was. Almost missing my train was what I got for spending a few extra minutes in the shower. My aunt would've killed me if I missed this train because I was bringing the most important stuff for my grandparents' anniversary.
"Finally." I exhaled as I finally found my assigned train car: number 8.
Pulling myself into the train car, I focused on calming my rapidly beating heart. I opened the door separating the seats from the space between train cars and my ears were immediately bombarded with lively chatter.
I looked up to find a large cluster of seats were taken up by a group of males. They were the ones creating the chatter. And it didn't help that they were all clustered around the middle of the train.
Internally, I groaned because I honestly hoped to get some more sleep on this train ride before I had to deal with my very loud, very obnoxious family. But that plan jumped out the window. But then, my heart dropped even further.
My seat was somehow in the smack dab middle of their cluster.
I cursed my need for a little extra leg room and a window seat as I trudged down the aisle with my duffle bag gripped in my hands. The conversations didn't quiet down as I approached, nor did they stop when I reached the middle of the train car where the backwards facing seats met the forward facing cars with a table in the center.
Sitting across from my seat were two males, one with blonde hair and the other with black hair. Both had rounder faces but they were in no way pudgy. In the seat right next to mine was another black haired male but he had a slimmer face and honestly, a slimmer physique in general. He had sharp facial features, a pair of round glasses sat on his nose and his entire focus was on the notebook supported by one hand while the other flew across the page with a pencil in its grasp.
The two from across noticed me stop and stared for a couple seconds as I struggled to get my ridiculously heavy duffle bag up into the overhead storage.
"Here. Let me help you with that." A light voice offered from behind me and a pair of hands helped me push the duffle into place.
"Thank you." I turned around to properly thank him and I was met with an almost angelic face that matched the voice almost perfectly. He had red hair and angled features but he somehow made it all work well together.
They were all seriously good looking and I was suddenly very thankful I spent those few extra minutes in the shower.
"No problem." The red head smiled and my involuntarily fluttered, "Do you have the seat next to Minghao?" He asked, nodding towards the male who was still engrossed in his little notebook.
"I guess." I told him with a small smile and then I heard the faint ringing throughout the platform telling everyone we were about to depart.
As the train car doors closed shut, one of the males across from my seat must've kicked the male sitting next to me because his eyes shot up with a glare that would've made even the toughest guys back down. But after a quick nod in my direction, the one in the seat next to mine directed his attention to me and I swore I saw his eyes widen ever so slightly. As quickly as he shot his head up, he scrambled out of his seat to let me into my seat.
"Thank you." I said quietly as slid into my seat just as the train began to move.
"No problem." The male next to me said and slid back into his seat. I could feel his gaze on me for a few more seconds before he reburied his head into his notebook.
I pulled out my book and headphones from my backpack before setting it down next to my legs. The conversations around me began to pick up again and I decided I could try to ignore them with some music.
But... just as the train left the station behind...
"So where are you headed?" The blonde male directly across from me asked just as I plugged in my headphones.
I blinked, for some reason unsure why he would be talking to me. "Uh, I'm headed down to Jinju." I answer him slowly.
"Oh, no way." The blonde smiled widely, "We are too."
"Oh, that's cool." I commented, unsure of how to actually respond.
"Yeah, we have a few important business things to do there." He explained though I didn't exactly ask for one. The slight awkwardness that creeped into the atmosphere almost made me want to laugh.
"Important." The black haired male next to the blonde repeated with air quotes and a large eye roll.
"Ignore him." The blonde informed me while pushing the black haired one in the shoulder. "I'm Seungkwan, by the way."
"(y/n)." I introduced me since it was the only thing I could do.
"Soonyoung." The black haired one raised a hand, all traces of his annoyance from earlier completely gone.
"Hi." I smiled, playing with an earbud wondering if they were going to talk to me the entire trip.
"So, are you just visiting Jinju?" Seungkwan continued his round of questions.
"Yeah," I answered, realizing that they were indeed probably going to talk to me the entire way there, "My grandparents live there and I'm visiting them."
"Oh, that's so sweet." Seungkwan cooed.
"I wish I was visiting my grandparents." Soonyoung grumbled, his annoyance returning.
"Soonyoung, I swear to god, if I hear another grievance from you, I'm going to make you participate in the panel next week." Another black haired male from across the aisle narrowed his eyes at Soonyoung.
"Oh god, not the financial panel." Soonyoung's face dropped so fast that I barely had time to hold back a laugh.
Seungkwan caught me and leaned in closer, "Don't worry, we all think he's nuts."
"Not as nuts as Jun." A voice piped up from behind me. The male looked by far the youngest and he was pointing diagonally across the aisle at a bucket hat wearing male with sharp catlike features.
As the others started to banter about who was more nuts, I glanced over at the notebook of my glasses wearing seat mate. On the page was a crude drawing of a character of some sorts and I couldn't help but be captivated by it. It wasn't anything super fantastical or extraordinary but every part held a story and I wanted to decipher all the parts. The way the body was positioned gave the impression of a welcoming and comforting personality but the face had the emotions of hidden stresses and thoughts.
The owner of the notebook cleared his throat slightly and I was caught red handed.
"Sorry." I apologized and felt a blush creep into my cheeks.
"It's okay." He accepted my apology but the embarrassment was still drowning me.
"It's a really interesting drawing." I complimented him and then mentally face palmed at the genericness of it.
The male glanced down at the drawing and then back up at me, "You think?" He asked.
I nodded, "Yeah, that's why I was staring. I was trying to figure out the pieces of the story it holds." I explained, trying not to look away from his intense curious gaze.
"Huh." He commented, slightly impressed for some reason, "These idiots never looked at one of my drawings for more than ten seconds." He gestured to the still bantering males around us.
I chuckled, "Well, they can't be complete idiots considering you're all attending business meetings together." I told him and he tilted his head to the side, considering my point.
"Fair." He said and then paused, thinking, before adding, "Then they're idiots of the art world."
"That sounds a little better." I said with another laugh bubbling in my chest, "So, do you draw often?"
He shrugged, "Kind of. I do it whenever I feel like I need to let off steam or if I'm bored."
"Which one was it today?" I asked then wondered if that was borderline too personal.
"Boredom." He answered, nonchalantly, and added a few more pencil strokes to the shadows of his character.
"Train rides not your favorite?" I guessed with a questioning eyebrow.
"Not really." He responded, "I'm more of a car ride kind of guy. But the train was the fastest option for us, so here we are."
"You like driving through Seoul?" I questioned with slight shock because Seoul was a city where every hour was rush hour and every car was trying to make it to their destination in record time.
He chuckled in disgust, "Oh god no. I hate driving in the city. Makes me want to pull out all of my hair." He joked and a smile grew on my face. "But give me a long drive through the country, an AUX cord, and a few snacks and I'm all set to go for hours."
"You would go alone?" I asked.
He leaned in close so the others wouldn't hear him but my heart skipped a few beats. "These guys are idiots of the art world, remember?" He reminded me with a small playful smile.
"Right. I guess music counts as an art form." I stated, hoping he couldn't see my nervousness. He straightened back up and a tiny part of me was extremely disappointed.
"Exactly." He agreed, "Though Mingyu's not a bad companion, if I want one." He pointed across the aisle and a row back at a green haired giant.
My eyes widened at his hair color and I had to ask, "Why is his hair green?"
"He lost a bet." He informed me, a smile touched his face with the memory and he looked even cuter when he smiled.
"Poor dude." I exhaled glancing back at the green haired male as he laughed at something the guy next to him said.
"Eh, he actually suggested the punishment himself so..." The male next to me trailed off with a shrug.
"So, what's your name?" I asked suddenly, realizing I knew a few of the others' names but not once did I get to ask him his.
"Minghao." He stuck out a hand and I grabbed with a surprised smile.
"(y/n)." I reciprocated the greeting and pray he can't feel my racing pulse through my skin.
""And you're visiting family in Jinju." Minghao repeated what I told Seungkwan earlier and my lips pucker in surprise. He chuckled and pulled his hand away. "My ears still pay attention even if my eyes aren't."
"I can't do that." I said, resting my hands in my lap, "Multitasking like that is not my forte."
"Gotta focus on one or the other?" He asked and I nodded my head.
"If my eyes are focused on like my book," I rested my hand on the cover, "Or something, my ears tune out everything so I don't miss a single word."
"Is that what the headphones are for?" Minghao asked nodding towards my phone with the still plugged in headphones.
"Yeah, kind of." I answered and twirled the wire around my finger, "It's easier to tune out familiar sounds than new ones."
"Any particular sounds?" He inquired and set down his closed notebook on the table.
"Music, particularly." I told him and tried to ignore the giddy thoughts that screamed that he enjoyed talking to me. I also peeked at his hands and noticed he wasn't wearing any rings. Which could've have been a big indicator that he wasn't in a relationship with anyone considering every couple seemed to have couple rings here.
He gave me a wide smile and the action softened his facial features so much. "Any particular artists?" He reiterated his question using the same word we had been repeating.
"Jason Miraz is one of my favorites." I informed him.
"Oh, I love Jason Miraz." He said with bright eyes, "His style is just so cool and he makes great songs."
"His style is really, really cool." I agreed. "Have you heard his new album?"
"Did that come out already?" Minghao asked with widened eyes.
I nodded, "This morning."
"Oh dang, I didn't even know it was coming out this soon." He said and scratched the back of his neck.
I reached for my headphones and handed one to him, "You want to listen with me? I haven't made it through the whole thing yet either. Just the first couple."
Minghao cautiously grabbed the earbud out of my hand, "You're sure?" He questioned me.
"About sharing headphones?" I answered with another question, "It's fine." I gave him a reassuring smile and it seemed to relax him a bit.
I popped my earbud in my ear and then scrolled through my phone to find the playlist. Adjusting the volume so it wouldn't blow out our eardrums, I started the album from the top.
"How's the volume?" I glanced over at Minghao after settling the volume at a level I thought was comfortable.
"Good, good." He responded, still a little stiff.
Turning my head towards the window, I let the calm melodies and voice of Jason Miraz accompany the green country scenery that quickly passed by. Pretty soon, my eye lids began to grow heavy and my morning rush started to catch up with me. Before I knew it, I was nodding off with my head leaned back against the weird velvety seat. Jason Miraz's soft voice carried me further into sleep land.
Just before the haze of exhaustion turned into a dark abyss, I felt a hand lower my head until it met the hard curve of a shoulder.
I woke up to someone calling my name and it wasn't Jason Miraz's voice. Blinking my eyes open, I was still on the train and the country side was still passing by very quickly. My head was still pressed against a shoulder and then it hit me just who's shoulder I was leaning on. [Though you know Soonyoung was not going to let Minghao live down how sweet the action was.]
"We're like 5 minutes from Jinju station." Minghao's voice informed me and I sat up, trying not to be too sudden about it.
Running a hand through my hair, I checked my phone and the time coincides with the information given to me.
"I can't believe I slept through the entire ride." I chuckled at myself, still in shock.
"I'm surprised you slept through Seokmin and Soonyoung's screaming." Minghao laughed lightly and handed me the other half of my headphones.
I gathered the wire and picked up my backpack to shove them and my book back into it.
"Ugh, we didn't even get to talk about the album." I pouted, annoyed at myself for sleeping.
He giggled and it added itself to list of things I found cute.
"How about this?" He suggested, "We exchange numbers and we can discuss the album once you actually listened to it."
I puckered my lips in thought because dude just called me out for falling asleep in the middle of tiny listening party for a new album. But, the little jab did nothing against the desire to keep in touch with him. So, I unlocked my phone and handed it over with the contacts app opened.
"Deal." I agreed to his suggestion and he took my phone before quickly typing in his information.
"How was your nap?" Seungkwan asked, resting his arms on the table and leaning forward.
"It was unexpected and long." I answered him, zipping up my backpack.
"But was it at least good?" He questioned further and Minghao handed back my phone.
"I'd say it was pretty good." I told him and he smiled, content with my answer.
The train pulled into the station, which was the last on its route, and we all shuffled out of our seats. I reached up to the overhead storage for my still ridiculously heavy duffle bag but Minghao grabbed it before I could even touch it. Pulling it down, he held it out for me to take.
"Thank you." I thanked him with a smile that I hoped would cover up the toll that the bag's weight took on my body, specifically my arms.
"No problem." He nodded with a small smile.
The other guys let me walk off the train first and I didn't get a chance to look back or wait for them because my aunt was waiting on the platform for me.
"(y/n)!" She yelled and ran towards me. "Glad you made it! Oh! We have so many dishes to prepare. Come on, your mom's busy chopping up vegetables and claims she needs her sous chef ASAP." My aunt took the bag from me and wrapped an arm around my shoulders before leading me away.
I tried to look back for one last glance at the male who let me sleep on his shoulder but my aunt demanded all of my attention.
"Did you remember to bring all the stuff we asked?" She questioned me.
"Yes, auntie." I replied, "I even remembered the Christmas ornament, though it took me forever to find."
"Oh, you're amazing!" She squeezed my shoulder and we walked out of the station and towards her car.
As we made our way down the stairs, my phone rang with a text.
I pulled it out and a laugh bubbled inside my chest as I read the message from Minghao.
"I don't think Jason Miraz can save you from that conversation."
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impalas-r-important · 4 years ago
Text
Love of my Life - (10) Taken
Summary: Y/N and the Winchesters have been hunting non-stop amid the beginnings of the apocalypse. Y/N is forced to bring out her dark side
Warnings: Show level violence.
A/N: I've been having so much fun with this series and I love hearing all your feedback. Feel free to leave your thoughts on the series and let me know if you'd like a tag. Thank you all!
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After a decent amount of time spent resting, Sam had grown stir crazy and found a case not too far from Sioux Falls in a small town called Madison.
Some real estate buff and his family were the next unsuspecting targets of two hungry ghouls, but you and the Winchesters had taken the monsters taken care of before anyone was killed. It was fairly straightforward and simple as far as cases go, aside from one minor slash in your leg. It was late by the time you were finished disposing of the bodies, and you opted for a crappy motel rather than driving back to Bobby’s place. Dean was stitching you up while Sam went to go get food for everyone.
“Do you ever think about getting out of the life?” Dean asked out of the blue. Maybe he was just trying to get your attention off of the needle going in and out of your leg.
“I never used to, but lately it’s been a different story.” You took a sip of Dean’s cheap beer that was sitting next to you and made a disgusted face before putting it back down.
“What changed?” Dean glanced at you quickly, trying to get a read on your emotions, then continued his stitching.
You had a hard time opening up to people, but you wanted to tell Dean how you felt about him. A million thoughts ran through your mind as you debated whether or not to be honest about your feelings. “Well,” you began, “I always thought that hunting was my only option. I was a loner and I figured that if I was going to die, I would die fighting for the good cause or whatever.” You looked down at Dean, so carefully taking care of you. His eyebrows were furrowed as he intently waited for you to continue. You loved how interested he was in everything you said, no matter how silly or mundane. “But then I met this guy who makes me feel like my life is actually one worth living; like maybe the future doesn’t hold darkness and death after all.” Dean tried to hide his smile as he finished up his last few sutures. “I’ve never felt like I was worth much, but he makes me feel like I’m more than just a girl who can throw knives and punches… and I think that I’m falling for him pretty fast.” Dean placed a bandage over your calf and set his needle down. “Maybe you know him? His name is Sam Winchester.” Dean shot you a confused look, making you lose your composure and bite your lip, repressing a cheeky smile. “It’s just too easy to tease you.”
Dean let out a chuckle and stood up, wiping his hands off on a towel. His tongue darted in and out of his lips, leading into a perfect smile as he dove on top of you and crashed his lips onto yours, knocking you backwards on the bed. You slid you hand behind his neck and deepened the kiss.
The door handle began to wiggle, signaling Sam coming back with the food. “That kid has the worst timing. I swear!” Dean grumbled and pushed himself off the bed, marching over to the door and holding it open with an unmistakable annoyance in his eyes as Sam walked in, juggling the food in his arms. Sam, clearly clueless about what he had interrupted, returned Dean’s annoyed gaze.
“What’s your problem?” He shoved a bag of food into Dean’s arms.
Sam had fallen asleep during a re-run of Jeopardy when Dean touched your hand, silently signaling for you to follow him outside to the small balcony. You happily obliged. Once the door was shut, Dean pulled you in close, kissing you with just as much passion as he had before you were interrupted.
“You know what I want?” Dean asked.
“Some nice scotch and an autographed Zeppelin album?”
The lines by his eyes crinkled as he smiled and shook his head. “No, well, yes, but no. I asked you earlier if you ever wanted to get out of hunting.”
You nodded in remembrance.
“I want out, too. I want a boring life, and a farmhouse, with kids and a dog and a fence. The whole thing. I want to have summer barbeques with Sam and his family, and bonfires where we roast s’mores. I want it with you.”
“I’ve never had a s’more.” You admitted, smiling ear to ear at Dean’s confession.
“Me either.” Dean shrugged; his smile just as wide as yours.
That life sounded perfect. “What happened to Dean Winchester the womanizer that everyone warned me about?”
“He’s whipped.” You could see your future in those deep green eyes as he held you close.
“There has to be a porch swing.” You added. “I’ve always wanted a big comfy porch swing.”
“You got it.” Dean slipped his arms around your waist from behind and leaned down to rest his head on top of yours, making the height difference between you two almost comical. Looking out at the night sky, you thought about living a peaceful life in a small town like this one, sitting next to Dean on the front porch in the summer evenings while your kids played in the front yard. These were never things you would have thought of before meeting this man.
“You wanna go make out in your car?” You not so subtly hinted. Before you knew it, Dean was picking you up and throwing you over his shoulder, carrying you back into the room and towards the door. You did your best to mute your giggles and squeals so you wouldn’t wake up Sam.
It had been weeks full of hunting, with the last case being a weird one. You'd found a town that had a working wishing well, powered by a coin that used the power of the goddess Tiamat. There was a life-sized and talking teddy bear, someone won the lottery, a kid had super strength, and the wormy guy had a hot girlfriend. It was pretty far up on the list of odd things you'd encountered.
The post-case morning routine was in full swing with the sunlight streaming through the window, prying your eyes open to face a new day. Dean was lying next to you on his stomach with drool slowly dribbling from the corner of his gaped open mouth. You loved this soft side of the ever-stone-cold hunter. Steam was trickling from under the bathroom door, signaling that Sam was almost done getting ready, so you slid out from under the covers and changed before he reentered the room.
"Morning." Sam greeted, toweling off his wet hair. "You wanna go grab breakfast, or should I?"
"You can go but I'll walk out with you and try to convince the clerk to give us a late checkout. I don't think we're making it out of here on time." You nodded your head towards Dean.
"There's a shocker." Sam grabbed the car keys from Dean's nightstand and put his arm around your shoulders, leading you out the door.
Sam took off and you managed to flirt your way into two extra hours before checkout. You exited the lobby and made your way to the outdoor staircase that led to your room. You lifted your foot to take the first step, then everything went black.
Dean’s POV
I spit out the toothpaste from my mouth when Sam came back in the room with a bag of crappy fast-food breakfast. My favorite.
"Where's Y/N?" I asked as I rifled through the brown bag, pulling out a hash brown. Sam shot me a confused look.
"She's not here?" I shook my head; a pit of concern began to grow in my stomach. "She walked out with me to ask for a late checkout. She was in the lobby when I left."
"I'll go check there. You look around for her."
"Dean, I'm sure she's fine. Maybe she's just stretching her legs." Sam tried his best to relieve my obvious state of stress.
"The clerk was useless. All he said was that she was in there for two seconds and then left." I looked to Sam, hoping he had found a sign of her.
"I got nothing." Sam held his hands up. "Did you call her?"
I pulled out my phone, dialing her number from memory then hitting the call button. Sam sharply turned his head towards the stairs and took off in a jog. He leaned over to look underneath the steps and pulled out Y/N's ringing phone. We exchanged knowing looks and I began to feel queasy.
I slammed the door to our room and began to shove my things into a duffel bag. "Someone took her." The nausea I was feeling was not-so-slowly turning to rage.
"We don't know that. Don't freak out just yet."
Like clockwork, my phone went off signaling an incoming text. "It's a link from an unknown number." Sam frowned and I quickly clicked on it. A web page opened up with a live video feed showing Y/N, unconscious and tied to a chair with dried blood painted down her face from her hairline.
"Son of a bitch!” I grabbed the lamp from the nightstand next to me and threw it across the room. "Someone’s gonna die!”
Your POV
You were sure you’d been hit by a train. Your head was pounding, and it hurt to even open your eyes. As your vision unblurred, you became more aware of your situation. First, you saw your feet tied to the legs of a wooden chair, then realized that your arms were bound behind the back of it. You heard arguing voices in the background and did your best to act like you were still unconscious as you assessed your surroundings and the sticky situation you had found yourself in. You were in a damp abandoned warehouse with old pallets stacked in high piles around you and a webcam sitting in the distance pointed in your direction. Your pocketknife had been taken from you and was sitting on a table across the room next to the two arguing captors. You didn’t recognize the two large men who had abducted you, but it was easy to make enemies in your line of work. There was almost a constant target on your back. Keeping your eyes closed and head hung low, you quickly thought about how you would get yourself out of this mess.
