#thought of this as soon as i saw this shot and had to rewind after i finished the movie lol

[yougotcheddared]

every1 is so mean 2 me

[solalunar-eclipse]

Replay/Rewind/Restart

Chapter title: I Just Work Here

AO3 Link

Getty | Cache | Pixel

Pixel should've known by now to expect some eventfulness in her life after working with Cache for so long. Honestly, though, it's not as if anyone could blame her for failing to predict all of this…

(Minor TW for alcoholism, specifically in the second section if you're looking to skip that)

On any other day, Pixel would have been smiling as she walked home. She loved her job at Virtual Pets, and she loved working with Cache, even though all the cleaning and upkeep took quite a lot out of her. It was always rewarding to make a sale, but equally as rewarding to her when she was able to clock out at the end of a good day’s work. 

Today, however, she just couldn’t find it in herself to smile. 

Cache had been so stressed earlier, looking genuinely frightened for their Lightner friend’s safety around that…“Spamton” guy. It was rare to see Cache get legitimately scared, so the event had stuck in the back of Pixel’s mind all day long. As a matter of fact, she was still turning it over in her head by the time she walked in the door to her apartment, going through her usual ‘getting home’ motions on autopilot.

She didn’t think that you were someone they needed to be worried about, especially not to that degree—you might have been very kindhearted, but it wasn’t as if you were lacking in basic self-preservation skills. After all, you’d quit your job at the diner just the other day, hadn’t you? Didn’t that prove that you could leave situations that you knew were bad for you?

Pixel was startled out of her swirling thoughts when her phone buzzed with an incoming text. As it turned out, it was from her brother, Blue.

Are you still up for dinner tonight, Pixie?

I don’t know if you saw earlier, but everyone 

else is too busy to make it, so I thought 

I’d check with you one on one.

Of course I am!

I wish the others could be there, obviously,

but it’ll still be nice even if it’s just the two of us.

Glad to hear it! I’ll see you soon, then! 

See you soon!!

Pixel sighed as she finally sat down, feeling some of her tension drain away. It was always nice to spend time with Blue—she was already looking forward to it, as a matter of fact.

The next couple of hours seemed to fly by, as she tidied her apartment and spent a while just resting and decompressing before she had to go out in public again. When it was time to leave, she pulled on a slightly more relaxed outfit than her usual work uniform, consisting of a fluffy grey sweater and a nice white skirt. There wasn’t quite the same pressure to be professional when it was just her and her brothers, which she suspected that they all enjoyed (even if some of them didn’t like to let on about that kind of thing very often).

Blue was already at the restaurant by the time she arrived, ready to give her a warm smile and pull her into a tight hug. “It’s so good to see you, Pixie.” he said softly, stepping back to look her in the eye.

“It’s good to see you too.” she replied, as the two of them moved inside to go find themselves a table. Once they’d exchanged the usual pleasantries and sat down, she added, “Hey, I’ve been wondering all week if you’d have any new weird customer stories! The one you told last time was fantastic.”

“Fantastic for you, maybe!” Blue shot back, but he never lost his smile. “I was the one who had to live through it!”

Pixel giggled as she sat down. “That doesn’t answer my question, though!”

Blue shook his head fondly. “Very well. I don't know if this will live up to your expectations, but something interesting happened just the other day…”

The two of them swapped stories for a while, pausing only twice—to order their food and to eat when it arrived. Halfway through her meal, though, Pixel wondered whether or not she should bring up what had happened earlier today. It wasn’t exactly a fun story, but while she wasn’t old enough to know who Spamton was, her brother would be! He was a few years older than Cache, after all.

She paused eating for a moment, calling her brother’s name. “Blue?”

He looked up halfway in the middle of lifting a bite of food to his mouth. “Yes, Pixie? Is everything alright?” he asked, setting his fork back down with a concerned look on his face.

“Yeah, it’s just—I actually had something weird happen today, and I was wondering if you could help me figure it out.”

“Of course, you know I’d be happy to help however I can.” he said, relaxing slightly.

“So, just earlier today, my boss and their Lightner friend—you know her, right?” When Blue nodded in affirmation, she continued. “They were talking about this guy earlier today, and I’ve never heard of him before, but I thought you might have. I’m pretty sure his name was Spamton, if that rings any bells?”

Pixel had expected her brother to either apologize and say he didn’t know anything about it, or to provide her a few tidbits of information he’d picked up over the years. What she hadn’t expected was for quite a bit of the color to drain from his face as he stared at her.

“Did you say—Spamton?” he asked, in the smallest voice she’d ever heard.

“I…did.” She felt a little uneasy. “I’m guessing this means you’ve heard of him?”

Blue sighed, bowing his head. “Heard of him? Much more than that, I’m afraid. We used to know each other a long time ago. Of course, you were too young to have seen him at his height, and you hadn’t even been programmed back when we were…when we were friends.”

“You were friends with him?” Pixel asked, leaning in closer. 

“Not just me. Pink, Orange, Yellow, they were all part of our little group, too. We were all trying to succeed together, but he, well, he seemed to struggle much more than the rest of us. At least, at first that was the case. Then, out of nowhere, he suddenly made so many sales that he became the richest Addison in all of Cyber City.” 

“But I don’t get it—that sounds like a good thing!” she exclaimed. “What happened next?”

When Blue looked up, Pixel startled enough to jolt her chair back a few centimeters. She’d never seen such a bleak expression on his face before. “Not long after he got rich, he made it abundantly clear to all four of us one day that he no longer needed nor wanted to associate with us. We never heard from him again after that.”

“Wait, really? So you haven’t heard anything about him since?” 

Blue hesitated, but couldn’t seem to meet her eyes. “…nothing of importance.” he murmured reluctantly. “Please, let’s talk about something else? I don’t like to linger on these events very much.” He glanced up at her then, with a look so sad that she couldn’t find it in her heart to push further.

“Sorry, Blue.” she said gently, reaching across the table to grab his hand and squeeze it. “Thanks for telling me all that.”

“I’m sorry I can’t be of more help.” He still seemed downcast, and Pixel tried to think of something to cheer him up. 

“Oh, did I ever tell you about how the Tasque kittens got loose the other day?”

Finally, her brother seemed to perk up a little. “I don’t believe you did. Care to share?”

Pixel smiled at him, launching into her story. “So, it all started when the brat of the two got bored…”

…

After that one day, things seemed as though the Spamton issue had never even happened. Cache was their usual self, teasing and joking around as usual. Pixel even got to go on that lunch break with you that she’d had to turn down—although she’d had to rush off when one of her other brothers texted her in a panic, letting her know that a couple of teenagers had vandalized his store on his break and he desperately needed someone to help clean up the mess before he reopened.

Everything was going just fine. As a matter of fact, Pixel had nearly forgotten about Spamton entirely. She had other things to do, after all, and today that included opening up the store before Cache came in. It was her turn to do it, so she didn’t think anything of the fact that she was the first one there. It was a little strange, though, since Cache wasn’t normally this late…

And then, her boss shambled into the store looking like death warmed over.

“B-Boss?!” she stammered, rushing to their side. “What happened? Are you hurt?”

“Eh. Been worse.” they muttered. Standing this close to them, she caught the scent of something bitter-sour, smelling almost like—

Oh. Alcohol.

Pixel cringed. She’d seen Cache like this only once or twice before, usually the day after something particularly difficult had happened, and never since you’d befriended them. She didn’t complain about it in large part because her boss had never made it a habit, but it was still difficult to be both employee and supervisor on these days.

“Boss…Cache. What’s going on?” she asked gently. 

Cache looked over at her. Their expression would have seemed neutral to a stranger, but Pixel knew them better than that, and so she could see the emotion lurking behind their eyes. She sighed. Taking them by the arm, she dragged them over to the counter and sat them down. “Talk to me, Cache. I can’t spend the whole day working like this, so let’s just get it over with and then we don’t have to discuss it again.” she insisted.

The mint-colored Addison hesitated briefly, clearly ready to put up a fight, before slumping in defeat at the look on her face. “Fine, but I’m holding you to that.”

They swallowed thickly, their eyes flickering down to the counter. “Last night…shortcake invited me over to play some games with her and Bug. Didn’t think anything of it, was all ready to have a good time. Then, I walk in the door, and find out that she—she has that little bastard living with her!”

Pixel’s eyes widened. “You mean…Spam—”

“Don’t.” Cache’s voice was somehow both flat and dark all at once. “I don’t wanna hear that fuckin’ scumbag’s name.”

She stayed silent, encouraging them to continue. 

“She said she wanted us to get along.” They spat the words out as though they couldn’t stand the taste they left in their mouth. “I played along for a while, but then I pulled her out into the hallway. I tried to tell her! I tried, Pixel!” 

They looked up at her now, and they weren’t even trying to hide the pain in their expression any longer. “She defended him. She—” Their voice broke abruptly, and they glanced away once more, blinking rapidly. 

“She pushed me away. She chose him…and all he’s gonna do is break her.”

In the split second before Cache bowed their head, resting it in the crook of their arm, Pixel saw their face. Eyes squeezed shut, mouth shaking at the edges, composure falling with about as much grace and impact as a rockslide. They shuddered with one single, silent sob, clearly still trying to maintain some modicum of dignity and failing completely.

The absolute least Pixel could do was humor them. Nervously, she stood off to one side, pretending to organize stock on one of the nearby shelves until they’d composed themself. “Thanks, Boss.” she murmured. “I promise, I won’t bring it up again.”

“Damn right.” they said, and when she turned to face them, she caught the glint of a metal flask sliding into their jacket pocket. At any other time, she might have said something, tried to convince them not to drink on the job, but she couldn’t right now. The atmosphere was far too tense for her to do anything except give Cache the space to save face where they could.

“I got two iced coffees.” Pixel offered, hoping to defuse the situation even slightly.

“For real?” Her boss picked up the coffee, taking a long drink of it. “Shit, that’s the stuff. ‘Preciate it.”

Pixel opened her mouth, preparing to say something else, but then a customer walked in and she had to get to work. Cache’s mood was reduced to a nagging discomfort in the back of her head, something she could keep in check for the time being as she focused on her job.

They seemed to be doing the same, running through all of the caretaking for the various pets with a meticulousness she hadn’t seen from them in ages. Thankfully, they didn’t seem to be too drunk, just a little more out of it than usual.

Once the customer had walked out, happy with their new little neon pet, Pixel started doing what tidying she could. The store was uncomfortably silent as she worked, occasionally sneaking glances over at Cache. She didn’t see them taking any more drinks, which she hoped was a positive sign, although they could just be very good at hiding it. 

She very much wanted it to be the former rather than the latter.

Unfortunately for her poor nerves, however, she wasn’t looking over at them when they saw who was across the street—and was subsequently quite startled when their chair clattered to the floor. Whirling around, she saw them staggering backwards, hopping away from the chair in a frantic mess. “Shit, shit shit—she’s here! What’s she doing over here?!” Cache hissed, still staring out the window.

Pixel glanced out the window, and her eyes widened. You were standing across the street at the corner, waiting for the crosswalk to be clear so that you could come over to the side that Virtual Pets was on.

“Pixel, you gotta cover for me!” Cache insisted, already backing towards the storage room.

“What?!” she cried. “This is your chance to make up with her!”

Abruptly, Cache’s demeanor shifted from panicked to sullen. “I’m not gonna listen to her while she’s still buying that asshole’s bullshit. I already know what she’s gonna say, and I’m not about to hear that again. I’m not.” they repeated insistently, looking her in the eyes, and Pixel caved.

“Alright, I’ll do my best.” she sighed, straightening the sleeves of her shirt nervously.

Soon enough, you walked through the door, looking decidedly more serious than usual. Your eyes flicked around the shop, clearly searching for Cache. Pixel prepared herself for the performance of a lifetime…

…and proceeded to fail spectacularly.

To be fair, she’d never been a great liar, so she wasn’t sure what exactly Cache had been thinking when they asked her to do this (they probably weren’t thinking at all, honestly). Even when she was young, her brothers had always been able to beat her easily at any card game they played, because she couldn’t bluff to save her life. Once the lie had fallen through with you, though, she actually felt a lot better just being able to give you some honest advice. 

You explained your take on things, and Pixel had to admit, your side of the events did seem quite convincing. You had quite a gentle heart, it was true, but she was still sure that you weren’t the type to stick around in a situation that was hurting you. Besides, you’d been able to hold your own against Cache on numerous occasions, right? If Spamton really did do anything to hurt you, Pixel suspected that you’d be able to handle the situation just fine.

Cache and Blue both seemed to really dislike this guy, but Blue had also been friends with him in the past. Anyway, you had been the closest to him most recently, so Pixel felt like she trusted your judgement. She tried her best to reassure you, giving you all the advice she could. Cache definitely wouldn’t be able to stay upset at you for long. You were their closest friend, and after all, they missed you regularly even when you were getting along with them.

As you left, Pixel just hoped they’d come around sooner rather than later, for both your sake as well as theirs.

Once you were gone, the bell ringing as the door shut behind you, Cache came out of the storage room once again. Their eyes were suspiciously glossy in the light, and they were looking studiously at anything but Pixel.

“‘M sorry too.” they muttered after a moment. “That you’re stuck between us ‘n all.”

Pixel felt herself begin to relax a little for the first time all morning. “It’s alright. These things happen. Just…reach out to her soon, okay? She really loves you.”

Cache swallowed thickly. “I know.”

…

Pixel had never had so many things happen around her in the span of about a week. During that time, her boss had been hungover and depressed for several days, then actually called security for the first time in ages, then made up with their Lightner friend, and then canceled work entirely for a day. (And that wasn’t even getting into the giant robot rampage that had happened that same day…)

At this point, Pixel thought that nothing could catch her off guard.

She was about to find out that she thought wrong.

The day started off strangely when she came into the store and Cache was pouting. They would never have admitted it, of course, but that was exactly what they were doing. Thankfully, they at least weren’t surrounded by the telltale scent of alcohol, so whatever it was they were sulking about, it couldn’t be too bad.

“Boss, you didn’t get in another fight about Spamton, did you?” she asked warily, moving to set her things down in the back room. 

Cache rolled their eyes. “And why the fuck would I be dumb enough to do that to pipsqueak, exactly?”

“You did it the first time!” Pixel called out to them.

“Whatever,” they huffed. “I’m not fighting with her, I’m just…processing the fact that she’s gone and brought back that damn asshole. In a mature, adult way.” they added, giving Pixel a look that dared her to contradict them.

She wisely opted not to, but did smile while shaking her head in disbelief. “Sure thing, Boss.”

“Fuck off.” they muttered, taking a sip of their iced coffee. “Oh yeah, and she says she’s gonna bring him by at some point today so we can ‘make up’ or whatever. That oughta be real fun.”

“Just remember that you’re doing this for her, and I’m sure you’ll be fine.” Pixel said, giving them an encouraging smile.

They sighed. “Ugh…I’ll try my best. For her.”

The rest of the morning passed without much incident, the only customers being friendly regulars there to pick up some new pet toys or restock on necessities. The easy rhythm of the work meant that before long, Pixel was in even brighter spirits than she had been for a while. Despite Cache’s mood, your friend’s return was a sign that things were beginning to go back to normal.

Pixel was grateful for that, honestly. Her life had been feeling more and more like she was standing just next to something straight out of the romance novels she secretly still liked. Those stories were fun enough to read, but it turned out that living through one even peripherally was a little much for her.

Just as she was thinking that, a quiet stream of expletives came from the mint-colored Addison sitting at the desk behind her. 

“What is it, Boss?” she asked, frowning at them in concern. 

“More Spamton shit.” they grumbled, and Pixel instantly stopped being worried. 

Right, there’s still a little of this story left to wrap up, she thought to herself wryly. Out loud, however, she said, “Oh? Did you find out something new?”

“Yeah.” Cache muttered. “She’s bringing the bastard over soon.”

Pixel sighed. “Boss, you promised you’d at least try…”

Cache groaned unhappily and buried their face in their folded arms. “And I’m already regretting it.”

A couple of minutes later, she heard their steps receding into the back room, and rolled her eyes to herself. Cache would come around eventually—they always did when it came to you. She just hoped that would happen a little faster than last time.

Not long after their disappearance, you walked into the shop, saying hello to Pixel with the brightest smile she’d seen from you in weeks. She greeted you warmly and gave you a hug, happy to see how much better you were clearly feeling. When you asked after Cache, however, she didn’t hesitate to let a bit of sarcasm creep into her voice as she directed you to them. Hadn’t they learned by now that getting upset was the wrong approach when it came to you and that Spamton man?

Pixel could faintly hear you and Cache speaking to one another from the back room as she worked. She couldn’t make out the individual words, but it sounded like her boss was at least making an effort not to sulk. Honestly, she was actually a bit proud of them. It seemed like they had learned from their actions after all.

And then Pixel was suddenly forced to stop paying attention to the conversation, because something spawned inside the shop and began to flit around erratically. She jumped back, her eyes wide and broom up as a makeshift weapon. At first, it seemed like the creature was about to fly towards her, and on instinct she frantically swatted at it with the broom. Thankfully, when she brandished the cleaning tool, it shied away surprisingly quickly, opting to hide up near the ceiling out of her reach.

It was only a few seconds (but it felt much longer) when you came out and the creature immediately dive-bombed you—and then proceeded to hug you?

Pixel was quite confused, and expressed as much alongside Cache’s sarcasm. Your only response was to say, “Follow me outside, it’ll explain everything. …maybe.”

She did so, but not without some trepidation. Outside, it was strangely dark, and Pixel was just about to question whether or not it had been a particularly good idea to leave the safety of the shop if this weirdness was going on. 

But then, just to add to her poor nerves, she nearly got her hearing blown out by some strange music that seemed to come from all around her. As any sane person would, Pixel immediately jumped behind you and Cache—and just in time, too, as an ear-splitting announcer had begun to introduce someone.

Wait, did she just hear them say “Spamton”?! But she didn’t have even a second to think about that, because then, the lights came on…

…and a truly massive, soul-shakingly terrifying robotic monster of a being stood in front of her.

Pixel’s arms shook and her hands unconsciously dropped the broom she’d still been clutching. Quietly, a last shred of politeness compelling her to explain herself in some way, she murmured, “I’m out.”

With that, she promptly walked back inside, triple-checking to make sure that the door was shut tightly behind her. She nervously watched the others talk through the window, hoping more than anything that no fighting would break out. Cache was determined and even brave in a battle, but that didn’t amount to much against a giant robot!

Thankfully, you and Lovebug came inside soon enough, so she could finally get some answers. You did your best to reassure her that her boss would not be blasted into atoms anytime soon, and then promptly failed in any way to reassure her about the nature of your relationship with Spamton. Whether or not he intended to, it definitely sounded like he was surviving off your kindness alone—and that was just not sustainable.

Pixel did her best to convince you that you had to look after yourself as well as him, hoping that even half of it got through to you. She still couldn’t tell much about your relationship with that man, but one thing she knew for sure already was that you absolutely spoiled him far more than she thought was necessary. He might have lived on the streets for a while, but helping him with that couldn’t come at the cost of your own well-being!

Now, she just had to hope you’d actually listened to a word she’d said…

Thankfully, she was soon saved from her attempts to give you advice first by Lovebug taking her leave, since apparently her firework-owning friend needed their supplies returned to them, and then by the return of both Cache and Spamton, fully intact and surprisingly non-hostile. 

After he’d entered the store, Spamton turned to look at Pixel, and she shifted uncomfortably under the scrutiny of his duo-toned glasses and strangely ever-present grin. “HEY, YOU’RE [[1080p HDTV]], RIGHT?”

“Uh…” Pixel began nervously, uncertain how to respond to that.

“Oh! H-he means ten-eighty like—like the number of pixels on a screen. It’s a nickname, kind of.” you rushed to explain, smiling at her.

“I see, that makes more sense!” She managed to summon an awkward smile for you. “And you’re Spamton. It’s nice to meet you!” she added, turning back to your roommate.

“NICE TO [[Local Meet-And-Greet]] YOU TOO!” He held out his hand for a brief handshake, which she accepted, retracting her hand from his deadly claws as quickly as she could without being rude.

“I’m glad you two are friends again.” Pixel said, her voice more genuinely warm now. “And, um, Spamton—if you’re ever in the area, you’re always welcome to stop by and say hello.” She tried not to sound too uncomfortable, because while he was pretty terrifying, he also really cared about you. A guy like that had to be worth being friendly towards, right?

Spamton seemed almost startled at that for a moment, before recomposing himself. Suddenly, a grin spread lightning-quick across his face, and he simply said “HELLO.”

The moment he winked at you, you dissolved into laughter, unable to meet his eyes. Pixel stared at you, utterly bewildered, before Cache (of all people) cut in. “You said he could come in and say hi if he was ever ‘round here,” they explained flatly. “He’s here right now, isn’t he?”

Pixel sighed, shaking her head and smiling. “I should have expected that.” she admitted.

“Damn right you should—and hey!” Cache exclaimed. “What’s all this shit about inviting him into my shop? Last I checked, I’m the boss and you’re the employee!”

“What, and you’re not going to tell him he’s welcome here? After you two made up and everything?” Pixel shot back.

Cache rolled their eyes. “He can stop by if he fuckin’ wants, I’m not the boss of him.”

You had recuperated from your laughing fit by now and moved to stand at Spamton’s side, gently placing a hand on his arm. “You said you might have something for him, Pixel?” you asked, giving her a hopeful smile.

“Oh, right!” She perked up again at your comment. “Well, Mr. Spamton, do you see any pets you might like to buy? If that’s alright with Boss, of course.”

Cache had glanced up at this, giving Pixel a funny look. Then, their eyes shifted to you, currently beaming as wide as Pixel had ever seen, and they let out a sigh, shrugging their shoulders. “Sure, why not.”

“Come on, let’s go take a look!” you said eagerly, taking Spamton by the hand and pulling him over to some of the pet pens. He took his time looking carefully at all the different types, clearly wanting to make the right choice (and Pixel noticed Cache giving him a strange look that almost seemed approving out of the corner of her eye). The former salesman lingered by the Tamagopet area the longest, before turning to Pixel once more.

She smiled up at him curiously. “Do you see anything you like, Mr. Spamton?”

“WELL…[[Can’t Find—]] ANYTHING THAT REALLY [[One Size Fits All!]].” he explained. “[[Honesty is the Best Policy]], I…LIKED [[Premium Cat Food]] A LOT, BUT NONE OF THESE GUYS ARE [[New Packaging, Same Great Flavor!]].”

Pixel frowned for a moment, trying to parse his words, before she lit up suddenly. “I think I know just the thing!” She darted into the back room for a moment, retrieving an egg that she’d left in a very special place, and came back out to present it to Spamton. “This is the egg that Reginald left behind when he…well, you know.” she said. “Whoever hatches from this won’t be him, but it might sort of subconsciously recognize and even trust you both. Since you treated him so well, you’ll have made a big impact on how the new pet turns out.”

Spamton’s expression softened drastically, and he reached out to take the egg from her. He cradled it carefully in one hand, lightly running the very tip of a single finger over it. “HUH…” 

“Do you want that one, buddy?” you asked, giving him a warm smile.

“I…” He hesitated for a moment, before coming to a decision. “YEAH, THIS IS THE [[Number One Platinum Record]]!” Spamton turned to face Cache, who straightened up from their usual slouch slightly at the attention. “HOW MUCH [kromer] FOR THE [[Cute and Cuddly Critters]]?”

Cache sighed. “Well, that lil’ guy was shortcake’s to begin with…so I’m gonna say you can just have it. ‘Least it’s already kinda used to your weird shit, that way it’ll just freak out at the sight of a giant mecha instead of having a fucking aneurysm.” Despite their flippant words, their expression was serious yet soft, and everyone in the store noticed as much.

After a moment when Spamton was struck downright speechless, he inclined his head and murmured a quiet “…thank you.”

You and Spamton stayed for a little longer, but soon enough, the two of you had to leave once the time began to grow late. Once he and you had both left the store—with promises to return in the next couple of days from you in particular—Pixel let out a small sigh of relief. She hadn’t wanted to complain, since Spamton had been perfectly polite, but speaking to a man who was tall enough to almost scrape the ceiling was a little much for her.

“Thank fuck that’s over.” she heard Cache grumble. “Who woulda thought I’d see the goddamn day when I’d make nice with that guy.”

Pixel turned back to look at the other Addison, giving them a gentle smile. “I’m really impressed, Boss. You did great.”

Cache’s eyes darted around the room, fixating firmly on the register next to them. “Hmph. Whatever, at least now I don’t have to wave that fucking broom at him anymore.”

Someone else might have bought it. Pixel, however, saw the way they turned slightly pink at the praise, and wasn’t fooled in the slightest.

She collected the aforementioned broom and began to tidy up from the chaos of the day, still smiling to herself. Finally, the drama was over, and she could go back to her peaceful life.

…the next morning, when four kids stormed the store begging for a job, she swore never to even think anything that might jinx her ever again.

—— Bonus Scene ——

“Alright, you guys just rest for now.” Cache said, their attention directed towards the four young Addisons who had hijacked their store earlier that morning. “Now that you’ve all tried each of the jobs, Pixel and I are gonna make our final decision.”

Most of the kids seemed eager, but poor Alan was quite obviously nervous. He managed to muster up a nervous smile as Cache glanced over at him, but Pixel felt somewhat concerned for him, especially given how tightly he was clasping his hands together. He’d done very well today, even if he didn’t seem to believe it.

Thankfully, Cache didn’t feel the need to pull her bodily into the back room this time, but they did create another pop-up barrier like they had this morning. They leaned against a wall, looking over in her direction. “I already know what I think, but I wanna hear your thoughts too. You’ll be working with whoever we pick just as much as I will.”

Pixel frowned, deep in thought. “Hmmm…I think I’d say either Gif or Alan. I mean, Proxy’s really good at the more mathematical tasks, but I almost feel like his talents are better for something bigger than a pet shop, you know?”

Cache scoffed. “What, are you slandering my store now?” After she gave them an unimpressed look, though, they relented. “Yeah, I can definitely see that.”

“And Matrix…he’s good at what he does, to be sure, but I feel like he’d butt heads with you a lot. Sometimes that can be good for a kid’s growth, but there’s a fine line between that and an uncomfortable work environment. I don’t know which of those it would wind up being, and I don’t really like that kind of uncertainty.” Pixel continued. “On the other hand, Gif’s really good at customer service. That would probably leave us neutral in that category overall, given your…forceful personality.” She smiled wryly as she finished her last sentence.

“Hey!” Cache cried, but didn’t protest further. 

“And Alan…I feel like he needs the exact opposite of Proxy. Something low-stress and nice, especially for his first job. I think he’d actually enjoy doing things like cleaning or feeding the pets, and we could work him up to talking with customers and making his own sales once he’s got his feet under him.

“But what do you think?” she finished, looking curiously at her boss.

“Honestly?” They slouched a little further against the wall. “I’m thinking Alan too. For a while there, I thought Matrix’d be a good jack-of-all-trades kinda guy, but Alan…he could use someone to guide him, y’know? And I don’t know anyone else who’s got what it takes to keep a lil’ guy like him from getting hurt in a big city like this, so apparently it’s gotta be us.”

Pixel smiled happily at them, and they scowled vehemently at the floor. “Shut up.” they grumbled.

“I didn’t even say anything!”

“You didn’t have to.” With a wave of their hand, they dismissed the pop-ups, stepping back out into the main room.

“So who won, Mx. Cache?” Matrix asked excitedly, immediately rushing over as soon as he spotted Cache returning. 

Cache sighed briefly, frowning at nothing in particular. “Listen. Whatever I say next, I just want you all to know you did a damn good job, okay? The thing is, we’re a small business, and I seriously can’t afford to hire—or keep an eye on—all of you. So if you don’t get picked, don’t think that means you oughta give up, alright? You’ve all gotta promise me that.”

(Pixel most certainly did not think that their concern for the kids’ feelings was charming, and did not then turn slightly pink at that thought. Not in any way whatsoever.)

The four Addisons all nodded in agreement. “That’s very nice of you, Mx. Cache!” Gif said happily.

“No, it’s not.” they muttered. “I’m just not so heartless that I wanna see a bunch of sad lil’ faces when I can’t pick all of you.”

“Well, you still haven’t told us who got the internship.” Proxy said matter-of-factly.

“Guess I haven’t.” Cache put their hands in the pockets of their denim jacket. With a casual tone better suited to discussing the weather than revealing a decision like this, they announced, “Alan, you got it. Congrats, you’re stuck with me and Pixel now.” Pixel shook her head lightly, but she was smiling.

The purple Addison’s eyes widened, and he stared up at Cache for a long moment, unblinking. “R-really? Me?” he stammered, stunned.

“Yes, you!” Pixel said warmly, stepping in. “You did a really great job today, Alan!” She held up her hand for a high-five, which he returned shyly. 

Alan began to beam up at her and Cache, finally seeming to register that this was truly happening to him. “Oh…oh wow! Wow, I’ve gotta tell Mom and Dad about this!”

“Ohmygosh, Alan, you did it!” Gif exclaimed, bouncing on the balls of her feet. 

