#the medic giving instructions through gritted teeth and trying to keep their head straight through the pain

[letitbehurt]

When the healer or medic of the team is injured in a way that prevents them from doing what they’re good at, so they have to direct another team member to treat their wounds properly.

[malum-forev]

Try Anything Once

BuckyBarnes x Reader

Bucky finds himself at the worse place, the doctor’s office. But maybe it isn’t as bad as he thought.

Word Count: 2.6k

There were many things that brought James Buchanan Barnes rage, but at the top of his list was his mechanical arm. It was bad enough that it was a constant reminder of who he was, who he was created to be, but now due to a technical failure, it was even more of an inconvenience.

“I already told you that it’s fine.” He muttered at Sam, trying to open and close his palm, with no avail.

“Yeah, and if I were blind, I would believe that. You need to get that thing fixed. Maybe it just needs some motor oil.” He said followed by a loud laugh, only making Bucky’s eyes roll. “I already reported it to the medical department, anyways.”

“What are doctors going to tell me about this thing, it’s not flesh. They don’t know anything about it.”

“Well, I mean, we do have the best doctors in the world. I think they know something about that contraption.” Sam replied, standing up from his position and traveling to the front of the airplane to see how long it would take them to get back to the compound.

Bucky closed his eyes, trying to calm the bubbling anger that was filling him up, almost to the point of explosion. It was supposed to be the best, why would it be giving him trouble. Subsiding his anger, he thought that maybe he would have to go to Wakanda to get it fixed. Maybe he would even have to stay there for some time, he could only dream of that. In the past 80 years, that was the only time he felt something close to peace. Forcing his eyes to open, he realized that the plane was descending. Looking out the window, he saw what he dreaded the most. A team of people in white bathrobes.

“Doctors.” Bucky huffed in annoyance.

As he made his way through the white corridors with fluorescent lighting, he could hear at least three pairs of feet shuffling behind him. He could almost sense they were too nervous to ask him any questions. He stopped at the end of the hallway and waited for three seconds before turning around to face them.

“Well? Are you going to open this stupid door, or do I have to break it to get this thing fixed?” He yelled, not feeling anything as he saw the three young doctors shake and vigorously nod their heads. The tallest one, she couldn’t be a day older than 25, quickly entered the access code and opened the door. Revealing a large waiting room with one assistant behind a desk. He heard the elevator music first, after that came a whiff of something. Some kind of flower Bucky couldn’t recognize.

“I have an appointment.” Was the only thing he said as the assistant moved his eyes away from the computer and saw the former Winter Soldier. He was different, he wasn’t scared of Bucky.

“Name and date of birth please.” He asked kindly as he faced back to the computer.

“This must be a joke.” Bucky said, as he watched the assistant’s motionless expression, he realized it wasn’t. “James Buchanan Barnes, March 10th, 1917.”

“Thank you, Dr. (y/l/n) will be with you shortly. Would you like anything to drink while you wait?” He smiled again, only enraging Bucky even more. He decided no answer was needed. After about two minutes, he saw the door swing open and a field agent came out first.

“Thank you so much Doc.” She smiled, Bucky had seen her before if he remembers well, she even introduced herself. But like always, he never remembered anyone’s name. She smiled as she passed him, and he just nodded back. After the agent, a woman in that dreaded white bathrobe came out. Average build, fragile looking, late twenties, it would take me less than two seconds to knock her off the ground. Bucky thought, immediately erasing the thought from his mind, something his therapist had taught him to do.

“Mr. Barnes, please come inside.” She said, her voice was extremely peaceful and calm. Everything about her seemed that way. It was as if one of those singing birds from Snow White had come out of the storybook and became a human. Bucky followed her into her office and sat down, looking at the pendulum sitting on top of her neatly organized desk. Swinging back and forth infinitely. “You’re here because your arm is giving you trouble?”

“The metal one.” Was the only thing he said, she just nodded and motioned him to sit on the exam table, “I’m not laying on that. I’m not five.”

“You’re obviously not five, you were born in 1917.” She quickly replied. “If anything, I should have you sitting on a wheelchair, or one of those reclining chairs they have elderly people in. I need you to lay down here to check your prosthetic. I also need you to remove your jacket, and anything that would obstruct me from performing my analysis.”

With a quick glare, he followed her instructions. He took his jacket off and without thinking twice, ripped the sleeve from his t-shirt.

Laughing a bit, the doctor started contorting his arm in different directions. “You superheroes really have a passion for all things dramatic. You could have taken off your shirt.”

“This was easier.”

“Not much of a talker, are you?” she said before pressing on a disk near the arm’s wrist. Gaining a hiss from the former assassin.

“Could you just stop.” He said in an annoyed tone. “I’m just here because your people were waiting for me once I got off the damn plane. Now stop messing with it before you break my arm.”

With one swoop motion, he was back on his feet. “This is made from an incredible rare material. Something that they probably didn’t even know existed at whatever school you got your degree from. Which one was it?” Bucky said, getting more and more angry as he saw the doctor didn’t even flinch at what he was saying. He started looking around the walls to see where she had that paper framed. The one every doctor likes to display, as if it was some sort of badge.

“I don’t have a medical degree. You can say this comes,” Dr. (y/l/n) took a pause. “Naturally to me.”

Bucky let out a small laugh. “I’m fine. And even if I wasn’t, I’m not going to have some random person who couldn’t even finish med school looking at my arm. It’s probably more expensive than everything you own.

Dr. (y/l/n)’s expression didn’t change, the small smile still on her mouth. “Pepper’s team warned me about you, Mr. Barnes. They said you were, difficult.”

“Difficult.” Bucky scoffed as he leaned on the medical table, he watched the doctor move back behind her desk. Typing something on her computer, the printer slowly coming to life, sending out a small piece of paper.

“Well, they actually said you were a huge pain. Difficult is just the word I choose to use.” She adjusted her glasses and read what was on the paper, taking out a pen and signing it.

“It really shows that after Steve left, this place started hiring just about anybody. Their whole system is going to fall apart if they keep uncredited people here.” Bucky spat out, aggravated at the mere thought that Sam would have sent you here with her.

“You’re not completely wrong with that statement. But I don’t think it was after Steve, it was before that. At one point they even recruited brain washed assassins.” The doctor replied with a grin on her face, only making Bucky’s blood boil even more. “Try this, it will help with regaining mobility.”

Bucky ripped the paper out of the doctor’s hand, crumpling it up and shoving it in his back pocket. Turning around to leave the office.

“Oh and Mr. Barnes, you have to come back to finish the assessment before you can go back into the field. Those are the orders stated by Mr. Wilson.” Again, that smug smile adorning her face. Does she always have something to say? Bucky thought as he stormed out of the medical building, heading straight to Sam’s room. He was going to hear what Bucky had to say about that know-nothing fake doctor.

Bucky heard Sam’s laugh before he actually saw him, as the automatic doors opened, he saw that the laughter was directed towards him.

“I’m guessing by your angrier than usual glare, you saw (y/n).” Sam said with a gigantic smile.

“Was that some sort of prank? You hired a fake doctor only for me to go and waste my time?” Bucky asked as he strode past him walking straight into the kitchen.

“What did you have planned for the rest of the day? Sitting on the corner of your bed at three pm, standing in a corner at four and do your hair at five? I know you do your hair, it’s impossible for it to always be perfectly imperfect.” Sam said shooting Bucky a questioning gaze, but he just rolled his eyes and grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge. “And what are you talking about fake doctor? Please tell me you let her do her job, if not I can’t let you come on the mission tomorrow.”

“Of course I didn’t, tomorrow I’m going to see an actual doctor to get a stupid note that says I’m fine! Even though I’m telling you right now that I’M FINE.” He yelled as he smashed down the bottle, making it as flat as a piece of paper.

It was at this specific moment that F.R.I.D.A.Y. said: “Bucky Barnes, you have an appointment with your therapist tomorrow at 11:30 am. If you were to miss this appointment, you will be sanctioned and will not be able to assist on missions.”

This obviously sent Sam on a fit of laughter. “That message couldn’t have come at a better time. Anyways, you need to get your appointments aligned. I suggest you go to the Doc’s office tomorrow morning to see if she has anything available.”

“Just send me the actual doctor’s office and I’ll be there tomorrow morning.” He said through gritted teeth.

“Bucky, I don’t know who got it into your head but, (y/n) is an actual doctor. That why she’s Dr. (y/l/n) and not just (y/n).”

“She was the one who told me she’s not credited. She doesn’t even have a medical degree, let alone know anything about vibranium!” Bucky said throwing his hands up in the air.

“You don’t have a degree but that doesn’t mean you’re not capable of being an ass. And an annoying one too!” Sam said, getting frustrated with the conversation. “Look, Dr. (y/n) has been here for a long time, she knows what she’s doing. Maybe you don’t know anything about her because you were frozen for half of your life and the other half you spent being a cyborg assassin. Also, she was one of the first people to handle vibranium when it was found in Wakanda, so I think she knows something about that. She even spent some time in a hut over there, just like you! You have more things in common than you think. So, tomorrow you’re gonna get her some coffee, go to her office, apologize for being, well, you; and get that arm fixed. In the meantime, you can look up some things about her. You do remember how to google things right?”

“Of course I remember. Could you just help me get on the net?” Bucky said while holding out his phone, it was now Sam’s turn to roll his eyes.

--------

The next morning, Bucky reluctantly made his way back to the medical building. The two disposable coffee cups were almost knocked out of his hands when the doors swung open.

“Back already Mr. Barnes?” he heard Dr. (y/l/n) say, it surprised him that she would talk so casually with him, given that yesterday he was, difficult. “Should I put down extra thirsty as a side effect on your chart?” She asked pointing to both of the cups.

“Actually Doctor, one of them is for you. I didn’t know what you drank so one is a black coffee and the other one has a splash of milk and sugar. Sam told me you would accept coffee as an apology, some sort of olive branch.” Bucky said, shoving both of the cups near her for her to choose.

“You can take me to get coffee instead. Judging by the stale smell, this is day old coffee. Plus, I don’t think you have tried oat milk lattes.” She smiled as she guided him to the restaurant inside the compound.

“Oat milk wasn’t a thing in the 40’s.” Was all that Bucky replied. “I wanted to formally apologize. It’s something new to me, my therapist says I should externalize my feelings more. I did not know your past; you know with the whole regenerative thing.”

This was the first time he saw her not smile. She looked away for a moment and asked “Did you try what I told you. It’s a type of oil that seeps into the smallest indentations in vibranium, creating a protective layer. With that, and some rehabilitation exercises, you will feel as good as new.”

Bucky just shook his head, not wanting to talk about his less than normal extremity. He opened his mouth to ask her, but she interrupted. “I know what you’re going to ask me. I may not be able to read minds but this profession has taught me many things, one of them being how to read people’s expressions.”

“Can you still do it?” He pressed on, if what he had read was true, then she was probably one of the only people that could understand what he was feeling.

“Yes, of course I can. As a supersoldier I would think you understood. It’s not something that you can just turn off, it’s here forever.” She said pointing to her whole body. “I didn’t want this; I didn’t ask to be able to regenerate. I was just at the wrong place at the wrong time and with the wrong people.”

“I researched you last night.” Bucky admitted shooting her a shy smile.

“Didn’t think you were tech-savvy.” She said, taking a sip of her coffee. “That was a long time ago, she’s long gone. I thought what I was doing was the right thing. And he, he convinced me that it was. But alas, I was only some sort of protection. Receiving the bullets that would wound him and healing the cuts that would kill him. But after I realized all the damage, we were actually doing I, I found this place. And from there on I decided I was going to heal other people. Even if they couldn’t regenerate.”

“I can relate.” Bucky said, slouching back on the bench they were sitting on, a weird feeling appearing inside of him. Something that he wasn’t used to, relaxation and peace. “I appreciate you not flipping out yesterday, I was out of line.”

“I’ve dealt with worse people here.” She laughed. “I looked at your videos fighting. You need to take better care of that arm of yours.”

“I didn’t know you were keeping tabs on me Doc, had I known I would have smiled at the camera.” Bucky said shooting her a smile, it was the first time she had seen him actually do that.

“It’s my job to check my patient’s whole file.” She explained but couldn’t resist to smile back. “And you can call me (y/n) by the way.”

“In that case, call me Bucky.”

[set-phasers-to-whump]

hiding injury

prompt: hiding injury

whumpee: eddie diaz

fandom: 911

hi here is my fave trope ft. one of my fave characters!!! this kinda got away from me in length lmao but i loved writing it and im not mad ab how it turned out. i hope you enjoy!!!!

Something had felt...off about tonight’s victory. It had been in the way his opponent had looked at him, not the usual disappointment and anger that typically came with losing a fight, but something stronger, more violent. Eddie’d brushed it off. He’d had worse looks thrown at him. 

He’s regretting having brushed it off right about now. If he hadn’t, if he’d just talked to the guy, calmed him down, something, he wouldn’t be here right now, hand pressed to a stab wound in his torso, leaning up against the door of his truck, feeling blood slowly seep through his fingers, warm and wet. 

For a split second, his non-occupied hand reaches for his phone, but he stops himself before he even unlocks it. He can’t call 911. If he calls 911, then the 118 will discover what it is he’s been doing...they’ll realize that he’s dangerous, reckless, stupid, for having gotten himself stabbed, and he doesn’t want them to think that. He can’t lose them, not now. So no 911. He’ll be fine. He used to be a medic. He knows how to treat a stab wound. 

He gets into his truck, left hand still firmly pressed to his torso. He fumbles around with the other until he finds a rag on the floor. Not bothering to think about where it might’ve been, Eddie balls it up and presses it as hard as he can into the wound, gritting his teeth to stop from screaming. 

He drives home as carefully as he can, for the most part keeping a hand pressing the rag to his torso, but occasionally having to let go. His lap and seat are coated in sticky blood by the time he gets home. 

For the first time in his life, he’s grateful that Chris isn’t there. There’s no hiding the blood coating his torso, legs, hands… He doesn’t know how he’d even begin to explain this to his son. 

Eddie gets himself inside and into the bathroom, making a pit stop in the kitchen to grab some alcohol first - this isn’t going to be pleasant.

He stands in front of the mirror, dripping blood onto a towel he’d pulled quickly down from the rack. A first aid kit sits open in front of him. He takes a larger-than-probably-necessary sip from the bottle in his hand, then sets it heavily down onto the counter and gets to work. 

First, he has to clean the wound. He grabs a bottle of saline solution, grits his teeth, and pours it onto his torso, hissing at the stinging feeling. 

He waits for the pain from that to subside before starting on the more painful part of the task - the stitches. He pours some hydrogen peroxide over his supplies to make sure they’re clean - this cannot get infected - and then he takes a deep breath and begins. 

In, out, in, out, in, out...it’s not a terribly long wound, which is good, because every stitch feels like getting stabbed again (which it technically is). He’s crying when he ties the thread off, and his hands are beginning to shake. He’s just glad they waited until he didn’t have a needle poking through his skin.

Eddie carefully sticks a gauze pad over the stitches, then gives himself a once-over in the mirror, hoping he’ll be able to say he looks pretty good for a guy that just stitched himself up. 

But he doesn’t. His face is slightly pale and his eyes are red and there’s blood smeared all over his body like paint on a canvas. He can’t go to sleep like this, although sleep is about the only thing he wants to do at the moment. He’s got to clean himself up.

There’s no way he’s getting in the shower with his freshly-done stitches, so he settles for ruining several washcloths, cleaning his body with water from the sink. He can’t get all of the blood, because he can’t quite bend over without his torso pulling in a way that suggests more stitches will be imminent if he keeps doing it. But most of the blood is removed from his body, anyway, which is good enough for him. He strips out of his bloody shorts and puts them, the washcloths, and the towel from under his feet into the trash. He’ll take it out as soon as he gets redressed, so Chris won’t find them. 

He puts on clean pajama pants, not bothering to run the risk of putting on a shirt, and grabs the trash, taking it outside to the can on the curb, pain thrumming through him with every step. That done, he returns to the bathroom and wipes his blood off of the counter, extremely grateful that none had dripped off of the towel and onto the floor. 

He runs a quick check of the house, making sure there’s no blood on any of the floors (there is, but he scuffs a towel over it with his foot, which is not bloodsoaked enough to warrant the trash, but is instead tossed into the washing machine). He locks the doors, triple-checking to make sure they’re secure, and does the same with the windows. He doesn’t particularly think the guy that stabbed him is going to come after again (and even if he wanted to, it’s not like he knows where Eddie lives), but it never hurts to be cautious. 

When all that is done, Eddie finally lets himself sink very carefully into his bed, placing a couple more towels under him in case his wound should start bleeding in his sleep. He prays it won’t. He doesn’t want to have to stitch his skin up again. 

--

He wakes up in the morning, immediately checking himself for blood, which, fortunately, hasn’t seeped out of the gauze. There's a few spots on the gauze itself, but he needs to change it anyway. 

It looks pretty good, Eddie thinks, eyeing the wound in front of the mirror. Not infected, stitches holding...about as good as he can expect. 

He gets dressed, very painfully, and nearly dislocates his arm trying to get his shirt on without causing any stress on his chest. He makes a halfhearted attempt to make himself look like he didn’t just climb out of bed and head straight to work, but that is what he looks like, he’s sure. 

Buck confirms this for him the second he walks through the station doors. “You look like shit, Eddie,” he says, bumping Eddie’s shoulder with his own. 

Eddie gives him a smile that feels more like a grimace. “Overslept,” he says. Buck nods. “Chris was at that sleepover with...oh, what was her name...Olivia? Bet you expected him to wake you up early for breakfast.”

Eddie nods, surprised that Buck remembers where Chris is. He’d ordinarily smile at the fact, but currently can't bring himself to.

They head up the stairs to the loft, Eddie dragging along behind Buck significantly. Every step pulls on his stitches, and he feels like he can literally feel them starting to pull apart. Which he very well could be feeling, he knows. He just hopes he isn’t. They can’t know about this. 

Of course, for them to not know about this, he has to act completely normal. Which is a task far easier said than done. As soon as he steps foot into the loft, Bobby’s tossing a container of oatmeal at him from the kitchen, with instructions to come over and help him out. Eddie catches the container with a barely concealed wince, and reluctantly goes into the kitchen to help Bobby, leaning up against the counter when he can. 

“You okay?” Bobby asks him, as the team settles down to eat breakfast. 

“Yeah,” Eddie says, though it doesn’t sound very convincing, even to his own ears. 

Bobby nods, not pushing the issue. Eddie sees Buck look like he’s about to say something, but Bobby interrupts him by telling everyone what they’ve got on their plates today - cleaning the station. There are general groans from around the table, but Eddie’s never been more excited at the thought of mopping. He’s pretty sure he can do that, but rescuing someone from a burning building might push him a bit too far. 

And if that’s the case, he shouldn’t be here. Not that he should be here anyway, he knows. Ideally, he should be at the hospital. But he can’t be there, and if he’d called in sick today they would have been concerned anyway, and worse, someone might have come over to check on him. So he’s here, gratefully grabbing a mop from the supply closet. 

He turns around, mop in hand, and comes face to face with Buck. 

“Look, I know we’re still...not on the most solid ground,” Buck starts, “but I am sorry, Eddie. I told you why I did what I did, and I understand if it’ll take you some time to process that, but…”

“It’s fine, Buck,” he says, as kindly as he can muster up the energy to do. “Really.” He means it, though he’s pretty sure his words lack the sincerity he feels.

Buck looks at him doubtingly, but after a second he seems to accept that answer, and then, before Eddie can stop him or back away or do anything, Buck’s hugging him tightly around the middle. 

It would be just about the nicest feeling in the world if it didn’t make him want to scream in pain. As it is, he manages to turn the scream into a low groan, muffled into the fabric of Buck’s shirt.

Buck, of course, hears it anyway. He pulls back, arms on Eddie’s shoulders, scrutinizing him. “What was that?”

“Nothing,” Eddie says, trying to sound dismissive. Before Buck can say anything else, he adds, “we really should get to mopping.”

Buck can’t argue with that, so they begin their chore, though Eddie doubts that Buck is going to drop this. 

Fifteen minutes of painful labor later, Eddie’s taking a break (hiding from the torture of the mop) in the locker room. Even the simple task had been absolute hell on his stab wound, and he can feel wetness beginning to seep through the gauze. He’s extremely grateful that his shirt is dark enough to hide the stain that is surely growing on it. 

Knuckles rap at the glass. Eddie starts and stands up, turning around and coming, again, face-to-face with Buck. Can we talk? he mouths, and Eddie can’t exactly say no, so he nods. 

Buck comes into the locker room looking somewhere between hurt and angry. “What’s up with you?” he asks. 

Eddie turns his face away from Buck’s eyes. “Nothing,” he says, and Buck laughs humorlessly. 

“Right, ‘cause that sounds so believable. Eds, you’ve been acting weird all day, you still look like shit even after Bobby’s breakfast, and I’ve caught you wincing at least five times in the past twenty minutes. What’s up?”

Eddie shakes his head. He can’t do this...he can’t let them know. Nobody can know about this side of him, this anger and this pain and this goddamn stab wound…

Which all of a sudden hurts a lot more. Eddie snaps open eyes he hadn’t realized he’d closed and sees Buck’s hand pressing into his torso, not yet touching the wound, but extremely close. 

“Stop,” he whispers, but Buck presses on. 

“Not until you tell me what’s wrong with you,” Buck insists, moving his hand and pressing down directly on top of Eddie’s injury.

He makes a noise like a strangled scream, and Buck pulls his hand away suddenly. “What the hell, Eddie?” he asks, and then he looks at his own hands, which are covered in Eddie’s blood. 

“What...the hell?”

Eddie shakes his head. Buck pushes him down onto a bench, and Eddie goes willingly. Buck pulls his shirt off over his head, jostling his arms, and Eddie doesn’t make a sound. His eyes have gone unfocused and his vision has gone blurry from tears he’s unwilling to let fall, but he can still make out the shape of Buck in front of him, knows what his face looks like without having to see it. Disappointed. Angry. Disgusted. He knows this must be how Buck feels. It’s how he feels.

A hand touches his face, cool and soft, and Buck’s voice sounds much the same when he says Eddie’s name. 

Buck moves his hand back to Eddie’s torso, this time gently touching the skin around the wound, pulling back the gauze carefully. Eddie can’t stop himself from whimpering, which he immediately hates himself for, but Buck doesn’t seem to feel the same way when he apologizes and puts a soothing hand in Eddie’s hair. 

“Eddie. Eddie, can you look at me? Please?”

Eddie focuses his eyes as best as he can and looks at Buck, who is crouched on the floor in front of him. “Eddie, what happened?”

He can’t hide it now...Buck knows, and they’re all going to know, know how weak and angry and in pain he is, and then they are going to hate him for it. 

“Hey, hey, Eddie. It’s okay. I’m not going to be mad at you or anything. I promise. Just please tell me what happened so I know how to help you.”

Buck’s hand is back on his face, brushing away tears that he hadn’t ever wanted Buck to see. He takes in a ragged breath. 

“Got stabbed.”

“Okay,” Buck says. “Okay.”

“I’m sorry,” he says in return. It’s the only thing he can think of to say, and it’s not enough, it’s never enough, he’s never enough…

“You don’t need to be sorry, Eds. I’ve got you. We’ve got you.”

Buck shouts for Hen and Chim, and Eddie hears him explaining to them what’s happened. He tries not to pay attention, tries to ignore their voices. He can’t hear them. Can’t hear what they must think of him.