You began to stir, letting your kidnappers know you were awake. They finished their conversation when they heard you.
“Well, well, well. Look who decided to join the party.” The bigger one greeted you.
“I’ve never been much of a party animal. Why don’t you just let me go and find someone more fun?” You snarked.
“Oh, we’re going to have plenty of fun. Don’t you worry.” As he turned his back to you, he pulled a gun from its holster on his belt and waved it in the air as he spoke, clearly trying to scare you. “See, I’ve had eyes on Dean Winchester for years. Just waiting for him to find a pretty little girlfriend to settle down with.”
You glared at him, remaining silent. You could feel the rope that was tied around your hands loosen as you discreetly wiggled your hands around. Lucky for you, your thumbs were double jointed enough that you could pop them in out of place. It hurt like hell but proved convenient when you found yourself being held hostage, which was far more than the average person ever should be. You continued listening to the monologue as you worked your hands free. You had no idea what you’d do next, but you’d figure it out. Right?
“Years ago, he took something from me – my wife. And now, I’m going to make him feel that same pain. Smile at the camera!” He pointed to the webcam sitting a few feet in front of you as he walked over and spoke into it. “Hope you’re watching, Deano! She’s gonna die a bloody, slow death.”
Sam and Dean's POV
The boys were in the car, speeding around town, desperately searching for where you were being held. Sam was looking up old buildings and giving Dean directions as he pushed the Impala to its limits. Dean’s phone was propped up on the dashboard with the live feed still streaming.
“Hope you’re watching, Deano! She’s gonna die a bloody, slow death.”
“Son of a bitch! I swear if you hurt her!” Dean screamed at the screen.
“Who even is that Dean?” Sam asked, looking for any kind of clues that would give away a location.
“I don’t know! I don’t recognize him at all but apparently I made quite the impression on him!”
Your POV
The big guy finished his address to Dean and turned to face you, with teeth and claws bared. Okay, well at least you knew he was a werewolf. Only problem was you didn’t have any silver bullets. You freed your hands completely but held them behind your back as you looked around, planning your next step and replaying it in your head a few times to go over the possible outcomes. You had to move fast because the wolf was walking straight for you.
Oh well, here goes nothing.
Keeping the rope your hands were bound with looped into the back of your belt, you tucked your head in and somersaulted forward, whipping your legs up and over your head hard to smash the wooden chair against the ground, freeing your feet from their binds. One of the broken chair legs had come to a sharp point and you immediately threw it at the onrushing werewolf, hitting him in the thigh. It slowed him down enough that you could duck behind one of the large pallets, narrowly avoiding a bullet being shot at you from the second, smaller wolf. The breaker panel was close by and you ran to it, pulling the main power lever down which turned off all the lights except a dim red emergency light. Game on.
There was an upper level which was essentially a deck around the walls of the square building. You snuck your way to the edge of the room, climbed on a pile of crates, then jumped up and grabbed the railing, pulling yourself to the upper level to get a better idea of the layout of the room below. You stumbled across a pile of rebar, taking the sharpest one to use as protection.
“What are you going to do? Call your boyfriend? Come out and play!” One of the men shouted. “I’m not scared of Dean Winchester or his gumpy brother!”
“Oh, you should be! But lucky for you, they’re not here right now.” You laughed. “See, this isn’t my first rodeo,” you began as you stalked the two wolves from up above, “I’ve been held hostage more times than I can count, and you all make the same stupid mistake. You assume that I’m just some damsel in distress, waiting for a big hero to come save me. But I got news for you, buddy. I’m the one you should be scared of.” You trailed the smaller of the two and made your move as he crouched down behind a large crate. Lowering yourself down from the upper deck, you set the rebar down and silently pulled the rope from the back of your belt, wrapping it around his neck and pulling so hard that he couldn’t make a sound. You released him once you were sure he was passed out, then hog tied him and left him for later, moving onto your next target.
“Then stop hiding and let’s do this!” The anger in your next victim’s voice was intertwined with fear. You had him just where you wanted him, physically and mentally, and took your post where you had a perfect visual of the room.
“See your hand shaking?” You yelled and he glanced down at the trembling gun in his hands. “Cortisol. It floods the body when you’re stressed. Makes your muscles tighter, reactions quicker. But put those two things together, and it makes you sloppy. Unless you learn to love it. Then it becomes a drug that you thrive on. That’s when you become deadly.” As unhealthy as it was, you soaked up the feeling of being the apex predator. You simultaneously hated and loved this side of yourself.
You’d spent years doing combat in the dark, learning to use every sense to take in your surroundings and focus on your target, making you the ultimate threat. You threw a bag full of old newspapers across the room, and he fired a desperate shot at the clatter, moving slowly towards the commotion. Following close, but soundlessly behind him, you held your weapon at the ready. He slowed to look around the corner, only to find the newspapers you had thrown strewn across the floor.
“Boo.” Your voice was eerily calm. He whipped around and you timed your swing perfectly and rammed the sharp rebar through his throat. He fell to his knees, gasping for air and you took the gun from his hand, firing a quick shot between his eyes. The shocked look was still plastered on his face as he fell to the ground, and you let out a huff of relief before moving back to the first wolf you had tied up, making sure he met the same fate as his friend. You didn’t have silver bullets, but this worked out okay.
You tucked the gun into your pants as you walked over to the webcam. “Hey Sam and Dean, I really hope you’re watching this. I’m at some old abandoned supply warehouse. I can hear a train in the background if that helps you find me at all.”
Sam and Dean's POV
“Holy crap, Dean, she broke free.” Sam leaned in and intently watched as you expertly broke the chair and turned off the lights. Dean did his best to watch as he drove.
“What’s happening?!” Dean demanded an update.
Sam shook his head. “I can’t see super well, the lights got turned off.” Sam pulled the screen closer to his face and squinted. “She’s got a piece of rebar I think…”
Dean nodded in approval of your choice of weapon. Sam gave the occasional update when he could make out what was happening.
“She strangled one of them and hog tied him.” Sam raised his eyebrows.
Both boys listened intently as you spoke with clarity, messing with the last wolf’s head as you stalked behind him then stabbed him in the throat.
“Hey Sam and Dean, I really hope you’re watching this. I’m at some old abandoned supply warehouse. I can hear a train in the background if that helps you find me at all.” The brothers heard your message and Sam quickly found your location. Dean turned the car around and sped off towards you.
The boys sat in silence, trying to process what just happened. Dean’s jaw had been clenched since the moment he realized you had been taken and wouldn’t relax until he was holding you safe in his arms. He felt guilty that you had been taken because of him, but at the same time, he felt so proud that you had taken control of the situation with such ease that it was almost scary. No, it was definitely scary. This wasn’t a side of you that he had seen before. He knew he should be concerned, but he loved it.
Sam spoke first. “So… Y/N is terrifying.”
Dean scoffed in agreement. “That’s an understatement.”
Your POV
You had dragged the bodies of the two wolves behind the warehouse where a construction site was filling in a large hole with concrete. You tossed them in, turned on the mixer, and covered them up enough that they would never be found. It wasn’t too long after you’d made your way back to the front of the warehouse that the familiar sound of the Impala speeding closer rang in your ears. Dean drifted around the corner and drove straight to you. He was out of the car before it could even roll to a stop, and you met him halfway as he pulled you into a massive hug.
“Y/N, I’m…” Dean began before you could cut him off.
“Stop. If the next words out of your mouth are anything to do with apologizing or blaming yourself then I don’t want to hear them.” You knew exactly what he was thinking.
“This was my fault.”
“Dean, this is not the first time I’ve been kidnapped by a monster out for revenge, and it won’t be the last. You didn’t send that wolf after me so absolutely none of the blame is on you. Not to mention, I’m a damn good hunter and I know how to take care of myself. Aside from this,” you touched your fingers to the wound on your head where you had been knocked out this morning, “I don’t even have a scratch on me.”
Dean sighed and squeezed you tighter. You’d never had someone there to comfort you after being kidnapped and it felt nice to know that you’d be missed if something happened to you.
“Y/N I’m in love with you.” Dean’s words took you by surprise. “Have been since the day that we met, and I should have told you before now.” You began to respond, but he held up his hand, stopping you. “I gotta say this.” He took a deep breath and continued. “I love that you are so kind and genuine with every person you meet, even if it’s some stranger on the street. I love that you can eat enough chocolate to kill a horse, and I love that aren’t ashamed of that. I love your taste in music. I love that you are the most badass person I’ve ever met. I’m pretty sure you’re some kind of international hitman or something after what I saw today. But more than anything, I love that you make my life one worth living.”
“Are you just saying all this because you’re scared of me now?” You joked. Dean smiled softly as he shook his head. “I love you too, Dean Winchester. I have from the start.”
“Let’s get you back to the motel and make sure you’re okay.” Dean examined the gash just above your hairline where you’d been struck with a tire-iron this morning. “I’m glad you’re safe. I don’t know what I’d do if I lost you.” He kissed you hard, not caring that you were covered in blood splatter.
Sam gently slapped you on the back, clearly proud of you. “Y/N, that was freakin’ amazing. I felt like I was watching an action movie or something. That whole spiel about cortisol was so kick ass!” Sam and Dean both put their arms protectively around your shoulders and led you back to the car. “I’ve never seen anyone take control like that. They were terrified of you. I was terrified of you!” Sam continued to rave as you and Dean exchanged grateful smiles that the three of you had a happy reunion.
Chapter 11
Tags:
@panicking-outside-the-disco
@vicmc624
@akshi8278
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lordabovehelpme · 4 years ago
Note
Ahh I came across your page and your writing is amazing! Can I put in a request for a Kylo fic? Something like you two get in a fight and you leave, but it only makes him realize how much he loves you and wants to marry you. You come back and he proposes to you?? 🥰🥰
I’m Busy- Kylo Ren x Reader
A/n: Hello! Thank you for requesting! I am so sorry this took so long for me to finally write too. I hope it’s what you wanted! I’m super glad you think my writing is good! Thank you for the encouragement! :)
Summary: You walk out of Kylos life after one too many nights away.
Masterlist
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It’s been four nights in a row now that Kylo has not returned home. He hasn’t even checked in with you. The quarters are so quiet and cold without him. You understand that with him being supreme leader he has more jobs and work to do, but he should have a second for you.
Where is he? You walk through the vast halls, trying to bring lunch to your boyfriend. You had made one of his favorites, spaghetti. He will never admit it, but he would kill for your homemade cooking.
There he is; standing in one of the conference rooms, looking out the window. “Kylo! I brought spaghetti!” He turns around to peer at you. Why are you getting a vibe that he doesn’t want you here?
“Love?” You stop in your tracks.
“Why are you here?” There is no affection in his voice.
“I brought you lunch. Did you not hear me?”
“I’m busy.”
“Oh come on,” you sigh, “you’ve never been too busy for my cooking.” You move to touch his arm. He flinches and pulls away from you and your heart shatters.
“Go back to your quarters. I am busy.” He turns back around to peer out the window to the loading dock. You can feel the tears welling up, threatening to fall. He is being insufferable. Maker, you’re just so hurt and frustrated.
“Kylo?” A few drops have left your eyes now.
“Why can’t you understand? I am busy!” He is now yelling at you.
You frown as audible sobs can be heard from you.
“You know what?! My quarters? Of course they’re my quarters because you haven’t been in them in four days. You haven’t even asked me a single question in the past four days. I understand that you’re more busy but you should have at least one second to ask me how my day is!” You���re yelling at him back now. He moves back to face you.
“You-”
“No! Listen here SuPreMe LeADer! I have been trying so hard to support you and you are refusing it!” You have to stop to inhale oxygen. Your breath is coming in short gasps, you’re too overwhelmed to control yourself.
“You’re being unbearable.” Kylo jabs at you.
Your jaw drops to the floor. “How dare you! If anyone is unbearable, it is you! I am bringing you lunch as your wonderful girlfriend and you don’t even want me. If you’re too busy for me then I will leave!” He doesn’t even flinch.
“Leave then.” He says it too calmly. Like he doesn’t even care.
“I will! Goodbye! Enjoy your lunch because it is the last you will have from me!” You throw the spaghetti container at him and stomp out the door.
You lock the doors to your quarters and run yourself a shower. Locking the fresher door for extra measure you sit under the hot water. Your heart is pulling to the pit of your stomach and your tears are being washed away by the water.
***
He opens the door to your quarters, after using the force to unlock it. He feels terrible after how he treated you. Knocking on the fresher door he hears a pathetic whimper from you. Steam flows from under the door, however the water is no longer on.
“Go away.” You sound broken. He feels broken.
“Listen-”
“No. I am leaving.” You open the door and grab a packed bag, walking out of the quarters and out of his life. “I hope you find someone who loves you as much as I did.”
He hiccups. All of your pain flowing into him from the force bond you two share.
When he realizes you’re not coming back he falls to his knees. Flicking his lightsaber on he starts to destroy the wall next to your bed. When the damage is enough, he sighs. “I have no time for this.” He mumbles to himself, forcing all his emotion away from his mind.
***
It’s been a month. You have been making friends with some technicians and pilots, trying to fill the gap that Kylo once owned. Smiles are hollow and laughter is just a sound. Kylo has seemingly not been fased. He is still ordering people just as he was before. When you passed him in the hall earlier he paid you no mind.
***
It’s in two months when you are finally starting to get over him. However, Kylo is breaking, his soul is tearing. He never realized how much you did for him. Whenever he sees you laughing he hurts even further. He misses you terribly, he hasn’t been taking care of himself.
He needs you.
***
It’s three months when you don’t even really think about him anymore. You’ve found yourself a wonderful group of friends and you’ve taken a job as a medic.
Kylo yearns everyday for the energy to even get out of bed. You always used to kiss him awake while you served him breakfast. Then you would help dress him before kissing his helmet as he left. Now he just throws on whatever he can find. He finds he has not been eating full meals, you always brought him food. Why did he let you go? You were his everything. You were the reason he got up in the morning.
Then it hits him.
He wants to marry you.
***
“Kylo is requesting you in the west conference room.” A stormtrooper informs you.
“Do you know what he wants?”
“Sorry, no.”
“Oh, okay.” You set down your book. What could he possibly want?
You were finally getting over him.
***
The conference room was filled with candles and rose petals. You stop in your tracks. One end of the table has a nice cloth on it. Culinary is placed in front of two seats. The plates are covered with cloche.
“Oh, Stardust, here.” He gestures to the table. Pulling out your seat for you, he pats the bottom. When you sit down he pushes your chair in.
“Kylo, what is-”
“No, wait. Don’t say anything. Just let me make up for everything.” It's hard to be mad when he gives you puppy dog eyes and when he is being such a gentleman.
He opens the plater and you are met with the most wonderful smelling soup. “I made it.” He seems almost shy when he says it. You hum at him before trying a spoonful. A melody of flavor dances on your tastebuds. You can tell it is a squash soup, but the other ingredients are unknown.
He sits down across from you. But it is now when you realize how terrible he looks. His undereyes are almost black with loss of sleep and his face looks sunken. Has he lost a few pounds?
“Stardust?” His warm brown eyes lock with yours. Pain and tenderness pour out of his soul. “I am so sorry for everything. For yelling and for not spending time with you.” He is starting to tear up. “I was so stupid for letting you go, for taking advantage of your kindness. I can’t live without you. I realized how much you do for me and how little I do for you. I am so sorry.”
He takes your palm into his. “Please, Stardust, let me try again.”
“Oh Kylo.” You sigh. “You hurt me so bad. You can’t just say sorry and hope it gets better.”
“I know! I have a plan. I will cook dinner every night when I am home and there will be designated hours for us to spend time together. But please, give me a shot. I love you.”
You ponder his options. For a couple minutes before saying, “Well, okay. But you have to promise to listen to me. And you have to make an effort to come home to me.”
He gets up and you think he is going to hug you. But then, he gets on one knee.
Your world stops.
“Stardust, over these past months I have realized how wonderful you are and how much you mean to me. I am so happy when you are in my arms and I fell apart when you left.” He pulls a box from his pocket and opens it. It is a simple silver band with diamonds but the gem in the middle is a red crystal. You could recognize that gem anywhere. It is a part of his kyber crystal from his lightsaber. You hiccup and put a hand over your mouth, trying to conceal your sobs.
“Will you make me the happiest man and be my empress? You can rule the universe alongside me.” He is filled with passion as he asks.
Maker, how could you deny this puppy of a man any longer. You already feel so much better than you have in the past months.
“Yes.” Jumping into his arms, he wraps himself around you. He takes your hand and places the ring on your finger.
“Thank you for giving me a chance when no one else would.”
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Anyway, I hope this is what you were looking for! Thanks again for requesting!
Love, Lordy.
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someguynamedstevewrites · 5 years ago
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My Roommate is an Apparition: Saturday Morning Cartoon Complaints
Based on characters created by @reddpenn
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There once was a lonely apparition that haunted an apartment in an old building. No one knew where it came from, how it came to be, or why it was there. In fact, nobody knew the spooky specter actually existed since nobody could see it. Eventually, the apparition met someone who could see them, and they were no longer lonely. But before that, there were a few instances where the incorporeal creature made contact with human beings.
This is one of those stories.
It was September 20th, 1997, and Terrence “Terry” Vanderbrook was working as an operator for a local CBS Network Affiliate. He spent his days making sure that people calling into the station were directed to where they needed to go, and also screening out any unwanted calls. Regardless if they were folks calling in to speak to the news team about breaking news, people wanting to partner with the station for a special event, or for any other reason, Terry took care of them all.
One call, in specific, would go down as one Terry would remember for the rest of his years. (Mostly because he wasn’t sure if it actually happened or not).
“Thank you for calling your local CBS station, W.O.-“ Terry began to say before being cut off.
“Where...?” came a voice that sounded like breath on the wind.
“I’m sorry?” Terry asked.
“Where... are they...?” the raspy voice asked.
In the couple of years Terry had been a phone operator, he received more than his fair share of crank calls. Some were very obvious from the get go, while others were subtle and not quite as apparent. On occasion, a call might start off sounding like a prank, but actually turn out to be a legitimate call. Terry learned that the hard way after being berated by a 76- year old woman who was calling to complain about a breaking news report interrupting Diagnosis: Murder. On that day, Terry learned never to underestimate the appeal of Dick Van Dyke to seniors.
Still, uncertain if this was a prank or not, Terry did exactly what he was trained to do: proceed in a professional and courteous manner while trying to obtain more information to determine the needs of the caller. (At least until he was sure whether this call was genuine or not.)
“What can I help you find today?” Terry responded with a smile in his voice (as outlined in the Employee Handbook for Telephone Operators, page 12).
The raspy voice spoke a little louder to get its point across, “Car... TOONS!!!”
“Cartoons?”
“Where. Are. The. Car. Tooooons!?” the voice demanded.
Terry looked over at the small calendar on his desk. It was Saturday. “Oh! You mean the Saturday Morning Cartoons?”
“Yesssssss...” the voice said with a hiss.
“Give me one second,” Terry said as he began to type away at the keyboard to his Windows 95 work computer. Connecting to the network’s server, Terry began searching for and pulling up the schedule for the day’s channel listings. A memo had circulated around the office not too long ago about changes to the channel lineup this fall, but Terry hadn’t paid too much attention to it. He still hadn’t gotten the hang of the search function for his e-mail just yet.
“I’m... waaaaaaaaaiiiii... tiiiiiiiiinnnnngggg,” the voice said as nasally and obnoxious as possible.
“Hang on, kid, I almost got it,” Terry shot back. At this point, he figured the caller was some kid, probably sick in bed (which would explain the raspy voice), hoping to watch their Saturday Morning Cartoons and having trouble with it. (Terry was way off the mark, but he didn’t know that).
While the inter-network speeds within the CBS station’s computer network were much faster than the new 56 Kbps speeds Terry got on his dial-up modem back home, it still took a while to get to the shared network folder that contained the spreadsheet containing the day’s programming lineup. With a double-click, Terry opened up Excel 95 and saw...
“Oh...”
Terry bit his lip and breathed in through his teeth. He always hated calls like this; calls where he had to be the unfortunate bearer of bad news. The person on the other end of the line NEVER took it well. It would lead to lots of yelling, screaming, and demands to speak to his manager. And that was when Terry was speaking to full grown adults, so he was rightfully concerned about the kind of tantrum a sick child could produce.
“I’m sorry,” Terry said with regret, “but it looks like the CBS Kidz programming block has been replaced with CBS News Saturday Morning and a rerun of The Andy Griffith Show.”
————————————-
Due to the nature of the apparition’s existence, it was debatable whether or not it was actually “alive”. Considering the facts, it had been “born” a few years ago and hadn’t “lived” for very long by the time it made this phone call. Furthermore, during the time in between, it experienced emotions such as happiness, sadness, inquisitiveness, and many more.
