#the numerals are on all the tag climax cards too

[verygayandverytired]

i finished making this entire insane and pointless overanalysis of loki’s magic tarot cards from bayonetta 2 last night

and today i was finally able to preorder bayo 3 trinity masquerade edition

obviously these events are directly connected

[gdwessel]

World Tag League 2021 & Best Of The Super Juniors 28 Night 23 - 12/15/2021: Winners of Two Tournaments Revealed; Katsuyori Shibata Announces Match At WK16 Night 1; Ospreay Becomes Warrior Wrestling Champion

The tour-ending Finals for both World Tag League 2021 and Best Of The Super Juniors 28 took place today at Tokyo Ryogoku Kokugikan, and you can see it now on NJPWWorld. Quite a lot of setup for what is to come at Wrestle Kingdom 16 happened here, as we head into the final four shows of 2021 starting next week...

- 12/15/2021, Tokyo Ryogoku Kokugikan

Minoru Suzuki [SZKG], TAKA Michinoku [JTO] & DOUKI [SZKG] d. Ryusuke Taguchi, Yuto Nakashima & Kosei Fujita (DOUKI > Fujita, Italian Stretch No.32, 6:07)

Taiji Ishimori & El Phantasmo [Bullet Club] d. Tiger Mask IV & Ryohei Oiwa (Ishimori > OIwa, Sudden Death [ELP], 2:31)

Taichi, Zack Sabre Jr., El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru [SZKG] d. Toru Yano [CHAOS], Togi Makabe, Tomoaki Honma & Master Wato (Sabre > Honma, Referee Stoppage, 9:16)

Hiroshi Tanahashi, Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Satoshi Kojima & Yuji Nagata d. Tama Tonga, Tanga Loa, Bad Luck Fale & Chase Owens [Bullet Club] (Tanahashi > Owens, Samson Clutch, 9:25)

Tetsuya Naito & SANADA [Los Ingobernables] d. Great O-Khan & Jeff Cobb [United Empire] (Naito > Cobb, Hurricanrana, 9:30)

Kazuchika Okada & Robbie Eagles [CHAOS] d. Shingo Takagi & BUSHI [Los Ingobernables] (Okada > BUSHI, Rainmaker, 11:32)

World Tag League 2021 Final: Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI [CHAOS] d. EVIL & Yujiro Takahashi [Bullet Club] (YOSHI-HASHI > Yujiro, Naraku, 19:58) - Goto/YOSHI-HASHI win World Tag League 2021

Best Of The Super Juniors 28 Final: Hiromu Takahashi [Los Ingobernables] d. YOH [CHAOS] (Timebomb II, 38:30) - Hiromu Takahashi wins Best Of The Super Juniors 28

