#the vet gave her stuff to keep her comfortable for at least a few days.. we don’t have a date set for it or anything

[doyeons]

my heart hurts so bad

[watermelonlipstick]

Septic

This was written as a request for anon, who asked:

I was wondering if I could request one with Dean. The reader's injury gets badly infected and she gets a high fever and they are stuck somewhere and can't go to the hospital (maybe a cabin during a snow storm or something else if you want?). Anyway her condition keeps getting worse and dean is doing everything he can to keep her alive? As for their relationship it's up to you, whether they're dating or hiding their feelings...?

I hope this is something along the lines of what you were thinking. I decided to go with a ‘hiding from Leviathans’ angle because that seemed the closest to canon compliant to me. Thanks in advance for reading; I would love any advice or critiques!!

Title: Septic

Pairing: Dean Winchester x Reader

Word Count: 2124

Summary: Unable to go to a hospital for fear of getting trapped by Leviathans, Dean tries his best to manage the reader’s worsening infection and fever. 

Warnings: fever, illness, swearing, implied threat of death, hurt/comfort, angst, fluff (maybe? if you squint)

           “Dude, I have a fever, I haven’t been decapitated. Can you stop pacing? Sam’ll be back in a couple days, I’ll take some Tylenol and sleep it off, we’ll be good as new in no time.”

           He glared down at you where you laid on Rufus’s couch with flared nostrils. “You’re shivering under every goddamn blanket in this place and it’s been 3 days already. We’re going to a hospital.”

           You rolled your eyes at him and tried to hide the way you snuggled deeper into the woolen bundle. “So dramatic. As if we wouldn’t get made walking in the door. And if you’re so worried about me, why don’t you make yourself useful and get me a hot water bottle and some tea?” You tried to give him your most casual smile in reassurance.

           Dean appraised you with a hard set to his jaw and a twinge of concern at his eyebrows for a moment before relenting. “Fuck, fine. One more day and if the fever hasn’t broken, then we’re going.” It was only a few steps to the kitchen, and you heard him putting a pot of water on to boil. “You sure I can’t just do coffee? I don’t know how you drink this stuff.”

           Like it always did, Dean’s aversion to tea made you laugh. “It’s literally just mint flavored water—you act like you haven’t drunk all kinds of potions and hangover cures.”

           “The fact that I have drunk all kinds of potions and hangover cures should show you how gross it is.” He tossed a hot water bottle covered in worn waxed canvas on top of your blankets and you shimmied it under your feet while he got the tea together. After a moment, he set the tea (and a plastic bear full of honey, which made you smile to yourself) on the coffee table next to you. “Can we at least watch something else? These chicks are driving me fucking nuts.”

           That made you laugh hard enough to shake loose the blanket corners tucked in under your chin. “You might be able to trick Bobby into thinking you don’t like the Real Housewives, but I’m not buying it for one second.”

           He shot you some side eye but didn’t protest, patting your feet in a signal to raise them so he could sit with your legs in his lap. You didn’t remember past the first few minutes of the next episode.

           “Hey, come on, you gotta drink something.”

           You squinted up at Dean, feeling the sickly stickiness of dried and re-soaked sweat in Dean’s stolen sweatshirt where it bunched around your neck. “You want me to sleep, you want me to wake up, pick a lane, asshole,” you tried to joke, feeling each word like a stab in your, well, stab wound. It took more focus than it should’ve too hold onto Dean’s face where he perched on the coffee table right in front of you.

           “You’ve been asleep for 16 hours, Rip Van Winkle. And you’re sweating like a whore in church, gotta rehydrate.”

           “Thanks, Nurse Ratched,” you croaked, carefully keeping your face neutral around the throbbing ache in your side as you sat up and accepted the bowl of broth from Dean. When his hands were free, he put the back of his hand to your forehead in a very maternal way that might’ve made you giggle if you weren’t in so much pain.

           Dean’s lips pressed into a tight line and he breathed a hard “fuck,” as he sat back. “Lemme see it.”

           “If you wanted to get me naked, all you had to do was ask,” you tried to joke.

           “No slick shit, I’m serious. The fever’s getting worse.” There wasn’t even a touch of playfulness in his tone, tight chord of anxiety clipping his words.

           “It’s going to be pink and raw like every other set of infected stit—”

           “Cooperate or don’t, but my bet is there’s no way you can slip out of getting pinned right now.”

           “Who knew you were so kinky, Dean?”

           He didn’t rise to the teasing at all, the just-this-side-of-friendly banter you normally had, and it made the nervous bile rise a few degrees in your throat. You eased back and slowly flipped down the blankets, immediately started shivering as you pulled up your damp layers to show him your stomach.

           It was worse than you’d thought it would be even before he tenderly pulled back the tape to see the injury itself, the gauze a mottled tie-dye of blood and greenish pus. The stitches strained against swollen, angry tissue oozing at the corners, and you looked away to hold onto a little denial that you weren’t completely fucked. “Jesus Christ, kid,” Dean murmured. He reached behind him for a bottle of rubbing alcohol and you didn’t even try to argue, hissing and grabbing his wrist when he poured it over the wound. Dabbing off the worst of the external mess with the moisture, you watched as his mind raced.

           You decided to try to grab the reins of the situation before he locked you both into a crazy plan. “Help me up, I want to take a shower. I feel disgusting.”

           “Can you even stand?”

           You rolled your eyes at him exasperatedly.

           “Roll your fucking eyes at me all you want, you look like Marvin the Martian. Can’t believe I let your dumb ass talk me out of taking you to a hospital.”

           “I’ve got a much better chance of beating a little infection than I do the combined force of however many Leviathans are looking for us and the full force of the federal government. Now get out of my way if you’re not going to help me up, I need a shower.”

           He pushed back the coffee table and watched you stand up, grabbing your arm and waist when you immediately swayed. “Goddamn it, sit back down, I’m getting your shoes.”

           “Dean. I am not going to a hospital. Especially not before Sam gets back. Not a negotiation. I just—you’re freaked out, I get it. I just need you to please let me call the play for once.”

           His jaw muscles tightened into firm balls and you could see the flare of panic behind his gaze as he flicked between your eyes. Ultimately he didn’t say anything, just giving you a tight nod and offering a hand to guide you up and to the bathroom. When you’d gotten there, he hovered in the doorway as you started to peel off layers, hoping that your leaning on the sink didn’t look as obvious as it felt. “Think I can take it from here, chief,” you offered, hoping he’d take the hint.

           “Not adding a head injury to this bullshit stew, sorry.”

           “No way, psycho. You’re not watching me shower.”

           His face screwed up in a scowl. “I’m not going to watch you shower, I’m just staying in here while you do in case you get dizzy again.”

           “Dude—”

           “Not a negotiation,” he growled, spinning your words back on you. You held each other’s stubborn gazes for a long beat before you gave in, getting in the tub and yanking the curtain closed with the rest of your clothes on, shucking the rest of them off and dropping them outside the tub behind the plasticized shield and curtain. You turned the water on and held onto the dial for support, hearing Dean’s movement in the bathroom as he sat down on the lidded toilet next to the shower. Laborious as it was, it felt a lot better getting clean. You’d started washing your hair when he started to talk.

           “You know what you’re asking me to do, right?”

           “Let me take a shower in peace?” You didn’t want to acknowledge the elephant in the room—what was the point?

           “If you’re not septic yet you will be in a day or two.”

           “By which time Sam will be back and you guys can strong arm some vet into giving me antibiotics like the mafiosos you fancy yourselves to be.”

           “Don’t deflect.” It was quiet but firm, and you blinked away the way your vision was starting to fuzz out at the edges. Something about it finally got you to drop the joking, if only for a second.

           “I know what I’m asking you to do.” You hoped he could hear the resolution in your voice.

           Dean was silent for a long enough beat that you thought maybe he hadn’t heard you, but you heard the roughness in his voice when he finally replied. “Please don’t make me?”

           The shower washed away a hot, stupid tear when it shot out of your eye like a kamikaze at his vulnerability. “I can’t be the reason you guys get caught.” You were clean now, but something about the confession-style quality of the shower curtain and the way it was letting both of you say what you really meant held you in the stream of water anyway.

           “I’m not—it’s going to fuck me up forever, you know that, right?” It was almost a grunt, the way Dean’s voice strained as he pleaded with you.

           “Long as you guys are alive.”

           He didn’t respond.

           After a long minute you felt your legs start to turn to jello. “You have something out there I can put on?”

           You heard him clear his voice, sticky and coarse. “Gimme a second.”

           A callused hand shot behind the shower curtain with a towel before Dean’s footsteps got quieter, and you tried your best to dry yourself off without stumbling. Not 15 seconds later, a bundle of clothes came in the same way. You smiled to yourself at your underwear and yoga pants with Dean’s t-shirt; he would’ve had to deliberately go into 2 different bags to get the clothes, no way it was an accidental grab. When you were dressed, you tugged the shower curtain back and didn’t argue when Dean wrapped his arm around your waist to ease you out of the tub, let him guide you back to the couch and fussily rearrange your blankets and pillows before he got out his first aid supplies.

           You watched his face as he worked on cleaning the wound again, knowing he just needed to be doing something, that he couldn’t just sit still and hope it got better. You could give him that, sat stock still even when it stung like a bitch and didn’t even tease him when he made you swallow a handful of vitamins as though that would help. Another cup of soup eaten silently and two mugs of tea later, your eyelids were beginning to droop again.

           “Tired?” he murmured, messing with the cover of the hot water bottle before ultimately getting up to refill it.

           “A little, yeah. Will you, um, will you sit with me?”

           Dean mercifully didn’t acknowledge the shake in your voice, nodding gently and sliding himself beneath you on the couch, tucking you under his arm and onto his chest, burrowing you both into the cushions. You reached your hand out of the blankets to place your palm over his heart, feeling the vibrating thrum of his pulse under your fingertips and cheek. His hand shifted so that he was smoothing the drying hair back from your temple, and after a few beats he bent his neck to kiss the crown of your head. The tenderness of it, the giving in to your request, pulled another tear out of your eye that fell straight into the cotton of Dean’ t-shirt underneath you.

           He sounded like he’d just woken up, that sleepy-syrupy sandpaper of a long night on his vocal cords. “You know, right? If it was going to be anyone for me, it would’ve been you?”

           The weight of it turned the blankets on top of you into a hug. You were nodding into him before you could speak, the tears turning your voice creaky-soft. “Same to you, dummy.” He chuckled once nostalgically at the ribbing, and you felt the rumble of it under you. “Thank you, Dean.”

           You felt the tension of the hiccupped breath before Dean got it under control to answer. “I love you, kid.”

           “Love you too.” It was the only thing to say, and neither of you had to answer or explain this undercurrent that had never been acknowledged so plainly before, no matter how rock solid it might’ve been for years. You laid there together for a long time, beating of Dean’s heart underneath you something constant to hold onto, warmth off his body better than any hot water bottle. The last thing you remembered before passing out was hearing Sam walk through the front door.

-

Thanks again for reading! If you liked it, check out my Masterlist or send me a request!

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[thelittleplantlover]

Surprise - Corpse x Reader

As requested by @thefanficmonster (with changes), because she writes so much for so many people. It was time to give her something she wanted to read. Thank you for all your amazing stories and your support on this fic Vy🧡!

Pronounce: gender neutral

Warnings: none

Genre: fluff

Word count: 1647

~ A surprise does not always means something good. But you might be surprised yourself with how people react.~

I grumbled and cursed while climbing up the steep stairs of Corpse’s building with two heavy bags of groceries and supplies hanging off my shoulders. Of course, there was no food left in the fridge or even the cupboards when I had arrived for the first time today. I could have known. Okay I lied. Technically there was food. However, not even I could decipher what dish could be made from the leftovers. Not to boost my own ego, but I had gotten quite good at making tasty dishes since I first visited his home.

Out of breath I reached the correct floor. In normal times, especially during this heat, I would have taken the evaluators up to his floor. Sadly, several serious safety issues had been discovered during the maintenance work performed on the elevators the day before. Leaving me with nothing but these awful stairs. To admit, I was slightly proud of myself for reaching it without any stops on between. One victory point for (y/n).

I fumbled around to find the keys. It did not help that I felt rushed. What I had left at Corpse’s home could be considered a surprise. When thinking of a surprise, people usually assume it is something nice. Something the other person would like. I was not so sure if he would love it. I rather had the feeling he would be displeased. And in all honesty, I did feel slightly anxious about it. Looking back at the situation I could not see what better option I had. After all, you can’t turn away an infant in need and I was sure Corpse would not either.

Once inside, I waddled straight to the kitchen not bothering to turn on the big lights. Getting rid of the heavy weights on my shoulders was the only think on my mind at this point. How did these cheap weak plastic bags even still hold on? The handles had ripped off before with less.

With a last grunt of effort, they found their way on the countertop. I allowed myself one sigh of relieve before putting myself back to work again. After filling up the fridge, I turned around to replace the foil, which has been living as an empty roll of cardboard for the past three weeks. Wondered why. It was a good move though. To do the foil first and the filled fruit bowl later. After all, foil does not break when it falls to the floor.

What was it again that the insects always preached? If you don’t move they won’t see you? Yes. That apparently what I tried when I saw Corpse sitting on the couch. The infant on his lap. In the dimmed light with his dark clothing, his persona radiated smart psychopathic villain in a spy movie energy. I did feel like that one person that walked into the villain’s office at the wrong moment that would freeze only to be killed a few seconds later.

Corpse looked me straight in my eyes, while scratching the head of the fluff ball that laid on his lap. Only enhancing the psychotic energy. His voice did nothing to decrease it.

“We are both very disappointed in you.” His face was stoic, his voice steady. At least I could exclude the possibility that he would be mad. That did not dismiss the feeling of stress that ran through me.

The only thing I could let out as a response was a sound between a groan and a wince. I quickly ducked down to avoid his gaze. Keeping myself busy by picking up the foil. Placing it on the counter and throwing the empty roll in the paper bin, I started to unpack the rest of the things I bought. Keeping myself busy was a way to delay his disappointment. However, I knew that it would come soon or later. And sometimes it is better to just get it over with.

I decided to explain myself once I heard him moving towards me. “I was not going to keep him. Just until we could check if he is chipped at the vet and get some advice on what to do with him. I promise!” turning around to face him. He had moved the pup from his lap into one of his arms. The little thing was small enough to comfortable lay in his arm.

“We?” His head turned slightly left to peek into the last bag. Curious to see what I had brought with me. I was not sure if he could see the dog supplies. If he did, he did not comment on them looking like a contrast to what I just promised. Not daring to take them out of the bag, I just stood in front of him. My hands fumbling with each other.

“Yeah.” The nerves kicking in harder as he moved to look at me. I still did not know what exactly he thought of the situation. “My lab partner and I were collecting samples at the river and we saw the poor boy stranded on a large rock in the middle of the it. So, we saved him. But neither of our homes allow pets so…” I fell silent, avoiding his eyes. Hoping he would not mind my decision.

I heard an amused huff above me before feeling his lips on the top of my head.

“You’re too cute.”

I looked up to face him. His adorable slime was plastered brightly on his face. Not a hint if displease or discomfort. I had calculated that he would at least be slightly upset with me. “You- are not mad?”

He even had the audacity to let out a laugh. The little boy on his arm shaking with him. “No. I’m not mad.” He sends me a reassuring smile, for which I could only look at my feet for. I still felt bad for not telling him. This received me another amused huff and a one-armed hug. Careful to avoid hurting the pup, he pulled me into his chest. Kissing the top of my head before leaning his head on top of mine. “How could I be while you are being so precious.”

Flustered I buried my head further into him. Something that he did not miss as I felt his chest vibrate with his chuckle.

Pulling slightly away while keeping his arm around my waist Corpse asked: “He is only going to stay for a little while though, right? I still can’t take care of plants, I for sure cannot take care of a dog.” His head nodding towards the window still. Three pale green plants tried their hardest to survive. Their leaves hanging, like they tried to physically show that they were slightly suffering.

“No,” I laughed, “I don’t think either of us has the time to take proper care of him.” I looked up and give him a smile back. “Especially seeing my first job is to make sure you actually have something nutritional to eat in your house.” Petting his chest for the food measure.

Corpse stuttered, his hand leaving me to rub his neck. Pleased with not being the only one put into a little situation today, I unpacked the dog supplies. Leaving the bed and bowls on the counter. Corpse could decide where it was okay to place them. It was still his apartment.

“So, you are okay with him staying over until we know what to do? I will of course stay here for the time.” I still wanted to check if he would be fully okay with it. Forcing him to take a puppy in was the last thing I wanted. “If that’s okay.” I rushed after, my confidence faltering. We have not yet been together for that long and I did not want to invade his privacy. I knew how much he appreciated to have some time on his own as well.

If Corpse was shy or had any doubts about my stay at all, he was good at hiding it. His free arm wrapped around me once again. “If getting an ugly dog was what it took to make you stay longer, I would have gotten one sooner.”

“Ugly?” I exclaimed in disgust as I softly pushed myself away from him. I placed my hand on my heart. My mouth slightly agape, eyebrows raised.

“He is ugly. Look at him.” Corpse argued. Grabbing the floof with two hands he held him out right up to my face. Sure, the little mut definitely did not deserve the first price in a beauty contest. But the little tooth sticking out at the bottom and the goofy eyes made him even cuter. I was sure some of his friend would agree.

“Bingus is ugly and you love him.” I retorted. Which was answered with a loud gasp before I could even finish my sentence. It was questionable to me whether or not the hurtful expression on his face was played or not. Either way, Corpse replied passionately to my statement.

“You take that back!” His finger now pointing to me. “Bingus is a God. He is very pretty.” His passion combined with his facial expression made me fail to suppress the giggle bubbling up.

I pushed his hand down and stepped closer to give him a sweet kiss on the cheek. “However, none of them are as pretty as you.” The whisper made him flustered and slightly uneasy but also made his beautiful smile break out again. He quickly composed himself, putting the now wiggling pup down and straightened up.

He gave me a quick kiss on the lips, his smile never leaving his face, before grabbing his car keys from the counter. “Come one, let’s get your stuff. If you are going to stay for a while you will be needing more clothes. Can’t have you steal all my hoodies.”

[kj-1130]

Listen to Me

Uswnt x reader

⚠️mentions of fighting/violence, cursing, Chad being an asshole, mentions of racism, homophobia, and sexism. Lemme know if there’s more I missed.⚠️

Main Masterlist

It was time for another camp. You were the last to arrive due to still being in school and having to be there as many hours as you possibly could.

So here you were in the airport walking towards a pissed off Alex Morgan and Christen Press.

The day before your flight to camp, you had gotten into trouble. Trouble meaning you got into a fight. And word got to your teammates.

“Hello my favorite, most amazing people in the whole wide world.”

Alex simply rolled her eyes and grabbed your suitcase before walking towards the exit with you and Christen trailing behind.

You lowered your gaze to the terminal floor. Christen tried to catch your eyes but ultimately failed and decided just to look straight forward as she talked.

“You know, you shouldn’t resort to violence, (y/n). I don’t know what happened but everyone’s pretty upset and disappointed right now.”

Ouch. The disappointment card. Just had to pull that one like you haven’t heard it just about everyday of your life. You were honestly confused if people were actually disappointed when they said it or just used it as a guilt trip.

The ride to the hotel was full of silence. And not one of those silences where you feel comfortable with the people you adore and love. It was one of those silences where it made you nervous and anxious. It made you fidget and uncomfortable.

Getting your room assignment, being with Tierna, you tried to book it up the stairs. That worked for all of five seconds until you were called into the meeting room.

You reluctantly stepped down and made your way to the space and left your suitcase by the door. In the room were almost all the responsible/‘scary when they want to be’ ones. Sitting down in a chair with a sigh, you looked down at your fidgeting hands and waited for someone to start talking.

The silence that filled the room was very tense. All that could be heard was the movement of your hands and breathing.

When you thought things couldn’t get any worse, the most mama-bear of them all, Carli, spoke up.

“You know you can lose your spot for stuff like this right? You got into a fight, this is not something you need to be taking lightly at all. I don’t care what caused it, but you need to fix whatever’s going on with your behavior and attitude because you’ve been off for the past few weeks anyway. If something like this happens again, we won’t hesitate to take some disciplinary actions ourselves. Am I clear, (y/n)?”

You mumbled ‘crystal’ and attempted to leave the room only to get pulled down by Ash. “Now do you wanna tell us what started the fight?”

You were honestly getting really uncomfortable. Any movement you were making at the moment was probably the only thing keeping you from breaking right now; the furrowing of your eyebrows, the rolling of your shoulders, scratching your arms, bouncing your leg. You probably looked crazy.

You shrugged your shoulders and started spinning in your chair.

Ash put her hand on it and prohibited it from being able to move. “That was not a suggestion.”

Sighing and dragging your hands over your face you told them, “A boy knocked books out of my hands and pushed me so I pushed him back. He didn’t like that so he threw the first punch and I wasn’t about to let him push me around so I beat his ass.”

It wasn’t a total lie but it wasn’t the full truth. Yes he did push you. And yes he did hit you first. But there was so much more to the situation than that.

“Look I’m tired and I have work I need to do. If you want to scold me anymore, just please save it for tomorrow.”

Honestly you had never run up stairs so fast. The situation was so awkward and the way everyone was staring at you didn’t make anything better. There was so much disappointment in their eyes.

It’s like what you do will never be enough for anyone.

-

The next day everyone came down from breakfast. You went to sleep after 12 due to having work piled up from your asshole teachers. It’s not like they grade half of it anyway.

You still didn’t understand one of the lessons so decided to watch some YouTube videos on it and take notes while eating breakfast. That also gave you an excuse to sit away from anyone who would possibly want to lecture you about your ‘reckless actions’.

You were the last one down. Deciding to already have headphones in—to ignore anyone calling your name—you grabbed your breakfast and sat down at a table by yourself. Pulling your notebook and pencil out, you started the video and took notes while eating.

You could feel their eyes burning holes in your head. You’d honestly prefer they just come ask what they wanted than staring at you like some museum exhibit.

You just ignored it and did your work. That was easier said than done as Casey came over, sat next to you, and snatched your earphones out.

“Hey!” You scrambled to pause the video so you didn’t miss anything. “I was watching that.”

Turning to Casey, you pushed your glasses up and gave her a look that said ‘can I help you?’

“Don’t give me that face. I’m not the one you need to be having an attitude with.”

“I-I don’t have an attitude though.”

“Stop talking.”

You purse your lips, nod your head, and start bouncing your leg waiting to hear whatever she wanted to say to you.

“Look, I don’t know what’s been going on at school or at home but everyone can tell you’re on edge. Isolating yourself isn’t going to help anyone-”

“But I’m not isolating myself.”

“Interrupt me one more time, child.”

Casey was your first team mom. When you joined the red stars, she immediately took you under her wing and she became your mentor. The two of you worked well together and she constantly kept you on track. She was very nice but could be very strict when she wanted to be.

“All I’m saying is you’re making yourself look more guilty to them because you’re sitting over here looking like you’re all up in your feelings. You aren’t in your feelings. Right? Cause that’d be another conversation I’d have to have with somebody’s child and-”

You cut her off with your chuckle and shook your head. “Casey, I’m fine.”

She nods her head and contemplates for a few seconds, “Alright, come sit at the table with me then.”

“But I’m working.”

“Okay. You can work over there too.”

You simply watched as she grabbed your phone, notebook and breakfast to the table with a gaped mouth.

You blinked at her while she mouthed ‘come here’. Reluctantly, you pushed yourself out the seat and slowly made your way over. You sat down and reached out for your phone only for Casey to snatch it away.

“I need to do my work. What did you do that for?”

