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#wake up honey new fic dropped
canisalbus · 6 months
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hello! i've written a short little machete fic, and i wanted to share it with you as thanks for all the incredible art and generous question-answering you've been doing these last few months. i hope that if you give it a look, you enjoy it. <3 keep up all your amazing work! archiveofourown [.] org / works / 50945128
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✦ A Voi ✦
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luveline · 4 months
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Please a Hotch (new girl dad LMFAO) little fic where he discovers the joys and wonders of being a girl dad 😭🤍 like dressing up and playing tea party, or ‘honey, what do I put in her hair?? A bow? A ribbon?? A headband?? A clip??’ Or something about their baby girl always running to him when she bumps her head or falls!! I think it would be really cute
“Do you mind?” you ask through giggles. 
Aaron rubs his hand up the length of your stomach. It tickles in a strange way, but you’re laughing because he’s cornered you on the couch. He takes up the entirety of your view, the air hot between your close faces. 
“No,” he says simply. He has big hands, warm hands. They leave heat in their wake where they touch you. 
“No, come on. I can’t see Jane.” You’re mostly kidding. You really can’t see Jane, but she’s about three feet away, and your living room is baby proofed.
Aaron peeks behind his shoulder. His smile says more than words —he must have caught her smiling herself. “You okay, honey?”
“Yes. Okay. Okay?”
“Yeah, sweetheart, I’m okay, I’m just giving mommy some kisses.” Aaron strokes your stomach with a loving thumb. “You want to come over here for a cuddle?” 
Jane doesn’t answer. Aaron turns back to you with a glowing smile. “She’s very happy. Now let me kiss you–” You’re laughing again as he kisses you, your cheek, the high point and the end of your brow. 
“I can’t believe you’ve cornered me,” you say, nudging him away to hold his face in your hands. “It’s too warm in here for this, you need to give me some space.”
“I don’t want space from you,” he jokes, matching your playful tone.
“Daddy!” Jack calls from somewhere deeper in the house. “I need help!”
“With what?” he calls, sitting up and away from your touch. He squeezes your leg as he leaves, his voice echoing against the hallway walls, “Jack? What’s the problem, buddy?” 
He waits for an answer he doesn’t get before heading upstairs. You weren’t lying when you said it was too hot for kisses —the winter chill is pervasive and Jane is vulnerable to the cold, so the heat is high and the Hotchner boys are pink in the cheeks every time you see them. You fan your face, tracking Jane’s clumsy waddling as she ferries a pink teddy bear next to her baby doll beside the picnic blanket you’d laid out for her. 
“Having fun, Janey?” you ask. 
“Baba,” she mumbles. 
“Alright, that’s fun. How about I go make us some dinner?” 
“Babababa…” 
“Bababa,” you say back. 
You set about cleaning the mess she’s making before it can explode and prop the door between the living room and the kitchen open to watch her while you peel some potatoes. She plays happily for a while, and upstairs you can hear the celebratory shouts of the boys having figured something out. “Come have some juice before you do the next part,” Aaron says. 
With a sudden bump and a telling silence, Jane falls over. You drop your potatoes and wipe your hands on your front, prepared to sweep her up in your arms and coo away any tears. Her crying rings like a storm siren, so loud you miss the rush of footsteps down the stairs. 
“Baby,” you say softly, holding out your arms as you approach. Aaron and Jack trickle into the room behind her. “Let mommy see? What did you do, huh?” 
She climbs onto her feet. You don't even realise she’s looking away from you until she’s running at her father’s legs, completely ignoring your offered embrace. “Oh, sweetheart,” Aaron says, bending down to meet her. “What did you do? You hurt yourself? Let me have a look. Let me see.” 
Your chest is a pit, that falling feeling as though you’ve missed a step, but the open joy on Aaron’s face soothes any jealousy quickly. “What did you do?” he asks again, lifting his head to accommodate her little body as she wraps her arms and legs around him. He picks her up. She looks small under his chin. “It’s okay. It’s okay.” 
Jack weaves around him to hug your thigh. “Did she fall?” he asks. 
He can come to you for anything, big or small, just like Jane can go to her father. You ruffle his soft hair with a smile. “She’s just shocked when things don’t feel nice because she’s so little. It probably didn’t hurt very much, okay? Don’t worry.” 
“Don’t listen to mommy,” Aaron murmurs, patting what looks like the entire span of Jane’s back with a barely opened palm, “I’m sure it hurt lots and lots.” 
“Dad,” she mumbles tearily.
Aaron gives you the look. One he does all too often when he’s feeling grateful for the things he has, his brow pinched into a gentler furrow than usual. “I know, honey. That floor is so mean, always hurting you. I think we should get some soft carpets instead, what do you think?” 
Jack tugs on your hand. “Can you make me some apple juice, please? I think he will be here for a while.” 
You’re thinking there’ll be carpets fitted in here within the month. “Sure, babe. You wanna help me make some French fries?” 
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Honey Girl. Chapter Four.
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Chapter One. Chapter Two. Chapter Three. Chapter Five. Chapter Six. Chapter Seven. Chapter Eight. Series Masterlist. The Playlist.
Chapter Synopsis - You and Bucky deal with the fallout of Cora's reveal. What's that saying? If you love something, let it go...
Pairing - Dad'sBestFriend! Bucky Barnes x Female Reader - soulmate au
Age Rating - 18+
Warnings - cursing. angst. alcohol consumption.
Word Count - 5k
Author's Note - i can only apologise that this chapter took a little while!! my life is at a super weird place rn, so i'm just trying to find the time when i can. words cannot describe how incredible all of your support is for Honey Girl. the fact you all reblog and comment and send me asks means the world to me. love you all so much.
as always, reblogs, comments and feedback (even anonymous feedback) are immensely appreciated!! your reblogs are the only way to circulate my fics, which keeps me going <3
Masterlist. Inbox.
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You can't breathe.
It's like all of the oxygen has been sucked out of the air, leaving it dry, brittle, sterile. Your lungs are burning, scratched like sandpaper. The backyard is spinning, like teenagers at a roller rink - all flashing lights and endless rotations.
You haven't taken your eyes off of Bucky, and he hasn't taken his eyes off of you. If you were thinking more logically, you'd probably realise that you've been staring at each other for too long, and it's starting to look a little suspicious. You don't care.
Your ears are ringing. It's like there's been an explosion, and you're scattered amongst the debris. Smoke, flames, rubble. A catastrophic detonation in your parents backyard.
A gentle hand on your shoulder snaps you back to reality. The music is still playing, everyone around the table is still conversing, the house still stands. No explosion here.
"Sweetheart?"
It's your Mom, clearly sensing your distress. She probably thinks you're upset with her, for telling Cora. You are, but that's not what's causing the pain in your chest.
"Come inside with me, baby girl. Let's get away from the noise for a second."
She grabs your hand and pulls you out of your chair, still none the wiser to the magnetism preventing you from breaking your gaze that's locked on Bucky's. She practically drags you inside, the cool air of the kitchen waking you up.
"Sweetheart, I am so, so sorry. Cora overheard the conversation we had earlier. I thought it was good news, so I didn't think to ask her to keep it private."
She looks like she's being eaten alive by guilt. Your bottom lip quivers, your eyes well up, and before you know it, there are warm, salty tears dripping down your cheeks.
"Hey, hey. What's the matter?"
You sit down on the tiled floor, back pressed against the cabinets. Curling your knees to your chest, you try to stifle your sobs.
"Everything's such a mess, Mama."
She drops to the ground, gathering you in her arms. She holds you as tight as she can, rubbing soothing circles into your back and whispering comforting words in your ear. Eventually, she pulls back to look at you.
"What's the matter, baby? I thought Stella's call was a good thing - that you'd be excited to go back to California."
You take a shaky breath before replying.
"It's just... I think - I don't, it's... it's so complicated."
She traces her fingers over your cheeks, your eyebrows, your nose. She dances her fingertips over your face, as if she's committing it to her mind forever. It brings back warm and cosy childhood memories of her doing the same thing to help you sleep. The two of you would snuggle up against all of your pillows in bed, tucked up and safe. She'd lie with you until she was sure you were dreaming, before kissing you on the forehead and sneaking out.
"Talk to me. We can figure it out. We always do."
"It's not that simple. I just... there's a lot going on, I guess. I thought it'd be an easy decision, but it isn't, and it's all I can think about, and it's eating me up because I'm so scared I'm gonna do the wrong thing -"
You cut yourself off with a sob, resting your head on your knees.
"I knew there was something bothering you, sweetheart. Why didn't you come and talk to us? Even if we can't fix it, we can listen."
"I thought I could handle it. I thought I could figure it out on my own."
"You don't ever have to carry stress like this on your own, baby girl. Ever. You hear me?"
You nod and lean into her, letting her rock you in her arms on the kitchen floor.
"I'm sorry again, about Cora. She means well, you know she does."
"I know. Doesn't feel like it sometimes, but I know."
A pause.
"Okay, sweetheart. What are we going to do now? Whatever you decide, we'll support you."
"Your Mom's right," your Dad says from the doorway. "Whatever you choose, we'll be right alongside you. No matter what."
He strides over to join the two of you on the floor, sandwiching you between him and your Mom.
"If you need help packing up and moving, we're here. If you need us to create an elaborate lie to tell Stella, we're here. Either way, you've got us."
You smile at him gently, leaning to rest your head on his shoulder. Regardless of what happens, you have two parents that love you more than anything in the world. That has to count for something.
"You wanna rejoin us outside, or are you too tired? No one will blame you if you go home."
"I think I'll go home," you murmur. "I don't wanna face any more questions for today."
"Bucky's just gone too. Said something about an early morning tomorrow."
You inhale shakily at the mention of his name. You know you'll have to face him sooner or later.
Your Dad stands and grabs your hands to help you to your feet, before doing the same to your Mom. They both hug you tightly before walking you out to the front door.
"Promise me you'll call if you need anything. Anything."
"I promise, Mama. Don't worry about me. I'll be okay."
"Do you want one of us to walk you home?"
"No, it's okay. I think I need the air."
"Love you, baby girl."
"Love you too. Both of you."
✵  ✵    ·  ✵    *  · ✵
You're halfway home when you decide to turn around. You need to talk to Bucky.
It doesn't take you long to figure out where he is. You can feel in your chest that he's close by, that he hasn't strayed far. He hasn't gone home, though. The Universe is pulling you in the opposite direction.
The beach.
You spin on your heel and start walking down the road, picking up pace as you go. You can feel rain in the air, threatening to spill from the clouds at any given moment. Before you know it, you're running, sprinting along the sidewalk in the direction of your soulmate.
You get to the small boardwalk and look out over the sand. The sky is grey as concrete, cold and unforgiving. You spot a figure in a worn brown leather jacket by the shore, and you know instantly. It's him.
You march onto the beach with your shoes still on, wrapping your arms around yourself to act as a shield from the wind. You left your jacket at your parent's house, too eager to get out of there in a hurry. The rain is suspended in the air, never quite reaching the ground. You know it's only a matter of time before the heavens open.
"Bucky!" you yell, practically bounding across the sand. "Buck!"
He doesn't turn because he hears your voice. He turns because he suddenly feels like he can breathe, which he hasn't been able to do for the last hour. He knew you were there before you shouted his name.
"Bucky, please!"
He spins on his heel and stops walking, waiting for you to catch up with him. You're sprinting, panting as you reach him. The ocean waves crash against the shore, dangerously close to his boots.
"Buck, just let me explain," you choke out, trying to catch your breath.
You finally stop running and look at him. He looks broken. His hair looks like he's pulled his fingers through it repeatedly, tear tracks staining his cheeks, lips bitten red. You've never seen him upset like this. It's the worst thing you've ever witnessed.
"There's nothing to explain," he begins calmly, trying to keep a lid on his feelings.
"There is, Buck. There is. I... Cora overheard me confiding in my Mom, telling her about a call I'd gotten, from a classmate at culinary school. It was just an offer - I haven't accepted anything! I never meant for you to find out like this, I swear. It's all just... it's all so fucked up."
He looks at you in disbelief.
"No, you know what's fucked up?" he asks, raising his voice. "Finding out that my soulmate is moving across the country from some alcoholic suburban mom at a dinner party!"
You've never heard him yell before. You don't like it at all. You gather yourself before replying calmly, determined to keep you emotions under wraps.
"I've been trying to find a way to talk to you about it, but I didn't know where to start. How do I even begin to explain any of this?"
"Maybe, I don't know - 'hey, Buck, I got a call and I'm thinking of moving thousands of miles away for my dream job,' would be a good place to start?"
"It's more complicated than that. I was trying to protect you."
"Protect me from what?"
"From blowing your life up for me!"
You stare at each other for a minute, both of you unblinking.
"What are you talking about?" he croaks out.
"You'd drop everything for me, Bucky, and I can't let you do that. You've worked too damn hard to let it all go."
He's dumbfounded, for a moment. Not because he doesn't understand. No. He's realising that you're right.
"I knew that if I told you straight away, you'd have persuaded me to let you come with, and I would have said yes. And then you'd regret it, and you'd resent me, and we'd be over before we've even begun."
When he doesn't say anything, you continue.
"The thing is, Buck, the selfish part of me would have happily invited you along. Me and you, in California, running a bakery? That sounds like a fucking dream. But I have to listen to the other side of me, the selfless part. And that part is telling me that you have worked too damn hard for too damn long just for me to take that all away."
You feel droplets of water on your face, and for a moment, you wonder when you started to cry again. Then, in the deep distance, you hear a crack of thunder. The rain begins to pour, both of you caught in a storm in more ways than one.
"You don't get to make a decision like that for me!" he finally responds, yelling to be heard over the downpour. "We're supposed to talk about these things! To figure them out together! That's what soulmates are - we're a team!"
"I can't think rationally around you, Bucky! It's like all logic goes out the window. I'm just so overwhelmed with-"
You stop yourself before the word comes out, but you both know what you were about to say. He feels it in his ribcage, the surge of emotion from you.
"-with how I feel about you. You're my forever, Buck, and I feel like -" a sob wracks through you, shaking your frame. "-like I've fucked it all up already."
Your tears mix with the rainwater, trailing down your cheeks. You watch as Bucky fights with himself, internally battling his feelings.
"You're not the only one fucking it up," he chokes. "You repeatedly told me we had to take it slow, but I just... couldn't help myself. I've never felt for anyone what I feel for you, and being away from you for even a minute is fucking torture. I moved us too fast, and now look where we are. We've become the equivalent of a married couple in a couple of weeks. No one can handle change that sudden."
"It's not.. none of this is your fault, Buck. I kept something from you, something big. I know it doesn't matter now, but I want you to know how hard it's been to not tell you. It was killing me."
"I felt it," he murmurs shakily, willing himself not to cry. "In my chest. You were so torn up about something, and I just couldn't figure out what it was. I should have pushed you more, but I was worried I'd push you away."
Your lip trembles as you watch him bite his own anxiously.
"I'm so scared, Buck," you whisper. "I feel so lost and so confused and like nothing makes sense."
"Me too," he whispers back, eyes never leaving yours. "I'm fucking terrified. Our worlds have been turned upside down."
"Is it... is it supposed to be this hard? Everyone makes it sound so easy."
"I don't know. Maybe the Universe heard that we were anti-soulmate and decided to be super tough on us. Cosmic karma, or something."
You choke out a laugh through your tears. The rain has plastered your clothes to your body, the salty wind chilling you to the bone. Without thinking, Bucky takes off his jacket and wraps it around you, unable to watch you shiver any longer.
"What now?" you ask quietly. If he wasn't standing so close, he wouldn't have heard it.
"Let's get out of the storm," he suggests, nodding his head towards the path home. "We can talk some more somewhere warmer."
You sniffle and take a deep breath, willing yourself to get it together. Bucky surprises you by linking your hand with his, warm fingers intertwining around yours.
He doesn't let go the whole way home.
✵  ✵    ·  ✵    *  · ✵
Bucky takes you to his house.
You haven't been here since before your Tethering. You walk in the door, and your knees threaten to give way.
It's overwhelming.
Everywhere - everything - smells like Bucky. His scent clings to every fabric, every upholstery, every room. There's pictures scattered across the mantelpiece, his handsome face staring at you wherever you go. The house is warm, cosy, and just so Bucky it makes your heart ache.
You walk over to the fireplace, taking a closer look at the array of frames adorning it. There's one of your parents and Bucky smiling, sat out on his lawn last summer; another of Bucky and his team of mechanics, stood proudly outside his garage. A small black frame catches your eye. You pick it up, and your breath hitches in your chest.
It's a picture of the two of you on the deck of his boat, the day after you found out you were soulmates. The wind is blowing your hair, billowing your shirts, sun beating down on your skin. You're both beaming at the camera, bright and blinding, completely content.
You're holding back tears as you put it back in it's original place.
"My favourite picture," he murmurs from somewhere behind you. "We look happy."
"We were happy," you whisper. Then, quieter, "We will be again."
A pause.
"You want something to drink? Coffee, cocoa? Oh, I have that tea you like, the apple one?"
"You do?"
"Yeah. I, uh, bought some last time I went grocery shopping. In case you stopped by."
"Tea sounds good. Please."
You stay stood in the middle of the living room while Bucky puts the kettle on the stove, worried that your wet clothes will ruin his couch. As if he's read your mind, he pops his head around the door.
"There's a load of fresh clothes folded on top of the dryer. Grab whatever you want, dry off a little."
You wander into the laundry room, sorting through the pile. You find a t shirt with his garage logo on the back in big, white letters.
J.B.B. Motorcycles and Automotives.
The blocky, bold font swirls across the black material. You run your fingers over it, tracing the curves and spikes of the typeface. It's something you've seen him in a million times. You inhale deeply as you slip it over your head, revelling in the way it smells like him. You grab some boxer shorts and slip those on too, glad to finally be warm and dry.
Bucky loses his breath when you walk into the room. He's never seen you in his clothes before, and for good reason. He's about to have a goddamn heart attack.
"Tea is on the coffee table," he chokes out. "I'm gonna change, and then we'll talk, yeah?"
You nod gently, settling into the cushions of his couch and tucking your legs underneath you, mug warming your hands.
When Bucky returns, he's in sweatpants and an oversized hoodie that you want to burrow yourself into. He takes his place, careful to put a little distance between you. Far enough that you're not touching, but close enough that you almost are.
"I'm sorry," you whisper. "I'm not good at this."
"Neither am I," he smiles gently. "It's my first time having a soulmate."
"Mine too," you laugh softly.
It floors you, his ability to always be able to comfort you. It's like a superpower, the way he always knows what to say or do to put you at ease.
"I think we got a little ahead of ourselves," he begins, careful to keep his voice low and deliberate. "I keep forgetting that we have forever. Literally. I was so eager to rush into this with you because I got excited. Don't get me wrong, I'm still ridiculously excited, but I'm realising now that our version of 'slow' wasn't slow at all."
"This whole Tethering thing makes everything so intense. There have been times where I honestly thought I was going to drop dead if you didn't kiss me."
"The feelings mutual," he chuckles.
You lace your fingers with his, never breaking eye contact, before addressing the elephant in the room.
"What am I gonna do about California, Buck?"
Your voice cracks just saying the word.
"Stella needs an answer, and I've upset you, and my parents are clueless, and I just - I don't know what to do. Tell me what to do. Please."
"I can't tell you what to do, honey," he soothes, running his thumb over the back of your hand. "And I'm not upset. I was, in the backyard... but I was mainly just blindsided. I kinda get it, you not telling me. I'm not sure what I'd do in your situation either."
"I just feel like both decisions are wrong. I can't win."
"Hey, hey. Look at me, pretty baby."
Bucky cradles your face in his warm hands, forcing your eyes to meet his ocean blue ones. You have to focus on his words, so you don't get lost in the waves of his irises.
"At the end of the day, it's completely your decision, and no one in the world can change that. But-"
He takes a deep breath, and continues.
"I think that you'll regret it every day for the rest of your life if you don't take the incredible opportunity that's been offered to you."
You take a second to process what he's telling you, your mind running at a thousand miles an hour.
"Are you... you're... are you saying I should take the job?"
"Like I said, it's your decision, but... yes. I'm saying you should take the job."
Your eyes well with tears, and you bite your lip to stop them from escaping. Inhaling carefully, you put your hands on his chest, feeling his steady heartbeat under your palms. He's calm. He's sure. He's collected enough for the both of you.
"What about us?" you ask, barely above a whisper.
"Like you said, baby. I'm your forever." Buck leans in, resting his forehead to yours. "We have time."
"All the time in the world."
You connect your lips to Bucky's softly, testing the waters. He kisses you back with so much feeling, tears slip from your lashes without warning. He's crying too, emotion mixing with yours, dousing you both.
You pull away and wrap your arms around him, curling yourself into his chest. He holds you as tightly as he can, knowing this will be the last time for a long time.
"So you'll go."
"I'll go."
"And I'll stay."
"You'll stay."
"And we'll be okay. No matter what, we'll be okay."
You and Bucky fall asleep in each others arms, cherishing the feeling of home one last time.
✵  ✵    ·  ✵    *  · ✵
The happiness is starting to seep through.
You're devastated to be leaving Bucky behind, but you're trying to look on the bright side. Sunny beaches, new people, your dream job. If you think about the positives for long enough, the Bucky sized hole in your chest hurts a little less.
You're packing up your bookshelf when your phone rings, scaring the life out of you.
"Bitch!"
You know who it is instantly.
"Hi, Lacie."
"Where have you been? Why didn't you answer my text from last night?"
"Shit, sorry. I've been packing. What's up?"
"We're going out tonight. Not just us - all the girls. We're throwing you a goodbye party!"
You groan inwardly, massaging your temples with your fingers.
"A party? Lace, I don't need a party."
"Babe, you do. You really do. It'll be fun! I thought you'd be excited!"
You take a deep breath, and remember what you've been telling yourself. Focus on the positives.
"Okay, fine. Where? What time? What should I wear?"
"I knew you'd say yes! Come to my place at like... six? We can get ready together, like old times! And wear something sexy."
She doesn't wait for you to argue, just hangs up the phone. She knows you too well.
You know it'll be good for you, to see your girlfriends - but the thought of all the goodbyes you're about to say breaks your heart a little more.
✵  ✵    ·  ✵    *  · ✵
"Okay, what the fuck is going on with you?"
You're sat cross legged on Lacie's living room floor, sharing makeup that's scattered across the coffee table. You sip your wine for a moment, trying to come up with an excuse. It's no use.
"I don't know."
"Bullshit."
You turn to look at her.
"What?"
"It's bullshit, babe. Something's going on. You've been given your dream job, and you're moping around like you just got broken up with or something. Why aren't you happy?"
There's no malice in her voice, just pure love. She adores you. You adore her. She's the one person with an outsiders perspective on all of this. So, you cut the act.
"I had my Tethering."
Silence.
She's processing.
"What?!"
"Yeah."
"When? Who? Where? How? Oh my God what is happening? Why didn't you say anything? Fuck, I'm gonna cry. I'm so overwhelmed right now, I'm so happy for you! Wait... are we not happy?"
"It's... complicated."
There's a lump in your throat, but a levity in your heart. A weight has been taken off you. Telling someone the truth has made you feel a little lighter.
"Who is it, babe?"
You take a deep breath, and look her in the eyes.
"Bucky."
Her jaw drops.
"Your... your Dad's best friend Bucky?"
"That's the one."
"Oh. My. Fucking. God."
"Yeah."
"Holy shit."
"Yeah."
"This is complicated."
"Yeah."
"Aw, babe."
She pulls you in for a hug, not caring about the makeup you're smearing across her shirt. You cling to her as tightly as you can, savouring your best friends comfort.
"Does anyone else know?"
"No. We decided not to tell my parents for a while."
"Shit. No wonder you've been so sad lately. You're moving across the country, away from the one person you're supposed to be near."
"It's really hard," you whisper, tears threatening to spill.
"I can't even begin to imagine," she murmurs, holding you close. "I wish you'd told me sooner. We could have talked about it."
"I know," you sniffle. "I thought I could handle it on my own, but I really can't."
"You're not on your own, okay? You have Bucky, and you have me. You can always talk to me about this stuff. God knows I talked your ear off about Cameron."
You laugh softly, thinking back to that day that feels both like yesterday and a million years ago.
"Where is he tonight?"
"Out with his boys. It's good for us to spend a few hours apart."
You smile at the happiness that's radiating off her. She's glowing, beaming in all directions.
"Thanks, Lace. I love you. You know that right?"
"Of course I do. I love you too. So much," she leans forward to kiss your cheek. "Now let's have one hell of a last girls night, shall we?"
✵  ✵    ·  ✵    *  · ✵
You've lost track of exactly where you are.
You know you're downtown somewhere, in one of the bars. This one smells like wood and whiskey, lowlit and smoky. You hit the cocktail bar first, then the one covered in leopard print, then the monochrome pink one. Now, you're here.
The six of you are sat at a booth, high heels tangled and legs intertwined under the table. The wood is sticky with lemon wedges from tequila shots, salt scattered across the surface.
"If you find any hot west coast men, will you send them my way?" Reese asks, nudging you with her shoulder.
"And if you find any hot west coast women, will you send them mine?"
Everyone laughs, the scent of perfume filling the air.
"Rosa, what happened to Aubrey? We liked her!"
"Caught her kissing my ex girlfriend. So now they're both my ex girlfriends."
"Jesus Christ."
"Man, that's rough," Lacie giggles next to you.
The other girls continue to talk about Aubrey's infidelity as Lacie leans to whisper in your ear.
"Have you said goodbye to Bucky yet?"
You nod.
"Yesterday. I stayed the night, we fell asleep together. Said our goodbyes in the morning. It was awful."
"Love you," she whispers, squeezing your hand under the table.
"Love you too," you reply, squeezing back.
"There's a table of super hot guys over there," Maggie observes, tilting her head in their direction. "Maybe we should conveniently dance that way in a little while."
You don't bother to look over, knowing that none of them will compare to your soulmate. The other girls seem interested, though, so you smile along with them.
"Babe," Sam hisses, kicking you under the table. "There's a hot guy at that table, three o'clock, that keeps staring at you."
You glance over, and your heart stutters in your chest.
Bucky.
His blue eyes pierce your soul, even from across the room. For a moment, it's only the two of you, all the noise forgotten.
You're snapped back to reality by Sam.
"Fuck, he's hot. If you don't want him, I do."
"You should talk to him," Lacie suggests quickly. "Why not, right?"
She's practically pushing you out of the booth, high school wrestler style. In another life, you think, she would have made a good football player. All five foot four of her.
You walk past his table, eyes still locked on him, and towards the bathrooms. You know he'll follow you. You walk to the end of the hallway and out of the door, into the fresh night air.
You feel him appear before you see him. You lean your body against the wall, head resting on the cold brick. Bucky stands in front of you, shirt stretched across his shoulders gorgeously.
"Hi."
"Hi, honey baby."
You smile softly at the nickname.
"What are you doing here?"
"I got dragged to a boys night. What are you doing here?"
"I got dragged to a girls night."
He laughs, and all the tension melts from your muscles.
"Thought we said our goodbyes. I didn't think I'd see you again before I left."
"Me too. But you know the Universe. It hates us."
"Cosmic karma," you whisper.
The two of you stand down the alleyway, looking at each other carefully. Neither of you wants to spook the other person. You'd processed your leaving, said your emotional goodbyes. And now he's here, standing in front of you. You don't want to have to do it all again.
"I should probably get back inside, before the girls get the wrong idea."
"Baby, I followed you to the bathroom. They've already got the wrong idea."
You chuckle, kicking at a rock on the ground.
"Yeah. I don't know how I'm gonna explain this."
A smile. A pause.
"I'll let you get back to your friends, then."
You lean up to press a kiss to his stubbled cheek.
"Bye, Buck."
"Bye, pretty girl."
You push off the wall and walk away towards the door. Suddenly, a warm hand wraps around your wrist, yanking you into a solid chest.
Bucky kisses you like a man possessed. There's nothing gentle about it - just pure, unadulterated passion. It's all teeth and tongue and nipping and biting, neither of you willing to be the first to pull away.
He walks you back into the wall, pushing you against the rough brick. You hike a leg up onto his hip as he grabs your thigh to pull you closer, desperate to feel all of you. Your hands are in his hair, around his neck, tangled in his collar, his shirt, his belt loops. Anything you can get your hands on, you grab.
A distant chorus of cheers break you out of your lust fuelled haze. A bachelorette party walks by, one of the women winking at you as they go. You and Bucky take a step away from each other, straightening out your clothes and fixing your hair.
"Promise me you'll call me if you need anything," Bucky murmurs, leaning to rest his forehead on yours.
"I promise," you whisper, almost against his lips. "Goodbye, Bucky."
"Goodbye, honey girl."
✵  ✵    ·  ✵    *  · ✵
The salty ocean wind whips through your hair, sun beating down onto your skin, some upbeat pop song humming from the radio. You keep your eyes glued to the road in front of you, begging yourself not to look back. You know if you do, you'll turn the car around and run straight back into Bucky's arms.
Let the happiness seep through, you remind yourself, gripping the steering wheel.
Let the happiness seep through.
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seeingivy · 4 months
Text
intimacy
ryomen sukuna x f!reader
**part of my best friends older brother fic
previous part linked here
--
sukuna wakes up three hours later to the bright light of your phone, and more distinctively, your right hand in his hair, brushing his pink locks away from his forehead. he blinks the sleep out of his eyes properly to find you sitting criss crossed within the sheets, hunched over on your phone, with your face scrunched up in frustration. 
he half considers not broaching why you’re awake at this hour just to ensure that your touch wouldn’t cease. that you’d continue tangling your fingers with his hair. 
“what’s your problem?” he asks. 
you retreat your hand from his hair, wincing as you mumble out your apology. sukuna muses that you were almost getting too predictable. 
“did i wake you up?” you ask. 
sukuna scoots closer to you on the bed, before lifting one of your legs to readjust himself. he’s settled himself right in between the softness of your thighs, before he reaches for your hand again and sets it back into his hair. 
you swallow commenting on how needy he is as you comb through the tresses of his hair, noting how he seems to soften into your legs the more pressure you apply. 
“what’s so important on your phone that you’re interrupting my sleep?” he mumbles. 
“sorry. was just texting megumi. i was supposed to call yuuji when he got home but it kind of slipped my mind.” you respond, before setting your phone down into the sheets and placing your other hand into his hair too. 
“something distracting you?” 
sukuna grins as he flips over, lifting his head to rest his chin against your stomach. he places a kiss to your clothed skin before giving you a sleepy smile. 
“clearly.” you respond. 
“he’s okay?” 
“yeah. i’ll talk to him tomorrow.” 
“nothing i could help him with i suppose. no one understands shitty older siblings like the two of you.” 
you tense underneath him, enough for him to wish he minced his words. sukuna knew that broaching any part of that, of something almost sacred between yuuji was something he couldn’t push you on. though it wasn’t hard to deduce - your horrid attempts at whispering in the kitchen weren’t lost to him. 
“hey. he loves you. it’s not like that.” 
“what was it he said? sitting all high and mighty?” 
you sigh, and enough for sukuna to properly open his eyes and sit up. 
“i’m joking.” he adds. 
sukuna can tell his words aren’t enough. it usually takes very little, a mix of sweet talking to settle you down, which makes him happier than he can admit. only because it indicates to him that his words can hold so much weight, especially to you. 
“i mean it. you guys are well past that. have been since you came back.” you murmur. 
sukuna knows that you’re right. that despite the fact that yuuji never talked to sukuna in the four years he was gone, despite his best efforts to reach out, their relationship was nearly repaired the second he made it back to tokyo. and it means more since the two of them getting along would mean something to you now. 
sukuna left when he was sixteen and made his best efforts not to regret it now. 
behind everyone’s backs, he had taken an early exit out of his required schooling and applied to a four year boarding school in europe. he had only dropped the news to everyone five days before he left, in efforts to not let the crippling sense of servitude he felt towards his family hold him back. 
