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smilebouquet · 3 years

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somewhere to go, someone to love

my secret santa gift (@ducktalessecretsanta2020) for @kvanderquack!! i’m sorry for tagging again after i already sent my gift via dm-

also on ao3!!

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For as long as Lena lived (all fifteen years), she’d always been alone. She was born alone on the heights of Mount Vesuvius, from the remnants of her Aunt Magica’s shadow. She travelled to Duckburg alone, with no one to keep her company other than the voices in her head and the harsh whispering of her shadow. She bore the brunt of Magica’s lashings and whining alone, hurt and angry and bitter.

A happy family felt like such a foreign concept to her. Magica was always her one and only kin, the only person who had a connection to her. And she hated every second of it. If having just one aunt was so exhausting, imagine having two aunts. Imagine three. Criticizing your every move. Yelling at you for screwing up. Demanding nothing but obedience and respect and returning none of it.

Lena didn’t think she would be able to take it. Family just didn’t sound like something she’d like.

That’s what she thought, anyway, until the Sabrewings took her in.

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Lena can’t sleep.

Or to be exact, she can’t sleep peacefully. Ever since she came back to the land of the living, she’s been having dreams. Dreams where she found herself running from her. Into the woods, where the screeching of bats rang in the air, and the ground was muddy and made each consecutive step heavy. Or within a mansion suspiciously similar to Scrooge’s, her voice bouncing off the walls and getting closer and closer until they were literally screaming into her ears. She could do nothing but run.

She never dared to look back, but Lena always managed to glimpse her in the corner of her eye. The swish of a velvety black cape. A gloved hand, reaching out to snatch her. A flash of purple magic.

Lena always manages to wake up before Magica could grab her and do god-knows-what. She would always be grateful for the fact that she awoke easily. But every dream ended in To Be Continued — never The End — and Lena didn’t want to know what The End would look like, because she has the sinking feeling that it won’t be a Happily Ever After.

Tonight is no different. She’s staring up at the ceiling of Violet’s room, letting the muffled snores of her roommate fill the still air. It’s getting increasingly hard to stay awake, and she isn’t sure how much longer she can take it.

Sighing, she rolls out of bed and leaves the room, making sure the door creaked as quietly as possible and that it clicked shut. She heads down the stairs and into the living room. A bookshelf stands in the corner, filled with all sorts of books from encyclopedias to photography books.

Lena instinctively grabs a cookbook (and accidentally knocks off a few more, but she’ll deal with them later) from the second topmost shelf. Yellow sticky notes jut out of the pages, all written on with dark purple ink. Walking into the kitchen adjacent, she flicks on the light, then flips the book open. Vanilla Cake, reads the title in big bold letters, followed by the exact quantity of ingredients needed and the instructions on how to bake one.

This should keep her up until tomorrow.

"...Lena? Shouldn't you be in bed?"

She freezes. Ty is standing at the door, a wooden baseball bat loosely held in his grip. He chucks it aside and steps into the kitchen.

"Hey." She waves half-heartedly with a sheepish smile. "I, uh, couldn't sleep."

"And you're in the kitchen with a cookbook, why?"

Because Aunt Magica haunts my dreams every night and I don’t wanna deal with it anymore?

“...I wanted to do something nice for my friends for once, so I thought baking a cake for our sleepover would be neat?”

Ty’s gaze flickers between Lena and the clock currently showing 12:59. He pinches the area between his eyes. “Lena, it’s late. I think you should go to bed—”

“No!” He flinches. Lena’s eyes widen. “I mean— no, I can’t go to bed until I finish this cake!” she backtracks, her voice cracking. Her heart is pounding. She can't go to sleep, she can't...! “If you help me, I’ll go to bed sooner! Maybe!”

Ty scratches the back of his head. “Well, Indy’s the dad who bakes, not me... but I suppose I can try.”

Relief washes over her. She flashes him a tired smile, handing him a bowl and some measuring cups. “Thanks.”

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“We’re back!”

Indy looks up from the couch. “Welcome back. How was your sleepover?”

“Pleasant,” Violet replies, already halfway up the stairs. “Ate some cake. Played a video game. Saved Lena from getting dragged into a mirror and possibly losing her within a lucid dream to the witch responsible for the shadow war several months ago. The usual.”

“Sounds nice,” Indy remarks. Then did a double take. “Wait, what?”

Ty laughs, following after Violet. “It’s a long story. Took the whole car ride for them to finish telling it.” Indy glares after him, but shrugs and returns to his book.

Lena drops her own bag on the floor and flops onto the couch with a heavy sigh. She could shower or whatever later. Right now she just wanted to rest.

“Long day?” Indy asks, barely moving from his position on the right side of the couch.

“Kinda. I’ve been through worse, though.”

There's a beat of silence.

The unspoken Like what? hangs over her head uncomfortably. Is this the part where she spills her entire life story? Should she play it off as a joke? Would it be wise to pretend she hadn’t said anything? She can feel Indy’s stare on her shoulder, burning like a pair of red-hot lasers—

He either noticed her discomfort, or is really good at reading minds, because he hums quietly and says, “You don’t have to elaborate.”

“...Ah. Right. Okay.” She sits upright, then lets out a short laugh. Her eyes wander over to Indy, who’s still reading his book with a content look on his face. “What is that?”

Indy shows her the book. There’s a bunch of pictures of Violet, Ty and Indy together. “It’s one of the family photo albums,” he explains. “Photography is one of my hobbies.”

Lena grunts in response, then peers at the photos more closely. “Is that Violet in the library?”

“Oh, that’s from the first time we visited the public library together. We had just moved into Duckburg, and wanted to do a little sightseeing. Violet insisted that we check out the library. That girl always did love reading. She gets it from Ty…”

They spend the rest of the hour looking through the photo album together. There’s a surprising amount of photos in this one tiny album, each preserving a special memory that Indy knows by heart and tells Lena about with nothing but fondness. She now knows that Violet used to take ballet classes (and hated it), has won at least two national spelling bees by the age of six, and is part of the Junior Woodchucks.

Photos from before Violet was born are also in it, located near the end of the album. Indy tells Lena that he first met Ty at a college entrance exam. They had entered the building at the same time, and Ty thought it would be neat to strike a conversation with him. They hit it off pretty much immediately, but forgot to ask for each other’s phone numbers before they went their separate ways.

“But you’re married now?!” Lena blurts out, jumping from the cough to point a shaky finger at him. “How?!”

He chuckles. “We met again at a supermarket several months later, I believe, reaching for the same can of beans. Ty’s first words to me ever since were ‘Holy shit, you like beans, too?!’ This time we remembered to exchange contact information, and here we are ten years later.”

“I— Wow.” Lena sits back down. “Some luck you have.”

“I wouldn’t call it luck,” he admits. His fingers gently caressing the old photo of them. “I like to think of it as fate. If we’re meant to be together, life will find a way to get us together.”

(Lena thinks about Webby.

She thinks about their “chance” meeting at the amphitheater.

She thinks about how she almost lost Webby by sacrificing herself to protect her.

She thinks about how lucky she had been that Violet was there in the library that day, reading a nerdy old book.

She inwardly decides that Indy is probably right.)

Once they reach the end of the album, Indy moves to close it. The corners of several photographs stick out from the side. Lena blinks.

“And those are?”

He looks down. “Oh.” Tucking them back in, he replies, “Those are some of the newer photographs. Haven’t gotten a new album for them yet, so I keep them here for the time being.” His fingers drum on the hard cover. “Come to think of it, I don't have any pictures with you yet. We’ll need to remedy that.”

“Hm, why?”

“You’re family, after all. I think you deserve a spot in the photo album.”

Family. She’s family. The thought of it makes her heart flutter.

It takes her a minute to realize Indy stopped talking, and is looking at her with the slightest hint of hesitation in his expression.

She beams at him. “That would be nice. You should get a new album first, though.” As if on cue, a photograph falls out. She picks up. “Hey, what about this one?” Indy lights up, and starts going into a tangent about the one time they lost Violet at Duckburg’s largest department store. As he does, she zones out for a bit, testing the name.

‘Lena Sabrewing’, huh… She can feel her smile widening. Sounds way cooler than Lena de Spell.

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This is terrible, Lena concludes.

They’re on the way to the Junior Woodchuck Campgrounds for Violet’s upcoming graduation. She’s a little hazy on the details, but she does know that each year only one senior junior woodchuck can become a senior woodchuck (“That’s dumb! Why can’t you all just become senior woodchucks?!” “Don’t question it, Lena.”), they decide who graduates with some sort of obstacle course, and Violet’s opponent this year is likely going to be Huey.

Lena also knows that the campgrounds are located waaaay out on some island in the middle of nowhere, and if she sees another “NOW LEAVING DUCKBURG” sign she’s going to lose it. She lets out a groan as she slides farther down her seat, watching the pine trees blur into a strip of green on the landscape. “Hey, Vi, how much longer ‘til we’re there?”

No answer.

“Vi?”

Again, no answer. Lena knows that Violet has a tendency to be quiet during car rides, preferring to admire the scenery as they drive, but Violet should’ve at least spared her a grunt at this point.

She decides to turn and look at her. Violet is staring at her lap, perfectly still. Her fists are clenched so tightly she can see the white knuckles beneath her purple feathers, and they’re trembling.

“Vi, what’s wrong...?” Lena begins to ask, and then immediately Indy’s voice from before echoes in her head.

“Third time’s the charm, right Vi?”

The gears click into place. Oh.

She inches closer to Violet’s side — as much as she can with her seatbelt on, anyway — and reaches out to place a comforting hand over Violet’s. The hummingbird looks up.

“Hey,” Lena says, “you’ll be okay. You’re the best nerd I’ve ever know. What’s Huey got, his stupid guidebook? You’ve got this.”

“Actually, the Junior Woodchuck Wilderness Challenge prohibits use of the guidebook,” Violet corrects, then sighs. “Sorry. I know you’re trying to comfort me, but I…” She trails off. “I know failing is natural, but it still terrifies me every single time.”

Silence.

Indy, from the passenger seat, pipes up, “Violet, you know that just being willing to go back and try again is… really brave, right? Yeah, failure is inevitable, and very terrifying, but not a lot of people are able to bounce back from it like you do.”

“What Indy said.” Ty peers at them from the rearview mirror and gives them a thumbs up. “We love you no matter what, and I bet you’re gonna crush the competition this year.”

“Yeah! What they said! You’re Violet Sabrewing. You brought me back from the Shadow Realm. If you can do that, you can do anything!”

Violet stares at her for a moment, then Indy, then Ty. Her eyes are glassy. She opens her fist to hold Lena’s hand and squeezes it weakly.

“Thanks,” she whispers, with a smile that doesn’t exactly reach her eyes.

...At least she’s smiling a little. Lena frowns, but gets an idea. She leans forward to ask Ty, “By the way, how long until we get there?”

“Five hours, I think,” Indy answers.

“FIVE HOURS?!” She can feel a vein pop in her head. Five hours. Five. Hours. It feels like she’s been in this stinkin’ car for decades already. Well, no matter.

She turns to Violet. “Alright, since we’re basically stuck here, why don’t I teach you how to smacktalk?”

Violet raises an eyebrow, clearly unamused. “Is that really necessary? Also, I doubt Hubert would appreciate—”

“Of course it is! And of course he won’t. You can’t have a healthy rivalry without a little back and forth! Where’s the fun in that?! Now, the key to good smacktalk is...”

She spends the rest of the ride lecturing Violet on the essentials of smacktalk (read: making most of it up as she went). As they drove, Violet’s shoulders began to relax and she allowed herself to laugh more, and Lena felt more at ease than she had in a while.

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Lena wakes up with a gasp. Frantically, she feels around. Her arms are intact. Her legs are still here. Nothing hurts. Phantom Blot isn’t here. Okay. It was just a dream. Just a dream. Just a dream.

“Lena?”

“Vi?” Lena calls, but it sounds more like a choked sob. She’s suddenly acutely aware of the tears messing up her feathers and her pounding heart.

Violet sits up. “Another nightmare?” she asks, her voice quiet. Lena nods. She gets up from bed and leaves the room. Lena sits in the darkness, her hands gripping her knees tightly. Breathe in, breathe out.

Violet returns with a tall glass of water and hands it to her. Lena takes it and brings the glass to her beak. The water is cool and soothing.

“They’ve become increasingly frequent. Shouldn’t we talk to our fathers about this?”

“No,” Lena says immediately, finishing her glass and setting it on the night table with shaky hands. “I don’t want them to get worried.”

Violet gives her a glare that pierces even in the dark, then sighs.

“Very well.”

✿ — ✿ — ✿

On Christmas Day, Lena wakes up to Violet dumping a bucket of cold water over her.

“Merry Christmas.”

“Ack—! Violet, what the hell?!”

“Apologies,” Violet says, her tone betraying her words. She’s already dressed in a plain cream turtleneck. “You wouldn’t wake up no matter what I did.” She tugs at her sleeve. “Now, come. Fathers are already in the living room. You were literally the last to awaken.” Without waiting for a response, she drags her out of the room and down the stairs.

The living room feels… warmer than usual. There are string lights, giving out a gentle multicoloured glow, both around the Christmas Tree and hung up along the walls. Someone took the time to hang a wreath on every door in the house, each covered in mini ornaments and topped with a red bow. The bright orange fire in the fireplace is crackling.

Ty and Indy are already waiting, wearing matching Christmas sweaters. “Merry Christmas!” they greet, pulling the two girls into a hug.

“Merry Christmas,” Lena says back before pulling away. The cheeriness of the season was beginning to catch up to her. “So! What do we do first?”

“Well, the presents are under the tree but maybe eat breakfast first—”

Lena was gone the moment Ty said ‘presents’. She rushes to the tree and begins checking the tags for her name. Not that there are that many presents to check. Violet follows soon after with a much calmer demeanor.

She ends up with a limited edition of The FeatherWeights’ newest album from Ty and Indy (“How did you know they’re my favourite band?!” “Your shirt is all we needed to clue us in.”) and an exact replica of the Caw-nverse shoes she loves wearing. Violet receives two books — an encyclopedia the thickness of one and a half dictionaries about magic and a thinner book called Tales of the Peculiar.

She’s ready to head off to the dining table to eat when Violet stops her.

“Wait.” She pulls out a neatly wrapped present from her pocket and holds it out to Lena. “Here.”

“Wh— But I didn’t get you anything!”

“It’s okay.” Violet shoves the present into her hands. “Just take it.” Lena peers at her suspiciously before tearing the wrapping paper clean off and opening the box.

A dreamcatcher. The hoop used is a nice beige, and a flower-like design had been woven within it with colourful threads. White feathers suspended from twine, with beads adorning the strands at intervals, are attached to the hoop. Lena dangles the dreamcatcher above the box and looks at Violet questioningly.

“It may not be as beneficial as actual therapy since I couldn’t infuse it with any magic, but it should help keep the bad dreams at bay,” Violet explains. “Probably. I made it myself so it might not work.”

Lena stares at the dreamcatcher again. Upon closer inspection, the feathers and beads appear to be glued to the twine, and the twine was wound imperfectly around the base of the hoop. The flower design is also uneven, having slightly larger ‘petals’ on one side. She feels herself tear up. “Violet. This is the sweetest thing you’ve ever done for me.”

“I can’t believe saving you from roaming in the shadow realm for all of eternity isn’t the sweetest thing I've ever done for you,” Violet replies, completely deadpan. But the corners of her beak are twitching upwards.

“You wanted to summon evil spirits! I was a byproduct. It doesn’t count,” Lena jokes, putting the dreamcatcher away. She envelopes her in a crushing hug. “Thank you.” Her voice is wobbling. “This is just— It must’ve taken ages. Now I feel even worse for not getting you anything.”

Violet hugs her back just as tightly. “You’re welcome. Just make sure you get me my own personal library next year.”

As if your room isn’t filled with enough books as is, Lena thinks, but she can’t help but laugh.

Ty clears his throat. “This is great, but it’s already nine and you girls haven’t even had breakfast yet, so chop chop! We’ve got a whole day ahead of us.”

(They end up at the ice rink, where Lena learns that she’s actually terrible at ice skating. Violet offers to teach her like the Samaritan she is, but doesn’t hesitate to throw jabs at her incompetence. Fortunately, she’s not the only one who’s suffering, if Indy’s screaming and Ty’s guffawing are any indications.)

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In the first fifteen years of her life, Lena had been alone with no one to turn to. Being part of a happy family felt like something out of a movie or fairy tale. Happiness seemed like an unreachable dream.

But within two years, she found a best friend in Webby, a sister in Violet, and two dads in Ty and Indy. She found a family to call her own, one that loved her and made her feel good about herself. She was finally content.

The dreamcatcher and family photo hanging above her bed would need to be pried from her cold, dead hands.

#ducktales #ducktales secret santa 2020 #lena sabrewing #violet sabrewing #ty sabrewing #indy sabrewing #nayo makes her own food

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haledamage · 4 years

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The Officer’s Ball

It’s finally finished! at just over 9000 words, this ended up waaaay longer than I expected it to. thanks again to @queen-scribbles, both for the encouragement and for all your lovely posts about Keme and Jorgan that got me back into SW:TOR and led to this fic. It literally wouldn’t exist without you :)

Vesiya Hallis/Aric Jorgan, sometime in early act 2? After Balmorra but before Hoth, but nothing canon is mentioned anyway so it doesn’t matter.

"Captain Hallis." Ves heard General Garza's voice from the comm as she passed through the room and snapped to attention almost automatically. "Good, I'm glad I caught you before you disembarked."

Those were never good words to hear. "Is there a problem, General?"

"For once, no, there isn't. I'm happy to say I'm calling with possible good news for a change."

Vesiya Hallis had never in her life believed something less than she believed Garza right now, and the general's next words only confirmed her suspicions. "Captain, you may or may not be aware, but there's an annual Officer's Ball being held in about three weeks' time. It's a chance for senators, high-ranking military personnel, and other influential figures of the Republic to socialize outside of work and strengthen the bonds of the Republic's leadership." She was clearly reading from a script or an invitation. "The Senate has asked that Havoc Squad be in attendance this year."

Ves stood in silence for several long moments, staring unflinchingly at the hologram of her commanding officer and waiting for her to say she was just kidding. When that didn’t happen, she said as politely as possible, “With all due respect, sir, don't we have bigger things to worry about than a party?”

“That isn't your decision, Captain,” Garza said, tone sharp, before her posture relaxed just the slightest amount. “Unfortunately, it isn't mine either. I happen to agree with you, but command has made it clear this is not a request.”

“Yes, sir,” Ves said, because there was nothing else she could say. She wasn't going to pick a fight over a party invitation, tempting as it was.

“Good. Oh, and Captain? It's a black tie affair. You may want to invest in a dress. Garza out.”

Vesiya stared at the empty holocomm after Garza ended the call. She stayed until she heard the telltale sound of boots on the durasteel deck of the ship - Dorne’s deliberate footsteps, light but purposeful, coming from the medbay, and Jorgan coming from the armory, his stride faster and determined, but also quieter, still moving like a sniper.

Dammit. They were going to be even less happy about this new development than she was.

-------

“She wants us to what,” Jorgan growled. At the same time, Dorne said, “I beg your pardon, sir?”

“Havoc Squad is cordially invited to attend the Officer's Ball,” Ves said with much more enthusiasm than she was actually feeling. "It's in a little more than three weeks, on Coruscant."

"You can't be serious, sir." Jorgan already sounded like he wanted to argue with her about it and was just trying to find the right angle of attack.

"I wish I wasn't." Vesiya leaned a hip against the wall across from both of them. "Garza made it clear that we don't have a choice in the matter. It's an order, from somewhere above her."

"How far above?" Dorne was clearly trying to find a way out of their unwanted shore leave as well, but where Jorgan got angry, Dorne got calculating. Ves could almost hear the numbers running in her head.

"Far enough that she wouldn't tell me who the orders come from." She held up a hand, forestalling more arguments. "For now, we finish the job we're on. We should be able to finish up our business here in the next few days, and then we would be headed back to Coruscant anyway. We'll just stay a little longer than we originally intended."

"I'd like to go on record as being completely against this, sir."

"You and me both, Jorgan." She clapped a hand on his shoulder. He didn't immediately shrug her off, so she was pretty sure he wasn't as angry as he claimed to be - or at the very least, he wasn't blaming her for it. "But unless we want to refuse a direct order, we're just going to have to deal with it."

"We've refused orders before," he said, quietly enough that it was just meant for her, amusement in his voice.

Ves fought to stay serious, but didn't quite succeed. "Don't encourage me, Lieutenant."

"Yes, sir."

-------

Vesiya hated clothes shopping on Coruscant, especially in the Senate districts. No matter where you went it was always too crowded, the shopkeepers either completely ignored you or wouldn’t leave you alone (depending on how many credits they thought you had), and she always had the distinct feeling she was being watched everywhere she went. It had been years since she'd needed anything that required a trip to the upper level markets, and even then it was usually something for her mother, not herself.

Yet here she was, bright and early in the morning, with her squad's expense card and her medical officer.

Dorne was trying her best not to look like a tourist and not quite succeeding. Her eyes darted between the gleaming storefronts to the affluently dressed shoppers to the distant lights of the Senate tower. Even in their civvies, the two of them stood out like a sore thumb - and not only because Ves was one of the few non-humans out shopping today.

"First time on Coruscant, Elara?"

“Yes, sir. Considering my background,” she said vaguely, since they were very much not in a safe place to be specific, “Command thought it unwise to allow me this close to the heart of the Republic.”

Ves bit the inside of her cheek to keep from saying something rude about Republic Command. Elara had proved her loyalty in every way a person could; she deserved better than the way she was treated. Only a little of her anger leaked into her words when she said, "Maybe at first, sure, but it's been years."

"I'm sure they thought that level of caution was necessary," Elara said lightly. "I take it this isn't your first time here, then."

Ves allowed her the subject change. “I grew up here. My mother is a senator, my father's a retired admiral, my twin brother is SIS, and I have a little brother who's a Jedi. Or a student Jedi, anyway. I'm not entirely sure how it works.” She probably knew all of that, though. It was all in her file; the only part that was classified was Vitrin’s SIS status, and Elara had high enough clearance to have access to that information. “My whole life has orbited around Coruscant.”

"You don't talk much about your family," Elara said quietly.

Ves shrugged. "I was always worried about being judged by their merits instead of my own. The less I talk about them, the more I get to be seen as 'the Commander of Havoc Squad' instead of 'the Admiral’s Daughter.'"

"I can understand that."

"You know, I thought you might." Dorne was a big deal name in the Empire as much as Hallis was in the Republic. It could be hard to grow under such a big shadow, but they were both doing okay. "So what about you?"

Elara hesitated. "I believe I've told you about my family before."

"You have. I meant where are you from? What's it like?"

"I grew up on Dromund Kaas, the Imperial homeworld." Elara sounded like she was giving a report, clipped and professional, like her homeworld held no emotional significance to her any longer. "It's a forest world, steeped in the history of the Empire all the way to its foundations. As for what it's like… well, that would depend on how much you like rain, sir."

Ves grinned at how serious her friend was. Even when they weren't working, she never seemed to fully relax. "You don't have to 'sir' me, Elara. We're off duty. You can just call me by my name."

"Yes, sir… Vesiya."

She laughed at her friend’s awkwardness. "You call call me 'Hallis' if you're more comfortable being on last-name basis. Works for Jorgan."

"I have always wondered about that," Elara said slowly. "I didn't feel it was my place to ask."

"Well, you have my permission to speak freely."

"You and Lieutenant Jorgan seem close," Elara said immediately, as if she'd been holding back on commenting on it for months.

“I… suppose we are,” Ves said carefully. It was an understatement. She and Jorgan had been through hell together and dragged each other out the other side. There was no one she trusted more in the entire galaxy; not even her twin brother came close. He was her best friend and her biggest rival and lately, possibly something more. There had been a few moments that she could feel a real spark between them, but neither of them were quite ready to cross that line yet.

Of course, she couldn’t tell any of this to Elara. Could she? Ves was fairly sure she was breaking some regulation or other just thinking about Jorgan the way she did, much less speaking any of it out loud.

The look Elara gave her said she wasn’t doing a very good job keeping it to herself anyway. She raised an amused eyebrow and continued, “Then why are the two of you still on a last-name basis? You seem to have no issue calling me by my first name.”

"I'm not entirely sure Jorgan knows my first name," Vesiya said dryly, then sighed. "It's… complicated. When we first met, we… butt heads, a little. A lot. He pushed and I pushed back and we were… not antagonistic, but certainly not friendly." She scratched absent-mindedly at her forearm, at a faded burn scar there. She didn't like to think about Ord Mantell. "His joining Havoc Squad involved a demotion and getting put under the command of a rookie. It took us a while to move past that. At this point, I think we're both just waiting for the other one to take that step first." In more ways than one, I think, she added silently.

"With all due respect, sir--Vesiya, you have to be the two most stubborn people I have ever met." It was impossible to tell if Dorne meant that as a compliment or an insult. Maybe both.

Ves took it as a compliment anyway and grinned, wide and proud. "I know. It must really suck to be our enemy." She laced her arm with Elara's and got them moving again before they got swept up in the crowd. "Come on. I thought we were supposed to be having a girls’ day out. Bonding time. There’s this great little noodle place around the corner here, we should stop in once we’re done shopping."

-------

Vesiya stared at herself in the mirror. She wasn't quite sure what she thought of the woman that stared back.

She wore her hair loose for what must be the first time in years, falling in dark red waves past her shoulders. The sleek, pale orange dress she wore complimented her dark green skin, and it was sleeveless and backless, emphasizing the toned muscles of her arms and shoulders. She felt naked without her assault cannon, but she doubted they'd let her waltz into the party with it; maybe she could say it was her plus one.

She looked great. She also looked like a completely different person. She just wished she knew if she wanted to; maybe that was the point.

She sighed and let it go, leaving her quarters to find the others.

“You ready to go?” Ves asked as she stepped into the bunk room. Elara was nowhere to be seen, but across the room, Jorgan was engaged in a battle against his bowtie, and it seemed to be winning.

She took the opportunity quickly look him over.

Some men carried a tux better than others, just like some carried a full suit of armor better. Aric Jorgan, it seemed, could look effortlessly good in both. It was a simple tux, classic black and perfectly tailored, drawing attention to his broad shoulders. His tie, like Ves’s dress and the detailing on Elara’s, was Havoc orange - they may be mingling in high society, but none of them would let anyone forget who they were. It looked very good against his tawny fur.

She shook herself before she got caught staring. “Problems, Lieutenant?”

"I’d like to meet the person who invented these," Jorgan said, not bothering to conceal his annoyance. Not that he ever did. "I have a few choice words for them."

He looked up at her, and the half-tied tie unraveled as soon as his attention drifted from it. He didn't seem to notice. He glanced over her like she'd just done to him; it took him quite a while before he made it back up to her face, but there was clear appreciation in his eyes that made her feel warm everywhere his gaze touched.

He lingered for a long time at her throat, where she wore the necklace he'd given her, the gift to congratulate her on her promotion to Captain. He looked shocked to see it there. Did he not expect her to wear it? Or was he just surprised she was doing so in public?

"Here, let me." Ves said, when it was clear he wasn't going to be the one to break the silence. She took pity on him, taking the poor tie from his hands before he mangled it further. "Look up."

“I hate these parties,” Jorgan grumbled, but he did as she ordered. “I still don't see what good it does anyone to force us all into a room to make small talk for four hours.”

"It's good publicity. Forces the higher-ups to remember that we're people, not just cannon-fodder." Maybe if she said it enough, she'd start to believe it. "And hey, worst case scenario, we piss them off enough that they send us back to war just to get rid of us."