Hiromu Takahashi wins his third consecutive Best Of The Super Juniors, having won last year and in 2018, but was out of 2019's tournament due to his heinous neck injury. This was the longest-ever BOSJ match in the history of the tournament. And really, it's the right call. Hiromu has proven he can headline shows, and be a semi-main-eventer in the Tokyo Dome already. The history and feud between Hiromu and El Desperado adds to the aura of what will surely be the IWGP Juniorheavyweight title match at WK16. YOH, for his part, did himself credit, going through his redemption saga and even getting one over on SHO during the tournament. We'll see when their rubber match comes about. Hirooki Goto wins his 3rd World Tag League crown, whilst YOSHI-HASHI gets his first. All credit to YOSHI-HASHI -- he was never a third wheel on his/Goto/Ishii's NEVER 6-Man reign for the last year, and has finally found a good niche for himself in the company after underachieving for so long compared to others of his Young Lion class (particularly Kazuchika Okada). It's good to see people who work hard succeed even if it takes a long time to do so. Goto/YOSHI-HASHI v. Dangerous Tekkers will be coming soon enough now too. Despite a really down year for NJPW, the Heavyweight tag division has actually fun and interesting to watch in 2021. KENTA appeared via video message to challenge Hiroshi Tanahashi to a No-DQ match for the IWGP US Heavyweight title at WK16, which, OK, sure, sounds fun. KENTA's partner once upon a time, Katsuyori Shibata, appeared in the ring, choking back tears, proclaiming simply that he will have a match on January 4, 2022, and that was all. No details on whom his opponent would be or where on the card this match will take place. It will not be an exhibition match like his 5-minute grappling encounter with Zack Sabre Jr. at the G1 Climax 31 Final. I've said my piece about what I feel about the idea of Shibata returning to wrestling numerous times since April 2017, I'm not going to repeat it here. I just hope he knows what he's doing and he doesn't further damage himself in the process. He's 42 years old at this stage, which by itself isn't exactly a prohibitive factor anymore, but he's not a young man either. Poor Ryohei Oiwa got squashed in under three minutes. We now have a potential three-way challenge for the junior tag titles, between champions Flying Tiger (Tiger Mask IV & Robbie Eagles), Ishimori/ELP and now Taguchi/Master Wato. Be still my beating heart. Will Ospreay has another title belt in his possession, this time whilst actually being champion. (OK he is still RevPro champion as well...) On Sunday in Tinley Park, IL, Ospreay won the Warrior Wrestling championship, in a 3-way match between himself, then-champion Trey Miguel, and Blake Christian. Ospreay proclaimed he will have the title with him at Night 2 of WK16 on 1/5/2022, and is being advertised for Warrior's show in South Bend, IN, on 1/22/2022, against an opponent to be determined. We'll see how long this lasts I guess. You can see Sunday’s show on FITE TV for a fee. The next show is on 12/21/2021, the first night of four for the Road To Tokyo Dome year-end tour. No lineups have been announced yet. Six days' break is the longest gap between shows that we've had in months. Maybe I need a vacation?

[peepingtoad]

@minaa-munch​​ said: Do you have any headcannons with regards to Jiraiya and fuuinjutsu? The Sannin are part of the few shinobi who exhibit sealing prowess after all. | headcanon asks | always accepting! |

Hello again! First off, great question because it’s always been vexing to me that the Sannin are all so skilled in this area, and yet fūinjutsu overall is such an underexplored, underexplained discipline in general. On the other hand, this gives us a lot of room to have fun with it (which I think I’ve yet to really make any specific headcanon for) so here we go!

What I’ll say first is that I’ve been waiting (I dunno why, because nothing was stopping me) for a reason to post this particular thing for so long now, but in regards to the origin of Jiraiya’s skill in fūinjutsu, I see Danzō being the one to introduce him to it and initially mentor him in his youth—I’d say from perhaps age 13 or 14, for a couple of years. And for this I’ve thought of a few main reasons it’d come about:

Plain and simple, Danzō is keen to piss off Hiruzen by snagging his students because he’s a salty and bitter old goat—and at this point Orochimaru isn’t quite on the cards, what with still comfortably being Hiruzen’s favourite. Meanwhile Jiraiya is underestimated and somehow, despite being the way he is, manages to fly under the radar a lot. The raw potential is there too, and it’s intriguing to him.

To expand on Jiraiya going unnoticed, he is also basically an orphan, with no parent present enough to ever interfere. This is an important factor that Danzō no doubt values in the early stages of building ROOT—and whatever its intentions were at the time, Danzō was not particularly a shady guy at this stage. He could scope out the talent relatively unbothered.

But young Jiraiya’s talents are definitely something he’s seeking out, knowing he eventually wishes to operate from the shadows, to have people who can blend in seamlessly—and Jiraiya, being so personable and capable of ‘acting natural’ to the most human degree, is a great candidate for such a job. Sometimes he barely even seems like a shinobi at all, and that’s a strength for a spy.

Of course, after a few infuriating years he learns that basically everything about Jiraiya as a person is fundamentally unsuited to the type of work he wishes to do through ROOT. What a waste of time, huh?