“were you mad i left?” he murmurs, pushing up on his elbows, his breath tickling your neck. 
“no.” 
“did you miss me?” he asks. 
it’s a selfish question. sukuna knows that the answer should be no. that it is no. but he’ll pretend your honey sweet answer, laced with a lie, is true for the night. that you’ll tell him exactly what he wants to hear - that you thought of him constantly when you left.  
“i was sad you left without saying goodbye. but i was too busy worrying about my own sister and all that.” 
sukuna can tell the answer is honest. and it’s satiating enough to know that you had noted it, that you were hurt that he hadn’t given you more importance before he made his escape. that you wanted to be important to him. 
“is that why you haven’t told yuuji? that we’re dating? breaks some secret pact you both have?” 
you smile. 
“are we dating?” you whisper. 
sukuna lightly pushes you over, before leaning on top of you and nuzzling his face into your arms. his legs are tangled to the side, his pressure soothing on your chest. 
“are you seeing other guys i don’t know about?” he asks. 
“of course.” you joke. 
sukuna brings his hand down on your neck, his one hand sliding around the length of your neck. he squeezes slightly and you feign choking before he rolls his eyes. 
“shut up, brat.” 
“well. you never asked. you can’t just decide we’re dating.” you state.
“i won’t ask.” he mumbles. 
“ask.” you prod.
“no.” 
“ask me!” 
“i already decided we were dating a long time ago. catch up.” 
you figure that if sukuna can test you, push your buttons to get what he wants, so can you. and you imagine that it’ll be infinitely easier, that it’ll take less work from you when he’s barely awake. you bring your hands around his cheeks, before pressing a kiss to his forehead. 
“please?” you whisper. 
sukuna groans. 
“be my girlfriend.” he states. 
“that’s not asking.” 
“y/n.” 
“c’mon.” you prod. 
he glares at you. 
“be. my girlfriend.” he repeats, more sternly. 
“cute. but no.” you respond. 
sukuna glares for three seconds and you cave. 
“sorry! i’m sorry. fine. i was just messing with you so i’d feel better.” you respond, to which he releases his gaze. 
he pauses. 
“do you need to feel better?”
“hm?” 
if you’re upset, that’s certainly one thing he can fix. 
“do you need me to make you feel good?” he asks. 
it’s something that’s been on your mind, more frequently than not. and it lingers for too long, that feeling that you’re denying him something, that there’s something he’s waiting for that you haven’t yet delivered. 
yuuji talks. so does megumi. and the two years of highschool that you got with sukuna were enough. 
sukuna was always an overachiever, as he so poignantly coined it. he was smart. smart enough to graduate early even, to get into an exchange program and get out of the suburbs. he was athletic, his attitude towards teachers was viewed as charming rather than plucky, and obviously he wasn’t short of being attractive, of having girls interested in him. 
you distinctly remember his first school dance when you were a eighth grader. or more importantly, that sukuna was dressed up in a tux, having his tie fixed by his mom while you and yuuji quietly watched him attend the senior prom. as a sophomore. 
yuuji mentioned that sukuna always seemed to be sleeping around, something corroborated by the fact that he was almost always talking to a different girl almost every time you saw him. megumi thought he was trashy even. 
but here he was, being patient, being painstakingly patient, that it only felt right. that you had to reward him for it. 
“okay. sure.” 
sukuna’s fully awake now, his eyes meeting yours as you feel a shiver go down your spine. 
“are you okay with this?” 
“yeah. yeah, i am.” 
“and you’ll tell me to stop if you stop being okay with it?” he states. 
you give him a nod, slightly embarrassed that it was something he had to confirm. like he knew you were going to chicken out of it. 
“i need to hear you say it.” he whispers. 
“i will.” you mumble. 
you’re almost positive that sukuna doesn’t do this with every other girl he’s been with - something confirmed in your mind by the fact that sukuna’s so gentle, his touch is so perfect, that you feel you’re never going to be able to let go of him. and can’t imagine that other people have let him slip out of his grasp. 
it’s not too different from the other times sukuna’s touched you - something he tends to always be doing. he’s more affectionate than you expected, for someone who was so reserved, so stern in almost every memory you have of him. 
but he uses endearments, pet names almost every time he talks to you - currently whispering words that make your entire body heat up, almost more than his hands on you. 
“my pretty baby’s so wound up. let me fix that for you, hm?” 
his words were almost enough to make your entire body heat up more than his hands. key word, almost. but there was something about his touch, so soft, firm in different places that it made you nearly limp in his arms. 
his hands were in your hair, on your legs just to pull you closer to him, resting on your cheeks when he kissed you. your predictions suggested to you that sukuna would have bored out, tired from just kissing you when you had given him full permission for the first time, but he wouldn’t let up, making it a point to kiss every patch of skin he could.  
it’s only then that it occurs to you that you haven’t touched him. you lift your hands, before freezing them in the air, unable to do it. but the shifting is enough to make sukuna stop. 
“you still okay?” 
“yeah. yeah, i was just-” you respond, catching your breath as he smiles. 
“your hands were up. you can push me off if it gets to be too much.” he whispers, pulling back. 
“no. no, i was…i was going to touch you. just got shy for a second…” 
sukuna grins at you, before leaning his forehead against yours. he tries his best to ground himself in the moment, realizing he was going too fast, getting too carried away too quickly. 
he can smell the remnants of your shampoo in your hair, focusing in on it, before he settles both of his hands into the crooks of each of your elbows. 
“you can touch me.” he murmurs. 
“okay. you-you’ll stop me right? if you feel weird?” you ask. 
sukuna laughs. 
“i can’t imagine i’d ever do that, but yes. i will stop you.” 
you give him a satisfied nod, as you reach forward and scoot into his lap. his hands instinctively reach for your waist, holding you steady, as you inspect his tattoos in the dim light of the dark. 
you reach forward and trace your fingers all the way down. you had only seen them peeking out from the collar of his shirt here and there, but this was your chance to look at them properly. 
“did you get these all at the same time?” you ask. 
“no. most of them are from when i was gone. this one right here-” 
he guides your hand to the left side of your chest, placing your palm flat against his beating heart before letting go. 
“-was right when i came back.” 
“s’pretty. you’re pretty.” you mumble. 
you instinctively squeeze, before the two of you quietly laugh. 
“did you just cop a feel?” sukuna asks. 
“maybe. seemed squishy.” 
“and was it?” 
“no. it was really underwhelming.” you respond, earning another laugh from him. 
it’s almost too gratifying, the smaller things - making him laugh, seeing him smile. it was so rare to see it before and the fact that he does it for you, does it so freely, is enough to make your stomach fill with an embarrassing amount of warmth. 
“your turn?” he asks, voice so low you can barely hear it. 
you nod, that biting wave of anxiety instantly hitting you when sukuna’s hands slither under your tank top. his lips find their way back to yours, his breath heavy on your face as you try to swallow it down and let him keep going. 
sukuna makes every effort to drag this on for as long as he can, for multiple reasons. so that your standards were never lowered, so that you’d never settle for callous hands and shitty guys in bars - not that he’d ever think you’d talk to anyone but him ever again. that he’d let anyone else see you like this. 
sukuna felt like he was slowly figuring you out like you were the back of his hand. you always seemed to be withholding something, almost like it was a wall right there with him in the room, but that let him in when he knocked. and right now, he had every intent to make you feel good. to reward you for trusting him. to savor you. 
he notices the trembling when he brings his hands up to your chest, when he lets them linger for too long. it’s so slight, almost in par with your breathing, but he notices it and immediately pulls back. 
“are you still okay?” he asks. 
the hesitation in your response is enough of an answer for him. he swallows down the dry patch in his throat - nearly cursing himself for going too far, too fast with you exactly where he knew you were reserved - before he brings his hands up to your cheeks, trying to get you to meet his eyes. 
“what can i do?” he whispers. 
“i’m so sorry. i didn’t mean to, it was-” 
“tell me how to make it better. what do you need right now?” 
it’s almost embarrassing to ask for it. to make him overextend, to attend to you when you were the one who ruined the moment. and it felt increasingly stupid for you to push your own boundaries too, that you were going to scare him off now. 
“please.” he whisper. 
you look up to find his brown eyes, washed over in concern, as he cups the left side of your face. it’s enough to push you. 
“do you have a shirt i can wear? this just feels too…”
“yes. do you need a long sleeve or-” 
“short is okay.” 
“do you need me to wear one too?” he asks. 
you sigh. 
“could you? i just feel…” 
before you can even finish your sentence, sukuna’s pushed himself off the bed and rummages quickly through his closet before he returns. he snags his own shirt over his neck before sitting back down on the bed in front of you, his voice soft. 
“arms up, pretty girl.” 
you oblige, as sukuna pulls the shirt over you, his hands shaking as he dutifully attends to you. he’s pulling the sleeves down to your elbows, the fabric drowning every inch of your body as he readjusts it. 
the two of you sit in silence, your hand curled into his as you try to muster out the best words to say. to selfishly, keep him around you. 
“i’m not very good at this intimacy type of thing. i-i’m not sure if you’ve noticed.” 
some part of your guard is down. the curious part of him wants to push, to crawl all the way in and never leave. but he makes his best efforts. to remain persistent in letting you make the calls here. 
“explain.” 
“i just mean. you always kiss me first. and-and you kiss me a lot. i really like it, but sometimes i think it’s weird if i initiate it first. like-like it’ll keep going.” 
“i’ll always kiss you back, if that’s what you mean…” 
“no. no, it’s…it’s kind of embarrassing to admit. like logically, i know it won’t happen. but you’re a guy. you…you have lots of experience and you obviously like to do things like this. a lot of people do. it-it’s normal. but sometimes i feel, in the moment, like i’m not ready to do all of that yet. to go farther…” 
sukuna understands. he pulls his hand under your chin, using the knuckles of his pointer finger to guide your line of vision back to him. 
“you call the shots. always.” 
“i know.” 
“i don’t expect anything from you. if you just want to kiss me, i am more than happy to just kiss you, y/n.” he whispers. 
you can feel the tears in your eyes at sukuna’s tone. and the way his face falls at the sight of your tears is enough to make you fully cry. 
“princess. who’s got you thinking like this?” he murmurs. 
sukuna’s not one for words. though it seems he seems to always have the ones that fit just right. his thumbs are brushing away the wetness on your cheek, before he leans down and presses a kiss to your nose. 
“you know that i’m more experienced than you. so will you give weight to my words when i say them?” 
“okay.” 
“intimacy can mean lots of things. having sex is intimacy, sure. that’s a no brainer. but…there’s so much more to it. i can promise you, you aren’t bad at being intimate with me.” 
“really?” 
it’s the fact that it's three in the morning. that’s what sukuna will pin it on tomorrow. why he feels the need, why it feels so easy to talk so freely with you. that and the fact that he feels the need to lick each and every one of your wounds, to smooth over the rough patches. 
“i felt close to you at the dinner last night. when you were holding my hand under the table. you squeezed really hard when your mom was hurting your feelings, almost like you were trying to tell you that it made you upset…that’s intimacy to me.”
“are you trying to butter me up? don’t make stuff up.” you jokingly respond, earning a wide smile from him. 
“you were relying on me. telling me something. that’s intimate.” 
he reaches forward, pulling the hair out of the collar of the shirt before tucking it behind your ears. 
“i know that’s hard for you to do. i appreciate it when you can do that, when you trust me.” 
you swallow hard, before putting your hand back where it was resting before, over the beating of his heart. 
“i trust you. just…give me time to figure out the words?” 
“it’s not a race. i’m not planning on going anywhere.” 
"promise?" you ask, holding out your pinkie to him.
you watch his eye twitch.
"i'm not going to do a fucking pinkie promise."
the two of you laugh and it's enough to make your cheeks hurt.
it’s solidified one thing in your mind. that look in his eyes, the way he tucks you into him before his stupid teasing voice lulls you to sleep. 
that you have to tell yuuji the first chance you get.
--
next part linked here
an: right. well.
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chaoticharrington · 5 months
Text
Early Morning Surprise
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Pairing: Mike Schmidt x afab!reader
WARNINGS: SMUT!!!, MINORS THIS IS NOT FOR YOU PLEASE DNI(AGELESS AND BLANK BLOGS WILL BE BLOCKED), spit kink, slight overstimulation, thigh job, pet names, somnophilia, bdsm themes, praise, oral (f receiving), face riding, squirting, cum play, porn without plot, needy Mike 😵‍💫(if you squint slightly subby Mike)
Summary: Mike comes home from work and surprises you while you’re sleeping
Authors Note: Enjoy folks :) <3 I have three more fics lined up so stay tuned!
Word Count: 2.3k
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When Mike works nights you always try your best to stay up and wait for him to come home, especially with this new job that seems to drain him so much after a shift. Always looking slightly horrified and even more tired than he already looks.
You were doing really good in the beginning, getting Abby all snuggled in bed, doing some laundry, making some dinner for yourself and even watching some tv on the couch. Where you started to go wrong was when you decided to migrate to your shared bedroom and lay in bed and read your favorite book. Your eyes start growing heavier and heavier with each page you read until your book is tipping forward onto your chest and your eyes are mostly closed. You drift to sleep and your book falls somewhere onto the floor losing your spot as you get more cozy in your sleep. Laying comfortably on your side, dreaming of an easier life for you, Abby, and Mike.
Until you feel yourself being pulled from your sleep, feeling little pecks on your neck and shoulder. You don’t think much of it, shifting onto your back to get more comfy. You feel the blankets gently pulled from your semi sleeping body and your legs softly pulled apart. You groan at the sudden chill that coats your body leaving goosebumps in its wake. Despite the cold your body starts to adjust and you begin drifting back to sleep.
Being pulled again from sleep, chasing a feeling… a really good feeling between your legs. Stirring by letting out a soft moan, absentmindedly grinding your hips into the feeling wanting more of it. That’s when you hear a moan that’s not yours…. but one that sounds familiar. You start testing your eyes by lightly opening and closing them, trying to get your bearings of your surroundings. You look down your vision still a little fuzzy, but you can make out just enough to see Mike lapping at the bundle of nerves between your legs like his life depended on it. You let out a louder moan
“F-fuck oh shit mike” you groan turning your head into your pillow. You remember the conversation you had had earlier that week with Mike about this fantasy he wanted to try out, and truth be told it was something you wanted to try too.
“Ssshhh shh baby go back to bed, daddy just needed to taste you” he mutters into your apex making the most obscene slurping noises
You gasp as he dives into your now very wet cunt like a starved man who’s not eaten in years. Licking and sucking every single crevice of you just to get every single drop of your arousal into his mouth. You’d never seen Mike so needy before and it was turning you on more than usual, knowing how much he needed you in this moment made you feel sexier than you’d ever felt before.
“m sorry honey I couldn’t help myself… I was so bored at work… lookin… at those screens all night… kept dreaming of this sweet sweet pussy…” he gravels, emphasizing the last few words by pointing his tongue and expertly circling your entrance.
You let out an even louder moan, now fully awake chasing your release the more he devours you. Your hips start rolling harder into his face, closing your thighs around his head, just trying to chase that feeling even more. Usually you’d be too self conscious to do something like this, chasing your own pleasure without thinking about him. But you couldn’t help it, it just felt so fucking good. And your inhibitions are down because you had just woken up, needing to chase your release in almost a primal, needier way.
Mike lets out the loudest moan you think you’ve ever heard from him, echoing inside the confines of your room. It spooked you, if Abby wasn’t already fast asleep it definitely would have scared you.
Mike lifts his head slightly, his nose all the way to his chin covered in your arousal and spit, he’s pupils blown clearly very turned on.
“Baby… I-please fuck my face… If I could devour you whole I would… I just… I need you” he says while he hangs his tongue out flat, lightly incasing your folds and grinding softly against the bed.
You take in a deep breath at his dirty words… mulling it over in your head… it’s not something you’d ever done before. But with how his lips and tongue already feel, you could imagine that it would at least feel just as good.
“Fuck okay” you say with a jagged breath
“It’s okay Angel I got you” he says as he grabs your hips and starts to move them so your clit is rubbing on his tongue.
He’s eyes never leave yours, showing you in each and every way that he wants this, no… needs this. Moaning and groaning into your folds reverberating into your core only egging you on more. You start getting the hang of it, no longer being guided by his hands but instead you guiding his with your hips.
His fingers making a home at your hips, digging deeper and deeper into your skin. The slight pain it caused only increase the unimaginable euphoria Mikes tongue was already creating for you. Gasping and moaning at a slightly alarming volume. The sensations becoming too much to bare, you grab onto his curls hard for some security, forcing another moan from Mikes lips.
You are hurtling faster than you’d care to admit towards release, grinding harder against Mikes face, coating his face in your wetness. Both of your moans quietly filling up the room careful not to wake abby.
At this point Mikes tongue is out lapping up everything you give him and letting your hips do all the work. The squelching noises between your legs only pushing you on even further to the edge.
“Mike oh my god Mike I- s’fuck I think i’m gonna cum” you shriek
He doesn’t respond verbally only showing you he heard you by moaning louder into your core. And then an explosion of color happened behind your eyes, you felt as though your body was floating in the air as you came hard. Soaking Mikes face even further in your juices.
“s’fucking pretty” he said as he came up for air, and pushing your folds apart to have better access to your clit and all the cum still freely coming from your center. Not even caring that you’ve already come down from your orgasm.
You scream in response, immediately covering your mouth, praying to whatever god you believe in that abby didn’t hear that and wake up. Your legs beginning to shake as Mike continues his assault on you, and you bite your hand to force yourself to be quiet.
“Sorry baby not done yet, I need more, I wanna see you cum again, you just look too fucking perfect, be a good girl for me and take it okay?” he mutters, it’s not a question, he’s telling you he’s not going to stop until he feels like he’s had his fill. Of course unless you used your safe word that the two of you had previously discussed, but you weren’t thinking about that right now. You were already flying towards the finish line for a second time. His moving your hips for you until you regain enough control to do it yourself, forcing you further into pleasure.
You grab onto his hair with your hand again harder than before, entangling his curly locks into your fingers. Youre knuckles turning white and your hand is beginning to hurt by how hard you were trying to contain yourself.
“Harder baby… do it harder, feels so good” he says to you dreamily, clearly so lost inbetween your folds.
You obliged him and pull even harder, pulling a whimper from his lips, muffled from being in between your thighs. You can feel the skin surrounding your core becoming sore from Mikes scruff, only adding to the already intense sensations.
You look down between your thighs to see that Mike is no longer looking at you, but eyes closed entranced and now shamelessly grinding his clothed cock against the edge of the bed unable to help himself.
“Fuck Mike, feels s’good” circling your hips pointedly to make his nose hit your clit, making you gasp.
You do the motion again and again and again, rocking the bed back and forth with a combination of your thrusts and his.
Then it hits you even harder than before, stealing all the breath from your lungs, pushing every bone and muscle further into ecstasy. Your mouth contorts into a silent scream, legs clamped around Mikes head and toes curled in pleasure.
The waves or pleasure still hitting you over and over again until Mikes tongue slows and he stops your hips. He licks one long stripe up your core before leaving kisses on each thigh.
You look up at him panting, trying to catch your breath. While you watch him stand up off the bed, seeing a wet spot of precum in his jeans.
He quickly pulls his shirt and boxers off, so you can see his painfully hard erection slap against his soft tummy.
He climbs on top of you eagerly, kissing you hard against your mouth. You moan as you taste yourself on his lips and tongue, it was wet and messy and you loved every second of it. Your mouth welcomed his tongue into yours as your tongues danced. He grabs the back of your head deepening the kiss, the both of you lose yourself into this for while. Grinding against each other and grabbing every single inch of skin that the two of you could grapple at.
He then slowly leans back, a string of saliva still connecting the two of you. He grins at you lightly, clearly very happy with the outcome of your experiment.
He pushes himself off the bed and puts his hand in front of your face with an expectant look.
“Spit baby” he hints
You indulge him by gathering a bunch of saliva in your mouth and lightly spit it on to Mikes hand. He then takes that same hand and rubs your spit onto his cock. He pushes your knees together and lines himself up between your thighs.
He drives his cock inbetween your thighs and exhales a big breath. You moan at the visual he was creating above you by fucking your thighs. You were grateful for the downtime because your clit was aching from cumming twice in a row.
His thrusts are slow but hard, making the prettiest noises, his face scrunched up in pleasure.
“You’re so fucking perfect you know that?” he said breathlessly, picking up his pace slightly
You bite your lip, you love seeing how much you drove him crazy. His moans and groans are like music to your ears. You want to give him a show just as much as he was giving you one.
You grab the edges of your night shirt and slip your shirt over your head, leaving your tits now free to bounce in sync with his thrust. You grab them between your hands and push them together, pinching your nipples between your fingers. You let out a soft hiss, reawakening your abused clit.
“Fffuuuckkk me” he gasps at the sight of you.
“You like what you see?” you say as you lick your fingers to put right back on your nipples.
“Yeah f-fuck yes I do” he says shakily, you can feel his thrusts getting less controlled and his breathing becoming more shallow.
“You’re always so good for me baby, so fucking dirty too…my dirty girl” he coos
You smile shyly at his praise, and squeeze your thighs tighter together so Mike had more friction as he was reaching his climax.
Mike whimpers in response, his hips slapping erratically against your thighs, and with one final thrust he’s coming. He cries out as his cock spills his hot cum all over your thighs and stomach.
You moan in response, the bottom half of you now basically covered in his cum. You both look between your legs, iced like a cake, Mike entranced with this imagine runs his cum covered cock inbetween your folds one last time.
He takes one of his hands and runs it between your thighs and on your stomach collecting his cum on his fingers, bringing up to your mouth.
You open your mouth happily to suck and lick all the cum off his hand. You make eye contact with him and moan, making sure he knows that you’ve enjoyed it just as much as he did.
“Jesus.. christ baby… your gonna kill me one day I swear” he babbles
You chuckle with his fingers still in your mouth and then letting go with a pop. He inspects his hand for a second making sure every bit of his cum has been gathered up by your tongue
“Good girl baby, did such a good job f’me” he praises you
Your heart swoons and you pull him back down to you into an embrace. He chuckles and settles himself behind you, wrapping his arms around your waist and his knees tucked behind yours.
You nuzzle backward into him, lazily rubbing circles against his arm that was wrapped around you.
He kisses your shoulders and neck, occasionally giving you little praises about how well you did or how beautiful you looked. You wished you could stay in this moment forever, feeling completely safe in his arms. You know tomorrow you’d have a longer discussion about the new activity you guys tried out tonight, but for now, you’d rest.
Your eyes were getting heavier and heavier, and Mikes breathing was leveling out behind you, knowing he’s close to sleep as well. You finally let your eyes drop as you both went into dreamland content and satisfied.
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bardic-inspo · 2 months
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Blood in the Mortar
Pairing: Ascended Astarion x Vampire Bride Tav
Rating: Explicit (Smut!!)
Key Tags: Vampire/Blood Bride Lore, Service Dom Astarion, Sexy Use of Telepathic Bond, Evil Power Couple, Torturing a Captive, Choking, Biting/Blood, Masquerade, PIV, Cunnilingus
Summary:
“I wanted to see you right where you belong,” Astarion whispers, the sound as sheer as the lace he wrecked. “So beautiful on your throne.” It started on Naomi’s knees, this new life of passion and pleasure unbridled. Astarion didn’t know he’d be hers, just as much as she’d be his, when he bit her thrice, bled her dry, and gave her just one drop of his ascended blood.
Cross-posting from my AO3 account. This is my first BG3 smut fic. If you like it, I'd love to know! Click here if you'd prefer to read on AO3.
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“To whom can a vampire bare its soul and admit its fears? From whom can it receive consolation for the past, comfort for the present, and hope for the future?...The vampire is drawn emotionally to a mortal and decides, because of the strength of this emotion, to make her his bride…The happiness of the vampire becomes tied up with the prospective bride, and its well-being depends on hers.”
-Van Richten’s Monster Hunter’s Compendium, Vol 1
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Astarion twists the stem of his wine glass, idly tilting the contents within. His assorted guests warp in the bulb of it, swaying between rosy red and clear crystal.
A gravelly voice interrupts his game. “Quite the menagerie you’ve gathered here, Lord Ancunín.”
Astarion doesn’t bother to stifle his sigh. There’s no mistaking him as the lord of the house, even masked as he is. Astarion’s ensemble this evening is pitch dark velvet swirled in crimson thread and snaking silver. His mask glimmers in the same shade of scaled metal, set to complement the curve of his cheekbones, with only miniscule, twinkling rubies encrusting the edges. Nothing meant to outshine the searing color of his eyes. The mask might be silver, but it’s a red dragon Astarion embodies for this particular masquerade.
This party’s for more monstrous company, after all.
No expense was spared for the ‘menagerie’. A grand piano, polished to an opalescent white, plays under spectral hands at the heart of the ballroom alongside a string quartet. A starlit Baldur’s Gate glistens outside the windowed east wall, framed in gold drapery to match the shimmering flecks in the white marble floor. Lavish wine and better blood pour freely; his guests have only to lift their empty glasses to have them brimming again.
Even with all the ornate masks, in the shapes of creatures exotic or fierce, none of the fangs in the room are fake. All the titles are, save for his and his consort’s. Astarion’s lip curls with distaste.
This masquerade was meant for nobility of a supernatural stature. Vampires, warlocks, lycanthropes. Those who lead them. But what his doors received were lowly spawn. Servants sent in their masters’ stead to get just a glimpse of the one and only vampire ascendant, and then to scurry back and tell tale of him. Cowards.
There’s only one human here who’s just human.
Astarion offers him a well-practiced shrug of a laugh. “I do hope you don’t feel out of place among us more…colorful sorts. Lord…? Forgive me, what was it again?”
“Isn’t the point of a masquerade not to bother with such trivialities?” The stranger chuckles hastily. “In any case, I am not lord. Only a humble apprentice to the most renowned wizard Waterdeep has to offer.”
Ah, yes. The invitation was sent for the newly named archmage, filling the god-shaped hole Gale left behind in the wake of his own ascension. Astarion’s eyes flit over the lanky, unkempt apprentice who addresses him instead.
His hair hangs in honey blonde waves past his shoulders, like the mane of the beast he seeks to imitate. It’s a lion’s mask the apprentice wears. Perhaps a poor attempt at humor. The effort would’ve been better paid towards penance, and a sheep’s head would’ve suited him far better than the guise of a predator. Anything would’ve been more fitting than the baggy business he calls a shirt.
Astarion clicks his tongue. “That still doesn’t give me a thing to call you.”
“I am Enrik, if it pleases you.”
“No surname?” Astarion asks with an arched brow.
“None of consequence, my lord,” he replies with the uneasy edge Astarion’s entitled to.
“Well, Enrik, I hope you find our masquerade pleasing.”
“It has certainly been enlightening thus far.”
“And how’s that?” Astarion asks brusquely. He never did like wizards.
He doesn’t like the look on this one’s face, either. The lion that should be a sheep surveys the room with a pitying expression, like he’s watching some petty amusement. A zoo. Gods, or a circus. And what would that make him, Astarion the Ascended, if not a clown? Astarion’s fingers tighten on the stem of his glass, an imperceptible change to any eyes not keen enough to catch it.
“Why, it’s been only a year since your ascension,” Enrik says. “You’ve accomplished much in short order. It’s quite remarkable.”
Astarion’s nose twitches. Praise. From cattle. How quaint, and ill-fitting.
His expression abruptly eases. A refined, familiar scent carries to him from across the crowd. A note of lavender, twined with his favored bergamot.
“And you’ve already enthralled some truly magnificent specimens,” Enrik carries on, oblivious. “Take this fine creature, for example. What a pretty thing to have strung along on your leash.”
Astarion feels her before he sees her. She wipes a palm down the sheath of her skirt, smoothing out some infinitesimal wrinkle. The music smooths, too. With that one simple motion, it bends and blends into something deeper, fuller. All of the lesser spawn of Astarion’s making straighten their slouched shoulders.
He feels the tug of her in his head, and then the cool stroke of her hand to his back, the soothing feel of her fingers combing through his hair, and the gentle scrape of her nails against his scalp. It takes a concerted effort to suppress the pleased groan that bubbles in the back of his throat. All this from across the room, without so much as a glance, let alone a touch.
Hello, darling, he thinks, and she hears it just as if he’d spoken aloud. Aren’t you ravishing?
Her skirt is snow-white crepe that clings taut to her shapely hips before fanning out at her feet. It’s the same lovely shade of ivory as her hair, twisted in a braid like a crown around her head, with the rest falling sleek down her back. A black lace bodice sets just off her lilac shoulders, with gloves to match. Floral stitching vees down from her waistline. The same embellishments decorate the skirt’s edges.
His dark consort, his Naomi once-Tavriel-now-Ancunín, weaves leisurely through the partygoers. The thorny prickle of Astarion’s irritation inspires a little lift at the corner of her mouth.
I’ve been called so much worse, she thinks. It sounds suspiciously like a laugh. I think you called me ‘creature’ just yesterday. Should I not have taken it as a compliment?
Astarion’s scowls. He should be grateful to have your name in his mouth. To even set foot in our home. Let alone speak to me like that. Or at all.
But think of how much fun he’s started, she answers, chipper. You were so bored before.
She’s not wrong.
If they’re not the guests you wanted, Naomi continues, cool and calm, then they’re intruders, aren’t they? Whatever should we do with them?
A slow smile steals its way onto his lips. Just when I thought I couldn’t love you more. Miracles never cease.
“Do you know what they call her?” Astarion says aloud, to worse company. “Other than mine, of course.”
“She was the hero of Baldur’s Gate.”
Astarion waves a manicured hand irritably, as if swatting away a stray fly. “One of them, true, but isn’t there another name that comes to mind?”
The man swallows thickly. “The Siren of the Sword Coast.”
"And yet here you are," Astarion sneers, "ready to dash yourself upon the rocks like a little ship blown astray. I can hardly blame you."
His eyes soften, just past the shoulder of Enrik’s gaudy doublet. In the low flutter of candlelight, he spies the sheen of amethysts set among delicate feathers wrought from silver. He'd had the mask made for Naomi with the likeness of a swan in mind.
Still, as pretty as it is, his favorite gleam is those eyes. She still kept the kiss of violet in them, even in death. It mingles with the red in her irises, like a rich, dark wine.
"She is captivating, isn’t she?" Astarion sighs, a faint smile grazing his lips. "My beautiful bride."
“Forgive me my lord, I meant no offense,” Enrik says, eyes down with deference. “I’m merely an admirer of fine things. And a messenger for my fine master.”
“Do your duty, then,” Astarion says tersely, his smile evaporating.
“My master understands that power is the only currency that holds any weight for men of your making. He has much of it to share, if you're likewise inclined.”
Astarion laughs coldly. “And what does your master wish for me to share with him, exactly? I don’t bite just anyone, after all.”
A swallow bobs in Enrik’s throat. “He only means to make mutual use of your shared arsenal. Like you mean to make of his, my lord. He could work wonders with even just one scream. He could bottle it--”
Astarion clenches the wine glass in a chokehold. He could kill this wretched cretin here, now, bare-handed. Or have him drawn and quartered. Or--
No one knows their manners these days, Naomi sighs inside his head. But if you want to play along and see what this archmage would pay, I’ll--
Astarion’s jaw clenches. You won’t be screaming for him, little love.
It earns him an eyeroll. It wouldn’t be like that--
It won’t be at all. Astarions sends his answer with the weight of a stone.
He sips his wine, boring into Enrik with a hard stare. “Don’t you know swans make the most achingly beautiful music?”
Enrik’s eyes dart anxiously over Astarion’s burning ones. “Only just before they die, so the stories go.”
“Before someone does,” Astarion drawls, as the vintage seeps sweetly down his throat. “You see, my beloved, oh, she’s a monster, too. She so does love the taste of blood in her mouth, now that she’s supped of mine.”