Jorgan scoffed. "Politics." He tried to look down at what she was doing, but she tilted his head back up out of her way with a finger under his chin. "Where did you learn to tie a bowtie?"

"My dad used to go to the Officer's Ball every year until he retired. I always helped him with his, for as long as I can remember. Even went as his date a few times." She remembered how proud she was, walking into the hall on her dad's arm in a dress made entirely of ruffles. "It was a lot more exciting when I was eleven."

"Well, aren't you just full of surprises," Jorgan murmured.

“You have no idea. There.” He tilted his head back down, watching her as she finished straightening his tie. She fixed his collar, trying to ignore the way her fingertips brushed the back of his neck as she did, then smoothed out his jacket. “You clean up nice, Jorgan.” It was an understatement, but she didn't say it.

“Thanks.” He looked like he was going to say more, but he didn't.

Ves hesitated, reluctant to step away from him. She met Jorgan's firm, serious gaze, close enough that she could see the flecks of gold in his green eyes. She could feel the warmth radiating off of him, the calming, steady beat of his heart under her palm, smell the subtle cologne he was wearing.

One of his hands settled on her arm, just above her elbow. Her fingers tightened slightly on the lapels of his jacket. His eyes never wavered from hers. She'd much rather stay right here than go to the ball. What would he say if she told him that?

Ves took a step back, trying not to let her reluctance show. “We should get going.”

"I'll go tell Dorne we're ready to go," Jorgan said after a brief moment of hesitation. He waited until she nodded before turning to leave, only to turn back after three steps. "Hey, Hallis. You look good."

"Thanks." He only made it another step before she called out to him. "Hey, Jorgan? Save me a dance?"

"Count on it." He nodded and left without another word.

-------

The Officer’s Ball was every bit as elegant and extravagant as one would expect from a party for the Republic's elite. Everything was draped in gold and blue, with warm, faux-natural lighting and bouquets of fresh flowers in the center of every table. The tables were set up around the edges of the room, some with chairs and some tall, made for standing at while drinking and making conversation. Serving droids mingled near the walls, holding trays of drinks and hors d'oeuvres and desserts. The center of the floor was left open, for dancing or mingling; there were several couples already sweeping across the dance floor. On the opposite side of the room from the door, a small stage was set up with a band playing something gentle enough that it wouldn’t distract from conversation.

Havoc Squad walked into the hall and every eye in the place turned to watch them. They must have been quite a sight, Jorgan standing tall and confident, expression completely stoic, with a beautiful, powerful woman on each arm.

"Not sure why they’re staring," Ves said quietly as eyes continued to follow them as they found their way through the crowds near the door. She tried to avoid looking at any of them, preferring to keep her attention on her squadmates. "I thought that was a pretty subtle entrance by our standards."

"We’ve had subtler, sir," Elara said in the same hushed tone. She was stunning in a bold red dress with pale orange embroidery at the neck, hem, and wrists. More than one person watched her appreciatively as she walked past, but she didn't so much as glance their way.

"Had louder, too," Jorgan muttered. Several people looked his way, too, but he stared them down until they looked away again. "Maybe we should have brought Fourex. Or Vik. That would have gone over well."

Technically, the invitation had been for all of Havoc Squad (minus Fourex, since he was a droid), but after weighing her options, she'd decided she'd get in more trouble bringing Vik than she would leaving him behind. It had been very easy to convince him to stay home; she'd simply told him it was an order to go with them and he was suddenly and conspicuously absent.

Ves had to cover her mouth to quiet her laughter. "Oh, they’d have kicked us out immediately."

"Probably. Might’ve been worth it."

“It would have absolutely been worth it.”

“Perhaps we should keep that strategy in mind next time we’re invited to one of these,” Elara added dryly. She pulled them toward an empty table, one of the tall standing ones close to the dance floor. It was a good vantage point, close enough to the crowds that they could claim they were being sociable but far enough away that they were really only keeping each others’ company.

A droid approached them immediately with drinks. Ves grabbed a tumbler of what turned out to be Alderaanian brandy; the bottle of it probably cost more than her starship did. "Not bad," she said because she knew it would piss off at least one eavesdropper. "Not my favorite, but not bad."

"What do you prefer, then?" Jorgan asked. He'd somehow managed to snag an actual bottle of beer. Ves was extremely jealous.

“Corellian whiskey. Or beer.” She shrugged. “I'm a pretty simple girl.”

“Good to know.”

She smirked slyly, raising an eyebrow at him. “Why? You planning on buying me a drink?”

Jorgan smirked too, but attempted to hide it by taking a sip from his beer. “Well, I would, but I think all the drinks are free.”

It didn’t escape Vesiya’s notice that for the rest of the night, whenever her drink was empty, a bottle of beer would find its way to the table in front of her. Jorgan never said anything about it, so neither did she.

A lot of people stopped by their table to talk to them, mostly generals and admirals that recognized them or senators that they’d worked with in the past, but also some new faces who just wanted a chance to speak with Havoc Squad. Ves did most of the talking. She didn’t like the way people kept side-eyeing Elara as soon as they heard her accent, and of her and Jorgan, she was the more sociable - if only slightly.

Quite a few people approached the three of them with offers to dance. They refused most of them, though after a few glasses of wine, Elara started to relax a little and allowed a few clearly besotted young senators to pull her out onto the dance floor. Ves begrudgingly accepted an equally begrudging offer from Senator Krasul; it was the longest and most painful five minutes of her life, and her life these days mostly involved being actively shot at.

Jorgan wasn't there when she got back to their table, but Elara was.

“Lieutenant Jorgan went to get us some more drinks, I believe,” she said in response to Vesiya's unspoken question. “Looks like you and Senator Krasul were enjoying yourselves.”

“Oh yeah. We're best friends now,” Ves deadpanned. She leaned her elbows on the table; it dipped a little under her weight. “How long do you think we have to stay before it counts as 'making an appearance'?”

“We've barely been here an hour, sir,” Elara pointed out, but she didn’t hide her amusement. “I was under the impression that you liked dancing.”

“I do. In normal circumstances.”

Elara smiled slightly. “I don't think any of us know what 'normal circumstances' look like anymore.”

“You're probably right.” Ves's eyes wandered over the crowd. There really were a remarkable amount of familiar faces, only a few of which were people she knew through her family. Most of them she'd met on Havoc business.

Maybe Havoc Squad belonged here more than they thought they did.

She spotted Jorgan on the other side of the room. He'd been roped into a conversation that he looked to be having trouble escaping. His expression said he'd already run out of patience but was too smart to say so, so he was stuck there holding two bottles of beer and a glass of wine and nodding at whatever was being said to him. Ves wondered how long he'd been there, and if he needed rescuing.

"I've heard rumors that very powerful Force sensitives have the ability to hear a person's thoughts as easily as if they were spoken aloud," Elara said suddenly, in a suspiciously casual tone.

Vesiya sighed, bracing herself. "Why are you telling me this, Elara?"

"As far as I am aware, Lieutenant Jorgan possesses little to no Force sensitivity." She nudged Ves a step forward, away from the table, and added slyly, "Which means, Captain, if you wish to dance with him, you are going to have to actually ask."

Ves struggled to find a way to reply to that, but Elara just nudged her again, so she just sucked it up, straightened her spine, and walked across the room toward her XO.

She stepped up next to Jorgan and wrapped a hand around his bicep in a silent gesture of solidarity. He glanced her way and there was visible relief on his face at the sight of her. She smiled at him, but her smile fell away immediately when the person he’d been talking to turned to face her.

She was a short, middle-aged Mirialan woman with bright green eyes and graying dark red hair, her face covered in tattoos celebrating a life full of accomplishments. Her smile brightened and sharpened when she turned to Ves, offering a hand that she had no choice but to shake. “You must be Captain Hallis. Your Lieutenant was just telling me about you. He speaks very highly of you.”

“Does he.” Ves looked back at Jorgan, one eyebrow raised. He just stared back, neither confirming or denying.

“Don’t worry, Lieutenant. She speaks very highly of you too.” The senator said, patting his arm in a motherly fashion before turning her attention back to Ves. “It sounds like you and your squad are very busy defending the Republic, Captain.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Too busy to call your mother and tell her you’d been promoted?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Vesiya…” Senator Uheza Hallis had a way of saying her name that always made Vesiya feel like she was six years old again.

“It’s a very recent development, and I haven’t had access to a secure channel,” Ves said contritely. “I was going to call you tomorrow. Really.”

“Hmm. I’ll be expecting that call first thing, then. Your father will be happy to hear from you.” Her stern expression fell away, revealing a grin that that left no question that she and Ves were related. “I’ve taken enough of your time. Go enjoy the party. Nice to finally meet you, Lieutenant Jorgan.” She plucked the drinks from his hands and walked away toward their table and Elara.

“Ma’am.” Jorgan nodded respectfully. They watched Uheza walk away in silence, then he started walking in the opposite direction, taking the scenic route back to the table. “So your mom’s a senator.”

“I’m afraid so.” Ves kept her hand tucked in the crook of his elbow, keeping apace with him as they walked around the edges of the dance floor.

“That explains why she asked so many questions about you specifically.” He was much more amused by the situation than he should have had any right to be.

She fought the desire to cover her face with her hands. “Should I be concerned about what you said about me?”

“Never,” Jorgan said immediately, utterly sincere. A hint of amusement returned to his voice when he added, “If I were you, I’d be more concerned with what I didn’t tell her.”

“Do you want to dance?” Ves blurted out. They were getting too close to the end of their detour, their table within sight. She didn’t want to miss her chance.

“I thought you’d never ask, sir.”

He diverted their course, leading her toward a less crowded part of the dance floor. He took her hand and led her into a sudden spin, her hair and dress flaring dramatically around her, before he pulled her close, one hand holding hers and the other on her waist.

She tipped her head back and laughed, loud and delighted. “Well, aren’t you full of surprises.”

“You have no idea.”

They danced in companionable silence for a while, trying to keep to themselves and away from the rest of the crowd. Anytime anyone came close, Jorgan’s eyes darted their way as if assessing if they were a threat. Ves tried not to find it endearing.

She slid her hand further up his shoulder, pulling him a bit closer, bringing his attention back to her. “You’re a much better dance partner than Krasul was. Even if you keep looking around like you’re expecting us to be attacked.”

“Might liven the place up a little,” he said sourly, but his eyes finally found their way back to hers.

“Not your scene, Jorgan?”

“You could say that.” His eyes danced over her face, studying her, looking for something. Whatever it was, he must have found it, because he added in a lower, warmer tone, “This part’s not bad.”

A slow smile spread across her face, and Jorgan followed its journey with rapt interest. “Not bad, huh? Considering how much you didn’t want to be here, I’ll take that as a compliment.”

“You should.” He leaned closer to murmur in her ear, voice such a low rumble she felt it more than heard it. “Every man in this room wishes he was me right now. Dancing with the most beautiful woman at the ball.” His cheek pressed to hers, soft fur brushing her bare skin and that was a tactile memory that would be haunting her dreams now. So was the way his hand slid from her waist to her bare back, fingertips grazing her skin.

Ves had no idea how to respond. Normally, she’d just blow off a comment like that, roll her eyes and change the subject, but normally a comment like that wouldn’t leave her feeling like she had a flock of thrantas in her stomach. It felt different, coming from Jorgan.

She pulled back enough to meet his eyes again. There was a challenge in them, daring her to reply. They’d given up all pretense of dancing. They just stood there on the edge of the dance floor, eyes locked, and the rest of the room fell away. There was no telling how much time passed while they waited for Ves to find her voice again.

“Aric…”

She was interrupted by the sound of blaster fire.

They moved apart in synch, automatically reaching for their guns before remembering they weren’t carrying them. Ves’s cannon and Jorgan’s sniper rifle were safe and useless in the armory on their ship. Thinking quickly, Jorgan grabbed her arm and pulled her back toward a nearby pillar, at least getting them out of line of sight of the door.

Ves pressed her back to the pillar and peeked around the edge of it. Four people in mismatched armor were waving blaster rifles and pistols at the terrified crowd, and more were coming in behind them. She scanned quickly for Elara, but couldn’t see her from here.

A very tall man in dented gray armor stepped forward and called out, voice echoing through the suddenly silent hall. “Everyone remain calm! This is a robbery! As long as everyone behaves, there’s no reason for anyone to get hurt.”

Vesiya glanced over at Jorgan. “You just had to say something, didn’t you?”

He pulled a blaster out of an inner pocket of his jacket. “Sorry, sir. I forgot how much the universe likes irony.”

She shook her head, but couldn’t help but smirk as she pulled her own holdout blaster from where she’d strapped it to her thigh. She glanced around the corner again; the leader was still talking, the rest of them fanning out behind him. “You got any ideas?”

He leaned around the other side of the pillar for a moment, then came back. “I count six at the door and two in the crowd, but they must have more stationed outside. There’s no way they got past security with only eight people.”

“We could have. We could’ve done it with three.”

He smirked, but otherwise didn’t comment. “We’ll have to assume it’s just the two of us. We’ve got no idea where Dorne is and no way to contact her, and we can’t assume anyone else here will be any help.”

Ves didn't feel quite so pessimistic about the situation. There was no way that, in a room full of the Republic's finest, they were the only ones who thought to bring concealed weapons. She didn't say it out loud, though; he'd know what she was thinking. "Two versus eight is still good odds. I’m more worried about civilians caught in the crossfire."

“How’s your night vision, sir?”

"Not as good as yours, I bet, but better than a human’s." She saw where he was going with this. All but one of the attackers were human. She scanned the walls of the room quickly. There had to be a door to the kitchen or a security room or something. "There. Northeast corner."

“On it.”

Jorgan left without another word, moving silently toward the door, staying in cover as much as he could. Ves kept an eye on the enemy, making sure no one spotted him, but he made it to the door unnoticed. He nodded at her, then disappeared through it.

She turned back to the would-be thieves. The leader had stopped talking and was making his way through the crowd, taking jewelry and anything else he dubbed interesting from them. Ves aimed her blaster at a lamp just past the leader’s head; it exploded in a shower of sparks. Several partygoers screamed and backed away. Not quite enough to get a clear shot on anyone, but it was a start.

“Go see what that was.” The boss pointed at one of his henchmen and then in Ves’s vague direction. They hadn’t seen exactly where she was, then. Good.

She picked up a nearby empty plate and tossed it. It clattered to the floor near an adjacent pillar, and the henchman predictably followed the noise. He walked right past her, facing away from her to where he thought the threat was, blaster rifle pointed at empty air. She brought the butt of her blaster down on the back of his head, knocking him out cold.

She took his rifle and checked the cell. It was mostly full. This night just kept getting better and better.

Something touched her shoulder and she turned, blaster raised. Two figures stood there, pressed to the wall, half hidden behind a large sculpture. One was Elara, holding what appeared to be a vibroknife. The other stared at Ves from behind the business end of her new rifle, hands raised in surrender, and he was so unexpected it took several long seconds to recognize him.

“Jonas?”

“Captain! Fancy meeting you here.” Jonas Balkar looked her over and grinned charmingly like she didn’t currently have a blaster pointed at his face. “You look radiant, Ves.”

She rolled her eyes, but she lowered her rifle. “Now’s not the time.”

“You let me know when it is.” He glanced around quickly. She knew what he was looking for even before he asked, “Where’s Jorgan? Elara said he was with you.”

As if on cue, the lights all went out.

“I expect he’ll be back in a minute,” Ves said smugly.

“Good idea.” Her dark vision was good enough that she could see the way Jonas crossed his arms, not pouting but close. “Except now I can’t see anything.”

“Emergency generators will be online in less than two minutes, sir,” Elara said. She wouldn’t be able to see anything either, but she didn’t seem bothered by it. “I assume you have a plan.”

“You assume correctly.” She grabbed them both by the arm and dragged them closer, dropping her voice to a loud whisper. “I need the two of you to get as many civilians out of harm’s way as possible. There’s no way the eight we saw in the building are the only ones in this group, and if this turns into a real fight, I don’t want anyone getting hurt besides the people we want to get hurt.” She pressed her holdout blaster into Balkar’s hand. “Find my mother. She’s in the crowd somewhere, she’ll be able to help you.”

He looked down at the blaster, though with the lights out there’s no way he could see it. “How am I supposed to know which one’s your mother?”

“She looks like me except six inches shorter and twenty-five years older. Look for a Mirialan woman barking orders and chances are good it’s her.”

It was too dark to see the smirk on Balkar’s face, but she heard it in his voice. “So you get your charm from her as well as your looks. Good to know.”

“Jonas.”

“Sorry, sorry. I’ll behave. For now.” He leaned in to murmur in her ear, almost exactly the same way Jorgan had done only a few minutes ago. “You know, one of these days, we’re going to bump into each other when we’re not in the middle of some life or death situation. And when that day comes, I’m going to finally buy you that drink.”

“We’ll see,” Ves said vaguely. There were no thrantas in her stomach when he touched her, just the scent of his cologne and the sensation of someone standing much too close. She wished she knew how to just tell him that. She pulled away, putting a more comfortable distance between them again. “Let’s deal with the life or death situation first, shall we?”

She felt a presence at her shoulder and didn't need to look to know it was Jorgan. He confirmed it a moment later when he said, “Balkar? What the hell are you doing here?”

“Enjoying Coruscant's vibrant nightlife,” Jonas said easily. “I'll never turn down a chance to wear a tuxedo and eat free food.”

The emergency lights finally turned on, lighting the room in lurid red. “That's our cue. Go.”

Elara left with a simple “yes, sir,” dragging Balkar along with her.

Ves turned to Jorgan. “They're going to try and clear out noncombatants, give us a cleaner playing field. You and I get to do the fun part.” She took the pistol from his hand and gave him the rifle instead.

“Aww, thanks, boss,” he said, deadpan. “I didn't get you anything.” Despite the sarcasm, he looked more comfortable with a rifle in his hands, and they both knew he was the better shot.

She looked around her pillar again. It was hard to see much in the dull red light, but she could only see four by the door now. With one on the floor unconscious, that left at least three currently unaccounted for. It looked like they had finished their looting, there were two large sacks filled with jewelry and credits by the doors. Why hadn’t they left yet?

“Something about this doesn’t make sense,” Jorgan said by her ear. He stood behind her, peering out around the pillar as well and following where she was looking. “Some of the most decorated heroes of the Republic are here tonight. Why break into a party like this just to steal some jewelry?”

She picked up on what he wasn’t saying. “You think they’re meant to be a distraction? From what?”

“I wish I knew, sir.”

She pressed her back against the pillar once more, thinking out loud. “If they were after violence, it would have already happened. If they were just here for the money, they would have already left.” A sudden idea struck her. She put a hand on Jorgan’s arm and leaned closer, adding in a harsh whisper, “How much classified information do you think is in this room right now? How many high-profile targets walking around unarmed and unarmored?”

“Enough that the Empire would consider hiring mercenaries to collect a few of them,” he replied grimly. “Then why haven’t they?” He paused, then answered his own question. “Because they don’t know who their targets are.”

“They’re after the guest list, then. A list of names and faces of the Republic’s best and brightest.” The red lights were starting to give Ves a headache, but she pushed through it, trying to think. “What was through the door?”

“The kitchen. I didn’t find a security room. Had to slice the lights through the control panel outside.”

“Okay. I’m on it.” She took a deep breath and let it out slowly, steadying herself. “Remind them who they’re messing with. Make them regret crashing our party.”

“Yes, sir.” He caught her elbow before she could leave. “Be careful, Hallis.”

“You too.” She nodded, then slipped out of his grasp.

It was hard to sneak in three-inch heels, but Ves did the best she could. The sudden burst of blaster fire behind her made it a little easier. There were more shots from farther in the room. She had to hope it was Balkar’s holdout blaster backing Jorgan up. She didn’t turn around to check.

The kitchen was empty of organic life, only a few serving droids standing about looking nervous. One of them called out to her as she passed through, but made no move to stop her. “I am sorry, ma’am, but only authorized personnel are allowed past the kitchens.”

“I understand that. I’m Captain Vesiya Hallis, Havoc Squad. If there’s a problem, take it up with my commanding officer.” She didn’t wait for him to answer, just kept going.

The hallways past the kitchen were empty and identical. She followed until she came to a fork, and with no indicators on where they led, she followed her instincts and turned right. It kept going for what felt like hours, only the clicking of her heels on the tile floor to keep her company, and the doubt started to creep in. She hoped things were going okay out in the main hall. She hated not being able to contact her squad. If they ever got invited to another party like this, their closed-circuit comms were not staying on the ship. Neither was her assault cannon; if she had to put it in the coat check room, so be it, but she wasn’t going anywhere without it for a while.

She turned a corner and had to dive back behind it as a blaster bolt flew past her head. So she’d been going the right way after all. She peeked slowly around the edge, keeping as much of herself behind the wall as possible. There were two people at the end of the hall and she recognized them both from the initial group.

Another volley of bolts flew past her. One caught her in the arm before she could get back behind the wall, searing a hot line across her skin. She swore and returned fire, but they both ducked back into cover again too.

Ves thought quickly. This stalemate wasn’t going to help anyone but her enemies; they were clearly guarding whoever was actually doing the work, and the longer they kept her here the more time they had to finish the job. “Elara had the right idea,” she muttered to herself as she quickly unstrapped her shoes and took them off. “I should’ve brought a knife.”

She ducked low and sprinted around the corner, bolts flying over her head. She hit the first guy low, shoving him against the wall with her shoulder in his gut, and turned to throw her shoes in the face of the second guy, throwing off his aim. Two bolts to the chest took care of him, and a solid left hook to the jaw took care of the first guy, though it shot pain down her injured arm.

She took their weapons, putting the new pistol in the holster on her thigh and throwing the rifle strap over her shoulder, keeping the pistol she’d borrowed from Jorgan in her hand. Then she continued on to the door just past them that she assumed led to the security room.

Inside the room were four dead security guards and the man who’d been leading the assault on the main hall. He was tall and broad, with meticulously groom black hair, and he hadn’t shaved for long enough that it was on the cusp of becoming a beard but wasn’t quite there yet. He reached for his blaster, but he was too slow. Ves pointed both Jorgan’s pistol and her stolen rifle at him, and he raised his hands in surrender.

“You picked the wrong party to crash, pal.”

“So I see,” he said, and he had an Imperial accent he hadn’t had at the door. “And you are?”

She just bared her teeth at him. “What are you after?”

He smiled, seemingly unthreatened by her or her arsenal, and didn’t reply.

She put the barrel of her blaster pistol against his forehead. She asked again, voice pitched low and dangerous, “What. Are. You. After?”

“Pull the trigger, soldier. You’ll get more answers from my corpse.”

Ves swung the butt of her blaster down at his face, but he was heartier than his henchmen and remained conscious. She took a bit of dark satisfaction at the crack of cartilage as his nose broke, but didn’t have the chance to enjoy it as he roared and lunged at her, shoving her against the wall.

He slammed her wrist against the duracrete wall and her blaster fell from her numb fingers to clatter to the floor. One large hand wrapped around her throat, hard enough that she worried he’d crush her trachea long before she had to worry about running out of air. She clawed at his arm, but all he did was tighten his grip, enough that she started to see stars.

She brought her knee up into his solar plexus, then jabbed her fingers into his armpit where she knew his armor wouldn’t protect him. He grunted and loosened his hand just enough that she stopped seeing static at the edges of her vision. She took the opportunity to grab one of his fingers and twist it back until it popped. He screamed and dropped her.

She stepped around him and threw herself at his back as hard as she could, pushing him into the wall. His head hit the duracrete and this time he finally passed out.

Ves took a few deep breaths. They burned on the way down. She was going to have a hideous bruise around her throat tomorrow.

She searched the security guards and luckily one of them had a set of restraints on him. Another one had a keycard. She put the restraints on her new mysterious Imperial friend and threw him in the corner. If he woke up before she got back, at least he wasn’t going anywhere. Just to be sure, she locked the door behind her. She slipped the keycard into her bra, the only place she had to put it, then picked up her blaster again and continued down the hall.

Just before the third corner, she heard rapid footsteps headed her way, too fast for her to get into cover. She raised her rifle and rounded the corner to face them head-on. She came face to barrel with a blaster aimed right between her eyes.

“Hallis.” The blaster disappeared immediately, revealing her XO. He looked as relieved to see her as she felt to see him.

“Jorgan.” She could have hugged him right then if she’d had the energy. As it was, she just sagged against the wall, letting it hold her up so she didn’t have to. “Nice of you to join me.”

“Sorry I’m late.” He noticed the wound on her arm and gave her a quick once-over, looking for more injuries. “You okay?”

“I’ll be fine. You should see the other guy.” She gestured vaguely back toward the security room. “Got him tied up and unconscious. Maybe someone else can get more out of him than I did.”

“You leave that to me.” Uheza stepped out from behind Jorgan, a rifle in hand and an expression of cold, silent fury on her face. “Agent Balkar, come with me, please.”

Ves gave them the keycard so they could get into the security room, ignoring the looks both Jonas and Jorgan gave her when she pulled it out. Her mother just nodded and left.

Once they were gone, her head fell back against the wall and she closed her eyes. With the fighting over, the adrenaline was fading, and in its place came the pain and exhaustion. “You think the bar’s still open? I could really use a drink.”

“I’ll see what I can do,” Jorgan said softly. His fingers grazed her throat, an unexpected, feather-light caress, tracing the bruises that had already started to bloom there. Her eyes shot open again. “A few of the officers jumped in to help as soon as they saw us start to fight back. Dorne’s patching up some that got injured in the fighting, but I can go get her.”

She covered his hand with hers and pushed him gently away. “I’ll be okay. I can wait until we get back to the ship. I’m just tired.”

“I can see that.” He didn’t look like he believed her in the slightest. “At least let me take care of the one on your arm. Sir.”

That was a fair concession. Ves nodded, and he took off his bowtie to wrap it around the bolt wound on her bicep that was still lazily seeping blood. She chuckled. “After all that work I went through getting you in that in the first place. Seems like a waste of a good tie.”

“I’ll get a new one.” He glanced at her face for just a moment before his attention turned back to her injury. “Did you lose your shoes? I remember you being taller.”

“I think I threw them at someone. They’re down the hall, somewhere.” She tried to wave in that direction, but Jorgan tightened his grip on her arm to finish bandaging it. She watched him as he worked, his face serious, a knot in his brow that said he was still concerned about her even if he didn’t say it. The temptation to reach over and smooth away that worry was almost overwhelming; she kept talking in an effort to keep it at bay. “Sorry we didn’t get to finish our dance.”

“I guess you’ll just have to owe me one.” He took off his tux jacket and draped it over her shoulders. With the collar up, it hid the worst of the bruise on her neck.

Ves pulled it tighter around herself and gave him a tired smirk. “Are you going to keep giving me pieces of your suit if I find more imps to fight? Because that’s the kind of incentive program I can get behind.”

“Sorry, Hallis, not on the first date. I’m not that kind of guy.” If this counted as a date, Ves was pretty sure it wasn’t their first. She could think of at least one shoot-out in a cantina that should count, too. Jorgan’s smirk told her he was thinking the same thing. “Come on. Let’s get out of here.”

The rest of the evening went by in a blur. Several people approached Ves, as well as Jorgan and Elara who stayed at her sides like an honor guard, to thank them for their intervention. The Coruscant Security Force showed up before long and started asking questions. Ves answered the questions to the best of her ability, but after the third officer came around asking the exact same things the previous two had, she started to get a little short in her replies.

“That’s enough,” a stern, commanding voice cut in when the fourth SecForce officer started her round of questioning. Uheza stepped in between the officer and her daughter. “The captain has answered enough questions tonight. Havoc Squad are heroes. They’ve saved a lot of lives tonight and have earned some rest.”

The officer looked like she wanted to argue, but was smart enough not to mouth off to a senator. She walked away with one last disgruntled glance toward the three of them.