“Your work can wait. Socialize,” she said while putting your phone out of work.

With raised eyebrows you said, “Seriously?”

“Does it look like I’m kidding?”

Huffing you turned in your seat and played with your food. You’d honestly lost your appetite this morning; it was only 9 in the morning and people were already testing your patience.

You looked up and your eyes locked with Carli’s.

“Stop playing with your food, (y/n).”

You put your fork down and just got up to throw your food away. You couldn’t deal with this right now.

-

The two weeks of camp was boring and went by agonizingly slow. It consisted of pretty much the same routine; you’d do work after training, work during breakfast and spend any free days or breaks by yourself (occasionally with Tierna) in your room, on your phone looking at ways to improve and tricks to do.

It became annoying when all the vets constantly reprimanded you for the smallest of things. With Carli, it’d be ��stop playing around so much’. With Alex it’d be ‘pick up after yourself’. Even Kelley was doing it for fuck’s sake.

You honestly couldn’t wait to leave and at least be somewhere where all the attention isn’t on you.

-

When you got to the airport, your girlfriend was there waiting for you. She pulled you in her arms and any leftover tension from the past two weeks immediately went away. She always knew how to make you feel better.

The two of you drove to her house and went over some school work before going to bed for the night. It wasn’t an unusual routine between you two.

When the alarm went off in the morning both of you groaned. The school you went to was a total pain in the ass and regardless of what day it was, you could count on it to be an awful day. It was a predominately white school with only 2 percent being a person of color; you and your girlfriend being part of that 2%. Half of them were racist, sexist, homophobic, and just all around assholes.

Walking into the school building, you could immediately feel all eyes on you. Trying to get past it, the two of you just went to your lockers with your heads down.

“Aye! Look at me you freak!”

It was the same dude you got into a fight with last time(his name is Chad by the way). Apparently a black eye didn’t teach him shit.

“When I tell you to do something I expect you to do it.”

He grabs your shoulders, turns you around and pins you to the lockers.

“You see my eye?”

“Yeah, you got your ass beat by a girl. What you gonna do about it?”

He punched you in the stomach hard.

“(Y/n)!” Your girlfriend. You looked up at her and shook your head signaling her not to get involved.

“Ima make you look worse than you made me-”

“Are you sure about that? Last time you failed, what makes you think it won’t happen again?”

Chad chuckles and shakes his head.

“You think you’re all that with that equal pay shit, and your racial equality and women loving women crap. Guess what you little bitch I’m going to end you and all those lesbians and gays and anybody else who thinks they deserve equality because you don’t. You don’t belong here. Just go kill-”

You kicked him in his balls, twisted his arm behind his back, and pulled it. When you heard that crack you smirked and leaned down to his ear.

“I don’t wanna embarrass you in front of your racist, sexist, homophobic, buddies, but lemme tell you. You don’t own anybody nor are you superior to anybody. Do I make myself clear?”

He only grunted but you pulled tighter which made him yell out.

“I said, ‘do I make myself clear’?”

“Yes!”

You pushed him on the ground and walked over him to your girlfriend.

“Why in the world would do that? You know what they’re going to do to you. You might not even get invited back to camp!”

“Babe, calm down. I honestly don’t care at this point. And neither should you.”

“(Y/n) (L/n)! My office! Now!”

You gave her a kiss and walked away slowly.

“Wish me luck.”

-

“You seriously got into another fight! What is going on with you!”

It was the first thing you heard when walking into the hotel lobby. Literally everyone was there. From the youngings to the vets. Surprisingly, you were called back to camp, but you honestly think it was just so everyone could scold you. Carli was absolutely livid, but you couldn’t bring yourself to care about anything at the moment since you were so pissed.

Walking past the team, you attempted to make it to the stairs, only for Casey to grab the back of your shirt and pull you back towards the tables. She pushed you down into a seat and took your belongings away from you.

You tried to get back up but you were only pushed down again.

Carli bent down and stared you dead in the eye.

“What is going on with you?”

“There’s nothing wrong with me. What I did was what I intended to do. It was no mistake.”

Alex interrupted, “(Y/n), you don’t understand-”

“No you don’t understand!” You stood abruptly from the chair and slammed your hands on the table. The chair fell and it was absolute silence.

You’d never been so loud. You were always on the quiet side and this was the biggest reaction anyone had ever seen from you.

You were heavily breathing, staring at Carli, the adrenaline pumping through you.

“Did they tell you what he did to me?! Did they tell you what he calls me, my girlfriend and every other female, lgbtq member, or person of color in that school?! No! Because they don’t give a shit. And they won’t give a shit until it’s one of their kids getting hurt!”

There was no dry eye in the room. Your hands were shaking and you took a deep breath to calm down. In a lower voice you spoke.

“They don’t give a damn about my well-being so why should I give a fuck about theirs?”

Taking a few more trembling breaths, you wiped the tears off your face.

“So excuse me for being off for the past few weeks. This shit will take a toll on anybody. And you can cut the bullshit with the ‘don’t fight fire with fire’ cause that’s the only way something gets through those thick ass skulls. They don’t allow you to do it peacefully. They don’t allow you to educate them.”

You looked at Casey with tears in your eyes.

“I just wanna go to school and get an education and be treated like a normal human being. What’s wrong with that?”

Crystal came over to you and caught you before you fell. She lowered you both to the floor as you sobbed your heart out. You kept mumbling ‘I’m sorry’ into her neck between breaths as she rocked you back and forth trying to console you.

Casey and Christen were the next ones over, the latter rubbing your back while the other was trying to wipe away the onslaught of tears on your face.

“Shh, shh baby. You did nothing wrong.”

Soon, every member of the team was crowded around. Tears were streaming down everyone’s face. Their baby, only 16, was going through all this stress and pain. Because of something no one deserves.

You eventually calmed down after 15 more minutes of crying. You’d been transferred to Casey’s lap, and your team mom was trying to comfort you to the best of her ability.

Casey took your face in her hands and wiped all the tears off. “You don’t need to be sorry, alright? There was nothing you did wrong. Stop saying sorry.”

You nodded your head and she kissed your forehead.

Everyone was still crying or wiping waterfalls of tears away.

They watched as you got up and searched frantically for something. You got your phone out of your backpack and turned it on. While you were pacing, the Home Screen popped up and you quickly logged in to text your girlfriend. One, because you always text her when you get to the hotel and two, if Chad and his stickman buddies hurt her, you were absolutely going to lose your shit.

When you logged in to your phone, you saw she already messaged you saying that you should talk to the others.

“Kinda late for that,” you muttered.

“What did you say, hun?” Christen asked.

You just shook your head and texted her back.

Gf: I mean we could always try to talk to the board.

You: Or

You: We could go on strike.

Gf: I-

Gf: I’m done talking to you.

You: wait no! Don’t leave me.

You: I love you

You had a frown on your face when you put your phone away.

Casey pulled you back down into her lap. “What’s with the frown?”

You groaned and threw your head back. “She’s such an asshole. She left me on read!”

The team chuckled, glad to see you was somewhat back to yourself.

Your phone dinged and you pulled it out. She said ‘I love you too, weirdo’

There were a few moments of silence as everyone was thinking of what to do.

“Can we go on strike?”

“No!”

Casey flicked your ear for that.

Tobin spoke up, “Let’s create awareness first. Maybe identify the school board, post all the school’s faults on social media. I don’t know, just some ideas.”

Carli nodded her head. “Look, we’re here for you. For everyone in that school that’s been wronged. We’re gonna help you alright?”

You nodded your head and leaned back onto your team mom.

“And if all else fails, we go on strike.”

“Oh my god.”

—————-

Lowkey think this was trash but eh. I don’t really care at this point but uh this topic is very serious and what I put in here doesn’t even compare to what happens irl.

[apaintedfoxx]

Day 4- Couch

--

read on ao3 here

--

She should’ve headed the ominous warning the dark, dense clouds tried to give her as she stepped out the door. A quick walk, she had told herself, she could beat the rain. The sky had laughed at her challenge, and about halfway through her usual route, the downpour began. Fat rain drops fell in an unrelenting torrent, cold and menacing and threatening to take every last bit of warmth from her body. Her clothes were soaked through after just minutes, the hood of her jacket a mockery of a covering.

Lena quickly runs through her route in her head; there should be a shortcut up ahead somewhere she could take if she made a turn at the café she liked to frequent with Kara…

With a decision made, she ducked her head, pulled her soaking hood tighter over her head, and trekked onward. As promised, the café soon came into sight. Lena turned into the alley that would take her back to the apartment building. She only made it a few sopping steps before she heard it.

There was a pitiful mewling coming from somewhere in the alley.

Loathe to leave any creature out suffering in this monsoon-like weather, she stopped in her tracks, trying desperately to locate the sound above the sounds of rain in the city. It was a miracle she had heard it in the first place, and of course it had stopped as soon as she noticed. The alley itself only added to the problem. It was wide, enough to fit two cars side by side, and consequently filled with stuff. A couple of dumpsters stood sentry outside back doors of businesses, while litter and trash lined both sides of the makeshift street. An abandoned couch sat further down, obviously dumped with little regard. The sound could be coming from anywhere.

“Come on little guy, where are you?” Lena muttered, as if it could hear her. By some miracle, the mewling began again almost in response to her prompting. She followed it as well as she could; it brought her to the broken couch, which looked more dilapidated the closer she got. The fabric, like everything else around, was soaked through, so the original color was hard to determine. Combined with the many stains covering its surface, the best Lena could tell was that it used to be a brown couch. There were tears in the cushions, and obvious wear in the places that were sat in the most. The sound she was searching for had gotten louder, but Lena was not looking forward to touching any of it. She decided to check the most obvious, and least repulsive, option first. She lowered herself to a crouch, ignoring the collection of water on the asphalt, given how wet she already was, and leaned over, peaking underneath the worn piece of furniture.

A tiny pair of eyes shone back at her, and she could just make out the silhouette of a small kitten.

Lena knew in an instant she was not going to be leaving it there a moment longer. It had stopped making noise as it spotted her, peering at her with an unmistakable look of curiosity. She contemplated her next move. She didn’t have anything on her that she could use to tempt the kitten out from her hiding spot, but reaching for it might scare it even further underneath.

As she considered her options, the kitten continued to observe her. It took a tentative step forward, and Lena held her breath, not wanting to scare it into retreat. It squeaked at her as it inched forward, it was getting closer and closer, almost enough for pick up.

“You can do it, little one,” she murmured encouragingly, ever so slowly extended a hand out. She made no move to grab it yet, instead resting it a few inches from the edge of the couch. She gave her fingers an experimental wiggle, hoping to entice the kitten. It froze, and Lena began to panic, she had no idea how long it had been out here by itself, and knew it needed care immediately. Before she had too much time to worry, however, the kitten gave another squeak and pounced on her hand. She quickly, and carefully, got ahold of it with her other hand and stood.

“There we go,” Lena said, finally able to get a better look at the small creature now cradled safely in her hands. Though she knew next to nothing about animals, this kitten was obviously still very young. It’s mottled black and ginger fur was plastered to it’s shivering body, and it stared up at her with mismatching eyes, one blue and one green.

Though her jacket was far from dry, Lena didn’t want the kitten directly in the rain, so she carefully cradled it close to her body, hoping some of her own natural heat would help warm it a little, and covered it with one side of her jacket. She spent another few minutes looking around to make sure the kitten had been alone, but the mewling had stopped as the kitten settled against her. After deciding it had well and truly been alone, Lena quicky made her way back to the warm, dry safety of her apartment.

---

The next few days were a kitten-focused blur. Lena had taken it to a vet as soon as she had gotten them both dry and warm. She’d learned the kitten was just barely seven weeks old, that she was female, and that besides from a bit of dehydration, she was perfectly healthy.

The problem now was figuring out what to do with her. Lena had told Kara and the others about the kitten the morning after she had found her, which resulted in a bombardment of pleas for Lena to keep her. But she couldn’t keep a kitten. Her apartment wasn’t at all prepared for a pet of any kind, and with how much time Lena spent at work, it hardly looked like she herself lived there. Sure, it was functional as far as somewhere to live was, but the décor was sparse; Kara called it empty, Lena preferred minimalistic. That, however, was rapidly changing. After initially getting used to Lena and the new space, the kitten had taken ownership of the admittedly spacious penthouse suite. It ran from room to room, the thud of little paws could be heard almost constantly during the day, and especially the middle of the night. Wishing to save her expensive furniture from the fate of sharp kitten claws, Lena quickly invested in some toys for her to play with, just until she figured out a home for the little one, she sternly told herself and any teasing friends.

Having to eventually return to work resulted in Lena bringing the rambunctious kitten with her. Being her own boss did have some perks, after all, and she didn’t trust the little monster enough to leave her unattended in her apartment. Watching the kitten explore the new environment was admittedly adorable, and when Kara visited for lunch, she spent the entire time curled up in the other woman’s lap, watching her with rapt attention. Kara threw out some not so subtle name suggestions.

Gradually, the kitten became something more permanent. Lena got more toys for her to play with, and some proper items for kitten care, including soft food and a litter box. Lena’s strictly neat, magazine cover worthy apartment became something a little more lived in. On a day Lena wasn’t able to take the kitten to work, she reluctantly left her at the apartment with plenty of food and toys in her vicinity. Upon return, Lena was surprised to see the apartment still standing, and the kitten fast asleep underneath Lena’s couch, her little black paws a stark contrast to the white fabric of the couch. It had become a favorite nap spot of hers, unsurprisingly.

After that, she wasn’t as nervous about leaving the kitten alone. In fact, without realizing it, she gave Lena a reason to come home at night. Late nights at the office were no longer an option to a kitten that had a seemingly endless appetite and energy level, and with the apartment not being so startingly empty anymore, she found herself enjoying spending time within its walls. Even her friends began to notice, teasingly pointing out how messy the space had become when they came over.

It was game night when it all clicked for Lena.

Her friends had a long-standing tradition of game night, everyone took turns hosting, and tonight was Lena’s turn. She had tried to clean up after the kitten the best she could, but the little creature had had other ideas, and shortly after everyone had arrived, she proceeded to throw all of her toys around and climb into everyone’s laps.

It was many hours later, however, and the fun had wound down for the night. Most everyone had left, and Kara had stayed behind as usual to help clean up the games and leftover snacks. They now sat comfortably on Lena’s couch, each with a glass of wine in hand, a late night tv show playing quietly in the background. The kitten was, to no one’s surprise, curled up happily in Kara’s lap, purring contently.

“She likes you,” Lena said softly, watching the sleeping kitten. Kara only gave a hum in response, gently running her fingers through the kitten’s soft fur.

Several minutes passed in this comfortable silence, before Kara spoke up. “She still doesn’t have a name,” she said.

Lena lifted her gaze from the kitten to find Kara’s eyes on her, watching her curiously.

“I haven’t found anything that really fit,” Lena admitted, giving a slight shrug of her shoulder.

Kara smiled. “She’s good for you.”

Lena didn’t ask for an explanation, nor did she need one. It was obvious, though surprising. She would never have considered herself a good candidate for owning a pet, considering how demanding her job was.

“I love how much energy she has. How rambunctious and curious she is. I found her starving under a broken couch, and yet she hasn’t let any of that affect her,” Lena admitted, taking a sip of her wine. She had clearly already had too much of the stuff, if she was getting this introspective already.

Kara only smiled in response, and as silence fell once again, Lena contemplated her words. A smile broke across her face, and she looked at her closest friend. “I know the perfect name for her.”

“And what’s that?” Kara asked with a sweet smile of her own.

“Hope. Her name is Hope.” 

[star-trekkin-across-theuniverse]

Worthy, pt 1 & 2

I stopped and stared up at the building in front of me. Imposing, huge, and a beacon for anyone concerned with clean energy. I had won the internship at Stark Industries research and development division by working my ass off all year, coming up with innovative and exciting ways to utilize the arc reactor technology. I’d been interviewed by Mr. Stark himself when it came time to award the position. I’d never been so excited to work in an unpaid position in my life. It was made all the better by being in New York City. And even more awesome because accommodation was provided in the tower. Even if the internship didn’t lead to permanent employment at Stark Industries after my sojourn there, it would be a resume jackpot. 

I stopped at the main security desk and picked up my passcard. Elizabeth Carmichael. It sounded much more glamourous than Ella did, but I’d never been called Elizabeth in my entire life. Always Ella, except from my Nan, who called me Bethy. I clipped the tag on my blouse and headed to the elevator. The email from the HR department had been clear: pick up your passcard, and report to the main office of R&D on the 55th floor. I pressed the button and waited for the elevator to close. A hand reached in to stop the door and Mr. Stark stepped in. He smiled, like he would to anyone he shared the elevator with, and then his eyes narrowed as he read my nametag.

“Ms. Carmichael! You’ve made it to the city then? Where are your bags? Are you not staying on site?” He spoke so fast I could barely follow him.

“My flight arrived late last night. I thought I would stay at a hotel overnight and then get organized to move into my room, sir.” I felt breathless just trying to keep up with his speech, and rushed through my own explanation.

“We’ll send someone to collect your things. We’re having a little social in the lounge tonight; you don’t want to miss it. Good networking opportunities. There are three of you that earned internships. Pepper was particularly excited about you. Not a lot of women in STEM, you know. So we’re having a meet and greet for the three of you. Mostly Stark staff, but there'll be some others in attendance. Angela will get you organized.” There was even information stored in the nuances of how he spoke. It was going to be overwhelming until I got used to it. If I got the chance to get used to it. This elevator interaction might be the last time I saw Mr. Stark for the rest of the summer. The elevator doors opened, and I stepped out into the bright, clean research and development administrative office. I waited at the desk while the woman sitting there was on a call. Her nameplate said Angela, so I suspected she was who Mr. Stark said would organize me.

“Ella, right?” She swivelled her chair to face me. I nodded. “I’ve already contacted the concierge at your hotel to have your belongings sent over. I’ll show you to your rooms at the end of your orientation and tour. Then you can get settled.”

“I won’t be working?” I was surprised.

“Not today. Today is all about the Stark Industries machine and how you fit into it. So orientation to the labs, meet some of the people you’ll be working under, settling into your suite and figuring out your way around. There’s a meet and greet tonight.” She typed something into her computer and then rose. Without waiting for me, she headed off down a hallway. “This is the administrative floor for Research and Development. R&D takes twenty floors here, from 55 to 75. Starting at the 76th floor, the Avengers Tower begins, and you’ll only end up there if Mr. Stark wants to meet with you. Well, and for the mixer tonight. The 56th and 57th floors are all housing. Our guest scientists are housed on 56 and your suite is on 57. The project you’ve been assigned to is an offshoot of the household arc reactor project, and will allow you to work on one of your proposals. That division is on 60 through 65. Your direct supervisor is Markus Reid.” I scrambled to scribble notes and keep up with her and she led me through a maze of hallways and offices. We finally came to a halt and I was so busy scratching notes into my notebook that I bumped into her.

“Oh, god. Sorry,” I apologized. She smiled and shook her head.

“Relax, Ella. You were the top candidate. Your proposals rocked Mr. Stark and Ms. Potts' socks off. You belong here,” she reassured me. “And I’m going to email all this info to you, so you can put away your notebook.”

“Thanks. I’m feeling a bit small right now,” I admitted.

“The first few days are very overwhelming for every Stark Industries employee. It’s why we schedule nothing work-related on the first day.” She knocked on a door and hesitated just a second before opening it. “I have Elizabeth Carmichael here to sign some paperwork.” She led me into the office, and sat in a chair near the door after pointing to a chair at the desk. Another woman smiled and dropped a sheaf of paper in front of me.

“The bottom half of that is the paperwork for you that explains everything in the top half. But this is a basic non-disclosure agreement. The second one is the follow up to the initial waiver you signed when you applied for the internship, giving proprietary rights to Stark Industries, while maintaining your intellectual property, authorship and development rights. That basically means if what you’re working on goes into production, it will be a Stark Industries product, but you will be credited as the inventor. There’s some tax paperwork and a release for your university.” The woman handed me a pen. I looked up at her while I tried to process everything she’d explained.

“Tax paperwork?”

“For your pay.”

“Oh, I’m here for the internship. I’m not paid.” I thought that would be clear to an HR person.

“No, Mr. Stark pays his interns. It makes the transition when you are hired easier,” she explained.

“What?”

“Did you not read your acceptance package?” She gave me a look that suggested she thought I might be stupid.

“I did. It suggested that if Stark Industries was happy with my performance, I could be offered an extension at the end of the internship, provided my degree was complete.” At least, that’s what I’d understood from reading it.

“And you’ve already provided transcripts showing you’ve finished both your bachelor’s and master’s degrees. There were only three internships offered, Ms. Carmichael. We complete all your paperwork now with the assumption that you will be staying on at Stark Industries. If you’ve passed our rigorous application process, we feel you are a keeper. If you choose not to stay, it will be because you chose not to stay,” She explained. I felt like the wind had been knocked out of me. I knew the internship was prestigious, but I didn’t realize exactly how incredible it was.

“Oh. Well. In that case,” I said and scratched my signature across the papers in front of me. She offered her hand. I stood and shook it.

“Welcome to Stark Industries, Ms. Carmichael.”

XXX

The rest of the day passed in a blur. Angela assured me that her email would include maps, and secret notes and tidbits that would help me remember everything, but I was so floored from the words of the HR person that I really couldn’t focus. Angela led me to the commissary for lunch and ordered for both of us. I didn’t even realize until she handed me a tray with food on it.

“Are you going to be okay?” She asked. I gave my head a little shake to snap back to reality and smiled in apology.

“Sorry. I’m feeling even more overwhelmed than I was when I got out of the cab this morning,” I laughed. She took a seat at a table and nodded for me to sit across from her.

“You should give yourself some credit. You earned your place here. Pepper is really excited about having you. I suspect you’ll be the poster child for gender equality at Stark Industries for some time to come. As soon as you won that internship, your place here was secured. Probably for life,” she grinned. I shook my head.

“What if I’m a dud?”

“You aren’t though. Mr. Stark himself thoroughly vetted your application, and Pepper went through your references with a fine tooth comb. She even tracked down extra references. You deserve this more than anyone who’s ever applied before, Ella.”

“I feel like I might be sick,” I groaned. It was her turn to shake her head.

“It’s first day jitters. Once you’ve settled into a routine and have your nose into all that sciencey stuff you do, it’ll all blow over,” She laughed. I didn’t want to pick a fight so I just focussed on my lunch.

XXX

My suite was ridiculous. I’d understood we’d be provided with a room. In my mind, I had thought dormitory style, like at university. I was quickly learning Tony Stark did nothing by halves. I had a suite. First of all, the whole thing was fully furnished. The master bedroom had the biggest bed I’d ever seen in it, and an ensuite bathroom with a shower bigger than my last dorm room. There was a second bedroom, I’m not sure why. Plus an office, an open floor plan living room and kitchen and a main bathroom. There was a storage closet that I’m pretty sure could have kept a small family comfortable. And a deck with a view of the city. I opened the fridge and discovered it had been fully stocked already. I grabbed a bottle of water and stood at the counter, the overwhelming feeling of just too much washing across me again. There was a bound book on the counter, and when I flipped through it, I realized it was a Stark Tower lifestyle guide, with information about the pool, the gym, the on-site movie theatre, the commissary, and on and on. There was a tablet on the wall that allowed you to order in take-away or groceries. Housekeeping was once a week. I pinched myself to make sure it wasn’t a dream, fully expecting to awaken back in the dorm room at the university. But I didn’t.

I unpacked my bags and checked my email for the details on the get together. Casual evening wear. What was that, even? I grabbed my phone and texted Angela. Whether she liked it or not, she was my new bestie. 

“What does casual evening wear mean?”