Enrik edges back, shoulders hunched small like the prey he is. “I-I’m just a messenger my lord. Killing me after you’ve so graciously offered your hospitality would be the same as breaking a mirror. It would only cast ill luck on you and your house.”
A gloved hand wraps Enrik’s shoulder. He shirks from that delicate grip like it's scalding. At long last, he finds the decency to shut up.
Naomi’s fangs gleam like the bottle in her hand. “More wine?”
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The white marble of the ballroom shimmers like freshly fallen snow. All the curtains are drawn back, cinched aside for good measure. Shadow and sunlight slice the floor in slanted strips. Gritty ash piles where the light lies, coils of rope strewn among the gray dust of guests gone for good.
Only one remains.
Sprawled motionless across the floor, Enrik lies nose-to-nose with the knife edge of day and darkness. It’s only a silhouette that keeps him from being swallowed by the glow. Only Astarion’s grace shades him.
The vampire ascendant cuts a sharp shadow before the arched windowpane. Brightness clings, soft as clouds, to his curls, his lean edges, and his jaw. His velvet coat crumples at his heels as if it were nothing more precious than the ash heaped around him. He’s blessedly bare from the waist-up, resplendent in the sunlight while he surveys his domain awash with it.
It calls to mind the man who took Naomi out into the woods all those months and nights ago. What he looked like when she woke and found his back arched, chin tilted skyward. What she’d do, and what little she wouldn’t, to see Astarion slip into bliss every day as easily as slipping out of a coat.
It’s Naomi’s grace that finally rouses their disheveled company. A rolling melody, played on piano, pours from her fingertips and crests with the morning birdsong drifting in. Enrik groans against the grain of it.
At once, the music cuts to quiet. Naomi’s hands hover over the keys, knuckles twitching in faint longing. Then, she turns on the bench and turns her attention towards her restless audience.
“Good morning,” she says brightly.
Enrik squints up at her. His brown eyes leak with the light, even though he’s sheltered from it. They dart across the room, skimming like stones over water, before they sear into Naomi.
“You.”
“Who else were you expecting? You’re in my home.”
Rope binds Enrik’s hands and heels. He tugs at the ties, or tries to. He hasn’t yet figured out it’s all for not.
Naomi stands, her heels clicking staccato to the tile. As she goes, she paints a palm over the piano keys, stroking each octave from root to rise. Music flows freely again all on its own, even when her hand falls away.
She comes to loom over her captive, lips pursed. “I hear you said some very rude things to my husband.”
Enrik folds against the floor, panting for breath.
“You should be so grateful for our hospitality,” she says. “Should have been. That’s all behind us now, isn’t it?”
Feral noise rips from his throat. Like a dog, he lunges, snapping for her ankles. She side-steps into the light, not bothering to flee any farther than an inch. He freezes, ogling the shiny toe of her shoe now parallel to his nose.
“You don’t fear the sun?” he gasps, quivering.
“I need not fear anything.”
Naomi lifts her head, meeting a scarlet stare brimming in equal measures affection and amusement. Sunlights melts over the bare of Astarion’s chest, spurring her tongue to wet her lips. He leans against the glass, head angled back, eyes slitted in satisfaction. A slow smile unfurls on his face.
“You should be grateful, too,” Naomi says with a sneer, “to lay here and not just a little to the left.”
“W-What do you mean? What did you do to me?!” Enrik’s eyes bulge. He squirms in a sudden panic, to no avail.
Naomi tilts her neck to the side and taps at the scar Astarion’s teeth marked her with. Her fingers fan down on her own throat, savoring the shape of that succulent memory. Of the last bite he gave her in life. Of his lips swirling comfort into her skin before sucking her down to the last drop. Of the look on his face, the awe he had, when she next woke.
The faintest leak of breath, soft as down, passes from Astarion’s mouth.
“You--you--! You turned me!” Her hostage sputters. Naomi frowns darkly.
“Oh not me,” Naomi snaps, incredulous. “I’m only a weak little spawn puppet, according to you. According to you, the only good thing I can do is scream. How could I manage to turn you without choking on my own leash?”
She gags for good measure. He doesn’t get the joke. He hasn’t caught on to the other joke yet. Which means she’s safe as can be, even this close. So long as she stands on the other edge of Astarion’s shadow.
Astarion turns. His silhouette twists with his movement. Enrik shrieks like a swine.
“Oh, that wasn’t good at all. You can do better.” Naomi presses out a strained sigh, crouching down to fist a hand in his hair and yank his head upright.
Enrik bares his teeth as if they aren’t dull and flat. “Filthy bitch!”
The insult doesn’t so much as chip Naomi’s serene composure, but it puts a twang in her head, along the invisible string that links her and Astarion. His anger lashes in her mind like a restless tail.
“What a vile little ingrate,” Astarion snarls.
She lets her hostage’s head roll from her palm, cheek smacking the tile. Enrik writhes against his restraints. Naomi clicks her tongue in reproach. I’ve barely even touched you yet.
Green magic threads between her gloved fingers, glittering. She snaps them and says, “Scream.”
And he does. Loud enough to drown out the crescendo coursing from the grand piano. Inside of Enrik’s skull, the song isn’t nearly so sweet. His back jerks up and away from the floor, head bent back, eyes torn wide in terror.
His cries pitch with the slink of Astarion’s shadow stretching nearer. Sunlight clings close behind his heels. Naomi’s fingers flex and the spell recedes.
Her magic leaves Enrik sniveling, inching like a worm away from the slice of light between Astarion’s legs. Astarion huffs softly. With a wave of his hand, a ghostly one apparates behind him and snags the curtains closed.
Astarion’s scent sweeps with his sleeve -- the sweetness of brandy, mingled with the woodsy smell of rosemary. His knuckles gently brush the side of Naomi’s cheek. Instinctively, she leans towards the touch.
“Precious thing,” Astarion chides with a pout. “You’re being far too sweet to him. Here I thought you only had room in your heart for me.”
Naomi inclines her head, eyes narrowing by a hair. “My sire would see me be crueler?”
Astarion’s thumb grazes her lips. At once, she parts for him, teasing the pad of it with her tongue while he toys with the tip of a fang. He presses in, watching his skin bend to near-breaking, as if to test her sharpness. Before any blood’s drawn, he draws his hand down to cradle her chin. His voice is smooth as satin, though his stare is a hardened one.
“Your sire would see you spoken to with the respect you’re owed. And he needs you to kneel, dear one.”
The words are a weight to her shoulder, easing her down. But the heft is a comfort, not a compulsion. He could compel her, if he wanted to.
He hasn’t yet.
One day, she thinks, he will. And he’ll feel the weight of whatever chains he’d wrap her in through the bond that binds them tighter than the tadpole did. He won’t do it without good reason. Naomi doesn’t need a reason to kneel for her lover. That he wishes it is enough.
When her knees meet the ground, she feels the shape of Astarion’s smile pressed against their bond like it’s pressed, wet and wanting, against her mouth. She feels the dainty tug of his teeth coax her lips apart. Tastes the coppery tang of her own blood and the velvet undercurrent of his within her veins. The heat of him, still such a novel thing in his ascended body, bleeds from his skin to hers, fanning the newfound ache between her thighs.
In her mind, and his, his lips pour down her bare shoulders. His fingers fist in the fine fabric of her dress, ripping it to ruin. He leaves none of her untouched. To anyone else’s eye, they’re not even touching.
Naomi’s eyelids flutter. She downs a hard swallow. Good girl, he says, just for her.
To their captive audience, he spares no such kindness. Astarion raises his foot above Enrik’s ankles, letting it dangle for a moment. It drops like a hammer to an anvil. Enrik bucks with a fresh scream and a sickening crack.
“I’d never give a miserable little wretch like you the gift of immortality,” Astarion spits. “You wouldn’t know how to appreciate it.”
Confusion flits between the pain and panic in Enrik’s eyes.
“That’s right,” Astarion seethes. “You’re not a vampire. You aren’t worth my consort’s teeth. Or mine.”
Crunch. Another ankle shatters. Another shriek claws the air. Astarion strolls, leisurely, to Enrik's hands next. He grounds his heel into the pop of fingers breaking beneath his boots. Their hostage heaves a broken sob.
“Sh, sh, sh, oh, it’s all right,” Astarion croons. “I happen to have just the knife for you.”
Astarion crosses back to his coat piled near the window and draws a dagger from its folds. Rhapsody. Cazador’s blade. Naomi hasn’t seen it since they claimed the Crimson Palace for themselves.
Brightness glints off the twined edge, a match for the harsh and singular focus gleaming in Astarion’s gaze.
So that’s what Astarion was smiling about, as he basked by the window. What had him so peacefully quiet and content. Murder was on his mind, even then.
Not the only thing on my mind, little love. She feels the slant of his smirk in her head, as if it ghosted past the hinge of her jaw. There’s no trace of it on Astarion’s stony exterior.
He plucks the crystal wine glass from the sill while he’s there, rotating the stem as he saunters back over. Blood flecks the fine leather of Astarion’s shoes. He plants them on either side of Enrik’s torso. He seizes Enrik’s collar, yanking harshly until he’s kneeling, too.
“Fuck you,” Enrik spits. “Fuck you both! My master will--”
“Darling,” Astarion trills, grip unwavering, “Would you..?”
Magic swirls sticky across Naomi’s tongue. “Ad Lapidē.”
Violet runes blaze to life beneath their captive’s knees, capturing him in perfect stillness. His mouth hangs agape with unspent vitriol. Astarion’s hands recoil, twisting the dagger in one, and the glass in the other.
“Your master,” Astarion sneers with a dark laugh. “Too much of a coward to show his face, so he sends you. His sacrificial lamb, sent to speak to me about sharing my dearest treasure, like he isn’t the scum beneath her shoes. He had to know I wouldn’t hear of it. But he didn’t care enough about you to even taint your blood. That’s right. My lesser spawn sampled you just like they would any cattle. But my beautiful bride hasn’t had one bite, not yet. Not until I was sure you were sweet enough for her palate.”
Astarion strokes Rhapsody down the man’s outstretched neck. The barest streak of blood leaks from the scrape. Astarion’s eyes skate over the ash piles around the room, wistful.
“All it took was a sleeping potion,” he muses. “Just a few drops. Now all of the spawnlings sent by all of my lessers are dust. You’ll wish to join them, before this is done. And you will. When I decide we’re done.”
Naomi’s eyes fasten to the blood beading down Enrik’s pallid throat. Astarion digs in ever-so-gently with Rhapsody’s tip, just enough to start a stream running. He presses the cup beneath it. Slowly, the crystal fills red to the brim. Her mouth waters.
Astarion looks up abruptly, eyes wide and soft as his malice dissolves to fondness. “Darling, you do look famished. Open up for me, dear.”
Naomi’s chin lifts, lips parted. Astarion tilts the glass to meet her with the utmost care.
“I won’t have your grime and sweat on her lips,” Astarion hisses in Enrik’s ear. “Only your blood. You don’t deserve that…” He sucks a sharp breath in. Naomi watches with rapt attention as it stutters through his chest. “...pretty little mouth.”
Blood, rich and smooth as cream, slips across her tongue. Her eyes slip shut with it. With each swallow, syrupy warmth spreads slowly through her chest, down her legs, through arms, to her every inch. Too soon, it’s taken from her. Naomi’s eyes flutter open. She’s taken all of it, already.
“More, my love?” Astarion hums happily. “You only have to ask.”
“More,” she says at once, lips still wet.
Astarion carves. The insolent apprentice bleeds without a sound. Again and again, the cup fills. He tips it to her lips, and Naomi drinks until her eyelids grow heavy.
Her body thrums like it remembers the pulse that used to play through her veins. She’s warmer than a dead woman should be. Even the air itself feels like the kiss of steam tingling against her skin.
It’s then that Naomi feels Astarion’s lips in her head again, sucking little marks down her throat that match the rosy flush heating her cheeks. She pants out of habit, out of instinct, and not of need. Out of want for him to watch what he does to her. As if he doesn’t already know.
One twist of Astarion’s wrist turns the little leak of blood from Enrik’s throat into a fountain. Naomi’s spell dissipates in violet sparks. His body slumps over, lifeless. Blood runs from him in little rivers, rushing to fill the grout lines between the tiles.
Astarion cradles one last glassful in a delicate grip. His face clears of any clouded rage as he gives the glass an experimental swirl. Wordlessly, he tilts the cup to her mouth once more.
Naomi gasps. Wetness paints her chin. It streams down her neck, drips down her sternum and between her breasts, still bound in lace. Astarion drips with it, down to his knees in fluid motion. Somewhere behind him, the wine glass shatters. In her periphery, she sees the shards glitter like frost.
“Oops,” he says, low and shameless.
Barely any blood made it to Naomi’s mouth this time, but she doesn’t mind one bit. Astarion crawls to her, catlike. She’s only spared a moment to admire the lithe muscle flexing through his naked chest before he leans into the hollow of her throat. Silver curls brush soft beneath her chin. And then, she feels the tip of that devilish tongue take a tentative lick of the mess he’s made.
And gods, what a mess she must be. Blood smears from her neck to her navel, near-black on her blue-gray skin. Dark like Astarion’s eyes, with pupils blown wide and hungry. A flare of heat twists low in Naomi’s stomach. Her thighs shift, wet with it.
Thread rips in her ears. Rhapsody drags delicately down her side, scratching faint like a quill. The lace of her gown splits without resistance. There's none to be had against that mouth of his, just as busy as his nimble hands.
Astarion laps, dainty, down the path of her swallow. His coy smile curves with a petal-soft laugh against her collar bone. Naomi laughs, too, breathless as his tongue chases lazily after the spill. Breathless as the day he took the last breath she needed.
Ever since, Astarion’s given her everything she could want, without leaving her wanting for more than a moment. Now, her knees will never grow numb, no matter how long they bend against the marble. The chill of it can’t phase her, either. Even if it could, Astarion’s drawn the curtains wide. When she kneels for him, it’s only ever on sun-soaked stone.
Astarion treasures her. Cherishes her. Lavishes her with love and pleasure and wealth and power. Preserves her like prized silver, polished with such devotion so she’ll never know the tarnish of time. She’s his spawn. His wife.
But above all else, she’s his pride. The very thing that rules him. The only thing that still does.
Naomi wants to be in ruins with him. To be the last pillars of a broken world already so far beyond repair before they were dragged through it. Aeterna amantes. Until the fall of everything.
Until then, this, the low groan he gives her while her fingers stroke red through the plush white of his hair, the heady hum in her blood, the bloom of someone else’s waking color in her cheeks, the way Astarion looks at her like there’s nothing else at all, the way he tears into a dress he paid a fortune for, the hand he knots through her braids to wreck them -- this is everything.
Astarion tosses Rhapsody over his shoulder to join the broken wine glass, just like any other worthless trinket. His deft hands curl into the tears in her bodice and tug. At once, it gives way to his grip. She would, too, were it not so binding. Naomi grounds out a gasp. Her skirt pools at her knees, leaving her bare but for the warmth of Astarion’s roaming hands and the daylight pouring over them both.
“Do you know why I wanted you down here, pet?” He asks softly.
Astarion’s eyes latch to hers while his teeth toy at the curve of her breast. His tongue slicks over to soothe where his fangs grazed her, and then it melts against a pert nipple, taking it in with a lewd suck.
Naomi paws for a coherent thought, but all she finds is a pleading hum. He nips her again, just enough to see her tit tremble from the pull when he draws away. He leaves her nipple glistening and the underside of her breast peppered in pink before moving on to the other.
“To torture me, clearly,” Naomi pants. Her hands still tangle in his hair. Amusement glimmers in his gaze as he plants a chaste kiss to the inside of one of her wrists and sets them both back at her sides.
“Oh no, my sweet. I would never,” he says, chin resting flat against her navel. He looks up at her with wide, doey eyes, full of faux innocence.
He slinks lower, laying a line with his tongue that ends in a kiss just above where her skirts still shield her. He shifts them aside, ripping where he needs, until it’s only one little piece of black lace covering her cunt. Astarion growls against it, nosing at its edges, his back bowed, stomach brushing the floor. His teeth find the waistband and tear that, too.
Hot breath fans across the other mess he made. Naomi wavers on her knees. From that minute motion alone, she can hear how he’s soaked her.
But Astarion doesn’t disprove her theory; he leans back abruptly, straightening up to his knees again. An arm loops slack around her waist as he circles around to her bare back. Naomi’s lips twitch. If this is the game he wants, it’s too soon to beg. The thought inspires another needy flex through her cunt. His other hand slides to cup the heat of it, and Naomi whines. Reflexively, her back arches. Astarion pulls her still.
He catches the side of her jaw, angling her back into a biting kiss. It’s over before she wants it to be, his lips red and glistening with what he stole from her. Without him, her mouth burns from the cut.
“I wanted to see you right where you belong,” he whispers, the sound as sheer as the lace he wrecked. “So beautiful on your throne.”
For a brief moment, he draws away entirely, leaving her with nothing but a lonely chill. And then, his back comes flush to the floor beneath her. His body splays behind her. The heat of his mouth crests against the heat of her cunt, his face fitted between her thighs, his lips hovering so close, but not close enough. His breath alone snags the one halfway through her throat.
“Oh,” her realization comes out quivering.
The tip of his nose nudges, just barely, against her clit, spurring her hips to roll. But all she gets from that mouth is mischief and a quiet snicker. He shifts his cheek, laving a long stroke of his tongue to the tender crux of her inner thigh before sealing it over with a tight suck. When he bites down, he draws out her blood with a rough moan.
Astarion pulls back, his smirk glazed in her, his eyes aflame. “Oh, darling, I’ve barely even touched you yet. And you’re so very wet for me.”
“Touch me, then,” she hisses between her teeth, raking her hands through his perfect curls and fisting them there.
His eyes spear into hers, hard like the way he clenches her ass and pulls her hips down. Even as it sets her on fire, his mouth gives her mercy. Astarion’s tongue melts hot across her cunt, swiping slow and dexterous. Not for the first time, Naomi thinks she might like to die like this.
It’s not so different from how she died. It started on her knees, this new life of passion and pleasure unbridled. Even then, Astarion already knew the shape of her body like he knew his own hands. Every curve, every intimate bend, how to make her speak in noise instead of words. The hidden language behind every whimper she makes, every shiver.
So he knows exactly what he’s doing while his tongue teases gentle circles around her clit. He knows, by the time his timid little laps blend into a needy suck, that she’s so, so sensitive. Astarion’s hungry groan seeps into her slickness. She feels him like a current and clenches again, just as hungry.
Every feeling he gives her gives him an echo back just as strong. Every thought in her head is in his head, too. He eats her cunt and feels fed by her pleasure curling in the tips of his toes. He didn’t know he’d be hers, just as much as she’d be his, when he bit her thrice, bled her dry, and gave her just one drop of blood back.
But Astarion knew her body before she was his bride. Now, he knows her mind. A part of him lives there, as she does in his. As he drags his pale, elegant fingers between her folds, he drags her head through a dozen depravities. Filling her with nothing but thoughts of how he’ll fill her properly.
He could have her against the arched windows lining the east wall, body pressed so pretty to the glass so he can see the imprint of it even after she peels away. She could feel the heat brimming off the sun outside, washing over their empire. He could taste her sunbathed shoulder while he fucks her senseless. His little love, dipped in honey. So what if someone else sees. Later, he’ll see to them not seeing anything ever again.
He could take her here, on the ballroom floor. Pull her down just as she surfaces from the pleasure he’s paid her, and roll her beneath him to bury her in it all over again. Make love on the marble streaked with the blood of their enemies, where hundreds of dignitaries have danced and dined on countless evenings before. But none of them were ever blessed with such a fine feast as he. The stone would be hard and unyielding against her back, and he would be just the same, driving into her, relentless. At least it’s far prettier than the dirt they used to fuck in.
Or--
A new picture snaps from Naomi’s mind to his, with the dip of his tongue to her entrance, a staggering spike of pleasure, and an unbidden whimper.
The piano. Pearly white with jet black keys, so pristine, so gorgeous with blood spilt red down the sides. Naomi poured over the side, ivory hair tinged with crimson, cascading over her bare, bent back. Astarion’s fingers buried in her hips, planting the promise of bruises, his body bucking wildly into her as he finally--
Naomi’s moan hits the high pitch of the ceiling. She grinds, needy, against the pair of fingers he crooks inside of her. His thumb spreads her slickness back and presses to the pucker of her ass.
So eager for me to fill you up. His voice in her head is a caress. Her hips roll with the sound. His thumb dips inside her ass with the motion, and Naomi gasps as she eases into that delicious stretch.
But darling, I haven’t fed all night, Astarion pouts, mouth moving with agonizing slowness as his eyes flutter shut beneath long black lashes. Naomi’s eyelids grow heavy, too, as she’s lost to that lovely, slick click of his lips. A meal like you is meant to be savored.
He fucks her holes leisurely, with the air of someone who knows he’ll be back for more before long. It brings to mind those long, lithe fingers, folded between the pages of a book to mark his place. All it takes is an effortless flex of them to keep her coaxed open like this. Her body draws taut as he leans her over the precipice of her own pleasure.
If you need more, my dear, by all means. Take it.
He growls into their bond like he’s the one devoured. Like he can plead ignorance to how he’s taking her apart with his hands, his mouth. Naomi catches a whine between her teeth. Astarion’s free hand cups her ass, urging her into the thrust her body bends towards. She parts a hand from his hair to brace flat to the floor beside his face, the other knotting anew in his silver curls.
Desperately, she rides against the flat of his tongue, against that long, refined nose, fucking herself back into the curve of his fingers. Every pull of them pulls her under, deeper into her own ecstasy. Her body grips him back like she means to drown him, too. The tip of his tongue flicks her clit in relentless rhythm, starting off a shudder she can’t stop.
“Don’t stop,” she begs within and without, the jerk of her hips growing frantic.
His mouth is mercy. When she comes for him, she’s wreathed in heat, slick with sweat, every nerve in her body alight with the most blissful burn. A strangled cry breaks in her chest. It buries the song now trembling from the piano. Naomi shivers out a sigh, and the keys shiver with her.
Astarion wraps his arms tight to her thighs, anchoring her through the aftershocks. When she stills again, her body throbs with a heady rush of blood, pleasure, want. Every part of her is limp with it, save the pulsing, rigid press in her mind and in his trousers. She’s putty in his hands even as his fingers leave her. Naomi twitches back towards the touch he takes away, body aching with his absence.
Naomi’s knuckles unfurl, stroking soft through the tangles she wrought. What a sight he is, his hair in utter disarray, his mouth a mess of blood and lust and her. An ease settles into his graceful features, not so different from that quiet contentment he wore while leaning into the light by the window. His eyes simmer with it, lips drawn in a soft smile.
Without warning, his grip tightens. Naomi stifles a huff of surprise as she’s taken down, marble kissing smooth to her spine. A pale hand cradles her head, cushioning her fall. In a blink, he’s hovering over her bare body and dipping down to catch her in a fever of a kiss. It’s a needy, sweltering latch of lips, tangy with her own sweetness as much as his.
“Here?” She purrs to the seal of his mouth.
She lets him feel the way the word alone makes her body tense. Waiting. Wanting. Their bond curls with it, crooked and beckoning in his head. The way his fingers bent a few moments before, buried in the heat of her.
A long breath passes out through his nose, his eyes sliding half shut. A smirk tugs at the corner of her mouth. But his cheek turns by just the barest hair, and Naomi’s attention follows after his.
Music flutters, breathy, off the black and white keys. The piano stays a pretty picture of perfection, among the deaths little and large they’ve littered throughout the ballroom.
His teeth trace the angled edge of her ear. Naomi keens with the sting of it as she’s swept from the floor.
“There.”
She’s caught in his kiss again as he carries her. One swipe of his tongue to where he bit her lip before has her quivering. Has her a world away from the one still around them. Vaguely, she’s aware he’s somehow rid her of her gloves and shoes. She hears a dull, wooden clatter, and then a resounding thud. The piano plays on, but it's muted.
Astarion doesn’t bend her over the way she mused. Instead, he seats her on the polished wood of the piano’s closed lid. His hands leave her back to push her knees apart, scoop beneath them, and pull her spread legs to the strain trapped in his trousers.
Naomi grins, her fangs snagging his lower lip as he tries to part from her. Astarion’s answering groan is rough like a scrape of sandpaper. It leaves her mouth raw, tingling, alive with a pulse that plays to the tune of his pleasure. She wants more of that noise. More of the happy purr it pours into her head from his. One drink of that sloppy, slap happy look on his face sates her more than blood ever could.
You’ve given me everything, he told her, once. But now, all she can think is more. Take more. Take everything.
Astarion grinds his hard length against her in answer. The sweet friction makes sweeter music in their mouths as Naomi moans with the motion, too. Still, there’s far too much fabric for her liking.
Astarion’s fingers make fast work of it. He unlaces his pants only enough to free his cock, parts from her only enough to push her back and clamber up after her. Then, he’s on her again like a second skin. Her cunt throbs with the press of his cock, the tip of it wet and seeping against her thigh. She tries to fit a hand between them, to wrap her palm around his girth and feel with her hands, not just her head, how badly he has to have her. Astarion doesn’t leave her space for it.
It’s not his hands that put her flat on her back, against the body of the piano. It’s the sudden swell of his adoration ballooning from his brain to hers. The weight of his affection pins her there beneath him, utterly paralyzed, as the music flows on under both of them. He’s brimming with it, and it washes over her in a wave, a cup overflowing.
His curls hang down in his eyes, wild with the look of a man starved. “You’re going to scream for me, little love,” he says with the slightest slur. The thought smears from him to her, burning in the back of her mind like a pull of liquor. He brushes her snarled hair back until it tumbles over the piano’s edge, white over white. “I’m going to make you. And I want to see that beautiful face when I do.”
“Please,” she starts to say.
But barely any of it makes it past her lips. Astarion never leaves her wanting for more than a moment.
“O-Oh,” she stammers instead, as her soaked cunt splays to his cock sliding home. Astarion pushes out a moan as he pushes into her. He hooks her legs with his arms, folding them up and back.
“That’s my girl,” he pants, forehead heavy against her own. His thumb circles her cheek, a feather-light counterweight to the thickness he seats inside her. He watches her intently, fixated. Hypnotized. “My good, good girl.”
Kisses and praise tumble from between his teeth, down her cheek, to her throat. Naomi’s head rolls back while she relishes the wet, smacking mantra that’s the mess of them. He’s not tender with his tempo. He doesn’t have to be. You could ruin me. I’d let you ruin me, she thinks again.
And how beautiful he is, in ruins with her. No more composure. No more restraint. Sweat streaks his brow as it bends beneath his focus. All there is is the blend of them, the slow rock of the piano underneath them, and the scattered, stranded pieces of a melody left in their wake.
It could break. The thought cracks through her, through them, with the wooden whine of the piano legs taking the shift of their weight. Astarion crushes her worry beneath the thrust of his hips, any notion of it lost to the head of his cock pressing just where it needs to make her see stars.
Naomi bites down on her own lip, grounding herself in fleeting pain and the tang of blood. He’s not even touching her clit; he doesn’t have to. He floods her with how it felt when he did, when his tongue rolled against the swell of it, just the tip of it teasing that sensitive little bud. How she felt to him, so silky and slick in his mouth. How amazing it feels to finally fuck her, to take what’s his and have her take him so, so tightly.
He could ruin her. Snap her like the creaking legs of this instrument, not long for this world. It would be almost as effortless as the way she spreads for him. But instead, Astarion fills her. Every shift prods the crown of his cock against the sweetest spot inside her cunt.
Naomi’s fingers claw into Astarion’s back as he bucks wildly. Tears sear in her eyes. The tell-tale pressure in her pelvis builds near-blinding.
“Scream for me, darling,” he growls against her neck, out loud this time.
Her cunt throbs with his command. But she doesn’t heed it. Astarion lets out a low, steaming hiss.
“I said scream, dear,” Astarion says, his velvet voice edged in warning. The sparks of his indignation spit flinty in her head alongside a flicker of excitement at her defiance.
He wants to feel the rush of her own power with the spasm of her cunt as she comes undone. He wants her magic to spill into him as he spills his seed inside of her. Wants to taste it with the rest of her. If Naomi was nothing to him, she’d still be the siren; it’s not a power Astarion gifted to her. It was hers without him. It is her. And she’s his.
“I might break the glass,” she whispers, wary of anything louder.
“Oh, my love,” Astarion says tenderly, a husk in his throat as his hand wraps loose around her neck. “You can break everything.”
Astarion kills her hesitation. She’s never felt more whole. She feels holy, feeling her own perfect squeeze around his cock, feeling herself fucked in his body and her own. Feeling what she does to the man who already has everything, but will never have enough of her.
When Naomi screams Astarion's name, it’s everything else in the room that shatters.
Glass crashes from the windows. They burst one after another in quick-fire succession. Astarion buckles against her body with the sudden, decisive snap beneath them. His hips jerk, rutting erratically. Warmth spurts into her with every shudder down his spine, every pulse of his cock.
He cuts her cry with his teeth buried in the crook of her neck. Naomi clings to him as her cunt convulses. It’s the bite that takes her apart, knowing he tastes his own name in her throat and thinks--
Mine, mine, mine.
Naomi’s head drops limp. Astarion’s grip on her neck gives way to soft circles stroked against her cheek again. Mine, she thinks, as his ruby eyes watch her keenly, awash in the soft glow only she knows.
Even after Astarion stills, the room spins dizzy from her upside-down view. She blinks it all back into place, but some pieces won’t fit together again so easily. They’re far closer to the floor than when he slipped inside of her. The piano legs splay at odd, splintered angles. The floor glitters with glass like crystalline teeth, ready to bite the heels of any who dare tread their hall.
Astarion slides out, and she shivers with the fade of his warmth. He sits up, his gaze sweeping the shattered windows, his smirk smug and wet with her. “Perhaps all of the Gate heard you. The gardener did for certain.”
Naomi sits up, too, leaning forward and letting his shoulder take her weight. Her forehead comes to rest against his collarbone. She finds an easy smile while relishing the way his heart still hammers his chest. She did that, in multiple senses. Absently, he tucks the hair sticking to her cheeks back behind her ears.
“I guess I’ll have to kill her,” he adds, chipper. “I suppose, for now, we can spare all the others.”
“She’s already dead enough, dear,” Naomi sighs.
A tiny, discordant note of sadness plucks in her chest, among the pleasant haze settling over her. Astarion stiffens against it, as if she reached out and pinched him. She doubts he’d be so eager to slay one of his spawn for the same crime of hearing her come for him.
The gardener is hers, of a sort. Not a vampire -- Naomi can’t make those. Before Naomi sang her awake again, the gardener was just a sad stack of bones collecting dust in a closet. Now, she rattles along to Naomi’s tune, keeping the flowers trimmed to her liking.
“I suppose you’re right,” Astarion murmurs. His expression softens with fondness, the sort that’s rare to surface unless they’re alone, but never fails to make her chest light and fluttery. “Are you tired now, pet?”
“We stayed up all night,” Naomi laughs faintly.
“Hm,” he nods with a pitying frown. “Let me see to you, my treasure. Don’t you move.” His lips curve, coy, as his eyes flicker back to the wrecked windows. “I wouldn’t want you to strain yourself.”
He saunters back to where his coat lays, now tattered. He returns to settle it around her shoulders, pressing a quick kiss to her forehead.
“You’re such a staunch defender of my honor,” Naomi says dryly, even as the leftovers of their lovemaking start to seep down her thigh.
“Ha,” Astarion shakes with a rolling laugh. “I rather think I’m the thief of it. You were quite the heist. It wouldn’t do to have some debaucherous upstart happen by and think they can make off with what’s mine.”
“I wouldn’t let them live through it.”
“Aw,” he clicks his tongue, “you’re such a romantic.”
Astarion leaves her with her legs strewn over the broken piano, relacing his trousers as he goes. Glass crunches beneath his heels. He stops to ring the bell near the door. A few seconds later, it creaks open a hair. She catches his curt commands to the servant she can’t see on the other side.