So with some degree of general mentorship and information-digging going on, Danzō offers some training across various specialties and thus discovers that Jiraiya has a natural flair for fūinjutsu. In fact, despite being a slow and steady learner in many other areas of shinobi discipline, he takes to this like a fish to water. Book-learned basic principles aside, I imagine it’s a very hands-on, intuitive skill that requires great creativity to expand on the knowledge already possessed—which is probably minimal, besides Danzō’s own and the previous Hokage’s contributions, based on how relatively early Konoha is in the whole ‘document everything’ game (relatively).

Needless to say, Jiraiya has the creativity down pat. He designed the seal to suppress the Kyūbi chakra, after all, and was even proficient enough to seal Amaterasu. Hell, his toad-themed jutsu in themselves are quite the exercise in creativity, so even though Jiraiya turned out to be no good for ROOT, he would use that brilliant(!) mind to go on to play a part in developing many seals commonly used among Konoha shinobi today.

His main forte, or at least the area of fūinjutsu where he really went wild, is the design of numerous paper/scroll/tag-based seals, lending to the general convenience of use for shinobi of all ranks. They’re easy to pack, carry and replicate which helped to ensure that units were more prepared than ever. Chiefly, sealing elemental jutsu (exemplified by sealing Itachi’s Amaterasu fire) and weapons within scrolls, along with chakra suppression, vocal silencing, paralyzing and tracking seals. He didn’t invent these manners of sealing by any stretch, but made the designs more... streamlined? Accessible? More simple to draw and execute, I imagine, being generally simpler himself and not so constrained by the rigid teachings of any given clan. 

As an aside—the reason he was so focused on sealing objects at all was so that he could bring Items He Should Not Have into Places They Weren’t Welcome, while being more difficult to notice doing so. Make of that what you will. (It’s booze-related because isn’t it always? Hell, maybe even some of that dank Myōbokuzan kush that the toads are blatantly always smoking in those fancy kiseru... am I joking? Who knows)

Anyway. His weapon seal would go on to inspire Tenten’s technique of sealing many weapons at once. Again by no means did he invent this technique, because this is Tenten’s baby (plus he’s no bukijutsu specialist!), but the theory had its basis within the seals he designed for simple and chakra-efficient storage of weaponry.

Again being very much geared towards paper and tag seals, much of Jiraiya’s training that was unique to Konan, along with combining toad oil/fire and paper, was teaching her fūinjutsu and brainstorming ideas to make her paper jutsu even more formidable and unpredictable than before. We of course see her using all those explosive tags in the fight with Obito, but I think Konan + paper seals doing all sorts of shit, releasing sealed jutsu and who knows what else... was a missed trick!

While I believe Mito definitely had influence on Jiraiya’s fūinjutsu, I think it was indirect, and any learnings of Uzumaki sealing will have been passed to Jiraiya through Kushina and/or what Minato learned through Kushina (who in turn learned most heavily from Mito). My reasoning for this is that as the first jinchūriki, Mito seemed to be far more isolated than later hosts would be, particularly in her older years—and I don’t see there being much inclination to share Uzumaki sealing secrets with someone with no ties to the clan. Kushina and Tsunade? Yes. Random little ragamuffin? Perhaps not.

... I’ve already rambled on a fair bit and think I’m out of proper ideas for now, so I’m just gonna take a moment to list some short/stupid fūinjutsu-related headcanon ideas now:

When he calls Orochimaru’s work sloppy that one time, it’s a big ol’ front. But he does still think this is one area where he’s better than Oro. Nyehhh.

Why yes, of course he has seals for sexual use! Climax-blocking, stamina refreshing, instant shibari (chakra or actual rope), all over stimulation via the mildest raiton contained in a seal? You bet!

Released a book of ‘prank seals’ including ‘poof the object into nonexistence’ and ‘release deluge of oil’ and ‘suddenly frog’ amongst many others. This book is illegal in most countries.