But this was the first time the apparition became truly angry!
The apparition was frowning. It’s worth mentioning this, because before now, the apparition had never, ever frowned. Its face was no longer smiling, or expressionless like a confused child, like it had been for every day since the apparition began its existence. It was consciously moving the non-existent muscles on its face to move downward to express just how angry it was. Its sharp teeth were on full display like a snarling beast. To say it was not a pretty sight would have been an understatement.
The ethereal hand that had been twirling the coils of the telephone cord was now clutching the phone book as tightly as it could. Visions of cartoon characters expressing their anger whirled through the apparition’s head as it began to conjugate steam out of its non-existent ears. The apparition could not find the words to express the outrage it felt, so it did something else to vent its frustration.
It made a wooden chair suddenly fly through the air at one-hundred and twenty miles per hour into a wall.
*CRASH*
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The sound of wood smashing and splintering could be heard over the phone, and nearly made Terry jump out of his chair.
“WHOA! Kid, are you okay!?” Terry asked with genuine concern.
“BAAAAACK!!!” the apparition practically screamed. Its voice had distorted and sounded sinister; carrying a demonic reverb.
“...BRING! THEM! BAAAAAACK!!!”
“Poor kid,” Terry thought to himself, “they are definitely not taking this well.”
If it had been anyone else other than Terry taking that call, the horrific voice over the phone likely would have scared them out of their pants by now. But he was a veteran at handling the phone and this was not the first time someone used a voice distorter on a call. It was the first time a kid had used one (as far as he knew), but Terry had seen the toy commercials for “YakBak” on TV and knew that any kid with one could do funny things to their voice.
“Listen,” Terry said calmly, “I understand you’re disappointed, but that’s no reason to break things and throw a fit. You might hurt yourself or make yourself even sicker.”
————————————-
The frown had vanished from the apparition’s face. In its place was a look of sheer confusion. This was definitely not the reaction the apparition was expecting when they made this phone call.
The last time the apparition used its scary voice was back when the previous apartment tenants were talking about getting rid of their TV. To keep that from happening, the apparition practiced hard on finding the best voice it could mimic that would “persuade” the residents living there at the time to keep it. It even figured out how it could project its voice into any electronic device with a speaker to create an even more haunting effect (and to make sure the people there could actually hear its demands).
It worked, but it worked a little too well.
Shortly after the apparition began to actively haunt its oblivious roommates, the tenants packed up and moved out in a hurry, leaving their furniture and appliances behind. This included the 32” CRT TV that the apparition was fond of, and a landline telephone. The apparition didn’t care much for the phone line since they were happy just having the TV all to themselves twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. (Plus, they didn’t have anyone to call or talk on the phone to, anyway.)
At least they were happy until about a week ago, when the Saturday Morning Cartoons were a complete no show for the first time in years.
But the apparition had seen shows come and go, television programming blocks change for no apparent reason, occasional weather alert bulletins interrupting their cartoons, and some of their favorite cartoons canceled. They learned patience, understanding, and compromise from these experiences. Just because there were no cartoons that week didn’t mean that there wouldn’t be cartoons next week.
Two weeks without cartoons, however, simply would not do.
The apparition scoured the apartment for a phone book, concentrated on solidifying its fingertips to turn pages, located the phone number for the TV station, and dialed. It took a lot of effort for a ghostly being to make a phone call, and it was not about to let its efforts go to waste.
If the scary voice didn’t work, they’d have to take a different approach. It was time for Plan B.
————————————-
“...Sorry,” the apparition apologized, “...please... bring them... back?”
Terry sighed. He had kids of his own, and dealing with them could be a real challenge; especially when he couldn’t give them something they wanted. Once they realized throwing a tantrum fit wouldn’t work, they start trying to “bargain” just like the kid (who wasn’t actually a kid) that was on the phone.
“I’m sorry, kiddo, but it’s out of my hands,” Terry said using his “sympathetic Dad” voice, “I know it stinks, and if I could bring them back, I absolutely would.” After some frantic scrolling through his work e-mail inbox, he finally found the e-mail he was looking for. “But, thing is, we got to follow the rules from the FCC, so-“
“Eff... See... See?” the voice interrupted to ask.
“The Federal Communications Commission,” Terry explained, “You might not have learned about them in school yet, but they’re a part of the government. They make the rules we here at the TV stations got to follow, and one of those rules is to show three hours of educational programming, and the cartoons we had, well...” Terry tried to find a way to let the (not) kid down nicely, “...they just weren’t educational enough. That make sense?”
————————————-
It did not make sense. The Apparition had no idea what the heck the person on the other end of the phone line was talking about. All it knew was that they took away their cartoons and they weren’t going to give them back.
Taking a look at its transparent fingers, the apparition decided it was time to take matters into its own hands. They had tried scaring the person on the other end of the phone and they had tried asking nicely, but now it was time for plan C.
The apparition plunged its fingers into the tiny holes of the phone receiver. The phone was eventually engulfed in the apparition’s being and soon after that, the receiver began to slowly suck the apparition into it.
If someone walked into the room at that moment, and if that person could also see the apparition, they would see the lower half of a person’s body up to about their waist with the upper half crammed into a phone. It looked like a cartoon where someone had taken the receiver of a phone and hit someone over the head with it so hard that it jammed them inside.
Meanwhile, inside the phone, the apparition’s upper body stretched as it squeezed its way through the telephone cables. It wasn’t easy, and the apparition had never tried anything like this before, but it was filled with determination. Following the voice of the person on the other end of the phone, the apparition could feel itself getting closer and closer to its destination.
It smiled a sharp, toothy grin and created sharp claws on its hands in preparation for its arrival. Soon it would wreak havoc against those who had wronged it. They would rue the day they had taken away their source of Saturday Morning joy! It could see a light ahead of itself, and once it finally reached it, the apparition took its mangled, clawed hand and...
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*scritch*
“Ow,” Terry said as he pulled the phone away from his head. Something had just scratched him. Looking at the phone receiver, Terry blinked and then blinked again as he came to comprehend what he was looking at.
It was a very small, tiny hand with what looked like long fingernails poking out from one of the holes on the receiver. It flailed and strained as if it was trying to reach out but couldn’t get itself through. The closest thing Terry could liken it to was if a mouse or hamster had somehow gotten into the phone and was sticking its paw through the holes on the phone.
It was kind of adorable.
After a few seconds, the hand retracted into the phone. A second after that, Terry could have swore that he saw a tiny head poke out of one of the holes on the receiver. It had long hair, large eyes, no nose, and looked rather irritated. It struggled as it tried to pull itself out of the phone, but it just couldn’t budge.
Terry was quite sure he was seeing things. He wasn’t sure if it was because of something he ate, or from not getting enough sleep. The thought never entered his head that he was looking at a supernatural being that had shrunken its upper torso, shoved and stretched itself through the phone line, and was now trying to crawl its way out the other end. That would have been silly.
After a few more seconds of struggling, the apparition seemed to realize that this was not going to work and silently admitted defeat to itself. It looked up at the (relatively) gigantic face of Terry who was casually looking at the apparition without an ounce of fear, shock, or horror showing on his face. Without really thinking, Terry just looked at the tiny head poking out and just shrugged as though saying, “Sorry, can’t help yah there, bud”.
Dejectedly, the apparition pulled its head back inside the phone as Terry absentmindedly waved goodbye to it.
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Back in the apartment, the apparition pulled itself out from the phone and sighed. It held the phone up to its earless head to hear what the man on the other end had to say.
“So, uh...” the man said before a hesitant pause, “...I know this is going to sound crazy, but...” another pause as the man on the other end tried to put what just happened into words, “...did you just try and travel through the phones so you could claw at me?”
The apparition looked to the left, then looked to the right, and if it was capable of it, it would have broken out in a nervous sweat. Sheepishly, the apparition responded, “...yes,” with the same tone of voice a child would use if they had been caught eating cookies before dinner.
A slight pause before the man followed back with, “...didn’t really work out for you, did it?”
Again, sounding like a child that knew they were totally busted, the apparition responded, “...nooooo...”
There was another pause on the phone before the man on the other end eventually said, “Well... better luck next time.”
This call was starting to get extremely awkward as the apparition had no idea what was going to happen next.
After about a minute of silence (which is considered taboo among telephone operators) the man on the other end finally asked, “Is there anything else I can help you with today?”
This was a battle the apparition had thoroughly lost, and it knew it. It was time to throw in the towel. With a depressed sigh, it responded back, “No... thank you”.
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Despite not being sure what exactly he just saw, Terry leaned forward in his chair and decided the very least he could do was offer some encouraging words. “I know you’re disappointed, and I get that. I really do. But other TV channels have cartoons too. You can always watch them there.”
“...yeah...” the voice responded.
“It’s not like all the cartoons in the world just suddenly vanished, right?”
“...I suppose...”
Terry was ready to wrap this call up and had his closing spiel all set to go. “We appreciate you caring enough to call in today and while I may not have been able to help you, I do hope you feel better soon. Okay?”
There was a moment of silence before the voice responded back, “...okay...”
“Thank you very much for calling CBS, and have a good rest of your day,” Terry said earnestly.
There was a click signaling the phone on the other end had disconnected. Terry hung up the phone on his end, leaned back in his office chair, and looked up to the ceiling.
At that exact same moment, the person they had been talking to just a minute ago thought the exact same thing as he did.
“Well... that was weird.”
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cilldaracailin · 4 years ago
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Save Me
Hey my Tumblr Lovelys!
In honour of St. Patrick’s Day and ya know having another story finished, I am going to post it today instead of at the weekend!
This is follows on from where the last story left off and continues on the Robyn and Taron series.
Hope you all enjoy!
Suze xx
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“Do not only think about it, but feel about it, also, before taking appropriate action.”
Taron jogged to his trailer, trying to stay out of the rain quicker by running to his base while filming in Belfast. Once inside he ran his hands through his growing hair, sighing that he was still pretty wet even with his rush from set. He loved being in the North of Ireland, not only because he was closer to Robyn and still in the same time zone, the change of scenery had been good for him and now six weeks into filming he was getting more use to the script, the words he had to say, the scenes he needed to act in and although at times it was a struggle, he was slightly more contented in his role and as he said he would to his mother and Robyn, he leaned on Matthew for emotional support as he filmed.
The only thing that was working against them was the weather and another day of rain meant that as he arrived back to his trailer for a late lunch call, he needed to change out of his shirt. It was so strange to him that there was such a difference in the weather between England and Ireland and while London was bathing in daily June temperatures of twenty-five, Belfast and as he had learnt from Robyn, Kilcreen, was nestled in a low fifteen and sixteen degrees, days of rain replacing blue skies and sunshine that were across the Irish sea.
He moved to the bathroom to grab the towel from the rack, roughly drying his growing hair, trying to get most of the wetness out, walking back into the living area of his trailer so he would have some more space in his movements. It wasn’t the smallest of trailers that he ever had, but his space was limited though he didn’t mind. It had been perfect for when he needed silence to read over lines, grab a quick nap or just have some head space and privacy. Hearing the knock on the door, Taron walked the four steps to the trailer door and opened it, smiling as he saw one of the director’s assistants with a coffee cup.
“Hey Taron. For you.”
“Joe you legend. Thank you so much.” He draped the towel over his shoulder and took the brown cup from the young assistant and sighed happily as a packaged sandwich was handed to him too. “Joe, thank you.”
“No worries. Matthew said you were headed straight to your trailer to change and asked if I could drop something over to you for lunch.”
“Thank you.” Taron hoped his appreciation was clear in his voice. Never one to expect to be waited on, he was so grateful for the unexpected delivery of some food.
“Any time Taron.”
With a quick goodbye, Joe headed back to his other duties, Taron closing his trailer door, already inhaling the scent of coffee from the warm cup in his right hand. They had ran much longer than expected while filming that morning and lunch should have been four hours ago but Matthew insisted on getting the scene just right so he wouldn’t have to revisit it and when the rain started to fall, he really pushed to finish the scene even with the actors getting a little wet in the process. The steaming hot coffee was very much welcomed, and the first sip instantly eased the slight chill he could feel. He placed his lunch on the table and went straight into the small bedroom, dropping the towel on the floor and pulling his shirt over his head as he went, shivering a little until he pulled on a dry hoodie over his bare cold skin. Making his way back to the table, he slid into the booth and took another sip of coffee, opening the sandwich, only now realising that he was really hungry. Matthew had called a quick half an hour lunch break, promising to only carry on filming for another two hours before they could have a longer dinner and it had been a long time since breakfast.
The first bite was delicious and the catering had really pulled out all the stops with their freshly made sandwiches and the simple chicken salad on multigrain bread was perfect for his grumbling stomach. Taking another long drink of his coffee, he picked up his phone from the table surprised that he hadn’t gotten a message from Robyn yet especially as it was near four on Friday afternoon and by now she normally sent him at least one message asking how his day was going. They had yet the chance to meet up, even though he was closer to her but his schedule had him working weekends, having days off during the week which didn’t suit Robyn as she worked Monday to Friday. They had to settle for phone calls and WhatsApp video calls as well as many text messages but it was strange for her not to have contacted him yet. Figuring she was just busy, he opened their chat and typed a quick message to her, letting her know that next weekend, before he flew back to Aberystwyth for Mari’s birthday weekend on June twentieth, he was free on the Saturday and she was more than welcome to come down to him for a quick twenty-four hour visit before he was back to work on the Sunday. He smiled as he thought about Mari and the further guilt she had plagued Robyn with in trying to get her to come to her birthday near the end of June and his sister had really pulled at Robyn’s heart strings especially when she took the ‘but you saved my brother’ avenue. Taron knew Robyn was due some sort of training for work that had yet to be organised but if it wasn’t the weekend of Mari’s birthday she would be there in a second, knowing Taron was free too and they could spend some time together. Taron was very much looking forward to going home for a few days to see his family and to get back to Aber just to have a break. It had been a very long time since he had been home.
He got to his feet and took the few steps to the small fridge in the small kitchen area, opening it to take out a can of Coke. Having finished the coffee, he knew the extra caffeine would keep his energy going until dinner and settling back into the booth, picked up the other half of the sandwich and happily munched as he scrolled through his phone, enjoying the break in filming. Even though it was going to be a very quick one, it was needed. It wasn’t the normal method Matthew used when filming, to continue on set for such a long period of time, preferring to give short breaks in-between completed scenes, giving the actors a chance to re-group and breathe a little but with the complicated sequence to be shot outside from various different angles, he wanted to keep the momentum going, the energy he could feel as they shot it thoroughly in one go. Taron was definitely feeling the efforts he was putting into the longer filming and gave his shoulders and neck a long roll, his mind thinking how nice it would be right now to have Robyn’s hands on the back of his neck, rubbing his tired muscles. He smiled as he imagined her behind him, her hands working up into his hair, knowing she would be delighted to feel it growing, although maybe a little disappointed to know it was going to have to be cut once again for consistency in the scenes next week, not even getting a chance to see it a bit longer for herself. Elongating his neck again, Taron’s smile stayed on his face. Any thoughts of Robyn always left him smiling and he took another bite of his lunch, going back to the home page on his phone so he could open up his gallery.
He jumped a little as the phone rang in his hand before he got a chance to access his photos but frowned when it was a number he didn’t recognise. Every now and again, his phone would ring with a private number or one that was unfamiliar to him and he was about to cancel the call when looking closer to the number, the country prefix was one he recognised. The zero zero three five three was the Irish country code and he only knew this because it was how he was able to call Robyn on her number by using the prefix. Taking a chance, he answered, still highly suspicious but willing to chance his arm.
“Hello?”
“Taron?”
It was an Irish accent on the end of the phone and one that seemed somewhat familiar to him. “Yep speaking.”
“Hi Taron, it’s Emma.”
Taron was only aware of one Irish Emma he had met and that was Robyn’s manager. Immediately he sat up in the booth. “Hey Emma.” He tried to keep his voice steady, worry already settling into him. “Robyn? Is she ok?”
“She is fine Taron.” Emma heard the sigh on the end of the phone. “I am so sorry for calling you. I had your phone number in my call list from the last time Robyn went to visit you and she used your phone to call me.”
“That’s ok Emma. How can I help you?”
“Well, I had a bit of a favour to ask you and I know you are incredibly busy filming but just thought I would chance asking you.”
“Emma, just ask me.”
“I am sure Robyn has been talking to you about the training this weekend.”
“Training?” Taron asked confused.
“Of course she didn’t.” Emma sighed. “We have organised for a first aid refresher course this weekend for our staff. A lot of the staff need their certificates and training updated and we organise it in the creche where an instructor comes into us and we spend a full day on the course. It’s normal procedure to ensure all of our staff have the adequate medical training when working with the children.”
“Sorry Emma. I am a little confused.” Taron was wondering if Robyn had told Emma about his CPR campaign he did last year, maybe looking for some posters or a video or something he could send to her.
“Robyn has her training tomorrow too.”
Taron’s whole body sank back into the seat of the booth, his free hand running down his face.
“I take it from your silence that she definitely didn’t say anything to you Taron.”
“I had no idea.”
“I figured as much. Typical Robyn.”
Taron nodded his agreement. “She never said a word. Has it been organised long?”
“The week of her birthday. Before she went to see you.”
“Robyn…” Taron let his head hit the back of the seat. The terrifying nightmare that had left her really shook was beginning to make more sense to him. “Things are suddenly becoming a little bit clearer for me now.”
“The dreams?”
“Yeah. Thanks for giving her the time off.”
“I was very happy too. I know you two went through something terrible and can only understand what it was like, needing the time together and here is where my favour comes in Taron. I know you are working and probably up to your eyes but Robyn has just been so distant today and completely froze when one of the girls asked her for a cold compress, for her help with a very simple first aid situation of a bloody nose. It is not like her at all and she was pale as a ghost when she came back to the office. Her mind is completely on the course tomorrow and having seen her react so to a nosebleed, I am so worried what the refresher course is going to do to her, especially the CPR. It is such a long shot and like I said, I know you are so busy but if there was any way possible that you could manage to come to Kilcreen tomorrow evening for when she has finished the course, I know it would mean the world to her. I have a feeling she is really going to need lots of extra support and as much as me and her friends are there for her, I don’t think it can compare to what you have been doing for her. I just thought I would try and ask you. God loves a trier, right?”
Taron listened, his heart breaking at what he was hearing, how once again Robyn was out to sabotage herself, a little disappointed that she didn’t tell him about her course and it broke him even more when he knew how hectic his filming day was tomorrow. “Emma…”
The tone of his voice was enough for Emma to interrupt him. “It’s ok Taron. I knew it was such a long shot. Robyn has told me how gruelling your schedule can be. I just thought I would ask and see. I will be there for her tomorrow no matter what.”
“Emma I would give anything to be there for her. I know how hard it was for me do the first aid course back in October and I don’t even remember the CPR so I can’t imagine how difficult it will be for Robyn to re-enact the CPR that saved my life on a mannequin. It will be extremely testing and even more so with how close August is to us.” Taron’s heart felt so heavy. “I wish she had of told me.”
“She is doing that thing again where she closes herself off, trying to deal with a situation by herself. I really thought she had moved on from doing that.”
“Me too.” Taron knew well Robyn hadn’t told him because she was once again protecting him from his own dread and memories of the 7/11, not wanting to upset him but instead she was putting herself through unneeded pain and distress. “Emma leave it with me.”
“Taron please don’t put yourself under any pressure. I am sorry I asked you. I don’t want you to panic over it.”
“Absolutely not Emma. Thank you for contacting me, letting me know.”
“Taron please don’t tell her I rang you. She will be so mad at me.”
“I won’t say a word to her. I promise.”
“Taron…”
“I will do nothing to let her know I know about the training. She hasn’t messaged me at all today anyway. I know why now. She does such a wonderful job of looking after me or others but still struggles with the little things, to take care of herself and she won’t be mad at you. I am glad you rang me and like I said, leave it with me.”
“Please don’t put yourself out Taron. I know what Robyn will say when she finds out.”
“You let me worry about Robyn, Emma. We have been though a lot together but sometimes she just needs a little push and I know she doesn’t mind when I push her that little bit harder.”
“Well rather you than me Taron but then you have been able to get under her skin.”
Taron found himself smiling a little. “I won’t say a word to her Emma about you ringing me, I promise. I won’t even mention it. Let me talk to my director. When it comes down to it, Robyn is very special and important to me and let’s face it, I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for that training she has. Let me see what I can do Emma. Robyn has always been there for me, no matter what.”
“Thank you Taron. She speaks so highly of you and I know she loves you very much.”
“The feeling is mutual Emma.”
After he ended the phone call, he stared at his half-eaten sandwich and open can of Coke, both of which made his previously hungry stomach turn, his coffee now swirling uncomfortably as he felt slightly sick. Although he was very upset at Robyn’s actions, how she blatantly avoided telling him about her CPR training, he still found himself loving her more as once again she put his needs before hers but this was one time Taron was absolutely sure Robyn would crumble on her own, no matter how strong she always seemed to be. As much as he struggled with the fact that CPR had saved his life, it was Robyn who actually performed the delicate technique and having to relive the whole process was going to be so hard for her.