“...yes, here, in the ballroom. My consort and I wish to take in the view, and see none of you.”
His lesser spawn are quick to make good on their orders. The door swings open once more a short time later, and in floats a claw-foot tub without another soul to be seen. Magic clings, cloudy, beneath the porcelain belly of it. A pleasant, floral scent curls with the steam from the water within. The tub drifts to the heart of the ballroom and settles with a soft thud before the yawning window panes.
Astarion returns to her as her toes touch the ground again. He frowns tightly, eyes narrowing.
“There’s debris scattered everywhere, my sweet,” he says, saccharine even in reproach. “I wouldn’t want to see you hurt.”
Naomi sniffs a laugh, picking her path carefully. “If I can’t handle a little sharpness here and there, it’s a wonder how I’ve managed to handle you.”
“Oh, it’s simple,” Astarion says, catching her wrist with an effortless flourish. “We were made for each other. By each other, really.”
And Astarion’s made up his stubborn mind that she’s not to take another step, it seems. With a soft huff, he sweeps her off her feet all over again, strides to the tub with her legs dangling over his arm, and delicately deposits her there.
Water laps at the tub’s edges, splashing as she situates herself. She shrugs from Astarion’s coat, shucking it away to join all the other debris they don’t have use for. Heat tingles across her skin, like little, loving nips of Astarion’s teeth. Naomi eases back into the burn of it as the sting settles sweetly.
Astarion rids himself of his shoes and trousers. He dips a foot into the tub, bidding her to make way for him with a gentle nudge. The water ripples as he settles in behind her. With a satisfied sigh, she sinks back against his chest and deeper into the furling warmth.
The ballroom overlooks the well-kept gardens behind the estate. The hedges are high enough, only a spyglass might have hope of spotting them both bare. Under Cazador’s reign, the garden was little more than a sprawl of weeds and webbed ivy. Now, fountains babble between the blooms of pink and blue and violet. If she strains, she can catch the weave of music in the trickling flow, like tinkling wind chimes.
A soft breeze tickles her ears, sending gritty glass and ash scattering over their floor. Astarion clenches a soft sponge in his grip, wrings it out, and starts to scrub her skin in slow, deliberate strokes. Naomi’s head tilts back beneath his tender care, every rub taking the tension from shoulders.
She turns after a time, and he starts to wash blood from her front, while she wets her hands and works the redness from the white of his hair. Her fingers linger along the slants of his ears, rubbing delicately, until she catches that satisfied hum in his throat that leaves her lifted, floating on the buoy of his happiness.
The water never cools or clouds; magic still swirls in the steam, even long after they’re free of blood and grime. Astarion rakes hand through her hair, his fingernails digging pleasantly against her scalp.
“You are divine as ever,” he rumbles. “Rest now, pet.”
And she does, slipping soundly into a trance, soaked in sunlight and lavender oil with her lover wrapped around her. Only Astarion sends her to the sort of rest that reaches her soul. His presence is sanctuary.
It’s his disquiet that wakes her suddenly. He still strokes her hair just as gently, but he levels a hard-cut stare out over the garden, his lips set with the same stoniness.
“No one will ever take you from me,” he murmurs, as if to himself.
“As if they ever could,” Naomi whispers back, reaching up to graze the edge of his jaw.
Heavens help the fool who tries. Any who dare to hatch such plots, to harbor such ill will in their Crimson Palace, will find themselves laid to rest with all the others. Their enemies’ gravestones are just bricks in their empire, every one of them laid with blood in the mortar.
Astarion dips his head down, the hint of a smile curling at the corner of his mouth. “I suppose it might be fun to see them try. In the meantime, my love, I’m of a mind to keep you spread for me for the next tenday.”
Naomi laughs. The sound echoes around the otherwise vacant room.
Astarion’s grin only grows, the tips of his fangs sharpening his smile. “Did I say something funny, dear?”
His lips crush down against hers in a kiss consuming.
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The Assistant 13
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Warnings: this fic includes noncon/rape, cheating, creep behaviour, violence, anger. These warnings are not exhaustive and some triggers may not be specified for plot reasons.
This is a dark!fic and explicit. 18+ only. Your media consumption is your own responsibility. Warnings have been given. DO NOT PROCEED if these matters upset you.
Summary: As an assistant at the Daily Planet, you’re rarely noticed. Until you are.
Characters: Clark Kent
Note: We came back.
As per usual, I humbly request your thoughts! Reblogs are always appreciated and welcomed, not only do I see them easier but it lets other people see my work. Thanks to everyone who reads this one and thank you for all your energy.<3
Love you all like Lord Farquaad loves unnecessary vowels. Take care. 💖
🖊🖊🖊
Your new life is more of a death. The old you is dead and can never be again. Not quite a true death, it’s a purgatory you’re slogging through, waiting for the ultimate end. 
Your first days are bleak. The house is filled with a stagnant pall as you wile away the hours playing your role. It’s easier when you pretend you're a character in a book, just like you did as a girl. When you became Elizabeth Bennet or one of the Pevensie kids. You escape in your mind because there is no other way out.
A routine quickly falls into place. You wake up, though sleep is sparse and hewn in wretched nightmares that mirror reality, and wait until Clark stirs. He never rouses very long after you. You open yourself to him, laying on your back, legs splayed as he grunts and ruts.
Tender, you dress in one of the thin dresses he collected for you and you go to work. You cook him breakfast. Sometimes, he takes you back to bed after he eats. Others, he pins you to the counter or the table. Then you clean up; the table, the dishes, and yourself.
When he stays, he sits and reads. You hover around him, busying yourself with a broom or just watching him, weighing the minutes. Not yet, not yet.
Lunch comes and you take care of that too. Then him. His appetite never wavers. The heavy pain sticks in your pelvis but he can’t think the limp is from anything more than the chain tugging at your ankle.
You pace, restless and wait. That’s all you do. Wait. For the first chance or his next whim. Whichever comes before the other.
You stand at the window and watch the wildlife. You feel him watching you in kind. When he leaves, he closes the shutters, latching them tight on the outside. Locking you in like a toy in a chest. A doll he can pick up to play with whenever he likes.
Dinnertime. Another meal. You’re not very hungry but you make yourself eat. If he lets you have a bath, you can puke it back up when he goes to get a towel. That is the last marker of time before bedtime…
Sleep is not won without a final surrender.
That day, as you wrap potatoes to cook in the oven, all noise seems louder, every movement more strenuous. The staleness in the air is suffocating. Your ears buzz from the constant silence. You crinkle the foil around a potato and drop it, rubbing your lobes.
You keep your hands on your ears and stare at the counter. You could scoop out your brains with a spoon. Are you going crazy? Your head feels itchy on the inside and you would be all to happy to scratch right through the bone. 
“Honey?” Clark’s voice ripples through the air. “Is something wrong?”
You close your eyes and cringe. You drag your hands away and wrap the other potato, wincing at the aluminum's raucous wrinkle. He stands and you shudder. He’s coming close.
“It’s too quiet,” you say at last.
He nears and looms beside you. You put the potatoes aside and drag over the pan of marinating steak. His large hand rests on the counter.
“Can I help?” He offers. You shake your head.
“No, thanks, I got it, honey,” you reach to touch his hand. You just want him to back off. Sweat stains your skin as his proximity sets you on fire. 
He leans in to kiss your crown, his hand dancing down your back. He gropes your ass and growls. His hand lingers and you brace yourself. It isn’t unlike him to interrupt.
“Love you,” he grits before he draws away.
You let your breath out in short spurts. You don’t want him to hear the relief in you. Your thighs quiver, bruised and raw. You carry on without pause. Keep yourself busy and he’ll let you be. For now.
🖊
The next day, Clark leaves you. You don’t know what he does when he isn’t there. Sometimes he brings back groceries or little things he’s forgotten. Others, he’s gone for hours and returns only with stress in his shoulders. You try not to think too much about what happens outside these walls, that only makes them close in tighter.
When he comes back, just around lunch time, he presents you a radio. An orange and black radio you’ve seen used by those in remote regions. He sets it on the counter as he flicks it on and adjusts the knob, searching for a station through the crackle. You cross your arms as you watch around his elbow.
The stringy tune comes through and warbles against the static. The music soothes you. You only realise then, you’d never thought you’d hear it again. Clark turns to you as you stare at the speakers.
“Do you like it?” He asks.
You nod and unstick your tongue from the roof of your mouth, “yes, thank you.”
Is this all you have? A radio?
“Do you… wanna dance?” He murmurs shyly.
You look at him. You reach for his hand in acceptance. Nothing he gives comes without a price. He takes you into his arms wordlessly, his face brightening as he leads you into a slow shuffle.
‘I bless the day I found you I want to stay around you And so I beg you Let it be me’
The song is older. You’re not sure who it is. By your guess, it’s even older than your parents… you know you won’t see them again. Even if you do get your chance, you can never go back to the life before this.
“I remember the first day I saw you,” Clark says as he pulls your head to rest against his chest, “you were wearing that little pink plaid dress…”
His words hang in the air. You remember the day too. The day you thought you’d figure it all out. You’d pay your dues as an assistant, work your way up to a writer one day, and maybe, in your wildest dreams, an editor…
“I love you, honey,” he pets your head.
“Love you too,” you eke out.
He pulls back to look down at you. You gaze up as he brings his fingertips under your chin. He leans in to kiss you and draws away reluctantly. He hums as his other hand closes around yours.
“Let’s take a bath,” he lets go of you and follows the chain to its end, unhooking it from the loop in the floor. He tugs you after him as he lets the radio play.
You let him take you into the bathroom. He’s intent on his mission. He drops the chain, the links hitting the floor heavily. You stare at it, just for a second, not too long for your heart to spike.
He bends over the tub and cranks the faucet. You watch him, fingers tingling, as he puts in the stop and holds his hand under the water’s flow. Stay calm.
You move closer to him as he undresses. You help him lift his shirt and you pet the soft hair along his torso. He turns to you, that foggy look in his eyes. You bring your hands to his pants and undo them, biting your lip as you hold his gaze.
You pull down his pants and let them fall down his thick legs. You tilt your head at the sudden thought, tweaking your ear towards the music. He reaches to stroke your chin.
“What is it, honey?” He snarls.
“This song,” you stop and listen to The Ronettes' iconic beat, “can I turn it up?”
He rolls his thumb across your chin and exhales, “sure, honey. I like this one too.”
You smile and shift your head, taking his thumb into your mouth. His eyes round as you swirl your tongue around his salty fingertip. You pop your lips off as he sighs.
“I’ll be right back.”
“Mmm, baby,” he breathes.
You turn slowly, measuring your steps and your heartbeat. You go out into the kitchen, the chain rattling with each step. You peer around, taking in the place. You hear the water swish as he lowers himself into the tub. You peek over as the end of the chain trails just outside the bathroom.
You stop by the radio and glance over your shoulder. Now. You turn up the radio, just loud enough. You bend and tug the chain inch by inch towards you, the noise disguised by the drumbeat. You coil it around your hand, allowing enough for you to walk.
You peer over at the bathroom doorway.
“I’ll bring towels,” you call over the music.
“Hurry,” he booms back as he lets out another gritty sigh, “baby, I need you.”
You turn without hesitation. This is it. You march into the front room and to the front door. Of course he wouldn’t lock it, not with the cuff on your ankle hooked to the loop. You glance over at the hook in the floor and steel yourself.
You open the door, lifting it on the hinges to keep it quiet. The radio drones behind you as you let yourself out into the cool air. You take one step, then the other, each one quicker than the last. You approach the trees and take a breath.
It’s now or never.
You plunge into the woods, your gait uneven as you run with the chain yank with each step. You don’t know where you’re going or where to go, you just need to get far away from here. You can’t live like this. You can’t die like this.
Your feet hit the forest floor, unfeeling to the jab of sharp rocks and the scratch of twigs. Don’t look back, just go, just go. You sprint until your lungs burn, until your mouth is parched and scratchy, until your limbs ache.
You stumble onto the ground and gulp. You can’t go any further. You’re too weak.
You shake on your hands and knees, fighting to catch your breath, trying to urge yourself on. 
Then you hear it. A giggle. A chirpish yelp and the splash of water. People? You crawl forward towards the noise. You lift yourself to look over the overturned trunk at the edge of the incline. There’s a lake below, there’s bodies splashing through the waters, screaming and laughing.
Oh, god! You stand and throw your hand up, mustering your strength to cry out. Help!
As you open your mouth, your voice shrivels up as your throat is clamped in a vice. You're dragged back away from the drop off and turned to face your villain. Clark stands naked amid the trees, seeming as towering and thick as any of them, as he grips your neck. He lifts you off your feet, your toes dangling above the ground.
You claw at his forearm as you wheezes. Your eyes well as he glares at you, shaking with rage. The chain falls from your hand and hits the floor, weighing on your ankle. He bears his teeth and hisses.
“Why would you do this?”
You can’t speak. Your head throbs as you reach to bat at his chest, begging silently for him to release you. ‘Sorry…’ you mouth, ‘sorry…’
“I love you, sweetie, I love you so much,” his voice quakes as he squeezes tighter, “why did you do this?”
Your lips open and close as your head swells violently. Your arms feel heavy as you grasp at him desperately. I can do better, I can do better. Just one more chance, honey. Please.
“You’re the one, you’re the one,” he chants tearfully, “I never loved anyone like I love you.”
“Cl-Clark,” you force out, “ple-ease—”
“No,” he crushes your throat so not a single wisp can get through, “I will never… love anyone that way I love you. Never…”
Your cheek twitches as your lashes glazes with tears. Your heart pounds in your chest as your mind swirls. His eyes fill with red light, glowing hotter and hotter. You see yourself in the scarlet glare; you in your tub, reading your favourite novel, that first day at the office when you nervously introduced yourself, your days in school, running between classes, your high school graduation, the little girl dancing in the fields, a princess out of time.
You see it all behind you and you see the emptiness ahead of you. You shake your head above his grip and use the last of your effort to mouth the words to him. The truth.
‘I….’ you make certain the movement is clear, even as your eyes threaten to roll into your skull, ‘hate.’ Your lips twist in a cruel smirk, ‘you.’
Your head lolls and you stare into his glowing irises. You’re ready. This is ever after. 
The world is consumed in a red flash and a striking heat. It sears to the bone and ends just as quickly. All is black and gone. A life burnt to cinder.
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Stayed tuned for the epilogue
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natashaslesbian · 3 months
Note
Hey can I request a teen reader x mommy Natasha fic.
Where reader still likes to co sleep with her mommy.
Nat has started a relationship with Wanda, and the witch is slightly put out by it all.
Three In The Bed And The Little One Said
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Word Count: 1.6k
Parings: (Teen!Reader x Mom!Natasha) (Wanda x Natasha) (Wandanat x Reader)
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A/N: I’m so sorry this took me so long to get done! It’s not proofread but I hope it’s okay<3
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“Come on” Wanda encouraged “a sleepover would be so fun! Waking up next to you is all I’ve ever wanted” she continued “I know, me too but what about y/n” Natasha said “I’m sure one night won’t hurt” Wanda said as she pushed a stray hair behind Nats ear. “I don’t know Wanda” the witches eyes fell down to her feet “I’m sorry but I have to be there for y/n, she’s my everything” Natasha said “and what about me” Wanda continued to hold her gaze down, the redhead gently lifted her chin “you’re my always” she said “I love you more than you’ll ever know, I just can’t leave y/n” Natasha sighed, hating having to let her girlfriend down again. “It’s okay” Wanda huffed, meaning it wasn’t really okay “I understand” she finished. Natasha lifted Wanda’s gaze back to her own, her gentle fingers lifting her chin. The widow leaned in to the witch and connected their lips in a sweet kiss. A hint of honey coated Wanda’s lip and would leave a trace on Natasha’s. The two woman sat in silence for a little while longer, basking in each others warm, until Natasha noticed the time. “I’ve gotta go baby” she whispered into the redheads hairline “I love you” she solidified with a kiss on the cheek “I love you too” said Wanda, sad that her girlfriend was leaving again.
You stirred slightly as the front door closed, a gentle pat of boots along the wooden floor told you that your mom was home. Natasha made her way upstairs to find you cuddled up with a book in bed, her bed. “Hey angel” she said “hi mama” you whispered “it’s late, you should be asleep” your mom said as she quickly changed into a large shirt and grey joggers. “I tried mom, I just kept waking up so I decided to wait for you” you shyly said. Natasha joined you in bed and pulled you into her arms, it was one of the only ways you could settle. Sleep had always been hard for you, ever since you were a baby. It took your mom ages to settle you to for naps and when she first moved you into your ‘big girl room’ you cried the whole night, you were having none of it. “Come here sweetheart” Natasha said as you shuffled into her embrace “mamas got you” you continued to co sleep with your mom and even now at 15 years old, you preferred to stay in her bed even though you had a perfectly good room of your own.
After just a few moments in your mamas arms you fell into a deep slumber. Natasha sighed contently, she loved still being able to hold you like this but she wanted to spend time like this with Wanda too. Her new relationship was a sore subject for you, you had your mom wrapped around your finger and letting someone new in had proven to be a big challenge. It had always been just you and Natasha at home and that was the way you liked it. Of course you loved all your aunts and uncles at the avengers compound and of course you didn’t keep your mom away from her friends. But a new love in her life had you scared. Natasha’s love was everything to you and the thought of having it sliced in half was breaking your heart. Deep down, you knew your moms love for you could never decrease but these new circumstances were so foreign to you. Natasha soon fell asleep cuddled up with you, her relationship with Wanda still on her mind.
The next morning you and Natasha followed the same routine. You had breakfast together then your mom had her shower while you got ready for school. Natasha dropped you off and then headed off to meet her girlfriend. The witch and the widow had decided to go out for a morning coffee and Nat was hoping to settle the awkwardness around the ‘sleepover situation’. “Hi baby” Wanda said as she looked up from the table “hey gorgeous” Natasha lent down for a small kiss. The pair conversed over their usual coffee orders until yesterdays conversation was brought up. “So how’s y/n?” Wanda asked “she’s okay, she was still up when I got home” Natasha said with a slight guilt. “You know I get it right” Wanda said as she lent over to lift Nats chin “your daughter comes first and she always will, I admire how much you love her” she continued “and I love how protective you are of her, I’m never gonna try to change that”. Natasha smiled slightly, happy that she hadn’t completely ruined her relationship with Wanda. “So you’re not mad?” The redhead asked “maybe a little at first” Wanda said “I just love you so much and I wanna hold you forever, but y/n needs you” the couple held hands over the table “she likes you, y/n does, she likes when you come over” Natasha said as a wild thought came into her head. “Will you come round tonight?” She asked her girlfriend.
It took a lot of convincing, but you finally came round the idea of having Wanda over tonight. It was true that you really liked her but knowing your mom had asked her to spend the night had you spiralling. “She must think I’m a freak” you whispered “sweetheart of course she doesn’t” Natasha cooed as she curled up with you on the couch. “Do you want me to go upstairs while you have dinner?” You shyly said “no baby, Wanda knows how much you mean to me and I want you to spend time with her too” your mom said as she brushed a stray hair from your face. The two of you finished your movie just in time before the door bell rang and Natasha went to great her girlfriend. “Hey y/n” Wanda said cheerfully as she came into the living room “hi” you mumbled before the three of you shared in some more small talk. Dinner went by in a flash and although you felt like the biggest third wheel ever, your mom and Wanda asked you to pick a movie before bed. You started to feel sleepy just before the credits rolled and Natasha suggested that it might be time to hit the hay. You were suddenly more awake and a little frightened of having to settle into your own bed for the night, you hadn’t done so in weeks.
“Just close your eyes baby and I’m sure you’ll get to sleep in no time” Natasha softly said as she stroked your cheek. Your mom had been in your room for 30 minutes now and Wanda had taken the extra time to have a shower, but Natasha knew that soon she would have to leave for her room. “I don’t like it in here mama” you sniffled “oh don’t cry darling” Nat said as she moved to wipe your stray tears. You didn’t really know why you were crying and you still didn’t know why you preferred to co sleep with your mom, you just knew that it was where you felt the safest. “I’ll be just next door sweetheart, I’m not going anywhere I promise” Natasha cooed. you tried, you really did but nothing could stop the anxiety running through your blood. Your cried had quietened now and you did feel as though you could drift off any moment but as soon as Natasha stood up to leave you bolted awake again “mama” you whimpered as you sat up. Nat came running straight back to you and bundled you up in her arms “oh my baby” she whispered “you’re okay I promise” you started to cry silently again and both you and Natasha missed the quiet creak of the door frame.
Another pair of arms wrapped tightly around you and surprisingly you melted into them “Wanda?” You asked as you pulled back slightly to see her “it’s just me” the witch said. “I’m sorry” you cried out “please don’t hate me, I’m not trying to keep my mom away from you” you sobbed. “Oh y/n I could never hate you” Wanda said as she tightened her grip around you and Natasha “I know how much you love your mom and I know how much she loves you” the witch continued “why don’t you come sleep with us, I’m sure moms bed can fit three” you were so shocked by her suggestion and so was Natasha. Wanda gave your mom a small smile and Nat felt like the luckiest woman alive. “Are you sure?” You asked with shaky breaths “I don’t wanna stop you to being together, I can be brave” you whispered “oh I know you can, you’re always so brave. And I promise you will never be in the way, your mom and I love you so much” Wanda said “you-you love me?” You asked Wanda. Natasha was almost in tears watching this moment unfold, seeing a new side to Wanda that she loved so much “of course I do, you’re a part of my life now y/n” Wanda said as she placed a gentle kiss on your forehead “now why don’t we go and get snuggled up?” You nodded into the witches chest and let your mom carry you into her bedroom.
You, Natasha and Wanda all settled into your mom’s bed. It was a little bit of a squeeze but you were happily nuzzled in the middle of them. You made sure to shuffle down slightly to your mom and her girlfriend could at least be face to face, you knew how much she adored Wanda. The three of you soon fell asleep, all intertwined with each other. Wanda knew that she wanted this feeling to last forever. Natasha was overwhelmed by how much she loved you both. And you had the best sleep of your life.
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Taglist<3
@saraaahsstuff / @dannipotatoo / @tobiaslut / @a-simpfortessa-lesbriean / @marvelnatasha12346 / @yelenasdiary / @mousetheorist / @ashadash0904
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navybrat817 · 1 year
Text
Preliminary
Pairing: Sugar Daddy!Andy Barber x Female Reader Summary: You give Andy a call, but may have more questions than answers. Word Count: Over 1.3k Warnings: No major warnings. Reader is broke (is that a warning?), Andy Barber (he's a warning, okay?) A/N: Follow up to Keep the Change and building this world! Beta read by the lovely @whisperlullaby (thank you!), but any and all mistakes are my own. Moodboard by yours truly, divider by the amazing @firefly-graphics, and warning banner by the wonderful @sgt-seabass. Please follow @navybrat817-sideblog for new fics and notifications. Comments, reblogs, feedback are welcome!
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You weren’t sure how you made it through the rest of your shift when all you wanted to do was call Andy. It was late by the time you got home and refused to disturb him at that time. You couldn’t sleep though. Not when your mind raced with the possibilities of what the potential job could be.
Maybe he needs a personal assistant. Could I handle someone that handsome being my boss?
Researching Andy on the internet didn’t calm your thoughts. From what you gathered, he had practiced law before he invested in a friend’s real estate company. When that took off, he invested in additional real estate and a range of various businesses and companies. He did well for himself, but you refused to look at his speculated net worth.
It’s not like he’s going to hand any of his cash directly over to me.
Andy was also single. At least, he wasn't married anymore. A quiet divorce before he made his money. You could only imagine how difficult it had to be for him to date. How many people wanted his money and nothing more?
A man as handsome as him, you couldn't picture him sleeping alone. Was it wrong that your gaze lingered on a few photos of him in his suits? Was his beard as soft as it looked?
You decided to call him the next morning. Normally you would have had your first cup of coffee consumed by then, but you didn’t want to be jittery on the call. Your fingers drummed nervously on the counter anyway as you waited for him to answer. Maybe it was too early. Or maybe he was like you and needed caffeine before he conversed with others.
“This is Andy,” the deep voice rang through the phone once he picked up.
“Hi,” your voice cracked. Cringing, you pulled the phone away to clear your throat. “Sorry about that.”
“Hi, honey. Don’t be sorry. I was expecting your call,” his voice softened, a bashful smile forming on your face when he recognized your voice.
A smile that quickly shifted to a yawn.
This call is off to a wonderful start.
“You didn't just wake up, did you?” he asked. "Did you sleep okay?"
“I'm fine. I just haven’t had my caffeine yet,” you tried to joke.
“I know that feeling,” he chuckled. “I hope it wasn't rude of me to ask. I just want to make sure you’re getting enough rest.”
“So you overtip when someone stiffs me, you want to make sure I’m sleeping enough, and you have a possible job for me?” you asked.
You didn’t want to sound suspicious since he was nothing but kind to you. The question is why he’s so nice. You weren’t naive enough to ignore that he was somewhat of a powerful man. Probably liked being in control. Money could get people like him far. You, on the other hand, didn’t have any. Power, money, anything.
You didn’t want to be a charity case.
“You don’t trust my intentions,” he mused.
You bit the inside of your cheek as you thought of how to respond. Saying the wrong thing could cost you whatever he had to offer. On the other hand, transparency might be the best option.
“I want to trust your intentions. It’s just that most people today don’t display kindness without expecting something in return,” you said carefully, keeping the device at your ear as you grabbed a coffee mug out of the cupboard. “I don’t want to lump you in that category and I hope it doesn’t sound like I am. I think part of me is waiting for the other shoe to drop because my luck hasn’t been so great. I guess I’m being cautiously optimistic.”
Andy hummed on the other end of the line, but didn’t say anything.
You closed your eyes, an apology on the tip of your tongue as your stomach sank. Why did you have to say what you did? It didn't matter. Beneath the nerves, you were proud of yourself for answering truthfully.
Though at this point, you waited for Andy to tell you to get rid of his card and not call again.
Would it be a blessing if he stopped coming into the diner so you could save face, or a curse that you pissed off a great customer and might never see him again?
"I appreciate your honesty."
You opened your eyes and pulled the phone away for a second to look at it. Surely you misheard him. "You do?"
"Yes, I do. You wouldn't believe how many people tell me what they think I want to hear instead of the truth. Maybe they do it to spare my feelings or avoid confrontation, but it's a hindrance more than anything."
"So you prefer honesty?" you asked. "Even if it's something you don't want to hear?"
"One thing you'll learn about me is that I value honesty," he said.
You wondered how many other things you'd learn.
"An ex-lawyer who likes to hear the truth."
"You did your research on me," he said.
"I may have a little," you admitted, your cheeks hot when he chuckled again.
I can't think a laugh sounds sexy if I work for him.
"Research is a good thing. I would expect anyone to do so before switching jobs."
"Speaking of that," you began, eager to shift the conversation to work and not about looking him up on the internet. "You still haven't told me what this job is all about. I'm not even sure which business it's for."
"Do you have your resume ready?" he asked.
Why isn't he answering my question?
"I do," you answered, glancing at your printer where your recent copy was sitting. "Though I can't exactly tailor it to the specific job if I don't know what it is, Mr. Barber."
"Call me Andy," he said. It was more a command than a suggestion, but somehow made you feel at ease. "I'd prefer to discuss the details in person."
You took a chance by calling, now you could take it a step further and meet him.
"And where would you like to discuss the details, Andy?"
"Are you free for lunch today? We can meet at The Courthouse at 12pm."
The Courthouse was one of the nicest restaurants in the city. The tip Andy left you the night before could maybe cover the price of an entree. Thankfully you still had a couple of decent outfits from when you had an office job.
"I'm free," you said. Luckily you had the day off. "I didn't know they were open for lunch."
"They usually open at 4pm, but they make exceptions."
What's it like to have that kind of sway over anyone?
"I don't want to go to the trouble of doing that."
"I already did," he said confidently. "I told you I was expecting your call."
"What if I had to work today?" you asked.
"I would have had to find a way to convince you to call in. And if I have my way, you'll be quitting there very soon."
"That's if I accept the job," you said, smiling as you leaned your hip against the counter. "But I'll be happy to discuss the details over lunch."
"I can send a car to pick you up," he offered.
"I'll take a cab, but thank you."
A car was too much for a job discussion and you didn't want his driver to see where you lived.
"I'll cover the cost of the cab and lunch," he said, leaving you no room to protest. "I look forward to seeing you."
You tapped a fingertip against your mug when he hung up. His businesses looked legitimate, so you didn't believe he would ask you to do something illegal. He also didn't seem like the type to waste his time and play games.
You had nothing to lose.
Here's to being cautiously optimistic.
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Are we excited to meet Andy for lunch? Love and thanks for reading! 💙
Masterlist ⚓ Andy Barber Masterlist ⚓ Ko-Fi
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nickfowlerrr · 10 months
Text
for the hope of it all.
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pairing: greedy!lee bodecker x curvy!reader
warnings: angst. bit of fluff. mentions of reader x arvin and lee x wife. little flashback to pregnant reader. uhhh, there’s a baby. if i’m missing something important please feel free to let me know.
also lmk if i should tag this as dark!lee please bc i can’t decide if it needs it or not.
words: 3.2k
notes: my first written fic for my writing event. i spun the wheel and got greed and then spun another wheel and got lee and a few hours later here we are lol. please let me know what you think! comments and feedback are so, so appreciated. thank you in advance to everyone who reads and reblogs. 🖤
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“Please, Lee. Please,” you whispered, voice breaking on the desperate plea as the stray tear you’d been fighting to keep at bay finally slipped down your cheek.
You were quick to wipe it away, shaking your head and looking away from the gaze of the man before you. The smirk that graced his face was the whole reason you had refused to let yourself cry, despite wanting to break down the moment he’d knocked on your door.
You’d just set Teddy in his crib, watching him a moment as the newborn slept peacefully, his tiny breaths and little movements making your heart clench.
You never knew you could love someone so much until you had him. Despite the pain and all the hardships that you’d faced from the day you met his daddy, as you watched Theodore, you were sure you wouldn’t change any of it if it meant never having had him.
You were pulled from your thoughts when you heard a car pull up the drive. You didn’t check the window, sure you knew who it was already as you went to greet him.
Before you were even halfway down the steps, an unnecessarily loud pounding sounded from the front door.
You were startled for a second, brows furrowing as you rushed down the last few steps to open it before whoever it was could pound again and wake the baby.
You were sure now, though, it definitely wasn’t Arvin. He’d never be so careless to knock that loudly, even if he’d left his key and was locked out.
When you pulled the door open in a bit of a huff, your breath froze in your chest.
As you met the hard blue eyes of the man you’d been avoiding for the past 11 months, you weren’t sure what to do. So, you stayed as you were, blocking his view of the house as you pulled the door more closely to your body and watched him. You wouldn’t speak first. You weren’t sure you could.
“Been a while, darlin’.” He greeted, though his words were cold and stiff, as if he was trying to hold in the anger you could see raging in his eyes.
You swallowed hard. “How can I help you, Sheriff?” you asked, ignoring his comment.
He scoffed as he looked down on you. “That’s how you wanna do this, sugar? Fine,” he said before shoving his way into the house.
You were in shock as he pushed past you, your first instinct to yell at him was held back by the knowledge that your baby was asleep just up the stairs.
“What the hell are you doing? You can’t just barge in here because you’re police,” you nearly seethed as you follow him while he walked further in, going toward the kitchen while he looked around the place.
He spun on you at your words and stopped you in your spot. “Honey, I can do whatever the hell I want. Because I’m the sheriff,” he snarled in your face before he backed up just the slightest. He adjusted his belt as he stood to his full height and licked his teeth, trying to compose himself.
“I’m afraid I’ve got some bad news for you, sweetheart,” he started, your heart dropping instantly. “That boyfriend a’yours seems to have gotten himself into some trouble downtown.”