“Nothing too fancy. Knee length dress is more appropriate than floor length.”

“I’ve been in university for the last nine years. I have nothing even remotely appropriate.”

“I’m on it. I’ll meet you in the lobby.”

XXX

“I’m sorry, Angela, I just didn’t know who else to ask.” I felt like all I was doing was apologizing to her. She laughed.

“You’re my assignment for the next few weeks. And you are so much nicer than the last new hire I was paired with. I can see actually wanting to spend time with you,” she laughed.

“Really? You’re my personal person?” I arched an eyebrow. She laughed again.

“Something like that. Human Resources likes to pair someone from admin to new hires as an orientation guide. It’s a pretty awesome job, to be honest. I get to meet most of the new people on their way in the door. Make lots of new friends. Meet lots of cute science nerd guys.” She winked. I laughed.

“And yet you don’t mind being assigned me. I must be very special indeed,” I teased.

“You’re little lost puppy eyes sucked me right in,” she giggled. “Come on, let’s get you a dress.” It felt like she dragged me all over town, but the truth was, we didn’t go far, and we only visited a couple of stores. I tried on everything she brought to me, and let her tell me what looked best. I was most comfortable in jeans, a t-shirt and a lab coat, so I trusted her judgement. We were a whirlwind of activity after picking the dress. She steered me over to a shoe store, and then a make-up store. I didn’t even realize there was such a thing as a make-up store. I only kept mascara in my bathroom because my eyelashes were so light you couldn’t see them without a bit of mascara on them. 

When we finally got back to the building, I wanted nothing more than to take a nap. Angela shooed me into the shower and ordered us some dinner instead. She helped me with my hair and then sat me down to eat.

“Do you wear contacts ever?” She asked. I pushed my glasses up my nose and shook my head.

“No, they don’t make contacts for eyes like mine,” I admitted.

“Okay. I can work with that,” she looked at me thoughtfully and chewed on her pizza. Before I knew it, she was rearranging my hair, and applying make-up and amazingly, although I’d honestly never thought I’d enjoy the fuss that went along with dressing up, I did enjoy myself. It helped that Angela kept a running commentary of exclamations about how pretty I was, and how nice my eyes were. I never had thought there was anything particularly special about my brown hair and brown eyes. I changed my mind when Angela let me look in the mirror. My hair was loose and wavy, and cascaded over my shoulders. The red dress she’d found for me highlighted that my hair was more than one shade of brown, and brought out the natural glow in my cheeks. My eyes, despite being framed behind my glasses, looked big and sparkly.

“Wow.”

“You’ll have half the R&D guys begging for your number by the end of the night!” Angela laughed. I blushed.

“I don’t know about that,” I protested. She laughed again.

“Come on. I’ll be your wingman.” She linked arms with me and led me out the door and to the elevator. XXX

The crushing feeling of inadequacy hit me again as the elevator opened up to let us out into the cocktail party. I hesitated at the gap between the elevator and the large, noisy room. Angela gave me a gentle nudge, but I froze, taking in the panorama in front of me. Almost every scientist I’d ever quoted in any of my research was standing in that room, mingling with one another. When Tony Stark isn’t the biggest name in a room, it can make you pause. I’m pretty sure I recognized the most recent recipient of the Nobel Prize in physics standing by the bar. And Dr. Banner was lingering near the door to the patio and pool deck, looking exceptionally uncomfortable. At least he was near an exit where he could cool off and relax if he needed to. His research was what drove me into the sciences. In the end, I decided gamma radiation wasn’t really the area I was passionate about, and pursued research that put me in Stark’s path. But he was still kinda my hero. 

“If you don’t step off this elevator right now, I’m going to push you off, and then you’ll draw a lot more attention to yourself than if you act like a normal person.” Angela had my number already. I stepped into the party tentatively. Angela steered me straight to the bar. “Let’s get a drink into you, loosen you up a little. These people have all been where you are, Ella. What’s your poison?”

“Vodka, rocks.” My eyes were glued to the room, and I just kept recognizing more and more people. Surely they all didn’t work for Stark Industries. I would have noticed that at some point during my application process. Mr. Stark and Ms. Potts saw me as Angela handed me my drink. Ms. Potts smiled in welcome and headed straight to me. I didn’t have time to panic.

“Ms. Carmichael! I’m so pleased to see you. You look a bit like a canary in a room of cats. Don’t. They’re all harmless. And some of them are very excited to discuss your proposals with you,” she took my hand and squeezed it familiarly. It was not at all like my boss was shaking my hand, but more like a friend greeting me.

“It’s nice to see you again, Ms. Potts.” I managed, and took a sip from my glass. 

“Please, Pepper is fine. We’ll reserve the formality for press releases,” she smiled. “Are you settling into your rooms?”

“I am. They’re much more than I was expecting. Everything about this internship is more than I was expecting,” I blurted. I was nervous enough that I took a perhaps-larger-than-it-should-have-been swallow from my glass and nearly choked.

“We’re so pleased you accepted, Ms. Carmichael,” Pepper gushed. “Really. I’m sure Angela has filled you in about the women in STEM initiative Stark Industries is backing.”

“If I’m going to call you Pepper, you’re going to have to call me Ella. Angela mentioned a little about it, but I didn’t realize there was an entire initiative.” The combination of vodka and talking shop with Pepper was starting to ease my nerves, and I could feel the tension starting to melt from my shoulders.

“We’re starting summer and weekend science and technology camps for girls. I’m hoping you’ll be able to find some time to work with me on promoting them. I think Angela has scheduled a meeting for us sometime in the next few days,” she explained. 

“That would be really cool.” I took another sip. There wasn’t much left in my glass. I was going to need to slow down. Mr. Stark was watching the crowd, but I could tell that his head was in our conversation.

“I hope you’ll come out of your shell a little, Ms. Carmichael. You were vibrant during the interview process. I hope that wasn’t a one-off. It’ll be hard to sell STEM as cool with a mousy science nerd girl as the PR star.” He was suddenly back in the conversation full force. I flushed.

“Tony! It’s first-day nerves. We can’t all be the shiniest constellation in the sky all the time,” Pepper scolded him. “Don’t pay attention to him, Ella. Parties bring out the worst of his quirks.” The way she said it, I could almost see the air-quotes hanging in the air around the word quirks. I smiled.

“I promise you, Mr. Stark. I can be just as shiny as you need me to be when surrounded by young women. It’s when I’m in the presence of the likes of Dr. Banner and Dr. McCoy that I tend to get star-struck. And I think, did I see Reed Richards?” I found my voice. Mr. Stark smiled.

“Since we’re all making friends, you may as well call me Tony,” he allowed. “I make sure my best and brightest get a chance to meet the best and brightest.”

“As much as I appreciate the opportunity, it’s just a little overwhelming.” I felt it was only fair to be honest with them, since they were my employers. Pepper squeezed my hand again.

“I have no doubt, after speaking to your references, that you will be everything that we are looking for, Ella,” she reassured me. I took another sip from my glass, and Tony suddenly noticed it in my hand.

“Please tell me that’s not water. We have a strict no water at parties rule here at Stark Industries.” Mr. Stark took my glass away and finished what was left. He coughed and handed it back. “Oh, I think you’re going to fit in here quite well, Mouse.” Angela took the glass from me and got a fresh one from the bar. I reminded myself to go slow. There was no point in getting drunk in front of such an auspicious crowd on my first day.

Angela led me around to a number of people I would be working with, including my direct supervisor, Markus Reid. He shook my hand with enthusiasm and launched into a long-winded explanation of my project and how it would fit in with his project. I found myself lingering with him for longer than was probably necessary. He was passionate about his work with the arc reactor technology and he reminded me of my thesis supervisor, ready to help and happy to share whatever advances he had discovered. It was the lynchpin in making me settle for the evening. If my supervisor was excited to have me, no one else really mattered. Angela’s face lit up and she excused me from the conversation. 

“Shut up. You are not going to believe this. I have someone to introduce to you!” She exclaimed. I followed her as she led me across the lounge and toward the windows overlooking the outside deck. I couldn’t figure out who she wanted me to meet, but the last person who’d been near where we were headed was Dr. Banner, and I was sure she’d seen him earlier. She slowed to a more dignified walk and led me to Dr. Banner. He was chatting with a petite brunette who looked familiar, but I couldn’t quite place her. Dr. Banner looked up and acknowledged Angela as he finished what he was saying to the other woman.

“Angela, you always walk with such purpose.” His tone was warm, and he gripped her hand with both of his. It was obvious from Angela’s relaxed posture that they’d worked with each other a few times.

“Comes with the job. This is Elizabeth Carmichael, one of the new interns here at Stark,” she introduced me. “Ella, this is Bruce Banner.” She paused and turned toward the woman. “And if I’m not mistaken, this is Dr. Jane Foster?”  Dr. Banner shook my hand and nodded toward Dr. Foster.

“So pleased to meet you, Dr. Banner. It was your work that led me into the sciences.” I tried not to gush. I don’t think I was successful.

“Really? My understanding was that physics and engineering were your specialties,” he asked. My heart nearly stopped. He knew my areas of study. My science geek girl idol knew my specialties.

“I got really into green energy during my undergrad studies, and my focus switched,” I admitted.

“And my accident had nothing to do with that?” He raised an eyebrow. I laughed and realized that might not have been the best response. I bit back my smile and shook my head.

“Actually, no. Your accident happened when I was in first year, and I stuck with my studies as a minor. It was when it was time to begin my master’s that I felt I could do more good, with my level of knowledge, if I pursued green energy,” I explained. He looked thoughtful.

“And once again, Bruce, I point out that your accident has significantly less effect on the opinions of others than you think,” Dr. Foster jumped in, and offered her hand. I shook it. “Such a pleasure to meet you, Ella. Tony has been beside himself with excitement about your thesis. I think the other two interns might be getting the short end of the stick.”

“Except that there is no short end of the stick at Stark,” Banner argued. Dr. Foster laughed and nodded.

“It’s so true. I wish these internships had existed when I was struggling for funding.” she looked past my shoulder, distracted. I turned and followed her gaze until it lit on the most beautiful man I think I’d ever seen. He was tall, and blond, and broad, with a big smile and an equally large laugh. And from the way Dr. Foster was looking at him, I realized he must be Thor. “I didn’t realize he was going to be here.” The smile fell from her face.

“I’m sorry, Jane, I had no idea. Why would he be here? He’s not one of you sciencey types,” Angela apologized. Dr. Foster turned to me and shook my hand again.

“It was truly lovely to meet you, Ella. I look forward to watching your project. If you ever need anything, Angela can get you in touch with me. Even if it’s just a woman-to-woman bitchfest. We STEM ladies need to stick together.” She excused herself and made her way quickly to the elevator. Angela and I watched her as the elevator doors closed. I was disappointed, but turned back to Dr. Banner. He opened his mouth to say something, but was cut off by Thor stepping up to us.

“Banner, my friend! It has been too long since we’ve met. You look well!” Everything about Thor was big. He pulled Dr. Banner into one of those one-armed-man-hugs, his massive arms straining against the confines of his t-shirt. He towered over both of us. He released Dr. Banner and turned to Angela and I. If I looked anything like Angela did, I was gawking like a slack-jawed idiot. I nudged her gently and she closed her mouth.

“Ladies, it is well to make your acquaintance. I am Thor, of Asgard,” he introduced, taking my hand and kissing my knuckles. I raised an eyebrow and glanced at Angela.

“Ella Carmichael.” I couldn’t form any other words. There was just so much of him, and it was so close. I was completely star-struck in a way I’d never been about a fellow scientist. He took Angela’s hand.

“Angela Benett,” she breathed. I was so glad I wasn’t the only one on the verge of swooning. The man was truly a specimen. Banner cleared his throat, and I snapped my attention back over to the man who had arguably been the first crush of my science geeky heart.

“What brings you here, Thor?” he asked. Thor turned back to him and smiled his ridiculous, large, beautiful smile.

“I had need to speak to Tony. I’d not realized it was a celebration, or I would have come tomorrow. Twas not urgent,” he explained. “And I am afraid I have chased Jane from her colleagues.” There was regret in his tone. Things were obviously over with them, not merely bumpy or awkward. 

“He said twas,” I whispered to Angela. She stifled a giggle. I’m not sure why it was so amusing, other than that I had finished my second vodka. I’m not sure what her excuse was; I knew she hadn’t been drinking. “I hope we’ll get a chance to talk more about what you’re studying now, Dr. Banner.” I had to excuse myself before I made an idiot of myself in front of Dr. Banner and Thor. Angela followed me to the deck. I stretched out on a deck chair and looked up at the sky. Stark Tower was so high that it seemed to be above the smog of the city. There was still loads of light pollution, but I was reassured that the stars were the same in New York City as they were at home in Washington. We sat quietly for a few minutes.

“Thanks for being my sidekick, Angela,” I sighed. “I don’t know if I’d have made it through the afternoon, let alone this evening, without your assistance.”

“Well, like I said, it’s my job. But paycheque aside, you’re alright, Ella,” she chuckled.

“I’m glad you think so. I don’t know if I can afford Stark wages to keep you as a friend.” Across the deck something caught my eye, and I slipped off my shoes to walk over to it. Angela must have seen it too because she followed curiously. It was the biggest damn hammer I’ve ever seen in my life, just sitting on a low table beside the pool. It was fancy, tooled with knotwork. I ran my hand over it. I wasn’t sure what it was made of. It had the warm feel of vibranium, but it almost seemed to hum under my hand. I slid my hand up the leather wrapped handle. The grip was comfortable. I squeezed the handle, and felt the give of the leather wrap against my hand.

“I don’t know if you should be playing with that, Ella,” Angela warned.

“What do you suppose it is? It feels like it’s got more of a purpose than just a giant paperweight, or decoration,” I thought out loud, flexing my fingers along the handle. It felt like it needed to be held. I might not be describing that properly, but it was almost like it spoke to me. Which clearly suggested I’d had too much to drink.

“I haven’t seen it before, but I don’t get up into this part of the tower much. Is it heavy? Maybe it’s a prop or a prototype or some sort,” Angela shrugged. I adjusted my grip on the handle and prepared myself to lift it, assuming it would be ridiculously heavy. I was surprised when after a slight tug of resistance, I was able to heft the thing in the air. The air around us crackled with static, and suddenly a shock ran through my body, from the hand that was holding the hammer through to my feet.  Everything around me slowed down, almost like slow motion in the movies. I looked up at Angela and saw Thor and Dr. Banner running towards us over her shoulder. Thor was reaching out, his mouth forming some kind of words, but I couldn’t hear them. I felt the hammer tug out of my hand and it flew away from me. The electricity left my body and I collapsed on the pool deck.

“What the actual fuck?” I muttered before blackness overtook my thoughts.

[yayeetsonny]

Keeping Secrets~USWNT x Baby Reader

Prompt: Team finds out baby r has epilepsy.

Requested by: @khiaraaa-in-spacee​

TW: Depictions of seizures and mentions of them.

Y/N PRO//

My name is Y/N L/N and I have epilepsy. Having epilepsy is hard because a lot of people assume that there is just the one kind, where a person suddenly falls to the ground and experiences uncontrollable muscle movement. While that is a common form that it can take there are several other types. Like mine, I experience Typical absence seizures, this means that when I am experiencing one I stop whatever it was I was doing and it can look like I’m frozen or zoning out, my eyelids flutter quite a bit and my ams jerk slightly sometimes too. When these happen I don’t realize it until it’s over.  Most of the time I have several in a row so when everything is over I tend to be a little confused. 

I try not to let it define my life. I’m also a member of the United States Women’s National soccer team. I’m the youngest player on the squad at 15 and the team is over protective to say the least. They tend to overdue it by a lot when we’re on the field, for example if I go down injured at all they swarm me, asking if I’m okay a million times and calling the medical staff over for the tiniest injuries.. Off the field is much the same, they wake me up at the same time every morning because

“Having a routine is important.” 

Christen has told me this a thousand times, doesn’t mean I like being woken up at 5:30 am everyday, off days included. (That is unless I’m sick, then they make me hate naps) Once I’m up they make me get dressed and they carry me down to the dining hall where all the food is set up. When they first started doing this I protested being carried, citing that I was a big girl and I had two legs that worked perfectly fine but, after a look from Ali and Ashlyn I just let it happen. The veterans of the team also stormed the coaching staff’s office demanding that they find a way to make breakfast available for me (and them) when I wake up. They didn’t do this to be snobby or high maintenance they say its because

“If don’t eat right away in the morning, you get grouchy.” 

I don’t, but they think I do so I just let them have it and eat by 6 everyday. 

I haven’t told the team that I have epilepsy because I don’t want to scare them or freak them out. It’s not that I’m ashamed of it or anything it’s just that I don’t want them to feel like they have to worry about me even more than they already do.

“Hey Y/N! You in there?” Kelley asks appearing out of nowhere.

“What? Oh, sorry what’s up?”

“We just wanted to see if you wanted to go to the coffee shop around the corner with us.” 

She pointed to nearly half the team, including all the vets who were looking at me with concern written all over their faces.

“I think I’ll stay here, thanks anyways.”

“Are you sure? You love that place.” Kelley said frowning.

She was right, I had never turned down going there, especially with her. I wasn’t going to tell her this but I had forgot to take my seizure medicine so I need to stay back to take it before I forgot.

“Yeah, I’m sure.”

“Okay, well, we’ll bring you something back then.” 

“Y/N?” Christen grabbed my hand before I could start walking to the elevators to go back to my room.

“Yeah Chris?”

“Are you sure you’re alright?”

“Yeah, why?”

“I just wanna make sure. You know, me and the other veterans wouldn’t mind staying with you. We could hang here and watch movies or play board games or if you want we could all lay down and nap together, I know how much you love the “Cuddle puddle” we create.”

“I’m okay, really. Go have fun with the others. I think I’m just gonna go read my book in my room.”

“Okay, see you later.”

She gave me a hug before leaving, I watched as she explained what we talked about to the other vets and I saw several of them turn back to look at me. I shrugged at them before turning on my heel and heading back to my room. 

Once there, I took my medicine out of its hiding place, making sure to take the right dosage I then put it back and make sure it would stay hidden. I had to hide it because the girls always double check my bag before we leave any where we’ve stayed to make sure I have all my stuff. It’s nice sometimes but it also can get a little annoying.

There was a sudden knock at my door making me jump a little. Who could that be? The players who stayed behind were those that loved to nap and or they didn’t like coffee and almost all of them needed to have there alone time so getting a visitor is rare. After looking through the peephole I saw it was my roommate and best friend Morgan.

“Hey Moe! I thought you went with the others?” I said as I let her in.

“I did but I forgot my sunglasses. Have you seen them?”

“Um, I think you left them on the bathroom sink.”

“Oh that’s right! Okay, well got ‘em! See you later.”

“See you.” 

After she left I was able to go back to reading my book, It was pretty peaceful and I had almost made it half way through when I stopped. The book fell out of my hands and onto the floor with a loud thud. 

My eyelids fluttered and my fingers twitched and then just like that it was over. They only last 10-20 seconds, which isn’t long at all but for me it often feels like hours before I am aware of my surroundings again. Okay, there’s one. Am I going to have more?

My medicine has reduced them but it doesn’t stop them completely and some days it doesn’t work at all. I would go to a doctor to fix the prescription but since I can’t drive and the girls don’t know I just leave it be. 

“Oh boy, today is gonna be a long day.” I say to no one but myself before I slowly stand up and go to the sink to splash water on my face. 

We have practice in 45 minutes and I know the girls will want me to be ready a few minutes early. After I take my time changing into my gear and double checking that I do indeed look okay I make my way down to the lobby so that I can get on the bus before everyone else. I choose to sit all the way in the back and put my earbuds in so they know I don’t want to be bothered. But it seems Megan didn’t get the memo because she sits down right next to me and yanks the earbud out of my ear, putting it in her own.

“Hey kid, where you been? We brought back your favorite drink but you weren’t in your room.”

“I’ve been here.” I say shortly

“Okay?”

“Sorry I’m just tired.”

“You should’ve taken a nap before practice Y/N. What have we told you about that?”

“That I get grouchy without one, I know.”

“Do you?” 

“Yes! I’m sorry, okay? I forgot, I’ll take one when we get back.”

“I’ll be having a discussion with Carli, Chris, Alex, and the others about what we can do to help you remember.” She said leaving no room for argument.

Ugh, I hate when they have “Veteran meetings” about me. After they’ve decided something, they sit me down and all crowd around me so that if I get upset, they can comfort me. 98% of the time whatever they tell me isn’t a big deal, like a curfew. I can deal with that or even an early bedtime when I get sick or injured. But I draw the line on some things.

“Don’t roll your eyes at me Y/N.”

“Whatever.”

“Are we gonna have to talk about your attitude too?” 

“No. Sorry.”

“Mhm, what I thought.”

We finally arrived at the training facility we were practicing at this camp before our up coming international friendlies, and I grabbed my stuff and ran off the bus so I wouldn’t have to deal with Megan giving me the look anymore. 

“Y/N! Walk please!” I heard Alex shout from behind me but I ignored her.

Ali PRO//

“Okay is it just me or she acting weird?” I asked, concerned for our youngest teammate 

“Mmm, she’s just in a mood.” Megan said

“Okay, but she knows how we feel about her running anywhere that’s not the field, she’s the clumsiest kid we know. Plus, she always listens to me.” Alex said

She made a good point, she listened to all of us 9 times out of 10, some more than others but still. We all just stood there, letting the young players off first while we continued discussing our kid’s weird behavior.

“Hey guys?” 

“Yeah Ash?”

“What’s this?”

She held up a pill bottle that none of us had seen before. On it in big bold letters, was the name Y/N L/N and it was a medicine called Ethosuximide with the name (Zarontin) in parentheses. What the hell?

“What is that and why does she have it?” Christen asked angrily.

“I don’t know but I’m gonna find out right now.��� Ashlyn said as she stomped off the bus.

“Ash, Ash hold on!” 

I stood in front of her trying to get her to stop walking.

“Why?”

“I know you, you aren’t going to let her explain and you’ll jump to conclusions.”

“What’s there to explain Ali? None of us have ever seen her take pills before and we all know she doesn’t have any medical conditions. We made Vlatko give us her file remember?”

“Yes but you should still let her explain.”

Ashyln was growing more upset and I was having a hard time keeping her at bay. As we got closer to the locker room the players who were already on the field or heading out attention was drawn to our argument. 

“Ash, cool it. Young ones in the vicinity.” Alex said referring to the “youngins” as Becky called them.

“I don’t care. I’m talking to her right now.”

There was nothing me, Alex or any of the other veterans could do to stop her from storming into the locker room.

“Y/N Y/M L/N!”

She came over to the front of the room quickly, startled and looking slightly terrified. She had yet to spot the pill bottle Ashyln was holding behind her back.

“Yeah Ash? What’s up?”

“ “What’s up?” she says. What’s up? That’s all you have to say?” Ashlyn had a bite to her tone that made me shiver. She can be mad intimidating when she wants to be. 

“Yes?”

“What’s up Y/N, is this.” 

As soon as she saw what she was holding all the color drained from Y/N’s face and I was afraid  she might faint. 

“Y/N… Sweetie, you’re okay. We’re just a little worried about you.” Chris said stepping forward and blocking her view of Ashlyn’s “Mean face” 

She tried to reach for Y/N but she turned away from her and made a move to leave.

“Uh you know, I really should get out on the field with the others. See you guys out there!”

Alex grabbed her around the waist and held her in her arms tightly so she couldn’t go anywhere. She tried to get her to let go but gave up when she realized Alex was too strong.

“Shhh, deep breaths. You’re okay. It’s just us. It’s okay.” Alex cooed softly in her ear.