Without a second thought, Taron picked up his phone and made his way out of his trailer and back into the rain which had gotten heavier over the last fifteen minutes and headed towards Matthew’s trailer which was four down from his. He knocked on the door and once he heard Matthew’s voice telling him to come in, opened the door, hopping up the three steps inside.
“Taron, come on in.” Matthew looked up from the pile of papers on his table, giving him a smile. “I am just looking at our schedule for tomorrow. I think we might be able to fit one more quick scene in before it gets dark especially if this rain keeps up. It will work perfectly for the mood of the scene too.”
“Can I talk to you for a second?” Taron asked coming into the trailer a bit, closing the door on the cold and rain. Matthew’s trailer was a little bit bigger than his and where Taron could only fit two at his table, Matthew had enough room for four.
“And I think maybe if we even push a little more this evening, we can really try to film the gutter scene too.” Matthew tilted his head towards his lead actor. “Shouldn’t you be on lunch?”
“Shouldn’t you?” Taron asked back taking some steps closer. “I wanted to talk to you about something.”
“Sure. Have a seat. What’s up?” Matthew was used to Taron coming to have a chat with him throughout the course of the filming over the last few weeks, as he looked for some advice and reassurance on the scenes, the emotional needs of the script testing for the younger actor and he immediately turned his attention to him, dropping his pen on the script pages in front of him.
Taron eased himself into the booth opposite Matthew. “I know we are keeping to a very tight schedule but may be a little ahead.”
“Just a little bit.”
Taron had a feeling Matthew didn’t want a repeat of what happened during the filming of Kingsman so was really driving the cast forward with some demanding long days, trying to take advantage as best he could with what scenes he could. “I just wanted to ask a favour.”
“What kind of favour?”
“So, Robyn…” Taron looked to Matthew.
“Robyn. My favourite fiery Irish woman.”
“Yes, that one.”
“Taron you know she is welcome to come to set whenever she wants. I have the access lanyard for her.”
“Yeah, I know that but this isn’t about Robyn coming to me. I need to go to her.”
“Taron?” Matthew was prepared for a pep talk, ready to tell Taron he was doing a great job with the script, really pushing through some difficult emotional filming and was more than happy to have Robyn come to set but he honestly wasn’t expecting Taron to say he needed to go and see her.
“Robyn has her CPR training tomorrow and she never told me. Her manager just rang me to tell me. Typical of Robyn not to tell me. Always trying to protect me.” He tried to read the older man’s face, who sat looking at him with his head slightly tilted. “I erm, well I just wanted to see what the chances were of shuffling some things around for filming for the weekend so I could go and see Robyn tomorrow.”
“To go and see Robyn tomorrow?” Matthew repeated.
“Yeah.” Taron ran his right hand over his head. “I know it’s a lot to ask Matthew especially when we have only just started filming but it is Robyn. She has always been there for me when I needed her and she wants to go headfirst into this first aid training tomorrow. I know how hard I found it when I did the campaign last year and I don’t even remember the CPR but Robyn does and I just can’t let her do this alone. Her manager rang me to tell me about tomorrow, worried Robyn was already feeling the strain from the upcoming training because she was so off in work today and she hasn’t even started it yet. It is something I have to be there for but I know I signed my work contract but Robyn…”
“�� Is one of the most important people in your life.” Taron had avoided looking to his director but had to glance his way. “When is her training again?”
“Tomorrow, first thing. It’s a one-day refresher course. Even if I could finish a bit earlier so I could make my way to hers for when she was finished.” His whole face fell when he saw Matthew shake his head. “Matthew…”
“Let me shuffle some things around Taron so you can leave early tomorrow to be with Robyn as soon as you can.” Matthew picked up his pen and moved some pages to find the schedule for tomorrow.
“Really?”
“Of course.” He looked Taron. “That woman means everything to you and I know you love her and wouldn’t be asking me to leave the set unless it was important to you. I am sure I can re-arrange the whole weekend so we can concentrate on the scenes you aren’t in. Like I said earlier, we are ahead of schedule. I can look at moving some scenes to next Saturday instead. I know you had the day off.”
“Matthew, thank you. That would be great. I will put the extra hours in next weekend. Really. An all-nighter if you need it.”
“Taron…”
“I just need to be there for her tomorrow. I cannot let her do this training alone.”
“Taron…”
“She is already starting to have nightmares about Florida again and I know if I was there with her, it would mean so much to her and...” He stopped talking when he felt a hand on his. “Sorry.”
Matthew gave the very worried and fretting man in front of him a supportive smile. “No need to say sorry. It’s no problem Taron. She’s a wonderful woman and I wouldn’t want her even trying to go through something like that on her own. Let me look at it during dinner later and we can figure something out for you.”
“Thank you.”
“Go back and finish your lunch or at least try. We have about two more hours in front of us and then dinner where I will have more time then to look at a plan for the weekend.”
“Thanks Matthew.” Taron got to his feet and headed out in the rain, slowly walking back to his trailer not even bothered by the large wet drops falling on his head. He threw his half-finished lunch into the bin and then poured his can of Coke down the sink, no interest in eating anything, his earlier hunger long gone. Taking the steps in the bedroom, he fell forward onto the bed, his legs dangling off the end, a long sigh causing his body to rise and fall. He couldn’t have been more thankful for the kind understanding of his director who without a second thought wanted to help him out in leaving set tomorrow so he could get to Robyn but even with the relief of getting to go to her, frustrated was only one way to describe how he was feeling right now as well as slightly let down by Robyn and her incessant need to block everyone out when things got tough for her. After her time with him for her birthday and how quickly she let him in, he was taken back at how swiftly she had taken on to keeping everything in again, but then she hadn’t even told him about the first aid training and knowing it was happening the whole time during her birthday weekend, it was another obvious clue as to why her nightmares had started to return. When Taron thought he had finally gotten through to her, to figure her out, she just closed off to him and he felt let down by her actions. Always telling him she was there for him, when he offered her the same courtesy, she preferred to shut him out and it hurt him deeply.
His head turned when there was a sharp knock at his door and a loud call of his name, his call that lunch was over and he had to return to set.
“Be right there!” He yelled back.
Groaning he pulled himself up from the bed and to his feet. He was trying to keep his emotions from turning, from letting his building annoyance cloud his mind especially when he knew it wasn’t the mood he needed right now as he was due back on set. He shuffled out of his hoodie and picked up the slightly wet shirt from the floor, slipping back into it, shivering as the cold met his skin. They were carrying on from where they had left off before Matthew called for lunch, a new scene but in the same clothes and he needed to get back into the shirt he been wearing, despite the fact it was still a little wet. Leaving his phone on the bed, Taron headed out of the trailer and back into the rain, walking towards the closed set, turning his attention to his work but in the back of his mind thinking about how he was going to be there for Robyn as he told her he always would be, but also desperately needing to make her see that she couldn’t keep hiding these things from him.
To help give Taron extra time with Robyn, Matthew was true to his word and re-organised their filming schedule so he could have the whole weekend off. Though it gave Taron very little time to prepare for the additional scene he was given to film late that night but it worked in his favour though as the script called for an uncertain and nervous atmosphere for the character he was playing as he faced his scripted father who strolled in drunk in the early hours of the morning from a bar. Matthew was happy with the adlibbing he ended up with when Taron stammered through dialogue he couldn’t quite remember, his fear of forgetting his lines, mingling well with the fear of facing another on screen beating, calling cut just after two am, thanking all for working later than expected, giving everyone a late start the next morning.
Tired and further emotionally drained from the unexpected filming, thinking the tough scene was going to be worked on next weekend, just after three in the morning Taron was throwing some clothes into a backpack, not really watching with what he was picking up, heading into the bathroom of the flat he was staying in to grab some toiletries too. He was so thankful to Matthew for organising for him to have the whole weekend off and before he tried to get some sleep, was packing a quick bag for his visit to Robyn. Matthew had even prearranged a ride for him to Kilcreen though had to try very hard to convince Taron that leaving at six am was a ridiculous plan when he needed to sleep and Robyn would more than likely still be in bed and he couldn’t just appear on her front door step just after eight in the morning. So, having to wait until the car arrived for him at nine, he was ordered to try and get some sleep but instead of trying to lay down and rest, he jumped into the shower, hopping around a little as the water scalded him until he managed to get the temperature right and just stood, letting the stream flood his face, his eyes closed tight. As much as he knew he wanted to there to support Robyn and help her through her training, he was so nervous about facing the CPR again. He struggled through it last year but now with how close he had grown to Robyn, how much he had grown to love her, how he fallen in love with her, it was going to be particularly difficult watching her battle with the reason he was still alive. He could only imagine how she was feeling knowing she was going to have relive every movement of going through the motions of those terrifying moments when her hands were the only thing keeping his blood pumping.
After he gave his hair a quick wash, his body an extra-long soap using the same lime shower gel Robyn always had in her home, he quickly dried off and pulled on a pair of boxers and climbed into the bed, flicking off the bedside light before crawling right under the covers, dragging the pillow with him so he could get comfortable tucked into himself. He had forgotten his fleece throw that Robyn gave him and he missed it terribly knowing exactly where he had left it, folded neatly on the end of his couch in London. He had left without it, not even thinking to pick it up as he was on the phone to Matthew on the way out to catch his lift to the airport and as it always helped him sleep, now he longed for the comfort it brought him at the end of long day on set. He shuffled a little further into the bed, tucking the duvet right up to his chin and where before he was aching for Robyn’s hands on his neck, now he was desperate for a cuddle, a warm body to snuggle into. He had already set an alarm for eight and the glow from the clock on the bedside locker told him he would get a little longer than four hours of sleep if he actually managed to sleep. His mind was running in troubled circles and knew nothing was going to soothe his worried thoughts until he saw Robyn tomorrow or rather in a few hours and give her the hug he knew she was going to desperately need and him too.
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lancearcherinrippedjeans · 4 years ago
Text
It Was All Good...Then in Comes Kenny
For previous parts, click HERE
Pairings - Adam Page x OFC, Matt Jackson x OFC x Kenny Omega, Chuck Taylor x OC
Categories - Fluff, Angst, Almost Smut
Warnings/Promises - Cussing (like always), sexual jokes, and well uh, almost smut
Summary/Desc - Adam and Gabby get into an arguement, Brianna has a rough day, Parker and Chuck finally talk, and Adriana gets into a, well, entanglement.
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Back in Gabby’s life, her and Adam had bought a house in Ann Arbor Michigan where they planned to raise their baby. A baby boy named Ashen Page. 8 months into her pregnancy she was on lock down not knowing when the baby would come, other on Adam’s hand he still had to wrestle.
“He’s not home yet?” Parker said, “Nope.” Gabby sighed. Gabby and Parker were facetiming while she sat on their couch, waiting for Adam to arrive home. Minutes later she heard the sound of the door being unlocked, “Ok he’s here I’ll call you back.” She hung up the phone. Adam entered the house, hair in ponytail, luggage draped over his shoulder. “Hi baby!” Adam dropped his bags and ran to where Gabby was, “Hi!” 
They kissed, when Gabby noticed something...off, “Have you been drinking again?” “Of course not, babe.” Adam placed his hand on a frustrated Gabby's stomach. While she was pregnant, her and Adam promised he’d sober up, unless it was drinking for work. She immediately moved his hand off her, “I’m not fucking dumb Adam, I can taste the whisky in your breath.” she rolled her eyes. They sat down on the couch, “I was stressed about work and you and Ashen, I just had to.”
“You sound fucking dumb, if I can’t drink for 9 months, you can’t either.” Gabby shook her head in disappointment. “When are you gonna become more understanding Gabrielle, like fuck!”
“More understanding?! I’ve been nothing but understanding bro.” A tear ran down her face. “It’s like you want me to be this person that can wrestle, and be a great dad, and pleasure you, plus be your emotional support system? I can’t do it all.” “So what? Am I asking for too much? Because if I went to Joey and asked him to be my emotional support system, or fuck it. Go to him for sex them what would you do Adam?” Gabby wiped her tears, crossing her arms. “Really? Maybe I wasn’t wrong about you and Kenny then!” he shouted. 
“What is it Adam? You think we fucked? Kissed? Want each other? I’ve told you it's not like that at all. You're the only man I want.” Gabby teared up again. Adam couldn’t bear to see Gabby cry anymore, so he pulled her into a hug. “I’m sorry about the drinking babe.” “It’s ok, I love you”. Adam used the tips of his thumbs to wipe the tears off her face, lifting Gabby’s shirt rubbing her baby bump. “Love you so much more.”
All the way over in Jacksonville, Brianna was getting ready to film a BTE bit. She had agreed to film with Brandon and Frankie Kazarian, and was a bit excited. “Alright, Brianna you ready?” Brandon asked, Bri nodded enthusiastically. “Kaz you ready?” She looked over at Frankie and he was glaring at her. “Yeah, I’m ready.” He said in a sharp tone.
She went back and got into place and Brandon started filming.
Bri was hunched over looking through Twitter on her phone, not watching where she was going. “OW- What the shit!?” Frankie Kazarian yelped. Bri quickly looked away from her phone to see that her foot was on top of Frankie’s heel. “Oh my god. I am so sorry, I wasn’t watching where I was going-” she rambled. Frankie was steamed. He was already angry, as usual, and this made it a MILLION times worse.
“You know what I am sorry for BRI-ANNA?” He asked quite loudly which made everyone turn to look at him. “I'm sorry that someone as talented as Joey Janela wasted his hard earned money on someone like you.” Bri opened her mouth to apologize again but was cut off. “HOW are you even back here? I don’t know if you have read the fucking signs EVERYWHERE, but this is for talent only! What talent do you have Bri? Besides getting on your knees for people other than the Lord himself?” Kazarian was extremely dramatic with everything he said during BTE- but this seemed a little too real.
“Like honestly, as soon as you get here you have Marq Quen following you around like you’re important; and then the very next day I SEE you talking to Cash Wheeler- who has only been here for a couple WEEKS?! I’m surprised you didn’t all go in a room together and fuck yourselves, or maybe you did.”
Bri was actually concerned. “How the hell does he know who I’ve been with… this wasn’t in the script?” She began to notice everyone around listening into her conversation whispering to each other. “This is so embarrassing.” she thought. “What else have you done here? You’re by far the LEAST relevant outta of your little friend group, and you crave attention so much - so now you got it! Should I go off and check everyone you’ve batted your eyelashes at since you’ve been here?” 
Bri shook her head no, but it was too late. “There was Marq of course, then when you got bored with him you crawled over to the new hottest thing; Cash Wheeler. But do they know who you’ve had between them?” Bri’s eyes slightly widened.  “You had made heart eyes, with not one but ALL members of Team Taz. What is wrong with you?! Two of them have families of their own, You damn homewrecker!” She saw some of the people backstage shake their heads. 
“Kaz… stop.” she mumbled under her breath. 
“Nah nah, don’t be quiet now you fucking cheater! Everyone has heard you, like when you thought since you were in a janitor closet with Austin Gunn no one would notice the strange moans coming out of them?” Shit. Bri was tired of hearing this man exposing her, “I told you - that wasn’t me. This arena is old, could have been a ghost Frankie.” she lied of course, but she would do anything to get out of this situation.  
“Last time I checked we were at a wrestling arena not a damn haunted mansion. Everyone is smart enough to know the difference between a moan full of fucking pleasure from a cry from a ‘ghost’.” 
Brandon Cutler began to lower his camera but Kazarian yelled at him. “Don’t you fucking dare cut this! We’re all about being real, well THIS right here,” as he points as Brianna, “Is as real as we’re gonna get. Because some people are stupid enough to let bitches like this come in here and suck off the whole roster.” Bri was shocked. 
“Who are you calling a bitch? I know the least important member of SCU isn’t talking. Let me talk to Scorpio.” she rolled her eyes, there was no way in hell this was getting posted online. “Sorry, he’s trying to stay away from women that seduces half of the indie wrestlers on Dark.” 
Bri slapped Frankie with tears starting to form into her eyes, “You ain’t shit.” and she meant every word. She didn’t care that Cutler was calling her name, or even some of the wrestlers trying to stop her- she had to get out of not only this situation, but the arena as fast as possible.
The Elite
The The Elite
The Elite
The The Elite
The Elite
The The Elite
Superkick PAAARRRR-
Tan Legs
“Why are there so many rooms in this damn arena?” Adriana questioned as she was acting like she was looking for Tony Khan’s office. She had been searching everywhere as Brandon Cutler followed her with his camera. The camera cut to her in front of the Elite locker room, raising her hand to knock at the door. A relieved Kenny popped in the doorway. “Oh Adriana, am I glad to see you!” He moved over and invited Adriana into the room, closing the door behind him. 
“Well, I would love to sit here with you Kenny, but could you show me where Khan’s office is-?” Kenny pushed his finger onto her lips making her shush. “Shhh, I can show you where his office is. But I need something from you since Matt is busy handling phone calls.” 
Her face lit up to the mention of Matt’s name, but she had to stay in character, so she immediately nodded and mouthed an okay. She sat down in the chair, across from the couch Kenny was sitting on. “You’re a little far, wouldn't you say?” he said as he began to shift to the edge. “Uhm, that depends what exactly am I doing?” As she looked at him with confusion. 
“Just move a little closer.” Kenny demanded. “We gotta get this over with.” Adriana’s mouth slightly fell open, in shock of the words coming out of his mouth. “I- I’m sorry. What do you mean get this over with-” Kenny chuckled, “No one was out there right- you came alone?” She nodded quickly, unable to speak; she could feel the room closing in on her, making her move her chair slightly to where he was on the couch. He looked at her weird, “Haha a little closer than that Adri.” 
He said as he leaned over folding his hands. “Well, how close do I have to be?” she tilted her head up giving him her full attention. “I mean…you’re still a little far for what we have to do.” She began to pull her chair forward, but Kenny pushed her back down lightly and stood up. “What WE have to do?” She asked, not understanding the signals he was giving to her. At this point she was losing it on the inside, he’s never been so forward with her. His hands began to adjust the band of his gray shorts. 
“Yea, hey you mind getting on your knees?” he asked with all seriousness in his voice making Adriana almost fall out of her chair. From the corner of her eye she could see Brandon’s eyes widened a bit. She looked up and saw a slight smirk from Kenny, which made her roll her eyes. “He knows what he’s doing.” she thought in the inside of her head. Kenny stood there , looking stupid as Adriana came back to reality. 
“O-on my knees? Are you sure?” As she began to crawl out the chair. “Uh yea- I know this isn't your first time, but I thought you would be more prepared.” he joked. She had almost let out a laugh. “Oh, and take that ponytail holder on your wrist and tie your hair up- this could get a little messy.” as he pushed his shorts down his legs- making her face to face with his package. She felt Brandon move closer to get a better shot of her face, and she wished he hadn’t. She shot her head back, letting out a sigh. “Damn, he is bigger than I thought.” She closed her eyes, and tried to gain control overself. She did a slight prayer as she closed her eyes and opened her mouth slightly, waiting for Kenny. When he placed it in her mouth she was shocked, it was thick… but cold. 
She opened her eyes when she heard Kenny freaking out. “ADRIANA! STOP BEING RIDICULOUS! DID YOU SEE HOW WHITE MY LEGS ARE?” Adriana also started freaking out as she spat out a bottle of tanning spray. “STOP LOOKING AT MY RIDICULOUS QUAD DEVELOPMENT AND GET THIS GOD DAMN QUICK TAN ON MY LEGS STAT!” Kenny yelled.
 “YES- TAN! RIGHT, NOTHING ELSE.” as she scurried to pick up the bottle.  Adriana had struggled unloosing the cap not only because of the commotion, but because of the fact she thought she was about to get filmed for a porno with Kenny Omega. “ADRIANA! HURRY UP. THE COLOR OF MY ARMS, AND THE COLOR OF MY FACE DO NOT MATCH THE COLOR OF MY LEGS!” He pouted as she finally shook the can getting ready to spray but then it accidentally slipped out of her hands. “SPRAY MY LEGS!” 
She shot the cap throwing it somewhere in the room. “God, I’m an idiot.” she said to herself. “Sorry Kenny, I didn’t know they were this pale-” “MAKE THEM ORANGE!” He ordered, making Adriana spray faster. “Eh it’s looking… pretty good!” he said while examining his now newly tanned legs. “I knew I could count on you. Thanks.” he said. 
“You’re so welcome, sorry I don’t know why that was so hard for me to do.” She said as she got up from her odd position to sit on the end of the couch. “Why were you so freaked out-” He asked as he spotted the spray can top in the corner of the room. “I’m not sure honestly, it’s just something I do nowadays.” She lied, but he didn’t think anything of it. 