Uheza then turned to face them. “Is this what it’s always like for you?”

“I’m afraid so, ma’am,” Jorgan answered so Ves didn’t have to. “This was supposed to be our night off.”

“No wonder your squad has the reputation it does,” she said proudly. “I’ll see to it you’re all rewarded for what you’ve done here tonight.”

“That will not be necessary, Senator Hallis.” This time it was Elara who spoke up. She still managed to look flawless and elegant even after the night they’d had. “We simply did what anyone else would have done in our position.”

“Be that as it may, Sergeant Dorne,” Uheza said patiently, “you at least deserve some recognition. If not from Command or the Senate as a whole, then from me and the others you saved.” She turned her attention once more to her daughter. “Your Agent Balkar has taken the leader into custody--”

“Jonas isn’t one of mine,” Ves interrupted, almost automatically.

Uheza gave her a pointed look, but kept talking like she hadn’t said anything. “--and I expect he’ll have some answers for us in the morning about the reason behind this attack. I’ll contact you as soon as I hear something.”

Ves nodded. “We’re docked in the spaceport. You can stop by if you want, I’ll give you the tour.”

“I’d like that.” She gave Ves a gentle hug and whispered fiercely, “I’m proud of you, firecracker.”

“Thanks, Mom.”

Uheza pulled away, expression firm and commanding once more. “Lieutenant Jorgan, Sergeant Dorne, please get my daughter home before she keels over. I think she’s seen enough action for one day. There’s a speeder waiting for you outside that will take you back to your ship.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

-------

Surprisingly, Tanno Vik was waiting for them when they got back, sitting at their small table and cleaning his blaster. He looked Ves over, taking in her lack of shoes, her injuries, and her new arsenal. “Fun party?”

“Unlimited free drinks and an attack by Imperial mercenaries,” she said as blandly as possible, like they were discussing the weather.

He chuckled. “That’ll teach me not to stay home next time.”

Elara made Ves sit down so she could properly treat her wounds. She couldn’t do much for the bruise, which looked almost black in the harsh lighting of the medbay, but she put a proper kolto patch on the shot on her arm, and wrapped her wrist as well, which turned out to be fractured. Ves hadn’t even noticed with everything else that had happened.

Elara gave Jorgan a cursory inspection as well, but scans didn’t find any injuries on him, so she just told them to get some rest and left to do the same.

That sounded like a good idea. It had been a long night. Ves had no idea how late it even was.

“Well, that certainly wasn’t the way I expected the night to go,” Jorgan said, leaning casually against the doorway to her quarters.

She smiled at him and imitated his posture, leaning next to him. “Admit it, Jorgan. You had fun.”

He shrugged one shoulder. “It wasn't as bad as I expected it to be.”

“Good, because after what happened you know they're going to invite us back next year.”

“I can live with that,” he said seriously.

“Really?” She hadn’t expected him to say that, though thinking about it she guessed she shouldn’t really be surprised. Though he’d never admit it, Jorgan liked to play the hero. “What changed?”

He smirked. “I suppose there's worse ways to spend an evening than drinking free beer, dancing with pretty girls, and thwarting an Imperial assault,” he said slyly.

“Oh, I get second place, do I?” Ves asked playfully, leaning a little closer. “Aren't you a sweet-talker.”

“It's hard to beat an open bar on the Senate's dime. You came close.”

“I'll have to try harder next time.”

“I look forward to it.” He looked like he wanted to say more, but he didn’t. He looked away, breaking their stare, and the charge in the air around them broke too. “We should get some sleep.”

“Probably. Tomorrow’s going to be a busy day.” She took a reluctant step back, pulling herself out of his orbit. “Good night, Jorgan.”

“Good night, Hallis.”

Ves watched him walk away, smiling to herself, until he disappeared into the crew quarters. Only then did she turn and head into her own room. She barely got out of the dress before she threw herself into bed. She was out almost immediately.

#swtor fic #vesiya hallis #ves/jorgan #this is so many words #how did I write so many words?#ves and jorgan are so fun to write y'all #they haven't even kissed yet and I am Invested #you'll be seeing a lot more of these two in the future #I struggled a lot to write the scene with them dancing and then ended up cutting out most of the dancing #because it detracted from the scene too much #okay now that that's done I'm gonna go back to playing the game and see if I can get ves the smooch she wants :3

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starlight-drive-in · 4 years

Text

A Night Out

A Saeran x MC Mystic Messenger one shot fanfiction

Word count: 4470

----

MC's friends invite her and Saeran out for a night of dancing and drink at a local club. The night goes somewhat smoothly until Saeran finds MC on the receiving end of some unwanted attention.

Remember the version of Saeran we get at the end of day 9? The one that's not Ray, or the good end Saeran but not quite the Suit! Saeran MC had been dealing with either? I wanted to explore that version of Saeran a little more. He's still rough, he doesn't know how this stuff works, he doesn't know how to be soft but he greatly regrets what he did to MC and knows he will do anything to protect her. Whether that means staying away from her as he promises in the route or in this case, coming to her rescue.

This fic is written in the same "universe" and with the same characters as my fic "First Impressions" but can be read as a standalone work.

AO3 Link (refer here for tags/warnings)

---

I totally forgot to cross post this here the other day.

I took a break from my multi-chapter fics to finally get this idea that's been in my head forever down on paper -er- screen? It ended up taking longer and being longer than I thought it would. I really hope you enjoy it! -- MC sits idly at her and Saeran’s kitchen table, sipping her morning coffee and catching up on both the RFA chatroom logs and the group chat she has with her friends from before the RFA. The RFA seems up to the usual, Jumin and Jaehee are on their way to work, Zen’s already back from his morning run and Seven, Jihyun and Yoosung have yet to appear - probably sleeping in a bit. As for Saeran, he ran out to the store after realizing he was missing an ingredient for breakfast and even though MC insisted it was ok he, of course, had to keep his promise of crepes for breakfast he had made her the night before.

She switches to her other friends’ group chat, which seems to be a little busier.

Minji: “Work is kicking my ass this week. I could really use a night out.”

Youngmi: “Friday? The old club? Jinwo you in? Help your girl de-stress?”

Jinwo: “Sounds good’

Youngmi: “MC? You and Saeran in?”

MC stares at her screen apprehensively as she takes another sip of coffee.

MC: “Idk guys, it’s been a loooong time since I’ve been out like that.”

Youngmi: “Yea, ok so even more reason to go.”

MC: “I’ll have to see what Saeran says when he gets home, I doubt he’s ever been to a club.”

Jinwo: “You know that guy would do anything for you! I’m sure he’d be willing to give it a shot.”

“Ya got me there,” MC says aloud to no one while typing her response.

MC: “I’ll let you guys know.”

MC sighs into her coffee, contemplating. It’s not that she doesn’t want to go out with her friends and Saeran, she does. In fact, she’d love to dance the night away with some of her favorite people and especially with Saeran. But, she’s not sure if he’d be up for all the noise, the people, the loud music. She understands how intimidating that could be for him. She groans, conflicted.

A light touch on her shoulder jolts her out of her thoughts “What’s wrong, Angel?” Saeran asks concerned.

“Holy shit you scared me, I didn’t even hear you come in!” MC exclaims, startled. He smiles apologetically while unpacking the grocery bag. “How was the store?”

“Good! I got everything I need so I can finally make those crepes I promised you!” He smiles sweetly.

“You know you didn't have to go get all that, we could have just had cereal baby.”

“But then I’d be breaking a promise!” he says, kissing her forehead before turning toward the kitchen. She follows him, hoping he’ll at least allow her to help.

“So what were you thinking about when I got home? You seemed really stressed about something,” he asks again.

There’s no hiding from him, she might as well just come out and tell him. “Well… Youngmi, Jinwo, and Minji want to to go to the club this weekend and… they wanted to know if we wanted to go with them?”

“Like a dance club?”

“Yea, we used to go there in college but I haven't been there in a while, I completely understand if you don’t want to go though! It’s loud, there’s going to be a lot of people there and I wouldn't want you to get overwhelmed or anything and…”

“I’ll go!” he interrupts

She stares at him for a minute, surprised he welcomed the idea so quickly. “A-are you sure? I promise I won’t be offended or angry if you don’t want to.”

“N-no, no I want to go! I want to try new things, especially if it’s something you enjoy.” He turns to her and gently strokes her cheek, “I want to experience everything with you.”

She can’t even attempt to hide the smile that covers her face in an instant, she leans into his touch, blushing. “Then, it’s a date.” He smiles back at her before turning to mix the crepe batter.

------

The end of the week has arrived. MC goes all out on her look, excited for a night out after so long. A lot has changed since the last time she went out with Minji and Youngmi but their friendship had stayed the same. She smiles in the mirror as she applies her fake eyelashes, the finishing touch on her look she had chosen from a slew of make-up tutorials on Metube. She styles her hair into large voluminous curls. How long has it been since she’s done it this way?

She wears a skin-tight black sheath dress that has a subtle sparkle to it when she moves, along with a pair of tall yet comfortable heels she’s had for years. A simple black choker adorns her neck and a pair of large hoop earrings dangle from her ears.

She takes a long took at herself in the mirror - as well as a couple selfies before a light knock at the door pulls her from her private photoshoot.

“Can I come in?” Saeran asks calmly from the hallway “I need to do my hair.”

“Yup! You’re good!” She shouts.

He opens the door to find her bent slightly over the sink, applying a lip gloss and stops in the doorway as she turns to face him.

“So, what do you think?” She asks him, doing a little twirl so he can see the sparkles on her dress.

His eyes sweep over her form, she looks stunning. She always does of course but wow, the way the dress hugged all her perfect curves, the way her long brown hair swayed as she turned. He still wasn’t sure if he believed in a god or not but if there was one then he’d have to thank them for the fact that this beauty - this absolute goddess - was his.

“Y-you look…” how was he even supposed to put into words how much her appearance floored him? She looks at him expectantly. “Wow.” is all he says but the way he says it so breathlessly with a look of complete speechlessness on his face is more than enough to satisfy her.

She smiles, “Not too bad there yourself, handsome.” She says closing the few strides between them and taking in his crisp deep pink button-down shirt, black fade wash jeans and shiny leather boots as well as a belt to match. He has his sleeves rolled up neatly to his elbows and the top few buttons have been left undone affording her a peek at his collarbone and chest. Something else seems different about him too.

“Are you wearing eyeliner?” She ask, impressed.

“Maybe a little.” He admits.

“Well you look amazing, I’d kiss you but I’d get gloss on your lips.” She says apologetically.

So he kisses her instead, “What’s a little more makeup?” he chuckles as he rubs his lips together, spreading the gloss. “Hey wait a minute, since when are you taller than me?” he asks looking up at her just slightly.

“Since I put these heels on?”

He looks down at her feet, “Ok, yes. That would explain it, you’ll be ok in those? I don’t want you to hurt yourself.”

“Nah! I’ll be fine baby, don’t worry! These are my trusty clubbing heels! Comfort and style!” She says, posing dramatically.

“Yea… you’ve been hanging out with Saeyoung waaaay too much,” He replies jokingly rolling his eyes.

“Oh! You know what? He probably knows the best place to get comfortable heels!”

“You’re… probably right.” Saeran admits, while he combs the knots out of his curly waves, “You should ask him about it.”

“I will! But not tonight, tonight is about you and me dancing our asses off… plus a couple friends.”

“You realize, I’ve never danced... like that, right?” He asks.

“Have you danced at all?” She inquires, trying to picture any version of him getting his groove on amongst strobe lights.

“At Mint Eye, we sometimes had parties for holidays and such so I know a little ballroom, but somehow I don't think that's going to help me out tonight.”

“Is that why you were always so dressed up?” She mutters mostly to herself, “But yea, not so much. No worries! Just follow my lead, it shouldn’t be too hard to get the hang of?” She hopes.

If he’s nervous he’s definitely not showing it. She thinks to herself watching her boyfriend check himself in the mirror one last time before following her out of the bathroom.

---

The five of them arrive at the club successfully and excitedly. Well, for the most part at least. It seems that after leaving the comfort and safety of their apartment, Saeran realized the full weight of exactly where they were going. And - if his leg bobbing continuously throughout their Uber ride here has been any indication - he was now feeling the nervousness that MC had expected from him earlier. She had given him a concerned look, but he shook it off and smiled reassuringly.

Nevertheless, they were there. Steady, up-beat rhythms pulsed while the five of them crossed over the threshold and into the club. MC, Youngmi and Minji shared a look and squeed excitedly as if they were telepathically connected that Jinwo and Saeran were left out of before they headed off to the bar.

“What was that?” Saeran asks Jinwo loudly over the sound of the music.

“Dude, I couldn't tell you if I tried. They’ve been friends so long they just kinda know what each other are thinking sometimes.” He answers as the two of them follow the girls.

“I guess I can understand that.” Saeran shrugs catching up to MC at the bar just in time for her to turn around with two drinks in her hand. She hands him one. “This is my favorite drink ever and you have to try it. Plus, if you don’t like it I get two!”

Saeran smiles and takes the sip offered to him before taking the glass out of his hand. The drink tastes fruity and sweet and he understands why it's her favorite.

“You like it?!” She asks excitedly. He smiles and nods, thinking how cute it is that she is happy to share something new with him and he’s all too happy to oblige her, each new thing he learns about her is a treasure to him, even something as trivial as this.

It’s now that he turns to fully take in his surroundings. As promised, the club is busy and will probably only get busier as the night goes on. The music is loud and thumps in his chest, it's a little intimidating, and a little exciting as well. A lot of people are dancing; pairs and groups of friends, couples. The way the couples dance though - gyrating and grinding on each other. His cheeks take on a dusting of pink just thinking about other people seeing him doing that with MC. What would her friends think of him? But then again, what would be like, having her on him like that? They were no strangers to a bit of PDA here and then but this, this was something completely different. Did she dance like that? Did she want him to dance like that?!

His conflicted mind runs back and forth between how nice it would be and how absolutely terrifying it would be. What if he messed up? What if he did it wrong? What if he made a fool of himself in front of her and her friends and all these other people who seemed to know exactly what they were doing?

“Come on babe,” MC takes his hand and leads him around the perimeter of the crowd. “Jinwo got us a table.”

The table is more of a half-circle couch with a coffee table, the five sit down and get comfortable as they sip their first drinks of the night. Saeran’s anxiety fizzles away a bit as he sips his drink and gets settled in - his arm linked with MC’s as she catches up with her friends while she gently caresses his arm. Ok, this isn’t too bad, not bad at all really. I can do this. He thinks to himself.

Of course, not even a minute later Youngmi sets down her glass, springs to her feet, grabbing both MC and Minji by the hands that are not currently latched onto their boyfriends and declares, “Ok ladies! It’s time to dance!”

The other two girls are more than eager to follow along, Jinwo is as well, getting up with his girlfriend. Saeran is apprehensive, to say the least.

“Saeran, you in?” Youngmi prods cheerfully

“Ummmm,” Saeran starts, eye darting over to MC, “I don't know if…”

“That’s fine! No worries!” MC says, taking her seat again. “I can stay with you!”

“No!” Saeran exclaims. “No, go hang out with your friends. I really want you to have a good time tonight, I’m just… scared. That sounds so stupid.”

MC gets up again and kisses him on the forehead, “It’s not stupid my love, It’s ok to be scared. To be honest, I'm super proud of you for coming out tonight.”

He gives her a half-hearted smile, "Thank you. Now, go have fun with Youngmi and the others. I'll be fine here, I promise."

MC studies his face for a moment finding no betrayal in his words, "Ok, I love you!" She says, backstepping to catch up with her friends.

"I love you too!" He shouts over the music as he watches her blend into the crowd.

He loses track of her pretty quickly and has to stop himself from letting the panic boil up in him over not being able to keep track of her. She's going to be fine, she's with her friends and Jinwo would never let anyone hurt her, or Youngmi for that matter. She could probably kick anyone's ass. He notes with a chuckle.

He leans back and takes out his phone in an attempt to get his mind off things and enters the RFA chatroom.

-- Saeran has entered the chatroom --

Saeyoung: Hey bro!

Zen: Hey Saeran!

Saeran: Hi guys ^^

Saeyoung: Aren't you out with MC right now?

Zen: Oh yeah! The club! Maybe they haven't left yet

Saeyoung: they definitely did

Saeran: And how exactly, do you know that?

Saeyoung: uhhhh good guess?

Saeran: …

Saeyoung: plz don't hurt me

Saeyoung: I was just concerned and I wanted to make sure you got there ok!

Saeran: Tracked the Uber driver?

Saeyoung: noooooo

Saeran: …

Saeyoung: maaaaaaybe

Saeran: …

Saeyoung: ok yea

Saeran: See? was that so hard to admit?

Zen: Ok, ok but if you guys are there already, then what are you doing in the chat? lmao

Saeran: Umm… well

Saeyoung: He’s shy

Saeran: I don’t exactly know how to dance…

Saeran: Like this

Zen: Just go with your instincts

Zen: Feel the music!

Saeyoung: And maybe something else too <3

Zen: SEVEN

Zen: I mean

Zen: SAEYOUNG!

Saeyoung: oo you’re so authoritative when you use my full name

Zen: Stop that!

Zen: Saeran is a gentleman!

Saeyoung: Is part of being a gentleman not giving a lady what she wants?

Saeran: Please stop

Saeyoung: srry

Zen: but for real, you should go dance with MC. I'm sure she wants to dance

Saeran: She is dancing

Zen: Without you?

Saeran: She’s with her friends.

Saeyoung: Oh no

Saeran: Oh no?

Saeyoung: Saeran!

Saeran: WHAT

Saeyoung: Do you need me to come?

Saeran: No? I’m fine

Saeyoung: I could teach you!

Saeyoung: but I’d have to charge

Saeran: ughhh

Saeyoung: MC has a single friend doesn't she?

Saeran: you are NOT coming here

Saeyoung: then go dance with your girlfriend!

Saeyoung: or I’ll come dance with her for you

Saeran: You wouldn’t dare

Saeyoung: or would I?

Saeran: >:(

Saeyoung: lololol

Zen: I’m not sure if you’re helping ^^;

Saeran: I’m leaving

Saeyoung: To go dance with MC?

Saeran: ...Maybe

Zen: Good luck!

-- Saeran has left the chatroom --

Saeran drops his phone into his lap and his head into his hands. Maybe his brother and Zen had a point. MC probably did want to dance with her friends but knowing her, she probably wanted to dance with him a lot more. His heart swells a bit at the thought, She wanted him. She always wanted him and he was still getting used to that. He sits back, takes a deep breath and stands, beginning his search in the crowd for her.

He finds her pretty quickly, dancing with her arms around Youngmi and for a minute he can’t believe he was willing to miss out on dancing with the hottest girl here. Her back is turned to him. Youngmi sees him first and smiles at him as he sneaks up behind her. Silently placing his hands on her hips and whispers in her ear, “Hey Angel.”

MC spins around quickly transferring her arms from Youngmi to him, “Saeran!” She exclaims excitedly, planting a kiss on his unexpecting lips before realization dawns on her.

“Is everything ok?!” She shouts over the music.

He smiles, “Everything’s fine!” He replies, “I just… wanted to come be with you.”

“What changed your mind?”

“Saeyoung said if I didn’t go dance with you he’d do it himself.” He admits.

She giggles, “Yup, ok that would do it.”

“And also…” He trails off, running his hands over the length of her sides, “I couldn't let Youngmi have all the pleasure of dancing with all of this.” he leans in and returns her kiss from a minute ago.

“Hey what's gotten into you, mister?” she talks into his ear.

“Mmm, you,” he says simply, making her smile.

Saeran quickly learns that club dancing is not that hard, at least not with MC there. Hard to keep himself from getting too excited maybe but the actual “dancing” part? Piece of cake. He’s glad his brother gave him the extra kick in the rear to actually do it. He’s never seen MC quite like this before, getting to see her enjoy something she loves with him by her side? That would be worth it even if he had to make a fool of himself.

He’s not even sure how long they’ve been there but eventually nature calls. “I’ll be right back, ok? I have to go to the bathroom.” He tells her, “Will you be ok on your own?”

She nods enthusiastically, “Yea! Don’t worry, I’m gonna go get another drink!”

He feels a bit apprehensive leaving her alone but it’s only for a few minutes and she had assured him earlier that nothing sketchy had ever happened in all the years she and her friends have been coming here. It would be fine, right? Yea, it would be fine and so with that, he’s off to locate the bathroom.

MC takes a seat at the bar and orders another of her favorite cocktails. Taking it gently from the bartender, she sips it down a bit before swiveling in her stool to search for her friends. But before she can locate them her view of the crowd is blocked by a tall figure.

“What’s a pretty lady like you doing all alone here.” The man asks in what he most likely intends to be a sultry voice.

“Oh,” MC starts, “I’m not alone, I’m here with my friends and my boyfriend.”

He scoffs, “Boyfriend? You mean that skinny little shit I saw you dancing with earlier? The kid looked like he was about to piss himself.” “Ok, I’m done talking to you,” MC says angrily and attempts to get up from her seat.

He pushes her back down, “Shame because I’m not done talking to you,” He says roughly.

MC scowls at him, frantically trying to search for a friendly face amongst the crowd around his imposing figure.

“Ya know If your boyfriend was a real man he’d know better than to leave you alone dressed like this.” He says into her ear, trailing one finger up her thigh.

MC is paralyzed, her mind is screaming at her to fight back, toss her drink, scream, kick, anything but her limbs won’t react. They won’t listen to her. His hand travels higher, up her side caressing her repulsively. The only part of her body that moves is her face, scrunching up disgustedly she closes her eyes.

And then, she hears a grunt and a slam, and the touching stops.

“How about you get your worthless, disgusting fingers off what’s mine before I end your miserable life and throw you away like the garbage you are.” A familiar voice barks out at the man.

That voice, she thinks. I haven't heard him talk like that since... She opens her eyes and there’s Saeran. He has the assailant pinned up against one of the wide support beams of the building just a few feet from where she’s sitting. The man grovels a bit.

“Ha,” The man laughs, “You think you can fight me? A weak little twig like you?”

MC catches the look in her boyfriend’s eye as his mouth twitches up in response. It’s been quite a while since she’s seen that look. She almost feels sorry for the guy before remembering what he was doing to her just moments ago.

“Weak?! Weak?! HA. Ah-hahaha. I’ll show you weak!” Saeran screeches, voice reaching a hysterical pitch as he shoves the man head back into the wall, before reeling back and punching him in the face.

MC cringes as the man groans, a trail of blood quickly descending from his nose. She slowly gets up from the barstool and makes her way over to where her boyfriend - a version of him at least - is now tightening his hands around his windpipe.

“Keep. Your. Hands. Off. Of. My. Girl” Saeran grits through his teeth, tightening his grip little by little with each word.

“Saeran!” She shouts at him over the music.

He swings his head to look at her.

“We’ve gotta go!” She shouts, motioning to the group of bouncers now making their way through the crowd toward them.

“Fuck!” He grunts, releasing the man and letting him fall to the ground sputtering.

She grabs his hand and begins to pull him through the crowd toward the back entrance.

“You’re a fucking psychopath!” The man yells out from behind them and Saeran hesitates a moment, contemplating whether or not it would be worth it to go back.

“Come ON.” MC urges, yanking him to start moving again.

“Right, yeah.” He mutters.

The two of them manage to get out the back door but She doesn’t stop, knowing they’ll give chase. “Run!” She tells him.

The two of them run a few blocks and then duck into an alley, behind a dumpster and catch their breath.

“I’m sorry,” He says first between ragged breaths.

For a second she thinks maybe he’s switched back.

“Sorry?” She questions.

“I ruined your night with him. I promised you I wouldn't come back. Y-you, don’t need me messing up your life like this.” “Ruined? Saeran, no! You saved me!” She tells him.

He doesn’t seem to hear her, “I’m sure the other one - the other Saeran - could have taken care of it alot more… Gracefully. But when he saw you, he kind of just froze and I- I couldn't wait for him to work up the courage.”

She takes his hands “I’m really, really glad you didn’t. Looks like I do need you after all.”

“Y-You need me?” He whispers.

“I need all of you!” She says, looking into his eyes now. “You. Ray. The other Saeran. You’re all important to me.”

“But I’m… an asshole.” He admits.

She giggles, “Maybe a little.”

He chuckles. “Hey, can I ask you something?” “Yeah, of course.”

“When he. Uh, that guy back there… Did he, make you feel like I did? You know, when I was-”

“No. Not that I was the biggest fan of you either, mind you but when it was you… It was like something was telling me it would be ok. With him… Every bit of me was screaming. I wanted to move, but I couldn't. I couldn’t think of anything to say. I was paralyzed I-” Her eyes well up with tears and before he can even process what's happening she’s thrown her arms around his shoulders and is sobbing into the crook of his neck. “Thank you,” She chokes out.

A voice in his head tells him to wrap his arms around her and rub her back. So he does, he’s not good at this part. The screaming, the punching, the protecting, that he can do. This tender stuff is all new, but this feels right “I’m never going to let anyone hurt you again.” He whispers into her hair.

Hearing him say that only makes her sob harder, but she hugs him closer as well. “I missed you,” she mutters

His eyes widen, He wants to ask if she’s crazy. He wants to ask why in the world she would miss a monster like him, but she’s never made any sense to him and she probably wasn't about to start now. “I… I’ve missed you too, Princess.”

She giggles tearfully and snuggles into him and breathes out a sigh. “You’ve changed.” She tells him. “You’re… nicer.”

Saeran scoffs, “Tell that to the guy whose face I just beat in”

She giggles again. “Oh and funny too! I knew there was more to you than just unbridled rage”

He rolls his eyes but doesn’t fight her on it.

Her phone rings - It’s Yougmi

“Hello?” MC answers “MC. HOLY SHIT. Are you guys ok?! People are saying Saeran just beat the shit out of some creeper?’

“Oh uhhh, yea. We’re fine! I just didn’t want to get the police involved and everything.” “Shit. Didn’t think he had it in him honestly.”

MC laughs nervously. “Ah well, we’re fine. You guys ok on your own?” “Yea we’re good but MC? Are you ok? People are saying that guy… he’s been harassing girls every weekend for a while now, he didn’t-”

“No, No It didn't get that far, Thanks to Saeran.” MC looks up into to see Saeran’s eyes drop to the floor with a huff.

“Good. Well, I’ll talk to you tomorrow?”

“Sounds good, night Youngmi.”

MC hangs up and grabs her boyfriend's hand. “Ready to go home?”

“Home?” He questions.

“Yes?”

“You want to take me home? Y-you don’t want me to go? Let one of the Marshmallows take over?”

“Not if you don’t want to. I’m curious to learn more about you. Ya know, now that you’re not on drugs and screaming at me.”

“Ha.” He breathes, “Hope you don’t regret that decision.”

“Psh, your barks worse than your bite.” She says, shoving him playfully as they walk.

“But I do bite.” He smirks.

“Don’t I know it.”

#mystic messenger fanfic #mysme fanfiction #saeranxmc #saeran choi #my writing

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fieldfullofbangtan · 5 years

Text

bts imagine: valentines day suprise

heres a valentinesday imagine since its v-day and im single and alone :C i was really happy with a few members imagines but some I think are mediocre... hope you enjoy anyways :3

requests are open!

✎ masterlist

A/N: (also WHY DO THESE ALWAYS TURN OUT SO LONG I HAVE A PROBLEM.)

Seokjin

Jin was waiting for you outside your uni. Even though you looked dead because yay school he still awed at how beautiful he thought you were.

Jin: “Happy valentines day love!” he handed you the flowers.

“Thanks Jin... I’m sorry if i look like shit i just had the longest day...”

Jin: “Oh... You feel like staying home tonight huh?”