“Yeah! You’re the first of us to get an internship, how does it feel to be such a professional?” Matrix asked, smiling almost as widely as Alan.

Proxy folded their arms. “Didn’t I tell you that you just needed to find the right place?”

Alan ran a hand through his hair sheepishly. “I guess you did, Proxy…and Matrix, I’m not a professional yet! I haven’t even had my first day!”

“Well, the boss of a store thinks you’re pretty cool, so I’d say that counts for something!” Gif insisted brightly. “And, I’d also say it calls for a group hug!”

The other three Addisons crowded in tightly around Alan, squeezing him in a big hug as he laughed, a little embarrassed and flattered from all the attention. It took every ounce of Pixel’s willpower not to press a hand to her chest, and when she glanced over at Cache, they had a small smile on their face (which quickly vanished once they noticed her watching). 

“Thank you so much, Mx. Cache and Ms. Pixel!” Alan said, once he’d been released from the group hug. “I promise, I’ll try my best to be a great intern!”

“I already know you’ll do an amazing job.” Pixel reassured him.

Cache folded their arms, clearly trying their best to channel some ‘responsible boss’ energy. “You can be here around ten tomorrow, right?”

“Absolutely!” Alan agreed, still smiling up at them. 

“Great.” Cache said simply. “Now go off and celebrate or whatever else it is you wanna do. And listen—” they added, as the four turned to leave. “Don’t use that one word in front of your parents, okay? Actually, just don’t use it, period. It’s not the kinda thing you kids should know just yet.”

“Yes, Mx. Cache!” Alan said politely.

In contrast, Matrix grinned. “What word? You mean sh—”

“Don’t!” Cache yelped, their eyes widening abruptly. “I swear, Matrix…” they muttered, pressing a hand to their face.

“No promises, Mx. Cache!” Gif chirped. “Byeeee!”

“Wait, what—” they began, jolting upright just in time to see the kids dash out the door, laughing amongst themselves. Before he left, though, Alan paused outside the door and waved at Cache and Pixel with a shy smile. Pixel waved back, and Cache held up a peace sign and shot him a small smirk.

Alan’s expression brightened, and he ran off to catch up with his friends.

“Honestly, I think I’m looking forward to working with him.” Pixel said. “And I’m not just saying that because he can help out with the cleaning! It’s going to be nice, having someone new around.”

Cache could have made any number of quips at her about that. They could have teased her about not appreciating their company, or doubted her claim that she didn’t just want Alan around for cleaning help.

Instead, they simply replied, “Yeah, me too.”

And even though Pixel had already promised herself that she wouldn’t tempt fate ever again, she did still think that maybe, just possibly, her and her friends’ future was looking awfully bright.

[crescent-maple]

Characters: Primordial albedo (aka rubedo / red) , Reader

Pairing: Rubedo x Reader

Tag: fluff

"How long do i have to stare at a specific direction? My neck's starting to ache.", Rubedo furrowed his brows and sighed heavily. He should not have agreed to be your muse for a sketch you were working on.

It took almost an hour to convince him even though he countered your pleas with "You can ask my brother to do this instead of me." Rubedo did make sense. It would be easier if you asked Albedo. The chief alchemist would pause his ongoing research if you asked a couple minutes or hours of his time. But this piece you were working on had to be Rubedo.

It had to be him.

"Didn't know you were one to complain."

Rubedo rolled his eyes, stood from where he sat and did a couple of warm up stretches. You honestly couldn't blame him for doing so. Anyone would get tired if you sat still for over an hour. Your hand stopped sketching as you observed him.

The curve of his lower lip, his long eyelashes and the way he blinked. The rise and fall of his chest as he breathed like any normal human being would. His master truly was someone you could express gratitude to for having created such an ethereal male.

Your thoughts halted when you heard Rubedo's laugh. Was i staring for too long? He noticed?

You hid your face behind the thick sketchbook and felt heat coming from your cheeks.

Lovely. Now I'm blushing.

Rubedo let a smirk form on his lips and while fixing his gloves he walked towards you at a leisurely pace, as if he had all the time in the world. He placed an index finger at the very top of your sketchbook and pushed it downwards, you had no choice but to look at him directly while chewing on your lower lip.

"Y/N careful."

You shot him a confused look and saw how delighted he was. The male leaned closer and closer.

"Careful. You might fall for me if you stare too long."

You shut your eyes out of frustration, knowing how the color blooming from your cheeks was only getting redder and redder.

The nerve for him to say those words. Your brain was scrambling for any possible retort even if it would make a fool of yourself. You didn't care anymore.

Everything stopped when you felt the pad of his gloved finger on your forehead. When you slowly opened your eyes his figure leaving the room was all you saw.

"What if i already did fall for you, Red?"

-------------------- 💫 ☁️------------------

Extra:

Rubedo could feel his heart pounding as soon as he pressed his back against the door after closing it.

"Damn. Why the heck did i say that? I'm so stupid."

• he had trouble sleeping that night because his brain kept rewinding that specific scenario.

(Poor red 😔)

[fortuositywritings]

I Said No (Wanda x R): Pt 6

Summary: You kissed Wanda. Where do you go from here? Camping. You go camping is where.

Challenge: Take a shot of preferred drink (water for you youngsters, stay hydrated) every time you read "s'mores".

Pt. 1, Pt. 2, Pt. 3, Pt. 4, Pt. 5

Wanda is beyond frustrated. It has been eight hours since you kissed her on the ferris wheel. Eight painful hours of rewinding the moment in her mind over and over again, wondering what it means because you haven’t said anything about it. You acted no different when you met back with everyone else. No different when Laura asked with a knowing smile how the view was from the top. No different on the car ride home nor when you said goodnight to her like you did to everyone else even if she had lingered behind a little longer in case you maybe wanted to say something while no one else was near.

It’s like it never even happened and now she’s wondering if she’s somehow messing with her own mind. 

No, it definitely happened. Maybe there’s a reason. Maybe you’ll explain. Maybe she needs to sleep. 

She can feel Nat stirring beside her, signaling her to close her eyes and feign sleep.

“I know you’re awake, Wanda. You’re going to have to do better than that,” Nat says. Wanda huffs. She should know better than try to pretend in front of the spy. “What’s wrong? You’ve been tossing and turning all night.”

Wanda doesn’t think Nat would like to hear the reason for her restlessness, but she also knows she can’t get away with lying, so she chooses to say, “I don’t think you would want to know.”

“Wanda,” Nat sighs, almost defeatedly, “I know I have my reservations about you and Y/N but I meant what I said. You are both adults who can make your own choices and if this is really something you both want then I’ll be here for you and her both. I know you might not believe this, but I’d much rather be here to help you prove me wrong than you two go and prove me right.”

Nat is lying on her back now staring at the ceiling waiting patiently for Wanda to say something. Wanda follows Nat’s lead and stares at the blank ceiling trying to get her thoughts in order. Wanda doesn’t like talking about her feelings. She’s one to figure things out on her own but if she doesn’t get answers soon, she is going to go insane. Nat knows Y/N well enough. Maybe she knows why Y/N acted so indifferent. So Wanda decides to trust Nat. “She kissed me.”

Wanda turns her head to see Nat’s expression. Nat’s face remains stoic. “Are you mad?” Wanda asks warily.

“No, but I am surprised,” Nat says with what Wanda could swear is amusement. “I didn’t think she had it in her to go against anything Clint or I say.”

Wanda smiles, “You don’t give her enough credit.”

“Maybe. I think I also give you too much credit. I thought it would be you to do it. You Maximoffs tend to be relentless until you get what you want.” Wanda chuckles acknowledging that sometimes she and her brother annoy the rest of the team until things go their way. “So she kissed you. What’s the problem?”

Wanda’s good mood comes back down as she falls back to reality. “I don’t know if there is a problem is the problem,” Wanda groans in frustration.

“You’ve lost me.”

Wanda can’t have this conversation lying down so she sits up. Nat does the same, giving Wanda her full attention. “It’s just, it’s so push and pull with her. She flirts and I flirt back. Then she says she can’t so I let it go, but later she pulls me in again but then reminds me we can only be friends only to kiss me at the fair. And now she’s acting like it didn’t even happen and it’s all so frustrating,” Wanda vents.

Nat takes a moment to process everything. “You have to keep in mind that Y/N doesn’t do the whole relationship thing. She tried it once and well it didn’t work out. Now when things get serious, she likes to ignore them or as I’m sure you’ve noticed she likes to joke her way out. So if you want to work this out, you’ll have to find a way to talk to her without her freaking out,” Nat advises. 

The mention of a past relationship piques Wanda’s interest. “Y/N’s been in a relationship before? She’s never mentioned it.”

Nat smirks shaking her head, “Of course out of everything I said, that’s what you got. Tell me, have you told her about the robot boyfriend you had not too long ago?” Wanda looks down at the bedsheets in embarrassment. Nat wants to laugh but decides to give Wanda a break. “Look, if you really want to know you can ask Y/N later, okay? Now get some rest. You shouldn’t let guy, girl, or robot problems keep you from sleeping,” she finishes chuckling and gets up from the bed. 

“Where are you off to?” Wanda still goes to lie down but looks up at Nat with tired eyes.

“Going to go for a hike with your girl,” Nat teases as she grabs her clothes and clothes for you.

“She’s not my girl,” Wanda says, tucking her head into her pillow to hide her blush but Nat still caught it. She also catches when Wanda mumbles, “yet.”

“And there’s that bratty Maximoff attitude. I see you’re feeling better now,” Nat laughs and leaves the room without giving Wanda the time to respond, not that Wanda was planning to because Nat was right. Wanda was feeling better now having talked it out with someone. She’ll do as Natasha said and ask you later. With that she closes her eyes and tries to get some sleep.

You didn’t fare too well last either, much like Wanda. You were trying so hard not to think about your kiss with Wanda, but it’s all you could think about. You don’t know what possessed you to do it, but you know you should not have done it. You should not have done it because now all you can think about is doing it again, about doing it again and letting her kiss you back. You shouldn’t have kissed her because you don’t want to get anyone’s hopes up, including yourself. It’s happened to you once before and you’re scared because it is happening to you again. 

So, you tried to play it cool. If you act like it was a friendly kiss that didn’t really mean anything, then Wanda will take the hint and when she inevitably goes, so will your feelings. No harm done. Friends kiss sometimes, right? At least that’s what you’ve been trying to convince yourself all night until you fell asleep.

You awaken from your two hours of Wanda-filled dreams by gym clothes smacking your face. You groan, “No, please. Not today, Nat. I barely got any sleep last night.”

“Oh, not you too,” she comments, rolling her eyes at you. You lift your head at that to look at her confused by what she meant. “Come on, some exercise will take your mind off whatever kept you up,” she continues with a knowing smile as she takes a sip of her coffee.  You narrow your eyes at her but eventually give in. Maybe she’s right and it will help you take your mind off of Wanda for even a moment. 

You still need the energy though, so you steal her coffee as you pass by her with your clothes in hand.

The one time you actually hoped Nat would be right, she wasn’t. You’re an hour into your hike and your brain has no vacancy for anything other than Wanda. You want to scream. Instead you push yourself harder. Another hour goes by and your head is still spinning, except this time it might also be because of the lack of oxygen reaching your brain. You go to lay on the dirty ground and attempt to catch your breath. Nat stops, not hearing your footsteps behind her. 

She looks at you a little worried. You are heaving and you are sweaty and you are frustrated and it’s official; a pretty girl named Wanda Maximoff broke you. You start chuckling and soon a full resounding laugh comes out of you like you heard the funniest joke. Nat goes to sit by you warily but doesn’t say anything.

Your laughter dies, replaced by a solemn attitude. You sit up, your shoulder touching Nat’s. She still doesn’t say anything and you’re thankful for that. Without looking at her, you tell her earnestly, “I really like her.”

“Yeah, I know,” she sighs.

“She told you,” you say, no surprise in your voice. You were clued in this morning with Nat’s knowing smile. Nat hums in confirmation. “I know you and Clint warned me, but-”

“But we were wrong,” Nat cuts you off. That has you looking at her, your eyebrows raised in shock. You never thought you’d hear her admit being wrong so blatantly. She laughs, “Don’t get used to hearing that. Seriously though, you don’t need someone telling you what you can or cannot do. It wasn’t right for us to try. So, I’ll tell you what I told Wanda, whatever happens, I’ll be here if you need me.”

“Aww, look who’s taking accountability. Little Romanov is all grown up!” you joke. She rolls her eyes and nudges you saying, “I guess serious talk is over.”

She knows you too well. You smile anyway in appreciation. You both get up and start making your way back to the car. You feel lighter after that conversation. On your walk back, you begin to think, maybe you can give it a shot with Wanda now that it seems Nat and Clint are giving into the idea of you two together. You smile at the thought of you and Wanda together. You can make it work, you think. That is if you can allow trust in yourself to not hurt her and trust her not to do the same. But you have time to work on that. 

When you reach the car, a daunting thought stops you. You don’t have time. “She’s leaving soon.”

Nat opening the car door simply says, “Yeah, guess you have to decide what you want to do quickly.” 

“I’ve decided,” Clint says to everyone at breakfast. When you and Nat had gotten to the house, almost everyone was still asleep. You and Nat only saw Sam and Laura up in the kitchen. You’d guessed the fair wore everyone out yesterday. You and Nat helped Sam and Laura make breakfast. Well, Nat helped. You had been told to sit at the table and let the adults do the cooking. How were you meant to learn if they didn’t let you? At least Wanda had let you help.

Wanda, as if summoned by your thoughts, had appeared then. You saw her hesitate walking into the kitchen. You knew you messed up by ignoring what happened between the two of you. You gave her a smile and patted the seat next to you hoping to alleviate the tension. Luckily for you it seemed to do the trick. You two were back to your usual selves though you both knew you would have to talk about what happened at some point.

Everyone came downstairs one by one and when breakfast was ready, you all headed into the dining room to eat together. Everyone was having their own side conversations but they all hushed down when Clint spoke up saying he decided something.

“And what did you decide?” Laura asks him. You try hard not to laugh, recognizing the same tone she gave you two days ago when you told everyone you were going to the fair. Wanda sees you try to hide your amusement and pinches your side to get you to stop. Being ticklish, you nearly squeal but hold it in. By the way Wanda’s eyes spark up, you know she noticed. You give her a warning stare and mouth “no”.

“My sweet, beautiful wife,” Clint begins sweet talking your cousin, but you’re not paying too much attention as Wanda is trying to tickle your side discreetly with one hand and you are trying hard to keep it away. Across the table, Pietro is not paying attention to Clint either, instead watching you and Wanda interact. He feels so dumb for not noticing it before, but seeing you bring out the playfulness in Wanda, which he hadn’t seen in the longest time, you could make him feel like the dullest bulb in the box and he wouldn’t complain. All three of your attention is brought back to the subject at hand when Clint says, “I’ve decided we’re going camping today!”

The kids, Peter, Sam, and you let out a cheer. You squeeze Wanda’s hand that you managed to catch in yours. You don’t feel any excitement coming from her so you turn to her. She looks discontent at the thought of camping. “Oh, come on. Don’t say you don’t like camping.”

“Pietro and I have not gone camping but the thought of bugs and sleeping on the ground does not sound appealing,” she says tentatively.

“Thank you. She gets it,” your cousin says and Nat nods her head in agreement.

“Don’t listen to the two buzzkills. They never want to do anything.” You ignore the scoff and “excuse me” they give you to instead try to convince Wanda. “I promise it’s going to be fun,” you look into her eyes, practically pleading with her. She huffs, closes her eyes, and says, “Fine.”

“Yes! What about you Pietro?” you ask her brother though you already know where one twin goes the other follows. “Yeah, let’s see what camping is about. Maybe we can share a tent,” Pietro flirts throwing a wink your way, mostly teasing to see his sister’s reaction. You ignore his last comment and start chanting “Camping! Camping!” until Peter, Cooper, and Lila chant along. You don’t notice the glare Wanda throws her brother or said brother trying to hide his smirk.

You take two cars like you had yesterday. This time you ride with Nat, Sam, Wanda, and Peter. Cooper and Lila refused to let Pietro ride in Nat’s car, wanting him to ride with them. Nat is driving with Sam sitting in the passenger seat after having called shotgun. You sat in the middle between Peter and Wanda, having offered her the window seat. The ride to the lake where you usually went camping isn’t long, only about an hour and a half away, but you find yourself falling asleep twenty minutes in when Wanda rests her head on your shoulder to take a nap. 

You and Wanda wake to the car door slamming shut. You both look out the window and see you’ve arrived and it had been Nat who stepped out of the car. From the car, you can see her stretch and take in the view with a disgruntled face. 

“Well someone’s excited,” Sam said sarcastically, having noticed Nat’s attitude toward this trip also. All of you in the car watch her as she sprays a ton of bug repellant on herself while grumbling, “Stupid Clint. I should be relaxing somewhere with AC. But nooo, Mr. ‘I’ve decided we’re going camping’ and Ms. ‘I promise it’s gonna be fun’ want to go camping. Fun my ass.”

You can’t help but laugh when she mocks you and Clint, and everyone in the car joins in. Nat turns to glare at all of you through the windows. “Yeah, yeah. Laugh it up. Just don’t come crying to me when you can’t stop scratching your legs tomorrow. Now chop chop. We’ve got things to bring out.” 

She leaves to help Laura out of the family car that just pulled up beside Nat’s own. She’s always so grumpy when you go camping. At the thought, a joke pops in your head that you can’t help but repeat out loud, “Yeah, she’s never really been a happy camper.”

“Did you just? Nice one!” Peter gives you a high five. Wanda and Sam shake their heads at you but you can see Wanda trying not to smile. Sam catches it and throws his head back groaning, “Bad puns? Really? I gotta start writing things down.” He pulls out his phone and goes to his notes to start a list. “Okay, confident but geeky, talk about Star Wars, bad jokes. Am I missing anything, Wanda?”

You and Peter look at her confused. You are especially intrigued to know what Wanda has to do with whatever the hell Sam is talking about when she flushes and kicks his seat. “We should go help now,” she says, opening the door and hurrying out. You follow behind asking, “What’s he talking about, Wanda?” 

She ignores you. Peter reaches you and says, “I thought it was a good joke.”

Everyone helps out setting the tents, Clint wanting to get that out of the way first. No matter how much of a downer Nat can be on camping trips, you’re always glad she’s there or no tent would stand a chance holding upright. There are three sturdy tents set up a little ways away from the dock by the time you finish. Peter, the kids, the twins, and you run over to the dock in excitement, you pulling Wanda along with you. None of you are in the proper attire to jump in as Laura points out. “Hey, go put on your swim suits if you want to get in!” she shouts from where the rest are setting up everything for grilling.

You all turn back around to put on your swimwear. Best not to anger the pregnant lady. Before you can take a step forward, you feel like someone sweeps you up in their arms but it happens too fast to be sure and suddenly you are falling into the water. Everyone turns back around at the sound of you hitting the water. When your head springs from the water, you look for the culprit and see him smiling at you next to Sam. You do the only thing you can think of as revenge. You pretend to drown. “Help! I can’t-” you spit water everywhere waving your arms hysterically. You can hear footsteps running on the dock but ignore them to see Pietro’s reaction. His eyes widen and in a blink he is gone. 

You hear a splash. Correction, you hear three different splashes. You knew one had to be Pietro and you’re right. He pulls you into him with one arm, saying, “I got you. I got you.” 

You turn in his arm and say, “No, I got you.” He looks confused and you take the opportunity to wriggle loose and dunk his head in the water. The second and third splashes had come from Peter and Wanda, you note, when you hear them behind you say, “Y/N!” and “Are you okay?” You can’t answer because the sight of Pietro coming back up spluttering has you cracking up. 

“I thought you couldn’t swim,” Peter says. This time you do answer, “I told you guys, I was learning on the job.”

Peter starts laughing then, swimming towards Pietro, who took it easy laughing as well. “She got you so good. You should have seen your face,” Peter chuckles. You grin, but that smile falls when you look at Wanda and find her glaring at you.The joy on your face morphs into confusion. You ask, “What’s wrong?”

“That wasn’t funny, Y/N.” She leaves you there with your mouth agape and heads to the shore without another word, swimming past Peter and Pietro who are basically water fighting. You float there for a second wondering what just happened. You don’t know what to do but you think you have to fix it somehow. 

You swim after her. Pietro and Peter stop splashing water at each other, turning their bodies to look at you as you pass by them now able to touch the ground with your feet. Pietro teases, “Oooh, someone’s sleeping on the couch tonight.” 

You wanted to point out that you have been sleeping on the couch the whole week and that technically you’ll be sleeping in a tent tonight. Instead you splash some water at him behind you and try to walk faster against the water to catch Wanda. When you are close enough, you reach out and pull on her wrist to get her to stop walking. You walk around her to stand face to face. She pulls her arm free from your hold and crosses her arms in front of her body looking everywhere but at you. You see her clenching her jaw in irritation and if you’re honest with yourself, you find this angry Wanda pretty attractive, but you remember she’s mad at you and you focus on the matter at hand.

Unbeknownst to you both, everyone’s watching. “Oh, she’s mad mad. Let’s see Y/N try to joke her way out of this one,” Sam says chuckling. Clint and Nat turn to him, Nat smirking and Clint chuckling. Laura is preoccupied putting sunscreen on the kids to be aware of what is going on.

“Oh, come on. Sure, Y/N is smooth but I know Wanda, and that girl is stubborn as hell,” Sam says confidently, remembering the time Wanda had not spoken to her brother for three days because he went to a party with some of the guys forgetting he was supposed to go to the movies with her. 

“Want to bet?” Clint says. 

“20, easy.” Sam shakes Clint’s hand. Off in the water, Peter and Pietro are having a similar conversation. Peter asks if Wanda is actually mad. Peter doesn’t live on the compound and has not had much interaction with Wanda, so it makes sense to Pietro why he would ask. Pietro laughs, “Oh, yes. One time I forgot to go to the movies with her and she did not speak with me for days. She has the same face now.”

You don’t really have a plan here, so you start the way you always do, using humor. “Wanda, are you actually mad? Am I in hot … water?” you flick some water for effect. She doesn’t find it amusing. She scoffs at you, but at least she’s looking at you now. “The water’s cold and jokes won’t get you out of this one.”

“We’ll just have to sea about that,” you try again. You didn’t think she could look more peeved, but look at you making the impossible happen. She says, “It’s a lake,” unamused, and she moves to go around you. So humor is a no go in this situation.

“What did I tell you,” Sam boasts, seeing Wanda look more irritated. “Easiest 20 dollars, I made.”

“Just wait,” Clint says. Laura goes to sit beside him and asks, “What’s happening?”

“Wanda is mad at Y/N. Sam bet Clint 20 dollars that Wanda will stay mad at her,” Nat explains. Suddenly, Sam doesn’t feel so confident when Laura shakes her head at him like he just got played and says, “Oh, Sam.”

“Okay, wait, wait, wait.” You step to the side making sure Wanda doesn’t leave. “I’m sorry. It was just a dumb way to get back at Pietro. I didn’t mean to upset you or freak you out,” you say, pulling her arms apart from where they are still crossed. “The last thing I want to do is make you mad or sad or any of the -ad’s.” You see her tense shoulders loosen up so you add, “You already know how I feel about Brads.”

You know you made the right choice when you hear her giggle at your last comment. You smile and tug on her arm. “So are we good? Or do I have to pull out the famous puppy dog eyes?” you jest and she gives you a real laugh when you actually go for the puppy dog eyes along with a pout. She shoves you playfully and you nearly stumble backwards but you hold onto her arms and pull yourself forward. In consequence you end up closer to each other and Wanda takes the opportunity to pull you into a hug. 

“Just don’t do it again,” Wanda says. You wrap your arms around her waist, welcoming in her hug. “Wouldn’t dream of it. Now let’s go swimming,” you say quickly. She barely catches what you say before you pick her up and take off back in Peter and Pietro’s direction, Wanda laughing the whole way.

“What the hell was that?” Sam refuses to believe what he just saw. 

“Easiest 20 dollars I ever made,” Clint chuckles.

“No, see she’s gotta have some kind of persuasion powers or something. Why isn’t that girl on the team? We could just give her a microphone before we go fight and have her convince the bad dudes to turn themselves in,” Sam says as he reluctantly takes out a twenty dollar bill and gives it to Clint.

Pietro is very much on the same boat as Sam. He decides he needs to learn your secrets. Peter says, “Maybe the movie she wanted to watch was really good?”

You have your fun in the water, especially when the kids and Sam join you deciding they want to play chicken fight. Cooper goes against Lila and despite her being younger and smaller, she manages to push Cooper off Sam’s shoulder. Pietro holds Sam up as he goes against Peter. Sam cheers when Peter falls backwards into the water. Most would be surprised by the win but it was mostly your fault, not having a good stance when trying to hold Peter on your shoulders. 

You go to fight against Wanda next; she takes Sam’s place on Pietro’s shoulders and you sit on Sam’s shoulders. Cooper and Lila count down and when they yell go, you and Wanda are pushing each other’s shoulders. Wanda removes a hand from your shoulder and reaches for your stomach, but you catch her arm quickly. “Not today. You’re going down, Maximoff!”

“Yeah, we’ll see about that-” Wanda begins but doesn’t finish. You can feel her grip loosen on your shoulder when she gives you a look of befuddlement. “Actually, I don’t know your last name.” You smirk, taking this as your opportunity, and say, “Good. Now you can see how I felt.” Then you push her shoulder and she loses her balance. You can smell the victory, but the smell wafts away when you see what looks like a red mist coming from her and hurling towards you. You are practically flung from Sam’s shoulder into the water. 

You resurface, spluttering water. You look around for the person of interest and head towards her when she gets up beside Pietro. “You cheated!” you yell. You’re not actually mad but you are a sore loser. She sees you coming toward her and Wanda can’t help but laugh at how silly you look trying to stomp over to her intimidatingly when you are moving so slowly against the water. “I thought you and I had agreed on no powers.”

“No, you said no more mind reading,” she corrects you with a pleased smile on her face. 

“Well new rule, no powers in general and wipe that grin off your face, no one likes a smart-ass,” you huff. She replies whilst giving your cheek a poke, “Then wipe that pout off your face. No one likes a sore loser.” You shake your head to get her finger off your face, making her laugh again.

Pietro challenges Wanda next and before either of them have a chance to decide who will be carrying them, you dive under Wanda and between her legs, making her yelp in surprise as you lift her up on your shoulders. You hold on tight to her thighs and then reach for her arms to keep her steady. She giggles when she looks down not able to see you behind all the hair in your face. She helps you out and pulls your hair back out of your face. You look up at her, who keeps her hands on your head, and smile in thanks.

You look at Wanda’s opponent. Pietro, who is situated on Sam’s shoulders, is already looking at you like he’s thinking something over. Then he looks above you at Wanda and challenges, “If I win, you have to tell me what Y/N said to not make you angry anymore.”

Sam under him adds, “Yeah, I wanna know why I lost 20 dollars!” You give him a look of bewilderment. Wanda thinks it over and decides, “Okay, but if I win, Sam has to stop trying to be geeky like Y/N and Peter.” You pinch her thigh and Peter shouts “Hey!” at being called geeky. She ignores the two of you, continuing, “And you have to stop flirting with Y/N.”

“Why? Are you jealous, Wanda?” her brother baits her. Your ears perk up awaiting her response.

“No, you’re just annoying,” Wanda says trying to sound nonchalant, but Pietro knows her well. He continues badgering, “Well, what if Y/N likes it?” 

You decide to partake in his teasing her and add, “Yeah, Wanda. What if I like it?” You look up at her with a cheeky smile and find her already looking down at you with an eyebrow raised and her tongue poking at her cheek, a look you feel says “you don’t want to test me”. Gut feelings shouldn’t be ignored, you think, so you look back to Pietro, “Sorry, I guess I don’t like it.” You follow with a dramatic whisper, “Totally jealous.” She tugs your hair in retaliation for your comment.

“So, is it a deal or not, ‘cause my shoulders are starting to hurt,” Sam says. The twins agree and you are thankful Sam got the ball rolling because you didn’t know how much longer you could hold up Wanda. Peter counts down this time. It’s over in less than 3 seconds. It seems Wanda likes to cheat. Everyone sees the red mist fading after Pietro falls into the water. 

“That’s not fair. You used your powers. That’s cheating,” Pietro says when he comes back up and Sam nodding in agreement while Wanda defends herself saying they never said they couldn’t use powers. You tell Wanda to take a breath and close her nose and then fall backwards to get her off your shoulders. Another few minutes of swimming pass by before Clint yells for all of you to get out and go eat. You all head to the little cabin that has the restrooms and showers. Laura meets you there with towels. Those of you that jumped in the lake enter the showers with clothes and all to wash away the lake water and then head outside to rinse off. 

Clint watches you hand your towel to Wanda for her to dry off first. You say something that makes Wanda let out a resonant laugh and in turn makes you smile vibrantly. He’s only ever seen you look at someone like that once. He grimaces at how that turned out. And Wanda he’s actually never seen act like this, so jubilant and lively, playfully rolling her eyes and pushing you away after you make a stupid joke. It brings a smile to his face despite the voice in the back of his head saying this can’t end well.