I could tell that she was scared and was trying not to let her walls down.

“It-it’s not anything bad I swear!” 

“Really, then what is it?” 

“It’s just… can we just talk about it later? Please.”

“No, what is this and why do you have it?” 

“I- Please just let me go practice.”

“Y/N…”

“I have epilepsy, okay?! There, can I go practice please?”

She freed herself from Alex and ran out onto the field. We all chased after her and Christen tried to catch her but she was saved by the whistle.

“Ladies! Let’s go, stop messing around and get to work!” Dawn yelled, we knew it was directed at us.

After that we had no choice but to let it go and practice. We did the usual, stretching and warm up and then position group training, individual for some and scrimmages to end the session. Were half way through a scrimmage whenI noticed Y/N stop moving. It was like she was frozen, she wasn’t moving except for her arms that were jerking slightly and I could see her eyelids fluttering. She must be having a seizure. I thought. I rushed over to her stopping practice and tried everything to get her to snap out of it. Many of our teammates also tried to no avail and everyone was gathered around her unsure of what to do.

“Okay let’s give her some space.” Ashlyn said

I stayed close in case I had to prevent her from falling and hitting her head or needed to do anything else to help her.

She continued to seize, each one only lasted 10 seconds but she had 5 in a row and when those had stopped she only came to for a few seconds before she started to experience a second wave. In total she was unresponsive for almost a minute and half straight. Christen had put her arms on her shoulders, trying to let her know she was there.

“Y/N, it’s okay. We’re here. You’re okay.”

“What do we do?”

“We just have to let her know we’re here.”

“What’s going on? Is she okay?”

Several of the younger players looked scared and unsure of what to do, so Tobin and Megan took them away from where Y/N was and tried to reassure them she was gonna be okay.

Y/N PRO//

Everything finally started to come back into focus and at this point I had been moved to the ground and I was sitting in Chris’s lap as she held me. When I was fully out of the state I had been in I started to try to push her away, I was disoriented and confused and I didn’t remember what I was doing here.

“Hey, hey it’s okay. Y/N you’re safe, it’s okay.” Becky said as I settled down and the rest of the team begin trying to help me.

Chris held me the whole time, cooing in my ear and trying to keep me calm. Everything was super loud and my mind and body had gone into sensory overload trying to come back to practice. When I realized what happened and I was able, I pushed my way out of Christen’s arms, and ran back to the locker room. After that I ignored everyone and their questions about what was going on. I was the first back on the bus and had planned to continue ignoring everyone. The Vets of the team had other ideas however and put an end to it quickly.

“You feeling better little one?”

“Yeah Al, I am.”

“That was really scary.”

“I’m sorry you had to see that.”

“It’s nothing to be embarrassed about babe. But can I ask you something?” Ali said

“Sure, shoot.”

“Did you take your medicine today?”

“Yeah, I did it just doesn’t work well.” I said timidly

“What do you mean?”

“It’s the right dosage, it just doesn’t work well enough most of the time.”

“Why didn’t you get it adjusted?”

“I didn’t want anyone to find out about it.”

“That’s dangerous, you know that right?”

“Yeah, I know. I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay, I know you were scared. We’ll take you to get it adjusted as soon as possible.”

“Thank you.”

When we got back to the hotel I dropped off my stuff and decided to go for a walk. I needed to think about some things, and I knew the girls wanted to have a more in depth talk about what happened but I wasn’t ready. Eventually though I made my way back to the room and when I opened the door my roommate was there to greet me.

“Hey babe! You came back to me!’ Moe said dramatically as I entered our room.

“I’ll always come back to you, baby.” I said jokingly

“You better. My life is so boring without you!”

“I am the life of the party I’ve been told.”

“Ha ha, If anyone is the life of the party its Crystal. Girl can dance.”

“Definitely.”

“Have you talked to the others since we got back?”

“Uhh... no. I’m sorta avoiding them.” I said rubbing the back of my neck.

“You know that they’ll want to talk to you about it eventually right? I’m sure they’re worried about you.”

I was unsure of what to do because I didn’t really want to talk to them about it but I knew I had to. After another hour of avoiding it, I got up and made my way to Alex’s room. I knocked on the door timidly and waited for it to open.

“Y/N? Are you okay?”

“Yeah, yeah. I just was wondering if I could talk to you all?” I said as I saw almost all the older players in her room.

“Of course.”

We got to talking about what happened and I told them about the condition I had and when it first appeared and all the while Alex held me in her lap, cooing in my ear when I would start to get emotional and the others sat around us doing there best to let me know they were there.

“Why didn’t you just tell us?” Ashlyn asked 

“I was just afraid.”

“You don’t ever have to be afraid to tell us these things. I’m sorry you felt the need to hide it from us.” JJ said.

“I know today was scary for everyone. I think I should tell the whole team everything soon.”

“Are you sure? You shouldn’t feel like you have to, if you’re not ready that’s okay too.”

“I am, it’s okay. Will you guys be there?”

“Of course, always.”

“I love you guys.”

“We love you too.”

I knew that some of them were still a little hurt that I hadn’t told them sooner or they felt bad because they weren’t able to protect me but I knew we would be okay.

we agreed to be more honest with each other going forward and When it came time for me to tell the entire team the older players were there to support me and help me explain everything. They were all super supportive and assured me that they didn’t see me any differently.

After our heart to heart we decided to do some much needed team bonding.

Rose showed me a Tick tok of a bulldog trying to reach a cake that was just out of its reach and failing (or succeeding) spectacularly as it splattered in the floor.

“Wilma would totally do this!” I said laughing at the thought of Rose’s dog doing something similar.

“She totally would but I would give her a hand.” Rose giggled.

Kelley succeeded in putting a cup on her head with only her feet and I was in awe of her flexibility. I attempted to do the same but I failed miserably and pouted as everyone laughed at me.

“Good try kid. You’ll get it eventually.” Kel said.

We ended up playing cup pong (the clean version), Jenga, Sorry, Truth or Dare, and twister. We also tried playing hide and seek through out the hotel but we got in trouble with the managerial staff and almost got the whole team kicked out. Let’s just say that Vlatko was not too pleased… 

Sam, Rose, Sonnett, Lindsey and Mal choreographed a new dance and performed it for everyone. We all watched for over an hour as these knuckleheads tried to get it all down perfectly.

“Oh my god you guys, try again tomorrow when you actually know the dance.” Tobin said exasperated

“No, no we can do this. Right guys?” 

“Yes we can.”

“Oh, definitely.”

“Just give us a minute.”

“We got this.”

We watched on as they tried and failed to prove that they had it, but we all gave them an A+ for effort anyways.

“We would have gotten it, if you guys had just been patient enough.” Sam grumbled.

“We watched for over an hour, you know this team, they can’t sit still forever.” I giggled.

“I guess you’ve got a point.” Sam chuckled.

“Hey! We’re not that bad at sitting still.” Kelley protested.

“Uh, yeah Kel. We are.”

The whole team giggled at that and agreed that together asking us to sit still for long periods was useless.

After that we made pies and cupcakes and they were actually really good, but things took a turn when I decided to smash Ali’s face in a pie. She then chased me down the hall trying to get me back.

“Y/N, get back here!”

“Becky! Save me!”

“No way kid. Not trying to get punched.” She said before she closed her door.

“Traitor!” I yelled as I continued to run from a pissed off Ali Krieger. 

She eventually caught up to me and attacked me with kisses and tickles. I ended up covered head to toe in pie filling after she got hers all over me and then found another one and got revenge.

“Aw man, you got me.” I said as I giggled wildly as she tickled me some more.

“This whole team loves you so much. You know that right?” Alex would later tell me that night as we all snuggled on the two beds in the room I shared with Morgan. 

“Yeah, I know. I love you guys too.” 

They drive me nuts with the constant hovering and weird, silly rules they make me follow but I am so grateful to have them in my life and to have such an amazing group of friends who love and support me no matter what. Me and my 23 best friends are family for life and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

//

THE END

If I got anything wrong, I’m so sorry. I did the best research that I could. Sorry for any mistakes.

-N

[atlafan]

My Everything - Part Two

A Take it Slow Sequel

What happens with Harry and Y/N after he proposes? How will the two navigate the engaged life while also continuing to juggle their jobs, friends, and families? Let’s find out.

Warnings: Fluff and Smut.

a/n: not proofread fam, I didn’t have the strength. 

Masterpost

It took Harry nearly an hour to get you to calm down after you said goodbye to your grandmother at the airport. You cried the entire car ride home, and you cried for a while at home. He chalked some of it up to your hormones, but he also knew it was just hard for you to say goodbye to her.

“It really was a nice visit. I’m glad she got to stay with us.” You say to him as you lay on top of him on the sofa.

“Me too, she’s a hoot.” He rubs your back up and down. He was happy you weren’t crying anymore. “She’ll be back soon enough. She wants to go dress shoppin’ with yeh remember?”

“I know, but I don’t want her spending the money coming up for every little thing. Like if she comes up for that, she probably won’t come for the bridal shower…” You sigh.

“You both will just have to decide what’s most important.”

“I’ll definitely need her for the dress shopping. It’ll be bad enough with my mom and sisters judging every little thing I might like. Rachel’s the best at picking things out. I’d rather just go with the girls and Nannie.”

“So you should do that. Listen, this is supposed to be fun for us. Don’t worry about other people, do things the way you want to do them.”

“I suppose with Erica doing it all before me, there are things my mom can get out of her system. We’re going dress shopping with her next month. I feel like I’m about to get really busy. El said she wants her bridal party to pick out their dresses soon. And I have class…”

“Take a deep breath. You’ll get overwhelmed if you think about too much at once.”

“You’re right, sorry.”

“S’okay, I know it can be easy to get stressed out. At least we have the whole day off together today. What do you feel like doin’?”

“I’d like to have sex, but my period is really bad…”

“We could-“

“Harry, I don’t think a shower could even help right now.” You groan. “I could suck you off.”

“It’s only fun if I get to reciprocate.”

“Not true.” You scooch down his body. “Now I kinda really want it anyways.”

“Oh you do?”

“Mhm.”

You get between his legs and unzip his shorts. You kiss on his lower stomach as you palm him through his boxers. He runs a hand through your hair, as you continue. You tug everything down just enough to get his hard dick out. You spit into your right hand to stroke him for a bit, running your thumb across his tip. Harry’s breath hitches and his head rolls back. You continue to pump him while your lips wrap around his tip.

“Ugh, fuck me.” He groans, and you can’t help but smirk when you look up at him. “Wipe that look off your face, now.”

Your mouth falls open and he pushes your head down further on him. You take the hint and swirl your tongue around him. His hips thrust up and you feel him hit the back of your throat. You choke on him for a moment and you feel tears prick at your eyes. But you work through it, and swallow.

“Shit, ngh.”

You loved hearing home moan like this, it only made you want to work harder for him. You bob your head up and down, really making a mess of it. You look back up at him, trying to give him innocent eyes as you spit trailed down your chin.

“Y/N.” He breathes as he looks at you.

You pop off him just for a moment to pump him. Your other hand rests on his hip and you give it a squeeze. Your mouth goes back down on him, and you both groan.

“That’s it, baby, that’s so good, fuck.”

You cradle his balls as you suck on him, and he comes into your mouth. You continue to suck until you’ve gotten every last drop into your mouth. You sit up and wipe the corners of your mouth and tuck him back into his pants. He watches as you get up to go to the kitchen. He knew you were going to rinse your mouth out like you always did. You come back to him, and lay in your spot on top of him like you were.

“You’re so fuckin’ good at that, thank you.” He kisses your forehead and you practically purr in his arms. There was nothing like a forehead kiss.

“My pleasure, babe.”

“Wanna go out to dinner tonight? You and I haven’t been able to celebrate just the two of us yet.”

“Yeah, I’d like that a lot actually. Can we get Italian?”

“We can get whatever you want, my angel.” You nuzzle further into his chest and enjoy the smell of his cologne.

//

After falling asleep on top of him, you wake up to the feeling of being carried to your bedroom.

“Harry?” You mumble.

“Sorry, I needed a wee, and so I thought I’d just set you down in here.”

“That’s okay.” You yawn as he puts you down on the bed. “Probably shouldn’t sleep the day away.”

He uses the toilet and comes back to sit next to you.

“But being lazy once in a while is nice, isn’t it? I feel like we had this crazy busy summer, it’s nice to just relax.”

“How do you see things at the studio now that all the kids are back in school?”

“Everyone and their brother wants a fall photoshoot. The leaves are going to peak soon, so everyone wants these like harvest style pictures. Plus, we’re already starting on holiday photos. Mariah suggested doing Santa Sessions, so we’re gonna get those booked out soon.”

“Are you going to have Santa there?”

“No, it’s more like decorations, the backdrop would look like his workshop, stuff like that. I don’t know, it’s her project.” He shrugs. “Either way, we’re stayin’ busy, and that’s the most important thing.” You nod.

“I think I’m gonna take a shower before we go out later. I need to wake up.”

“How come you’re so tired, baby?” He rubs your back.

“Think it’s just my period, makes me exhausted sometimes.”

“I’m gonna take Buster out for a walk then.”

“Alright.”

You get into the shower and stand there for a few minutes. You shave your legs and anywhere else you feel like you need to, and get out. You blow dry your hair and throw some curls in. You walk out into the living room in your towel, with your underwear on of course. Harry wasn’t back yet, and it was raining outside.

You grab your phone and call him. He doesn’t answer.

“What the…”

You race back to the bedroom and throw some sweats on. You slip on your sneakers and grab an umbrella and out the door you go. You’re not sure where to go at first, but you walk the usual route you and Harry always take Buster. It was absolutely pouring. You were starting to get nervous. You squint as you see a figure walking towards you.

“Harry!” You gasp and run down the street to cover him with the umbrella, not that it mattered now. His eyes were puffy and red and his head was hanging. “Wh…where’s Buster?”

“I don’t know.” You both turn to walk towards the parking garage. “He heard some thunder and slipped away from me. I ran after him and called for him, but…he just got away from me.”

“Oh no! Well, we have to find him!”

“I know!”

“Don’t yell at me!”

“I’m not!”

You both get into his car, and start driving around.

“Jesus, it’s gonna get dark soon. My poor baby.” You start tearing up.

“He never runs away. The one time I have a slightly loose grip on the leash-“

“You can’t blame yourself, it was an accident. We just need to find him before it gets dark. I’m going to text Niall to see if he’ll wait outside our building. Maybe he’ll come back.”

“Good idea.”

“Harry, drive towards the park near the studio, it’s not that far from here and he’s used to going there.”

“Okay.”

Your entire body was shaking. You didn’t know what you would do if your little boy was lost forever.

“Y/N! There by that tree! Think that’s him?!”

“It could be! Let me get out.”

You basically jump out of the moving car and run towards the large tree in the park.

“Buster!”

He looks up at you, but doesn’t come towards you. He’s whimpering where he sits, frightened by the cold and the thunder.

“Baby, it’s me! It’s mumma! Don’t be scared.” You slowly approach him and stick your hand out. Harry runs toward you both after parking the car. “See, it’s daddy too! Nothing to be scared of.”

“I think his leg is hurt…”

“Oh my god, I think you’re right!”

Harry approaches him and picks him. He’s soaked, but right now it didn’t matter.

“Babe, sit in the back with him, I have a blanket in the trunk we can wrap around him.”

“Okay.”

Harry gets him in the car while you grab the blanket. You wrap it around him and try to comfort him.

“I’m gonna drive to the vet.” You hum your response as you continue to try to calm Buster down.

“Do you think a car hit him?”

“I have no idea…maybe he slipped? Can a dog roll its ankle?”

“I guess we’ll find out.”

Harry gets you all to the vet, and carries Buster inside. You check him in and they’re able to take him right away due to the emergency. You’re told to wait in the waiting room. Harry keeps pacing back and forth, his nerves were shot.

“Mr. and Mrs. Styles?” A nurse comes out. You think to correct her, but now isn’t the time.

“Yes?” You say standing up. Harry also notices you don’t correct her, and for a second he feels a little better.

“Come on back with me.” She smiles.

You take Harry’s hand and follow her to where Buster was. You hear him yip, it was like he was good as new.

“We had to put a brace on his back left leg. He has a slight sprain. We’re not entirely sure how. It didn’t look like he was hit by anything, he could have slipped and fell the wrong way. We gave him a shot to numb the pain as well.”

“Oh, thank you.” You throw your arms around him and he licks your cheek. “Mumma was so scared.” You kiss him a ton. Harry pats his back and gives him kisses too. “Don’t you ever run away from your daddy again, do you under stand me?”

“Miss…he’s a dog…not a small child.” She says with a blank expression. You turn to look at her slowly. Before you can say anything, Harry does.

“Listen, I’m sure you have to deal with stupid people all day, but this dog is our child at the moment, so if my fiancé wants to give him a stern talkin’ to for running away from me, then she will, and you can just keep your mouth shut, yeah?”

“Right.” She coughs nervously. “So, here’s his prescription, and some details on how to help his leg. You can check out up front, we’ll want to see him for a follow up.”

Harry takes the papers from her, and sets him down on the floor. He has a slight limp, but he’s able to walk. You practically white knuckle his leash as you lead him back to the lobby. They give you the medicine Buster will need, and out the door you go. You sit in the back with him again.

“Thanks for the backup in there.”

“Don’t mention it, I wouldn’t let some stranger disrespect you like that. I don’t care how silly she thought it was. He was bad runnin’ from me, even if he was scared, and he should know it.”

“We should stay in with him tonight, we have plenty of leftovers we can have for dinner.”

“I was thinkin’ the same thing. We need to get his leg on a pillow.”

You had texted Niall earlier to let him know Buster was found and safe. Harry gets Buster up to the apartment. You drag his dog bed over near the sofa and put some extra pillows in there.

“I need to go change, my clothes are still soaked.”

You nod at him as he walks down the hall. If the situation wasn’t so serious you might have joked about how sexy he looked, but maybe you were save that for some pillow talk later. He comes back out a few minutes later and looks at you.

“Do you even feel like eating?” He asks.

“No, I’m sick to my stomach.”

“Me too.”

You both sit on the sofa and sigh.

“I’m very upset with him.” You say. “But I’m glad we found him before it got dark out.”

“I just feel so stupid for letiin’ him get away in the first place.”

“Harry, it’s not your fault. Accidents happen. He knows not to run away, we trained him right.”

“It was like everything happened in slow motion too. As soon as I heard the thunder we looked at each other and I knew he was gonna do somethin’.” Buster looks up at Harry. “Yeah, I’m talkin’ about you, bub.” Harry leans down and pats his head.

“I’m gonna go make us a little food.”

“Thought you were sick to your stomach.” He smirks.

“I’ve calmed down a bit. He’s here with us now, that’s all that matters.”

“Alright, well in that case, I’d love some kugel please.”

“You got it.” You stand up and kiss his forehead.

You go into the kitchen and make up a couple of plates. Harry thanks you when you come back out.

“Do you feel like watching a movie?” You ask him.

“Sure! What did you have in mind?”

“You should pick, we always watch what I wanna watch.”

Harry smiles and flips through the different options of movies on the various platforms you both paid for.

“Oh! How about When Harry Met Sally?”

“Yeah! You know I’ve never seen it, but I’ve always wanted to.” Harry’s jaw drops. “What?”

“The Film Studies minor slash Film Club president has never seen When Harry Met Sally?”

“Romantic Comedies isn’t exactly a genre you study extensively, although, I know this film set a precedent.”

“I wish more were like it, to be honest. So do you feel like watchin’ it?”

“Definitely, now’s a good a time as any.”

“This is one of my all-time favorites, Y/N, I hope you like it.”

“I’m sure I will. I love Billy Crystal.”

He starts the movie as you both continue to eat. When you’re both done he sets the plates on the side table, and puts his arm around your shoulders, pulling you in close to him. Both of you put your feet up on the ottoman.

“It’s like we’re on a little date, isn’t it?” He asks you.

“Mhm.” You smile and snuggle in closer.

“Now that my weekends are freeing up, I wanna make more time for dates. I wanna take you to the movies, and go out for drinks.”

“So you essentially want to establish a date night?”

“That sounds so…boring when you say it like that, but yeah. We both always have so much going on, I just want to make sure we make time for this.”

“Me too, Harry. We can definitely have a date night.” You squint at the TV. “Wait, so what’s happening, why are they driving together?”

“So, they both just graduated from college, and he’s dating Sally’s friend. They both needed to go to New York, so she told Harry to drive with Sally.”

“Ah, okay. And that’s how they met.”

“They meet multiple times, they keep findin’ each other over the years.”

“Aww, that’s so cute!”

You both enjoy the rest of the movie. You tear up a bit when they fight and then hug it out. You can’t help but laugh a little towards the end when Sally tells Harry how much she hates him, and then they kiss. It reminded you a little of 10 Things I Hate About You.

“What did you think?” Harry asks yawning as the credits roll.

“I really liked it! I can see where a lot of other films took things from. It had a really good pace too, like I never felt bored.”

“I’m so glad to hear you say that.” He says with relief. “I feel like I kept watchin’ you to see your reactions.”

“I know you were.” You both laugh. “Do you think we should let him sleep with us tonight? If he whines in the middle of the night for his medicine I wanna be able to hear him.”

“Good idea, yeah, he can come in with us.”

Harry picks Buster up and carried him to your room. You do your nightly routine and get into bed. Buster lays at the both of your feet and falls asleep quickly. He must be exhausted from the entire ordeal. You knew you and Harry both were.

“Who’s he goin’ to work with tomorrow?” He asks he climbs into bed with you. “I’d take him, but somethin’ tells me he’s gonna want his mum.”

“I was thinking the same thing. I don’t have many meetings, so he’ll be fine with me.”

You both kiss goodnight, and snuggle up to fall asleep.

//

Buster was able to walk, but not for long period of time, so Harry makes sure to help get him into your car. You didn’t carpool on Tuesdays because you saw Dr. Mara right after work. Once you get Buster up to your office, you give him some medicine.

“Mornin’, here’s your…aww poor thing, look at him.” He hands you your coffee.

“I know, he scared us so bad. I’m just glad we found him and he’s safe. It’s only a sprain, so if we do everything right he should be back to normal in a few weeks.”

“Well that’s good at least. Why’d he run from Harry again?”

“The thunder from the storm yesterday scared him. I think it was too loud for him.” Niall nods.

“So, I’ve just been told we have a meeting this morning, like now, in the conference room.”

“Are you serious?” You groan. “I haven’t even gotten settled.”

“I think it’s quick, Sharon said we don’t even need our laptops.”

“Okay.” You sigh. “C’mon, Buster.”

He gets up slowly and follows you and Niall down to the conference room.

“Congratulations!”

“Oh my gosh!”

Everyone from your division was there smiling at you, and there were bagels and doughnuts out on the table.

“What is all this?”

“Niall told us all yesterday that you got engaged so we wanted to celebrate with you!” Trish says.

“This is so sweet! Thank you all so much.” You look at Niall. “You’re too good to me, thank you.” You both hug.

“And I got that lox you like too.” He points to it.

“What a treat! I’m glad I had a really light breakfast this morning.”

Niall splits a bagel with you, and put some lox and cream cheese on it. You show everyone your ring, tell them how Harry proposed and showed off a few pictures. They each give Buster a little loving as well, and he soaked it up.

Eventually you go to your office, after thanking everyone for the millionth time, and get some work done. You had a ton of emails to catch up on, and a couple of projects that needed to get started. You weren’t even hungry when lunch rolled around, so you just hung out with Buster in Niall’s office.

“Our new intern starts tomorrow.” He tells you.

“Oh? And what’s their specialty?”

“Once again, we have a social media/video editor. His name is Zach, and he’s a senior. He actually goes to where you went.”

