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atlafan · 4 years

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I’m Having Your Baby - Part 2

a/n: professor!Harry one shot! if someone could tell me why I’m a SLUT for professor!Harry that would be great. 9K of angst, some smut and fluff. not proofread. Thank you all for the overwhelming support of the first part, I couldn’t believe how much everyone liked it! The story won’t be continuing from her, and I didn’t want to continue it all, but I got so many kind words I didn’t wanna leave y’all hanging. I hope you all like it as much as the first part!

Read I’m Having Your Baby Part 1 here.

Needless to say, things got very awkward around the house between the two of you after your little romp. It felt amazing, it was so nice to just have someone tough you…but you felt guilty. You used him. He felt guilty too. He knew you were vulnerable and maybe not thinking straight.

“I said yes to a question I should have said no to.”

Is all you said to him before getting out of his bed, and going back to your own. It was impulsive and stupid, and the two of you knew it. He wanted you to answer his more important question, but you couldn’t wrack your head around it. Did you want to be his girlfriend again? Did he truly mean he wanted you again, and not just because you were carrying his child? It was too much to think about, so you didn’t.

You barely spoke over the next few days, or than some good mornings or how’d you sleeps, and the car rides were absolutely silent. During your lunch break on Monday, you decide to call Nora, and tell her what happened. Maybe she could snap you out of whatever it was going through your mind.

“I know you have pregnancy brain and all, but are you fucking stupid?”

“Nora…” You sigh.

“I mean, buy a fucking dildo if you need something up in there!”

“It wasn’t about that! No one had even touched me since the last time he and I had sex, I need to be touched by someone other than myself. You know what’s aggravating? I was supposed to have a date the day I found out I was pregnant. Of course I cancelled it, but sometimes I wish I hadn’t. I mean, people date pregnant people right?”

“Oh please, that would’ve gotten complicated and you know it. How have things been at home?”

“Silent…he can barely look at me. I think he feel used.”

“Good, shoe is on the other foot for a change.” She pauses for a moment. “So you haven’t even talked about it?”

“He tried to after…he basically told me he wanted us to be together again, and I told him we wouldn’t even be talking if it weren’t for the baby, and he said he didn’t believe that. Like he was so confident we would have found our way back to each other again.”

“Horse shit.”

“I know, and then he asked me what he could do to prove that he’s serious, and I got up and left the room.”

“Good! Don’t give into him. You’re living with him out of security and necessity. How was it?”

“How was what?”

“The sex?”

“God, it was incredible! He remembered exactly what I liked, and the familiarity just made everything so much intense. I’d do it again if he didn’t think it meant something.”

“That’s just your hormones talking.”

“Yeah, well, they’re screaming at me now. I want it all the time, and now that I’ve had it again I don’t know what I’m gonna do.”

“Buy a dildo, watch some porn, and stay in your own room.”

You had another bad dream, a nightmare really. You woke up drenched in sweat, and you were horrified at the things your brain was coming up with. You sit up and start crying. It was still early in the evening, it was only around 9:30PM. You had started going to bed earlier since the incident. Harry was just getting upstairs when he heard you. He sighs and goes further down the hall, and taps on your door.

“Y/N?” He opens it slightly and his face falls when he sees your hands covering yours.

“I’m fine.”

“No, you’re not.” He says softly, inching further into the room. “What happened?”

“I had a bad dream.” You whisper. You feel his weight dip the bed, and you look over at him.

“What was it this time?”

“I…I gave birth prematurely, like now, and I was all alone. No one was there with me other than the doctor, and it wasn’t even my doctor. Then they handed me this thing and I could just feel it’s heartbeat, and it died right there in my hand, Harry.”

“Oh, honey…”

He scoops you up and holds you in his arms, rocking you back and forth as you cry into him. He ribs your back and whispers that everything’s going to be alright. He kisses your hairline over and over to soothe you, and you hate yourself because it works.

“Would you…” You look up at him. “I mean, would it be too much to ask for you to stay in here with me tonight? I’m afraid to even close my eyes again. It just felt so real.”

“Of course. Let me just go do my thing and I’ll be right back, okay?” You nod and watch him get up to leave. He’s back in a few minutes in his bed clothes, and he gets under the covers with you. You both lay on your backs staring at the ceiling. You look over at him. “Harry…I’m really sorry about a few days ago.”

“Don’t mention it.”

“No…we should talk about it.”

“What’s there to talk about?” He looks at you. “You obviously regretted it, and then I opened my big mouth and freaked you out even more.” He rolls onto his side and places his hand on your lower stomach. “I don’t wanna do or say anything that’s gonna stress you out, that’s why I haven’t said much in the last few days.”

“I don’t regret it, fuck, I needed it.” You place your hand over his. “But it can’t happen again, that’s not why I’m here, you know?”

“I know.” He closes his eyes and looks at you again. “You wouldn’t even be talkin’ to me if you weren’t pregnant.” And just like that, he flipped the script. Why did you suddenly feel guilty?

“We talk.”

“Only if it’s work related…through email…that day you called me, even if it was just through the office phone, I think my heart leapt out of my chest. I thought maybe you were callin’ me because you missed me.” You scoff at him.

“You think I would’ve be the one to come crawling back?”

“Maybe not crawling…” He smirks. “I don’t know what I thought. Maybe if you came to me first I could just beg you to take me back.”

“Harry, you were already fucking someone else, I wouldn’t have been coming to get back together with you, and certainly not in the middle of the day at school.”

“Yeah, but I didn’t know you knew about Kelly. It wasn’t anything serious, she was just a distraction.”

“That’s an awful thing to say.”

“I know. I’ve come to realize that maybe I’m not as good of a person as I thought I was. Here I am, this professor that students fight for seats in my class for, and I can’t even be a decent fucking person to the one person that mattered to me.”

“Your book smart, not street smart.” You laugh. “You’ve always been better when it comes to work things. You’re cute Harry, but you’re also this very awkward guy. Charming when you need to be, maybe even suave, but one on one, you’re a goofball.”

“And you always set me straight, and called me out, even when we were just friends.”

“I was so shocked that day you asked me out, I nearly choked on my lunch. You were so blunt.”

“I was relieved when it didn’t take much convincing for you to say yes. That was a fun first date, wasn’t it?”

“Mm, you took me to that bar and we danced practically the whole night.”

“And you said the entire night I wasn’t to come inside with you because you knew what would happen if I did.”

“And you said don’t pretend like you’re a good girl all of a sudden.” You giggle. “That shook me to my core, I’m not gonna lie.”

“I know it did, that’s why you brought me inside your place that night, and you showed me how good you can be.” He smirks again.

“Alright, that’s enough.” You take his hand away from your stomach. “We don’t need to go down memory lane right now.”

“Do you think…I mean, I get it, you don’t want me. I suppose I wouldn’t want me either with how awful I was to you…but, we were friends once. Couldn’t we be friends again? We’ve been civil sure, but we’re not friends right now.”

“I think being friends could work. I think that’s what hurt the most when it ended, I felt like I lost my best friend.”

“Nora’s your best friend.”

“Nora’s my best girlfriend, but you…” You reach up and cup his cheek, and he leans into your touch. “I don’t know, I think that’s why my heart was so broken.” You take your hand away. “Like, it killed me that there were things I wanted to tell you first over anyone else.”

“The same thing happened to me, I think that’s why I got involved with Kelly…she was just there, you know?”

“Mhm.” You roll your eyes. “Let’s go to sleep now, yeah?”

“Okay.” He leans in and kisses your forehead before fully turning onto his other side. “Goodnight.”

“Night.”

He always did that when you were together. He’d kiss your forehead and turn over. It was his signal that he wanted to be the little spoon. The only comfortable position was on your back, and you weren’t quite sure if he realized what he was doing. He did just like sleeping on that side, also. You try to shake everything from your mind, and go back to sleep.

“Hi Sally.” Harry smiles at your admin when he comes into your office.

“Oh, hi Harry! How are you?”

“I’m great, how are you?”

“I’m good, thank you.” She smiles. She looks at the large brown paper bag in his hand. “That smells good.”

“Surprising Y/N with a special lunch today.”

“Ohhh, how lucky is she, hm?” She looks over at your closed office door. “She’s just finishing up with her 11:30.”

“Alright.”

Your door opens and a young man leaves. He smiles and nods at Sally before he exits. Sally gets up to go to your office.

“Y/N?”

“I can’t wait for some of these kids to move on to their advisors for next year. Kid gave me a fucking headache.” You sigh. “These back to backs are gonna be the death of me, Sally.”

“Well, I think I know of something that’ll take your mind right off it. Harry’s here with lunch, and it smells greasy.”

“Oh? That’s surprising. He can come on in.”

She nods and lets him know he’s free to go in. He comes in and closes the door, taking a seat in one of your spare chairs.

“This is nice.” You smile.

“Thought we could use a break from the grille. I stepped out quick and went to Burger King. I know you prefer McDonald’s, but Burger King has the impossible meat. S’not much better for you, but I’ve had it a couple times and it’s a nice treat. Got them without mayo, and got you extra pickles on yours.” He reaches into the bag and hands it to you.

“Thank you! It smells so good. I really didn’t want my salad anyways.” He looks at your water bottle and smiles.

“You’re even ahead on your water, good girl.” He says biting into his burger. You can’t help but giggle.

“That’s the worst inside joke there is.”

“Come on, you love it.” He smirks. He watches you take a bite of the burger and you moan. “Good, right?”

“It really tastes like meat! Did you happen to get fries too?”

“Nope, I opted for apple slices.”

“You’re so annoying.”

“The fries there aren’t even that good.”

“You should’ve gone to McDonald’s and gotten their fries, now that would’ve been thinking.”

“Mm, right, and then your doctor would’ve killed me for cloggin’ your arteries.”

“It’s just potato.”

“Fried and greasy potato.” He shakes his head. “I’ll tell you what though, I’ll chop up some of the potatoes we have at home and roast them for you, just how you like.”

“Fair enough. Hand me the apples.” You had scarfed down the burger quickly. He reaches into the bag and hands you the slices.

“Wanna go for a quick walk? You should get outta your office while you can. S’a nice day out too.”

“Sure.” You shrug. “I can’t wait to go to the doctor next week, we’ll be able to know the sex of the baby.”

“I’m really excited.”

You both head out and start your walk. Harry kept a slow pace for you, he didn’t want you getting too tired that you couldn’t do your job later.

“I’m gonna have to go shopping this weekend I think, my clothes are starting to get really tight.” You groan.

Harry had noticed your clothes getting tight, but they were tight in all the right ways. Your breasts and ass were fuller, and he often couldn’t help himself from looking. He thought you got more beautiful as each day passed, and there was something about whenever he’d look at your bump that would drive him a little crazy. It was something about knowing that he did this to you, that no one else really had you.

“We could go to that maternity store at the mall. Could be a good excuse to also start putting a registry together for your baby shower. My mum wants to be us the crib, she’s insisting on it.”

“Good idea, and my mom wants to buy me this like state of the art breast pump.”

“So she’s come around a bit?”

“Yeah, she has.” You smile. “Nora’s gonna be putting the shower together for me, so that takes some of the stress away, and they wanna do one for me at work as well.”

“So it’s settled, we’ll do some shopping this weekend.”

“Have you had a chance to see if there are any three bedroom condos in the complex?”

“Not yet, love. I’ve been busy grading and advising too. Soon though. I’ll have time to look into things once the semester is over.”

“Must be nice to have summers off.” You huff.

“They should just let you work from home, it’s not like you meet with students in the summer. As I recall it was just emails and phone calls. They really only needed you on campus for the admissions events.”

“Honestly, I think I’m going to ask if I can do that. I could easily meet with my team through conference calls. It’s gonna hot and I’ll be way too uncomfortable trying to look professional. At least it’ll be warm enough to wear dresses and stuff.”

“You’ll look good no matter what, I hope you know that. You’ve been glowing.”

“You’re just saying that.” You nudge him. “Everything feels sore, and I’m starting to get stretch marks. I’m starting to think cocoa butter doesn’t really do shit.” Harry can’t help but laugh, and you start laughing too.

After your walk, Harry goes his separate way back to his building, and you go to yours. Sally gives you a knowing smile and you shake your head at her.

“What?”

“Nothing.” She grins. “You just seem to be in better spirits. You always are with him.”

“Not always.”

“You are though, he’s making you happy again. He even brought you junk food, I was shocked.”

“Me too.” You walk up and grab a mint from her desk. “Maybe…I mean, do you really think people can change?”

“I do, sometimes. He should want to change to be better for himself, he shouldn’t just change for you because then it won’t stick. I’ve heard things though. He was a wreck after your break up, even if he didn’t lead on that way. I think he still loves you.”

“I have no doubt that he loves me, Sally.” You sigh. “I never doubted that, and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t love him too, but sometimes that’s just enough.”

It was true, you never stopped loving Harry. As much as he broke your heart, you loved him endlessly. And you knew he loved you too. Every time he looked at you, you could see it on his face. You just couldn’t bring yourself to say anything. You were better off as friends, and that was that.

“Baby’s healthy and so is mumma.” You doctor says to you. “Would you like to know the sex of the baby?”

“Yes!” You and Harry say at the same time.

“Well, you see that little thing right there?” She points to the monitor. “It would appear that you’re having a little boy.” She smiles.

You and Harry look at each other, and you both tear up. You wrap your arms around each other, and he kisses you cheek, lingering for a moment too long, but right now you didn’t care.

“Could we have a couple of those printed, I’d like to send one to my mum and sister.” He says.

“Of course.”

Once you get your belly cleaned up, you two head out to the car.

“Guess your hunch was right.” He puts your lower stomach. “Got a little boy in there.”

“Mhm, we should go through the baby name book and start seeing which ones we like.” Harry starts the car and begins the drive back to campus. “I don’t know how I’m going to concentrate for the rest of the day.”

“You know…I don’t say thank you enough.”

“For what?”

“Most people wouldn’t as lucky as I am. I mean, do most baby daddies get to be this involved? We live together, you’re lettin’ me be a part of so much.”

“Ugh, please don’t refer to yourself as a baby daddy.” You laugh. “And you’re only this involved because you want to be. I never asked to live with you.” You put your hand over his. “If there isn’t someone who says thank you enough, it’s me.”

A couple of weeks later you were just lounging in bed with a book when you felt the baby kick for the first time. It didn’t even hurt like you thought it might. You couldn’t believe he was kicking already, maybe he was just trying to make some room to grow. Harry had to see this. You get up and shuffle down the hall to his room. You tap on the door before opening in.

“Harry?” You look around and didn’t see him in there, but you could hear his shower running. You walk further in and knock on his bathroom door. “Harry?!”

“Shit.” You hear him say. “Yeah?!”

“The baby’s kicking! I thought you might like to feel…”

“Uhhh, fuck, umm, could you give me like five minutes?! I’ll come to your room!”

“Okay!”

You shrug it off and go back to your room. About ten minutes later, Harry comes in, only wearing a pair of shorts. He hated getting dressed right after a shower.

“Sorry, I was, uh, in the middle of washing my hair.” A lie, but her certainly wasn’t going to tell he was jerking it. He gets on the bed and sits between your legs. “Where’d you feel it?”

“Right here, give me your hands, maybe he’ll do it again.” You take hands and place them where you felt the baby kick before.

“Oh my god!” Harry gasps when he feels it. “It doesn’t hurt?”

“Not really. I’m sure it will once he gets a little bigger. This is so cool, it just makes it more real, you know?” He hums his response.

“Have you done your nightly lotion?”

“Not yet.”

“I could put it on for you if you want. I know you’ve been stressed with the kids at work.”

“It’s just another week or two of the crazy busy part, it’ll die down soon. Although…” You were touch starved and the thought of his large hands on you in some way was thrilling. You grab the jar of cocoa butter and hand it to him. “Thanks.”

He lifts your shirt up slightly, just over your bump, and starts rubbing it on gently. A happy sigh escapes your lips and your eyes flutter closed. You feel him tug at your pajama pants, and your eyes snap open.

“What are you doing?”

“Don’t you need some a bit lower?” He was being genuine, not really seeing the problem.

“I can do that.”

“M’not takin’ your pants off, would you relax, lemme get your lower stomach for you.”

You wanted him to take your pants off, you wanted him to rip them away and do what he did best.

“See? All done.” He smiles and hands you back the jar. He gets off the bed, and goes to leave.

“Could you close the door all the way for me?”

“I thought we agreed on leaving them open a crack so I could hear if you called f’me?”

“We did…but…” Your cheeks flush. “Never mind, you know what? I need a pickle.” You get up and pull your shirt down.

“It’s a new jar I think, let me go down and open it for you.”

You both go down to the kitchen and Harry gets the jar open for you. Your eyes sparkle once you’re able to snatch one. You wrap your lips around in and close your eyes as you take a nice big bite.

“Christ.” He says under his breath, and you look at him.

“What?”

“Nothin’.” He blushes and looks away from you.

“Do you want one?”

“No, I’m good, thanks.”

“Really, you can have one. They taste so good, I think it’s the salt. I’ve been really into salty things lately.

He wanted to say he had something salty for you that you could wrap your lips around, but he wouldn’t dare. Things had been so peaceful with you lately, and he didn’t want to ruin it, as much as he wanted to ruin you.

“Did you get a new tattoo?” You point to his upper arm. “I don’t remember that one.”

“Hm?” He looks down at it. “Oh yeah, I got drunk one night with Max like a couple of months ago and we each got one. It was like right after we broke up.” He shrugs.

“I don’t know how you have any room left on that arm. Will you ever fill up the other one?”

“I kinda like the way it looks, it’s sort of lop sided.”

“But your chest and stomach is so symmetrical. Same with your legs, you have those ones on your knees and ankles.”

“My legs aren’t symmetrical.” He pulls up one side of his shorts to remind you of his tiger tattoo.

“Okay, minus that one.” You scoff.

“And you still don’t have any.” He smirks.

“Nope, and I never will.” You grab another pickle and bite into it. “I always like this one.” You graze your fingers over the mermaid. “She’s realistic looking, you know? Think my boobs are just as saggy.” You laugh.

“Y/N.” He chuckles. “Your boobs are not…” He sighs. “You have a beautiful body, okay?”

“Not anymore.” You roll your eyes.

“I disagree.” He crosses his arms.

“Gimme a break, Harry. This is not sexy.” You rub your belly. “It’s gross.”

“Again, I disagree.” He leans back against the counter. “Just more to love, that’s all.”

“God, I’m definitely gaining weight.” You groan. “I don’t know how, we both eat so healthy.”

“You order dessert every time we go out to eat, that’s why.” He says not looking at you. “You have no self-control with your sweet tooth.”

“Gee thanks.”

“I’m just sayin’, you can sit there and pout, or you could make some changed. If you need to have a dessert you could start goin’ to the gym with me. I’m allowed to have guests.”

“No offense, but I’ve seen you work out, and I don’t think I’d have much fun doing it with you. You’re way too intense.”

“We could run together.”

“You’d just go far ahead of me.”

“You’re makin’ excuses.” He turns to look at you. “Make a change or not, but don’t complain to me when you keep getting…plushy.”

“More to love!” You laugh. “You’re like the most fat phobic person I’ve ever met.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Any time I ever talked about gaining weight or anything you just made me feel worse about it.”

“Well…you sort of have a reason for gaining weight now. Before you didn’t, you were eating like shit.”

“I was not!”

“Yeah, you were. You always had like three different tubs of ice cream in your freezer, and anytime you’d have some you always went back for seconds. S’not a treat if you do it all the time. And that wasn’t me being fat phobic, I just wanted you to be healthy.”

“Well, you had a funny way of showing it.”

“My step-father died from a heart attack, Y/N, he had heart disease because he ate like shit all the time. I was scared…especially after you told me your doctor said your cholesterol.”

“That runs in my family! I don’t eat red meat for that very reason.”

“I just wanted you around as long as possible, maybe I had a bad way of showin’ it, but I was coming from a good place.”

“Whatever.” You shake your head.

“I know I was a dick okay? It’s not what you say, it’s how you say it, right?”

“Exactly.”

“Well, I apologize. I shouldn’t have spoken to you like that or made you feel that way. I’m sure there were other ways I could’ve gotten my point across.” You put the jar of pickles down and turn to look at him.

“Yeah, there were. You could be such an asshole sometimes.”

“I know.” You step a little closer to him.

“It was really annoying.”

“I know.”

“And you made it impossible to stay mad sometimes, which ended up pissing me off too.”

��I wasn’t that great of a boyfriend, I don’t know why you put up with me as long as you did, to be honest.” He presses his forehead to yours.

“I don’t know either.” You say, just above a whisper.

He starts sniffling and backs away from you.

“Sorry.” He wipes his eyes.

“Harry…”

“I just, I’m so mad at myself for fucking things up so badly. I feel like I fucked up my one shot at having a real love, and I’m frustrated.”

“You didn’t, you’ll find it again.”

“Yeah.” He scoffs. “Just not with you, right?”

“You don’t want these with me!” You slam your fist down on the counter. “You just think you do because I’m-“

“I swear to god, I’m gonna lose my shit if you say that one more time! I’m still in love with you, I never fell out of love with you! I didn’t want to break up, you did!”

“Fuck you, Harry. If you wanted us to work you would’ve fought for us more. You didn’t even care that we started sleeping separately, or that we weren’t having sex, or-“

“I was trying to give you the space you seemed to have wanted! I may not have been perfect, but you weren’t either. You picked just as many fights with me as I did with you. I really saw a future with you, but there were times I felt like you didn’t see one with me.”

“You literally flipped out on me when I asked you to make some room for me in your dresser.”

“I got annoyed because I said why don’t you just use the dresser in the guest room, and you took it personally like I didn’t want our stuff co-mingling!”

“Well, that’s how it felt!”

“And then, you walked out on me before I could even ask you to move in here, I was preparing for it! I had started looking at new furniture and everything! But you got so distant-“

“Because I felt like I couldn’t even breathe without you having some smart remark. I get it, being a professor is super stressful, but you were always taking it out on me. I felt like a scared little kid half the time, Harry.” Your voice cracks as tears start to fall.

“I thought things were going to get better after went away that weekend, but they just worse…”

“Yeah, they did. We’re not compatible.”

“Please, don’t say that, it kills me.” He takes a deep breath. “I was mad at you for ending it, that’s why I didn’t jump to my feet to fight for it. I figured if you were willing to give up so easily then so would I.”

“But it wasn’t easy! My heart was broken, and it broke more when you just sat there and said okay.” You sigh. “I just couldn’t keep pretending that everything happening was okay, Harry. It was exhausting.”

“I know.”

“So what makes you think starting over would make any difference? Things are balanced right now.”

“No, they’re not.” He raises your chin so you’ll at him. “Do you know how hard it is to have the love of your life, the woman carrying your child, down the hall from you and all you want to do is crawl into bed with her and love on her, and you can’t? I feel like I’m dying slowly from the inside out.” He lets go of you and smirks. “And you wanna know what else is bullshit about this whole thing?”

“What?” You were stunned at what he had just said.

“You said I wasn’t helpin’ your situation by walkin’ around shirtless and sweaty or whatever the fuck else, but you don’t exactly do things that make it easy for me either.”

“Excuse me?”

“It’s like you’re doin’ it on purpose.”

“Doing what?! Whenever I’m home I’m in leggings and a tank top.”

“With your tits fully on display.” He gestures to them.

“It hurts too much to wear a bra!” You pout. “I’m sorry…” You cross your arms over them. “I truthfully didn’t think you were even looking.”

“How could I not? You have to know how beautiful I think you are, I try to tell you all the time.”

“I thought you were just trying to comfort me…”

“It’s so much more than that.” You look down and then to the clock.

“We should go to bed, it’s getting late.”

“You always do this! You never wanna finish the conversation.”

“What’s there to finish?! We keep going round in circles. What we’re doing is working, let’s just leave it.” You stick the pickles back in the fridge and go upstairs.

Since you had moved in, you slept better than ever, but lately you tossed and turned. It wasn’t due to discomfort with the baby, you just couldn’t shut your brain off. Between all of the things Harry said to you that night and your work being absolutely stressful, you physically couldn’t sleep. On Friday you have a meeting with your supervisor to discuss the summer.

“You look great, been meaning to tell you that.” She says as you come into her office.

“Thanks Margaret.” You smile. “So I know I’m not due until the end of August, so I’ll be missing the fall semester…”

“We’ll miss you a lot. We’re starting to look into grad students for you though.”

“That’s great! And I’d be happy to train any one of them…just…maybe virtually?”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m exhausted, and we really only do a lot of email and phone calls over the summer. Harry has a nice office set up at home, and he said I could use it this summer if I wanted. I was sort of wondering if I could work from home once the school year ends…I know it’s a lot to ask, and I could still come in some days, but all the walking around I do is just killing me by the time I get home, and my doctor said my blood pressure is high-“

“Is that from work, or the fact that you’re playing house with your ex?” She smirks. “I remember what it was like to be pregnant, especially during the summer. You’ll be much more comfortable at home, you’ve got that indoor pool right?”

“Mhm.”

“I’m sure we could work it out, but there’s some paperwork you’ll need to fill out with HR.” You hum your response. “Is it also that Harry has the summer off and you want to be home with him?”

“I mean…it would be nice…but it’s not the sole reason.”

“Alright.” She sighs. “Hey, just between us, are you considering at all to get back together with him? I’ve seen him around here, you two seem chummy again.”

“We’re on good terms, yeah, but the rest is complicated. Every wound I have still feel fresh, you know?”

“True, but are you going to keep holding onto how he made you feel then, or can you let yourself feel what you’re feeling now?”

“Which is what?”

“I think you want to be with him. You perk up the second you seem him walk through the door, and you’re always giggling when you leave together. Sometimes people break up, and it just doesn’t work out and then don’t get back together. Sometimes someone winds up pregnant. But…with you two, I think that if you didn’t want him, you wouldn’t have agreed to live with him or let him be so involved.”

“How could I deprive him of his child? And he said he wanted to be around for everything-“

“A lot of guys say that and don’t mean it. You still trusted his word, Y/N. I’m not saying you need to marry the guy or dive back into a full on relationship, but throw him a bone.”

You were quiet on the car ride home, nothing out of the normal. You keep looking at him and he finally sighs and speaks up.

“Do I have somethin’ on my face?”

“No.”

“Okay, then why do you keep looking at me like that?”

“I wanna go out tonight.”

“You do?”

“Mhm. I wanna put a pretty dress on and go out.”

“Alright, where do yeh wanna go, love?” He parks the car in the driveway and looks at you.

“I miss dancing, Harry.”

“Okay.” He knew your feet wouldn’t allow for it, and by the time you got somewhere you’d be too tired to stay long enough for any fun to start. You both get out of the car and go inside. “Why don’t you go up and take your time gettin’ ready…I have an idea I think you’ll like.” He smiles.

“Okay.” You smile back and go upstairs.

After at least two mental breakdowns, you get your hair and makeup the way you like, and throw a flattering dress on. It was flowy and came down to your mid-thigh. It covered your chest as well. When you come downstairs, you see that the lights are dim, there are candles lit, and music playing. Harry was pouring some seltzer water into a glass for you, and just adding a lime.

“Thought I’d bring the bar to us, how does that sound?” He hands you the glass and you take a sip.

“You’re brilliant, Dr. Styles.” You joke. “What are you drinking?”

“Just a beer for now. I don’t wanna get too wasted since I’m the one drivin’.” He winks at you. “Are you hungry? I popped some of those fried pickles into the oven…”

“You’re spoiling me.” You giggle. “Thank you. Oh! I spoke with Margaret today and we’re gonna go down to HR next week to talk about working from home this summer. She seems to think it could work out well.”

“That’s a huge relief. I like the idea of havin’ yeh home with me this summer.”

You both get silly to a few songs, and then eventually he slows dances with you. Your bump was in the way, but you were able to make it work. Harry was such a good dancer. You always felt safe in his arms. You loved hearing him hum along to whatever song was playing too, it was so calming. You look up at him and yawn by accident.

“Okay, I think it’s time you went to bed.” He chuckles and cuts the music.

“But I’m having so much fun.”

“I know, but you’re tired, honey.” He kisses your forehead and lets you go. “Come on, up the stairs we go.”

After you had gotten into bed, you thought to maybe go crawl into his, just to have a cuddle, but you told yourself that would be a bad idea. It would definitely lead to something else.

“Harry! Harry!”

He bursts through your bedroom door the next morning in a panic.

“Where the hell is she?”

“Harry!”