Your mouth went dry as you stared at him dumbly. “No,” you shook your head. “Arvin wouldn’t do anything to get into any kind of trouble. What are you- what are you talking about?” you tried to stay calm, but the stutter was surely telling enough.
“Down at the shop,” he began, taking his time, seemingly enjoying the sight of your anxiousness written all over your face, “he had some words with Levi. Guess the kid made a comment about his girl. Imagine my surprise to find out that girl was you,” he detoured.
“What happened,” you asked pointedly, all while trying to keep your composure and your voice down.
“Well, Mr. Russell didn’t take too kindly to the things Levi said. Lost his temper. I’ll spare you the details, sweetheart. Long story short, Levi’s up at the hospital. Your little boyfriend is up at the jailhouse, waitin’ for his hearin tomorrow mornin’.”
You felt sick. This wasn’t Arvin’s first time in jail but you remember what he told you last time, the judge said one more strike and he’d be taken to county. Arvin wasn’t a bad man. He was one of the best men you’d ever known. But he did have a bit of a short fuse when it came to defending the people he loved. You’d known that since you were in school together. It was one of the things you’d always admired about him..
The one thing you were confused about right now though, was why in the hell Lee was here telling you this.
“Is he okay?” you asked quietly. The narrowing of Lee’s eyes as he looked at you, and the tick of his jaw at your question had your stomach twisting.
“Aw, ain’t that sweet. Look at you, all worried about him.”
“Lee,” you said.
“He’ll be fine,” he gruffed as he went into your fridge and took one of Arvin’s beers. You were in too much of a stupor to do or say anything about it, though.
As you watched him take a swig, your eyes finally fell on his bloodied knuckles.
You took a step back, as if he’d slapped you, somehow knowing exactly how he'd done that.
“What did you do?” you said, accusingly as you reached out and held onto the wall beside you.
“Told ya' I was surprised to hear the girl he was so concerned with, whose honor he needed to protect so badly, was you. I thought you were long gone, sweetheart. But when your name came up, I knew I’d been wrong. Knew you were somewhere out here. Took a bit to finally get him to tell me where you were, but,” he flexed his hand, “they all break in the end.”
You were seeing red at his words. He'd hurt Arvin, and for what? You couldn't let him do this, couldn't let him get to you so easily.
"You need to leave, Lee. Now. If I wanted you to know where I was, you would've. I told you I wasn't gonna wait around for you. You made your choice. So go," you said firmly as you could manage through your tight throat.
You stayed still as he set the bottle down on the counter, stalking over to you. You only blinked when he was right in front of you as you took a shaky breath in and out.
"My choice was you," he said as he pinned you against the wall, his arms trapping you. But you weren't scared. Just solemn. The hurt that never went away radiating in your soul.
"...No, it wasn't," you refuted, voice quiet as you shook your head, looking him in the eye. "It was the job. It was her. You just wanted me to be your good little whore on the side," you continued, disgusted with him and yourself, thinking about the times you let him touch you. The times you gave yourself to him. You should have known from the beginning. Maybe a part of you always did. The only way you'd get your happily ever after was if Lee chose to give it to you.
Lee Bodecker was a selfish, greedy man. He wanted it all, he didn't want to choose. But he had. Whether he acknowledged it or not, he made his choice. As much as it hurt, you had to accept that it wasn't you.
"You know that ain't fuckin' true," he snarled, holding your chin tightly in his hand as you looked up at him. His voice softened as he looked back at you. "I meant all I said to you, darlin'. I love you," he said as he pressed his forehead to yours. "If you'da just been patient," he breathed hotly, "we'd be together right now. I'da got rid of her, just like I told you I would."
The pain slipping into his voice was like daggers in your heart. You wanted so badly to believe him, but you were always told how gullible you were. Especially with Lee, you'd buy into anything he said if he said it prettily enough.
You had known you had to leave town, get away, or else you'd just run right back to him, or he'd find you and convince you to stay. You told everyone you were leaving, making sure word got around, and it did. He was too preoccupied in his campaign to bother doing anything about it, or maybe he just didn't believe you'd actually go. You weren't sure which it was.
You had enlisted the help of Arvin to assist you in packing, he had always been a good friend to you and wanted to do whatever he could. The last day you were packing away, though, you got another bout of morning sickness in front of him.
It was like Arvin knew before you did that you were pregnant. But he never left. He was there for you. Held you when you cried, assured you everything would be okay as you spilled your heart out to him, telling him everything. Instead of moving out of town like you had planned, you moved in with Arvin.
Time seemed to pass you by so quickly from then on. One day Arvin was holding your hair back for you as you emptied your stomach into his toilet, and the next he was holding your hand as you pushed through tears of pain and heartbreak while you delivered your baby in the next town over.
When the nurse had taken Teddy, you were an inconsolable mess of guilt and heartache. Arvin was right there with you, had been from the very start, but he wasn't Lee.
You were crying because Lee should have been there, should have been the one holding your hand and wiping your tears, you should have told him that you were having his baby. The guilt was crushing. Not only for having kept your pregnancy from him, but because the man who stayed beside you the entire time deserved so much better than a broken girl who was still in love with the man who broke her heart. It wasn't fair to any of you.
And then the nurse came back over, holding a blue swaddled bundle in her arms. You timidly took your baby as she handed him over to you and the second you laid your eyes on him, all thoughts just went away. The only thing you could focus on was this precious little life you held in your arms. And though your tears kept flowing, they were of overwhelming joy as you looked down at your sweet Teddy.
Teddy.
You heard him cry and your eyes went wide as Lee kept his hold on you.
Another cry as you swallowed thickly, sure your face was full of desperation as you surveyed Lee.
His brows furrowed as he looked in the direction of the living room, dropping his hand as he moved closer to the noise.
You scurried past him, stopping him from starting up at the stairs.
"Lee," was all you could manage to say.
He looked at you incredulously. "That a baby cryin' up there?" he asked rigidly.
You couldn't breathe. You didn't know what to do. Your guilt was written clear as day on your face as you pouted at him, watering puppy dog eyes pleading with him, for what you weren't sure.
"I'll say this once, then I'm not gonna be nice about it, darlin'. Either answer me or get outta my way."
Still no words could form on your tongue. When he stepped to get up the stairs, you let him pass you before turning around and quickly following him.
Lee followed the sound of the newborn cries up to the nursery. When he got to the door, you watched as he took a steadying breath before he pushed in, like he was readying himself for the sight he knew he'd be met with.
He walked slowly to the crib where Theodore was laying, crying for attention.
Lee's mouth was agape as he looked down at the baby.
Two pairs of brilliantly blue eyes staring back at one another.
You knew Lee knew instantly, there was no denying it. Teddy was his mini me. He looked exactly like his father.
You watched as Lee carefully reached down and took Teddy in his big arms, holding him safely and smiling down at him as Teddy calmed in his hold.
Your nose was tingling and it took everything in you not to burst into tears at the sight.
"What's his name?" Lee asked in a hushed tone.
"Theodore," you answered just as softly.
Theo's baby garbling had Lee laughing as he cooed down at his son. You swore you could see the gleam in Lee's eyes as he watched him.
After a sniff and a clearing of his throat, Lee's gaze shot back to you. Accusatory and angry, his hurt underlining all of it.
"You had my baby, and were just gonna keep 'im from me?"
"No, no I- I was gonna. Gonna tell you. I wanted to, I just didn't know.." you trailed off, wringing your hands.
"Didn't know what?"
"How," you answered. "Didn't know how to. Didn't know how you'd react. Wasn't entirely sure you'd want to know."
"You think I wouldn't want to know that I have a kid?" he asked harshly. You took a step to him, holding your hand out instinctively to remind him that he had the baby in his arms.
"You're married, Lee. You're holding public office. I know you well enough to know that you don't want anything to mess with that. I don't think having a child with someone other than your wife would be looked on too favorably."
"I told you I'd get rid of her," he said again, lowly. "I will."
"Lee, please," you said, exasperated. "I'm sorry. I am. I should have told you, you had a right to know, but I can't do this with you. That's why I left. I do love you," you said brokenly, "I've never stopped. But I can't live my life just waiting for you to call when you want me. And I won't let you do that to Theo, either. He deserves a father who's around, who puts him as a priority,"
"Oh, and you think he'll have that with Arvin?" he challenged. "I wouldn't be too sure, sweetheart. Those charges really have a way of addin' up. Who knows how long of a sentence he'll be gettin' tomorrow."
You couldn't help but stress at his words. You knew some of what Lee had done before, and you know what he'd be willing to do now, to get his way. If he wanted Arvin put away, there wouldn't be anything you could do to stop it from happening.
You may not have been in love with Arvin, but you did love him. He was your best friend; you don't know what you'd be doing or even where you'd be right now if it weren't for his help and care. He didn't deserve to be punished for your mistakes; you couldn't let that happen.
"Why would you do that?" you asked, hurt lacing your voice. "What do you want from me, Lee?"
"You ain't dumb, honey. You know what I want," he said easily as he rocked Theo lightly while he gripped onto his daddy's finger, his big blue eyes falling closed as he drifted back to his peaceful sleep. Lee's blazing blue orbs met yours once more. "I want you. I want this, all a this with you, and him,” he said, sparing another glance to his baby boy.
“Please, Lee. Please,” you whispered, voice breaking on the desperate plea. "You can’t - He needs something stable. Real."
Lee assessed you for a moment before shaking his head with a slight scoff and a smirk. "This is real, darlin'. I'll give you both what you deserve. I just need a little time, that's all," he said as he set Theo back down in the basinet before turning back to you. "Can't make you my wife while I'm still married, but I'll get that taken care of quick. Then you and the baby can get settled in at home, we can finally be together. Just like we always talked about," he continued, taking your hands in his and pulling you in. "Havin' a family," he brought his hand up to tilt your face up to his, brushing his lips against yours. And you let him.
"And it'll be good for reelection next year, too. People like a family man."
You cringed and pulled away at that. At least you tried to, Lee's hold not let you get far at all.
"Don't be like that, darlin'. Come on, you know it'll be good for all of us. We can be happy," he said as his knuckles brushed your cheek.
The touch reminded you, "What about Arvin?"
"What about 'im?" he asked uninterested.
"You'll let him go," you state, grabbing his hand.
"I will," he agrees, "soon as you two are all moved in with me, I'll make sure he's released. Can't have you trying to run off on me again. I won't let you go so easy this time."
You swallowed back the cry that wanted to be let free as you looked at him. You hated that Arvin would have to suffer while you wait on Lee to keep his word. But what else can you do.
"How long?" you ask brokenly, eyes drifting over to the crib. "I can't do this alone."
"Won't be long, sweetheart. She's already been on her way out. A week, two tops. And you won't be alone. If you think for a minute I'd ever not be around for my child, you're outta your mind. If I’d a known sooner, I,” he cut himself off with a shake of his head. “I'll come over every night, check on ya both. You need somethin', you tell me. I'll show you I can take care'a you two better than that boy ever could."
Sweet words. Always so sweet coming from his lips. Your heart aches, for a million different reasons, as you let Lee come closer, pressing his lips to yours before his arms find their way around your frame.
And just like that, after nearly a year of not giving in to the temptation to see him, he has you once more, so easily. He gets what he wants. Just like he always does. Like he always will. You wonder briefly if it will ever be enough. You're not sure you want to know the answer.
"You've got no idea how much I've missed you, darlin'," he whispers against your lips. "Thought about you every damn day."
You feel the tears as they slip down your cheeks, a wave of relief falling over you under his touch, but the guilt still remains... It's just not enough to make you stop him. Not enough to want him to stop.
And the hope for your promised happily ever after renews in your heart. Because maybe you’ll finally get it, just how you pictured, with Lee by your side, starting your own little family.. It’s all you’ve ever wanted.
Lee Bodecker may be a selfish and greedy man.
But maybe you're no better.
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lincolndjarin · 7 months
Text
Oh Honey. ✩ Chapter 2
chapter two : beware the jabberwock
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series masterlist ao3 kofi main masterlist
a/n : took a while to get out but here is chapter two !!! i have a lot of fun writing this fic bc the pacing is so much different than bks but i'm excited to get this chapter out bc i loved writing it so much and i'm so happy that people enjoy this fic so far !!
pairing : monster!joel miller x mortician!reader
rating : 18+ mdni - explicit content, read all warnings
word count : 15.1k (i'm so sorry idk what happened)
summary : new relationships are tricky, especially when your boyfriend likes to disappear for several days with no explanation.
warnings, etc. : dub con?? i'm gonna tag this with that because the sex is like weird in this?? a lot of it is angry or reluctant from one participant at times so i'm gonna tag it just in case, soulmates au, no outbreak au, language, graphic descriptions of violence, gore, fear, feeling of being stalked, feeling of being watched, me making up things regarding the embalming process, animal death, graphic description of the mortuary process, menstruation, derealization (sort of), smut, oral f!recieving, p in v, biting, just like a lot of mouth stuff lmao, cum eating, rough sex, degradation, sort of dumbification, joel is a bit beastly, multiple orgasms, overstimulation, praise, use of the pet name bunny, nightmares, periods, menstruation, joel is a terrible boyfriend, angry sex, injury, blood, blood drinking, manipulation, not a/b/o but something i made up that is sort of along those lines??, body horror, monsters, predator & prey dynamic, a lot of stuff happens this chap so i might have missed some sorry!!, no physical description of reader but joel is described as being abnormally strong and does pick reader up, there is no actual fucking of a monster yet we can't just do that right out the gate it's a thriller it destroys the thrill if they fuck immediately, that being said; this is a monster fucker fic - proceed accordingly
comments and reblogs are appreciated!
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You don’t sleep well after your dream.
Just staring up at the ceiling until the sun is starting to shine through the windows. 
Not that you’ve been sleeping well recently to begin with. And Joel suddenly feels less safe, the grip of his arms around you feels more like it’s trapping you rather than protecting you.
It’s Joel. 
Just take a deep breath. 
It’s Joel. Joel Miller. Sweet, handsome, kind, Joel Miller. Joel who came back, even though you assumed you’d never hear from him again. 
It was nothing more than a dream. 
Stop making up monsters. 
You slip out of his arms, quietly making your way over to the fridge to try and find something to make for breakfast. You haven’t gone shopping in a while, all you’ve got is half a loaf of bread and a few eggs. Good enough. Clicking the stove on you set a pan down, cracking the eggs with a small sizzle as they hit the metal. 
“Up already?” You didn’t hear him wake but when you turn he’s propped up on an elbow watching you. 
“Couldn’t sleep.” Not technically a lie. 
“Are you okay?” He sits up a bit and you can feel him sizing you up. 
“Yeah, I’m fine.” 
You aren’t really. 
But you can’t really tell him why, so why bother. 
He stretches his arms above his head as he gets up, making his way over to you, wrapping his arms around your waist, and resting his head on your shoulder as you flip the eggs. 
“Hungry?” You’re desperate to think about anything but your dreams, as you speak his grip around your waist tightens. 
“I could eat.” You shudder for several reasons as his teeth graze your neck before nipping at you. 
“These should be done in a few minutes, I just gotta make the toast.” You laugh softly as the scruff of his beard brushes against you. 
He makes it too easy to forget your fears. 
“Mhmm.” The vibrations from his humming make you gasp, nearly dropping the spatula in your hand as he squeezes you for a moment. You work around his advances, putting the bread in the toaster as one of his hands slips under your shirt. 
“How many do you want?” You hold up the bread in front of him, trying to get him to pay attention but it’s getting difficult to stay focused on your task when something is currently pressing against your ass. 
“I think I’m fine with just this.” He squeezes the bare flesh of your torso making you yelp a bit as his hand drifts further up. 
“What happened to your third date rule?” He groans as you reach over to the stove, turning the burner off to keep the eggs from burning before turning around in his arms, your back pressed against the counter. 
“We should go to dinner tonight.” He smiles before leaning forward to kiss you but you put a hand between his mouth and yours. 
“What makes you think I’ve forgiven you enough to warrant another date?”
He pouts. His bottom lip sticking out a bit as he frowns. 
“Wouldn’t matter if I did anyway, it would only be the second date.” You shrug. 
“Last night was the second date.” He says rather matter of factly. 
“That didn’t count.” You can’t help the smile that threatens to form on your as his frown deepens. 
“So you wanna wait for two more dates.” 
Definitely not.
“Tonight?” For a brief moment you try and think of anything else you might be doing but you don’t exactly have a social life here in Honey. 
“S’gotta be, I’m spending tomorrow with Ellie and then I’ll be busy with work, gotta catch up on some things.”
Why would he need to catch up if he’s been busy all week?
“Tonight works.” Even after what he put you through you still feel the strangest pull towards him, dragging him to the table with you as you set down a couple plates. 
“I’ll be here at eight?” He sits, an accomplished look on his face. 
“Works for me.”
You have an uneventful breakfast. 
Neither one of you talks about his disappearing act. And eventually he has to leave for work and so do you, so he gets his things together once you eat.
“Get dressed, I’ll drive you to Maria’s, I gotta pick up Tommy anyway.” He takes a sip of whatever juice you had left over in the fridge as you nod, finding something clean to wear before following him out to the truck. 
He makes it too easy.
He smiles like everything is fine and he holds your hand as he drives.
“Have a good day at work.” You return his smile and he leans across the truck cab to kiss your forehead.
“You too, I’ll see you tonight.”
“See you tonight.” You wave at him as you walk up to the house, Tommy’s just leaving, giving you a pat on the back as he passes you before jumping in the truck with his brother. With a weak smile you watch them go. 
There are no bodies today.
It’s a paperwork day for both of you. You know Maria’s dying to ask about what happened but she never does, just staring up at you every once in a while, always looking like she’s about to say something before choosing not to. 
You decide to throw her a bone. 
“I’m having dinner with Joel tonight.” You can’t ignore the surprised smile on her face. 
“I’m glad you two seem to be getting along.”
“Yeah, apparently he got caught up in his work for a few days.” You try and get a reaction out of her but she goes emotionless, giving you only a hum in response. 
You don’t try to start another conversation after that until you say good night at the end of your shift. Giving her a small wave before stepping into the misty evening air. 
You keep your eyes on the trees the entire walk home but nothing seems out of sorts and before you know it you’re safe in the camper.
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You’re dressed and ready to go when the truck pulls up. You aren’t sure where exactly you’re supposed to be going but you’re ready nonetheless, deciding on just jeans and a plain tshirt. What you aren’t expecting is when Joel steps out of the truck with grocery bags and a grin plastered on his face.
“I thought we could cook together.” He says as he makes his way up the steps inside. 
“You know how to cook?” You try not to sound as surprised as you are but he just laughs. 
“I have two kids. I know how to cook.” He sets the bag on the counter and you open it, he’s brought bread, cheese, and cans of tomato soup. 
“What exactly do you plan on cooking?”
“Grilled cheese.” He says it like it’s the most obvious thing in the world and any worries you had about tonight go out the window. 
“You really went all out for tonight.” You raise your eyebrows at him.
He nods, searching through the cabinets for a pan and a pot. 
“When you said cook together you meant you cook and I watch, right?” You lift yourself up onto the counter as he lights the stove. 
“Obviously.” He sets everything down and you watch him fish around the top of the fridge for a few seconds before pulling down a rather dusty old radio. “I knew she had one somewhere.” He grins as he sets it down beside you, plugging it in and fidgeting with the knobs until the static turns into music. 
You don’t recognize the song that plays but he does, as he hums along, opening the two cans, emptying them into the pot. 
You had been so nervous about tonight, nightmares aside, you had expected a totally different Joel, the kind of person who ignores you for a week and expects immediate forgiveness. But instead he continues to be just Joel. Joel, who’s very presence lulls you into an overpowering sense of comfort. The moment he stepped inside the camper the entire space became heavy with his cologne, everything smells like the forest, as if you’re surrounded by pine trees and not the four walls around you. 
“We should do something this week.” He turns to you as he butters the bread, setting it in the pan with a quiet sizzle. 
“Don’t you have work, and Ellie?” You tear open the plastic wrapper on the cheese, handing him a few slices. 
“I do, but I can get Tommy to watch her for a night.” He tosses them down onto the bread before opening a drawer, riffling around until he finds a spatula. 
You hum along to the music with him when the song changes to something familiar, watching him cook. 
He looks at home with you, like he belongs right here. 
You both laugh your way through dinner, it’s outrageous how charming he can be, he tells you about the house he’s building, and how his brother ordered the wrong kind of cement. (You didn’t know there was a wrong kind.) And he tells you about how Ellie’s picked up some curse words, apparently there’s quite an argument happening between the Millers regarding who she learned them from. 
You’ve always been hesitant to talk about work, especially on dates because you never know how people are going to react. Not everyone has the same relationship with death that you have. So when he says, how has working for Maria been? You aren’t exactly sure what to say. 
“It’s good.” 
“That’s it? It’s good?” He looks up at you, giving you that lopsided fucking smirk and you can’t help but just melt at the sight of it. 
“We’ve been… busy, lots of work the last few days, now we’re just funeral planning, this week we’ve got a funeral pretty much everyday, Maria’s swamped.” 
“What made you choose this line of work?”
You never really know how to answer that question. 
“Because I like to play with dead things.” Never gets the laugh you hope for, and the real answer just makes you sad.  
“I like to fix things.” You instinctively break eye contact, staring down at an uneven floor board you’d never noticed before under the table. “I like knowing that I can help people in that way, to fix them one last time.” 
For a moment he doesn’t speak, when you look back up at him he simply looks at you with something that resembles yearning. 
“That’s nice.” 
You’re glad he thinks so. 
He takes the dishes, rinsing them in the sink despite your protests. 
Your palms are getting clammy. 
This is, by his count, your third date. 
Is it weird that this feels scheduled? It was different when you’d brought him home after your first date, that felt natural, your body innately wanted to be with him. How do you even start this kind of thing when it feels so planned? You both know what you want but it feels strange to just outright say, so is this the part where we have sex? 
He dries his hands on his jeans and clears his throat as he turns back to you, holding his hand out, you aren’t really sure what he’s doing until he pulls you up from your seat, wrapping his other arm around your waist.
It isn’t the kind of song you can slow dance to, it’s fast and upbeat.
But as far as you can tell, Joel isn’t the kind of guy who dances in the first place, so you bring your free hand up to his shoulder and join him in his attempts to dance. 
I heat up, I can't cool down
You got me spinning
There isn’t a lot of floor space in the camper but he makes it work by holding you close and mostly just spinning you as he nods along to the music.
'Round and 'round
'Round and 'round and 'round it goes
If his goal was to put you at ease then it’s working, any remaining nerves you have fizzled out completely. You laugh in earnest, not out of fear, as he bumps his nose against yours. 
Where it stops nobody knows
Every time you call my name
I heat up like a burning flame
Burning flame full of desire
Kiss me baby, let the fire get higher
He keeps his forehead flush with yours as you continue to sway your hips back and forth to the beat, the both of you laughing and spinning, you watch curiously as he closes his eyes, inhaling deeply. 
Abra abracadabra
I wanna reach out and grab ya
Abra abracadabra
Abracadabra
With a satisfied sigh he opens his eyes, his gaze going from simple infatuation to something darker. When the song ends he pulls you close, so you’re chest to chest and reaches over, turning down the radio. 
“So…” You can’t stop smiling as you stare at him through your lashes. 
“So.” He gently guides you, his hands on your hips as he walks you backwards until the backs of your knees hit the bed. 
“I’ve got a long day tomorrow, I should probably get some sleep.” You give him an exaggerated yawn and point at the bed, plastering a mock apologetic look on your face. 
“You’re really funny.” He leans down to give you a chaste kiss before picking you up. His strength is still a wonder to you. 
The way he throws you down onto your bed makes you erupt into a fit of giggles but he certainly isn’t laughing anymore as he drags you by your ankles to the edge of the mattress, a look of concentration on his face now. 
“Joel!” You shriek as you hear the tearing of the zipper on your jeans. 
“M’sorry.” He grumbles, making no effort to slow down as he tugs them down. 
He doesn’t sound sorry.
“It’s a zipper, just unzip it for Christ's sake.” His sudden change in demeanor leaves you a little breathless, in the blink of an eye he’s gone from remarkably gentle to practically unhinged.
“S’too late for that.” He groans softly as he kneels on the camper floor, throwing your legs over his shoulders. 
“You owe me a new pair-” Your voice trails off into a stuttered moan as his mouth latches onto the front of your panties, dragging his tongue over the wet spot that’s been forming all night. 
“We can go to the mall sometime this week.” He mumbles against your cunt before you feel his teeth grazing the fabric before tearing it apart completely. 
“Jesus, Joel!” Instinctively your hands grip his hair as he buries his face between your legs. 
How sharp are his teeth? 
He’s all consuming. Like he’s trying to lay claim to every single part of you. And he’s loud, it’s a good thing you don’t have neighbors. Lewd slurping noises as he laps at your dripping hole like it’s his fucking job. 
He flattens his tongue, dragging it through your folds, for a moment you aren’t sure what he’s doing, but it feels fucking amazing. The way his tongue moves in and out of you, occasionally drawing a lazy circle around your clit, it isn’t like anything anyones ever done before. It takes you a moment to realize that he isn’t necessarily trying to make you feel good (despite the effect it may be having on you,) you’re pretty sure he’s tasting you. 
Drinking you in. If he’s trying to get you off it’s only because he wants more. 
“S’ so sweet.” He mumbles against your thigh, biting the meat there making you cry out a bit before he returns to his work between your legs. 
“Joel- fuck, Joel please.” You manage to stutter out between gasps, when did he become so gruff? You never could have predicted that he would be like this in bed, his grip on you is certain to leave bruises and you can barely think straight after just a few minutes with his head between your thighs. The noises he makes as his lips wrap around your clit are down right pornagraphic. Your vision is starting to go white around the edges as he does the first gentle thing since he started, sucking that bundle of nerves almost lazily. Through shuttered breaths you manage to mumble out his name a few more times your vision whites out completely. 
You’re a little surprised at how quickly he manages to pull an orgasm from you, your skin coated in a thin sheen of sweat as you sit up, pulling him up by his hair as you crash your lips against his, tasting your own slick on his tongue. He moves so feverishly as you feel his hands spreading you again, teasing your entrance with two fingers before slowly pushing them in. 
“Joel- oh my god-” He silences your rambling with his mouth again, swallowing your groan once he’s knuckle deep inside you. His brows furrow in concentration as he starts to pump them in and out of you. “P-please.” You stammer out. 
It’s such a sharp contrast to the Joel you’re used to, he’s so… unruly. 
“So fucking tight.” He mutters before grinding his palm against your clit, pulling another series of gasps from your throat. “Such a pretty, tight, wet cunt.” He whispers against your jaw and you feel a third finger pushing into you. 
You hadn’t expected him to be so vulgar, turns out he’s only all southern manners outside of the bedroom. You’re starting to see stars all over again as you feel the stretch of his thick fingers, he nips at your jaw before pressing them in deep, focusing on grinding the heel of his palm into your clit until you’re soaking his hand, hands tugging at his hair as a second orgasm is ripped out of you with a shudder. Your head falls back with a noisy whine, you can’t decide if you want more or less, his touch burns your skin but you feel so cold without it.  
“Please, please Joel.” You exhale the words, scratching lightly at his shoulders with a whine. 
“Tell me what you want.” His voice is lower than ever and you watch as he unzips his jeans, shoving them off and taking his cock in between his fingers, still slick with your release. Your eyes go wide as he strokes himself a few times, he’s thick, hefty, you’re trying not to stare slack-jawed at the way he fills his own hand.  You grab the bottom of his shirt, pulling it off in an attempt to feel more of his skin against you.
“Fuck me… please.” You tack on the please at the end hoping he doesn’t make you wait much longer as you gawk at his pretty tan skin. You don’t even know where to look, you run your fingers through the coarse sprinkle of black and gray hair on his chest as he crawls further up the bed to hover above you.
He takes your thighs, pushing them up against your stomach, his eyes dark with something reminiscent of hunger. You hook your own arms around your knees to keep yourself in that position as he takes hold of his cock once more, guiding himself into you with a strangled groan.
“Christ…” He mumbles under his breath as he slides just the tip of himself in, your own breath hitching at the size of him. He tilts head town, pressing a soft kiss to your chin. 
He splays his palms out on your thighs, leveraging himself as he carefully rocks his hips back and forth, slowly working himself into you. The camper fills with the sounds of your collective noises. Joel is loud. Grunting and growling as he fully buries himself in your heat. 
He scans your face for signs of distress, tears pricking the corners of your eyes, the tiniest sting from the stretch pulls a whine out of you but you only nod as he stares into your eyes. 
“More, Joel.”
Once he has your approval he starts moving, setting a pace that for a few thrusts is slow before picking up. Quickly becoming downright brutal, every slam of his pelvis against yours drives his cock deeper into you. He feels as if he was made for this, he’s just big enough that it doesn’t hurt, simply an overwhelming feeling of fullness. 
Your body begins to tense up all over again, you wrap your arms around his torso as much as you can in this position, scratching at his back. He leans forward, going in for a kiss before moving around your face, kissing your jaw, forehead, nose, and temples. When he kisses the apples of your cheeks you feel his tongue darting out. 
Did he just lick up a tear? 
He snaps his hips forward, disrupting your train of thought, his teeth barred as he does so, eyes fixed on every one of your reactions. He’s practically snarling as you let your head fall back against the mattress, the head of his cock driving into your g-spot.
“Wanna come again already, bunny?” You make a real spectacle of yourself, hooking your legs around his waist, trying to pull him in deeper. “Greedy little thing…”
“Joel please-”
“Joel please.” He mocks. “Is that all you can say now?” You keen softly but he only grins as you tighten around him. 
“P-please…” You squeak out as he snaps hips forward once more. 
“Come again, I wanna feel this pretty cunt come.” He snarls against your neck, leaving a trail of bites until he reaches your shoulder, a particularly harsh bite has you crying out.
“Joel!” You grit your teeth, a wave of heat washes over you as you come one last time, you feel his tongue dragging across the bite mark. 
It’s all so close to being painful.
Your stomach aches from the overstimulation, and you register a faint stinging feeling when he laps at the bite. Your walls clench around him, strangling his cock, and his hands instantly leave your legs, gripping the sheets instead.  
“Fuck, fuck.” He barely pulls out in time, coming on your stomach. You reach down in your haze, scooping some of his load onto your finger before sliding them between your lips. 
Fucking salted caramel. 
Sweet and sticky on your tongue. 
He pants above you, watching with an intoxicated look as you dip your fingers into his cum over and over again until your stomach is bare.
He nudges his nose against yours, rubbing every part of his face against you for a few minutes. It’s wildly intimate and you're once again a little taken aback by his sudden tone shift. 
“Was that okay?” He drawls, once again searching your face for any indication that you might not be. 
You nod, beaming up at him and letting him rest the bridge of his nose on yours for a few moments more before you slip out of his arms, stepping into the bathroom. You relieve yourself before going to sort yourself out in the mirror. 
You’re bleeding. 
Where he bit you, two mirroring crescents, red and angry on your shoulder, leaking blood. 
“Shit.” You grab a handful of toilet paper, wiping it clean before rinsing it in the sink and returning to him.  
“Everything okay?” He’s pulled his boxers on, tossing you his shirt which you’re eager to put on. You don’t want him to see the bite. 
“Everything’s fine.” You crawl back up into the bed beside him. 
He stays the night, pulling you to his chest and caging you in with his arms. 
And you aren’t haunted by dreams. 
In the morning a part of you worries he’ll disappear all over again, you’re a little surprised when he texts you just a few minutes after he drives off.  [ can’t wait to see you again soon bunny ]
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Joel follows through on his promise. 
A few days later he picks you up from work and drives you to the outlet mall about an hour away, saying he needs to get some stuff for Ellie as well. Apparently she likes to throw plates so he wants to find the kind that suction onto the table. As he drives the radio plays a country song you don’t recognize which he hums along to as you watch the trees outside the window. 
“You know, I’ve been meaning to ask you about my aunt.” He turns the music down once you start speaking. 