“Eddie?” 

It’s Chim. He nods in response. 

“We’re gonna take you to the hospital, alright?”

He nods again. He can’t fight them, he knows. He desperately hopes they won’t be too mad at him. “I’m sorry,” he says again. 

“For what?”

It’s Hen this time, and he feels her hand on the back of his neck. He doesn’t reply, and this seems to be fine, because nobody asks him anything else, except for Buck, who asks if he’s ready and doesn’t give him time to answer before they’re all helping him up and onto a gurney, then pushing him into an ambulance. 

Hen’s driving, and Buck and Chim are sitting in the back with him. Chim’s busy being a paramedic, though since Eddie’s already cleaned and stitched the wound there’s not a lot for him to do. He slips a pulse monitor onto Eddie’s finger and asks him how he’s feeling. 

“Fine,” Eddie says, which is the wrong answer, obviously. Chim sighs and asks if he’s sure that he really feels fine, you know, with a stab wound to his torso and all. 

“Fine. It hurts,” Eddie mutters, and Chim says a smug thank you that almost makes Eddie smile. 

Buck grabs his hand from where he’s sitting next to Eddie, holding on tighter than can possibly be necessary, like he’s worried Eddie’s going to just fall away. Eddie wishes he had that kind of power. 

“Will you tell us what happened?” Buck asks. Eddie shakes his head slightly. He can’t talk about it. Or, he can, but he doesn’t want to. Except some part of him does. He doesn’t say anything as he tries to figure that one out. 

“Eddie, listen. I know you’re hurting right now. Because of Shannon, because of Chris, because of me...I know I haven’t been the best friend lately, but I have never stopped caring about you. Whatever happened, you can tell me. I promise I won’t judge you or be mad at you.”

“Same,” Chim adds, putting a hand on Eddie’s shoulder. 

They won’t be mad, Eddie tries to tell himself. They won’t be mad. They won’t be mad. 

“I was street fighting and it went bad,” he says, the words coming out of him in a rush. 

“Okay,” Chim says, with professionalism. Buck, on the other hand, says nothing. He’s looking at Eddie with this unreadable expression on his face and he’s not saying anything, and Eddie thinks that this is it. This is something that can’t be looked past. This is the moment that Buck leaves him, for good. 

“Okay,” Buck agrees, and his grip on Eddie’s hand tightens even more. “Thank you for telling us.”

They arrive at the hospital not ten seconds later, and then Buck, Chim, and Hen are walking beside him on the path to the doors, and when they reach the doors, rather than surrendering him to the doctors and turning around, they follow him in.

A few minutes later the four of them are crammed into a room that’s a little too small for all of them. Eddie’s lying on a table and the others are standing around him, giving the nurse a wide berth but anxiously looking over her shoulders. She’d told them there was no need for surgery and that he hadn’t lost enough blood to be in serious danger. She’d give him an anaesthetic, clean and stitch the wound, and then he’d be kept for observation for a couple hours. She had also pulled the other three away and talked to them about something Eddie hadn’t been able to hear. Him, most likely. 

Buck, Chim, and Hen then clear out for the nurse, who smiles kindly at Eddie and asks whether he’s alright with receiving the local anaesthetic. He’d like to say no, that he’s fine, he’ll tough it out, but he is unfortunately now familiar with the feeling of stitches pulling through his skin, and he accepts the anaesthetic readily.

A few minutes later, he’s been stitched up far better than his at-home job, and he’s lying in a hospital bed trying to argue with the nurse about going home. 

“It really is best if you stay, just until this evening, Mr. Diaz,” she’s saying, and he knows full well she’s right, but he hates it anyway. But Buck and Chim and Hen are standing behind her, eyeing him with looks that leave little point in arguing further. 

He resigns himself to staying in the hospital for a little while. Buck, Chim, and Hen head back to the station and promise to come back as soon as they can. Eddie calls his abuela and asks whether she can pick up Chris from his sleepover. He tells her he’s been hurt on the job, nothing major, and he’ll be home that night. She says she’ll bring Chris by in an hour, and tells him he’d better not think he’s getting away with his shoddy explanation. 

He tries to keep himself occupied as he waits for people to arrive, but time in the hospital passes extraordinarily slowly, and he finds himself bored out of his mind and kind of sleepy. He closes his eyes experimentally and finds it easy to drift off. 

--

He wakes up to voices. Chris and Buck, he realizes, talking very excitedly about a new school project involving plants. Eddie smiles and opens his eyes. 

“Dad!” Chris shouts excitedly, standing up so quickly he about topples over in his haste to give Eddie a hug. Buck catches him before he can fall and reminds him to be gentle, and then Chris is hugging him around the neck and saying he’s so glad he’s okay, and did he hear them talking about the new project? And does he think Buck can come over and help him work on it after school on Monday?

Eddie answers Chris’ questions as well as he can, and Chris seems satisfied with the answers, sinking back into his chair and grinning. Buck gives his hair a tousle and looks at Eddie. “You okay?”

Eddie nods. Now that they’re here, truly, the answer is yes. “I’m sorry,” he says, and he looks Buck straight on, hoping he’ll feel Eddie’s sincerity. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell anyone. I thought it would be fine. I just...I didn’t want you to know.”

“Know what?”

Eddie looks at Chris, who is looking between the two of them somewhat confusedly. He shakes his head. Chris doesn’t need to hear this. 

At just that moment, there’s a knock on the door, and Eddie looks up to see Athena, with Harry and May in tow. “Bobby’ll be here as soon as he can,” she says to him. “And then you and I are going to talk.”

He nods. He’d figured this was coming. He’s just glad she hadn’t said they were going to talk right now. 

“Hey Chris?” Buck asks, and Chris turns to him, grinning. 

“Dad’s really okay?” Chris asks, before Buck can finish his sentence. 

Buck nods. “He’s going to be just fine, I promise,” he says, holding up his hand like he’s swearing it. Chris giggles. 

“Okay, Buck. Then...can I go play with Harry?”

Chris looks imploringly at Buck, then at Eddie, and Eddie catches Harry giving the same look to Athena. All three adults nod, and the two boys head out into the hallway, Athena and May following behind them. May closes the door behind her and smiles at the two of them, almost encouragingly? Which Eddie thinks is a bit odd. He’s broken away from the question by Buck slipping right back into their prior conversation.

“You didn’t want me to know what?” 

Eddie takes a breath in, then turns his gaze to his hands, intertwined atop the blanket. He doesn’t think he can look at Buck while he says this. 

“I didn’t want you to know how much it hurt. How angry I am. I didn’t want to tell you because then you would realize that I’m not enough, that I am angry and hurting all the time, and I’m not worth the trouble. I didn’t want you to know that about me. I didn’t...I didn’t want you to leave me.”

Buck doesn’t say anything. Eddie risks a glance up at him and sees that there are tears in Buck’s eyes. He hates himself for putting them there.

“Oh, Eddie,” Buck says, and his voice is as soft as anything. He grabs Eddie’s hand, rubbing his thumb in circles on the back of it. “Eddie, there is not a thing you could say to me that would make me leave you. That would make me stop loving you. I’m gonna be right here, no matter what. I’ll be here when you’re hurting, angry, upset...I love all of you, Eddie, not just the parts of you that you show to the world. All of you.”

He’s briefly interrupted by a whoop of joy from the hallway, a mix of Harry and Chris. Eddie looks back up at Buck, who’s smiling despite the tears on his face. 

“And all of Chris. I’m not going to leave either of you, Eds. Even if I get mad at you sometimes. Even if I am mad at you for not telling me that you were hurting.”

Eddie’s crying too, now, and he feels Buck’s hand gently grab his chin, lifting his head so they lock eyes. 

“You are more than enough, Eddie. For Chris, for the 118, for me...we all love you. We’re all right here. You don’t need to keep going through all of this alone.”

Eddie nods, feels a sob escape him, and then Buck’s holding him, incredibly gently but still grounding, running fingers through his hair and telling him, over and over, that he is enough. That he is loved. This just makes Eddie cry more, until finally he pushes Buck away, for once wanting to meet his eyes.

“I love you,” he says, and even after everything Buck’s said to him, he panics for a moment and wonders whether this is too much, and then Buck is moving towards him, slowly, looking at him like he wants confirmation that this is what Eddie wants, and of course this is what he wants, of course it is, and it must show in the look that he gives Buck in return, because the distance between them rapidly closes, and then he is kissing Evan Buckley, and Evan Buckley is kissing him. 

“Eww!” 

The two of them break apart in surprise, and Buck laughs softly, resting their foreheads together. The door to the room opens, and Chris, Harry, Athena, and May walk in. 

“Kissing’s gross,” Harry says, and Chris nods. May whacks her little brother on the head. “What?” Harry protests. “It is.”

Eddie looks at Chris, for a second terrified that his son is going to hate him for this, but then Chris gives the most exasperated sigh that Eddie has ever heard come from a child, and he says, “I guess kissing’s okay.” Harry looks at him with betrayal on his face. “It’s still gross, mostly” he reassures, “but it’s not the worst. ‘Specially since we’re at the hospital. You’re supposed to kiss people better.”

Eddie smiles at his son, and he catches Buck doing the same, looking so incredibly happy and bright that it’s damn near painful to look him straight on.

“Yes!” May says suddenly, and she meets the questioning gazes of everyone in the room, looking up from her phone, where she’d been furiously texting. “Hen and Bobby and Dad owe me $20. I owe Chimney $20, too, though.”

Athena gives her daughter a look. “You bet on this?” she asks. 

Eddie feels himself blush, and sees Buck’s cheeks darken, too. Had this been that obvious?

“Mom,” May starts, but Athena interrupts her. “And you lost to Chimney?”

May nods. 

“And so did Bobby.”

Another nod.

“So we collectively owe Chimney $60. I can’t believe it. I swore I’d beat him. Ooh, he is gonna gloat.”

“Athena!” Buck yelps, mock hurt. “You bet on this?”

“It was a matter of time, Buckaroo.”

Buck smiles at her, and then turns his face back to Eddie. “A matter of time, huh?”

Eddie nods. “Apparently so.”

aghhhh thanks so much for reading this!!! i had literally the best time writing it and i hope you enjoyed!!!

[watchtower-feed]

Until Death (Part 5)

SSA ✧ Red Hood ✧ 1 ✧ 2 ✧ 3 ✧ 4 ✧ 5 ✧

    Jason frowns at the sound of his alias escaping your lips but don’t see it. You turn around and swallow a sob before you walked away.

    “Damn, Jason! How heartless!” Roy has been giving Jason a hard time for the past half hour in Roy’s apartment since Jason told him what happened between the two of you. “The girl goes out of her way to search for you, gets chased by bad guys, falls off a roof, and then you just tell her you never wanted to meet her?”

    “What?” Jason snaps back, “Should I have lied? Tell her I’ve been dreaming about the day when we’d meet?”

    Roy rolls his eyes to the side, a small smirk playing on his lips,  “Weeell…” Jason stares at him as he waits. “Before you, you know,” Roy makes a gesture of cutting his throat with his thumb, making Jason glare at him, “you did brag a lot about the day you’d meet your soulmate you know. When you were still a Titan--”

    Jason physically shuts Roy up by covering his mouth with both of his hands. He glares at him with wide eyes and raised brows but Roy can see the blush covering his cheeks, “That was years ago.”

    Roy removes his friend’s hands from his face, “That was three years ago and that was you. At least one type of Jason.”

    Jason turns away from him, “I’m different now.”

    Roy doesn’t believe him one bit. Three years is a good time to change a person but not enough to completely forget who they were. “And you’re scared she won’t like you?” Roy stares at Jason who stubbornly makes a show of lying down on the floor and staring at the ceiling instead of him. “How are you going to know if you never try~” Roy lets his sing-song voice echo in the room but Jason doesn’t budge.

    Then Roy stops abruptly and Jason watches him close his eyes. He waits for a while before Roy opens his eyes again.

    “Your soulmate?” Jason asks.

    “Yeah, she’s done with class. Sorry, bro, duty calls.” Roy kicks himself off his bed and packs his last-minute-superhero-bag-disguised-as-an-ordinary-gym-bag. “She took military science this semester and I’m helping her write a paper on reconnaissance.”

    Jason frowns, “Don’t tell me. You’re letting her experience it first hand?”

    Roy chuckles, “You’re skeptical. I see that but once you meet her. Oh, boy. You’re going to wish you have her for backup.”

    Jason watches as one of his closest friends hum while he packs away more gadgets for his trip. “How do you do it, Roy? Having somebody else’s thoughts in your head?”

    Roy pauses at the sudden seriousness of Jason’s voice, more serious than usual. “It’s not all bad. You know when you’re thinking to yourself, trying to find answers to life’s dilemmas?” he asks and waits for Jason to respond but he doesn’t so Roy scoffs. “And then suddenly someone actually answers you. It’s like God answering your prayers or something. It feels good talking to somebody.”

    “Sounds just like having comms on a mission.”

    “Exactly. And life’s a mission, Jay.” Roy teases as he opens his door and steps out. He leans in gives Jason a goodbye kiss in the air. “And you better get on with yours.”

    Roy shuts the door to his own apartment and leaves Jason lying on his floor feeling miserable and antsy.

    Later that same evening, it doesn’t take long for Jason to track you down. No, not all because much to his displeasure, you are still looking for answers regarding his death. Now that you know he’s the Red Hood, it has lead you to even deeper shit than you can imagine.

    “Lookie here, boss. One just came straight to our lap.” One of Black Mask’s goons drops you on the floor like a garbage bag and you land on your wrists tied behind your back.

    You bite against the cloth wrapped along your jaw and you glare hard at the crime lord standing tall and menacing in his diamond-clad black suit. He squats down and stares at you with his face only a few inches away. You can smell the tobacco and scotch in his breath mixed with the stench of the black paint of his mask.

    “Gutsy,” he turns back to one of his goons, “Definitely has enough spunk to be a soulmate of one of those do-gooders.” Black Mask looks you over from head to toe making you tense under his gaze. “What does she have?”

    One of his men steps up and harshly grabs your wrists to show his boss the faded timer on your hand.

    He frowns, “Timer link, huh. Luthor would have paid big money for you if your timer hadn’t run out.” He turns his eyes away from your wrist and looks back at you in the eye, “Seems you’ve met your soulmate then.”

    “She was walking around asking people about the Red Hood.”

    Black Mask’s eyes widen and fill in the sockets of his mask. He stands up quickly and smacks the man who spoke. “You idiots!” he bellows at them. “Get her out of here!”

    The man holding you quickly let you go and backs away. You quickly stare in shock as you and the rest of the men in the warehouse watch the Black Mask trudge along the ends of the table spouting rushed instructions to his men. “Do you all want to die tonight?”

    Then one loud bang of metal hitting the cement floor steals everyone’s attention. You turn your head away from the Black Mask and find the Red Hood with his knees bent, head down, and an AK-47 in his hands.

    “Yes,” he says as he straightens his posture and rests the assault rifle on his shoulder, “It does seem like you want to die tonight.”

    The men are inching away from the Red Hood and Black Masks grits his teeth as he tries to keep still against the table. “Here for your girl, Red?” Black Masks snarls at him. “It doesn’t look like you’re here to save anyone with that gun you’re carrying.”

    You stare at Jason. Black Mask has a point. The rifle isn’t the best gun for a rescue mission so he must be here more for an assault. Less for you. Or not at all.

    The Red Hood laughs with his chest, making the Black Mask flinch. “Oh,” he says as he straightens up and leans forward, “I’m just the appetizer.”

    You feel the vibration of the whole warehouse before you heard the crash of the ceiling on the other side of the warehouse. You cower until all of the debris has fallen and then you quickly take a look and find Superman floating down from the gaping hole. Much faster, you see a familiar broad-shouldered silhouette glide in and land right onto Black Mask’s face.

    You’re too busy watching the Justice League round up Black Mask and his men that you instantly flinch at the feel of someone touching your wrist. It’s the Red Hood. He raises his hands, “Are you hurt?”

    You stare for a moment before you look down, “I-- I think one of my wrists is broken.” You hear him click his tongue and hear a switchblade slice through the ropes around your arm. Gently, he helps you take them off. You rub your wrists and confirm that one of them is definitely broken.

    “Does she need medical attention?” the sudden presence of Wonder Woman startles you.

    “Not critical, but her wrist is broken.”

    “I-I’m fine,” you utter in sudden embarrassment. It’s not a feeling you’re used to, being fussed over. Especially by a whole league of heroes.

    Batman approaches the three of you and he immediately kneels in front of you. He holds out his hand and tentatively you offer up your broken wrist. He takes out a makeshift wood splinter and lays it under your palm.

    “I can do it,” both you and Batman quickly turn to the Red Hood. He’s already squatting down and holding out his hand. Batman hands you over and gives him a roll of medical tape. You watch as the Red Hood slowly aligns the wood along your forearm. He takes one end of the tape and presses your fingers down on it with his palm.

    “I saw the look you gave me back there,” his voice suddenly jolts you and he has to align the wood again before he can start wrapping. When he spoke again, he sounded like he was pouting, “You didn’t actually think I would put you in harm’s way, right? That rifle was just in case I had to break my way through some of his guys but mostly it was just for show.”

    You stare up at his mask and wonder what face he’s making underneath. You look back down and watch in awe at how gentle he’s treating your arm. “I’m sorry,” you blurt out, making Jason stop.

    After a moment he starts again, “What the hell do you have to be sorry for?”

    You try to fake a laugh, “For putting myself in danger and then having to have you and the League get involved.”

    “First of all, are you dense?” He uses his head to point towards the League escorting Black Mask and his men out of the warehouse and towards the incoming police lights. “This is exactly what heroes are supposed to do. I was looking for you and Batman told me Black Masks’ men had you. So he and the rest of the League got involved.”

    You suddenly go quiet and sharply turn back to the Red Hood, making him flinch. You wanted to ask why he was looking for you but you’re thinking too much and all you got out was one word. “Why?”

    The Red Hood sighs, bored as if he’s just de-briefing on a mission, “Someone’s been targeting superhero soulmates, kidnapping them, and then having their links stolen or broken. It’s what happened to Superman and his soulmate.”

    Your fingers tense as he finishes up wrapping up your wrists. Would he want that? You wonder if Jason would have been happy if they had been successful. Your voice comes out as a whisper, “You said you never wanted to meet me. Do you wish they could have taken away our links before we met?”

    You can tell he’s watching you under his mask.

    “I doubt they could have. Not even death kept us apart.”

    Quickly, he stands up and offers a hand, “Can you stand?”

    You were completely phased by the sudden change of topic and his non-answer. You resorted to stubbornly staring at him and remaining rooted on the warehouse floor. The Red Hood groans under his mask and then squats back down, with his back facing you.

    “I’ll take you home and then I’ll give you my answer, deal?”

    Again that surprises you. He pretty much answered you, right? If he didn’t want to meet you he would have just said no right away like he did weeks ago. Slowly you climb onto his back. As soon as you secure your arms around his neck and his arms wrap around your thighs to hold you up, he says, “I’ve wanted to meet you for as long as I can remember, Y/N.”

✧ 1 ✧ 2 ✧ 3 ✧ 4 ✧ 5 ✧

[thebuckysoldier]

Identical Mosters - chapter 8

Bucky Barnes x reader

Summary: The reader is new at the compound and doesn’t talk to anyone there. She befriends Bucky over a shared trauma all while trying to find her own place in the compound.

Word count: 3.1K

Warnings: lack of food, angry Steve

A/N: Freaking finally, i finally wrote an update? Is this really happening? I guess it is. So please enjoy, to make up for the very long wait i made this chapter a bit longer then usual.

Identical Monsters - masterpage

(GIF is not mine)

The mission the next day went by quickly, the intel had been the tiniest bit wrong but everyone improvised a little and made it work. Meaning, it didn’t go by flawlessly, but it definitely could have been worse. That being said, that is also how you ended up here, on the way back on the quinjet, getting yelled at by Steve with multiple people around the table.

“Y/N what you did was reckless and dangerous” Steve’s voice sounded loud, very annoyed and also a bit angry.

“Sam could have handled himself. You had your own assignment, which, granted, you already finished it but your assignment clearly said to go back to the quinjet when done.” He continued yelling at you.

Sam was on the other side of the quinjet, Bruce was with him to take care of his wounds. It didn’t look pretty, but he’ll survive, that’s what Bruce said. At most he’d be unable to join in on missions for the next 3 months.

When you were on your way back, doing exactly as Steve had told you to do, you ran into Sam. He was being cornered but multiple guys and it didn’t look good for him. You knew what your mission was, your instructions were strict and clear, straight back to the quinjet. But, Sam needed help. So you did the latter, the two of you fought and fought, and eventually Steve found the two of you when you were about to fight of a guy at least triple your size who was about to attack Sam from behind. Steve helped out but you already knew he wasn’t happy. You just wanted to do good, you wanted to help.

“We don’t trade lives around here, Y/n.” The way he had said it caused a shiver to run down your spine. That was also the moment Bucky lost it. He had been sitting behind you, not wanting to interfere. He didn’t know if you’d want him to or not. But he couldn’t handle it anymore, not with the way Steve had been screaming at you. You didn’t deserve to be screamed at like this, you’d done well. Bucky didn’t know how much worse Sam would have been  if you hadn’t been there, probably a lot worse.

Bucky stood up as quickly as he could, slamming his fist down on the surface of the table, shocking everyone around it. Bucky then proceeded to point at Steve with the same hand he had just hit the table with. Through gritted teeth out of anger he spoke to Steve in a low voice.

“Don’t yell at her like that, Steve.”

Bucky’s voice almost sounds threatening. Steve is taken aback, it was very clear to see. Turns out Bucky hadn’t talked to him after all. You were touched by Bucky’s action, thankful as well. Steve obviously cared a lot about what Bucky thought, I guess that’s what you get for being friends since childhood. It was as if Bucky’s words had woken him up, Steve shut up immediately.



Your hand touched Bucky’s forearm, the one that wasn’t made out of vibranium, telling him that you were okay, you were all right. Your action shocked him, the soft skin of your palm felt good against his skin. Your hands were cold compared to him, but that might have been because he felt like you had just set of fire inside of him. You had touched him, willingly. He then looked at your face, trying to find any emotion and what he found was gratefulness alongside a small smile. It was nice to see you smile.

Steve was shocked by the interaction unfolding right on the other side of the table. He hadn’t seen nor suspected the two of you to interact. Steve turned around, but not before saying a last few words.

“You’re off missions. You’re not ready.”

His words hit you like a truck. It hurt. This was exactly what you were afraid of. Steve had taken an insecurity of yours and played right into it.

The first thing your mind thought was that he was right. You had disobeyed orders. You knew your tasks and choose to ignore them. Sam would never need your help, he was very capable of taking care of himself. Why would he ever need someone like you, a monster, to help him?

You gave Bucky another grateful smile, but to him you looked more devastated then anything else. You turned away from him too, only to catch the eyes of Natasha, reminding you of the mistakes you had made. Ashamed you bowed your head and took a seat in the corner. You saw Bucky glance at Nat as well before giving you one last look and then sitting down on the other side of the quinjet. He understood you needed your space right now, you wanted to be alone.

When the quinjet landed everyone went to the debriefing. You got yelled at a little more in front of everybody by Steve but this time it was Tony who stopped him.



“You made your point Steve. She knows what went wrong, and she knows the consequences.”