He took the can out of her hand and popped the cap back on as he sat next to her, “Anyways, since Matt isn’t in here. You should get over here and suck me o-”
Stolen Bit Partner
“Did you see how big his biceps were?” John Silver said, walking down the hallway with Alex and Parker, arms hooked. “You were right John, his milkshake sure does bring all the boys to the yard.” Parker said, chuckling slightly. Alex was about to protest what Parker was saying, but agreed. No one could deny that Wardlow was a beautiful human. The trio kept walking, talking about the man who’s locker room they had just left, when they bumped into another trio, one that Parker was very familiar with.
The Best Friends and Orange Cassidy.
They all stopped in their tracks. That’s when Alex detached from Parker, him and Chuckie going around in a slow circle, sizing each other up. Trent and John just looked at each other. And in the middle of all of this, Cassidy took off his glasses, and started looking Parker up and down.
The rotating finally stopped when Chuck spoke up, “You stole my bit partner, Reynolds.” “Oh, YOUR bit partner?”
And so the argument began, Trent bending down to get in Silver’s face, and Chuck and Reynolds pushing each other back and forth. Behind it all, Parker looked over to Orange and waved, but when he didn’t even give a sup motion, she turned away, a defeated look on her face.
“At least I’m not in a cult with a bunch of spooky perverts!” “Well these spooky perverts have a better hug than you guys!”
“What even is a ‘Johnny Hungie’?!” Trent yelled, “Well what the fuck is an ‘olive tit’ TRENT?!” “Boys, Boys! Please!” Parker yelled, standing between all of them. “Did they experiment on your brain!?” Chuck questioned, looking down at Parker. “What- Okay. No they did not experiment on my brain!”
“Did they TRAIN you to say that?” Trent said jumping at Silver. Parker pushed Trent back lightly. “Train Trent? What do you think we are? Some kind of cult?!” John argued. “Yes! That’s exactly what we’re saying.” Chuck answered.
“Y’know what?!” Alex grabbed Parker by the arm, “We’re leaving!”
Parker swatted Alex’s hand, that look on her face. “I think I’m going to...be on Sammy’s vlog instead.” She gave a nervous smile before walking behind the camera, “See ya Brandon.” “Uh, bye.”
Alex pointed his finger in Chuck’s face, Kool-Aid container still in his hand, “This isn’t over.” Reynolds and Silver walked away when Chuck mumbled, “We’re in the middle of a pandemic, keep your hand out my face.” Trent and Cassidy looked at each other while Chuck walked away. Trent shrugged one more time before following.
Orange just sighed, minding his own business.
Hungry Hungry Hippos
The room had conversation and laughter, when Trent spoke up, “Uh, BTE Championship match, triple threat.” The camera panned over to the left, “Marq Quen checking in.” Marq said with a smile, Isiah waving from behind him. The camera panned past Trent to the right, “Parker here, with uh, Chuck Taylor.” Chuck and Parker looked awkwardly at each other before Parker looked back at the camera, “My other friends decided to be dicks and not show up.”
Brandon pointed back towards Trent, who explained the game, “So uh, we’re playing the game Hungry Hungry Hippos, first one to get to two victories wins my BTE championship.”
The next scene showed all of them surrounding a table. “I am a GOAT at this game.” Marq said, rubbing his hands together. Parker pointed at him, “Oh yeah? Well prepare to lose Quen.” 
The game had started, and the game had almost fallen off the table. “Y’all are so aggressive!” Matt Jackson laughed, pointing out how seriously they were taking the game.
Marq had quickly gotten the first victory. Trent and Parker groaning at their defeat.
“Already halfway THERE.” “Shut up!” Trent and Parker said in unison.
And the games went on, until all of them were tied with one victory each.
The three looked at each other, before talking to their “coaches” for a moment. 
They had all returned to the table, and the tiebreaker had started. This round was definitely the most aggressive, with Trent actually trying, Marq jumping up and down making noises, and Parker trying to be as quick as possible.
When all the marbles were gone, they had each counted them up.
Trent had gone first, only having 5. Then Parker counted theirs, having 8. Marq counted the last of the marbles.
“Five, Six,” He pulled out the last marble, “Seven.” Marq had dropped to the ground, while Parker jumped up, knees almost to her chest in victory. “New BTE champ!” Nick said, grabbing the championship and handing it to Parker.
Parker held up the championship, before looking at it, “I have to go rub this in Adriana’s face so she gets mad at me.” She was about to leave the room, when she stepped back, “Oh yeah, I promised Marko I would fight him for this if I won. So next week, we balance KitKats on our heads.” “You’re gonna WHAT?!”
The screen showed Parker vs Marko for next week, for the Being The Elite Championship.
Hey, did you like that video? Click the screen for more.
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And thanks so much for Being The Elite.
The Elite The The Elite
What Nick you’re not gonna sing it all with me this time?
Brianna was so embarrassed. How did Frankie even know all that? She kept thinking to herself, “Did Marq tell everyone?” He wouldn’t...right? This was just all too much for her, cause of some stupid mistake.
She stayed outside the arena the whole show, not wanting to show her face in there. Then wrestlers and producers started walking out, some mumbling when they looked over at Bri. She looked over at the people walking out, and saw Marq and Isiah. Marq and Brianna stared at each other, before Marq looked away, almost like he didn’t want to look at her. She watched them pack up and drive off, and she heard a familiar voice call out from behind her, “Hey Brianna!”
She looked over her shoulder and saw Cash walking over to her, and they both started smiling. That smile quickly turned back into a frown, when Dax grabbed Cash by the arm, dragging him away.
Great. 
She went back to staring at the ground, upset. She almost jumped back when someone sat next to her. “They said we can delete it.” Brandon Cutler said, trying to sound sympathetic. “Thank you.” Brianna mumbled. “Look, we got Kaz to calm down, and he’s gonna talk to you about it,” Brandon put his hand on her shoulder before getting up, “Hang in there, alright?”
“Could this day get any worse?” Brianna thought to herself.
When of course, with Brianna’s luck, it could. She felt something drop on her head, then her arm, then ankle. It’s like the rain started on command. “This is so fucking cliche.” Brianna said, standing up and walking to her car, not without one of her heels breaking. 
She waited until she got in the car, and then she screamed, at the top at her lungs. She just wanted to go to sleep, and find a fucking way to prove Kaz wrong.
Back at the Hotel
It had been months. Months since Parker and Chuck broke up. She wanted to talk to him outside of BTE for months. But she didn’t have the guts to do it.
She was watching tv in her hotel room, thinking about him, like always.
She pulled out her phone and facetimed Gabby, the only person she could really talk to about this stuff. There were a few rings before Gabby picked up, clearly irritated, “Girl it is half past midnight. Why are you calling me?” “I need to talk to him.” “Talk to who?” “Chuck! I can’t keep putting it off anymore.”
“Well then just talk to him?” “I can’t just discuss that over the phone.”
“Well, ask if you can talk in person.” Parker nodded, and went to her contacts, and clicked on the one she hadn’t touched in months. She read through the last of his messages to her, she didn’t answer.
It made her feel horrible.
She finally worked up the courage to type it out, “Can we talk? Like in person?”
“Okay, I did it.” “Great, now you just have to wait and see what he says.”
“Gabby, I’m sure he’s sleeping right now. And I can’t blame him if he doesn’t respo-” Parker paused, and looked like she had just seen a ghost. “Parker? Everything okay?” “....He texted back.”
“Well what did he say?!”
“He said of course, and then his room number…” “Well then go!” Parker got up quickly, tripping over her own feet walking to the door. “Wait wait Parker!” “What?”
“Put shoes on, don’t be a hobo.”
Parker laughed, quickly putting on some shoes, before hanging up on Gabby and making her way towards the elevator.
She waited when it opened, Trent coming out the elevator. “Oh, hey.” Parker said, looking at her feet. “He sent me to James’ room so you guys could talk.” Trent said, slightly laughing. Parker didn’t say anything, “Hey, it doesn’t have to be awkward y’know. We’re still cool.”
Parker smiled, and hugged Trent, before getting into the elevator. 
She walked out the elevator, for once walking with some pep in her step. It stayed that way until she reached the front of his door. She reached her hand up, and was about to knock when she put her hand down.
Well, not without hitting the door.
When she realized, she started freaking out. In silence of course. The door creaked open, Chuck and Parker looked at each other. “Do you wanna come in?”
Parker nodded, walking through the doorway. She sat on the couch, rubbing her hands awkwardly, looking at the floor. “So, what did you need to talk about?” He asked, sitting on the opposite side.
She could feel it coming, word vomit, “I made a mistake, and I know I did when I broke up with you, but I couldn’t work up the courage to talk to you cause I know you want nothing to do with me and-” “Wait wait, you still…” “Yes I do, and I know things will never be the same and just...I know this was a mistake.”
“Parker, I have been waiting to talk to you. Just at least when you’re ready. I miss you.”
Parker continued to look at the floor, slightly smiling. Chuck lightly gripped her chin, lifting her head up. “I love you, Parker.” Parker smiled, “I love you too, Chuck.” 
For the first time in months, they shared a kiss. “I missed having my whatever.” Chuck said, foreheads pressed together.
“Now can we please go back to being bit partners John keeps saying my name over and over.” The couple laughed, “Of course, I’ll tell James to stop giving you dirty looks.” “And I’ll tell the spooky perverts to not argue with you anymore.” The couple jumped when they heard the door open.
“I forgot my bag of chips.” Trent said, walking into the room. “God Trent you could’ve texted.” Chuck said, slapping his forehead. “I did. Did I interrupt something important?” Parker and Chuck looked at each other and smiled.
Trent started to “ooo” like he was in middle school. Parker stood up, cheeks red, “Okay on that note I’m leaving.” She started towards the door, “I love you Parker!” Chuck yelled out. “I love you too.” She was out the door when she heard Trent, “OH MY GO-” The door closed, and Parker laughed listening to Chuck yelling at Trent to shut up.
Parker walked towards the elevator, glad to have that situation of her shoulders and to have Chuck back.
“So, what's next for you two?” Trent asked, sitting back on his bed. Chuck looked out the window, “I don’t know yet exactly, I just know that I can’t lose her again.”
Back at Daily’s Place
“Did you see the look on Brandon’s face, it was priceless!” Kenny and Adriana had just finished their BTE bit and were now laughing at themselves for how clever they were. “Dude, I think we’re geniuses. Only we could come up with stuff like this.” Kenny said while holding his stomach from laughing. 
“You know, for a second I thought you were serious.” Adriana said after wiping her tears. Kenny tilted his head to the side. “What are you talking about… my legs were actually white as paper.” She shook her head, “That’s not what I’m talking about and you know that.” Kenny seemed to understand her a bit clearer now as he scooted closer next to her. “Do you really think that I would let you give me head at our job?” He asked with interest in his eyes. She began to start breathing heavily noticing their knees were touching. 
“You’re right - what was I thinking. You’re all business.” She sighed and put her hand on her face covering it up. Kenny thought it was cute how she was trying to hide from this conversation instead of talking about it. “That’s not true. I do childish shit all the time. And if we really wanted to, it would be way more than just head.” 
Adriana felt like she was powerbombed on the apron. “Plus I don’t see you as a person to give head in weird places like this EVP room, in a public bathroom, or even inside of a car.” He added. Her head whipped up so fast she thought it would fall off. “Right, why would I do that? That’s gross and disgusting-” she lied. If only he knew… “What’s gross, having sex with me or giving head in weird places?” She opened her mouth to speak but decided against it. 
He noticed as he rested his hand on her thigh. “I saw the look in your eyes Adriana. The way you looked at me when we did that bit for Being the Elite, is something I won’t be able to get my mind off for a long time. So - I am not saying it has to be today, but soon I want to hangout with you out of work. I want to know the real you.” She was left speechless, once again by Kenny Omega. “I got to go, but I’ll think about it.” 
She got up from the couch and wiped her now sweaty hands on her jeans. Kenny also stood , studying her. The way she avoided eye contact, the way her feet shuffled trying to gain her stuff immediately. His heart started to get louder as she finally looked at him and reached for a hug, making him open his arms. It wasn’t anything like he wanted. It was short and meaningless but he did get the chance to smell the perfume she was wearing and that alone made him swoon. Kenny gave her a wave as he sat back on the couch, “Shit.” he mumbled. “What have I gotten myself into.”
 On the other side of the door, Adriana was trying to come back to reality. “That really just happened.” she thought. “Did you have fun with ‘Spray Tan’ in there?” a voice asked sarcastically. She jumped up and when she turned around she was met with a frustrated Matt Jackson.  “Oh! Jeez you scared the hell out of me. I didn’t know you were here today.” She mentally slapped herself, “I really need to learn how to lie.” 
Matt leaned on the wall looking her over. “Really, last time I checked - I was an EVP. You on the other hand - are not - so what were you doing in this room for that long?” He asked. Adriana bit her lip, they hadn’t seen each other since their session in the car and both of them were aching for more ever since. “I had to record something with Kenny for BTE. It’s not that serious.” Matt ran his hand through his hair shooting his head back. “I saw the segment, Adri.” He plainly said. “Is this what we’re going to do? We’re going to act like what we did was nothing?” He walked closer to her sliding his hands to her waist. He lifted his hand to move some of her hair out of her face and leaned in to whisper in her ear, “Meet me at the Jacksonville Jaguars Stadium at 10 O’clock. And wear a bathing suit.” He hovered his lips over her neck before patting her ass and then walking away. 
Adriana stood there dumbfounded. She had waited a whole week to be able to get to see Matt, since they last met in the car and all she got was teasing. She looked toward the EVP room and sighed. She was so confused with emotions, she needed to get this stuff with Matt out of her system before it was too late. Adriana began her walk to her car, so she could get ready for a night with Matt Jackson.
“I SWEAR NONE OF THESE HOES ANSWER THE PHONE WHEN I NEED THEM!” Adriana threw her phone onto the bed after attempting to call Gabby, Parker, and Bri and of course they declined. Every. Single. Time. “Guess I have to go at this alone.” She sighed. She really missed talking to her friends, no matter how annoying they got. She would never feel complete without them. 
She pushed her friends to the back of her mind as she threw clothes out of her suitcase. After 15 minutes deciding which bathing suit to wear she chose a normal two piece with some shorts and a normal tee to go over them. After she changed in the bathroom she grabbed everything she needed and headed out the door. 
She pulled up to the stadium and parked confused on where to enter until her phone buzzed. Matt Jackson : I see your car, we’re the only ones here. So I’ll let you in.” Adriana chuckled. She got out the car fluffing her hair so she appealed somewhat decently. She saw Matt waiting for her at the entrance. 
He picked his head up from his phone and let out a low whistle. “Well damn, I was not expecting this.” He fumbled with his keys as she rolled her eyes. When they finally got in he took her hand and led her to the pool. She removed her shorts and shirt as he did the same. Adriana dipped her toe in removing it as she felt how cold it was. 
Before she could react she was pushed into the pool and when she got to the top for air she saw Matt jumping and doing a cannonball, making water go everywhere. Matt swam around a little before looking over to a shivering Adriana. “Yo-you’re an i-idiot.” Her teeth chattered making Matt laugh. “Ah, stop being a big baby and swim with me.” He slapped water onto her making her gasp. “I think I should wait till it gets w-warmer.” She smudged, making Matt swim over to her. 
“I have a couple ways we could speed up the process.” She smirked. She wrapped her arms around his neck as he backed her up to the edge. He lightly pressed against her, making her let out a small whine. “If you’re going to do something just do it.” She said, clearly impatient. He pressed his lips onto hers, as she kissed back. He began to lower his hands trying to find the part to disconnect her bottom. She smirked into the kiss making him hungry for more as he pushed his tongue onto her bottom lip. She opened her mouth a little, only to hear a “IS ANYONE IN HERE?” Adriana tried to disconnect, but Matt pulled her back. “Whoever it is, will either go away soon or get a free show- I couldn’t care less.” Adriana pushed Matt off making him groan. She heard the door open and was shocked when Kenny Omega came out in swim trunks. 
“Oh, it’s just you guys. What are you doing here?” he asked, confused. “Nothing much, just going for a late night swim.” Adriana lifted her finger to her mouth as she could feel her lip swollen at how hard Matt had bit it. Kenny nodded, “Right… mind if I join you?” He asked. Matt mumbled something too low to understand. “Of course, come on.” She smiled. “There it is again, that damn smile.” He felt weird seeing her in a bathing suit and it was even more weird seeing one of his best friends next to him. 
Matt turnt around and faced Adriana , so Kenny couldn’t hear what he had to say, “He totally just cockblocked me. It had to be on purpose.” He whined. Adriana rolled his eyes, “He didn’t know. Leave him alone, let's just save our first time somewhere other than a public pool.” He scoffed, but he couldn’t stay mad at HER. 
It was Kenny who was the problem, and he would make sure that he stayed out of the way.
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WE’RE BACK FAM!!!! Thanks again to my co-writers @westanaew​ and @adriii-omega​ , it feels great to get back into the series! <3
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halothenthehorns · 3 years ago
Text
All in the Family
Chapter 25: Mudbloods and Murmurs
"Sirius?"
"Here," Sirius said at once shuffling out of the shadows behind the door, taking Remus' outstretched hand. Remus gave a little tug, whispering, "come here," and Sirius obliging straddled his lap on a bed, now the two were forehead to forehead.
It should have felt too intimate, they'd only had a chance to snog twice and both had been interrupted, they really hadn't explored much of anything for what they were doing to each other outside of even that, so this was quite the situation for the two to just be comfortably in each others arms. It was just that though, comfortable. All the emotions boiling inside Sirius now felt just slightly simmered, like steam finding its release in a teapot rather than all stewing up inside and blowing the top.
"Now tell me what's wrong," Remus whispered, their faces so close together their lips were already brushing.
"You've got enough to deal with Moony-" he tried to protest, unable to shake those fear-filled looks he continued to give every window, like the one they'd again had to glance anxiously through to check the phase of the moon on this new night.
"Doesn't matter, I'll still always hear what you've to say," Remus stated, their hands still clasped together growing painful from Remus' tightening. His other came up and hooked onto the back of his neck, fingers playing with the long black hair to make sure he couldn't back out.
Sirius breathed carefully, closing his eyes and finally feeling his heartbeat still as he whispered, "He laughed Remus! My first summer back, and the first thing he asked me was 'what's a mudblood?' I gave him hell for saying that word, telling him to never use it again because there was no such thing, we were all just people. He promised he wouldn't, said he'd never meant to offend me. Now, bloody five years later, and he laughs! It's my fault, I know it is, I should have been around him more, made sure he never, that I never let him-"
"Let him?" Remus cut in with a deep shake of his head. "Sirius no, don't do this to yourself. That boy in there may share your last name, but he is not your responsibility! He made his own choice, he's following his parents and told you to take a hike when you refused to do the same."
Like a damn bursting, Sirius then released a huge breath at finally saying this aloud. "I know that, it's just..." he trailed off without words for the disappointment he felt, like Regulus' fate was already sealed by this lone reaction.
It had only been the chapter title, his expression had been more surprise than true cruelty, but Sirius couldn't shake it! He'd strode away through the nearest door lest he do something he regret, like use an Unforgivable curse on his little brother. It was honestly a miracle he'd found one that opened.
There was a silence before Remus leaned forward, now pressing their lips together in a firm kiss. Sirius returned it at once, craving any kind of release from his own mind, cupping his own hand around Remus' neck to tilt his head back and exalting in the almost instant relief of not having to know anything, just feel how happy it made him to share this and now have the pleasure of taking his own life by however he wanted.
Daring shot through him, and his tongue began tracing lips, seeking entrance, and as always Remus was willing, opening his mouth and the two outright snogging right there in that room. Their tongues explored every bit of reach, teeth even clicking together with the intensity and then Remus' hand moved to Sirius' hip, sitting him down tighter upon his lap.
When Sirius' hair tickled his own nose beyond his own capability to think past it though, he leaned back and brushed it out of his face, still breathing as heavily as when Remus had entered, but now for a wholly other reason. "Guess I believe you now, about that kissing others thing."
Remus just gave a sly smile back, hand still resting comfortably on his waist as if it were the most natural thing in the world, his other trying to pull his face back down from inside his hair. "Glad you've admitted superiority on this."
"No, no," Sirius resisted, letting their faces lean back down but refusing those tantalizing inches now just for that.
An insistent knock on the door cut off whatever would have been said next.
"Hell Sirius, I'll make Regulus apologize if you lot would get out of there already! You think we're enjoying all these Lockharts gaping at us, it's getting creepy!"
"I'm going to kill Wormtail," Sirius pleasantly informed his seat mate as he glared at the door.
"I'll help you bury the body," Remus promised even as he gently got Sirius to get off of him.
With a little huff Sirius did get up and stomp to the door, but couldn't deny he did feel better as he opened it and glared down at Wormtail while pleasantly informing him, "I hope you heard that."
"What, more death threats against me? Sirius, if you carried out every one you've offered against the lot of us, you'd be in Azkaban for a killing spree."
"Me?" Sirius mock widened his eyes and placed his hand on his heart.
"You'll still be his first victim," Remus promised as he pushed the two out of his way so he could step back through.