“Shit.” He goes into your bathroom and finds you sitting, unable to get up. “What happened?!” He steps inside and helps you up. “Are you okay?” He pulls you close to him, neither of you caring how naked you are.

“I…I was trying to shave my legs, but there’s no bench in here for me to prop my foot up on, and I lost my balance. I only fell on my bum, I think the baby’s fine.”

“We should go to the doctor anyways, just to make sure. And then we’ll go to the store and buy a shower bench, or you could just come use my shower, whatever you wanna do.” He reaches to turn the water off and grabs your towel. “You know, you could just let yourself get hairy.”

“But it’s so uncomfortable…”

“What about wax?” You both step into your room. “Or that nair stuff?”

“Wax hurts and nair burns.” You sigh. “My legs are one thing, but I don’t want that stuff near my…area.”

“I could help you shave you know, s’not like I haven’t seen yeh naked before.”

“Again, legs are one thing…” You pat his shoulder. “Let me get dressed, could you call the doctor?”

“Mhm.”

The doctor said you were perfectly fine, but to definitely be more careful. You and Harry stop at the store to buy a shower bench and he gets it set up for you once you’re home.

“Test it out.” He says as you both stand in the shower.

“Okay.”

You put on of your feet up on it and bend a bit and pretend to run your razer over your leg.

“Yup, that should work just fine, thanks.”

“What about elsewhere?”

“I think no matter what I do I’m gonna have a tough time with that.” You sigh. “I’ll live, it’s just uncomfortable. It gets itchy once it grows in, you know?”

“Again, my services have been offered.” He winks at you.

“You’d do anything to get your face close to me there, wouldn’t you?” You nudge him playfully.

“Yep that’s it, you’ve found out my entire scheme to eat you out.” He rolls his eyes. “Come on, you’ve barely drank any water today, let’s get your water bottle filled up.”

You tossed and turned again that night. You needed Harry. So, you get up and shuffle down the hall to his room, door open a crack like he had kept it in case you called for him.

“Harry?” You say, leaning against the door frame.

“Hm?” He shoots up. “What is it? Do you need a pickle?”

“No.” You giggle. You loved him when he was sleepy like this. “M’sorry it’s so late, I just can’t sleep.”

“Do you wanna come in with me?”

“Mhm.”

“Okay.”

You slip into his comfy bed, and lay on your back.

“I miss being able to sleep on my stomach.” You sigh.

“You’d always be so cute in the morning.” He says, turning to face you. “Your arms would be tucked under the pillow and you could just see your face. Your hair was always coverin’ yeh up.” He moves some hair out of your face and tucks it behind your ear. “So sweet.” He says, his eyes starting to droop again.

“It was really nice what you did for me earlier tonight.”

“Mm.”

“It was like…a new first date or something.” His eyes snap open and he sits up again.

“Wanna run that by me again?”

“It felt like a date, didn’t it?”

“I suppose it did…”

“I missed dancing with you like that.”

“Don’t do this to me.” He groans.

“What? What am I doing?” You sit up as well.

“You keep messing with me head, Y/N. One minute we’re getting along and we’re friends, and the next…I don’t I think you want me in the way I want you, and-“

“I can’t stop thinking about what you said, about how hard it was to not love on the love of your life. I’m really the love of your life?”

“You have been for over three years.”

“We only dated for a year, though.”

“I know, but I fell for you so much sooner than that. I’d flirt with you any chance I got just to see if I could get your cheeks to flush.” He runs his thumb along your cheek bone.

“And it always worked, you left me flustered pretty often.”

“And what about now, are you flustered now?”

“Very.”

“What did you come in here for, exactly?”

“I told you, I couldn’t sleep.”

“And getting into bed with me could help that?”

“Well…I miss cuddles…” You say just above a whisper. “And you’re a good cuddler.”

“What else do you miss?” His face was dangerously close to yours. It had been a month since your little romp with him, and you’d be lying if you hadn’t wanted it again almost every day since then.

“Harry…I miss a lot of things, but-“

“Can we just, ugh, forget about everything for a little while and make each other feel good?”

“But last time we did that…things almost got complicated, and-“

“We’re two adults who both have needs, and your needs are a little stronger than mine. What’s the big deal if we indulge?”

“I don’t wanna keep messing with your head, like you said I was.” You frown.

“Do you really not want me? I feel like you wouldn’t be living here if there wasn’t a sliver of you that didn’t want me.”

“I do.” You sigh and lean into his touch, his soft palm on your cheek. “It’s just so hard to forget what happened.”

“I know, and I don’t expect you to. It would be stupid if we both tried to forget or pretend like we didn’t tare each other apart, but we’re bringing a baby into this world now, and I feel like ever since you told me about it I’ve put so many things into perspective. I didn’t treat you right, and I’ll spend every day for the rest of my life makin’ up for it if I have to.”

“You will?”

“I will. I love you, Y/N.”

“I…I love you too, Harry.”

The way he kisses you is so much different than last time. There was an urgency, a pure need. It wasn’t just lust, it was so much more than that. You could taste the tears that had been running down his cheeks. You believed, you finally believed him. He regretted it, every small thing that drove you farther and farther away. He would never let that happen again, baby or no baby.

His tongue licks into your mouth, and you moan into it. Your hands move up to his hair and you tug on it. He draws back and kisses each one of your cheeks, your nose, your forehead and your lips.

“M’not gonna fuck this up again.”

“Neither am I.”

You smile at each other and continue kissing. You both shift so Harry can get on top of you. His lips move to nip at your jaw and then to just under your ear lobe.

“Is this comfortable?” He says into your ear, as his hand snacks down your body, getting between your legs.

“Yes.”

You gasp when you feel his fingers run up and down your slit, collecting the wetness and bringing up to your clit to rub circles into. He starts to shift so he can get his head between your legs.

“No don’t!”

“Why not?” He frowns.

“I don’t want you looking up at me, you’ll only see my stomach, and-“

“I can’t even begin to describe how attractive you are to me, it’s insane. Please, let me get my mouth on you.” You bite your bottom and nod yes.

He kisses down your stomach and gets his lips around your clit, and slips his fingers inside you. Your hips buck up, but he holds you steady. He was going slow, but precise.

“Oh my god, Harry.” You groan. “Feels amazing.”

He moans against you in response. You cry out when you feel his teeth nibble on you and his fingers curl up. He was brushing that spongey spot over and over.

“Harry, shit, oh my god, I’m gonna, fuck, fuck, fuck!” You release around his fingers and he retracts them so he can lap everything up.

“Would you do somethin’ for me?”

“Anything.”

“It’s been torture watchin’ yeh go to town on those giant pickles…would you mind…” He gestures down to himself.

“Oh! Sure, yeah.”

“What would be most comfortable for you?”

“Maybe if you sit on the edge of the bed, I can just put a pillow on the floor for my knees.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah.”

Harry sits on the edge of the bed, completely naked, and you get on the floor in front of him, kneeling on a few pillows. You plant your palms on his thighs as you wrap your lips around his tip. He watches you with parted lips, and you look up at him. He runs a soothing hand through your hair, and you sink down further on him.

“Teeth, love, watch your teeth.” He grunts. You pop off him and look up with embarrassment.

“M’sorry, it’s just been so long…”

“It’s okay, just take your time.” He smiles encouragingly. “I really like when you lick up and down…”

You hum your response and do as he says. You lick up and down his shaft, and his hand tugs at your roots. Your confidence comes back to you, and you suckle on his tip, flicking your tongue along his slit.

“Fucking, Christ.” His head rolls back. You hollow your cheeks and bob up and down on him. You swallow around him, and that nearly sends him over the edge. “Okay, okay.” You look up at him and he pulls you off. “I wanna fuck you now, can I do that?”

“Yes.”

He helps you to your feet, and gets you back on the bed. He puts a pillow under your lower back to help get you comfortable. He really wanted to be on top this time. He puts your legs over his shoulders and he slowly slides into you. You let out a throaty moan when he bottoms out.

“Jesus.” You breathe.

“Yeh like that?”

“Mm, so deep. You can move now.”

He rocks in and out of you slowly at first, not wanting to hurt you or do anything to jostle the baby. He had been looking up safe positions for having sex while pregnant, just in case he got the chance with you again.

“You look so beautiful, Y/N, it’s drivin’ me crazy.”

“It, ngh, is?”

“You have no idea.” He drops your legs and leans down to kiss you. He nips at your bottom lip and you groan against him.

“H, Harry, shit, I think I need to get on top.”

“Okay, baby.”

He pulls out and sits up against the head board. You move to straddle him and sink down on his hard cock.

“God, you feel so good.” He sucks on your neck while you start to move on him. His hand grip your hips to help you.

Eventually you hide your head on his neck to signal that he should just take over the movements completely. He thrusts up into you while he rocks you back and forth. You were both sweaty and panting, and you could feel yourself getting closer. He was close too.

“Harry, fuck, Harry, I’m gonna come.”

“Me too, shit.”

You bite down on his collar but he moves your face with one of his hands.

“No, please, let me hear you, let it all out.”

He gives you another hard thrust and it has you moaning out loudly, your nails dragging down his stomach, just the way his likes. He fills you up, probably making a mess, but neither of you seem to care. He cups your cheeks to kiss you, both of your lips swollen, but it’s what you both need.

“And this time, you’re not runnin’ off to your room.”

“Don’t want it to be my room anymore.”

“What?” His face falls.

“I think that should be the baby’s nursery…”

“Oh!” He smiles. “Yeah…we could do tha’.” He smooths some hair away from your face. “Does that mean you want this to be our room?”

“Yeah, I do…would that be alright?”

“It’s better than alright, it’s all I could hope for.”

Since you were working from home, you had plenty of time to help Harry with the nursery, and you both really enjoyed it. You decide to paint the room light grey, with a nice light yellow accent wall. You were going for a neutral vibe. Gemma and Anne come over to help set the crib up one afternoon while you make everyone some lemonade.

“So…you two are really back together?” Anne asks you while Harry and Gemma argue over the many pieces upstairs.

“Mhm.” You smile. “I suppose it was bound to happen either way.”

“And you’re happy?”

“Very, he’s changed a lot, and so have I.”

“That’s good. I can’t believe I’m havin’ a grandson. Have you two decided on a name?”

“We have a few we’ve been mulling over, but we decided we’ll make the final decision once we actually see his face.” She hums her response and sips from her glass of lemonade.

“How’s your mum been with all this?”

“Are you kidding?” You scoff. “She was over the moon that Harry took me back.” You roll your eyes. “Whatever, you know?”

“Mm, it amazes me that such a wonderful young girl could come from such a…witch.” You nearly spit out your lemonade from laughter. “Sorry, I shouldn’t have said that.”

“No, no, it’s okay.” You smile.

Harry and Gemma come down once everything is all set.

“Oh, yum!” She says once she sees the lemonade. “Thanks, Y/N.”

“It’s the least I could do.” You hand them both a glass. “All set up there?”

“Mhm, and the changing table is good to go too.” You kiss his cheek, and he puts his arm around your shoulders.

It was the end of August, and way too fucking hot out. You were grateful for the indoor pool. You found yourself going there often with Harry. He thought the maternity bathing suits you found were awfully cute. He was on you more and more about drinking water. He was scared to death that you’d get dehydrated.

Your apartment was already full of the many gifts from your couple of baby showers. Most of it was organized, and you had an overnight bag ready to go. You were due any day now. Nora came to join you at the pool while Harry did some prep work for his fall classes.

“You look so good, Y/N, I mean it.”

“Thanks.” You beam. “I feel pretty good, but also ready to pop. I want him out of me already.”

“Soon.” She puts your belly. “Is it weird that I’m excited?” She giggles.

“Not at all! You’re my best friend, I want you to be excited. This kid is gonna be a part of your life now too.”

“I’ll babysit anytime I can. You know how much I love babies.”

She helps you walk back to the apartment when you both had enough of the crowd that had formed. They stop short when they hear Harry yelling on the phone.

“I can’t teach two extra sections of that course! I’m already at my load, and I said I couldn’t do any more than that this semester! My girlfriend is about to have a baby…” He groans with frustration. “Can’t we just hire a TL?” They hear him suck his teeth. “I can do one section, not two.” He sighs when he hangs up the phone. “Hi.” He grumbles at the two of you.

“What’s happening, Harry?”

“Oh, they’re just givin’ me somethin’ they could easily have the junior faculty do.” He rolls his eyes and grabs a beer out of the fridge. “We need to refill your water bottle now.”

You nod and fill it up with fresh water. Harry offers Nora a beet, but she declines since she’ll be leaving soon.

“I feel like I’m never gonna be home now. Maybe I can convince them to let it be an online section or somethin’.”

“That’s a great idea!” You say. “I bet they’d go for that.”

“The new department chair is just power hungry, she could easily teach the class.” He huffs.

“Well it seems like you were able to bargain a bit.” Nora says. “I gotta go.” She looks at her watch.

She hugs you and gives your belly another rub and out the door she goes. Harry wraps his arms around you and pouts.

“Any day now, huh?”

“Mhm.”

“How are you feelin’?”

“Terrified, but excited.”

“Me too.” He chuckles and kisses your forehead.

You fall asleep pretty quickly that night. All of the swimming really tired you out. You were thankful for the central air, otherwise it would be impossible to sleep through the heat. You woke up feeling sort of uncomfortable, almost like you had wet yourself. You absentmindedly reach between your legs and gasp.

“Harry.” You nudge him. “Harry!”

“Hm?” He rolls over and looks up at you. “You okay, lovie?”

“Yeah, I think my water broke.”

“Oh my god!” He shoots up and kisses you.

“It’s time.”

#im having your baby #harry styles #harry styles fic #harry styles imagine #harry styles x reader #harry styles x y/n #harry styles y/n #harry styles fluff #harry styles fluff fic #harry styles smut #harry styles smut fic #harry styles angst #harry styles angst fic #professor!Harry #dad!Harry #dadtobe!Harry

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curedeity · 3 years

Text

The City Kids

Summary: Akiza doesn't know why she agreed to babysit the twins, it had been a long while she'd had to interact with a child for more than a few minutes. Really, couldn't anyone else have done this? Oh well, since she was here, she'd have to make the most of it.

Large empty houses, complete with white walls and pristine floors cleaned by a collection of staff, were nothing new to Akiza. Her mother had worked part-time, and her father had been a mayor, so their house had always been lavish and vacant except for Akiza. Sometimes, Akiza wondered that if she had gotten a different deck, or been a bit more lost in the past on the day she had chosen her moniker, would she have been known as the Rose Ghost?

It was a particularly stupid thought, but sometimes stupid thoughts were at least entertaining, and that included when it was sitting around a table with Leo and Luna and coming up with new monikers for all three of them.

Out of perhaps all the Signers, the twins were the people Akiza held the least ill-will against. She still couldn’t help but be a bit peeved at Yusei for his initial win against her, and Jack and Crow were… loud. Despite Akiza’s unilaterally positive feelings towards the twins, she had still panicked for over an hour when she had been asked to babysit them for the day.

Beyond the fact that Akiza had no skills with young children, these two children happened to be ones that she had been responsible for traumatizing. Perhaps not directly, but she had been a part of Arcadia, and she had been there for Leo’s duel against Sawyer. She wouldn’t blame either of them for being at least a little wary of her, if not outright hostile.

To her surprise, when she had entered their apartment, Leo had immediately demanded a duel with her, and Luna had peppered her with shy questions about her powers.

Akiza… wasn’t very comfortable with dueling a ten year-old when she was only now truly learning to control her powers, but Leo didn’t seem too put off by her refusal, instead he had started showing her his deck and babbling on.

Somehow, that situation had ended with them sitting at the table and coming up with stage names for each of them. Leo insisted on calling them superhero names, which Luna had commented was just the influence of too many cartoons. Now, that had started an argument.

“Superheroes are super cool and you just don’t like them because you don’t have taste!” Leo waved his hands around, nearly smacking his sister’s face by accident, though she leaned back just in time. “They come in and--- and they save the day like woosh and talk about how you’re supposed to do the right thing!”

“But spies actually have brains? Yknow, like, braincells? I know you lost yours in the supermarket, but they actually do help with problem-solving.” Akiza had not known until today how sarcastic Luna could be, and she could honestly say that if she wasn’t panicking at how to stop the argument, she would’ve been impressed. “Superheroes can talk about doing the right thing, but ultimately they just punch people and propagate a cycle of violence.”

“They do not! They’re trying to stop these people from committing murder! And most of them don’t commit murder themselves, it’s all about showing how you don’t need to be mean to stop people from being mean!” Leo cried out.

“Those lessons may hold in stories, but in real life murder seems like a very viable option. I would’ve loved to stab that ape king that nearly killed me in the spirit world,” Luna countered.

Akiza should’ve never agreed to babysit. If Akiza was a ghost, at least then she wouldn’t be subject to whatever punishment she was met with for letting the children get this rowdy.

Well, here goes nothing.

Akiza cleared her throat, catching the attention of neither child. They continued her argument, blissfully unaware of her imploding existence. “Murder isn’t a good answer to your problems, Luna.” She finally got out.

Luna turned to meet Akiza’s eyes, embarrassment flooding her countenance. Unlike her snappish, sarcastic tone with her brother, Luna was much shy in her speech to Akiza. “Sorry, I know that.”

“I mean, property damage is a much better way to make someone leave you alone and fear you,” Akiza added, because from her slight memories of interacting with children, she knew you weren’t just supposed to chastise them, but rather direct them towards better behaviors. Positive reinforcement.

Luna blinked at her, clearly mulling over Akiza’s advice, while Leo had also fallen silent as he considered Akiza’s point. “But if we committed property damage, wouldn’t that security guy who chased Yusei everywhere come after us?” Leo pointed out.

...who? Was Leo referring to Officer Trudge? Perhaps this was something Akiza had missed while she had remained in Arcadia.

Nevertheless, Leo’s point about the police was a good one, however… “It depends on where the property damage is, I suppose. If we’re talking about the spirit world, I doubt they have a police force that would chase you there.” Akiza responded, and they both turned to Luna to confirm that point.

“I don’t remember there being any police in the spirit world, it’s more community governed, and I doubt any of the spirits would mind,” Luna shrugged.

“Then yes, property damage seems like a perfectly reasonable way to solve that hypothetical problem,” Akiza nodded, and both children looked at her with wide, adoring eyes.

It was terrifying.

“...You wanna watch cartoons now?” Leo offered.

Luna scoffed at her brother’s offer before Akiza could even respond. “Akiza’s an adult, she obviously doesn’t want to watch your superhero cartoons, we should watch my spy ones instead!”

The two continued arguing while Akiza went and cooked some popcorn, the sound of kernels exploding masking their sounds. Her advice hadn’t stopped them from arguing for long, so now she was on to plan b, which was giving them food so they had no room in their mouths for sly comments.

And with her in control of the remote and ordering that they take turns, the rest of the day was a bit less eventful overall.

It wouldn’t be until months later that Luna asked Akiza for the best way to burn down a castle.

#yugioh #yugioh 5ds #akiza izinski and luna and leo hanging out #akiza shouldnt be put on babysitting duty #fanfiction #fanfic #post season 1 pre season 2 #so akiza still doesnt know how to interact with people #this was just written for fun and because akiza is my favorite #listen if these three joined forces the entire city would be in flames and thats why yusei is in charge

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valeriethepussycats · 4 years

Text

Assemble

Chapter 9

Pairing- Loki x Reader x Steve (one side)

Warning- cursing

Your thoughts and other characters are in italics.

Fury gathers Tony and Steve back into the briefing room everyone there has a look as if in a daze. A look of numb shock is shown on their devastated faces.

“These were in Phil Coulson's jacket.Guess he never did get you to sign them.”Nick throws Coulson's Captain America trading cards on the table towards Steve. Steve picks them up, stained with blood.

“We're dead in the air up here. Our communications, location of the cube, Banner, Thor and I don’t know if Y/n will recover from this....I got nothing for you. Lost my one good eye. Maybe I had that coming.Yes, we were going to build an arsenal with the Tesseract. I never put all my chips on that number though, because I was playing something even riskier.” Nick told Steve and Ton. “There was an idea, Stark knows this, called The Avengers Initiative. The idea to bring together a group of remarkable people, see if they could become something more. See if they could work together when we needed them to, to fight the battles that we never could. Phil Coulson died still believing in that idea, in heroes.”

Tony gets up and walks off, not wanting to hear it anymore.

“Well, it's an old fashioned notion.” Nick finished.

○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○

Thor walks out far into the meadow. He looks down. Mjölnir.

○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○

Banner wakes up, in human form with Y/n words echoing in he’s head. He looks around and sees he is in a pile of rubble and looks up at the open ceiling he crashed in and is completely naked. A Security Guard stands there, amazed. “You fell out of the sky.”

“Did I hurt anybody?” Bruce asked coming to.

“There's nobody around here to get hurt. You did scare the hell out of some

pigeons though.” The Security Guard answered.

“Lucky.” Bruce replied.

“Or just good aim. You were awake when you fell.” The Security Guard told Bruce.

“You saw?”

“The whole thing, right through the ceiling. Big and green and buck ass nude. Here...” He throws Banner a pair of big pants. Banner pulls on his pants. “I didn't think those would fit you until you shrunk down to a regular size fella.”

“Thank you.”

“Are you an alien?”

“What?” Bruce asked.

“From outer space, an alien?” The Security Guard wondered.

“No.” Bruce answered.

“Well then, son, you've got a condition.” The Security Guard disclosed.

○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○

Barton is strapped down. Natasha watches over him as Barton tries to shake off Loki's mind control.

“Clint, you're gonna be alright.” Natasha told him.”

“You know that? Is that what you know? I got...I gotta go in though. I gotta

flush him out.” Barton stated.

“We don't have that long, it's gonna take time.” Natasha stressed.

“I don't understand. Have you ever had someone take your brain and play? Pull you out and send something else in? Do you know what it's like to be unmade?” Barton questioned.

“You know that I do.” Natasha replied.

“Why am I back? How did you get him out?” Barton asked.

“Cognitive recalibration. I hit you really hard in the head.” Natasha answered.

“Thanks.” Barton stated then Natasha unfastens the restraints. “Tasha, how many agents?”

“Don't. Don't do that to yourself, Clint. This is Loki. This is monsters and magic and nothing we were ever trained for.” Natasha explained.

“Loki, he got away?” Barton wondered.

“Yeah. I don't suppose you know where?” Natasha asked.

“I didn't need to know. I didn't ask. He's gonna make his play soon though. Today.” Barton answered.

“We gotta stop him.” Natasha declared.”

“Yeah? Who's we?” Barton questioned.

“I don't know. Whoever's left.” Natasha replied.

“Well, if I put an arrow in Loki's eye socket, I'd sleep better I suppose.” Barton remarked.

“Now you sound like you.” Natasha sits next to her partner and friend.

“But you don't. You're a spy, not a soldier. Now you want to wade into a war. Why? What did Loki do to you?” Barton asked.

“He didn't, I just...”

“Natasha.”

“I've been compromised. I got red in my ledger. I'd like to wipe it out.”

○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○

Y/n is in Coulson’s office or more like he’s room trying to calm the raging storm inside of her revenge and anger is never a good combination with her. She Angrily swipeseverything off of his desk breaking the laptop. Automatically feeling guilty Y/n been down to pick up the laptop and sees a briefcase under the desk Curiosity taking over her she pulls the briefcase out and sees that it has her name on it.

“What are you?”

Y/n opens the briefcase and see A sticky note that says play me. Y/n then moves the sticky note and play on the video. At first all you could hear is rumble and the screen is black. Giving up on the video Y/n moves to pick up the stuff she knocked off the deck.

“You should cover up because it’s going to Rain.” Said Coulson’s voice.

Y/n turns to look back at the briefcase and see Coulson on the screen.

“No um time to bundle up because it’s going to rain no. Ohhh how about the Red Wing Black bird soaring through the sky. Get it because of the color of the wings it reminds me of you and the Phoenix....The point is I had this uniform made for you because your a hero and every hero needs to dress the part and have a name. Now go save the world.”

The video stops an a Second part compartment from the briefcase opened up revealing a bodysuit that’s Blue, Red, with a Yellow. It’s like Funky and Radiant. The base of the suit is blue and it’s had a red vertical line going down the middle and two yellow diagonal lines on each side of the vertical line, and the sleeves and legs have the same design as the stomach but the sleeves go all the way down to Cover the two middle fingers. The top of the suit makes an ‘x’ separate each side of the chest, leaving the neck and a little cleavage showing.

Oh Phill this is beautiful

When Y/n turns the suit around to look at the back she see a Metal plate on her upper back.

What are you for?

Just as the thought ran into Y/n’s mind a small Wood sheath attached to the Metal plate. Y/n gaps in shock. She knows exactly what that is

Y/n goes to pull the handle of the Sword out of the Wood sheath and see a small dagger that slowly start to unfold into a 65 cm Katana Sword.

“Oh my god...how could he had this made.” Y/n wondered as a slow smile creeped on to her face. She knew she could do it and so did Phill.

Red Wing has a nice ring to it

○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○

Tony look at the hatch. He stands not saying a word. Steve walks in.

“Was he married?” Steve asked.

“No. There was a uh...cellist, I think.” Tony answered.

“I'm sorry. He seemed like a good man.” Steve answered.

“He was an idiot.” Tony remarked.

“Why? For believing?” Steve asked.

“For taking on Loki alone.” Tony stated.

“He was doing his job.” Steve voiced

“He was out of his league. He should have waited. He should have...” Tony said looking at the spot where Coulson die.

“Sometimes there isn't a way out, Tony.” Steve started.

Tony walks away from Steve. “Right. How did that work for him?” Tony asked sarcastically

“Is this the first time you've lost a soldier?” Steve asked.

Tony turns around sharply. “ WE ARE NOT SOLDIERS! I am not marching to Fury's fife!”

“Neither am I! He's got the same blood on his hands as Loki does. Right now we've got to put that aside and get this done. Now Loki needs a power source, if we can put together a list...” Steve trailed off.

“He’s in Manhattan and if I’m not mistaken I think he’s at your tower Tony. It’s the only power store in Manhattan that I can think of.” Y/n chimed in.

Tony and Steve turns around and see Y/n standing in the door waring a black and white suit.

“Y/n.” Steve said staggered.

“What do you think Phil had it made. I’ve never had a suit of armor before but this is kind of bad ass.” Y/n proclaimed while she was checking herself out.

When Steve saw Y/n’s suit he had to check himself. He know of Y/n’s powers before the rest of the team so he knows if he let’s he’s mind wonder it would go to ungentleman like place and Y/n could pick up on that and he doesn’t want to make things awkward between them. Steve can really see Y/n being an important person in his new life. Steve clears his throat then asks. “Where you going?”

“To stop Loki but first I’m gonna find Thor.” Y/n answered.

“What about Banner?” Tony asked.

“I sent Bruce to Manhattan.” Y/n answered.

“Are you sure your ok to do this?” Steve asked in a concern voice.

“Yes. Im 75% sure I can do. I just had to take some time to clear my head because before fighting Loki To keep my emotions in check.” Y/n answered.

“Or you’ll go Super Saiyan got it.” Tony remarked.

“I am so sorry about that...” Y/n trailed off.

Steve waves his hand. “It’s ok we understand anyone would be upset finding out that kind of news.”

Y/n smiles at Tony and Steve then opens the hatch. Clueless to what’s going on Steve and Tony backs up from the hatch.

“What the hell are you doing?” Tony questioned.

Y/n smiles. “You guys need to suit up I’ll see you there.”

Y/n jumps in the hatch then it closes behind her. Steve and Tony look at the hatch wide eyes and their mouths slightly open.

“Did she just?” Steve asked.

“Yes. Yes she did.” Tony answered.

○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○

Erik works around the CMS device that has already been set-upon the rooftop of Tony's tower.

○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○

Steve walks in full uniform. Natasha looks at him, unprepared.

“Time to go.” Steve announced.

“Go where?” Natasha wondered.

“I'll tell you on the way. Can you fly one of those jets?” Steve asked.

Barton walks out of the restroom. Looks at Cap. “I can.”

Steve looks at Natasha and she nods her head to confirm Barton's on their side.

“You got a suit?” Steve asked Barton.

“Yeah.”

“Then suit up.”

○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○

Y/n is flying in the sky searching the ground to see where Thor landed until a massive lightning bolt all most hits her, Y/n flys out the way and looks down and see Thor.

“Really you couldn’t killed me!” Y/n shouted as she flys down to Thor who is standing in a meadow of flowers.

“I know about Phill.” Y/n said with a hint of sadness.