He once sealed (and I guess, technically stealed bwahahaha) a hotel jacuzzi when he was drunk, forgetting that there was no such thing as plumbing on the road, and its not exactly the same experience having to make all that hot water yourself

No appropriate place to piss? SEAL IT. BANISH IT. OR USE IT AGAINST YOUR WORST ENEMIES.

Once heroically sealed an entire town’s vermin infestation, forgot about it, then accidentally released it later. Is now barred from that ryokan, forever.

Has an entire scroll devoted to condoms

And another devoted to flavoured lube.

Not so stupid, but the need for rapid seal-drawing helped him to develop his ambidexterity to the point where you can barely tell what his dominant hand originally was (however he places down his left hand to summon in all early manga panels I remember at least, which indicates that as a child he signed it with his left hand).

He’s able to store Gerotora easily with a seal concealed in his throat. That’s why it’s so easy for him, not because of some other gutter-brained reason, honest.

He got really good at kanji through learning fūinjutsu. It arguably helped him along in his writing career—especially when writing more traditional style poetry.

[flyswhumpcenter]

Bad Things Happen Bingo! The event where you send me I give myself self-indulgent requests according to this marvelous card!

Broke my own self-inflicted rules to bring you this IoTsumu oneshot based on my magical girl multi-fandom setting. It’s edgy, it’s gritty, it’s bloody and it’s angsty; what’s not to love there? I’d advise reading the AO3 version’s end notes for more knowledge and understanding of some of the elements mentioned in this oneshot in particular.

(btw this oneshot is brought to you by Lizz Robinet’s cover of Senbonzakura and MASA Works DESIGN’s ERGONOMIC HERO)

Red-Dyed Diamond

Summary: A fight against his own body as to save someone he holds dear. Blood pouring from countless wounds. Tears flowing, drops falling to the floor. Exhausted magic reserves. How is he exactly going to save himself and, more importantly, going to save her from the imminent danger?

Fandom: IDOLiSH7 (Magical Girl AU) Ships: IoTsumu (Iori/Tsumugi)

Wordcount: 2K words

Event hosted by @badthingshappenbingo

AO3 version available here.

The smell of blood, having long since become an unbearable stench, was sickening. Vision dimmed and hearing damaged, limbs feeling like lead on the bottom and fire on the top, smelling was the one sense remaining, enforced by the sensory deprivation, much to his dismay. The taste of blood covering his teeth, mouth and airways had grown into a torture all in itself. Nothing was fine, everything was dark, and yet his hands kept clawing into the ground, his fingerprints dampening the otherwise pristine floor of the damned place’s secret passageways in red.

He had to reach her before it’d be too late.

 Too late for who? For him, or for her? He was already done for; he was sure of it. There was nobody there for him at the moment, everyone having left to fulfil other duties. Whoever was left wasn’t seeing him on purpose: he had made it so only her would see him, infiltrating the enemy’s headquarters where she had surely escaped her cell but hadn’t managed to find the way out. He was there to tell her that, to tell her to be careful as not to end like him.

He was too exhausted to exactly remember how injured he was and how he had gotten himself in so many predicaments in so little time. Mostly went through hostile, overly violent, sharply-trained guards he had somehow managed to defeat by wasting most of his mana on them. His right leg was broken. His left one had been stabbed with a shard of crystal. His arms almost got impaled, only getting scrapped by glass shards littered on the ground after someone had jumped inside and shattered the window to trap him (he presumed the infamous Caesar, but he just had no way to be sure). He had several broken ribs from escaping chest-crushing “hugs” from another hunter.

One could say that had to be the worst day of his life, would he allow himself to get cynical.