“Darlene? You probably know her better than I do.” He doesn’t seem very eager to talk about her but it only makes you want to know more. 
“Doubt it. All I know about her is that she wasn’t close with anyone in my family.”
“You weren’t close? But she left you her camper.”
“That’s why I need to know anything you might know about her, I know nothing.” He seems hesitant and you’re worried if you keep pushing it he won’t tell you anything at all. 
“She was a lonely old woman, had me fix things for her often, I honestly think she just wanted company.” His voice softens a bit as he says it. 
“She didn’t have friends here in Honey?” 
“Not that I know of, she was a bit of a shut in, sweetest woman I’ve ever met, just a bit… skittish. She worked from home and I’m pretty sure someone delivered her groceries. The only time I ever saw her outside was when I was fixing her roof and she sat in a lawn chair to talk to me while I did.” 
“She worked from home?” 
“Yeah, something on her laptop, I’m not entirely sure.” You’ve never seen a laptop. 
You’ve been living in the camper for nearly six months and you’ve never seen a laptop. 
But that’s not what interests you the most right now. 
“What do you mean by skittish?” You’re trying to gauge his reaction but he doesn’t seem to have one. 
“Maybe skittish isn’t the right word. Eccentric? Some of the kids in town called her ditzy Darlene.” His expression sours as he says it. 
“That’s horrible.”
“It was.”
“Why?” He seems more reluctant than ever but now you’re just upset on behalf of the woman who left you everything.
“She fed into a lot of the legends around town, and didn't seem to have any hobbies outside of monster hunting.”
“Monster hunting?”
“She was the only local who went to the gift shops, searching for a monster she swears she saw.”
Sounds familiar.
“Did she ever find any?” 
“Monsters?” He laughs. “Not that I know of.”
“Did you think she was crazy?”
“I think she was lonely, and I think when you spend that much time alone your mind can wander.”
“But did you think she was crazy?” 
“No.” He puts an end to the conversation by putting the truck in park. You hadn’t even realized you were there, the outlet mall is so small. His southern manners remain persistent as he jogs around the truck to open your door for you, holding onto you to provide balance as you hop out.
You aren’t sure where anything is so you just follow him, taking his hand in yours as you walk. He takes you into a clothing store you don’t recognize the name of and waits patiently as you try on a few different pairs of jeans. It’s been quite some time since you’ve bought new clothes so you get a few pairs, you’re worried it’s boring for him to just wait outside the changing room but when you walk out with three pairs slung over your arm he still looks happy as can be. When you go to pay he opens his wallet, silencing your protests with a reminder that it’s his fault you needed new jeans in the first place. 
After that he takes his time, the two of you walk hand in hand through each store, he doesn’t even look around most of them, seemingly content with just spending time with you. 
He manages to find a few rubber bowls with suction cup bottoms for Ellie as well as some spanish flashcards and you decide to get a pair of blue hiking boots, if you’re gonna be walking everywhere you might as well be comfortable. 
At the last store you stop at you find a nice perfume, spraying a bit into the air and inhaling. It reminds you of springtime, it’s light, floral, but when Joel catches a whiff of it he scrunches his nose up. 
“You don’t like it?” You set the bottle back down. 
“I like the way you smell now.” You frown, trying to remember what shampoo and body wash you’ve been using. If you recall correctly it’s just some generic brand you’d bought ages ago. 
“I didn’t know you spoke spanish?” You remark, pointing at the bag containing the cards, opting to just change the subject rather than give yourself a headache trying to remember. 
“I don’t, but Sarah does and she’s been insisting I teach Ellie while she’s gone, something about it being better if she’s bilingual.”
“I think that’s sweet.” You swing your arms a bit, keeping his hand in yours as he walks you out of the store and in the direction of the truck. 
“Of course you think it’s sweet, you're not the one with two daughters who will be using their secret language against you.” He takes his keys from his pocket, clicking the unlock button. 
“It’s not a secret language, if your baby can learn it then I’m sure you can.” He helps you up into the truck once more, shutting the door behind you.
It’s almost comically difficult to keep your hands off him when you’re alone, especially now that you have a taste for him. Even just being in the truck with the windows up is suffocating, the smell of his aftershave or his laundry detergent drives you mad the moment you’re stuck in an enclosed space with him. 
You slide across the truck so you’re in the middle seat as he pulls out of the parking lot. It’s like you feel sick when you aren’t touching him, like you’re suffering from this barely noticeable nausea and you don’t realize you were even dealing with it until it’s gone. 
You watch curiously as he keeps one hand on the wheel and brings the other to rest on your thigh. His shoulders relax the moment he does, his frown lines smooth themselves out a bit. 
He’s just so warm, and he’s so nice to be near. Today he smells like a candle you used to have, something you lit around Christmas time. He smells like cookies and peppermint. 
You can’t help but turn your head a bit, trying to discreetly inhale the scent of his jacket.
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To say that Joel Miller becomes the perfect boyfriend would be an understatement. 
He drives you to work, he sends you flowers, (which gets confusing in a funeral home.) he holds open doors, and he always texts you back. 
Quite literally everything gets better once he’s back in your life. 
You don’t get anymore mangled bodies, only a few from the nursing home and one from a nearby hospital, it’s mostly just funeral planning these days. You see Joel daily, Maria and Tommy seem a little surprised every time he dotes on you and you can’t help but wonder what he’s done to earn such a reaction, but he’s so sweet you hardly care. Between both of you working and him having a toddler you’re shocked he makes as much time for you as he does. You see him every morning when he takes you into work but he also insists on seeing you twice a week, whether it’s going out, or ordering in, or just dragging him into your bed, he always makes time for you. 
You even spend a little time with Ellie. Joel spends a lot of time with her at the funeral home so you often see her in little doses, she seems indifferent towards you which worries you until you realize she acts that way towards everyone but her father. It’s remarkable to watch him with her, he’s soft with you but with her it’s something else entirely. She sticks to him like glue and you’ve never once seen him look bothered by that fact, you assume she’d get bored just sitting in his arms but she never does. He likes to tell her jokes and you aren’t even sure she understands them but without fail she bursts into a fit of giggles every time he gets to the punchline. 
It’s good with him, everything is easier. Everything just sort of makes sense with Joel and for the first time in a long time everything feels right. 
Until the morning you wake up, a sticky feeling between your legs and an ache in your belly.
“Shit.” You roll out of bed, quickly shedding your clothes, tossing them into the laundry bin before texting Joel.
[ hot date idea for us, you drive me to the laundromat and then watch me do my laundry ] 
Setting your phone down you hop into the shower, washing away the blood with a groan, you spend far too long under the water, when you finally step out and check your phone you’re running late, you pull open the curtains a bit to see if Joel’s already waiting for you but much to your confusion you aren’t met with the familiar sight of the truck.
You had never really discussed him driving you to work; it was just something he’d started doing, you probably shouldn’t have expected it to be a permanent thing. 
You haphazardly pull yourself together, tossing on whatever looks clean before grabbing your phone and bag, rushing out the door. 
The cool morning air stings your face as you quickly walk down the familiar gravel driveway towards the home, you’re already preparing your excuse for why you’re so late but Maria doesn’t even notice as you step into the office, she’s busy on a call.
You recognize the look on her face, she’s talking to a family. You step inside, taking a seat in one of the chairs across from her desk as you wait. She seems to be at the end of the conversation. 
You couldn’t be more grateful that she takes care of telling the families. You’ve never been good at that kind of thing. She hangs up with a gentle, goodbye, smiling up at you as you try and imagine a situation in which your job was to deliver such terrible news. 
The ache in your stomach snaps you back to reality. 
Fuck. You forgot to bring anything.
“Any chance you have a pad?” You give her an apologetic look.
Based on her expression you’d think you’d just asked her for a lung. Several emotions flash across her face in an instant, but mostly she looks like someone who just solved a riddle that had been plaguing them for quite some time. She snaps out of it quickly though, giving you a curt nod. 
“Of course, let me just run upstairs.”
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It’s an older man, graying and wearing what is obviously hiking gear.
Poor guy. 
He’s torn apart, the worst you’ve seen so far, his limbs have all been individually torn off, they lay, separated from the rest of him on the table. 
It’s an open casket so you’re gonna be down here all day. 
You text Joel one last time before setting your phone down. 
[ gonna be pretty busy all day, got another bear attack, i’ll call you when i’m on my way home. ] 
With that you get to work, putting on your gown and gloves, and starting at the torn clothes. It’s hard to figure out where his clothes start and his skin ends with the condition his body is in but you manage to cut him out of everything so you can properly assess the damage. 
You’re getting used to seeing these messy wounds, the sight of torn flesh. It should be a pretty easy job all things considered. He’ll be in a suit so you’ll just reattach everything and no one will ever have to see the extent of his wounds. 
You check everything twice, making sure that you’ve got the left and right correct before you start sewing things back up. You try to mimic the way you saw Maria do it, careful and practiced stitches.
You finish the legs easily enough, both had been ripped off just above the knee, you’re about to start on the arms when you drop the needle in surprise. 
How didn’t you realize this before? 
You’ve been preparing these bodies for weeks now and you’ve never once noticed one harrowing detail. You’re used to tending to bodies that have already seen a pathologist. Bodies with their organs in a bag, with their blood drained, ready to be prepared for a funeral or cremation. And you’ve been so focused on doing a good job to impress Maria that you’ve failed to take note of the most obvious thing before you. 
There’s no blood. 
None of the bodies you’ve tended to from the bear attacks have blood, all of their organs remain intact but because Maria declares cause of death you know she doesn’t drain them. You’ve drained everyone who hasn’t been sent in from a bear attack. 
Maybe Maria drained them before you got in.
But that isn’t possible, you know that, you’d have seen the equipment, and you’ve gotten bodies straight from the scene, already drained. 
You reach over to grab a scalpel off the table. 
You shouldn’t do this. You could probably be fired for it, but as long as no one finds out you’ll be fine. All the damage to this cadaver has been done to its limbs, so hypothetically, if you were to slice open his chest you would see blood, dried or otherwise. 
So you do just that. 
You carve out a small, clean, incision vertically on his sternum. 
Nothing. 
You’ve got a pen flashlight that you shine into his chest cavity only to find his organs. Dry. 
He’s been completely drained of his blood. 
You stitch him up quickly, finishing the job as swiftly as possible before running up the stairs, mumbling a rushed excuse to Maria before running the entire way home. 
Joel doesn’t text you back. 
This isn’t happening, not again, he wouldn’t do this again. 
You feel like you’re gonna be sick. 
An image flashes through your mind. 
Joel.
Lips curled back in a snarl. 
No. That wasn’t real, it was just a dream. Although the line between the two has been getting blurrier. 
Joel isn’t out there draining people of their blood, that’s absurd, even if he goes missing and those dates happen to coincide with the days that you get bloodless corpses. 
It’s a coincidence. 
Or it isn’t. 
Maybe for one second you should just let yourself consider the possibility that something is terribly wrong. 
You thoroughly check the two bodies you get the next day. 
They come in together, a couple from out of state hiking in the park. Neither one of them bleeds. 
The day after that you wake up early and walk to the funeral home as the sun rises. You watch the hearse wheel in the body, and you make sure you’re the first person to see her. 
A tragically beautiful woman who appears to be in her late forties, maybe early fifties. 
None of her wounds are bloody, and when you open her chest cavity it’s like someone drank her insides with a straw. 
You’re nearly at your breaking point, nothing you’re looking at makes any sense. 
You spend that night in bed, unable to sleep as you try and figure out what the hell is going on. 
Joel doesn’t answer your calls. 
He doesn’t respond to your several angry texts. 
And something deep down within you tells you that asking Maria would be a mistake. 
You’re completely alone on this. 
So you call Maria and you tell her that you’re sick and won’t be in tomorrow. Then you look up the bus schedule in and out of town.
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The bus comes in and out of Honey twice, every other day. Lucky for you, today is one of the days the bus will be there in the morning, and return in the evening. 
The bus stop is empty when you arrive, the misty morning air clings to your skin as you stare out into the surrounding forest. 
Something is out there. 
And you’re gonna find out what it is.
You can’t keep being afraid, this is your home now, and you won’t be driven away by some imaginary monster. 
It starts to drizzle when you look out the window of the bus, watching Honey disappear behind you. 
You have a plan. 
Well sort of. 
You’re going to find some literature on the subject. You’re sick of feeling crazy so you’re going to prove yourself right. Something is very wrong in Honey, and monster or not, you’re going to figure it out. 
You don’t catch the name of the town you end up in, you just get off at the stop that looks the most tourist friendly, assuming that there has to be a book store somewhere in town. 
You only have to walk main street for a few minutes before you find it. 
It’s a quaint little shop tucked in between an attorney's office and a gift shop. 
Betty’s Books
Dimly lit and jam packed wall to wall with books, a small elderly woman sits behind the counter, reading a Stephen King novel. 
“Excuse me?” You clear your throat as she looks up at you over her wiry glasses. 
“How can I help you?” Her smile is warm, it fills the entire shop with an aura of comfort. 
You’re going to sound ridiculous. And the moment you do this you’ll be speaking it into existence. 
You don’t have any other options. 
“Do you have anything on local urban legends?” You try not to sound too ashamed but her smile never falters as she points. 
“Back left corner, dear.” 
“Thank you.”
“Let me know if you need anything else.” She’s already buried her nose back in her book before you turn towards the rest of the shop. 
You begin searching the shelves for anything that could possibly help you, there’s several different books on bigfoot and the loch ness monster. There are a lot of empty spaces between books and you have to assume that this is what most tourists are buying. 
People in search of ghosts and myths. 
Are you any better than them? 
Running out into the darkness, looking for a monster you very well may have made up. 
You look through a few more options before finally settling on a thick, leather bound book, you pull it from its place and stare down at the embossed cover. 
A Beginners Guide to Cryptozoology : West Virginian Monsters 
You aren’t going to find a better place to start. 
You move back towards the front, stopping in front of the children's section.
Lullabies & Poems for Bedtime 
A rabbit with a pocket watch, asleep under a tree, adorns the cover. 
Ellie might like that. 
Even if you’re madder than hell at her father. 
You grab the little white book, setting both onto the counter, paying before stepping out into the rain. You’ve got hours until the bus back to Honey returns so you quickly make your way to a diner across the street, keeping the books tucked into your jacket. 
A little bell chimes as you push the door open, sitting yourself at one of the free booths you set the books down on the table. 
The waitress brings you coffee and water as you set your jacket aside, you order a plate of fries just to give you something to do as you watch the rain on the diner windows for a bit. 
Eventually you know you can’t put it off anymore so you open up the book and sit back, taking care to read every single page, not wanting to miss a thing. 
The first thing you learn is that there are a startling number of unnamed monsters. 
It covers the basics in the first few chapters, mothman, bigfoot, chupacabra, and werewolves, but the second half of the book is entirely monsters with no names, only ink drawing accompanying the descriptions. For a while you find nothing, eventually ordering a milkshake which you sip as you skim the pages.
After two hours you’re about to give up when you stumble across a page that finally shows something familiar. 
A drawing of a body, mangled, with wounds you recognize. 
Five slashes across the chest, both arms completely torn off. 
This creature is thought to reside only in heavily wooded areas, it was speculated to be located in the southern United States for several decades before disappearing completely. 
Since then people have claimed to have seen this creature in many different locations although the majority seem to be centralized to the east coast of North America, resembling a lich, or a wendigo. 
When you turn the page the illustration of the monster stares back at you. 
It’s hard to make out what’s what and it looks mostly like inky scribbles but within those lines you see the creature you’ve been imagining. Long, sharp limbs, massive shoulders, and a face almost reminiscent of a humans, everything is just… distorted. 
While technically unnamed, there are many unique pieces of folklore attached to this specific creature. Witnesses claim to have seen this monster transform from human to creature and vice versa, as if they walk among us in their free time. 
What sets the creature apart from many other creatures of this variety is their affinity for humans. More often than not we’ve gotten reports of these creatures seeking out human mates.
We have several different claims from people saying they’ve seen the transformation happen right before their very eyes. One man claimed to have watched his sister in law turn at Thanksgiving dinner. Another says that he saw a cousin's boyfriend disappear into the woods during a wedding, transforming into a beast as he did. 
According to old legends there is thought to be a connection between these creatures and their mates, quite literally bonding them in blood. The males are believed to be linked to their human mates menstrual cycles; if they have one, the females are linked to their own. There are many different descriptions of what this means for human mates. Some believe that when this creature comes in contact with their mate that they permanently revert to their human forms. Others believe they’re hunger for flesh only grows after coming in contact with them.
But most believe that they eat their mate. Plain and simple. That their blood is more potent to them than anyone else’s, so much so that any love they may harbor for them is irrelevant, they are simply blinded by their bloodlust. 
Its victims often resemble that of an animal attack. Bodies torn apart, mangled, often believers of this legend are ‘disproven’ because of this fact, but there is always one thing that separates this creature's kills from that of an animal. Animals who eat their victims will do exactly that, eat them, this creature does no such thing, while it does massacre its victims it will rarely consume its flesh, preferring the taste of blood. 
There have been no confirmed sightings of these creatures and we have been unable to trace its origins or obtain any photographic evidence, maybe it really is just an animal. 
Monster or bear? It’s up to you.
It’s up to you. 
You slam the book shut.
It’s nonsense. 
Joel isn’t some blood drinking, period monster. But you came all this way, looking for a monster, and seemingly you’ve found it. 
You pick up the little book for Ellie, taking a sip of your coffee. 
Maybe it’ll make you feel better. 
You open it to find a familiar little song on the inside of the cover.
I know you,
I walked with you once upon a dream. 
You flip through it, mostly admiring the beautiful illustrations, they look like watercolors. There’s a frog with a crown, princesses with flowing gowns and witches grinning up at you from the pages. It isn’t until some random page in the middle that you actually stop to read the poem. The drawing accompanying this one isn’t colorful, only black ink, a drastic change from everything so far. 
Jabberwocky
By: Lewis Carroll 
It unsettles you to look at so you focus on the words instead. You know this creature, it’s from Alice in Wonderland. The poem is whimsical, you can imagine a child finding it rather entertaining should a parent read it with enthusiasm. You don’t have a parent reading it to you though, you’re alone, staring at the lines that have caught your eye. 
Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
No more books today. 
When you check your phone there are no new notifications. So Joel is either a terrible boyfriend or a potential murderer. 
How comforting. 
Fuck it. 
You click on his contact.
[ TEXT ME BACK RIGHT NOW. OR WE’RE THROUGH. ] 
Monsters aren’t real. 
Joel Miller is just the worst boyfriend (soon to be ex-boyfriend) on the planet. 
It doesn’t help that you catch a glimpse of a tampon wrapper in your bag when you throw your phone back into it. 
It’s a coincidence. 
You can’t say anything to anyone about this, how would it look if ditzy Darlene’s niece showed up and started spinning stories of her own? You can’t do it, you know exactly what people would say. They’d say it ran in the family and they’d find a reason to be cruel to her even in death. 
So you take the bus home in silence. 
For the next few days barely speak to Maria other than polite greetings, you’re certain she doesn’t notice, both of you are swamped. You’ve got a body everyday the rest of the week and she’s up to her neck in paperwork. 
And Joel never texts.
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Maria’s juggling Ellie and trying to fill out papers when you get in the next morning. 
“Thank god you’re here, can you run upstairs and grab something for me, there’s a little makeup bag on the counter in the bathroom, I forgot it earlier and I’m waiting on a phone call regarding the couple we had.” 
“Of course.” You set your things down before reaching for Ellie. “Here, let me take her so you can do that.”
“You’re a lifesaver, thank you.” Almost as if on cue the phone rings the moment she says it. You head towards the stairs, the toddler in your arms scrunches up her face as if trying to recall your identity. 
“You know me, silly, I’m friends with your daddy.” At the mention of her father she seems to relax and you open the door at the top of the stairs. 
You’ve never actually been in this part of the house before, you’ve always stayed in the business section. You don’t get a chance to look around, the bathroom is the first door on your left. A bag the size of a pencil box is on the counter, you hand it to Ellie, her little hands play with the bag as you carefully bounce her in your arms. 
“Do you know where your daddy is?” You poke her in the belly making her smile at you for the first time. “Not gonna snitch?” You tickle her side, earning a tiny giggle. You let her play with the zipper as you bring her back downstairs. “Any bodies today?” You yell as you descend the stairs. 
“Had a cremation from the home this morning, I’ve just got a lot of papers, I’m planning six funerals simultaneously right now.” 
Six massacred corpses in six days. 
“Where’s Tommy?” Ellie puts up a bit of a fight for the bag but you set it down on the desk just in time to watch Marias grip on her pen tighten. 
Yikes. Must be a sore spot right now. 
“He’s got a work thing, left me with that little monster.” She uses the pen to point at the toddler who’s already starting to get antsy in your arms. 
If you’ve got no bodies today you might as well offer to help.
“I can watch Ellie if you’d like.” 
“Really? You don’t mind?”
“Of course not, want me to keep her upstairs? I’m sure you don’t want me watching her in the basement.” You laugh a little as she nods. 
“You really are a lifesaver, I don’t know how I managed without you.” 
“Oh stop, you clearly did just fine before I came along.” Your face gets a bit hot at the compliment. 
“I’ll be up in a few hours once I finish up here, you two have fun.” She doesn’t give any instruction beyond that so you just take Ellie back upstairs. You haven’t spent much time with her beyond the small interactions in passing but you know she doesn’t like doing nothing unless it’s with Joel. She’s trying to get out of your arms the second you’re at the top of the stairs. You set her down in the entryway and she’s already running into the kitchen. 
You don’t want to snoop but you actually get to take a good look around as Ellie settles in front of a pile of notebooks and a mess of crayons on the kitchen floor. It’s a pretty open floor plan, the kitchen and living room are all one big room and from the looks of it they must watch Ellie often, an outsider would assume they have a child of their own. A play pen is set up on the floor of the living room and toys are scattered everywhere. 
“Are you hungry, sweetie? Do you want something to eat?” There’s different snacks on the counter as you walk over to where she’s playing. 
“Yes please.” Her voice is clear and high pitched, you’re actually a little surprised, you didn’t even know she could talk, she’s always silent when you’re around. There’s an assortment of different things on the counter so you just find something that’s already open. Handing her a little container of apple puffs, she doesn’t look up from her drawings, just blindly reaching over and grabbing a handful as you sit at the counter to watch over her. 
She’s a very well behaved baby all things considered. 
You have to stop her from drawing on the walls a few times and at one point she stuffed a handful of food between the couch cushions but other than that she’s rather relaxed. She sits and draws mostly, only occasionally getting up and doing a few laps around the room before returning to her papers. 
At one point she makes her way to where you’re sitting, slapping your leg to get your attention until you pick her up, she points to the window above the sink and when you take her there she simply stares out at the trees. 
She’s focused on the woods as you watch her expression, her face is oddly serious. 
After a few minutes you set her down, unease filling your body. She doesn’t seem to mind though as she runs back to her drawings, you return to the counter, checking your phone for a few minutes until she appears in your peripherals once more, tapping your leg again, handing you one of her drawings. 
At several different moments this week you’ve thought that you’ve reached your breaking point. 
None of those compare to how you feel when you pick up the paper Ellie had been scribbling on. 
It’s crude and mostly indiscernible but you know exactly what you’re looking at. 
A monster. 
A broad shouldered, sharp toothed, crayon monster. 
You stare at the little girl, trying to keep your composure as you pick her up, setting her in your lap and pointing at the mess of scribbles on the page. 
You feel crazier than ever, asking a toddler for help but no one else is around and you’re running out of options. 
“Can you tell me what that is, sweetie? What did you draw?” You hand her the drawing back which she crumples a bit in her fist before setting it on the counter, you point again at the creature. “Ellie, honey, can you tell me what this is please?” You’re doing your best to keep calm as she kicks her legs a bit before staring up at you with a frown. 
“Daddy?” For someone so small she speaks so loudly and clearly, but you just shake your head. 
“I know, honey, you want your daddy, I wish I knew where he was but you’re stuck with me today.” You smooth out her hair a bit as she scrunches up her face, looking rather upset. 
“Tío.” She points down at the drawing before looking back at you for approval, you just smile. You feel like an idiot. Asking a child for help. A child who can barely speak. 
“It’s okay, you’re too little to understand.” You hold her under one arm as you walk around the counter to the fridge. “How about I get you some juice.” 
You find a clean sippy cup, pouring her some apple juice before setting her back down, handing her the cup and searching through your bag. 
“I almost forgot, I got you a present.” She perks up immediately, setting her cup down as you hold the little white book out towards her.
“Thanks!” Her eyes light up as she takes it from you, it’s one of the few times you’ve seen her smile without her father being in the room, sitting on the floor before looking back up at you, tapping the spot next to her until you sit as well. 
“Do you want me to read it to you?” You watch as she sets it down in front of her, she’s surprisingly gentle as she flips open the cover. 
“No thank you.” She’s enraptured by the illustrations, not caring for the text, laying down on her stomach, and sitting up on her elbows as she slowly flips through the pages, her eyes wide as she points out everything she sees to you. You rub her back, nodding along, you’re mostly just happy that she’s excited. 
She kicks her feet as she explains the big red bird on the page to you. After a few more minutes of her babbling she turns the page again.
Jabberwocky 
She giggles wildly as she points at the page and suddenly you’re filled with dread all over again. She’s positively captivated by the drawing, refusing to turn to a different page when you urge her to move on.
You don’t speak again until Maria comes upstairs to check on her, when you do it’s to tell her you aren’t feeling well, and you’re going home.
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You’re going on a monster hunt. 
There’s nothing left to do. You need to soothe your fears before you lose it completely and you aren’t going to stare at the trees and wonder for the rest of your life. 
You stop at one of the tourist traps in town, you need supplies for tonight. 
A camera. 
It’s an easy in and out stop. You buy a polaroid camera, and several packs of film. 
No one will believe you otherwise, you’ll be ridiculed the same way they did Darlene. You think of her as you walk back home, what if she was right about everything? She spent her life in fear of a monster no one believed in and they mocked her for it, and at the end of the day she might have been right. 
Maybe the monster is real and it isn’t Joel. 
Either way you’re going into the woods tonight. Your backpack is packed with the essentials, your water bottle, camera, an extra film pack, one of the knives from the kitchen (wrapped in a towel,) and a flashlight. 
Once you’re packed you put your boots and jacket on and head out. 
It’s like everything quiets down the moment you step outside. The forest hums, beckoning you in, and how could you refuse such an offer? 
You manage to keep your hands steady as you flip the switch on your flashlight, stepping into the trees. It feels so much colder now than it did when you were walking home. 
With dusk settling the sun is no longer there to keep you warm or to guide your way. You haven’t actually seen much of the forest, so you decide to walk in a straight line to avoid getting lost as you carefully step over a tangle of roots. As a child you loved nothing more than playing in the woods behind your house. But after just half an hour in these woods you suddenly resent the trees, they no longer bring you any comfort as you carry on into the cold dark night. You’re just about to give up and turn back around when suddenly something changes.  
Without warning and with seemingly no cause you feel a chill rush through your body, your hair standing on end. Your blood runs cold and you hear a sound you’re all too familiar with at this point. 
The tearing sound rips through the air. 
Your instincts tell you that you’ve become prey rather suddenly in this situation but you can’t turn back now, not when you can prove to yourself that you aren’t losing it. 
As quietly as possible you reach back into your pack, grabbing the camera already loaded with film and holding it in your free hand. The beam coming from your flashlight trembles slightly as you carry on towards the noise. 
It’s louder than it ever was in the dreams. In the dreams it was subdued, almost as if you subconsciously knew that it couldn’t hurt you. As you carry onward you can’t help but wonder if you’re just imagining it at this point. It doesn’t seem to get louder as you walk. It simply fills the air completely, you’re being directed purely by your instincts. You know it’s this way as you move forward a few more steps. 
You scan the trees with your light, seeing nothing out of the ordinary until you finally see it. Your finger instinctively flips off your flashlight. 
You almost didn’t catch it. 
But your legs keep moving and you get closer and closer to the hunched figure. 
It’s hard to describe, like your eyes don’t want to accept what you’re seeing. A voice in the back of your mind tells you that you’re getting too close but you can’t seem to stop yourself as you carry on until you can get a good look at it. 
You can’t help but breathe a sigh of relief as you realize it isn’t Joel. But that relief only lasts a moment as you see what you’re actually dealing with. 
You aren’t sure how big it is. It’s big. That much is clear but it’s crouched down, it’s almost human, it may have once been human. You’re having trouble making out most of it in only the moonlight. It’s less broad than the illustrations you’ve seen, almost slim, with how close you are now you can see that it’s eating. 
A buck, one of the biggest ones you’ve ever seen is splayed out across some rocks. It’s stomach has been ripped open. You watch, with morbid fascination as it digs its maw deeper into the gore. 
How curious, it’s wearing clothes. Or at least the remains of some clothing, a bit of fabric clings to its crooked spine, it wears the tattered collar of a shirt like a necklace. Navy blue sweatpants stretch around the creature's waist, the fabric pulled taut, it looks like they make it just past its knees. The elastic around the ankles has snapped. 
The funniest part of all of this is that you feel nothing but fear for the creature. You aren’t disgusted and you certainly don’t hate it. You’re just afraid, so afraid that before you can slap your hand over your mouth you burst into a peal of laughter. 
Fuck. 
It all happens so fast, you aren’t ready in the slightest to be face to face with it and suddenly you are, purely on instinct your hand twitches and with the flash of the camera you get a single moment to stare at it. 
It’s so close to being human.
It’s mouth is too big, a blood soaked tongue falling past a row of jagged, pointed teeth. It’s almost like someone stretched out a person's face like it was made of clay. And it’s male. Intricate branching horns stretch out from under the hair crowning its head. 
“The doe’s don’t have antlers.”
Your dad was a hunter, you know your antlers,  you aren’t exactly sure but if it was a deer it would be a thirteen pointer. You should run, you’re about to but then you finally look it in the eye, just as the final remnants of the camera flash flicker out. 
There is something worse than hunger, or thirst, or rage in its eyes, if that was all there was you could scream or cry. But this leaves you frozen in place. 
Recognition. 
Like it knows you. 
And the moment it recognizes you it snarls, an ear-piercing sound that rips through the quiet of the forest, blood spewing from its maw at you, flecks of crimson tint your clothes and hands as your eyes go wide.
It’s a good thing your legs move faster than your brain, you’re already sprinting away from the creature. 
You lose your flashlight almost immediately but you know where you’re going, you couldn’t be more thankful for your decision to go in a straight line. You don’t stop moving, running blindly back the way you came, never once daring to look behind you. 
You know it’s there, you can hear it, and you can feel it. 
Its breath is hot on your heels, you can hear the branches splintering directly behind you. Everything is a blur, stray branches sting your exposed skin but you don’t stop, you can’t, your muscles ache as you push onward, keeping your hands out in front of you to guide you through the darkness until you finally see the road up ahead. 
You’re nearly there, almost feeling relief, almost. 
An icy hand wraps around your ankle, you’re yanked backwards before you can process what’s going on, your back dragging across the forest floor and in an instant you’re beneath it. 
This is it. 
You wanted a monster, you got one. And now you’re going to die for it. It snarls as its maw falls open, you’re face to face with a row of shimmering, gore smeared teeth. This is it. 
He smells like cinnamon. 
It tilts its head ninety degrees, its jaw closing in on your throat as you close your eyes, tears now flow freely down your face and finally you can’t contain your terror anymore. 
You scream. 
A trembling shriek falling from your lips and much to your confusion a killing blow never comes. After one more shuddering breath you open your eyes only to find you’re just staring up at the trees. You sit up, still out of breath. 
He’s a few feet away now. 
Thrashing around frantically as he stumbles backwards. As if your scream had upset him. He bellows, his twisted hands clutching his skull like he’s angry with himself. You cover your ears instinctively when it snarls in pain.
He can’t help it. 