After that no one really said anything to you. When the debriefing was over you went to your room and didn’t come out until much later that night. You had missed dinner but you weren’t hungry anyway. But when you entered the kitchen around 10pm it was empty except for Tony and Steve sitting at the table, their voices were already hushed but when they noticed you they stopped talking all together. You quickly grabbed a banana and a cup of water and left the room again. On your way back you stopped by Sam, he was still in the medical center but he was sleeping. He looked peaceful, and not in pain, so at least that was a good thing. You made eye contact with Bruce who was still taking care of some work at the center but you quickly made yourself scarce after.

You passed Bucky’s room as well, you could see the light was still on inside and you contemplated knocking on his door to talk about today but decided against it. He probably wouldn’t want to talk to you anyway, you got him in an argument with his best friend.

Once back in your room you put the banana and the cup down on your night stand and turned off the lights. Without taking a bite or a sip you laid down in bed, but time kept passing by and sleep never came.

Around midnight Bucky left his room, he wanted to make sure you were okay after today but after he saw that the lights in your room were turned off he choose to go back to his room. He could understand, today had probably cost you a lot of energy so you went to sleep early. But oh boy, how wrong he was.

It was around 4am and you were still staring out of the window, outside it was dark but you could still distinguish the trees around the compound from the night sky.

You must have fallen asleep at some point throughout the night as you were woken up around 8am by someone knocking on the door. Climbing out the bed and opening the door you find Sam on the other side. You awkwardly tell him good morning and he returns the favor.

“Sorry for coming by this early but I wanted to thank you for yesterday, Bruce just discharged me from medical” he said, taking you by surprise.

“Bruce told me as well, but only a fool is dumb enough not to know that I would have been off a lot worse if it wasn’t for you. I know Steve yelled at you, but don’t take it at heart, he doesn’t always know what he is talking about, I’m sure many of us would agree with me. The guy is one of my best friends, and he means well but he doesn’t always show it the best way. I think you did good on yesterday’s mission, keep training and you’ll get even better. Bruce also told me you stopped by yesterday evening, so thank you for helping me and checking in on me as well.”

“It’s okay, really. I’m glad you’re okay.”

Sam gave you another smile and then told you he was going to his own bed to catch some more sleep.

You closed to the door behind him and made your way to the shower since you hadn’t taken one last night. Once done you changed into some sportswear and put a nice sweater over it, it was the one you had worn the evening you and Bucky spent your time eating ice cream in the kitchen in stead of training like you usually did. Just as you were about to leave the room, another knock on your door caught you attention.

Opening the door again, it showed Steve this time. He cleared his throat before speaking up.

“Good morning” he greeted you.

“Good morning” you replied to him.

“Bucky helped me realize that I might have been a bit harsh on you yesterday, so I came to apologize to you. I realize that you were just trying to help, but your instructions were clear so I hope you understand why I made the decisions I made, because I haven’t changed my mind about them.”

You nod your head. “Okay, thank you Steve, for apologizing and letting me know.”

He gives you a nod back.

“We’ll look again in a few weeks to see if you’re ready”

“Okay,” is the only thing you reply.

“I- uh.” Steve clears his throat again before continuing, “I saw Bucky in the training room in case you were looking for him.” You give him a tight smile with another nod before he leaves for his own room without another word.

You close the door behind him and your gaze falls on the banana you had taken to your room last night. You really should eat something, not eating for this long is unhealthy. So you take the cup and drink its contents, then take the banana and leave your room. While eating the banana you make your way to the training room, where Steve said Bucky would be.

It wasn’t like you wanted to talk to Bucky, but you were in the need to speak to someone and you knew Bucky wouldn’t mind. So entering the gym he’s the only person you find, which is weird for this time of the day. A lot of the people living here enjoyed a early morning gym session, it was a great and healthy way to start the day. 

“Good morning,” you greeted him in a soft voice.

He looks up in surprise, you could understand why. He probably hadn’t expected to see you, since you missed dinner last night as well.

“Good morning” he said with a smile. “How did you sleep?” He then asked, watching your still tired state.

“I’ve had better nights.”

Bucky remembered your lights being off pretty early in the evening so at least you went to bed on time. Maybe the nightmares were just unbearable last night. Now he wished he had knocked on your door last night, maybe he could’ve eased your mind about the mission and you would’ve slept better.

“Did you eat?”

Another question.

You hummed while making your way to the yoga mats in the corner of the room. “I ate a banana.”

Bucky was over by the weights, watching you start to stretch. He had stopped actually lifting the weights once you came in, he was distracted. You looked tired and pale, he didn’t want to interfere but you didn’t look healthy.

“I don’t think you’ve eaten enough, you don’t look too good,” he said after contemplating if he should or not.

You let out a huff as you started to do some kind of fitness exercise.

“I’m fine, it’s just the lack of good sleep and the fact that I just woke up,” you defended yourself. It wasn’t like you didn’t know what you were doing, it was just a work out. You’d eat more after.

“Are you sure?” Bucky asked one last time, continuing his own work out.

“Yeah” you answered him.

The two of you continued your workouts in silence. To Bucky you seemed to be lost in your own thoughts, he could only imagine what you were thinking about, probably yesterday’s mission. He made sure to keep an eye on your while doing his own work out, which turned out to be a good thing to do.

At one point while you were doing squats you just collapsed. Bucky didn’t know how fast to drop the weights still in his hands and run over to you. You didn’t respond to him when he called your name, your eyes were closed.

“FRIDAY, tell Tony and Bruce to come to the training room now. Say it’s an emergency and that it’s about Y/N” You couldn’t hear his voice but he sounded scared and desperate.

“I am letting them know right now, Mr. Barnes” FRIDAY replied to him.

His hand was on your cheek while his heart was pumping at a rapid pace. His mind went to all the wrong places, he knew it probably would just be the amount of sleep and food, or rather the lack of those but he couldn’t help but let his mind cloud up with ‘what if’s’.

You were still out when Bruce came running into the room, he was already dressed so he must have been up and at the lab already. As soon as he saw your state he took place next to you and checking your pulse, which was still there luckily.

As both Bucky and Bruce were bent over you, Tony arrived as well. Bucky noticed him first, he was still dressed in what seemed like pajamas, he was never really the one to wake up early. With Tony it was one or the other, he either didn’t sleep at all or slept in until like 2 in the afternoon.

“What the hell is going on?” Tony said walking over to you and letting Bruce know he had arrived as well.

“She just collapsed while doing a work out” Bucky replied to Tony.

“Any more information?” Tony asked.

“She looked pale and tired. Said she hadn’t slept well, and I know for a fact she hasn’t been sleeping well any other night. She also missed dinner last night and informed me the only thing she had eaten since probably before yesterday’s mission was a banana.”

Both Tony and Bruce nodded. That was also the moment you started to stir again. Groaning you opened your eyes only to find Bucky and Bruce hanging over you and Tony standing close and looking at you.

“Well, good morning kid, what the hell is going on?”

You blinked your eyes a couple of times before scooting away from them, creating some kind of distance between all of you. Resting your back against the wall behind you, you look at the three of them with big eyes, feeling a headache start to show up.

“Have you been eating enough lately, Y/N? You weren’t at dinner last night?” Bruce then asks.

You cleared your throat. “Yeah, I fell asleep so I missed it.” You told the lie so easily, you surprised yourself. You used to be so scared of lying, scared your uncle would find out and punish you.

“Buck said you said you also hadn’t slept well?”

“Yeah I woke up some time after dinner and I went to get a banana, I actually saw you then Tony, you were in the kitchen with Steve, and then went back to my room but I didn’t have the energy to actually eat, so I just went to bed instead. But for some reason I couldn’t fall asleep, I think I did somewhere around 5am. Then I woke up early this morning, because there were several people at my door and then I made my way to the gym and ate the banana.”

You told them a lot about your day, in details. Something inside of you said that you shouldn’t, but you had anyway.

“Do you often sleep bad?” Bruce continued to question you.

You didn’t really want to answer his question, because the answer was yes. You’ve had sleeping problems for as long as you could remember, often it were the nightmares, but other times you just seemed to be unable to fall asleep.

You touched your forehead with you hand, trying to ease the headache. You were feeling overwhelmed by the questions.

“How about you stop by at the lab after you’ve eaten some proper breakfast? Let Bucky help you if you’re up to it and then we’ll take a better look at you, is there any chance you could have gotten a more serious injure after yesterdays mission? Did anyone take a look at you?”

“No, I don’t think I have an injury. But I guess I’ll stop by. Thank you Bruce and Tony for coming, you really didn’t have to, I would’ve been fine.”

“It’s okay kid” Tony speaks up, “You still live here with all of us, we gotta make sure you’re okay. Now scary dude, help her get some proper breakfast, Bruce and I will see you after.”

Bruce and Tony leave the gym and Bucky speaks up.

“Well, you scared me there for a second,” Bucky said while leading you out of the training room and to the kitchen.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t know that would happen. I really didn’t feel that bad. I didn’t mean for that to happen, I didn’t mean to be a bother.”

Bucky really wanted to comfort you, pull you into a hug and make sure you knew you were safe and that you shouldn’t feel sorry for such a thing. The way you had scurried away from him and the others hadn’t gone unnoticed. He was sure you didn’t want to be touched right now.

As soon as you entered the kitchen Bucky ordered you to sit down, so you did as he started to make you some breakfast. He made you some oatmeal, he probably had noticed you often had it for breakfast, you liked it. He added one spoon of sugar, just like you always did. And for a nice touch he added some red fruit he found in the fridge on top. Two strawberries and a few raspberries.

“Healthy and filling, here you go” he said as he sat the bowl in front of you and giving you a spoon.

You were grateful for him, that he would do something like this for you.

“Thank you, Bucky,” You told him with a smile more genuine than it probably has ever been.

Bucky could swear his heart had made a little jump when you said his name right then.

[Chapter 9] Coming soon

[captainjimothycarter]

Are you still taking steggy prompts?! Cause I would love to read something along the lines of Peggy was given the serum on her death bed and shes young again but has all her memories, and Steve finds out ♥️

okaaaay so i haven’t seen civil war and refuse to, so my understanding of it is nonexistent but we will base this NOT on civil war. 

--

You should come see this. - NR

Steve frowned at the simple message across his screen, palming the phone in his hands. See what exactly? Natasha knew better than to try to draw Steve out of his room. He needed this time alone to process what in the hell had happened.

Peggy Carter was dead.

Steve knew it would happen. She was reaching close to 90. [He wasn’t sure her exact age given the fact she’s mentioned she’s lied on her forms about her age to him. He was impressed, considering his own lying never worked.] Her mind was slowly giving out on her. Her nurses made mention how it was harder and harder for Peggy to be 100% coherent and not start to slip. Or how she struggled to remember to eat some days.

It hurt. Physically hurt to see Peggy like that. A woman so strong brought down by her own mind. It hurt. But Steve refused to leave Peggy’s side, not when he and Sharon were just about one of the only people who could pull Peggy from herself. He refused to leave her. He couldn’t.

Peggy was one of the only lasting people from his past. A lifetime he’s never gotten to live, with a wife he never got to have. She couldn’t leave him, because, without her, Steve was truly alone.

The Howling Commandos had long past beforehand, each in their own various ways. 

He was told just a day ago that Peggy had died, by text no doubt, and Steve’s world crumbled. He withdrew from the team, spending more time than necessary at the gym to feel some sort of emotion beyond this numbing sensation. The team knew better than to bother him. Sam had tried to reach out to him, to not let Steve be alone, but after the Captain had [regretfully] snapped at him, Sam backed off.

He should apologize. 

What is it? SR

Hard to explain. Shield HQ. Medical Wing. B45. NR

Steve sighed at the instructions, rubbing a hand over his face. He looked like shit with the bags under his eyes and stubble coming in, his lack of self-care brought on by depression. He couldn’t bring himself to clean himself up as he left the building, the sound of his motorcycle drowning out the sound of the city.

It was sunset by the time he reached HQ and ducked through all the security measures. The building was empty, the sounds of his feet echoing through the halls as he made his way to the closed-off wing. Weird.

What was weirder was the fact the door he was to enter was ajar. He could hear laughter coming from the other side and Steve’s blood ran cold. He knew that laugh. 

He’d first heard it when he made a comment about Hodge passed out on the ground or when Gabe insisted that he was trying to kill them with his cooking skills or when Mortita drunkenly had used his shield as a sled. She could barely keep a straight face when scolding him. Or when Howard and Bucky were the ones who threw the first snowball at her backside. 

He knew that laugh well. It haunted his dreams, but how? It didn’t sound like a recording. There was no feedback sound, no slightly pitched noise that told him so. It sounded real. 

Steve’s heart was in his throat as he gripped his hand into a fist, regretting not bringing his shield. He couldn’t bear to pick it up, the weight of it felt too much. 

The laughter rang out again and Steve gritted his teeth, shouldering the door open, forgetting his strength as it tore straight off its hinges. 

How?

Peggy Carter laid in the hospital bed. Her hair was brown and full of curls, no longer whispy and gray. Her face was flawless, not a wrinkle in sight, beyond the laugh lines around her eyes. Her eyes were so full of life and recognized him right away. Various tubes and wires escaped from her, the sound of her heartbeat told him she was alive but how?

“You...you...” His head whirled around to Natasha sitting beside her, silently demanding some explanation. He wanted to run to her, to touch her, to hold her but he refrained and just barely. 

“It’s a long story,” Natasha said in a calm voice, drawing herself to her feet. “We lied, Steve, it’s in the business of being a spy. I didn’t want to lie about this but Fury had ordered me under no circumstances were you to know about this...project. We didn’t want to get your hopes up and have them crushed again.” 

Natasha explained how Steve’s serum was recreated by Shield in the early 1990′s, to be used by the emergency of the Director only. For the Director only. Except, the clause never specified which director [a point Fury was arguing with the council with currently]. Peggy, by all means, was a Director of Shield and due to the mysterious circumstances of loss paperwork, never fully gave up her rights as Director. 

So, when it came time for her death, Fury made the decision to use it on Peggy. They weren’t sure how it would react to her, given the age and circumstances. 

“We didn’t want you to get hurt again,” Natasha told him, reiterating that point. She took the door from him, a sight that wanted to make Steve laugh but he was in too much shock to focus. “Go on. We were just talking about a few of your earlier battle tactics. Wait until James knows about the grenade.”

That drew Steve from his line fo thoughts, the haze clearing, and causing him to swallow. “You tell him about that and I tell him who really stole his favorite hoodie.”

Natasha pouted in a way that told Steve he won. Not that it mattered, his eyes were on Peggy. His legs moved slowly by themselves until he saw where Natasha did. Mere inches between them. His hands shook from the anxiety, the nerves burning in him. He couldn’t take his eyes off of her. She’d been quiet this entire time, letting Steve processes this, letting Natasha talk. She knew this was a hard thing to swallow.

“You’re late,” Steve found himself whispering, his hands closing around her own. They weren’t frail. They were strong and her fingers curled around his own.

“I think you would know a thing or two about lateness.” Despite the smile on her red lips, tears shimmered in Peggy’s eyes. She cupped Steve’s cheek, making no comment on the stubble or bags under his eyes or the tears. “I’m sure you can find it in yourself to forgive me.”

Steve gave a wet laugh as he wrapped his arms around Peggy and just about lifted her off of the bed, instead, half kneeling on it to cover her body with his body. He couldn’t stop the tears, the sobbing. 

“So-so what now?” Steve hiccuped, forced himself to pull away to try to clean himself up. He sat on the bed and held her hand, needing to touch some part of her.

Peggy used the end of the sheet to clean her cheeks off, shaking her head. “What now? I think for one, Captain, you’re going to apologize to your team for neglecting them when they were trying to help,” she gently scolded, causing Steve to flush. “For two, you need to shower, darling. I don’t know how else to put that. Living in a gym is not healthy for you.” She patted his hand in a sympathetic manner, drawing another sobbing laugh from his lips. “Now? Well, I sure hoped my best guy could give me that dance he owes me.”

[samthemarvelfan]

Goodbyes: Chapter Six

Summary: Ella Monroe is the Avengers newest recruit, handpicked by Steve Rogers himself. Indebted to him for reasons unknown, Cap pairs her up with Bucky Barnes. He is tasked with training her to relearn and hone the skills that have long since rusted. Bucky is cold and distant, and Ella can’t seem to break through the wall he’s built up for decades. He sees something in her though, and it scares him to death. Has the fate of these two strangers been sealed? …or will they always be longing…

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x OFC, feat Steve Rogers, Sam Wilson

Warnings: DARKER THEMES AHEAD. Angst, Bucky is a dick, mutual pining, self sabotage, male-on-female violence, description of injuries, PTSD, mentions of medical talk? Sloooooow burn ahead. Fluff!

A/N: guys guys GUYS! Get ready for a lil fluff! The balls gonna get rollin’ and its a non-stop ride now. I hope you all enjoy, any and all feedback is appreciated! <3 Happy Valentine’s Day!

Taglist: @iheartsebastianstan @jjlizz @stuckysbabe @sk493494 @lefoutoir @nickangel13 @marvelismysafezone @lilulo-12 (strikethrough means the tag didn’t work! I’m sorry!)

Ow. That’s the only thought going through your head. Your eyes open and judging by the IV’s in your arm, you’re in a hospital. The events that landed you here start flooding your mind. You remember the HYDRA base, the agents, and the pain, but where is everyone? Where’s Steve? Sam? Where’s Bucky?

You sigh, Bucky.

He’d been so mad at you for ignoring him...a commanding officer. You’re in a huge amount of trouble—no doubt about that. You decide now isn’t the time to think about that, after all you were just shot.

You wanted to know if you’d dreamt him carrying you into the jet. If it was all just delirium from blood loss when you thought he was caring for you, assuring you that you’d be okay. You wanted to see him. Hell you needed too.

“Shit...” you seethe. Your right arm is in a sling and your shoulder is bandaged tightly. You scoot attempting to shimmy your body up so you could sit up some more. The sound of the door opening caught your attention, and when you saw him walk in you almost fainted.

Sergeant Barnes entered your hospital room, two water bottles in hand, dressed in black sweats with a tight, black cotton shirt. He’s being quiet as to not wake you. When he realizes you’re up he freezes, though. Unsure if he should be there at all.

“Hey...” you practically whisper. He says nothing, but takes this as an approval of his presence. There’s a chair next to your bed... right next to your bed. So close that the arm of the chair is indenting the side of mattress. Bucky grips the chair and moves it out from the bed a foot or two, then sits in it.

“Where am I?” You ask him quietly. It is then you notice that his jacket had been hanging on the chair he moved from your bed. Had he been here while you were asleep?

He opens the top of one of the water bottles, and hands it to you. “You’re at the compound. This is the med unit.” He speaks softly.

You take a sip of the cold water, relishing the hydration it gives your body. “I didn’t even know we had a medical unit on-site.” You say in an attempt to make conversation.

He stops to lock his gaze on yours. “And you wouldn’t have, had you just listened to me last night.” He sounds annoyed with you already, but also worried.

“Sam was in trouble. Steve didn’t respond to his distress call and neither did you, I did what I thought needed to be done.” To you it was simple. Your friend was in trouble, and you helped him.

“You defied a direct order, Ella.” There he goes, using your name again. “There could be serious consequences to that. If I wanted to, I could have you dismissed from the Cadet program all together.” His tone was serious but he wasn’t threatening you, he was just stating a fact.

You cleared your throat, before looking at him and fiddling with the head of your shirt. “Is that what you want?” You ask.

Why wouldn’t that be what he wants? He makes it pretty clear you’re a huge thorn in his side, and he doesn’t enjoy your company. This is an easy out for him, get rid of you and ease his work load in the process.

He smiled softly to himself. Smiled? Was that a smile on those perfect lips?

“No,” he said softly. “I just—“ 

Bucky was cut off by a tap at the door, causing him to stand quickly and move away from you even more.

“Knock-Knock...” You knew that voice. “Hey Ella, how are you doing?” Steve asks, sitting at the edge of your hospital bed.

You smile at him, unsure of what you’ve done in your life to deserve such a good friend. “I’m okay I promise. I’m just so sorry for all the trouble I caused.” You glance to Bucky, who’s gaze seemed to be locked on your shoulder.

“Can we get you anything?” Steve asks sincerely.

You shake your head, “I’m okay. I swear, I’m not looking forward to the scar this is gonna leave, but at least Sam is okay.”

Sergeant Barnes’ demeanor changed suddenly. You felt the tension in the room build and you didn’t like it. Why does he do this when other people are around?

“Sergeant Barnes,” you call to him, when his eyes meet yours you feel you heart do back-flips. How can someone be so gentle one moment and so cruel the next?

“Thank you for staying with me, and for helping me last night. I don’t know what would have happened had it not been for—“

He interrupts you, “Get this straight, Cadet. Out there—that’s the real world. The threats were dealing with are real,”

His eyes shift between yourself and Steve, who is looking at his friend with disappointment.

“The consequences are too. You get hurt, or worse...” Bucky’s jaw clenched. “The shit storm comes down on me, and people wonder why I put up with a recruit who can’t follow a simple instruction in the first place.”

Your heart falls into your stomach. “All I can do is apologize, Sergeant.” What else can you say? He clearly doesn’t wanna hear excuses, so there’s no point in trying to defend yourself.

“Despite all that,” Steve starts, “You did great out there. I don’t know if Sam,” He looks to Bucky, “or any of us would be here if you didn’t take the initiative.”

A small smile creeps across your lips, “Thanks, Cap.” The wound in your shoulder starts to throb from your elevated blood pressure. You grit your teeth, adjusting yourself on the cot.

“You’re sure you don’t need anything?” Steve asked, guilt painting his word. He rested his hand on yours, earning a stern glare from Bucky. You watch him subtly out of you peripherals, his jaw was clenched as was his metal fist.

You close your eyes momentarily, wrestling with the pain you feel in your shoulder.

“I’m alright. I just need...time.”

Bucky scoffed. “Time? You need to learn to listen to orders.”

“Buck—“ Steve started, removing his hand from yours.

He continued, “You wouldn’t be in a hospital if you could follow a simple command. You risked everyone’s safety because you’re too stubborn to do as you’re told.”

My eyes narrowed at Sergeant Barnes. Why does he do this? He treats you so differently when Steve is around, and you’re about fed the-fuck up.

“Ya know what? You’re absolutely right.” You say firmly, attempting to stand from the bed.

“Ella, just relax. He didn’t mean—“ Steve interjected.

“No Cap, I know exactly what he means.” You got to your feet; pride being the only thing hiding the pain from your face.

“Sergeant Barnes has made it very clear from the beginning what he thinks of me. What was it you said a few weeks back? Oh right, that I’m incompetent, I’m lazy, and I’m spoiled. I’m a rookie who would run from a fight the minute it started.”

Steve’s thumb and forefinger pinched the bridge of his nose, before looking at his friend. He subtly shook is head at Bucky, who kept his eyes locked on you, jaw tightly clenched.

“Guess what Sarge,” you say with disdain, gesturing to your shoulder. “I didn’t run did I?”

Bucky doesn’t speak, and his gaze on you is unyielding. “From now, keep your two-faced ass away from me.” You felt that all too familiar sting prick your eyes as you rip the IV from your arm. “You don’t know a God damn thing about me, Barnes.”

You pushed by them both, finally allowing the hot tears to stain your face as you head for your room.

“Mother...fucker...” You groan. You’re attempting to change your bandages, but unable to get it wrapped fully around your shoulder. Even with a mirror, it was impossible to do using your opposite hand.

You almost had it when a knock at the door made you jump. “Shit! Yeah, what is it?” You call, looking to the door.