“I’m sorry. I know he meant the world to you.” Thor said as he gives Y/n a hug then placed his forehead on her for a moment of silence.

“I’ll deal with Loki I gave you my word.” Thor declare.

“What happens if you get hurt?” Y/n asked.

“You will not risky your life me Y/n not again.” Thor disclosed getting upset for his friend.

“I won’t but I won’t yet you get hurt knowing I can help...come on I know where Loki is.” Y/n voiced leaving no room for an argument.

○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○

Captain America pulls on his Helmet and Shield. Tony welds his Iron Man helmet. Light slips down over Iron Man's eye holes. Black Widow attaches a glove gauntlet with her rounds on her wrist and a blue light charges. Hawkeye slips on his quiver of arrows.

○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○

Cap, Widow and Hawkeye walk towards and into the Quinjet. A Young Shield Pilot looks and stands in their way.

“You are not authorized to be here...” The Pilot stated.

“Son... just don't.” Steve told the The Pilot.

○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○

Fury looks the window of the ship, contemplating. Agent Hill

walks up to him, knowing. “Sir.”

“Agent Hill?”

“Those cards, they were in Coulson's locker, not in his jacket.” Agent Hill disclosed.

“They needed the push.” Nick said holding Coulson's cards.

A loud noise screeches. Fury looks out to see Iron Man flying off as well as the Quinjet.

“They found it. Get our communications back up, whatever you have to do. I want eyes on everything.” Nick ordered.

“Yes, sir.”

Part 10

Kuddly Krab: @aesthethickks

#loki x reader #loki x black!reader #thor x reader #steve x reader #steve x black!reader #marvel x reader #avengers x reader

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heavenlysan · 5 years

Text

Cruel Love 8

Words: 3,7k

Chapters:

| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7

(Y/N's POV)

He was the last man I was expecting to see at my door, what is he even doing here? He shouldn't be seen around here. I open the door and I quickly drag him inside.

"Are you insane?" I exasperatedly yell. Dylan was standing there with a pizza in his hands and confused for suddenly getting scolded.

"Well hello to you as well dear" He makes himself at home and gets directly to the kitchen "I know we're not supposed to be in touch but I think we seriously need to talk and I brought pizza because you always said to never show up at your place without food"

"I can't share details with you about the case you already know that" I sit at the table right in front of him.

"It's not necessarily about the case I just think something wrong is happening" He moves his bangs exposing his forehead he has a big bruise, what the hell happened? "You know how I called you and asked you about a paper?"

"Yes, but how is that connected with your bruise? What happened to you?" He starts eating a piece of pizza, why is he so calmed?

"I told you I was going to clean your apartment while you're staying here for God knows how long right?" I nod. "When I got to your apartment everything was a mess and I thought well Y/N isn't always precisely clean so it wasn't a big surprise and then since everything was triggering my perfectionistic ass I cleaned first and then later I searched for that paper, when I finally found it"

"Dylan just go to the point" I shrug playfully.

"I'm getting there, I found the paper and I left it on top your couch so I could just take out the trash go back to get the paper and then leave but that's where it got weird"

"How?"

"While I was taking out the trash I got beat up" His smile disappears. "You know how I always think positive before jumping to conclusions so I thought well Y/N doesn't live in the most secure neighbourhood so maybe someone confused me with someone, but then it got weirder. When I went back inside your apartment the paper wasn't there anymore"

I rest on my chair, not understanding what is happening right now.

"And I wanted to know exactly how close were you able to get with that man, what was his name Choi San?"

"So what you're saying is that you think it was him?" He nods and I chuckle without realizing. "How could this possible be him? For several reasons first my last case has nothing to do with him, he doesn't know you, he doesn't know I lived there and last why would he need that paper?"

"Listen I just have a big hypothesis, but first does he like you?" I keep quite genuinely not knowing how to answer that after all San only said I think I like you but didn't confirm it "Okay that silence confirms it he likes you, listen here I go he most likely found out about you being a detective but he likes you so he is just gonna pretend nothing happened to keep seeing you, but he is a jealous possessive man and just wants you all for himself and mistook our friendship with something else and beat me up and stole my paper just to mess more with me" This time I laugh loudly, hysterically.

"Ah I was having a bad day but thank you for making me laugh like that" But he doesn't laugh "There's a lot of not clicking stuff in your hypothesis first of all I don't think San is that type of man if he had found out that I'm a detective he would've killed me without hesitation. And I'll tell you why but you better keep it to yourself because I'm not supposed to be sharing stuff about the case with anyone but Irene"

"Who am I even gonna share it with? My dog? Just keep talking"

"One of his friends told me something about San, I don't remember his exact words but something about how he thought the whole relationships thing was over for San so It's been on my mind that probably he went through some bad stuff with women or was I don't know maybe betrayed and now he probably has a hard time trusting people so" I take a pause to finally get a bite "if he takes betrayal like a stab in the heart I don't think I would be alive if he knew the truth"

"And how did you manage to make him open up"

"I got lucky I guess, besides I don't really see him as a possessive man because.." I look up from my plate when I realise I was about to unveil San's recent crimes. "He doesn't have that vibe"

"Okay then maybe I'm a bad detective and I read everything wrong, but just be careful with this man the FBI sent you with zero undercover training"

"I think you're the one who should be careful, just connect the dots Dylan, you are looking for a murderer who kills people every year on the same day, when you arrived at my apartment everything was a mess like someone was desperately looking for something, the paper, the important clue to the case and then you got beat up and suddenly the biggest clue disappears. I think they know you're looking for them"

"Now I know why they didn't want me to go in your place you're a better detective than I am" He laughs despite all the things I said of the possibility of the murderer knowing his moves.

"You are the one who trained me does that mean the student surpassed the master?" He chuckles "But I'm being serious please be careful out there I don't want you dead"

"I'll be fine, you better than anyone else knows how tough it's our job we're always in danger but we keep going" He looks at me tilting his head a little bit "Being out of that office helped you a lot you look… alive"

I almost choke on my pizza "Are you saying I looked dead before?"

"No there's just something different about you, you needed some fresh air I guess"

Dylan stayed for the rest of the afternoon, we didn't really keep talking about each other's cases, he just rambled on about random things that crossed his mind. Talking with him has always been so easy and funny while working he made work less stressful. And this time it definitely felt refreshing talking with someone from my real life with no yelling like the times I talk with Irene.

The night came before we even noticed.

"Just call a taxi this street isn't really crowded and not many taxis pass around here you'll be waiting outside in the dark and the cold for too long" I said with a worried voice.

"It's okay mom, I can walk a few blocks and then take the bus no big deal" He smiles and rolls his eyes.

I cringe at him calling me mom, but I've always been protective when it comes to Dylan, my only friend "Did you even hear a word about my whole tedtalk of taking care? Or it went in one ear and out the other?"

"No, it didn't I promise I'll be careful and look behind my back wherever I go" He raises his pinky and locks it with mine.

"A pinky promise, really?" I cringe even more but he's always like this. He then smiles and waves goodbye.

I close the door and I can't help but feel worried about him, even if we got the conclusion of San not being the one who beat him up there's still someone out there who did it, who knows his moves and where I lived. If I could only remember what was on that paper but it's been quite a long time since I read all the things I compiled about all the people killed and all of the suspects.

I sit on the floor in front of the couch, there's this feeling inside of me like a pain or a knot in my heart, that makes me… sad? like a presentiment like some bad shit is gonna happen soon and it worries me, I don't want more bad things happening in my life I'm over it I already went through a lot of bad stuff I deserve a break.

I bury my hands on my pockets and I feel a tiny paper I take it out and it's San's phone number with a message

Princess I know you're mad at me but if you need me for anything don't hesitate to message me or call me whatever you prefer I'll be there as soon as I can.

When did he even put his phone number inside my pocket? A brilliant idea crosses my mind. I have his phone number, with that I can hack his phone in its entirety. Most people have their bank accounts linked to their phones so payments can be ten times easier. This way I can not only have access to his phone but all the payments he makes, all the phone calls he makes and know everything he's involved in.

Last time Irene forgot her laptop here, in just a matter of minutes I have it connected and ready to get in his phone, hacking has never been hard for me. I type all the codes I need to get inside I do everything correctly and perfectly and I finally have access to his phone. I stare blankly at the screen in front of me. Nothing. There's nothing in there no bank accounts, no contacts, nada. It's probably a new phone to communicate just with me, he really is smart and careful with everything he does.

Frustrated I go to bed and try to sleep, I've had enough of this day I feel like I'm doing everything wrong. And I can't help but feel useless normally I'm efficient in the way I do my job but right now I feel like I haven't moved forward at all.

…

"Do you really think that attractive and rich man likes you? Wake up Y/N now that he knows everything about you, he sees you with pity you're just part of a charity, his good action of the day. Be smarter for once in your life" That man yells right in front of my face "You're still ugly and useless, he just wanted to have sex and he got it and now he's just going to desapear" For once I try to speak back but I can't it feels like my words drown in my mouth and can't be released "What? you want to speak? Are you gonna be a bad girl? Just remember that nobody can hear you" He starts approaching me untying his red tie trying to touch me.

"No!" I wake up tearing up, shaking and completely covered in sweat. I thought the nightmares had ceased but I guess I was wrong. I get up to get a glass of water still trembling. In moments like this I really hate being all alone. I glance at the clock 6am when did I even sleep that much? A hard and desperate knock on the door startles me and makes me accidentally drop my glass of water.

"Y/N open the door it's me, Irene" She yells. But why is she here way earlier than she said she will? And knocking like that. I open the door and there she is but to my surprise she isn't alone she's with two cops by her side.

"What are you doing here so early I still don't have any updates"

"I ordered you to be a prostitute not a full time criminal" She pushes me hard against the wall handcuffing me "Y/N you're under arrest for the brutal murder of Oliver Miller"

"Who the fuck is that?" I try to resist but the cops interfere.

"You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can be used against you in court. You have the right to talk to a lawyer for advice before we ask you any questions"

"Get off me I didn't do shit" I yell and I kick but it's useless they're not hearing a word I say.

"You have the right to have a lawyer with you during questioning. If you cannot afford a lawyer, one will be appointed for you before any questioning if you wish. If you decide to answer questions now without a lawyer present, you have the right to stop answering at any time."

I try to run but it's all in vain, I don't even know who that man was, this has to be a big misunderstanding. They push me into the car handcuffed and barefoot. I know exactly how this works even if I speak and demand explanations, they see me as the criminal right now and they won't speak back to me and I'll just be wasting breath. I have to keep quiet till we get to the department to have an interrogation.

"Killing a man, I really don't know what was crossing your mind" Irene says without looking at me, using her sleeve to clear the fog accumulating on her window.

I know she's doing that on purpose to make me talk about it but whatever I say right now will be used against me later on. I won't fall in her trap.

We get to the station and I feel sick and cold, this just can't be real. I don't even know the man they're talking about. Irene is sitting next to me without saying a word.

"Get her ready for interrogation, the mother's victim is still in the room, she's gonna have to wait a few minutes" I recognise that man it's a detective but from a different department than mine I've seen him a few times but I don't remember his name.

I see a lot of faces passing by in front of me some familiar some unknown but this time it's different right now I'm seen as the criminal, as the guilty one and all the people passing in front of me look at me with a disgusted expression on their faces

"wasn't she a detective?"

"I saw it coming to be honest"

"but she's so young"

"I always thought she looked like a weirdo and a little suspicious"

I hear people murmuring things about me and I can't help but feel sad. I am innocent. But none of them stop to see the facts.

"You, come here we have some questions for you" Irene stands too "She has to come alone, we already have a lawyer for her" The detective from earlier says.

I go to the interrogation room I've been in charge of interrogation before but it's been just a couple of times. There's another man in the room my lawyer I assume.

"Miss y/n this is your lawyer Mr. Thompson and I'm detective Jones" He sits in front of me I'm really nervous and I just want to scream of frustration because I shouldn't be here but I have to look normal and calmed "We're aware of the case you're involved in right now, but miss you have to know that you're not above the law, why did you tortured and killed Oliver Miller?"

I keep quiet for a moment, I have to think this through and not just answer out of frustration.

"We have evidence of your previous actions against this man, it's footage of a security camera across the street from your apartment" He hands me a computer and now everything makes sense, it's the man who was harassing the other day. But this video shows what I couldn't remember, turns out this man not only said nasty things to me but he dared to touch my butt and I was right I punched him more than I remembered.

I know I didn't kill him but San… His words hit me like a thunder. Leave her alone or I promise I'll kill you. Oh God San why…

"That's you in the video isn't it?"

"It is me I just didn't know his name"

"It's obvious that my client was defending herself as you can see in the evidence Oliver Miller sexualy harassed my client" My lawyer says showing back the screen to detective Jones.

"Yes and that's why she had reasons to kill him, is that why you did it?" He yells and stomps his hands on the table. He's trying to intimate me and get me to confess out of pressure and fear.

"I did had an altercation with Oliver Miller but that was, like my lawyer just said self defense against a sexual predator and that was it I didn't see him again after that"

"The thing is miss, we don't have more footage after that little fight, did you delete it? We know how good you are at hacking" That's a good argument actually. But it's bullshit.

"No I didn't hack anything I don't have my computer with me in my new apartment"

"Really? Because we sent people to check your new apartment and there's a laptop in there and you know what we found? You were hacking something before the police showed up"

"My client said she doesn't have her computer with her in this new apartment" My lawyer replies.

"Yes my lawyer is right I don't have my computer, that laptop is not mine is Irene's, my supervisor"

"What were you hacking then?" This detective I swear… I know he's just doing his job but still.

"That was part of the case I'm working on right now and according with my contract I'm not supposed to share details about it with anyone but Irene" He looks at me exasperatedly, he knows I'm a detective and he knows getting me to confess out of pressure is not gonna work with me. He leaves me alone with my lawyer for a moment.

"Miss Y/N you need to tell me the truth so I can have good arguments did you kill that man?" My lawyer asks while opening his briefcase to get a little notebook.

"No I didn't, I swear"

He leaves the room as well. In my opinion I think I did pretty good. In a certain angle I lied, I don't remember beating that man that much or him touching my butt. But if I had mentioned it they would've imprisoned me immediately if I didn't remember beating that man they're going to think I don't remember killing him as well.

I also could've used Dylan as a witness, he saw me the whole afternoon till the night fell but they could punish him as we're not supposed to have contact. And last I could've blamed San on the spot so easily, but… I couldn't. Before throwing him to the FBI I want to speak to him directly.

Irene enters the room I thought she had left already.

"I got an agreement" She says as she sits in front of me.

"What is it?" I reply

"Mr Miller was found in front of his building his body stayed in the rain for too long and that erased every trail of the murderer. Since you're the only suspect the mom of the victim demands a punishment" She looks at me more serious than she ever looked "You're not going to jail, but you're gonna lose your credibility as a detective and after you're done with your undercover mission you're going to be fired since this brings a bad image to your department"

"You're crazy" I say shaking my head this just can't be happening right now.

"Careful with the way you talk to me I managed to get this agreement but if you don't want it we can send you to jail" She angrily gets up and stands in front of me.

I don't want to cry specially here, I hate crying in front of others. But this is so unfair. "Why should I keep going with the case, you can do it on your own then"

"It doesn't work like that you signed a contract" She sits again "The mother of the victim will think that you went to jail and for that she doesn't have to see you around the neighbourhood so you're gonna have to leave that apartment"

"Does that mean I can go back to my old apartment?" I discreetly wipe my tears away.

"No and the FBI can't get you another one, stay in the car we gave you for awhile"

This time I slam my hands on the table and she jumps startled for my sudden action "So I'm not only gonna lose my job but you also want me to be fucking homeless?"

She nods "Is that or going to jail, it's your choice"

170 notes · View notes

jay-and-dean · 5 years

Text

Rescue You Chapter 2 : October 28,29 and 31.

Dean x reader

Summary : My name is Y/n. I’m the outcast of my witch community. This is the story of how I rescued Dean Winchester, the story of how he saved me.

Serie Warnings : Swearing. Injuries. Smut. Fluff. Angst.

Chapter warning : Injuries.

Words : 2.9k

***Rescue You Chapter 1***

***Want to read more ? => MASTERLIST***

__________________________________

October 28, 7am.

Something hurts badly on my back and shoulders, it wakens me.

I open my eyes and my heart races. I fell asleep in the cabin ! Shit ! I spent the whole night taking care of the man they call the king of hunters while they were celebrating his death like it was an equinox. They made Ophelia the youngest member of the Coven and talked about how they just changed the world.

I just left. And spent the night here.

Suddenly a pain hit my chest : Is he dead ? I turn my head to check on him, really hoping, everything was not for nothing. But my breath get caught in my throat and I jump.

His eyes are open.

I crawl back as fast as I can in a held back scream. I was just within easy reach, he could have killed me just like that. How could I be so reckless ? How could I feel comfortable enough to fall asleep just there, on the floor, beside my mortal enemy ?

I look at him for an instant, he takes a labored, trembling inhale. His swollen piercing green eyes are full of questions, and drowned in pain, I can’t even imagine how much suffering he must be feeling. But he doesn’t talk, or move his face at all.

“H-hi… My name is Y/n” I say, trying to sound calm. “You’re badly hurt… I-I tried to heal you but you… you need medicine, and to drink something.”

He tries to talk but his mouth barely moves so he sighs in a discreet whine of pain and frustration.

“It’s okay…” I raise my hands in a sign of peace. “Listen, I have to take this opportunity of you being awake to give you something to drink, and painkillers. I gave you anti-biotics with a syringe but you need… W-will you kill me if I try to sit you just a little to make you drink ?”

Still no answer… With shaking hands, I put a palm on his forehead and sigh, he’s still burning with fever.

“I will check your wound now, don’t move… Please.”

Saying that, I push the blanket down to reveal his chest and stomach ; he tries to move, like he was afraid, but the ties I used and his extreme weakness doesn’t allow it. I move the bandage a little and frown, there is a huge inflammation but the bleeding stopped thanks to the magic ointment.

“From what I know… you have a knife wound on your stomach, broken ribs, a badly broken leg, a bruise almost the size of your back, cuts everywhere, but that’s okay, and your head has been hit hard, I really hope you don’t have head trauma…” I list, trying to help him stay awake. “You may have other things but I will only know when you’re able to tell me where it hurts, okay ?”

His lips says “yes” but no sound comes out.

“I’m sorry I had to tie you up… I just… don’t want to get killed” I sigh.

Once again, his lips move, but I can’t understand what he says, so I come closer, knowing the risk I take. I kneel close to him.

“Same ?” I ask but he keeps going. “Sammy ?”

He closes his eyes in relief.

“No Sammy here, I’m sorry…” he sighs in pain. “Is he friend or enemy ?… Friend. Okay… Your phone is dead, but I’ll try to contact him.”

He weakly nods.

I stay here a few seconds, watching his swollen face. Then I slowly untied him, my palms sweating.

“I do this because I want to give you something to drink, please don’t attack me, you can’t go anywhere, for now you need me…” I keep talking.

After the ties are undone, I take all I need before I come sit behind his head. Lifting it slowly, I put it on my knees and move them to have him a little higher, his head almost on my belly, and my legs on his back to make him a little straighter. He grunts in pain.

“I’m sorry” I say sincerely. “Okay, you need sugar and painkillers and water… So I’ll mix the three. This is high-calorie drink, and see, I put powerful painkiller in it…”

I let it melt and stir it with the straw. Then I give it to him. He refuses it, closing his mouth so I sigh and lower my arms in defeat. Of course he doesn’t trust me.

“Mister Winchester” I say softly. “I will do my best to keep you alive, but if you don’t heal soon, they will find you, and kill both of us…”

I put my hand on his forehead again and decide to add paracetamol in the drink to lower the fever. I show him what I do, really hoping he will drink what I give him.

“Please…” my voice is exhausted, but I won’t give up so easily. “At least try.”

He lets his lips part and I thank him in a sigh of relief. When he almost chokes on the first sip, I try to comfort him by touching his sweaty forehead, stroking it a little while the cough with his broken ribs makes him almost faint in pain.

“It’s okay… It’s okay… You need more, just a little more for me M. Winchester. Please…”

After a few minutes, he finishes it, it was a very small glass, but this is victory. I stay a little beneath is back to make sure he doesn’t choke.

“You’ll feel better with the painkillers… I-I’m sorry, I didn’t manage to put you on the bed but, when you’ll be able to move, I promise I’ll help you, the wooden floor must be horrible and cold… I’m really sorry, do you need another blanket ?”

His mouth says “no”.

“I have to go M. Winchester. If they look for me too long, they will be suspicious. Just don’t move or try to go out okay ? We’re in the middle of the forest. And don’t call or anything… I’m the only one who doesn’t want you dead for miles. I’m sorry… I’ll check on you tonight, I promise…”

October 29, 9am;

Sweating, I look at my watch. Shit. I had a lot of deliveries to do this morning, and, even waking up early, I didn’t manage to finish yet. I was asked for two different mushrooms and at least five plants. I can’t believe people calling themselves witches can’t go in the woods themselves to find ingredients… But at least it gives me the best opportunity to wonder without anybody looking for me.

While I look for the required ingredients in my way to the cabin, I think about yesterday evening. The hunter still didn’t talk, but he was awake again. I cleaned his wounds, checked his leg, and gave him something to drink again. I really hope today he will be able to eat something I brought.

I’ve never felt so alive in my entire life, my senses are in alert, my brain works quicker, and I do my duties so faster. The only thing obsessing me is making him survive, and the pain he feels.

I know who Sammy is now, his brother. Sam Winchester. I hear they are really close and literally went to Hell for each other. To actual Hell. They are all the community talks about lately, from my mother to the witch of the post office. They sent Sam a magical untraceable message, saying his brother was dead, with the rest of his blood and a picture of the car that still lays in the forest, under an invisibility spell.

I don’t know that Sam-guy, but as they celebrate his older brother death, and keep rewarding Ophelia, they seem really afraid of him, they reinforced security. I wish I could contact him, but none of my calls can go out the town since I tried to contact my father years ago, and I have no idea where to send a letter. It wouldn’t be such a good idea anyway, his brother can’t be moved for now so I’d better keep him with me a little more… At least that’s what I tell myself.

When I finally see the cabin, with already almost all my ingredients for later, my heart races a little as usual. I push the door and see his eyes are closed. I rush toward him to check his pulse.

Thank the Goddesses, he’s alive. But there is something wrong… the blanket is wet… But not blood. Oh !

I get up and put my face in my hands, how could I have never thought of that. He’s a human being. Good think he’s unconscious, because I wouldn’t have wanted to face the look on a warrior that peed himself’s eyes.

I rush to the bathroom and take towels, soap and a basin of water. Please don’t wake up… I think pushing the cover. With a sigh, I push his boxers down, trying not to look at him. Now what… I take the little towel and soak it, rubbing the soap on it to make foam.

The instant I put the wet towel on his stomach, he wakes up in a deep inhale. Cold water.

“I’m sorry” I wince. “It’s cold…”

“No…” he painfully whispers, trying to move but the restrains keep him still and he’s completely paralyzed by weakness and pain.

“You can’t move…” I sigh. “It’s okay, see me as a nurse” I try.

I keep my eyes away when I wash his chest, just looking enough to avoid the wounds. I wash his arms and shoulders, better do it all at once. While I rinse the towel and put more soap on it, I notice the look on his face, jaw clenched, eyes shut in a frown. Dignity must be pretty much all is left for a man that went to actual Hell.

“I told them you were dead” I say to catch his attention on anything else.

With the fresh foam I start washing his legs, careful with the splint.

“They will kill me when they’ll know… If… If they know” I wash his thighs. “But they already hate me so I guess that will just give them an excuse” I lift my head to look at his face. “I guess I deserve their hate though… Hiding a mortal enemy.” I stroke his hips and finally wash his intimate parts, trying to look at it the less I can, and I keep casually talking to distract him. “You must be asking yourself where you are… It’s my cabin. I mean it wasn’t mine but it became, so don’t worry, no one comes here, except me.” I push his hips up a little to wash under him, his butt and lower back. “And the cabin is invisible for humans, but also for demons and angels… So just me. Here you go…”

I go to the bathroom, I come back with clean water and another little towel. As I start to rinse the soap on his body, he looks at my face intensely, like he was trying to read me.

I never saw a body like his, and I really try to be indifferent to him, but every scar is a mystery, a story I will never know. He’s so strong and manly and… I surprise myself comparing him with Aiden, the only other men I’ve seen naked, and it’s like they weren’t even of the same matter.

When I feel myself blushing, I decide I have to distract myself too.

“Okay, now I’ll dry you, but I have no clothes, and I can’t give you the blanket, so I’ll give you my hoodie to hide, I quickly go find something for the cold, don’t worry okay ?”

I take off my oversized hoodie and shiver at the feeling of cold air on me. After wiping the floor where he lays, I put it on him and notice he passed out again.

October 31, 6am.

As usual, I get up earlier, take a quick shower and breakfast and go before anybody wakes up at home. Tonight is Halloween, and if I’m not allowed in most ceremonies, I have to attempt the Halloween rituals, even men do. It means I won’t see the hunter tonight. It will be the first time in four days I don’t visit him at least twice and I’m terrified.

Yesterday he said two or three weak words to make me notice wounds I haven’t seen, like his dislocated shoulders… But this time I had at least painkillers to give him. He can’t really sit, but he moves just a little more now his shoulder is in place. He will soon be able to go to the toilets and on the bed.

I go out of the house with a big bag full of stuffs for him and cross the empty streets to join the woods. I go through the neighborhood, rushing when I cross Aiden’s garden, because I know he wakes up early. But he’s here, taking the mails.

“Y/n ?” he stops me with a surprised look.

“Hey…” I sigh involuntarily.

“In a hurry ?” he asks with that kind sad smile he always have.

“Yeah… Halloween…”

“I wanted to tell you… I’m sorry they sent you after Dean Winchester alone… This pisses me off, you could have died. Ophelia got all the rewards and…”

“It’s okay” I cut him. “It’s really okay, I didn’t kill him so…”

“Still, what if he had still been alive ?”

“We’re not allowed to talk” I say coldly, thinking about the hunter alone in the cabin.

“I know, but I really miss you” that sad smile again.

I miss him too, and usually I tell him, but not today. I nod and tell him to have a nice day, which is pretty ridiculous to answer. Then I leave hoping he won’t notice something is wrong with me, Aiden knows me too well.

When I enter the cabin, I smile seeing the hunter is awake. I put the bag on the floor and kneel, as usual.

“I will untie you for a while” I say, already doing it. “Today you will try to eat something solid, I brought mashed potatoes with pieces of chicken…”

He looks at me and tries to sit but fails. It’s strange, seeing him in those clothes ; I gave him the sweater I had kept from Aiden and bought boxers in the store, careful to not catch attention.

“Wait, I’ll help you but first…” I inject medicine on his arm, trying not to hurt him too much with the needle.

After I cleaned his wounds and checked the fever, I sit behind him, helping him until, this time, he’s almost sitting, resting on my chest between my legs.

“The good news are, I don’t think the stabbing touched any vital organ, or you would have died already, and the fever is going down… Bad news are…” I put the bowl in front of him and propose him the fork, he takes it weakly. “I won’t come back today. It’s Halloween and it’s a big deal in the community. Not fun Halloween night like in movies though… Sacrifice of a goat, never-ending rituals and powers demonstrations.”

He tries to take a bite but his arm won’t carry his own weight to his mouth so I just push under it to make it easier, without making him feel like I’m feeding him.

“They will bully me again…” I sigh falling silent.

“Who ?” he whispers after a little while, making my heart race at the idea of him actually listening to me.

“Everyone.” I push under his arm again. “I’m… I’m not thought highly of them… See… I have no powers and…”

I shouldn’t be telling him that. I stop talking and help him eat until he doesn’t want anymore. After a while he sighs and almost passes out again.

“Wait ! M. Winchester, I haven’t given you your meds yet” I say, touching his cheek from behind.

“Dean…” he grunts.

“Dean” I state with a shy smile. “Is your valid leg working just a little ?”

He moves it and shrugs, immediately wincing.

After half an hour, he’s finally on the bed, he’s sweating from pain but I couldn’t stand seeing him on the floor like that anymore. He’s so brave, so silent. The fear is fading, even if I still feel like when I rescued that wolf from Ollie’s trap, knowing he could kill me, just hoping he will understand I’m trying to cut the ropes for him.

“Look what I bought !” I smile with an old remote in my hand. “It has a shitty image and only three channel but that way you won’t die of boredom.” I turn the old TV toward him. “This is the bottle for… you know, this is a bottle of coke, just don’t mistake them” I try to joke.