“Oh, really? Well that’ll be fun. Maybe I could be like a mentor or something.” You shrug.

“We having a meeting with him tomorrow morning. I guess we have him all day on Mondays and Wednesdays.”

“Didn’t the school year already start? Why is he just coming to us now?”

“That was on our end, HR took forever to get everything processed.”

“Awesome.” You scoff. “Well, at least he’ll actually be able to get work done being here for full days.”

“Yeah, definitely. Hopefully this one won’t have a crush on you.” He laughs.

“Stop it.” You groan. “I never want to think about Matt ever again. You know I ran into him months ago at the bar? It was when we went out for Sarah’s birthday.”

“Oh you mean the night none of you wore bras and you got that bartender’s number?”

“Yup.” You sigh. “And it wasn’t like I asked for the guy’s number.”

“I know, I’m just givin’ yeh a tough time.” He chuckles.

//

You period ended Wednesday morning, which meant you could finally surprise Harry with something he had wanted for a long time, but you had to wait the entire work day to give it to him. Around 9AM you had your meeting with Niall and Zach. Buster was being very needy with you, and at on the floor between your legs with his head in your lap.

“He really is just like his father, huh?”

“Niall!” You burst out laughing and nudge his arm. “You can’t say stuff like that. What if the intern was here?”

“He’s not here yet.” He laughs.

“Buster’s just not liking the medicine he has to take. I feel so bad, he only wants me. I think Harry feels like a bad father.”

“Don’t all kids want their mum when they don’t feel well?”

“Hi, I’m so sorry I’m late, it took me forever to find parking, and then I had to get all the way up here.”

A young man with short black hair and blue eyes walks in. He looked to be just under six feet. He was wearing a blue button up tucked into some khakis. He looked nice enough. Niall stands up to shake his hand, you do the same. He’s startled when he hears Buster yip.

“S’no problem, Zach. Please have a seat.” Niall says to him.

“Is there a dog in here?” He sits down adjacent to you.

“Yeah, sorry, this is Buster. I bring him to work with me most days, I hope that’s alright.”

“Oh, sure! I love dogs, just didn’t see him.”

“Well, I’m Niall and this is Y/N. We’ll be supervising you this semester. This is basically an intake meeting. We wanna make sure we’re putting you on projects that make sense, and all that.”

“You also go to my alma mater.” You smile.

“Seriously? That’s great! And yeah, I brought my laptop with me, I thought I could show you some of the things I’ve done, if that’s cool.”

“That would be great!” Niall says.

//

After an hour with Zach, you and Niall show him where he’ll be working, and Niall gets him started on a few things. You liked him so far. He seemed smart and down to business, which is exactly what you were hoping for. Towards the end of the day he knocks on the outside of your door.

“Come on in, Zach.” You smile and he walks in. “Have a seat.” He does so and smiles at you.

“Um, so, I just wanted to say your name sounded a little familiar, and I realized that you founded the very film club that I’m in.”

“Oh my goodness, really?! I’m so happy to hear it still has members.”

“Tons! I also work in our alumni office on campus, and I think it would be really cool if you came to campus and spoke with the current members. Sort of show them that being in a fun club can also help lead to bigger opportunities. We could do an alumni spotlight on you for the magazine.”

“Do you really think that I’m worthy of the alumni magazine?” You scoff. “I get sent that thing in the mail all the time, and it’s always these stories about old people.

“Or random dudes. I think they should feature more women. The director of alumni relations would love this, I think. He’s really nice. Could I at least give him your email?”

“Sure.” You smile. “At any rate, I’d love to come to a film club meeting some time. I could show you all the projects we used to make together.”

“That would be amazing!” He beams. “I can’t wait to tell them. We meet on Thursday nights. This week would be too soon, I assume, but maybe next week you could come?”

“I’d love to.”

He gets up and thanks you for your time before leaving. He was a sweet boy.

//

You got home before Harry on Wednesdays, which was perfect for what you wanted to put together for him. You get Buster fed and settled before heading into your bedroom. You put on some black lace lingerie and then grab your navy pencil skirt to put on over it. After that you put on the blazer that goes with it, and button it up. You slide your feet into your nude pumps. You go into the bathroom and pin your hair up into a more formal bun. All you’d have to do is take one pin out and it would fall into your waves. You touch up your makeup, and make your way up to the loft.

Harry gets home and kicks his shoes off. Buster carefully trots over to him and Harry lets him lick his hand.

“Hey buddy, where’s mumma?”

“Harry, is that you?”

He looks up towards the loft.

“Yeah!”

“Could come here for a minute please?”

“Sure thing, one second!” He uses the bathroom quick and then heads up to the loft. His eyes grow wide when he sees you. “Did you have, like, an important meeting today or somethin’?”

“I always do.”

“Wait, you weren’t wearin’ that before you left this mornin’…”

“I always dress like this, I’m not sure what you’re talking about.” You wink at him and his eyebrows raise. His lips curl into a grin.

“Is…are we doin’ this?” You nod yes. “Okay, okay.” He takes a deep breath. “Go on.”

“So, um, right, we need to work late tonight…got a big presentation tomorrow.” You try to look as serious as possible.

Harry circles around you and stands right behind you. He dips his head down so his lips are at your ear.

“And what can I do to assist you?” You turn around to face him.

“You know, standing so close to me like that isn’t exactly professional.” You smirk. “I’m your boss after all.”

“Right.” He leans against his desk. “Wouldn’t want anyone to think you play favorites with or anything.” He smirks. “Although, they already think that since I’m the only one you’re nice to.”

“That’s because you’re the only competent person here.”

“You know what I think the real problem is?”

“What’s that?”

“You can come off as uptight.”

“Well…I’m just always stressed.” You shrug. “It’s not easy being the CEO of a large company, you know?”

“I do know. That’s why you hired me, remember? To help make you less stressed, but in all honesty…I don’t think you’re using me to my fullest potential.” He grins.

Harry was amazing you. He had clearly wanted to do this for a while, and you were happy to finally be doing this for him.

“You think so, huh?” You cross your arms. “Enlighten me then, how could I be using you?”

He takes a step forward and uncrosses your arms. He takes one of the buttons on your blazer and twists it between his thumb and index finger.

“You walk around with so much tension in your shoulders. I could rub them for you, but you’d have to take this off…”

“I suppose that would be alright, but I’ll warn you, I don’t have much on underneath.”

“Doesn’t bother me if it doesn’t bother you.”

You nod and unbutton the blazer. Harry pushes it off your shoulders, and he gasps when he sees the black strappy bra that you’re wearing. You fold the blazer and lay it on your desk chair.

“This alright?” You smile.

“When did you get this, it’s really pretty.” You suck your teeth and look at him. “Shit, sorry.” You clears his throat. “Yeah, perfectly fine.”

You turn around and he starts to rub your shoulders. His thumbs knead into the back of your neck and you let out a soft moan.

“Good thing everyone else is gone for the day, or else they might get the wrong idea with noises you’re makin’.”

“Can’t help it, your hands just feel too good. Who knew you had such a gentle touch?”

One of Harry’s hands slides around to the front of your throat.

“And what if I wasn’t so gentle?” Your eyes grow wide, not that he can see. An ache starts to grow between your legs. “Got an answer for me, boss?”

You weren’t sure how to respond. You wanted him to really grip you, make it so you almost couldn’t breathe, but you were slightly scared that if you both got too caught up, you could have a flash. Although, you were almost positive Harry wouldn’t let that happen, so you decide to roll with it.

“I think…I could use a different way to de-stress.” You turn to face him. You put a hand over his and slide it down to the top of one of your breasts.

“I could get fired if HR finds out.”

“Who do you think signs their checks? I decide who gets fired around here, and it certainly isn’t going to be you.”

“Then I’d be happy to give you what you need.”

“And what exactly is that?”

That shit eating grin of his forms, the one where you can really see his dimples. His other arm snakes around your waist and pulls you close to him, so your hips are touching him. He removes his hand that’s on top of your breast to the back of your neck and pulls you to kiss him. You moan as his tongue enters your mouth. He was getting a pretty good taste of you. He lets go of you, and waits for your response.

“Ah.”

“Need a little more?”

“A lot more.”

You reach for the pin that’s holding your bun together and take it out. Your hair falls and you shake it out. Harry grabs you by your hips, and bends you over his desk. He hikes your skirt up and he groans when he sees the thong you’re wearing.

“You know, I think it’s a little…naughty of you to have been wearing this underneath your clothes.” You look at him over your shoulder. You give him a look that says, not too hard, and he nods in understanding.

You feel a smack, not necessarily on your ass, but more so right near your center. You mouth oh my god to yourself. You had zero idea he really wanted to do things like this with you. But then again, you weren’t really you and he wasn’t really him. Harry grabs your hips and places a hand on one of your cheeks so he can see his target better. You feel another smack and you gasp. He leans down so he can speak into your ear.

“See, you’re this really strong woman, and I think that’s great. But I think it’s time you’ve been taken down a notch, don’t you?”

“Yes.”

You hear him undo his pants, and then you feel him move your thong to the side. He grabs you by the back of your neck and pulls you up. He taps your bottom lip with his index and middle fingers. You take the hint and open up for him, sucking them into your mouth. You swirl your tongue around them and really make a show of it for him. He tracts them and the next thing you know he’s knuckle deep inside you. You loved it when he’d finger you from behind. There was something about the angle he was getting that always felt so good.

“You like that, boss?”

“Yes, please keep doing it.” You groan.

He pumps in and out of you, and you cry out when you feel him under you, lips wrapped around your clit. You claw at his desk as your legs start to shake. All of a sudden he stops and you look at him.

“Didn’t think I was gonna let you come so easily did you?” He raises an eyebrow at you. “You’re always so in control, but not tonight.”

He pushes you back down against the desk so your chest was flush with it. He removes your thong all the way and leaves it around your ankles. He bunches your skirt up around your hips and spreads you apart with his thumbs. He slowly inserts himself into you. As much as he just wanted to be careless and rough, he didn’t want to send you into a frenzy.

“Fuck, you feel so good.” He groans once he’s full inside. “So wet for me.” He pulls out and then slams all the way back in.

“Do that again.”

Harry happily obliges and fucks you like that for a few minutes. It was how you had wanted him to fuck you for a long time, and you were happy to be in a place where he could. He was starting to hit you g-spot and it was overwhelming.

“Shit, right there, that’s it!”

He could tell you were close, but he didn’t want you to think you could come yet. He grips the back of your neck with one hand, and squeezes your hip with the other.

“Are you close?”

“Yes!”

“You have to ask me if you can come.” He slows down his pace and rocks in and out of you.

“What?!”

“Ask me if you can come.”

“Can I come?!”

“What’s the magic word?”

“Please!”

Harry grins and picks up the pace again. Your moans and groans mixed with the sound of his skin slapping against yours. You come hard around him. He pulls out and comes on your ass. You groan when you feel the heat from it. You hear him zip his pants back up so you stand up and turn to face him. You weren’t sure if the role play was over or not. When you see his features soften and his reassuring smile form on his lips, you know it is.

“C’mere.” He holds his arms out for you, and you nearly trip into him since your panties were still around your ankles. “Whoops, sorry ‘bout that, baby.”

“S’okay.” You giggle as he kisses the top of your head.

“Let’s get you downstairs.” He picks you up bridal styles and carefully brings you down the spiral staircase. “So, to what do I owe this amazing surprise?” He carries you down to the bathroom and sets you down on your feet. He runs a rag under some warm water to clean up where he came on you.

“I just wanted to do something special for you since you proposed, but I couldn’t exactly do this for you while I was on my period…” You wince slightly when he cleans up near your center.

“Sorry…did I slap you too hard?”

“It didn’t feel like it while you were doing it.” You get out of your pencil skirt and Harry helps you get out of your strappy bra. You throw on some of his sweats and go into the kitchen with him. “We should probably take Buster out soon…”

“We can start cookin’ and then take him out. Right buddy?” He yips at Harry and he chuckles. “So…it was okay, all of it?”

“For doing in a role play, yes.” You rub the back of your neck. “But that’s the only scenario I want you talking to me like that, okay?”

“Fair enough.” He shrugs and wraps his arms around you. “Thank you.”

“Did it live up to the fantasy?”

“God, yes. Even more so. That was really cool of you, Y/N.” He kisses you quick. “So, what do you want for dinner? I’ll make whatever you want.”

“I think we have stuff for tacos, I picked up those meatless meat crumbles…”

“Tacos it is then.” He smiles.

“Come on Buster, mummy take you out quick while daddy cooks.” He tries to hide his smirk. “You wanted me to call you that earlier, didn’t you?” You say, crossing your arms.

“What would make you think that?” He asks facetiously and you roll your eyes. “All part of the fantasy, love.”

“What is it with guys and wanting to be called daddy, I really don’t get it. Why would you want me to fuck my father? Or have me picture my father?” You laugh.

“S’not what it’s about…it’s more of just like…a dominance thing. Like I said, it’s just part of the fantasy, I don’t actually want you callin’ me that unless it’s in reference to Buster.”

“Good, because that’s the only way I’m calling you that.” You smirk, and put Buster’s leash on. Harry gets to work on the tacos.

//

“Wow, Harry! This looks great!”

He had set everything up on the island like a little buffet so you could add all the fixings you wanted. You each eat three soft shell tacos and clean up when you’re done. You were stuffed. You both flop onto the sofa and relax.

“So…Glee?” He says to you.

“You read my mind.”

[painted-crow]

Do you think house pets can have primaries and secondaries too? If so, do you think they might reflect what their owners have?

They definitely have Sortings! This is an excellent ask 😂

I don't think the owner has a whole lot to do with it, though. They influence the way their pet's Sorting shows up in behavior, but the animal's personality itself is their personality, you can make them more or less stable and confident but I don't think they mold themselves after you.

Sorting my family's pets

My folks have eight animals in the house. Eight. My mom is “slowly” turning into a crazy cat lady and I’m absolutely fine with this. However, this post is actually long (and silly) enough that I’m switching to my laptop to put it under a cut.

Lots of cat and dog stories incoming :D

Tesla (my cat)

Double Slytherin, easy. He's ridiculously sweet towards me and mostly ignores everyone else unless they have food. (He's warming up to my mom though.) He's also a great actor. He's tricked everyone else into thinking he isn't cute and affectionate because he only acts needy and adorable when he's alone with me.

Funny story: he badly pulled a muscle in his back leg from a missed jump the year before last, and he REALLY liked the attention he got from me while I was nursing him back to health. I had a kind of kitty painkiller/anti-inflammatory stuff that came as a paste and could be mixed into wet food, which he normally only gets as a treat because too much upsets his stomach, but he was getting it every day for the medication. I also set up a special bed for him with a heating pad and kept checking on him and giving him attention.

He took a long time to heal, and the vet said I was doing the right thing, but I think I might have made it worse by being so nice to him because he really didn't want to get up and move around! He kept up the "I'm completely helpless, keep babying me" act for a year.

My mom finally took him to the chiropractor, who clicked his tail back into place and gave us some kitty physical therapy stretches for his leg... which he did NOT like, and unless someone was petting him at the same time to distract him, he'd scream like we were murdering him.

So, yes. Slytherin secondary 😂

Aardman (my brother's cat #1)

Huffleclaw. Loves everyone, including kids and babies--he's not only very patient with them, he's really enthusiastic and affectionate with them.

Knows EXACTLY how to get into mischief. Will grab your butt as you pass on purpose to get your attention. Often found in weird places, looking proud of himself: "look, I figured out how to get on top of the kitchen cabinets! I'm gonna knock stuff over now."

Thaddeus (my brother's cat #2)

Double Gryff. He's got big jock energy. This cat actually greets people with a loud meow and that upwards "sup" nod. If he wants attention he isn't subtle about it, and if you don't give it to him he'll play attack your toes. Very charismatic and friendly. He's also kind of an idiot who will fall off of things if he gets distracted while lounging.

He's a Gryff primary because when strangers come into the house, he'll vibe check them and decide if he's going to hide from them or smother them in love and cat hair. My mom was talking to a few different contractors about fixing something in the house, and Thaddeus was totally spooked by one and loved the other. I'm not saying that's why we chose the one he liked, but...

Gracie (my mom's cat)

Slytherin primary. Definitely my mom's cat, reluctant to interact with anyone else but very possessive of Mom's lap.

Possibly a Gryff secondary, or neutral state Slytherin. This house has a lot of cats in it and Gracie is tiny, but she takes zero crap and will smack the others in the face if they think they can push her around.

Isador / Izzy (pack mama cat, doesn't have a favorite human?)

You could make arguments for both Slytherin and Hufflepuff primary for Izzy. She loves all her humans and will yell at any of us for pets. We don't know how old she actually is (all our cats are rescues) but she looks and sounds like a prim old lady, which is appropriate since she's the matriarch of the house.

She does have favorites among the other pets, though. The dogs are her babies, she's known them since they were puppies and is very protective of them (which is pretty silly, since they're 65lbs apiece). She does NOT like Tesla, who is the biggest cat and full of ego, and doesn't really respect her lol 😂

She also didn't like the kittens at first. Gracie and Thaddeus were both kittens, only a few weeks old, that were abandoned in our neighborhood a year ago. Gracie showed up in the back yard, mewling, and Thaddeus was brought over by a neighbor who had found him but wasn't prepared to get up several times a night to bottle feed a kitten. My mom took both of them and we ended up keeping them. Izzy was a little bit hostile towards them at first, but she came around and now they’re part of her pack.

Hufflepuff secondary. If any of the other cats talks back to her, she hisses at them and the dogs come running over to check on her.

Maybe she's a Ravenclaw with a very Loyalist looking system? She cares a lot about keeping the peace. Yeah, you know what, Ravenpuff Izzy sounds about right.

Shawn (my mom's cat #2)

Slytherin primary, I think. My mom was visiting the shelter for dog tags or something basic like that, went back into the cat room to give the strays some love, and this gorgeous gray-and-white long-haired kitten climbed up her shoulder and wrapped himself around her neck and wouldn't let go. She had been Chosen.*

Shawn is also kind of a status hound within the house! The boys keep score of who's top cat... well, I don't know if Thaddeus cares (and Izzy knows it's actually her). Shawn likes to play dominance games with the other cats. He'll pick on Aardman and play wrestle with Tesla (who is twice his weight, but Shawn is very fluffy and he clearly thinks they're the same size, which is hilarious).

One of the Improvisational secondaries. I think he's a Gryffindor.

*Tesla also did this. The shelter lady took him out of the crate and within minutes he'd stretched out on my lap, belly-up, so relaxed he almost fell off. This is how you get a cat. I was actually looking to adopt on purpose, though, which my mom wasn't 😂

Rowan (my dad's dog)

This idiot dog. This absolute buffoon of an animal.

Actually, my mom is convinced he's not all that dumb, and he's tricking us all into believing he is so he doesn't have to be an obedient dog. If so, he's a VERY good actor. Slytherin secondary. (He also weaponizes the 🥺 eyes and my dad falls for it every time.)

Slytherin primary. Every time he misbehaves, my dad insists he's my mom's dog, but we all know better: he waits for my dad to come home and runs up and wags his entire body. He's SO affectionate with my dad and doesn't really care about anyone else's opinion. My dad lets this 65 pound, made-of-elbows idiot creature sit on his lap in the least comfortable positions possible, and baby talks to him.

Alex (my mom's actual dog)

Double Ravenclaw. I know, right? I haven't been Sorting many Ravenclaws in this list.

Alex is a very smart and fairly obedient dog. He is also a border collie (both he and Rowan are). He has also decided that Tesla needs a babysitter, and will follow him EVERYWHERE, doing that border collie staredown thing they normally use to herd sheep.

Yes. This dog tries to herd cats. He's very good at it, actually. All of our cats are indoor only animals (it's dangerous for them outside) but Shawn used to be a real escape artist. I'm not sure how we discovered that the dogs could do this, but we can call the dogs and tell them "get the kitty!!!" and they will work as a team to literally herd the cat back into the house. We didn't train them to do this. They're purebred border collies and they just know.

Anyway, Tesla and Alex get into drama. If I'm holding Tesla, Alex is ALWAYS staring at him. I think it's that, although he likes Tesla, he doesn't trust him and he's trying to make sure Tesla doesn't hurt me. Tesla is Very Dramatic and will yell or pretend like he's going to bite me if he's stuck in a position he doesn't like on my lap or he thinks another cat is going to try to steal my attention, and Alex Does Not Like That. Tesla won't actually hurt me on purpose, but he puts up a front in public that he's only tolerating me.

Alex doesn't care if I tell him to go lay down somewhere else. He is going to stare at this cat no matter what. Sometimes, the thing Tesla is yelling about is that the dog is staring at him and he's not in the mood for that nonsense (or, he also just likes when I scold the dog on his behalf), and this doesn't help matters. Alex has decided he Must Protect, and that dog code is more important to him than my opinion 😂

Alex is a Ravenclaw secondary. He's put in the effort to learn to communicate with humans, and he's very expressive with his body language and pointing with his eyes/nose. I think if we got him a set of those word buttons people give dogs so they can "talk," Alex would pick up on it right away and use it a lot.

That’s all the animals for now! Will update next time my mom finds a cat xD

[surveys-at-your-service]

Survey #374

“doctor, doctor, won’t you please prescribe me something?  /  a day in the life of someone else...”