He had a long night planned with dinner at a super fancy restaurant, then going to a art gallery and than ending the night with a bunch of presents.

“Only because I kinda have to study, but if you had planned something we can do that! I might be a little dazed but I’ll try my best not to fall asleep hehe”

Jin shook his head and said it wasn’t anything special, he felt really bad, not because the night was cancelled but because of how tired and guilty he knew you felt. When you got home he got a new idea. While you had sat down on the couch and accidentally fallen asleep he started to cook your favorite dishes. You woke up to a table full of perfectly home cooked food and a pile of presents by the couch.

Jin: “After dinner I’ll help you study, and every 20 minutes you’ll get a gift as a reward!”

“Jin you really didn’t have to...” you say on the verge of crying because you are the luckiest girl on the planet.

Jin: “All I want is to take care of you, I love you”

Namjoon

You have been dating Namjoon for 3 years now and you just moved in together. He is beyond passionate and generous and hot... and clumsy... When you moved in together you both shared your car because Namjoon didn’t have time to buy his own. Even though it was a small, old Nissan that your parents gave to you when you got your license, it held a lot of precious memories. Like your first roadtrip, the first time you picked up Namjoon drunk, the first time you and Namjoon fully made out...

Let’s just say you were a little sad when Namjoon accidentaly left it on neutral when stopping on a mountain road to take pics. That car rolled right down the hill and crashed into like 200 trees on its way down.

This is the third Valentines day you spend together with him and you expect the usual, breakfast in bed, opening presents, a walk through the park to a new café and then watching a movie in the evening. But right after breakfast Joon lead you to the front door and covered you eyes right before opening the door.

Namjoon: “Suprise!! Happy Valentines Day baby” he says as he takes his hands away.

Outside you see a brand new black Porsche Cayman. Your favorite car ever since you were little. You stand there stunned and slightly confused because he couldn’t have possibly bought it for you.

Namjoon: “It’s all yours”. He hands you the keys.

“Joon I can’t possibly accept this gift it’s way too expensive...”

Namjoon: “Hey I’ll be driving it too, but I want it to be yours since i wrecked your previous car... again I’m really sorry about that...”

“You are the best damn man a girl could wish for, clumsiness and all”

Yoongi

Being the cliche he his, when you got to his studio he gave you a huge bouquet of red roses, a teddybear holding a small red heart and a little present box. Opening the present you find some black lingerie.

Yoongi: “How about you go swap the underwear you are wearing now to this” he smirks.

“What if I tell you im not wearing any underwear?” you smirk back.

You had actual presents for him at his dorm but you knew he loved it when you went commando so you picked a black dress that went down your thighs and chose to skip the underwear and just wear a large coat instead.

As soon as you said that his eyes turned a little darker, his breathing a little heavier and it looked like he was doing everything he could not to jump you right there and then.

“I can’t believe I’m going to make you put on more clothes right now but it would give me some time to finish this up really quickly...”

You nodded and went to put on the lingerie, Yoongi knows you so well, the fit was perfect and it looked amazing on your curves. You opened the door to his studio and walked in. As soon as you closed the door he was pinning you against it. Because of the lingerie he couldn’t help being a little more rough than usual, which meant you were being a little louder than usual. While you were having sex in his studio Namjoon was being scarred in the studio next door.

Namjoon: *puts on headphones and turns the volume up all the way* “Fucking rabbits...”

Hoseok

You two had been dating for about 7 months when a picture of you guys leaked on twitter. Your relationship blew up and there was a mix of hate and support but BigHit didn’t feel like it was necessary to hide it any longer so you went public.

Obviously you wanted to spend V-day with Hoseok just the two of you but they of course had to have a concert that day. Atleast he gave you VIP tickets so you could see his performance.

During the show everybody had a solo but when it was hoseoks turn everything went dark and the big screen lit up. You were shocked when you saw a picture of your face on the screen. It was playing a slideshow of the cutest pictures you and hoseok took. It showed a picture of him cuddling you while you slept, a picture of you two on your first real date, several pictures of you two kissing. You expected people to be booing but you could only hear “aaw”’s.

The song started playing and Hoseok came out. Just then a spotlight found you. He pulled you up on stage and sat you down on a chair. At this point you were crying because you were so shocked and happy. The rest of the show was him singing his beautiful heart out being as cheesy as he possibly could.

Hoseok: “Everybody, I want to introduce you to the love of my life”

Jimin

You suspect it’s because he is secretly a little creep that likes watching you put on and take of clothes but for Valentines Day Jimin took you shopping. He said he would pay for anything you wanted because -bts money- y’know but you still didn’t want to spend too much so you acted like you didn’t like a lot of the things you tried.

Jimin: “You look gorgeous in that! You should totally get it!”

You looked down at the dress and saw the pricetag. 900 000 won...”Hmm... I’m not sure Jimin it’s a little uncomfortable... I’ll try something else”

Jimin smiled to himself as the female worker pocked her head out from the corner. He gave her a barely noticable nod and she quickly hurried away. You went into a bunch of high-end clothing-stores and you only had 2 small shopping bags when you were done. Even though you tried on a ton of clothes you loved they were all waaaay too expensive.

After a romantic rooftop dinner where you both swapped gifts you two headed to your apartment. When you opened your front door the entire living room was filled with shopping bags.

“What the...” you started to look inside a few of them. It was the clothes you pretended to dislike. “Jimin... this is too nice...”

“You just look so damn good in everything I couldn’t help myself.”

Taehyung

Taehyung is truly a child at heart, so when he said he has a suprise for you on Valentines Day you knew it was going to be something fun. You had spent all day in bed together talking, playing videogames and watching movies but now it was time to leave the dorm. He blindfolded you a little too well with a double layer of ribbon and a beanie, lead you into the car and started to drive. The drive felt extra long because you couldn’t see anything but after 10 songs in the car you were there.

When you stepped out of the car you kind of laughed over the fact that he tried to make sure you didn’t see anything but you could still hear perfectly.

“OMG AN AMUSMENT PARK TAEHYUNG I LOVE YOU THIS IS GONNA BE AWESOME”

Tae: “Wait what how did you know i haven’t taken the blindfold off yet...”

“Taehyung amusment parks are pretty loud... you know screaming people, roller coasters, the arcade games...”

Tae: “wow how tf did I not think of that” he facepalmed.

You both laughed and went in. You went on all the roller coasters, Tae even won a plushie for you. The night ended with a perfect kiss at the highest spot on the ferriswheel.

Jungkook

You and Jungkook would spend Valentines Day at a beautiful cabin outside of Seoul. You two bike through the small town and stop at a cute coffee shop.

Jungkook: “So I’ve been thinking a lot about us lately...”, he sits down at the table you picked with two cups of hot chocolate.

You became slightly on edge because he looked worried. No way will he break up with you on Valentine’s Day right?

Jungkook: “This might be a little sudden since we’ve only been dating for a few months but...” he pauses and you hold your breath, scared of what he might say next.

Jungkook: “Will you come with me to my parents house this weekend? I want to take our relationship to the next level and I think they would love you... but if you think it’s too soon we can wait!” Now he is the one who’s holding his breath.

You take a moment to process, you haven’t been going out for long but you’ve been wanting to meet his parents for a while now.

“Of course Kookie I’d love to meet your family!”

Jungkook: “Great!! And I’ll probably introduce you as my girlfriend, so I hope your cool with that label.”

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smolbeandrabbles · 5 years

Text

Dear Life - Tom McLaren x Reader (Vertical Limit)

Author’s Note: This One Is For The Nicholas Lea Fans! ...And like the one person I know might read this 🤣 Better believe I will be upping the ante on him somewhat over the next few months! Dear Life - High Valley - Now I haven’t used this or any High Valley music yet - God knows why. Time to rectify!

Disclaimer: Okay, I know next to nothing about climbing, so my references are like... this movie... / Vertical Limit character’s aren’t mine (Again, or we’d have thrown Elliot off a cliff) / lyrics not mine. But this song really hurts for this. to be honest.

Premise: You’re 2 months away from becoming Mrs.Tom McLaren, and as you sit here and reminisce your relationship, Tom begins getting ready for his final trip before the wedding, to K2 with Elliot Vaughn...

Words: 3599

Warnings: Nada

______ Dear Life, I hope you know I've loved you every mile down this road Had my share of hits and misses Tryin' to keep between the ditches Dear Life, I hope you know Dear Life, what's your plan Is where I'm suppose to be, right where I am If it is, then I ain’t leavin' If it ain't, then I'll keep on dreamin' Dear Life, what's your plan Now you're flying by too fast I'll fight to make you last Beggin' won’t you please, just slow down You're scaring me to death I'm tryin' to catch my breath Don't wanna let you go I'm hangin' on for dear life I wanna leave my mark Love til it breaks my heart Live so loud that my forever Echoes in the dark ---

Tom always carried a video camera. He said it wasn't to detail every stupid little mistake you made climbing - but you knew in truth it really was. He was the real mountain climber - at least high-altitude, in snow, hiking and climbing. You could hike with the best of them - but your speciality was free climbing over drier terrain and rocks, not snow and ice. You used to tell him the only reason that you would ever climb up snow was to ski back down - and he would laugh at you for that. But whenever you got back home he'd spend a painstaking amount of time editing together compilation videos. That you never got to see, but knew existed. "One day you're gonna have to show me!" "Aw, nah! None are finished Y/N! I can't show you something that's not done!"

He could say that all he wanted - but as you sat in your apartment today leafing through your wedding planner again and sticking things into place, you couldn't help but notice how many video stills had ended up on the walls. Usually they were of him making funny faces at the way you were climbing or just genuine concern. Your favourite was one of the ones he had to sharply angle against the cliff face - you miles ahead of him, and the number of cams in the wall waaaay less than you should have put - at least to support both of you - to which he'd hand written the caption 'People I Should Never Trust With My Life On A Mountain: My Girlfriend." It wasn’t like you didn’t have the same kind of humour though. What about the one he’d had framed in his office? A picture of you with your head in your hands waiting for him to take an ungodly amount of time to decide on the correct number of cams to stick in the wall to take your weight, to continue climbing along. Captioned: “How it Feels to Be (Literally) Tied to Your Boyfriend For 24 Hours.” That summed you both up – you wanted the least amount of equipment for a light and fast ascent. Tom was all about safety, especially if you were there with him.

So you wondered what he might say in all of them... Only you might get your wish, because on occasion you'd filmed other adventures of yours that were less perilous. Like waiting for him at the end of a 5K run, chiding him for taking 15 minutes longer than you, and him protesting that a 5K was not a mountain hike - and he didn't need to continuously run on those! Or paragliding in a much more tropical climate than either of you were really used to. You weren't sure what he was planning, but he had a good friend that was a better videographer that he had taken up more than a few mountains as a guide for documentary shooting; and Tom had asked you for a few of the videos you'd taken. You trusted him enough to surprise you with that, because you had many surprises for him too.

You leant your head on your hand for a moment and really turned your attention to those photographs. Decorating your home together had been a lot of fun; and you'd both taken a lot of thought and care into colour schemes and themes. At first only a few frames hung on the wall - but now each room showed like a timeline for your relationship. Only it wasn't in the kind of cute photographs couples usually took and there wasn't an anniversary one in sight.

No, these photographs were taken at the summit of every climb you'd ever ascended together. And as the more creative one, you'd made them into pretty collages. Frames weren't often wood or metal anymore - but whatever rope had frayed the most or was the oldest – he’d give you any worn out equipment to help with your endeavour… or sometimes you'd find an interesting stone, or you'd get post cards. You always put the place, height and time it had taken you to climb at the bottom too - sometimes handwritten in yours or his neat script. They became good talking points in themselves... And the first one had only been a birthday gift for him. But Tom had liked it so much he wanted to display it in your hallway instead of his office. "But Tommy then you can look at it when you work!" "Yeah but... When I'm not there who is gonna see it? It deserves to be seen - you put so much effort into this babe...!" And so on proud display it stayed - now joined by so many others.

When Tom wasn't half way around the world leading explorations up one of these peaks he was here with you. He had a number of guides under his expert tuition - and his company was all run out of his office. He liked to make sure that he had at least one employee in every far-reaching corner of the world that intrepid explorers would like to try and conquer... But if you wanted the best of the best, then Tom McLaren would fly out himself. He lived half his life out on mountains, and occasionally you were right there beside him. He liked you coming along for respite. So he could mutter to someone about some of the amateurs he had to escort up; "I dunno Y/N... Makes me feel I should only make the trip for experienced climbers only..." "You got me." And he would smile his best smile "Or I'd go INSANE!" "You're getting paid well for this though, right?" "AH. Yeah, I've always been about the money..." You could only laugh at that look on his face; "Well. Just be about it for this one!"

You heard the front door open and close and knew he was back. Somehow, there was nothing like the sound of knowing he was home - and your heart skipped a beat. He wandered through into the living room - claret baggy gym shirt, and navy tracks...to go with his navy trainers with questionable tangerine shoe laces. It still made you raise an eyebrow, but Tommy was all about the pop of colour. "...Hey!" He still sounded a little out of breath, despite the fact he would have driven home. "Hey!" You smiled, heart still racing like you were in the presence of a high-school crush. He dropped his gym back by the kitchen and wandered over; you accepted a kiss on the cheek and he leant on the table and tapped the book; "How are we doing?" "Good - thank you! Almost completely ready." "Ah! Thank God for that!" "Aw, and I thought you were the meticulous planner here." "Babe, I am - but this... This is..." He looked a little overwhelmed for a minute, "Something else!" "We got this - you know that right...?" "Oh I know..." Tom breathed, and this time when he lent in you wanted his lips on yours. "I just... It's so close now I..." He laughed "I guess I'm a little nervous." "More nervous than your next climb? Ah-! Speaking of, you have a meeting with Vaughn at 2..." "I know, but thank you..." He glanced to the clock "I got enough time to get prepped." "Better have..." You weren't his assistant, but you knew Tom's diary down to the minute - mostly because he'd synced your calendars. But when he was so far away from you for so long, you needed to know exactly where he was supposed to be and when. And how long he was expected to be out of signal range. You could deal with not hearing from him for a while; that was the nature of the job, but you still liked to know what days he was climbing, and when he was supposed to be in base camp, so you knew when you really had to worry about him. He gave you one more kiss before moving into the bedroom "One more climb and I marry you!!!" "It's a big one! One thing at a time!" "Like you aren't waiting to be Mrs. Tom McLaren!" "Oh! Only my entire life!" You put a marker in your planner and followed him.

It was still like having a school girl crush. By now he was out of his shirt and going through his wardrobe for something comfortable to wear. His meeting was only over the phone... Of course he caught you staring at him - with his shirt off you could see his tattoo and that strangely shaped scar on his left-hand side. "You okay?" He raised an eyebrow and turned to you, making you shake your head "If you could feel my heart right now..." His laugh was a little bashful and his look to the floor almost shy; "Why?" "I dunno. It's like having a crush on you all over again. I guess I'm just excited..." He looked down at himself with a cheeky grin; "Please clarify!" You scoffed, but knew pink was crossing your cheeks; "Shut up!" He nodded to the bathroom; "I'ma take a shower but-" "OH God! Don't even tempt me!" Tom laughed again; "And now I really feel like I should!" He folded his arms; and there was a familiar chink of metal as the pendant around his neck moved. As far as you knew he'd never taken it off, and he'd never really talked about it much, only to whisper that it was good luck. The twist of tarnished silver was strange in itself; you couldn't quite fathom what it was either. But anything important to Tommy was important to you. (Except it was rough and sharp in places and often stabbed into you at fairly inconvenient times.) It was silly to trust his necklace to keep him safe when you knew his skills would do that on their own. But sometimes the night before he was due to go, and you couldn't sleep (because you never could when those evenings rolled around) you found yourself glaring at it and always thinking the same thing; You better bring him back to me!

You sprinted across the room to kiss him, which turned into kissing him multiple times, before he tried to pick you up and you shrieked, half giggling as you ran back out. His laugh was gorgeous and clear and loud; "Alright I get it! No showers-!" You peered around the door; "How many floors did you climb?" "300. It's still not K2. But it's a start." You gave a nod and a smile "I'm not gonna make you walk that to the wedding, don't worry." "I could call the venue and we could have it in the mountains...? Why bother making them the view!" "I could kill you, Tom McLaren!" "I'm sure Vaughn would fly everyone up!" He studied your unimpressed look with amusement "Ahhhh.... I believe that face is a firm no..." "Correct." "Alright, go on. Back to planning..." You continued to stare at him "What?" "I love you, babe." He grinned gently, and stepped towards the bathroom "...I love you too, Ms.McLaren." "Aw, not yet!"

"Oh! Sweetheart...! I think he'll love it!" your mother gasped as you detailed your wedding dress idea to her. Sitting back at the table and opening your planner again surrounded by your photographs and flipping to the dress pages (the only ones Tom was forbidden from looking at) made you remember that. Because it'd been this very table over drinks that you'd told her what you were thinking. It sounded a little insane, the kind of thing nobody would really get. But he would. "...Don't you think everyone will ask me the same questions about a billion times?" "Do you have to answer? I think it's wonderful... And it's not meant for them is it, it's meant for Tom..." You'd had the idea when wandering around your apartment on the phone to other aspects of your wedding, florists... bakery... venue... Musicians... They were long detailed conversations that both you and Tom had had. He tried to help you plan as much as he could, but both of you realised it was kinda hard to plan a wedding halfway up a mountain. But he did promise, and had expertly, sorted himself and his groomsmen out - and when he wasn't preparing for his next climb, he spent all his spare time helping you. Even though you were fine and actually really enjoyed planning this. But, each of these conversations had you staring at the photographs on your wall. And you'd come to the conclusion that climbing was what had brought the two of you together, and was such a huge part of both your lives. The mountains in the background of every picture had got you thinking; even if you were actually standing on the summit of the important ones... So the idea was simple, everything you'd ever summited together - whether it be a cliff face in a national park, or it was something as phenomenal as K2, or Everest. It was making it onto your dress. The scope of work was huge and you'd realised this, so it had taken the seamstresses an age to make to your specification, but you had tried to help and provide assistance at every turn you could. So a few weeks ago you'd gone for your adjustment fitting (although it was pretty perfect once you'd tried it on), when Tom was travelling back from his last climb for a little R and R, and had almost cried when you'd seen it. The mountains had been embroidered like a secret message. Only truly visible if you looked at the detail. Some were outlined in a blue-tone white and were a little more obvious; but the others blended so perfectly into the skirt - it had turned out more beautiful than you had imagined. And there were actual tears when you tried it on; from both you and your mom and friends.

You closed the book again as you heard him exit his office after his call and tied the ribbon back - replacing it on your shelf. "How'd it go?" "He's crazy. That's all I can say!" "You're gonna do amazing..." "It's not me I'm worried about..." He gave a shrug "I know K2 well enough." You crossed the room and placed your arms around him "...I'm gonna worry about you.." "Yeah. That's why I don't worry - you do it enough." You brushed your lips to his; "Can we go out tonight?" "For dinner...? Mmmm... Don't see why not..." Tom ran his arms around you and pulled you tight to him "What you thinking...?" "The little place on the corner..." "Why do we always go there when I'm about to leave?" "Because it's your favourite." His amusement extended into his light brown eyes as he rolled them; "No. It's because it's your favourite." You smiled, and leant up to kiss him again; "That too."

***

It was the night before he left, and the corridor was full of his gear, you were allowed to go to the airport with him but no further. Part of you wanted to go on Vaughn's expedition. It sounded interesting - and if it was all being broadcast when they hit the top... But Tom wanted you back here, and you understood that too. "You don't need to get caught up in all this..." He tracked back through to the bedroom; "Besides... You don't even like him." "Millionaire who thinks he can throw money at a mountain and it'll do what he wants, so everyone gets to see this inaugural flight? No thanks." "See. You wouldn't even enjoy it!" "Guess I get to see you on TV..." "Well..." He caught you in the living room for a short kiss. Fleeting - just like his time back here always was. You wondered how much Tommy would let you curb that once you got a ring on his finger. "...Unless they cut me out of it!" You folded your arms, with a frown clearly meant for Vaughn himself; "Oh. Because you're only the man whose gonna get him up there!" "...eh, millionaires!" "Who else is going with you?" "Annie Garrett." You gasped "Annie! Aw, I love her!" "Yeah another reason you aren't going!" He laughed "We'll never get anywhere...!" You followed him and realised there was at least another suitcase and a half to go "...I rebuke that and think we could probably take you in a race to the top." He shot you a look "K2 is not about racing. It's a-" You mimicked his serious voice with a whine "-Very technical climb and the most dangerous mountain in the world-!" He narrowed his eyes slightly, making you smile; "Didn't you get over lecturing me 5 years ago, Tommy?" "Clearly not, if you're gonna make stupid comments." He turned back to his things which made you sigh. "Babe, do you want some help?" His brown eyes flicked over his shoulder again "Oh, sweetheart, would you?" You nodded eagerly with a sweet smile; "Mmmm... I like helping you pack. The only thing I don't like is watching you leave..."

***

You stood holding his hands so tight in the airport, and realised how torn up you were about this. "Y/N... You are gonna have to let me go eventually, you know that right?" "Yeah but I..." You weren't looking at him, but his hands, laced with your own - the pretty cut diamond of your engagement ring glittering gently in the lights. He bent to try to get you to look at him. "But you...?" "This one is so much harder than the rest... I just... Wanna marry you now. And K2..." "Hey... Hey... C'mere..." He wrapped you in his arms, pulling your head into his chest and stroking a hand through your hair; "Sweetheart you never do this... What's wrong?" "I'm just really gonna miss you on this one. But I'll be watching that TV close, believe me." "I know you will. And I'll be counting down the days until my flight home... And then we square away the final touches... And then Mrs. Tommy McLaren will not just be a Skip joke at base camp... Huh?"

He at least got you laughing gently; but he noticed the tears too. Tom didn't stop you from crying though; your emotions were all over the place ever since he'd got down on one knee. He'd never expected that, which made him guess you'd never expected him to do it in the first place. Probably because that's all his friends did joke about. Including it being present in the original introduction of you two to one another. “Tommy this is Y/N... She's a climber too! Since it's only you two that have that in common if you don't wanna stay sad and single for your lonely lives, you just aught to get married now!” Tom pressed a kiss to your forehead; it was long, and worth every second, before he caught your lips. "Look after the company, alright?" "I will." "And look after yourself... Okay? That's more important..." "I will..." There was a few seconds pause before you threw your arms around him again; "You come back to me Tom McLaren! You kick K2’s ass and you come back to me!" He wound his arms around you again and lifted you from the floor "I'm coming back, Y/N... I don't get to marry you otherwise..." "Just. Make sure Vaughn knows who's boss." He gave a wink, and salute as he set you down; "Yes ma'm!"

***

You were still staring at the pictures on the wall when the sunlight faded; one more day gone. One day closer to marrying the love of your life. But one day further away from all these incredible things happening. All of these pictures captured moments you would never get back. And each one of them told a story with so many lost great conversations. Little glances or touches that were now lost to eternity.

Your eyes flicked between them all, this has all gone so fast... Even though he would be back soon, that would feel like an age. But all these years had passed like a blur. Would your married life be just the same?

You sat back for a second and took a deep breath to slow it all down. You hoped not; Tom was someone you had to savour every moment with - because in reality there were so few. And that made every second precious. You realised how much you wanted to look back on everything you'd done together and remember it all. No matter how impossible. It hit you all very suddenly. Is that why he recorded everything? So that he could watch back every memory you had a freeze frame moment of here? Because Tom McLaren wanted to relive every stupid, amazing thing that happened. As long as you were there in it. You shook your head gently as you pieced it all together; why he wanted your tapes so bad too. He was about to relive all those moments with you. But not just with you - Tom McLaren wanted everyone else to see those moments too. Everyone that was an important part of your lives and an integral part of your relationship.

And he was going to do so on your wedding day.

---

Oh have another GIF even though it’s not actually Tom... It still make’s me think of this fic..! Like he would 100% throw paper planes at her whilst she’s trying to work on collages and their wedding planning...

#Nicholas Lea #Nick Lea #Tom McLaren #Tommy McLaren #Tom McLaren x Reader #Vertical Limit #Written all in one evening #I love this man SO much #he's SO pretty #I noticed it when I watched the first time but we all know how well my first watch of Vertical Limit went #so... second time lucky #but I have SO many fic ideas #that basically revolve around this boi and punching Vaughn in the face...#Basically I asked my mum for some colours and she said /tangerine/ and I said /for a gym shirt!?/ so she said /claret/ and thus...#Then I watched the movie AGAIN and he IS infact a fashion disaster #SO... I think I inadvertently got his character on point there!#is 300 floors a lot? I wondered if 500 sounded a little stupid?#Whoooo knows #I was trying to figure out what he could do at the gym to help prepare him for climbing and the stairs seemed like a good idea.#83! ;)#Cass / Cas / Cassi / Cassadee

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thefeckisthis · 4 years

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manifestation and religion

disclaimer: im going to write my opinions on religion and if you consider yourself a believer - dont get offended as we all have different experiences and beliefs. also, i will be mentioning some stuff that most people find weird and unusual so please keep your mind open and leave your judgment somewhere else.

i wrote quite a bit and then my clumsy ass accidentally closed all tabs and everything was gone so this time ill write my intro in short version. so we all heard the saying ‘’be careful what you wish for it may come true’’. well it does come true and it has proved to me so many times, and before i get to the basics of law of attraction and manifestation I am going to say a bit of background how i got to it all.

as most of my country i was raised christian and had to practice the religion until i was 14/15 and got my holy confirmation so after that i was finally happy that i did not have to go to church if i did not want to. my family is not super religious, we do follow the holiday traditions and such as its normal in our country, but personally i dont give them much meaning. two of my family members are religious and i am grateful because in a place as my hometown our parents gave us free will when i came to religion (after our confirmation only :P) .

with all my experience and research i came to realise that christianity is most rotten, corrupted, vile and disgusting religion there is. there are exceptions that were better than rest, that is a small number unfortunately. i always considered myself agnostic, there is no defined god but there is something bigger than humankind and its still unknown. and you look at all the religions you will find that mostly all of them have same stories, people and facts, just bit amended to their culture. so to explain a bit, here is internet definition of agnosticism # Agnosticism is the view that the existence of God, of the divine or the supernatural is unknown or unknowable. Another definition provided is the view that "human reason is incapable of providing sufficient rational grounds to justify either the belief that God exists or the belief that God does not exist." and no, atheist is not the same. heres couple of pictures giving some insights

so now that we have that sorted out i would like to stress out that i never had anything against people who believe in god or dont believe in god, i have friends who are strong believers and friends who are atheist, its just called being adult and accepting people as they are. not enough people can do that.

so i did lots of research on religions and i do like polytheism ( Polytheism is the worship of or belief in multiple deities, which are usually assembled into a pantheon of gods and goddesses, along with their own religions and rituals) so i always had huge interest in roman and Greek deities, Egyptian as well and for a while was reading about Hinduism. of course i read a lot about all other older civilizations and most of them are based on polytheism.

during my exploring i came across a doctrine about paganism (havent fully finished all the books and here is a link if anyone would be interested in buying https://despot-infinitus.com/proizvod/paganizam-u-teoriji-i-praksi-doktrina-paganizma/) and i really liked the whole idea of it and i am still actively considering of becoming a white witch/wicca and reading those books inspired adding bit more on my pentagram tattoo, which is actually representing five elements so with added moons it represents triple goddess symbol.

many people ask me is that devils sign and am i a satanist, and that is ridiculous assumption based on only one symbol. and as a matter of fact i have been reading about satanism itself as well (of course i have) and its quite surprisingly peaceful religion and makes more sense than christianity does. to read more about their rules (which are way better than 10 commandments) click here - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LaVeyan_Satanism#Basic_tenets

those who know me a bit better know that i love paranormal stuff and that i have strong connection with it and that caused a lot of paranormal experiences in my life (i bring all the ghosts to your yard aaayyy) so i recently also discovered demonology ( Demonology is the study of demons or beliefs about demons. They may be human, or nonhuman, separable souls, or discarnate spirits which have never inhabited a body.) and that you can actually learn how to practice it and cant lie that also interests me as well as you contact demons and entities and you work together to learn about world and history and you give them chance to peacefully experience the world (they literally posses you and that way they get to taste food and emotions etc)

yes this is quite informative post as well. and yes, you will all probably deem me insane after reading all this. and what i noticed is that all of them mentioned above work on the principle of cooperation, you have to give to receive. and i dont mean like you have to make blood sacrifices to get your wishes, i mean you have to put in some effort in it and show good intentions and most important of all - you have to show some respect.

so to finally get to the reason why you are all here. manifestation and law of attraction.

there were loads of instances in my life where i noticed small details that most of people wouldnt notice and after googling them one word kept coming up - universe. so automatically when you start look into that law of attraction and manifestation come up as well, they all g hand in hand like little happy family.