The door opened slowly, revealing a casually dressed Bucky on the other side of it. You turned your back immediately, tending to your bandages again.

“What do you want?” You sneer.

He was quiet for a few seconds. You almost didn’t think he was going to say anything, until that familiar, irritated sigh passed through his lips.

“Christ, let me help you.” He said taking a few steps into your room.

You groaned. “I do not need your help.”

He scoffed. “Fine. Wrap your bandages poorly and get that wound infected.” He knew you wouldn’t protest, and shut your bedroom door.

You sigh, rolling your eyes so hard you thought they’d get stuck. You stood from the seat you had taken at your desk, walking up to him with as much attitude as you could muster and shove the gauze into Bucky’s chest. The force doesn’t move him an inch. “Just hurry up.” You command.

He unrolls the gauze, ripping it with his teeth when he deems it long enough. Bucky looks at the half-assed job you did on yourself and let’s out a chuckle.

“What is so damn funny?” You ask, annoyed to your core.

“Nothing, I just think it’s ridiculous you’d risk losing an arm for the sake of your pride.” He jested.

“What, not something you’d recommend?” You joke, nodding to his metal appendage.

He lets out a breath of laughter, “Not exactly, no.”

Bucky undoes you’re bandages, watching the pain form on your face as he moves over the open wound.

“Shit...” you intake a sharp breath of air causing him to pause. He watches you grip the edge of the table so hard, your knuckles go white.

He softly grips the spot above your elbow. “Just...take a deep breath. I’ll move as fast as I can.“ Bucky’s voice coaxes the tension from your muscles, and you relax.

Doing as he says, you inhale deeply through your nose and out through your mouth. Bucky attempts works quickly, seeing the discomfort in your face. The rough tips of his fingers cause chills to go through your body. He notices, and you hear him swallow hard.

The skin he passes over is burning, calling out for him to touch you again. You feel his warm breath on your neck, as you shudder. His body heat keeping your muscles relaxed.

“Almost done. Keep breathing.” He whispers in your ear. The smoothness in his voice coats your eardrum like honey, sending your body into a hypnotic buzz.

When he finishes he places his right hand on your bicep. His thumb stroking the smooth skin of your arm a few times. “All set, Els.” He speaks, using his nickname for you again.

You spin around to see he’s mere inches from you. “That um, that’s perfect.” You whisper. Your eyes flicker over his lips, and his do the same to yours. 

He’s so handsome. You think, Ya know, when he’s not being a total dick.

He stands to his feet quickly, breaking the intimate trance you shared. He disposed of the used bandages, and you realize that you indeed needed more help than you were willing to admit.

“Thank you.” You mumble in his general direction. You hated this, how you wanted to forgive him for all the horrible things he said to you and about you.

“You’re welcome.” He says softly.

Another moment of silence passes between you two. This is the Bucky you wanted all the time. This Bucky was kind and gentle and actually cared about you, or at least he made it seem like he did.

“So why did you come here? To my room? The last time you were here, you made it clear you didn’t wanna see me again.” You ask.

“That’s not true.” He said quickly defending himself. “You left the med unit before you were suppose to, I wanted to make sure you were okay.”

“Well as you can see, I’m fine.” You retort.

He looks at the ground for a moment. “I’m glad.”

You nod, as a sigh escapes your lips. The way he affects you isn’t insignificant. It means something, at least to you.

“Bucky, what are we doing?” You ask softly.

He doesn’t protest as you use his name, but rather looks at you confused. “What do you mean?”

You stand with a scoff, “This! I mean here you are, in my room...again. We’re alone and it’s private and it’s intimate so you’re being,” he steps closer as you fumble over your words, “I don’t know, you’re being the guy I wish you were all the time. When we get around people and it’s like you can’t stand the sight of me.”

He takes a step towards you again.

“I wanna know where I stand with you.” You say shyly.

He swallows hard, “This is the second time you’ve been hurt on my watch.” His face was pained as he looked at your wound.

You reach out for his hand instinctively, trying to show him that it’s not his fault. When your hand grasps his, he gently pulls you into him, playing with your fingers for a moment.

“I don’t know how to stay away from you. I’m trying, Doll. Really I am. Every time you’re around me you’re in danger and this,” he gestured to you shoulder, “This just proves it.”

He’s holding your hand with both of his now, “I want to keep you safe.”

“I’m okay, Bucky. I promise.” Is all you can say.

A breath of laughter leaves his lips, “You’re always okay, aren’t you?”

You smile, and nod. “I am...but I’m better when you’re around. Like this,—this feels...”

Bucky held you closer, encroaching your small frame with his. He’s mere inches from you now.

“It feels right, Buck.” You say, look up at him through your lashes.

He drops your hands gently, and cups your cheek with his right, holding your waist with his cool left one.

He swallows hard as he presses his forehead to yours, “I know it does, Doll. I know.”

You’re gripping his arms as he holds you. His eyes closed, breathing deeply. 

“What are you doing to me, Ella?” He whispered so low, if he wasn’t holding you, you wouldn’t have heard it.

A small smile graced your lips, “I could ask you the same thing, Sarge.”

Bucky holds you like that for a moment or two, before he gently lets you go and takes a step backward. He ran his hands over his face and through his hair.

He sighed thoughtfully, “Don’t think because you’re injured it excuses you from training. You may not be able to do hand to hand combat, but we will train your non-dominant arm to do everything your dominant one can.”

Ah, there he is. Reminding you once again that he is your commanding officer and you are his...burden.

Despite his words, a smile graced your face. “Y-you’re training me?”

He nods, and you notice the corners of his mouth turn up. “Yes. At least that way I’ll be able to keep an eye on you, and try and get some of Sam’s sloppy habits outta your head.”

“What time?” You ask happily.

He looks at you. His cerulean eyes mapping your shoulder up to your face. He reaches out and strokes your cheek with a smile, “7 A.M. Not a minute later.”

You stand from the edge of your bed, “Sir yes Sir.”

“Goodnight, Els.” He whispered.

You smiled softly, “G’night, Buck.”

That night, you had the best sleep you’ve had since being here.

...and so did Bucky.

Chapter Seven: Left

[ythankucaptainmccoy]

Commander Colt x Reader (All About Control)

Alright I saw a Commander Colt appreciation post, and I just thought yes I must do this. By this I mean I need to fuck Commander Colt… I mean a Commander Colt x Reader Smut. I swear to you all that I will let Fives fuck eventually, and a foursome with Wolffe,Rex, Cody and Reader, but it is not this day. I hope you all like it especially @suddenly-clones​. I do not own Star Wars or any characters. Warning: Control Kink, Vibrating Panties, Multiple Orgasm Denial, Masturbation, Blow Job, Face Fucking, Squirting Ruined Orgasm, Orgasm Control, Dirty Talk, Dom/Sub and of course Breeding Kink . Fluff at the end. The Kama and Pauldrons stay on.

-------------------

The beautiful Kamino where it rained more often than not, and where you were confined indoors. You were brought in to help train the shinies that were to be deployed soon. Commander Colt was on the opposite side of the room watching you out of the corner of his eye. You had both been seeing each other for a while now. It had just been a friends with benefits arrangement between the two of you, but that changed after you had admitted you loved him.

He had admitted that he felt the same way, and it's to where you all were now.  You were demonstrating a maneuver when you jolted, and about doubled over. “(Y/N) are you alright?!”, a shiny named Hotshot asked. You took a shuddering breath as you tried to recover, “Yes I’m fine”, you gritted out through your teeth. The vibrating panties you had on had been making your day very difficult, and the one controlling them was being an ass. 

You shot a look to Commander Colt and you knew under that helmet was a smug grin. He amped up the vibration, and watched as you cocked your hip from one side to the other. As soon as the vibrations seemed to have started they ended leaving you feeling frustrated. “Alright as I was demonstrating”, you told them as you showed them the maneuver again. “Hotshot you first”, you told him. He got into position, and performed the maneuver. “No, your stance wasn’t right, try it this way”, you showed him again. 

You were about to step in again when the vibrations hit. You let out a squeak as you felt your face flush. “(Y/N) are you sure you don’t need to see a medic?”, Rise another shiny implored. “I promISE YOU I’m FINE”, you replied voice cracking at the intense vibrations. The shinies looked at each other as you tried not to let out a moan as the vibrations started to pulse. “Alright all of you to the mat and try the maneuver on each other. Your pussy was starting to have contractions, and you were so close. Right before you fell over the edge into bliss the vibrations stopped.

You growled and the shinies stopped to look at you. “What’s wrong are we not doing it right?”, Axel asked. “No you all did it right. That's enough for today why don’t you all go hit the refreshers”, you dismissed them. You threw a glance at Colt and marched straight to him. “May I help you General (Y/N)?”, he questioned feigning innocence. “Why you son of a… Ohhh”, you groaned as the vibrations picked back up. You couldn’t help the moan that had just escaped, and you were cursing Colt and his damn helmet that hid his emotions so well. 

You couldn’t even say anything as the vibrations felt like they were melting your brain. They once again stopped right before you orgasmed. “Commander please haven’t I been punished enough?”, you whispered to him. “All soldiers need discipline when they step out of line don’t you agree”, he gruffly told you. “Yes sir I do”, you replied. “Good I’m glad we are on the same page so no I don’t think you have had enough”, he chuckled. You pouted at him, and turned away from him with a growl stomping off towards the mess hall. 

At least one thing was going your way today. The food was delicious, and you intended on enjoying it. You were half way through your meal when you jolted in your seat, and drew some unwanted attention from some cadets that were sitting with you. You were trying to stay sitting up, but the vibration increased to the max causing you to collapse over your plate. You bit back a cry as it stopped again before you went into the wonderful bliss you so desperately wanted. 

Commander Colt sat down in front of you as you tried to calm yourself. “You look so beautiful when your face flushes like that”, he told you as he shoveled a spoonful of food into his mouth. You didn’t respond as you seethed in your spot. That had been the thirteenth time today he had denied you a beautiful orgasm. “You know I was thinking of taking you later with just my Pauldrons and Kama on what do you think?”, Colt questioned inspecting his spoon then looking you in the eye. “Oh my force. Are you trying to kill me?”, you asked exasperated. 

He didn’t answer your question as he hit the button to the vibrator again. This time you rutted your hips down on the toy trying to get a release, but he stopped it again. You frustratedly got up and threw away your food. You went straight to your room, and undressed all the way. You couldn’t take it any more you had to come, and the wetness that had pooled in your underwear was proof of that. Laying out on your bed you started by massaging your breasts and tweaking your nipples as little sighs left your lips. 

Keeping one hand at your breast to massage and pinch your nipple on occasion as your other hand trailed to your sopping wet cunt. You let your fingers rub at your clit, and then you pushed them inside curling them slightly against the little spongy patch. That's how Colt found you legs spread one hand massaging your breast and pinching your nipple while your other hand was between your legs as you fingered yourself. “So you didn’t get enough punishment today for misbehaving last week, and again I find you misbehaving”, he scolded. 

“Please I need to come”, you pleaded. “No you know the rules I’m in control right now, and I want you to stop touching yourself and lay your hands by your head”, he commanded. You whined out, but did as he had told you. He took in the sight of you spread out like you were and groaned. You watched him as he undressed out of his armor and out of his blacks. He put his Kama back on and his Pauldrons. That sight alone made you feel light headed as his cock stood proudly with precum already weeping out of his slit. 

“Come here”, he told you, crooking a finger towards himself. You obeyed instantly and he cupped your face with both hands to bring you in for a long heated kiss. He licked your lower lip, and gently tugged on it with his teeth. “Open your mouth for me General”, he hissed. You complied and reached between you both while he was distracted wrapping your hand around his shaft. He grunted, and pulled away giving you a glare. “Since you're so eager. Get on your knees”, he huffed. Smirking seductively you sank slowly to your knees not breaking eye contact with him. 

“Go on then suck it”, he instructed. Not wasting a second more you took his head into your mouth, and licked the slit teasing it some. He had to lean back against the wall as you continued to tease him. You looked up with doe eyes to meet his gaze, and he was staring right at you intensely. You teased the sensitive spot on the underside of his cock right below his head, and cupped his balls at the same time. He squeezed his eyes shut and threw his head back as you took him all the way in. 

He was a moaning mess as you swallowed around him, and massaged his balls. It all became a little too much and you had to pull off of him. As soon as you came off him he placed his hands on the back of your head threading his fingers into your hair. You decided to be a little defiant when he bumped the head of his cock against your lips. “Open your mouth”, he grunted. You shook your head slightly and he pulled your hair hard, but not enough to hurt too much. 

You opened your mouth to cry out and he plugged it with his cock. He didn’t even give you time to adjust as he started to thrust in and out. You tried to breathe as best you could through your nose as he face fucked you. You grabbed onto his Kama for dear life as he started to chant your name. “Oh you're gonna make me cum mesh’la. Your mouth is so perfect”, he groaned right before he pulled you all the way onto him and came down your throat. “Swallow it all (Y/N). I don’t want you to waste a drop”, he demanded. 

You tapped his leg as it all became too much, and he pulled back. “Show me your mouth (Y/N)”, he ordered. You complied and he praised you for swallowing everything he had given you. “Commander Colt I’ve been a good girl please make me cum now”, you pleaded. He helped you up and walked backward pulling you towards the bed. He got in the middle of the bed laying on his back. “Alright since you want to cum so bad I’ll let you do it yourself”. He told you. 

You started from the edge of the bed, and seductively crawled up his legs to straddle him. You looked at him for confirmation, and he nodded towards his already hard and twitching dick. “Go on take it all the way in that soaking wet pussy”, he rasped. Grasping it firmly you lined it up with your entrance, and sank all the way down on him gasping at the sensation of being so full. You started a good rhythm as he placed his hands at your hips to help guide you. He was going to make you work for it. 

Every time you sank down on him you could feel the heat in your belly getting hotter. You bounced on top of him as fast and hard as you could manage. He was watching your face as you got tighter around him. You started to rub your clit with your fingers, and just as your orgasm took hold he grabbed your hand and pulled out. You sobbed as the stimulation stopped and your orgasm faintly went through you causing you to squirt a little.  “Colt please I just want to cum”, you were almost in tears. “Oh do you now. Do you think you're deserving of one?”, he questioned with his gravelly voice. “Please I’ll be a good girl I promise! I promise!”, you begged. 

He chuckled as he rolled you onto your back, and hovered over you. Without warning he pulled your ankles onto his pauldrons and buried his cock back inside you. You screamed at the new angle as he hit the perfect spot inside you. He was thrusting as though his life depended on it, and with each hit to that spot deep inside you were seeing stars. The spring in your belly winding tighter and tighter. He put his thumb over your clit, and started rubbing harshly. You came hard with a cry, and your legs trembled as he fucked you through your orgasm.

He slowed to a stop making sure you were okay then pulled out, and rolled you onto your stomach. He grabbed a pillow putting it under your hips raising them just enough, and entered you again. Colt didn’t even give you a chance to catch your breath as he started up another brutal pounding. Each thrust was like heaven, and he groaned at how tight this angle made you feel around him. “I’m gonna cum inside you, and you're gonna be a good girl just like you promised aren’t you”, he told you.

“Yes please fill me! I want you to fill me full, breed me!”, you screamed. Colt almost died when you screamed for him to breed you, and it fueled the fire that was mounting in his veins. “That’s right I’m gonna breed you like the slut you are”, he grunted. You were chanting his name and yes’s at this point, and he started to twitch inside you. With one final thrust he came, and the cum coating your walls triggered your orgasm. This orgasm was mind numbing, and your whole body was trembling as he lay his weight on you. 

Colt was still coming down from his high as your pussy milked his cock for every last drop. Both of you lay there with him still buried deep inside you. You went to push up, but he put his hand on the side of your head, and pressed it back down to the bed. “Nuh uh your gonna stay there until I soften be a good girl and wait”, he lovingly told you as he stroked your hair. It felt so good to be so full of him, and you waited just like he had told you.

He pulled out once he softened, and picked you up for a shower shedding his pauldrons and kama on the way. You both shared kisses as you cleaned each other up. “I think I’m gonna like defying your control if it turns out like this every time”, you giggled. “Well I’m glad you enjoyed yourself”, he chuckled. This side of Commander Colt nobody saw, and you were content in his arms as he lovingly washed you. Colt carried you back to bed, and as you both lay there you smiled at him.

“What?”, he asked. “Nothing”, you responded. “No come on tell me”, he kissed you. “I just love you, and how we can be like this in this moment without a care or worry in the galaxy”, you grinned lazily. “I love you to, and yeah this… this is nice, and I wouldn’t want anyone else by my side”, he replied. That night was shared with lazy kisses as you fell asleep on his chest. The next morning was spent in bed with lots of lazy sex, and kisses. Yeah this is exactly everything you had ever wanted. 

------------

That’s a wrap. Alright, but seriously though Commander Colt being controlling and wearing his Pauldrons and Kama during sex SIGN ME THE FUCK UP! Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed it tomorrow. I will either post the foursome with Wolffe, Rex, Cody and Reader or Fives and Reader!

[itzagothamcitysiren]

Welcome to the Family

Sorry for that late post, stupid was a superhero stressful day at work and I took a super long nap as soon as I got home. Also, this is kinda a filler chapter, just to kinda of give a look of the dynamic between her and Bruce. It’s not my best but I wanted to also use it to practice writing more action stuff. :)

There's a Web That You Have Wove pt.2 

           The night was cold and the air almost felt damp as Batman and Nightshade stood perked up atop a stack of cargo crates that lined the Gotham City docks. They were high enough to not be able to be seen from below but still had a good line of sight of below. Batman stood, silently, peering into his pair of high-tech binoculars. He surveyed the activity below, watching as goons unloaded the unaccounted for children out of a delivery truck. The Dark Knight began calculating a plan in his head as he watched them being led towards another truck. They had to act soon before their window was closed.

           He folded the binoculars into themselves, placing them back in their spot on his utility belt. As they clipped on, he reached for his grappling hook, noting how Nightshade did the same as she was on the same page as him. Waiting for his orders, she moved forward from her spot behind him. He looked at her and then back to the scene below.

           “We take them out before they leave the docks, we cannot lose that truck.” He said, knowing she didn’t need that many words to understand what had to be done.  

           Nightshade nodded, following her mentor down as he shot his grappling hook to swing below. She landed moments after him, noting the slight pause as the goons were thrown off by their arrival. They looked notably scared that Batman and his sidekick where now standing between both trucks, cutting them off from finishing their job. The pause felt longer than it really was as the first goon to react began to rapidly fire his gun at them.

           Nightshade jumped out of the way of the spray of bullets, as Batman threw a batarang at the man’s gun, causing it to jam. She ducked behind a pile of crate before rolling out into a standing position. Nightshade then raced towards the truck that the kid’s had been loaded into as Batman found himself busy disarming the men attacking. Jumping up and off of a man, Nightshade kicked the gun out of his hand, bringing down a fist into his face as she pushed off of his chest. Flipping, she landed crouched down, swiping her leg out and knocking down another. She was back up on her feet and dodging more fists heading her way.

           It looked like she was almost dancing as she avoid more fire effortlessly. This was practically baby stuff. She reached the truck, disarming the two man who’d been shooting at her. She was about to place her hand on the doors of the vehicle to make sure the kids were okay but the sound of an engine starting caught her attention. The truck came to life, the tires squeaking as it was floored forward.

           “Fuck,” she cursed, shooting her grappling gun at it.  

           She heard Batman call out to her, telling her to wait for him. It wasn’t that he was struggling, that was far from the case. He had just taken the brunt of the onslaught of low-lives with guns. Normally he would’ve been mad at seeing his protégé not waiting and instead grappling a line to the truck, using it to pull herself to it. He knew she could handle herself and he said it himself that they couldn’t let the truck escape them. They’d never see those kids again if they did.

           Nightshade felt the wind blow her hair about making her glad that she had decided to wear it up tonight as the truck veered towards the exit that lead into the city. She held onto the line, grasping the backdoor handles to keep herself from flaring about. She could hear the kids inside screaming as the truck broke through the gates. Once the vehicle somewhat settled she began to climb up the back and onto the roof.

           She used her free hand to reach for her set of daggers she kept holstered on her lower arms, stabbing into the metal to keep her from being tossed off as the truck jerked to the side again, and turning into the streets. She crawled her way to the front of the truck, the wind hitting against her face as the truck picked up its speed. Taking a deep breathe, the adrenaline still fueling her, she hopped down and landed on the hood of the car. The driver hadn’t expected it and swerved his wheel to the right.

           Hissing as he drove off the cars in the other lane, Nightshade used the momentum to toss herself sideways and towards the driver’s side door. Gripping on the mirror for balance, she pulled her fist back, bringing it into the window. Her knuckle guards on her gloves made a satisfying shatter and she reached her hand in.

           “Pull over!” She shouted, gripping the wheel. She was met with him pulling out the gun he was hiding and aimed it point blank at her face. “Seriously?” She narrowed her eyes, not hesitating. Removing her hand from the wheel she grabbed the hand holding the gun, pointing it up watching as the bullet lodged itself into the ceiling.

           She heard the sound of a reeving engine, and quickly turned her attention behind her, smirking as she saw the Batmobile approaching. The driver’s eyes darted to his side mirrors, panic setting in as he saw the Batmobile right behind him. He wasn’t getting paid enough for this.

           Nightshade used the driver’s now distracted state to reach back in with her other hand, pulling herself inside. She was practically straddling the guy but didn’t care as she pushed the gun to the floor on the passenger side and put her fist to his neck. In one swift motion, a small tranquilizer dart jotted out of the armored gauntlet she wore.  As the man struggled to now stay awake, panicking as the girl turned around on top of him, sitting on his lap. She pressed her foot on the break, hands grasping onto the steering wheel as she did so.

           The man saw one of her knives holstered to her hip and used the last of his strength to grab for it. He felt the handle in his grasps and stabbed it forward, feeling pleased at it now was lodged into her thigh. Nightshade gasped, losing control of the wheel as she felt the pain shooting up her leg. Now slamming on the break, she tossed her head back, cracking skulls with the asshole sat underneath her. She felt him be knocked out cold finally and let the truck creak to a stop.

           “Ow,” She muttered, putting the truck in park, she let her head fall onto the wheel.

           She could hear the sound of cop cars approaching and knew that that was her cue to leave. Opening the door, she sluggishly dropped down from the car. Her feet landed on the concrete causing a jolt of pain to shot up to her thigh. She didn’t remove the knife, not wanting to make the bleeding worse until she was in the batmobile at least. She noted Batman approaching, opening the back doors of the truck. The children peered at him, still all frozen with fear. Police cars soon surrounded them, causing her to quicken her pace.

           She hopped into the open door, slamming it shut as she got in. Before taking the knife out, she reached forward into one of the compartments inside, pulling out a first aid kit kept for emergency. She took out what she needed to wrap it quickly and then ripped the blade out. Wincing from the sharp movement she bit her lip as she went straight into wrapping the fabric bandage around her thigh.

           It wasn’t until a handful of minutes later did Batman join her, handing off the kid’s and information to Jim Gordon the moment he arrived. He pulled away from the scene, sending a message to Alfred to prepare the medical area.

           “I’ll be fine.” She gritted her teeth, tying off the bandage. Her healing factor would kick in within the next couple hours and she’d been fine by tomorrow. The wound wasn’t that serious. “It was my fault. I should’ve been quicker.”