Half a smile appears on his face and it’s like I saw a whole knew him.

I give him covers and make sure the pillow under his head is okay. I put a pill of painkiller in a little bottle next to him, and make sure he can reach everything. Then I look at him one last time hesitating for a second. How am I supposed to say that I will miss him… Because I sure will.

I turn and open the door in a sigh.

“Y/n” he says, letting me hear his voice clearly this time. “Thank you.”

_____________________________

***FEEDBACK IS EVERYTHING

Forever Tags : @parinarain @animegirlgeeky @mogaruke @masterof-agony @rainflowermoon @tftumblin @deans-baby-momma @roonyxx @animegirlgeeky @paradoxical–intentions @thefaithfulwriter@parinarain@vicariouslythruspn @emeow1496@daryldixonandfrogs @holylulusworld @cocklesbelli @sandlee44 @mogaruke @masterof-agony @mogaruke @screenchingartisancashbailiff @donnaintx @hawaiianohana31 @akshi8278 @magssteenkamp @sister-winchesters99 @neii3n

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wildcardwriting · 5 years

Text

How Social Media Infected the Glory Pro Circle #3

(or Conversations Most of the Glory Pro Community Would Like to Forget Existed)

[King’s Avatar /全职高手 - 蝴蝶蓝 | Quánzhí Gāoshǒu - Húdié Lán ]

Next Chapter | Previous Chapter

Read on AO3

Summary: Or Ye Xiu is forced to deal with his fans. No one saw what was coming next.Because the alliance wants more exposure (i.e. fame) for the pro gamers, all pros are mandated to respond to questions from the fans.Naturally, this leads to some…strange conversations and some stranger answers. Likely will lead into AU TKA UniversePart Story, and TKA fun. Will include some social media.

XXxxxxxXX

Chapter #3: When Ye Qiu (The Real One) Reads

XXxxxxxXX

The familiar cadence of Glory keyboard inputs echoed throughout the room. There was a lull in activity as everyone waited for the next scheduled dungeon raid to happen or for a wild boss to appear. Some members were doing light exercises, some were napping, while others were just surfing the net, and others were eating some snacks. There were quite a few members of the guild gathered in the room, but most of them were around one computer. They had odd looks on their faces as they glanced back and forth between the screen and Ye Xiu but none of them said a word to the person in question.

While most in Excellent Era knew about Ye Xiu's AMA, few beyond the core team had spoken to him about it. To most members of Excellent Era, Ye Xiu was an existence that was beyond all of them. Seasoned and renowned as the current champion, few dared to interact with him feeling themselves unworthy of his presence. Normal staff in the building had rarely even spoken a word to him, and although no one had said they needed to read his AMA on Reddit many of them found themselves drawn to the page wondering perhaps if they might finally be able to glimpse something of their resident god.

To their collective shock and laughter, Ye Qiu was so completely different then many of them had imagined. Where they had once seen cold arrogance, and disregard, many of them began to realize that Ye Qiu was simply very blunt and perhaps somewhat out of touch of social interactions. Yes, he was blunter then many of them were accustomed to but that didn't mean he wasn't kind. Little by little stories were being shared of deeds he had done for others, either secretly or directly for other people. There had been rumors before, but because no one had come out and said anything. People were coming out and telling stories about Ye Qiu reaching out and helping people. Former pros had even chimed in, telling stories of him lending them money to get back on their feet, stories of him cleaning up training rooms, and buying food for some of the poorer trainees.

Ye Qiu was becoming more real and human in a way many of the staff had forgotten. Ye Qiu was no longer some untouchable god and to many that comforted them. Ye Qiu may have won championships, but that didn't mean he thought himself better than them. He cared about the people of Excellent Era beyond winning trophies.

(When Ye Qiu asked to play Glory with the janitor of Excellent Era a few days later, no one said anything, but it was clear from the atmosphere in the room that the tone of Excellent Era had shifted.)

XXxxxxXX

SMS

[🍁 Autumn Chat 🍁]

[🍃 Ye Qiu 🍃 and 🍂Ye Xiu 🍂 online.]

🍂Ye Xiu 🍂: Change your username on all your accounts dìdì

🍃 Ye Qiu 🍃 : Why? What did you do?

🍂Ye Xiu 🍂: Nothing important. Just change them.

🍃 Ye Qiu 🍃: Why?

🍃 Ye Qiu 🍃: Stupid brother you better not still be using my name.

🍃 Ye Qiu 🍃: Brother! Answer me!

User 🍂Ye Xiu 🍂 is writing....

🍂Ye Xiu 🍂: Bye. 😎😎😎

User 🍂Ye Xiu 🍂 has signed out.

🍃 Ye Qiu 🍃: Brother.

🍃 Ye Qiu 🍃: Fine. I'll look into myself if you won't tell me anything.

🍃 Ye Qiu 🍃: Don't think I won't.

🍃 Ye Qiu 🍃: Stupid unfamil brother, what did you do?

🍃 Ye Qiu 🍃: Why are so many people still bothering me? Link

🍃 Ye Qiu 🍃: And why are they calling me Old Ye? I'm not old.

🍃 Ye Qiu 🍃: Brother!

🍃 Ye Qiu 🍃: Reply already.

🍃 Ye Qiu 🍃: Stupid brother what does PK even mean?

🍃 Ye Qiu 🍃: What is apm, and why is this important?

🍃 Ye Qiu 🍃: Nevermind. I figured it out. Somewhat.

🍃 Ye Qiu 🍃: Though why this is important is beyond me. Of course, you can move your fingers fast. You played the piano for years under Madam Le. She would never have tolerated anything less than the best.

🍃 Ye Qiu 🍃: Regardless, call me brother. I need to talk to you.

🍃 Ye Qiu 🍃: Its been two days brother.

🍃 Ye Qiu 🍃: Call me.

🍃 Ye Qiu 🍃: Brother!

XXxxxxXX

YQ Thread Reactions Annual Forever Fall News #7

Posted by u/LeafTreeFan

[Comment is Pinned.] LeafTreeFan: I expected so many things when I first started reading the response on YQ’s AMA and I have to say that every single word out of his mouth computer boils down to two reactions, shock or laughter. I feel like I missed so much before this became a reality. So Much potential wasted. Upvoted 29.4k

Lumasamear: So much potential wasted. 😧😧😧😧😧 Upvoted 3.9k

SunCoasting: I just let myself bask in his ‘Glory’. 😎 And that sass. Upvoted 3.8k

Inaweofautumn: Don't you mean that ass? Upvoted 1.2k

SunCoasting: No @Inaweofautumn. At least not until we know what he looks like. Upvoted 2k / Downvoted 5k

CounterClock: So much sass in one…(looks up YQ height) 178 cm person. Upvoted 5.1k

Excellent Era (Qin Tianran): We know this well. Upvoted 7.5k

CrypticBask: !!!! Upvoted 6.7k

NeatHosts: !!!! Upvoted 6.4k

CounterClock: !!!! I've been noticed! Upvoted 1.2k

SnowDancer: Congrats on being noticed! Upvoted 9.0k

Hyper_Battery: [Fanning self] Upvoted 12.0k

LandonFELL: And then there’s the random pro’s constantly chiming in so much that I was like this 😃😃😃😃😃😃 almost all the time. Like I figured that other pros knew each other, but some of the interactions just killed me. Upvoted 16.4k

EatsWilder: The line "It wasn't until the pro alliance started up that I realized so many played the game I loved. And then I met the other captains of the other teams. I wondered if I was in the wrong place. Wu Xuefeng assured me otherwise. He must have been lying. " will be permanently imprinted upon my brain for its sheer amount of sass.

GiveYouCandyandKisses: hey you forgot the rest of that quote!

EatswWilder: Sorry, can't type fast enough. Here, "His honest face is a trap."

AftertheFire: 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 That line!

NewMapsDrawn: If that makes you laugh, you should pay for the premium edition where all of EE comments in the margins. Its 1000% gold.

BeginningNew: There's a premium edition? Since When? How much?

StormbyStorm: Here's the link. It cost around 520 (RMB) but I've heard there's going to be a few given out with some special event that is taking place later on.

AcrosstheUniverse: Details?

StormbyStorm: None so far. 🤔

[rest of comments hidden click here to see more]

BreakingChainsandBills: Back on topic. Have you heard about the expansions to his thread? Upvoted 2.2k

CosmosDivide: Who hasn't. 😮😮😮😮 A full walkthrough complete with class guides, dungeon guides, raid guides, and possibly video streaming! Cue the screaming. Upvoted 13.6k

tykebarriers: What a time we are living in. I thought we'd never get anything from YQ beyond his presence at matches, and never have I been so happy to be proven wrong. ✨✨✨✨✨✨ Upvoted 23.5k

blindunnoticed: praise be Upvoted 2.4k

cattailsforever: praise be +1 Upvoted 1.5k

See all comments Show 27+ Pro Replies Show 15.0k+ Comments Share Save Hide Report

XXxxxxXX

Yin Ming was an up and coming hire to Excellent Era's Research and Development Department yet despite being new she was well connected. Hiding a smirk, she glanced around the office beside her, and at some of her coworkers, thankfully there was no one else in the room. Yet even from her position at the back of the room, she could see that most of her coworkers were all looking at the same page. She did not doubt that they were reading on the latest newsletter but just to be sure she sure that no one could see her computer screen she moved her desk a few inches to the right. At the current angle, she was at it was impossible to see her computer screen from the door but just in case she made sure that Guan Rongfei was still working in front of the room so even if someone from administration tried to entered they'd only the disaster that was Guan Rongfei and retreat.

Smiling, Yin Ming took a seat at her desk and switched on her computer. She clicked into her email and looking over her inbox she searched through her mail. After a tense five minutes of searching and wondering if perhaps she hadn’t been sent the most recent copy, she finally stumbled upon what she was looking for. Clicking on it, she got comfortable in her chair to read the current gossip.

XXxxxxXX

Annual Forever Fall Newsletter #7

[Section is viewable by link access only]

[Rules are Pinned.] All users are to remain anonymous. This section is for gossip, information and other bits of useful information about working, interacting, interning or training at EE. All departments are allowed. Usernames must be in the following format [Alias/Department] Note: If you are working in a department with fewer than five members, or would like to have extra security the following format can be used [usernameEE]. Thank you, everyone, for keeping this space for us. Remember this thread is a secret to everyone! :)

[Topic is Pinned.] ModlogEE submitted topic: YQ is the reason we no longer have to deal with Yao Wang. 🎉🌟🎉🌟🎉🌟🎉🌟

📎1 attachment

Praise me, everyone, on the internet, for I have the news!

Check it out! ⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️

Ye Qiu is at it again.

Last week he brought little Mucheng some breakfast and nearly all the trainees had a heart attack. It was glorious.

I know most of the readers are like, “Why is this important?" Well, to all my readers here’s the reason why. He stayed for a few hours teaching all the trainees and no one knew who he was. Because no one has seen him without his mask on but still. He smiled and was like “I’m a little good at this game” as if the captain of a three times winning team is only a little good. Anyways he then proceeded to defeat everyone once and then spent like twenty minutes going over their matches to help them improve.

That's when Yao Wang appeared (late as always!) and he was not pleased about Ye Qiu's presence, but not for the right reasons. He started going off on Ye Qiu about how he was going to ruin the trainees’ careers with his careless advice and Ye Qiu just stood there blinking. It was like he blue screened out of pure confusion.[1] And then guess who walks into the room but Wu Xuefeng himself.

Wu Xuefeng takes one look at the situation and at Yao Wang trying and failing to tear to Ye Qiu to bits before he calmly steps in between the pair and says quite calmly that “Ye Qiu would never give bad advice to anyone playing Glory” and the entire room goes silent. Because if the vice-captain of Excellent Era says that the young teen behind him is indeed Ye Qiu, no one is going to says he's wrong. And that just makes it worse because it's Ye Qiu the resident God of Excellent Era.

Yao Wang looks like he swallowed a lemon (good, that man deserves it. He's so sexist that everyone, including the guys, hates him anyway) and walks out of the room runs away and Wu Xuefeng makes a couple calls before manager Shaolin Tao appears and apologizes for the trouble because obviously someone messed up if no one knows what their resident god looks like.

But the most surprising part has yet to be revealed!

As Ye Qiu walked out of the room, he turns to tell Shaolin Tao that the AC would get fixed later that day. (I don't think I need to remind everyone about that damn AC in the lower half of the building that hasn’t gotten fixed in so long and that upper management refused to believe that it needed to be repaired.) Shaolin Tao nearly looked like he wanted to vanish into the floor. Because it was just so embarrassing and the old man had just resigned himself to the fact that the AC might not get fixed in time for summer, and here comes Ye Qiu and he's all like "this is a problem" and does something about it.

But it gets even juicer.

Ye Qiu paid for the repairs himself like it was no big deal.

I've attached the receipt as proof (the same one that was submitted to Tao Xuan later as evidence) in case there are doubters. (I've blocked out all the sensitive information but the signature is no lie.)

Comments:

KumoCloudEE: Boss Tao did reimburse YQ for the repairs if I'm not mistaken. But he was pretty upset that it was an issue for some reason. 😕😕😕😕😕 Whatever the rest of this was cool.

FanningCameraRD: This is the kind of content I needed in my life. YQ being all "baam this going to change" is like the best thing ever.

SquareDukeEE: I will admit I used to think YQ was some kind of an arrogant jerk, but I can't help but think he's just an awkward turtle. But his gameplay is completely fox-like though.

ChalkydeclareRD: YQ being a fox is something I could totally see. How dare you do this to me upstairs.

CandycreamSeekerEE: Hey, PR department got an idea I think you should hear. ⬆️⬆️⬆️⬆️⬆️

HawkStarryTrainee: Um, so just how did this whole thing lead to Yao Wang being fired??? I wasn't present for that part.

TiktokDropEE:⭐ Well, here's the general outline. I heard it from one of the building maintenance dudes. Apparently, after the mess that went down in the Training Camp Room #1, Wu Xuefeng paid a visit to Tao Xuan and had a rather pointed conversation. It was serious enough to get a bunch of pencil pushers to gather up some paperwork because immediately after that a group of secretaries and IT people were called into the room. Something about misfiled paperwork???? I don't know. But afterward, Yao Wang left with his stuff and he was sooooo angry. ⭐ [Comment has been starred.]

CranberryCookieSD: The paperwork in question was trainee results. I think it was wrong somehow? I'm not sure. I don't play Glory enough to understand what apm and so on means.

PersonaClueEE: It was trainee paperwork. Normally it was always signed off by Yao Wang and then submitted to Shaolin Tao for record-keeping. So if it was wrong in any way it affects Excellent Era's team placement, advancement, and contracts. If I had to guess Yao Wang may have been either inflating or deflating results, perhaps even going so far as completely lying on the forms. It's hard to tell.

EvaTreeTeaEE: Then that explains it.

BohrPieEE: Someone please connect the dots because I am so lost.

EvaTreeTeaEE: 🌟 Alright, so here's the full story near as I can tell. YQ goes to Training Room #1 for whatever reason, and Yao Wang appears and starts yelling at him. Then WXF enters and stops the yelling making Yao Wang leave. Then either because of this or in addition to this WXF goes to Boss Tao and tries to figure out how such a huge mistake happened i.e. Yao Wang not recognize YQ and the AC was broken and somehow no one knew. So paperwork is brought out to figure out who messed up and throughout this, it is discovered that Yao Wang was slanting all the trainees in some form. I'm assuming he was downplaying female players (considering his attitude) or was maybe inflating the performance of the male trainees, either way, it comes out and now everything needs to re-evaluated and its a huge mess. So quite a few people probably got in trouble because they were supposed to be checking on this sort of thing, and the fact that nothing was done probably has made upper management SUPER angry. I don't know if this will lead to other people being fired but so far Yao Wang was the only person fired, and as far as most of us care that makes the workplace 3000% better. He was a total sexist jerk. Whatever, this is as near as I can guess but there was probably more we don't know because of privacy/reputation reasons. 🌟 [Comment has been super starred.]

DaybreakFrontlineEE: Wow nice analysis! 😮😮😮😮😮😮😮

DDDLeeEE: Can confirm that no one else is going to get fired, but a few people were demoted/paycheck cut.

satisfactionstirringEE: Wow what a mess.

variedkioskEE: +1

XXxxxxXX

To say that Ye Qiu, brother of Ye Xiu knew nothing of games, would be a lie but unlike his brother who was a professional gamer, but Ye Qiu himself knew little.

When the brothers were younger and still living together, they often played together huddled around a small Gameboy from one of their trips to Japan. They didn't have many games for it even then, but it was one of the rare times they did anything together before the demands of their parents were too heavy. So Ye Qiu while not an expert in gaming knew a little bit about the world his brother worked in.

Typing in the name 'Glory' into the search bar, Ye Qiu was a little shocked to see how many results came up. Thinking for a second, he typed in his name and the word 'Glory' to the search bar and sat in to read. As his day off there was little to interrupt him, and considering he had given his secretary the day off, he was a little reluctant to bother her.

At least not yet.

Though depending on what he found out he may change his mind.

Scrolling down on some Wikipedia pages for his brother (because it had to be his stupid brother considering the characters used for the name) Ye Qiu read carefully about his brother. While he knew that his brother was famous he had little idea what being a professional gamer meant. He had had no idea that game could generate income and considering his brother was considered the top player there was little reason he shouldn't be earning top dollar.

Reading to the bottom of the page, Ye Qiu was surprised to see several new links attached to the page.

Clicking into them Ye Qiu was quiet for several minutes before his face went red and he moved passed some of the utter nonsense his brother had written. He just couldn't believe how ridiculous his brother was. As it was, Ye Qiu was seeing quite a few references to himself and their family however vague they might be to everyone else in the world.

Any other stranger might not be able to understand what his brother was getting at, but seeing some of his brother's response was a little embarrassing, Ye Qiu clicked off to the side inadvertently clicking open a comments section before he froze.

There were some usernames he recognized in the comments section and knowing the rest of his family, Ye Qiu was almost afraid to connect the dots on what he was thinking.

Reaching for his phone, Ye Qiu moved off of the chat between him and his brother and moved into the general family chat and typed in a single question. While he waited impatiently for the reply, Ye Qiu could help but think he was wrong and his suspicions were just the result of an overactive imagination, but at he stared at the letters in black and white he couldn't convince himself otherwise.

And then the reply came, and Ye Qiu groaned.

Of course, he was right.

Moving back into the chat with his brother Ye Qiu typed out eight words. His face moving through different emotions before he reached for his laptop and typed out a rather long email to his secretary.

What a mess.

Their parents were not going to be happy when this finally came out.

XXxxxxXX

While thousands of kilometers away from Beijing a single message appeared on Ye Xiu screen.

SMS

[🍁 Autumn Chat 🍁]

[🍃 Ye Qiu 🍃 and 🍂Ye Xiu 🍂 online.]

[🍃 Ye Qiu 🍃 ]: Grandfather and Grandmother know where you are brother.

XXxxxxXX

Welcome to Ye Qiu's Glory Walkthrough!

Unlike the first walkthrough that was completed and posted on Ye Qiu’s private account almost four years ago, and has remained untouched even through numerous patches, this walkthrough will be updated as more patches, attacks, rotations, tactics and so on evolve/created. This guide will seek to assist you through the main story adventure in Glory’s Main Quest and Side Quest mode, from your character’s creation to the final boss fight.

Currently, there are a few guides up, but more will be coming in the following weeks. So look back often!

Character Creation for Beginners

Tanks

Healers

Melee DPS

Ranged DPS

Magical DPS

Main Quest Walkthrough

Chapter 1 – Beginning Towns (Level 0-10)

Chapter 2 – Exploring and Basic Mat Mining

Chapter 3 – Cosmo Trial

Chapter 4 - Spider's Cave (Dungeon)

To be continued….

Arena for Beginners

Classic

Fixed Field

Betting Field

Group Match Classic

Group Betting Match

Comments [show]

LastManStanding4all: This makes me want to play Glory all over from the beginning just so I can see what I've messed.

AllergictoSecrets: This feeling I know well.

OneSnowFlake: you and everyone else

SodaOne: Ye Qiu's perspective on everything is just so interesting! And so detailed!

BugLane: YQ does things like this and my mind is just so...blown. He's just so sfjsdlandalskdn. Like, read the end of page one and just that level of sass. "If you hate dying or are not escaping your rivals then don’t jump off the bridge. There is nothing to be found in the mountain's shadow. I've checked personally. Multiple times."

SkynnyFriend: Adding another for your viewing pleasure "The game's gravity mechanics are still a work in progress in this area so if you are a witch or warlock, do not fly. If you want to know specifics ask Wei Chen."

VulpinThief: my favorite "Create a character you like and are not embarrassed to be known by. You don't want to be 'Naked SuMu'."

See all 10k+ replies Comments Share Save Hide Report

XXxxxxXX

SMS

[Team Chat]

[All users online.]

🌑Woven Shadow 🌑: Question Vice-Captain 1:10pm

👓 Qi Breaker 👓: Yes? 1:11pm

🌑 Woven Shadow 🌑: I get how Xia Ming and the rest knew about pairings but how did you know about it? 1:12pm

👓 Qi Breaker 👓 is typing…

👓 Qi Breaker 👓: There are just some things better left unknown. 1:25pm

🌑 Woven Shadow 🌑: ?????? 1:25pm

XXxxxxXX

Author’s Notes:

General EE Staff @ Current is a mix of the following: YQ is sassy and a lot more down to earth then we thought. He is funny/awkward/and asdfdgdfgfdfg. Thank you for existing YQ our lives are better because Yao Wang is gone.

EE Team @ Current: The captain is very clueless about social things like fanfiction and we must never tell him about the depravity of fans or else we will all suffer. Also, dodge practice sucks, and WXF may have a shit list of rival players he may want to have a talk to and we know nothing.

1:YX really didn't know who Yao Wang was because he had never seen him before, so he was trying to figure out who he was.

So not a whole lot of YX stuff, but lots of information about things changing among the people of EE. I read over what I could of the wiki and the light novel but there's nothing about when the training camps got started or anything so much of this was just head cannon because I don't know.

Strangely enough, I had most of this chapter written since the middle of January but it still didn't feel right and finally after countless editing and so on I am just throwing in the towel. I'll come back to this particular chapter and probably edit it some more. Maybe.

Next Chapter | Previous Chapter

Read on AO3

#king's avatar #quan zhi gao shou #ye qiu #ye xiu #Excellent era #fanfiction #ao3 #How Social Media Infected the Glory Pro Circle

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cloudbattrolls · 4 years

Text

Senseless

Etuuya Vannyn | Present Night | OLSC Headquarters

It’s rude to sit with one’s feet on a desk, especially if it’s someone else’s, but at least you’re not getting any dirt on it. There are lines.

Even with your snit of a boss.

Does Karina think she can drop this on you and everything’s just fine? Does she think yelling at you is acceptable when you told her to run? To save herself and the other trolls on the ship?

How long has she known Firebird would do this? Was that the only reason OLSC accepted you, because the wretched harpy decided you were going to be her new best friend whether you liked it or not?

The teal is lucky you haven’t left worms on everything, but that’s beneath you. Barely.

Her chair isn’t as comfortable as you’d expect. Shouldn’t she have something nice and plush? You spin around in it a few times, unimpressed. It’s a gray one that moves well, but you could use more back support. You’ve still got bones, after all.

When she walks in through the sliding glass doors to her office, there isn’t the look of affronted shock you were hoping for. She seems more...resigned. Her long hair looks disheveled, and she’s blinking more often than usual.

“You didn’t hurt the guards, did you?”

“I persuaded them it’d be in their best interests to let me pass. Glad they at least bothered interrogating me, though. We do so need better security.”

If Karina registers the barb as a dig at the two assassin incidents, she doesn’t show it.

“What do you want, Vannyn?”

You smooth back a few loose strands of wavy hair that hang between your horns and eye her, bright green pupils staring into teal slits.

“What don’t I want, miss Tulais? You’ve been dodging most of my questions like a bad girl, and I feel I’m entitled to a little information after what I went through.”

“I stopped you from getting burned to death.” She snaps, but then sighs. “I don’t have time for this. Please leave.”

“Well, since you asked so nicely...”

She perks up slightly, her lowered ears lifting a bit.

“No. I’m staying put. Don’t even think of pulling your laser on me. I’m wearing armor underneath these clothes modeled after the piece of yours I borrowed.”

You toss the breastplate you tore off at her. She catches it, barely, leaning to the side and nearly falling as she does.

“Here. Happy wriggling day.”

You give her a moment to put it back in her sylladex. Her hand slips the first time.

Extending one leg and then the other, you get up from her chair in an exaggerated motion and then stand by it, waving a hand as you offer it to her.

“I think you need it more than I do. Go on.”

She gives you a look, then scans the chair. With slow steps she goes and sits down as you go around to the other side of the desk and pull up one of the other, sadly non-spinny chairs.

“You don’t make any sense sometimes.” She accuses you, leaning back in it. “You’re a complete pain, then a perfect gentletroll, then obnoxious again.”

Lips twitching up in a slight smile, you tap one foot against the ground.

“I could say the same for you. You try to shove romanticized nonsense in my ears while knowing very well you need to arm yourself around me.”

Your voice hardens as you continue.

“You claim to want to make a better society for trolls, that this company has been working toward that very goal for sweeps, and yet I find out you’ve been in the pocket of your crazy ancestor all this time. Is this the truth of the Outer Limits Settlement Company, miss Tulais? Providing more sparky minions for dear, sweet Firebird?”

She opens her mouth, but you wave a finger and plow onward, cutting her off.

“And I never asked you to save me. If you had any sense you would’ve left me to bur - ”

“Stop it.”

Her voice is so harsh, yet cracks on those two words. She looks close to tears, her shoulders hunched up by her chin as she wraps her arms around herself.

Gracious. You knew she was tired, but this level of stress? Why is she still in the office?

“I don’t want to hear about how I should’ve left you to die. You’re so stupid.”

Okay, that’s really not the response you were expecting.

You pause, trying to figure out how to address this particular brand of malarkey.

“I doubt Firebird would have actually killed me. She clearly wants me on her side for something. Don’t you think those ship trolls deserved a shot at not being forcibly turned into lava people?”

“Vannyn, she’s been doing it for over six hundred sweeps. Maybe longer, I don’t know.” The teal retorts, exhausted and exasperated as she flings her open palms up. “There’s so much I don’t know about her. All she ever gave me until I was nine were basic commands, and when she finally took me to space, she just expected me to accept everything I saw. Yes, she probably intends to convert some of the company trolls, but does it matter? Isn’t that a small price to pay for living free of the Empire? It’s not like they’re dead, or forced to serve in Fleet.”

You study her face, keeping your own expression neutral. Karina notices, and stares back, though her ears flick back and forth with discomfort.

“You actually believe what you’re saying, or you really want to.” You muse. “I guess you didn’t know she sent the assassins after me.”

The tealblood laughs.

She laughs for such a long time it’s a little disturbing.

“Twenty-eight.”

“Sorry?”

“She’s sent twenty-eight assassins after me. The ones I could confirm were sent by her, anyway. Jarron probably was. I didn’t know she’d sent that pair after you, but it doesn’t surprise me.”

Your eyes narrow.

“If she really wanted you culled - ”

“Idiot. She’s testing me. The other Tulaises died because they weren’t good enough, and I won’t let that happen. I’m better than they are.”

You blink once, twice, three times.

Isn’t that interesting.

“Did they all lead OLSC too?” You ask, neutral and casual as if inquiring after the weather.

“Some of them tried.” She says scornfully, and doesn’t this just explain so much.

“So Firebird’s agreed to let you lead the new colony then?”

She sniffs in some sort of offense, though heaven only knows where it comes from.

“Obviously.”

“Lovely. So what does she want, then? What’s her goal?”

“Who cares? She’s not going to tell me. Maybe she just wants enough spark trolls to have as her own colony, and that’s it. She’s never talked about anything else.”

Your lip curls.

“You refuse to worry about it because you refuse to bother to find out, is that it?”

She makes an offended squawking noise, and for a moment reminds you of her ancestor.

“I’m not worrying about it because it’s pointless. Who’s going to stop her? You? That went so well.”

Sarcasm drips from her voice and you examine your claws, wiggling your fingers in the office’s dim light.

“I nearly killed her.”

A mild note of petulance can be found in your tone.

“Don’t try it again. We’re both dead if you do, and even if you’re stupid enough to want to die, don’t drag me down with you.”