So law of attraction is something you all definitely had experience with. Basically its what you put out to the world is what you get. Simple change of mindset can change everything in your life. Have you noticed when you are happy and spreading happiness everything around you seems nicer, people are nicer to you, nice things happen and then when you are in bad mood everything is going bad.

Sounds familiar? That is law of attraction for you people. you’re releasing/giving good vibes to the atmosphere and people around you so universe makes sure to give good things back. notice that give and take relationship here? Dont be fooled tho, its not always as simple as it sounds. it is especially hard when you get into that deep hole of feeling bad a and depressed. it is really hard to change your train of thoughts and get yourself to think positive. universe wont award you for one good thought, it has to be series of it and you really need to feel them. you truly need to be in a good moment to get something back from universe.

say thank you to people serving you, ask people how are they, show that you care, pick up a paper from street and throw it in a bin, smile to everyone, pet a random animal on a street, anything counts. and dont do it just because you expect something huge from universe as most of the time universe will give back with good things as well, someone will help you, smeone will compliment you, you’ll get free cup of coffee, just random things like that. you will be surprised that good things will come to you in a moment you need. it also makes you more grateful for everything in your life and makes your everyday nicer and more positive.

then we come to manifestation.

thiiiiiis my people is bit more complicated than just law of attraction, but one without other does not go. there is no definition of the manifestation, but it is a fact that if you want something really bad universe will give it to you. i had universe manifest so many of my things that i wanted, just took a bit of time. maybe it has happened for you too. sit and think how many things did you wish for and you have them now? there are certainly more than few things that come to your mind. i can easily name at least 10 things that universe manifested for me without even realizing that was it.

there are many ways to manifest something and it is impossible for me to write everything about it in this post as it is bit more complicated than law of attraction, but i will try to outline some things and believe me when you google manifestation you will find loads of examples and you can read for days about it.

every single wish you want to manifest you can, it just requires some work and that is the hardest part. there are many ways of manifesting something, scribbling, drawing, visualizing, meditating and many more - you need to find something that works the best for you. you need to have clear vision of what you want (general idea wont work), you have to want it really strongly and you need to start working towards it, even little steps - remember when i said you have to give to receive, same with universe. it wont just drop it in your lap because you decided it would be beneficial for you.

and have in mind very important thing universe will always provide and it will give you what you deserve when you are ready for it.

so yes, it means it can take waaaay longer than you expect it, it may not be hours, days it may be years, it just means that you are not ready for it yet but that doesnt mean universe is not working on bringing it to you. all the work you put into it will definitely be worth it.

for example i fell in love in marketing in university and always wanted a job in that field. it did not get easy to me at all. i spent long five years applying for the jobs and either getting rejections or no answer. and believe me that could put me in such bad mood sometimes that i just wanted to give up on everything. add to that anxiety struggles and that makes it even harder. and as mentioned in the last year i worked on myself mentally, my anxiety has been on lower levels for a while and it does spike up now and then and it messes things up, but i’ve been happier mentally then i ever was in last 5 years and towards end of the last year more and more good things started to come my way and then i finally got that long awaited job.

i am still looking a proper way to thank universe for making it happen for me as that is also important thing for manifestation.

going to use myself as example - being a cheerleader, moving to another country, going to enrique iglesias concerts, visiting loch ness and Neuschwanstein Castle and many more were just big wishes at one point and so far they all came true and i couldnt be happier. it can be small things as well, once i tried to test it and i wanted to manifest a drink date. so i kept thinking how i will go for a drink with someone next week. and it happened, next week i went for a drink with a guy i just met, completely unexpectedly. i didnt specify anything else other than gooing for a drink at that was the only thing that happened.

once wished for more money (also nothing specific stupid me haha) and after two days i found €5 on the floor. not much but universe did provide what i wanted :D

as i’ve said, manifestation is more complicated than law attraction and requires strong mind and strong will, so not only that you get what you wish and work for - it makes you a better person as well! To end this i am going to leave couple of links you can visit and see more about them, or if you’re more adventurous just google manifestation and enjoy your journey :) https://medium.com/thrive-global/9-principles-of-conscious-manifestation-3d2df7a4a87

https://elysesantilli.com/what-is-manifestation/

https://blog.mindvalley.com/manifestation/

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZNFXNnKOLdA5ZD7Sn2p5aQ/videos

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvptCAXYmDZMOffniGRfomQ/videos

#new post #manifestation #law of attraction #universe #believe #follow #Followme #follow for follow #fun #religion #thoughts

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waywarddaughterwrites · 6 years

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Burnished

A/N: So, here’s the smaller one-shot I mentioned earlier today. I’ve had this thought for a while and I’ve contemplated turning it into a longer fic. We will see if that comes to anything. For now, here we go! I hope you guys enjoy it. Let me know if you’d actually be interested in a longer story! It harkens waaaay back to season 8, but ultimately it takes place in the present.

Read Me on AO3:

https://archiveofourown.org/works/16289354

Everything Tag List:

@kissofthebadwolf @eurusholmmes @ourloveisforthelovely @pensysto

************************************

You’d never hunted a hellhound before. Sam and Dean had called you in for backup. Apparently they’d tracked one to your town. They wouldn’t tell you why they were hunting a creature of the damned, but the way they spoke about it and the determined yet somber set to their jaws when you met up with them in person said a lot. You’d hunted with them a time or two, mainly when they were in your neck of the woods, as they were now. Hunting with the brothers was both thrilling and completely exhausting. They attracted trouble like magnets and the simplest hunts were often anything but in-and-out. Things were rarely what they seemed with them and complications seemed to snowball. They were reliable, though, and incredibly skilled at their profession. The three of you had grown close over the years. They’d offered for you to come live in the bunker with them in Kansas, but you preferred your small apartment and hunting solo.

The hellhound hunt was unlike anything you’d imagined or expected it to be. Ignoring your protests they’d taken your glasses straight off of your face and—of all things—set fire to them. As Dean held them in the flames, Sam explained to you the correlation between holy fire and the ability to see ethereal creatures that were invisible to the naked human eye. You watched them burnish two pairs of glasses for themselves as well.

Sam was the one to kill the beast. It had almost come to blows between the brothers about who would be the one to do the deed. You didn’t understand why it was such an important decision, but you’d learned over the years not to question too much into what the Winchester brothers were caught up in, lest you get dragged into their world of nightmares and apocalypses. You enjoyed being a simple hunter. Werewolves and Vampires and Ghosts were your bread and butter. You would leave all of the outlandish, overwhelming demons and angels drama to the two brothers you were working with.

Speaking of, you’d gotten a hell of a shock not long after the hunt when you’d run into the boys again a year later and they’d had their angelic third wheel tagging along. Past the occasional fae flitting by, you’d forgotten over time about the special nature of your glasses and when they’d showed up on your doorstep with a man with gigantic, ash-colored wings protruding from his shoulder blades you’d nearly had a heart attack. Castiel had turned out to be a loyal friend and enjoyable to be around. You quite liked the angel.

You bought a new pair of glasses, though.

A pair of glasses that apparently had grown legs and wandered off somewhere. You were turning your apartment inside-out trying to find the glasses you’d managed to successfully lose. The boys would be here soon and you couldn’t afford not to see properly. Where the hell were they? While digging through the drawer in your nightstand, you happened across the case holding the old pair you’d replaced. It had been a few years since the hellhound hunt. Does holy fire wear off? Probably not.

bzzz

Looking at your phone, you read:

Dean W.: ETA in 30. U ready?

You glanced at the case in your hands before typing out a message back to him.

Just about. Any angels with u?

Dean’s reply was almost instant. Sam must be the one driving.

Dean W.: 2 actually. Y?

You sighed, resigning yourself to your fate.

Can’t find my good glasses. Only got the burnished ones from the hellhound thing a few years ago. Just wanna know what to prepare for.

You pocketed your phone before shoving the last couple of items in your duffle. You used the last few minutes before their arrival to put your apartment back into some semblance of order, hoping desperately that the act would somehow turn up the glasses you’d missed while tearing the room apart. No such luck, and soon the boys were knocking on your front door. You sucked in a breath, preparing yourself for a weekend with not one but two angels. Castiel’s wings were a beautiful thing to behold once you’d gotten used to their presence, but that was years ago and you knew you’d have to adjust to seeing them again. Not to mention the new angel’s wings you’d be subjected to.

You followed Sam out of your building and toward the familiar Impala sitting in the lot. Dean and his two companions started to exit the car to greet you as you approached. You ran straight to Dean and threw your arms around him the same as you’d just done to Sam. Those two had found a special place in your heart over the years. You heard two more car doors open and you steeled yourself before turning around to greet Castiel and the other angel, whom Sam had informed you was named Gabriel.

The sight before you knocked the breath out of your lungs. Castiel had explained all of those years ago why seeing his wings affected you so much: they weren’t meant for human sight beyond special circumstances. They could be a bit overwhelming. Angels on earth kept their wings tucked into a separate plane of existence, invisible and intangible to humanity. His wings had an almost holographic quality to them. You could see them with your glasses, but if you reached out to brush the feathers, your fingers went right through them. You supposed it made sense. Being invisible wasn’t much help if they were still bumping into things and getting in the way on this plane. They were as beautiful as you remembered and you let out a shakey breath as you took them in. Dean must have forewarned him of your predicament, because your friend was giving you an apologetic smile as he watched you. When you’d gotten your breathing under control, he held his arms out to you. You grinned at him and hugged him tightly. There was a comforting quality about the trench coat-clad man that you’d missed. Your eyes kept darting back to his wings over his shoulder. You didn’t know how Dean did it, seeing them every day.

“You get used to it” he had said the first time you’d seen them. He told you of the first time he’d seen them, in the barn with the lights going haywire as Castiel made his grand-dramatic entrance into the man’s life. “They’ve never been intimidating to me. They’re grandiose but they’re an extension of Cas and they’re more comforting than awe-inspiring or threatening, I guess.” You supposed it made sense. It wouldn’t do much good for an angel’s soul-mate to be constantly terrified of them.

You felt a hand on your shoulder. You started to turn, but the owner held you in place with surprising strength. A voice you didn’t recognize, but sounded like warm honey, started speaking. You could tell the other angel was feeling awkward with the situation.

“Uh, So. Before you turn around, I should warn you. Cassie here is a regular old angel, so his wings are kinda normal.” Gabriel ignored his younger brother’s indignant huff at his words. You saw his feathers ruffle as if to prove they’re anything but average. Gabriel continued on, “I’m actually an archangel. So, uh...my wings...aren’t. Normal, that is. They’re a bit...more?” You couldn’t turn around but you could practically see him scratching the back of his neck in discomfort. “I just...I...don’t be scared of me, please. I don’t think a human has ever seen my wings before.”

You nodded your assent and you felt the grip on your shoulder release. You took in a breath and slowly turned to see the other man, taller than you but shorter than Castiel, golden hair and eyes like sunshine through whiskey. You were right about his hand on his neck, and he regarded you cautiously, waiting for your reaction. You let your eyes drift upward to his—

“Holy shit.”

Six. There were six. And they were massive. He was trying to tuck them into himself, obviously shy. It didn’t do much to decrease their presence, though. They looked like spun gold. They glittered as though made of metal and the sun reflecting off of each feather gave them the illusion of emitting light themselves. The closer you looked, you saw hints of amber and tawny and a couple of colors you didn’t have words for. They were...warm. Each wing had to be at least ten feet long and six feet tall. They radiated heat. You knew you were gaping like a fish and you concentrated to bring yourself back into focus. You realized with embarrassment that you’d started unconsciously reaching your hand upward toward them, as if to touch them. Gabriel was watching your face and your hand cautiously, obviously relieved that you weren’t running screaming for the hills. Interestingly, you weren’t frightened of his wings at all, even with them being so much more than Castiel’s.

You brought your eyes down to meet his. His eyebrows raised in silent question and you beamed at him. You saw some of the tension lift from his shoulders as you smiled.

“Gabriel, your wings are incredible. I apologize for causing you discomfort, but I am truly honored to be able to see them, because...wow,” you finished rather lamely. Gabriel blushed and grinned at your praise. You couldn’t stop the thought of how endearing the blush made him look, more like a schoolboy than an almighty, ancient being.

“Well let me borrow those glasses I wanna see these ‘incredible’ wings!” Dean blurted out to your left, reaching toward you.

“Dean, don’t!” Sam protested.

“Dean-o you might want to rethink that—“

“Aw, come on, I see Castiel’s all the time, I can handle your wings.” Dean stopped beside you, hand held out expectantly. You looked toward Gabriel. It was his decision. Gabriel rolled his eyes in exasperation before nodding at you. He winked and it made your heart stutter a bit. Wings or not, he was an attractive man and charming to boot.

Sighing, you took off your glasses and handed them to Dean, who was grinning triumphantly. You watched him put on the glasses and suddenly the color ran out of his face as he blanched.

“Dean? Dean, breathe!” Castiel reprimanded his mate, reaching forward and putting his hands on his shoulders. Dean took in a shuddering breath and struggled to regain his composure, reaching up with a shaking hand and pulling the glasses off of his face.

“Y-yeah. Those are...real nice, Gabriel. Nice-good. Good wings.”

You were perplexed as you watched Dean. He started to hand the glasses back to you, but Sam’s hand intercepted them. He looked questioningly at Gabriel, obviously seeking permission to sate his own curiosity. You heard him sigh dramatically.

“Oh, go ahead Samsquatch.” He mumbled something about monkeys at a zoo before Sam put on the glasses, too. To his credit, having not seen angel wings at all before, he held his composure rather well. He was seeing not only Gabriel’s, but Castiel’s wings for the first time and you could see the muscle twitching in his now-pale face as he clenched his jaw, attempting to take them both in. Like his brother, he seemed to have stopped breathing for a moment.

“Wow,” He squeaked out in a much-too-high voice. “You both...yeah. Wings. Nice.”

What on earth? Sure, your first time seeing wings ever had been overwhelming, but it was like they both were having trouble even looking at Gabriel’s wings. You couldn’t stop admiring them, yourself. They were mammoth, but easily the most gorgeous things you’d ever seen. You glanced at Gabriel’s face. His arm had found the back of his neck again, but he looked more amused than uncomfortable. You noticed he kept sneaking glances at you and when he caught your eye he winked again and rolled his eyes in the direction of the boys. You noticed he wasn’t bothering to try and pull his wings inward anymore, either. He had them stretching out above him as if showing them off. If you didn’t know better, you’d think he’d done that just to mess with the boys. Your eyes swept from one end of his wingspan to the other end before landing back on his face. You met his eyes, which were transfixed on you, an unreadable expression on his face. His mouth had dropped open slightly and his eyes seemed to be burning into you, their look was so intense. You cinched your brow at him, confused at this sudden change in him. You felt a hand tap your shoulder and you turned away to take what Sam was offering out to you.

Your glasses.

Oh My Chuck.

Your head snapped back to the angel in front of you as you slowly put your glasses back on, his intense expression coming into clearer focus.

You suddenly became aware of the silence as your three other companions watched you and Gabriel.

“Uh...everything okay?” Dean asked, concerned at the silent exchange happening between you and the archangel. You floundered for a moment, your mouth opening and closing, trying to find words, but you were having trouble making sound. You and Gabriel hadn’t broken eye contact and the corner of Gabriel’s mouth twitched upward as he responded for you.

“Boys...things just got a lot more interesting.”

#waywarddaughterwrites #supernatural #gabriel x reader #gabriel fic #supernatural fanfiction #gabriel #gabriel supernatural #gabriel reader insert #dean friendship #sam friendship #castiel frienship #wingfic #soulmate au #gabriel x you #gabriel x reader fanfiction #destiel #just a hint of destiel but its there

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chan-yolo · 6 years

Text

Tainted Love- Part 1.0

A/N Hey guys! it’s been a while... sorry about that.

So I posted the prologue for Tainted Love so long ago, and I had the majority of this part written up, but then I lost all motivation and then never came back to it, but here we are now.

This was supposed to be waaaay longer, but I’m posting them in separate parts, so this is the first part of the first instalment and I hope you like it xoxo

Genre: Angst, fluff somewhere, implied smut

Pairing: Do Kyungsoo / Reader

Warnings: none really

Words Count: 3691

The Calm Before the Storm.

Before I tell you about the discovery of my fiancés affair, I should enlighten you with the events leading up to the day everything came crashing down.

After the engagement I didn’t think it would be as hectic as it was. As soon as we announced it to our parents, they insisted we were to have a big party, where all our friends, as well as some of Kyungsoo and my father’s business partners were the attendees. It was as if we didn’t even have the time to celebrate our engagement ourselves. Kyungsoo went back to work, and I planned the engagement party with our parents, booking one of our well-known venues as well as sorting out invitations for the party.

One day I was sat at our kitchen island, checking names of people invited to the party, when Kyungsoo walked in from work. After hearing the door go, I looked up at the clock above our refrigerator, seeing that it had just turned 10:30pm. Looking back down at the list of names on the sheet in front of me, I rubbed my forehead, feeling a small tension headache coming on. It wasn’t long until I heard Kyungsoo enter the room, his footsteps bringing him to stand behind me.

I felt the soft squeeze of his hands kneading my shoulders, expelling the slight tension that had resided there. Closing my eyes, I took off my glasses, melting into his touch.

“You’re up so late, you have a meeting tomorrow morning.” His voice was soft and soothing, washing away the stress.

“Yes, but the party is this weekend, and I haven’t even finished the guest list.”

“Can’t it wait until tomorrow?” Kyungsoo left a kiss on my temple, fingers still kneading my shoulder blades.

“I should get it done…”

“And you will, tomorrow night. We can do it together.” His kiss returned to my temple, repeatedly giving me small kisses.

“I suppose so. How was work?” Turning around in his hold, I looked up at my suit clad fiancé, his hair gelled back and his tie loosened.

“No different to usual.” Kyungsoo pushed my hair back, eyes scanning my face as I played with the bottom of his suit jacket.

“Did you eat?” I questioned.

“Yes, your father and I had a meal together.”

“Was it fun?” teasingly I pulled on his jacket.

“Oh yes, it’s always nice to hear your father recite the same stories over and over from since before we were dating.” His smile was just as teasing as mine, sarcasm dripping from his voice in a light-hearted way. Letting out a yawn I gave him a tired smile.

“Time for bed I think.” Nodding at his decision, I rose from the chair I had been sitting in, following my fiancé into our shared bedroom, living in a routine so normal and wonderful, I never anticipated how hectic life could get.

. . .

The day of the engagement party was a mess. It might as well of been the actual wedding with the amount of worrying our parents did about the organisation of it. Standing in the venue, I watched as people ran about, placing fancy decorations on tables and preparing appetizers and glasses of champagne. My mother was talking to the woman organising this shindig, they both glanced over at me nodding, making me feel a bit uneasy, before my mother started to walk over to me. Rubbing my bicep, she gave me a closed lip, crimson smile.

“You look worried dear.” Her voice held concern, but she also had an air of disinterest about her.

“Don’t you think this is a bit much, this isn’t even the wedding and things are hectic, was it really necessary to invite so many people tonight?”

“Darling, your Father insisted, you know how excited he is, now you should get ready, I’m going to check on flowers.” With that she sauntered off, her heels clacking on the hard wood floor of the expensive venue. Rubbing my forehead, I sighed, trying to rub away a headache that was forming.

“You shouldn’t frown like that, you’ll get wrinkles.” Opening my eyes, I was greeted by Kyungsoo walking towards me. He was wearing light blue jeans and a green sweater, his glasses on his face. He looked so soft, bringing a happy smile to form on my face.

“You sound like my mother.” I reached out towards him, bringing him in to hug me, causing some tension to ease in my body.

“Has she gone into business mode?” Patting my hair, Kyungsoo, left small kisses on my forehead, trying to calm me down.

“Yes, what will she be like when it is the wedding?” pulling away from him, I investigated his brown orbs, a worried expression on my face.

“Well you’ve told her we’re planning it right?” I nodded at him. “Well then, it’s up to us, and we have the last say, not your parents, and not mine. It’s our wedding.” He kissed my forehead again, and I felt the stress leave my body.

“Can we go home? I need a bath.” Taking my hand, he kissed the back of it, leading me out of the lavish hall.

“Of course, I also picked up your favourite bottle of wine, I thought we could have that before tonight starts.”

“Have I ever told you you’re perfect?” I smiled at him.

“You’ve mentioned it.”

. . .

I always hated having my hair done. I hated it being pulled about, and in control of someone else. That’s why I refused to go along with Kyungsoo’s mother and my own. Hence why I was sitting in my own chair, curlers crowning my head, trying to wing my eyeliner in my new underwear my friend assured me I was to buy. I groaned in frustration, hating that I had to dress up.

“I don’t see why you moan so much, your mum literally offered to get someone to do all of this for you.” I turned around to see Kyungsoo sitting back on the bed, a book in hand, already dressed in his suit.

“You know I hate it.” Looking up at me, he smiled, his eyes scanning my form.

“I know. You look beautiful.”

“I’m not even ready.” I huffed, cheeks tinting pink, as I busied myself with my makeup scattered across the table.

“I know, but you’re still beautiful.” Looking up, I looked at him through the mirror, catching his eye and smiling before getting back to work.

. . .

Two hours. It took me two hours to finally feel okay with how I looked. About an hour and a half ago Kyungsoo had gone downstairs to watch TV and to leave me to get ready. And finally, I was finished. My long hair was curled, and I had done a smoky eye, not too dramatic but enough to compliment my eyes. The dress I had gotten especially for this party was long, silk, backless and red. My mum didn’t like it, said I should’ve worn white, but after all, this was my engagement party. I slipped on some black heels, of course not tall enough to tower over Kyungsoo, and grabbed my clutch bag. Walking down the stairs I scrolled through my phone, trying to answer the text my mother had sent me nearly twenty minutes ago.

“Soo, mum says that everyone is basically already there, so we should probably go right now.” I looked up to see Kyungsoo looking over the couch, his mouth hanging ajar.

“Don’t be cheesy.” I warned. He got up from his spot, walking over, looking me up and down. “You’ve already been cheesy once today.” I pointed at him. before I could give him another warning, he kissed it away. Giving me a slow peck, capturing my bottom lip in-between his. Breaking away, only centimetres apart, I could feel his warm breath on my face.

“I love you.” A smile broke out on my face at his cheesy yet sincere confession.

The venue was bursting at the seams, and we hadn’t even reached the inside. People were still trying to park, and I could hear the noise from within from the entrance of the building.

“I thought you said it was just going to be a few people?” Kyungsoo asked.

“It was only a few when I handed the guest list to my father, they must have invited more people.” I looked at the building worriedly, knowing that this party was a mistake from the off, we should’ve just celebrated quietly.

“Maybe we should go home.” I went to turn back, when Kyungsoo lightly gripped my biceps looking at me.

“You’ve been helping to plan this for weeks, all of our friends are in there, it will be okay. Also, we should probably show up to our own engagement party” He smiled at me, making my own smile mirror his. I gave him a nod, before turning around and linking my arm in his own, ready to see what the inside of this lavish building had in store for us.

We had been here for an hour, and I couldn’t tell you where Kyungsoo had been dragged off to. I was currently stood, listening to some older women from my mother’s club drone on about the hardships of married life, and the duty of a woman to her husband. Quite frankly I wasn’t listening, just giving nods when it was needed.

My attention wondered to the crowds, picking out Kyungsoo’s parents and my own, but not the man himself. Looking towards the bar, I found Jongdae and Baekhyun, two of Soo’s friends. Baekhyun’s eyes locked with my own, he shook his champagne flute at me as an invitation. Giving him a nod and a smile, I turned back to the women who were still nattering amongst themselves, interrupting their conversation of housework and the like.

“Sorry ladies, I’m afraid I’m going to have to cut this short, I should probably find my fiancé.” I smiled at them sweetly.

“Ah yes, he’s probably wondering where you are by now, run along, we’ll make sure to catch up with you later.” Smiling at one of my mother’s oldest friends, I swiftly made my way towards the bar, trying not to be grabbed by anyone else in the massive hall. Reaching the bar, I puffed some hair out of my eyes, signalling the bartender for a drink.”

“Busy night?” Baekhyun asked from next to me.

“I swear if I have to hear another story of how my married life will be spent inside the home, I am going to check into an asylum myself.” Jongdae laughed at me, passing a glass of champagne. “Where’s the rest of the boys?” I asked.

“Some are with their own partners, others are finding partners.” Jongdae wriggled his eyebrows. I rolled my eyes, looking behind me, again for any sight of Kyungsoo.

“Speaking of partners, have you seen my fiancé anywhere?”

“I’m pretty sure he headed towards the back door, just down that corridor.” Baekhyun pointed to the hallway leading out towards the back of the venue. It had been closed off for tonight, but knowing Kyungsoo he had gone that way for a little bit of quiet. Downing my champagne, I waved to the two men, following the path to the corridor I was told to pursue.

The corridor itself was dark, and there were sort of seminar rooms down it, all with glass windows to see into the room, though I couldn’t see much as there were no lights down there. I hadn’t worn my contact lenses so I couldn’t make out any Kyungsoo type shapes. Thinking Baekhyun had sent me on a wild goose chase, I doubled back, deciding on trying the foyer instead. Before I reached the end of the corridor, a door to one of the rooms opened, and an arm pulled me in, closing the door and trapping me between their body and the door, their hand over my mouth to stop a scream.

“Y/n, it’s just me.” Kyungsoo’s deep voice rang out through the empty room, making my shoulders sag in relief. His hand moved from my face, allowing me to talk and breath,

“What were you thinking? I nearly died.” I over exaggerated, leaning my head back against the hard-wooden door behind me. Kyungsoo chuckles, his hands making their way to my waist.

“I was thinking that I would like a minute alone with my fiancé.”

“And you couldn’t just ask for that?” I raised my eyebrow at him.

“This way was more fun.” Kyungsoo’s lips teased my own, leaving promise of a kiss.

“Why did you pull me in here Mr. Do?”

“I thought we could have a moment of peace, maybe make out a bit.” He shrugged.

“You sound like a teenager.” Laughing I shook my head at him.

“Mmmm maybe, but it sounds like a good idea, right?” Humming, Kyungsoo left kisses against the skin of my neck, his hands tickling shapes on the skin of my exposed back.

“well I guess it wouldn’t hurt.” My voice was breathy, as I revelled in the feel of his plush lips on my skin, trailing up towards my own lips. Soon enough they found my own, biting and sucking on them, hungry and wanting. Full of love yet full of want. His hands trailed lower, as mine trailed to his hair. Breaking away, we both breathed heavily, his kisses going back to my neck and collar bones, marking the skin there.