           Batman stood silent, only giving her a curt nod. Tonight had gone smoother than past nights and he couldn’t help but dwell on it. Even with this slight hiccup, he was satisfied with her handling of the situation when it went array. He’d become so accustomed to the chaos that ensured normally and knew why tonight had gone differently than others. He felt bad for admitting it, but he couldn’t help but let the thought cross his mind.

           Halley looked forward, slowly peeling her mask off her face and rubbing her eyes with her hands. The adrenaline gone now and the stinging feeling becoming extremely noticeable. Wincing, she shifted, trying to get comfy as they headed back to the cave. She let her eyes peek at Bruce as the car stood in silence.

           He looked like his regular brooding self and she quickly looked back down at her lap. She’d still yet talk to Bruce about how she believed he should let Jason back out on patrol. It’d been almost a full week and she didn’t know how much longer she could take Jason’s attitude about being completely left out of this case. It wasn’t her fault he didn’t take instruction well, he didn’t have to take it out on her.

           “So,” she bit her lip, trying to find the courage to address her thoughts to him. Once she saw she had Bruce’s attention, she continued. “When do you think Jason will be able to come back out?”

           She crunched her nose up at how lamely it sounded as it left her mouth. Clearing her throat she added, “I mean, now that this is over.” Nope, still lame.

           “I know he’s been skipping school again. I have to go to the school tomorrow for another meeting with your principal about it.” Bruce grunted, turning down towards their secret road once they reached the outskirts of the city. “Once he can prove-,”

           “He only skips because you,” she cut him off, before quickly slamming her mouth shut. She’d didn’t mean to cut him off, but she was sick of Bruce constantly knocking Jason down. Was he this hard on Dick when he was Robin? She felt the hair on the back of her neck stand when she saw Bruce’s lip form a straight line and his eyes narrow. Heart beating fast she hurriedly continued,

           “Sorry that came out wrong. What I meant was, that he acts this way because he feels like you’re just brushing him off. He just wants to prove himself to you.” She said softly, playing with her hands.

           “He needs to learn discipline.” Bruce retorted.

           Halley nodded, agreeing. She was surprised Bruce was actually having this conversation with her. They had a decent relationship but she wouldn’t say they were close or anything like that. They’ve had conversations in the past but mostly about their night job. He’d sometimes asked about how she was adjusting with school and stuff like that when he did actually join them for dinner but that was about it. She didn’t know that much about him, so this conversation felt awkward to her but she knew this was a conversation she needed to have for Jason’s sake.

           “I agree. But each time you bench him, his confidence gets knocked down a peg and then he comes back making the same mistakes, sometimes worse.” She retorted right back. She sighed, “I’m sorry, I don’t mean to question you.  I just don’t think this method is helping him.”

           She felt like she had pushed her limits when he didn’t respond to her after she spoke. Biting the inside of her cheek, she just sat in silence for the rest of the car ride.  Great job, Halley.

           She barely slept as the exchange played through her head all night. What if she made things worse? What if Bruce talked to Jason and Jason would be even madder at her for talking to Bruce about it? It plagued her thoughts all day during school as well, now it being her turn to avoid Jason at all costs. She just wanted to go home and on patrol so she could knock out her frustration on the filth of Gotham.

            Much to Alfred’s protests, Halley insisted she was fine to go to school the next day and even to go on patrol the next night. Her stab wound healed overnight, and was only a little mark by the time school was over.  Alfred relented as she showed him the spot before she put her costume on. She chuckled as he rolled his eyes at her before walking off to monitor the batcomputer.

           She went to finish changing, pulling out the rest of her uniform from his case. She began pull up the black spandex suit, zipping it up. Putting on the different parts of armor, she fastened them tightly. As she began clipping on her different weapons, making sure her darts were up well stocked up, she heard footsteps approaching the changing area. Looking up she smiled, seeing Jason walking over.

           He opened the case holding his uniform, peeling off his shirt and jeans so he could change. Even though she’d seen him changing before, she still looked away to hide her blush. It wasn’t that she had feelings for him or anything, she was still unaccustomed to the opposite sex. She never had friends growing up and the thought of boys had never crossed her mind. Even with that being said she could admit that Jason was in fact a good looking guy.

           “What are you doing here?” She asked, smirking as he pulled his pants up.

           “Bruce is letting me back on patrol.” He couldn’t hid the smile on his face. “He actually said he was sorry for kicking me off.”

           Halley smiled, smugly. She wouldn’t tell him about the talk she had with Bruce the night before. Jason looked so excited that Bruce was letting him back on his own accord, she didn’t want him to think any differently. He already spent too much time questioning how Bruce felt about him and if he found out she was the reason Bruce let him back, well she just didn’t want to take that away from him.

[professional-benaddict]

♥️ Red Heart, White Box ⬜️ lV

A collab between myself and @questionablewritings xx

Mafia AU, boss Tony, pet/plaything +18 Peter, bodyguard Steve, bodyguard Bucky, underground doctor Stephen, gun violence, shootings, GSW, body modification, non con organ donation, threats and use of violence, manipulation, gaslighting, 2.1k

Or there is a confrontation and life somehow goes on.

part one - part two - part three

Part lV - The A+ Blood Type

Reaching the ward door, Steve tried to steady his shaky legs. He couldn’t remember being this terrified since going to his first active war zone. It seemed like another lifetime, but at the same time he was right back in that dessert. Although Bucky being at his side remained the same, his trust towards his superiors was not the same. But, he still tried his hardest to enter quietly and calmly. Oh, God, how could he face Peter? 

Luckily, Peter seemed to be fast asleep on his bed, and peacefully at that, with no pained lines on his face nor any fists clenching at sheets. He lay there perfectly still, breathing calmly and slowly. Nothing could disturb his peace, or so Steve hoped at least. Next to the bed, Tony was leaning over with one of Peter’s hands clasped in his own, and his lips brushing over his knuckles tenderly. Without turning his attention away from Peter, Tony spoke to Steve who had entered. 

“What?” 

“Uhm- boss? Strange and the others would like to speak with you.” Steve lied, when actually he was the one who wanted to speak with him. Giving Peter’s hand one last kiss, Tony rose from his bedside and straightened his shirt. His tie was loosened, and his sleeves rolled up to his elbows. 

“This better be important.” Tony mused as he headed to the door. Steve had to bite his tongue to stop himself from spilling it all out right there and then. The metallic taste of blood filled his mouth, and brought him back to the present as he followed his boss to the main clinic. 

When they rounded the corner, and Tony lay his eyes on the scene in front of him with all Stephen, Mordo and Wong all tied up, the boss subconsciously pulled out his own gun. His fingers had been itching for it ever since Peter had gotten shot, but he did not point it at anyone. 

“What the hell is going on here?” Tony asked his bodyguards who were clearly at fault for this. Bucky swore he saw Stephen’s lips twitch into a smile behind his gag. 

“Boss, listen.” Bucky started and approached Tony, with gun still in hand, but he held it all relaxed. Their hostages did not exactly pose a threat in their current states of immobility and bondage. “We all saw Peter got shot, right? You caught him when he fell, and you held him until you passed him over to us, right? How could he have hurt his stomach and started bleeding internally from that?”

“Buck, what are you trying to-“

“No, no, listen! That just doesn’t make fucking sense. We found organs, human organs, in the supply closets. These fuckers are stealing organs from the people they are so called helping!” Bucky accused and pointed to the three hostages on the floor. Stephen seemed to perk up a bit at being addressed, and Steve could see that he was trying to escape from his bonds. While Bucky continued, Steve stepped closer and held the gun at Stephen again to keep him still. 

“What are you saying, Buck?” Tony asked. Bucky had to swallow thickly to get his voice to cooperate. 

“Sir, they stole Peter’s kidney.” 

Tony sniffled the air at that and blinked calmly. Bucky did not understand any of it. Why hadn’t Tony shot Stephen and his helpers already?

“Tony, they-“ 

“What makes you think they did?” Tony asked, not fazed at all. Baffled at the question, but still obedient, Bucky went and grabbed the organ transport box that Mordo had brought out. 

“What blood type is Peter?” Bucky asked, but when Tony seemed reluctant to answer, the bodyguard repeated his question. “What blood type is he?!”

“A+.” 

“A+, and what’s in here, huh?” Bucky asked rhetorically, and opened the white box to reveal a human organ in a plastic bag, surrounded by sterile ice. When Steve saw the kidney himself, he gagged a bit, but tried his best to hide it. “A human fucking kidney, marked as blood type A+ and the date when we arrived. Is that not proof enough? Or should we get the doctor to cut Peter open again and we’ll see that he is missing an organ?” 

Bucky was worked up, clearly. There was sweat dripping down his brow and his eyes were wide, like a predators’ eyes during a hunt. But, that did not make Tony the prey, but rather a rival predator. How could he be a part of the pack if he was so unfazed at the revelation that the doctor had turned on them behind their backs and harmed Peter like that? Unless…. 

“You will not tell Peter about this. Ever. Is that understood?” Tony ordered calmly, and both Steve and Bucky felt their shoulders deflate. 

“Boss-“ Bucky started, only to be cut off by Tony bellowing. 

“Is that understood?!” 

“You fucking knew…” Bucky breathed out, like he had been kicked in the chest. And in a way, he very much had been. 

“You fucking asshole.” Steve said through gritted teeth, his gun still pointed at Stephen, but the daggers behind his words were aimed at Tony. “How could you do that? You love Peter! And more importantly, he loves you. He would die for you, and this is how you treat him?” 

“You both know money is tight, so I had to. We’ll be getting fifty percent of Peter’s kidney later today. That is if you release Strange, so he can make the deal happen.” Tony said, and tipped his head down as a command to release the hostages. But, Steve nor Bucky gave in that easily. 

“What? And we’ll be coming back here so that ass can take Peter’s other kidney for even more cash?” Bucky accused Tony, his nostrils flaring. But, the boss took it as a joke and chuckled. 

“I’ll find other ways to use Peter. You’ll all be busy bees soon.” Tony said to both his bodyguards. “Now, release them.” The boss repeated before returning to the ward to see Peter, and this time Bucky and Steve did obey and cut the ropes around Stephen, Mordo and Wong’s hands with their pocketknives. 

All three of the medical professional rose from the floor and shoved the mafia guards away from them, then rubbed at their sore wrists. Stephen was the first to look at the bodyguards after stretching out his arms, and he came up to Steve with his head high again, just as confident as before. Then, swinging his left hand back, the doctor punched Steve square in the face as payback. He would have punched with his right dominant hand to get maximum strength and impact, but that could result in injury to his own hand as well, and that could affect his surgical skills. Still, blood gushed out of Steve’s nose, and the blonde cursed multiple times while trying to pinch his nose to stop the bleed. Once again, Steve tasted metallic blood in his mouth. 

A week later, Peter was back on his feet, at least for a few minutes at a time. Tony was helping him walk up and down the ward multiple times a day, like the doctor had instructed to aid the recovery process. For each day that passed, Peter was looking more and more like himself, and feeling like it too. On the fifth day, he had enough energy to actually get up and brush his teeth. The boy would never have guessed that he would miss brushing his teeth. On that same day, Stephen had made the transfer of the fifty percent that he had promised Tony, and the latter was very much pleased at seeing the four zeros in his bank account. In his good mood, Tony was even more encouraging and outright dotting as he helped Peter walk later that afternoon. 

“Ahh, thanks, Daddy. I gotta watch my step more from now on.” Peter chuckled breathily, and placed a gentle hand on top of the bandage on his side. “I can’t be keeping you from work too long.” Watching the two from across the ward, Steve bit his tongue. 

“I’ll be right here, baby, always. I’m not going anywhere and you don’t have to worry about the money. I got it all covered, so you don’t focus on being pretty, like always.” Tony smiled sweetly in reply and kissed the boy’s temple. That was the final drop, and Steve had to physically leave the ward to gather himself. Out in the hall, he met Bucky and sighed heavily. 

“How do we live with this? Peter doesn’t know shit, and- Tony’s acting like nothing happened?”

“We- we just don’t tell Peter.” Bucky sighed just as heavily. 

And they kept that promise. A month later, when life was returning more or less back to normal at the mansion, Bucky and Steve continued to work for Tony. And so did Peter, or at least as much as he could muster while still healing from his two surgeries. The boy still slept most of the time, but when he was awake, he was always eager to help Tony with his business. 

On one particularly hot summer evening, while Tony was working in his office, Peter was lounging around the mansion in nothing except what seemed like a thong peaking out from under a pair of low cut denim shorts. Steve and Bucky were both stood outside of the office door, in their usual work suits. In the same hallway, Peter was pacing back and forth, clearly eager for his older boyfriend to finish his work so that they could spend some time together. 

With Peter’s torso bare, one could easily see the two scars on his body. The one on his shoulder had knots of skin in the center where the bullet had penetrated, then two straight lines crossing it laterally from the scalpel. But, then there was the perfectly straight line just below his last rib on his left side. Bucky and Steve had been watching that one all afternoon. 

“Do you think it’s ugly?” Peter asked sadly, making Bucky and Steve snap out of their shared daydream, or more like nightmare, about how that scar came to be. And Peter had no idea…

“Oh, God, no, Peter! I’m sorry, I just- I haven’t seen it yet is all.” Bucky covered up as best as he could and let his fingers gently take hold of the boy’s forearm. He wasn’t going to let the boy go believing he wasn’t the most stunning creature on Earth. “You’re a beauty, Peter, you know that?”

“You’re just as stunning as before.” Steve added to comfort Peter. 

“I know.” Peter giggled, looking up at Bucky while batting his lashes. “You said that the first time Tony introduced us.” 

“I believe I said you were ‘fucking stunning’ and then Tony had told me not to speak to you like that.” Bucky chuckled, and Peter giggled along. Steve couldn’t help but chuckle too. The boy made the sun almost look pale with how he was beaming with goodness and beauty. 

“And you didn’t listen.” The boy pointed out to Bucky. 

“No, I didn’t.” Bucky admitted with a shrug of his shoulder. They three of them laughed softly, and for a few seconds life was just like before. Before all that happened. 

“Does it hurt still?” Steve asked and ghosted both his hands over Peter’s scars on each side of his body. The boy shook his head. 

“No, it’s just harder to move still. Like- Tony and I’ll tried it last week, but I couldn’t handle it.” Peter admitted with a nervous giggle. “But, we are going to try again tonight.” He added more hopefully. 

“Just let me know if you need any help.” Bucky said cheekily from behind Peter, making the boy giggle again. But, the boy did not stay much longer since he saw the office door open and Tony exited. Like a puppy, Peter bounced over to him and let himself be embraced by his boyfriend. The boss’ hands held onto the boy’s back possessively. 

“Hey, bambino. You’re dressed lightly, you tease. Couldn’t wait for Daddy to finish his work, huh?” Tony said all condescendingly with a purr, and Bucky and Steve watched Peter lap it up. The boy swayed his hips, and whispered something into Tony’s ear that made him growl and grab onto Peter’s ass, making him yelp then giggle. 

In that moment, Bucky and Steve exchanged a look. They both knew they couldn’t ever leave. Not because they both had a deal with Tony to protect him from his enemies for the rest of their life, but because now they had to protect Peter from Tony. 

Tag list:  @buckettbarnes @prettyboy-parker @starkerplusstrange @sugar-and-spice-parker @xsmallplum @starkerdreams @mynerdrage @kyattogaaru @im-a-slut-for-alucards-belt @sxdnxy-jxhnsxn @suddenlyhotimsuddenlycool @everyonelovespetey @ironspiidey @gipumar @the-secret-avenger @bee-a-garbage-shipper @thewolffearsher @firefandoming @starker-rays​ 

[guiltysecretpasttime]

Adversity (Chapter 5)

Fic update 📝

Previous chapters here:

1 | 2 | 3 | 4

Summary: Lin and Tenzin are both at the height of their respective careers – she with the Metalbending Police and he with the Air Nation. Questions about their future begin to arise and things come to a head when Lin responded to an emergency call. Would her job take them from each other forever? Eventual HEA. Non-canon compliant, AU. (Notes at the end of the post.)

==

One.

He waited for her for one hour.

Tenzin was beyond furious.

They had planned this dinner for a while now. They both agreed to it and he made sure Lin’s assistant plotted it in her schedule. Lin herself confirmed her attendance earlier that day before leaving their house.

He made the reservation months ahead at their special restaurant. This was where they had their first date, where they celebrated her acceptance in the academy, where they celebrated his first month into the council… Tenzin would not admit it but between the two of them, he was the sentimental one. He had been hoping to add a new memory to this place for the two of them.

Tenzin tapped his fingers on the table with nervous energy, obstinately avoiding eye contact with anyone who happened to glance his way.

However, she was a no show.

After waiting for an hour, he left the restaurant, unable to stand the looks of pity that the maître d was shooting him.

“Sir, would you like to take anything to go?”

The airbender waved the man away, appetite long gone. To think he woke up today looking forward to that evening. All best laid plans go awry anyway.

All the preparation, all the conversations, all the discussions were laid to waste when (yet again, he thought dejectedly) Lin Beifong let her job interfere with her private life.

Tenzin was already at the awning of the restaurant, absent-mindedly watching in envy as couples waiting in line were quietly chatting with each other. He willed himself not to lose his temper and took a few moments to calm himself.

He turned to the maître d and asked to use the phone.

No one answered from her office.

He headed home, frustrated; a box gripped tight and unseen in his pocket.

---

Two.

She arrived at home at two in the morning.

All units were suddenly called away to respond to a hostage-taking in the affluent residential area of Republic City. As Chief of Police, Lin very well had to see the situation through. It turned for the worse when, after an apparent breakdown in the negotiation, the hostage-taker suddenly pushed the child off the twentieth floor balcony.

Lin was the quickest and most agile of the group (which reminded her to toughen up the training sessions for the force). She shouted to the team to handle the criminals as she vaulted herself up the adjoining structure to catch the child. With tension and adrenalin powering her, she was able to grasp the child with one arm. Her other arm was protesting the added weight and the odd angle she had to manipulate the metal cables to.

She almost reached the tenth floor of the building when she felt a volley of rocks assailing her from behind. She gritted her teeth in annoyance (how incompetent can the police force get?) and in pain.

Turning her body to shield the child from the onslaught, her armor took most of the damage. This move shifted the weight and changed the trajectory of her swing. Instead of directing her to land on to the tenth floor garden, she was now heading straight into a wall.

Making a split second, Chief Beifong released the cable’s hold from the building and gripped the girl tighter to her. As gravity rapidly took hold of them, she looked around on what to do, becoming more certain as the seconds passed that she was bringing the child to death with her. A fleeting thought passed her mind to how she disappointed Tenzin once more by not showing up to dinner.

Great, you’re a few feet from death and you’re thinking of dinner with Tenzin.

It did not stop her from wondering if he would forgive her for dying so soon.

She positioned herself in an attempt to use her body as a shield to cushion the impact on the child; she’ll be damned before she let another life be taken under her watch.

Lin looked down to check how many feet remained and a voice which suspiciously sounded like her mother rang in her head: “Are you a dunderhead or an earthbender?!”

She closed her eyes and willed the ground to rise and meet her.

Once the dust has cleared and Lin had safely brough them to the street level, she felt the girl bury her head closer to her breastplate. The poor child was whimpering as her tears continued to flow.

“You’re safe now.”

The girl looked up at her hiccupping; the child was trying to stop crying. The child reached up to touch the police chief’s cheek with sticky and wet fingers.

“Chief! Chief!”

She dimly heard other members of the force approach her.

Lin felt someone take the child from her but the girl wiggled aggressively and began screaming no, clutching at her armor tightly. She inhaled a breath as the girl kicked her ribs accidentally. She waved the other person off and allowed herself to be led to the healing tent. Giving instructions to bring the child’s parents there.

Angling the child so that she was sitting at her hip, Lin felt a stabbing pain from her other side. She staggered as she got up but shrugged off anyone who tried to help her.

Her second-in-command quickly found her amidst the commotion and began running the update by her. The perimeter is still secure and the hostage-takers have been captured. They were already in the process of readying them for transport to police headquarters.

At the end of the ordeal (as if getting beat up was not enough, she also had to do a lot of talking - with the parents, with the team, with even a handful of the press who had managed to arrive during the crisis), Chief Beifong finally allowed the medic to take a quick look at her (“Chief, keep still – the side armor plate is mangled; it pierced through the skin. I can stop the bleeding; though it will take a little bit longer to remove the pain afterwards.” “I don’t have time for that, just clot the blood and let me go.” “Yes, Chief.”)

-

Lin looked at the clock as she entered their doorway, the small hand pointing to two. She did not realize it had been that late already.

She clutched at her side and dragged herself indoors, using what little energy she had.

A figure in the darkness of the living room grunted as he was awoken by the sudden clang of the armor dropping unceremoniously.

Any angry reprimand died on the airbender’s lips as he saw the state the metalbender was in.

A bruise had already formed on her right cheekbone; her armor, haphazardly discarded on the floor, was dented and battered on several areas and she was tightly holding on her left side, bloody red staining her white top.

Lin met Tenzin’s horrified eyes and whispered.

“I’m sorry.”

---

Three.

Recuperation took three days.

Chiaki, the police department’s assistant healer found herself ringing the bell at the chief’s residence early that morning. She was given the dubious honor of bringing the police chief a large pack of medical supplies as well as to inform her that her medical leave has officially been filed.

Anyone who knew Chief Beifong knew that she would not want to go on medical leaves. However, in her somewhat addled state of mind, the chief had signed off herself as on medical leave in the healer’s tent in the insistence of the department’s healer and her second-in-command.

The healer shifted from one foot to another, debating whether leaving the packet with a note then ditching it on the pavement would be acceptable. It was to her relief that the gate was eventually opened by the chief’s airbender partner. She was sure that had it been Beifong, the supplies would be left unused and she would be on the receiving end of an unpleasant tirade as she would break the news of the chief’s medical leave.

But since it was the airbending master, it was different from what Chiaki expected.

He had plied her with a lot of questions – both about the hostage-taking and about the nature of Lin’s injury – which she answered eagerly. Pleased with delivering the supplies and informing the chief’s current caregiver, the healer headed back to headquarters, happy to report that the chief will definitely take the next days off to recuperate.

-

Tenzin sat awake at her bedside for the remaining hours of the night, carefully watching each rattling breath, afraid that if he even blinks, she would be gone.

Until he had talked to the healer, he did not know how close he was to losing her if not for Lin’s presence of mind.

It was like his nightmare almost became his reality.

He held her hand, regretfully recalling that his last thoughts of her was how she had forgotten dinner. In the soft light of the morning, he could see the toll of the crisis on Lin.

The airbender moved to lightly spread the cream on the bruise on the cheek. For once, he was thankful for his oddly smooth hands (which Lin would occasionally point out and tease him – but what he’d give to make sure that Lin continues to tease him for the rest of his life) as he was able to gently put on the cream without waking her.

He lifted the blanket near the edge of the bed to check on her bandage. He helped her remove her top before going to bed earlier. The roughness of the clothes would only aggravate her injuries after all. He was relieved to see that the bleeding had indeed stopped, judging by the appearance of the bandage.

Tenzin leaned over to place a light kiss on her forehead, wishing he could smoothen the frown on her face, indicative of whatever residual pain Lin was experiencing in her sleep.

-

Lin woke up to a dull soreness that covered her entire body. She could vaguely recall the events of the previous night. What she was left with was a feeling of panic - of almost losing something of importance. She bolted up right, breathing heavily with eyes darting around the room.

“Lin!”

Tenzin was perched on a chair beside their bed, hand holding hers.