As everyone eats, they unintentionally group off to have different conversations. Clint, Sam, and Peter stand by the mini grill, Laura and Nat sit in some camping chairs complaining about the bugs, the kids are drawing things on the ground with a stick they found, and you, Wanda, and Pietro are sitting on other camping chairs.

Pietro and Wanda tell you stories of when they were children, both their eyes seem to almost glaze over as they reminisce on fond memories. Though their storytelling styles differ, Pietro with his animated gestures and Wanda with her attention for detail, they both have you captivated. You offer them a few stories of your own childhood, including the ones you found embarrassing like the three different times you called one teacher “mom” and the time you walked straight into a pole talking to your crush in middle school.

“So you weren’t always so smooth as I hear you are,” Wanda comments through her laughter.

“Nope, this awesome personality took years in the making,” you joke, making Wanda shake her head at you. Pietro comments, “Yeah, not everyone can be born with it like I was.”

Wanda laughs at this, which offends Pietro and soon the twins are bickering much to your amusement. Wanda recounts times Pietro was very much not so smooth with the ladies including things he’s done that caused certain girlfriends to leave him, Pietro obviously having excuses as to why something happened. He fires his shot at her when he tells her she can’t begin to talk about relationships when she’s only had one and it was 3D printed. 

You tune them out after this due to shock and confusion. You’re shocked that Wanda’s only ever dated one person. You never really thought to ask about her exes because you thought it might bring up some bad memories knowing she had just gone through a breakup not so long ago. So you also find it shocking that she was so brazenly forward about wanting to try something with you if she doesn’t date like her brother does-like you do which you don’t even consider dating. You kind of want to smile thinking about it. You just know that she has people left and right who would kill for a chance to be with her, but she likes you. You are trying hard not to let it go to your head but can already feel your ego growing in size. The confusion comes from the 3D printed comment. You’ll have to ask about that later.

“-ask Y/N.” You bring your attention back to the conversation when hearing your name.

“She doesn’t do relationships. She’s too busy playing the game and winning,” Sam chuckles standing between the twins’ chairs. You hadn’t even noticed when he joined you three. You don’t know where they were in the conversation and don’t want to explain what you were thinking about if you ask them to repeat the question because you were distracted, so you decide to go along with Sam. You fake a laugh and say, “Yeah, tried it once and it wasn’t for me.”

“You? In a relationship?” You nod at both of Pietro’s questions. “With who?”

“Her name’s Skye and no, she doesn’t live here so don’t try going around town asking about her. I may not have known you for long, but I can just tell you’re both nosy.” You point at Pietro and Sam.

“Then don’t leave us wondering. What happened?” Sam asks. From the look in his eye, you know he won’t let it go. You don’t feel like recounting the details of how you were falling for someone who left you saying they couldn’t do relationships because they were distracting her from trying to do something important. It was a blow to the gut then; you’re sure your face would show it. You don’t want to be a drag. 

“Nothing exciting. She told me relationships weren’t for her at the time,” you say nonchalantly,  shrugging your shoulders like it doesn’t still hurt to think about.

“So you decided relationships weren’t for you,” Wanda speaks up, her stare hard on your profile like she’s trying to figure you out. You think she reads you too well already, there can’t be anything you hide that she won’t find.

“If you can’t beat them, join them,” you say, trying to look unfazed by it all. It seems to work because the guys move on, Sam joking saying that was the reason you partnered with Wanda after you lost the chicken fight. Wanda, however, is still staring at you, trying to decipher your words. You try not to focus on that. The guys laugh when you say that technically you won because Wanda cheated using her powers.

“So it is cheating! If you say you won, that means Sam and I won, so Sam can try to be geeky and I can flirt with you and you have to tell us how Wanda’s mood changed so fast,” Pietro says matter-of-factly. Now this gets Wanda to quit staring at you. Instead she turns her head to Pietro to give him a glare when he mentions flirting with you. You don’t know too much about Wanda’s powers but you would not be surprised if one was killing someone with a look; Pietro would be pulverized from being on the receiving end of her glare and you from how attractive you found it. 

But now is not the time. As much as it hurts your ego that has now flown through the roof, you reach your foot over to loop your ankle around Wanda and say to Pietro, “Okay, then I didn’t win. It was a draw.” Wanda turns her attention back over to you when she feels your ankle against hers.

“Oh, come on! Just tell us how you did it,” Sam says. 

“Guess she just likes me more than you two,” you offer with a cheeky smile. You miss Wanda blushing when Sam says, “That’s for sure.” You didn’t even catch that because the smell of marshmallows roasting called you. You look over Sam’s shoulder and see Clint helping Cooper and Lila make a s’more. You notice Peter talking to Nat and Laura sitting around a small makeshift fire pit starting to poke marshmallows on the ends of some steel sticks Clint must have bought. “Um, what the hell, guys? Was no one going to call us for s’mores?” you yell more so towards your cousin. 

Everyone turns to look at you but your group who look over to see the reason you were yelling. Your cousin gives you a well-job-done look when Lila says, “Ooo, Y/N said a bad word.” As your group heads over to the rest, you give your cousin your don’t-worry-I’ll-fix-it look you’ve given her countless times and tell Lila, “Yes, I did but you can’t. Not until you’re ten.”

“Y/N!” Both Clint and Laura yell while Nat actually tries to fix it and says, “Y/N was just being funny. Don’t listen to her.”

“But you say Y/N is never funny,” Cooper chimes in. Everyone stifles a laugh when you scoff. “That’s because your Aunt Nat wouldn’t know a joke if it bit her in the ass,” you say the last part directly looking at her. You hear Clint say something like “not this again” while most are saying “oooh” including the kids but they say it to point out you said another bad word.

“I don’t know about that one. Why don’t you bite mine and I’ll tell you?” Nat comes back at you and so do the oohs from everyone and a bonus “burn” from Sam. You reply, “No, thank you. Wouldn’t want to accidentally bite into the stick stuck up there.”

“DAMN!” Sam says and before Nat could respond from what you’re sure would be what ends you tonight, your cousin cuts in. “Enough! I thought I would be raising 3 children. I didn’t sign up for 5. Lila, don’t listen to Y/N about the bad words and if she and Aunt Nat keep arguing,” your cousin threatens, “neither will be having s’mores.”

Both your and Nat’s eyes go wide at that. One thing you and she will never argue about is how s’mores are one of the greatest contributions the US has given the world in terms of culinary delicacies. 

“That got them quiet very fast. How good can s’mores be?” Pietro asks. You and Nat gasp so dramatically one would think Pietro insulted your mothers. “You’ve never had a s’more?” you ask both him and Wanda who shake their heads.

“Why was I never made aware of this?” Nat reprimands them as if it’s the twins’ fault they’ve never had s’mores. “Someone get these two a stick and some marshmallows ASAP,” Nat snaps, and you fetch four sticks and the bag of marshmallows, handing Nat, Pietro, and Wanda a stick each. 

“Prepare to have your mind blown,” you say dramatically. Wanda finds your passion for s’mores adorable. She gives you a smile in thanks when you stick two marshmallows at the end of her stick. Pietro is excited to try s’mores after you and Nat having raved about them; he can’t help but wiggle the stick back and forth while you are trying to put some marshmallows on it. You and Nat are helping the twins make their first s’mores when Wanda asks, “Why don’t Lila and Cooper call you Aunt Y/N?” 

“Because children recognize children,” Nat jests, but your cousin says her name as a warning anyway in case you two started up again. You call over Lila and Cooper for them to answer the question for you. Together they recite verbatim what you had told them to say when someone asked. “Aunt is for when you are old, boring, or married and Y/N is young, cool, and single.” You mouth along and give them a proud smile after.

“Exactly! Thank you, critters.” You give each a high five and they run back to their dad. Wanda looks impressed as do the rest. Nat, on the other hand, looks ready to argue again. “Excuse me, so which of the three am I, huh?”

��Well, you’re not married yet, so you take your pick between the other two choices.” Your eyes shimmer in merriment when she says nothing, opting to glare at you. Sam laughs and asks, “How long did it take them to remember that?”

“A whole summer two years ago. I told them I’d buy 4 pints of ice cream to whoever memorizes it first,” you explain. Everyone enjoys their s’mores, Pietro eating too many for his own good, as the sun disappears below the horizon. It’s not too long before Nat starts complaining about the bugs again. She’s cut off by her phone ringing. She stands off to the side to take the call. You joke around with Wanda saying it’s Bruce calling and you play out the conversation you think they’re having. Wanda laughs at your terrible attempt to mimic Nat and Bruce’s voices.

Nat comes back with news. “So, Rodgers can’t pick us up this weekend. He was called on a mission and had to take the jet, but Tony arranged for two agents named Bobby and Daisy to pick us up in 5 days.”

“You’re staying longer?” Lila asks and when Nat nods, she runs to hug Pietro cheering. You and Wanda look at each other after the news, both trying to see the other’s reaction. You give each other a shy smile. Wanda is happy to have more time with you. She was not ready to leave so soon not knowing when she would be able to see you next. You didn’t really know how you felt. You’re suddenly aware of your heart pounding aggressively against your chest. You were dreading your time with Wanda coming to a close but you were also somewhat prepared to hang on until the weekend without messing anything up. Hearing she’s staying for longer is a relief but you are not sure how long you can go without breaking and kissing her again, getting both your hopes up only for it to all come crashing down when she inevitably leaves. 

Nat interrupts your internal turmoil by ways of complaining again about the bugs. “Okay, this is not gonna happen. Clint, let me see your keys.” Clint tosses her his car keys. She pulls the house key from the key ring and tosses the car keys back to Clint. “Cool, see you all at the house tomorrow. Whoever wants to sleep on an actual bed and not in this AC-less mosquito infested site, you are welcome to tag along.”

Laura stands up way too quickly for someone who is pregnant and says she’s going with Nat. Lila tags along, apparently not wanting to sleep here without her mom. “What a baby,” you say shaking your head as you watch Nat’s car’s lights disappear. 

“Well at least now you’ll have more privacy in the tent,” Sam says, smirking at you and Wanda pointing out that you’ll be alone with Wanda in the tent, which you hadn’t put together until this moment. If your heart wasn’t beating like a drum before, it sure is trying to beat out of your chest now. You gulp at his insinuation. Maybe it isn’t too late to run after the car. 

“Ew, I don’t want to hear anything,” Pietro says, Sam and surprisingly Clint agreeing by nodding their heads. Wanda rolls her eyes at him and Peter on the hand is blushing, trying not to look at you or Wanda like he’s already seen something. You’re suddenly aware that all of them are heading to their tents. The fire had been put out and all the leftover food had been put away sometime while you were watching Nat’s group drive away. Pietro and Peter share one tent and Sam, Clint, and Cooper another. 

Wanda stands and looks down at you expectantly. You see she’s holding the lantern Lila always uses cause it’s in her favorite color of blue. “Do you plan to sleep outside?”

You roll your eyes and stand up to follow Wanda into your tent. There are three sleeping bags rolled out in front of you. “Guess we won’t be needing one of those,” Wanda comments behind you. The comment itself should make you nervous but what actually does it is the sound of her zipping the entrance closed. You gulp and can only let out a simple, “Mhm.”

If that alone had you acting this way, you didn’t want to find out what actually looking her way would do to you, so you quickly move, back hunching, to the back pack you brought. You kneel to comfortably search it. You gave her a better answer, clearing your throat. “Actually, Nat was right about the hard ground. You could use it as a double layer.”

“Or we could share it?” Wanda suggests. You stop digging in the bag as your breath catches. You reply, your voice an octave higher, “No, that-that’s okay.” You clear your throat when you notice your pitch and hope Wanda hadn’t. “I’m used to it, but I wouldn’t want to give you a bad impression of camping.” Wanda had. You are back to searching your bag for the sweats you had brought to sleep in.

Wanda notices you seem a little tense, having dug around that bag for awhile. She walks up to you and places a hand on your shoulder. Your body stiffens like a board under her hand. She has to ask, “Are you nervous?”

“Nervous? Pft, why would I be nervous?” You finally find your damn sweats. “I’ve done this a million times.” You are quick to change the subject when the only clothes apart from Nat’s you find beside your sweats are some pyjama shorts and a tank top. “Is this all you brought to sleep in?”

“I didn’t think we were going to be camping when I packed,” Wanda replies to your inquiry but she still has questions of her own she’d like answered. For example, why are you so nervous and what did the kiss yesterday mean for you two. “Y/N, we need to talk.”

“Luckily, Nat left her stuff so you can wear her clothes. Here.” You hand Wanda Nat’s sleepwear. She can obviously tell you were avoiding the conversation. “You can change. I’ll face the other way.” You turn around and change into your sweats. You would have to leave your top on not having planned for it to have gotten wet. You try not to let the sound of Wanda’s quick intake of breath make you blush knowing you didn’t give her any warning. You try really hard not to guess what Wanda is doing based on the sounds you’re hearing when you think she begins changing but your mind tends to wander especially when it comes to the girl behind you. 

“I don’t see why you have to turn around. I’m sure you’ve seen plenty of women undress.” The sound of clothes falling to the ground makes you gulp. You are never so nervous and it’s killing you. You try your hardest to find something funny to say but come up empty. Wanda is still waiting on a response, so you say facing a tent wall, “None of those women are you.”

Your words spark something in each of your heads- a decision. You decide to take a chance with Wanda because you do believe it in your heart. Wanda is not like any of the other women including Skye. Even though she has to leave in five days, you can make it work. Wanda, however, is reminded of how she isn’t like other women. She is reminded of what Nat had said before. She decides maybe Vision was right.

As much as you wish you could avoid a serious talk, you know you owe it to her. They do say the secret to a good relationship is open communication. The term relationship usually makes you want to run for the hills but when you think of it tied to Wanda, a flutter tickles your stomach. It’s a feeling you never thought you would welcome again and you have to suppress a smile.

“Okay, you can turn around now,” Wanda says. She notices you hiding a smile and she’s wondering what brought it on. Wanda watches you move Nat’s sleeping bag under the one meant for her and then settle into your own. Your kind consideration makes her smile weakly, thinking of all the things she’ll miss such as you opening doors for her or letting her have your blanket and remain sitting still for the sake of her comfort. You stare up at Wanda who you see is lost in thought but staring in your direction and finally manage to act like yourself. “I’m sure the view is nice from there, but I can assure you I look good from all angles,” you joke and pat her sleeping bag beside you. 

The sound of your hand patting her sleeping bag brings her out of her head and when she processes what you said, she rolls her eyes at you. She grabs the lantern, setting it a little aways from both of you once she gets into her sleeping bag. Both of you turn onto your sides placing your hands under your heads to face one another. You stare at each other for a while before a question pops up in your head. You ask, “What did Pietro mean by 3D printed?”

“Sorry?” Wanda looks confused so you clarify. “When you and your brother were arguing, he said your last relationship was 3D printed.” A light bulb goes off in her head, now knowing you were referring to Vision. “That was just Pietro being a jerk,” Wanda says and then she goes on to explain her relationship with this synthetic being to you. You try really hard not to let the fact that this ex-boyfriend of hers quite literally has a connection to her because how were you supposed to compare to that. 

You shake that off and scrape every corner of your mind for any trace of confidence and gather that to work up the nerve to say, “Off topic, or maybe on topic, but I feel like we need to talk about yesterday on the ferris wheel.”

Wanda sees you struggle trying to start a serious conversation. Trying not to have you freak out, as Natasha had implied would practically be impossible, Wanda meets you in the middle. She tries a bit of humor, something you are more comfortable with. “You mean our friendly date?” She adds in a chuckle so you would know she is kidding with you.

You smile, appreciating her trying to make it easier on you to talk to her. If she’s trying for you, you can try for her, you think. You sober up and a more serious expression falls upon your face. You want Wanda to know you mean everything you are about to say next. Wanda, however, misreads the intent behind your expression. What she sees is you finding the words to let her down slowly again. You had said relationships weren’t for you and talk of past flings proved that, so she took a page out of your book- if you can’t beat them, join them. She can play nonchalant too.

“Yeah, about that. I’m sorry I acted so weird after, like it didn’t happen. The truth is I tried to ignore it, but I can’t because it’s constantly replaying in my head. All I can think about is doing it again and I know I said we could only be friends, but-”

“You were right.” Wanda cuts you off early. “What?” you ask thoroughly confused. She continues, “When you said we should just be friends, you were right. It was silly of me to even suggest anything. I mean I’m leaving in five days, so what is the point right?” Wanda reasons with you and as you are about to rebut to say you can make it work, she continues, “I mean I’m probably not in the right headspace to start anything serious. Vision just broke up with me like a month ago.” 

You are starting to feel like you were gathering up courage for no reason, Wanda not letting you speak and stepping on every butterfly that had flapped its wings in your stomach with every word she says. “I came here to take my mind off of it and like magic, you appeared at the door- the perfect distraction.”

That is the blow to the gut you thought you could forget. You thought Clint was the one with perfect aim but Wanda impresses you with her accuracy, choosing the exact word that kills the last bit of hope left in you. On her side of things, Wanda thinks she is doing the right thing even though it kills her to push aside her feelings. Wanda thinks she is sparing you from having to turn her down again and sparing her feelings from having to hear you reject her once more. 

“So don’t worry about the fair. I can definitely say I was not thinking about Vision on the ferris wheel. You are most welcome to do it again anytime.” Wanda forces out a laugh. You didn’t think the sound that would always make you smile would ever make you want to cry. No, you were not going to cry about a girl, especially in front of said girl no less. 

You are angry with yourself. Angry for being so silly as to think this wouldn’t happen. You really played yourself here believing she would be nothing like Skye. It’s not Wanda’s fault. You know this. Still, you can’t help but place some blame on her, her and her stunning smile and her witty remarks and her gorgeous hair and her soft hands that would hold yours or playfully punch you when you joke around. You are angry and upset, and there are normal ways to deal with those emotions. You could yell, you could cry, you could mope and eat all the ice cream you wish, you could even, god forbid, go for a run, but all of those options are too rational for someone with impulsive tendencies. 

Instead, you blink away the tears that were forming, from anger or sadness you don’t know, and move exceptionally closer to Wanda reaching out to run your fingers through her hair. Her breath catches as she watches your eyes take in every inch of her face with a look she can’t quite place. Her heartbeat paces quickly when she catches your eyes glancing down to her lips and then coming back up to peer into her eyes.

“Friends kiss friends all the time, right?”

You hardly give Wanda any time to nod before you crash your lips onto hers. This time you give her time to respond and the second you feel her kissing you back, you push her to lie on her back. 

If a distraction is what she wants, you’ll show her just how distracting you can be.

______________________________________________________________________

One eternity later... je suis retournée! Thank you kind person who asked about me. I’ve been busy with school stuff but I’m done and graduating in two days so I finally have time to get back to this. So next update will probably be Sunday or Monday. Two more chapters left. 

Next chapter: ;) (aka writer struggles to describe things having no experience of doing such things)

Taglist: @madamevirgo @marvels-writings @gayarchnemissis @myperfectlovepoem @purplemeetsblue @magicallymaximoff @b0mbdotc0m @helloalycia @ironscarletwidowsoilder @cantcontroltheirfear @trikruismybitch @your-my-mission @imagine-reblog @fayhar @idek-5 @causeitswhatjesuswouldfreakingdo @bemyvitamin

[cloudninetonine]

A past that still haunts me

A/N: Hey guys, it's me (ya boi) I'm back with my still current hyper fixation Genshin Impact and a vent fic because I've been really stressed and well, it's hard living in my house :) It's a hurt/comfort fic because they always get to me and I needed to make something for myself

I am willing to do aftermath where the boys confront the abuser or do scenario but with different characters

Synopsis: You’re not a damsel in distress, you never have been and you never will be, but, well, sometimes you need a hero to rely on and that’s okay

Characters: Diluc, Kaeya, Zhongli and Childe

Warnings: Hints to past abuse, confrontation of abuser, violence, mentions of blood, threats, foul language

It had meant to be like any other menial day of an adventurer: sign in with Katheryne, complete your commissions, sign out with Katheryne with your payments - done and dusted.

But that wasn’t how it went, no, far from it - archons, so damn far from it.

“Thank you once again, (Name)” Katheryne’s smile was kind like usual, holding that familiar feeling of gratitude as she handed over your remission within a marked package, hand returning to the desk’s polished surface once you had taken it graciously, sending her a beaming grin back. “The Guild really appreciates your work ethic when it comes to the Ruin machines, it’s hard to come across adventurers who want to handle them anymore”

You sent her a shrug as you placed away the box “Can’t blame them really, they’re a hard bunch to handle- I was terrified of them when I first started too, but I had my vision to help me out, a lot of these folk only use there pure determination to eradicate them, gotta admire that!”

She laughed along with you politely “Have a good evening, (Name), I’ll see you again tomorrow?”

“Of course you will!” You backpedalled away from the guild reception, throwing the woman a polite double fingered salute as you did “Ad astra abyssoque as they say, my fair lady!”

She parrotted back her usual phrase before disappearing into the building, you walking further down the path of the city for your final activity for that day.

Of course, you didn’t reach that far, after all, it wasn’t that menial day you had expected, that you had wanted. Life was cruel sometimes, so incredibly cruel for no justified reason just for the sake of it all and you wished, archons, you wished you could rewind the clock and stop yourself from bumping into the body, to save yourself from all the repressed trauma bursting forth like a flurry of butterflies, well, more like moths, disgusting, ungodly, monster moths that aimed straight for the face.

“Sorry!” You yelped, too preoccupied with gathering your pocketwatch you had dropped in the stumble to see who it had been, after all, you were on a schedule and you didn’t want to be-

“(Name)?”

...late.

All of a sudden, time didn’t seem to exist, or maybe it was moving way too slowly from that horrid spike of adrenaline that shot into your bloodstream as soon as the voice registered.

You hoped to the Archons that it wasn’t, that it couldn’t, but did the gods hear your prayers?

“Oh Archons, it is you! It’s been such a long time!”

Of course, they did, they just didn’t care to listen. Ignoring the cries of your people were in fashion to them these days.

They stood there with a smile so excited it almost seemed to tear their face in half, with eyes sparkling with recognition after so many years away from them, they opened their arms welcoming you into their embrace like it was something just so normal for the two of you like you would come bounding to them like a lost puppy who had finally found their master.

The fear of your abuser dwarfed in comparison the pure feral rage and loathing to think that they even deserved to be breathing in the same space as you.

People were looking, of course, they were looking, you knew what they were doing, being bright and jovial, bringing others attention towards you both so that whatever scene you caused would be your fault like you were the bad guy. It was old tactics, of course, you wouldn’t dare do anything when you were younger, you’d just push through it, but this wasn’t old times, this wasn’t younger you, scared, smaller you afraid them, this was you now, a warrior, unwavering in battle, a person who smiled in the face of danger, who laughed at the pitiful fights that 2- no- 4 abyss mages brought to you!

To hell what other people thought, you’d stomp their head into the cobblestone if they had so much as poked you.

“Come here and give me a-”

You took a step back, mustering the deadliest face you could, but you wavered, it was only natural, no matter how much you could try to hype yourself up, this person was your first true experience of real-life nightmares, the first person to bring you true pain, no matter how many ruin guards, hunters, millachurls, mages- anything you faced, nothing could prepare you to face your first fear:

The fear of your older sibling.

“If you fucking touch me I’ll stab you-” The growl cracked nearing the end, you were always an angry crier but you were not about to fall back to this- this monster. “In front of all these people, I won’t hesitate”

Their face dropped followed by your stomach, though, the food you had for lunch sure did feel its way up your gullet.

“What’s with your language? We haven’t seen each other in four years and this is how you treat me? Your older sibling?” They laughed in disbelief because onlookers would think they were shocked, I mean, how could you speak to family like that? But they didn’t know, they didn’t know the words they had told you, the insults, the threats, those tight grabs, those beatings- they didn’t know, so they obviously didn’t know that the shock came from the fact that you had stood up to them.

You licked your lips to get rid of the dryness, but the problem you faced was that your mouth had dried out along with them, as did your throat.

Don’t let them turn this on you, don’t let them get the upper hand, you were better than them, so much better.

“You’re not my fucking sibling” You spat, feeling the air vibrate around you, a sudden shine from your cloak hinted you to the cause “You haven’t been for a long time, don’t fucking try that shit with me”

There it was, that familiar enraged spark, that look of hatred on their face, the thing that warned you about what you said had been the right thing to set them off, that they were just as easily triggered by the smallest act of rebellion just like when you were kids.

Of course, they hadn’t changed.

Evil never did.

They took a step forward but you didn’t back off, just hardened your resolve as they leaned in menacingly, as though their stupid little intimidation tactic still worked after all these years.

You told yourself it didn’t but you knew deep down that wasn’t completely true.

“Don’t speak to me like that, (Name)” Facade gone, they showed you what they really were, what they were really like after all, “Don’t you ever speak to me like that, you show me fucking respect”

Respect?

RESPECT!?

Oh Archons, you were angry, no, seething from the thought that they ever deserved respect.

That pathetic piece of shit, that gruelling pleb, mere gum on the bottom of your damn shoe-

You’d kill them, right here, right now.

You felt the familiar materialisation begin to form in your hand when another voice called out, a familiar loving one that nearly made your throat swell from relief.

“(Name)?”

Diluc

He could sense the tension. Of course, he could sense the tension, Diluc had faced this tension so many times before, he was practically the one that owned such a vibe anytime Kaeya even breathed near him for a second longer than necessary.

But being the one to witness it, to see you, the usual awkward, goofy sweetheart stare at another with such overbearing malice made him uneasy, caused his stomach to churn in ways he didn’t like, set him off in a way that was only reserved for the most chilling on moments.

Diluc wondered what exactly this stranger had done to warrant such a reaction from you.

“(Name)?” The redhead called, glancing around the many citizens of Mondstadt that watched the exchange with intrigue, guard and worry, eyes focused on the scene of this foreign stranger and fuming you, hand poised by your side with weapon particles dancing on your palm.

When Diluc finally made it over, his form seemed to curl protectively around you, hand landing on the small of your back delicately while keeping face with the person, eyes narrowed dangerously but still holding an air of civilness.

A true gentleman, even when you were close to merking some rando.

“Is there a problem?”

The stranger straightened immediately, backing up a few steps with their hands up in defence, sending Diluc a charming smile that the man could see through crystal clear.

“No problem, no problem at all” They glanced back at you, seemingly friendly despite his partner’s obvious ill intent that radiated off you in waves “Isn’t that right, (Name)?”

Diluc saw you tense up once again, the buzz from your Vision rising in volume with your obvious anger as you tightened your first, ready to just screw your weapon and go for the throat.

“If that is the case” The noble’s hand softly pressed against your back, gently but coaxing, knowing that conflict in the middle of the town centre would just bring the knights to meddle in affairs that they had no business attending “Then we shall be going”

“There’s no need to leave, after all, my sibling and I were just chatting”

He paused, shouldering a questioning glance your way but at the sight of your unruly expression, he pushed down his enquiries and once again began coaxing you away from the scene. Angel’s Share had already been open for a while, meaning the usual folk would already be settled in, but the storage room was sure to be a good place to chat and to calm you down, all he needed to do was get you away.

“We already had plans” The side glance had the stranger- your sibling, biting their tongue, brows furrowing in a known annoyance as the two of you began your way towards the pub, you still vibrating in anger. “Good day to you”

The two of you had made it a few feet when they called out once again “Don’t worry, (Name), I’ll see you again real soon”

Diluc’s arm tightened around you faster than you could react, tugging you away quickly “Diluc-”

“No, (Name)”

“Stay out-”

“Not here” Sharing a look, he softened at the shine in your eyes. “You’ll just attract the knights' attention”

You didn’t care, no, not one bit. If the knights had dared to interfere at that moment, they too would have been caught up in your blinded revenge, thrown aside or slashed down without single care just to finally eradicate the bane of your existence and you didn’t care about what consequences you brought about, you just didn’t and you made sure to tell Diluc that, as soon as you had the privacy of Angel’s Share’s storeroom, pacing up and down while he stood off to the side against the wall, watching silently.

“You had no right to get in my way!” You snapped, voice shaking from the pure emotions you were releasing “I finally had my chance, I was finally going to do it! They deserve to end by my hand, by my decision, after the years of torture they put me through! They deserved it! And you got in my way! How could you get in my way! I-”

Pushing off the wall, he slowly advanced towards you, carefully, hands out like he was approaching a wounded animal.

“I understand you’re upset-”

“I’m not upset!” You cried at him, stopping mid-step before dropping your head and tightly, grabbing your hair in your hands “I’m not upset! I’m angry! I’m so fucking angry! And I deserve to be fucking angry! I-”

The sob ripped through your throat despite you trying to hold it back, tears finally gathering in your eyes and rapidly falling down your cheeks “You should have let me kill them! I should have had the chance to rid the world of their evil! It’s not fair! It’s not- it’s not fair, I-”

You didn’t bother to fight him when his arms finally wrapped around you, just fell against him as you wept. The pent up rage, fear and sadness from years of repression taking its toll as you cried, your partner whispering sweet words as he raked his hand through your hair gently and leaned his head against yours.