“We’re not seriously going to have sex here are we?” I breathed out.

“Don’t you want to?” Kyungsoo’s voice was hot and thick with need.

“I do, badly. But what if people find us? What if our parents find us?”

“This place is closed off; besides they’ll think we’re mingling, what do you say?” Kyungsoo looked me in the eyes, stopping his ministrations, and asking me for my consent. I thought it over for a minute, thinking about the risks before I came to my conclusion.

“Against the door or on the desk?” Kyungsoo’s mischievous smile bloomed on his face, before lifting me up. My legs wrapped around his waist as he pinned me to the door.

“Both.”

. . .

Being brought up in a prestigious family with a lot of wealth had its perks. Take for example VIP access, flying in business class, all the holidays. But we were just wealthy, not famous. Sure, our family owned one of the biggest companies in the country, and I was in the fashion industry. But we weren’t public figures.

Yet here we were, Kyungsoo and I, taking part in a photo-shoot for an exclusive spread in a very popular magazine, that will be seen all over the world might I add. They had dressed me up in a flowy summer dress, Kyungsoo in a shirt and jeans, and placed us in front of a fountain.

“Is this necessary?” Kyungsoo pulled me into him, his eyebrow raising in question.

“I asked your mother the same thing when she booked this.” Resting my hands on his chest I rubbed our noses together, knowing that they were still taking pictures of the two of us.

“We’ve been here for six hours, we could’ve been doing other things.”

“Like what? Slouching on the couch watching re-runs and eating take out?” I teased.

“Sounds better doesn’t it.” Kissing me, we forgot about the cameras, and just indulged in each other. So in love at the mere ages of 23 and 25, how stupid were we?

. . .

The wedding was a year away, and with that I felt I had enough time to plan everything. Everything would be easy and we would have no problems. Apart from the hype of it all and the business of the engagement, things looked as if they would be an easy ride. That was my first mistake. The misconception of the whole situation set me up for failure, made me a fool because I was hopeful, determined. It was about a month or so after the engagement part, and things had started to settle down, so now I had been doing some wedding planning, and first on my list was the right dress. Seated at brunch, I was in between my mother and Kyungsoo’s, showing them each dress I had been considering for the wedding.

“I really want something one of a kind, something that is totally me, but also completely an individual creation.” I explained, the cup of tea in my hands warming me up.

“Well I think your choices are lovely, you have such an eye for beautiful fashion.” My mother-in-law praised. Thanking her, I poured both her and my own mother some more tea.

“Though this does bring me on to a topic that has been concerning me since I heard of your engagement to my son.” `Snapping my head up I placed the tea pot down, looking between the two women that sat in front of me.

“What situation?”

“Well you are a successful woman, you have done your parents proud, and I admire that, but obviously you will be marrying Kyungsoo, who will, your mother will agree with me, be inheriting your fathers company, he will be earning enough for the both of you.”

“Are you suggesting I give up work?” I asked her, hoping this wasn’t where she was headed.

“Well it would be wise, obviously you’ll have children and you’ll need to stay at home to look after them and be a good housewife to your husband.” I stared at Kyungsoo’s mother incredulously.

“You are suggesting I give up work?”

“Well it’s only right dear.” His mother shrugged at me.

“But I’ve worked so hard with this company, I made this company, I won’t just leave it.”

“it’s the responsible thing to do, we’ve all done it.” I looked at my mum for some help, but she only sipped her tea, nodding along to what my future mother-in-law had to say.

“I’m sorry Mrs. Do, but that isn’t even something I can consider right now.”

“I’m not saying you leave now, maybe just after the honeymoon, just think about it dear.” She tapped her maroon painted fingernails against the china tea cup. And before I could even insist that this was never going to happen, she had already moved on, speaking of whether lace or silk would be right for a dress.

Later that evening, I was sat across from Kyungsoo, in a small Italian restaurant. Our traditional date night, one we would never give up. Though this evening he seemed quiet, not muttering more than a couple sentences from the car journey here to now, half way through the meal. Kyungsoo was quiet, but never quiet with me. It was not in his character, and we weren’t fighting… well that’s what I thought.

“Kyungsoo, are you okay? Did something happen at work?” I twirled my spaghetti around my fork, only playing with my food as I looked at him. all I got was a sharp shake of his head in dismissal.

“Something had to have happened for you to be this quiet with me.” He audibly exhaled at my statement, now looking at me, placing his fork down, leaning back into his wooden chair. I mirrored him, placing down my own fork, waiting for what he was about to say.

“Do you not think before you speak?” His voice was deep and questionable, but I was bewildered and confused.

“Sorry?”

“Today you met with my Mother, and you told her resigning was something you would never consider.”

“Soo, this is about a small matter that happened this morning?” I sighed, thinking that he was overreacting.

“Don’t act nonchalant, what were you thinking talking to my Mother like that?”

“Like what?” It was evident I was shocked, I felt attacked and accused of doing something blasphemous.

“You were rude, to your own Mother-in-law, I knew you were outspoken and reckless in the old days, but how dare you think that is okay now.” His eyebrows furrowed into his stern expression he saved for his secretaries.

“I wasn’t rude at all, your mother told me to resign from my company, the company I had built myself, don’t you think that was rude?”

“Certainly not, it’s tradition for the wife to stay at home while her husband works, it’s always been like that within our families.” He crossed his arms, looking so confident in what he had just said.

“I can’t believe you just said that to me, you know how much this business means to me, and you very well know how I am the last person to conform to that delusional patriarchal view your family have going.”

“How dare you!” He looked bewildered and shocked, even though we both knew he understood my views on this so-called tradition long before he proposed.

“No Kyungsoo, how dare you, ow dare you think for one minute I would intentionally insult your mother, and how dare you think I would be stuck in that generation.” People around us were starting to stare, but I was so angry I couldn’t even feel self-conscious right now, all that was bubbling in my chest was anger and hurt. Pushing my chair back, I rose from my seat, pulling on my coat and picking up my bag.

“Where are you going?”

“Home, I don’t want to be humiliated anymore.” Walking away, I left the restaurant to lean against the side of his car. When he finally walked out, unlocking the car for us, I immediately got in, wanting to get home as fast as I can. But I knew it would never be avoided, we would have to address it at another point, but that point wasn’t now, wasn’t immediate.

The air between us had changed, changed to something different from anything else. I didn’t know it then, but it wasn’t the air, it was us. It was him. and sooner rather than later would I come to find out how much he had really changed.

#exo #Kyungsoo #do kyungsoo #d.o #angst #fluff #smut #Kyungsoo Scenario #kyungsoo fanfiction #d.o scenario #d.o fanfiction #KPOP

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casuallydeliciousphilosopher · 6 years

Text

WIP Meme

Rules: List the titles of ALL of the active WIPs in your WIP folder, along with a sentence for the general concept if it isn’t self-explanatory. Then post the last sentence/thing you wrote (fanfic/original/anything)

I was tagged by @thewollfgang (Wolfie you changed your URL…how dare you…I’m horrible at adaptation)

Oh God…why did you have to open Pandora’s box??? You fool, you’ve doomed us all! Jk, you have WAAAAY more WIPs than I do. Seriously Wolfie…how do you do it??? (Also, all of your Lucifer WIPs are frickin’ perfect. I adore you.)

Soooo…this is super long so I’m putting it under the cut. Hopefully, that still works on mobile…who knows. WARNING: 7K words await below.

Lucifer:

Devilish Arrangements – Impending Nuptials (Collaboration with Valificent):

Official Synopsis:

Sequel to Deal with the Devil. Now that Chloe's gotten herself into a less than ideal situation with Lucifer, as a result of the deal they made with each other, she finds that planning a wedding may be the more stressful than managing a hostage negotiation. All the while, she slowly starts to realize that keeping herself emotionally distanced from her soon-to-be-husband is harder than she originally expected. Meanwhile, Lucifer's dealing with some otherworldly issues of his own as his wings get stolen and he comes to terms with his new-found mortality. At the same time, he slowly starts to realize that he might actually be developing feelings for the Detective and her spawn; a revelation that makes him build up walls of denial, and sends him to Linda's office more often than usual.

Chapter 4 Recent Excerpt:

“Doctor. I need advice.” I stated as I closed her office door behind myself, turning to find her with a Tupperware container filled with her lunch and a book sitting on her desk.

She took a moment to compose herself, swallowing the bite she had in her mouth before setting her fork down deliberately. “Lucifer, we literally just had a session a few days ago, you’re not due for another week.” On the surface the words were polite, but I could hear the strained undertone they held, the slight sheen of annoyance.

“I know, but this is an emergency,” I explained as I sat down on the plush sofa occupying the far wall, settling into it as the doctor shook her head softly, tucking a bookmark against the pages of her thick novel.

“What’s your emergency this time?” The soft sigh was all I needed to delve right into it, no point in giving her the chance to change her mind.

“The Detective asked me to supervise her spawn tonight and I need to know the basics on how to keep it alive.” The words left me in a rush, some of my trepidation over the situation managing to leak into my voice.

“You’re joking, right?” The pause in her voice wasn’t supposed to be condescending, but it was regardless. Why did she think I would know how to keep a small human alive? I was the Devil, not some nanny.

“Why would I joke about something this serious?”

A long beat of silence filled the air before the good doctor finally relented, “How old is Beatrice?”

“Seven,” I answered simply, watching a soft smile pull at the corners of her mouth as she shook her head, a quiet huff of laughter escaping her.

“She won’t be too hard to take care of,” Linda stated as she folded her hands over her lap. “She’s old enough to tell you when she’s hungry, or thirsty, or needs to use the restroom. Just make sure you listen to her, she’s still a child and she doesn’t have the self-discipline adults do.” Her simple explanation made it sound...easy. Could it really be so elementary?

“Really? That’s all it takes?” A hint of doubt crept into my voice as I asked, earning a wide smile from the doctor.

“To keep her alive, yes.” I let out a long breath at the answer. I’d been getting worked up over nothing...well, perhaps not nothing; I would have to figure out how to keep her from wreaking havoc on my home...but that was a problem for a different time. “You might want to look into child psychology a little bit if you’re so unused to children. You’re going to her father figure.” The doctor’s words made me cringe. Father figure. Well, I suppose that was certainly one way to describe my relationship with the little miscreant.

“Don’t remind me,” I muttered flippantly, moving my hand through the air in some futile attempt to push the topic to the side. Linda picked up on the movement, of course she did, she was good at her job; some calculating gaze filling her eyes as she leaned forward slightly.

“Why does that bother you?” For a moment I considered ignoring the probing question, I certainly wasn’t expecting the conversation to take this turn...and I really didn’t need to relive all of the fond father-son memories I had buried somewhere in my mind.

“I just...I don’t want to…” I trailed off with a sigh, running a hand through my hair as I wondered if she would let me deflect this question, or perhaps if I should just leave and be done with this for the time being. But before I could do the logical thing, before I could avoid dredging up things that should stay mostly forgotten, my traitorous mouth was already answering, “What if I wind up turning into Him?”

“Him?”

The simple word hung heavy in the air, and I swallowed thickly before answering, “My father.” A long beat of silence lapsed on, and I drew in a long breath before trying to explain, “He…” the words refused to come. What if she agreed with His decisions, what if she thought that He was right and I was wrong? “Let’s just say there’s a reason I don’t like him.”

“You’re worried that you’re going to hurt Beatrice the same way your father hurt you.”

An Angel may keep you Safe, but a Devil will teach you that Fallen things can be Beautiful too:

Official Synopsis:

Chloe and Lucifer go undercover as Mr. and Mrs. Dawson in order to solve a murder and bust a child trafficking ring. Chloe is looking forward to the case as an opportunity to finally have some much needed "alone time" with her new boyfriend. But recent developments in Lucifer's supernatural life make him worry that Chloe’s safety may be in jeopardy when the beast that’s laid dormant in him for so long decides to start rebelling, particularly when in her presence.

Chapter 4 Recent Excerpt:

“Mazikeen, listen to me, you need to tell me everything you know about it,” Lucifer’s voice was quiet yet still rough as he spoke into his phone while he paced back and forth across the bedroom. So far, all of the information his right-hand demon had been able to offer had been of no help at all; and honestly, if Chloe’s well-being wasn’t potentially at stake he would’ve given up on this futile line of questioning twenty minutes ago.

“I’ve already told you everything I know!” Maze’s clearly exasperated voice replied. The Devil growled under his breath at her statement as he stopped in his tracks; bringing his free hand up to rub his temples as he tried to quell his rapidly growing irritation.

“So you advised me to accept this…” Lucifer trailed off as he tried to come up for a proper label for the beast that had been rebelling against him lately, “...thing. When you had no real knowledge of what it’s capable of?” He finished, his voice taking on an accusatory tone as he let his free hand fall limply back to his side. “You said that I would be able to control it.” Lucifer’s voice grew louder and harsher as he resumed his pacing. At this rate, he was beginning to think that he was going to wear a path in the carpet. He couldn’t help but feel irritated with his demon, in a way this was all her fault; he never would have accepted this damn thing had she not pressured him to. Bloody hell, he never would have even known that it existed if it wasn’t for Mazikeen.

“You were the most powerful being I’d ever met! Of course I thought you’d be able to control it!” Maze hissed. “Why does it matter if it doesn’t want to play nice all the time?” She asked a second later, her voice remaining tense.

Silence filled the line for a few strained seconds before Lucifer finally dared to speak up, “Because it wants Chloe. And…” He trailed off before swallowing heavily, “...I don’t know how much longer I can keep it at bay.”

The Gods Live Among Us Now, And They Are No Longer Kind - Earth:

Unofficial Synopsis:

In a world where the color of your blood determines your worth, Chloe Decker has always lived with the simple burden that she’s justa Red. Justa human. Destined to serve under her Silver lords for the rest of her life, destined to serve the very beings that were created to protect her kind in the first place. When she learns about the Red rebellion that’s quickly growing, a group of rebels called the Scarlet Guard who are determined to end the reign of the Silvers, she joins without question, quickly putting her skills to use as a spy. But it’s not until she learns that her partner, Lucifer Morningstar, is not only a Silver, but one of the first ones that was ever created, that her life, and her loyalty, gets torn in directions that she’d never dreamed she’d encounter.

Recent Excerpt:

Lucifer turned at the loud clattering sound echoing through the room, his gaze immediately settling on Chloe as she stared at him with wide eyes. He quickly glanced down at the bag that spilled open on the floor, some medical supplies peeking out from under the burlap. “Are you alright?” He questioned as he finished pulling his fresh shirt over his head, it wasn’t like Chloe to freeze up like this, over anything, really.

“What happened?” Chloe’s breathless voice questioned as she took a calculated step towards him. She must have noticed the puzzled look on his face, because she clarified a moment later, “What happened to your wings?”

Right. The scars. He forgot about them sometimes, most people didn’t have the gall to ask when they did see them; but Chloe knew the truth about him, she knew what used to reside where the scars now were. “What do you think happened?” Lucifer ground out bitterly, his hands subconsciously tightening into fists at the memory of red-hot pain searing through his back as feathers were flayed from flesh.

“Lucifer,” Chloe breathed as she shook her head softly, something that would be pity if it wasn’t so gentle filling her expression. “I’m s-”

“Don’t, please.” Lucifer cut her off, lifting a single hand to silence her. He didn’t want to hear her apologize for something she had no control over, something she didn’t do. He didn’t want to be reminded of how he’d had his divinity stripped from him, the ultimate symbol of how his father had done everything he could to render him powerless, to render him human. “Do you have the stuff?” Chloe seemed to pull herself together at the question, her eyes lingering on his side where he was hurt as she nodded softly.

“Yeah, yeah.” She muttered, quickly bending down and retrieving the bag of medical supplies from the floor as she closed the last few feet resting between them. “Why don’t we find somewhere a little more private?”

Ignis:

Unofficial Synopsis:

After Amenadiel thwarts his mother’s plans to kill Chloe via bomb, the Goddess of Creation comes up with a craftier, and only slightly less lethal, remedy for her problem; trapping her in Hell, the last place Lucifer would think to look for ‘his’ Detective. While Chloe’s stuck in her own personal Hell loop, tensions brew between the celestials and humans in her life as they attempt to find her, hopefully, before Hell manages to leave a lasting mark.

Recent Excerpt:

Cold. Numbing cold.

It’s the first thing that assaults Chloe’s senses; and almost immediately she can taste a bitter, metallic tang on the back of her tongue, and a chill that emanates from within her.

The next thing she notices is the absolute darkness that engulfs everything. She can’t see anything, but she can feel the shadows slowly constricting like a snake coiling around its prey, slowly crushing the life out of her. These inky tendrils that reach towards her aren’t normal, they feel sinister, oppressive, insurmountable.

The ice growing in her veins begins to harden, making it difficult for her to will her limbs to move. But she’s been here before, she knows where to find him; and its that simple fact that wills her to summon the strength to turn around.

Her breath catches in her throat the moment she sees his faint outline, barely visible in the distance. He’s the only thing here that the darkness hasn’t yet consumed; and if she can just reach him soon enough, if she can cross the distance that separates them, then maybe, just maybe, she can save him.

Sweet Sin, Unholy Prayers (Collaboration with Calgrycgos):

Unofficial Synopsis:

AKA my cousin’s A/B/O fic. I’d post something from the upcoming chapter if I could, but really, he does the writing and I just throw in some ideas and polish up his sentence structure a bit. Needless to say, I was stoked when he started writing this (it is one hell of a guilty pleasure, pun intended) and I threw what little A/B/O scraps I had at him and told him he could use them if he wanted. Zachary, you’re doing great baby.

Official Synopsis:

In a world where one's gender seemed to determine their worth in society, Chloe had always hoped to be a Beta, or even better, an Alpha. So when she presented as an Omega she felt like God had abandoned her, forsaken her to a fate that she wouldn't wish on her worst enemy.

But little did she know that God had larger plans for her than she could ever imagine. Plans that involved a fallen and forsaken son, the revolution of the society that she grew up in, and the defense of a universe that even God can't protect on his own.

Chapter 8 Recent Excerpt:

The moment she stepped out of the bedroom and into the living room she noticed Lucifer sitting at the piano, a lit cigarette hanging from his lips as he stared down at the black and white keys before him. He didn’t look up when she approached, and she wound up coming to a stop across from him; the massive wooden beast separating the two of them as she spoke up, her tone biting even though she wasn’t raising her voice. “Do you enjoy making me feel insignificant?”

Lucifer visibly tensed at the question, his dark eyes flicking up to meet hers as he slowly lifted a hand and pulled the cigarette from his mouth. “What are you talking about?” The words were mostly neutral, even if a hint of annoyance tainted them at the very end.

“Earlier,” Chloe began as she crossed her arms over her chest defensively, feeling far too scrutinized under the weight of his gaze, “when you oh-so-helpfully pointed out how much worse I could have it, how I should be grateful for how easygoing you are.”

Lucifer had the audacity to chuckle at her words, shaking his head as a smirk tugged at the corner of his mouth. “I never said that.” He replied as he reached up, resting the still burning cigarette in the ashtray sitting on the glossy black top of the piano.

“But you meant it,” Chloe growled, the nonchalant way he brushed her concerns away only serving to set her even further on edge.

Lucifer stood the moment her voice died away, the soft sound of his footsteps on the ground filling the air as he stepped around the piano. “I thought we agreed that you were going to stop assuming things about me, hmm?” He murmured, something dark underlying the words as he came to a stop a few feet away from her, “That you would stop putting words in my mouth.”

Chloe let out a huff of bitter laughter at his words, her gaze finding the ceiling as she shook her head. She forced her arms back down to her sides as she focused on Lucifer’s miffed expression. “I am so tired,” her voice broke on the simple word as she stepped closer, purposely invading his personal space, “of putting up with abusive Alphas.” The words trembled slightly as they left her lips, but she’d be damned if she was going to let the rest of her life turn into some oppression flavored nightmare that she’d never be able to escape.

“Abusive?” Disbelief blatantly laced the single word as Lucifer stared down at her as though she’d lost her mind. “I haven’t laid a finger on you.”

Soulmate/Daemon/Familiar AU:

Very Unofficial Synopsis:

This is some weird mixture of a daemon/familiar AU and a soulmate AU. I dunno man…I saw a prompt on Tumblr when I was drunk and I actually kinda like what I wrote…maybe this will actually be a thing. Basically, in a world where everyone has a daemon/familiar you can tell who your soulmate is because your daemon will only play with your soulmate’s daemon.

Recent Excerpt:

“Lucifer?” Chloe called out as she stepped into the empty penthouse. Looking around for any sign of her partner as she wrung her hands together nervously. She’d been on edge about coming over ever since Lucifer warned her about his familiar, she wasn’t even sure what she was expecting; a bear maybe, or something else equally dangerous, perhaps a crocodile.

“I’ll be right out,” Lucifer called back, his voice coming from the direction of his bedroom. The acknowledgment set her at ease a bit, and she blew out a long breath as she carefully approached the marble bar to her right. A soft ‘mrew’ sound filled the air a moment later, and Chloe glanced back over at the bedroom doorway only to see a massive black panther, or jaguar, or something, staring at her with huge golden eyes. She swallowed thickly as she stared back at the beast of an animal, part of her wondering how in the world Lucifer had run into a fucking panther only to have the damn thing imprint on him. She didn’t get to wander very far down that trail of thought before the huge cat let out a soft huff and started trotting towards her, gaining more speed with each step as the distance between them dwindled at an alarming pace.

“Lucifer!” Chloe yelled, not entirely sure what her partner would do to stop the massive cat, but hoping that he’d be able to do something.

“Mikhal!” Lucifer barked out a moment later, and the panther slid to a stop before her, coming to a halt with a soft huff only a few mere inches left between them. Chloe let out a long, relieved breath as she dared to pry her gaze away from the beast, her eyes falling on Lucifer, clad only in a towel as he stood in the doorway of his bedroom.

“That’s your familiar?” She questioned breathlessly, a tremor of worry seeping into her voice as Lucifer came down the steps, approaching her with long self-assured strides.

“Surprised, Detective?” He chuckled, reaching out and taking one of her hands in his own before holding it out towards the huge cat. Chloe tensed as it leaned in closer, tentatively sniffing her hand before pulling back and sneezing, the sound echoing through the penthouse. The panther stared up at her for a long moment before rearing up onto its hind legs without warning, and Chloe would have shrunk back if Lucifer wasn’t still holding onto her hand. A moment later she was standing there with its paws draped over her shoulders, the big cat towering over her as her heart threatened to beat out of her chest. She froze in place when it started rumbling, and she didn’t realize that it was purring until after it had licked her cheek, its tongue rough against her skin.

Chloe let out a shaky breath when the massive cat pulled back slightly, daring a glance over at her partner only to find him starting at the encounter with some mix of surprise and wariness on his face. “Can I...can I touch him?” She asked a moment later, not wanting to trespass over the line of touching a persons familiar without their permission. Lucifer only nodded slightly in response, and Chloe took it as all the consent that she’d get from him at the moment. Chloe drew in a long breath as she lifted her arms, slowly daring to bury them in the thick, glossy fur at the panther's shoulders.

The cat rumbled out another purr at the contact, leaning in and nuzzling the side of her face with its own, managing to pull a shaky laugh from the detective. “Ava is at home, correct?” Lucifer’s question broke the quiet with ease, and Chloe nodded as she silently marveled over the fact that she was petting a goddamn panther like it was a common housecat.

“Yeah, she’s hanging out with Trix,” Chloe answered a moment later, suddenly thankful for the warning Lucifer had given her earlier today to leave her familiar at home. She didn’t even want to imagine how scared she would be watching her sweet little red fox try to interact with this mammoth of a cat.

“Perhaps next time you should bring her,” Lucifer suggested softly, and Chloe froze at the statement.

“But...you explicitly told me to leave her at home tonight.”

“I did, yes, because Mikhal has quite literally ripped a person’s familiar to shreds before,” Lucifer explained a moment later, and suddenly Chloe didn’t feel quite so content with the huge cat that was lumbering over her at this very moment.

“Then why the hell would I want to bring Ava over?” She questioned angrily, shaking her head as she shot a glare at her half-naked partner.

“Because, I think that maybe-”

“We are not soulmates, Lucifer.”

The Good Die Young, But So Did This:

Official Synopsis:

A collection of prompt fic asks that I fill and then post on my Tumblr account.

Recent ExcerptList of the Prompts I have left to fill:

“I’ve missed this.”

“I can’t keep kissing strangers and pretending they’re you.”

“Do you regret it?” + “We need to talk about what happened last night.”

“I thought you were dead.” + “You could have died.”

“I should have told you a long time ago.” + “It was you the whole time.”

“You’re never going to let that go, are you?” + “Was that supposed to hurt?” + “I want an answer, God-damnit!”

“I’m not going anywhere.” + “You could have died.”

“You have to leave right now.” + “Just trust me.”

“Lie to me then.”

“We could get arrested for this.”

“I never stood a chance, did I?”

Fifty Shades of Deckerstar (Collaboration with Nesosana):

Really Unofficial Synopsis:

This is a collaboration that I’m working on with @nesosana…and really, she’s the brains behind the operation. She came up with the idea and it was so great that I asked to join in on the fun ;) This excerpt is basically written entirely by her, so go show her some love if you like it! The title is Fifty Shades of Deckerstar…do I really need to spell that one out, or can we just connect the dots?

Recent Excerpt:

Chloe just stood there, appearing unamused on the outside. But Lucifer had been with her for close to a year now, and he quickly picked up on the subtle cue of his beloved as part of her lip found its way between her teeth. It was clear that she was contemplating it, in fact, he had a feeling that she was doing everything in her power to keep her imagination from running wild.

He wanted to help her explore and fulfill her secret desires, they were his specialty, after all. He proceeded forward cautiously, as if he was approaching a wounded animal. He closed the gap of space between them as he placed a warm, encouraging hand on her forearm; he kept his voice soothing as he spoke, hoping that it would convey that she was safe with him, "Come on, there's got to be something you've always been curious about or wanted to try?"

Chloe chewed on her bottom lip nervously and rubbed her bicep as if it were sore before she began to speak, "Well...I..."

"Yes?"

"I've always wondered about..."

"Go on." Lucifer encouraged.

"This is silly...Lucifer, I can't."

Dishonored:

All Hallowed Eve:

Unofficial Synopsis:

When Jessamine asks him if he’d go with her to the spirit house that’s operating on All Hallowed Eve, Corvo agrees despite his better judgment. As if the threat of being arrested and branded a heretic if caught out after dark wasn’t enough, the Outsider himself had to get involved as well.

Recent Excerpt:

"Follow me, I need to speak with you in private," Jessamine ordered before grabbing the sleeve of my coat, dragging me away from the men staring at us with rapt attention. Ever since the Fugue Feast last year everyone had been acting particularly interested in us when we were near each other. It was nothing more than a mere annoyance. No matter how hard they looked it would be impossible to find something that literally didn't exist, and our rumored relationship was definitely something that didn't exist. We stopped near the end of the training grounds, a short wall dividing the grass from the ocean roaring against the side of the cliff. "Corvo, I'm going out with the Boyle's, the Pendleton's, and the Timsh girl tomorrow evening," Jessamine stated blatantly as she stared out at the ocean.

"I do advise against that, your grace, any civilians caught outside tomorrow night will be tried as heretics if arrested," I told her as I leaned against the wall. Her hair was down today, framing her face as the coastal breeze pushed it around. She must have gotten tired of wearing white, instead dressed in a dark navy tunic and pants which only made her pale skin stand out that much more. She looked over at me a short moment after I spoke up, her icy blue eyes boring into mine.

"Corvo! Stop acting like this!" Jessamine scolded me as she playfully slapped my arm, her voice an annoyed whine.