She was alive. Tenzin was alive. Thank the spirits.

She closed her eyes again, repeating a mantra to ground herself in the present.

She is alive. Tenzin is alive. She was at home. They were at home. He is her home.

She leaned back, groaning as her body objected to her sudden movements. She attempted to speak – realizing then that her throat had run dry.

“Here, the healer said it will help with the pain.” She felt the airbender pressing the rim of a cup of pungent liquid to her lips.

The tonic tasted better than it smelled, she acknowledged as she gulped greedily.

The effect was immediate as she felt the tendrils of sleep pulling her to unconsciousness, barely perceiving fingers helping her settle better into the bed.

-

Tenzin felt fingers lightly tracing the bridge of his nose, trailing higher to his arrow.

There was only one person who did that.

“You should be resting.” Was his succinct statement, stretching a bit as falling asleep at the chair did not do his back any favors.

The metalbender, seated on her heels, tilted her head expectantly, her knees bumping his. “And you should be sleeping beside me.”  It was a challenge and he knew it; she could feel his breathing change as her blanket slipped off.

“Oh, Lin.” He brought his forehead to hers, breathing in. “I almost lost you.”

“I don’t plan on going anywhere.” Lin shifted further, pressing her lips to his. She moved back, taking him with her.

Three days, she took painkillers and medicinal tea to hasten her recovery.

In those three days, she had clung to him and him to her.

The fear of being left behind clouded the air, unspoken but almost tangible.

It took all of those three days to erase the fear of being left behind.

---

Four.

It had been four months since his father and mother talked to him and his siblings.

Lin found her mother waiting in her office.

“Hey Badge.” Toph lightly punched her daughter’s arm as she passed by to sit at her desk.

“Mom.” Lin took out the first folder in her in-tray. “How was your trip?”

“Good, good.” The older metalbender leaned back on the couch, propping her feet on the coffee table. She heard her daughter grunt in disapproval. She waited for any follow up questions but there were none.

Toph wiggled her toes for good measure to annoy the younger Beifong.

“What is it?” Lin finally looked up at her mother who was eerily staring at her direction accurately.

“So have you talked to him?”

Aang and Katara have sat down with their children four months ago to break the news to them that it won’t be long until…

“No.” A scratch of a pen on the report, Lin’s signature marking the memo’s go-ahead for dissemination.

“Has he talked to you?”

“No.” A pebble from goodness-knows-where hit the police chief’s forehead. “Ow, Mom, what was that for?”

“No heart-to-heart talk? You’re at a stalemate?” Toph crossed her arms. “I thought you were an earthbender, Lin. Why aren’t you facing the issue head on?”

“Because there is no issue.” The lie passed from her lips easily– both she and her mother not commenting on it. “I told him I’ll be here when he’s ready to talk about it.”

“And you think he isn’t ready?” The blind bender’s eyebrows raised at this. “Have you actually spent time with him to determine whether or not he is ready to talk to you about the future? Your future?” At getting no reply, Toph continued. “Is this about the police force?” She heard the pen stop moving; she now had her daughter’s attention. “Badge, I know it’s tough but you need to think about what you want and if it’s not leading the force, it’s okay.”

“What?” Lin’s voice rose an octave. “Why are you bringing this up now?”

“I’m just saying -.”

“Damn it, Mom – is this about Su?” She knew her mother recently visited Zaofu.

“What – no!” Toph stood up, ground vibrating slightly. “Don’t bring your sister into this!”

“Half-sister,” Lin emphasized, eyes flashing. “Did you come all the way here just to tell me to be like perfect Suyin and her perfect family?”

“No! I don’t want you making mistakes that - .”

“Oho! So, I’m not allowed to make mistakes now?” The current chief was rolling her eyes, turning back her attention to the paperwork on her desk.

“- Would cost you.” Toph continued her statement. “Time is not a luxury you have.” She tossed something to the chief’s desk and left. “This is for you, do whatever you want with it.”

Lin clenched her jaw as she saw the item.

It was a ring of old keys; the jade flying boar key chain underscoring that it belonged to the Beifong estate in Republic City.

---

Five.

Five times he invited her to dinner and five times she did not show up.

On the fifth time, he was ready for her.

“Where were you this time?” The airbender stood to his full height as the metalbender arrived home. “You know what, never mind. It’s always been work anyway.”

“How dare you!” Lin straightened up as well. “I did say I wasn’t sure if I could make it; you know we had the Fire Lord and family visiting the city tomorrow. There was a great deal of preparation needed for security. Besides, I’m certain you were able to handle it on your own.”

“Yes, but your presence would have been most appreciated.” Tenzin’s voice dripped with sarcasm.

She attempted to placate him. “I’ll be there tomorrow at the welcome banquet.”

“As Chief of Police! Not as my partner.” Tenzin threw up his hands. “You already know what they’re saying about us, about you.”

“What – what are they saying, Tenzin?” She knew fully well what was being said about her. But she needed to hear this from him.

“That you don’t really care about the Air Nation, about me, about duty – you don’t give a hog-monkey’s ass about anything else except your precious Beifong legacy.” He knew he was pressing all the buttons now, but he cannot stop, temper getting away from him.

“Don’t you dare talk to me about duty.” Her voice became dangerously low.

“You don’t know a thing about duty! Lin, my father is dying. The future of an entire culture will now be on my shoulders. You would know if you were around, if you had been present for all those missed cultural and council events.”

Lin was becoming defensive; it was not like she did not want to as opposed to circumstances not allowing her to attend. “Well then, maybe you should just shack up with one of those air acolytes who seem to kiss the ground you walk.” She bit back nastily.

“Maybe I will! They have honored my culture and my father more than you ever will do!”

It took the airbender five seconds and seeing the dismayed face of one Lin Beifong to realize what he just said.

Tenzin swallowed drily. “Lin, I –.” He reached out to her.

“Save it!” Lin swatted his arm angrily, picking up her bag once again and shoving him off.

“I didn’t mean – I – Lin, please – I’m sorry!”

Too late.

Five times he called her back, five times she ignored him as she strode off into the night.

---

Six.

It was six days since they last spoke.

It was six days since Lin left their city house. Six days that Tenzin acutely felt the cold empty space in bed.

And, if what his secretary heard was true (at the rate that he and Lin were at, he figured their secretaries had a higher chance of getting together than them getting married), it was also six days since Chief Beifong took residence in the police headquarters.

He continued to deflect questions from his parents about their well-being, sharing they were fine. Aang and Katara shared looks at this. His mother had once again reminded him that they were both there for Lin and himself.

On that sixth day, Councilman Tenzin receives food delivery for lunch. The delivery boy helpfully mentioned that it came from Chief Beifong.

He looks for her note. There was none.

Even if they don’t speak, it doesn’t mean they don’t love each other, right?

He attempted to return the favor.

---

Seven.

She answered on the seventh ring of her phone.

Her phone was ringing but she let her secretary finish the litany of messages she received while away from her desk.

Dinner with Tenzin.

She jotted this in her appointment book and underlined this as a priority; he had called her secretary and requested for a schedule that night.

Nodding at the woman in thanks, the Chief of Police answered the phone on the seventh ring, rewarding the persistence of the caller.

It was one of their informants and it was a big tip.

Chief Beifong was in luck. She had been tracking this group for months now. A group of benders out and about in Republic City wreaking havoc in its criminal underbelly – committing theft, extortion and three counts of arson. The council had been breathing down her back about this.

There was no way she was letting them get away.

She got excited. There was going to be a handoff at the abandoned rice granary near the river. She knew that part, an area with a couple of grain silos, emptied as the family who owned the plot of land moved out of Republic City.

She immediately called several of her officers and they headed out with the intent to end the reign of these criminals.

---

Eight.

He had phoned the restaurant for a reservation at 8 in the evening.

It was eight minutes past the hour when there was a large explosion, coming from the direction of the downtown Republic City.

Tenzin ignored it, he figured it might be another ship that escaped its mooring or a new boat arriving that lost control.

He was feeling pleased – he had managed to wrangle a reservation later at 8, despite it being a peak day for the busy restaurant. Little did he know that the owner had made sure to accommodate him at any time (with or without reservation).

He figured it was high time that he set things straight with Lin Beifong. He was sure of his decision after all.

---

Nine.

It took her only nine seconds to decide her next move.

Her men were still nearby; securing some members of the gang in their metal cables.

Chief Beifong was counting the felons as she moved about the abandoned silo, inspecting the contraband hidden in the hay.

She realized there was one more gang member missing– the firebender - just as the smell of accelerant wafted in the air. Her seismic sense determined the location of the firebender quickly.

“Get out, now!”

“No, Chief! You can’t do this!”

“I can and I will – that’s an order, Detective!”

With great willpower, she bent the walls of the grain silo open. She launched her men and their captured felons outside, their metal cables and armors weighing heavily on the chunk of earth she lifted them on, and successfully carried them to safety.

At the corner of her eye, she saw the firebender shoot flames at the explosives near her.

---

Ten.

It was ten minutes before the end of his office hours.

He could hear the sound of the ambulance rushing past city hall.

Tenzin wanted to go home first, have quick change of clothes before dinner. Lin’s secretary had called back earlier confirming that her boss has slotted in their dinner as part of her calendar.

He brought out the box he had kept under lock and key. The airbender lightly fingered the necklace he made awhile back. If he were lucky, he hoped to apologize in person then propose in the next breath.

He heard sirens. It was closer this time.

He perked up, gripping the necklace.

Lin’s here, his body recognized the police sirens.

He peered at the window, recognizing the somber posture of the officers who got off the satomobile. He sat back in his chair.

It can’t be good.

He wonders with sympathy which poor soul would be at the receiving end of the chief of police’s condolences. Lin had said that this was the worst part of her job; having to face the families left behind.

He started to quickly pack his things. Maybe he can catch Lin before she left city hall.

It was his chance to make it up to her, to be there for her. He fingers the silk ribbon.

Chief Lin Beifong was human after all. These types of personal calls take a toll on her.

The door opens, he looks up.

It was Deputy Chief Saikhan.

“Councilman Tenzin, it is with our deepest sorrow and regret that we inform you of the death of -.”

His blood turns to ice.

The necklace falls from his hand.

==

Thanks for getting to the end of the chapter. :)

I’ve been functioning on writing down these stories without any beta; I’ll eventually get to editing the chapters for missing words or grammatical errors in the future (English isn’t my first language…). Sorry for that but will keep pushing 😊 As always, thanks for reading and letting me know what you think.

[skylarmoon71]

Earth 2 Harrison Wells x Reader- Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don’t own the Flash

Warning: Mentions of suicide. Please be warned. 

“Barry be careful, if she gets any of that mist of you you’re a goner. The poison affects you the same.” Cisco’s voice rang in his ear. 

“Got it!” he zipped forward, coming to a complete stop when he stood before the woman who just watched him cockily. There were over ten people now unconscious in the museum. 

“Listen Flash, just let me get that gem and I’ll be out of your hair.”

“You know I can’t do that.” There was a ruby, said to have belonged to a royal family. It was a main attraction in the museum, for obvious reasons. 

“You know, they really should keep things like this more heavily guarded. “ the meta mocked walking closer to Barry. He was standing directly in front of the artifact. 

“So, how do you intend to stop me. If you try to zoom closer you’ll be done within a second. And I’m sure you realize by now touching me is just as dangerous. So what’s Central City’s greatest hero going to do?” She was taunting him. Barry gritted his teeth. He pushed forward. 

It didn’t take long or her poison to release, putting her spores into the air. The second he took a step, his body fell flat, veins surging with the green poison. Barry gasped, watching as she laughed walking over his body. She broke the glass with ease, plucking the gem and stuffing it into her pocket. 

“See you next time Flash.” With that she was off, the alarms in the museum blaring at her exit. 

Through the entire ordeal you’d been hiding behind a pillar. You peeked out when you realized the crazy meta was gone. What you did see was the Flash passed out of the floor. 

“Crap!” you ran over. When you got closer you could hear a voice coming from what looked like a com link in his ear. 

“Barry, Barry, answer me!!” a female voice screamed. You pulled out the mic, speaking into it. 

“H-Hello, I’m one of the civilians at the museum. That woman she got the gem and ran off. You need to get the ambulance here now!” the woman didn’t say anything for a second. 

“The Flash, is he breathing?” she sounded hesitant to even ask. 

“Yes, he is. He’ll be fine I’ll take care of him just get help.” she didn’t waste time, you could hear her alerting authorities from the other side of the microphone. You dropped it, eyes moving back to the male in front of you. You took a deep breath, hands hovering over his body. A green mist started to rise, slipping into your skin. You groaned, feeling the poison sink into your veins. When it all disappeared you let out a heavy breath. 

“One down.” you thought going over to the other victims. One by one you repeated the action. The more poison you sucked through your body the more sweat seemed to gather at your forehead. You’d lost count on how many you’d already healed when you heard a gasp from the side of you. Your head turned.

“Y-You’re awake?” you said softly. The speedster looked a bit disoriented. 

“What happened..” he stood slowly, hands on his knees to keep him balanced. 

You placed your hands flat on the ground, thankful he didn’t see you using your abilities. 

“That meta did a number on you. She got away with that gem thing. “ you pointed to the broken glass. He frowned, looking down a bit guilty. 

“Hey it’s fine. These people need attention now. The poison is a lot like a paralysis toxin. It’s curable, but they need help now.” the blaring of the sirens outside alerted you that help was finally on its way. You pressed your head to the floor, completely exhausted. 

“Hey! You okay?” he moved closer and you sighed. “Yeah..just in shock. With all the craziness that happens in this city you would I’d be used to it by now.” He gave a small smile, pressing a hand to your back. Someone burst through the door and you saw cops, medics and reporters filing in. 

“Flash!” one of the detectives shouted. The speedster stood up shaking his head. “She got away. I couldn’t stop her.” The older male speaking to him just gave an encouraging pat.

“Don’t worry about it. Iris was frantic, she said you were down. “ Barry nodded. “Yeah I was, I’m positive that meta  got me. Then I just woke up and this woman was..” his eyes turned and you were no longer there.

“Where did she go?” he made a full circle, trying to pick your face out into the crowd. You were nowhere to be found. 

“We can figure that out later, right now that crazy meta is our main priority.” Joe commented. Barry nodded a bit distracted. “Yeah..” 

“That was close.” you huffed, leaning on a nearby building. The green liquid that was running through your veins was disappearing slowly. When it was completely gone, you stood up straight, moving in the direction of the hospital. 

~~~~~

“Your vitals are fine, not even a spec of the spores.You’ll be fine.” Barry rolled down his sleeve, still trying to put the pieces together. Caitlin pulled off her gloves, disposing of them into the bin. “This doesn’t make sense, she got me. I should still be out. And all those other people, they woke up too, no sign of the poison. It doesn’t add up.”

“There was someone else there. Maybe she knows what happened. When I was calling for you, she said not to worry, just to call the police.” Iris butted in. 

“Do you think maybe she's a meta too?” Cisco questioned sucking a lollipop. 

“It would make sense. That’s the only explanation. If she did take in that poison, she could be somewhere suffering. That level would be too much, especially since you weren’t the only one she helped.” Caitlin informed. 

“Who is a meta?” Harry said walking in with his gun. 

“Thanks for finally joining us Harry, you know we could have used your help on this one.”

“I’m here now Ramon, who are we looking for?” He asked. 

“A woman, I think she might be in danger. I’ll go to CCPD and get a sketch so you can run it through facial recognition. “

Cisco nodded. “Good plan, in the meantime we’ll work on catching our little gem thief.” Caitlin smiled. “I’d think by now you’d have a name for her. “Cisco grumbled under his breath, shoving the sweet back in his mouth.

~~~

“And on other news, The Flash has done it again. The thief has been apprehended and the gem safely tucked back into its home at Central City’s museum. “ you smiled looking at the television braced on the wall in your patient’s room. “I knew the Flash would do it!” the girl in the bed said happily. “When I get older, I’ll be just like him.” she cheered. She had a Flash figurine clutched into her hand. “Just work on getting stronger, then you can apply to be a superhero.” you teased. She just smiled. You watched the exhaustion in her eyes. “You need to stop getting so worked up Sarah, it’s not good for you.” she just grinned at you. “I can’t help it. “ 

She was one of your regulars, a cancer patient. The disease had long taken away all her hair. You always wondered how she managed to still smile so brightly when her days were numbered. You took her hand, giving a warm smile. Taking a deep breath you closed your eyes, trying to take away as much of her illness into your body. After a few seconds you hunched forward, breathing heavily. Her eyes closed slowly, falling asleep. You pulled your hand away reluctantly. 

“It’s getting harder..” you noted. 

“Ms. (Y/N), you have visitors.” your eyes lifted to the head nurse. You nodded, trying to put yourself together as you walked out with her. You slid your patient's door close, meeting a few unfamiliar faces. One of the males was smiling and you with so much familiarity, as if he knew you. The nurse left and you guided them to your office. When you all got in you offered for them to take a seat.

“What can I do for you?” The male who was still beaming held out his hand. 

“I’m Barry Allen, I work for CCPD. This is Detective Joe West, Cisco Ramon and Dr. Caitlin Snow.”  There was another guy standing with his head bent. His dark clothing and cap made you a bit weary. Still, you greeted everyone with a smile. 

“To what do I owe the pleasure? “ Barry stepped closer. “We were investigating the crime that took place today, with the robbery at the museum.”

“Ahh, yes. I saw The Flash caught the person who did it. He’s such an inspiration, that guy. I was actually just talking about him with one of my patients.” 

“That’s what we needed to speak to you about, we have witnesses that put you at the scene. We’re just trying to fill in some blanks.” Detective West interjected. You narrowed your eyes.

“I’m not sure how I can help, I was hiding the entire time. I didn’t even get a look at the woman who attacked.”

“Let’s stop wasting time and get to the point.” the guy with the cap stormed over to you raising a watch in front of your body. You flinched when it started to go off. Red lights flaring. 

“You’re a metahuman.” he stated. You panicked, stumbling back into the wall. Your eyes darted around the room, raising your hands defensively. 

“W-Who the hell are you people, what do you want!” 

“Way to go Harry you scared her!” Cisco yelled. 

Barry moved over raising his hand. “Listen, we’re not here to hurt you believe me.” he sounded so sincere. Yet, you heard those words before. 

“I’m not going to be some experiment locked up in a prison! I haven’t hurt anyone.” Barry nodded.

���You’re right you didn’t hurt anyone, you saved them. Isn’t that right?” you just stared at him. You couldn’t remember him at the museum, so how did he know.

“H-Have we met before?” you asked. Something about him was so familiar, you couldn’t put you finger on it. 

“N-No we uhh..” he was stumbling over his words.

“Code red!!” someone yelled outside. Your eyes shifted at the commotion. 

“Patient five is convulsing. “ your eyes widened. “Sarah!!” you pushed passed the individuals, diving out the room. When you got to her room she was writhing on the bed, eyes still tightly shut. The machines were going crazy. 

“We need to stabilize her!” you instructed the other nurses to get her usual medication. They ran out, scrambling to recover what was needed. Barry and the others were now standing out there, watching with dread as the girl continued to beat against the bed. Tears were gathering in your eyes. 

If she didn’t stabilize soon there was a good chance she wouldn’t make it through the night. You glanced back at Barry, before looking at Sarah. You needed to help her, even if it meant they would find out your secret. You pressed both your hands to her head. Barry couldn’t believe what he was seeing. A golden glow was emitting from her head, into your hands. He watched the light travel all the way up to your neck. 

“S-She’s killing herself!!” Caitlin cried. Barry moved forward to stop you but you turned to him, eyes now glowing a bright yellow light

“STAY BACK!” your voice didn’t even sound like your own, it was distorted. When the light finally dissipated, you shuffled back and the heart monitors suddenly returned to normal. A bunch of doctors rushed in, checking her signs. “S-She’s stable again.” one of them stated. You nodded. “Keep track to ensure it doesn’t raise again.” the nurse present did just that. It took you a moment to regain your focus, when you did they were all looking at you in awe. 

“We have a lot to talk about. “ the man with the cap said. You gave a reluctant nod, heaving as you guided them out.

[earth-ambassador-jim]

A Bad Reaction: Chapter 2

Summary:

“Changelings call it "Gravesand”. Derived from the pulverized bones of fallen Gumm-Gumms, gravesand aids us changelings in shedding our human form and embracing our more trollish nature…“

Strickler is a little off in his calculations and the gravesand draws out an unexpected response from Jim. Hopefully he can figure out what is wrong and how to fix it before it is too late.

AO3 - Fanfiction

~~~~

Barbara wasn’t sure what she’d been expecting when the pink rock monster had kidnapped her and brought her to an underground bunker but meeting her ex-boyfriend had not been it.

The moment she set eyes on him anger had eclipsed fear as the ever growing feeling of betrayal she’d been brooding on for the past few weeks reared its head in full force.

 “What. The. Hell.” Barbara said slowly -but with great feeling- as her hands clenched at her sides.

The sharp pain in her skull that had just started up was not helping. For some reason the painting she had been working on surfaced in her memory.

“Sorry to interrupt,” The pink monster said in what sounded like an amused tone. Barbara jumped. She’d forgotten about it for a second. “As much as I want to see you beat up Strickler, there are more important things to deal with right now.”

It was then that Barbara saw who was in the table in the middle of the room. A sharp gasp escaped her and she rushed to her son’s side.

Her fingers immediately went to his throat, feeling for his pulse, and then to his forehead before she turned around to stare at Walt. She had been angry before, but it was nothing compared to what she was feeling now.

“What have you done to my son?” Barbara practically growled.

Walt… Strickler swallowed audibly and held his hands out, open and palms facing her, in from of him.

“It was an accident…” He started to say slowly.

“An accident?!” She yelled. “Is that why you have him tucked away in this secret base? You lured me out here with his phone! And what’s that?!” She added pointing at the monster.

And why did she feel like she should know the answer? Barbara drew in a sharp breath as pain lanced through her skull again.

“Please let me explain. You may yell at me all you wish later,” Strickler said.

Barbara grit her teeth and drew in a breath to start yelling again.

She never got a word out.

At that moment Jim jerked upright on the table. Barbara turned toward him and felt her heart skip a beat. His eyes, now open, were glowing a sickly red and gold. He made a low guttural sound in his throat and his lips pulled back in a snarl. She stumbled back a step.

He drew in a shallow gasping breath. His still glowing eyes widened and he clawed as his chest for a moment before collapsing back on the table.

For a sickening moment Barbara couldn’t move, then the symptoms she had just seen registered and she lunged forward with a string of curses. She pressed two fingers to his neck and felt a calm fall over her as her years working in the ER asserted themselves.

“Is there an AED here?” She asked Strickler sharply as she pulled Jim’s shirt up.

Some part of her mind vaguely registered a series of branching scars that she hadn’t seen before but, as they were currently unimportant, she mentally filed them away for later. Strickler ripped something off the wall and hurried over to her. She received the machine, noting that it was an older model than the hospital’s, and then with quick efficient movements placed the pads on her son’s skin.

“Get clear,” She said sharply.

Jim’s body jerked as the electricity coursed through him. Barbara checked his pulse. It was weak but the rhythm was now regular again.

She let out a sigh of relief before turning back to Strickler. The underlying protective rage layered over with her professional calm made her feel like she was floating outside her body.

“Explain what is going on now,” She said coldly.

~~~~

And so her ex-boyfriend explained how humans weren’t really the only intelligent species on earth, that magic was real, and that her son had been drafted to fight giant rock creatures.