“I’m sorry” His hand held your cheek fondly, ruby red staring back into your own eyes with a softness that made you melt “I didn’t know this meant so much to you, but if you’re willing to tell me, I’ll listen. I’ll always listen”

With another choked sob, you leaned into his hold “Please just hold me for now”

And he did just that.

Kaeya

The captain had promised to meet you at his office, a simple task really but with the lingering presence of Jean and the words ‘There’s so much work that needs to be done’ leaving her lips he bolted, hoping to catch you by the Guild and drag you to Angel Share for your date. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to help her, it was just he had already promised you this night and Eula could have always taken his place with paperwork, her threat of “vengeance” as she liked to call it could wait for another day.

It was also due to the fact he had no intentions of filing any paperwork for as long as he could avoid it, but that was his secret to be kept.

Being the perspective man he was, he could tell straight away he had walked into something tense, surveying the surrounding people of Mondstadt who looked on in concern, the unbridled rage upon your face, the obviously intimidating lean that the stranger held over you- something was wrong and he knew he had to put a stop to it.

“(Name)?” You glanced for a single moment before your furious glare had returned to the stranger, another flag waving right in his face as he approached, “My dear? Who might this be?”

Before you could snap, lip curling in disgust, the stranger stood back to their full height, switching quickly with a fake charming smile that practically mirrored his own, holding out their hand towards him “(S/N) (Last), (Name)’s older sibling. it’s nice to meet you”

Kaeya’s smile widened and despite the glare from you that was now focused on him, he shook your sibling's hand in-kind “Kaeya Alberich, (Name)’s partner-”

He made sure to tighten his grip with his last words “And Cavalry Captain of the Knights of Favonius”

Successfully, as he always was, Kaeya held back the smug, mocking grin that itched to climb onto his face when the neck of your sibling bobbed nervously, forehead reflecting the afternoon light as sweat gathered on their brow.

The man hadn’t obviously threatened them, surely, Kaeya was smarter than that, but then again, he could still present himself as a threat, a good one and well, his title was a menacing one when it came to the right moment. ‘Try anything and not only do I have the authority to kick your arse but the power to put you in a place many didn’t dare even step’ shortened into an innocent sentence with only 8 words.

“Cavalry Captain? That’s quite impressive” They laughed off, tugging away their hand awkwardly when Kaeya continued to keep a firm grip, his present eye focused solely on your siblings face. They glanced over to you “Quite an achievement for you, aye (Name)?”

You growled, “I’ll show you an achievement-”

Kaeya’s arm had wrapped around your waist not a second later, tugging you tighter to his side as the two of you turned, the man throwing your sibling a smile over his shoulder.

“As nice as it was to meet you, (S/B), we must be going”

And then without another word Kaeya dragged you away, heading in the direction of your home instead of Angel Share tavern, feeling your pure, unfiltered anger the whole way along with the citizens as they parted ways, rushing off from your rage.

It was only when you had returned to the sanctuary of your abode did you snap, jerking away from your boyfriend with angered strides and beginning your seething lecture towards him, moving up and down through the living room while he ventured off into the kitchen, grabbing 2 glasses and a bottle of wine.

“How dare you Kaeya! How fucking dare you! Do you have any idea what you were doing back there!? What was even happening back there!? So much for being the most observant man in Mondstadt because you seemed pretty dense to me the whole fucking time!” Your hands raked through your hair as you yelled, trying so hard to hold back the tears “I didn’t need your damn help, Kaeya! Nor did I fucking want it! Know to stay out of someone's business when it isn’t wanted!”

Logically you knew what he had done, you were smart like that and you knew Kaeya long enough to know what he was doing but your rage, fear and sadness blocked out everything in that moment, made you blind to reality, made you only think irrationally and Kaeya didn’t blame you for that. He could never blame you for that.

Though, it did hurt him to see you in this state.

“Wine?”

You gawked at him for a moment, staring at him with shock and confusion as he held out a wine glass towards you, another held in his other hand and a sweet smile plastered on his face, before your moment morphed into rage, grabbing the drink from his hand and tossing it towards the wall, the red wine splattering over the wallpaper and glass shards falling to the floor.

“Well, that was a waste-”

“Do you think I’m an idiot, Kaeya!?” You cried, not even bothering to hold back anymore as the tears fell and your voice cracked, hand pointing accusingly in his face “Is this some kind of joke to you!? Huh!? Am I a fool in your eyes!? Some sort of blubbering idiot!? Why must you- why do you-”

The second glass was placed on the dresser by you both, Kaeya’s hand coming to hold your cheek fondly while the other came to grab your hand that dangled in the air, still poised at him “I don’t think you're either of those, my dear, in fact, I think you’re one of the brightest in the whole of Teyvat, nevermind Mondstadt”

You hiccuped “Then why-”

Brushing away the wetness from your cheek, he brought your hand to his mouth to place a fond kiss on your palm “Because you mustn’t cry, (Name), don’t waste your tears on someone like them”

“I’m not crying, I’m-”

He shushed you gently and you finally relaxed, falling into his embrace with a heavy heart “-I’m not, I swear-”

Within the familiarity of your home, you wept in his arms, exhausted from the whirlwind of emotions and the scenes that had transpired that day, ready to just curl into yourself and try to block the flooding memories of history. Although, having Kaeya at that moment helped more than he could ever know, having him to rely on made it all so much easier to cope with that day.

“Tell me what ails you and I’ll listen” Brushing back some hair, he pressed a kiss to your head.

“Can..can we just stay like this for a while?”

“Of course, my dear”

Zhongli

He had sensed the incoming danger like it had been revealed in some sort of premonition. Maybe it had been a skill he had acquired after his long, eventful life, maybe it was his connection to Liyue and his citizens, but for some reason, as he sat before Iron Tongue Tian as the man recalled his tales of ancient Liyue like usual, Zhongli knew that the crowd that was forming around Wamin Restaurant had something that he need urgently attend, especially when even Tian paused his story to glance around the corner of the restaurant building to see the commotion.

When the archon had finally borne witness to the scene, he paused within the crowd, surveying the surroundings carefully. You were the centre of attention, along with another stranger, both glaring at one another with anger and disgust, though your own anger seemed to double compared to the other’s, seeing as your weapon was slowly materialising in your grip. Zhongli could also see Guild Master Lan making her way down the steps leading to the Guild reception, a worried expression on her face glancing between you and the approaching Millelith.

Zhongli made his decision, politely pushing through the crowd until he had finally made it by your side, hand being placed gently on your arm “(Name)?”

Both you and the stranger glanced at him, but he paid no mind to them, only held eye contact with you when Lan appeared by your other side, glaring at the stranger with a hardened gaze.

“Are you harassing my guild member?”

Before the stranger could respond, the Millelith had also popped in, glancing between you and them “Is there a problem?”

Zhongli had taken up your view when Lan began her take, she had borne witness for much longer than he had of course and he was certain that you were in no state to talk to the guards. Your eyes were glazed with hatred, pupils pinpricks in a sea of (E/C) and your hands were shaking, balled into fists.

If anything, he needed to try and calm you down first.

“Get the hell out of my way, Zhongli” Your teeth ground together, words shaking with anger “Don’t push yourself into my business”

“I’m sorry, my love, but I can’t do that” He tried brushing your cheek but you jerked away, glaring at his hand before glaring back at him, in no mood to be coddled “I don’t want you to do something you’d regret”

“Trust me, I won’t regret this one bit”

Zhongli held his tongue for the question that almost rolled out, knowing now wasn’t the time for inquiries when the stranger’s voice rang out, condescending and snarky as they addressed you.

“Still need people to protect you, aye (Name)? Of course, you’re still the same pathetic bitch from years ago”

You were lucky for your reputation around Liyue, for the picture of the kind and caring adventurer that had swept through the town from your years of living here because had it not been for that, you pushing aside your boyfriend and materialising your weapon to aim it at your sibling’s throat would have had you in cuffs that instant.

Lan grabbed you, tugging you away as you screamed “I’ll show you pathetic you fucker! Let me go!”

The Millelith didn’t wait to drag your sibling away, much to their cries of dismay, one sending Lan a nod while you continued to fight against her, crying out in frustration.

“Kid, you have to calm down-”

“Calm down!? No! Get the hell off me!”

Zhongli watched as you finally broke away, huffing and puffing up a storm before glancing amongst the crowd, staring at their worried and concerned faces, your own eyes tearing up before you looked away pushing past the crowd to find somewhere to be alone.

When Lan went to call out for you, Zhongli raised his hand, the two sharing a look before the archon made his way after you, his longer legs keeping a steady pace to which he could catch up to you, just beyond the bridge that led into Liyue Harbour. There were no people where you stood, just the lush green plants and great mountains of nature, a perfect place for you to let out your frustration without the prying eyes of the citizens.

“(Name)-”

“Leave me alone!” You cried, curling into yourself with your back turned to him “I don’t want you here, Zhongli! Nor did I want you back there! I didn’t need your or anyone else's help!”

You knew he was here from a place of concern, and deep down you begged that your words didn’t harm him in any way, but currently, you didn’t care, you didn’t want to care, you just wanted to be numb, numb to the flashbacks of your horrid past and numb to the feelings that were dragged along with them.

“My love, please, return with me to our home, I will brew some calming tea-”

“Tea? Tea!? Does it look like I want any fucking tea?! I couldn’t care any less about some fucking tea, Zhongli!” Spinning around on your heels, you scowled at him, not bothering to hide your rushing tears “Don’t you get it!? I want to be left alone, I-”

Two gloved hands gently encased your face, your angered expression morphing into one of shock as your partner stared down at you with glowing eyes filled with a deep-rooted love, affection, worry and so much more that you couldn’t put into mere mortal words. At that moment, everything felt as if it had melted away, only you and him were in this world, nothing else, just the two of you.

And you felt as though your heart had been lifted from the pressures of this life.

“I do not think it is best for you to be left alone” His baritone voice was always so calming, so serene and in your sane moment, you finally felt its effects “I wish to stay with you, so please, let me stay”

With a whimper, you grabbed onto his forearms and leaned your face into his hands, tears continuing to fall as your eyes fluttered shut “Okay…”

“They have hurt you deeply, haven’t they?”

Hesitantly, you nodded.

“Would you be so kind as to tell me the details?”

“I-...” Sharing eye contact once again, you whispered “Can- can you just...hold me for now? Please”

Moving his hands from your face, he engulfed you in his arms, leaning his head against yours “Of course”

Childe

The Harbinger had just left the Northland Bank, hell, he was just about to make his way down the spiral staircase but when hearing the commotion, he paused, something in his gut telling him to check just before and he was glad he did.

Glancing over the elevated walkway, he felt a fiery pit roar in the depths of his stomach, eyes narrowing dangerously at the scene; you were snarling in some other person’s face, their own face nothing short of disgust and a crowd that only seemed to grow by the minute.

Who the hell did this person think they were? Did they even know who you were? To stand so close to you, with a look of threat on their face like you weren’t about to kick their arse? Like he wasn’t about to kick their arse? How did this insignificant speck of dross not know your connections with him, the 11th Harbinger? Or did he know and was just trying his luck?

“Seems like someone has a death wish” And a death wish they had indeed.

Ignoring the perplexed glance from his subordinate stationed outside the building's entrance, Childe made his way down the steps, murderous look stitched on the whole way to the circle of civilians, the mass parting ways for the man that was Tartaglia and continuing to watch the moment in silence.

“Who the hell are you-” You both turned towards him, you in shock while the stranger stared in confusion until Childe’s hand wrapped around their collar, tugging them closer to look down at them with a deep-rooted disgust “-And why the hell are you harassing my partner?”

They fought against him, obviously, they did, but the surprise came when you saddled up next to him, grabbing his arm “Stay out of this, Tartaglia”

What? It hadn't been your request, no, you were always one to finish your whole fights you weren't "A damsel in distress after all!" no, you were so much more, so much greater but that look on your face, murderous and downright cruel- he just couldn't believe his ears.

Childe stared at you in shock while the stranger struggled, throwing him a dirty look in their attempts “Yeah, this is between my sibling and I”

Childe straightened in surprise, feeling embarrassment flood his system. Had he seriously just grabbed and threatened his lover’s family member? Oh, Archons, his judgement had been clouded by anger at the look of the scene, I mean, why would your sibling look at you that way-

“But it’s really no surprise that you still need to be babied, (Name), how shameful”

His eyes widened but not a moment later had you tackled your sibling, the crowd crying out in alarm as you threw back your fist and crushed their nose under the weight of your punch. “I’ll show you fucking shameful, bastard!”

There was shouting and a glance showed the oncoming Millelith marching towards the circle.

Being Fatui always did garner the attention of the guards nowadays, especially for him, who had tried to lure out the attention of their Archon by summoning an ancient god that nearly drowned the entirety of the harbour, so it was no surprise that they seemed to hurry in the pursuit when they noticed his appearance at the scene. However, lucky for him, your reputation as a great adventurer preceded you and throughout Liyue you were seen as a trusted and well-liked individual, meaning whatever trouble you got in, containing his meddling or not, was usually waved away due to the trust of the people.

So, without another thought, Childe tugged you off of your bloodied sibling and held you close, even as you thrashed violently, shouting at him to let you go.

“What is going on here?” A guard called, slamming the hilt of his polearm into the ground as he surveyed the area, eyes landing on the sibling before following the small trail of blood to you, still fighting against your boyfriend with threats falling from your lips “Was there a reason for this brawl? Who started it?”

As your sibling raised themselves on their forearms, they scowled and opened their mouth to respond, only for Childe to put in. “It was them, sir, they were the one that started it, (Name) was merely acting in self-defence”

The Millelith scowled at him, raising a brow and once again looking you over “Is that so?”

He addressed the crowd soon after “Is this what happened?”

And as expected, they all glanced over the sibling, then to you and piped up in agreement. It paid to be a hero, it seemed, the whole harbour returning the favour of years of helping out the community.

“If that’s the case, please come with us” The sibling cried out, anger and fear laced into their voice, trying to argue for their innocence only for the guards to grab them, hauling them away to archons know where while Childe did the same with you, slowly dragging you away from the scene and back into the bank, you screaming and cursing the whole way until you had made it to his office, finally managing to push him off and storming to the opposite side of the room practically seething.

“Who the hell do you think you are, Tartaglia!?” You cried, throwing out your arms in exaggeration “I didn’t need your fucking help! And why the fuck would you pull me off them!? I had them right where I wanted them and you fucking did that! Are you a moron!?”

“You had a sibling” He breathed, watching as you began to pace, muttering in an angered state “And you didn’t tell me”

“-after all these years I finally had the chance to end their pathetic excuse of a life and you just got in my fucking way! I’d waited too long for this moment and you fucking ruined it! How dare you, how fucking dare you-”

“(Name), why didn’t you tell me you had a sibling!?” He cried, walking up to you and grabbing your wrist to stop you “I was ready to kill them right there! And why are you talking about them like this!? They’re your family aren’t they-”

“They are not my fucking family!”

The scream echoed through the room, chilling Childe to the core as you ripped your arm from his grasp, running your hands through your hair before gripping it so tightly it felt close to being ripped from your head. But you didn’t care, no, you couldn’t, you were so angry and you needed something to keep you grounded, to keep yourself from losing yourself and getting lost in those haunting past memories.

The Harbinger felt his chest squeeze painfully as the tears fell down your face, red rimming your eyes and cheeks wet as you sobbed, chest heaving from trying to breathe “Family takes care of you! Family thinks of you in the highest light possible! They love you for who you are and they love you no matter what! That bastard hurt me, made me feel worthless and they refuse to believe they could do no wrong and I hate them! They are the bane of my existence! They are not my fucking family! I hate them, I hate them, I hate them, I-”

Arms were around you instantly, Childe’s face pressed into your hair as you wept, grasping onto the lapels of his suit and shoving your face into his chest to muffle your cries.

“I’m sorry” He whispered, his own eyes shining slightly “I’m sorry, I was being insensitive. Please, don’t cry”

“No, I’m not crying, I promised myself I wouldn’t-” You hiccuped “I wouldn’t waste any more tears on them-”

Then you broke off into more wails, your boyfriend holding you close and letting you continue to cry in his arms, warm and comforting until you were finally reduced to whimpers, leaning into him heavily as the remaining adrenaline in your body began to wear thin when he pressed a kiss to your forehead.

“Will...will you tell me about it?”

You sniffed “Later...just hold me for now, please, Ajax...”

His arms tightened protectively “Anything for you, my love”

[libraryofivy]

Monster - R.A

Pairing - Russell Adler x gn!bell/reader

Requested? - No

Word Count - 600

Warnings - Spoilers for the end of BO:CW, lots of angst, some swearing (if that needs a warning)

A/N - This was an idea I'd had for a very long time, but I finally managed to get it down in words! Also! this is my first time writing for Adler, so any feedback is appreciated! Requests for headcanons and fics are open, so please do send in some things!

A shot rings out in the air, the silence between you now broken by your screams as you realise you've been shot. Your hand goes to the bullet wound, applying some pressure gently, but your legs give way and you find yourself on the hard ground, the impact causing a jolt of pain to rush through your body. 

Adler stands there, unmoving. He stares down at your form, thoughts rushing through his head as he comes to terms with his actions and their repercussions. 

'Russ?' you weakly cry out, arm reaching towards the man who stands in front of you, guilt evident on his scarred features.  He settles himself beside you, gently taking you into his arms, trying to avoid causing any additional pain. You swear you feel a dampness upon your hairline, but you're not quite sure if it's blood off of your hands or his tears, too exhausted from the pain that consumes your body. His calm nature is unsettling, but in a strange way almost reassuring. As unconsciousness takes over you, he holds you close in his arms, wishing that he could rewind time. 

---

He had been home for a few weeks, and yet he still felt as if he was back on that clifftop, holding you in his arms as you took your final breaths. The scene plays on his mind at every opportunity, and when it comes to its climax, it's rewound like a vhs tape back to the very beginning. 

He swears he can see you sometimes, passing him in the street as he walks to get groceries, in the bar at night where he goes to drink his sorrows and finally sitting at his kitchen table in the early hours of the morning when he's unable to sleep. He thought that the pain would go away soon after leaving Solovetsky, but the isolating loneliness of his home only allows the thoughts to flood his mind. 

What kept him up most nights was knowing that you died knowing nothing about yourself. He had ripped that all away in the name of the greater good, deconstructed who you were, your life before him and the mission. The false memories he had implanted, the person he had created from the rubble of you, that's all you knew. Sometimes he even deceived himself, thinking that what he had done was the correct thing to do, that it was all necessary. But he quickly saw the truth. He had destroyed your identity, he was to blame. And what was it all for? you were dead, buried on Soviet soil, and all he had left of you were the memories he created. 

And his speech before he shot you? Saying that it was nothing personal. How could he lie to himself, of course it was personal. It only took losing you for him to realise how much he cared for you. Sure, there had been some flirtatious comments passed between the two of you and a once off kiss on mission to prevent your cover being blown, but he never truly realised how he felt. The whole situation was fucked up, he had fallen in love with you, while also controlling you and the person you would become.  And knowing that you felt something for him too, the pit in his stomach deepened whenever he thought of that. The whole relationship was wildly manipulative, he had forced you into unwavering loyalty, and without his manipulation you probably would never have loved him. No one could willingly love a monster like Russell Adler, especially not after what he had done. 

[widow-maximov]

It’s You

Pairing: Wanda x Fem Reader

Warning: Language, some fluff and angst, sexual suggestion.

Summary: Y/n thinks she has met the one until she joins the Avengers..

Word Count: 6.8K

Part 1, Part 2

Before being an Avenger, you were practically nothing but some part time vigilante whilst working full time to earn enough that would last you a whole week, you saved a few people from robbers and muggings which made you feel a little bit better about yourself, I mean not that you ever doubted yourself but knowing that you could help others whilst never having that protection during your youth times was rewarding in a way.

That’s how you have met your girlfriend, you saved her from couple of guys trying to rob her when she was working, it was also the time you discovered you had powers, you are able to control peoples minds and rewind time just enough to avoid any injuries.

It feels like it happened yesterday, you went to buy yourself a coffee from a new café that just opened up recently when suddenly there was a gun shot and a lot of screams along with some shouting telling people to get on the ground, you did that and watched the whole event unfold before your eyes.

At first it was them waving their weapons to scare people around them and demand money but as soon as they got what they wanted, they planned to at least kill someone and that was the girl behind the counter, who was scared shitless, she tried not to show it but when he pointed his gun at her and had the most disturbing smirk across his face, how could she not be, he pulled the trigger and you jumped out reaching out to the girl when everything stopped and time went back that’s when you ended up in the same place couple minutes before the men arrive.

You looked around to see if you were dreaming but before you could practically be amazed at your new ability, you jumped into action, running to the front door as the girl behind the counter looked at you funny, trying to stop you but you didn’t listen. You held the door and told her to call the police, you saw those men standing outside looking at you as they pointed a gun at you, you knew they would shoot so you ducked but held the door like your life depended on it.

For your luck the girl called the police and just when you were about to let go of the door and have them shoot you right there and then, the police surrounded all of the men with guns in their hands and with a huge sigh you let go of the door and fell back onto the floor to rest.

They were arrested and after giving your statement to the police, of course you had to lie mostly about how you knew it was going to happen, you said you had a bad feeling and figured something would happen, they were just happy they didn’t have any runners to extend their time on a case that would end up being forgotten.

The girl approached you with a small smile across her face “Hey.. I just wanted to thank you for doing that.. You saved not only me but a lot of people inside too.”

You smiled at her “It’s really not a problem, I’m just glad no one was hurt”

You reached your hand towards her “I’m Y/n” she shook your hand and replied “Olivia”

And that’s how it all started, you came by the café more often just to see her and she was happy to see you either way, she knew your order by heart and always had it ready for you. She liked your company so you stayed until you finished your coffee and was on your way, you gathered the courage and finally asked her out which she eagerly agree to. The first date wasn’t fancy but it was perfect, it was short which wasn’t a big deal and following that you had a few more dates before starting dating, eventually couple years in things started to be more than good, that’s when you decided you wanted to move in with her.

It was all perfect, you felt like nothing could go wrong but that was until you was caught trying to do your part time vigilante work by Iron Man, he dragged you to the Avenger tower to Nick Fury and he offered you a place within the team as he saw potential within you. You was taken back but agreed to join, you rushed back home as you weren’t needed until the team was back since they went off on a mission, and waited for your girlfriend to get back from work, she was an assistant for some big company so she was mostly busy but she always loved listening to your day to take the stress off her mind.

Even though you wanted to tell her everything, she didn’t know you was the vigilante, she knew you helped people out with your powers but you knew her opinion on hero'svigilantes, she hated it but was grateful for them as she felt safer within the city. You knew her intentions were pure but you had a different opinion.

You waited anxiously for her on the couch, bouncing your leg up and down from the nerves, you know her reaction will be something you wont like but this is huge for you. You will finally be able to help without hiding behind the whole vigilante ‘Time Breaker’ nickname the public made for you.

As soon as she walked in, she noticed your anxiousness “What’s wrong” She looked worried but you jumped up with a smile.

“I have news” Joy was practically dripping from you.

“I’m going to be on the team with the Avengers” You exclaimed with so much joy in your tone that you thought this somehow will make her be happy for you.

She dropped her bags and her face wasn’t like yours but with shock “What?”

“Well I helped someone out and Tony Stark caught me and dragged me to the Avenger tower and then I was offered a place in the team and I just took it”

“What?” She repeated herself as if you wasn’t talking in a language she would understand.

You looked at her confused and she finally spoke up from her shock state “You didn’t even think about considering this? You just took it without even consulting with me?”

You wanted to look confuse at her but you knew this would be her reaction “Olivia, come on you know how huge this will be-”

She interrupted you “You should’ve spoke to me about it as well.. We are a couple after all”

She took her bag and walked off towards your room as she closed the door behind her, usually when you have arguments you try to just listen each other out but when she shut the door you knew she didn’t want to listen to you so you just took your keys and walked out to give her some time to think about it and you made your way towards the tower again to meet the whole team.

The whole team was actually very welcoming when they heard about you joining, they all said that they have been watching you do your vigilante work and they were all pretty impressed. They gave me a room which you said you wont need but apparently its for long missions where you would have to be here for.

Everyone was excited to have a new member on their team and they all tried to show off their skills and abilities except this one redhead. You spoke with everyone and they all were chatting amongst each other so you took the opportunity to walk up to the redhead that was not far from yous.

She was sat at the bar, just paying attention to her drink, not really expecting anyone to approach her “Hello” you spoke up which made her jump a little.

She faced you and looked at the group of people who were just having usual banter “Shouldn’t you be over there with them?”

You leaned on the bar as you observed her “Probably but they are too busy with each other to even notice I am here”

She had a small smile across her lips as she traced the edge of the glass with her finger “Why are you here?”

“Well you are the only one who didn’t show what you can do”

She laughed “If I did that, I’m pretty sure the whole room would be upside down”

Something about this girl made you want to stick around, she was interesting and closed off a little which you didn’t mind. She was insanely beautiful and she was around your age which made you feel a little bit at ease to know that you aren’t the only young person there.

The only reason you didn’t know her was because she was new as well, she recently joined as well and felt a little bit left out as everyone in here already knew each other well enough to feel comfortable around them.

An idea popped in your head as you smiled “Pick a person and I will show you something”

She narrowed her eyes as she tried to figure out what you are trying to do “Okay? Steve Rogers”

You looked at him and called out “Steve!” His attention was now on you and you spoke up again “Do a chicken dance”

He looked confused and refused to do that, which you just shrugged your shoulders at and closed your eyes when you opened them they turned white and his too and suddenly he was dancing just like you wanted. The redhead had a smile across her face as she was amazed to what you could do, and so was everyone else in the room. You broke the trance and Steve stood there completely clueless as everyone around him laughed.

You looked at her “Okay now it’s your turn”

She just smirked as she blurted out couple seconds in “Bruce is disappointed as he wanted someone to join them with the same level of knowledge as him so he can have a partner”

You narrowed your eyes at her “How do I know you’re not making that up?”

She turned towards the group and spoke up “Bruce I can’t believe you are disappointed in our recent recruitment”

He looked so shocked “How did you- Get out of my head!” and you both just laughed.

“I’m Y/n Y/l/n” You reached your hand towards her so she could shake it.

“Wanda Maximoff” She shook your hand with a small smile.

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Couple hours later

You came back home, it was late and you expected Olivia to be fast asleep but your unresolved argument kept her up. You walked through the door and that’s when Olivia came out from the bedroom worried about you.

“Y/n?” She called out as you walked further into the house and saw her with something in hand.

“Olivia? What are you doing?” You eyed the weapon she had in hand and she sighed with relief.

She shook her head “I didn’t think you would come back today so I thought someone was breaking in”

You knew she still had some PTSD from that café incident so you didn’t think much of it “Of course I was going to come back home.. Why are you up?”

You placed your keys down in your usual spot and walked over to her after she placed the object down near her “I couldn’t sleep”

You reached for her hand and held it tight “It’s okay, I’m here, just let me go toilet and we can just lay in bed until you fall asleep”

Even if you were upset with how she reacted, you loved her and wanted her to feel safe.

She nodded and you did just that, you went toilet and then you both laid in bed after you changed into something more comfortable to sleep in, she was laying on your chest cuddled tightly into your body as if you was going to disappear.

She looked up at you, you could see in her eyes something was eating her inside out “What’s wrong?”

She sighed and sat up, you mimicked her actions and turned on the little night lamp you had so you could see better “I wanted to talk about the disagreement we had earlier”

You nodded and she continued “I know my reaction to what you told me was upsetting but you know how worried I am already when you put your life at risk helping people out a little, I just don’t want to lose you”

She cupped your face with both of her hands “I love you and I don’t want you to think I won’t support you but I’m just worried”

“I know and I’m sorry I didn’t ask for time and told you about it before taking the place. I was just so excited I just don’t want to hide” You played with your ring on your thumb to calm your nerves down.

“I know and now, you can finally be more than just the ‘Time Breaker’ vigilante”

You looked up at her from your hands and she had a small smirk across her face “You knew?”

She nodded “Of course, I knew you would never pass the chance to do anything that could save peoples lives and just so you know I am proud of you”

You hugged her as she giggled from the sudden attack, she hugged you back and you both fell back to your original position and fell asleep couple minutes after.

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3 months later

During this time, you and your girlfriend were on good terms but with missions getting in the way you never had time for each other, even if she said she was proud of you for doing what you always wanted, you knew she is still upset about it which caused some arguments and you would usually just spend your days in your room at the Avenger tower watching anything to take your mind off Olivia.

Today was one of those days, you wanted to spend your 4 year anniversary with her before you had to travel to the compound for the mission but she had other plans for that day with her friends so you ended up walking out whilst she was getting dressed and ended up here.

Did she bother to call you? No, were you waiting for her to? Yes, you wanted her to say she’s sorry and that she actually had something planned for you but she was actually at a party because you saw her friends posting stuff on their social media.

You held the phone in your hand, staring at it waiting for it to light up and display an apologetic message from her but there was no luck, even though you was watching something, it just didn’t take your mind of her.