 After a while, the pain had just become white noise playing in the background of his mind. “Oi, that hurts” didn’t mean anything anymore. All that mattered was the mission at hand, the one he had assigned to himself because nobody else listened to him and advised him to stay put. He had to warn her, as soon as possible, while being quiet. His heavy, laboured breathing was no help there for sure, but he’d pull it off. He’d succeed because he couldn’t fail. He couldn’t endanger her even further.

Despite his determination, which had just perhaps turned into obsession, he felt weaker and weaker. Having used most of his powers to save himself and bleeding out with barely any hope to stop his blood from pouring out of his numerous wounds didn’t help in making him feel any better than having the impression to be on death’s doorstep.

 All the corridors he explored had been the same, the ever-boring same. Dyeing the grey ground in red, he’d continue until he couldn’t push himself any further, despite the tears blurring his sight even further. Broken. He was broken, utterly and undeniably broken, shattered beyond repair; but he was no healer. He had no curative spell to use on himself, unlike Sapphire and Spinel, no way to fix his injuries and no way to make the blood stop pouring from his body. Most people would have deemed it too late for them and would have started writing their will with their own blood, but he wasn’t going to let himself stoop down to that level.

Maybe it was too late for him, but it sure wasn’t too late for her.

 How did the dying motivate himself to move forward despite the darkness of the situation and his dim future? By picturing her, his secret beloved, the one he had travelled with for what felt like an eternity, with whom he had wandered around to find their loved ones, the ones who mattered the most to them, tagging along and uniting their force to, at their scale, make the world a better place and saving the innocent from a madman’s degenerate ideas.

Did Tsumugi deserve to be dragged into this? No. Did she consent to it? Yes. Did he enjoy her company? Absolutely. Would he die for her? Most likely. Would he regret leaving her forever? Obviously. Did he regret having to leave her now, at the first climax of their quest for justice and betterment? Yes.

 Was he ready to die? Officially, yes.

Frankly, no.

 Tired beyond human comprehension, he put a hand forward, then the other, then lifted his own weigh on shaking, fragile arms. Rinse and repeat until loss of consciousness, temporary or definitive. Senses swimming, even touching the floor tiles didn’t make sense anymore: it was like touching cotton, or air, or watery, slippery stones, depending on where it landed and how conscious he was at the given moment. It didn’t make sense anymore, but he had a message to give her.

He’d deliver that message even if it meant the death of him.

 Eventually, his blurry vision stumbled upon an unfamiliar room. The stench of his future corpse damp with its own liquid came to a halt, the sickening beating of his heart becoming background noise for the first time in what felt like hours. A sigh of relief escaped his dried lips, reminding him that he was, in fact, not dead yet and could still have an impact on reality.

There was a new magical aura around him, familiar and comfortable, soothing. He, however, couldn’t let himself relax and let himself down yet: he needed to move forward, until the end. He was this close to his goal, this close to succeeding, that he simply couldn’t stop and perish there. He was going to save her through his knowledge. He was… going to. He just had to.

He felt like he was unable to move anymore, though…

 He put a hand forward, then the other, then… nothing.

His body had reached his last limits. His last resort wasn’t enough. His all hadn’t been enough to reach her in time. He was going to bleed out to death here and there, alone, trapped within his own thoughts as to forget the unbearable pain he had been put through by these people and himself. Coughing up more blood to prove the point to himself and what was left of the world, tears mixing with the blinding red in a pathetic attempt to dilute it, his head fell in a puddle of his own.

This was the bitter end, wasn’t it? This was… all it was going to end for him, and perhaps for her. What a disappointing ending that was…

 “…i!”

A distant voice coming to his ears made him regain enough strength to look up, even if just slightly, and see a blurry pink-and-white figure come into the frame. A second blur, dark blue and golden, was right besides her.

“Tsu…” His voice was a hoarse whisper, nothing more than that, maybe less.

“Iori,” his name rang to his own hearing, “is that you?!”

A smile creeped on his lips. It was her. It was Tsumugi’s voice, her aura, her sweet scent and everything he had ever loved about her. In a last, desperate move, he tended his hand at her…

“My goodness, what happened to you…?!”