It turned out there was a bit more to those images and dreams that had been flickering through her mind since the accident than she thought.

“Let me get this straight,” Barbara said as she kneaded the skin of her forehead. “You decided that it was a good idea to give my son, a minor, some sort of troll heroin to ‘hone his feral instincts’… you didn’t see any way that could go wrong.”

She was also rather disappointed in Jim for going along with this. They’d had the drug talk. Just because it was magic did not make it any less of a drug.

“How do you still have your teaching degree?” She wondered out loud.

Off to the side the pink changeling snickered.

“That’s not important right now,” Walt… Strickler said. “Right now I need your help to keep Jim stable while I figure out what exactly is causing this.”

Barbara really wanted to argue that Jim should go to a hospital to receive proper treatment, but she doubted they would know what to do with gravesand poisoning, or whatever was going on. She was also not foolish enough to expect that they would just let her leave. Not without a fight that she couldn’t hope to win. She drew in a slow breath and counted to ten before blowing it out through her nose.

“So you haven’t found anything in your files about why this might be happening yet?”  She asked.

“No,” Strickler responded. “But I still have a few more to go through.”

“And these other trolls that Jim is helping can’t help?” Barbara would really like to have someone else here. Wal… Strickler had dropped completely off the bottom of her trust list. She wasn’t sure how she felt about the other changeling. “There isn’t any kind of troll-doctor?”

“Unfortunately Trollmarket’s healer was one of the first casualties according to Young… Jim. There might be other healers but it’s unlikely they will know how to take care of a human and even if they did they would not be familiar with gravesand.”

Barbara sighed.

“Okay, you keep searching your files.” She turned to the pink changeling. “I’ll need you to…”

She paused eying the changeling’s sharp claws with trepidation. It seemed to catch on and in a flash of pink transformed into the museum curator Ms. Nomura. Barbara jumped but otherwise didn’t react.

“Okay,” She said with a sharp, shaky breath. This was fine. She was fine. She could do this. “I’m going to need you to assist me. Follow my instructions exactly.”

Ms. Nomura moved to stand beside her and they got to work.

~~~~

“Any progress?” Barbara’s voice was something that could have loosely been described as professional.

Strickler looked up from the file he was currently reading.

“Nothing yet I’m afraid,” He said shoving down a pang of longing.

Barbara made a quiet frustrated sound and turned away. She and Nomura started talking in low voices. Strickler rubbed his eyes and glanced around the room. How long had they been here now?

Jim was now hooked up to a heart monitor and oxygen. He looked bad. Rashes had appeared on his skin and he was sweating profusely. Something in Strickler’s chest twisted involuntarily.

He had done this. He should have known better. Humans reacted differently to even regular medications. Why did he think having a child inhale magic sand was going to be okay?

What if they couldn’t save him? What then?

The more analytical side of his mind was already trying to come up with contingencies for dealing with a new Trollhunter this late in the game. The more pessimistic side suggested that between Barbara and Nomura he wouldn’t live long enough to have to worry about that. He’d deserve it too, he supposed.

He grimaced and pulled out his pen to fiddle with.

Focus.

He needed to save Jim. Failure was not an option.

He opened the next set of files, a series of experiments that had been ran by a changeling scientist back during the Cold War.

He started reading and froze for a moment before reading faster.

It wasn’t possible…

~~~~

“A question Barbara,” Strickler said. There was something stiff and deliberately level about his tone that made Barbara wary.

“Yes?” She asked without turning around.

“Do you have any pictures of your… of Jim’s father?”

That did make her turn around.

“Why would you need that?” She asked suspiciously.

���I will explain if my hunch proves correct.”

Oh she didn’t like that at all…

She studied his face. The lines around his mouth and eyes were tense.

“Please… it’s important.”

She made an irritated noise and glanced at his computer.

“Can that connect to the internet?”

“Yes…”

She wasn’t really in the habit of carrying pictures of James around. In fact, she’d gotten rid of most of the ones in the house as well. Both she and Jim generally preferred to pretend he didn’t exist when they could.

She brushed past Strickler and started tapping away. In a few minutes she’d pulled up an old finished projects page from a company website.

“That’s him,” She said pointing at one of the men in the picture. She pushed down the old ache in her chest as well as the strange feeling that rose when she realized how much Jim as starting to resemble him.

Barbara moved out of the way and Strickler settled down into the chair. In a few quick moves he’d downloaded the image and cropped it down to just James Senor’s face. Then he opened the image in another program. Immediately the computer pinged. The word “match” appeared on the screen.

A few more clicks and a new window was opened up on the screen.

“Barbara? Is this him?”

Barbara leaned over his shoulder. He twisted slightly in his seat to watch her expression. Her eyes tracked across the page and her lips moved slightly as she read through the words before she froze.

“Why…”

“It would appear that your ex is a changeling,”

“What?!”

Strickler moved back as she pushed forward to read the file more thoroughly.

“This explains Jim’s unusual reaction to the gravesand,” He continued. She could just barely hear him through the roaring in her ears. “Normally, in humans gravesand would only serves to draw out their feral instincts. It makes them angrier and their eyes glow. Long term use may have other side effects, but one use should not result in something like this.”

“So why is it causing this?”

“Because the gravesand is trying to activate Jim’s dormant changeling traits.”

“His changeling traits?” She echoed.

Strickler nodded and pushed a hand through his hair.

“Yes, but since Jim was… I assume he was conceived while James was in human form?” Barbara didn’t appreciate the question there but nodded anyway. “The only genes he has from his father are the ones that would allow him to shift not the biological template he needs to have a trollish form to shift into.”

“Which means..?”

Strickler grimaced.

“To put it simply the gravesand’s magic is causing Jim’s latent shifter magic activate, but as there is nothing to shift into his cells are basically tearing themselves apart.”

That wasn’t good. Understanding, mixed with new fear, settled in Barbara’s chest.

She turned away from him back toward her son frowning as she took off her glasses and polished them on her scrubs. This seemed to be one of the situations were knowing what was happening was not going to make thing easier…

She wasn’t even sure if she could use conventional medicines on Jim with the gravesand in his system.

Strickler was frowning as he continued to leaf through the file.

“It looks like all recorded cases have been fatal…”

Barbara whipped around, her heart lurching sickeningly in her chest. Across the room Nomura stiffened.

“But!” Strickler said before either of them could say or do anything. “The scientist in charge of the trails theorized that if a sample of changeling blood and stone was enchanted and then injected into the hybrid it would give the sifting magic something to latch onto and pattern a trollish form off of.”

“Did they test this?”

“No,” Strickler said. “It seems that the changeling in charge of the tests met an untimely death before he could find anymore test subjects.” There was an odd tone to his voice that Barbara could not quite pin down. It vanished quickly as he moved on. “I do however have the groundwork and necessary ingredients listed for the spell here.”

“What are the chances of success?”

Strickler sighed.

“I can’t really say. I doubt they are high… but what choice do we have?”

“You said that none of the… half-changelings… survived the gravesand?”

“None recorded.”

“Did they try removing the sand from the lungs? Or any similar measures to stop the reaction?”

“Yes and they all failed.”

Barbara stood quiet for a moment, acutely aware of the two changelings waiting for her response. She hated everything about this situation. She had a short moment of time to make a decision for her son that would at best be life altering and at worst fatal and the only information she had was from shady people that she didn’t trust.

But if she didn’t do anything…

Barbara glanced at Jim. She clenched her jaw and sucked in a breath through her teeth.

“Then I think we should take the route that still has a chance even if it is slim,” She said finally. “What do we need to do?”

Strickler took in her straightened posture and determined expression with a wistful expression. A jolt of bitterness passed through her.

“I am going to start running over the runes and layout for the spell to make sure there are no errors. Nomura…” The magenta changeling straightened up. “I will need you to retrieve some things from my office.” He pulled his pen out of his pocket and hesitated a moment before tossing it to her. “The lock is behind Landmark Thucydides.”

He paused for a moment and then pulled out his notepad and quickly scribbled out a list of what he would need and where she could find it.

“I’m also going to take a quick run to my apartment and retrieve the rest of my magic supplies.” He turned to Barbara. “I should be about a half hour. Can you handle that?”

She nodded.

“Good. Let us go.”

Barbara watched as they left.

Gradually their footsteps faded from hearing.

It was just her and Jim now.

She walked over to him and gently smoothed his fair out of his sweaty face. Even without touching his skin, she could feel the heat radiating off of him.

His eyes remained closed.

Barbara blinked furiously as a lump began to form in her throat.

How had it come to this? She’d known something was wrong.

Her vision blurred and she sucked in a harsh breath.

Why didn’t he tell her? Why hadn’t she…

Barbara’s hands clenched around the edges of the metal table as the first sob broke free.

~~~~

~~~~

Author Notes:

I am going to go into a little more into the specifics about what is going on with Jim's reaction to the Gravesand in the notes next chapter, so be sure to read those!

We’ll get a little more on Barbara’s thoughts on the situation next chapter, but right now she really just needs a good cry.

I was a little rushed on editing this chapter (Just started a new job this week!) so let me know if anything needs clarification.

[agent-styles]

without you | steve rogers

pairing: steve rogers x reader

prompt/request:  “I didn’t think it would explode.”

summary: you take some initiative in helping the team during a mission, and steve isn’t so pleased that he could have lost you because of it.

word count: 1.6k

a/n: i had so much fun writing this for the cap ² challenge (thank you for letting me be a part of it  @imhereforbvcky or @justsomebucky!!) /// i didn’t mean for it to be this long but i hope you like it <3 

warning(s): starts out angsty but ends with all da fluff

“What the hell happened out there, y/l/n?!” Steve shouts with his arms raised and his eyebrows furrowed. He’s really mad this time, madder than that time when you accidentally tripped a landmine with one of Clint’s arrows. 

“I didn’t think it would explode, Steve,” you attempt to explain. Before you know it, a medical team surrounds you and ushers you to sit on a gurney. 

“But it did, y/n. What happened out there today is unacceptable,” Steve asserts. 

You glance over at him when a doctor doesn’t have a light in your eye or a stethoscope pressed against your chest, making you cringe at the contact of the metal with your bare skin. 

Steve’s hands are on his waist when he’s not animating his speech with hand movements. He paces around the room, mostly keeping his eyes pointed at the floor, but every so often they dart up at you. 

Most of the medics scurry away, leaving one to bandage up a gash on your leg and stitch up a cut on your forehead. The medic kindly smiles at you when she finishes with your leg, gently pats your other knee, and leaves the room. That’s when you try to explain yourself to Steve a second time. 

“I thought it was a tracker, Steve. It was a small enough device. I had no reason to believe it was a miniature bomb. It could have stuck to the car and led us to him. Maybe even to a hideout with dozens of people like him” you tell Steve. 

And that is the truth. 

Earlier in the day, you had been snooping in one of Stark’s many tech labs in the Tower, searching for something that could give the team an even larger upper hand in the field. Under a rather large re-imagined prototype of Pepper’s Rescue face plate, you found a small, black circular device. You fiddled with it and shuffled through what little paperwork was on the desk to find some instructions. Since Tony created it, all of the information about it was locked away in his cyber world. Your experienced past led you to believe that the object was a covert tracking device, not a ticking time bomb. 

“But it didn’t. It blew the car up and our mission with it,” Steve says when he finally faces you. 

“I know and I’m sorry about that. Really, I know how important this mission was for the team and especially you. Steve, I --” Steve cuts you off before you can finish your thought. 

His arms swing up once again, to gesture at your bruised and battered figure. “Are you kidding me, y/n?” 

You push your hands down into the gurney to straighten up your posture, to sit taller since you can’t stand tall during this argument. You wince as you adjust to the new position. Steve’s eyes quickly meet yours before drifting to something else in the room. 

“I know how important it is to you that we track down all of these rogue HYDRA agents and I messed that up,” you say softly. 

Steve bites his lip and shakes his head, eyes falling on some corner of the room. Anywhere but on you. “That agent has already been apprehended. Fury said S.H.I.E.L.D. caught him a block away from the explosion,” Steve reports, his tone now diplomatic. 

You face begins to tense up as you let that revelation wash over you. The target has been apprehended, yet Steve is cold and distant. He’s angry and usually he reserves that emotion for a lost battle or an argument with Stark. Never with you, not really. 

Especially because your explosion is what chased the target a block over for Fury and his team to catch. The tightness that crept into your shoulders when Steve told the truth makes those muscles ache, adding to the pain coursing through your body. The impact you took from flying back 40 feet from the explosion is a different kind of pain than the type you’re feeling now. This pain seethes like a fury that comes from secrets about a mission’s success and incomprehensible disappointment from someone you care about.  

You press your lips together before blurting out the question that needs to be answered, “Then what the hell is your problem, Rogers?” Bitterness drips from your tongue. 

Steve sighs and finally looks at your for longer than a millisecond. He eyes soften, his hands find their place on his hips once again, and then he speaks, “I thought I lost you out there, y/n.”

You shoulders finally relax away from your ears and you sit back against the gurney. Steve has suffered so much loss in his life. He has lived through unimaginable circumstances with the burden of saving the world on his shoulders, and in that split second that there was nothing but air under your feet, he thought your death was another tragedy he would have to survive. 

“Steve,” your voice is a mere whisper when you lift your right hand, reaching out to him. 

In three quick steps, Steve is by your side, gently sitting in the small, vacant spot on the gurney. His left hand lands on the other side of your legs, propping him up. Steve looks down at the hand in his lap, “I saw you, y/n. You hit the ground so hard.” 

You reach out and take his hand in yours. “Steve…Steve, look at me.” 

He still won’t look at you but the rate at which he is blinking tells you all you need to know. You let go of his hand to let yours find his chin. You turn his face so that his tear-filled, blue eyes are looking into yours. “I’m not going anywhere,” you assure him with a shake of your head. 

Your hand moves up to his cheek. Steve carefully moves closer to you, needing to feel your touch. He places right hand on top of yours and leans into your touch. But not for too long. He springs up into perfect posture and starts examining your wounds. He winces at the sight of your leg and brushes his thumb around the wound on your head. You chuckle softly at his actions. 

You smile at him when he takes your hand and brings it to his lips, pressing a sweet kiss to your scuffed knuckles. He lets your hands fall in his lap when you speak, “I promise I’m okay.” 

He nods, “Of course you are.” The tension in the air finally fades. You feel like you breathe around him again, and Steve looks like he’s breathing for the first time in the last twenty minutes. 

You squint your eyes at him, a smirk on your lips, “I’ve gotta be tough. I am dating the Captain America.” 

Steve leans back and chuckles; his right hand falls on his chest. Once he’s finished he looks you straight in the eye and says, “You’re tough with or without me, honey.” 

You nod with a knowing smile on your face, “And you remember that.”

Steve rolls his eyes and grins. You wish he would do that more often. Suddenly, Steve leans forward and takes your face in his hands. When his breath is on your lips, he searches your eyes for any sign telling him to stop. 

“Go ahead, Cap,” you whisper against his lips. 

Steve ever so slightly presses his lips to yours, afraid to apply any pressure in case it were to inflict any more pain on your already achy body. You try to let him know that everything is okay, that you’re actually the best you’ve been all day, by letting your hand tug at his soft, blond hair at the nape of his neck. Then you drop your cold fingertips to the skin there and pull him closer. Steve finally gives in and deepens the kiss, letting his left hand go to your waist in the process. 

Before you not, you are lost in each other. Still on that gurney. Still with a bandage on your leg and a gash on your head. Steve’s still in his Cap suit, and the two of you show no signs of stopping. His hands touch your bare skin under your top, just at your waist, and you just can’t stop kissing him. As it turns out, a near-death experience is enough to get Steve to loosen up in the workplace. But you have to stop things before they get out of hand. Well, more so than they already are. 

When Steve’s warm hand reaches around to your back, you flinch and yelp, “Ow,” through gritted teeth. 

Steve pulls away quickly but ever so gently. He starts examining you once again, “What is it? Are you okay? Do I need to call a medic back in?”

You laugh at his urgency, always needing to fix the problem. “Babe, I’m fine. I just needed to cool down the situation.” 

“You’re probably right.”

“I know,” you confidentially say and he smirks at you out of the corner of his eye. “Why don’t you help me to our room and we can pick up where we left off?” “I don’t want to make this worse,” Steve replies, his hand on your thigh. 

“Come on, Cap. I can handle it,” you challenge him. 

Steve rises from the gurney and walks to the handles behind your head. He leans down by your left ear, “Okay, but we’re stopping when it gets to be too much,” he demands. 

“Of course,” you agree with a reaffirming nod. You feel his smile against your face when he presses a kiss against you cheek. 

[arissayoo]

Neverland -> Ateez AU

Chapter 6

Warnings: Mentions of violence, blood, cursing, dark/horror themes, fem!reader

Word Count: 3.7K

A/N: Finally updated after three long weeks! This is a longer chapter than the others (yay) and honestly, I had to stop myself from continuing on. As always comments/feedback is appreciated :)

Chapter 5 | Chapter 7

The rest of the boys ran out of my room as soon as we heard the howl. There, in the living room, was a pack of Khanins which both Mingi and Jongho were trying to fight off.

“Mingi behind you!” Jongho’s yell sounded above all the commotion.

My blood ran cold at the sight of the monsters, more sweat building on my forehead. “Y/N stay here! Your body isn’t strong enough right now.” Seonghwa instructed me, following the rest down to the fight.

My body became paralyzed with fear, flashbacks of my last encounter with a Khanin rushing through my mind. Even if I wasn’t petrified, Seonghwa was right, my body had been through hell in the last couple days. It was hard enough to stand upright and not draw attention to myself. I felt useless as I watched the fight taking place in front of me. The boys were evenly matched with the monsters, each boy taking on a beast more than twice their size. The smell of fresh blood filled the air, accompanied by the loud pained groans.

“Agh!” Jongho fell to the ground, the Khanin he had been fighting pouncing on his chest. I watched in horror, my body reacting without me thinking as I moved towards the stairs. The boys all drew attention to the youngest, sure to keep their guard up with their attackers.

Yeosang quickly spun around, sending three arrows straight at the beast, piercing its heart. It fell to the floor, Jongho rolling to avoid being squished under it. “Fuck!” Jongho groaned, sucking in a breath.

“He needs to get out of here. They smell the blood.” Seonghwa shouted, trying to keep the monsters’ attention away from Jongho. Everyone was unaware of me as I quickly snuck towards the battlefield. I sucked in a deep breath, trying to muster up all of the adrenaline in my body, before running towards Jongho’s body. He was lying on the floor, the fabric of his pants torn open to reveal a large bite mark. I held in my shock, instead choosing to focus on getting him away from here.

“Ok let’s get you up.” I tried to keep calm, struggling to pull Jongho up.

“Y-you’re injured.” He tried to scold me, the words coming out in short pants.

“Yeah, you are too. This is the least I could do since I’m not strong enough to fight with the rest of you.” I grit my teeth, supporting him as I tried to get to a safe area. I couldn’t go up the stairs, not supporting both our weight anyhow. I figured our best bet was in one of the boys’ rooms downstairs. At least that way there would be a door between us and the Khanins.

I limped towards a door as quickly as I could, trying to put as much distance between us and the ongoing fight. Once safely inside, I sat Jongho down on the bed, closing the door and looking around for items that I could push in front of it to block anything from coming in.

Jongho let out another pained groan, his hands trying to pry the fabric of his pants away from the wounds. 

“Stop, you'll make it worse.” I ran over, pushing his hands away to fully inspect his leg.

There was blood oozing from the wound, each of the Khanin’s sharp teeth leaving a deep puncture wound. The area surrounding the bite was swollen, the skin turned a greenish-purple. I let out a breath I didn't even know I was holding in, turning to grab something to cut away at the remaining fabric. I wasn’t familiar with the room, but based on the strew of arrowheads on the dresser I assumed it belonged to Yeosang. I found a switchblade in the middle of the pile, bringing it over to Jongho, who was sweating profusely. 

“Just breathe and try not to pass out on me okay?” I searched his glazed eyes, praying none of the other boys got injured and won the fight soon. I began to carefully cut his pant leg, exposing more of the bruised skin. “Oh my,” I whispered, unsure of how to treat his injury.

There now was a constant spew of blood from the puncture wounds, the red liquid dripping down the side of his leg. Grabbing the sheet from the bed, I bundled half of it to press down on the wound.

“Ah! Goddamn!” Jongho groaned, trying to push through the pain. “I hate those damn dogs.”

I pressed my lips together, the strong smell of blood making me lightheaded. I couldn't give in to the screaming pain of my body, not now. I had to push through this and hope that the fight would soon end and the boys would come through that door.

I needed the boys to come through that door. 

Another ear-splitting cry sounded from the living room, heavy footsteps rushing towards the door. Loud scratching came from the other side of it, followed by a loud slam from the Khanin throwing its body against the wood.

“Ok, ok just breathe Y/N,” I tried to console myself. If they got in, we were as good as dead. There were no windows in the room, trapping us in with only the door to separate the monster from us. The door started shaking, the commotion from outside growing.

“We’re going to have to fight it.” I turned to Jongho, seeing his closed eyes and ashen face. “Jongho!”

I shook his body, trying to get a response from him. The Khanin continued to pound against the door outside, it’s weight causing the door to start to splinter. I knew I couldn’t fight off the monster by myself, but still grabbed the weapons anyway. I stood in front of the door, my only plan was to protect Jongho even if it meant my death.

The pounding ceased, along with all the other commotion from the living room. The silence seemed too good to be true. I couldn’t assume that the Khanins were all dead yet, but I definitely hoped it didn’t mean the boys had lost the fight. 

“Y/N! Open up, it’s clear.” Hongjoong’s voice sounded from the other side of the door. I felt a rush of relief, pushing the small dresser out of the way and opening the door.

“Seonghwa, Jongho’s hurt pretty bad.” I alerted the leader first off, saving any other concern for later. “He passed out a couple minutes ago.”

“Bring him to my room, I’ll start getting the supplies ready.” His face, which was covered in blood and sweat, remained stoic, hiding any emotions he felt. Mingi and Yunho went to carry Jongho, meanwhile, the other guys were staring at me.

“What?” I asked, seeing them all avert their gaze, except Hongjoong.

“Thanks for getting Jongho out of there. If you hadn’t reacted that quick who knows what would have happened to him.” Hongjoong nodded in my direction.

“You don’t have to thank me for doing what was right. I’m sorry that I couldn’t fight with you guys.” I saw how tired they all looked, noting a few cuts running down their arms. “You guys should go get treated too.”

“Nah, we’ll be good. Seonghwa makes us take pills every morning that have medicine counteract the Khanin poison. It’s basically running through our systems now.” Wooyoung brushed my words off, ignoring the countless cuts on his body.

“What’s really important is how they were even able to get in the Den, much less find us,” Yeosang spoke up, his eyes drawn to his switchblade and collection of arrowheads in my fists. I looked down, realizing I was still holding the weapons before placing them back in the pile on the dresser.

“What do you mean?”

“Mingi and Wooyoung put special protection on the cave. It protects us from the creatures outside and hides our location from everyone and everything. You can’t find the den unless you know where it is.” San explained, his voice sounding less annoying than usual.

“I don’t know how it broke, but it’s probably not a good idea for us to stay here. If the Khanins were able to get in we don’t know what else will try to.” Hongjoong beckoned for us to follow to Seonghwa’s room, knocking lightly before opening the door.