“Are you just going to stare at your phone all day?” A voice appeared from the door way which made you look.

You saw Wanda standing with her arms crossed and she gave you a smile as she walked over to you when you didn’t say anything “What’s wrong?”

You shrugged, you placed the phone on the night stand and sat up, not saying anything which Wanda took as an invitation to sit down near you.

Over the course of 2 months, you two were close friends but were still learning a lot about each other. For example during the team movie night, they all wanted to watch horror movies but you hated them. Of course you were teased for that but Wanda made sure they would choose something else. She wasn’t the only one who stuck by your side.

Natasha Romanoff did as well, she was quick to become your favourite person here, she was hilarious and could easily beat anyone here except Hulk because.. Well that dude is just not her size, though you could argue if it did come down to it. She loved playing pranks on the team and you soon become her partner in crime when it came to that, with your ability to control people’s minds you helped her do a lot of things like make people spill things or add too much spices to their food and watch them choke.

“It’s okay if you don’t want to talk about it but I can’t let you look this depressing. Come join me in the kitchen, I’m cooking dinner this time”

You raised your eyebrows at her to tease her “You cook?”

She chuckled and rolled her eyes “Of course I do. Now come on” She grabbed your hand, you took your phone with you and you two walked hand in hand towards the kitchen.

You help the Sokovian out a lot actually, even if you didn’t really had time to cook before but you always knew how to. When you would finish your part, you would just lean and watch her with admiration at how concentrate she was but you would snap out of it, reminding yourself that you were in a relationship.

She brought the spoon up to your face so your attention isn’t turned towards your phone “Here, taste it” which you did and your face lit up at the different taste.

“Good? Am I missing something?” She asked a little worried but you shook your head still trying to process how good her food is.

“No! Its perfect, not only you’re dead ass gorgeous but also an amazing cook” You were too memorized by the food to even think twice what you were saying.

She blushed and before you had time to even correct yourself she quickly changed the subject “So will you tell me what’s wrong?” She looked up from what she was doing at you.

You sighed and looked down at your phone to see nothing and decided to open up “Today is mine and Olivia’s 4 year anniversary but she decided to spend it with her friends instead”

“At least you’re not alone today..” She said with a small smile on her face, trying to light up the mood.

You nodded and she questioned “So what are you going to do?”

You shrugged “I’m not sure but I know one thing”

She looked confused to why you stopped and suddenly, your eyes turned white when Tony barged in with his eyes white, she looked at both of you and within seconds Tony got ahold of flour as he dumped it over the Sokovian witch.

You broke the trance and looked at Wanda who was covered in white from head to toe and Tony who was lost at how he even got here as he held an empty bag of flour in his hand.

You laughed as she used her powers to throw some of the flour on you but you went back in time and avoided the attack which made her chase you around the kitchen “I teach you how to cook a good meal and that’s how you repay me Y/n. You wait”

You knew she was going to do something and you were right, she made you freeze in place and had an egg held in her hand, you knew what she was going to do, she walked towards you with a smirk across her face.

“You have no way out, you can’t rewind or control anyone. The only fate here is the egg to be cracked on your head” The red mist entangled with her fingers controlling your captivity.

Tony was going to just walk out without protesting but she held him as well which made him speak up “What did I do?” He basically whined but Wanda didn’t care.

“For all I know you could get someone to help Y/n, so you’re staying here” She stated which made Tony shake his head “Actually I don’t care-”

She used her powers to stick a cloth inside his mouth so he would shut up, you was laughing at the whole thing but suddenly the egg turned into 10 which were floating in the air and were ready to be thrown at you but she was waiting.

“Come on Wands.. You don’t want to do this..” You tried your luck but she shook her head “Oh but I really do” and with that all those eggs aimed at you, covering you with the egg goo, she walked up closer as she held the last egg

“That’s for the flour” and she just cracked the egg on your head making it slowly run down your head which made her laugh and she let you go.

That was a mistake

What she didn’t notice was that you were planning to give it back to her, and suddenly your body collide with hers, holding her tight making sure she has some of that egg too. That’s when her eyes widen at how close yous are, making yous both blush and you let go off her, that’s when the rest of the team walks into the kitchen that’s covered in flour and egg shells.

“What in the world happened here” Someone exclaimed from the team, whilst Natasha laughed.

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The next day

You ended up in Wanda’s room after the dinner, Nat did join yous for a while to watch some sitcoms but she wasn’t really into that, so she left later on when Wanda was drifting to sleep.

Somehow you ended up falling asleep along with Wanda, yous must’ve shifted in your sleep as now Wanda is cuddled into you with her head resting on your chest.

She has been awake for some time but she didn’t want to move, risking waking you up and parting away from her. She enjoyed your company a little too much, she always wanted to be around you, you made her days better, especially when she is having a rough day, she always knows she can count on you and that’s what caused her to fall for you.

When you joined the Avengers, that night you met them all, she was a little sceptic rather than welcoming, she sat away to avoid any interaction with anyone from the team, she was still a lot more closed off than she is now and when you approached her she knew she could trust you, it was a gut feeling.

Finding out you were in a relationship kind of bothered Wanda but she brushed it off, especially since there was nothing she could do about it. The more she got to know you the more she liked you, you were like a golden retriever; Happy, beautiful, smart but if someone pissed you off you was like Natasha which was why Natasha found herself hanging out more with you than the rest of the team.

Wanda looked up from where she was, staring at your relaxed featured, just taking in how calm you looked, her heart melting at the sight of you.

“Watching me sleep creepy lady?” You asked still with your eyes closed.

She tensed when you suddenly spoke up but relaxed within seconds when she rolled her eyes at you “No?” She had a blush across her cheeks for being caught.

You smiled as your hand reached to your face to rub your eyes and stretch out “Mhm sure”

Your raspy voice in the morning will be Wanda’s favourite thing from now on. The only girl you ever had in bed (besides your ex girlfriends), was Olivia and now that Wanda is here with you is.. different. You would be lying if you said that you didn’t like it but you did, her embrace was comforting.

Yous decided it was best to get up and cook breakfast before the whole team wakes up. Well Wanda cooked breakfast whilst you quietly stare at her, drinking your coffee at the same time.

Natasha was the first one up from the rest of the team and ate Wanda’s breakfast, she wanted to spar with you so you agreed, it was a good idea to just get fired up before the mission. She was good and you needed some hand to hand combat skills in case your powers refuse you.

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Couple hours later

Travelling to a Hydra base wasn’t something everyone was thrilled about, the whole team was needed for no reason, you and Wanda could just take the whole place down with your powers but this mission was tricky, yous didn’t need to just beat them up but you needed their data and blow their base up, S.H.E.I.L.D. intel wasn’t the best, they barely gathered anything apart that this base had some dangerous weapons that’s why you were needed.

As soon as the whole team along with you jumped out of the Quinjet, you expected agents to be flooding the field but there was nothing. You was instructed to go near the base just in case they flooded out since you could rewind time, so just like that you started to approach the base.

You walked inside and there was no one there, you expected it to be heavily guarded but no one was seen, so you went further inside as you reached to your ear to inform the team, that’s when the guards made their way out and spotted you.

You pressed your ear so the team can hear you whilst you talk down the guards, just in case your powers failed so the team would be informed to help you “Look fellas, I’m here.. you are here. Can we not be buddies?”

You tried but they launched at you and you simply went back in time, just enough before they spotted you. You reached to your ear and spoke quietly “This must be a set up, the guards know we are here they are waiting for us to approach the base, I can sneak inside and just do the work quickly. Just wait for my signal”

The team agreed that you should do it but Wanda protested “No Y/n! Come back and let’s do this together”

“Maximoff, Everything will be fine besides I can rewind if anything goes wrong. It’s okay.” You spoke and started to make your way towards the guards, you hid behind them and controlled one of their minds as you made them fight each other, knocking them out, you pulled their bodies to where you were so other were not alerted. You took their weapons and attached it near the bomb that you was suppose to plant.

You made your way to the core of the base and there was no one but you knew better, you closed your eyes and searched for any soul near you which you did find, you forced them to the centre and pushed them as their body was shot multiple times.

You reached to your ear to let know the team that you made it “Okay, I’m at the core of the base, I have the pen drive, I’ll plant the bomb as soon as the data starts to transfer.”

The team sighed in relief that you were still alive but they were pretty much surprised that the amount of guards. Wanda and Natasha knew something was wrong but they couldn’t go against orders, even if they were your orders they were approved by everyone.

You plugged the pen drive inside the slot and placed the bomb near the weapons, the timer will start as soon as you let Tony know to start it, you started at the huge screen as the percentage increased. You knew it was too good to be true to just leave without being detected.

A sharp sting in your shoulder and thigh occurred that muted the gunshots from behind you as you turned around to see the guard with a gun in his hand and little smoke coming from it, making you aware that you have been shot twice, you looked back you at the screen which was closer to finishing, as you controlled his mind and made him shoot his leg himself and knock himself out.

The focus for the mission was keeping you busy from the pain but as soon as you moved your leg, the pain was stronger which made you groan and limp towards the computer, as soon as it hit 100%, you snatched the drive and slowly made your way towards the exit where you saw about 5-10 guards standing with their guns pointing at you.

You laughed a little and took the weapon attached to your belt as you started to shoot at them, they were shooting at you but they missed as you went back in time but each time you did the less energy you had, it was mainly because you was losing blood and was hit couple more times, you didn’t even notice until you moved from your place to hide behind something.

You reached to your ear, taking a deep breath and speaking “Tony start the timer.”

“On it” He spoke to your ear and soon enough his voice spoke up again “Okay, you have 3 minutes before the whole place blows up, can you make it?” He asked the question he didn’t want to, which he earned a shocking glare from Wanda and Natasha, they weren’t expecting that.

“Yeah, I’m on my way out” As you spoke, gunshots slipped through which made the team be more worried.

“Y/n do you need back up?” Natasha asked and there was no reply, they were about to run inside from the Quinjet but Tony started to fly above. You and him had a plan which the team wasn’t inform off, this way you wouldn’t be stopped, they thought they will be joining you but you was suppose to go alone.

“Tony what the fuck are you doing?” Natasha harshly spoke as she stared at him from behind but he didn’t answer.

Wanda worried stood up “We need to help Y/n!” But she was ignored as well.

You knew you didn’t have time but you hoped this will work out, the reason to why the team wasn’t needed was because that could cause a lot of problems like compromising the mission but they were there in case things went south.

You took a deep breath and with everything you had, started to run towards the exit, with the pain becoming more stronger, which had some guards there but you manged to knock them out with your mind control, you failed to notice that one of them pretended to be knocked out so when you approached the exit, you was shot again, this time nearer to your heart which punctured your lung, you knew this is bad but you went on.. At least tried to, right as you reached the end, you were close to dropping to the ground but that’s when the bomb went off, sending you flying into the air, several feet away from the base and where the Quinjet was.

You was barely breathing and barely conscious to what was happening around you, but one redhead made it towards you. You smiled at whoever was there and started to close your eyelids since they become so heavy.

“Oh my god, Y/n” A shaky voice spoke up, you could tell it was Wanda.

You tried to wave your hand to dismiss it but the pain was too much so you spoke up “It’s fine..”

She covered your mouth with her hand “Shut up and save your energy! You can’t die now”

You was trying hard to stay awake but it wasn’t working and the darkness was much closer than you really wanted, you passed out the second the Sokovian redhead lifted you with her powers.

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Long couple hours later

The medical wing wasn’t keen on giving anyone any information about your condition which only worried everyone. Wanda barely left the waiting room in hopes that they will crack and tell her about you but nothing.

She wanted to barge in there and demand answers but she knew better than to delay your way to recovery. Wanda was more than worried, she was terrified, at the thought of your body going limb when she picked you up really scared her.

At the loss of her parents and her brother, she thought she would never open up to anyone but when you waltzed into her life, you instantly melted her walls with just one look, you made it easier to breath when she was around you, that’s why she can’t lose you.

Tony along with Natasha and Steve made their way towards Wanda, they knew she was upset.

she looked up, her blood boiling at the sight of Tony, she stood up with her eyes turning red “What do you think you’re doing here?” the question was laced with venom.

“Are there any news?” Natasha asked knowing that anything could trigger Wanda.

She shook her head but her glare didn’t leave Tony which angered her more, she wanted him out of this hallway, she wanted to see you smile and laugh.. Just be alive but you are in there with no updates.

“Look Witch, me and her had a plan before we went on the mission, she was suppose get out there before the bomb went off but obviously the plan didn’t work out exactly like we wanted, she was suppose to be on the Quinjet before it exploded, she knew it was a set up but she went anyways, we needed that data and now we are able to create better weapons because of it.” He tried to explain the best he could to Wanda, he felt guilty he didn’t let someone else come with you but they both knew it would be dangerous.

“Why didn’t you just let me or Natasha come with her!” She screamed, it made some lights flicker as her powers slowly emitted from her.

Tony took a deep breath “She didn’t want anyone, I tried to convince her to take someone but she said that would rather die than let anyone else suffer”

With his words, Wanda’s eyes turned back to normal as it filled with tears, she was so mad at you for doing such a reckless thing without even talking to her about it. Natasha approached her and gently wrapped her arms around Wanda, she was trying her best to keep her tears in but that was slightly impossible.

Doctor Helen Cho walked out to the scene, she made herself known by clearing her throat, immediately Wanda turned and stared at her, she was dreading this moment but put a brave face.

“This might be hard to hear but Y/n flatlined three times before going into a stable condition. Some of the bullets made their way towards further into her body, especially into her lung, it was difficult to even take it out but we did it and she should be okay, she lost a lot of blood so we put her into a medically induced coma to record quicker but she can easily slip into her own coma from so much trauma so we will be monitoring her for now” She spoke, explaining everything that went on inside that small room.

The only two things that stuck with Wanda was that you flatlined three times but you’re alright. She closed her eyes, trying her best to keep calm, as she sat back down in the chair, they all looked at the Sokovian, it was kind of scary to see her like this.

Natasha took it as an opportunity to ask if anyone can go in and visit you “Is visiting possible?”

Helen nodded “Yes but one at a time, too much people might disturb her”

Wanda stood up with the most dull face you could witness “How many times?”

Helen took a deep breath “She was shot 7 times”

Wanda nodded and just walked inside the room leaving the 3 behind, she needed to be there when you wake up, she knew how much you hated bright white rooms, she never knew the exact reason but she never asked, she wanted you to tell her.

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Two weeks later

The air in the compound was thick with tense, especially since Wanda never wanted to leave your side but she was needed in some small missions, now that you was gone she was needed twice as much, you and her made missions seem so much easier but now that you are still in the coma, she was forced to leave you.

Wanda was currently after her mission, she was exhausted but she rushed to your side to be there when you wake up, she had a feeling you would wake up. She was there for hours but still no luck, that’s when there was a knock on the door which her head followed, she saw Vision.

She relaxed and walked outside to see him, he tried to convince her to go shower and rest but she didn’t want any of that, she just wanted to be here, you woke up during that time, your eyes scanned the room that’s when it landed outside the window to Vision and Wanda, you were so high on painkillers that you didn’t even notice any pain.

He was extremely close to her, his hand on her cheek and looked at her so lovingly, she looked sad and his other hand was on her hip holding her close. You wasn’t sure how long you have been out but it must’ve been long since Vision and Wanda are now together (Obviously they weren’t), at the sight of them that close, your heart broke. You had feelings for Wanda for sometime now but Olivia was your girlfriend and you knew you had to bury those feelings, especially now that Wanda is with someone else.

You hated bright rooms so your breathing increased, slowly having a little panic attack when you came to your senses, the heart monitor started to beep faster which caught Wanda’s attention.

She ran inside leaving Vision, to which he just walked away a little disappointed, she held your hand “It’s okay Y/n, I’m here sweetie”

You relaxed at her touch but your breathing didn’t steady “Y/n look at me and follow my breathing”

She started to breathe slowly in and out which you mimicked, you was relaxing, she always had that effect on you, tears started to run down your face which Wanda carefully wiped with her thumb.

You leaned into her touch as you blurted out “Take me home please..”

Your pleading broke Wanda’s heart, she knows how much you hate these rooms “Y/n..”

“Please Wan.. I can’t stay here, its too cold and lonely” You begged her and her grip tighten around your other hand.

“I’m here Детка (baby), and I’m not going anywhere” She spoke as she stared into your eyes.

“I can’t stay here” Another tear slipped down your face, Wanda nodded with a sad smile “Okay.. I will talk to the doctor but for now rest, I will be here моя любовь (My love)”

You didn’t understand what she was saying, for all you know she could call you an idiot but the way she said it, just made you want to listen to her talk all the time.

You nodded and a thought struck you “Wanda…” She hummed as an answer to which you continued “Could you lay with me here until I fall asleep?”

Wanda wanted to just stay in your arms forever but to be asked to cuddle you till you fall asleep because you are terrified of this hospital room, made her even happier, she nodded and climbed next to you as you carefully hugged into her, with her scent filling your nose and her heartbeat you felt safe.

“Do you want to know why I don’t like bright white rooms?” you asked and she nodded.

You wasn’t sure if you should look at her because if you broke down it would be harder to stop but taking a deep breath you looked up and stared into her green eyes, they held this reassurance, she didn’t need to use her words, her eyes said it all

“When I was young, my mother and father decided they didn’t want me so they gave me up for some experiments..” You paused as a flashback of the white room appeared before your eyes, you exhaled shakenly “ All I really remember is the multiple white rooms and the cold empty feeling whilst they did whatever they did”

“So please.. Get me home, I don’t want to be here” Another tear escaped your eyes.

Her free hand cupped your cheek as she wiped the tear and nodded with a smile “You’ll go home, just rest”

It pained her listening to your past, as a little girl to be put through something like that, it must’ve been really scary. Wanda’s hand traced circles on your back, relaxing you, making you fall asleep with her. The red power coursing through her hand near your head as she gave you pleasant dreams.

“Sweet dreams Солнечный свет (Sunshine)”

[uswntxfootball]

we’re just rivals (on the field) (leah williamson x chelsea!reader)

the “epilogue” / part 2 to we should be rivals

of course, the game she decided to come to was this one.

word count: 2418 ish

rated F for fluffy, I for idiocy (or injury), and C for charles.

——

it’s been about two weeks since you showed up to that arsenal game.

and about two weeks since you’ve talked to the english defender.

it wasn’t like you weren’t trying to talk, you just never had the time to.

training had been hectic for the both of you, and it always seemed like one was busy while the other one wasn’t.

“why do you look so blue?”

“jee maybe it’s because i’m wearing a chelsea shirt?”

jessie rolled her eyes before huffing:

“come on y/n you know what i meant.”

“do i?”

“you’re impossible.”

“no i’m y/n.”

“oh my god.”

you let out a loud cackle at jessie’s frustrated cry.

you ran your hands through your hair quickly, letting out a sigh of relief when jessie stopped questioning you.

truth is, you missed leah more than you’d like to admit.

you missed her flirty glances and slightly cocky demeanor, and it began to eat up at you a little bit.

by focusing on the task at hand, which was the upcoming manchester city game, you attempted to distract yourself from it.

it helped a little.

jessie could tell something was up, but after your previous exchange she stopped pushing it (for now) upon seeing your refusal to give in, and partly for the sake of her sanity.

you let out a sigh of relief when the whistle blew, signaling the end of training.

you grabbed your water bottle and jumped when you felt someone slap you on your shoulder.

“okay now spill.”

you turn to see jessie giving you a concerned look, the midfielder’s cheeks red and hair messy from the exertion of practice.

“you look like a sunburnt lion,” you snort, before taking a drink of water.

jessie scoffs.

“lions don’t get sunburnt. i thought you’d know tha-hey!”

jessie lets out a yell of protest when you spray your water in her face.

you shoot her a cheeky grin before making a run for it.

“get back here! y/n!”

~~

on the other side of the spectrum, leah felt the same.

she was however, less of a mess than you, and held it together much better than you did.

~~

you let out a little sigh as you stare at the tv.

there she was in all her glory, fuming and talking to lisa after a game, a sight which you rather enjoyed.

after all, it was kind of hot.

you rewinded that section for a little bit, and nearly shit your pants when you heard the apartment door open.

“hey i brought lunch what are you-“

jessie stopped dead in her tracks and stared at the tv.

she let out a snort when she saw you.

you were crammed behind the couch in a failed attempt to hide yourself.

“watching leah are we?”

you let out a grumble from behind the couch:

“i don’t know what you’re talking about.”

jessie rolled her eyes and you heard a rustle before letting out a yelp of surprise when her bag hits you on your head.

“you bitch you hit me.”

“yeah yeah whatever.”

you wriggle your way out from your “hiding place” and plop down on the couch, still rubbing your head.

“i think you made me lose a bunch of brain cells.”

jessie snorts.

“to lose them you’d need some in the first place.”

you growl and shoot her a glare before crossing your arms and huffing:

“i’m ignoring you now.”

the canadian rolls her eyes and shrugs.

“finally some peace and quiet around here.”

“you’re mean.”

“i thought you were ignoring me.”

“shut up.”

~~

the next game was a tough one.

manchester city was a tough opponent and you’re now realizing why.

it was chelsea’s first game against them since they signed the uswnt players, and good lord have they improved.

you watched from across the pitch as jessie was struggling to get the ball from white, your chest heaving slightly while doing so.

you were already exhausted and it wasn’t even half time yet.

your head snaps up when you see a movement to your right, and you took a quick glance to the stands to see the top of a red jersey peaking out behind a black coat.

that’s all you could see before your name was being called and you turned to receive a pass.

and then you got caught up in the game once again, too busy to realize what it meant.

chelsea went into halftime down 1-0.

your halftime talk was brief, mostly just emma giving quick pointers here and there.

when the talk ended and break finished, you were so determined and focused that you nearly walked into the door frame on your way out of the training room.

the second half was going just like the first.

the possession was deadlocked, opportunities were deadlocked, and if it continued like this manchester city would win.

so you decide to fuck it.

you’re getting this corner kick in no matter what.

as reiten prepared to take it, you positioned yourself right next to the keeper and the post.

just for a moment, you let your eyes drift to the stands, your eyes catching a blonde’s as you do so.

it took you a second to realize who that was.

almost instantly, butterflies tore through your stomach, and you barely miss the whistle signaling the corner kick.

just barely.

now you have to score.

leah’s here.

you have to.

reiten sends the ball into the box, and almost like magic it’s heading for exactly where you’re standing.

you could see roebuck beginning to grab for it, and you didn’t care, you were going for that ball.

just as your head makes contact with it, you hear a resounding crack and yours eyes start watering in pain as you hit the ground.

your hands were covering your face and you could taste blood in your mouth, but you couldn’t tell where it was coming from.

jessie’s hand and concerned voice brings you out of your thoughts.

“hey are you okay? what’s wrong?”

you groaned a little in pain and whispered:

“did we score?”

jessie let out a halfhearted eye roll before saying:

“that’s what you’re worried about? well you scored, but please don’t kill yourself trying to do that next time.”

you let out a soft chuckle before taking jessie’s hand and getting to your feet.

one of your hands were still covering your face, and when you put them down jessie lets out a surprised yelp.

“oh jesus! okay uhm we need a medic here!”

pretty soon you were surrounded by the medical staff, and taking one look at you they ask for a substitute.

there’s a ringing in your ears so you can barely hear snippets of the medical conversation, but you hear enough to know what’s going on.

broken nose. punched in the face by the goalkeeper. need to set it.

it’s when you’re being led off the pitch that you remember about leah.

your eyes widen and you turn to the stands, and you couldn’t tell if it was your angle or not, but you couldn’t see her anywhere.

you shook your head slightly and continued your walk off the pitch.

emma joined you in the room along with a few guys on the medical team, and said:

“listen, we can set your nose now, or we can wait until after the game. we’ll give you a few moments to decide.”

you give a nod and with that everyone left the room.

it was quiet for about a minute before you heard footsteps again.

“hey i haven’t…”

the rest of your sentence gets caught in your throat when you look up.

in the doorway stood the girl who’d been on your mind for the past few weeks, and you blushed a little at the sight.

“um uh i-how are you?” you managed to stutter out.

leah lets out a light chuckle before saying:

“shouldn’t i be asking you that?”

the defender walks up to you and gently places her hands on your cheeks, quietly examining your face.

“well it’s definitely broken,” she mutters softly, and in a sudden jolt of confidence you bring your hand up to cup hers in yours.

leah smiles a little at that and takes your hands down to rest in your lap.

“how did you get down here?”

leah blushes and smiles sheepishly:

“i may have had to sneak around a guard or two..”

“you wanted to see me that badly huh?”

leah gives a slight eye roll at your teasing tone.

“be careful, i could leave at any moment.”

you let out a loud laugh before wincing slightly, the action shooting a fresh wave of pain over your face.

“be careful, don’t want that pretty face to scar,” leah says teasingly.

“why would you like me less with a scar?”

“well i didn’t say that.”

you try to wink, only getting halfway before wincing in pain again.

it’s now that emma walks back in with the medical staff, who looks up in surprise when she sees leah.

“we can’t have visitors here-“

“have her stay.”

“y/n we really can’t-“

“nope she’s staying.”

your coach lets out a defeated sigh.

“fine.”

and you hear her mutter something that sounds like:

“i don’t get paid enough for this.”

leah shot you a look before letting go of your hand, much to your dismay, and moved to a spot next to you, out of their way.

“so y/n, did you decide t-“

“set it now.”

emma gives the medical staff a thumbs up and  the go ahead and glances quickly at you and leah with an expression of oh look, more gays, before heading out back onto the pitch.

a gruff voice focuses your attention back to the foreground.

“alright y/n, my name is charles, and i’ll be setting your nose today.”

you give an attempt at a snort, and wince before saying:

“sounds like you’re my waiter or something.”

charles gives a hearty chuckle, and as he examines your face says:

“this one’s got a sense of humor huh.”

you let out a wink in leah’s direction before saying:

“oh you know it.”

charles turns with his back to you, looking through his equipment bag and says:

“okay this might hurt a bit, so i recommend grabbing something, not me preferably.”

“do people do that?”

charles turns to you with a bit of tape and gauze in his hands and places them on the table beside you.

“like you wouldn’t believe.”

you let out a laugh.

“alright let’s get this over with.”

“okay then, since they still have a game going on, please try not to yell.”

you felt his hands on your face and you braced yourself for it.

“alright ready? on the count of 3.”

“1.”

“2.”

your hand shot out in leah’s direction and the defender took it without hesitation.

“3.”

charles moved his body with his hands and the pain was almost instantaneous.

still, you gritted your teeth as your eyes start to water, not noticing how tightly you clamped onto leah’s hand.

it’s only after when charles is wrapping your nose that leah whispers:

“i know we play football but i kind of still need my hand.”

“sorry,” you mutter, relaxing your grip, and at the same time refusing to let go of her.

“all righty! took it like a champ, you didn’t even yell.”

you shrug before saying nonchalantly, “yeah i’m not much of a screamer.”

you grinned cheekily when you notice leah’s eyes widening and cheeks reddening.

as charles was packing up his stuff, he asks:

“so is this your girlfriend?”

it was silent for a few seconds, and charles turns to look at the two of you.

“i’m sensing like a we’re friends but we flirted a bit and now we don’t know where we stand kind of a vibe.”

you and leah speak at the same time.

“yeah.”

“exactly.”

charles picked up his bag and said:

“i figured. anyways you guys look cute together, and i’m gonna go back to the game now.”

and with that said, he gave you a little wave and walked out of the room.

“well he was fun, i liked him,” you said to leah, who smiled and nodded a bit in agreement.

the two of you chatted about meaningless things for a little while, before you shot up suddenly and pulled her with you.

“come on, let’s get out of here.”

leah scrunched her eyebrows up in confusion.

“where are we going?”

you grin at her.

“well i promised i’d take you on a date if you came to my game didn’t i?”

leah’s cheeks flush a little and she says:

“w-“

jessie’s voice cuts leah’s response short.

“y/n! how are you doin-oh.”

the canadian’s eyes flickered between your face and leah’s face, before moving towards your joined hands.

a teasing smile made its way onto her face and before you could stop it, jessie stepped forward and began talking to leah.

“hey, i’m jessie, also y/n’s best friend, you must be the one who-“

you let go of leah’s hand and cut in with a pitiful attempt to stop her from talking.

“NOPE I’M GOING TO LEAVE IM-“

leah crossed her arms and watched the two of you with an amused smirk plastered on her face.

“got y/n, a diehard chelsea fan i tell you, to-“

“NOPE NOPE NOPE JESSIE LETS NOT-“

“buy an arsenal jersey. yours to be exact.”

you groaned and your face flushed red with embarrassment, closing your eyes and turning to face the wall.

you spun around and took leah’s hand, dragging her out of the room while flipping off jessie.

you hear jessie yell from behind you:

“love you too y/n!”

it’s when the two of you made your way out of the stadium when she says:

“so an arsenal jersey huh?”

your cheeks flush redder and you mumble:

“shut up.”

“i’ll bet it looks great on you,” leah added with a wink.

“it’ll look even better on your bedroom floor,” you retort.

leah’s eyes widened a little as her face became blood red.

“what?”

you grin cockily.