The second blur spoke up, a familiar but troubled masculine voice coming out from it. He was an ally. He could help Tsumugi escape safely. Everything… was fine… if Moonstone was with her, it’d be all fine. He could entrust him… He could trust her… It’d be all fine, really…

 So was he not willing to die yet?

 Was it because he had a sense of not having finished his duties yet? Of not having found his brother, or his other friends, or Tamaki’s sister?

Was it because he’d, that way, have never reunited with anyone from their group? Because he’d have never had had the occasion to say “farewell” to Yamato, Nagi, Sogo, Tamaki and Riku?

Was it because he’d have failed Tsumugi with their mission, leaving her alone to endure their burden? Probably, maybe, he wasn’t sure of much anymore… Fuzzy thoughts, buzzing memories…

 The pain only rose in his mind when he felt someone putting him on their lap; even with a broken sight, he was still able to tell Tsumugi had done so, her pink eyes trying to look into his foggy and presumably glassy ones. A hand on his ribs almost hurt him even further, but he felt too numb to really cry out about it. All he needed to was to… inform her… and tell her farewell… and sorry… and to keep his feelings to himself.

She wouldn’t cry under his watch, he wouldn’t leave her with a hole in her chest.

 “Shh… Don’t force yourself, Iori, you’ve done more than enough… It’ll be alright, let… Let Fran heal you, and… I promise you you’ll be fine, Iori.”

Tsumugi’s voice was trembling, tears of her own falling onto his face, maybe in an attempt to finally wash away all the blood now dropping over his eyes. She sounded very much unsure, but simply hearing her was far more than enough, for now.

“There… There…”

“Be quiet, please… Don’t strain yourself even further… You’ll be fine…”

She looked away, probably in the third party’s direction.

“Please, can… Can you heal him, sir…? I know your magic hurts, but… Please save him! He’s all I have left; I can’t lose him! I’d do anything for you!”

 A short moment of heavy silence where Iori found nothing better but cough up more blood. He was getting tired of seeing it exit his body, but it’d soon be the end, the last beat of his heart, so was there any use to complaining about repetition when the loop was going to end itself?

“I’ll do my best, Tsumugi,” the uncertain voice of the good old Mr Bannaire finally arrived to his hears. “I can’t promise anything, sadly, but… I can do something about it, at least I think so.”

 Two hands arrived on his chest, less delicate than Tsumugi’s fingers enlaced next to his cheeks, yet soft and soothing. Before he knew it, the blood had stopped flowing from his numerous wounds, feeling some of them close despite the broken bones in his leg and ribcage still paining him. Less than some background noise, suffering started making sense again, his vision finally stopping to swim constantly. It felt… nice, with the lack of a better word for it. Only raw words came to his mind.

“It… should be enough for now, but… You’d better ask someone else to finish the job, I’ve only done what I could with what I have…”

The strain in his saviour’s voice was palpable and, had he not been in such a dire and drastic situation, he’d have felt immensely sorry for putting him through as much pain as healing so many wounds could have caused him.

“It’s alright… Thank you so much, sir…”

 Her eyes went back to his, even as he felt himself slip away from consciousness.

“Stay awake for a little while longer, Iori, okay? Backup is on the way. You’ll be all fine by the time you’ll wake up, but… I’d rather know you’re still with me. I… need you by my side…”

She kissed his forehead, despite the sweat and the blood, not hesitating to taint her own face with his dirt.

“Promise me you’ll stay by my side, please…”

Verbally unable to reply, he simply attempted a smile of reassurance, even if fighting against the urge to fall asleep and rest was becoming more and more of a desperate battle.

 Footsteps and familiar voices flooding into the room, more benevolent auras and sprinkles of healing magic from welcome allies convinced him that he could finally let himself go and give himself the energy he was striving for merely minutes before. A “he’ll be fine, Tsumugi” and a “he should recover once he’s safe, he’ll be back on his feet in a few days, don’t worry” were all that he needed, fingers chained with hers as she helped them carry him out.