Does someone have a crush on you but you don’t feel the same way? No. Who do you feel most beautiful around? No one. What’s one makeup item you cannot live without? I could live without any makeup. What’s the most expensive thing you own? My snake, I think. Or my laptop, idr. Are you more of a book person or a TV person? Book. Relationship status? Single. What color are most of your clothes? Black. Did you french kiss before you were 16? No, I was 16. Last song you listened to? "The Heretic Anthem" by Slipknot. Would you ever go back to any of your past relationships? Yes. What’s your favorite thing about life? That's a big question. I guess seeing acts of mass love and kindness, reminders that we're all in this together through all hardships. Who pays for the first date? Whoever asked the other person out, imo. Who has always been there for you? My mom. Have you ever written on a wall? No, at least not to my memory. Do you play any computer games, if so, what ones? I think anyone who reads these by now knows, haha. I don't much play anything else. I prefer console games. What would you name a baby boy if you had one? Probably Damien or Victor. What would you name a baby girl if you had one? Alessandra, no questions asked. What lyric means the most to you? I mean there's tons, but the first one that came to mind is "for such a little thing, you sure are in your own way" from "Get Up" by Mother Mother. Like in the big picture, we humans are so so so minuscule, but with brains that are too complicated for our own good. It's my own head that creates so many obstacles for me. Who is the smartest person you know? Probably my friend Girt. Have your parents ever been to jail? No. Do you share a bed with anyone? My cat, haha. Does it flatter you when guys open doors for you? It's flattering if anyone does, not just guys. Do you enjoy taking naps? Yeah. That's like part of my daily routine. If your friend asked you to hold their drugs, would you? Nope. Is there anyone you try to be a good influence for? My nieces and nephew, but I don't feel like I am. I'm a poor example of an adult. Do you own a pair of fishnets? No, but I have a pair of fingerless fishnet gloves. Which do you prefer: french toast, bagels, pancakes, waffles, bacon or cereal? All are great, but french toast. Yes or no: eyebrow piercings? I'd actually have one if I didn't have glasses. I think I'd look weird with one as I look now. When I say "The Beatles," what is the first song that comes to mind? "Hey, Jude." In your opinion, what is the very worst type of weather? Extremely hot and humid. You can only listen to one band for the rest of your life, who do you pick? Ozzy Osbourne, of course. Can you snap with both of your hands? Yeah, but it's harder with my left. What is something that you had to learn the hard way? For some people, promises don't mean shit. If you could re-paint your bedroom, what color would you paint it? Maybe like a light peach. When was the last time you got butterflies? I think not since Sara told me I look really pretty in eyeliner. ;_; <3 When was the last time you felt like your heart was actually breaking? There was this one time I was listening to "The Ghost of You" by MCR a while after finding out about Jason's mom's death and I just like... broke. When’s the last time you were in a line? When I was getting my second COVID shot. Do you trust the media? HA! Fuck no. If you could kill off one species of animal, which would it be? At first I was appalled by this question, but like... do wasps serve a purpose? Of all fauna, they annoy me the most. I mean bees are already endangered enough, and they prey on them. They don't pollinate, so like... why are you here. I may be mistaken and they have a valuable role, in which case I take all this back. Who’d you last say I love you to? My mom. What’s the most overpaid job in your opinion? I have on idea. Most jobs are underpaid. What’s the last thing you wrote down? I was doing some paperwork at the TMS office on my first day there. When’s the last time you heard a gunshot? I don’t know. What are you looking forward to? Now that my tattoo (which looks fucking stunning, by the way) is out of the way, I can focus on other things. I'm particularly looking forward to hopefully seeing the results of TMS manifest (which should take 3-4 weeks). It sounds horrible, but I'm also keenly awaiting this dog we're stuck with to go somewhere... The person who gave her to my sister to give my mom won't take the dog back, and we can't find another option that doesn't risk her being euthanized, which we absolutely do not want. We just don't know what to do, but she's driving Mom and me INSANE. Do you listen to online radio stations? No. Have you ever done something sexual that you regret? No. Have you ever said anything to the last person you kissed that you regret? Multiple things. Have you ever ate so much you puked? Ugh, no. That sounds awful. Do you care about what others think of your physical appearance? Very much, sadly. Would you rather eat cookies or brownies? I gotta say brownies. Which YouTuber have you learned the most from? I mean, this depends on the subject. From Mark, I've learned most about life and how (I think) to be a good person, but there's a lot of pet channels I watch that have taught me loads about proper husbandry. This answer just depends on what knowledge you're talkin' about. Who would you want to be the flower girl at your wedding? Probably a niece. Do you want to be married within the next ten years? It'd be nice. Do you feel like your life is too fast-paced, or do you wish it were busier? Ugh, I wish it was busier. My days are a COMPLETE, routine drag. What are some hobbies which you want to pick up? I want to just be more artsy. I wanna draw and write more, and I'd love love love to be in healthy enough shape to handle going on walks with my camera. There are sometimes I miss editing videos, too. I'm unsure about completely new hobbies. Does anyone encourage you to go after your dreams? My family and a few friends. Oh, and definitely my psychiatrist. What group are you most active in on Facebook? None, really. I mostly just observe. Are you ashamed of anything? A number of things. Primarily not having a job at my age or even being in school. What were your favorite Disney rides as a kid? I loved Splash Mountain, I think it was called. What were your favorite rides at Cedar Point? Never been. What are some places you want to visit that you’ve never been? South Africa, Alaska, Canada, Yellowstone National Park, Bahamas, Venice, Rome... What are some places that you’ve been that you’d like to go to again? Disney World, Chicago, and this one super clear lake I swam in once a few hours away that I don't recall the name of. Have you ever owned a succulent? No. While they're pretty, I've never been much of a plant person. Do you support small businesses? I REALLY want to start doing that more when I have the option to buy my own stuff/have my own income. As someone who wants to be a freelance photographer, I get it. Starting an independent business is hard as hell. If a brand were to sponsor you, which brand(s) would you prefer? Uhhh I dunno. Have you read the entire Bible? No. Do you make bucket lists for each season? No. That does sound kinda fun, though. How old were you when you first dyed your hair? I have no idea. Do you dye your hair regularly? No. :/ I desperately want to, though. It's just not something we can afford to spare cash on. What is the most comfortable type of pants, in your opinion? Pajama pants? haha Do you think you could ever be famous? No. I'm way too boring and don't want to be anyway. What are some jobs you’ve had in the past? Sales associate, cashier, and deli worker. None lasted long whatsoever. What are some jobs you want to or would like to have? List five. FIVE? I don't know. I just know I want to be a photographer. Well, being an artist or poet would be very cool. And a reptile breeder, maybe tarantulas, too, but that makes me kinda nervous with JUST how many babies they have. What are some jobs you have considered? In rough order from youth to now: paleontologist, vet, movie director, game designer, author/poet, artist, music video editor, wildlife biologist, photographer... Maybe there's more that just aren't coming to me. Are you thankful for social media, or do you wish it didn’t exist? Depends on the day for me, but I'm generally thankful for it so I can keep up with the lives of people who are important to me. It's just that it's a breeding ground for self-doubt and rampant comparisons that can easily depress me when I see some people are "further ahead" and more "established" than me. What are some of the best medications you’ve ever had? The combined efforts of Latuda and Lamictal saved my life. What was a video you watched over and over as a kid? There were lots of movies, like The Lion King, a certain Barney one when I was very young, and I watched Finding Nemo like crazy. Do you know a lot of people who were loving, and then turned cold? Jason????????????????? Is that you??????????????????????????????????????????? Do you own anything plaid? Ha, what a coincidence, I'm wearing my red plaid pj pants. Are you good at remembering names? Definitely not. Have the cops ever gotten on to you for anything before? No. What email thingy do you use? (yahoo, gmail, rock) ... Rock? lol anyway my main is Hotmail, but I inevitably have a gmail to have a YouTube account. What game system(s) do you own? PS2, Wii, Nintendo DS Lite, and a GameBoy Advance. Are you any good at Guitar Hero? I used to be; I played most songs on Expert, then some really tough ones on Hard. I was soooooo addicted to those games. I remember when I got the first one for Christmas, I literally played it all day. Have you ever played Call of Duty? Nah, not my jam. What is your favorite/most visited website? YouTube. Is your bed comfortable? Sure. I've definitely had way worse. Do you have a garage? No. Fun fact, I've never lived in a house with one. Should you be doing anything right now? What? There's a number of things I could be doing that are definitely more productive, like finishing decorating my damn room. Do doctors or dentists make you more nervous? Not really. I only ever get nervous to hear my weight at the doctor's. Did you ever think you were about to die before? I don't quite know. When I ODed, it was more like I didn't care if I did. Have you ever really had a near death experience? Was it cool? "Was it cool." Literally fuck off. I guess you could technically consider my OD a "near death experience," especially given how many pills I took, yet I somehow experienced almost no ill symptoms. Maybe because we got to the ER for fluids quickly enough, idk. I'm just glad I didn't die. What is your favorite kind of weather? Snowy! Like a steady snowfall of large flakes with no breeze and total silence. *chef's kiss* Ever tasted beer? Ugh, no. Just the smell makes me sick. It was my dad's drink of choice when he was an alcoholic so I just have a very negative association with it. Have you ever seen a dead body? Yes, at an open-casket wake. Ever poured salt on a slug? As kids, my sisters and I would get our parents to do it because they grossed us out. So, so cruel. I still have this weird but pretty extreme phobia of them, but I wouldn't torture the things like that.

[pokemon-ventures]

Blank Slate

Part 5, part 4 here.

A busy day leads to a lazy afternoon with the two cooling off inside. No smut...yet. Gotta make y’all suffer a bit first ;)

Your impromptu nap started out well until your dreams jolted you awake with the events leading up to now. The face of a Graveler stared at you and you felt something heavy hit your head from the side before it all goes black. When you sit up in bed, your head pounds and your heart races with adrenaline.

The room settles around you, revealing the master bedroom with Lance beside you, fast asleep. He looks as though he’s showered, fresh clothes and damp hair, and comfortable curled up next to you. You can’t help the smile that comes to your face looking at him, his strong jaw, thick hair and lashes draw your attention. There’s a small scar on his cheek, probably from his pokemon, and a small crease in his brows.

You nearly lean down to press your lips to it, but think better of it. Physically you’re married, but it honestly feels like you’re a new couple and that feels unfair to him. Your relationship had been fair until a few days ago, now he’s the one holding the fort until you can again.

But will you ever?

The thought makes you flinch at the thought of it not working out between the two of you because of what happened. It’d make sense though, your last memory is of a time before Lance came into your life. Who’s to say you didn’t miss it?

Okay, (Y/N), cool it on the drama, you scold yourself.

Intimacy destroyed by your thoughts, you slip out of bed and pull on his sweater before tip toeing into the hallway to explore the house. Once out of the door, your eye catches on a series of photos along the wall. You missed them coming through here, but now that you have a moment to breathe, you peer closer.

Some are of your family, old photos taken when you were younger to graduating high school and going to vet school to be a nurse. Then it’s Lance’s family, the official photos at clan gatherings and such up to him getting inducted into the Hall of Fame. He looks just the same, only a bit more mature in the face compared to his earlier years. Some of the looks you recognize simply because of the posters probably still at home in your parent’s house.

You clutch the sweater tighter as it comes to the first pictures of you and him. It’s strange looking at yourself in a photo you don’t remember being in.

The first one looks like an early date at an ice rink in Blackthorn. You dislike ice skating, so you’re shocked to see one of the biggest shit-eating grins on your face next to Lance. He also looks adorable with a navy, knitted ski hat on his head, hands grasping yours most likely to keep you from falling.

“(Y/N)?” you hear Lance call from the room, his voice groggy.

You blink away some tears in your eyes and call to him. “Out here.”

The bed creaks a bit as he heaves himself up and staggers to the door. He comes out stretching his arms, giving you a good look at his stomach as his shirt rides up. It makes you blush and turn back towards the pictures.

“How are you feeling?” he wipes his eyes. “What time is it?”

You shrug in response to his last question. “I’m feeling good.”

He joins you, pointedly putting his hands behind his back as he observes the same photo as you. That day ensured him he was in it for the long haul with you. You had expressed you didn’t like ice skating but he was adamant you try it with him there. While he didn’t change your mind, he at least got you to hate it a little less.

Every time you fell, you laughed and teased he wanted to see you at your worst before a second date. It wasn’t the intention, but if that was your worst, he was lucky.

“How did we meet?” you turn to him with clouded eyes.

His face brightens at the question and guides you to a photo down a few more paces. This one is later on in the relationship with how you sit on his lap, arm around his neck and other resting on his chest. The two of you are in Olivine, on the beach with the lighthouse in the background. Jasmine has joined you with her pokemon, Amphy beside her.

“I was doing my usual inspections in Olivine, meeting with Jasmine,” he explains with a fond smile. “When I got here, she left a note saying she was at the lighthouse for Amphy. The poor pokemon is susceptible to a lot of illnesses and I didn’t mind a change of scenery. When I got out there,” he glances down at you, gold eyes blazing with emotion, “there was a beautiful nurse there, laughing and talking with Jasmine. The way you worked with Amphy captivated me. He was completely at ease with you, barely reacted when you gave him a shot.”

“Amphy’s a good boy,” you shrug. “A lot of pokemon are unbothered by that.”

He laughs. “That’s the same thing you said when I complimented you that day. Anyways, Jasmine insisted the three of us head to her favorite restaurant for the meeting and to thank you for taking care of Amphy.”

“Don’t tell me,” you start. “We hit it off during lunch?”

“Oh, I was sure you hated me,” he scoffs. “You were standoffish and barely looked me in the eye.”

You flush realizing you were just flustered he was there and probably thinking about all the Lance stickers, notebooks and posters you’d bought in your younger years. It’d be the only reason you would appear that way to him.

“Oh no!” you groan, dropping your head in your hands.

“Oh, yes,” he snickers, patting your back. “Afterwards, Jasmine could tell I was put off and let me know what was really going on.”

“Oh no!”

“I think it’s sweet you supported me,” he clutches his stomach, trying to contain his laughter. “Really, (Y/N), it’s adorable.”

“Lance!” you squeak, smacking him. “Stop it! I’m gonna die of embarrassment.”

“Babe, no,” he wipes at his tears. “After that, I found you at the center and asked you to dinner.”

“Did I faint?” you ask, completely serious.

“I thought you were going to.”

“Oh my god,” you breathe, glancing back at the picture.

You look so happy with him, and he looks so happy with you. It looks like how sleeping beside him felt last night. It’s a comforting thought that you’ll be able to pull through this with him. 

You glance at a few more before stopping at the sight of yourself at your wedding. “Whoa.”

“Yeah, I said the same thing,” he murmurs, standing beside you to admire the photo of the two of you.

He looks amazingly handsome in a suit, broad shoulders and even waist all the way down. Standing next to him, you look radiant with a flowing dress down to the sand beneath your feet. You’d always wanted a wedding on the beach in Olivine, at lease it had come true.

“You okay?” Lance’s voice pulls you to the present, his finger ghosting your cheek as some tears fall.

“Y-yeah,” you mutter, wiping them yourself. “It’s just strange,” you press your hand against the photo, “seeing myself there and not remembering it.”

“It’ll get better,” he sets a hand on your shoulder. “There’s no need to rush recovery.”

“I mean, I guess,” you shrug. At his confused look you sigh. “I just... I feel bad I don’t remember this stuff. You’re technically alone right now. I’m just a blank slate of the (Y/N) you knew. Doesn’t that bother you?”

He tilts his head at you, his brows furrowed. “Not at all. You’re the same (Y/N) I met in Olivine and married in Olivine. You just don’t remember the events leading to this part of your life. I won’t lie, it hurts you don’t remember much, but I can’t force it. I can only support you.”

You stare at him. “You really love me that much?”

He holds out his arms and lets you walk into his embrace, he holds you tight to him. “That and so much more, (Y/N).”

Taglist:

@soundcitysession @cyndaquilsion

[carolmaximoffs]

THE GOOD DOCTOR

CHAPTER EIGHT

Ch. Summary: Thea returns to normal as best she can, which includes stitching up her friends. She moves on from her past, as well, with a special someone’s help. 

Warnings: cursing, talk of PTSD, mention of injury, do i have to put a warning on kissing? kissing. 

Pairings: Sam Wilson x OFC

Taglist: @marvelousmrstark @annathesillyfriend

A/N: this one took awhile, even though it’s short but i’ve been a little busy with school. i’ve definitely reached the falling action of this story, but i’m not mad about it in the least. this is mostly a chapter to build up some future plans i have but i hope you like it nonetheless.

“Seriously? That’s all she’s taught you? Somebody with standard military training would have you on your ass in five seconds.”

Thea pants as she ducks under Bucky’s arm and stumbles around to his back. He turns on her instantly, but she holds up a hand. “Wait. Wait. Bucky, I’m a doctor, not a fighter. I trained with Nat just in case we got, I don’t know, invaded.”

“Invaded,” Bucky snorts. “If we were in the city, you wouldn’t even be able to defend yourself from a mugging via 13 year old girl.”

“You shit talking my techniques, Barnes?”

Bucky leans against the ropes around the sparring ring as he accepts a water bottle from Steve. With him is Nat, who’s just spoken. “I gave you your techniques, Natalia.”

Thea has so many questions, but she doesn’t get the chance to ask any because Natasha levels her with an apologetic look in her eyes.

“Wanda and Sam are on their way back. You should...get into scrubs.” The redhead says. Thea wipes sweat from her forehead with her sleeve, brows furrowing in concern.

“What’s wrong? Is somebody hurt?” She asks, quickening her pace as she follows Natasha out of the gym. Nat, never one to bullshit or sugar coat, bites her lip in lieu of a reply. She stays quiet as she follows Thea to her room, politely fiddling with her phone as Thea strips from her sweaty workout clothes. Sparring with Bucky had been just for fun - both of them had the day off, or as much as an Avenger and a lone surgeon could be off duty. She throws on some deodorant and sweeps any fly-aways back into her braids, tugging a long sleeve on under her scrubs. Nat still doesn’t answer her questions as they take the elevator down to the first floor.

When they get to the med bay, Wanda and Sam are just arriving, returned from a recon mission. Alarm floods Thea’s senses as she sees Wanda visibly struggling to support Sam; Natasha helps her get him to one of the beds as Thea grabs a few things from the shelves.

“What the hell happened?” Thea whispers. In full doctor mode, she doesn’t even blush as Nat helps Sam out of his blood-soaked undershirt. Underneath, nasty bruises already bloom across his ribs, and an one particularly nasty gash slices from pectoral to hip. Sam slumps back against the wall, wincing as Thea begins cleaning the cut.

“‘Sposed to be empty,” Sam manages to croak before Wanda settles a hand on his shoulder. The young woman looks nervous, thumb actively fiddling with a ring on her free hand.

“We were checking out a warehouse for Steve,” the witch says. “Like Sam said, nobody was supposed to be there when we went in...intel said it might be drug trafficking, but potent stuff. Things that would affect even a super soldier.”

Thea pauses at this, accidentally wiping at Sam’s side a little too harshly. She whispers an apology, quietly asking Nat for some sutures and a needle as Wanda continues.

“We were ambushed. I don’t even really know what happened, how many there were...Sam got hurt towards the end of all of it. A couple guys got away because I...I had to...” Wanda chokes up, wringing her hands. Natasha passes Thea the materials she requested and rests a friendly hand on Wanda’s back.

“Hey, you did the best you could. If we weren’t caught up with meetings, more of us would’ve been there,” Natasha offers. Wanda nods, reaching forward to grip Sam’s hand as he groans.

“Why can’t you...powers?” Sam mumbles. Thea pulls a stitch just a little tighter than she meant to, exhaling shakily.

“Samuel. If you want your body to heal like anybody else’s, I’m stitching you. Who knows...I might not always be your doctor,” Thea offers. She doesn’t tell him that she’s still not entirely comfortable with the idea that she might not even know her own abilities. He only groans again as she finishes stitching up his side and steps back. Sam, with the last reserves of his strength, manages to fix her with the biggest set of puppy eyes possible, and a pout to boot.

“I’m serious, Wilson,” she scoffs. He pouts further.

“Had it my way...you’d always be my doc. Always be around.” Sam means his head back against the wall, bringing a hand up to cradle his stitches. Thea feels heat rise to her face as Wanda giggles. Nat, too, is grinning as she helps pull Sam to his feet.

“I...gave him a couple painkillers on the jet,” Wanda laughs as she and Thea watch Natasha help a whiny Sam out of the med-bay. She collects whatever Thea can’t grab, following her to the drawers as the latter shows her where things go. “He really does like you though. Have you talked about it?”

“Talked about what?” Thea asks absently, only half listening. Behind her, Wanda rolls her eyes.

“The kiss, dummy,” Wanda prods, and Thea’s face is burning all over again.

1 day ago

After the movie, Thea had volunteered the take the popcorn bowls to the kitchen. Saying goodnight to everyone, she headed that way. She opted to wash the bowls instead of just throwing them in the sink for somebody else; Wanda had chosen ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street’, and the simple task of washing dishes would hopefully prove soothing.

“Not a fan of horror movies, huh?”

The voice startles Thea, lost in thought, causing her to sling suds as she jumps. Sam laughs, holding up his hands as he walks further into the kitchen. Thea smiles sheepishly.

“Was it that obvious?” She asks, turning back to her task. Sam hums in response, grabbing a dish towel and drying the bowls she’s already washed. Thea doesn’t know what makes her keep going. “I have enough nightmares already. If Wanda hadn’t done so much for me, I would not have stayed.”

She meant it as a joke, but she can sense Sam’s hesitation as she hands him the final bowl. He takes it, but the action is subconscious. His focus is on Thea, and she feels a little vulnerable under his gaze.

“Have they been worse, since the mission?” Sam asks. She hadn’t been able to really sleep yet, but if her quick nap on the flight home was any indicator, she wouldn’t truly be sleeping for awhile. Thea shrugs, and he breaks the intense eye contact to start putting bowls away.

“I...they were bad when I first was rescued,” She admits. Her voice is small, but she knows it doesn’t have anything to do with Sam. “I’m worried they’ll be like that again.”

She’s staring holes into the floor. Sam takes both of her hands in his and Thea looks up at him. He’s not smiling, but his expression is still kind and open in a way that Thea wasn’t used to.

“Before I joined up with Steve, I used to run this group of guys. Vets, mostly with PTSD, talked about coping, nightmares, flashbacks, stuff like that...” Sam does smile now, an offering and a suggestion all rolled into one. “I’ve dealt with it too. Got a couple skeletons of my own. I know you’re close with Wanda, and...Barnes, but if you ever, you know....”

Thea takes the initiative as he trails off, letting go of one of his hands to rest hers on his cheek. He leans into the touch - warm, kind eyes never leaving hers. A spark of fear goes off in the back of her head, because she hasn’t felt this way in so long. But Sam wasn’t Grant; he was so much the opposite of Grant that she felt safe going with the flow.

“Thank you, Sam.” Thea isn’t sure what she’s thanking him for - possibly for just being himself. She squeezes his hand once more before slipping past him. His footsteps echo, into the elevator and all the way to her bedroom. Thea pauses at the door when he reaches to touch her shoulder.

“I won’t be able to see you after your meeting tomorrow,” He says, a little sad, a little like an admission. “Got some recon for Steve, nothing big though. We’ll talk when I get back?”

“Absolutely,” Thea promises, and without thinking, she leans in. She presses her lips to his cheek, a chaste goodnight, but it still leaves him smiling as she slips into her room.

Thea smiles at the memory, but elbows Wanda playfully. “Not quite. Nothing to talk about.”

“Actually, I have a question.” Both Wanda and Thea look back towards the door. Sam leans heavily against the door frame, Natasha nowhere in sight.Thea rushes to him, name falling from her lips as she reaches to steady him, but he waves her back. 

“I wanted to ask...once this shit heals,” He inhales sharply with this comment as he shifts. “Can I take you on a date? For real.” 

A squeal cuts over Thea’s response. She and Sam both give disapproving looks to Wanda, who waves and whispers a ‘sorry’ before ducking out a side door. Thea shakes her head but smiles brightly at Sam.

“Is this your way of getting me to use my powers on you, Wilson?” Thea quips. Sam gapes for just a moment, but his sharp wit manages to keep pace with her as he smirks. 

“Dunno. It working?” He asks, wiggling his brows. Thea chuckles, resisting the urge to punch him lightheartedly. Instead, despite the tiny, anxious voice in the back of her brain, she presses her hands to either sides of Sam’s torso. He inhales as she does, but she shushes him gently, stepping into him just a little.

“Don’t worry,” she murmurs as her magic hums through her fingertips. “I got you.” 

Sam laughs, though it’s pained. He’s close enough that he touches his cheek to her temple, breath a little labored in Thea’s ear. After a moment, she pulls him further into the med-bay. He lets her open the button up he’s managed to wrangle over his form. All that’s left of his fight is the cut Thea had stitched earlier, which Sam said only stung.

“You know,” He pipes up. It’s been a few minutes since she sat him down, and Thea hasn’t moved from where she grips the fabric of his shirt and stands between his legs. It’s intimate, she knows, but she doesn’t think either of them mind. “If you wanted to get me naked-”

“Samuel Thomas, do not even think about finishing that sentence.” Thea steps away from him with a light slap to the back of his head. Sam breaks out in to the full-belly laugh she’d come to adore since moving to the compound. Even as FRIDAY announces that Steve and Tony want them all in a conference room, she lets the warm feeling of his laughter envelope her. Without any hesitation, Sam slips Thea’s hand in his after buttoning his shirt. Once again, she is overwhelmed with the feeling of being safe. 

“Wait, Thea,” Sam cries, a few feet from the elevator. He stops so abruptly she nearly trips, pulling her back towards him. Before she has time to question him in exasperation, he kisses her deeply. When he pulls away, his lips are quirked up in a smug smile. 

“Sorry,” He tells her, not sounding sympathetic in the least. “Couldn’t wait for that date.” 