“nothing!”

leah just looked at you in utter disbelief.

[honeyxchoso]

Promise (fuckboy!Satoru Gojo x reader) (college AU)

warnings: Gojo being a fuckboy who knows his effect on women all too well, MC's declining mental health implied

genre: angst? (sfw)

word count: 1.9k

“Please, just hear me out!” Gojo begged, face contorting into a desperate expression you knew all too well by now.

The scene is just like the numerous ones you’ve experienced in the past few months, all consequential to Satoru Gojo asking you out earlier that year. You should have known better. After all, you’ve been a witness of all of his intimate endeavours throughout high school. It was naive to assume that you would be spared of his promiscuous behaviour and that, somehow, this would be different.

“I promise you it won’t happen again!”

The exclamation just fell on deaf ears. That very promise, which he never fails to make in moments like these, has lost all meaning long ago. The sincerity fading more and more each time it was broken. These conversations, which once used to reduce you to tears, have now lost all meaning they once might have possessed.

All you know is the emptiness you feel resulting from your heart being shattered over and over again, your soul reduced to nothingness. You can no longer cry. You can no longer get mad. You are no longer surprised. Just a shell of the person you once were.

No longer are you even aware of your surroundings, lost in your own mind as Gojo spouted endless dubious apologies and false promises, all of which you’ve heard dozens of times before. How many times have you turned a blind eye so far? How many second chances have you given? How much longer will this go on? You do not know.

How did it come to this?

You and Satoru are first years in an honours programme at Jujutsu college, with you majoring in Biology and him in Physical engineering. Although you had known him since your first year of high school, you two have only gotten close in the summer leading up to your first year at college. During that summer, he’s managed to get closer to you than anyone ever has before. It really isn’t that difficult to imagine considering his flamboyant personality and stunning appearance.

Right now, you were at a cafe, waiting for Mr Perfect to show up for your weekly Math and Chem study session. You chuckle looking at a meme he just texted you. The lovely bastard is fashionably late per usual, but you are somehow never annoyed at that nasty habit of his. Five minutes of texting later, you feel a tap on your shoulder alerting you of Satoru’s arrival. Soon after the tap, you can feel his presence on the left side of your head.

“I think you can kiss heaven goodbye, as it must be a sin to look that good,” he proudly stated right next to you. You gazed to the side with widened eyes and your mouth slightly agape. It was just quick enough for you to catch a glimpse of those gorgeous sky blue eyes of his, mischievously peeking up at you from the pitch-black sunglasses the man always adorned. It truly was a sight to behold. To your great misfortune, however, it was gone as soon as it came, with him rising up to ruffle your hair a bit with his enormous hand before going to sit at the other end of your small table.

You focused on regaining your usual composure, as you’ve grown accustomed to his flirty persona during the summer while observing him picking up girls wherever you went. His sense of humour is just atrocious, but it eventually grew on you also. Despite his provocative behaviour and dirty humour implying he’s still very much immature for anything of the sort, you’ve started harbouring hope that one day, just maybe, he’ll give it a shot for you. Yes, as naive as it was, you couldn’t help but fall for the marvellous man sitting across from you.

You sighed at your inner turmoil and slightly irritably ran a hand through your hair. Satoru, of course, interpreted your reaction as you being annoyed at his borderline foul compliment and the thought elicited a deep, alluring chuckle from him. Slightly shaken from the beautiful sound, you plastered on a smile and looked at him, asking to begin your study session already since he was late again.

Two hours of studying later, you two were walking back to the student dorms on the other end of the campus site making small talk on your way.

“Argh! I hate this unit so much. Why do we have to memorise all the functional groups when it would be so much easier to just look them up in the data booklet during exams? It is so unnecessary!” you cried out, pouting while clenching your fists in exasperation. When Satoru didn’t respond, you relaxed your posture and turned to address him, only to blank out upon seeing the way he was staring at you.

He had a tender look on his face the likes of which you’ve never seen before. His lips formed into a small but genuine smile with his eyes relaxed as he just looked at you. You felt as though he was staring right into your soul. At this point, you both stopped walking instinctively and held your eyes locked wishing for the tender moment to last forever. Satoru was the first to speak up.

He called your name, not breaking eye contact. You just barely took notice of his voice, getting lost in his gorgeous blue eyes during your little moment just now. God, does your name sound good coming from his mouth. You barely had the common sense at this point to utter out a small “Hm?” and no notion whatsoever of what was yet to come.

“Would you like to go out with me sometime?”

You were baffled. The person you’ve been crushing on for months now just asked you out. You. Little old insignificant you. Too startled to form a coherent response, you replied with the only concern you had. “Me?”

After all, you were a nobody. You’ve seen the women who talk to him on a daily basis. The perfect height, athletic, well-adorned in all sorts of jewellery and fancy clothes, makeup perfectly done and never a single strand of hair out of place - those were the type of women surrounding Satoru Gojo. Compared to them, you were the lowest of the low. Your face contorted into one of confusion before your eyes started tearing up. This must be a joke...

That was only in the few seconds leading up to Satoru bursting out in a tear-inducing laugh. This did well to break you out of your small trance, sobering up a little before becoming even more confused. He asked you out, and now he’s laughing about it? Is this man in his right senses? You don’t recall him having any alcoholic beverages at the cafe so it can’t be. He stopped laughing soon after and used the tip of his right-hand sleeve to wipe away his tears.

“Of course it’s you, silly! It’s 10pm. We’re the only ones here right now!” he exclaimed, giggling a bit throughout forming his sentence still. This only served to confuse you even more. It must be a joke, then.

“You’re joking,” you voiced your thoughts. At this, his formerly happy expression fell and formed into one of concern.

“How could I be?” he asked. Seeming genuinely concerned as to why you’d think that. His eyebrows furrowed and his lips formed an unusual frown. “How could I ever joke about something like that? You have no clue what you mean to me, Y/N.” You could tell from his expression that he was being sincere, making you falter. Your face seemed to be enough of a response for him to continue speaking.

“You are honestly the best person I have ever met. You are strong and independent despite everything life has thrown at you. You are smarter than anyone I know. You have an amazing sense of humour and are a great listener. You’ve always been there for me when I needed you most. Along with being a good person, you also make me a better person myself. You fulfil me. Without you, I feel my very existence would be meaningless.” All the while saying this, he hasn’t broken eye contact once. “So I will ask you once again, Y/N, will you go out with me?

Following that evening, the two of you were in a happy relationship.

So how did it turn into this?

You first noticed something was wrong when you saw him dancing really close with a girl at a college party. He had his left hand low on her waist and his other hand entangled in her hair, bringing her closer so he could lean into her neck. It was just an embrace, right? Perhaps she was his friend who needed comfort of some sort? These are the excuses you made for yourself at the time to console the slight pang of concern and betrayal felt upon witnessing that scene. You never confronted him about that. At the time, you told yourself that was because there was no issue to address but reflecting on that moment now, you know it was the fear of your suspicion being proven right that discouraged you from bringing it up.

This happened about an additional five or six times before you started acting a bit more adverse to Satoru’s usual affection. You would no longer initiate kisses and would become stiff in his embrace. It was mortifying to know he was behaving so naturally around you when you know he’s off with other women when he thinks you aren’t looking. Despite this, the relationship was maintained as your love for him didn’t falter.

After a while, his endeavours would cause arguments. He would argue the women were coming onto him, that he was drunk or anything of the sort, just to get out of the situation, and you would argue he was fully aware of his promiscuous behaviour. These arguments would always end in forgiveness and the movie would rewind yet again. That is what led you where you are now. Your forgiving nature backfired and your feelings for the man were constantly extorted.

Sometimes, enough is enough.

It is time to put a stop to this neverending loop your relationship has turned into.

“Stop,” Satoru was still pleading for forgiveness when you interrupted him mid-sentence. Your simple exclamation seemingly pausing time, as it was the first word you have uttered in this conversation so far. Gojo looked at you anxiously, hope evident in his eyes that you would forgive him. Oh, how you loved those eyes of his, full of deceit.

“I’ve had enough. I’ve given you far too many chances and have been disappointed every time without fail. It is time for both of us to admit to ourselves that this won’t work. Not the way it is now.”

Despite your calm exterior, your previously empty inside now felt a sharp, anxious pain. No one said it was going to be easy. While the fear of change is strong, you know this is the right thing to do. Fear can bring no actual harm, but this relationship has and will continue to do so if you don’t put a stop to it. It is time.

“Goodbye, Satoru Gojo.”

[jaybird-fanfics]

Thing Of The Past |Ch.8|

⚠️Warnings: This story contains adult/sexual themes, graphic violence, and harsh language, please read with caution. Some of the plot from bnha/mha had been altered to better fit this story line.

Uncut Version Here

Previous | Next(soon-ish?)

🔞Minors DNI🔞

"I am going to hunt you down, and when I find you...your rein of terror will come to an end once and for all!"  Laughter followed after the promising threat from Hawks. The broadcast continued to play on the phone that rested in the young man's hand. His laughing slowed to a stop as he paused the video and rewind it to Hawks. "Ha! Try all you want birdbrain, I'll make sure your death is especially gruesome. Those other heroes were but stepping stones to make my message to the public seen. But you...second placed hero, your death will only allow me to further my point! And soon enough, all heroes, including number one, will fall beneath me!" Sparks of red lightning shot around the man as he boasted.

"I just feel bad for that damned league. They try so hard, but all of their efforts will be for nothing. Guess putting them out of their misery is unavoidable now..." He smirked. "Oh but who to go after first, taking them all on would be a pain." He looked down at his hand, it was shaking. The power he held was strong, too strong. He would have to consider his next move carefully, or else his power would drain him until there was nothing left. And dying a slow and painful death was not on his to-do list.

"Please. So you have a strong quirk, big deal, so do I. You don't even have a name to back up that stupidly strong quirk. You know of quickly you'd get taken out by a stronger heroes with the way you are now?"

Dabi's words replayed in his head, anger filled his mind. "That fucking smartass...looks like we have a volunteer..."

"This is ridiculous!" Exclaimed Dabi. "Why are wasting time on a brat like him, when there are bigger things to worry about!? If you want him dead, I'll go and kill him right now!" Shigaraki shot a glare at him. "Did you not see the way he killed those heroes? You'd just be rocketing towards death." He argued. "Yeah, I saw. But who cares? There's always a way to take down guys like him. Everyone has a weakness."

"Yes, you're right Dabi. Everyone does have a weakness." Shigaraki spoke unnervingly calm. "I can think of a few weaknesses that you yourself have..." He continued. "Using that quirk of yours too long, it takes a toll on your body right?" Dabi's eyes narrowed, fist clenched tightly. "Yeah, that's a big one. Nothing could top that right? Or maybe, there is. Maybe it's that woman of yours..."

Dabi's eyes widened for a moment before resuming their normal shape. "My woman? Tsk, ain't my woman no more. Like I give a fuck, nice try though." Shigaraki grinned. "Oh? Is that right? Then, you wouldn't mind if I send Toga to kill her right now?" Toga, who was sitting across from the two men beamed at the idea. "You mean it Shiggy? I get to cut her up after all? Oh! She was so pretty! I bet her blood is just as pretty as she was!"

"You can, unless, Dabi has a problem with that?" Shigaraki raised an eyebrow. There was no right answer. If Dabi said no, Toga would go murder her. But if he said yes, Shigaraki would just send her anyway for being a distraction to Dabi. 'Shit!' Dabi thought with a scowl.

"What would you gain out of murdering her?" Dabi asked as calmly as possible. "Not a thing. But Toga wants to so, might as well let her. She's just some random woman. After all, they're plenty of woman in the world for you to choose from." Wrong. Dead wrong. There was no one like Y/n. No one could replace her in Dabi's eyes. Shigaraki took Dabi's silence as an answer. "Go ahead Toga."

Toga cheered and rushed out of her seat and out of the entrance of the warehouse. Dabi felt his his heart sink to the bottom of his stomach. He had to do something! And he had to do it now! "...I still haven't changed my mind." Dabi told him. "Huh?" Shigaraki tilts his head. Dabi's blue eyes were filled with murderous intent. "I'm going to kill that bastard. I'm sick of seeing his face everywhere." Dabi said as he walked towards the entrance. "Dumabss...get yourself murdered then!" Shigaraki called after him.

As soon as Dabi was far enough away, he made  B-line towards Toga's direction.

Eventually Dabi did catch up with Toga, he rushed towards her and grabbed her arm, knife still in hand. "Huh? Dabi?" Toga looks up at him. "Toga..." Dabi's voice was deep and menacing. "You hurt Y/n...and I'll kill freckled brat you like so much..." The color drained in Toga's face. "Not Izuku-Kun!!" She begged. "Then stop what you're doing. Now." Dabi demanded. Toga pouts but nods, causing Dabi to let her go. "What am I going to tell Shiggy?" She asks. "Fuck if I know. Just say you did it." Dabi shrugs. "And he'll believe that?"

"I won't bring Y/n up again, that should fool that shit head enough. Now go away." Dabi walks past her, towards Y/n's home. "Dabi? You have a lot of nerve to tell me what to do..." Toga mutters, making Dabi stop. "Huh?" Dabi scowls. "You threatened me too, why don't I just cut you up along with her?" Toga points her knife towards him. 'Tsk! Damn brat...' Dabi turns around. "You know how you feel about that freckled brat?" He asked. "His name is Izuku!" Toga huffs. "Whatever. The way you feel about him...is the same way I feel about Y/n, no, more than that. That's why I can't let you or anyone else hurt her. Got it?"

Toga stood there in silence for a minute before lowering her knife. "Is that so? You must really like her then." Toga smiles as she sighs. "Fine, I won't cut her up. But you owe me for this!" Toga tells him before walking away. Dabi silently thanked her before approaching the rear of the home, as usual, Y/n's bedroom lights were on. He quietly made his way to the window he used to go through, her curtains were closed, but there was just enough room peaking through to see the inside.

He crouched down and looked through, inside Y/n was on her bed. Upon closer examination, he saw that she was talking the phone. Dabi raised an eyebrow, who was she talking to? Her boss? No, Y/n never smiled like that when she talked to her boss. Who was it?

Inside, Y/n was laughing again at something odd or funny that the person on the other line told her. "Can't you take anything seriously?" She asked. "What can I say?" Said the other person. "In tense situations, it's better to try and laugh it out and have some fun." Y/n hummed in response. "Well, I can't blame you. You're hunting down a very dangerous person. Be safe for me ok? You're the first real friend I've had in a while, and I'd hate it if you were hurt or worse..."

"Ah cheer up kid. I'm not going nowhere." Y/n's heart fluttered at those words. She smiled before speaking again. "Yeah, I know. Good luck Hawks."

"Thanks kid and remember, it's Keigo to you. I better get going. Got a lot of work ahead of me."

"Ok, goodnight Keigo." Y/n says softly. "Night kid."

Y/n sighs as she hangs up. She fall back into her bed, grinning ear to ear. This all seemed too real to be true, she was friends with a pro hero. And not just any pro hero, she was friends with Hawks! But...she felt like it was more than that, to her at least. Like before she still wasn't sure how to handle these new feelings. Then she remembered that Hawks wasn't Dabi but...he also wasn't Touya...

"You wouldn't mind it, right Touya?" Y/n whispered. No one could replace him, but she needed someone to fill the void in her heart he left behind all those years ago. Hawks might just be that person. She thought Dabi could at first, but she was quickly proven wrong when he started to leave her alone for so long. She sighed once again before reaching over and turning off her lights.

"Damn it." Dabi whispered. He sank down and leaned back against the wall of the house. Whoever she was talking to, they sure seemed to have made her happy. "Good for them..." Yeah right, like Dabi could accept that. But it wasn't his place to intervene in her life. It never was. Even back then, he should have talked himself out of seeing her as much as he did. He knew things would go wrong and they have.

In the end, it was better this way. Y/n was happy, and really Dabi couldn't ask for much more than that. But still, he couldn't ignore the ache in his chest whenever he thought about someone else making her smile like that, when it should have been him all along...

[mings]

Some context...

...in relation to that last post. This is a lo-o-o-o-ong read, so feel free to skip right by if catharsis bores you.

This starts way before I joined tumblr; in fact, long before tumblr was even a thing.

Twenty years ago, we lived in a huge house backing onto the English Channel. We moved there from Scotland, which turned out to be (probably) the biggest mistake of my life. 

Within nine months of buying the place, the company I’d moved to work for nearly folded. I and most of the workforce were made redundant. That set in motion an existential battle with our mortgage insurer, which refused to pay out because I “must have known” when taking out the insurance. (I didn’t, and they eventually caved in after destroying my credit record, but that’s another story.)

Work wasn’t immediately available; none that would at least cover the bills. We got inventive, wrote a business plan, obtained finance & bought a franchise. It went pretty well for the first three years, but we had to bust a gut to make the required income. It wasn’t easy. Eventually, the franchise operator messed up relations with several key players in our insurance market. Within three months, we lost 75% of our revenue. I had to close the workshop & find part time work to make ends meet. Ultimately, we decided to close the business, sell the house and downsize to something more manageable.

What’s the relevance of this? We tried hard to keep our precarious financial state form the kids. Maybe we didn’t do as well as we thought. Our son had already become withdrawn. He’d fallen in with a group of local lads about whom we had grave misgivings. Of course, there was no discussing it. We were “over-reacting” and unreasonable. It was around that time that he decided to jack in his education. I couldn’t criticise; I’d done the same. I pulled some strings and got him a job at our local Royal Mail delivery office.

We moved to our new place. It was a stressful move. Trying to fit into a house that was literally half the size was never going to be an easy task. One afternoon, our son came home from work and soon after announced he was going out. “See you later.” Only we didn’t. He didn’t come home that night. Nor did he turn up for work the next day. Nor the day after. And nor the day after that. Within a week he was written up for unauthorised absence. We had no way of contacting him. His case was heard in the following weeks. I could offer no mitigation. He was sacked for abandonment of duty. That tag that means he’ll never work for them again. 

We still had no idea where he was. We only knew he was alive because we met a couple of his friends who couldn’t believe he’d not been in touch. Still no word. My wife was in shreds; I suspect any of you who are parents can identify with that. I was alternating between trying to prop her up and stay on top of my job, all the while under a constant barrage of barracking (Oh, we don’t mean anything by it, it’s just banter....)

About three months in I’d had enough. Sleep was a scarce resource so I rose at the crack of dawn and started on a trip, rousting one after another of the friends and acquaintances that I knew, following leads until finally I tracked him down to a sordid bedsit several towns and 40 miles away. At least he answered the door and looked sheepish. He offered no explanation or apology, and has never done so to date. He refused to come back home, but promised to keep in touch. 

We know he bounced from one sofa to another in the next few months. He spent time in some of the worst areas in the county for drug abuse. He fell into a relationship with a girl that looked promising initially and subsequently fell apart. Later, he surfaced in another town with another girl whom he subsequently married. She often spoke of his irascible temperament and moods. Ultimately the marriage was doomed; she was younger than him, found a new interest and moved out. One wonders now how much of that was her and how much she’d put up with before voting with her feet.

He’s stumbled from one financial crisis to another. Money just evaporates. It’s as though adulting is a mystery beyond his reach. I’ve lost count of the times that we’ve thrown money at him and I don’t want to even think about how much. It’s literally thousands, always a loan, yet he never, ever pays back.

He left his job. That was inevitable too; he worked for his ex-father-in-law’s company. Heaven only knows how long the writing was on the wall; it was pretty swift once she left. He drifted again. He chose to live in a squalid flat with no heating rather than move back with us. Absolutely his choice, not ours. 

We moved to Scotland. That meant all his stuff had to go into storage. Quick rewind - he moved all his stuff to ours when he gave up the house he & his ex lived in, but refused to move back home. I had to rent a storage unit to make space for all his gear & when we moved I shifted all his gear into the store, gave him the key & told him I’d paid three months up front; after that it was his to deal with. Apparently, he surrendered the store and moved all his gear into the flat...

Fast forward to a couple of months back. He’d run out of options at the flat. His flatmate was “really difficult” to live with. His ex had moved away, taking their son with her. He had nothing left to stay for and, surprise, he’d lost his job again so he couldn’t afford the rent. 

My wife convinced me we should give him one last shot, citing his fragile mental health. I agreed on the strict understanding that we are simply no longer in a position to support him. He assured us he’d be applying for work as soon as he got here. We rarely see him before midday...

We agreed the end of the first week in March. We knew he’d arrive with a ton of stuff so we had (again) to create space. That’s infinitely more difficult now we’re running a B&B, but we set to the task. Suddenly, two weeks sooner than we’d agreed, he rented a van and was on his way. No discussion, no warning. We only found out because he put something on FB. 

Finally, after trying to reach him most of the day, he phoned. Whilst we should have been relieved, instead we were treated to a barrage of abuse because all the petrol stations were shut. Of course they were. It was in a national lockdown and why would they stay open when there was no one on the roads? JFC, who embarks on a journey in sub-zero temperatures across some of the most inhospitable country in the UK without enough fuel? With a six year old child. Yes, not only did he forget to tell us about his change of plans, he forgot to tell us he was bringing his son too.

We drove south through the night for two hours to find him somewhere in the Cairngorms where he’d run out of fuel. No fuel meant no heaters at 1500 feet in deep snow. The ambient temperature was -5ºC/23ºF & with wind chill that was probably around -10ºC/14ºF. We found him & refuelled his van. No thanks, just another barrage of abuse, because he was tired. We took his son into our car & drove the two hours back in near silence. I think we knew then that it was an awful predictor of what was to come.

We’ve had row after row. He accused me of being passive-aggressive in the last. He actually ticks all the boxes for passive-aggressive behaviour. I’ve never been tagged with that before; if anything I’m too forthright, blunt even. That’s a failing to which I will admit. If by that he meant that I don’t talk about the elephant in the room, it’s only because we fear it’ll lead to another explosion.

He never saw the damage that we sustained during our fostering years. He was never there. Yet here we are, experiencing flashbacks to those traumatic incidents; the parallels are exact. We have the benefit of years of training. We recognise manipulative behaviour when we see it - we were trained by some of the nations best exponents - and we know divisive tactics implicitly.  What he doesn’t know is that he will succeed only in pushing us closer together and alienating himself even further.

There are clear and well-documented links between cannabis and mental health issues. He is allowing the drug to determine his life choices. Although I may be wrong, I think he’s cultivating skunk, which is nothing like the weed that circulated in my youth. The smell that pervades our hallway is instantly evocative of high strength Afghan resin. It’s also going to be acutely difficult to eradicate before we’re due to open.

We’ve endured 20 years of this treatment. I know that even if we have a ritual burning, it will only be a matter of time before we’re back here again. We’re old. We’re tired. And we’ve worked our socks off (and still do) to achieve what we have. Maybe somewhere along the way we missed something. But I’m at a stage where I’m so far beyond this I just want it to stop.

[cxplqnce]

Isaac Lahey - Good Stuff

Word Count: 1,175

Based on the song Good Stuff by Griff

Part II - Deja Vu

Masterlist

Take it back to the start

No, I can't tell you apart

When we lost one another

That's when I rediscovered

Your relationship with Isaac was perfect. It was unbelievable. You thought that it would last forever, that it would always be this way. You had some amazing times; beautiful dates and so many happy and wonderful memories that you never thought it would end, especially in the way it did.

It started on a simple Thursday morning, you were about to head off to school when you got a call saying that your aunt had been in an accident. You quickly rushed to the hospital to find out that she would be okay after she had surgery, you hadn’t even thought about calling the school or your friends to let them know you wouldn’t be there.

Once you decided to leave the hospital it was dark out and your phone had died so you walked home alone to find Isaac sat outside of your house.

My memories in the clouds

But no feet on the ground

'Cause I know I should forget you

Why can't I just regret you?

He wasn’t happy. “I thought something horrible had happened!” He yelled, “God, how could you be so careless?”

You were taken aback; you had never seen him so angry and upset. You were about to interject but he continued to rant. “You couldn’t have shot me a quick text or something? Where even were you? You do know there is a group of dangerous Alpha’s out there who want us all dead, right? And you walked home alone? How stupid are you?”

Isaac continued to rant as you listened and hung onto his every word. He wouldn’t let you get a word in edgeways and you were getting angrier by the second. Your blood boiled as he continued to yell at you on your front porch. You noticed some of your neighbours watching and that’s where you drew the line. You pushed past him and unlocked your door, marching inside your house.

Isaac went silent as he followed you but you grabbed the door to shut it before he could enter. He sighed, realising his mistake, “I’m sorry, Y/N, really. I was just worried about you!” He defended holding the door open with his foot as you tried your best to close it on him.

“I’m sorry I don’t understand that because apparently I’m too stupid to.” You retorted, pushing him backwards to try and close the door but to no avail as he grabbed the edge with his hand.

“Y/N, please, I’m sorry I just don’t want to lose you too.” He pleaded.

The words he had yelled at you ran through your mind; they were all you could think about so you did what you never thought you would, “Get out, Isaac. I don’t want to see you again… This… This is over. It’s done.” You said, holding back tears.

“Y/N, don’t do this.” He begged, still holding the door.

You scoffed, “No. This isn’t the first time you’ve yelled at me like this… This isn’t the first fight we’ve had over this, not the second, not even the fifth… Just go!” You yelled, finally closing the door on him as his arms dropped to his sides. You stood with you back to the door listening as Isaac started to cry before walking to his car.

Oh, I try to rewind

Every scene in my mind

And for you, I've got tunnel vision

And I've blocked out every collision

During the first few days, anger was all that you felt. You were angry at Isaac for starting that stupid fight. You were angry at yourself for not just texting him. You were angry at the world for being so dangerous that he worried about you like that.

Then, you got sad.

It happened after a week alone; all you could think about was all the happy memories. You tried to think about the break-up or any of your other fights to make it seem like it was the right decision but the scenes that played in your mind were good.

Your first kiss after his first full moon that you helped him get through, your first date to the planetarium, the first time you told him you loved him. Everything was just good.

And in another life, yeah

Do me a favour and try

To leave me broken and bitter

So moving on's a little quicker

It had been just over a month and you still weren’t over him. You were still completely in love with him and you hated it. He had been nothing but sweet and understanding of your boundaries. He had given you space and left you alone like you had asked and Scott had told you that all Isaac did was ask about you and how you were doing.

We were fighting fires every night when you met me

And it's not fair at all

So after everything

You hated that you had broken it off but you knew it was for the best. For the last few months of your relationship, you’d been fighting almost every night and you knew you couldn’t fight anymore. But it still hurt knowing you were so perfect for each other.

You had noticed that he had started to spend more and more time with Allison and obviously you were jealous even though Scott had told you there as nothing going on.

Let me ask you why

I wonder if you're going through the same

As I tonight

You wondered if he felt the same as you, if he only thought of the good stuff like you. You wondered if he was moving on with Allison; you wouldn’t stop him or anything but you knew that if he did you would hate it.

You would pass him in the halls sometimes and you’d see him at pack meetings but you overall tried your best to avoid him. You thought it would be easier that way for the both of you but your love for him didn’t hinder.

Why'd you leave me with the good stuff, babe

And forget about the mess we made?

Oh, I wish that my mouth didn't smile when I think of you

But you left me with the good stuff, babe

And I know that it's a crying shame

It's a million times harder when I don't hate you

When I don't hate you

Soon enough, Isaac had kissed Allison. Neither of them knew that you had accidently stumbled upon them and ran away in tears. Nobody knew that, you hadn’t told anybody because you knew you and Isaac were toxic.

But when you saw him smile heard his laugh or even thought of him; you would smile. But that smile faded when you realised he wasn’t yours anymore. You had both fucked it up and you were paying the consequences.

You wanted to, you tried so hard to, but you just couldn’t hate him. You couldn’t hate him.

A/N: Hope you enjoy! Follow my instagram @cxplqnce :) also I take requests if you have any - for any of the fandoms on my masterlist and some others! :)

[potterbite]

i can only be me with you

After one of Buck’s heroics spreads all over the news, Eddie finally sees what happened above ground when he was trapped almost a year before. 

On AO3.

As Buck and the team hops out of the firetruck, the rest of the station starts applauding; some are early for their shift that’s about to start, others preparing to head home. About twelve of fifteen people are just standing there, grinning at Buck.

“What - ?” Buck begins, looking to the others for some confirmation that they know what this is about. However, they all seem just as confused as he feels.

As the applauds die down, Bobby speaks up.

“What was that about?”

One of the women on the upcoming shift grins. “It’s gone viral.”

“What has?”

“The video from earlier today of Buck jumping out of that window to save the little girl.”

Oh. 

At this, Hen and Chim laugh while Eddie gives him a nudge on the shoulder, muttering, “Now you’re just like Firefox.”

-----

The thing is, it’s not like he had the time to think it through before jumping out of the window on the eight floor; it was all instinct, seeing that little girl fall through it with nobody else close by to help her. But on some level, he knew he still had the harness around his middle and he trusted his team enough to fully believe they would catch that rope before it was too late.

So he flew through the crashed window barely two seconds after the screaming five year old and caught her around the waist; she was so stunned she paused her screaming. They came to an abrupt stop at the fourth floor, hanging like a couple of ragdolls, and he could’ve sworn he heard someone from up above swear loudly in spanish. 