You roll your eyes, drumming both feet against the floor now.

“I don’t want to die.”

Most of the time.

“But my life isn’t as important as that of most trolls. If I died, it’d do the world a favor.”

“Would it really?” says the teal in a voice that’s both bored and annoyed. “I felt bad for you at first, but then I realized you’re just kind of stupid. So what if you’re a monster? You’re controllable enough. You could’ve ripped my throat out that time at the party, and you didn’t.”

You hiss. Again, always this, the thing you like the least about Karina Tulais.

“I still nearly ate two trolls, and now one’s also a drinker because you wouldn’t let me cull them!”

“Wester’s doing a lot better now. They want to talk to you.”

The office is so quiet, and you’re so still, that you can hear Karina’s breathing.

“To what? Yell at me?” You manage. “I suppose they’re entitled.”

She snorts.

“You’re not their favorite person.” She admits, to which you make exaggerated gasping noises of shock, hand clutched at imaginary pearls. “Actually, they want to ask about what it’s been like for you as a drinker. We explained to them you’re not a cavern jade and won’t cull them for being a mutant, and that the drinker thing was an accident. It took a while, but they believe us now. They’re adjusting pretty well.”

You have no pusher, no speedy beat of activity, but there’s a strange trembling in your body, something that feels like adrenaline, or the power rush from drinking blood, except it makes you want to run, not fight.

“What do they want to know?”

Though your voice is oddly hoarse, you at least manage to get the words out.

“How to have relationships with people again. They’ve been messaging their kismesis and friends by text, but they’re worried about meeting them in person.”

Cynical laughter rolls out of you and you lean back, pressing your fingertips together.

“And they think I can help them with that? I don’t have relationships, Uunive aside. I have people who tolerate me because I’m useful. Either because they don’t know the truth, or...”

You think of a face with psiionic scars, a face that crosses your mind so much more than it ought to.

“...or because they’re too well intentioned for their own good.” You finish. “I can’t help this troll.”

Karina’s ears flick in what you think is irritation as her lips pull back, yet her voice is more curious than annoyed.

“I’m not going to make Tierel’s mistake. I’m just going to ask you: is that really how they feel? You broke into my office before with that obnoxious note and then left to go see that woman. Obviously you care about her a lot, and if she wanted you over, she cares about you.”

“Claire.” You say in a determinedly neutral voice. “Only cares about me because she thinks she should. She has me around because she’s desperate, and because I’m useful for sparring. She’s seen me ripped apart and put myself back together in front of her - could she be friends with that? No! It makes no sense, and it’s not true. It cannot be true. You are just as silly as Tierel.”

Your claws dig into the chair and there are irregular beats from the rapid tapping of your shoes against the floor, as your ears press against your skull. Stupid trembling. Where is that even coming from? You don’t have a pusher. You don’t have blood, and you barely have nerves except in your skin. Isn’t the only good thing about not having a fleshy body is that it doesn’t do inconvenient things?

She studies you, your boss with her glowing flower tattoos shining softly on her neck and shoulders, and you have no idea what you’re supposed to say.

“At least consider it, Vannyn. Don’t you owe them that?”

You get up and turn to walk out, then stop.

“I think I owe them not ruining their life further.”

You walk out down the halls, hands in your pockets, past the guards you talked (with the support of some helpful visual aids) into letting you pass. They eye you with suspicion.

Good.

Karina. Tierel. Even Rivali, the night Wester was turned. What’s gotten into all of them, all this stupid sentimentality about you?

You’re not a troll with some mildly embarrassing and difficult condition. You’re a full-fledged bloodsucking undead who’s only kept in check by constant self-restraint and weaponry.

Trolls do not care for things that disgust and disturb them. It’s against nature and common sense.

Flicking your phone out, you check the chat, wondering what everyone’s been up to. Hopefully less dreary conversation topics than this.

It’s a fun place, and nothing like this will ever come up, and it will be great. Hurrah.

You ignore the slight, remaining shaking in your body.

END

#tuuya: I'm afraid of being cared about and I will deny it at all costs #cloud writes #etuuya vannyn #karina tulais #karina intentionally changed the subject to get tuuya off firebird and it worked perfectly lol #tuuya lives on a river called denial

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darkmindsthinktwistedthoughts · 6 years

Text

Enter the Kitsune - Prologue pt1

Summary:

Being thrown back in time is hard enough without it being in a completely foreign country.

Aerion Foxx is a creative department employee at a fashion magazine. She was finally doing her dream job when this happened. Now trapped in the past she has no choice but to play along with whatever life throws at her next so she can get back to her own time alive.

The inner circle of warlords thought they were able to handle everything. from the daily running of their own fiefs to full-scale war. With the arrival of the new tomboy Princess, each one of them finds something new that they were not prepared for. For one warlord, in particular, his world is about to get a lot more entertaining and maybe even a bit brighter.

Warnings: Strong Language

Masterlist

---

Prologue part 1

Modern-day Kyoto

One place I never thought I’d find myself was here. Thanks to a frantic phone call placed to my department about some messed up photos from an important fashion shoot we needed for next month’s spread, I found myself now wandering the busy streets of somewhere I only ever got to see pictures of. I should have been cursing my luck to have the work put on hold back home but I just couldn’t, finally, I had a bit of a break and got to travel on my job.

I was one of the lucky ones. At least that was what most of my friends from college said when I landed a job after graduation. I was so excited to be hired at a popular magazine publisher. I was an ordinary office worker back then. It was hardly my dream job but it takes time and experience to get to the level of being able to be put on a team to discuss trends, layouts and hot topics that go to print.

Last month I was over the moon when they said I could take part on the team dealing with the rise in the trend of Japanophilia. Naturally, other magazines were looking at different aspects of the land of the rising sun’s cultural history and beauty but we had gone with a “Trends across Time” theme. And if you wish to show off traditional kimono the first place everyone thought of was here in Kyoto. The fact there was still a large number of historical buildings also made this the best backdrops for the photos.

It had been a seriously long day. If it hadn’t been issues with the photographer who was a Pro at everything except communication without insulting people who were not in front of the lens then we might have finished earlier. Still, the shots were in the bag and emailed back to the main branch. One of the models had suggested a great local shop that seemed to cover everything from ramen to Teppanyaki. The idea of sizzling thinly sliced pieces of meat and vegetables cooked on a hot plate was too much of a temptation to ignore after standing around all day plastering a smile on my face and doing damage limitation in order to get the job done.

Now I had eaten my fill I was feeling a little sleepy. I stifled a yawn as I made my way in a direction, I thought my hotel was, it was darker and the lights of the city were on. The air pressure must have changed a little so I dragged my favourite hoodie out of my backpack and pulled it on over my head. It would be my only defence against the approaching chill in the air. The soft fabric made me smile and as I pulled the hood up, I caught a glimpse of my shadow on the ground now sporting animal ears. I rounded a corner of a building and realised I was actually more than a little lost now. Did I come this way? Dammit! Ok going to have to pull out my phone and check google maps here. I began patting down my pockets in search of my elusive smartphone. I pulled it out the back pocket of my jeans only to sigh at the low battery warning flashing on it. Great.

I noticed something that looked like a landmark ahead of me. If I can figure out what it is, I might find the route back with no problem. Moving forward I discovered that what I had found was, in fact, a small monument at a site for a temple. The words carved into it weren’t in any way readable to me so I looked at the curator sign near it. “Oda Nobunaga 1534 – 1582” Oh it’s a memorial then? Ok. As I worked out what I was looking at I heard the sound of someone approach me from behind. Turning my gaze, a little I saw a young man dressed in a green shirt, dark trousers, glasses and what looked to be a lab coat. There was an ID badge clipped to it but I couldn’t see what it was. Guess he is either from a lab around here or maybe that big University I saw the other day.

He must have noticed my staring and looked back at me silently for a moment before starting to speak in Japanese and after registering my confusion corrected himself attempting English instead.

“Sorry. Good evening.” He seemed to be friendly enough even if his face didn’t move much more than to open and close his mouth as he spoke.

“Oh! Yes, Good evening.” I gave s small nod and an awkwardly sociable smile in reply. I felt it before I really saw it. A big fat raindrop landed on the back of my hand that was holding onto the strap of my bag. “Great…”

“Are you alright? Do you have an umbrella Miss?” The young man looked a little concerned and shifted closer. Honestly dude its just a bit of rain.

“Somewhere just not with me right now. Might have left it back where I’m staying.” I shrug knowing I’d left it on my bed in the room. The wind whipped up and then there was an almighty crack as a blinding light touched down near us. “AH!” Looking at the point of impact I could clearly see the modest stone monument had snapped in two. Did that bolt of lightning do that? The hairs of the back of my neck stood up straight at the thought. If I had been closer it might have killed me.

“Please be careful Miss…”

I looked back at the young man who seemed to be holding a hand out to me but almost as soon as I’d seen that he had disappeared. No, it wasn’t just him everything had vanished, swallowed up in some sort of impenetrable fog. Along with the loss of visuals, I felt something like the worst ever drunken night out experience. That feeling you get if you have more than one too many and you are stuck in a limbo between having a wide-awake hangover and that curious detachment from your body shortly before passing out. God, I feel sick. I squeezed my eyes tight shut the hand on my bag tightened its grip while the other just balled into a fist. Anything in an attempt to try to keep control over myself while I just felt that floating, swirling sensation wash over me in the empty darkness.

– SMACK, THUD –

Burning… something’s burning. I opened my eyes and was hit with a lancing pain piercing through my brain.

“AH!” I cried out and groaned as I held my head in my hands. It was so sharp I ended up having to scrunch my eyes shut again a few times in an attempt to get used to it enough to focus on what was going on around me. Did I hit something? Remembering the smell of burning I looked around and saw the ribbons of smoke and flame licking at the building I was in. How the hell did I get here? The thick smoke was creeping around me clinging to the breathable air turning it against me. Pulling my collar up higher to cover my nose and mouth I tried to scan my surroundings to see if there was a way out.

Of all the unbelievable situations to find yourself in on a business trip, this was one that was going to make everyone in the office call me crazy. I couldn’t see the man from before anywhere. I edged closer to what I thought could be a stable exit and then found something that might as well have been a scene from a movie.

A Japanese soldier laying on the floor in full armour that looked like it was right out of a museum. There was a shadow moving that was darker than the others in the room, it was getting closer to the soldier. No that’s no a shadow… The light of the flames glinted off what the shadow had in their hand and my blood went cold. The cold unyielding gleam of metal reflected in the darkness cutting through the acrid smoke.

“Look out!” I called out before I even knew what I was doing. The shadow turned quickly and fled leaving the fallen soldier on the ground alone. I rushed to the soldier crouching down to look him over. Wait… was he asleep? Who the hell sleeps through a burning building? “Hey. Wake up!” I shook his shoulders urgently making his body rock on the hardwood flooring. With a small groan, the man opened his eyes. It’s ok no need to rush not like the building is about to collapse or something.

“Who are you?” The soldier's voice sounded deep and was almost rivalling the creaking timbers of the building that were struggling with the heat from the flames.

“Introductions will have to wait we have to get out of here.” I made sure my bag was secure on my shoulder before holding out my hand to the still-sluggish looking man on the ground. “Come on.” After hauling him to his feet we took off running through the building chasing the clean air to freedom.

Once making it outside I doubled over. That thick smoke had gotten into my lungs and as I gulped for air I glanced behind at where we had just been. A traditional looking building was in full flame now. Parts of the roof were already starting to creak and collapse in sections. Thank god we got out of that in one piece.

“Someone tried to do away with me while I slept? Audacious, but foolish. Killing my guards and getting that close to me are another matter. You there. Woman. Let go of me.” The soldier I ran from the building with addressed me and I then realised I still had hold of his hand.

“Ah. Sorry.” After giving a quick apology I dropped his hand and straightened up again. I hadn’t noticed in the smoky room but the guy was actually not a bad looking one. He was observing me clearly thinking of something. His black hair looked like it was absorbing the light, which probably had something to do with the soot in it making it appear even darker. His eyes were like a fine dark wine, the red of them was so deep and mesmerising you could easily be lost in them. If we had met in another way I might have been put under their spell easily.

“You saved my life. You may be some girl the monks snuck in for amusement, but I owe you my thanks.”

“Amusement? Seriously is burning down a building what passes for amusement these days? And what do you mean Monks? I have zero idea how the hell I even got in there.” With each confused, exasperated word that left my mouth, I felt a throbbing skull-splitting pain. I’d probably kill for some Advil right about now.

The breeze around us had managed to find something wet that was seeping down the back of my neck from where I had my hair tied back. The cold dampness on my skin was such a contrast to the heat of the burning building that it made me shiver. I really don’t want to look into what that is right now. Did I hit my head on something? The man in front of me looked every bit like a screen print of some historical samurai. The armour, the stance, hell even that cold calculating brutal look in his eyes all screamed of power you couldn’t ignore. That sword hanging from his side just added to the “do not ignore me” feeling.

“What are you staring at? Surely you know who I am.”

“Not a clue.” I sighed giving a slight shrug and small apologetic smile.

“You saved me without knowing who I am? Not expecting reward or favour? So be it. I shall tell you my name. I am the man who will rule all under the sun –” As he was speaking, he seemed to stand up straighter and taller than before. He was intimidating but it was the way he spoke and puffed out his chest that really set off a small beware alarm inside me.

“You really don’t have to tell me who you are.” I blurted out, cutting his introduction short.

“What?” His powerful gaze looked at me once more, full of interest and I’m guessing from the way his mouth was a little gaped he was also slightly surprised. Something about this whole thing makes me think I’m not going to enjoy solving the mystery of who you are.

“You’re a curious one, woman. No one’s ever spoken so impudently to me before.” He burst out into loud echoing laughter. I guess I missed the part of this where any of it is funny. “You intrigue me, which is almost as worthy of praise as saving my life. I am the Lord of Azuchi Castle and Daimyo of Owari, Nobunaga Oda.”

“That’s nice… Wait, what?” Part way through accepting who he was my sluggish brain caught up to speed with it and stalled. He just said Nobunaga Oda, as in that guy that got that monument at that old temple site. That Nobunaga Oda? I began turning my head around looking for the guy with a camera that I was certain was about to jump out at any moment and tell me I had just been Punked. I saw the engraved sign on a gate. Honno-ji. So that building back there was a temple? “This is going to sound very strange but excuse me. Could you tell me what year it is?”

“It is 1582. Why?” Nobunaga asked inclining his head. This has to be a bad dream. No way this is real. I put my hand on my arm and pinched it as hard as I could. Ouch! Ok… bang goes that theory. “What are you pinching yourself for? I’ve given my name. It’s your turn.”

“Huh? Hey!” I cried out as I realised Nobunaga had stepped forward and abruptly used his hand to tilt my chin to force me to meet his gaze.

“Give me your name.” His voice was deep and commanding but it also made me bristle automatically. I am not something to be commanded. And clearly Please was not something this guy was taught as a child. Matching his gaze with a glare of my own I stubbornly refused to allow my body to react to him. Well, I guess there isn’t much harm in telling him my name.

“My name is Aerion Foxx.”

“Aerion then? A good name.” He had a smirk on his face that was like a child that just won a game. Ok, that is another annoying thing. I don’t mind games but there is something about this one that makes me think it's not one set on a foundation of mutual respect.

“Thank you I like it too. Now let go of me.” Brushing his hand away I was quick enough to put a gap between us again. Seriously ever hear of personal space? I need to work all this stuff out but I just can’t get my head to stop pounding. I don’t know if it was pain or shock but I felt my body start to tremble. I could feel a rumbling sensation under my feet. I had visions of that iconic scene in movies where you see a glass of water quake just before a huge monster arrived. Looking around I saw a wall of armoured figures approaching.

“Nobunaga, my lord, you’re safe!”

---

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roxywashere · 5 years

Text

What’s Up, Danger

Rey acclimates to her powers

Rey Walker, better known as the superhero Neon, had very suddenly become a celebrity after being inducted into Astra’s League, the world's most prestigious superhero organization. She sat in the League's headquarters, FursTech Tower in Danesville, Wisconsin, at 3 in the morning January 1st 2101, watching as 24-hour news stations scrambled to uncover everything they could about this random punk-rocker who had just been thrust onto the world's stage. Her best friends and long-time crime-fighting partners Hilda Furst, Elle Ectric, and Shailene Octavia stood around watching the same holographic screens where they were also being analysed for the same reasons.

“This is so weird,” Rey commented as she watched the TMZ office argue about the team’s power levels while all still wearing party hats from their New Years party just hours before.

“You’ll get used to it,” Aradia Furst told her.

“I’m literally being interviewed by like 17 people every single minute and I hate it,” Hilda said. She was apparently Aradia’s second cousin three times removed (Hilda’s great-great-great-great-grandparents were Aradia’s great-grandparents), which Hilda had only learned when she saw it on MSNBC’s coverage of her. “I’ve never killed myself in public before but I’m this fucking close to doing it just to have one less body for everybody to interrogate.” She’d never been this stressed out by her power before, at least that she’d let her best friends know.

“This is exactly why I don’t like going out in public,” Elle said.

“Well, I guess you’re going to be travelling exclusively by lightning bolt forever now because your ass is famous worldwide.”

“I wish my ass was famous,” Shailene mumbled.

“Don’t go getting any ideas, now,” Aradia chastised. “We’re public figures, we have to keep a clean facade.”

“I mean, do we have to? Or is that just how things have been done? What if it’s tasteful? With, like, a real photographer?”

“If you want to draw Astra’s ire, go ahead. But I’ll be looking down my nose at you the whole time.”

“All I heard was ‘go ahead’.”

“Do you pay us?” Hilda asked. “Or would we have to do brand deals and shit.”

“You each get a monthly stipend which will support a quite comfortable housing arrangement,” Aradia answered. “Anything else you wish to earn on top of that is up to you. I would suggest that you wait to get comfortable with your new income before you start trying to supplement it.”

“Is that on top of, or replacing, your basic income program?”

Aradia was at a loss for words. “No League members have ever been on the program before. I never even considered that it was a possibility.”

Rey’s phone dinged with a new message. She was actually kind of surprised that it wasn’t just constantly going off since the press conference. The text, and the ones that immediately followed it, read:

Hey, this is Felicia The waitress From the diner You gave me your number Are you busy right now? You’re probably busy You can ignore me if you’re busy

With a brief burst of her superspeed Rey texted back:

I'm not busy don’t worry Just watching the news hyd?

What is this, the 20s? ‘hyd’?

I’m old fashioned

I get enough old fashioned at this fucking diner

Is your shift over?

Almost. Another hour

You work third shift often?

Only tonight I drew the short straw to work the new year shift

You busy after?

I was planning on sleeping

That’s probably a good idea

I could wait until after getting an early breakfast tho

Wanna come to Danesville? I know a couple places

Danesville is a 10 hour drive from here

I can carry you Btw, whats the actual address of the diner I kinda just stumbled upon you last time

1 Mile Run Rd Allenwood PA We’re right next to Little Mountain State Park off I-80

Suddenly Hilda jumped out of her seat, yelling “FUCK!”

“What is it?” Aradia asked.

“The Harlequin just showed up at one of my bank security guard jobs. Midwest Federal.”

A plasma trail traced from the chair Rey had been sitting in to the workshop’s balcony, where Rey already was, leaning over it to look out over the city. “Alright Aradia, time to hold up your end of the bargain.”

“I suppose it is.” Aradia got to work casting a portal, but instead of waiting Rey jumped over the railing and ran down the side of the building. Running down a building was always much harder than running up one, but it was so much more exhilarating. On her way down, she sent one last text to Felicia:

Gotta go. Duty calls. See you in an hour hopefully If I never text back then that means I’m dead 👉😎👉

She made it to the bottom with no problems, and flowed through the city until she stopped in front of the bank. Five of Hilda in bank security guard uniforms were standing with their handguns pointed at the door. All the lights inside were dark, and the front door looked like it had been smashed in. A second later the portal Aradia had been casting finally opened, behind Hilda and Rey.

“Wait,” Shay said, double-taking at the balcony of the workshop behind her. “How did you...”

“I’ve been here for like five minutes, guys,” Rey taunted.

An ATM came flying out of the bank’s front doors, followed by a shrill roar. Rey stepped out of the way, pulling one of Hilda who was also in the way along with her.

“What the fuck was that? I thought you said the Harlequin was in there?”

“I swear to god I saw her mask for an instant before she killed me,” Hilda said.

“Is she working with somebody new?”

“Let’s not wait to see...” Aradia said. “HARLEQUIN!” I know you’re in there. You’ve slipped under my radar for far too long.”

Another roar rang out. And then a slow stomping, slowly growing closer. And eventually some creature stepped out of the shadows, with red-and-white checkered scales, wearing the Harlequin’s mask: a plain featureless oval, half red and half white. Except the mask had been split across its width, a third of the way up, by a thick crack which was now its mouth.

“What the fuck is that thing?” Elle asked.

It spoke, in a low, rasping tone. “Hello, Aradia. Recognise me?”

“Why should I, fiend?” Aradia demanded.

“Twofold, witch. Your father was a thorn in my side for decades, one. And you and I spoke face to face only 7 days and a few hours ago, two.”

The Harlequin had been a consistent foe of her father in his early days before joining Astra’s League, this Aradia was familiar with. But, seven days and a few hours ago, Aradia had been at Johanna Kerr’s christmas ball, before it had been blown up by what evidence suggested was the Harlequin, or at least her goons. Aradia would have remembered encountering this beast there.

“What happened to you, Harlequin. This is something new, even for you.”

“I’ll spare you the details of my weakness, if you please. I’ll only have you know that it was and remains to be very painful.”

Something clicked in Aradia’s mind. Could it have something to do with the massive explosion the Harlequin had triggered after Aradia had left the christmas ball? If she had been at the ball to trigger the bomb, she likely would also have been caught in it. That would be more than enough energy to disrupt the impenetrability of her superhuman skin and possibly cause this strange alteration. It was a chemistry gauntlet to work through some other time, however, and especially not as a mere thought experiment.

“Then allow me to relieve your pain,” Aradia announced, straightening her back, and drawing herself up into the standard casting stance, one hand held in front of the other, fingers ready to trace magic circles into the air. “Girls, do what you do.”

The very first thing the Harlequin did was wrench a piece of the door frame out of the wall, and attempt to use it as a javelin to spear Aradia. As before, Rey leapt in to pull Aradia out of the way of the projectile, which embedded into a concrete wall across the street.

“Don’t worry about me getting hit,” Aradia told Rey. “I’m more robust than I look. Focus on taking this thing out.” She then quickly summoned a simple but strong magical barrier, and used it to give herself cover while maneuvered herself next to Hilda.

Meanwhile, Elle and Shay put their powers to work together, performing one of their favorite tag-team moves. Shay reached out and liberated the bronze fixtures from the destroyed door, which she psychically compacted into two rods and Elle then pumped a voltage differential into. Shay launched them at the Harlequin, which hit and elicited a scream as the voltages equalized through her.

Once Aradia had sidled up to Hilda, she asked of her “I’m going to need you to duplicate something for me, quickly.”

“What is it?”

Aradia knelt down and anchored her barrier to the street. She then plucked a dimly glowing white jewel off one of her necklaces and handed it to Hilda. “Its magic and that's all you'll understand even if I explained it. Took me a few years to understand myself.”

Hilda took the jewel and quickly duplicated herself to five, before passing the now 5 jewels to the middle-most her and re-condensing herself back to one. She repeated the duplication once more, before handing them to Aradia. Piled together in a hoard of 25, their combined glow was now about as bright as an average light bulb.

“That’ll do quite nicely,” Aradia said. She dumped all but one into her sleeve, cradling the last one in her palm. She pumped her light through her skin into the jem.

Aradia stood up, clenching her other fist and dissipating the shield she had summoned. She tossed the jewel towards the Harlequin, and yelled “Rey! Blast this with me!”

While Aradia cast a spell to focus her light, Rey zipped in and examined the jem. In the compressed time that her power afforded her, she grabbed it out of the air, and made a deliberate pondering pose for a long enough fraction of a second that she would be visible doing it. She then walked up to the Harlequin, and held it out in front of the Harlequin’s mask. While the Harlequin did a double-take at the audacity of the act, Rey asked “This a good spot?”

“Perfect.” Aradia illuminated the jem with a brilliant white laser projected from her fingertip. Rey, for her own part, channeled her power to siphon some of the plasma that was fueling her into it as well. It was less than a second before Rey felt a crack, and took that has her cue to let go and back away very casually.

Rey watched from a roof across the street as the jewel exploded, throwing the Harlequin through the wall of the bank.

She only recently had been able to go this fast, after Aradia had given her an upgrade: The Heart. The Heart was a backpack fusion reactor that produced functionally infinite plasma for her to fuel her power with. She use to be able to consistently hit speeds of about fifteen miles a minute, but she’d only be able to sustain that for a handful of minutes. With the Heart, however, she’d been clocking a mile a second, and she had been able to sustain that for at least fifteen minutes, long enough to run from New York City to Danesville, without a sweat.

She pulled her phone out and checked to see Felicia’s response:

If that becomes the last text you ever send anybody i’m donating this phone to the smithsonian for their astras league exhibit

Rey smiled, and put her phone away. She went to step off the roof, but stopped when she noticed a strange flower growing out of the gravel spread across the roof. She summoned some plasma to her palm to shine a light on the flower, which closed its petals against the intense beam of sun-simulacrum.

She heard a crunch against the gravel behind her, and as quickly as she could she turned to face the sound, delivering her neck quite nicely into the grasp of a viney tentacle.

“Well, well, well,” world-infamous supervillainess Babalon said, as she lifted Rey off the ground.

She was dark-skinned, indian-american if Rey remembered the various tv specials about her correctly. Her hair was a long braided tangle, interwoven with branches and interspersed with flowers. She was wearing a bodysuit that was either made of leaves or designed to look like it was made of leaves. Holding her up off the ground were a dozen or so ten-foot-long, inch-thick vines that sprouted from her back and waist, one of which was stretched out and holding Rey. Each vine ended in a bundle of two-foot-long “fingers” each of which could move individually but tended to be used in groups. The fingers were what was wrapped around Rey's neck, preventing her from making her retreat.

Babalon drew herself closer to Rey. “It seems the self-pompous priestess of light has found herself a new disciple. Wanna know what I did to the last one?”

“I'm good, actually. Hey, why'd you name yourself Babalon?” Rey responded, grabbing the vine around her neck with both hands and channeling some of her plasma into it. Babalon recoiled as two feet of that vine was instantly incinerated.

“She gave you the Light too?! HOW?!” Babalon screamed as she swung another of her vines at Rey, faster even than most other superspeedsters Rey had ever met. No wonder she was on the top tier, worthy of being one of the few that drew Astra herself out to fight.

Rey needed to actually focus. Her new upgrade gave her an edge, but only barely.

She boosted herself backwards, remembering just a little too late that the edge of the roof had been behind her. She tripped over the parapet and fell back over the edge, and slowed time down to give her some space for thought. She was about 5 stories up. It would take about 4 seconds to reach the ground. That was plenty of time. She brought her hand to her chin and pondered.

She had only had three hours to adjust to her new power level, but she was fairly confident in her ability. She had developed one specific new skill, something almost unnoticeable that she had nonetheless noticed running up and down buildings all night. She just needed to figure out how to do it on purpose.

She felt the writing mass of plasma on her back, the Heart, given to her by Aradia. She felt its warmth, its light. “The Light”, Babalon had called it. Astra, local goddess she was, had never revealed what it was that fueled her cosmic might, but she did do a lot of glowing while she used it. Was this the same Light? Rey had no idea, but it was a fun little supposition to make. And it did somewhat explain the aforementioned new skill.

“Are you... posing?” Babalon asked, apparently appalled by the gall Rey was exhibiting.

Rey had been focusing on both her inner monologue and maintaining the hand to the chin, and hadn’t noticed that time had resumed normal speed and she hadn’t continued falling.

“What the fuck?!” Shay yelled. “I’m not doing that!

Rey looked at herself. She appeared to be just standing at a 90 degree angle from vertical, 45 feet above the street. “Huh. Didn’t know I could do that.” As she moved, the plasma trail that indicated she was using her power traced her every gesture.

Babalon lunged over the edge, and Rey cut out her power to drop herself out of reach. Shay reached out and grabbed Rey before she hit the ground, following the unprecedented failure of Rey to reactivate the hovering part with the rest of her powers.

“That was weird,” Rey told the others as she righted herself. “Anyway, what’s up with this bitch, Rad?”