It really was creepy, the Lockharts eyeing everyone of them from every available wall space of the room. The adjoining bedchamber they'd surely just been in likely still had more, if either of them had cared enough to look, though they'd been a bit occupied to even find a light.
Sirius was already tempted to go back in there and do so now just for something to do, anything would be better than looking anywhere about the room than at his kid brother who had already so deeply betrayed him he wasn't sure if he could ever look at him again. When Remus had read that, Lily had gasped with insulted surprise, and the rest of them had muttered words of distaste and backed away from Moony as if just being associated with such a word was damning. Not his kid brother though, of course not, he'd gone snickering away like a little idiot!
When had this become his reaction, who had instilled it in him? His parents, fellows at school? He'd already witnessed Regulus hanging out with several he shouldn't be, and rather than do anything to stop him, he'd only further chosen to ignore his brother, and was now kicking himself for such neglect. What if he'd tried harder, made some real attempts to push him in the right direction...
Sirius was so focused on when exactly his inattention had turned into missing such a large detail as this reaction would occur that he completely missed the first few bits about Harry avoiding attention from Lockhart and Colin, something he couldn't blame the kid for it if he had been listening.
Potter and Pettigrew were still exchanging looks, it was clear neither of them liked the fact that their friends kept wondering off to talk about their problem without consulting them, but Frank turned away from their tiff without concern to start investigating this room. He didn't at all buy into the fact a man claiming to be so successful couldn't handle pixies, or indeed would make such a stupid decision as releasing them into a classroom like that. Something was fishy about this one, and he wanted to know if there was any evidence in here of his lying, or something more.
Alice let Frank wander off muttering about falsities as she made her way over to Evans, who was muttering mutinously about this whole entire chapter being centered around Quidditch. Harry's captain had woken him at the crack of dawn, and now they were spending pages hearing of Harry falling asleep to some stupid methods to do with the game.
She may have actually enjoyed the game, except for the fact that when she'd gone to the ones in her first year Potter had taken the opportunity to try and regal her the entire time. This child's experience wasn't proving much better.
"That Colin kid is something," Alice happily offered as she joined her. "Bet he'll be the top photographer for the next Daily Prophet before he even graduates."
"I'm happy Harry's not encouraging him and mostly ignoring him," Lily's scowl lessened slightly while talking to her.
Both girls were admittedly distracted as Lupin announced the arrival of the Slytherin team at the Gryffindors practice, everyone was well aware they were only there to pick a fight.
Frank briefly looked up from Lockharts desk, finding it quite despicable Malfoy had managed to buy his way onto a house team like that, but quickly went back to his rummaging. He'd normally be appalled to the idea of going through a teacher's desk, but honestly he would have made an exception for this one even before his suspicions. This egocentric man needed someone putting a few pins in his life if this mess was any indication. The surface was covered in his plaques and trophies of awards, his Witch Weekly's Most Charming one at the very front and most highly polished. In the first two drawers he'd found nothing but quills and bottles of ink at a ready notice, the most ostentatious was a peacocks feather. In the next set he'd found hair care products and a wig he must test them on, a bottle of Ogdens old Fire-whisky, which he quickly put back away lest the Marauders get another hare up their butts for it, and finally nothing in the bottom one.
He'd just pulled out his wand to try a few spells and see if anything were hidden in this when the shouts of outrage echoed around, the Lockhart picture on the desk nearly fell off the broom he was riding and covered his ears. He looked to Alice first, who had her arm wrapped protectively around Evans' shoulders, then he really saw it wasn't so much protective as restraining. Her face was flushed red and she looked likely to murder someone, like Regulus, who looked more haughty than ever with all eyes on him.
Regulus held himself loose and proud just like he watched Sirius do all the time when bowing up for a fight, entirely unintentionally. He really couldn't understand what their problem was, as he insisted again, "it's just a laugh, stop taking everything so sensitive Sirius."
He could tell others around him were just as upset he'd laughed again when Malfoy had called that Granger girl a mudblood. His own parents had insisted it was the proper word to use on Muggleborns, and this was always the reaction amongst quite a few of the older Slytherins whenever they heard the word, so he'd thought it was just to be expected and Sirius was exaggerating everything like he always did. He wasn't as sure now, seeing all seven of them look at him like scum instead. He wasn't backing down though, and instead crossed his arms and stood there purposefully. He wasn't taking it back, he had no reason to, and the only one it should really offend was Evans, and she was such a prick to them all anyways he hardly considered it a loss.
James still had his wand out, tapping it restlessly against his hip and aching to throw a multitude of curses. The only thing stopping him was just how much he did look like Sirius right now, but it was a quickly dwindling insecurity, Sirius would never stoop so low to laugh at something like this. He'd just raised his wand when Moony chose that moment to keep going, his voice much harsher than usual, and it wasn't hoarseness from one of their nightly wanderings this time.
Now James and Sirius were the ones exchanging such heavy loaded looks, while Peter began edging around all three of his friends as if looking where to place himself in case of a fight. Remus was most certainly not happy about it, but was still of the opinion if Sirius was beating himself up already for Regulus just laughing at the word, Sirius would be in an even worse way if he actually snapped and attacked him, so he tried to persevere and keep a fight from happening.
Ron had attacked Malfoy in retaliation for his friend being called that, as he well should, Alice viciously thought as Lupin kept going around the tense silence. She was still thinking about doing the same for Evans, and was even more surprised Potter and Blacks own brother hadn't first. She had no idea what was holding them back, but it wasn't going to stop her if Regulus didn't fix that attitude in laughing about such a degrading word. She genuinely applauded Ron's use of slugs, wishing she knew that spell now.
Lily forced herself to turn away from that imp, patting Alice's hand in thanks but refusing to give any more acknowledgment to someone who could be so careless about such language as that Black. Least Potter had one thing going for him in that way, he'd clearly been moments away from making him apologize if his best mate wasn't hesitating on doing the same.
They were all grateful Ron was being dragged away from Malfoy before anything else could happen, even Regulus. He wasn't sure what he was supposed to be doing now that he had everyone in the room despising him for something he'd just thought was natural, especially as many pure-bloods were in this room. He wasn't that surprised at Potter and Black not getting the joke, but he at least would have hoped Longbottom and Smith would, and was now trying to examine in his head the differences between those two and others even outside of Slytherin who had laughed along before. He still managed to scoff in disgust at that oafs deceleration that marrying muggles had saved their species, of course they wouldn't have died out, pure-bloods always prevailed.
Lockhart popping up again to give advice to yet another round of advice to someone who obviously didn't need it had Frank again going back to his rummaging, bypassing the empty drawer for now and going carefully through all the surrounding paintings, only mildly paying attention to Ron explaining what had happened while at Hagrids. He found nothing of any more significance than Lockhart signing several of these as well, and errantly wondered if the man did them himself. He had to be good at something after all, and it clearly wasn't what he was boasting of in the fight against the Dark Arts.
Sirius finally drew his eyes away from Regulus glaring determinedly at them all, with no more of an idea what to do than when he'd first snickered at the beginning of the chapter. For the first time since his kid brother had been sorted into Slytherin though, he wanted one. He wasn't even sure to what degree, it seemed like a long lost battle to save the idiot from what their parents wanted of him, but Sirius still couldn't shake the feeling of failure Regulus had fallen so far already at the age of fourteen. Least McGonagall gave a nice, or terrible depending on viewpoint, distraction with that detention.
"I think our Head of House is trying to do your son in this year Prongs," he happily told him to try and put some attention back on himself. He'd need to find a bigger space to try and talk his friends into some ideas, he didn't want Regulus overhearing.
"I think it's the opposite, she might actually be trying to give him a treat, as obvious as Lockhart's taken a liking to him," James rolled his eyes back, though they were still sour and glaring to the door.
"What say you Pete?" He redirected. "Care to place a bet? Think someone's going to do Harry in again this year. I've now counted two teachers making a good go of it."
"You're awful," Wormtail pleasantly informed him.
"Oh, you're right," Sirius theatrically clapped a hand to his head. "It is three, I always forget about Snivellus!"
All four of them burst out laughing, to Lily's disgust, but their amusement was short lived. Lupin kept going through Lockhart's bloody useless detention, and she'd thought nothing could be worse than lines, when Harry heard something that had them all freezing in place.
It became so stiff and silent in the room you could hear a ghost breathing, but no whisper of the words echoed again through here. Frank sprinted back to the desk and double checked the time when Lockhart himself said what it was, and spoke so softly the others thought it a guttering of the candle for a moment, "well, it's the same time now. Must mean that whatever it is, isn't here now."
Lupin still had to fight hard several times to swallow around a dry throat and finish, Harry's doubt of hearing this not managing to trickle into a single one of them. They would not think so lightly of someone after this kid again, not after last year, and Sirius now felt callous for his own joke. Something was going on this year, Dobby had warned them, and this was the start to it.
Frank gave Regulus one last look of distaste as if he wanted to blame all this on him, he still seemed entirely careless about the whole thing, and went back to that last drawer.
One quick spell revealed Lockhart did have something at least mildly worth hiding in here, and another had a stack of papers appearing. Frank slowly peeled through them, but it only furthered his confusion to find interviews. The one on top featured someone from Armenia, and it was clearly only the last page of whatever they'd been talking about in regards to a werewolf, then the same man thanking Lockhart for sending an advanced copy of his book. Why would these be so poorly hidden, they didn't seem to mean a thing. As intensely focused as he was on these, he hardly registered the magnetic pull of being dragged away.
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guiltysecretpasttime · 4 years ago
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Contentment
So here’s a thought that became a Lin Beifong one-shot. If someone’s reading this... let me know what you think 🤷‍
---
Ever since she made it to Chief of Police, she found that she was able to take more control of her schedule. Nonetheless, quiet Friday nights at home like these were rare.
Using metalbending, Lin Beifong peeled her armor off and placed it in the cabinet beside the shoe rack, a reminder that she will get to its maintenance before going to work on Monday. She wiggled her toes and continued into the house barefoot, enjoying the feel of the cold marble floor against her skin. She headed towards the kitchen, tossing her work bag into the study along the way.
The paper bag of take-out food was plonked on the dining table and an old battered kettle with water was soon on the stove. She stretched her arms languidly then reached to turn on the radio, if only to fill the silence with white noise.
Plucking out some spice canisters from the shelves and taking out the vegetables she sliced earlier, Lin set about to prepare dinner. Humming softly with the radio tunes, she cleared a portion of the table and opened the containers of sliced vegetables. She sat down and unrolled a piece of cloth, intent on assembling a couple of vegetable wraps on the mat.
After decades of preparing vegetarian meals, Lin had learned to appreciate the cuisine and tweak it to her taste. She added spicy pickled kelp and sprinkled chili on some of the wraps. She made a mental note to ask her sister to bring more kelp on her next visit. (The older Beifong would never admit it but she dearly valued exchanging recipes with Suyin’s ex-pirate chef.)
The kettle let out a high-pitch whistle (which her husband hated and had thus more than once offered to buy a replacement kettle; which she adamantly refused to do so since her mom made it for their housewarming party years ago) and she took it off the stove, placing a steaming pot in its place. The earthbender tore open her take-out paper bag and dropped the store-bought dumplings into the pot.
She then arranged the vegetable wraps on the serving plate alongside the fried puffs she purchased from the vendor beside headquarters (“Assorted crab and tofu puffs, please”).  With not enough time to make dessert, she figured her husband would have to settle for some chilled moon peaches from the icebox.
As she waited for the dumplings to reheat, she decided to make herself a cup of coffee before dumping some tea leaves to steep in the kettle.
-----
It was a quaint and cozy scene that greeted the last airbender when he got home. A scene that still brought a lightness in his heart even after being married for fifteen odd years.
Leaning against the kitchen counter was his wife, apparently fresh from the shower as evidenced by the dampness of her short grey hair. Tenzin continued to observe her quietly as she absentmindedly continued to stir something in a saucepan while reading a book propped at the side, page held in place by an empty coffee cup. Barefoot and clad in a plain tank top and shorts, the stern protector of Republic City was barely recognizable in the casual setting. He smiled as Lin made a face, probably scoffing at the plot of her novel.
He made his way towards her, landing a kiss on her exposed shoulder from behind, effectively startling her.
“Spirits, Tenzin!” Lin raised the spatula in shock, landing whipped cream on her face and on his robes.
Tenzin grinned. He loved that he was the only person in the world who could surprise the otherwise vigilant metalbending chief of police. It was a testament on how comfortable she was with him that she never felt the need to be on her guard.
“Hello, dear.” He kissed off the cream from her cheek and was rewarded with a slap on the arm. “You seemed engrossed there, good book?” 
“Oh Agni, no.” His wife snorted as she marked her page in the book. “It’s just one of those trashy books that Su sent me, in the hopes that I get in touch with my inner dancer or something.” She placed the saucepan beside the peaches on the dining table.
The airbender accepted the napkin given by Lin to clean up his robes. “Still trying to convince you to join her dance group?” He turned to the counter, opening his paper bag of food.
“Yes, claims it would make me more flexible and limber - as if I don’t have enough training at headquarters.” (”Or in bed,” Tenzin muttered, getting swatted on the arm for his contribution). She offered her husband assistance as he poured the soup he brought home into a serving pot. “I have to constantly remind those children running the precincts that I am not old.” Her hand flicked in irritation. “And apparently, the only way I could assert that is by beating them down. While hanging on the ceiling. With my metal cables.” Little tremors were felt on the floor as she punctuated her statements with barely perceptible stomps of her foot.
Tenzin chuckled, guiding his wife into her seat in the dining room as she scowled. “I’m sure you enjoyed putting them in their place,” He added the pot of soup on the table. “Come now, I wouldn’t have thought a bunch of new officers would get you down. It’s the weekend!” He sat down, pouring tea for the two of them.
Lin shrugged and proceeded to pile Tenzin’s plate with two (bland) kale wraps and a few dumplings.
“This one’s new,” He lightly touched an angry red cut on her forearm.“And so is this.” He grasped her wrist when she placed his plate in front of him, gently massaging a darkening bruise on her elbow. “Where...?”
Having been raised and grown up in Air Nomad culture, Tenzin feels discomfort whenever his wife arrives home with another souvenir from work on her body (often temporary, sometimes somewhat permanent).
“A new group of non-benders instigated a faceoff with some benders near the cultural center today,” The metalbender downplayed the encounter, removing her arm from his hold. “Good thing we got there just in the nick of time.”
“And got yourself something which is more than a nick,” He frowned at the four-inch long scarlet mark that was a stark contrast against her pale skin. “Lin,” He quickly ladled some seaweed soup into a bowl. He knew it had properties good for blood loss. “Please be careful.” He pushed the bowl towards her.
“I always am.” She caught the sober tone of his reminder. “Don’t worry, I make sure to assess the risks beforehand. I’m no longer that reckless and brash detective who attempted to arrest her sister.” She tried to make light of their conversation.
As if on cue, as with any other time that her scars or the origin of her scars were brought up, Tenzin delicately cupped her cheek and gave her a soft kiss. He was a husband seeking a reminder that all was well. He felt the familiar pressure on his lips as his wife pressed back to deepen their kiss. 
They both ended the kiss, breathing heavily. She smiled, finally accepting the soup.
The rest of the meal continued uneventfully. Tenzin complimented his spouse on her thoughtfulness on the meal. They talked about how their day went (”Tarrlock, that chattering hog-monkey, would not stop about this new ordinance he wanted to pass. I was sorely tempted to ring Mother and Fire Lord Izumi to influence their representatives to vote against it out of spite.” “Oh Tenzin, but you wouldn’t. 10 yuans on you that you would not push through with that.” “You’re right dear,” A sigh was heard. “I wouldn’t have.”) and how their respective families were faring (”Mom hasn’t still gotten in touch with Su and I.” “Should we be worried?” “I don’t think so. Lord Zuko is out travelling as well - 10 yuans bet that they’re out on a life-changing field trip.” “Lin, what’s with you and 10 yuans??”).
-----
The couple decided to finish their dessert in the study.
Lin tucked her legs under as she got comfortable on the couch while Tenzin cleaned up (”You go ahead and relax, I’ll take care of the kitchen and dining table since you prepared the meal - well, most of it at least - ouuuuch woman, stop hitting me.”). She pulled out her (Su’s) novel to bide the time (yes, bide the time, she was not invested in the story of the lone ballerina who captivated the king in that one-night-only performance, nope, not invested at all, thank you very much) while waiting for her husband.
She had made it into a chapter and a half by the time Tenzin joined her. She got up to make space for him, then laid her head on his lap to continue reading while he elected to tackle his correspondence.
They passed the time in that position, with Tenzin alternately feeding Lin and himself some of the sliced moon peaches. The only sound was the occasional flip of pages and parchment being discarded on the side table.
Half-way into the book, Lin was making mental note to ask her younger sister if she had a copy of the sequel when the airbender released a deep breath.
“Is something wrong?” She lifted her eyes from the book and directed her attention to the face of the man above her, albeit a bit concealed by the beard from her point-of-view.
“The new Avatar has mastered Earthbending.” He indicated the letter he was perusing.
“That’s good news, right?” The earthbender sat up on her heels, taking her mother-in-law’s letter to go through it.
“It says here they’re inviting you to train the Avatar as her airbending master in five years time,” Lin felt her excitement building as she read Katara’s update. “Provided, however, that she passes her Firebending mastery test by then.” She knew how important this was to him. “Ten-!” She looked up and saw his faraway expression.
“Hey,” Lin tenderly took his face into her hands, looking into his eyes. Green met gray. 
Earth and air - their elements and their personalities were as opposite as they can go. While Lin Beifong learned early on how to master her emotions (which several times proved to be necessary in her line of work, sometimes even a matter of life and death), the man in shades of saffron and red before her wore his heart clearly. Even at the age of forty-six, he exuded an air of artlessness. Some of his detractors saw it as a weakness but she recognized it as his strength, the ingenuous sincerity which coated each of his interactions appealed to the constituents. Nonetheless, Lin knew him for as long as she was alive and she knew something was troubling him.
“Do you,” Like any earthbender worth his or her salt, she faced this head on. She swallowed the lump in her throat. “Tenzin,” She knew they had made peace with it in the past but she needed to ask, yet again. “Do you regret it?” Do you regret choosing me - the unsaid question hung thickly in the air.
-----
The last airbender covered her right hand with his and leaned into her palm. “Never.” He knew she can feel his steady heartbeats as she held him. After a beat, he leaned forward, capturing her lips with his.
Lin Beifong, while a confident woman, did need reassurances which only her husband can provide. He knew that she still experienced vestiges of guilt from time to time.
He saw it when she was reading the newspaper and an article called out the Chief of Police as a hard-ass with a heart of stone, unbending with the law and unbending in rehabilitating an extinct nation.
He saw it through the years as she accompanied him in various city council formal events and got asked on multiple occasions when they were going to start trying for kids. She would pleasantly smile, with a poise that would make the late Poppy Beifong proud. Then she would sweetly reply something along the lines of no, thank you, we’re not trying for kids but rest assured we’re frequently engaging in exercises that might (if we were not careful) result in one. Now, that (and the subsequent choking noise made by whichever pompous guest who dared ask) would make Toph Beifong proud.
He saw it whenever the entire family gathers at Air Temple Island to celebrate someone’s birthday and the Air Acolytes seem to walk on eggshells around her, never mind that technically she was the first lady of the nation.
Everyone else saw her smirk or her stoic blank face; no emotion betrayed by the absence of hunching of the shoulders or the lack of a furious blush on her complexion.
But Tenzin, her partner for most of her life, saw the little indicators - the tightening of her jaw, the stiffening of her spine, the whitening of her knuckles as she dug her nails into her palm... 
They simply did not know. They did not see her as a terrified child, fresh from being abducted by a convict on parole that her mother had put into jail years before her birth. It was the day that she first showed signs of metalbending as she broke off the chains the bound her. She was seven.
They did not see her stay up late as a teenager, waiting on the roof of one of the buildings in Air Temple island, scouring the horizon in the hopes that her mother might be coming home soon from a raid.
They did not see her collapse after returning to headquarters, after being beaten up (close to death) as a police captain caught in a turf war, getting more heat because of her ancestry. (”Bonus points in taking the metal woman down - her mother is the esteemed chief of police!” One of the fire-bending hooligans had spat.).
They did not see her weep neither did they hold her in their arms after a particularly difficult day on her job. She had murmured to him that she will never want to put a child, her child, in dangerous situations just because of the consequence of having her a mother. That would have been selfish. It was simply not an option.
Her (their) decision not to have children was publicly discussed and dissected. More than once, the usually calm Tenzin had blown up at the press to leave them alone. These only resulted in new heated rumors published the next day that he was probably selecting Air Acolytes across the Air Temples to impregnate to repopulate the Air Nation. If anything, while he was infuriated, Tenzin was glad to see Lin laugh out loud upon reading about it in the paper. His eldest brother Bumi had even called over just to check its veracity, volunteering to scout the United Republic in the next years in search for thick-eyebrowed large-nosed airheads cooped up in libraries across the temples.