Seonghwa was putting away the various medications, Mingi, and Yunho sitting in the corner, a mixture of exhaustion and relief present on their faces. Jongho’s body was lying on Seonghwa’s bed, the color returned to his face. I could feel my own relief wash over me, thankful that everything was over, for now at least. 

“Here, you should take this. It’ll help your body heal faster.” Seonghwa handed me a cup containing a clear liquid. I looked at it apprehensively, memories from the last liquid he handed me making my stomach uneasy. “I promise it won't make you throw up again.”

I took a deep breath before gulping down the liquid, a warm feeling flooding my stomach. 

“So in regards to how the Khanins got in,” Hongjoong looked around at the others.

“The spell broke,” Mingi spoke up, standing up and facing me “because of her.” 

My eyes widened and my body froze for another time today. Once again, I was the cause of their problems, this time resulting in Jongho getting hurt. 

“Well not her exactly, but when she came back to the Den after training she was under the siren’s control. The magic used was able to get in, breaking through the encoding that was in place.” Yunho quickly elaborated, trying to erase my feelings of dread. 

“Now we know what they meant by she’ll be our biggest weakness,” San muttered, his ominous words loud enough for me to hear.

“Can you fix it Mingi?” Hongjoong ignored San, concerned for our future living situation. 

“Yeah, but it won't be done for at least a couple of days.” 

A couple days. Even though they were acting as if this wasn’t a big deal my mind was telling me otherwise. 

“Well, we can't stay here tonight. I won’t be able to use my powers to track any intruders.” Yeosang voiced the thought everyone was thinking. 

“Jongho should wake up soon. We can head out then. For now, everyone go pack. Be sure to bring more than enough supplies and weapons. We will be traveling at night and won't know what we will be facing.” Seonghwa instructed, the boys retreating to their rooms. He looked at my still figure, coming closer to me. “Y/N, it’s not your fault.”

“I caused this.” I looked up at him, my face clearly expressing my inner distress. “I’m the reason we have to leave and he got hurt.”

“Listen to me, don’t let this get to you. We have all been in situations like this before. You were being mind-controlled and couldn't have known this would happen. This could have happened to any of us.” He placed his hand on my shoulder, slowly calming my anxiety. 

“Ugh.” Jongho groaned, slowly waking up and reaching to clutch his leg. Both Seoghwa and my gaze switched to him, rushing over to his side. 

“Jongho, how are you feeling?” I asked, my worry for the boy replacing all other emotions.

“Pretty crappy, but hey I’m alive.” He managed to send a smile my way, causing me to return one back.

“We have to leave the Den for a couple of days. I’m sure you already guessed, but the protection spell broke and the Khanins aren’t going to be the only ones to come after us. I’ll grab your stuff and Y/N, you should go pack before everyone else gets here.”

I nodded, heading to my room before meeting the rest of the boys down in the living room shortly after. There was not much to pack, just the clothes I had shown up in and some that I had been borrowing from Hongjoong. I didn’t have nearly as much as the others, their bags practically overflowing with weapons.

We headed out, Yeosang and San taking lead while the rest of us followed with our flashlights. I looked back, noting that although I hadn’t been on Neverland that long, the Den had become my haven. There was a fair share of bad moments, but I felt safer there than anywhere else. And now it was gone, invaded by the monsters outside. I sighed, turning around to continue following the boys silently. 

My foot caught on a branch, causing me to trip and drop my flashlight.  The others looked back to see that I was alright, with me bending down to pick my flashlight up. I dusted it off, looking up to see the light pointed at a vague figure in the distance. I squinted my eyes to try and see better, the figure almost blending in with the night. There was fog surrounding the figure, who seemed to be walking towards the direction of the Den. I blinked rapidly, trying to clear my vision, the figure disappearing once I looked back. 

I looked around, quickly catching up with the Lost Boys. It was probably nothing, I tried to convince myself.  If anything it was heading in the direction opposite to us. 

“Okay, there seems to be a small cavern up ahead.” Hongjoong read off from the map. We walked further, reaching the cave and placing our things down. 

The boy started setting up our camp while Mingi and Wooyoung went in to check if there was anything inside. Hongjoong helped set Jongho a place to rest inside the cave, directing the rest of us to prepare a fire for dinner. I helped Yeosang gather wood, glad to have found a place to rest for a little. We started the fire, receiving news that Seonghwa and San were heading back with food. 

“Well,” Yeosang sat next to me, helping to tend to the fire, “I've always wanted to go camping.” I stared at him, both of us breaking out into an exhausted chuckle. 

“Yeah, if only we had some marshmallows,” I responded to his joke, watching the other boys walking over to join us. “This fire would be perfect for roasting them.” 

“Speaking of fires, do you, um remember anything from earlier?” Hongjoong asked me, directing my eyes to his wrapped hands. 

“Uh not really, I had a killer headache though.” I looked around, seeing their concerned faces. “Did I do that to you?” 

“No, I- uh just got a really bad burn from something I touched.” He exchanged looks with Yunho. I was about to ask what they were hiding but was interrupted by the arrival of Seonghwa and San. They joined us around the fire, passing around the various foods. 

“Man, this takes me back. I used to camp all the time back in Seoul.” Wooyoung started, nudging me. “How about you?”

“Yeah, I guess. I was always outdoors back home.” I hugged my arms to my chest, the memories of home were one of the main things that I thought about since I arrived here. 

“So you were outdoorsy then?” Yeosang confirmed, watching my face. 

“It was the one place where I felt like I was secure. As you found out the first day, I have been looking for my birth parents for years and being outside in nature feels like I eliminated the physical objects between their presence and mine.” 

“I understand what you mean. It was like that for me too but with the clinic. I was always there, nowhere else seeming to provide the same comfort that I got when I was there helping others.” Seonghwa agreed, slowly picking at his food. 

“So that’s how you got your powers then?” I asked, not noticing how my question had caused everyone to stop their eating. 

“Yeah, I guess.” Seonghwa nodded, looking at me with the same hopeful eyes as Hongjoong earlier. 

After dinner, the boys split into their groups for night watch, Mingi, and Hongjoong taking the first shift. I followed the others into the cave, finding a spot behind one of the parts of the wall that extended out. Small whisperings were heard before the boys settled down for the night, silence enveloping the cave.

Even though my eyes were closed, thoughts swarmed my head preventing sleep from taking over my body. Today alone had been just as hectic as all my other days on this island, but because of me, the Lost Boys have been forced out of their home. Jongho also got hurt because of me. It wasn’t something I could just take lightly.

I sat up, unsure of how many hours had passed, my gaze landing on Jongho’s sleeping form. He looked much better than earlier. I slowly got up, tiptoeing past the others until I was outside.

“Couldn’t sleep?” Mingi asked, his voice frightening me. I took a flashlight and stood next to him, greeting Hongjoong who was on the other side of the entrance.

“My mind won’t shut up.” I felt Mingi’s gaze fall to me and looked back up to him. He looked as if he wanted to say something, but turned to resume his watch. It became quiet again save for Hongjoong’s quiet yawns. Thirty minutes passed, the time for a group switch having come already.

“You guys get some sleep, I’ll stay here while the other group heads out.” I waved them off, Mingi’s face looking apprehensive. “The next group will be coming out with me as soon as you guys go in.”

“Make sure you get some sleep eventually,” Mingi threw one final look at me, walking into the cave. I turned back towards the forest, my flashlight scanning the perimeter in front of me. I was on full alert, fully aware that Neverland was determined to throw us a curveball when given the chance. 

The night was too silent, the darkness swallowing the trees and shrubs. My ears listened for anything, picking up the sound of the crunching of branches slowly increasing in volume. I could feel the hairs on my arms start to rise, my arm reaching behind me to grab the knife I had stowed in the waistband of my pants. The trees in front of me started to shake, my eyes widening as I looked for signs of Wooyoung and San who were next for the night watch. 

A howl broke through the air, the loud footsteps speeding up. I gripped my knife, prepared for another Khanin to run out in front of me and attack. A sinister laugh came from behind me almost whisper-like in my ear, the creature grabbing my knife from my hand and appearing in front of me. 

“Try again.”

It was a large animal, its body resembling more of a human figure but with two black horns on the top of its head. Its eyes glowed a yellow color, the hands splayed out with my knife loosely dangling from one of its claws. I screamed, sending a gust of wind towards the monster, who dodged it just in time.

“Hey, hey no need to use your powers!” The creature walked forward trying to derail my efforts, only causing me to scream louder. Another blast of wind ripped through the trees, the monster blocking its face with its arm. I backed up, not wanting to retreat into the cave and bring the monster straight into our camp. 

“Wow, you’re really powerful.” The monster looked at their arm, the wind having shred the skin there. The skin grew back almost instantaneously, showing no visible damage from the attack. “Listen, I’m not going to hurt you. Stop screaming, and you back there, stop your attack.” The creature dropped my knife, holding its hands up in surrender. I turned to see all the Lost Boys behind me weapons raised ready to fight, the same shock displayed on their faces. 

“What are you? Why are you here?” I tried to stop my voice from shaking. Even weaponless, the creature in front of me evoked fear within me. 

“I am a Phooka, a changeling if you will. I am a demon trickster spirit and was merely trying to play a trick on you, but you,” The creature paused, “You have a very bright aura. Your powers are strong.” 

I looked back at the lost boys, searching their faces to see if any of this made sense to them. Seonghwa came forward, standing by my side.

“What do you mean her powers are strong?” He questioned, his stance rigid and still not trusting of the Phooka. 

“Much stronger than yours, human. All of yours. Her powers have just started.” The Phooka narrowed his eyes, staring straight at San. “His powers are strong too, not like my master’s though.” 

“Master?!” I looked incredulously at the creature. 

“We Phooka’s serve as familiars. I am now at your service.” It bowed, the tips of its horns glinting in the light. 

I looked at Seonghwa, my face representing my confusion. “I-I... don’t get me wrong, but why me? If it is because of these powers you keep talking about I do not know anything about that.” 

“Yeah, why her if my powers are apparently strong too.” San voiced from behind me. I threw him a look, concerned that no one was focused on the fact that there was a demon in front of us.

“It is more than that, Master. I am also powerful too and I can protect you. It is your aura that is appealing to me. His, on the other hand, is not. ” He gestured to San, who huffed in protest.

“This is crazy. How am I supposed to trust any of this?” I spoke, not really directing my words to anyone. It looked like the Lost Boys were easing up, their weapons laid at their sides. 

“I never have encountered a Phooka before, but from what I heard they aren’t usually dangerous spirits.” Hongjoong looked at me, trying to help me decide. Any and all threat that this monster seemed to pose before now vanished, leaving me winded.  

I opened my mouth to respond, before taking a deep breath and bringing my hands to my temples. “I need to go to bed. Yeah, I’m going to bed.”  I turned to start walking, the Phooka’s loud footsteps started following behind me, to which I turned around again. “You are not coming.” 

“But Master I need to stay by you-”

“I said no,” I signaled to the boys, walking towards the cave “And don’t call me Master.”

[razorblade180]

Scrappy

[Lasting Embers universe]

Deep in the forest of of Menagerie an obstacle course as been set up for a group of individuals; all of them in black cammo pants and form fitting black t-shirts. Men and women crawling under wire, balance beams sprints, monkey bars, and worst of all a rope. This extended 75ft in the air with a bell that few can reach; including a sixteen year old white tiger faunus that was currently covered in mud.

Ilia:Come on rookie!!!!! You’re not even half way up there yet and I can tell you’re drenched and about to pass out. If you can’t do this then I don’t even know why you bothered showing up to boot camp!!!

Sienna:*inching up* Come on Sienna, you got this. So what if you’re tired? Doesn’t change the distance or the goal, just....keep....climbing.

Various recruits scream various things that are both positive and negative as instructed. Others toss small mud balls to add to the difficulty.

“You can do it!”

“Just fall already!!!!”

“Give it up runt! You’re the smallest here.”

“Show him what you’re made of!”

“Miner kid....”

That one caught her attention. She looked to her right to see a smug recruit on the ground staring at her with his red eyes. He was a stocky and in his early twenties. Brown hair and a scar across his face were all that really made him look interesting. Sienna would’ve gave him another one if she was allowed to.

Sienna:Of course Damon is trying to shoot me down. *climbs harder*

Damon:Aww don’t ignore me. Did I say something rude miner? That word should mean nothing to you right. *chucks mud ball*

Sienna:*blocks it* Fuck off......

Ilia:Language! You all might be thugs and mercenaries at heart but that doesn’t mean you get to act like it. Being apart of The Shadows means-

Recruits:Using ruthless lifestyle skills to uphold the honest living of others.

Ilia:I will give you all 50 more laps if you do that again.

Damon:That little mission statement is fine and all but does that even apply to kitty over here? Last time I checked this organization is supposed to have the most lethal people around and here we have a kid that doesn’t even a semblance. Can’t even smoke.

Sienna:Considering how my scores are better than yours, me not having a semblance should make you feel happy; it give you a chance to keep up with me. If breathing is still possible for you; might wanna quit while you can Mr. Mercenary.

Damon:*grits teeth*

Ilia:If you can talk then you can climb! Hurry up before I start chucking mud at you myself.

She did as she was told and picked up the pace as best as she could. Her arms felt like fire and the mud drying on her wasn’t helping. By the half way point things were slightly better; dodging mud was easier when none could travel that high up. Until one actually did make that far and landed right on her face; smacking her off the rope like if a baseball hit her.

Recruits:*catch her* Are you okay?

Sienna:Ow....what was up with the mu- *picks it up*

It’s as dense as a literal baseball and perfectly round for a moment before falling apart like normal mud. Her icy blue dart towards Damon as he tries not laugh; the recruits back up as they notice her pupils slowly get more cat like as they hear a low growl.

Damon:What’s wrong kitty cat? You seem a bit a bit ruffled. I’m just trying to bring out the best in you; a person with no semblance should work twice as hard to even get close enough to the same skill as someone who does. Think of it as real life experience.

Sienna:*gets up* The nurses will get real life experience stitching you up when I wrip out your-

Ilia:Enough! Both of you.

Sienna:Me!? But he’s the one who-

Ilia:Sienna, just walk away. I will handle this myself now go hit the showers.

Sienna:......*walks away frustrated*

Damon:That’s it? I expected more from you. I guess being oppressed and underground for so long made you used to being beneath others. Anyone else here would at least try putting me in my place. You however, I guess your just a runt after all. Bet your family pulled your weight in the mines.....

Sienna’s footsteps immediately stopped and pivoted around. Before Ilia could even register what was about to happen it was too late. The young Shadow in training was already passed her and swiping at the older man with close out and dangerously sharp. Each attack filled with rage as they failed to connect with her target that was reading her like a play book with ease. If she was thinking then it would’ve been clear a match with a seasoned mercenary wasn’t going to be some walk in the part. A quick jab to her nose and a foot ramming into her ribs made the message clear with obvious pain now shooting through her. His boots felt like straight steel.

Damon:Oh so you do have fighting spirit? Or at least try to that is....

Sienna:I’LL SHOW YOU FIGHTING SPIRIT!!!! *leaps at him*

Damon:*catches and throws her* Geez you’re like a rag doll. Light and totally flimsy. *puts boot on her* I’ll admit you have guts but that’s about all you-gah!!!!

Sienna:*clawing his leg* Do you ever shut up? Your voice is hurting my ears.

She manages to get her right leg in between both of his and wrap it around the punks leg from behind; her left leg does the same but wraps around the front of it like a vice. All of her wait is focused on driving her legs to the ground, causing the man to fall and put into a leg lock. Bone and muscle can be heard through the painful grunts from both fighters.

Sienna:I’ll break it, I swear I will.

Damon:*smiles* I believe you....

Suddenly the ground below them gets harder as he raises his pinned leg and slams it against the ground. Sienna’s head smacks the floor hard, everything gets blurry. Then everything got dark.....

[Oasis]

Jacquelyn:*watering flowers* hmmm hmm🎶

Jael:*running*Moooooom!

Jacquelyn:Hey there sweetheart *picks her up* why are you running? You know it’s dangerous for you.

Jael:Mom, I’m ten years old. I know my limits *pouts*

Jacquelyn:I know you’re upset right now but your pudgy cheeks are too adorable to take you seriously. *hugging her*

Jael:Agh, you’re squeezing too tight! I was running because you have a call!!!! *holds up scroll.* stop leaving your scroll around.

Jacquelyn:I got a call? That’s rare *answers* Hello, Jackie Frost speaking. Oh hi Ilia!!! How is training the-.....

Jael:???

Jacquelyn:SHE’S WHAT!?

[Infirmary]

Boot camp was a lot of things, unprepared wasn’t one of them. You don’t get together some of the most aggressive people the world has to offer without proper medical care. Breaking without consequences is another thing that isn’t tolerated as Sienna is learning. Only moments ago did she wake up to find herself with bandages around her head and in a hospital bed; also her left arm handcuffed to it. Everyone was about to be treated to a loud scream from the girl who wanted answers but thankfully Ilia walked in before Sienna got the chance.

Ilia:Well look who’s finally awake? The troublemaker herself.

Sienna:ME!? I- ow...*holds her head*

Ilia:Woah there...*leans her back* Try not to scream or move around idiot. Concussions don’t like those things.

Sienna:N...noted, damn that Damon. Slamming me into mud wasn’t good enough; he had to make it hard as stone. I wouldn’t be surprised if the fall off the rope caused this either.

Ilia:I hear you blaming Damon but yet not yourself. This could’ve been avoided if you walked away. He was already gonna be punished but you had to escalate the situation didn’t you?

Sienna:But-

Ilia:No buts Sienna!

Sienna:.......

Ilia:In a mission you are expected to follow orders to the letter without hesitation. No matter what he said about you, disobeying me was the wrong call. Again and again your temper clouds your judgement; can you guess how many times I’ve seen you get into a fight.

Sienna:.......are we counting my whole life or just boot camp?

Ilia:Sigh......I think I should opt you out of Shadow training.

Her blood went cold at those words. If it wasn’t for the concussion, Sienna would’ve been shaking her head in denial and protest.

Sienna:You....you can’t do that. I’ve passed all tests, making the grades, honing my skills, I-

Ilia:You are young and hot headed. Not to mention filled with so much potential to do anything with your life. Damon is right about you not being like everyone else. Yes you’ve seen the worst of what this world has to offer since you were six but only as a victim. These people are used to being the thieves, spies, and murderers. Hands like yours shouldn’t be tainted like that. Especially when your family-

Sienna:Foster family...... I love them but that title is very important to me; it separates the past from the present. Also, are you forgetting I already have one person’s blood on my hands? *stares at them*

Ilia:That was self defense.

Sienna:Don’t care, they’re dead and I have to live with it. Those mines.....those stupid isolation rooms and “treatment’ programs. *clenches teeth* No way I could just go live some ordinary life after that. I’m only alive because clung to it and killed the part of me that could’ve lived normally. Guess in that phrasing then it means I killed two people that day. If I become a Shadow then I can stop horrible people from causing pain before they get the chance. I can stop more people like me from being shaped by such trauma. So please.... *tears up* don’t take me out the program. It’s my dream.

Ilia:.....I-

“Let her stay”

Both of them look towards the door to see Adam standing there with his arms crossed and learning against the door frame. Instantly Sienna’s ears and head drop down in guilt; upset with herself for causing such a mess that the leader of the whole organization swooped by.

Ilia:Shouldn’t you be laying low and doing paperwork?

Adam:Everyone here is sworn to secrecy and it’s not like those papers are going anywhere. *walks forward* Sienna......

Sienna:*Looking away* Yes sir......?

Adam:What’s with the formalities? It’s just us in here. Let’s try this again *slowly turns her head* Sienna.....

Sienna:.....Yeah dad?

Adam:It’s starting to feel like we see each other during lectures than at dinner.

Sienna:Maybe because you’re not home half the time....

Adam:Fair point, but you get what I’m saying right? Take it from me, short tempers get you into nothing but trouble that could’ve avoided entirely.

Sienna:It’s just....all the things he kept saying I....I can’t stand being weak. I’m the youngest there, no semblance, and completely wet behind the ears like he said. Still, I hate how he looked down on me. I know my grades should speak for themselves but they don’t.

Adam:I see, respect is what you wanted. Validation of all the effort you’ve put in. Tell me, is something like that really worth it from someone like him? Not only is he also a recruit but his scores are lower than yours despite his advantages. Do you know why?

Sienna:I want it more than he does.

Adam:Precisely, in this world you got so far by having a hunger to keep going like no one else; it was press on or lay dead on the bloody floor. Not many can do what you did at such a young age. As far as I’m concerned he’s right about not being like the rest; you’re better.

Sienna:*red*.......

Adam:Not to mention you got a pretty big heart that genuinely wants to help the best way it knows how. As a parent the path you’ve chosen scares me, but as your future boss I hope when I’m long gone that someone like you can continue keeping things on the straight and narrow. Before all that though you still need to graduate. How will you do that?

Sienna:*takes a breath* Following orders.....and learning to keep calm like Ilia says. I’m sorry dad.

Adam:I’m not the one who needs an apology.

Sienna:Ilia, I’m sorry for being such a handful. May I please stay in the program?

Ilia:......You’ll be on leave for two weeks. Just enough time for all the work you’re gonna miss to be annoying; also enough time to put you through horrific drills after your head heals. But yes you can stay. One day for sure I’m gonna make a fine Shadow out of you.

Sienna:*smiles* There’s not a doubt in my mind you will ma’am!

Ilia:Ugh, I feel so old when you say that. By the way your punishment begins now; I called your mom.

Sienna:You did wha-

Jacquelyn:*runs through door* Sienna!!!! Oh thank goodness you’re okay and- *gasp* Is that my darling husband!?

Sienna:Wow mom, I feel the love and concern right now...

Jael:*runs in* Sissy!

Sienna:Hey there kiddo! Oh I’ve missed you while I was at camp.

Jael:*sits on bed* Well maybe if you wrote letters then you’d miss me less. You’re as bad as Father!

Adam:Ouch.....right here.

Jael:*smiles* I know, why is my sister handcuffed?

Sienna:Don’t worry about it. I was misbehaving and they had to.

Jael:Hmph! That’s dumb...

Jael grabs the chain and squeezes tight. Soon after, her hand glows and she snaps snaps it easily. Sienna is amazed every time she sees her little sister discover how to use her semblance. Gravity control is a very useful thing to have.

Jael:All better! Whoever did that to you has to face me!

Ilia:It was me you little rascal.

Jael:Aunt Ilia? Fine, I meant went I said! *puts fists up*

Sienna:Looks like I’m not the only one with fighting spirit.

Ilia:I hope she doesn’t have an explosive temper like her big sis. *smiles* the world isn’t ready for that.

Adam:I’ll say, me or the world isn’t ready for that force of nature yet.

Jael:Please, like I’ll ever be as hot head as you two. I’m as cool as they come.

[six years later, hospital]

Sienna:*watching over a comatose Adam* If you don’t head out soon you’ll miss your boat to Beacon.

Jael:I’m leaving now. *opens door*

Sienna:Jael......don’t do anything reckless you hear me? You’re as cool as they come remember?

Jael:.......I thought I was. *leaves*

Sienna:I don’t know if you can hear me dad but please watch over her. Guess I wasn’t a very good role model.

Nothing was said after that, it wasn’t like she expected a response anyway. She began to close her eyes and hold her hands together. Sienna was never one to pray often, but this was too important to take any chances with. Selling her own wouldn’t be a bad price to pay if she could.

Sienna:Please.....don’t let her end up like me or the rest of us. Keep her hands clean....