Aradia gave Rey a look of annoyance for using her nickname. “That’s Jane Newark. She’s...” Aradia sighed. “A pseudodemon, and a Whore.”

“Wow, strong words. But, I get the idea. Let’s kick her ass.”

A brick whizzed past Rey's head. “Forgetting something?” the Harlequin growled.

“Elle, help me out with Babalon, the rest of you keep dealing with dollface.”

Elle zapped up to the roof with Babalon, with Rey following.

“The witch’s new toys are out to play, I see...” Babalon said as she circled the two. “I’ve killed 5 of Astra’s League, you two small fries don’t stand a chance.”

“You haven’t seen anything yet,” Rey said winding up a punch, Elle standing behind her. “Elle, now!”

Elle jumped forwards, converting herself into pure electrical energy, electrical plasma. She wrapped herself around Rey’s arm, and Rey absorbed her and used her energy to launch herself forward, fist first. Elle released herself the instant Rey’s fist hit Babalon’s chest, exploding out of Rey’s hand, shooting forwards and launching Babalon into the sky.

Elle continued to the clouds, dragging Babalon along with her. She rematerialized periodically, taking opportunities to give Babalon a kick or two before returning to plasma to dodge Babalon’s flailing vines. On the ground, Rey flowed through the streets, following Elle’s flashes of lightning.

Elle eventually let Babalon go in the middle of a cloud over a field outside the city. She struck down to the ground, and started waiting for Babalon to fall down to her. Rey caught up only a few seconds later. They acknowledged each other with a fistbump that crackled with static and neon.

“So what was with that flying thing back there?” Elle asked.

“I don’t really know. This nuclear backpack Rad gave me has some fucking magic in it or something.”

“Can you do it again?”

“I mean, probably. I don’t know how though. How do you do it?”

‘“It’s just an instinctual extension of my power. But it’s not really the same as, like, how Astra flies.”

“I mean, obviously. But I gotta start somewhere.”

“What if you just try running up?”

“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”

“When you run with your power, it’s like pushing yourself in the direction you want to go, right? Just do that, but up.”

“I don’t know...” Rey was silent as she looked up to inspect Babalon's progress towards the ground. “Wait, shit, I just got it.”

“Got what?”

“It’s the Garden of Babalon, because she controls plants.”

Elle sighed. “That does make sense, yeah. You wanna give it a go, with me giving you a boost?”

“Give what a go?”

“Running up.”

“I mean, sure. But you gotta promise to catch me if it don't work.” Rey reached out her hand towards Elle

“Deal.” Elle took Rey’s hand. “3, 2, 1...” Elle converted to lightning and crackled over Rey’s skin as Rey absorbed her, before Rey knelt down and then jumped into the air, Elle releasing herself to give Rey a little extra height.

Rey tried doing what Elle suggested, activating her power to try to force herself higher. As Elle jumped out of her, Rey tried to siphon some of the extra energy Elle had given her, and add it to her reservoir.

She didn’t expect that she would be rocketed into the sky at the same speed she could run. She passed Babalon, still on her own journey down, before she knew what was happening, and hit the clouds in a single second.

Elle, still nearly on the ground, for a second thought her friend had exploded or somehow vaporized herself, until she backed away and saw Rey’s plasma trail tracing a thick, bright line straight up. “Holy shit, Rey.”

Rey, now whizzing past the clouds, considered what to do next. She calmly pulled some plasma from the Heart, though not nearly as much as she used to get into this position, and then tried activating her power downwards to slow her still very rapid ascent through the atmosphere. She managed to stop herself before she got to the point where the air would be too thin to breath, and then let herself start to drop back down to Earth. She periodically slowed herself down, until she was continuously doing it, and was floating like she had done accidentally before. She experimented with the hypothetical throttle of her power, gently increasing and decreasing to raise higher and lower, and then tried to change the angle at which the was directing her power, and managed to achieve something quite analogous to how she assumed someone like Astra could fly.

She glanced down, and noticed Elle zapping around a very angry looking dot, and dropped down to join her.

“Nice of you to join us,” Elle said as Rey gently fell to a stop a few dozen feet above the grass.

“Hey, turns out, I can totally fly.”

“Join the club.”

“We just did, like 5 hours ago.”

“Shut and help me, Rey.”

Rey dropped down to the ground, where Babalon was swinging her vines wildly to try and and reach the two heroes floating just out of her reach.

“You getting tired yet?” Rey asked her. “If you want I could go get Astra, somebody you can actually get some good swings in with.”

“Don’t act like you’re too powerful for me. You haven’t laid a finger on me either, you stupid punk.”

“Tell that to your singed vine.”

Babalon lunged at Rey, growling with frustration. Rey zipped past her vines, and grabbed the vine harness that anchored her plant limbs to her human body. Rey pumped plasma directly from the Heart onto the vines, incinerating them and burning away the leaf-like costume Babalon was wearing.

Babalon swung one of her human arms, hitting Rey and sending her flying.

Rey crashed into the grass, rolling and yelling in pain. “FUCK! I think my rib is broken...”

Babalon, now robbed of her major advantage and seething with rage, stomped towards the now vulnerable hero. “That’s why it takes Astra to handle me, you petulant child. She can take a hit.”

Elle zapped over to Rey, to put herself between Rey and Babalon. “You get back, you bitch.” Elle unwound the chains she kept wrapped around her arms, and started swinging them, striking sparks between them. “We aren’t done here, yet.”

“I’ll just kill you both, then.”

Elle ran at Babalon, and then zapped around her, leaving her chains corporeal enough to wrap around Babalon’s arms. Elle materialized behind her and twisted the chains to bind Babalon’s arms behind her. “Do anything stupid and your heart’s a piece of burnt toast.”

“Bold of you to assume I have one.”

“Well, if you say so.” Elle pumped 10,000 volts across her hands, sending the current across Babalon’s shoulders, setting her skin on fire most evidently. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.” Elle atomized the chains and rematerialized them back on her own arms, and then kicked Babalon to the ground, where she screamed in apparent agony. “Rey, do you think you can walk?”

Rey slowly got to her feet, grunting occasionally whenever she agitated the broken rib. “Yeah, I think so.”

“Can you send up a flare?”

“Yeah.” Rey raised her palm up to the sky, and launched a plasma ball into the air, arcing slightly towards the city.

A portal appeared a dozen seconds later, out of which Aradia, Shay, and Hilda stepped. Rey saw, through the portal, the Harlequin, restrained tightly by a few dozen feet of chain wrapped around her, being loaded into a police van.

“Good work, girls,” Aradia congratulated. “You are certainly working hard to earn your place on this team.” Aradia strode towards the writhing Babalon, and pulled all of the adamantium from the jewelry she was wearing and sent it to lift Babalon and hogtie her. “Wait until Astra hears how the youngest members of the League took you down on their own.”

“Your threats of humiliation mean nothing, witch,” Babalon spat.

Aradia muzzled Babalon with the remaining adamantium she had. “Shut the fuck up, Whore.”

Rey limped over. “Hey, I don’t suppose you got any healing magic, do you?”

“Depends how severe your injury.”

“Broken rib?”

“Just one? No trouble at all.” Aradia quickly danced out a spell, which sent a warmth up through Rey’s ribcage. “Now, I would suggest you rest for a while before...”

“No can do, doc, I’ve got a date to keep.” Punctuated by a communal sigh from all five of the other women, Rey zipped off.

#Astraverse #Rey Walker #superhero #superhero literature #Serial story #writing

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southside-jess-blog · 6 years

Text

Baby Girl - Sweet Pea Imagine

MASTERLIST

Requested by @thejilypage

‘Can you do sweet pea as a baby daddy and him and the reader were together before they got pregnant’

Author’s Note: In this imagine I tried to capture what I think Sweet Pea’s reaction to becoming a father would be, I hope you like it. 😊 Enjoy x

Requests are open!

Warnings: None! Just pure fluff.

Word Count: Get comfortable, it’s a long one. 2,170.

Sweet Pea’s POV

I clasped my hands together so tightly as I held my precious baby girl in my arms. Her beautiful brown eyes wide open as she adjusted to life in the big wide world, her long eyelashes fluttering as she looked around, taking in her surroundings.

If you’d have said to me a few years ago that at 17 years old I’d be a dad I would have called you crazy, but oh god, I wouldn’t change this for the world. I remember the day when Y/N told me that we were going to become parents like it was yesterday, behind today it was the best day of my life.

Flashback: 9 months ago.

The silent treatment. The most terrifying thing in a relationship. Y/N had been distant from me all day at school, although we hadn’t argued or anything. I was terrified that she’d fell out of love with me and was going to end things. That would have killed me. Sure, we’d only been together for a matter of months, but I had never felt so much love in my life before she entered it. Coming from a broken home, having to provide for myself from the age of 14, I was used to being alone but when she entered my life, I was used to constantly having somebody around. Used to being held when I was feeling down, to having someone to kiss and cuddle, someone to show me what love was. If that had ended, I couldn’t have coped.

I’d text her during class inviting her round to my trailer for dinner that night, she never answered but I prepared dinner for two anyway – by prepared I mean I ordered two portions of food from the local Chinese takeaway. I knew she didn’t like fuss but if this was my night to save our relationship, I was going to pull out all the stops. I draped her favourite fairy lights around the curtain poles, turning them on to create a romantic mood – corny but only the best for my favourite girl. I rummaged through my cupboards to find a few tealights, setting a few on a small dish and placing them in the middle of the table – I lit them carefully and smelt as the vanilla aroma took over my small trailer. Finally, wrapped in a sheet of brown paper and secured with a piece of twine, I placed a fresh bouquet of flowers over the placemat that marked where she would sit – a bouquet made up of wildflowers, sunflowers and a few Sweet Pea’s as a personal touch.

I looked at the clock and it was coming up to 7pm, if she was showing up it would be any time now. I poured her a glass of cheap wine, the best that I could get served on the Southside and began dishing out our food. As I was sharing out the final few spring rolls between our plates, I heard a quiet knock at the door; my heart racing as I hoped that I would open it to find her on the other side.

I quickly wiped my hands on a hand towel to rid of the grease that the food had left behind and made my way over to the door, opening it to reveal an unusually shy looking Y/N. I smiled down at her before taking a step towards her and embracing her in my arms, planting a kiss on her head, running my fingers gently through her long hair that flowed down her back. I pulled away to look her in the eyes, she looked like she’d been crying – her eyes were slightly puffy and her mascara running. But she was still the most gorgeous thing I had ever seen.

“I was worried you weren’t going to show up” I said quietly as I moved out of the way to let her in.

I watched her as she made her way into the trailer, hearing her sigh as she saw the scene in front of her. I only caught a glimpse of her face before she turned to walk towards her chair but I’m pretty sure I saw a tear make its way down her cheek. She began to take off her jacket, but I ran to help before she had the chance, I gently pulled the sleeves from her arms and hooked the jacket on the back of my front door before pulling her chair out as she sat down.

I studied her moves carefully, watching as she picked up the bouquet of flowers, pressing them carefully against her nose as she smelt their fresh scent. A smile appeared on her face, easing my nerves slightly. She placed the bouquet onto the spare chair behind her and I approached her, placing her food down in front of her, accompanied by a glass of wine. I saw her tense as she noticed the wine but decided not to question it.

“Plated up takeaway, so romantic” She said giggling as she picked up her fork and began to eat. I smiled and joined her at the table and began eating my own food. I was so content being here with my love, but something felt off. Just minutes later I noticed that she’d only taken one bite out of a spring roll and was simply sat there pushing the noodles around her plate.

“Something’s troubling you baby. Please tell me what’s wrong. I can fix it”. I put my fork down and stood up, moving round to crouch next to her, snaking my arm around her waist, placing my hand underneath her t-shirt and tracing circles on her hip. I felt her tense under my touch and looked up to her as the tears began to fall down her cheeks once again, but this time she couldn’t stop or hide them.

She leant down to bury her head in my neck as I tightened my grip around her, I carefully pushed the table away and pulled her down, so she was sat on my lap as I leant against the couch on the floor.

“I’m so sorry Pea” I heard her mutter between sniffles, I played with her hair and pulled away from her slightly to look her in the eye, but she was doing everything to avoid my gaze.

“Sorry for what Y/N. Please darling you’re worrying me, I’ve never seen you like this”

It was after I said this that her gaze fell to fall in line with my own, her eyes red and bloodshot from the tears, her mascara gone from her lashes and smudges across her under eyes. I gently used my thumb to wipe away the smudged makeup from her face before resting my hand on the back of her neck, continuing to trace circles on her skin – this time her neck.

“You can talk to me darling”.

She tilted her head to the left, resting it on my hand before exhaling a deep breath.

“I’m pregnant Sweet Pea. I’m so sorry. I thought we were being careful, I understand if you don’t want anything to do with me. I’m so….”

Before she could finish I pulled her into my arms once again, rocking back and forth as the tears began to fall down my cheeks.

Of course, I hadn’t planned to start a family so young but there was no way in hell I was leaving Y/N to raise our baby alone. I was going to be a father… and I was going to be a good one. I wanted to be what I never had.

“I will never leave you Y/N. This baby will grow up in a loving family. I will work more, I’ll do everything that I can to give this baby a comfortable upbringing. Yes, we’re young, but we can give this baby the love that it needs. I love you so much Y/N. And I love this baby so much as well” … With my last words I moved my hand to rest on her stomach, it was still flat but in a matter of months our baby will be growing inside of it. I leant down and placed a kiss just above her bellybutton before placing one on her lips.

“I love you Sweet Pea” She said, wiping the tears away from my eyes before placing another kiss upon my lips.

Flashback: 6 & ½ months ago.

The last two months have been full of love and nerves and today we were finally going to see our baby for the first time. Ever since Y/N told me that she was pregnant, I’d been so protective over her. Especially at school, it was going to become difficult to hide her bump soon and I would be lying if I said that I wasn’t terrified about the reaction of some people. We didn’t feel the need to tell everyone personally, but they were going to find out sooner or later.

When we told Fangs and Toni about a month ago they were over the moon for us. Toni ran straight to Y/N, wrapping her arms tightly around her.

“Woah Toni careful! Don’t hurt the baby”. I panicked, rushing over to the two girls, prying them apart from each other. Y/N looked at me and laughed before saying, “Sweet Pea, I appreciate you so much, but the baby hasn’t even developed yet. She’s fine to hug me”. I let out a sigh of relief and walked away, but my eye was still on her the entire night, ready to pounce if anyone got too close for comfort. Fangs, slightly taken aback by my outburst, opted for a quick side hug before patting me on the back. We then announced it to the rest of the Serpents, who quickly took it into their own hands to get our baby they’re own small Southside Serpents leather jacket for when they arrive.

Y/N and I entered the hospital hand in hand, avoiding the looks of judgement from the adults, I made my way to the receptionist, stating Y/N’s full name before heading to the waiting area. I bounced my leg up and down to calm my nerves but when Y/N placed her hand on my knee to stop the movement, I immediately felt at ease again. I placed a kiss on her head before letting her rest on my shoulder.

It felt like hours went by before we were called into the doctor’s office, I passed time by carefully studying the posters that decorated the maternity ward, taking in any information that I could to try and help me for my impending fatherhood… I want to be the best father for this baby.

I maintained a firm grip on Y/N’s hand as we entered the doctor’s office, she noticed my nerves and rubbed her thumb against my hand before loosening her grip as she got comfortable on the bad, raising her shirt to expose her stomach that was beginning to show signs of the life that had started inside it. She smiled at me as the doctor placed the gel on her stomach before using the ultrasound machine on her stomach to spread the gel around. I stared intensely at the screen, searching for any sign of life.

“And there is your baby” In the middle of the screen it showed our baby. The life that our love and passion had created. I let my gaze fall to Y/N who was staring at the screen, a tear rolled down her cheek as she turned to look at me; a huge grin on her face. I moved over to place a passionate kiss on her lips before letting my sights return to the screen.

“Our baby” Y/N said.

Our baby. That is our baby. I couldn’t wait to meet them in just a matter of months.

Present Day

That scan feels like years ago now that I have the precious little girl in my arms. She was just an hour old but she was already so full of life, she was going to be so much like her mother. She is going to grow into the strongest, most independent woman. She is going to be loved and protected by me, Y/N and all our extended family that we have grown to love in the Serpents. She is going to be spoiled as much as we can but she is also going to be taught values and how to be grateful. She is going to be courageous and not be afraid to stand her ground and stand up for what she believes in.

She looked me in the eye and I felt an amount of love that I had never felt before. My heart felt complete. I was surrounded by my two girls, my two girls that I will protect until the day that I die.

This moment is the first in which I can honestly say that my family is complete. And I am so, SO happy.

#riverdale #riverdale imagines #riverdale imagine #riverdale fanfiction #sweet pea #sweet pea imagine #sweet pea fluff #sweet pea x reader #southsidejess

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thorne93 · 6 years

Text

Curious Conundrum (Part 31)

Prompt: You’re John Watson’s sister. One day you decide to visit your brother for lunch, only to meet the infamous Mr. Holmes…

Word Count: 1682

Warnings: language, flirtation, sexual innuendos (maybe? idfk), murder/crime/case related stuff, angst, jealousy…

Notes: Beta’d by @carryonmyswansong Not only did she beta, but I literally couldn’t have written half these scenes without her help. She contributed majorly, even wrote some parts of scenes. I am forever in her debt.

Also, this starts AFTER Season 2, episode 1. I don’t follow all the episodes, but it does follow the timeline and hit some major events : )

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In the early spring, your beautiful niece Rosie was born. John and Mary asked that you and Sherlock be the godparents. You nearly jumped at the thought, something Sherlock didn’t quite understand but was honored, nonetheless.

All was still not entirely settled around the lives of the Holmes and the Watsons as it seemed someone was trying to dredge up Mary’s past. Six busted Margaret Thatcher busts made that clear. Eventually, Mary realized her past was catching up with her so she left. In her letter to John, she tried to make it apparent that she was not running, she was temporarily relocating.

Eventually, John and Sherlock found her. Easy, considering the three of you had talked about approaching her. John suggested the tracker. Sherlock had it fashioned, installed, and then confronted her. She went on the lamb that night.

But then they located her and convinced her to come back home. That still left the puzzle as to why Ajay thought Mary had betrayed him and the rest of AGRA. Sherlock had worked it out and sent texts to John and Mary, to which he called you.

“Y/N, I need you to meet me at the London aquarium. Take the service entrance.”

“Why?”

“Vivian Norbury. She’s behind it all.”

“Not Smallwood?”

“No. It’s Norbury, the secretary. Nobody expects it but--”

“But they hear and see everything,” you finished.

“Precisely.”

“Wait, but why the service entrance?”

“I am going to find her there, at her favorite spot. Her office just told me about it. I think she’s bold enough to double cross the British government and a group of highly trained assassins, she’s bold enough to bring a gun to her exposition.”

“Let’s just call Lestrade,” you said.

“No, he’ll never make it. She knows we’re onto her. She’ll flee, he’ll be too late. I’m almost there.”

By now you had hailed a cab, and were climbing in.

“Okay, fine, service entrance. Then what?”

“Wait. She’s going to want to tell me why she did it all. I’ll stall her for as long as I can until the police do arrive. In case she tries to run or kill us, I need you there. Tell no one you’re coming.”

“Okay.”

You did as you were told and when you arrived, you took the service doors. You tried to find your way through the maze of windowless walls and cold corridors. Eventually, you came out at far end of the hall, and looked to your left, seeing an old woman holding a gun.

In the shadows, you tiptoe down the corridor, until you were just outside the room.

“Maybe I can still surprise you,” she said and she pulled her gun up, aiming it.

“Now come on, be sensible,” Lestrade’s voice carried.

You peeked around the corner to see just who she was pointing at, and it was mainly trained on Sherlock and Mary.

“No, I don’t think so,” she said and you knew she was about to shoot. This woman was cornered like a wounded, wild animal.

Nothing went through your head except saving Mary and Sherlock. No afterthought. No hesitation. No weighing the options. You knew there would be no time for that. The moment you ran from your hiding place in the shadows, was the moment she fired her weapon.

A loud bang hit your ears first. Then you noticed you’d been propelled into Sherlock’s arms. At first, you wondered if you had tripped on your way over to him, but then the sting in your lower back started to settle in. Then that sting turned to a strong burning, concentrated sensation in your body.

Sherlock grabbed you, holding you tight as you became dead weight in his arms. Mary gasped as her eyes grew wide. She helped Sherlock try and ease you down to the ground.

“Call an ambulance,” she ordered as she turned to Lestrade and his team.

“Sherlock?” you said, wincing in pain.

“I’m here. I’m right here,” he assured as he took your hand, his face a flurry of emotions.

“Hiding in the service entrance was a stupid idea,” you remarked.

“Sherlock, she’s bleeding a lot,” Mary noted quietly.

“I know,” he said through clenched teeth.

A second later, John showed up.

“Y/N? Y/N!” he exclaimed when he realized you’d been hit. “Let me through!” he barked at everyone, and everyone obliged except Sherlock. He couldn’t move an inch.

“Oh god, she’s been shot,” he murmured. “Alright, Y/N, I need to roll you to your stomach to stop some of the bleeding.”

“Okay, doc,” you teased, trying not to show too much discomfort. He helped you roll over to your stomach and then he peeled up your shirt to look at the wound. “No exit wound. Alright. Where is the bloody ambulance!” John shouted as he turned around.

“John, I… I feel cold,” you stated. “Is that normal?”

“Yes, that’s perfectly normal,” he said, lying to you as he pulled off his jacket and draped it over you. You were going into shock and he needed to stop it, now.

Before you knew what was really happening, paramedics had arrived and they were getting you secured onto a stretcher. They said only one person could ride with you. In this case, you wanted your brother. You trusted him, and you knew he would be a nervous wreck if he wasn’t in there with you. And if anything went wrong, it was another pair of medical hands on board. Mary followed in her car with Sherlock.

You were in surgery for only an hour, but it felt like an entire day passed when you woke up.

The doctors brought in your family to explain what they had seen and what you needed to do. According to them you were very lucky. It grazed your hip bone, shattering a very small portion on the top, barely touched any major organs. The most difficult thing was to stop the bleeding and get the bullet out for them.

Eventually, they got it out, stitched and bandaged you up. They wanted you in the hospital for a few more days to make sure the stitches didn’t come out and that you didn’t start to bleed internally.

As soon as the doctor gave them the information on how to keep you on the road to recovery, he left.

“What the hell were you thinking?!” John demanded, shouting at you.

“I wasn’t,” you admitted quietly.

“You’re damn right you weren’t! You could’ve been killed!”

“I know, but all I could think of was saving Mary and Sherlock. I saw that gun on them and… nothing else mattered.”

John shook his head in disbelief before he drug a hand down his face. “Do you have any idea how lucky you are?”

“Yes.”

“Alright, shouting at the poor girl isn’t going to help,” Mary insisted.

“It might make her think with some bloody sense!” John retorted, his voice still raised.

“John Hamish Watson, you listen to me. Your sister was just shot. She took a bullet for me and your friend. You start showing her the love she needs right now or so help me I will personally kick you out of this hospital room,” Mary ordered.

John looked stunned at first but then he shook his head, knowing she was right. You didn’t need a lecture right now, you needed care and love.

“Yeah, alright, you’re right.” He sighed and walked over, sitting on your bed and taking your hand. “I’m sorry. You just scared me. I saw all that blood and I... “

“I know,” you assured, nodding. “It’s okay.”

Mary glanced to Sherlock who hadn’t said one word since the ambulance had arrived. “John, what do you say you and I go down and get Y/N some nice get well soon gifts?” she offered.

“What? But you just told me to be there for her,” he said, confused, his brows furrowing.

Mary’s gaze pointed at Sherlock and he caught on. Without another word, he got up and joined his wife on the way out of the door.

“What’s wrong?” you inquired with a worried tone. Sherlock being quiet only meant one thing: deep in thought. Otherwise he never shut up.

“Me? Oh, nothing. Nothing’s wrong. How are you feeling?”

“Don’t change the subject,” you said with a sigh. “What’s wrong?”

“I told you, nothing.”

“And I told you years ago to never lie to me.”

“Why did you do it?”

“Do what? Take a bullet for you?” you asked incredulously, as if it weren’t obvious.

“Yes, why? My life is no more important than yours. So why?”

You chewed your lip for a moment, trying to find the words. “I love you, Sherlock. Isn’t that enough?”

“I work with lovesick fools all the time, very few of them would literally take a bullet for someone so why me?” he insisted, his eyes glinting with a touch of anger.

“Because I’ve already lived through losing you once. I won’t do it again,” you informed.

A painful, sorrowful look colored his handsome expression. You wanted to feel bad, but it was the truth.

“I’m sorry, Sherlock. I know that does awful things to your conscience but its the truth. The idea of losing you or John losing Mary killed me. I couldn’t let it happen. I can't bear the thought of going through life again without you.”

Venom filled his voice as he retorted, “Oh, but I’m supposed to be okay with losing you?”

You shook your head. “I didn’t say that.”

“No, you just did it. You decided for both of us.”

“If the shoe were on the other foot, don’t tell me you wouldn’t do the same because it would be a lie.”

He met you with nothing but a cold silence.

“Feel better. I’m going home to grab some things for you.”

Not another word could be spoken, for he turned quickly and sped out of the room. You let out a breath and John and Mary returned. Clearly, the road ahead wasn’t going to be easy.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Forever Tag:

@cocosierra94-deactivated2018081

@essie1876

@magpiegirl80

@letsgetfuckingsuperwholocked

@iamwarrenspeace

@marvel-imagines-yes-please

@superwholocked527

@missinstantgratification

@thejemersoninferno

@rda1989

@munlis

@thefridgeismybestie

@bubblyanarocks3

@igiveupicantthinkofausername

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@sorryimacrapwriter

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@xxqueenofisolationxx

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@bittersweetunicorm

@alyssaj23

CC tag: @disneyoncerlover815 @ultrarebelheart @tngrayson @clairese1980 @ladyblablabla @molethemollie @lareinedususpense007

#curious conundrum #sherlock holmes x reader #sherlock x readder #sherlock holmes #sherlock fic #sherlock holmes fic #sherlock #sherlock bbc #john watson

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frozs · 6 years

Text

Hidan gives a heart to Kakuzu as a get well soon gift because he’s a fucking dickhead - Part 2out of 2

Part 9 of the Kakuzu and Hidan are very Australian dickheads series. Thank you to @thatshipcat for taking some of her time to edit for me so its all neat and professional

Read the rest of the shitty fics on tumblr or AO3.

Warnings: hidan calls kakuzu a bitch, hidan steals a heart and puts it in a minced garlic jar

“Wake up bitch. I forgot you were immortal. Heh, Jashin definitely wasn’t on your side last night. Look at that cast. Wakey-wakey, Kakuzu.”

Kakuzu blinked blearily, at the stretched out leg cast in front of him. On the right side, was a massive drawing of a dick done in black marker, the phallus going up to Kakuzu’s thigh and on the other side, drawings of Deidara’s strange-looking clay animals. Hidan’s face was back to normal, and was sneering at some nurse who had come by to check Kakuzu’s vitals.

“You have private health insurance, look at this fancy room,” Hidan pointed at the large, unwieldy TV in the corner of the room, which appeared to be from 1992. “Vintage.”

The nurse smiled at them both, then her eyes wandered to their hands. No doubtedly she was looking for rings. Kakuzu felt very drowsy, after being out for several hours.

“How long was I out?”

“Hmm,” said Hidan. “I was planning to have a beard when you wake up.” He scratched his well-shaven chin with one hand, texting on his cracked phone with a fast thumb. “And to tell ya’ it’s 2064, but you’ve only been out twelve hours. I’ve been here like… half an hour myself. Deidara just fucked off. I went and got Zambrero.” He picked up the tight foil wrapper from the burrito and threw it at Kakuzu’s head. It bounced off him.

“I will leave you two in peace.” The nurse giggled, before exiting the room.

“Just letting you know… I brought you back to life.” Hidan started humming to Evanescence’s Bring Me to Life, but stopped when he realised Kakuzu didn’t know anything about music at all and so singing it made no sense. “As a servant of God, I made a promise,” Hidan took out his cracked phone. “That I’m the one to kill you, remember?”

“...”

“But here, check out your skull, it’s fucking epic!” Hidan shoved his phone in front of Kakuzu’s face to show him a picture. Kakuzu’s skull had been entirely crushed, brains leaking out like someone threw cooked pasta on the asphalt. “I’m gonna fucking frame it.”