Tenzin also dealt with the aftermath of these public set-downs once they returned to their home in Republic City. He would willingly offer the reassurance that only he can give her at her most vulnerable.
Even as the last airbender, Tenzin would do anything to make his metalbender happy.
-----
Satiated and relaxed, the couple adjusted their position on the couch, with Tenzin airbending the throw blanket over them. He noticed Lin fingering the letter from the Southern Water Tribe again.
“It’s just that - they’re asking us to move to the South Pole for the duration of Korra’s training.”
Lin raised her eyebrows at this. “Oh.” 
“But no,” Tenzin moved to put an arm around her as she sat in his embrace. “I wouldn’t want to uproot you. It’s not for a few more years; we’ll figure something.” He distractedly finished the rest of the peaches and cream from the crystal bowl. Between the two of them, he was the one with the sweet tooth. “I could start training Oogi for frequent long distance trips to the South Pole, if only to ready him for my frequent back-and-forth to you in Republic City.”
The sound of the scraping of the spoon against the bowl echoed in the companionable silence.
“Or, Tenzin, maybe - what if,” Lin played with the smoothness of the blanket. “You invite her to Air Temple Island?” She avoided his inquisitive gaze. “I mean, we can reinstate the White Lotus around the temple for security and prepare the island for airbending training. You’ve probably have enough in the coffers for a refurbishment on the Island, given that it’s been a while since your family lived there. But those would be best put into use in rebuilding the other temples; I have enough money to add from the Beifong inheritance, we could use that - it will be my home too, you know -.” She was interrupted by a tight embrace and a kiss.
“You’re amazing, you know that?” The response he got was just a laugh. “But, really, are you sure about this?” He rubbed her side gingerly, taking care not to hit any of her bruises.
“Of course,” Lin grinned at him. “But you better start training again - sounds like this Korra would be a tough kid to manage.” She patted his chest.
“Train you say?” Tenzin had a glint in his eye. “Why don’t we start now,” He picked up his surprised wife as he carried her in the direction of their bedroom. “Let’s get you all limbered up and flexible then let’s give your sister a call so I can give her a blow-by-blow account on how you need not be a dancer to limber up.” Laughter trailed behind him as Lin made sure to metalbend their door close.
Yes, they treasured quiet Friday nights at home like this.
=====
Related:
Follow-up fanfic: The Airbender’s Wife:  1 | 2 | 3 | 4
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rosethornewrites · 4 years ago
Text
Fic: the thread may stretch or tangle but it will never break, ch. 13
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Relationships: Lán Zhàn | Lán Wàngjī & Wèi Yīng | Wèi Wúxiàn, Lán Zhàn | Lán Wàngjī & Wēn Qíng, Lán Zhàn | Lán Wàngjī/Wèi Yīng | Wèi Wúxiàn
Characters: Lán Zhàn | Lán Wàngjī, Wèi Yīng | Wèi Wúxiàn, Wēn Qíng, Wēn Níng | Wēn Qiónglín, Granny Wēn, Lán Yuàn | Lán Sīzhuī, Wēn Remnants, Wen Meilin (OC), Fourth Uncle, Lán Huàn | Lán Xīchén
Additional Tags: Pre-Slash, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Secrets, Crying, Masks, Soulmates, Truth, Self-Esteem Issues, Regret, It was supposed to be a one-shot, Fix-It, Eventual Relationships, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, wwx needs a hug, Nightmares, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Filial Piety, Handfasting, Phobias, Sleeping Together, Fear, Panic Attacks, Love Confessions, Getting Together, First Kiss, Kissing, Boys Kissing, Family, and they were married, Bathing/Washing, Hair Braiding, Hair Brushing, Feels, Sex Education, Implied Sexual Content, First Time, Aftercare, Morning After, Afterglow, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Implied/Referenced Torture, Scars, Eventual Happy Ending, Hand Jobs
Summary: Wei Wuxian has a difficult start to the day, Lan Wangji learns something he didn't expect, and Wen Qing oversees a unique medical experiment.
Notes: Intended to get further in this, but was at a good stopping point and already over 3K words. We don’t know a whole lot about Wei Wuxian’s time with the Wen in Burial Mounds. While it’s unlikely he dealt with near-possession, the shift of Lan Wangji staying changed a lot of things. They could afford more crops, so he had to clear the resentment from more land. That combined with the emotional exhaustion from talking to Lan Xichen left him open. Unintended consequences.
AO3 link
Chapters:  1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12
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Wei Ying, when Lan Wangji wakes him for breakfast in the morning, is alarmingly withdrawn. His eyes are hazy, unfocused. He barely reacts when Lan Wangji places his bowl of breakfast in his hands, and ultimately he feeds him. It is a slow process, Wei Ying sometimes needing prompting. 
If not for his reluctance to leave his husband alone in such a state, he would go looking for Wen Qing. Instead he focuses on feeding him and having him drink the medicine Wen Ning brought with breakfast. 
By the time she arrives, Wei Ying has slipped back to sleep. 
“It’s the pain, and probably one of his bad days on top of it,” she tells him when he asks. 
Wei Ying, he learns, often sequesters himself from the others, sometimes not leaving the cave for several days. He spends that time feverishly inventing cultivation tools.
“It’s a distraction,” she says, sounding tired. “Whatever is going on in his mind, he’s trying to distract himself from it however he can—he’d probably numb himself with alcohol if we had it.”
Nightmares, Lan Wangji is certain, and the trauma of his experiences, perhaps his own lack of self-worth driving a need to be useful through his inventions. 
If Wei Ying is suffering today, the pain prevents him from using his normal coping mechanisms. And Lan Wangji would rather he not use drinking as one—and he suspects Wen Qing feels similarly, as jifu has brewed more fruit wine. 
Since they’re waiting for Wen Ning to return with the bathtub so the hot water can ease Wei Ying’s pain a bit before they try their musical acupuncture experiment, Wen Qing leads him to a nearby stone “table” covered in papers. They’re haphazard, scrawled half-ideas interrupted by new ones, occasional doodles, a true mess. There’s no organization even within one page, only a sort of jumble of thoughts in smeared ink. 
Lan Wangji hates the idea that his husband’s mental state could mirror those pages on his bad days. 
“He hasn’t had one of his bad days since you came,” she says, her tone approving. “You’re good for him. Yesterday was just… a lot.”
He can only nod in response; it had been difficult for him, as well, but Wei Ying had bared a secret he had not willingly told anyone, had made himself vulnerable—and at Lan Wangji’s request. Even had he not suffered the near-possession, today may have been a bad day for him regardless. 
“I’ll put together a sachet for the bath, something to relax his muscles and ease the pain,” Wen Qing says. “Let him sleep until A-Ning gets back.”
He returns to Wei Ying’s side when she leaves. He is pale and still as he sleeps, his lips parted slightly as he breathes, his breath easy and calm. The dark circles under his eyes are still prominent, and Lan Wangji hopes it is a healing sleep.
Lan Wangji spends a shichen meditating beside Wei Ying while keeping attuned to him in case his sleep is disturbed. Wen Ning returns, carrying a large bathtub already filled as though it weighs nothing, and carefully sets it down without sloshing the water over. 
“I cannot use t-talismans anymore,” the young man says, almost in apology. “Jiejie put a sachet in already. She said t-to only let him soak for a quarter shichen, then have him drink water.”
“Thank you, Wen Ning.”
He rises and bows, and Wen Ning makes a disgruntled sound. 
“Y-you shouldn’t bow t-to me, Lan-er-gongzi!”
Lan Wangji shakes his head.
“You are helping my husband,” he says.
“I would help him anyway.”
“All the more reason to show you courtesy.”
Wen Ning seems to recognize Lan Wangji will not budge on this issue, and finally just nods.
“Jiejie said she would check on him in half a shichen, and to t-try the acupuncture idea.”
Lan Wangji has little choice but to accept Wen Ning’s bow before he leaves; protesting it would be hypocritical. 
After affixing a warming talisman to the tub, he turns his focus back to Wei Ying. He tries to wake him pleasantly, with soft murmurs and touches, and after a few minutes rouses him enough to explain about the tub.
Wei Ying is barely able to help when Lan Wangji undresses him, only just awake. He frowns to find bruises on his skin that hadn’t been there the night before. He hoped Wen Qing would know what had caused them.
He knows his robes will just get wet, so he strips himself to his zhong yi trousers.
He doesn’t bother trying to get Wei Ying to walk once he is undressed, just scoops him into his arms and carries him to the tub. Wei Ying lets out a soft moan as Lan Wangji lowers him into the hot water and settles him, careful to keep his braided hair out of the water. Wei Ying grabs his arm before he can completely withdraw from the water.
“Stay?” 
Lan Wangji can deny him nothing, so nods, settling beside the tub and holding Wei Ying’s hand under the water. The rising steam has an earthy mint aroma, and he hopes the bath and Wen Qing’s sachet of herbs are helping ease his pain.
“You’re always here for me,” Wei Ying murmurs, his voice distant, sleepy.
“I have not been before.”
He regrets that, seeing the pain his husband, his zhiji, has endured. He thinks perhaps it will always be a regret, having waited too long to support him. 
Wei Ying frowns at him, his eyes hazy. He draws Lan Wangji’s hand to his chest over his healed brand scar, over his heart. 
“You have. Here.”
“Wei Ying,” he breathes, overcome by the gesture. 
“Like that. I heard you, the first time. When I was here.”
Lan Wangji frowns, confused. Wei Ying’s eyes slide shut and he sighs softly.
“I thought it was the end, when they dropped me here. All that resentful energy howling at me all around, asking if I wanted revenge. I was ready to give up and just… let it end. But I heard you call my name. Your voice. I wanted to try to see you again.”
Wei Ying’s voice is barely audible at the end, and after several breaths Lan Wangji realizes he’s fallen back to sleep. He feels raw, knowing this, knowing Wei Ying tried to survive for him, to return to him, just to see him, expecting to be hated for what he had to do to survive. 
He curls closer to the tub and kisses the top of Wei Ying’s head, burying his face in his hair.
“I’m glad you did, Wei Ying,” he whispers. “I’m so glad you did.”
There is moisture in Wei Ying’s hair, and it takes a moment for Lan Wangji to realize it’s from his own tears. He has never doubted Wei Ying loves him, but the depth of his love is overwhelming, that Wei Ying refused to give up in the face of certain death for the chance to see him again. Even the spectre of Lan Wangji had comforted him in his lowest moment.
Lan Wangji simply holds his husband, as much as is possible separated by a wooden tub, and tries not to think. Tries not to wonder what might have happened had he not discovered Wei Ying’s secret, had he walked down the mountain and returned to Gusu as he had intended, had he left Wei Ying to suffer alone. Tries not to be angry with himself for having been so willing to abandon his husband for the sake of rules—what rule is worth more than Wei Ying?
Finally, he estimates it has been quarter shichen and he hooks an arm under Wei Ying’s knees, the other around his back, and lifts him out of the tub.
Wei Ying shivers in his arms, wrinkling his nose and letting out a whine at the chill of the air. Lan Wangji sets him on the embroidered blanket on the bed, wrapping him in it—the material will absorb the water, and he can hang it to dry later. Wei Ying’s features smooth over, and he stirs, murmuring his name. 
“I am here, airen. I will not leave you.”
Never again, he promises. Every time he leaves Wei Ying, terrible things happen to him. He will defend him, care for him, and keep him safe.
Wei Ying smiles sleepily at him.
“Did they get a tub for popo, too?” he asks.
Lan Wangji wants to clutch him close, this man who cares so much for others and yet so little for himself, but instead he pets his hair and leans in to kiss him softly.
“I did not ask.”
Wei Ying huffs softly, turning his head into Lan Wangji’s touch. 
“Hope they did. Bath was nice.”
He wonders if Wei Ying remembers what he said, his revelation, but he doesn’t address it. It does not need to be addressed. He knows now, and he will not forget. 
“Wen Qing added an herb sachet. How is your pain?”
“Tolerable,” Wei Ying murmurs with a soft hum.
Lan Wangji knows that could just as easily mean it is intolerable, but Wei Ying won’t admit it even if that is the case. Regardless, he must be feeling at least slightly better than before the soak—he is more present now. 
He remembers he was to have Wei Ying drink water and he pours a cup from a nearby ewer. He lifts Wei Ying into a sitting position and helps him drink, refilling the cup a couple of times until he’s sated. 
“We will attempt that musical acupuncture cultivation idea when Wen Qing comes,” he says, easing him back down. 
Wei Ying nods, but grimaces.
“Wei Ying?”
“Hate needles,” he murmurs. “That’s all.”
“I will be here with you.” 
It is all Lan Wangji can promise, but when Wei Ying smiles softly at him, he hopes perhaps it is enough.
Lan Wangji makes sure Wei Ying is dry within the blanket, then helps him into his zhong yi trousers—reluctantly, after Wei Ying looks at him through long lowered lashes and asks if it’s time for their every day. Had they had the time for it, without the threat of Wen Qing walking in on them, he wouldn’t hesitate.
He does not hesitate to kiss him breathless, to hold him close, and he hopes it is enough for now. 
He knows acupuncture will require Wei Ying to be mostly nude, so he only bothers him with the trousers for now, wrapping him back in the blanket and kissing him soundly. 
He is just finishing with the belt over his outer robe when Wen Qing enters carrying a basket.
“You look better than this morning,” she tells Wei Ying bluntly, and he laughs softly. 
“Your medicine and the herbal bath helped, Qing-jie.”
That elicits a smile from her, and she settles beside him on the bed. 
“He has bruises.”
Lan Wangji pulls back the blanket to show her, and is relieved when she only nods.
“His muscles spasmed violently when he was fighting the possession. They’ll heal, but there was damage.”
She turns to Wei Ying. 
“You made it worse for yourself, you know.”
Wei Ying looks away, frowning. 
“I didn’t know if she would hurt A-Yuan. I couldn’t risk it.”
Wen Qing’s expression softens, but she still huffs at him irritably. 
“And you wonder why he adopted you as his dad.”
She pulls a set of acupuncture needles from the basket, and if Wei Ying intended to protest her comment, he thinks better of it, eyeing the needles distrustfully. 
“I want to work on your back first,” she tells him. “Since we don’t know the effects, we’ll start slow and be careful. You need to let us know if it hurts, Wei Wuxian.”
He nods, still eying the needles. Lan Wangji helps him turn over, pooling the blanket over his lower body and tucking it around him to give him at least some warmth. He holds Wei Ying’s hand, hoping to offer comfort as Wen Qing inserts her needles.
Wen Qing stays fairly quiet as she works, simply letting them know she’s targeting muscles rather than meridians for the first stage of the experiments, hoping to determine whether a directed distribution of qi will accelerate the healing process.
“I don’t want to try the meridians just yet,” she says eventually. “It may flush out the resentful energy, and I don’t know how that would affect you. It might make you feel better, but...”
Lan Wangji thinks perhaps he understands her recalcitrance; Wei Ying has been cultivating resentful energy for so long, flushing it out could be a shock to his system. And, living in Burial Mounds, surrounded by resentful energy, it could easily just make him more vulnerable. 
He wishes he could take Wei Ying from here, take them all from here to a place less tainted by death. Perhaps that can eventually be accomplished, but for now he can do nothing. 
“I can’t lose hold of it,” Wei Ying murmurs. “Not and control the seal.”
A chill washes through Lan Wangji at the reminder of the weapon, that terrible dark tool that had won the war for the cultivation world, while making Wei Ying a target for the power-hungry. Lan Wangji knows such a tool must be hard to control—even spiritual tools can harm the user when a wielder cannot keep control. 
Wen Qing makes a face.
“I wish you’d destroy that awful thing.”
“Can’t. It’s a deterrent. And the backlash from destroying it would be pretty bad.”
Wei Ying sounds almost grieved, as though he would prefer to destroy it.
“If we could ward against the backlash?” Lan Wangji asks.
“It’s the only thing keeping us from being massacred at the moment,” Wei Ying says bitterly. “Otherwise I’d be all for it. The seal recognizes no master, and it’s too dangerous to exist.”
Lan Wangji frowns at the information, concerned. He wonders how much energy Wei Ying has been using to keep it under control—hasn’t, in fact, seen it since his arrival in Burial Mounds. He hopes his husband doesn’t carry it around with him.
Wen Qing finishes placing her needles and stands, and Lan Wangji squeezes Wei Ying’s hand before letting go to pull out his guqin. 
He decides to start with a minor healing song, something not terribly invasive, instilling his qi into the notes. Wei Ying’s breathing quickens, and Lan Wangji tries to keep his attention on the music, reminding himself that Wen Qing is the one with medical expertise, is the one monitoring. And, he notices, is directing the spiritual energy into the acupuncture needles.
“Pain?” she asks.
“No,” Wei Ying says, his voice strained. “It’s… warm. Good.”
Lan Wangji lets out a breath he didn’t realize he was holding and turns his attention to the music, letting all his focus go to the task. Wei Ying is always cold, and he idly wonders if that’s what resentful energy feels like—cold. He remembers him shivering with fever in the cave after the battle with the Xuanwu, and wonders if that was more than fever, if perhaps that was in part the cold of the resentful energy from the sword. 
Wen Qing eventually touches his shoulder, and he stills his strings. She gestures toward Wei Ying. At a glance, he can already see the bruising has faded. He takes Wei Ying’s hand again and finds his husband is sound asleep, his face utterly relaxed. 
“I’d call that a success, at least tentatively,” Wen Qing comments.
She takes Wei Ying’s other wrist, clearly examining his meridians.
“It didn’t clear out much resentment, but that’s expected given we were targeting his muscles. It may have cleared out some of what’s seeped into his body, which would be good.”
“It’s seeped into his body?” Lan Wangji asks, trying not to be alarmed.
She nods, sighing, and begins the process of removing her needles.
“It’s damaging, of course. He doesn’t complain, but we try not to ask him to do too much. He’s probably in some level of pain constantly, and the possession made it worse. I hope this helps.”
Lan Wangji wishes he had known, but also knows there’s little he could have done if he had. Throughout the war, he had watched Wei Ying, taken in his increasingly pinched features, his tense posture, his temper. He had worried it was the resentful energy, and he finds it doesn’t make him happy to have been right. Wei Ying had felt he had to suffer it alone, and now remains quiet about his pain. Perhaps his constant pain contributes to his bad days, as well. 
He can see the difference now, how his muscles are relaxed in a way they haven’t been even when Wei Ying slept. 
“I think letting him sleep before another session is best,” Wen Qing comments as she removes the last of her needles. “It will allow us to see the impact later.”
He nods, and pulls the blanket up around Wei Ying’s shoulders, tucking it around him—even if the qi warmed him, it would be temporary.
Wen Qing placed the needles back in her basket and stood.
“If he’s up for another round in the afternoon, we’ll try it. I’ll sterilize these just in case.”
She bows, and Lan Wangji returns it as best as he can seated beside Wei Ying and holding his hand. 
“I’ll send A-Ning with lunch later. Also, I think one of the aunties will be by to fit you for clothing.”
“Is there anything I can help with?” he asks, though he’s reluctant to leave Wei Ying. 
Wen Qing quirks a smile.
“As I told you when you said you were staying, I want you to help Wei Wuxian. He needs your help more than we do.”
He nods, and she leaves, closing the curtains behind her.
Lan Wangji watches Wei Ying sleep for a long while before deciding he can perhaps help him in other ways. He leaves the alcove and returns with a sheaf of Wei Ying’s disorganized and messy notes, setting it on the table beside the bed. Within minutes he transforms the small table into a desk, fresh paper and ink ready for him to work.
At the very least, he can rewrite Wei Ying’s notes, using separate sheets of paper for the different ideas so he can work with them more easily. He has copied and rebound books for the library at Cloud Recesses, after all, and Wei Ying once complimented his calligraphy. Even now, the memory makes his ears heat, as it was very shortly followed by the porn incident. 
Of course, they’ve done what was displayed in that book multiple times, so the memory is less embarrassing and more arousing. 
With one last glance at Wei Ying peacefully slumbering next to him, he gets to work. 
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huntertales · 4 years ago
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Part Two: Wicked Witch of the West. (Slumber Party S09E04)
Episode Summary: The reader and the boys call in I.T. expert Charlie Bradbury to help track fallen angels with technology found in the Men of Letters bunker. However, they soon discover something more in the form of the one and only Dorothy from Wizard of Oz. Everyone joins forces to take down the Wicked Witch and her evil plans. Pairing: Dean Winchester x Reader Word Count: 5,020.
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There was nothing more you loved than curling up with Dean in bed to enjoy a little bit of TV and enjoying one another’s company. Sam offered up his room for all of you to stream the show, you took a wild guess that it was because the man was afraid to step into his brother’s room to see a wild assortment of leftover food growing new forms of mold. You reassured him you made sure all half-eaten meals were thrown away and everything was kept in a tiddly order. He reminded you that his room was the one with the TV. And your bedroom was a mere disaster of still unopened boxes from your house and clean clothes thrown around in a manner you swore was organized. All of you settled on the offer and enjoyed a few episodes of the TV series you had heard so much about. 