But it’s not like he thought that someone might be filming it all and uploading it to every social media plattform known to mankind or that it would be on all the big news channels less than six hours later. 

He won’t lie, he kind of likes it. But he’s still exhausted by the time he pulls the key out of the ignition in the driveway. He leans his head back and closes his eyes; his phone is finally quiet, blissfully so, after ringing every three minutes since he finished work four hours ago. Granted, he did turn off sound and vibration so the quiet might be thanks to that but he doesn’t dare to look and check for number of missed calls in the last thirty minutes.

A rapt knock on the driver window makes him jump, the top of his head hitting the roof of the car with a thump and his legs slamming into the steering wheel.  

He curses in pain, but still hears the muffled laughter; he flips the other person off. 

“Nice one,” Eddie comments as he opens the car door. Buck just grunts in response, shaking his legs a couple of times as he climbs out. 

“Don’t sneak up on a person like that.”

Eddie raises both eyebrows. “You’re sitting in my driveway. Chris heard you and wanted me to check you weren’t a murderer.”

Buck grins at this. “And he made you go alone?”

“I didn’t say it was logical. Now come on, dinner is almost ready.”

At least three or four times a week, Buck goes over to the Diaz house for dinner and to hang out with two of his favorite people. Also, ever since Eddie broke it off with Ana a few weeks back, Buck’s been afraid that Eddie might feel lonely. Whenever he asks about her though, Eddie doesn’t say much about the break up, only that it had been amicable and then he always gets this tinge of red on his cheeks that Buck absolutely does not find cute. 

“Hey kiddo!” Buck calls out as they enter the house through the kitchen door.

“Bucky! You’re on TV,” Chris replies and Buck sighs, standing next to Eddie by the counter. 

“I can’t look at that shit anymore,” he murmurs and the other man smirks.

“Not all it’s cracked up to be, being a celebrity?”

“I - “ 

“Bucky! Come see, they’re showing when you tried to save Dad, too,” Chris calls and well, Buck isn’t sure but it would seem his entire stomach flips at these words. 

Eddie goes still, a frown on his face. “What’s he talking about?”

Buck will absolutely not blush. “Probably just heard him wrong.”

“Dad! It’s really cool when Bucky screams like that, come see!”

Buck straightens. “He really shouldn’t be allowed to watch the news by himself, I’ll go put a movie on.”

He takes big strides towards the living room, but before he makes it all the way Eddie swishes past him as if he’s got wings. Eddie picks up the remote and rewinds a couple of minutes. And honestly, for a man claiming he hates technology, Eddie really loves that smartTV, even though he didn’t even know he could rewind until Buck showed him (something he regrets now). 

It’s not like Buck is ashamed of how he reacted that day when the ground collapsed on top of Eddie. Not really. It’s more that it feels like a pandora’s box he’s only ever opened on that day and he’s now deathly afraid of what will happen when he peeks under the lid again. 

But what can he do except stand there behind the couch next to Eddie and watch as the other man finds the right moment and press play? 

“Yes! Let’s watch it over and over again,” Chris claps. Buck ruffles a hand over his hair in response and the boy giggles.

“When was - ?” Eddie starts, but then he seems to recognize the farm. “Oh.”

In silence, they listen to the news anchor saying what a good guy Evan Buckley is and how he lost it when one of his own team members went under. There’s a drone shot from the moment of the collapse. A close-up on Buck’s face as he screams, and Bobby scooping him up.

Buck had known there were news teams there, of course, but he hadn’t realized they’d gotten him on camera as well. He’d ignored all reports from that day, preferring to not think about all the thousand things that could’ve gone wrong, so he’s never seen this before. But obviously, Eddie hasn’t either given the way he stares open mouthed at the screen. 

When he turns his head to look at Buck, Buck just shrugs sheepishly at him.

“That was so cool, right dad?” Chris grins, and Buck sees Eddie’s face soften. 

“Yeah, it was.” He looks up and meets Buck’s eyes for the fraction of a second and there’s another jolt in Buck’s stomach. “Time for dinner.”

-----

They don’t talk about what they saw on the news for the entire dinner or during the movie. 

Well, Chris does bring it up one time when he turns to Buck and asks, “Would you scream like that if I disappeared too?” with honesty only a child can muster. Buck doesn’t really know what to say to this so he grins and promises that he sure would. 

But even though Eddie acts normal, Buck can feel it in the air or when their eyes meet. It’s as if Eddie is screaming to say something but doesn’t want to in front of his son. Buck has no idea what that would be, because there’s no way Eddie could tell from those fast glimpses what really went on inside his head. The repeated mantra of ‘not him, not him, not him’ was not seen in his eyes, he’s sure of that.

If it were, Eddie would’ve caught on earlier. Maybe when he, Eddie, started dating Ana. Or when he broke it off with her. That fire inside of Buck’s soul dimming and glowing stronger was not visible through his eyes, because that would mean he’d lose his best friend. And that was not an option. 

But he’s still nervous when it’s time for Chris to sleep; is this the last time he’ll say goodnight to Chris like this? So when the boy takes Buck’s hand and says, “Can you do it instead of Dad?” he does. Eddie stays in the doorway to Chris’ room, silently watching as Buck tucks the boy in. 

“Buck?” Chris whispers so quietly Buck has to lean forward to hear.

“Yeah?” he whispers back.

Chris reaches for Buck’s face and moves it so he can whisper the words right by his ear. “I think he loves you, too.”

Buck blushes, straightening a bit. “Um, thanks buddy,” he replies, his voice still barely a whisper. He sneaks a glance at Eddie, who thankfully doesn’t appear to have heard the silent conversation. Then louder he adds, “Sleepy time.”

Chris nods happily, and has fallen asleep within three minutes of Buck reading his favorite book. 

As he stands up to leave the room, Eddie enters to give Chris a kiss on the forehead. Buck stays in the living room, not sure if he should take his opportunity to leave or just get this over with so he’ll know if their friendship is ruined or not.  

Before he has made up his mind, Eddie comes out and closes the door behind him. Buck opens his mouth to say something, anything, when Eddie meets his eyes and Buck sucks in a breath. 

“I’ve never seen that before,” Eddie says. Buck doesn’t even question what ‘that’ is, since he can only be talking about the video of Buck screaming at the top of his lungs. 

“No,” Buck says stupidly. “I suppose not.”

“I wish I had though.”

“Oh?” Buck isn’t at all sure where this conversation is going, but for some reason Eddie keeps moving closer to him, so he has no choice but to lean against the wall. 

“Yeah.” Almost chest to chest.

Buck licks his lips and swallows. His stomach does another flip then, because Eddie most certainly followed that movement with his eyes. 

“Why?” Buck asks even though he has difficulties concentrating when all he can think about is if Eddie can feel the beating of his heart when their chests are touching like this. 

“‘cause we could’ve done this much sooner,” he replies and surges up for a kiss. 

Buck gasps, and he can feel the smirk against his own lips. So as soon as his brain has caught up with what’s happening, he pushes off from the wall and flips them as some kind of revenge. He presses Eddie against it instead which makes him groans, and as his lips open Buck takes advantage of that and sneaks inside. 

As they battle together and Eddie’s fingers caress his neck, Buck nudges his thigh in between Eddie’s legs and gets another groan in appreciation; Buck savors that vibration as if he’s starving. 

He feels as if they should slow down, talk about what’s happening, why neither of them has said anything and what’s going to happen next. But then Eddie bites gently in his lower lip, making him moan and Eddie swallows the sound greedily. 

As if it’s the most natural thing in the entire world, he starts to back Eddie into the master bedroom, closing the door with his foot once they are inside.

What the hell, they can talk tomorrow instead. 

[sup-hoes-its-me]

Amnesia (Levi x Reader)

A/N: so my boyfriend and i just watched attack on titan again in prep for season 4 in a few months. We both fell in love with levi all over again so i had to write a little story for our little captain. Definitely angst, and probably ooc bc levi is not the romantic type. enjoy.

word count: 5530

Although he appeared stoic, fearless and unattached in almost all ways, Levi Ackerman had a heart burdened with layers of  scalding emotion constantly burning painful holes in his heart. The loss of a childhood to violence, found-family killed in front of his eyes, comrades falling victim to this unfair world over and over again. He was a hardened man drowning in regret. 

Yet, he could never find himself regretting Y/N. She was a woman of talent and skill, grace flowing through her every movement, despite being a skilled soldier. Her voice, when he first heard it, the words she summoned from deep in mind; he found himself hanging on her every word, watching her every step. He often found himself wondering if she would make a mistake and let down some sort of facade, yet she never broke character. 

To some, she could be seen as ignorant, perhaps too trusting or even a bit self-righteous. She was far from perfect, but to him, for the first time in his life, he couldn’t find a flaw in what he saw. It seemed that he would do anything for her, even when no one knew why. 

And as he lay in his cold bed alone at night, rewinds of old memories played time and time again, each and every night. They ruined his life just a little more each time, driving him near mad.

This night was no different.

_________________________________________

  “Y/N-san, oh my god. Wake up, shit,” Reiner begged the woman who he held in his arms. One second his squad leader was flying through the trees, slicing the neck of a 13 meter, the next she was tossed into a tree, rolling through the branches to the hard ground with a thud, blood seeping into the grass from her head. 

Sasha noticed Reiner hunched over a body on the ground, not having seen her leader fall victim to a titan. Her eyes widened at the blood and quickly went to his side. She nearly passed out at the sight of the woman she grew to know as a family. Reiner was frantic, pressing against the back of her head with her cloak, trying to stop the bleeding.

Tears gathered in Sasha’s eyes, despite having seen death before. “She has to be okay.” The young girl whispered, choking back sobs in her throat. She said it mostly to comfort herself, witnessing deaths time and time before just like this one. Hope just seemed so useless nowadays, just mourning.

He held his hand over her nose and felt soft breaths of air. Relief  flooded through him for just a moment as he gathered her close to him. Her crumbling body was limp, and he felt her arm move in an awkward way, definitely broken. He made sure to support that arm, placing it across her stomach.

“She’s dying, we have to get her to the medics, fuck,” Reiner cried, lifting her delicate body carefully in his strong arms. He hugged her head to his chest, and as he did so, it seemed like pints of blood seeped into his clothes and stuck to his skin. He shot off into the air, but Sasha couldn’t move from where she knelt, body almost limp. 

What if she died? What would they do then? Sasha was pretty sure Y/N was the only reason Levi maintained his temper at times. She was the person Hanji ran to tell about her experiments and the commander's only surviving childhood friend in the corps. Sure, Sasha would be hurt losing a leader she grew to trust, but what about the veteran soldiers. It had been years and years since they met, and they got attached. That’s what happens when everyone else dies and it seems like you just have one another to latch onto.

Dread filled her heart as they returned to the carts and gave Y/N over to one of the medics, who pressed something to her head and popped in one of her dislocated limbs. He was so casual, she thought. Anyone would turn that way working with dozens of injured soldiers every mission. The casualty of it all made it all the more depressing, even disturbing. 

“Will-will she be okay?”

“Hell if I know,” the boy confessed. “But we all better hope so.” Even though he failed to explain, both the cadets knew why.

Soldiers began pouring out of the forest on their gear or horses. Some carried the dead, while some carried pride for what they had done. No one paid mind to that particular medic cart. The medic opened her eyes and observed her condition, but that only made Sasha’s heart sink further. She was unresponsive to touch, just a limp body, nearly dead.

Heads turned at the distinct sound of blades falling to the ground. Levi landed beside the cart after seeing the mop of h/c hair lying in the cart. His eyes flashed to Reiner and Sasha for a moment, seeing the blood soaked clothes and tear-stained cheeks. 

For the first time in years, Levi felt his blood run cold in his veins and his heart to stop beating in his chest. Pain stabbed him in the stomach, feelings of throwing up his breakfast arose. He opened his mouth to say something, but his words got caught in his throat. He gasped for air before muttering hopelessly, maybe to himself or the cadets or even the woman herself lying half dead in the carriage.

“Y-Y/N?”

“Captain-”

His voice was weak, full of pain and fear. “Shut up.” No malintent, just a desperate need for silence among the horses trotting along and soldiers rejoicing the fact they made it out alive. He walked over to the cart and climbed in, his normally firm and strong hands shakily hovering over the woman’s cheeks, gently wiping the blood  from her lips and eyes.

For the first time, the cadets witnessed complete and utter fear and helplessness overtake their captain, the emotions of a broken man leaking past his wall of bravery. 

In that moment, Sasha realized that Y/N wasn’t hers to grieve. 

“Y/N, please…” he whimpered, running his fingers down her wet, bloody hair. ‘“M-my princess, please. I need you, please.” 

“Captain, she’s not dead. We just need to get her back to the wall and-”

“Will she live?”

“I’d stake my life on it, Captain Levi. Don’t you worry,” the medic, one who had only really heard of Levi by mouth, lied through his teeth. He was just a trainee. He had no idea what would happen to this woman, but one thing he did know was that in times of need people need comfort, and sometimes white lies can ease the pain.

_________________________________________

Levi and Erwin stood outside the doctor’s office as Y/N sat inside being tended to by a nurse. The doctor shut the door quietly, and joined the two men in the hall. His eyes were solemn and regretful, not wanting to look up at the two incredibly powerful military forces before him. 

“Why was she acting like that? I thought you said she would be healed by now,” Levi grunted, crossing his arms over his chest. 

“The blow to her head severely damaged her limbic system. I’m truly sorry to tell you, but she’s suffering from retrograde amnesia.”

Levi bit back an indecent curse, as Erwin spoke. “So, she can’t remember anything?”

“She still can function normally, but her memories are gone.”

“Everything?” Levi asked shortly, trying to stay calm. He hadn’t expected this after they’d heard of her waking from her coma. He thought that one month without her was long enough, but now it seemed the situation was much, much worse than any of them anticipated. 

“Unfortunately. She does remember a vague sense of the titans and the walls though.”

“What about people? Friends? Family?” Levi anxiously questioned, almost pleading with the doctor to say that she remembered him. Erwin placed a comforting hand on his shoulder and sighed.  The doctor shook his head, and it only buried Levi deeper in his misery. How could she forget everything? 

How was it right that she could forget the years they spent together but he had to live with the memories, all the emotions unreciprocated? It was cruel for fate to do this to him.

Erwin asked finally, “Is there any chance of her regaining her memories?”

“Perhaps. Amnesia, anything involving the brain really, is a tricky matter. My guess is not likely, but there is always a chance.” He sighed and pushed up his glasses. “Would either of you like to sit and talk with her? Being around familiar things can boost memory in patients.”

They walked into the room calmly, and the woman peered up at them, a small smile gracing her lips. Levi felt his heart jump to his throat, and he had to swallow down his feelings. She was rightfully so the most beautiful human being to ever walk within the walls. Her smile, seeing it for the first time in so long, it made him so happy. If only this was a happy scene, though.

"Ah! Finally some visitors. All I've seen is nurses and doctors for the past what? Five hours?"

“”Hello, miss Y/N. I am Erwin Smith, the commander of the Survey Corps as well as your long time friend.”

“Really? How did I manage to be friends with someone so distinguished?” she laughed, but in all seriousness, she didn’t know. “They told me I was a great soldier, is that true? If anyone would know, it’d be you.”

“Great soldier, but might I say, greater friend.”

Her cheeks turned just the slightest bit of pink at the compliment. She smiled at her blankets. “Thanks. Hopefully I get to meet more of my old friends soon. Seems to me like I was quite popular.” Erwin nodded, moving to sit down in the chair beside her bed, revealing Levi behind him. The man was quiet, his eyes dancing around the room without meeting her gaze. “I’m guessing you’re a friend too-”

“Yeah, I guess you could say that.”

“Levi-” Erwin started, but Y/n cut him off.

“They told me about you, Levi! Humanity’s strongest soldier, even better than me,” she laughed, sending him a playful wink. He winced at the sight of her smiling at him, her cheeks just a bit red from happiness. When she winked, he thought he might drop dead right there. Her beautiful eyes, the sparkle that they always held; he wanted them to be his again. “The nurse said you would visit me every morning and night while I was in the coma.”

“Yeah. Do...do you remember anything else about me?”

“Not right now, but the doc says I can get them back at any time.” Always so positive. If only he could think like that too.

The shorter man took a seat at the edge of her bed, staring down at the ring around his finger, twisting it back and forth. The gold was dull by now, he hadn’t polished it in a few months. Her eyes caught sight of the ring and she held back her questions about it.

“So, your name is Levi…”

“Ackerman.”

“Hmm, I see. And we were good friends?”

“Partners.”

She raised a brow, turning her head to Erwin, who nodded to assure she was assuming the right thing. He was certainly a handsome man, but she couldn’t see how someone so bubbly as her could be with someone so serious and quiet. He didn’t even want to make eye contact with her.

Y/N leaned over the edge of the bed to grab a small drawstring bag. “The doctor put all my belongings in this bag. Let me just..” Her swift fingers rummaged around for a few seconds before they enclosed a small, smooth piece of metal. “I’m guessing this is from you, huh?” she asked, pulling the sparkly ring from the bag. 

They had her look through her bag earlier to see if it would spark any memories, to no avail. Yet, she remained curious about the ring. 

“It’s very beautiful, thank you for giving it to me. Do you want it back while I’m-”

“No. Please,” he paused, taking a deep breath. He found himself pleading a lot more than usual these days. It was just sad. “Can you just wear it?”

She slipped the ring on her finger without hesitation. “Of course. I’m sure I loved you very much before the accident, Levi.”

Loved. That’s right. She didn’t love him anymore. She didn’t even know him. 

“Were we married?”

“Practically, but there’s no time for a wedding with our work schedules.”

“I see. Well, it’s nice to meet you again. Hopefully we can become close again soon.”

He frowned, nodding towards the ground. How could fate be this cruel to him? He stood up from the bed and left the room before anyone could stop him. This whole thing, seeing her, it was too much for him. He didn’t want to see her the way she was, and it broke his heart.

That day marked the single worst moment for Levi, above all else. Losing the love of his life.

___________________________________________

Five months later, and a lot of shit happened. But of course, Y/N still couldn't remember anything. He couldn’t do a thing but sit around bitterly, knowing that his lover was lost to him. Others tried to tell him to build their relationship again, but what was the point in that? Their love was built on circumstance: on the wall breaking, on the missions they protected each other, on the nights they spent talking about everything and nothing by the stables.They could never get that back, the same love she once had for him was gone.

He spoke to her, but he didn’t go out of his way to find her, to speak to her. He would rather keep to himself, and if that made him come across as harsh and cruel, then so be it.

He still felt the urge to protect her, the need to maintain what they once had, how he felt for her. He still protected her as if his life depended on it, and he would walk to the ends of the Earth before he saw her die. Yet, he couldn’t be sociable and comfortable like before.

That morning he woke up as usual, got dressed, went about his day, headed to the dining hall for dinner, and ate in silence if not for curses under his breath as he watched the love of his life talk it up with Erwin and Hanji, laughing and smiling as if he wasn’t right there. He knew Hanji could sense his eyes trailing to them with every sip of his tea, and she sent him a sympathetic look. 

The woman felt for her friend and comrade. For 6 years, she witnessed the pair fall in love despite trauma and differences they had. She was there countless times to see Levi lay his life on the line for her, and Y/N do the same for him. There was a change in Levi from the moment those two became friends to the very last day they had together. It made her sad. Love didn’t feel real without these two being there for each other.

Erwin wasn’t as adept, but he saw the pain in humanity’s greatest soldier. He loved Y/N, having known her since they attended training together. He was amazed she lived this long as well, having lost so many soldiers and friends along the way. She was different now. Lost in her own mind half the time, and unreliable on missions. 

But they had to keep waiting. Doctors, the best the walls had to offer, told them the chance of her memories coming back to her were close to zero, but not quite. If there was even a chance their friend would remember them some day, it wasn’t worth abandoning hope.

“Y/N, I totally forgot to tell you. You and Levi need to go check the horses. I think I left the stable door open, I’m not sure, haha,” Hanji rushed to say, wiggling her brows at Levi. She pushed Y/N out of her seat and stacked her plates for her to take to the dishwashers. “Sorry, but it’s just got to be checked.”

“Why does Levi have to-”

“Because you shouldn’t go out at night alone, obviously,” she explained, but stupidly. A soldier couldn’t go out on their own base alone. Y/N nodded obediently, but she really didn’t want to go, especially with him. She twisted the ring on her finger absentmindedly as her friend rushed her to exit the dining hall. Levi followed, but not without sending a twisted glare at the squad leader.

Y/N kept ahead of him, walking briskly as to get the job done quickly. Levi already knew she wasn’t happy going with him and that she generally disliked him. 

It wasn’t until they got to the stables and saw that the gates were in fact closed, locked up, and all the horses were as they should be. 

“You’ve got to be kidding me? She sent us out here for what? Her own amusement?” Y/N said, her voice raising just a bit. She was angry, just enough to put a lump in Levi’s stomach. Before the accident, she never got angry with him, or anyone else. She was just happy to contribute to the cause and help anyone she could, even if the task was as trivial as checking the stables. Y/N would have been happy to take a walk outside at night with Levi. 

In fact, they stood in the same spot they would hang out at night under the stars time and time again. He stared at her now, and wished to god that he could go back in time to when she would cuddle and kiss him under the moon and the stars here. He wanted her to tell him silly stories about her day, and then lean over and pepper kisses to his neck and his cheeks and his nose and call him her baby.

But instead, she hated him for everything he was worth.

“Y/N, Hanji didn’t-”

“Oh, would you just shut up?” she rolled her eyes over to him, her fists clenched at her sides. “You’re literally my only problem right now, You, my supposed lover. Everyone tells me stories about how you loved me, how we fell in love even, yet you treat me like absolute horse shit.”

“Would you just-”

“Would I just what? Continue to pretend you’re not an absolute asshole? You ignore me, you avoid me, you tell people that you miss me, yet you won’t even bother to make an effort? How can someone who loved me so much act this way?” the woman yelled furiously, glaring at him. The sparkle in her eyes vanished the longer she spoke, the longer she was with him.

He grit his teeth for a second trying to keep himself under control, but he couldn’t stand it anymore. “You are the one that’s ruined my life, don’t even try to act like your life is so hard.”

“How dare-”

“In case you didn’t know, you are the only thing I have left. I’ve lost my family, seen hundreds of people die around me. I found you, my sweet and kind princess, the woman I would kill and be killed over. I opened myself up to you, to the idea of loving you, despite what little time we all have left, despite the risks that come with caring about someone.”

“I’m still the same person-”

“No, you’re not. You just fell in love with me, I didn't need to try this hard. It was natural that we come together after everything we had been through. When I thought about the day I would lose you, I expected you to die and for us to bury your body and for it all to be over. I could move on knowing I did everything I could to protect you and love you,” he gasped for air, so angry he forgot to breathe. His eyes burned into hers which were slowly widening, lips just agape. He took a deep breath and continued, “Do you know how much it hurts to see you walking around, talking to people, knowing that you are right there for me to touch and love, yet you will never love me again, not the way it was? Do you really, Y/N?”

“Levi...I’m sorry.”

He rubbed his face with his hand, covering his eyes in shame. He didn’t mean to be so emotional, to make a pathetic attempt at forcing the blame on her. “Sorry for what? You didn’t do anything for it to be this way. You’re just living like anyone else, I’m the one wallowing in my own misery. I’m the one that should be sorry.”

“I know. I-I want more than anything to remember everything. I want to remember you and how much you loved me like everyone says, like you say. I just...I don’t know how. Levi, I’m so sorry.”

He let his arms fall to his sides limply, not having anything else left to say really. “Even though you’re right in front of me, I miss you,” he whispered. “I just miss you.”

Y/N stepped forward, wrapping her arms around his waist and pulling him into a gentle hug. He tensed for a moment before falling into the hug, wrapping his arms around her shoulder and neck, pulling her form as close to him as possible. He missed her touch, her warm hugs by the stables. He would never say he missed the little intimacies, that was too much for him. Yet, these moments fueled him to wait for her, as long as she needed.

“Maybe it will never be the same. I’m sorry for that, Levi. I want to be friends with you. I long to know what the old me saw in you for so long. I wish I remembered what happened to spark something between us. I know it’s all still there somewhere, whether we have that history or not.” Silence from him, just faint breaths against her shoulder. “But it will be okay.”

It’ll be okay.

________________________________________________

Six months after she lost her memory, six months of feeling like a burden to the corps, Y/N stood outside the castle with a few of the cadets and Hanji, watching as she tried more experiments on Eren. She leaned back against a tree and shut her eyes, taking in a breath of the fresh air. So much had happened over the past months that she nearly forgot she lost her memories all those months ago. Wall Rose was sealed, the titan shifters had left for the time being. It seemed like everything was at peace, or that time was just standing still.

In the middle of the peace, the sunlight shining down on her and her friends through leaves in the trees, through the warmth of the summer sun. her mind seemed to piece itself together, if only parts. Her world shifted together once again.

Flashbacks played over in her mind, one after the other, hundreds of memories flooding in so quickly. She stumbled forward a few steps, pressing a hand to her lips to hold back her gasp. Hanji hadn’t noticed as she was too focused on Eren, but Jean gave her a particularly strange look after noticing her.

“Y/N-san, you good?” the boy called to her.

Thankfully, no one noticed except him, and she just waved him off. “It’s nothing. Just have to go to the bathroom.” As she walked away, more and more memories flooded into her head, not everything. She felt millions of tiny pieces of her story were missing here and there, but she could remember enough.

Memories of her mother and her father in her childhood house. Memories of school, cadet training. Erwin, Eren, Hanji, her squad, the titans, the expeditions, her favorite foods and stories and books. 

But most of all, she remembered Levi.

_______________________________

The night was soldiering on, yet Y/N could not sleep. Her stomach churned every few moments and she felt a headache coming up at the same time. Something had been bothering her for the past week, actually, make that the past few months. She was a seasoned soldier, yet she was letting emotions cloud her mind. Her exercises were coming up short and clumsy, and she had a hard time focusing on paperwork or the commander’s orders. 

The only thing on her mind was a man, particularly short with a sharp tongue and the abilities of a godly warrior. It had been two years since she met him, two long years of fighting and struggling to live amongst the chaos ensuing. He was her only source of hope and light in this cruel world.

Slowly, she rolled out of her bed and wrapped herself in her blanket, leaving the room and shutting the door silently. She didn’t want to wake anyone else for them to ask what she was up to long after midnight. She stepped down the hall carefully, keeping her head hung just a bit. In hindsight, she shouldn’t have been scared at all. She knew just as well as he did what they were meant to be. It was obvious to everyone. 

Yet there were always variables. Death was inevitable, no one lived to die of old age anymore. They were busy beyond belief, always rushing around to get things done, fight titans, protect the people of the walls. It was high stress, which didn’t leave much thought for anything else. She had the mind to think about everything but her priorities, unfortunately.

She walked across the yard in the cold night to the men’s barracks, definitely not where she was supposed to be. She could probably be in a bit of trouble with Erwin if someone snitched on her, but her consequences wouldn’t be dire.

And as she approached the room, her body tensed. It was so quiet in the night that she could almost hear the sound of her heart beating ferociously in her chest. Softly, with the tips of her fingers, she knocked on his door. When he didn’t answer, she could only laugh to herself, of course he couldn’t hear her weak knocks. 

She was just so scared. Maybe if he didn’t answer the door, then she could forget all about this and never confess what she was thinking. 

Gathering some of that Survey Corps courage, she knocked a little harder on the door. Rustling sound from in the room, and the woman cringed, shutting her eyes and taking a few quick breaths. It would be fine, she assured herself. It’s not that big of a deal.

When the door opened and Levi looked into her eyes, rightfully confused, she lost all her thoughts. The hours she had spent rehearsing what she wanted to say were thrown out the window.

“Y/N? What the hell are you doing here?” he whispered, his eyes sliding to check down the hall left and right for anyone watching. 

Her mouth opened, lips opening and closing like fish. He took her wrist and yanked her into his room, shutting the door behind them. 

“Is something wrong?” he asked, still holding her wrist in his iron tight grip. Y/N shook her head and sighed, turning to look at the wall instead of him. “Don’t tell me you had a nightmare or something-”

“Levi, I love you. I-I don’t know how else to tell you, and Hanji said outright was the best way and...well, I don’t know.”

“Love?”

“Yeah.”

“Stay with me tonight?”

Her face turned to stare at him incredulously, her cheeks turning an all-telling pink. “What?”

“I anticipated this, to be honest. You’re very emotional.” He crossed his arms, trying his best not to lose his cool composure like she had. He’d gone to the same evil scientist for love advice about Y/N a month before. His heart felt like it would explode, and his cheeks were threatening to turn red and his palms to sweat. But he would remain cool. Y/N was always the one to be open with her more embarrassing emotions. Coolly, he replied, “Hanji told me you would do this, and then she told me to tell you to stay the night with me.”

“Hanji...that double-crossing bastard.”

He rubbed a hand over his eyes, feelings of drowsiness still running through his head after just waking up. “Listen, I just want to hold you and fall asleep so stay with me.”