"Like what, your grace?" I questioned, a smile forming on my face. I knew exactly what she meant, I just enjoyed giving the young Empress a hard time. It was only fair I get her back for all the times she did the same to me.

"Like some stuffy version of my father! Where's the Corvo who's my friend?" She explained. She sounded exasperated and I decided to give her a break.

"Jessamine, I'm just thinking of your safety. What's so important that's happening tomorrow night?" I questioned as I let my Lord Protector mask down, something I only did for her and Geoff.

"There's this…" Jessamine trailed off as she stared at the grass under her feet for a moment before continuing. "This spirit house that some people are running in an abandoned place off the Wrenhaven, they're all going and I want to go with them," She explained quietly, as though she was scared that the men at least a dozen meters away would hear her. I couldn't blame her for keeping her voice down though. Oh, how the citizens on the isles would react if they found out that the heir to the throne wanted to go to a place where the Outsider was worshiped freely! The heresy!

"Oh, come on, Jess! Don't tell me you believe in all of this All Hallowed Eve, Outsider boogeyman nonsense," I chuckled as I shook my head, staring her down as I awaited her answer. I'd never known Jessamine to be religious except for when circumstance demanded it of her, and even then, she really only did religious things to uphold appearances. She’d never struck me as someone who would want to worship any deity, she was much too logical to get caught up in all that spiritual mumbo-jumbo.

"Of course, I don't! But it's supposed to be really spooky," Jessamine quickly answered, her voice still hushed as she began to tap her fingers on the brick wall almost as though she was growing impatient with our conversation.

"Since when do you want to be scared? You always hide behind me the second anything even relatively scary happens.”

“You’re my bodyguard! I pay you so I can hide behind you whenever something scary happens, that’s the whole point of your job.”

Modern Day AU:

Unofficial Synopsis:

When Corvo is given a new set of orders from his General he’s not particularly happy about it. Is babysitting some defense contractor representative really all he’s good for in his commanders’ eyes? It’s not until his assignment, Jessamine Kaldwin, is captured by a rouge sqaud of Al-Qaeda operatives that he realizes that there’s far more than just his ass on the line if he fails to get her back.

Recent Excerpt:

“Delta Squad, the west wall is being breached. Provide immediate support. Over.” The staticky radio ordered as another mortar hit the ground, closer than the last one, rocking the car I was hiding behind and sending dirt cascading from the air like rain.

“Avenger, I’m not gonna be able to do that for you.” I answered gruffly before shooting a few more bullets in the direction of the enemy.

“Delta Squad, that was an order.” The radio buzzed in response, and I felt anger boil through my veins. I was having a hard enough fucking time keeping myself alive.

“Shut the fuck up, Havelock! They’re all dead, the whole squad! It’s just me, so crawl the fuck outta my ass!” I yelled into the receiver.

“Attano?” I heard Havelock question, I didn't reply though because it was right then when I watched a grenade land next to Curnow. I threw the radio down into the dirt as I yelled his name, he looked over at me, then down at the grenade. He picked it up and tossed it back in the direction it’d come from, but it hadn’t gotten more than 10 meters from him before it blew up in the air.

“Curnow!”

I bolted straight up as I woke from the dream. My breath coming in gasps as I buried my face in my hands, the assault on our base had happened little more than a month ago, but I couldn’t erase the memories from my mind. Memories of my squad dying in front of my eyes, of Curnow…

“Sergeant Attano. General Moray is requesting your presence in thirty.” An almost nervous voice broke the silence, drawing my gaze up to the young man standing in the entrance-flap of the barracks tent.

“The General?”

“Yes, Sergeant.” The young private stated before leaving me be. I sighed as I stood up, quickly throwing on a fresh uniform before leaving the barracks. The General’s tent was across the base, which meant I was going to miss breakfast, but if I had to choose between going hungry and angering my commanding officer, I’d sooner starve than find myself walking into his office late. The base was bustling this early in the morning, the loud rumble of Humvees being warmed up for the day and the cadences of a platoon going for a morning jog resounding in the air as the sun began to peek over the horizon, painting the sky with shades of orange and red.

The General’s tent stood out against the rest, far larger than it needed to be, with the US flag and the guidons of every company currently on this base posted outside the front entrance. I paused outside for a moment, hearing the soft drone of a voice that sounded oddly feminine emanating from inside. Really? Did the General lack the common sense to bring a woman onto this installation, half the men here hadn’t seen a woman in months, he had to know that this was asking for trouble. I shook the thought away a moment later, calling through the tent flap as I made my presence known, “General Moray. Sergeant Attano reporting for duty.”

“Come in, Attano.” The Generals deep voice rang out after a brief moment of silence, and I entered the tent to see the General speaking to a young woman dressed in a business suit. Well shit. Maybe my commanding officer was starting to lose his mind, bringing a woman, especially one that looked like that, onto a base that primarily consisted of infantry units. “Attano. This is Miss Kaldwin.” The woman stood at his introduction, and I couldn’t really help it when my eyes started to wander, it’d been a while for me too and I was only human. “She’s a representative of Foster-Miller, one of our defense contractors. She’s here to identify and correct any weaknesses in the current TALON units we have in Afghanistan right now.” My commanding officer concluded, and I nodded at the explanation as I wondered why he felt this information was pertinent to me.

“Nice to meet you, sir.” Miss Kaldwin greeted me a moment later, her crisp bright voice ringing through the tent with ease. I grimaced slightly at the title she gave me, but I quickly decided that now wasn’t the time to have the whole ‘I’m not an officer, only officers are sir’s’ talk. Ugh, civilians.

“Sir, what did you call me here for?” I questioned, returning my gaze to the General as his murky, blue eyes bored into mine.

“I’m getting to it, Sergeant. Give me a moment.” The response was stern, and he didn’t need to scold me twice for me to take the hint.

“My apologies, sir.”

“As I was saying, Miss Kaldwin is here to check on our bomb deactivation units. I’m assigning you to be her escort for the time being, your only job is going to be making sure that Miss Kaldwin here stays in one piece while she checks up on all the robots.” I swallowed thickly as the words gave way to silence. He wanted me to play…babysitter? Was I supposed to be grateful for the opportunity to play bodyguard with some posh government contractor? Why did he want me for the assignment?

“Sir, with all due respect. I’m not sure that’s a good idea…the last time I was on the field-“

“You lost seven men.” The General cut me off, his tone unyielding as he stood up. “I’m well aware of what happened, Attano. I saw your report.” He stepped around his desk a moment later, his gaze roaming over me for a long moment before he continued; “However, you were the only one in your squad that made it out alive, and that has something to say for your skills as a soldier.”

I pursed my lips at the words, I wasn’t a better soldier than any of them, I was just lucky. “Sir, wouldn’t she be better off with a female escort?” Surely he would at least see the logic in that, not that I doubted my ability to control myself, but really, why tempt the devil when it wasn’t necessary in the first place?

“You’re in the infantry, Attano. There are no females.”

“Then give her to an MP, there are female MP’s,” I explained a moment later, quickly trying to recollect if a female MP had come over with the MP company currently stationed on the base.

“Pfft. Nonsense…MP’s. MP’s don’t know shit, Attano. They’re worthless out on the field.” The General dismissed my suggestion with blasé confidence. “This is your assignment. Take it. Or don’t, and I’ll Court Marital you for insubordination.”

Bodyguard in the Streets, Assassin in the Sheets:

Official Synopsis:

AU where Corvo wasn't a gift to the Kaldwins, but instead was sent to ensure either the Duke of Serkonos rise to power or the demise of young lady Jessamine Kaldwin. However, sometimes even the most battle-hardened assassins can change their ways, especially when there's a young, beautiful princess involved.

Recent Excerpt:

“Corvo,” I whispered softly, waiting for him to look up at me before continuing. As the seconds ticked by I wondered if he was going to do anything, or if he was just going to ignore my voice; but after what felt like an eternity, he finally looked up, his still watery eyes finding mine almost timidly. “I love you, and I hate seeing you like this. I hate seeing you in pain. Will you please just talk to me?” I whispered as I pulled my hands from his face and wrapped them around his hands, which were somehow colder than my own.

“There’s-” He stopped as his voice broke, pausing a moment before clearing his throat and speaking up once again. “There’s nothing to talk about,” He finished as he continued to stare at me, pain still more than evident in his eyes. I just wanted to understand, if he would just tell me what was wrong with him I could help.

“Corvo, please,” I begged, my voice so quiet that I didn’t know if he’d hear it even though we were sitting right next to each other.

“What do you want me to say, Jessamine? That I hate who I was in the past, and even though I thought I wasn’t that person anymore I know now more than ever that I am? That not a night goes by that I don’t hear the screams of a little girl who ran into her father’s room only moments after I slit his throat, his body still twitching with the last of his life as she crumpled to the ground absolutely broken?” Corvo paused a moment to draw in another shaky breath as another tear rolled down his face, he wiped it away almost instantly before continuing. “That I’ve killed more people than I can count; made widows, and orphans, and destroyed families? Because all of that is true, but I’m the one who did those things; and it’s my burden, not yours, to live with the guilt now,” Corvo finished, his voice taking on a hard, steely edge as he tried to pull on his unfeeling persona once again. I swallowed as I held his hands a bit tighter, I’d always known Corvo had a bloody and ruthless past, I just didn’t know that it affected him so much to this very day.

“You don’t have to do everything alone anymore Corvo, it’s okay to need help. If you’d just let me I’d…” I trailed off as I realized I had no idea what I could do. I didn’t know how to fix this, I didn’t know how to fix anything.

“You’d what? Make everything magically all better?” The question held a mocking tone, but I knew he didn’t mean it like that. He always pushed people away, it’s what he did when he felt vulnerable, and it was what he was trying to do right now.

“No, but I could help, we could…talk about it,” I stated softly as I tried to caress his jaw, but he pushed my hand away. I admired how he always tried to be strong, but he needed to learn that it was okay to be weak too, it was okay to need someone to help you through life.

“I deserve to feel this pain,” He growled, his voice hard and unfeeling. Full of self-loathing that had become more and more apparent this last day. But he didn’t deserve to feel this pain, and he certainly didn’t deserve to deal with it all on his own. Nobody did.

“No, you don’t.”

Red Queen:

I Have No Fuckin’ Clue:

Very Unofficial Synopsis:

Yeah…this isn’t really anything yet, perhaps it will be someday, but right now it’s kinda just where I dump random scenes my wild imagination comes up with…

Recent Excerpt:

“Who is it?” Julian called out as he heard one of the thick double-doors to his study slam shut, when no response came he quickly peeked out from the corner of the tall bookshelf he was behind, easily catching sight of his nephew as he took a seat at the cluttered desk in the center of the room. “Oh, Cal, how are you?” He questioned as he closed the thick volume in his hands with a dull thud, unable to ignore the way the temperature of the air rose exponentially the closer he stepped to the young prince.

“I’m a mess,” Cal ground out roughly, pressing the heels of his hands into his eyes as he slouched against the back of the chair. “My life is spiraling out of control and I don’t know what to do anymore.” He explained, his voice growing louder with each word as he flung his arms in the air and spun the chair in a slow circle.

“Well, someone’s being a drama king,” Julian chuckled, setting the leather-bound book down on his desk as he took the seat across from his nephew. “Did something happen with your father?” Cal only shook his head at the question, his eyes focused on some faraway point in the distance as the chair’s rotation began to slow. “Did something happen with that girl?” The second the question broke the silence Cal stopped the chair, his eyes refocusing as a frown pulled at the corners of his lips. “Of course it’s the girl,” Julian muttered fondly, shaking his head and rolling his eyes at the novelty of it before he asked, “Do you like her?”

Cal’s hands tightened into fists at the question, his voice dark as he quietly ground out, “I want to end her.”

“Let’s calm down there,” Julian placated, lifting an arm out towards his nephew as a wave of heat filled the air, part of him worried that the loose papers spread across his desk might spontaneously combust. “You’re supposed to be making love, not war.”

“She hates me!” Cal explained, drawing in a deep breath before quietly grounding out; “Did you know she pushed me down in the Archeon river? I was soaked, in my military dress uniform.” Despite the dangerous tone his nephew's words held, Julian couldn’t help but smile at the mental image. The little lightning girl that he’d heard so much about had some spunk in her, then.

“I like her already.”

“Julian!”

Borderlands:

I Have No Fuckin’ Clue Ver. 2.0:

Very Unofficial Synopsis:

Much like the Red Queen excerpt above…I really don’t know what this is yet…or if it even is something. But really, I have the Rhysha feels, and I need them in my life. So, here ya go, have some angst.

Recent Excerpt:

“Oh, well, I kinda…own the company now,” Rhys explained with a nervous chuckle, silently wondering if Sasha hated Atlas as much as she hated Hyperion, if she would think that he was trying to rebuild the corporation to exploit Pandoran natives like it did before it faced its economic demise. “Atlas is mine. What’s left of it, at least.”

“Seriously?” Sasha’s voice practically raised an octave, her eyes growing wide as she stared at him in shock. Unfortunately, he couldn’t tell if it was the good kind of shock, the kind that ended with her congratulating him on his resourcefulness before ‘playfully’ punching him in the arm hard enough to leave a bruise for the next week; or if it was the bad kind of shock, the kind that would inevitably end with her beating him with her sandal while screaming ‘I thought you changed, you corporate stooge’.

“Yeah.” He shrugged, trying his best to downplay just how proud he really was of Atlas, of the things he’d already accomplished in terms of building up the company to the glory it held before Hyperion ran it out of business. “Jack had the deed in his office, I took it after Helios went down.” Sasha’s expression twisted at the statement, and Rhys winced as he mentally slapped himself for bringing up Jack…God only knew that neither of them had good memories about his late corporate overlord.

“Right, Helios,” Sasha muttered, chewing on her lower lip as she stared at the ground for a long moment. “Rhys…I…” Her big, green eyes flicked up to meet his as she shook her head softly, and if he didn’t know any better, he’d swear that Sasha looked almost…distraught. “I thought you died in the crash.” The words were quiet, but her voice threatened to crack on the syllables regardless. “Why didn’t you drop by Hollow Point to say, ‘hey, I’m still alive guys, good talk’?”

“Sasha…I-”

“I thought I’d never get to see you again.” Rhys swallowed at the statement, suddenly feeling like more of an asshole than he had in a while, which was quite a feat, considering that the guilt of killing nearly three-thousand Hyperion employees as ‘collateral’ to get rid of Jack’s AI had been weighing on him every day since Helios fell to earth in a fiery hailstorm.

“I’m sorry.” He murmured as he reached out, carefully wrapping his fingers around her hand despite the knowledge that touching her would likely end with a concussion. Her eyebrows drew together as she stared down at his robotic prosthetic, and for a moment he wondered if that was the first time she realized that he’d been forced to ‘upgrade’ his biometrics…it wasn’t as though the shift from bright, Hyperion yellow to shimmering chrome was an easy detail to miss. “I just…when I saw the spaceship take off I thought…I thought you left without me on purpose.” Sasha’s concerned gaze flicked up to meet his own the second he stopped to draw a breath, and good God, if there was anyone who could make him feel guilty for assuming something like that just by giving him the right look, it was her. “I thought that, you know…you meant to leave me to die on a crashing space station.”

“I would never willingly leave without you, Rhys.”

Whelp, that’s all folks! If anyone wants to ask any questions about any projects in particular my inbox is always open! Even if my turnaround time is a bit daunting at the moment (curse you midterms). Who to tag…I’m really interested to read some of @theleafpile ‘s original fiction ;) if she’s willing to share. I also know that @mareyshelley has something Rumbelle related in progress right now. @shipssailinginthenight just finished her Highschool AU (which I haven’t had the time to finish yet D: ) but maybe you have something new your working on? And um… @missielynne give us some of your writing!

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ohmygillygoshoppler · 6 years

Text

Welcome to Rurus

OH MY FUCKING GOD IM FINALLY FINISHED WHY DID THIS TAKE SO LONG TO FINISH?!?! ASDFGHJKLLKJHGF OH JUST KILL ME ALREADY, i HAVE TO GET SOME WATER

@bunnythemurderer here, I thought i should tag you, i dont know what im doing anymore...

Traveling from Heaven to Rurus was no big adventure; they were neighboring planets in the same solar system. That being said, Lee didn't have much always to go when she left her group home in the White City to her new family on Rurus. Her host said she was moving to a place called Dreamride, to a foster family where she would wait to be adopted.

Well, at least they were making it clear that nobody here in Heaven wanted her. Maybe she'd have better luck fitting in on some other planet.

There was a designated location set on this planet in only a few places, depending on where you wanted to go. Lee and the other passengers she had teleported with all set their courses to Dreamride and arrived at the immigration department. Luckily, Lee had her social worker accompanying her, so all of that stuff would be taken care of. All the young angel had to do was fill out paperwork and get a few shots. (Apparently, people from off-planet had to get vaccinated to ward off certain diseases that magic can't heal. Who knew?)

After all the needles and picture taking, Lee was sent out in a crowded lobby to wait for her foster mother. Her social worker had explained everything to her as she was getting vaccinated; Lee was going to be picked up and taken into town to get enrolled into school, pick up her uniforms, get her student I.D., and then she would be going to her new home in town.

She couldn't say she was excited about it too much, she'd been in three foster homes in the past several years. It was all the same all around, but oh, the host was so sure that this one would be different. Rurus was filled with all sorts of people, according to what Lee had heard about the planet from her peers in Heaven. Perhaps they would hand her over to a family of demons and wash their hands of her? Maybe that was their plan.

Lee calmly mulled the idea over in her head as she sat in the lobby between a tiefling man in a pressed suit and an older human woman wrapped head to toe in scarves. It was waaaay different than the people she'd seen all her life in Heaven, and it was really strange. She itched at the ladder of colorful bandages along the length of her left arm. The injection sites were starting to get itchy. The doctor had said that such a thing was normal; The itch meant that it was healing.

Cool.

The fledgling watched people of all shapes and sizes dashing this way and that, coming to and from other worlds. There were civilians, police, and many others all over, and for a while when Lee saw that no one was picking her up yet. She grew worried that she may have gotten lost, or was seated at the wrong port. Was she waiting in the right place? What if her tags were wrong? She looked over at the desk near the entrance from the vaccination ward; Platform 66- WC-12/24 to Dreamride 12/30.

Her tags were all correct, she was in the right place. Maybe, she thought, she was just nervous. Maybe it was all the drugs she had been given making her feel paranoid...

She waited some more. And some more. About two whole hours, Lee waited before Someone arrived looking for her.

A human woman carrying a bright red suitcase had approached the desk at the Platform entrance asking the clerk some questions. Lee watched from her seat. This woman looked just like a sage, Lee thought. She was tall, and lively and beautiful, and Lee was immediately and hopelessly in love. The elders talked, the clerk pointed to where Lee was sitting and the human looked; She smiled and waved, turned back to the clerk, and then began making her way over to the young angel.

"Lee?" She called as she approached the child. "Lee, that you, hon?"

Obediently, Lee rose from her seat. "Yes ma'am."

The human was an olive-skinned woman with long curly hair that was tied together in a messy braid dotted with tiny flowers. She was wearing a bright pink and white dress with drooping sleeves and a square neck line, the whole dress falling just above the floor. She wore dark pink sunglasses and a wide white hat. She looked so elegant next to Lee in her plain celestial school uniform. That was all she had for the moment.

"Welcome home, I'm Simone. You're gonna be staying with us for a while, huh?"

"I guess so." Lee didn't have much of an answer. Simone seemed okay with that.

She held out the red suitcase for Lee to take, which was much lighter than she anticipated. She also handed over a pretty hat much like her own. It was a broad tan hat with an orange ribbon. There were even some tiny orange flowers sticking out of it.

"I thought you might like it. It's summer here, so you'll need this when you go outside to play with all those new friends you're gonna have."

The angel grimaced at the thought. She didn't have too many friends, and she never wore a hat. Lee thought she would try it on anyway. It fit snugly.

"How are you about clothes, Lee? You don't have any bags or anything?" Simone asked as she turned away and waved at the clerk. She placed a hand on Lee's shoulder as she and the child departed from the over-crowded lobby.

"I have a uniform." Lee bluntly replied.

"Your chaperone never brought you any other change of clothes? Nothing?!"

"All my old clothes will be going to some other kid in the White City. "

Simone hummed as she swerved with Lee in and out of packs of people. "Well, since it's your first day here, how about we do some shopping? Get you some clothes to run around and get dirty in. Then, we can get something for lunch. I'm starving. How's that sound?"

"Sounds like a decent plan. I don't know how much I'll eat, I don't know what people here eat."

"Nevermind that, I'll take you to a few places,so you can get a feel for what's around and what you might like. We've got all day; and since school's out today, we can go on a shopping spree so you can pick out as many outfits as you like."

The human escorted Lee from the platforms and through an even longer tube-like corridor. People were being funneled in through a small gate. There were big men in blue and white uniforms checking people's papers and talking to the travelers. There were several of those little checkpoints ahead, and Lee began to notice how the travelers began to separate themselves ;

One line, the line that Simone and Lee were waiting in, was strictly occupied by women and children. Just moms and their kids. Possibly all the foster kids coming on from off planet, too. They were about six spaces from the front. Another line was comprised of people in varied groups, humans and demons, demons and angels, Makers, and others, coming up to the guards two by ten by three by line must have been for citizens of Rurus, since they seemed to just show off their identification and were on their merry ways.

Another line was occupied by men and women in suits. Just men; angel, demon, human, each one in a nice suit. Business Class. Nuthin' but business over there.

Another line was families, parents with children and grandparents and whatnot. There were lots of infernal people running around in all of these lines, which made the poor kid all the more on edge. She herself was in a hurry to get out of this building and see the outside of this place. Simone's arm around her was slightly reassuring. Lee took comfort in that.

"Can I see your folder, Lee? The one your chaperone gave you?"

Lee obediently complied, shrugging her bag off her shoulder and kneeling before it, taking out all of her records and identification. Simone gently took it up from her and opened the parchment, skimming over its contents. Lee winced when she immediately plucked the photograph of the young angel from the front of the file folder and held it up for her to see. The smile was sweet, as was the human woman's giggles.

"What a sad face. Why didn't you smile for your I.D. photo, hon?"

Lee slung her backpack back over her shoulder and shrugged. "Nuthin' to smile about at the time. It would've been a waste, if'ya ask me."

Simone continued to observe the photograph, nodding and pursing her lips. "Okay, okay. That one's gonna slide for now, but next time you get you picture taken for your student I.D., I want you to smile. Whether it be sweet or sinister, I care not. Smile. It's good for your face."

Lee hooked a long strand of platinum hair behind her ear, a tiny grin curling somewhere at the edge of her lip. Simone put the photo back and placed the folder in the crook of her arm. She reached into her own purse and pulled out what looked like a pocketbook. The two of them advanced toward a twin set of tall winged policemen, and Simone held out her hand at the first man. They were both angelic men, with large white wings and strong raptor-like gazes that seemed to penetrate the soul of anyone who looked directly into their eyes. She addressed the first one by name.

"Hello, Ignatius. How are you today, dear?" The human sweetly cooed, handing over her identification card along with a pink slip or paper.

The angel replied in the strong voice that Lee was accustomed to hearing coming from an angel like him; enormous and strong. "I'm the same as always. I'm starving. I can't wait for my lunch break-"

Simone gasped as she handed Lee's folder over to the other guard, identical, save his short white hair, to Ignatius. "You mean you haven't been fed yet?"

"Not yet, no. Duties before pleasures,a s they say." He shrugged, handing back the small card.

Lee stared as the human reached into her purse and pulled out a paper bag seemingly out of nowhere, holding it out to the angel. "I bought a bunch of beignets this morning, and I couldn't finish them. You want them? Just to hold you and your friend here over until your breaks?"

This must have been a thing that happened often. Ignatius laughed and took the bag with a bow of this head. "What is it with you and feeding everyone, woman?"

A simple shrug. "It's what I do."

Lee was instantly salty. She wasn't offered a beinget.

The identical angel behind Ignatius handed the folder back to the little angel girl. "You'll be better off here, kid. If ya ask me, Heaven's old news."

Simone interjected. "Now, there's nothing wrong with Heaven, and there's nothing wrong with the White City. It's a fine place to be, Rurus and Unys are just way less strict. Angels and Infernals have more freedoms here."

"Amen. You working tonight, Miss Simone?"

"Tonight I am. You got a hot date or something, Luke?"

"Something like that"

Simone's eyebrows shot up and she recoiled with a hand on her chest in mock fright. She seemed quite surprised. "Well I'll be damned~"

Lee stood there for about ten more minutes as her new foster mom talked to her friends. The fledgling assessed that she seemed friendly enough, and liked to talk and joke around. Maybe she was alright, and Lee was just being paranoid about things, as per the norm with her.

So after all that chatting and whatnot, Simone and Lee made to depart. Simone said she didn't drive, rather, she took a bus, and that she would teach Lee how to use the bus and make her way around town. While the two sat together on the crowded bus, Simone explained a few things about this place to her newcomer.

The human and the angel had a long discussion about how much freedom Lee was to have. She was to go to school on her own, which meant hat she was getting a bicycle until she was big enough to fly, she had chores, she would have an allowance, and she was, quote, "Allowed to go anywhere in town, so long as you text me first, and let me know where you are."

Lee didn't understand at first; No church? No constant classes? No painstaking exams? "What do you mean-"

Immediately after, Simone reached into her purse and Lee received her first phone.

Oh, this was different. She turned the devise in her hands over and over. For a second, Lee thought that she held in her hand, the most powerful tool in the universe. Simone made it clear that this devise was going to help her a great deal on this planet. She had all sorts of new things to do, and things were only going to get deeper. This was going to be fun.

Lee and Simone took the first bus into town, a bus with no doors or windows, and stood near the back of the bus, near the left side. Lee had never ridden ona bus before, but thought it couldn't be so bad. She just wished that there weren't so many people on board. It was loud and crowded, and Lee didn't want to be standing back in between a dozen strangers anymore.

Simone grabbed the angel by her shoulders and moved her over to the outside, closer to the "Window"of the bus after the demon beside her hopped off at a corner. Lee breathed and glanced up down the street in front of her; at the crosswalk where dozens of people, angels and demons and humans and more went about their business from one town to the next. She read the enormous street sign painted with rainbows and colorful designs. "Welcome to Dreamride! The city by the bay- The city that rocks!"

Simone showed her the places she was allowed to go; there was a pub that she claimed had excellent soups and sandwiches, a theater where people went to watch movies, or whatever those were. There was a post office, a surf shop, electronics store, music store, all on one street?! What a convenience!

"Dreamride's a pretty small town, kiddo. Everything's pretty much within walking or biking distance, so you can go pretty much wherever. I only ask that when you go somewhere, you text me or let me know where you are. Communication is important to me, understand?"

"Yes ma'am."

"So if you can do that for me, I'll give you complete freedom. All I ask, is communications with you, and a little respect of course."

"I think that sounds reasonable." the angelic youth grabbed at her hat and hung on to Simone as the bus pulled to a sudden stop.

Dreamride was a small and tall city nestled between a vast mountain range, an enormous ocean, and the remainder of the forested country of Unys. On their way into Dreamride, the two had to take the route through Manx to get to the mall. Lee realized almost instantly that this was where all the demons lived. The bus only ran through one large road, straight through the middle of town, and she noticed that the homes and buildings in this ramshackle town were just that; They seemed sloppier, a little more tried and bent out of shape.

Simone explained that this place was underfunded in regards to things like public service and domestic necessities. The human woman seemed to grow more an more upset as Lee pressed her, asking why the demon district was so run-down and beat up, while the approaching city of Dreamride was much better in construction and more well maintained.