In the daze of exhaustion, blood loss and blissful magic, Iori could say that, in a way, he had succeeded at his mission: survive until he found her and she found him, saving him in the process.

[jonsansadaily]

Stay

Stay (1704 words) by Sansa_Stark_Snow Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Game of Thrones (TV), A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms Rating: Mature Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Jon Snow/Sansa Stark, Joffrey Baratheon/Sansa Stark Characters: Jon Snow, Sansa Stark, Joffrey Baratheon (mentioned) Additional Tags: Past Relationship(s), Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Smut(ish)

They’ve done this countless times but this time was different than all the rest.

He could feel it the second she walked through the door. He knew she could to.

His hands were tangled above her head in her long auburn hair. His tongue tasting the tinge of salt from the beads of sweat running down the curve of her neck as he thrust himself inside her again, each thrust coming faster and harder than the last.

He didn’t usually take her like this. He normally took his time savoring every moment he had her naked beneath him. Sansa didn’t seem to mind from the sounds she was making over his shoulder, hiking her thigh higher up his torso giving him more access, digging her nails almost painfully into his shoulder blades.

Each thrust, each moan saying all the things that had been left unsaid. Letting out all the frustration, hurt, and regret that had been building between them, they knew this was coming, everything had been building to this very moment, both knowing that things couldn’t stay this way.

They had been doing this for months now with no signs of that changing anytime soon. That had been before he had seen them together. Jon was actually surprised it hadn’t happened sooner considering how small their town was. To anyone else walking by that coffee shop they would have seen a young happy couple enjoying a lovely spring day. All Jon saw was the love of his life in the arms of another man, in the arms of her husband. The sight of them together made him feel sicker and sicker every passing day since.

Jon thrust again and again; hoping being inside her would be enough to stop the rage he felt as the memory of seeing Joffrey’s arm wrapped around her shoulder flashed through his head. The same shoulder his mouth was biting down on right now.

Sansa gasped in what sounded more like pleasure than pain. He could feel she was close by the way her body began to quiver beneath him.

Did Joffrey make her quiver like this? Did he know her body like he did, did he know without her even saying a word when she was close to climax? Did he know when, where and how to touch her the way she liked the way he did? Bloody unlikely.

Jon felt Sansa tighten around his length before she came loudly trying to muffle the sound by pushing her mouth against his ear, moaning his name.

“Jon”

That was all it took for him to quickly reach his own climax. Since they had started this she had never said his name when she came. In fact his name coming from her lips now were the first words that had been uttered between them since they started this.

Everything had been leading up to this moment the day he returned from the army.

-----

His first stop was her house, or what use to be her house. Ned was the unfortunate soul who had to tell him she now lived with Joffrey Baratheon, her husband.

That knowledge wasn’t enough to stop Jon from seeking her out though. He went straight to her house not caring about the consequences and there would be consequences.

The second she opened that door to him they both knew they were doomed.

“What are you doing here Jon.” Sansa said rather matter-of-factly, as if she had seen him yesterday and not five years ago.

“I came here for you.” he said taking a step closer.

“You left.”

“I’m back.”

“I’m married.”

The words cut him like knife he couldn’t help but look away.

He was sure Sansa had noticed the sting those words had on him, the sting maybe she had hoped they would have on him.

“I asked you to stay.” she reminded him

Jon turned to look at her again; he couldn’t argue that she did.

“I know, but I had to go.”

He knew he was taking the risk of losing her when he joined the army but it was something he had to do. For as long as he could remember he had wanted to enlist. He had always had this sense of honor and duty that he knew he needed to fulfill, long before Sansa entered the picture. Of course he had thought of staying, he loved her more than anything but he knew he couldn't. Before he could even think of building a life with Sansa he had to do this, it would make him the man he needed to be, give him the opportunities he needed to be the man Sansa deserved. He didn’t ask her to wait for him, that wouldn’t have been fair, especially knowing how heartbroken she was when she couldn’t convince him to change his mind.