It only took a second to think it over before Y/N nodded. He walked over to his bed, scooting over to the side against the wall so she would have room. They had tiny beds, almost cots, but thankfully being a captain warranted a slightly bigger one. She sunk down into his bed and rolled over to face him. His sheets and pillows smelt so clean and new, just like his clothes did every day. It was comforting, and she felt the smell lulling her to sleep.

“So, the feelings are mutual?” she finally asked, although her answer was already quite clear.

Levi just sighed, wrapping an arm around her and pulling her close to his chest. “Always so stupid.”

__________________________________________

“Levi?” Y/N asked as she entered the man’s office without even knocking. She was practically bouncing with each step, energy bound up inside.

He didn’t bother peeking up from his desk, just checking more things off his paperwork. “Yes, Y/N?”

She didn’t really know what to say, truthfully. She could only stand there for moment, and think herself so stupid for not remembering him. Looking back on how she acted while she was recovering, how she acted like a stranger to him for so long, and now that seemed ridiculous. They had history. Thousands of moments that she forgot. 

Without thinking much else, she bluntly said the only thing on her mind, “Stay the night with me.”

He lifted his eyes from his paperwork, narrowing his brows. “Excuse me?” 

“You said that the first time I told you I loved you. You-You were too nervous to actually tell me you loved me so you said that instead,” Y/N rushed to say. “I remembered.”

As Levi looked up at the woman he loved, the one he never stopped loving this whole time, he noticed the sparkle in her eyes had returned. Her cheeks were dusted pink and she looked out of breath from excitement. He didn’t know what to say. He hadn’t expected this, and honestly he never thought he would hear her recall those times again.

“I remember you. Not everything yet, but I remember being in love with you. I remember how you loved me.”

He stood from his desk to walk over to the woman who was overflowing with so many words and thoughts and emotions that he thought she might burst. He rested his hands on her cheeks, bringing her eyes up to meet his. He could see, for the first time in forever, the way her eyes shone with love and affection for only him. She brought her hands up to rest on his, heat rising up to turn her ears red. 

Even though they were practically married before, she felt anxious and embarrassed being so close to him and touching him again. It was like she had just fallen in love again, a giddy young woman with so much ahead of her. Levi touching her, it made her feel something again. His warmth radiating onto her chilled skin; it was all she needed to go crazy.

God, did she miss having these feelings. The feeling of being in love is one of the most pleasant mankind has ever felt.

“Levi, I’m back.”

“God, I missed you. I really fucking missed you.”

And as she wrapped her arms around him once again, feeling his heart beating against her ear, she remembered what it felt like to be Y/N. A woman who was loved and important, someone with a history of good deeds and hard work. It was worth waiting six months, just to feel this bliss once again.

They would be together as long as they had left, and every minute would be cherished. War would come. Deaths would surface. But at least they had the present.

[cantgetoutofmyheda]

Omg can you write a one shot where Lexa is paid by her college peers to write love letters to their gfs/ppl they want to date. So Finn asks her to write for Clarke and it becomes a constant. Until one day clarke goes up to her and says I know its you

OKAY. So this has been sitting in my asks for like a year. There will be a few (but short-ish) parts to this. And before anyone asks, this is not based off of “The Half of It” ... but here ya go.

---

Letters

PART 1

It was Polis Record’s fault. Lexa’s atrocious week was definitely Polis Record’s fault. Had Titus not been a complete asshat of a manager and dicked the schedule around, Lexa certainly wouldn’t be having this predicament. Had Lexa’s hours not have been cut back, she wouldn’t be where she was. Had Lexa not known that her next paycheck would be half of what it normally was, she wouldn’t be writing a fake love letter to the devastatingly beautiful girl in her Astronomy class. Had Finn Collins not offered her cash to do so, she wouldn’t be writing this letter on his behalf, even though she was the one that’s had an earth-shattering crush on the recipient ever since their Freshmen orientation, four long years ago.

Let’s rewind.

“Titus, are you kidding me?” Lexa huffed at the bald-headed man who was scurrying around the break room like a headless chicken. “You did what?”

“Lexa, listen,” he tried to calm her down. “The schedule will be back to normal before you know it. I had to hire her. There wasn’t another way around it.”

She was mad. No. More than mad, “There was. But you just didn’t have the balls to tell your mistress’ best friend that you already had a full roster of people on your fucking schedule.”

“Can you keep it down!” He hissed. “This is temporary. I’m sorry. I couldn’t dock my cousin, okay? The schedule will even itself back out. You’ll be back to selling these shitty, scratched up vinyls in no time. Ride it out for two weeks, it won’t kill you.”

What he didn’t realize was that two weeks of half-pay because of shitty scheduling could actually kill her. He just didn’t realize that. There was the pressure of doing well in school, that was one thing. But there was also the pressure of doing well enough to keep her GPA high enough to keep her partial scholarship. And then the pressure of her shitty part-time job at the local record store to help make early payments to her student loans so she wouldn’t have to worry about crippling herself into debt once she figured out what to do with a fucking degree in Geology.

“Two weeks,” she warned him as she started to storm out. “This better be fixed in two weeks, Titus.”

Spoiler alert: Two weeks had come and gone, and Lexa was still screwed off of her work schedule.

“C’mon,” Finn pleaded at Lexa’s side. He had managed to weasel his way into the vestibule of Lexa’s apartment building. “I took that writing class with you last year. I know you’re good. I just need one letter. Typed. That’s it.”

She was already on the verge of a massive outburst after her conversation with Titus. The dickwad that he was, managed to screw her hours up for another week, even though he promised he wouldn’t, “This is not a good time, Finn. Seriously.”

“$200.” He stood tall in front of her. “$200 in cash right now, and all you need to do is type up a page of words that will have her vaguely interested in the person who wrote it, and that’s it. $200 right now. If you do this, then I’ll never bother you for anything again.” He scratched the back of his neck, “Listen, I just need a good way in. I can take the rest from there, okay?”

$200 was enough to cover a good portion of what she would be missing out on for the week. $200 was enough to get by. $200 was enough to get her mind to start churning.

“$300 and it’s a deal,” she tried to match his height. She straightened her back and broadened her shoulders as far as she could.

He laughed at the request, “You’ve gotta be shitting me.”

“You’re the one that needs me,” she reminded me.

He let out a huff and pulled another Benjamin out of his leather wallet and clumped it with the other two. “Fine,” he shook his head as he handed her the wad of cash.

Lexa nodded as she took the money. She buried the pang of guilt she felt into her pocket, alongside the earnings she just made and was ready to make way up the two flights of stairs when she felt Finn grab her arm.

“Hey,” he called out. “Wait a sec. I started a letter already, but didn’t get very far. You can just go off of this,” he handed her a folded piece of paper.

She opened it and read it aloud, “Have you ever felt like you couldn’t breathe? Like the weight of everything you’ve been carrying has amounted to this one moment in your life? Like there’s this burden placed so heavy on your chest that has left your lungs struggling for any ounce of air?”

Finn nodded as the words poured out of Lexa’s mouth. He was more than proud of what he thought was eloquently poetic. Lexa’s look of confusion went missed by him as he crossed his arms over his chest, “Pretty good, right?”

“Finn,” she deadpanned. “It sounds like you just described having the fucking Spanish Flu. I’m not using this. You sound like a serial killer.”

“What?” he yelped. “It’s poetic!”

“It’s a terrifying beginning to what’s supposed to be a love letter,” she deadpanned again. She shook her head as she finally made her way to the flight of stairs, “Give me a few days, I’ll come up with what we need.”

He rolled his eyes, “Fine. But you better make it good.”

She made it good. She made it really fucking good.

Clarke ran her fingertips over the paper as she scanned the words again. She had no idea who had left it for her—she walked into the lecture hall a few minutes early, as she normally did, and saw an envelope pinned to the corkboard with “Clarke” scribbled on it. She looked around, wanted to see if anyone in particular was looking in her direction. It was the usual suspects that always got to class a little bit early. Monty, the one who was always quiet in class but loudest at the neighborhood bar during happy hour. Echo, the girl who always sat in the back row and snoozed as soon as the professor opened her mouth. Finn, the boy who always found a way to have an uncalled for argument with the professor. Lexa, the one who was always in the front row and tended to herself.

Not a single one of them was paying her a piece of mind, so she let her eyes scan the letter one last time before the room filled up.

Clarke,

I was sitting on the lawn behind the library catching up on reading for a class last week. I was skimming through Voltaire’s words:

“Sensual pleasure passes and vanishes, but the friendship between us, the mutual confidence, the delight of the heart, the enchantment of the soul, these things do not perish and can never be destroyed.”

This particular passage struck a chord with me, and it was mostly because when I looked up after reading it, I immediately saw you consoling who I’d assume to be a friend of yours. I’m not sure what had happened, but she looked like she was crying and you showed up with a blanket to sit on, a bowl of fresh fruit, and sat with her and listened intently while she spoke. It was life imitating art, right before my eyes.

Voltaire’s writing is mostly straight and to the point. It isn’t hard to decipher the messages he often tries to relay, but it was most certainly a breath of fresh air to finish that passage to find a parallel to present day. Your actions on that lawn helped me see things a little clearer.

I suppose I just wanted to thank you for that. SO, thank you for being the catalyst for making something in my brain click.

Before I close this letter off, I do have a question for you. And if you feel so inclined to indulge and answer it, you can drop it back into the envelope where you found this one and pin it back to the board.

Has anything happened to you recently that struck a chord? Something that stood out to you, but you haven’t had a chance to dive deeper into it? I’d like to know.

Enjoy your week, Clarke.

Upon tucking the printed note under her laptop, she took another look around the hall, which was now practically full. She moved her computer to the side and pulled a notepad out of her bag. The professor had started her lecture, but Clarke’s mind wandered from the images pulled up on the projector from the Spritzer space telescope as her pen started to move across the page.

Hello,

I believe you’re at an unfair advantage here. You know my name. You know what I look like. Yet I have absolutely no idea who you are. So if you write back to this, I’m hoping you’ll share some insight on the person behind the pen (or keyboard, in your instance).

I’m happy that the interaction you saw helped bring better insight into what you were working on. Coincidentally, the friend that I was with when you saw me is also reading a Voltaire piece for an assignment. I wonder if you’re in the same class?

She’s taking “Romance Studies” as an elective. I tried to convince her that there was no point harping on what was considered to be “romantic” through archaic literary pieces that are now long gone, and replaced with mediocre-at-best Netflix series about teenage love.

It always seemed that with the way things were going in our lifetime… that all “romance” really was, was when two people swiped right on Tinder.

With that said… I guess I can honestly say that your letter is what struck a chord with me. Especially after freshly coming out of that conversation with my friend.

I don’t want to be presumptuous. But it seems that this gesture of yours, whether it was meant to be platonic, or if it was meant to imply a sense of something more, is making me realize that maybe—just maybe—the practice of sharing words on a page isn’t so archaic after all.

-Clarke

She was happy with the end result of what was hurriedly committed to the page. Clarke quickly tore it from her notebook and tucked the loose piece of paper back into the envelope. She scanned her fellow students to see if anyone was watching her. She slunk further into her seat and wondered if the recipient was there, sitting in that very room. Unfortunately for her, the lecture that was being given on the Nebular Theory kept the attention of every other person in the hall, so she quickly reached for her computer to start typing notes on the theory’s premise of how every planet in the system was formed.

A tedious hour later, her fellow classmates started packing up and rushed towards the exit door. Clarke took her time shutting her computer down and tucking things away into her bag. She was suddenly aware that the person who wrote to her—the person she now wrote to—could be in the room watching her to see if she had a written response back.

She waited a few more minutes, and finally deemed it safe when the last few people in the room seemed to be chatting with one another or finishing up straightening their notes from the lecture. With a big exhale, she pinned the envelope back onto the board and made a swift exit.

Lexa felt a tap to her shoulder, which caused her to look up, “What do you want?”

“I think it worked. She put the envelope back!” the excitement in Finn’s face didn’t go unnoticed.

“Okay,” Lexa lowered her head to finish writing out her notes from the class. “Job’s done.”

“I’m gonna go get it so we can read it and figure out what to do next,” he giddily let out before darting out of Lexa’s peripheral.

She let out a sigh of distaste when he came back half a minute later and pulled a chair close to where she was sitting. “Finn, you said one letter. I did it. This is on you now. And if you don’t mind, I need to finish up here,” she raised her hand, showing she was still trying to get some of her notes done.

“Fine, suit yourself,” he propped his feet onto the table in front of them while he silently read Clarke’s reply. “Hmm, Voltaire?”

The author’s name caught Lexa’s attention. She suddenly looked up to where he was sitting, “What about him?”

“I don’t know. Clarke said something about him. That’s the bad dude from Harry Potter, right?” Finn brought his attention back to the letter. “What did our letter even say? You never even showed me.”

He handed Lexa the notebook page with loopy and wide writing on it. The edges were jagged, as if Clarke did the whole thing in haste.

“What do you want me to do with that?” Lexa eyed the piece of paper.

“Read it and let me know if you think she likes me,” Finn shrugged. “But also, why didn’t you put my number or something on it?”

“Because it’ll probably take more than one letter for her to even be open to the idea of you,” Lexa chided in her reply. She let her eyes quickly scan the girlish handwriting and folded the paper back up. “She’s definitely intrigued.”

Finn finally set his feet on the floor as he leaned forward and rubbed his hands together, “Okay, great! So what do we do now?”

“We,” Lexa pointed her pen between the two of them. “Do nothing. You can write another letter and see if she wants anything to do with you, Finn.”

“C’mon,” he nudged her shoulder. “I’ll pay ya for another one. Another $300. But we need an exit plan for when we move this from letters to texting or something.”

“Her reply literally just said that we’ve opened the idea to her that letters are romantic,” Lexa shook her head. “Your take on that was to immediately turn this to a texting conversation?”

He grabbed the letter from Lexa, “What? Where’d she said that? It doesn’t say that, Lexa.” He scratched his head.

Lexa let out a defeated sigh, “Finn. She literally said something like, ‘maybe the practice of sharing words on a page isn’t so archaic’ or something. Did we not just read the same piece of paper?”

“See, Lexa,” he smiled as he patted her shoulder. “This is why I need you. Just one or two more. Same price per letter. I just need a little more help and then I’ll be outta your hair. Promise.”

She took her palm to her forehead and rubbed her thumb into her temple. One more wouldn’t hurt. Mostly because the $300 definitely wouldn’t hurt.

“Fine,” she finally let out. “One more. Give me her letter back. I’ll have our reply ready for this same class next week.”

“Excellent,” he grinned as he handed the piece of paper over to her. “You’re a lifesaver, Lexa.”

She felt anything but that. But at least it meant she’d be able to get by for the next week or two, while Titus still screwed around with her hours at the record store.

[hansensgirl]

salvatore | iv

series summary — Bucky Barnes doesn’t believe in love anymore. Especially after the tragic, unknown death of his wife, Natasha. He thinks it’s stupid and a waste of time and- oh my. Hello there, you. There you were, with your notebooks and your novels, writing your heart away. He’s hellbent on saving you from this nasty world, his elusive neighbor that has him under the stupid spell of love. You soon find yourself trapped in a tragic love story with Bluebeard, not Prince Charming.

chapter warnings — dark!bucky, dark themes, stalking, voyeurism, cameras, stealing, slight angst, smut, female masturbation, perving, male masturbation, violence, mentions of cheating, fluff, feelings, noncon/dubcon, 18+

pairings — Dark!Bucky Barnes x Female!Reader, Bucky Barnes x Female!Reader, Bucky Barnes x Natasha Romanoff, Natasha Romanoff x Steve Rogers

word count — 2,961

a/n — finally! finally, i posted! please leave some feedback if you’d like! happy reading, and if you do not like any of the things in the warnings, do not read this!! also thank you to @mariessecretfantasies for beta-ing, ily! check her wonderful stories out please, you won’t regret it!

“Oh, bunny.” She cooed, tracing the scars that were scattered about Bucky’s body. Bucky whimpered and opened his eyes. The redhead smiled down at him, wearing a simple sundress and heart sunglasses. She twirled her tongue around the cherry flavoured lollipop as if she was sucking his cock. The old Bucky would’ve had a boner in just a few seconds, but the sight of Natasha had startled him deeply. “We should go to the Valley this weekend, Bunny.” She pulled the sunglasses down to the bridge of her nose. “Yeah, so you can visit Steve huh?” He spoke, but they weren’t the words that left his mouth. “Of course, Nattie.” His fingers ran through her red locks on their own accord. He tried to pull them away, but instead he pulled her closer. She set the lollipop on the dashboard of the Buick. She crawled into his lap and began to unbuckle his belt, desperately craving his cock. She suddenly left his belt and grabbed the knife that was in his thigh holster, bringing it up to his throat. “You know Nattie, I used to think the world of you.” He growled through gritted teeth. She pressed the knife closer to his throat, her hands shaking slightly. “Yet now, you barely even cross my mind.”

Bucky shot up suddenly, Natasha’s name leaving his name in just a whisper. One that when he himself couldn’t hear. He was drenched in sweat, his naked form all sticky. “Fuck.” He cursed, pulling off the thin grey sheet that barely covered him. The gruesome dreams replayed in his dark mind, sending chills down his spine. It was the first dream he had about Natasha in a while, and he didn’t know what triggered it. He pulled on his boxers and sat on the bed idly, wondering what he should do. There was no way he would go back to sleep, he didn’t want to face Natasha again. His eyes fell onto the laptop on his bedside table and his lips worried a smirk. It was devilish, almost as if Satan cursed himself upon Bucky. He peered out of the window and managed to see through the pitch black darkness that filled your room. You had a pillow between your legs and your sheets were a mess.

You clearly were knocked out, probably still hazy from that hangover. He sat near the window and opened the laptop to enter his password. He carefully typed your name and added his favourite number at the end before pressing the arrow button. It loaded quickly, given that he had harassed the guy down at IT for speedy wifi and advanced technology. He tapped into the cameras that he installed in your house one afternoon whilst you went for a quick run. He rewinded the tape to when you were in the shower, washing your hair. The water had to be cold as he inspected your body language and facial expressions. Seeing the water spill over your body had his cock throbbing between his thick thighs. He watched you slip a hand between your thighs, rubbing the pearl of nerves that had your knees buckling and your eyes rolling back into your skull. No wonder you were knocked out. Your mouth fell open to let out a silent scream and your ministrations on your clit sped up. Bucky’s large cock became fully erected, leaking with pre-cum. He grasped the base and swiped the tip with his thumb, before beginning to stroke himself.

“Fuck.” You both gasped, throwing your heads back.

He swore under his breath and watched you edge yourself. He wondered how many times he could edge you before you couldn’t take it anymore, before you would let those tears fall just for him. He would love to see you break under him, though he knew you were already slightly cracked beneath the lines. You palmed your breasts eagerly before spying the shower head with a smirk. “Such a naughty, dirty girl.” He degraded, letting a moan slip past his plump lips. It was almost as if you heard him, only saying one word. “Yes, yes, yes, yes!” You came undone on your frail, delicate fingers that could barely reach your g-spot. Your creamy cum coated your hand, and you pulled your fingers away from your honey pot. You had the urge to suck your arousal off of your fingers, and Bucky could tell. You hesitatingly stuck them in your mouth and you sucked them clean, which pushed Bucky off the edge of the cliff. His streaks of cum painted themselves on his abdomen, wishing you were there to catch it all in your mouth. He sighed as his cock became flaccid, and you washed your sins away with steaming hot water.

He switched cameras and fast-forwarded to when you dried yourself off with the fluffy towel. You bent down to wipe your legs, giving him a view of your pussy. He paused the camera and admired you for a bit, his breathing becoming more laboured. Your freshly-shaven lips glistened with water droplets, but he wished it was his cum instead. He shut his eyes and muttered incoherent words under his breath. This isn’t wrong! I’m just making sure you’re safe, that’s all. He mindlessly watched your moisturize and get ready for bed, all while jamming out to your favourite song. He could watch you swing your hips for hours, watch you flip your hair until you felt dizzy. And he could, but it’s not as good as he wanted. He wanted to be there with you.

Bucky decided to try and get a few hours of shut-eye, knowing that he’d deeply regret it if he didn’t. He hadn’t noticed that your breathing never slowed. You laid in bed, with your eyes shut. You were teetering on the verge of falling asleep, but your thoughts kept you up.

You wondered how you had managed to fall in love with your neighbour. The neighbour that you had only known for so long. It couldn’t be love, because love is dumb, right? It’s just a crush that makes you feel all sick and happy, a crush that lasts forever. You tossed and turned in your bed, trying to get some rest for once. But sleep never came. Instead, your heavy eyes watched the sun rise until it nearly blinded you. You sighed and rolled out of bed. Your body was almost on auto-pilot. You went downstairs and made yourself a cup of coffee, along with a bagel. You somehow found yourself pulling on a sundress that was a little too revealing for your taste. You admired yourself in the mirror for a bit, wondering what Bucky would think of your outfit. Would he be disgusted? God no, he’s too much of a gentleman. You pushed the negative thoughts out of your mind as you were determined to have a good day. You stared at the book that sat on top of your night stand. Ever since Bucky had gifted it to you, you never opened it up.

You could either read the classic that he gifted, or spend the day looking for a nearby job that would pay well. You chose the former. You gathered all your notebooks and pens, hoping that maybe inspiration will strike you. You went to open your back door, just to find it unlocked. You furrowed your brows with confusion, trying to recall whether or not you locked it. “Probably didn’t.” You muttered under your breath. You shook your head with disappointment — something that your mom constantly would do to you. You shut the door behind you and sat on the sun chair. The sun was bright — maybe a little too bright for you. But it didn’t seem strong enough to harm your soft skin. You flipped to the first page and began to read, but you lost track a few times. You imagined yourself as Catherine, and Bucky as Heathcliff. The story was already wrong in so many ways, but to picture yourself as one of the characters was almost too much. You couldn’t help it though, you really couldn’t. You stopped at the second page and decided to retire the book for the day.

You played with your pen and chewed at your bottom lip, trying to think of a way to start your new story. “Hey, neighbour!” A deep voice called out. You turned your head just to see Bucky peering over the tall white fence. You silently waved at him and gave him a friendly smile. “Got any sugar for me to borrow?” He joked, making you giggle. You shook your head as you played along with him. He put on a frown that made you a little lovesick. It was chilling almost, as if he had practiced those puppy eyes. Your smile faltered slightly, but you kept it on anyways. A flash of darkness struck Bucky when he saw the slight dullness to your lips. “So, writing the next best novel?” He questioned, even though he already knew that you were just writing something for your Tumblr. “Not really, I just have the muse to write.” You meekly explained. He let out an understanding sound, nodding his head as your words sank in. Well, this is awkward… “Why do you write?” he asked, the question making you shoot your head up in a flash. “Pardon?” You scoffed incredulously. “I know you heard me, if you don’t want to talk about it then that’s fine, just curious. Sorry.” He looked down with guilt, making your heart break slightly. God dammit!

Bucky’s manipulative resolve nearly broke when he nearly smirked as he saw your face fall. He began to move away from the fence before you called out his name. “Bucky! Wait, I’m sorry!” You apologized, getting up from your seat. Bucky smiled and turned around to face you. He once again wore those puppy eyes that manage to manipulate you. You apologized profusely, your notebook and pen scattered on the freshly grown grass. “I’ll only accept your apology if you let me hang out with you, doll.” Doll, the nickname had you smiling sweetly. His stoic gaze burned into you as he admired your smile. So fucking gorgeous. “I’ll open the front door for you-” You started, turning away from Bucky. “Actually, I think I can hop over this fence.” He admitted, making your eyes bulge out. Before you could say another word, Bucky swung himself over the tall white fence. “Oh my god.” You whispered in shock, realizing he avoided stepping on your flowers. He smiled at you and began to look around your garden. He acted as if he hadn’t seen it already, as if he hadn’t broken into your home already.

Well, he didn’t break in. You just didn’t let him in nicely.

You noticed the gardening gloves that he donned. “You garden?” You asked with pure curiosity. “Huh? Oh, yeah.” He answered. “Do you always garden? Or have you just started?” You wondered out loud as the heat of the sun grew. He took in your form as he wondered what lie he should choose. “Just started, any tips?” He peeled the gloves off as he spoke. The way he maintained eye contact was intimidating, almost scary. “Eh, not really… Mrs. Carter helped out actually!” You exclaimed, making the awkward tension even worse. Bucky nodded and stalked closer towards you, making you gulp thickly. Why were you so nervous? It’s not like he would hurt you, right? “Relax, I can hear your heart beatin’ fast.” He smiled down at you softly. You hadn’t realized how much bigger he was than you. He towered over you and even blocked the sun from blinding you. “Are you nervous, baby?” He nearly let out a coo when you nodded shyly. The way the tension between you too changed into something else was practically elusive. “I could go for some nice lemonade to be honest.” He smirked.

“L-lemonade?” You questioned. Your brows knitted together with confusion. What did he want from you? “That is what I said, isn’t it?” He looked up at the bright sky as if he was pondering to himself. “O-of course.” You walked away from him and nearly tripped over your feet. He had turned you into a nervous-wreck — you couldn’t even bear to look him in the eyes without shying away. With every few steps you took, you glanced back at Bucky, who was staring right at you. You felt his cold eyes burn into your back until you were out of his sight. Bucky quickly grabbed your notebook and flipped through the pages, before pulling his phone out. He snapped photos of every single thing you’ve written. From novel ideas to entries about your life. “Maybe if you let me in then I wouldn’t have to do all this, doll.” He grumbled. As he flipped through your notebook, something fell out. It landed on his foot but he barely felt the impact of it. He reached down and picked it up, realizing it was a polaroid.

Before he could turn it over, the sound of your feet pattering on the wooden floor screamed at him to set everything back to normal. He hurriedly closed the notebook and picked up your belongings, setting them on the small glass table. He shoved the polaroid in his pocket and smiled at you. “That was fast- where’s the lemonade?” He questioned, making you smile meekly. “It’s inside.” Your voice was small, quiet. He clearly enjoyed the fact that you were intimidated by him, that you were scared of him. You led him into your home and he acted as if he hadn’t been in it already, marvelling at every aspect of your living space. “Can you um, take your shoes off?” You requested, but your tone of voice made it seem like a demand. He raised a challenging eyebrow at you and took his shoes off at a painful pace. C’mon doll, being so rude to a world hero? If it weren’t for me you wouldn’t even be alive at this point. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to be so rude!” You apologize quickly, pouring him a glass of lemonade.

Bucky flashed you a smile that was both sweet and sultry. Oh, the things he did to you. You handed him the cup and watched him drink it all down. Your lemonade-making skills were a bit rusty, but it seemed to you that he enjoyed the refreshment very much. Maybe a little too much. “Y’know, I might have to steal this recipe from ya. It tastes just like the way my ma used to make it.” He stared out into space blankly, his features softening completely as he spoke of his mother. You felt giddy with his praise, and he let out a coo as you looked at the bland kitchen tiles. It’s weird that you hadn’t noticed the faint footstep print. You frowned and tried to think back as to when you stepped into the kitchen with muddy shoes, and you couldn’t recall anything. “What’s wrong doll, hm?” Bucky asked, leaning over the counter. “It’s nothing.” You spoke too soon, which told him that in fact it was something. “So, have you planted any flowers?” You questioned, changing the conversation. Bucky’s jaw clenched as soon as you did, he hated that. “Yeah, some roses, some marigolds and some cosmos and I have yet to plant some asters.” He divulged into the topic of his garden and he slowly began to light up in a way that had you smiling. “The flowers are pretty, just not like you.” He spoke loudly. Your shy smile turned into a grin, and you thanked him.

“Just the truth, doll.” Doll, how many times had that nickname slipped from his lips? No, wrong question. How many times did that nickname make your poor little heart flutter? Bucky smiled as he heard your the pace of your heart beats pick up for the nth time. He walked around the counter slowly, all whilst staring at you like you were his prey. You took a step backwards but his hand on your waist stopped you. “Why? I- I don’t know what you want. Y- You’re confusing me, Buck.” You stammered, but your tone held so much frustration that he understood where you were coming from. “I want you doll, but not like this. No, one day.” His words baffled you and so did his actions. His grip left your waist but it still lingered, and he grabbed his gardening gloves. “Tomorrow, tomorrow we’ll figure this all out, doll.” He spoke softly, smiling at you. He slipped his shoes back and he left you all alone in the kitchen. Your mind replayed everything that had happened, and you were bewildered. “James Buchanan Barnes, could you be any more confusing?” You wondered aloud.

Bucky shut the door behind him and took off his shoes, leaving the gloves on the small table that was beside the door. He walked into the kitchen and plucked the Stark Industries tablet off of its charging pad. With a few gentle taps, he watched you clean up the house impassively. He chuckled, knowing that he had twisted the wires in your mind so much you couldn’t be left some with your thoughts. His long, lithe fingers paused the live video and he admired the way your tongue peaked out of your supple lips in concentration. He spotted the notebook once again and recalled the polaroid he had purloined from you. He pulled it out of his pocket and flipped it over, his eyes going wide at the image that you had kept.

Oh doll, how could you betray me like this?