[let-love-run-red]

The Adventures of a Single Father-2

Tag list: @0hour9am​ @siobhanlovesfilm​ @thefandomzoneisdangerous​ @sincereleygmg

I’m so sorry if the tag didn’t work loves, one of them didn’t want to cooperate

***

Day after day after day Adam went through the same routine. Wake up at least four times a night, take care of Cody. Get up in the morning, resist the urge to send a cinder block through his floor to shut his neighbors up, take a shower and bathe Cody at the same time (he'd found it was easier to hold him during a shower), then pack everything onto his bike and ride around looking for people hiring. His most promising job offer was at Grumpy's cafe. The manager Ray was an ass. Also a friend of Hannah's, and he didn't need to get mixed up with her shit again.

Today, however, his routine was interrupted when he heard a loud crash in the apartment next door to him followed by a distressed female voice. Adam shot from his sleep, glancing around frantically. Cody was still sound asleep in his crib. Adam breathed a sigh of relief, he hadn't been getting enough sleep lately.

"Matt! That was my favorite table, oh no." He heard through the wall. He groggily sat up as a male voice started yelling. Adam sighed and climbed out of bed, pulling on a pair of sweat pants and running his hands through his hair. He padded out of his room to the front door and opened it to see a crew of people moving things into the apartment next door to his. He watched for a moment, until a woman with (h/l) (h/c) hair stepped from the apartment, tapping at something on her phone before shoving it in her pocket and whirling around to look at Adam.

His breath caught in his throat when he saw her face. Her perfect (e/c) eyes shone with a light he hadn't seen in anyone before. Her skin looked so soft and radiant as she caught his gaze and smiled a perfect smile that made his heart leap to his throat. She was gorgeous.

"Oh I'm so sorry, did I wake you?" She asked. Adam found himself swallowing in an attempt to get his words out. He'd never had a problem talking to girls before, why was it so hard now?

"Y-yeah, yeah. Um, it's not a big deal I just, I heard you saying something about a table?" He said, squinting in her direction and stepping into the hall. She looked him up and down, her eyes lingering on his bare chest for a moment before returning to his face.

"I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to wake you up." She explained. Adam glanced back into his apartment, watching closely for any movement from Cody sleeping in his crib. Cody shifted slightly and Adam tensed, ready to run to him, but there was no sign Cody was going to wake up soon.

"No you're fine, I just had no idea anybody was moving in." Adam explained, returning his gaze to her. He almost couldn't look into her eyes, they were so incredibly perfect and nearly glowing. She tilted her head in confusion, her smile faltering a little.

"Oh, they didn't tell you? I'm sorry I should've gone around and introduced myself then." She said. She stepped forward and held out her hand. Adam took it in a firm handshake.

"I'm (y/n), I'm moving in next door." She said with a giggle. Adam smiled and was about to introduce himself when there was another loud crash. Adam stood up straight and bolted back into his apartment when Cody let out a startled cry. Adam quickly reached Cody's crib, picking him up and shushing him gently. Cody pressed his body against Adam's bare chest, using one tiny hand to grab at Adam's hair. Adam lifted Cody so he was resting against his chest, his head on Adam's shoulder, and walked back to the door. He felt bad leaving (y/n) so quickly.

When he looked out of his front door again, (y/n) was arguing with one of the men who had been moving things in and out. The man was easily twice her size, but she didn't seem to flinch as she berated him for dropping one of her boxes down the stairs.

"Honestly Ryan, I hired your company because you promise the upmost caution when moving things. So far one of your men has broken my dining room table, another nearly dropped the box clearly labeled fragile, and now you've somehow managed to break my washing machine." She ranted. The man looked at her, avoiding her gaze. (y/n) sighed and ran her fingers through her hair.

"I think that's enough for today. If you keep up this noise you're going to wake my other neighbors too." She said. Ryan cleared his throat and nodded, looking to the ground as he plodded back into the apartment. He returned a moment later with two other men, all of whom seemed sheepish as they walked out of the apartment. (y/n) let out a sigh before turning to walk back into her apartment and spotting Adam, her gaze quickly traveling to Cody resting against his chest.

"Oh my God, I'm so sorry, did they wake him up?" She asked, gesturing to Cody. Adam shrugged as Cody chewed on a lock of his hair.

"He's easy to comfort. He never cries for long." Adam said, gently pulling his hair away from Cody. Cody let out a quiet burble of protest before Adam lowered him and held Cody on his back, his head resting in the crook of Adam's elbow as Adam offered his finger for Cody to chew on.

"I'm Adam, by the way." Adam spoke, pulling her gaze away from Cody. She smiled and stepped towards him.

"It's very nice to meet you Adam." (y/n) said. Adam smiled at her, about to speak when a large dog came barreling up the stairs. It was larger than a Saint Bernard, and larger than any dog Adam had ever seen. He held Cody closer to him as the dog lumbered towards them, and (y/n) turned to look at the large creature. She let out a loud laugh and knelt on the floor, holding her arms open. The dog ran towards her and sat in front of her, allowing her to wrap her arms around the dogs neck.

"Moose! Good boy, oh I missed you." She said, ruffling the dogs fur. The dog panted happily and Adam heard somebody running up the stairs after the dog.

"Oh my God hun I'm so sorry his leash slipped out of my hand as we went up the stairs and I was trying to get him but I couldn't run too quickly bec-" The voice cut off as the woman reached the top of the stairs, catching sight of Adam in nothing but a pair of sweatpants.

"Who's this?" She asked, raising an eyebrow and looking at (y/n). (y/n) grabbed the dogs thick leather leash, standing up and looking at the woman.

"Laura, this is Adam, our neighbor. Adam, this is my roommate and my best friend Laura." (y/n) introduced the two and Laura walked towards them, holding her hand out for Adam to shake. Laura was rather short, only reaching Adam's shoulder, and had long brown hair with deep brown eyes. She had a sharp edge to her as she stepped back, looking at Cody in Adam's arms.

"This is my son, Cody." Adam explained. (y/n) cooed at Cody, who smiled around Adam's finger while Laura kept her distance.

"Cute. Hey (y/n) did they bring up that box yet?" Laura asked. (y/n) turned to look at Laura.

"Oh yeah, they almost dropped it. I don't think anything broke though." She said. Laura nodded and glanced down her shirt, sighing and reaching into her bra. Adam jolted in shock as she pulled out a spotted white snake. The snake coiled itself around her arm and stuck its' tongue out at her.

"I get it you don't like it it's cramped, but it's the only place I can keep you warm enough." She said to the snake. The snake stuck it's tongue out at her again, stretching it's body towards her. She sighed and let the snake drape itself around her shoulders and neck before turning to the stairwell.

"Oh Chris babe I said I'd help with my stuff in your car." She said, rushing towards the stairs to take a few boxes from the hands of a large man. He was about as tall as Adam, with dark brown hair longer than his own. His shoulders weren't quite as broad as Adam's own but Adam didn't doubt this man could hold his own.

"I guess you're meeting the whole gang today," (y/n) teased as Chris approached the two, arms laden with boxes he maneuvered into the apartment. He did the guy head nod to Adam as an acknowledgement as he kicked the door open and shuffled the boxes in his arms.

"That's Chris, Laura's boyfriend." (y/n) said. Adam nodded, watching as Laura followed Chris with a few smaller boxes in her hands. The two reappeared a moment later, Chris leaning in the doorway and Laura with the snake wrapped around her neck twice.

"So uh, Laura, the snake..." Adam trailed off, watching as Laura disentangled the snake from around her neck and allowed it to wrap around her arm. The snake stretched towards Chris and he stuck his tongue out at the snake with a chuckle.

"Oh yeah, this is Basil, short for Basilisk. He's a piebald ball python and he's my baby. Yes I keep him in my bra when we're moving because I definitely don't want him with anyone else and if he gets cold he dies so." She said. Basil stretched back towards her neck and Laura let him wrap around her neck once more.

Adam gave a slow nod before turning his gaze back to (y/n) to see her checking the time on her phone, letting out a quiet curse.

"Laura I'm running so late for Moose's vet appointment, are you ok, here, I mean?" She asked. Laura nodded and waved (y/n) away with a smile.

"You know we'll be fine (y/n), go get him his paperwork and the updated tags." Laura said, gently bustling (y/n) away. She waved a quick goodbye to Adam before jogging down the hall, Moose trotting at her heels. Adam turned to look at Chris, meeting his intense green eyes. He had a smattering of freckles across his nose and dark bags under his eyes. He looked older than his presumed age, but still confident.

"Well, it was lovely meeting you, and Cody, but Chris and I have some unpacking to do." Laura said, turning to Chris in the doorway. He chuckled and did air quotes as he mouthed the word "unpacking" and Laura shoved him in the door. Adam chuckled and called out,

"I'm headed out in about fifteen minutes and you don't have neighbors on the other side of you, be as loud as you want." He joked. Laura's face went red and Chris leaned out of the door to high five Adam. Adam chuckled as Laura dragged Chris back into the apartment and shut the door. There was a soft click from their lock as Adam stepped back into his apartment. Cody was staring up at him with wide eyes. Adam lifted Cody to his face, rubbing his nose against Cody's much smaller one and smiled at Cody's giggle.

[thepartyresponsible]

another whumptober fic! the prompt for this one is isolation. so here’s steve rogers waking up in the wrong century and moving into clint barton’s apartment building.

warnings for depression and angst, but, again, this one is fairly sweet.

SHIELD puts him in an apartment in a building in Bed-Stuy, citing ongoing concerns that he is exhibiting an alarming lack of social integration. Steve doesn’t see how the hell they expect him to stop being lonely. His whole generation is dead or dying. And the older people, the men and women he looked up to, are bones buried under untended gravestones.

A man should lose his mentors one-by-one. Like baby teeth. One bloody bit of bone in your palm is a life lesson, but a whole mouth full of blood, a graveyard full of teeth, that’s a tragedy. That’s a nightmare.

He went for a swim, and, when he came up to breathe, everyone he ever knew was gone or changed.

Every night, he dreams about putting that ship in the water, and, somedays, all he can think when he wakes up is: It was supposed to be quick.

God knows, by the end of the war, he didn’t have the heart left for anything slow. But he’s here anyway, plodding along. Breathing, walking, fighting. These days, people never quit, never slow down, never take time off. There’s always a war somewhere. Always somewhere for him to be.

There’s a woman that SHIELD wants him to talk to. She asks him questions that are probably meant to help. “How are you feeling, Steve? What do you do in your spare time? Have you spoken to any of the Howling Commandos? What about Peggy Carter? Have you made any new friends, Steve? When was the last time you left a SHIELD facility for a reason other than a mission? Did you go outside today, Steve? Are you sleeping? Are you eating?”

Honestly, he’d probably have a better time if she dispensed with the questions and just started ripping his fingernails out with a pair of pliers. It’s a hell of an exaggeration and a disrespect to Bucky besides, but sometimes, after an hour with her, all he can think about is Bucky, strapped to a table, repeating his name, rank, and serial number with empty eyes.

He spends one too many nights walking the hallways after particularly murky missions, and SHIELD gets unnecessarily proactive about it.

“We’re worried about you,” Phil Coulson says. There’s a heaviness in his eyes that isn’t quite disappointment. Steve remembers when Phil used to look at him with the feverish light of hero worship.

“I’m fine,” Steve says.

There’s nothing wrong with him. He’s not hungry, not tired, not cold, not sad. He’s nothing. It’s like his brain and body woke up, but his soul stayed in the water. Like every human part of him is still frozen solid.

“If you need time,” Coulson says, “if you need a break from the missions--”

“I don’t,” Steve says. He tries to be patient about it, but the words feel like a threat. He doesn’t know how he’d fill the days if he didn’t have the missions to keep him occupied. There are only so many punching bags in SHIELD storage. There are only so many times he can reread the obituaries of people who died simultaneously four days and forty years after he saw them last.

“We’re worried,” Phil repeats. And he looks it.

From a hero to an object of pity. Well, he’s had worse falls.

“I’m getting better,” Steve says. “I’ve been reading the reports. I have an email account.” One of the SHIELD agents on the latest Strike Team told him he needed a private email address to sign up for things online. Steve’s not sure what he wants to sign up for, but he dutifully checks the empty inbox every morning.

It’s good, he thinks, to be prepared.

“I haven’t broken a phone in two weeks,” Steve tacks on, when Phil still seems unconvinced.

He’s trying. He doesn’t know what the hell they expect from him. Six months ago, he lived in a pre-atomic world. Now people walk around with technology in their pockets that far exceeds what they used to walk on the moon. He can use his phone to check baseball scores and grocery store stock and the weather anywhere in the world. He can order food he’s never tried from a place he’s never been made by people he’s never met, and they’ll deliver it to his door, and he can do all of this without seeing or speaking to a living human being.

No flying cars, though. Guess Howard never did figure that one out as well as he wanted.

“We’ve found an apartment for you,” Phil says. “You need to reintegrate.”

Steve is baffled as to how Phil expects him to reintegrate. His whole world is gone. He’s not coming home. There is no home left. He’s homesick for a time and place that don’t exist anymore. Like a refugee who can’t ever go back. Uprooted, transplanted.

He’s a woolly mammoth, a sabretooth tiger. A reanimated extinct species, brought back to pace the bars of a cage he doesn’t understand. Useless and ludicrous and out of place. A man out of time.

“Sure,” Steve says. It’s no use fighting about it. No reason to upset all these people who just want to help. “That sounds fine.”

  What he appreciates most about Clint Barton is that he never once tries to pretend like he isn’t Steve’s assigned babysitter. “Hey,” he says, that first night, crashing into Steve’s apartment with a couple of beers in one hand and the other holding a freezer bag of peas to the side of his face. “I’m Clint Barton. I kinda own the place.”

“Kind of?” Steve asks, blinking as Clint careens a little unsteadily from one corner of the apartment to the other, apparently looking for a place to land. He settles, finally, on the kitchen counter.

“Yeah,” Barton says. He arranges himself on the cluttered kitchen counter, squeezing between the boxes of unpacked dishware and kitchen appliances SHIELD thought he’d need. “I mean, legally. I do. I’ve got paperwork.”

Steve raises his eyebrows. He’s been thinking about getting unpacked. He was coming up with a plan. He got a little distracted staring out the window after all the helpful SHIELD agents disguised as movers left, but he won’t sleep tonight anyway, so he’d figured it didn’t matter how long it took him to get started.

He hadn’t been expecting a guest.

“Um,” Clint says, after a few seconds of silence. He juggles the peas, pinning them against his face with his shoulder, and then pops the caps off both of the beers. “Here. To your new place.”

Steve thinks about asking him to leave, but the ghost of his mother hisses at the discourtesy inherent in refusing a gift-bearing guest. He crosses the apartment to take the beer, knocking the bottle gently against Clint’s before lifting it to his lips.

What the hell. He doesn’t know a poison that will kill him. And he figures SHIELD will have vetted the place from rooftop to basement.

“Thanks,” he says. The beer is cold and hoppy. Decent, he thinks. It tastes vaguely medicinal, the way most food tastes now.

“No problem,” Clint says. He’s blonde-haired and blue-eyed. There are bandages on his hands, and, when the peas droop, Steve catches a glimpse of a still-blooming shiner that’s going to cover a quarter of his face.

“You have some trouble?” Steve asks, tipping his chin toward the bruise.

Clint shrugs. He takes a drink of his beer and kicks his feet, looks perfectly at ease in Steve’s apartment in a way that Steve decidedly does not. “Milk run,” he says, offhand. “Guess I got a bit expeditious about things toward the end. Wanted to be sure I got back in time for your first day.”

Steve blinks. Milk run, he thinks. He hears the word in old echoes, memories of soldiers reporting back. Some of the old slang survived. It’s nice, hearing it. He wonders if someone gave Clint a list of terms to work into casual conversation.

“You’re SHIELD?” Steve asks.

Clint shrugs, grins up at him. His smile is slanted sideways, held down on one side by the bag of peas. But his eyes are bright and friendly, and there’s something comforting in the lazy disregard of his body language, like he doesn’t know or care who Steve used to be.

“Don’t tell them I told you,” he says. “I have a bet going with my buddy that I can make it at least a week.”

Steve snorts. He’s quiet for a second, weighing out the mischief in Clint’s eyes. It’s been a long time since anyone dragged him into anything even remotely playful. “Sure,” he says, caving the second Clint waggles his eyebrows. Something aches and splinters in his chest. He ignores it, clearing his throat while he turns to regard the mess of boxes and bags scattered around the place.

Someone’s going to have to do something about this mess. He figures, as usual, that the someone is going to have to be him.

“Hm,” Clint says. He slithers to the ground, heavy boots clattering on the kitchen floor. He surveys the kitchen counter and then visibly perks up, dropping the peas so he can grab a box, cuddle it lovingly against his chest. “C’mon, Steve,” he says, hefting the new coffeepot onto his hip, “we’ll start with the important stuff.”

  Clint leaves around midnight. The living room and kitchen are unpacked, and Steve hasn’t even started on the bedroom, but he’s not worried about it. He goes out to wander the neighborhood until dawn. Just keeping his feet busy, shushing the buzzing hum of his mind. He tests his tether, climbing up onto the roof to watch the sunrise, but, if he has a tail, he never sees them.

When he goes back to his apartment, he encounters Clint in the hallway. He’s mussed and sleep-dazed. There are red lines on his face from where he slept too hard on his pillow. There’s a bit of toothpaste stuck to his chin, and he has a piece of toast shoved in his mouth, a cup of coffee in one hand, and a dog’s leash in the other.

“Mmph,” he says, greeting Steve through the toast.

“Morning,” Steve says, going stock still at the sight of such disarray.

Clint’s wearing pajama pants with little purple bullseyes on them. They’re tucked into combat boots. That bruise got ugly overnight, but all those dark shades really set off the bright blue of his eyes.

“Hey, Steve,” Clint says, after he hooks the dog’s leash around his wrist so he can take the toast out of his mouth. “You sleep okay?”

“Oh, sure,” Steve says. “You?”

“Like a fucking rock,” Clint tells him. And then, with a grimace, “Sorry, I gotta—this is Lucky, and Lucky really needs to pee.”

Everyone Steve’s encountered on this side of the new millennium is efficient and serious and professional. Everyone’s been so bloodless. He thought that was how they raised people these days. But Clint’s a loud, frazzled, mussed-up mess. Clint’s the first living thing Steve’s seen in this century.

Well, right up until the dog sticks its cold nose into the palm of Steve’s hand and whines like a thing with a heart breaking clean in half.

“Oh, hey,” Steve says, crouching down. “Sorry, pal. Didn’t mean to ignore you.”

The dog pants kibble-scented breath in his face. He’s missing an eye. His fur is soft and warm under Steve’s hands.

“Oh, for—Lucky, stop guilt-tripping Steve. He’s a nice guy. C’mon.” But for all his complaining, Clint doesn’t seem to be in a hurry to leave. He’s standing unsteadily, sloping slightly to the side, with one eye closed like he’s letting that half of his brain catch a quick nap.

“You gotta go,” Steve says, giving Lucky one more gentle scratch behind the ears before he stands up. “Maybe I’ll see you later.”

“Oh, definitely,” Clint says. “Just come see us whenever.” He straightens up, gives himself a little shake, and then smiles sweet and sleepy, right in Steve’s face.

Like they’re friends. Like Steve’s a real person. After all this time, after everything he’s done, he can still just be someone’s neighbor.

“See you, Steve. Let me know if you need any more help unpacking.” And then Clint shoves the rest of the toast in his mouth and reaches out to pat Steve on the shoulder as he walks by. He misses pretty catastrophically, getting a handful of Steve’s chest and then just committing to it anyway, patting him like Steve had just patted Lucky, before he dozily meanders his way up the hall.

Steve stares after him for a long moment and then he goes into his apartment, locks the door, and makes some coffee. He drinks it sitting up on his new couch, and he doesn’t expect to fall asleep, but he does anyway.

He dreams about the water. He always dreams about the water.

But he keeps getting flashes, little glimpses through the ice. A black eye and a friendly smile. Soft fur under his hand, a dog’s sad whine echoing from years and years away.

Coffee. He tastes coffee.

And he feels something on his chest, a warmth that spreads outward. A patting. Or maybe a knocking.

Wake up, he thinks. And he does.

[paige-from-my-book]

So I appreciate all the love Blade of a Traitor got! Hoping the numbers go up from there. I'm still working on that one, so stay tuned for more little samples of it. This next exerpt is from my recently finished story, Rescued. In Google docs, Rescued is 105 pages, so I'll be sharing it in small sections. Please be aware this book deals with some heavy topics like PTSD, sexual assault, drug addiction, and brief references to sexism and racism, so if any of that is a trigger for you, I'd advise against reading this. As with BoaT, this is a lesbian romance. As always, feeback is appreciated. Without further ado! Rescued, part 1:

"I walked into the office. My tan uniform fit well. I had tried it on about five times before this week. This job was a God-sent. I never expected to get a job in my field so soon after my associates degree was finished.

I walked up to the front desk and smiled brightly. “Hi! I’m the new hire,” I said with as much cheer as possible. This was my first day on the job and I wanted to give a good first impression.

The woman behind the desk was standing as she leaned over the desk and typed at the computer. Her black hair was up in a ponytail. If it wasn’t pulled up, it would probably go well past her shoulder blades. She didn’t even shift her dark brown eyes from the computer screen and her lab coat hung loosely off of her thin frame. Her thick, black-rimmed glasses sat perfectly on the bridge of her nose. Her dark skin contrasted deeply with her white coat and the black and green blouse underneath her coat brought out the flatness of her stomach.  She was thin, almost scrawny, and tall, probably at least four inches taller than me. Her small nose was lined perfectly between her round cheeks.

She didn’t answer for so long that I wondered if she didn’t hear me. I took a breath to repeat myself, but before I did, her eyes darted to mine, studying me. I could see her eyes fall on the sleeve on my left arm. After only falling there for a moment her eyes looked me up and down completely and then went back to my face. I could see her gaze shift to the side of my head and knew she was looking at my piercings. My industrial specifically probably stood out. 

“Did they tell you our policy about those?” she asked curtly, pointing to my ear.

“They told me as long as I can do my job, that it doesn’t matter,” I said, unsurely. Her scolding look made me wonder if they would be an issue. Her jaw clenched as she continued to stare at me.

“Have you ever retrieved animals before? You’ll be lucky if those don’t get ripped out,” she informed me condescendingly. I didn’t let her know I’d been wrangling wild animals since I was a kid. She seemed uninterested in my answer anyway.  “I’m just a vet here, I don’t know where you’re supposed to go or what you’re supposed to do,” she finally answered my first statement with a shrug. 

I nodded. “Right, I’ll just wait here then,” I offered, not meeting her gaze again. She was intimidating. I wasn’t planning on having to rely on old instincts in my new workplace.  I leaned casually on the counter, but this seemed to repel the vet.

She took a step back and looked at me with disgust. “Fine, I’ll get someone.” She strode off, her lab coat flowing behind her.

“Sorry,” a voice behind me startled me. As I spun around I saw a girl about my height, on the shorter side of average. Her straight blonde hair went just past her shoulders that were covered by a t-shirt with the vet logo on it. Her wide frame accented her short figure. “You’ll have to excuse Andrea. She’s always wary of new hires.”

She tossed me a friendly, gorgeous smile as she moved around the desk to the other side. She sat down in the chair and began typing at the computer that Andrea left behind.

“She’s very protective of her patients.  Also, she doesn’t really see the need in being nice to people when people haven’t been nice to her, you know? Anyway, what was your name again?”

“Oh, um, Hailey. Hailey Thompson,” I stuttered out, reminding myself to smile.  This was a new job, a new chance.  I needed to make this go well.