You’re scrambling to your feet once more, giving him one final glance, you look into each other's eyes.
“Run.” 
It speaks. 
You break into a sprint once more, not daring to stop until your feet touch pavement. You don’t get the sense that you’re being followed anymore but you’re still in shambles. The adrenaline is slowly starting to fizzle out and you’re painfully aware of the wound you sustained during that encounter. Your ankle is torn up, two deep gashes from where it grabbed you are bleeding an alarming amount. You stumble, the sight of it making you nauseous. 
You get a moment's respite and you manage to compose yourself enough to retrieve your phone from your pocket. Walking backwards, keeping your eyes on the forest as you slowly continue to back away. In your desperation your blood stained fingertips frantically swipe across your phone screen, you don’t realize until it’s too late that you’re calling the only person who isn’t going to answer. 
Yet when you bring the phone to your ear you hear a click. 
“Joel?” You can’t fucking believe it. He actually picked up. 
“Sweetheart? Are you okay?” He can definitely hear the panic in your voice. 
You just break down.
“I’m by the road, on the way from Maria’s to my camper, I- I need you to come get me, please, it’s- it’s following me, but I think I lost it please, Joel.” You’re in hysterics as you catch a glimpse of one of the few streetlights down the road. You hear the sound of keys and you swear you hear Maria saying something in the background but you’re too frenzied to focus on that. 
“Who’s following you? Stay right there m’on my way.” You can hear the truck starting in the background as you keep running, not daring to stop even though it doesn’t feel like you’re being pursued anymore. 
“The monster… in the woods… it’s not a bear Joel.” You’re out of breath when you finally stop, standing in the middle of the road underneath the street lamp, spinning around to try and somehow keep an eye on all of the darkness around you. 
“Stay where you are, I’ll be there in two minutes, okay? Stay right where you are.” You’re about to beg him to hurry when the line goes dead. 
You must look like a mad woman. Standing in the middle of the street, covered in blood, and spinning in circles to try and keep an eye on every single direction as you listen for any signs of movement. 
Your heartbeat never slows, you can hear it pounding in the crushing silence that surrounds you. 
It only takes a few minutes before you see headlights approaching in the distance. You don’t even let the truck come to a full stop as you open the door and jump in, closing it behind you as you scramble towards Joel as if he could protect you from the goliath you saw in the darkness. 
“Drive! Now Joel, go!” You yell as he accelerates just to the point of following the speed limit as he heads towards your camper. 
“Bunny, please, calm down.” He wraps the hand that isn’t on the steering wheel around you but you shove him off, sliding back to the other side of the truck. 
“Don’t tell me to calm down, Joel, not after what I just went through, I saw it, a real monster grabbed me.” You’re stumbling over your words, trying to get them out as quickly as possible.
“Slow down, just tell me what happened.”
“I told you on the phone, I just found a fucking monster, Joel, that’s what happened.”
He’s gone silent now.
He probably thinks you’re crazy. 
That’s fine. You know you aren’t, you saw it, watched it feed. There’s deer blood on your boots. 
“You didn’t see a monster.” When you look he’s shaking worse than you are. You don’t dare turn your head further but you watch in your peripheral as he grips the steering wheel, his knuckles going white. 
He’s lying. 
Why would he lie? 
“I did, I took a-.” You reach into your bag and your stomach fills with dread as you realize you dropped the camera. 
“You didn’t. You’ve been spending too much time alone, and you shouldn’t be going out in the woods by yourself to begin with.” 
“And who’s fault is it that I’ve been alone?” You snap.
He doesn’t have a response to that. And you don’t have anything else to say, not like he’d believe you if you did. You should probably break up with him, for several reasons. 
Except you can’t. 
If you do, how will you stop people from being needlessly murdered? He may not be the monster, but he knows something, and you need to find out what it is. 
So you’ll ‘forgive’ him. Again. Because you need to get to the bottom of this.
And maybe, despite it all, you’re still terribly attached to him. He keeps disappearing, without warning and with halfhearted excuses as to why and all you can think about right now is how badly you missed him, and how badly you need him.  
“Does Tommy have Ellie tonight?” You mumble, trying not to sound too irritated. 
“I was stopping in to see her before leaving her with Maria for the night when you called.”
“Why?”
“I was gonna come over here and apologize.” He sounds just as sincere as he did last time but you still scoff.
“What’s the excuse this time?” When you turn to scowl at him he looks guilty.
“I was out of town on a work trip.”
“And you couldn’t answer your phone.”
“I forgot my charger at home.”
It’s a preconceived lie. You’re certain of it based on how quick he replies, and it’s not even a good one. He could have borrowed a coworker's phone or bought a new charger; it wouldn't have been difficult. But he doesn’t want you to know where he really was. 
Every bit of this confuses you. 
You saw something in the woods, but it wasn’t Joel? Joel was with Ellie and then he was with you, he couldn’t have been slaughtering lost hikers. It doesn’t make sense. One thing is for certain though, and it’s that you can’t break up with Joel until you know what's going on or more people are going to be killed by that thing you saw in the woods. You aren’t really sure what to call it, but you know that you found the thing that’s been killing. 
And he knows something about it. 
He had no reason to get as rattled as he did if he didn't know something about what you saw. So you can’t break up with him, not until you figure this all out. Until then you just have to play the part of a clueless, loving girlfriend. Which shouldn���t be too hard considering the fact that for some reason there is still a sick and twisted attraction to him despite everything you know, settling in your stomach. You bite your tongue, going the rest of the short drive in silence. When he finally pulls up to the camper the engine goes quiet as he turns the key. You had no intention of inviting him in but you won’t stop him if he follows. 
You slam the truck door shut, stomping up to the door, his footsteps following close behind. 
“Let’s talk about this.” He reaches for your arm as you’re unlocking the door but you just shove him off. You leave it open, kicking your shoes off as you slip out of your jacket as you flip on the lights. 
“I don’t want to talk.” He shuts the door behind him, you note that he locks it behind him. 
How presumptuous. 
Correct, but presumptuous. 
“You’re clearly upset, bunny.” He kneels down, untying his own boots before kicking them off. You glare down at him until he stands, trying to pull you into his arms but you just shove him away again. His eyes go wide as he takes you in.
Based on his reaction you really must be quite a sight. 
“Jesus, you’re a mess.” He looks genuinely concerned but you brush it off. 
“Thanks.” You scoff but when you look down you realize you’ve been leaving a trail of blood in your wake. 
“Do you have a first aid kit?” You should send him away. Tend to yourself and go to bed, but instead you just point to the cabinet containing the kit, sitting on the table as he retrieves it, tossing it down beside you. He doesn’t ask what happened, grimacing as he lifts your leg to examine your ankle.
He doesn’t need to ask, he knows what happened. 
He tends to your wounds in silence. You wince as he wipes the lacerations on your ankle, they look bad enough that you consider just going to the hospital but he doesn’t seem too worried. They’re just shallow enough that you don’t think you’ll need stitches. 
You don’t watch as he sprays it with antiseptic, quickly wrapping it in a layer of gauze and then bandages. 
When he’s finished you’re ready to get angry with him all over again but the moment you open your mouth to yell at him he grabs you by the chin, taking a clean piece of gauze and gently dabbing the thin cuts that litter your face. 
You stare up at the ceiling light, refusing to meet his gaze. 
He tends to every one of them, taking extra care as he smears ointment on each one. When he’s finished he takes anything bloodied and gathers it in his hand, standing to toss them into the bin under the sink. You don’t turn, but out of the corner of your eye you see him bring his hand to his mouth. 
Your blood.
He tasted your blood. 
You can feel the bile rising in your throat but you just swallow it back down. 
“Now we can talk.” He makes his way back over to you but you just shake your head. 
“I already told you, I don’t wanna talk.” 
“Bunny-” He takes another step towards you. 
“Shut up.” 
“Don’t be like that.” There’s real remorse in his eyes, you might even feel bad if you didn’t know that he was lying to you. 
“Shut. Up.” You push him so he stumbles back onto the bed. “I’m not crazy.” He props himself up on his elbows to look at you as you say it.
“I know.” He sounds almost apologetic. 
“Take your clothes off.” You mumble, already tossing your shirt to the side. 
“Are you sure?” 
You’re sure that he knows what’s out there in the woods and he isn’t telling you. 
“I am.” You kick your jeans off to emphasize your point. You know he won’t deny you this. Whatever sick, unexplainable force pulls you into his arms affects him as it does you. You don’t just want him, you need him. 
You hadn’t realized it until he’d disappeared again, but now you couldn’t be more aware. It’s as if your entire life you’ve felt wrong. You’ve been in a state of discomfort for as long as you can remember, like a vital part of you was missing. But you got used to it, and you learned to live with the odd sensation of never feeling like you're in the right place, nowhere ever felt like home. 
Joel feels like home, in a sort of twisted way. 
From the moment you first saw him everything cleared up. It was like you had finally found your center of balance, and when he disappeared he took all of that with him. 
This is more than just attraction. 
With that he tugs his flannel off, you grab the bottom of his shirt, impatiently pulling it up over his head, not wanting to look him in the eyes, you stare at his shoulders as you climb up onto the bed, straddling his lap. 
“I really think we should talk-” He starts again so you reach behind yourself, unclasping your bra, glaring at him as you let it drop.
“Then talk.” 
He looks at you like you’re something to eat. 
“That’s not fair.” He finally manages to pull his gaze off of your chest, looking you in the eyes, his pupils swallowing his irises leaving you to stare into the darkness of his eyes.  
“There’s nothing to talk about, you went away for work and you forgot your phone charger.” You reach between the two of you to remove his belt, tossing it behind him on the bed before trying to unzip his jeans. “It was just an unfortunate series of circumstances.” You grumble before lifting yourself off his lap so he can shove his jeans off.
He’s glaring at you now. Good. He should know that you’re challenging him. Everything from this point on is a game, you just have to catch him in a lie. You grind down against the straining fabric of his boxers, hands on his shoulders to balance yourself as you rub yourself against his clothed erection, drawing a hiss from between his teeth. Before you know it his hands are gripping the hem of your panties. 
“Go on Joel, rip them off. I know you’re plenty capable.” You say it like the accusation it is. He’s strong enough to do a lot of things, you aren’t sure if tearing a person in half is one of those things but you’re determined to find out. He knows what you’re implying but he does it anyway, grabbing the fabric on either side of your hips and easily tearing them to shreds. 
“You don’t know what you do to me.” He murmurs, leaning forward to press his forehead to yours. 
You do. 
He does the same to you. A carnal desire, your most basic human instincts are reduced to nothing the moment your skin is against his. 
You don’t waste any time, slipping your hand under the waistband of his underwear, watching his cock spring free, slapping against his stomach. You unceremoniously spit in your hand before taking him in your fist, watching his jaw go slack as you rake your nails against the underside of his cock, feeling him twitch in your hand. You keep your eyes trained on his face as you notch him at your entrance, tilting your head to the side as you hesitate. 
The veins in his neck jut out as you slide the head of his cock over your clit, hissing softly as you do. 
He’s purposefully showing restraint. 
He clutches the sheets, his knuckles go pale and you can’t help but wonder if he isn’t touching you because he’s worried he’ll hurt you. 
“Fuck me, Joel.” You lean forward, biting his stupidly plush bottom lip. He doesn’t move his hands from where they are and you can’t help but scowl against his mouth.   
He’s holding back. 
He knows exactly what you’re doing and he’s trying to prove you wrong. How long has he been holding back?
In one sharp motion you slide down on his cock, forcing an obscene moan out of yourself, but it isn’t loud enough to cover the ripping sound. Your eyes wander downward, his are rolled back but all you can focus on now is your torn bed sheets in his clenched fist. 
Holy hell.
“Fuck. Me.” You rasp out, lifting your hips again before dropping them back down. His head falls forward this time, his mouth latching onto your shoulder, muffling his growl.
You know that growl. 
“Fuck me or leave, Joel.” You take his face in your hand, roughly pulling him back so he’s eye to eye with you.
You heard that growl in the woods less than an hour ago. 
“You’re playing with fire, bunny.” He glares at you but you just stare right back. 
“I won’t say it again.” You give him one last warning and he finally brings his hands to your hips, with a grunt he lifts you up, slamming you back down on his cock, you can feel him brushing against your cervix as you cry out. 
At his age he shouldn’t be able to do that. 
He does it again, moving you like a ragdoll up and down on his length, a lewd squelching fills the air, egging him on. He tilts his head down, his teeth scrape against your breast, and you can hear a roar building in his throat. He fucks you like a fleshlight, moving you effortlessly up and down on his cock, your chest bouncing with each thrust.
He shouldn’t be able to do any of this.
Neither one of you speaks, you can feel the camper swaying ever so slightly as he slams into you, thrusting his hips up to meet yours as he pulls you down onto him. 
He makes it look effortless. 
Another growl rips through the air and you know neither one of you is gonna last long if he keeps going at this pace. He hammers into your sensitive spots with every thrust, your clit rubbing against the dark curls along his pelvis.
He’s merciless with the force at which he moves you, he’s started nipping at your shoulder and you know he’s close as they get harder and harder. You finally feel him break the skin and just like that he’s lifting you off of him, his mouth clamped down on your flesh, you feel his cum between your legs as he finishes on your folds. The sensation of him slipping out of you sends you over the edge right along with him, your stomach tightening as you groan, letting your head fall forward onto him.
You feel better already. 
Not good, just better. 
He manages to keep you both upright for a few more moments before collapsing down on the mattress with you in his arms. 
And then it’s just quiet.
Until the mattress squeaks as you get up. Wiping yourself off with a towel and turning the lights off before returning to bed without a word. He’s the one who finally breaks the silence.  
“If you want me to leave, I’ll leave.”
 “You can stay.” You mumble, rolling over to face away from him. 
It’s better if you know where he is. 
That’s what you tell yourself. 
It’s easier to swallow that excuse than the truth, that you can’t shake the terror from your encounter with the creature and now amount of fucking is going to change that. You don’t want to be alone, no matter how angry you are. He doesn’t seem to take the hint though, snaking his arm under yours and pulling you to his chest. 
You start to push him away but you feel a wave of calm wash over you when he does so you just settle back against him. You close your eyes, praying sleep might come but all you see in the darkness is that open maw closing in on you. 
You know that growl. 
It isn’t Joel. It can’t be Joel, he was with Ellie and then he was with you. 
It wasn’t Joel.
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You’re more than used to waking up in the woods at this point. Monsters and men torment you in your dreams whenever they get the chance to. 
But tonight is different. 
You don’t feel the cold, wetness of the forest floor on your back before you open your eyes. Instead you only feel steel, you make an attempt to sit up on instinct but you can’t. In a panic you open your eyes to find yourself cuffed to the cadaver carrier from Marias basement. 
This can’t be happening. 
This is the kind of dream you get after your first body. 
You’ve had this dream, years ago when you’d just started studying mortuary sciences. Although now it feels worse, more ominous than it had previously. 
That probably has to do with the fact that you can’t move. 
In response to that petrifying thought you begin to uselessly tug on the cuffs, your ankles and wrists attached to the cold unforgiving steel of the table you’ve sewn countless bodies back together on. 
You don’t strap cadavers down, there’s no need to. 
The door swings open and you’re thankfully able to sit up enough to watch Maria and Joel walk in, solemn looks on both of their faces. 
You open your mouth to call for help but something stops you.
No.
No, no, no.
Your jaw is wired shut. 
The sudden realization makes you gag as you shake the table with the force of your panic. 
Maria is always thorough, your mouth is full of cotton.
They act as if you’re as lifeless as any other corpse as they stand beside you, despite your muffled screaming, tears immediately flowing from your eyes as you feel your throat constrict around the cotton.  
“What happened to her?” He sounds so far gone even though he only stands a few feet away. 
“You know what happened to her.” Marias sorrow turns to a look of resentment as she turns to Joel. 
“Bear attack.” He says it more to himself than to her. 
“Keep telling yourself that.” 
“I didn’t mean for this to happen.”
“You never do.” Her voice is full of a hatred you haven’t ever heard in reality. 
She looks at you with a pity you’ve had on your own face before. It’s the same look you give every corpse on a table.  
You follow Maria’s gaze down at your body and find your chest sliced open, the inside dry. 
And then you wake up. 
Of course Joel is there when you sit up in bed with a strangled cry, a fresh flood of tears falling down your face. 
“Bunny?” His groggy, sleep ridden voice resembles a growl, sending you backwards away from him, your back hitting where the mattress meets the camper wall. He’s already up, he moves towards you but the moment you flinch away from he stops. “Are you okay? What hap-“
“Don’t come any closer.” Your voice is barely above a whisper. 
“Hey, hey, it’s okay.” Thankfully he doesn’t move towards you, he holds his hands up ever so slowly. He’s acting like you’re a cornered animal. 
You can’t seem to find your voice. Every single logical and rational part of your body and mind tell you to get as far away from him as possible. To fight tooth and nail to get past him, to run away and never look back. You’d never get away with that though, he’s too deeply rooted in you already. He’s made for you. Sculpted by the gods to be everything you’ve ever wanted all in one neat little salt and pepper package, served up to you on a silver platter.  
“Sweetheart, it’s okay, you’re okay.” He inches forward a bit but the way you pull your legs up against your chest, trying to make yourself smaller makes him move back. “It’s okay, it’s just me.” 
Yeah Joel, that's the problem.  
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a/n : i have such mixed feeling abt this chap but whatever i really like it so ?? idk
I am no longer doing taglists so follow @lincolndjarinnotifs and turn on notifications to be notified when new chapters are posted !!
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oharapussy · 9 months
Text
“lyla, what does miguel want for his birthday?”
another spiderdads x reader fic, this time miguel’s birthday 🙏🏼🙏🏼
as always minors dni!
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“lyla, what does miguel want for his birthday?” you asked, her tiny frame facing her back to you.
peter had sent you on this mission weeks before, knowing you wouldn’t crack miguel so easily. he was a private person: he wouldn’t like a party, or any big show of it. each time you asked him, he shrugged you off, as if there wasn’t time to entertain such a question. lyla was perhaps the only one who would know, and as she was constantly, silently, conspiring against him, she took great pleasure in what you had asked.
“miguel was very intentional in how i was programmed,” she pouted. “i’m not supposed to entertain those kinds of questions.”
“come on,” you pressed, curious. she rolled her eyes, screens instantly materializing around her.
“i’ll cross-reference his search history on his downtime with his online shopping carts,” she said, tapping away. “he doesn’t keep these private from m-“
oh.
you both instantly froze at what appeared on the screens, both video and text.
“guy pegged with strap-on”
“girl and guy tagteam friend”
“brunette top fucks bear stupid”
“best vibrators for beginner anal play”
oh my fucking god.
“well… there you go,” lyla said, flickering away in an instant, leaving you in the darkness of your office.
you weren’t sure what to tell peter.
miguel came back from the gym late at night, beads of sweat still trickling at his hairline. discarding his things at the kitchen counter, he made his way to his bedroom. a mix of curiosity and lust bubbled in his stomach: you both had been dropping hints at him all day. it had started with a pair of panties lazily hanging against his desk, building up to the new, state-of-the-art vibrator now lying on his bed, still in its packaging.
taking him by surprise, you wrapped your arms around his waist, kissing his neck. peter followed, holding his jaw and pulling him into a kiss, full and long. he whined softly against the attack, almost melting against the touch.
“happy birthday, migi,” peter said, smiling into the kiss. in a swift move, he pushed miguel against the bed, his cock already hard and twitching in his sweats. “now take your fucking pants off.”
with your help, his dick burst from his pants within a few seconds, his tip wet, desperate to fuck something.
“god, you’re pathetic, already so fucking hard for us, baby,” you teased. he twitched at the insult, hips grinding against nothing. “well, what do you say? want us to fuck you dumb, honey?”
“please,” he whined. the poor thing had been in charge for so long, he hardly knew how to be so submissive.
peter sat with his back against the bed’s headboard, legs wide to accommodate miguel’s broad shoulders. he let out soft moans as miguel reached ever-closer to the base of his cock, gasping against the new pressure in his throat. peter’s hands were in the tangle of his hair, calling him pretty names all the while. from behind, you had finally worked the strap around your hips.
“how bad do you want this dick?” you bullied, grinding it into his thigh. reaching in front, you circled the tip of his dick with his fingers, really getting him going.
“just fuck me already, mamí, please,” he cried out, pulling his mouth from peter. he bucked his hips backward, almost trying to catch your tip.
steadying his hips with your hands, you pushed into his hole, causing him to cry out with such an intensity, you feared you would wake his neighbors. kissing his wide back, you rubbed his stomach, helping him accommodate the size, before beginning to pump it inside him.
the rutting motion caused him to sink deeper onto peter, making both the men gasp and whine in a way that you had never seen before. why hadn’t you done this sooner?
“good boy, honey,” peter managed, looking at how close he was, highly-evident in his face.
blissed out of his mind, he came some moments later, cock weeping and grinding into the sheets for relief. pushing him past it, you began to hit that sweet spot inside him even harder. you didn’t think it was possible for someone to cum so much. by the end, he was a complete whimpering mess, only capable of begging to be fucked.
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bit-dodgy-innit · 1 year
Text
The More The Merrier - Part One
Set in The Shape of Youniverse
Summary: Doctor Strange’s wedding gift allows you and your husband to fulfill your wildest fantasies 
Pairing: Marc x afab!reader, Steven x afab!reader and Jake x afab!reader, Reader is married to the system 
Word Count: 3.3k 
Rating: Mature (for now!)
CW/TW: Mentions of pregnancy, reader experiences anxiety and mild body insecurity, Marc is ~protective~ and not afraid to threaten violence to protect his fam, discussions of group sex, making out  
A/N: Okay y’all! Everyone loved Group Effort so I thought there was no better way to celebrate 1000 followers than to write a follow up! I am currently burnt to a crisp creatively, HOWEVER I figure if I post what I have so far this lovely community’s support and reactions may just invigorate me to get the rest of this naughtiness out! 
Translations at the end of the fic as usual!
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You thought you were dreaming. You must have been, because why else would Doctor Strange be in your living room talking to your husband? The sound of voices had awoken you, and when you saw that Marc’s side of the bed was empty, you followed the hushed but heated voices to their source. 
You could hear Marc insisting lowly, “I told you I can’t…”
“And I told you his new avatar is miss–”
“Honey?” You interrupted, your voice raspy from sleep, “What’s going on?”
You’d rubbed just enough sleep from your eyes to be able to take in the sight before you. Marc, in his pajamas, mid-argument with Doctor Strange, red cape and all. 
You blinked furiously. Up until that very moment, all of Marc’s stories about being the white knight dude–Moon Knight, he told you he’d been called, were just that. Stories. You liked it that way. That way, there was plausible deniability. Seeing him talking to an Avenger in your flat made things startlingly real. 
“Go back to bed sweetheart,” your husband urged you, trying and failing to keep his mounting frustration from bleeding into his tone. 
Like hell you were going back to sleep. “What’s wrong?” 
“Nothing,” Marc answered immediately. His pointed look to the Avenger meant that Strange wasn’t going to divulge anything either. 
“Sorry to wake you, Mrs. Spector,” the sorcerer offered instead. 
“I’m not going anywhere until one of you tells me why he’s here in the middle of the night,” you informed both men plainly. It was perplexing to think that the men in charge of your planet’s safety, like Doctor Strange and your husband, were such shit liars.
“It’s Khonshu--” Strange began. 
“He’s retired,” you interjected. Your husband resuming his superhero activities, especially when you’d just found out you were pregnant a few weeks ago, was your worst nightmare. 
“I know,” he assured you, “I had a question for Marc, that’s all.” 
“And I told him that I can’t be involved with any of this shit, in any capacity,” your husband fumed, “Twice now.” 
“Well excuse me,” the sorcerer snarked, “and here I thought you’d become a consultant.” 
You couldn't stifle the giggle that Strange’s comment brought forth. Marc bristled, “Please sweetie, will you wait for me in the bedroom? I’ll show Stephen out.” 
Hearing that your husband was on a first-name basis with an Avenger made your head swim. You nodded, but didn’t completely comply, going only so far as the hallway so you could eavesdrop on them unseen.
“Did I just get you into trouble?” Strange inquired. 
“Yes,” your husband confirmed. “Out of everything wrong with me, her only hang-ups are my ex-wife and the avatar shit, so summon one of those portal things before I have to kick you out myself.” 
“Wow, okay, so Steven’s the one with the manners then,” he noted wryly. 
Marc sighed so deeply you could hear it from across the flat. “How many times do I have to say–”
“Congratulations by the way.” 
Your heart dropped. Did he know? He couldn’t know. You were nowhere near showing, how on earth could he know? Doctor Strange flew and did magic and traversed the multiverse, but there was no way he could tell that you were pregnant, was there?
“I’ll tear you limb from limb and rent your stupid cloak out for birthday parties,” Marc threatened in a snarl, “I didn’t want anyone knowing that we're together, let alone that we’re expecting. If that information leaves your lips, so help me–”
“I wouldn’t dream of it,” Strange promised him, “though it explains why I can’t convince you.” 
“Use that forgetting spell on yourself,” your husband ordered. 
“I’ll do you one better,” the sorcerer offered, “I’ll put you two under the protection of the London Sanctum. It’ll keep her safe while we sort all of this out…though it’d go a lot quicker if you–”
“Want me to re-introduce you to Jake?” Marc growled. 
Now it was Strange’s turn to sigh. “You realize you don’t have the suit anymore, right?”
“Nunca lo necesité,” the man in question interceded, “Disfrutaría el desafío.”
“You really love her, don’t you?” the Avenger observed. 
“She’s the reason I left Khonshu,” Marc confessed. After observing him so tight-lipped and protective about your relationship to Strange just now, your husband’s candor shocked you. 
“I’d say you traded up,” the sorcerer remarked archly. 
 Marc stood firm. “Yeah, and I’m not looking to downgrade anytime soon.”
“Can’t blame you. Well Marc, it’s always a…time.”
The faint hum of what you assumed was the magic he conjured for the portals Strange used alerted you to scamper back to the bed and dive under the covers, so that when Marc returned you could convincingly feign sleep. Moments later, you felt the mattress dip under his weight and his arms wrap around your waist from behind. 
“Are you mad at me?” came his timid question, murmured into your hair.  
You didn’t open your eyes. “That you told Doctor Strange to fuck off for the sake of our marriage? For our family? No, hun.” 
“I’m sorry,” he apologized anyway, “I hate how that this part of my past won’t let me go.” 
“This wasn’t your fault and you didn't get involved,” you pointed out, implicitly urging him to let it go. “Can we go back to sleep? Need to rest up for my inevitable morning vomit sesh.” 
Marc held your tighter and pressed a kiss to a notch of your spine. “‘Course baby.”
You weren’t exactly proud of how quick you were to brush the encounter off, but being a newlywed and a surprise pregnancy meant you had enough on your plate. There wasn’t any mental or emotional space to entertain the thought of your ex-avatar husband having to risk his life to ensure your, your unborn baby, and Earth’s safety, because if you did, the Hulk would look like a teddy bear in comparison to the state it’d send you in.  
Luckily, Marc was even better at sweeping uncomfortable moments under the rug than you were. You didn’t give the late-night meeting with Doctor Strange a second thought until a few weeks later when you glimpsed a headline about another global calamity averted emblazoned across a fellow Tube passenger’s copy of The Guardian. Your first trimester made you incredibly motion sick, so you had to look away and deep breathe at once, since the last thing anyone wanted on their morning commute was a woman spewing all over the car. 
Work served as the perfect distraction, until you received a particularly cryptic and distressing text from your husband mid-afternoon.
From: Hubby 
Can you come home please? 
From me:
Now? Are you alright?!
From Hubby: 
Yes, I’m fine. Just need you to come home right away. 
You huffed. That answered absolutely nothing and only made you more anxious. The periods at the ends of his sentences were a dead giveaway as to which alter you were texting with, so you pressed: 
From me:
What’s wrong Marc? 
From Hubby:
Everything’s fine, I promise. 
From me: 
Are you sick? 
The three dots appeared that he was typing, but you’d already sprung from your desk chair at that point. You hurried over to a superior’s office to let them know you were leaving early, claiming a spousal emergency, and you didn’t even wait for a proper response from your boss before you returned to your office, collected your things, and dashed for the door. 
From me: 
Just told Graham I’m heading home. I’ll be there soon!! Do I need to call 999? Harry? Dr. Moorhead???? 
Marc never asked for help. He'd rather eat all ten toes. It was a point of contention in your relationship, something you were working through, so the fact he’d texted you in the middle of the afternoon asking you to come home freaked you the fuck out. You’d just gotten into a taxi - it’d be faster than the Tube this time of day - when he finally responded. 
From Hubby:
No. See you soon. 
You slammed your fist, still wrapped around the rectangle of your phone, down against the upholstered seat in the cab. If Marc was alive when you got home, you were going to kill him. 
After one of the most fraught cab rides of your life, you breathlessly burst through the door of your flat. “MARC?! Jake?! Steven?! You okay?” 
Your husband sat on the couch, appearing to be perfectly well. “Hi baby.” 
You rushed to him, instantly putting the back of your hand to his forehead to check his temperature. “What’s wrong? God, would it kill you to tell me what’s going on? I nearly gave myself an ulcer on the way here.” 
Marc caught your hand and brought your palm to his lips, murmuring “I’m sorry” into the skin there.
“Is someone going to tell me what the fuck is happening here?” you demanded. 
“It’s okay, everything’s okay baby,” he tried to soothe you. 
“Then why did you send me those vague bloody texts telling me to come home ASAP?” 
A sound from the bedroom momentarily distracted you before Marc captured your other hand in his grasp and gently tugged you to take a seat next to him. He continued to apologize, “I’m sorry, so sorry baby. We didn’t know how else to do it, plus we wanted it to be a surprise.”
You regarded him warily. “For what to be a surprise?” 
“Remember when Stephen – well, Doctor Strange came here?” 
“Of course I do.” 
“Well, he um…he knew you were pregnant–I didn’t tell him, he just…I don’t know he mystically sensed it or something–and he felt bad about implicating you in our business. I ended up helping him–nothing really, just told him some stuff he wanted to know about my time as Khonshu’s avatar, and he wanted to thank me–well us, I guess? He said to consider it a belated wedding or early–”
“Ay…I think I’ve missed a birthday with how long you’re taking!” 
This was it. Forget your husband’s mental health struggles, you’d officially had a psychotic break. Because Jake had interrupted your conversation by walking into the room. In a separate body. 
“Fucking hell!! You couldn’t wait thirty more seconds?!” Marc snapped at him. 
Thank goodness you were already sitting down. The room swam. Your husband – wait, husbands?-- kept bickering with each other while you stared at them, glassy-eyed and slack-jawed. 
“No voy a perder otro segundo teniendo que escucharte un parloteo. No tenemos todo el día aquí.”
“What the fuck is going on?” you asked yourself in an awestruck whisper. 
“Honey?” Marc turned to you, “you’re okay.”
“Todo esta bien,” Jake added, rushing to your other side. 
You were grateful that there were two of them, otherwise you would’ve collapsed. The thought made you laugh. Wow, you’d lost your mind with a stunning efficiency it seemed. 
“Sweetheart, can you hear me?” Marc’s eyes searched yours, desperate for you to focus. 
“Uh huh.” 
“What este pendejo was trying to say,” Jake interjected, “is that el doctor did a spell where we all get our own body for twenty-four hours.” 
“He can do that?” It was a stupid question, given that you were surrounded by two of your husbands, but your brain was all but fried. 
“See! This is why I wanted to do it like this! We needed to ease her in!!” Marc lamented. 
“Where’s Steven?” you asked. He had to be here somewhere too, right? 
“You can come out now!” Marc hollered toward the kitchen, and lo and behold, the last third of your husband shuffled into view, complete with his individual body as well.  
“Why am I always the only one who follows the plan?” Steven complained, then after taking one look at your ashen face, joined his counterparts tending to you. “Oh darling, are you alright? Sorry, I know this all must come as a terrible shock. You want me to put the kettle on? Make you a cuppa?”