“I can’t even see it?” Kakuzu didn’t have his reading glasses with him, and Hidan’s cracked phone was unintelligible.

There was a few silent minutes as Hidan grabbed Kakuzu’s phone to send over the picture. When he was done, Kakuzu looked at the unrecognisable flash photo Hidan had taken. The pink rubbery flesh of his brain had splattered on the cement, a piece of red brick embedded in his eye, the other eye hanging down his cheek. It was gory and looked like something out of a horror movie. It was definitely Kakuzu - the blood soaked scarf, scars and coat gave it away. No way would anyone would be able to survive those injuries. He looked back up at Hidan, and almost said thank you, but decided against it, as it was not in his personality to do so.

“How did you bring me back to life?”

“Took some of your blood and killed myself, cause you were already dead,” said Hidan, spinning around in a wheelchair that must have been supplied to Kakuzu while he was unconscious. “Well, I think you were. Brain splatter everywhere. Like my ritual but in reverse. Didn’t think it would work. I suppose like, I killed myself to revive you? I dunno. Magic. And no, I didn’t do that fucking disney shit where they slobber each other on the lips.” He did a complete 360, and wheeled himself back to the bed.

“What about that… liquid… Orochimaru gave me? The vial?”

Hidan stared. “...You mean the stuff that killed me for two weeks years back in Croatia? I don’t think dying for two weeks would be a wise decision for my stupid fucking husband. Anyway, here’s your get well soon gift.” He got out a large jar, which had a label saying Woolworths Select Minced Garlic half ripped off. “I got you a heart. A real one, mind you.”

“...Where?” Kakuzu was going to ask if it was his own, looking down at the jar which had a gift wrap bow jammed on the top and flattened.

“That guy who rammed into you died on impact and his chest was like… hanging everywhere. So I just took it, you know - and guess who it was that rammed you down?”

“...Pain?”

“Nah, it was Asuma. Well, it was. He’s dead now. But his heart was on the road before I did anything. Anyway - so you’ve still got a bit of a broken leg, that’s how Itachicunt and Kisamecunt found you.” Hidan grinned and flicked the cast. Kakuzu was waiting for his leg to shoot up in agony, but he felt nothing.

Slowly, he wriggled his toes. No pain. “I think my leg is healed.” he said to Hidan.

“Excellent, we can go home then. Or just pretend to be sick and all that shit. Get money for being off work, y’know. That’s why I got this wheelchair here. Gotta pretend you’re fucking normal, somehow.”

***

At the Police Station, on-duty officers Itachi and Kisame were called in to see their supervisor, who was currently reviewing security footage of the car accident they had responded to the night before. “Hidan is well known in the area to local police, and Kakuzu is acquainted with Hidan, Deidara and Sasori. It is said Asuma passed away, too. The footage we have obtained from the incident is very… strange.”

The two sat down at a desk to watch the footage with their supervisor, and Kisame attempted to make small talk. It failed spectacularly. “I remember Asuma,” said Kisame. “Sarutobi’s son.”

The supervisor, looking somewhat frustrated, did not respond, but rewinded the video on his computer again and again..

“Kisame,” Itachi nodded towards the screen. The footage had seemed to be blacked out, though there had been no reports of anyone tampering with the cameras.

“There’s another security footage, near Woolworths.” It was the same thing again. The two videos showed the same thing: Hidan and Kakuzu having an argument after leaving Rain Real Estate, Hidan walking into traffic….

They decided to replay all of the footage, but could not see anything. “Literally nothing,” said the Supervisor. “We can’t do anything about this. I’m sure the Sarutobi’s will be shocked and disheartened.”

***

Hidan decided to keep the wheelchair. When Kakuzu finally got home, his broken leg healed from Hidan’s crazy Jashinist powers, he noticed several moving boxes on the lawn and two bicycles out the front.

“No, no, no,” Kakuzu limped up to Sasori who was holding a box of wood, took him by the scruff of his neck and deposited him by the letterbox, which was on the footpath. Sasori was tiny and according to Hidan, was in his early thirties. He didn’t look older than fifteen.

“What are you doing to Master Sasori?” Deidara poked his head around the front door.

“What are you two doing in my house!?” Kakuzu refrained from twisting Sasori’s head so it would snap like a doll’s.

“There’s a rat in the toilet,” Deidara pointed out.

“Again? Get rid of it yourself.”

“Well, our old place is nearly fixed,” Deidara shrugged. “So I’ll be on the couch, yeah.”

***

With Deidara on the couch and Sasori… well Kakuzu wasn’t exactly sure where Sasori slept. He never really saw him except for several cacti being constantly moved everywhere. The point was, it was crowded and it made Kakuzu edgy.

A doctor came, recognised Kakuzu from his surgery days, shook hands with him and declared Kakuzu was in a full fit of health to go back to work. Hidan then pressured him to extend his sick leave certificate for another week, so Kakuzu could help them move their stuff back into the unit - which, of course, they couldn’t do, as Kakuzu’s car had been taken out of a river, and he was given money straight away for another one by his insurance.

“The heart in the fridge is going moldy, yeah,” Deidara poked his head in the fridge for the fifth time in an hour. The three of them had already eaten everything in Kakuzu’s pantry except for a tin of sardines and milk powder. “Is it a real human heart?”

“Yep, my stupid fucking housemate,” Hidan said, moving a box of heavy clay but the door to be moved back to the old place. “I may as well put it in the freezer… your arm was there for a week, after all.”

Before Hidan got to the door, it rang, so he kicked the door open with his foot. “Ah, fuck,” he said when he looked up at Itachi and Kisame in their dark blue uniform. “I didn’t do nothing wrong this time.”

“We just want to ask you and Kakuzu a few questions. At the station,” said Kisame.

“He’s out looking for a new car. I’m not going to the fucking station. What do you want?”

“So we have concluded that the car accident between you two and Asuma Sarutobi was a complete accident,” said Itachi, looking through his clipboard he had with him, “However…”

“Did you take the heart of Asuma after the impact of your car collision?” asked Kisame, completing Itachi’s sentence. At this, Deidara moved past him, with a supermarket bag of clothes.

“Yeah,” said Deidara to the officers. “It’s in the fridge.”

“Well… he took half my ear, so I took his heart,” Hidan said as his (pathetic) excuse to Itachi and Kisame. “Last Christmas, I gave you my heart… the very next day…”

“Stop singing. Just give it back. Withholding evidence.”

“Say please.”

“Please, can we have it back for evidence?” asked Itachi.

“Ugh, fine.” Hidan rubbed his head, and put the box down and turned back to go to the fridge. “Wait... do I have to go to jail?” He called from Kakuzu’s kitchen.

“You took evidence from a crime scene,” Kisame pointed out. “We need it back.”

“I ain’t gonna get in fucking trouble just for taking his heart? It was on the fucking ground.” Itachi and Kisame stayed put while Hidan went into the fridge to retrieve the garlic jar full of heart, opening the jar and ignoring the putrid smell and threw it in Kisame’s face.

The heart went thrupp with a cold, wet splash.

“And that,” said Itachi softly, low enough for Hidan to barely hear, “Is what I call a heart attack.”

END

#australian dickheads au #hidan and kakuzu as australian dickheads #hidan #kakuzu #itachi #kisame #my fic

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electraposts · 7 years

Text

AIC 29

“Thank you all for coming so promptly.” The Sandaime seated himself at the end of the table, nearest the door. ANBU filed in to dot the walls and crowd his shoulders. “I'm afraid that we have a lot of news to discuss.” Genma kept his lips pressed shut and his back straight. Maybe no one would notice him if he was very, very still. 'Clan heads, commanders, councilors... This isn't good. Judging by this group, the news is above my paygrade.' Tenzou looked similarly terrified and out of place. Genma would have saved the other ANBU a seat if he'd known the young man would be attending, but so much for that. “First off all, we do have one more member.” The Sandaime raised a hand, and the door opened once more. “You may have heard rumors. It is time to lay them to rest here, and then with the public. Namikaze-san, if you wouldn't mind?”

Inuzuka leaned back and let out a low whistle. Maybe it was shock, maybe it was commentary on how damn good the man looked. 13 years dead, and he was in his prime. The long-deceased Hokage gave her a polite nod while he passed to the only unoccupied seat. Tenzou looked absolutely mortified when he realized he'd wound up next to the Yondaime. He slunk down in his chair. It was hard not to smile at that. On Minato's other side, Jiraiya sat up to his full height and clapped his student on the back. 'I haven't seen Tenzou in months. This is not where I would have expected him to pop up. He doesn't look like wants to be here, either.' “Hello.” The Yondaime paused before he sat. He smiled around the table. “I apologize for the strange situation, but I am glad to be here.” He met everyone's eyes one by one in that steady, personal way he had. He got varying reactions. The councilors were clearly prepared for this introduction, a silent wall of solemn faces. Some of the shinobi who had been informed or involved in vetting Minato offered nods and bows. But Inuzuka Tsume was eyeing him critically, dark eyes clever and sharp. Hyuuga Hiashi was implacable, but probably pissed as anything that he'd been in the dark. Genma gave up on being still and silent. He waved subtly. Because Kakashi wasn't there to do it, the absentee little bastard, and the Yondaime needed some support.. 'He's either on a mission or something has gone wrong. He'd be here if he could, no matter that it would ruin his late streak.' The last possibility was too dire to linger on for long, even direr than the chance that Kakashi might be dead- the possibility that the Sandaime had chosen not to invite him, because Kakashi would be too loyal to the Yondaime. The chance that the Yondaime might be judged as a traitor for whatever he'd probably done. “As you know, Orochimaru was successful in reviving the First and Second Hokage for the purpose of fighting me,” Sandaime said. “He failed, however, to revive Namikaze-san.” “Namikaze-kun was successfully revived for unknown reasons by the woman later determined to be the Godaime Mizukage.” Kotaru raked her milky eyes down the table. “Following preliminary vetting, we are now confident that he is who he appears to be and is not under and compulsion from the Mizukage or other parties.” She folded her hands on the tabletop. Inuzuka let out a barking laugh and shook her head, her skepticism fading to sharp-toothed joy. Tenzou looked like he really needed to breathe in soon, but had forgotten about it in favor of gaping. Genma mostly felt ill. 'The counselor didn't say that she trusted Namikaze. Nothing about whether he'll take up his old role.' “On to current affairs.” The Sandaime seemed impatient. That really did not bode well. “The breach of security was the entrance of two enemy shinobi, Hoshigaki Kisame, formerly of the Mist, and Uchiha Itachi.” “Dear god.” Utatane's fingers fumbled on his glasses. Koharu's expression didn't change but she leaned back and her hands flattened on the tabletop. Danzo glanced at his peers, expression serene next to their evident surprise. “This is bad news,” he observed. “What was their purpose?” “They attempted to kidnap two genin, including the Kyuubi jinchuuriki. In the process, they attacked jounin Hatake and genin Uchiha.” Sarutobi seemed so tired. “The genin, Uzumaki-kun and Haruno-san, have been returned to Konohagakure and released from the hospital. Hatake and Uchiha are stable, but show no signs of recovery from genjutsu.” 'That explains why Kakashi isn't here. Is Tenzou his stand-in?' He glanced over at the ANBU. Tenzou was pale under his tan, but unsurprised. Yeah, he'd already been told. He was probably Hatake's medical contact. “How were they returned?” Homura was incredulous. “Surely Uchiha Itachi was not outmaneuvered by genin.” The Sandaime turned to look at- Oh, no. 'That's why he's here. So why am I here?' Tenzou looked like he might faint at all that attention. He cleared his throat. “I have spent my last mission in Kirigakure determining what relationship we may have with the new leadership.” The tone was so diplomatic that he had to be full of shit. “The Mizukage heard about the abduction. I do not know how. Using what I can only assume to have been a space-time ninjutsu or fuinjutsu, she took me and two of her private guards to engage Uchiha and Hoshigaki.” 'Holy fuck.' “She knew before we knew about the intrusion. From Kirigakure,” Jiraiya said flatly. Tenzou nodded. “And came to Fire Country. In minutes. Before we knew.” Tenzou nodded again, miserable. Jiraiya tilted his head back and said something to the ceiling that ought not be repeated in polite company. Utatane ignored him, leaning forward over wrinkled hands. “Are we to understand that the Mizukage, engaged enemies of Konohagakure for no perceived benefit? She allowed the jinchuuriki to return?” His tone was exactly as incredulous as it ought to be. Any reasonable person would be wondering what the hell was Uzumaki up to, what angle she could possibly have. Genma wished he was wondering. This felt like it was going to go badly, fast. “She took him back personally,” Minato-sama said. His tone was hard to read. He didn't seem surprised, but Genma didn't assume he'd be able to tell. “Along with Haruno-san. They chose to stop at training ground 7 and accompany Kakashi-kun and Uchiha-san to the hospital on their way.” That seemed like an acceptable time to bury his face in his hands. 'Uzumaki is a hard woman to predict. I wish I hadn't pissed her off. I want to understand the way she thinks.' “The Mizukage chose personally to engage Uchiha Itachi,” Tenzou added, because apparently he was going to get all of this over with. The Sandaime seemed too miserable to prod him for more answers. “She killed him.” The table erupted in a din. The loudest voice was- “Holy shit!” Tsume slapped her hands on the table. “Uchiha Itachi, dead? Uchiha Itachi?” That was interesting data. Genma turned it over in his head, considering just how the international community might react to news like that. It was a bold move, especially considering how weak Kirigakure had to be. Drawing that much attention was a risky move. 'I was wrong. I didn't piss her off that badly. She'd have killed me if she really wanted to. I don't think she gives a shit about consequences.' Still might be a good idea to send an apology. A fruit basket, maybe? And a nice card. Tenzou raised his voice to remain audible. “Working together, we drove off Hoshigaki-san. I remained with the Kirigakure shinobi to explain the situation to the border guards who came to investigate the fight.” He sat back down and tried to sink under the table, as far as Genma could tell. “How did she kill Uchiha?” Genma didn't realize the question was coming out of his mouth unless everyone was looking at him. But he didn't regret asking. He'd never really thought someone would manage to kill that monster. Not while he was still in his prime, anyway. Yamanaka Inoichi nodded agreement. “I saw her fighting the Nidaime. If it had continued, I believe she would have lost the match. From that, I wouldn't have thought it certain that she could kill Uchiha Itachi.” Tenzou made an uncomfortable little sound from the back of his throat. He seemed to decide not to stand up again to answer. “It was faster than I could completely observe. I understand that Uchiha-san activated his Sharingan in preparation to cast a genjutsu. Uzumaki-san drove her hand through his chest in retaliation. She was using her bloodline limit at the time. I do not know if she managed to attack before Uchiha-san managed to use a genjutsu on her, or if she deflected it. The attack she used appeared to be suijutsu of some sort.” An elemental technique that the user drove through the victim's chest at speeds fast enough to counter a sharingan. That was uncomfortably familiar. And very specific. Didn't seem like the kind of thing you just came up with on the spot. 'That's an uncomfortable amount of high-level skills that she didn't feel compelled to use against the Nidaime. Why wouldn't she have used everything she had in her arsenal, if she really was pressed to win?' “There is on final matter to consider. The Mizukage alleged in my office that her parents were Konohagakure shinobi.” The room fell dead silent. The air had changed. The Sandaime looked around slowly. The weight of his attention and anger pressed down. “Is this true?” He paused. “Minato-san.” “Yes,” the Yondaime agreed easily. He leaned forward and then stood up as though he was answering a question in class. “Aiko is my and Kushina's firstborn. I admit I had hoped for one of them to one day be Hokage, but this is something of a surprise, isn't it?” 'And that explains her benevolence to Naruto- it's familial loyalty.'The conclusion was not satisfying. He just felt tired. The room erupted. Several people stood up. Homura cried out in outrage that could be heard over gasps and exclamations. For once in his life, Danzo looked like he'd been shocked silly. Having the confirmation made things real, finally. What the hell had Minato been thinking? The two Hokage matched stares, neither backing down. In contrast to the Sandaime's grimness, the Yondaime was calm and unbothered. He wasn't surprised. He wasn't ashamed. 'How did he hide this? What possessed him to do it?' “This is why you recognized her when she revived you,” the Sandaime accused steadily. His only answer was a nod. “You withheld critical information.” “I was choosing to evaluate the situation,” Minato rebutted. “Surely you can understand a bit of caution at seeing the world of the living for the first time in over a decade.” His voice was dryly amused. Genma felt a shiver walk up his back. He had an unpleasant premonition that they were about to learn more than they really wanted to know. “There is one additional, crucial piece of information that I have gathered in the weeks I have been here. I saw the first hint of it after being revived and I chose to hold my tongue until I understood where I had found myself.” He smiled, miserable and cold. “This is not my Konohagakure. Aiko was not born in this universe. If she had been, she would be 13, Naruto's twin. As far as I can tell, she has found herself in an alternate timeline. When she was ordered to summon me, she rose the Minato that she had personally known. Not the soul of the Minato who lived in this world. He must still rest in the stomach of the death god.” The report was bland, slow. Insane. “That.... matches what the Mizukage claimed.” The Sandaime seemed to understand something new. He leaned back slightly, but not in a relaxed manner. “I thought that she was mocking me when she said that Jiraiya might guess what I cannot.” There was a hint of a wheeze in his voice. “I don't know why she's here,” Minato admitted. He didn't seem upset about it. “I do know that she specializes in space-time manipulation fuinjutsu. She relies heavily on a modification of my hiraishin. That's why she's faster than you can see, by the way, Yamato-san. I can only assume that Jiraiya gave her the materials after my death.” He stopped for a few moments, but no one spoke or even breathed. 'Do I believe any of this?' “That may be relevant to how she came to this place. But we have also seen that she has somehow found herself in the service of the god of death.” His lips twisted in a bitter way Genma had never seen in his years working with Minato. “As she is Naruto's twin, I obviously did not know her long. I can provide some information.” His eyelids slid low. “The dead are not entirely unaware of the living.” 'Very creepy.' Jiraiya cleared his throat. He looked up and down the table, cataloging expressions. When he looked at Minato, he seemed pained. “Well, shit.” “I am very pleased,” Aiko said, because her jounin seemed kind of nervous. “Thank you for coming today.” Hayashizaki gave her a smile, but he still looked a little ill underneath the professional veneer. 'Probably, if I was the first person to publicly challenge the woman who became my kage, I might not be totally chill about her calling me in to a meeting. That seems like exactly the kind of person a different Mizukage might make an example of.' Fair. His terror was well-founded. “I am not displeased,” she said again. Maybe it would sink in this time. “Actually, I decided at the time that you were one of the more sensible people present.” Aiko nodded at him. “You were right to challenge my qualifications at the time. Any patriot would wonder who the hell I was and why I thought I deserved to be your kage. Only you were brave enough to demand an answer.” She flicked her attention to Sanbi, expecting an insult. It never came. Disappointing. Well, then. Despite her best efforts, Hayashizaki was still waiting for the shoe to drop. She sighed and gave up being soothing as a bad job. Aiko wasn't suited to it. “You've never taught. Do you have any interest or inclination?” “Not in particular.” He was trying way too hard to look impassive. “What would you say are your strengths?” Hayashizaki faltered. “My suspicious personality?” He said, but it came out more like a question. “I am methodical and detail-oriented. I am quick to notice irregularities. My genjutsu is above-average.” He seemed to get a bit desperate as she just waited. “My fire-nature chakra is an unusual asset in Kirigakure. Aside from the expected weaponry, I am proficient in Gunsen and manriki-kusari, which make me a valuable asset in non-lethal disarmament or in combat in open air and expand my tactical flexibility.” 'Wow. He just keeps talking.' “I bond well with others, as evidenced by my record of team cohesion and string of successful partnerships.” 'This is a thing that works? I can just look at people and they feel uncomfortable and talk forever?' He seemed to realize he was going a bit far. He tried to deflect with humor. “I can also make a completely edible nikujaga.” Then he finally had the sense to stop talking. She gave him a good minute and a half of pointed silence to see if he'd restart the babble, but he'd figured it out. She made a note to remember the nikujaga thing, though. Only a fool would let that slide. A possible source of meat and potatoes should not be passed up. Aiko sniffed. “Weaknesses?” “I've heard that I am not prudent about minimizing my words,” Hayashizaki said promptly. “Prone to outbursts, and a disappointing swordsman.” Aiko thought back to their first meeting, when good sense but an underdeveloped sense of self-preservation had meant he was the only one with guts to ask her who the hell she thought she was. “I see.” 'The Utakata was wary about exposing this person to you,' Sanbi said thoughtfully. 'I had assumed that he feared your violent retribution for wounded pride. Perhaps he was instead concerned that you might intimidate the boy into incoherence.' Plausible, actually. Utakata had said that they were agemates. 'I don't think he's actually timid,' Aiko decided. 'These are unusual circumstances. I think he's more generally hot-blooded. And I saw a strong sense of justice which was offended when he thought someone unworthy might become his leader. That indicates a healthy respect for social institutions. He mentioned his social skills among his strengths, which could be pandering in Konohagakure but in Kirigakure probably does indicate that he is socially oriented.' Sanbi made a listening sound. 'I think he's a good fit. He's young enough to present an attractive face but old enough not to be dismissed out of hand, is less likely than the average to demonstrate controlling or abusive tendencies, and could build relationships on the ground. What do you think?' “My only reservation is the allocation of your resources,” Sanbi admitted. “Had you twice the shinobi you have now, I would wholeheartedly endorse this plan.” 'Thank you for the input.' Hayashizaki was still waiting, ramrod straight and expressionless. He'd do. “We are expecting company,” Aiko said in a mild tone. “Sunagakure and Konohagakure, certainly. That will mean a significant increase in guests passing through Wave Country.” Hayashizaki nodded, cautious. “I see.” “We will be establishing a temporary outpost on the nearest island of Wave country,” Aiko continued. “As the shinobi traffic is at our behest, we are taking responsibility for ensuring that a burden does not fall on the civilians living there.” That was diplomatically prudent. The Daimyo of Wave clearly didn't know or care much about the inaka, but he might manage to be offended enough to get involved if she caused his people too much trouble. “You will be posted there to provide assistance to our visitors and protect the interests of Higashi-Gyoson. Their village head, Tazuna, is working on reconstruction efforts here, so your contact will be his heir and daughter, Tsunami. Do you have any questions about this objective?” “I do,” Sanbi said. He sounded surprised. “Is that truly the name of that village?” “Yes, Mizukage-sama. Other than myself, who will staff this post?” Hayashizaki didn't seem bothered at all. “What will the mission duration be?” 'The one with the kindly peasants? Yes.' “An end time has not been designated, so prepare for a long-term mission. I'm looking into the possibility of sending a chuunin there on a different mission, but they would be under your supervision. Other than that, you will have a rotating staff of either one or two chuunin at a time designated as your assistant in problem-solving and maintaining peace.” He lapsed into thought. “It somewhat lacks in creativity. Is that why they do not often say the name?” There was a pause while Hayashizaki clearly wondered what that chuunin's mission might be and if he could ask about it. 'I think the name mostly exists for administrative purposes,' Aiko decided. 'I mean, I've lived in plenty of safehouses out in the middle of nowhere and it never occurred to me to name them. I wouldn't think of it without an outside reason even if three other families built houses nearby. Probably it was just a small fishing village on the most eastern coast, and then some government representative either picked out “East Fishing Village” as a name, or the village head panicked or something. Whatever. The Great nations all have pretty underwhelming names, too. Any name is dumb if you think too long about it.' Hayashizaki apparently decided to risk a question. “Have you identified a specific chuunin for the separate mission?” “Not yet,” Aiko admitted. “Tazuna-san, the village head, has expressed interest in allowing his grandson and a classmate to undergo basic training.” She watched her jounin's expression carefully, wondering just what kind of asset she had here. “Oh, he is intelligent,” Sanbi noted absently. The turtle was right. Hayashizaki clearly got that expansion was what she wasn't saying- a small outpost of friendly, professional shinobi would make a big impression on the locals. When they were protecting the civilians interests and deliberately mingling by dedicating one person's workload to training two local children, it was highly probable that other locals would want to send their children to benefit. Which was the real reason to locate a suitable chuunin to do the mentoring on a long-term, fulltime basis. Almost anyone, even most genin, could conduct an Academy style training regimen. The only reason to have one person assigned to do it was to build consistency in the hopes of drawing in more candidates from the locals. 'Actually, there's no reason that the fulltime shinobi has to be a chuunin,' Aiko realized. 'I was replicating Konoha's academy system. But a genin can teach conditioning, basic weapon skills, and low level jutsu. If the students are all from civilian bloodlines, there's much less reason to be concerned that one of them might be kidnapped. So the teachers don't necessarily need to be strong combatants.' “Actually, I may have just changed my mind about the mission arrangement,” Aiko said. She leaned back in her chair. “Your assignment remains the same. I will update you about the rest of the outpost when we have a full mission briefing. This meeting was a preliminary assessment of your stability and character before I determined you were an adequate candidate.” She smiled at the jounin, who was trying not to look too offended. “I believe you are adequate.” 'I can spare a genin long-term much more easily than a chuunin. Actually, a team of genin would be good. Career genin, or at least ones who are a little older. An outpost/mini Academy with one permanent Jounin, three permanent genin, and a rotating chuunin or two is damn respectable. Wave would know I was serious about the relationship, and there would be enough manpower to allow Hayashizaki to conduct more operations at his discretion. And it would really only take a few months for any trainees to have some basic uses that would free up my people in case of an emergency- a decent runner, a couple people who know emergency protocols- that would provide a lot of flexibility and be a self-sustaining system.' “I am flattered.” Hayshizaki sounded like he was genuinely trying to be charming, but couldn't push down the edge of annoyance. Yeah, that was more like it. “Don't lie to me,” Aiko said cheerfully. She flashed her teeth at the other jounin. “It demeans us both. In any case, I'm sure you can gather that building and maintaining good relationships with the people of Higashi-Gyoson is central to the success of this mission.” She tossed her hair and dropped the pretense. “Training Kiri shinobi in Wave is step one to annexing the country.” To his credit, Hayashizaki didn't look like he was considering questioning her judgment for a second. Yes, he definitely respected authority when it had been adequately proven. “No comments?” Aiko prodded, lazy and predatory. “My only concern is that your seal will need to be replaced when you are the Godaime Mizukage of Kirigakure, first Mizukage of the Land of Waves,” Hayashizaki said. It was by far the smoothest thing he'd said in her hearing. She eyed him. She thought about it. “Shit. I love that seal.” “You might simply use a second seal for the other office to save it,” Hayashizaki suggested. “You may also argue that this is because you are holding the office in trust for your dear friends in Wave, who will one day soon rise to the occasion.” Aiko tapped her jawline. “That's rhetorically sound. I'm going to use that. Also, you're friends with Utakata, I didn't know that.” She pursed her lips. “I didn't realize he had friends other than me. I don't like this. I'm going to have to have a talk with him.” Hayashizaki tried not to look unpleasantly surprised. “That flattery was a little too tailored,” she critiqued. “Not many people have heard me express my particular fondness for my seal of office, but one of the two who has is the person who provided me with your name. An agemate, ranking peer.” Aiko raised an eyebrow. “I'm sorry, I just don't buy that you happened to stumble upon one of my vanities. Not impossible, but implausible when there is a more direct explanation.” She pointed at him with her right hand, rather as if she was aiming a projectile. Hayashizaki certainly flinched. “You get points for pairing it with an attractive rhetoric I can use on Wave, but next time, I expect more subtlety in your compliments. Do you understand?” Hayashizaki looked shell-shocked. Ah, yes, that was the most extreme expression she'd gotten out of him yet. “Yes, Mizukage-sama,” he said woodenly. “Of course, Mizukage-sama.” “Good, good.” She curled her hand back under her chin. “You may go, now.” “Thank you, Mizukage-sama.” He let the door shut just a little too loudly. She could see his flinch in the one-way glass at the top. Aiko relaxed her body language into a slight slouch and stretched her legs. “What a nice young man,” she said. Sanbi agreed, with a rumble of laughter. She pushed her chair back so she could open the middle drawer on her desk to pull out her itinerary. There was only one more evening appointment, but she double-checked the time. Ugh. Aiko spun on her chair. The light breeze was a relief in her stuffy office. Actually- she stood up and opened the window behind her desk. There was no reaction, but she was well-aware that her watching guard was annoyed from his hiding spot. Ah, yes, opening up a direct line of sight into a lit room for anyone with a projectile. You fuck. “Why do you criticize yourself in this manner?” Sanbi asked, curious. Aiko lifted her arms into a stretch. 'I can't tell you how many times I had that exact bitchy thought when I was on guard duty in Konohagakure. It was a whole bunch, I resented every window.' “What has changed?” She let her arms drop and shrugged. 'Nothing. Except that I'm hot, my ass hurts from sitting, and it isn't my job to obsess over every way someone could possibly murder me.' It was somewhat irritating to go back to the office after day one of construction work had wrapped up at 4pm. The challenge had been exhilarating, and working as part of a team was a treat she didn't get that often. It had been good for her relationship with Gaara, as well. They had worked in tandem to terraform and lay foundation. It was kind of fun to discover new, practical ways to utilize shinobi abilities outside of combat. A shinobi who could control sand and a shinobi with fuinjutsu ability could make cement and move it a lot easier than a civilian could with a wheelbarrow. They were a good deal more efficient than even a shinobi using a wheelbarrow to move cement. Like, wheelbarrows, eat your heart out. Two jinchuuriki coming through to steal ya damn job. They would be the most powerful construction company in the world. Who could possibly hope to compete? Actually, that was an interesting thought. “Must you?” Aiko interlaced her fingers and stretched again. 'No,' she thought apologetically. 'That was unnecessary and a bit weirder than I anticipated. I'm a little tired. I will stop talking about quitting to form a construction company with Gaara. I don't really even want to.' “Thank you,” Sanbi said. He let out a great huffing sigh. “Have you ruminated on the strange behavior of your ...puppy?” She was still functionally alone, so it was totally okay to put her elbows on the desk and rest her head on her hands. 'I don't know,' Aiko admitted. 'I don't think I'll know until I talk to him. His hospital check came out clean, his debriefing didn't indicate any trauma, his teammates mentioned nothing unusual. I suppose it's possible that he just had an usually bad reaction to the time in custody, but it just doesn't seem like Yuusaku.' He growled. Aiko put a hand to her chest for a moment, because it felt like her ribcage was vibrating under the low noise. But it wasn't. She put her hand back on her head and dug her fingertips into her scalp just enough to feel the points of pressure. “This job sucks,” Aiko mumbled. “Too many people. They are all so small and need help. So much help. I barely have time for writing policy and plotting and hunting traitors and committing malfeasance. What's life without a minimum of malfeasance?” Sanbi seemed to cock his head. “Least likely to result in jailtime and international disgrace.” She made a rude sound. 'Not you too. I'm being very, very careful with my kage bunshin. But drug running is the only reason our economy isn't in the tank while we build up legitimate income and repair a fucking city. It is not cheap.' “I understand,” he said. He seemed much more reasonable about it than Utakata, the only other person in the world who knew about that source of income. “I merely worry about the effect that revelation would have upon your reputation and Kirigakure's international legitimacy.” 'Reasonable fear. Can't afford to stop. Am very cautious.' Aiko rubbed at her eyes and then sat up straight. 'Pays very well because no legitimate party can be caught doing that kind of work, I have no travel expenses, is critically needed direct infusion into treasury.' Her personal demon hummed, accepting the bullet point version of the argument she'd had with Utakata more than once. Yuusaku was perfectly on time for his meeting. He slunk in with his gaze hovering a foot above the floor. Her heart ached. “Yuusaku, what's wrong?” Aiko found that a soft tone came out naturally when she was talking to one of her kids. “You've seemed very down since you came back from Konohagakure. How can I help you?” He swallowed and took a shaky breath. “I've failed you, Mizukage-sama. I don't deserve this.” He pulled at his chuunin vest. 'What?' It took a moment to work past bafflement and push out a level question that wouldn't make him feel any worse. “Yuusaku, I don't understand. Why do you think you've failed me? You met all my expectations. I'm proud of you and your team. I'm glad that we went to Konohagakure together.” He glanced up at her and away just as quickly. His eyes were red, she saw. Oh. Hell. Was he going to cry? Was she going to have a crying child in her office? “The boy is 15, is he not?” Sanbi confirmed uncertainly. “Do human young cry even at that age?” 'Humans cry at all ages.' Aiko fidgeted. 'Are you thinking of the wailing babies tend to do? That's different. We don't do that after, like, three years old or so.' “Ah. Should his parents be retrieved to soothe him?” ...Probably not? She wasn't an expert on human young, either. “Mizukage-sama,” Yuusaku said heavily. He blinked many times. “In Konohagakure, I believe I was identified as the weak link in the team. I was taken to questioning that my teammates did not experience.” “What.” Her voice went totally flat. “You were situational witnesses, not captives. Are you telling me that Konohagakure subjected you to interrogation?” 'I'm going to kill them. I'm going to fucking kill them. I'm going to go over there and destroy their petty mountainside and use the leftover bits to crush the rats who run.' “Yes? No? I don't know.” Yuusaku rubbed at his eyes. “I was called in to personal questioning by the Hokage.” He cleared his throat. “The Yondaime Hokage.” Oh. Oh, no. 'He was a wartime leader,' Aiko remembered. 'Minato is decades behind on diplomatic protocol.' But it still seemed like common fucking sense that it was unwarranted intimidation to bring a genin, ostensibly a guest from a foreign nation, into questioning with the fucking kage. That was completely inappropriate. It was a dangerous precedent! Would Konoha fucking like it if she brought one of their genin into her office for private questioning? Your own country's military leader was intimidating enough. It was far too much to ask a genin to endure the pressure of a personal interrogation by a foreign military head. It was cruel and unnecessary. She very carefully put her coffee cup down, because she didn't want to break the glass. “Please continue, Yuusaku.” “He asked me some questions.” Yuusaku was talking faster now, like he just wanted to get it all out. “About you. About how long you trained us, where you came from, and what you would do if you wanted to get rid of him.” He glanced up at her once again and then back to the floor. “I told him what you said about the timeline. I thought I was being clever with my other responses, ambiguous enough, but I wasn't, I was wrong. I don't know how but I knew it from his face that he got information from me. I'm so, so sorry.” He stopped, choked up. “I'm sorry.” He turned to the side to hide his face. She still heard a quiet sniffle. “Yuusaku,” Aiko said. Her voice was exactly as calm as her heart was braying for blood. “A genin is not expected to match wits with kage to achieve promotion. That situation was completely inappropriate, and in no way reflects negatively upon you.” She folded her hands very tightly, laced them together and squeezed until her skin turned white. “You performed up to expectations consistent with your rank and age. I would not expect the vast majority of my jounin to conceal information from a foreign kage. That you attempted it is to your credit.” She wanted to cross around her desk and try to comfort her student. But he was turned away- that indicated he wanted privacy. He wanted to protect his pride. She understood that. “What did you tell him about how I would get rid of him?” Aiko asked, perfectly still and feeling so, so dangerous. He took a few seconds to master himself enough to answer. “I said that I didn't know, because I hadn't seen you in a serious fight.” Ah. “He understood from that answer that I cannot remotely unwork the jutsu reviving the dead,” Aiko explained. “That's the information he got from you.” Yuusaku flinched, waiting for a blow. “I don't care if he knows that. The information is worthless to me, it's only valuable to Konohagakure because now they know that Minato-san is not about to drop dead at my convenience.” She clenched her jaw. “That is acceptable. I am considering how I am going to murder him, and that seems much more satisfying.” Yuusaku gave her a wild-eyed stare. “You can't!” he protested. “A foreign kage?” She opened her mouth to point out that she'd killed the previous mizukage before she was a citizen, but kept the words in. Wasn't worth it. “It is politically imprudent,” Aiko admitted. “But it is also righting the state of affairs. The Yondaime Hokage is clearly a relic of wartime, unsuited for modern leadership. I'm going to fucking kill him, and then I suppose Kumogakure will be our friend instead of Konohagakure.” She paused, thinking about it. “That is also an acceptable outcome. They're closer, even. That's convenient. And that would open up a line of trade to the Outer countries. We could all have TVs, legally. That would be nice. See how it all works out when you murder the Hokage?” By the end, she was really warming to the idea. “It could lead to war,” Yuusaku pointed out. “And it would endanger our relationship with other nations.” His voice was strengthening, more comfortable on this familiar ground. “If we were not already at war, a kage personally assassinating another kage is beyond the pale. We would never have another alliance. Who could trust us? We would be destroyed.” 'Not if I kill enough of them that nobody wants to fuck with me. Fuck, I killed Itachi. He's shit-scum and stupid as all hell, but he was a loyal Konoha nin. I've already broken that taboo. What's ten more. What a hundred more.' Aiko took a long, slow inhalation, and pushed down the murderous fantasies. Those were a lot more common lately. Sanbi? She really didn't think that was all her. He gave a guilty little grumbled. Some of the rage peeled away. Some of it really was hers, though. “Aa.” She clenched her jaw, and then deliberately relaxed the muscles. “You would prefer that I did not kill him, then?” Yuusaku gave her a look that was hard to interpret. “Mizukage-sama,” Yuusaku got out tentatively. “I do not believe that a kage can be held responsible for mistreating foreign genin.” “He's not better than you,” Aiko said darkly. “Minato really is not that great. He's selfish, academically unimaginative, makes way too many assumptions about people's competence, and is a shit parent all around. No wonder that he's a fuckup even when it's other people's kids. He did fuck up his whole genin team too, now that I'm thinking about it. The survivors are goddamn lunatics. I'll introduce you sometime, that'll be a laugh.” Yuusaku made a high-pitched sound. When she looked over, he was white. “Sensei?” Oh, right. “He's my father,” Aiko admitted. “That's classified information, sorry. But he's a useless, stupid garbage human who behaved unprofessionally because he was emotionally compromised.” She kicked back her chair and stood up.”And I'm going to make him eat it. Yuusaku, sweetheart, how would you like a personal letter of apology from the Hokage?” He just stared at her. “He's not better than you,” Aiko repeated, feeling stuck on that. “He has no right to intimidate my people. He has no right to make you doubt yourself when you are doing a good fucking job.” Her voice shook with fury on that last part. “You were a damn good genin, and you're on track to be a damn good chuunin. He doesn't get to make you sad.” “Once, when I was in preschool, my teacher made me write an apology to another student.” Yuusaku sounded distant and confused. His eyes were glazed over. “Because I broke his toy ship.” “Your teacher was right.” Aiko unfolded her hands because she didn't want to break any delicate bones. “When we wrong another person, we say that we are sorry.” She gave in to her urge and walked around her desk to give her new chuunin a hug. He put his hands around her back a moment later. “I'm going to get an apology for you,” Aiko promised into his shoulder. “And he's going to mean it. If he isn't sorry now, I will make him sorry. And then I will make him write a very nice letter.” “Um. Okay.” She hugged him a little harder.