"The people in charge have made it so that people they don't like are ostracized and not taken care of as well as people who look and think like them," Simone started to explain, holding onto Lee's tiny frame tightly as the bus swerved down the haphazard roads. "People like you, however, may have more of an advantage here."

Lee clutched the back of the seat in front of her. A few more people leapt off, and some hopped on as they sped past a street corner. Lee wondered if this bus ever really stopped.

She thought about what Simone had mentioned earlier as she was showing her around on their way to the mall. She wondered about the drawbacks of being the one with an advantage. She worried that it might lead t trouble; she hoped it wouldn't.

After about several more "stops" throughout this insane trip, Simone grabbed Lee's arm as tight as she could without hurting her and gave a simple, "Hold on," as a warning before stepping off of the bus as it turned a tight corner. It frightened Lee a bit; she was almost certain the bus was going to tip over on top of them. But, the loud and crazy bus revved on down the streets, collecting more and more passengers as it went.

The young angel righted herself and took off her hat, brushing her long platinum hair back behind her head. The elder teased at a few locks of straighter-than-a-board hair, remarking that it was very long and well maintained. Lee admitted she hated her long hair, but wasn't allowed to cut her own hair in Heaven. Not until she was older.

Simone smiled and wrapped an arm around Lee's shoulder as they walked down the sidewalk together. "You know, I don't really approve of cutting hair myself, but I'll bet we can find a place at the mall where we can see a stylist?" she suggested, nodding to an angelic gentleman that had stepped aside for her and Lee to walk.

"A stylist?"

"Yeah. Someone to cut and color your hair? I would do it for you myself, but I'm no professional, and that's something a pro should really be doing, not me."

Lee almost stopped in her tracks. "Color? How do you mean?"

"Oh, well some angels like coloring their hair," Simone started as the two approached a crosswalk. Many other people, mostly young folks were standing waiting for the traffic to signals to change. "Angel hair takes really well to hair dyes, since angel hair is so fair, so they'll end up dying their hair all sorts of colors. I just thought you might wanna give it a try, since this is a whole new place, and it's a great opportunity to reinvent yourself!"

As the young angel stood there, she felt completely dumbstruck for the first time in her whole entire life. First, she could go anywhere in town, and ow she could customize her look as she pleased?! This whole free-will thing was starting to get more and more interesting.

"So can we do that first? Cut and color my hair?" Lee asked excitedly as the crowd started crossing the street.

"Look at you~" Simone laughed, turning sharply to the left and following a different path than what they were walking. "I'll say we do that first, then we get you some new clothes to hang around that, We'll have to get you school supplies and stuff for your new room, but at that point we may have to make a trip back home to drop all of the stuff off..."

As Simone droned on about her plans, Lee watched the streets around her. She wondered if it was normally this crowded? She sniffed the air; something smelled really good. People and children were wandering every which way, exploring various shops and buying all sorts of things. Various music rang out all over, the likes of which Lee had never heard before. She liked it.

Whatever that smell was, it seemed to have captured the human's attention, since it seemed to get stronger and stronger the further they walked.

"Oh, Jinsang! Lee, you hungry?" Simone turned around and pointed to the building to the left.

The celestial kid nodded eagerly.

"You ever had Hibachi?"

"What?"

So apparently, Hibachi was when the cooks prepared the food right in front of you on a hot flatop, or a habachi was a wonderful first, and very possibly the best rice she'd ever eaten. Not only was there rice, but there was ramen, and wontons, all sorts of things like what she used to eat in heaven, but way better! There were even spicy foods to go with it all, rather than sweet stuff she was so used to. Lee decided she liked the spicy foods best.

The mall is a familiar and foreign place at the same time; it reminded her of the Town Square back in the White City, but far different. Shops were stacked up on top of one another and three or four story buildings resembling the shops of the coastal town area. There were all sorts of people flying and wandering about, mostly just small family groups.

The first place she and Simone were to meet up with someone to cut and color Lee's hair. She was secretly very excited to do something different with her hair, since sh was never allowed to do so before.

She thought about what color she would get when they arrived, and while at a particularly sweet spot Simone liked where she stopped to get some ice cream for the both of them, the young angel saw another angel there that caught her eye. An older celestial boy with a group of other angels clad in black clothes and eerie masks. The pink-haired boy was the only one it seemed to not be wearing a mask He looked so... human. He had short cropped pink hair, and a silver ring in his lip. She stared at him for a while, until he saw her and her mom standing in line and waved. She waved back with a tiny smile. She silently admired that beautiful boy.

She then knew what it was she wanted to do.

Simone turned inside of a store with multitudes of photographs of beautiful people plastered to its windows. She guessed it was the salon, as Simone called it, and quickly followed her inside. It was a small space filled with chairs of all sorts. It smelled of various chemicals

Simone stepped up to the counter and smiled at the other human man at the counter. "Do you guys have a spot open for my little girl here? She just blew in from Heaven, and she wants to change her look a little."

"Ah, right! Gotta keep a low profile, huh? Well, I could squeeze you in for a quick haircut right now-"

Lee interrupted, "I wanted to change my hair color too-"

"You wanna dye?" the clerk asked, holding up a booklet with colorful tabs sticking out of the pages.

The angel paused and blinked about a dozen times. "I'm sorry?"

"Do you want to dye your hair?" The clerk fingered through the colored tabs and stopped at a bright pink tab. He opened the book and held it out onto the countertop for Lee to see. The page was opened to a layout of what looked like pieces of cut out paper plastered to the pages in this book, each different headshot accompanied by a splatter of a different shade of pink, and a number. Lee understood it was something she would need to look at if she wanted to choose her hair color.

"Oh, yeah! I want pink hair! I want my hair short and pink, can you do that one?" she pointed to the picture with a what looked like a human woman with short curly, pale pink hair all wrapped up in a floral crown. It was much nicer than the shade of pink she had seen on that boy's head earlier. Something she thought would fit her better.

"We sure can! Here, hop on over here, and Bellora will be out in just a sec to get you started."

Simone sat in the seats at the front while Lee waited. She let herself be wrapped in a towel, and was taken over to a chair where she was made to lie down. The man at the desk then proceeded to start washing Lee's hair for her, and quietly chatted whilst he did so. He asked Lee about Heaven, and if it seemed like a place that needed a salon like his. Lee told him he would never manage to get a business like this one to flourish given Heaven's strict dress codes, but the gentleman just laughed it off.

Lee wondered why she wasn't facing the mirror; she wanted to watch whoever it was who would be cutting her hair, or to watch her hair take shape. She Looked at her hat over on the table where Simone was sitting. She looked at her hair in her face again. Goodbye you.

A woman appeared from behind a velvet curtains, a tall woman with bright red skin and four arms. Lee forced herself not to stare so openly at her extrapolating physique, but couldn't refrain from doing so. She stared at her long braids, all wrapped it and around themselves, braided around her curved horns and decorated with beads and various colored string. She was dressed in form fitting tan pants and a black shirt. She said something to Simone as she grabbed an apron from behind the front desk and put it on. Lee tried to listen in, but a lot of it seemed to be in Infernal. What little of the conversation she could understand pertained to lunch at Reeth's or something or another.

The tall demon then turned to face Lee, four bright blue eyes shined to where the angel sat, smiling. Lee felt something drop in her stomach. This woman was the one to be coloring and cutting her hair.

Bellora was her name, according to Andre, the guy at the counter. She seemed friendly enough as she talked to Simone and started combing Lee's hair. She was very gentle, and very swift with her actions. She told Lee to sit still while she gathered her hair in two fists, quickly snipping off all of the long silver hair in each one. When she released her hair, she felt thick damp locks falling against her ears and nothing more. Then, Bellora came in with another pair of scissors, and started snipping away as she talked about politics.

"If you're an early bird, you can listen to the Croxley on the radios! They even have an early morning television show! You can catch up on all the current events going on back in Heaven if you ever get homesick!"

Oh, so Bellora was also talking to Lee, too? Hmm. Guess I have to work on listening, huh?

"I heard you kids almost didn't come here!" Bellora chirped in a sweet voice as she continued to cut away near Lee's neck.

"Yeah, there was a lot of pressure being put on Heaven from the EAPP, there were even a few protests, but after all that, they let us all sign up to be sponsors. Lee's district in the White City was the first to relinquish all of their orphaned children, and next come the Islanders."

"Islanders?" Lee piped up after a long silence. "You mean the kids from Jordan and Pompeii?"

"Yeah, they're going to be integrated sometime in the next two months." Bellora replied, finishing up on Lee's pixie style hair. "Several families in my building alone were approved for sponsorship, and there are plenty more still pending."

Lee listened as she watched little curls fall into her lap and onto the floor. Her wings were beginning to cramp up.

"I just wished they would have allowed for more than one child at a time." Simone started with a heavy sigh. "I would have gladly housed a few kids extra."

"I thought that was weird, too, but what does it matter? These kids are being put into decent homes with decent families. They're being modernized at incredible rates! I mean look at Lee," Bellora tapped a wet brush to the top of Lee's head, making her shiver. "She's already changing her appearance! And this is your first day, right?"

"Yeah." the youngster dryly replied.

"I think Heaven just needs to stop being so adamant about their draconian policies and make a little change. The angels that integrated here after the End War brought their families, and grew up here just fine."

Simone interjected. "I think it's because the kids that grow up here don't want to go back. They've been modernized too much. I've heard a few testimonies from parents of other older angels, and a great deal of the won't even go back if ordered."

Lee flinched when a rogue red hand wrapped itself around the young angel's neck and turned her head the opposite way. The wet brush she used to apply the dye was cold and it felt warm as she colored on and on. Lee wanted to see what she was starting to look like. Her ears were wet with dye at this point nnow.

"How long does it usually take for you to cut and color someone's hair?" Lee asked, twitching her little wings.

"Well, normally, I'm finished cutting in about eleven minutes, but angel hair is easy to work with. I'm almost completely finished here." Another hand turned Lee's head back toward her. "Then again, things always move faster when you've got another set of hands."

Bellora swept up the remains of Lee's curls, one pair of hands putting on a pair of gloves, the other hands were putting their dye mix down and picking up a comb. She started messaging the color into Lee's hair and explained to the angel that after this first treatment, she was going to give her a second run with a darker shade of pink to give her colors some depth.

This is fine, she thought, this is nice. She let herself be led down back into the hair-washing station for Bellora to rinse out all the color. Immediately after, she laid more pink into her hair, but she didn't have her rinse the dye out, rather she told Lee that she was to wear a little cap until the colors set completely, and she could wash it all out when she got home.

Oh, the excitement was too much, Lee found herself giggling uncontrollably when she saw her reflection. Long gone were her long platinum waves. Now, underneath the cute little orange and yellow polka-dot cap, was new pink curls she could grow into. She and Simone thanked Bellora, Lee put her new hat on on top of her cap, excitedly exiting the salon with a newfound eagerness to start life in Dreamride.

After the trip to the salon, the two went on to a few shopping centers, where Lee was offered the opportunity to pick out clothes for herself. She would be required to wear "People Clothes," articles of clothing vastly different than the garbs and robes in Heaven. She picked out pants, jeans, shorts and a few dresses. She got the chance to try on new shirts, too, which she absolutely loved! The clothes she got looked just like a humans! Only differences were the snaps on the back of all of her shirts.

Simone encouraged her to pick out a few dresses, for special occasions, but Lee was in no mood for dresses. She loved her new jeans, and started wearing them right away, abandoning her heavenly trousers and delicate white blouse. She even got new shoes!

By the end of their little shopping spree, both girls were up in arms with shopping bags. Lee decided that she had everything she needed for her first day, and wanted to finally go to her new home. Back on that crazy bus, back on the streets, and toward a new start.

The ride to the treehouse on the corner was a short one; shorter than the ride into town. There was a tall, dark-skinned man waiting at the front gate, an angel. Lee watched him as she helped Simone carry in the bags of her stuff. The young one was the first up the stairs, Simone taking her time and talking to that stranger while they carried things up the stairs. She heard Simone drop a name after kissing his cheek; Nathaniel.

Oh holy holy, Nathaniel? The Hellguard Nathaniel? The Nathaniel?! What the hell was this?! She had no idea that the Hellguard have been living with the humans! That meant they lived with the demons too! Weren't they supposed to kill all the demons? The sight of him being all friendly with Simone made her nervous.

But he was smiling, and she was laughing at whatever it was she was saying. Was he a friend of hers? Were they courting? She bloody hoped so.

She set her bags on the pretty porch swing and sat beside them. She looked over the patio, covered in colorful flowers and other potted plants. It smelled lovely, and there was a strong magical feeling from the entire front porch. Simone must have been magic herself, as Lee suspected.

She waited patiently for Simone to return and unlock the door, she knew it would be locked. Instead, she returned with Nathaniel, and he was helping her carry her things.

"Lee, this is my dear friend Nathaniel," Simone introduced, pulling out a set of keys. "You'll be seeing a lot of him."

Golden eyes trailed the enormous angel from his shoes to his tie, taking note of how human he looked in this light. He wore black slacks and a blazer, a button up shirt and a bright blue tie. He looked incredibly handsome in people clothes. He smiled and asked how the people back in Heaven were doing. Lee told them they were the same as always.

Simone ushered the two angels into her home and started up the stairs. She called for Lee to follow. The angel brought all of her bags up the stairs with her, to where the elder was leading her at the top of the stairs. She opened a door with a black door handle and strode on in, mentioning for Lee to come in after her.

It was a cozy square space with a big widow, a big bed, and a huge vanity painted with gold and purple metallic paints. The room smelled like candle wax and tea.

"This was where Jordi lived when she was my roommate. It's your room now, so you can decorate as you please." The elder said as Lee set her bags down next to the bed. "Of course, that'll have to wait until tomorrow."

Nathaniel appeared in the doorway behind them, bringing more stuff with him. Lee watched him take a brief look around the room before returning to the doorway.

"So Jordi really did move over to Lavender?" The Hellguard spoke in a soft voice, nothing like the soldiers back home would have used. "Guess she was serious about it."

Simone smiled and opened the windows, letting some much needed afternoon sunlight into the humble space. "Yeah, she said something about going just for a while to reach these high paying clients, but I think she's planning on staying."

"Did she say anything about Strife at all?" he asked Simone pointedly. "Anything about work, maybe?"

Dark hair swished back and forth as Simone shook her head. That made Nathaniel frown, but it was short lived. The angel simply shrugged and ducked back into the hallway, Simone following in suit.

"Get your clothes put away and maybe you can go outside and make some friends before the day is over!" the human called over her shoulder as she descended back downstairs.

Lee obediently went to setting her things straight. She wanted to wear the rainbow shirt with the long sleeves, so she slipped it on under her current shirt. She liked the colorful stripes that ran down the sleeves. She loved all the colors period. After she put that on, she got to folding all of her stuff and putting in neat piles in her closet space. She meandered around her room for a while, figuring out what she thought should go where.

This was pretty nice, she though. Sure, the room had only a vanity, a lamp, and a bed for right now, but that's just because the person had just moved out! Lee was very grateful that whomever owned the room prior left behind the vanity. She liked how it glittered, and she even found a switch connected to a wire in the wall that turned the vanity on, lighting up the whole mirror.

On the vanity was a few stray items Lee assumed were left there for her; there was a wallet, a little purple leather thing with loads of small pockets, a ring with a set of keys on it, sunglasses, a small golden lighter that Lee figured out right away, a notebook, and a box of crayons. She put all those items in her backpack for later.

She looked herself in the mirror and say the yellow polka-dots peeking through the sunhat. Her hair! She all but ripped the hat and cap off, gasping at the little wisps of pink curls that fell around her ears. She realized with a slight horror that she didn't even recognize herself. Angels all looked relatively the same; long white hair, olive skin, golden or ivory eyes, fluffy white wings...

Lee was pink and fluffy, she was something other than an angel now, she thought. She certainly felt different. It was a good different. It made her cheeks tighten n a broad grin, something Lee hadn't done in a long time. She ran her fingers through it, her hair was hard and crunchy. Oh yeah, this had to be rinsed off.

Lee shuffled downstairs and peered around the corner into the front of the house; the living room. Simone and Nathaniel were in the kitchen.

"Miss Simone?" the little one spoke up, albeit meekly, trying not to interrupt. "Where can I rinse my hair off?"

"Oh, there's a bathroom right across the hall from you, dear. Try not to make a mess."

"Thank you," And back upstairs she went, into the bathroom.

She slipped off her shirts and grabbed a towel that had been hanging up above the tub. She was clever enough to figure out what was what, and she immediately stuck her head in the sink and started rinsing. She thought the pink in the water was cool. When she was sure it was all rinsed off and her hair started feeling soft again. She reached for a towel set on the edge of the sink and buried her face in it, rubbing the softness all over her head and neck and arms.

She admired herself as she put her shirts back on. She found immense satisfaction int he idea that no other angel would look like her. She felt proud of her new look. No other angel would look like her, and she wasn't going to look like anyone else. She was starting to feel different about this place. Lee returned to her room and went to the window. She stared out onto the street, her front yard area, all closed off from the rest of Dreamride by a gate. There were people walking on the sidewalk, demons, a maker, a crowd of humans and demons, a few angels.

There were two kids that looked to be fighting out in front of the house. Lee watched the two from her window. They were dressed in haphazardly assembled robes and what looked like makeshift armor. They attacked one another with wooden sticks. They must have been playing some sort of game.

There was a human boy and a demon girl, the demon was nothing like Lee had ever seen before- pale white skin with white hair. She wore a pale blue dress and black-and-white striped socks. That was all she could make out from up there in her room.

Out of curiosity, and mostly in part because Simone said to go outside and make some friends, Lee headed downstairs with her backpack full of all of the things she needed: phone, wallet, keys, glasses, lighter, and a notebook with her crayons. With all this, she headed downstairs to where Simone and Nathaniel sat together drinking tea at the kitchen table. They were talking about school.

"I'd like to go outside," the young angel announced as she stood in the entryway of the dining room and the kitchen. "If I may."

"Sure, sweetie. Here," Simone pointed with her chin. "I left some money on the kitchen counter for you, hun. Just be back before it gets dark."

Lee gave a nod, pocketed the money and headed out the door and down the stairs. The two warriors still locked in mortal combat as she approached the gate. She listened closely.

"Ah, step off, orc scum!" The white demon girl hissed, swinging at the boy with her wooden mace.

The human raised his shield and parried with a hit of his own, sending the demon girl falling on her backside. Lee was just opening her front gate.

"This orcs gonna fuck you up!" he shouted as he raised his sword, preparing to strike.

Lee approached from behind him and simply punched him in his shoulder, not so hard as to hurt him, just enough to surprise him. It may have done more damage than the angel thought prior, however.

"OW! What the hell's wrong with you?! That's cheating, I'm telling my mom!" the human boy growled before picking up his sword and running off down the street.

Lee watched after him and gave the demon a hand in righting herself, dusting off her rear. Lee liked her outfit, she liked her skin, too. This demon was very pretty.

"Thanks for helping me out! I had no clue that kid had another revive potion." She stuck her makeshift mace into the loop of her makeshift belt hoops and extended a hand. "I'm Taluah. I'm a cleric."

"I'm Lee. I'm not a cleric."

"Hey, you live in the house across from me!" A white finger pointed to the red house behind her, across from Lee's new treehouse home. "We're neighbors! We should be friends!"

Wow. Outside for only ten seconds and I already made friends with a demon! This could be kind of fun! She'd never really played much, since she never really had any friends to play with. Plus, playing wasn't a very big thing back in Heaven. Duties before pleasure, she guessed.

"Hey, if you wanna come play with us, you can! I'll introduce you to my friends! We're playing at Matariel's house, that big yellow one, down the street. I'm just about to turn in my latest quest before the day's over, you should come and meet the gang! Come on."

So this demon was friends with another angel? She knew a celestial name when she heard one, and assumed Matariel must have been an angel. Perhaps she was an okay candidate after all. The demon was friends with more than one angel now.

Lee pulled out her phone. She was still playing around with it, trying to figure it out. She texted Simone, telling her that she had made a friend, and they were going to play at another friends house down the street. She awaited a response from her foster mother while she walked alongside her new demon friend.

If only the kids in the White City could see me now...

Angel and demon started down the street together, and Taluah seemed adamant on getting to know her new friend. "Where'd you live before moving here?"

"Heaven."

"Ugh, what a drag. Is it true people aren't allowed to dance there or listen to music?"

The angel pocketed her phone again. "Where did you hear that?"

"From the elderkids; The teens who lived in Heaven before they moved here. They're always dissing their home planet."

"Well, people aren't supposed to dance outside unless there are festivities going on-"

"What about music?" the demon asked, stopping at a corner and looking both ways before crossing over. Lee mirrored her actions. "It that allowed?"

"I don't know. I've never seen or heard anyone in Heaven playing music, outside of holidays, of course."

"Well, I think you'll like Rurus much better than that boring old place. Less rules, here. Plus, you can go and talk to whoever you want here!"

Taluah bounced with her steps as she led her new angel friend down the block. "We've been playing this game since yesterday, and everyone's got a class. If you wanna play, you have to speak with the Wizards and choose a class."

Lee squinted as she followed down the sidewalk. Wizards? She walked on the outside, closest to the street. She hopped out onto the road, but Taluah gave her a warning.

"Our parents get mad at us if we're out in the streets. It's nothing too serious, but I don't want you getting yelled at by any of our moms."

The angel thought long and hard about the fact that a demon was standing right in front of her, telling her she would rather not see her getting into trouble. Everyone in Heaven says that these demons are evil, that they can never be trusted, but demons on Rurus seemed quite contrary to that. Everyone she had met this far seemed very pleasant; polite even. It was nice.

Angel and Demon approached the yellow house at the end of the street, right on the northeast corner to be exact, and the girls ascended the wooden steps onto their patio, which looked to have a lot of the same plants that Simone had on her porch, too. Lee stood silently by as Taluah knocked.

"Oh, I forgot to mention, Matariel can't quite hear, so you'll have to talk a little slow so he can read your lips, okay?"

"He's deaf?" Lee looked surprised. "I know a little bit of celestial sign language, but not enough to carry a conversation."

The door opened, and just as Lee had guessed, an angel stood i the doorway in a long green dress and an apron. Something about Matariel's mom reminded Lee of Simone; they even dressed alike.

"Hi Miss Deena, I was wondering if we could play with Matariel?" the demon stepped aside and held an arm out to where Lee stood. "This is my new friend Lee. She lives in the Witch's house across the street from mine and she doesn't know anybody else in town. I wanted to know if she could play, too."

"So you're the new kid I've been hearing so much about," The elder angel was soft spoken and musical, just as Lee would have guessed. "I'm Deena. I'm friends with your Mom."

Ah ha. Now it all made sense.

"Nice to meet you." Lee took her hand and shook once.

"He's out in the backyard with the rest of his little druid friends. You're welcome to come in and visit him,"

"Thank you Ma'am." Taluah singsonged, stepping inside after the adult. Lee quickly followed, and tailed the demon straight from the front door to the kitchen to the back door, and down yet another painfully adorable patio.

Out on the lawn in the backyard, there was an enormous castle-fort built onto a treehouse. It looked as if these final decorations were just slapped on to give the wooden shape some flair, as well as to look intimidating. There were nicely drawn flames and other various details drawn onto the castle. It looked quite nice, actually.

The demon in front of her raised a white fist and announced herself, "Your cleric has returned. My Lords! And with me I have brought a recruit: a new kid has moved in next door and has the makings of a fine soldier-"

Lee hated those arrangements of words...

Out of the castle's entrance stepped two figures, an angel, and another kid. The angel, a young boy, wore a soft red shirt and had a jacket tied around his waist. His blue jeans were rolled up around the ankles, and he wore shows very similar to her own. The kid with him looked like a girl, with long, crazy coily hair held back in a ponytail. She wore a button up shirt, form fitting black jeans and colorful shoes. She was wielding a huge stick. Both kids wore broad pointy hats. They looked funny.

Taluah stepped forth and swept an arm out to her new friend, bowing regally. "I present to you, Lee of the White City! She's my new friend, and I wanted her to play with us."

The coily haired girl stomped forward, rubbing her chin thoughtfully and circling the angel over and over, examining her. The angel was uncomfortable being observed so openly.

"So you're from Heaven, huh? Part of that whole child care program, right? Your coming was fortold by a local social worker." Before Lee could answer, the stranger stuck out her hand. Lee took it without a word.

"I am Karmarae; the Golden Wizard!-" Karma declared, waving her "staff" high above her head. Matariel ducked from it's swing. Joaquin was not so lucky. "-and this is my partner and fellow wizard, The Wizard of Night. Together, we hold peace and tranquility through out the Valley of Tranquility,"

"You said tranquility twice," a pudgy demonic-looking child scoffed from up in the makeshift castle's watch tower.

"Shut the fuck up, Jax!"

"This is Matariel, our Wizard." Karma reclaimed Lee's attention, wrapping an arm around her shoulder. "He can't hear, but he can read lips, and knows trouble when he sees it."

Karma clasped hands with Matariel and grinned. "He loves anything yellow, he's always smiling, immaculately dressed, which is a great quality in a person. More often than not, he's behind us. He's my right hand man, and together we defend the relics of Harmony; tools of great magical power said to maintain order in the universe. The orc army of Toth has been trying to take the relics from us for days, but they shall never prevail. For whomever controls the relics of harmony, controls the universe."

"Is that what this game is all about?" Lee asked, puzzled to say the least.

"That's right, friend Lee. We're tasked with protecting these relics so that our kingdom can live in peace. Together, we are a mighty force to be reckoned with!" Karma declared with a bold air of determination and pride about her. She followed on as she was introduced to the rest of the group.

"This is Mars. The thief. The mysterious one-"

Lee looked to where Karma pointed, from the only shaded place in the entire backyard. Mars simply nodded and watched from beneath her brows with a stoic frown, hidden in the shadows. A tall, lanky human child with messy hair and arresting green eyes.

"Mars is a lover of green tea, scary literature, and computer games. They're always organised, love puzzles, and won't take shit from anyone. They act as our infiltrator and intelligence collector. They intercept all the enemies messages on social media, and they have agents working on the insides updating us with new intell every other day."

The two approached the dark skinned boy Karma had whacked earlier, rubbing his head. "This is Joaquin, our blind bard! He might not be able to see, but with his magical flute and bardic powers, he can cast magical songs of enchantment. He collects vinyl records, loves big parties, black tea, old mystery movies, he can speak at least two languages, and he hugs almost everyone. Unless he's on the battlefield, then he has to restrain himself, lest he want to sit alone at lunch..."

"Lastly, and certainly my least favorite, is Jax. He's our paladin, our Meatshield, if you will." Karma huffed in a grim tone.

The tiefling boy gave a wickedly smug grin and stuck out his fat forked tongue. It made Lee want to gag. "I'm the muscle of this shit squad! Y'all are nothing without me!"

There was a collective groan and roll of the eyes from the other kids in the group. Jax must have been the one kid in the group who had a bit of a fat head. Lee knew lots of kids like that in Heaven...

So that was everyone on this little team of make believe heroes? Two demons, an angel, and a couple of humans? Huh. They all seemed like an okay bunch. Except for Jax. Lee decided that since this group lacked another paladin, and since Jax seemed unfit for the task, that she would take up the sword, and help these kids. defend their relics of Harmony, whatever they may be. Sounded like fun.

"So, now that we have gotten you a bit familiar with the team, if you should chose to fight, you must pick a class."

"I would like to be a paladin, then. I can act as a knight."

"Great! Go with Matariel and procure a weapon, then Jax will teach you how to fight!"

Well, making friends was an easy feat. Now she had to blend in, get used to life on this new crazy planet. Her first day here was incredible all on its own, and she was more than eager to fit in here. She had a feeling she wouldn't have to try too hard.

#darksiders #fanfic #first shot #angels and friends

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