The bowl of popcorn shared between you and Dean had nothing left but kernels after munching through the episodes that kept your attention with its enjoyable plot and characters. You sipped the remaining mouthfuls of your beer as Dean slid his hand from around your waist and reached for the remote to pause the screen after nearing the end of the final episode on the DVD. 
"Wow. That Joffrey's a dick." Dean felt the need to declare his hatred for a character you had grown to despise yourself from his childish and downright horrific behavior. You didn't think you ever had more of an urge to jump through a TV screen and strangle a fictional character more than you had for that blonde headed bastard.
"Oh, you have no idea. Wait until he—" Charlie smiled at the upcoming plot details you and Dean might want to hear about that would happen in the next season. Before she could get a single word out, the young Winchester promptly stopped her from spilling any details.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! Spoilers." Sam warned the redhead. "I haven't read all the books."
"You're gonna read the books?" Dean asked his brother. He didn’t see the point of wasting one’s time reading a fictional version of the same media you could consume in a live action version, no mental imagery required on his part.
You shook your head from the point the older man was missing. Books were not always like the live adaptations. The plot might have been the same from the beginning, but TV versions often strayed from the original material to make their own spin and give the characters new journeys. The reader was able to picture the characters described by how the author saw them and not how the actors were chosen for the role. There was no greater disappointment to a reader when someone chosen turned out to be the opposite of what you spent pages imagining in your head. Not to mention the author was still writing the novels as the show aired. You tried getting yourself into the book until you ultimately failed trying to find interest. You gave the first one to the younger WInchester in hopes he would enjoy them. 
"Yes, Dean. I like to read books—you know, the ones without pictures." Sam shot back with a sarcastic comeback to strike his brother silent. 
You took it upon yourself to finally relieve the ache in your back that started to creep up on you while you were halfway through the fourth episode. You let out a long, drawn out sigh of relief after you got back up to your feet. “Ooh. I have never loved you for talking to me into getting that memory foam mattress more than I do now.” You said to your boyfriend. The price tag made your eyes widen from how expensive it was. In reality you didn’t spend a single penny. And you slept better than you had in a long while. You rubbed your lower back and stretched slightly to make yourself stop feeling twice your age. “I don’t know how you sleep on that thing Sammy.” 
"You're not kidding. This bed is about as comfortable as a brick." Charlie got up from the chair she had been sitting on and switched to the edge of the mattress. She bounced a few times to discover it was painful as it looked. You smiled and leaned against the desk to change up the scenery. Charlie glanced around the room, taking notice of the fifties style attire with not much updated touches to make it personal. "Any plans on moving in anytime soon?"
"I am moved in." Sam said. "This is just my style."
"Yeah, this is style. Old man." You agreed. You took a look around the room yourself to see he didn't do much to give it the Sam Winchester touch except for cleaning out the several decades of dust. He didn't even try to put any effort to make it his own. "You would've really fit into the fifties aesthetics, Sammy. Fifty shades of brown and endless plaid."
"Well, I'm sorry I haven't hung up the 'Hang in there, kitty' poster yet, Y/N. Feel free to redecorate." Sam didn’t like the sarcastic jokes you were saying on his behalf. You rolled your eyes from how he was behaving all of a sudden. "Tell me again how your moving process is going.”
"I'll get there eventually. At least I'm making some kind of effort to make it mine." You said. It was Sam's turn to roll his eyes from your half-hearted excuse. "Are you saying our home's not good enough for the 'Hang in there, kitty' poster?"
"This isn't our home." Sam corrected you. "This is where we work."
You tightly furrowed your brow from the way he was acting. "What's the difference?"
You waited for Sam to give you a reason why he didn't think the bunker was just that, a home. He was the one who helped you persuade Dean into staying here permanently after discovering it for yourself. You thought he would have embraced it with open arms from everything this place had to offer. For once he had a home to call his own. Something that fits him perfectly from the life all of you lead. No one to take it away, no real chance of a monster sneaking in here. You hoped he might have been able to find some sort of comfort here. But it seemed the younger Winchester didn't feel the same way you and his brother did. To say it came as a surprise would have been an understatement. 
Charlie looked between you and the younger Winchester when the both of you did nothing more than stare at one another for a few seconds. It was as if the two of you were waiting for the other one to say something to keep this conversation-turned argument going. You and Sam remained silent. The redhead didn't realize she had triggered such a touchy subject. She shifted her gaze and mumbled something underneath her breath, a weak attempt at trying to relieve the brewing awkward tension.
“All right, well, I'm gonna go get us some more beers.” Dean said, getting himself up from the bed and making his way to the door. ”How about that?”
You polished off your beer when Dean shut the bedroom door behind him, leaving the three of you alone. You set the empty bottle down on the desk and quickly spoke up, not wanting the mood in the room to shift into a subject you didn’t want to discuss while your friend was staying here. 
"So, Charlie," You struck up a conversation you had been meaning to bring up since you heard about the redhead's solo adventures. "what was that all about how hunting isn't magical?"
"Saving people, hunting things, the family business? I am down. But..." Charlie trailed off, making you and the younger Winchester share a curious expression to her hesitance about seeing what hunting was really all about. "I was raised on Tolkien, man. I mean, where is all of this?" She held up the DVD she grabbed to make her point about what she had really been searching out there for. "Where are my white walkers and my volcano and magic ring to throw in the damn thing? Where...Where's my magic quest?"
"Magic, quests...suck. Trust us." Sam scoffed. You had to agree with the younger man about that point. Both of you dealt with your version of fate and quests. It all mapped out to a miserable ending. "They're all dead ends.”
Charlie's shoulders slumped at the possible reality she might have to come to terms with. The few times she had been able to work on a hunt with the three of you had turned out to be sort of fun,  minus the physical and emotional trauma she endured. Charlie was searching for a spark that steamed from a childhood daydream of fighting dragons and saving the princess. An urge that didn’t come along in this kind of lifestyle. 
The supernatural and magic might be real like it was in the books she read, but it was vastly different from the fictional counterparts. It was darker. Scarier. Charlie couldn’t help but find the light in every bad situation. You had a feeling she was going to keep looking for her quest. You were a firm believer everyone had a role to play in life. She had yet to find hers. 
+ + +
The four of you decided to check on the progress of the files Charlie had been downloading to her tablet after giving the progress more than enough time. You made your way down to the control room to see everything was how you left it at first glance. It was when you made your way closer to the outdated machines was when you noticed something was strangely off. You slowed down your pace and looked straight ahead at the strange substance on the wall behind the shelf. You knew for sure it hadn’t been there before. 
“What the hell?” Dean muttered under his breath. The boys approached closer to the shelf as you stayed behind near Charlie as she reached for her tablet to check on things. "Sam give me a hand."
You placed your hands on your hips and watched as the brothers pushed away the shelf out of the way, revealing something you had never seen before. Almost the entire wall was covered in a grayish color cocoon. You were tempted to poke at the substance to see what it felt like in order to figure out what it might be, but your squeamish disgust kept your feet planted where they were. Dean took out a knife from his pocket and slid the blade through the substance, cutting deep enough of a makeshift entrance to discover what might be hiding inside. You weren't exactly sure what you were expecting to find in there. A human arm falling out was not one of them. 
Dean stepped back from the possible danger he was standing next to. You and Sam didn’t waste a second pulling out your guns and pointing it in the direction of where the arm was. The older Winchester waited a moment to see if anything else crawled out. But it seemed you were safe for the time being. Dean opened up the flaps of the makeshift pod wider. A fully grown woman tumbled out and to the ground in doing so. Charlie let out a soft gasp as Dean swiftly grabbed for his weapon if the stranger decided to try and do anything stupid as a way of greeting you all. You slowly made your way forward as Dean leaned down to push the woman on her backside to get a better inspection of her. 
She appeared to be human at first glance. What you found most odd about her was the taste in clothing. They weren't from this decade, or from this century for that matter. You were a little bit tempted to slightly nudge her with your foot when she remained on the ground with no sudden movement. After a few more seconds she started to come around to consciousness. Her eyelids fluttered open as she inhaled a deep breath for the first time in God knows how long. The first question that popped in your mind was who the hell she was. 
You and Charlie did a little digging in the archives to discover the mystery visitor was someone you thought was a fictional character in a movie and book series you remembered fondly from your childhood. You made your way back to the control room with the file in hand to see Dorothy was recuperating from her well over seven decade slumber. She sat on the floor with a blanket Sam had provided for her as he tried to get some sort of information out of her. You dropped the file to the computer and briefed Dean with what you and Charlie learned. You stared down at the sepia toned photograph Dorothy sitting on her motorcycle. She sure wasn’t the Judy Garland version you had pictured in your head when you read the books as a child. 
"Holy crap! The first case invested in this bunker involved Dorthy. She and the witch came into this room, and they never came out." Charlie read off the details of the file she hadn't gotten a chance to go through in finer detail. You let out a quiet sigh from how excited she was getting over the hunt you stumbled upon. "This will never stop blowing my mind!"
"Okay, pace yourself, Toto." You whispered to her.
“Oz is real!” She exclaimed with too much eagerness for your personal liking from the situation you were dealing with. You shook your head from the way she was handling all of this. She nudged you with her arm, trying to get you amped up as she was from the things you were learning. “It’s part of the fairy world.” 
“We have to find her.” Dorothy stated. You knew damn well who she was talking about, the wicked witch. Didn’t explain who put her in the glass bottle and left her on the shelf undisturbed for all these decades. The same bottle Dean must’ve accidentally spilled over when he was trying to take off the back panel of the computer.
“No, we have to talk before anyone does anything, okay?” Sam tried to get the woman to focus on the questions she ignored just moments ago. She remained silent, tugging the blanket closer around her body. “Dorothy?”
“Talk? Typical Men of Letters, standing around, having a nice little chat with your noses buried in your books while your little secretaries take notes.” Dorothy rolled her eyes when she glanced in the direction of you and Charlie, thinking standards for how women were only capable of being nothing more than glorified paper pushers. You scoffed at her presumption that was the farthest thing from the truth. She had a lot to catch up on. 
“We’re hunters.” Dean told the woman. 
"And who are you calling a secretary?" Charlie came to both of your defenses at the sexist title. 
“You’re not secretaries? You’re Women of Letters?” Dorothy looked surprised much as she sounded when she asked a question that felt almost impossible. You nodded your head, only making her become more baffled about her surroundings. "W—How long have I been out?"
“That’s why we need to talk. Look, you’ve been gone for over seventy-five years. Now, according to our file, you came here to kill the wicked witch and then you disappeared.” Sam gave the woman a quick refresher to help jog her memory in hopes it might fill in the gaps of information that the file couldn’t provide. “What happened?”
“We couldn’t find a way to kill her. So I did the only thing that I could.” Dorothy explained to all of you that led her to the demise, and how you found her the way you did. “A binding spell that came at a price—her soul with mine.”
“So you’ve been frozen with the witch for all this time?” You asked. 
“Yes.” Dorothy answered. She pushed off the blanket and got up to her feet, growing frustrated from all the precious time you were wasting on silly questions that weren’t going to lead the search for the witch any faster. “Look, the witch cannot be killed. If I am awake, then so is she.”
“Wait, if she’s here, why didn’t she kill you?” Sam wondered.
“She can’t.” Dorothy explained. 
“You’re protected by the witch of the North’s kiss.” Charlie jumped into the conversation and told you the reason why. She smiled from her knowledge that she had a feeling was going to come in handy. "It was in the books."
“Oh, forget the books! They’re not important. I’m protected. You aren’t.” Dorothy turned the focus onto an important detail that couldn't go without saying from the danger all of you were under. ”Now, the witch came here looking for something. I have no idea what it is. But we have to find her before she finds it.” 
“All right, all right. Charlie, dig into the files. See if you can find anything that puts a dent in a witch.” Dean instructed a set of plans to somehow get this situation under wraps. “Sam, Y/N and I will have a look-see. Come on.” 
“I’m helping.” Dorothy declared, clapping her hands together. 
"Yeah, I don't doubt it. But for right now, why don't you rest up and help the smartest person in the room?" You suggested to the woman. You glanced over in Charlie’s direction to catch the smile that began to creep on her lips from the subtle compliment. The young woman admitted about her longing for magic and all sorts of adventures, you had a feeling Dorothy could provide some during her stay. “Have fun, girls.”
You and the boys searched much of the grounds as you could together. Neither one of you wanted to take a chance at splitting up and going up against the wicked witch alone if you were unlucky enough. You didn't know how long it had been after she escaped or where she was hiding. You went through several different locations before making your way to the dungeon shortly after, wanting to be sure your other house guest was still locked up tight. The wicked witch and the king of hell teaming up together wasn't how you wanted to spend your night.
Luckily for you the king of hell was exactly where you had left him earlier today; locked up tight in the chains that secured him from trying to make a foolish escape. But he wasn’t innocent as he looked slumped back in the chair. Crowley was all too causally whistling a familiar tune from a movie you had seen several times in your lifetime enough to recognize the reference. It was the song. “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.” Dorothy sung it before she was swept away to Oz by the tornado. You cautiously looked around to make sure if the wicked witch wasn’t here, and when she wasn’t like how you suspected, you dropped your gun back down to your side. 
"Wow. If it isn't Dorothy and her pals, the Scarecrow and the Tin Man. Your new houseguest—so misunderstood." Crowley informed you of what you already were about to deduce on your own. He waited a moment for either one of you to get the reference he slipped in, but when he was left hanging, you responded with silence. “Neither one of you saw 'Wicked'?"
"Sorry. I haven't exactly had the chance to visit Broadway lately. I'll make sure to get right on that after we wrap all of this up." You said, rolling your eyes. "What did she say to you?"
"Something along the lines of..." You weren't sure if the demon was trying to be cheeky with you when he hissed, bearing his teeth and all. 
"All right, well, I'm gonna get some holy oil and a lighter, dick bag." Dean said to the demon, not even the least bit impressed by the childish behavior that meant nothing to you. 
"I know what she's looking for." Crowley said. He tried to use his knowledge for leverage to get something out of you. You narrowed your eyes on the demon as he raised his brow, wondering if you were going to play long to hear the answer.
"What does she want?" Sam questioned the demon. 
"I'd be happy to tell you, as soon as I get to stretch my legs." Crowley gave you a smug smile you wanted to smack off his face. The demon knew he had you backed into a corner, the only thing you could do was give into his petty demands. Or continue chasing your tails.
You let out a frustrated sigh. The boys weren't too pleased either as to what the demon was asking. But you gave in with a nod of the head. Dean approached Crowley with the key to unlock the chain around the demon's neck, all while holding the knife to stab him with if he tried anything stupid. Crowley behaved the entire time. He slid off the collar and let it drop to the ground, you and Sam never lowering your weapons as he did so. He let out a groan of relief from being freed for the first time since you forced him down here. 
You gave the demon an impatient look as he took his time enjoying the freedom that wasn’t going to last for too long. He moved around his stiff neck and finally pushed himself up to his feet to stretch his aching legs. Crowley even had the audacity to let out a chuckle and smile at his victorious win.
"All right." You spoke up, wanting to get the demon back on track to the reason why you were even letting him off his leash. "What does the witch want?"
"Give me a mo.” Crowley said. “I still need to air myself out."
You pointed your loaded gun at him and shot off a round straight into his chest, showing him you weren't in the mood to keep playing his little games. "I think you're out enough." 
“Rude.” The demon muttered, taken back by your hostile behavior.
Crowley inspected the bullet wound in his meat suit and shook his head, you ruined his outfit even farther as well. You were about to warn him where the next bullet would go, the demon compiled before you could get a single word out. He reached for the crumpled piece of paper at the edge of the table and unfolded it to show you a single word written down. You furrowed your brow slightly, not sure what to make of it.
“Key?” Sam read off the word. “What key?”
“I haven’t the foggiest. Had to send her off on a merry chase before she could melt me.” The demon said. He gave you a smile from the corny joke you once again didn’t find the least bit funny. “Told her you boys kept the keys in the kitchen. You do have a kitchen in this crap hole, don’t you?”
You had the first potential lead at finding out where the witch was before she could get her hands on this supposed key. You and the boys quickly made your way to the kitchen in some kind of hope that you might be able to catch her, but you were too late. All she left behind was the mess she left trying to find the damn key she was doing everything she could to find. 
The witch tore every inch of the room apart; pots and pans were scattered all over the floor, food you had left out to enjoy later laid spilled on the counters. It looked like a tornado blew in here. You let out a groan of frustration and dropped your arm holding your gun back down to your side. Not only did you have this mess to clean up after you solved this Wizard of Oz, the wicked bitch was still on the loose and most likely tearing apart another room.
"Damn it, I just cleaned in here." Dean grumbled in frustration.
"Really?" Sam sounded like he was in disbelief at hearing his brother was capable of cleaning up after himself. 
"Surprisingly, yes. He's become very domestic since we started living here." You said. You made your way into the kitchen when it was made clear your problem was long gone, but still lingering about and causing more chaos in her path. "Looks like we got a witch problem." 
You took a moment to examine the damage the witch left behind and how long it was going to take for you and the boys to clean up. You were still on high alert, nearly shooting at the person who came into the kitchen from one of the few doorways. You dropped your gun back down when you saw that it was just Charlie and Dorothy back from their own tasks you hoped had been more successful than your dead end. 
“Sorry. We raided your gun range. Made us some poppy bullets.” Charlie explained to all of you. She showed off the revolver and shoved a hand inside her pocket, pulling out the one thing you had against the wicked witch. You raised your brow in curiosity and reached for one to inspect it for yourself. “They won’t kill the witch, but they will stun the crap out of her.” 
Dean examined the bullets for himself Charlie had made on her own. He had to admit she did a good job on figuring out a potential weapon against the witch. She always managed to impress him from how she could handle herself in stressful times. “That’s my girl.”  
“There was only enough for five bullets, so…” Charlie told you the downside about her genius invention. You dealt with worse circumstances as you loaded the bullet into the chamber for the moment you might need to use it. “Make each shot count.” 
“Now we just have to find her before she finds whatever the hell’s she’s looking for.” Dorothy said. 
“She’s looking for a key.” Sam informed the two women. 
“How do you know?” Charlie asked. 
“Little birdie told us.” You said, leaving out the source where you found out on your own. You really didn’t have time, or in the mood, to explain the reason behind having the king of hell chained up in your dungeon. “Ring any bells, Dorothy?”
“Unfortunately. It’s the key to Oz. There are magical ways into Oz—tornado, eye of a hurricane, whirlpool—but this key will turn any locked door into a portal to Oz.” Dorothy explained what made this one in particular so special. And why the witch wanted to get her hands on it so badly.  “Insert key, twist, and presto, you’re in Oz.”
“How did the Men of Letters get the key?” Sam asked. 
“I have no idea, but if she finds it, she’ll go back and finish what she started. She’ll destroy all that is good in Oz. She’s got armies of witches, flying monkeys.” Dorothy painted all of you a grim picture of what the future might look if you weren’t faster than she was. “Many will die.” 
"What's this key look like?" Dean asked her. Dorothy pulled out a small leather bound journal from the inside pocket of her jacket and flipped to a sketch of the key. You furrowed your brow slightly when it looked familiar to you. "I've seen that key. Found it when Y/N and I were doing inventory." 
“Where is it now?” Dorothy asked. 
“My room. We got to get that key. Alright, Charlie and I will go look in my room.” Dean formulated a plan before all of you split up to go your separate ways. “Why don’t you guys buy us some time?”
You nodded your head in agreement. You watched as Dorothy and Sam made their way to the more open area of the bunker to get a better chance at finding the witch. You lingered behind for a moment as you called out for the redhead’s attention before she could get too far. Much as you trusted her ability to take care of herself, there was still a part of you that wanted her out of danger. You were dealing with a powerful witch and no real means to stopping her. 
“Safest place in this joint is the dungeon.” You informed her.
“You have a dungeon in this place? Of course you do.” She smiled at the new room she learned about, wondering exactly might be hiding in there when given the chance to explore it one of these days like the rest of this place. 
“So maybe you should…” You hinted around what you were trying to say without coming right out with it. You wanted more than anything to make sure she was safe. But you should have known she wasn’t going to back down from the very thing she admitted to you about stumbling across again. This hunt was her dream come true. 
“I am not hiding, especially in a dungeon. Wicked witch, a key, a quest? Did you not listen to anything I said before?” Charlie was walking on cloud nine from the adventure she stumbled upon. She broke out into a grin and playfully punched the man standing next to you in the shoulder. “Let’s do this, Dean.” 
You shook your head in annoyance as the woman made her way to Dean’s room to find the key, ignoring your last attempt at calling her name. You knew at this point all of your warnings fell upon dea ears. You let out a sigh of defeat and made your way to wherever Dorothy and Sam ended up, Dean quickly catching up with Charlie before she could get herself into too much trouble while snooping around his bedroom.
[Next Part]
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