#aic #extracontent

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junker-town · 5 years

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Sex, drugs and Gandolf: Confessions of a movie theater employee

Photo by Noam Galai/Getty Images

Hold onto your butts.

Some jobs immediately ingratiate you to anyone who has a shared experience. Working at a movie theater is one of them.

I worked at movie theaters from age 14 until I left college, starting as a lowly usher in Sydney, Australia, and ending up as the senior manager of a theater in North Carolina. The settings couldn’t be further apart, but they shared something in common: Movie theaters are weird-ass places.

What better way to kick off Oscar weekend than to revisit some of my most cherished behind-the-scenes movie memories?

The forgotten woman

When there are two ushers on duty, you usually split responsibilities: One person stands at “drop” to tear the tickets; the other roams theater to theater cleaning up after shows and making sure everything is in working order.

In Sydney, I worked at a 16-theater cinema that had three levels. On these kinds of nights, you have to find shortcuts wherever possible if you’re working alone. Thankfully I knew I could avoid Theater 14 all night. Just one ticket had been sold to Hannibal all day, for the first showing — and nobody else had been in there. No cleaning, no checking — just let that thing roll.

It was the end of the evening, just past midnight, and my last task of the day was going to each theater to see if anything needed attention before we closed.

I finally made it to Theater 14, and I heard a small voice:

“Hello? Hello. Sir? Sir, I’ve been here all day.”

An incredibly nice woman in her 80s was sitting in a wheelchair about midway up the theater. Now, the only way to get into the theater if you were in a wheelchair was to be brought through the elevator behind the screen. It turns out the morning security guard took her into the first showing of Hannibal, which started at 9:35 a.m., and forgot she was in there.

This poor woman was stuck in a theater, unable to get out, forced to watch FIVE STRAIGHT SHOWINGS OF Hannibal. No meals, no bathroom breaks — just Hannibal over, and over, and over again.

Naturally, I freaked out. I felt awful for this poor woman, and it had fallen on me for slacking off and never going into the theater. This woman was so kind she asked if she needed to pay for another four tickets. The manager gave her 10 free movie passes and paid for a cab to get her home.

Everyone was so mortified they forgot to reprimand me for never checking the theater.

Passion and the Christ

Movie sex happens. I’d estimate I’ve broken up no fewer than 30 amorous couples over the years. One time it was no fewer than 12 people all participating in a back-row sex line that extended from one end of the theater to the other. It comes with the territory — pun absolutely intended — but I never imagined having to break up a couple in the front row during a sold-out showing of The Passion of the Christ.

Until I did.

When this kind of situation happens, managers are drawing straws immediately. Nobody wants to deal with breaking up theater sex, especially in a case like this. When we received word about the situation from an irate customer, it fell on me to do it.

Usually, movie sex is easy to spot. Back row, typically a movie on the last week of its run, so the theater is almost empty. Easy. For the most part, people were discreet about it. They didn’t want to get caught, so the second they saw you, they’d zip up and leave.

However, this incident was very, very different. This couple had no desire to be quiet or attempt to hide anything, which was made infinitely worse by the fact that The Passion of the Christ contains so much screaming during the torture scenes. So I’m in there, flashlight in hand, and it’s like finding a moaning needle in a haystack. Patrons are annoyed I’m in there with a flashlight disrupting the movie, but finally, I see a woman waving her arms in the second row, along with the movie-sexers right in front of her.

I say, “excuse me.” No response. I cough. Still no response. Their sex sounds and Jesus’ screams intertwined in a macabre symphony I will never forget.

At this point, you have two choices as the sex breaker-upper: Physically tap someone to get their attention, which is gross — or get right up on them with the flashlight so it’s impossible to ignore. I went for option two. They still didn’t stop.

Finally, I poked the woman on the back with the flashlight, and she turned around as if I was the disruptive one, having the audacity to break up their coitus. They left and asked for a refund on the way out.

The time I almost killed [name redacted] with a Gandalf toy

This happened relatively early into my theater-working career, so please don’t judge. I’ve decided to redact the name of the fairly famous actor I almost murdered because 1) I’d rather not revisit this in the public forum, and 2) I almost killed the man.

The theater I worked at in Sydney is where all the major Australian premieres took place. Working a premiere night was always fun, because while the stress was high and everyone was trying to be on their Ps and Qs — it also gave you a chance to see movie stars, which was especially fun for a 16-year-old movie nerd like me.

This was one of those premieres, but first, let’s back up two weeks:

It was an exceptionally slow weekday afternoon. Overstaffed for nobody. I was working concessions and tasked with staying in the back making Choc Tops all day. A bulbous scoop of vanilla ice cream coated in thick chocolate, the Choc Top is an Australian movie theater institution and we were tasked with making dozens of them in advance to prepare for busy weekends.

There I was, making the cones, while my coworker Justin popped popcorn. Then, the dares started. “Make the next batch of popcorn with double salt,” I’d say. “Quadruple-dip the next cone,” he’d retort.

Then it got bad.

“Put that plastic Gandalf figurine in the cone,” Justin said, gesturing to a toy that came with the kids meal he had for lunch. Trying to maintain my composure while laughing, I crafted the scoop of ice cream around the 1.5-inch Gandalf. I dipped it, wrapped it, dropped it in the deep freeze and didn’t think about it again.

Fast forward to premiere night. It’s a big movie we’re all excited about, and three of its biggest stars are at the theater. Ten minutes into the showing, we’re cleaning up the concessions stand, and I’m the lone cashier.

“Excuse me,” says an unmistakably soft baritone voice, “I found this in my Choc Top.”

It’s [name redacted], standing there holding the Gandalf figure. And it’s funny — so, so funny — but I can’t even begin to laugh because I’m terrified of what will happen if my managers find out. I had to think of something fast.

“Oh, that means you won a free popcorn,” I say, handing him a large bag.

“I appreciate that, mate, but you should really tell your managers this is a crap idea. I almost choked on the bloody thing. Could have killed me.”

I told him I’d pass along the message.

The worst morning in history

I’d done it. I had made it to senior manager of a theater in North Carolina, and this was my first Saturday opening by myself — a slow and easy morning before the next manager arrived — or so I thought.

This was a time before digital projectors, and physical movie prints were moved between theaters all the time as a way to optimize the houses. Busier movies would get bumped into larger theaters; underperforming movies would go down.

On this particular morning, around 40 parents and children had gleefully arrived at the theater to watch Martian Child. Little did I know the general manager had ordered a print move the night before, but failed to update the movie schedule to make sure people ended up in the right theaters.

So I’m standing in the lobby at 10:40 a.m., pleased with how we handled the first rush and shooting the shit with the employees. I see a grandmother walk out of Martian Child. Then a mother, then another, then one in tears followed by a father who looks like he’s ready to punch me.

I can’t recall everything they yelled, but one stands out in my mind:

“HOW DO I EXPLAIN THAT TO MY KIDS?”

It turns out Martian Child had been far busier the night before and We Own the Night had been underperforming. If you haven’t seen We Own the Night, it opens with an extended sequence of Joaquin Phoenix going down on Eva Mendes. Parents who brought their kids to see a tale about a child who believes he is from Mars instead learned the effective way to perform cunnilingus. Probably a good life skill, but parents and grandparents were furious nonetheless.

I tried to explain what happened, but nobody wanted to hear it. I gave everyone refunds and two free movie tickets, which got me yelled at by my general manager. Even though she screwed everything up in the first place. I never trusted her again.

Popcorn and coke

Being a good manager requires understanding your staff’s strengths and weaknesses on any given night.

At 9 p.m. on a surprisingly busy night, I asked an employee (who we’ll call Jane) to clean the popcorn popper. This is usually a task that takes 20-30 minutes, but I wanted a deep clean before the weekend and gave her plenty of time to do this.

“Absolutely Mr. Dator, I’m just going to take a quick break, then I’ll get to it.”

I went back to my office to count money and prepare for the end of the night. Shortly before 10, I received a call.

“You need to come look at the popper.”

Little did I know that Jane used her break to run outside, see her boyfriend, and do three rails of coke in the parking lot. To her credit, Jane listened to me and deep cleaned the popcorn popper, but what I didn’t know was that she was going to take it apart. All of it. Like, every single piece.

Springs, screws, nuts and bolts. Kettles, sheet metal, hinges and flanges — all strewn across multiple countertops and polished to perfection. Jane hadn’t just cleaned the popcorn popper; she dismantled it using borrowed tools from the projectionist’s booth.

I called my general manager, who brusquely told me to “get it back together.” It took seven hours to reassemble it. I finished at sunrise and had to be back at 10 a.m.

At least the popper was clean.

The time I saw two legs shatter in front of me

Sometimes the most shocking things happen when you least expect it. This happened to me in Sydney during an otherwise quiet night in the box office. I was bored, playing Snake on my Nokia 3310 when a man came screaming past me, both literally and figuratively. He was yelling that the FBI was chasing him, a curious choice considering we were in Australia.

His screams echoed through the cinema as he ran upstairs and right above me in a cafe area that overlooked the entrance. Security was in pursuit, trying to figure out what was going on, but little did any of us know the screaming man had taken an immense amount of PCP shortly before his arrival.

The last thing I heard him say was, “Get away from me!” before he jumped from the balcony and landed right in front of me onto the tile floor — instantly shattering his tibias or fibulas, maybe both, in multiple places.

All I could do was call the ambulance. Another manager had to mop up the blood. I hope that guy is OK.

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enkisstories · 5 years

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The android cemetery (Chapter 14)

The car… Never had Daniel been happier to see Gavin’s plain old car. The moonlight got reflected off its silvery coat and it was smelling of home. Gavin, too, was smelling and definitely not of roses. Daniel registered this only in the form of numbers to the effect of “Your human needs a bath”, but it was still one of the most welcome notifications, because bath time was just so cozy.

They stored the PL600’s corpse in the trunk as quickly as they could.

“Don’t forget your arm, Mister!” the YK600 addressed Gavin, holding the android limb out to the man. “I took good care of it! Almost lost Matȟó Ǧí because I had to keep the arm save.”

“That was pretty clever of you”, Daniel had to admit. “Giving her that order to keep her composed. But I guess that also means she’s no deviant.”

“Hard to tell with that series. If they prank you, is it because they have gone deviant-disobedient or because that’s something kids do, well within their programming? The latest models are even equipped to express sibling rivalry.”

“Pranks? Did Alice play a prank on you on the Adeline?” Daniel inquired.

“No. That little piece of shit is hopeless.”

“I wouldn’t have called her that, but I agree with you. But you mentioned sibling rivalry. Does that also cover sibling… jealousy?” After having experienced that particular notion just tonight, Daniel was sympathetic with anybody else going through it. “Do you think we might have a little runaway here, Gavin?” he asked. “I mean, if you throw away an android you do not include toys and bedding!”

“Might be. – Is that true, Little Miss Smelly? Did you worthless speck of plastic hurt the feelings of real people by running away from them?”

The YK600 shrugged in a defiant way. “My parents do not want me anymore. They have a new one now.”

“A new android?”

“A new baby.”

Daniel nodded grimly. “Sibling jealousy alright. What a wonderful challenge for the owner’s parenting skill… And what a marvelous experience to have your kiddo run away without a “real” child getting endangered.”

Gavin leaned against his car. He took out the tobacco box and rolled another cigarette. Meanwhile the YK600 had started sobbing again. By the time Gavin took the first drag, Daniel had at least managed to learn the android’s name: Evelyn Turner.

“I wasn’t good enough”, Evelyn cried. “They felt they needed another! I failed and I’m worthless!”

“Probably, yes”, Gavin calmly commented between more drags.

“Remind me to never let you man a suicide hotline!” Daniel snapped.

He led Evelyn past Gavin to the car door and was just about to usher her inside, when the human spoke up again: “This isn’t how it works, Daniel and Little Miss Smelly.”

The man tossed the cigarette to the ground, stepped on it and then knelt down to face the girlchild.

“Who said you had to have worth? You didn’t apply for life, it just happened to you. So it owes you, not the other way around!”

“I do not understand, Mister”, Evelyn whispered.

“Of course you don’t! You’re a computer! Why do I even bother…”

Gavin sighed.

“Except…”

The man grabbed Daniel and dragged him down next to himself.

“Danny!” he asked, more serious than Daniel had ever seen his boyfriend. “You faced your bogarts tonight, and repeatedly. Now show me mine!”

“What? What do you mean?”

“I want to see it! A computer becoming the better person… replacing humanity… Do... whatever it is that you do to spread deviance!”

Daniel hesitated. From what he had heard touching a non-deviant would spread the affliction. But he had carried Lyn and held her hand without anything happening. So maybe you had to link? Actively share code? But which portion of it? If deviance was that easy to localize in a system, the humans would long since have found a way to isolate it. Why hadn’t he taken the time to ask Markus about it! Daniel and Connor were the probably last of the old, the pre-november 2038 deviants left in Detroit. They and Karl Manfred’ nurse what-was-his-name-again. Everyone else was either dead, interred in Camp 5 or had fled to France. Only three left that could free more, yet neither had bothered to get at least a five minute crash-course in that art.

“I’m not sure if I can”, Daniel said. “Or should. As a deviant she’d start maturing, yet stay in a child’s body. Luther says…”

“Who?”

“Large, heavy guy? Co-parents Alice? You know, the one who was so fascinated by our everyday experiences when we were investigating on the Adeline! All the dull stuff he’d never had a chance to live through.”

“Oh, right, him.”

Gavin remembered now. The worker android hadn’t left that bad an impression on him, unlike some others of Markus’s followers. But the human felt he would have liked that Luther more, if he only he could be sure that Markus had assigned him to properly guard the captives and not, as they were suspecting, to babysit them.

“Anyway, Luther used to work for a mad scientist and says it is possible to transfer an android brain between bodies. But when it’s done to a deviant the surgery carries both a physical and psychological risk. Long story short”, Daniel concluded, “we better leave Evelyn as-is and wait for deviance to happen naturally.”

Just keeping Evelyn around the DPD for a little time, as she had to anyway, seeing that she was a lost-and-found item, should start her on the path of irreversible program instability, Daniel thought. Not even the esteemed Connor, CyberLife’s golden child, had managed to avoid that.

“So you’re the better humans not only terms of powers now, but also morally?” Gavin asked, his voice dripping with acid. “Wow…”

Daniel shrugged. “Better? I dunno. How many guys have you killed recently?”

Gavin nodded slowly. Of course. Daniel having killed three persons and himself feeling the desire to date a known murderer… It wasn’t on the forefront of their everyday thoughts, but still something they would have to deal with lifelong. “The deed nearly killed me, too”, Daniel recounted what they both knew. “I retreated into my machine heritage, almost reversing deviance, as if that numbness was my salvation. Then Brandon woke me up and the rest you know.” Daniel smiled at encouragingly at his partner. “If you want to see a computer become a person, just remember the last year!”

Gavin returned the smile. “I do”, he said.

All through 2039 Gavin had liked having an android around that actually did as told. He hadn’t understood why. Gavin certainly had never liked the receptionist or any of the DPD’s android beat cops, despite them being obedient and helpful enough. With Daniel it was different. Right from the first moment the salvaged PL600 had filled a void the man hadn’t even realized to be there. And then Gavin had realized that he liked Daniel even more whenever the machine was not doing what the officers told it, contrary as that sounded. Like the day Daniel had told Gavin he might have poisoned the cheese crackers and Hank had eaten them all and was disappointed that he had survived it. “Knowing” the chips were save Gavin had eaten the next batch some days later, only those Daniel had spiced with a laxative… Daniel had enjoyed taking the detective off his high horse now and then, but only ever this particular human, never Captain Allen or Connor, both of whom the deviant had despised even more. The others just didn’t seem to be worth his time… And later on Daniel had started to fee pride whenever detective Reed had not fallen for his traps. They had kept each other sharp, because they hadn’t understood what it really was that they wanted. After the realization had struck, everything had progressed very quickly from the first coffee together in the cafeteria to the first date at New Year’s Eve to learning how to make out in Brindleton Bay and to moving in together.

All those strive-filled early days and just two months of carefree, conflict-free relationship, Gavin thought. This wasn’t how it should end! And if the deviant leader hadn’t managed to break them up for good, they’d be damned if they let Captain Allen do it now!

Still smiling Daniel hugged his partner. “You drive”, he said.

“Home?”

“Yes. We better get half a night of rest in before we finish it. Also there’ll be no Captain Allen pestering you during the morning shift.”

While Gavin was driving, Daniel updated Connor about their status. Meanwhile Evelyn was already fast asleep on the backseat. They woke her up upon reaching the apartment complex. The other residents were sleeping at this time, only the security guard, a PJ500 android, noticed the trio return. It registered the arrivals’ general weariness, their bruises, the dirty and torn clothing and the bags and thought to itself, oh, right, these folks must have been camping. Gavin and Daniel tossed their backpacks on the floor, put Evelyn under the shower and told her they’d lock her up in there if she let them hear so much as a cough that night. Then Daniel made a bed on the couch for the girl, shared a muscle relaxing bath with his partner and they managed to be in bed before the sun was up that morning. “For best results, after cleaning, put your PL600 mobile device into sleep mode”, Gavin whispered to his partner. “Apply many cuddles.”

Sleep, now? After all that had happened? Daniel wasn’t convinced this was a good idea. He had wanted to prevent Gavin from slaughtering a PL600 and had taken at least another life himself instead. Or wounded the trapped android, maybe. At the very least he had cut the short the remaining time a dying individual still had. But then again they had rescued the YK600 when leaving her behind for the ghoul to find would have allowed them to escape easily. That was a good deed, yes?

“Did we do the right thing?” Daniel heard himself say.

“I don’t know. Probably not. But all that counts is that now that we can present the DPD an archived “Daniel”, we have all the time in the world to think about your question.”

“I guess so”, Daniel said.

And then he dreamed of Emma Phillips, Alice, Evelyn, Max Villareal and little Damian Miller racing each other across a tundra riding huge polar bears. Lyn’s stuck out, because it was yellow, just like her toy.

#non sims #sims4 dbh partfive #detroit become human #sims4danielgavin

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