“Ah Hailey! It’s so good to have you on board. So it says here you have driving and first aid experience?”

“Yes. I drove for Deacon Institute.”

I saw the girl look up from the computer. As much as I tried to avoid giving the full name, she knew exactly where I had driven for. She knew what I was. But she quickly looked back down, like she didn’t want to upset me. Instead of commenting on that, she just replied, “I see.”

“I’m here for a new start,” I blurted. I desperately needed a new start. I needed another chance. I couldn’t go back. Not now, not ever. And my last job didn’t pay enough for me to make rent. It was hard enough to complete school while working sixty hours  a week. It’d almost been enough to make me turn back to- No. Never.

The girl smiled kindly at me.  “We do get a lot of that here. I will say, usually people just volunteer to get their community service out of the way.”

“I’m not most people,” I said sternly. “I worked for this. I want it.” I realized I was leaning in. “Plus, my community service has been done for over a year.”

She met my eyes. Her blue eyes searched mine. “Right. So our boss will be in soon, you can sit over there and wait for him.”

I nodded, smiling again.  “Thank you so much. Sorry, I didn’t catch your name?”

“Amanda.”

“Amanda, nice to meet you,” I offered my hand.

She took my hand, unable to resist my smile. “Nice to meet you, too, Hailey,” she said, offering another friendly smile of her own.

I went to sit down in a chair, nervous about finally meeting the boss.

When John came in, he introduced himself and shook my hand. His short brown hair was peppered with some gray, giving away his older age on an otherwise youthful face.

He seemed to not actually be so bad.  He didn’t even care that I had piercings, and just wanted me to spend the day meeting the animals on campus, providing basic care and interacting with them. After I played with the more tame animals and provided first aid for a few hours, he called me into his office.

“So, this is awkward, and I just want to get it out of the way,” he said as I took a seat.

“I know. I was in a bad place. It was an escape. I made a mistake,” I said, already knowing what he was talking about.

“Is it still an issue?” he asked.

“No. I haven’t done meth in years,” I muttered quietly.  “The stuff I went to prison for wasn’t even mine. Ever since I put myself straight, I’ve had one goal.  Make something of myself. I want more than anything to put that part of my life behind me. Animals help me do that. I just want to give back to them.”

He looked at me for at least a minute before nodding.  “I believe you.  But we do rely on our rescuers here.  I need to know I can trust you.”

“You will. Just give me a chance and I’ll be there.  I’ll show up every day on time.  I’ll do my job and do it well. If it weren’t for animals, I can’t imagine where I’d be. I want to give back to them,” I said. I couldn’t keep the pleading tone from my voice.

His light brown eyes studied mine. “So what experience do you have with animal control?” he finally asked, leaning back in his chair.

“I grew up on a farm. Animal control was my life. But also, as you can see on my resume, I was in charge of animal control at the prison I was at.”

“Yes, I talked with your warden.  He says you created the entire program?”

“They had an animal problem. I gave an idea to fix it, so they put me in charge of it,” I explained with a nod. My dark red bangs fell onto my face as I did, so I quickly brushed them aside, using my right arm so I wouldn’t bring more attention to the sleeve on my left. “With my conduct while I was in prison, they knew they could trust me with a project like that.”

His eyes widened a little and he looked over my portfolio.  “Sure. Well, first we’ll need to train you on our system so you can log the animals you bring in. I’ll set you up with Amanda to get that started.  After seeing how you interact with our animals I have no doubt that you’ll do great here,” he said standing up.  “And if your drive is anything like your parole officer described, you’ll do more than great.”

I smiled at him, happy that he was willing to look past my background. As I stood up to follow him, I straightened out my tan shorts and pushed my short wavy hair behind my ears. It sat just above my shoulders. I was anxious for it to grow out so I could put it back in a ponytail. I’d just gotten comfortable with looking more feminine again. Shorter hair typically meant less unwanted attention. I hated attention.

We went back out to the front desk and John introduced me to Amanda again, explaining what I needed to learn. Amanda nodded briskly and pointed to the chair on the other side of the room. I retrieved it and by the time I was sitting by her side, John was gone.

After a few minutes of her training me a person walked up with a leashed dog in their hand. Amanda turned to them and assisted checking them in. As she did, Andrea came back up, waiting behind Amanda for her to be done helping the customer.

“So, John seems to like you,” she said coolly. “They must be good at teaching you to lie in prison.”

I looked around to make sure no one was in earshot and looked back at Andrea. I felt my jaw clench.  It was hard enough to live with my past. I didn’t need her announcing to the entire office that I was a convict. John must have told her where I came from. I inwardly prayed that he didn’t tell the whole office.

“I didn’t learn anything there. Other than I never want to go back,” I said sternly. My hands slowly clenched into fists around the arm rests. Any mention of prison was too many. Here on my first day it’d already come up a handful of times. 

Breathe, Hailey. Keep everything under control. Everything is calm.

Andrea’s eyes darted down to my forearm, looking at the tree roots that had been inked into my skin.

“This was done before.  I didn’t get tattoos in prison.  Or piercings. I was there to pay for my mistakes. I’ve paid. Now I’m doing what I can to help those that helped me,” I said, leaning forward. She wasn’t the only one who could play alpha.

Andrea’s face didn’t show any emotion as she turned to Amanda, seeing that she was done helping the customer.  “John let me know you’re training her on our system. I wanted to show her a few things that would make it easier for the vets here if she knew how to do it.”

Amanda nodded and backed away, signaling that Andrea could show me what she needed to. Before I could scoot in, Amanda got up and walked away. Andrea took her seat and grabbed my chair by the armrest, pulling me in so I could see better. My chair bumped into hers and I tried not to notice how our arms were touching. My first instinct was to pull away, but I didn’t want Andrea to think that she could intimidate me or that I saw her as above me.

“So, you need to open this window,” Andrea started.  She didn’t even look at me, assuming I was paying attention. 

I took out my notepad and started scribbling notes on what she was teaching me on how to log the animals I would bring back. Her smooth, clear voice made the training easy for me, all of it making sense so that I knew I wouldn’t forget it. I took notes anyways.

“Make sense?” she asks, finally turning to look at me. Her face was so close. Her dark eyes searched mine and I couldn’t help but notice just how beautiful she was, but the way she asked was so condescending that I couldn’t stop myself from glaring at her.

“Mhm,” I confirmed through clenched teeth.

She stared at my face for a while, her dark chocolate eyes running up and down my face for a few seconds before she got up and left. 

After my first day I went home, riding my motorcycle. It was one of the first days that I’d been able to ride this year, the winter finally giving way to spring.

When I finally got into the driveway, I sighed with disappointment. My roommate was home. I didn’t even need to open the crooked front door before I could hear the music blaring. I knew I’d never fall off of the wagon again, but boy did she make it difficult.

“Hailey!” my roommate exclaimed as I walked in. There were five people crammed into our tiny kitchen.

“Hey, Grace.”

“Come in here, I told my friends all about you!”

“I’m actually pretty tired. I had to get up early for work and I have to again tomorrow.”

“Man, you’re no fun anymore,” Grace pouted, her blue eyes pleading with me. 

“Well, almost dying of an overdose will do that to a person,” I said, walking up the stairs. I couldn’t wait to have enough money to move out. Grace was nice enough, but she had no issues staying where she was in life, and that wasn’t where I wanted to be. 

I plopped down onto my bed, throwing my helmet to the other side of the room. Maybe I could sell my car, I thought. But I knew that wouldn’t be enough. My car was such a junker it wouldn’t get me more than a few hundred dollars. Until I saved up, I was stuck here. 

I laid back onto my bed as I let out a heavy sigh. As I laid there, I vaguely wondered if Amanda was looking for a roommate. She seemed nice enough. A little timid, but nice.

[etherealwaifgoddess]

Two Of A Kind

Main Characters: Loki (Laufeyson) Odinson, Thor Odinson

Summary: Loki receives an unexpected and gift from his brother.

Warnings: None! Just sweet fluff :)

Word Count:3,276

Author’s Note: Hello lovelies! Two new fics in two days... ya’ll are getting spoiled again! So this little fic is for the amazing @star-spangled-man-with-a-plan ‘s writing challenge. Star is such an incredible writer, if ya’ll haven’t read her stuff I highly recommend checking her out. For her challenge, I snagged the prompt  “Why did you do it?” for Loki. 

Please note:  this is very non-canon compliant! It’s set after the first Avengers movie but let’s just pretend Thor has Loki kept at the Avengers Tower under house arrest instead of taking him back to Asgard for punishment. Okay? Okay :)

XOXO - Ash

Two Of A Kind

Loki is not the most agreeable man on the best of days, and on the worst of days, well it’s better just to let him roam the halls in solitude. Thor had started to worry about Loki though, too many days spent in self imposed isolation and biting people’s heads off at every turn. Thor knows Loki doesn’t want to spend his “sentence” in the Avengers tower but he needs to be contained after the incident in New York and the tower is a safe place. Thor trusts his fellow Avengers with his life. Thor spends hours researching online how to bring comfort to people who were housebound and isolated. Most articles recommend a companion animal and Thor is coming around to the idea when Natasha comes home raving about a litter of kittens she found on a mission and dropped off at a local animal shelter. 

Thor doesn’t think to ask Tony about bringing a pet into the Avengers tower until he’s halfway to the shelter and at that point he decides to risk it rather than go all the way back. The shelter looks almost like a regular pet store with various pens around the shop, each containing a different animal. All of the puppies in their bins jump up to greet him as he walks through to the desk and he has to resist the urge to pet them along the way. He is there on a mission. 

“Hello, excuse me.” Thor says anxiously. He doesn’t want to interrupt but he’s been standing in front of the desk for a while and the girl hasn’t lifted her head once. 

“Sorry, one minute.” the girl replies. She’s young, barely in her twenties with bright purple hair and a delicate silver hoop in her nose. She types furiously as she squints at the computer screen and ends whatever she was working on with a sharp, satisfied press of the enter button. “Okay, what can I help you with?” she asks looking up at Thor for the first time since he’d arrived.

Thor chuckles despite himself as her face falls and she begins stammering an apology, “It’s alright. You’re doing important work here.” he assures her, “I’m looking for a cat if you could help me. My friend Natasha brought in a litter of kittens earlier and I thought I might want one.” 

“Sure, yeah, of course. They still need their shots and vet visit but you can see them at least. They’re still in the back.” the girl motions for Thor to follow her around back to the holding area. “They’ve been cleaned up but you still might not want to handle them until a vet clears them.” 

“Aesir cannot contract any Midgardian ailments. I have no concerns over these little ones.” Thor opens the gate to the four small kittens inside the cage and begins petting them, seeing which ones are the most friendly. One little pure grey kitten in the back perks it’s head up but is pushed back by the others when it tries to approach. It lets out a pitiful mew and Thor scoops it up in his large palm to bring it out to him. The kitten looks up at him with wide green eyes and what Thor thinks must be appreciation. He gives its little head a few pets and to his surprise the kitten begins to lick at his palm eagerly. “Do cats usually do this? I thought licking was a dog trait?” he asks the girl.

The girl shakes her head, “No, it’s not common. She must like you.” 

“I’ll take her.” 

The girl blinks in disbelief at his decisiveness. “Well, we have a lot of forms to fill out and you have to be approved and then there’s the vet visit she still needs but that should be tomorrow afternoon. Can you bring the forms back later today or tomorrow and we’ll let you know once she’s seen by our vet?” 

“I can fill them out now.” Thor offers and the girl nods, leading him back out front. 

True to his word, Thor settles in to fill out the forms on a clipboard sitting crossed legged on the floor by a pen of jack russel puppies. He leaves the shelter with a lighter heart, knowing he has a plan in motion to help ease his brother’s suffering. 

~~~~~~

It takes two days for the kittens to be cleared to leave the shelter and Thor was a nervous wreck waiting. He gave Tony a heads up since he’d had the time and all Tony did was shrug and warn Thor he wasn’t going to get stuck with litter box duty. 

Thor arrives five minutes before the shelter opens the morning he can finally pick up the kitten and he’s bouncing lightly on his heels when an older woman opens the door at 9am. “You’re here for the little grey kitten?” she asks but it’s a rhetorical question.

Thor nods, “Yes, ma’am. And I was told I would be able to purchase some basic supplies as well?”

“Mmhmm.” the old woman mumbles as she takes out the forms for Thor to sign to release the kitten to him. “We have a litter box and some litter, a bag of dry food, a few cans of wet food, food and water dishes, and a collar all set aside for you. That should get you started for a few days.” 

“I appreciate it.” Thor says genuinely. 

“Just be sure to get more supplies within the next day or two and set up the next vet appointment for her last round of shots in four weeks.” 

“I will, thank you.” Thor signs the last of the papers and hands them back to her. 

The woman collects the kitten and the two large bags of supplies and brings everything out front for him. Thor takes the crate in his hand gingerly, trying not to upset the kitten inside, and loops the other two bags around one heavily muscled arm. “Thank you, again.”

“Take care.” the woman smiles at him kindly and opens the front door for him.

Thor heads back to the Avengers Tower walking much slower than he usually would. He doesn’t know much about kittens but he knows a little about babies and those you can definitely not jostle around too much. Every block he stops to check on the kitten and she just blinks at him hesitantly with her wide green eyes. He finds himself talking to her along the way, assuring her she’s going to have a lovely home and be well taken care of from now on. Thor hopes that Loki will feel the same level of protectiveness over her. 

Back at the tower Thor sets the bags in his room, wanting to surprise Loki with his gift. “FRIDAY” he calls out to the ever present AI, “Can you please tell me where Loki is?” 

“Loki is located in the common room.” FRIDAY announces.

“Thank you FRIDAY.” 

Thor takes the kitten out of her travel crate and after giving her a few pets, tucks her into the large front pocket of his hooded sweatshirt. The kitten snuggles in and Thor heads out to find his brother.

Loki is draped artfully over the cream colored sofa in the common room, stretched out across two of the wide cushions with one leg dangling off the armrest. He’s reading a thick leather bound book in one hand and tossing an uneaten apple in the other. 

“Hello brother.” he says before Thor can speak. He doesn’t look up from his book until he finishes the paragraph he’s reading and then he assess Thor with a curious expression. “What do need, Thor? Out with it.”

“I wanted to help bring you solace in your time here.” Thor explains hesitantly.

“Really, Thor? What could you possibly think will help this situation? You’re the one who imprisoned me in this god awful tower.”  

Thor has the decency to look chagrined, “I got you a companion.” 

“A companion?” Loki parrots with an eye roll.

“Yes, look.” Thor pulls the kitten out of his pocket and holds it towards Loki. The tiny kitten looks even smaller in the god’s large palm and her eyes are bright, emerald green against her rich grey fur. 

Loki all but recoils, “A cat? Are you mad?” Loki backs away on the sofa. “Thor, why did you do it?” 

“You seemed lonely, isolated. I thought a companion would bring you comfort.” Thor is beginning to question his decision and is about to say never mind and keep the poor kitten for himself. 

“Fine then,” Loki huffs, “Give it here then.” 

“You do not have to…”

“I said give it here, Thor.” Loki gets up off the sofa and plucks the kitten out of Thor’s hands. He lifts it up closer to his face to study it. “Is it a girl or boy?” 

“A girl.”

“Hmm. Fine. Fine. Where are her things?”

“I’ll move them to your room now. Truly, brother, if you do not want her…”

“Let it be, Thor.” Loki rolls his eyes and stalks off with the kitten clutched against his chest. 

Loki wanders the halls giving Thor time to move the kittens things into his room. By the time Loki makes his way back to his room at the far end of the tower there are two large bags sitting on his table. Loki is reluctant to put the kitten down but can’t set things up one handed. “Alright, little one.” he tells her, “Settle in here and I will get your things sorted out.” He sets the kitten down on his bed and she crawls up to lay down on his pillow. Loki smirks and doesn’t bother to shoo her off. 

Loki skims over the care instructions provided in the bag and sets things up around his room. He’s pleased by how well he’s able to fit her things around his. Once done Loki stretches out across the bed to watch the kitten who’s currently watching him with her intelligent green eyes. “You need a name, little one.” he tells her. Loki rolls onto his back and pulls her onto his chest so he can watch her as she nuzzles at him. “Affectionate little thing, aren’t you? We’ll call you Elska then.” Loki gives her soft pets atop her head and croons her name, letting her get used to hearing it. 

Elska lays down on Loki eventually and falls asleep right on his chest. He wants to move her but doesn’t have the heart to, so he scrolls through his phone instead, looking up all sorts of things to buy for her. He never would have gotten a pet on his own but now that he has her, he will do everything to give her the best life possible. All funded by Tony Stark’s Amazon account. 

~~~~~ 

Several hours and almost a thousand dollars later, Loki hears a tentative knock on his door. Elksa has wandered off and Loki wraps up his latest purchase before going to the door. Thor is standing in the hall, hands tucked in his pockets, and he glances anxiously inside Loki’s room. 

“Can I help you?” Loki asks, eyebrow raised.

“Just checking on how you two are getting along.” he admits. 

Loki rolls his eyes at his brother. “We’re fine. You need not fear for her well being.” 

“I didn’t mean to imply… I know you wouldn’t hurt her….” Thor sighs heavily, “Do you want me to order food and supplies for her? The woman at the shelter said it was only enough to get you started and you’ll have to get more.”

“I’ve already procured everything she’ll need. Tony really needs to update his Amazon password more often.” 

“Good. Good. Well, if you need anything…”

“We’re fine. Goodbye Thor.” Loki’s tone is pointed and Thor knows he’s being dismissed. He nods and heads off down the hall hoping desperately that Loki comes around to the idea of having a pet. 

Loki closes the door and scoops Elska up from where she’s nosing around in his shoes. “Silly Uncle Thor.” he tells her. 

~~~~~~~~

The following day the Amazon truck pulls up to the Avengers Tower and begins unloading a mountain of boxes in the lobby. Everyone is milling around, confused and concerned when Loki strolls through to collect his things. “Thank you, I’ll be taking all of this up to my quarters.” he announces lifting up the first large box. 

Tony sputters in annoyance, “You owe me, Rock of Ages!” he shouts at Loki’s back. 

Loki ignores him and continues on his way to the elevator. After numerous trips Loki finally gets everything back to his room and the space is covered in cardboard boxes. It takes him twice as long to unpack everything as it did to get it up there and he’s ready for a break by the time he’s loading the cardboard out to the trash chute in the kitchen. 

Loki looks around realizing there are more things for Elska than there are for him in his room now. “We might have overdone it, little one. You’re a spoiled girl.” he gives her a quick pat on top of her head and starts assembling her new cat tree. It’s more of a cat condo by the size of it and he very carefully rearranges his room so that it fits next to his desk. By dinner time he’s finished his unpacking and rearranging. He’s settled in for the evening, eating his meal with Elska who’s enjoying her grain free organic pate in a pink floral china dish opposite him at the table. He would never admit to it but he adores his new little darling. She’s inquisitive and feisty, having played fiercely with all of her new toys, and he loves when she sits on his chest and pads her little paws on him to make herself comfortable. Loki is slightly irked by the way she laps at his t-shirt leaving wet marks on it but he doesn’t have the heart to scold her.

Elska gives Loki something that he’s been sorely lacking in the past few months: a purpose. He wakes to Elska curled up with him basking in his warmth, gets up and shares breakfast with her, spends time throughout the day playing with her and teaching her simple tricks, he eats dinner with her, and then they curl up together at night while he reads before bed. The companionship makes his days significantly less painful and he’s actually smiling when Thor finds him in the kitchen a week later.

“Long time no see, brother.” Thor claps a hand on Loki’s back making the younger god jump, startled.

“Yes well, I’ve been busy taking care of that feline you gave me.” Loki grumbles at him, unwilling to show his cards just yet.

“Is she working out? Loki, if you do not wish to keep her please let me know. I’ll take her back at once. You both should not suffer each other’s company needlessly.” 

Loki stifles a laugh at his brother’s distress and decides to have a little fun. “She’s a beast, Thor. An absolute terror. All those Amazon boxes were replacing things of mine she destroyed with those razor sharp claws. She took out my drapes again just yesterday.” 

Thor pales, “I’m truly sorry, brother. I did not mean to bring you trouble.”

“Thinking was never your strong suit, brother. Now, if you’re truly willing to take back your ill-advised gift come collect it now and let me be rid of the cursed thing.” Loki is rolling in mirth internally but keeps a stoic face as to not clue Thor in on his fun. 

Thor nods solemnly and follows Loki back to his room. The first thing Thor notices is that Loki’s drapes are still intact. The second is the large carpeted piece of furniture in the corner by Loki’s desk that he assumes is a cat home of sorts. Thor scans the room more thoroughly and notices various cat toys, a small leopard print bed, a motorized water dispenser, and several other new additions to his brother’s room. Thor glances over a Loki who has his arms wrapped around his slim waist literally holding back his laughter. Finally Loki’s laughter bursts and he doubles over, eyes watering as he cackles. 

“I was tearing myself up worrying about that cat!” Thor booms.

Loki gasps, fighting for words between laughs. “I’m sorry! Your face though, Thor. You can be so dense sometimes!” Elska hops up on the bed and licks Loki’s arm waiting to be picked up. His laughter eases and he scoops her up, “Come here, Elska. Show Uncle Thor that you’re well cared for.” 

“Elska?” Thor asks, still shocked from the sight of Loki’s room.

“Yes, I thought it fitting. She’s such a good little love.” Loki coos the last part at her while rubbing a long finger under her chin. The kitten purrs happily and leans in against Loki’s chest.

“You had me worried.” Thor complains and gives Loki a shove.

Loki glares at him, holding Elska tighter, “Don’t jostle my girl, Thor.” 

Thor huffs but doesn’t argue. “I’m glad you two are getting along. I’ll be going then.” 

Loki looks down at the little bundle of grey fluff in his arms and decides maybe companionship isn’t overrated after all. “Or you could stay awhile?” 

Thor turns from the door, stunned by Loki’s suggestion.

“You don’t have to if you have plans. But maybe you could stay and see some of the tricks I’ve been teaching Elska. She’s such a bright little girl.” 

Thor’s throat is thick with emotion. He’s yearned for his brother’s company for so long he had started to wonder if they would ever find their way back to each other. They had been brothers and best friends for 1,500 years but the last few years they’d grown apart and it had been devastating to him. “I’d like that very much.” Thor finally says. 

“As would I, brother.” Loki smiles at Thor and waves him over to take a seat. He grabs a feathered bird on a string so he can show off Elska’s great hunting prowess. She’s lively, chasing the bird around the room and pouncing on it happily. 

“Here, let me give it a try.” Thor motions to the string and Loki hands it over to him without complaint. 

Thor moves the toy around for her a few times and decides to give it a higher swing to make the chase more exciting. Unfortunately Thor does not consider his hair falling over his shoulders and the string tangles in his blonde mane, the toy lodging itself in it. Elska was already on the move and she leaps up, tiny claws out, and latches on to Thor’s shoulder and neck. She scrapes his jaw as she tries to catch her toy and Thor cries out as she rakes shallow cuts on his skin. Loki is watching, horrified and amused, as Thor struggles to pull her off of him. 

“You’re a demon!” Thor scolds her mildly, holding her out directly in front of his face. Loki is about to intervene when Elska leans forward and takes a long raspy lick right down the center of Thor’s face. Thor is silent for a moment, shocked, and then begins laughing heartily. He hands Elska back to Loki who is barely containing his amusement. “This is definitely your cat, brother.” Thor tells him, “You’re two of a kind.” 

Loki joins in his laughter and has to agree, they truly are two of a kind.

The End 

Thank you so much for reading! Fun fact: elska in Old Norse means affection/love. So if anyone was wondering about the name, there ya go!