There wasn’t a day that went by that he hadn’t thought of her. He had just hoped that when he came back he’d have a chance to make things right. He never imagined she would be married, to Joffrey fucking Baratheon none the less.

There was a heavy silence between them. She was angry at him for showing up on her doorstep like nothing had changed he could see that, but he could also see the redness in her eyes as she tried to hold back the tears that were forming. He couldn’t help himself; he took another step toward her closing the small gap between them.

“I asked you to stay,” she mumbled again against his lips before his mouth was completely on hers, his palms cradling her face as he pushed them together pass her front door quickly kicking it closed behind them.

He made love to her right there, in the front foyer of the house she shared with her new husband. As soon as they were finished she quickly dressed and made him do the same, urging him to leave.

“This is where I’m staying,” he told her handing her the business card of a local motel where he was renting a room until her got settled.

“Come see me tomorrow?” Jon hated the begging tone of his voice. He stood there staring at her willing her to take the card and look up at him, something she had avoided doing ever since she pushed him off her after he made her cum practically on the very spot they were standing now. Finally without much other choice she looked up at him.

“Ok ok fine, just go, go now!” she said snatching the card from his hand frantically pushing him towards the door.

Those had been the only words spoken between them since. She showed up at his room the next day and once or twice a week every week since then. It was always the same she came in they made love, sometimes numerous times, and then she would leave.

She was still hurting, angry and untrusting of him he could see that, he could also physically feel it from the aggressive and dominant manner in which she made love to him those the first few weeks, practically not even allowing him to touch her at all in the beginning. Slowly though she was opening up to him again. Her body becoming less tense to his touches allowing him to take the lead.

He wasn’t sure why they weren’t talking. At first he thought she just need the space and time to figure things out in her head but as the weeks went on it just became the norm. They were in this perfect little bubble here in this room. In this room they were Jon and Sansa again and nothing else mattered. The outside world didn’t exist, in this room he hadn’t left and in this room she wasn’t married to another man. That all changed though when he saw them together. There bubble had popped (pun intended) and now the outside world and everything that had happened had seeped in and they were forced to face it.

------

“Sansa” he moaned reaching his climax deep inside her only moments after she had done the same.

They stayed like that, him holding himself above her, still inside her, unable or scared to move, he wasn’t sure which. His forehead was leaning against her shoulder, his damped black curls blocking their views of each other, both of them trying to catch their breath.

It was Sansa that moved first, her hands coming up to palm his face bringing it above her own, lightly brushing the hair away from his eyes.

His eyes began searching hers; it had been her, who finally broke the deafening silence that had been going on between them, bringing down the final wall she had built up. He could finally fully see her now; she was scared, had she been scared this whole time?

At first he couldn’t imagine why, she had no reason to be scared, did she? That’s when it hit him. She had forgiven him that much had become clear, but had he forgiven her? She was married to another man, and she knew it was killing him, even if he hadn't fully realized it himself until that day he saw them together.

But he had forgiven her; he’d forgiven her the second she walked into his room today. If he was honest with himself he had forgiven her the day he showed up on her doorstep.

Slowly he lowered his face to hers.

“I love you Sansa,” he whispered before bringing his lips down against hers, pushing his tongue in her mouth deepening their embrace.

After a few moments Sansa broke the kiss before things began to get too heated between them once again.

"Ask me, if you ask me I will" she said her hands moving up his neck, her fingers combing through the hair at the back of his neck.

Still in a bit of a haze it took him a minute to understand what she was asking.

This is what she needed from him, she had forgiven him and he had forgiven her and all she needed was this one last gesture and she would completely be his again.

"Sansa, will you stay?"