“The only thing that could help me right now is a stiff drink, which I obviously can’t have because of…” you trailed off and gestured to your midsection. 
“Right, sorry. Marc and I wanted to do this differently, but leave it to Jake to muck things up, as per usual,” he groused. 
“Oye, vete a la mierda pequeño–”
Marc tried to stop them. “Shut up, both of you, this isn’t hel–”
“Oh my God is this what the inside of your head is like?” you wondered aloud, unable to squash a delirious chuckle. 
“Yes,” Steven confirmed, trying to maintain composure, “a small sampling of it, I’m afraid.” 
Your chuckling escalated to full-on unhinged laughter. What else were you to do when each of your husbands were given their own body and argued in front of you?
“Am I high? Or at the very least awake?” 
“No and yes,” Marc replied. 
“So this is why I had to come home early,” you surmised. 
“Sí, we only have twenty-four hours, and we weren’t going to waste anymore on waiting when we could–”
“We could what?” 
“Well, with the baby coming, naturally our sex life is going to take a hit,” Marc said, “so, this seemed like a perfect, one-in-a-lifetime opportunity to um…fulfill some fantasies.”
“You faked an emergency and made me ditch work so we could all have group sex?” 
Steven groaned, “It sounds so tawdry when you put it like that.” 
Marc buried his head in his hands, but Jake puffed up his chest. “Por qué no? Vas a trabajar cada día, ¡pero tal vez nunca volvamos a estar así!”
“No one is touching me…” you protested, heaving a labored breath as overwhelmed tears brimmed in your eyes. “No one is touching me until you all apologize! Properly! You scared the shit out of me just now! You can’t…you can't keep me in the dark like that…I can’t take the stress between your past and the baby and work…it’s too much! So guess what? The last thing I want to do right now is have sex!” 
Three flummoxed faces of concern stared back at you as they each realized they’d severely miscalculated the reveal. Apparently you looked so pathetic it dispelled any of their urges to argue about it, the reminder that you were pregnant seemingly enough to shut them up and send them straight to contrition. Plus, they were probably still hopeful they could get some action later if they apologized right away. 
“I’m sorry baby,” Marc began, pulling you to his chest, “We wanted this to be fun, but…”
“Somos estúpidos,” Jake finished for him, “Even with separate bodies, we all think with the head between our legs.”   
Steven spoke next, “Take all the time you need, my love. We don’t even have to…do anything naughty. We just want to be with you like…as…as us.” 
“Uh, no. We have to fuck,” Jake disagreed. 
Before you could snipe back at Jake, you remembered something Marc had told you about the last time they were separated. Their entire journey through the Duat, Jake had been trapped in a sarcophagus. Despite being married to them, you couldn’t begin to imagine what it would be like to share your body, your life, with two other people the way they did. 
So of course having a body of your own, especially if there was a clock on it, would be a momentous occasion, and it warmed your heart in a funny, roundabout way that Jake wanted to share this precious time with you as intimately as possible. 
Therefore, you found yourself cackling at his remark. The three of them watched you dumbstruck. 
“I think we broke her,” Marc muttered under his breath. 
When you finally regained your breath and a modicum of your senses back, you proposed, “How about this…we make an early dinner to fuel up for um…the night ahead, shall we say? It’ll give me some time to adjust. Deal?”
It took about an hour, but you did calibrate to having multiple husbands in your flat. Jake and Marc were parked on the couch flipping between games on the telly and arguing over scores, players, and stats while Steven and you camped in the kitchen. 
Steven had volunteered to make dinner, and you instantly offered to assist him, figuring that keeping your hands busy would help quiet your racing mind. The pair of you chopped vegetables and, in everyone but Steven’s case, chicken, to make a soup that would be hearty enough to sustain any physical exertion later but light enough so as not to hinder it. 
“This is bizarre, innit?” Steven asked while he stirred the broth. 
“Bizarre doesn't even begin to cover it,” you confessed. “I mean, I know crazy superhero magic shit like this happens, but never to me.”
“When Marc first told me he served Khonshu, I thought it was the stupidest thing I’d ever heard.” 
You laughed at Steven’s frankness. “I love you.” 
“Love you too,” he echoed, his face splitting into a beatific grin. The two of you leaned across the stove to kiss each other. Neither of you hurried to break it. In fact, Steven slipped his tongue between the seam of your lips, while you turned to wrap your arms around him properly. 
You nearly forgot the other two men were there until you were both startled apart by Jake whistling and crowing, “Ey! Save it for later!” 
“Entonces vas a ayudarnos con la comida?” you shot back at him without any real heat.  
Several moments transpired while you ate in which you lapsed into an astonished silence. Though you were no stranger to your husband being co-conscious, there was something even more wondrous about all three of them having to interrupt each other to speak, though despite their separate bodies, each man tended to talk over the other still. 
Marc and Jake were put on cleanup duty, and Steven captured you in his arms once again. He dotted kisses from your clavicle, up the length of your neck, culminating at the extra sensitive spot behind your right ear. “How do you want to do this?” 
You mewled at the pressure of his lips on your skin. “Mmmm, I wanna take a shower and primp a bit. Marc had a point earlier, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity, might as well make the most of it, right?” 
“Whatever you want,” he rumbled into your ear. You could feel Steven’s cock stir as he pressed himself into you. 
A devilish smirk danced across your lips. “Wanna look extra fuckable for all of you.” 
“Bloody hell, babe,” Steven’s hips stuttered against your leg. He leaned in to kiss you more, but you dodged him, instead scampering away toward the bathroom and throwing a cheeky look over your shoulder. 
Beyond the fact that you knew that Jake would want to fuck you in the ass and you needed to prepare accordingly, it occurred to you that your insistence on getting dolled up was just as much for your benefit as it was for your partners. You were about to be more vulnerable than you’d ever been in a sexual situation, and though it was with the people you loved and trusted most in the world, sometimes confidence was best found from the outside-in. So you shaved your legs, styled your hair, made up your face, and slipped into the lingerie that you’d grabbed from your dresser before you retreated into the en-suite. 
You examined the finished product of your efforts in the mirror. Your bump wasn’t quite a bump yet at just over twelve weeks, you just looked perennially bloated. You tried to smooth the frown from your face, reminding yourself that you weren’t fat, but instead growing a little life inside of you, the culmination of you and your husband’s love. Nevertheless, you adjusted the straps of the microscopic thong you’d squeezed yourself into to try and create a more flattering shape. After fluffing your hair one more time, you decided you were as ready as you’d ever be.
READ PART TWO 
A/N: Eh? We like? Y’all are always so encouraging but if you feel compelled to leave any feedback I could really use it this time around!!! 
Translations:
Nunca lo necesité - I never needed it
Disfrutaría el desafío - I will enjoy the challenge
No voy a perder otro segundo teniendo que escucharte un parloteo. No tenemos todo el día aquí - I'm not going to waste another second having to listen to you babble. We don't have all day here
Todo esta bien - Everything is ok
Este pendejo - This asshole
Oye, vete a la mierda pequeño - Hey, look here you little shit
Por qué no? Vas a trabajar cada día, ¡pero tal vez nunca volvamos a estar así! - Why not? You go to work every day, but we may never be like this again!
Somos estupidos - We’re stupid
Entonces vas a ayudarnos con la comida - Then are you going to help us with the food?
Taglist:
@twwcs​, @rmoonstoner​, @hot-mess-express1​, @murdickdocked, @toracainz​, @saahmi, @unspokenmoon​, @winterbiipp​, @avatarofseshat​ @ilikeoldermenhelp, @losers-club6​, @harrys-tittie​, @ninebluehearts​, @lucianadraven32​, @dawnsutopia​, @strawberry1042-blog @nikitawolfxo​, @weirdo125 @damnzelsoul​ @missmarmaladeth​ @welcometostayingawake​ @my-secret-shame-but-fanfiction​, @thatgirlshady​
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rowdyhughesy · 10 months
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Don’t run away, not now - Trevor Zegras
“ I’m burnt out, shit I need some rest. But how can I escape you if you’re in my head? “
- chase atlantic
requested: no
wc: 870
song fic inspired by This is what a broken heart feels like by Marina Lin
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You gave it all away
Didn’t even let me in
You gave the worst goodbye
And people ask me how I've been
I wished relationships would come with a trailer, that you could watch it before you fall in love and decide if you wanted to continue. That if the impending heartache that could follow is truly worth it. If those two years filled with kisses on Saturday mornings, the smell of burning toast coming from the kitchen, warm fingertips drawing invisible shapes across my back in the early hours.
The fights when neither of us want to admit we've been wrong, when Trevor threw dirty laundry on the bathroom floor or forgot to put the dishes away.
Or when I let my insecurities become an obstacle I had problems crossing on my own. He would be there with a smile so big the ends of his eyelashes kissed the apples of his cheeks. Soft pink lips placing butterfly light kisses on my temple. Whispering how I was the most beautiful thing he's ever laid his eyes on.
How I wish I could've seen the trailer and been prepared for the ending. Saved myself the numbing ache that followed when I walked inside that door. Trevors facial expression void of any emotion as he breaks my heart into a million tiny glass pieces. 'I don't think it's working out.' Echoing inside my skull every damn time someone asks me how I'm holding up.
Replaying like a broken record that won't stop no matter how much I scream or cry. Palms pressed over my ears crying for it to shut up. Begging for silence. If only for a second
Friday nights got me feeling lonely
Saturdays are when the bottles empty
Why'd you have to leave me?
Dani strokes a comforting hand over the top of my head. Trying to smooth out the tangled rats ness I call hair her other arm wrapped around my body, cuddling me close to her side. Mumbling words of encouragement in my ear as I press my cheek closer to her chest. Hot tears wetting my skin as they run down, leaving small dark splotches on her sweater in their wake.
Throat sore from the cries of a broken heart I’ve been letting out for the past couple of hours.
It’s been two months since Trevor left but the tears still haven’t run dry. Every day there’s new ones along with the clenching feeling in my ribcage. It’s like someone has a tight grip on my heart and slowly but surely the grip becomes tighter and tighter. Squeezing with everything it has until the pain is all I can feel. Until it’s all that’s left.
‘Why did he have to leave Dani? What did I do wrong?’ Voice cracking as another wave of tears bubbles up. Eyes bloodshot, glassy from yet unshed tears and eyelashes clumped together.
‘You didn’t do anything wrong honey you did absolutely nothing. Do you hear me? This is not on you.’ Dani rests her chin on my head. Hand having left it’s previous position in my hair so both her arms are now cradling me close.
Small drops of her own tears that’s managed to slip out landing on my head. Troy gives her a sad smile from his place on the armchair across the coffee table. Trying to hold back all his frustration at his teammate for leaving someone so hurt and broken. For hurting a girl he’s considered as his little sister for two years.
But all he and Dani can do is be a shoulder to lean on and someone to confide in as the girl tries to get over the boy who left without warning.
Don't leave me
Don't leave me
Don't leave me
It’s hard to explain the feeling that crawls up your chest when you come across your ex boyfriends Instagram post. To see those light blue eyes and big smile that used to make your body tingle, lips twitching up at the corners and heart feel like it doubles in size.
Just that this time it’s shards of glass ripping through my skin and into my bones. Tears pricking at my waterline and breath getting knocked out of my lungs. Whole body deflating when I notice the pretty girl standing with her arms wrapped around his middle and kiss pressed to his cheek.
Love you to the moon and to Saturn typed underneath.
And the realisation that he’s never coming back crashing over me like a building being torn down. Rubble and dirt all that’s left behind along with my heart.
Flashes of a face red from crying as I beg for him to not leave, tell me what I could do to make him stay. Without even knowing that he’d been one foot out the door the whole time.
Heart already belonging to someone else. That I was the obstacle he had to get over to be with someone new, someone that would never be me. Not ever again.
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annathesillyfriend · 1 year
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...so I might be a bit late with that 😅 I have nothing to say for myself. But hey, better late than never!
To all the writers - I love you and I appreciate you so much!
To all the readers - please, share the fics you read and love. The reblog really makes the change! It’s the least we can do to show our gratitude.
Also, please, mind the writers’ warnings!
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✨ROBERT 'BOB' FLOYD✨
warmth by sugarcoated-lame
↳ one shot, 18+, the fact that i don't wake up to this man is criminal
eyes wide shut by @topguncortez
↳ one shot, i am not okay :')
he's all that by @withahappyrefrain
↳ one shot, love this fic <3
someone to watch over me by @lewmagoo
↳ one shot, 18+, secret service agent!bob, we love a good au
of admirals and paperweights by lewmagoo
↳ one shot, 18+, wife!reader, this is so hot, i don't know what else to say, my brain is empty
wedding day. by @sebsxphia
↳ one shot, robert floyd is the definition of husband material
best friend and sweet as honey by bradshawsbitch
↳ two shot, 18+, best friends to lovers, this made me a little crazy, not gonna lie
better by @delopsia
↳ one shot, 18+, friends to lovers, beautiful work 💕
✨BRADLEY 'ROOSTER' BRADSHAW✨
headache #2 by waklman
↳ one shot, 18+ bradley is stinkybutt and that's all you need to know
the zipper incident by @tongue-like-a-razor
↳ one shot, 18+, that's a hell of a fic, let me tell you
5 times the bronco was a third wheel by @thesewordsareallihavetogive
↳ one shot, my beloved man with his beloved car
the purrfect storm by @roosterforme
↳ one shot, vet!reader x new cat dad!bradley, word of advise for you all - you see 'roosterforme' on your dash, you drop everything you're doing and go read the absolute masterpiece of a fic you stumbled upon
what's in a name? by @sometimesanalice
↳ one shot, 18+, i can't tell you how many times i've reread that fic
the pregnancy glow by @topgun-imagines
↳ one shot, wife!reader, 🥰🥰 <- this is me after reading this
forever young by @greenorangevioletgrass
↳ one shot, this is a platonic bradley x maverick fic, absolutely wonderful just like any other work written by my beloved Ava
to rest for a while by @familyvideostevie
↳ one shot, oh to go on a road trip and exchange live confessions with bradley bradshaw 🥺
superstar by @maggiedanikka
↳ two shot, 10/10 would read again!
when all is said and done by @sunlightmurdock
↳ one shot, 18+, maverick's daughter!reader, uh this is bloody good fic
same mistakes by @ofstoriesandstardust
↳ series, maverick's daughter!readr, enemies to lovers, such a banger of a story!!
to the moon and back by katsu28
↳ one shot, made my heart 5x bigger 💓
what a look on you by @thewulf
↳ one shot, best friends to lovers, great story 👏
to make a house a home by @beyondthesefourwalls
↳ one shot, i'm gonna be dead before i can actually afford a house but at least i can dream about house hunting with bradley :')
2 a.m. by @thebastardprincenikolai
↳ one shot, 18+, friends with benefits, we love a little bit of a friendly competition ;)
hourglass bysugarcoated-lame
↳ one shot, 18+, this is just so sweet 😫
✨JAKE 'HANGMAN' SERESIN✨
glue song by @waklman
↳ series, friends to lovers, we love pining jake in this household
delicate by waklman
↳ series, natasha's friend!reader, i want to hold jake in my arms 24/7
touch me by @bradshawsbitch
↳ one shot, 18+, excuse me while i go scream into a void
left at the altar by @tip-top-cloud-surfer
↳ series, 18+, ex!jake, bit of drama, bit of angst, all our favourite stuff
sweet as candy by @halsteadsbradshaw
↳ one shot, all i need in life is jake seresin and candy
talk with my hands, maybe take it real slow by @theharddeck
↳ one shot, 18+, roommate!jake, he is just such a helpful guy 😌
cherry bomb by @flaming-tgmcu
↳ one shot, jake seresin, the man that you are
our shirt by @whoreforseresin
↳ one shot, you need this morning fluff in your life, trust me
take it off slowly by whoreforseresin
↳ one shot, 18+, you need this bloody hot smut in your life, trust me
it's all about you by @bussyslayer333
↳ one shot, i love this format and this fic in general!
oh deer by @wkndwlff
↳ one shot, best friend!jake, can you hear me yell? cause i'm yelling
she blinded me with science by wkndwlff
↳ one shot, the lab workers representation i never knew i needed!
move on by @starlightstories
↳ one shot, if you're looking to get your heart broken, this fic is your guy :')
i wanna brainwash you into loving me forever by @demxters
↳ one shot, perfection 🙌🙌
man, i didn't kiss her and i should have by @folkloreslovechild
↳ one shot, college!au, the love epiphany trope is something so personal to me
i think there's been a glitch by folkloreslovechild
↳ one shot, “TOPGUN isn’t about working hard. It’s about looking good in uniform.” <- facts!!
5 times hangman got older + 1 time he got wiser, too by folkloreslovechild
↳ one shot, childhood friends to lovers, he is an idiot but we love him
the fuck you universe by @roosterbruiserexclusive
↳ series, 18+, kazansky!reader, enemies to loves, A👏MA👏ZING👏
always a bridesmaid by @sugarcoated-lame
↳ one shot, 18+, bradshaw!reader, just simply phenomenal story 🙌
✨MICKEY 'FANBOY' GARCIA✨
one sunny afternoon by @rhettabbotts
↳ one shot, 18+, fiancee!reader, my brain turns to jelly when i think about this fic
speeding cars by @teacupsandtopgun
↳ one shot, this fic did me so so dirty and that's all i'm saying
✨JAVY 'COYOTE' MACHADO✨
water droplets by @siempre-bucky
↳ one shot, 18+, javy's chest is not the only wet thing in this scenario hehe
daylight by siempre-bucky
↳ one shot, 18+, sorry i can't come to the phone rn. why? oh cause i'm dead, this fic killed me
how sweet it is... by @coyotesamachado
↳ one shot, javy machado, love me, feed me, never leave me, i am begging
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✨STEVE HARRINGTON✨
time to giddy up, yeah? by @loveshotzz
↳ one shot, 18+, mustache or not, there's nothing i would not do for this man
love on the brain by @vendettaparker
↳ one shot, pregnant!reader, someone make this man a dad asap
glitch by @forevermoreharrington
↳ one shot, 18+, fwb to lovers, THIS 😫
sping breaks loose by forevermoreharrington
↳ one shot, soft boyfriend!steve deserves the world
whispers of "are you sure?" by forevermoreharrington
↳ one shot, 18+, friends to lovers, he have a hattrick on our hands!
bathroom break by @stvharrngton
↳ one shot, 18+, old money!steve, oh man 🥵
dizzy bystvharrngton
↳ one shot, 18+, steve is very rideable 🤤
relax, lay back by @superblysubpar
↳ one shot, 18+, i love this so much, you do not understand
delicate by @bejeweledmunson
↳ one shot, best friends to lovers, sometimes all it takes is a reality check
never could've seen you coming and i've had no love like your love by @supernovafics
↳ two shot, 18+, i love this with everything i have!!!
lemon over ice (part 2) by @upsidedownwithsteve
↳ two shot, 18+, i am unwell in the best way possible
and they were roommates by @sunshinesteviee
↳ one shot, this >>>>> everything else in this world
✨EDDIE MUNSON✨
teach me how to be soft by @lovebugism
↳ one shot, bad at feelings!reader, i just love him, you know?
dial-a-thrill by @bimbobaggins69
↳ one shot, 18+, phone sex operator!eddie, it is exactly as hot as it sounds honestly
penny'verse by @queenimmadolla
↳ series, young dad!eddie, this is just so wholesome!!
dinner buddies by @katsu28
↳ one shot, i want to hold this story in my arms and never let it go
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✨RHETT ABBOTT✨
your back beneath the sun by @laracrofted
↳ one shot, 18+, remember, spf is your best friend!
251 notes · View notes
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Trust Me
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Summary: When the reader wakes up in what was meant to be her grave, she doesn’t want to trust anyone, especially the charming cop that found her...
Pairing: Beau Arlen x reader
Word Count: 3,300ish
Warnings: language, attempted murder, injury, frightening situations
A/N: Something a wee bit creepy and fluffy for Halloween. Also my first Beau Arlen fic! Enjoy!
_______
You inhaled sharply, immediately aware of the cold clinging to your skin. Pain radiated through your body, eyes open but trying to take in too much at once. They caught the glint of a badge and you shot your body backwards, sliding against plastic. Panic crept through your veins as you realized half of your body was wrapped in it, covered with dead leaves.
You were surrounded by nearly ten people, all of them wide eyed with jaws dropped. You spun around on your bottom, screeching when a hand touched your shoulder. 
“Hey, hey, darlin’. You’re safe,” said a handsome man. Your eyes flicked down, a badge and gun on his hip. 
You wiped the gentle smile clean off his face when you tried to throw a punch only to realize your hands were bound behind you. People were talking, mind racing a million miles an hour as you tried to get your feet to move, run you far, far away.
“You’re safe,” said the man, pulling you into a bear hug you couldn’t even try to escape from. He pressed his lips to the top of your head, shushing you, whispering soft murmurs. “You’re safe, honey. Not gonna let anything bad happen to you, okay?”
You tried to jerk away, a scream wanting to climb out of your throat, only stopping when you realized how painful it was. Whatever energy you had depleted quickly, your face falling to the crook of the man’s neck.
“Send the coroner’s office away and someone get me an ambulance now,” said the man faintly, every frayed nerve in your body collapsing at once. “Fuck it, give me an escort to the hospital now.”
You woke up alone in a hospital room, bandages wrapped around your appendages. Your throat felt a hell of a lot better as you sat up, touching your face, neck, pinching your thigh. 
Alive. You were most definitely alive.
Which was interesting since you vaguely recalled being strangled to death. And waking in what you assumed was your grave. 
In front of an assload of cops.
Your body ached from the fight you’d lost but you forced your legs over the edge of the bed and grabbed the IV attached to your arm, ripping it out painfully. You got to the other side of the room where some sweats sat on a table when the door opened, a doctor in a white coat, two nurses in scrubs and the handsome man from before rushed in. Your eyes locked with the cops, his hand raising as the medical personnel stared at you.
“She’s okay. You’re okay, darlin’, aren’t ya?” he said. You lowered your gaze to his badge and then his gun before nodding slowly. “See? Just a bit jumpy, understandably so.”
“I want to leave,” you said, staring at the cop. He shared a look with the doctor. “Unless I am actively dying, I want to leave this hospital.”
“Is she okay to go?” asked the cop. You narrowed your eyes at him. He could play nice all he wanted but you knew exactly who he was and what he wanted.
“Her tests were negative but she needs to stay overnight to be safe,” said the doctor. 
“What tests?” you snapped. 
“You had no pulse when we found you or most likely, a very faint one,” said the cop, carefully stepping forward. “I’m Beau Arlen. Sheriff. Do you remember me?”
“From where I woke up in a shallow grave? Hard to forget,” you said, turning to the doctor. “Is my heart okay?”
“Most likely but you really need to stay for observation and to ensure your neck doesn’t swell again,” he said. You touched a hand to the side, feeling the ache of a bruise. “Sheriff Arlen, perhaps you can wait to question Y/N?”
“How do you know who I am?” you asked. Beau raised an eyebrow.
“You’ve been missing for two days. Your face has been all over the news. Your father’s on his-”
With that news you took your chances and rushed the cop. You tried to slip past him, thankfully distracting him. As he tried to grab your shoulders, it left his holster open and you grabbed the gun, Beau backing off as soon as you had it in your hands and aimed square at his chest.
“Car keys,” you said. He lifted his chin, taking a careful step forward.
“Do you one better. You give me back the gun and I’ll take you wherever you want to go right now. No questions asked.” You shook your head, Beau cocking his head. “If I was involved in whatever it is you think I am, don’t you think I would have killed you when we were alone in my truck?”
“Did he bring me here by himself?” you asked. One of the nurses nodded, Beau holding out a hand. 
“Come on, darlin’. Now or never.” Your stomach flipped as you handed him back the gun. He shoved it back in the holster and to your surprise, he started to walk down the hall. “We ain’t got all day.”
You stared after him before catching up, swallowing as you followed him silently out a side door and into a beat up truck.
“Before I take you wherever it is you want me to, why don’t you tell me why you’re so fucking terrified of your father, who happens to aslo be a cop?” He started the car, watching your hand reach for the door. “He did this to you, didn’t he.”
“I can’t trust-” He took out the holster and sat it on the bench between us, nodding his head.
“You can keep that until you do trust me. Until then, let’s consider this protective custody with a twist.” 
“You’re weird,” you said, picking up the gun, leaving it aimed down at the floor. 
“Oh come on. Everyone likes a weird friend,” he said. You shut your eyes, flashing them open when you heard sirens. You slid down into the foot well and shoved the gun back on the bench towards him. He stared down at you as he put the gun away, a knowing look on his face. “See, you are also extremely weird. We’re two peas in a pod.”
“I’m fucking traumatized!” you said as loud as you dared. He frowned, nodding once.
“I know you are. I promise nothing bad will happen to you and I promise that I can’t be bought. When you’re ready to tell me your dad did this, I’ll go after him. Until then, I’ll keep you safe. Now considering you didn’t have much of a pulse a few hours ago I say first order of business is to get you somewhere you can rest. Deal?” You nodded slowly, Beau patting the seat. “Come up where it’s safer.”
“Not until we’re out of this parking lot.” He held up his hands and put the truck in reverse. “You know if you’re lying to me and you’re taking me anywhere I don’t like-”
“We both know you trust me or else you wouldn’t have given me my gun back. So don’t feel like you have to make threats. You should be dead. I already know you’re tough.” You closed your eyes, a gentle hand resting on your head. “We’ll get you someplace safe real soon, sweetie.”
You must have fallen asleep in the truck because when you woke up, you were in a bed in what looked like a camper. A very nice camper but still, it wasn’t what you were expecting. You sat up against the mountain of pillows behind you, surprised to find two wires slipping inside your hospital gown. To the left on the nightstand sat a small machine that was tracking your heart rate. It shot upright when the door opened, Beau smiling softly.
“You’re looking better,” he said, taking two steps in and setting some clothes down on the end of the bed. “These are my daughter’s clothes. I figured you wouldn’t mind getting out of that gown. I didn’t want to leave you on your own.”
“So you own a portable heart rate monitor just because?” He shrugged, setting a bottle of pills down on top of the clothes. “You went back to the hospital.”
“I sent a trusted officer to the hospital. The doctor said you need to take this every twelve hours so you don’t get an infection.”
“Awesome,” you said. He left you to change and ten minutes later, you’d worked up the courage to exit the room, spotting Beau outside on his porch. You ducked outside, Beau changed into a maroon long sleeve shirt and a dark gray flannel. “Interesting safe house.”
“Well when I made the move up here this land had a little hunting cabin but my daughter wouldn’t want to stay in there. The airstream is big enough for us two,” he said. He picked up an outdoor blanket from a chair and tucked it around your shoulders. “You like leftover lasagna?”
“I am kind of starving.”
“Well make yourself at home then. Bathroom is right next to the bedroom and you,” he said, pulling a chair over to a firepit that had a small bundle of flames going, “Can relax and decompress a bit. Dinner’ll be out soon.”
You sat down, pulling the blanket tighter around yourself, watching him go back inside. 
“Y/N,” he said, pausing in the doorway. He looked over his shoulder and nodded. “I’m right here. No one’s going to bother you.”
“Okay,” you breathed out. You closed your eyes and tucked your feet up onto the chair. 
He’d keep you safe. He seemed smart and nice. You’d be okay with him.
You hoped.
“So,” said Beau after dinner, sitting back in his chair next to you. He sipped on his beer, watching the flames dance in the dark. “You want to tell me what happened? Sooner you do, sooner I can put whoever tried to kill you behind bars.”
Flashes of pain scattered through your mind, the inability to breath, the pounding of your heart. It’d hurt so much. It’d hurt so fucking much.
“He strangled me,” you said, looking down at your lap. “And I knew I was going to die the whole time. And...and I don’t know how I’m alive. I woke up in a grave today.”
“I can’t take away that fear or pain and I’m sorry, darlin’. I truly am. You got me good when you popped up like that earlier but damn, I was glad to see you alive. You’re strong so you survived. It’s how I know you’ll keep surviving long after this mess is cleared up,” said Beau. You raised your chin, meeting his green eyes. There was a gentleness about him you liked. Some men in this situation would be a tough guy, get overly protective. Yet he somehow was straddling that line between comforting and protecting with ease. 
You licked your lips, inhaling deeply. “Can you really take down another sheriff? One that’s been doing his job twenty years longer and has a lot more powerful friends than you?”
He pressed his lips into a thin line. “I’ll be honest. It’s not easy to get someone like that without blatantly obvious evidence of a crime. People turn on each other real quick in those situations though and I think we got that here.”
“What if the evidence would get those powerful friends in trouble too?” Beau parted his lips, a sad look settling into his skin. 
“When you woke up, you were scared of me because I was a cop. You thought I’d hurt you.”
“I called other cops for help. I thought I was safe with them. All they did was give me to my dad. As far as I’m concerned, they tried to kill me as much as he did.”
He nodded, taking a sip of beer. “Then we’ll get them too. I have to know, what is it that you found out or know that would make your dad try to kill you?”
You lowered your head and closed your eyes. “My phone is sitting in a train station locker. There’s videos on it. One of plans and papers and things. There’s copies of those papers in there. There’s a video too of my dad on the phone with someone discussing plans about moving drugs. He’s been selling seized ones out of evidence lock up. I told another cop, a family friend about it all. But he was in on it and then the two of them...they drove me far away from our town and thought they’d killed me. I have no idea how far this goes Beau but they will kill me and cover it up in a second. They didn’t hesitate to try and get rid of me. They want me dead and now.”
“Okay,” he said softly. “What’s going to happen is I’m going to send a pair of my very loyal officers to get that evidence while I get you into the station and officially put you in protective custody. Then-”
“Beau.” You stared him down as he sighed. “The more people I’m around, the more likely I am to wind up dead. Especially in a place full of people all wearing the same uniform.”
He was torn. He clearly wanted to bring you in but you weren’t going anywhere until he could guarantee it’d be safe and he clearly couldn’t right now.
“Then we stay here until we get word your dad and this other officer are in custody. But I need more details and a statement of what happened. Got it?”
“Whatever gets them behind bars is fine with me.”
You woke up in the middle of the night in Beau’s bed to him racing in the room. He was wearing a bulletproof sheriff’s vest with his name on it, his gun out by his side.
“What-”
He held a finger up to his lips, Beau pulling you out of bed in one swift motion. He tossed a pair of sneakers that were too small at you but you managed to cram your feet inside nevertheless. Silently, he opened the back window, keeping you right by his side. He slid out quickly, pausing only a beat before a hand appeared and you grabbed it, Beau pulling you through.
You were more noisy unfortunately and Beau instantly took off running into the woods with you before you could even turn your head to see who was around. After a few moments, he tugged you into the crook of a tree and pushed you down gently.
“Stay,” he whispered. You swallowed and stayed seated, Beau taking off with light footsteps. You covered your mouth when you realized how loudly you were breathing, body tense, waiting for something to happen.
Suddenly, a large noise erupted from the direction of Beau’s air streamer, a popping sound in the air. 
“Howdy sheriff,” said Beau loudly in the distance, a sharp edge to his voice. “I do mighty well appreciate you coming to my home in the dead of night like this. Going to make the conviction even more fun.”
Your dad didn’t say another word as you picked up on other footsteps in the woods, a flash of blue and red light scattering the treeline. You slowly stood, jumping when Beau rounded the tree.
“We got him and the other officer. Now, I distinctly recall telling you to stay down,” he said, crossing his arms over his chest. You shrugged, Beau rolling his eyes with a smile. “You ready to go to the station now?”
“Yeah. I’m ready for this to be over with.”
“Sorry about the wait,” said Beau early the next morning. You’d fallen asleep on his small couch covered with an extra flannel he kept in his office, popping up when he walked in. He still had his vest on over his long sleeve, sleeves pushed up, and his hair appeared as if he’d run his hand through it only a million times. He walked over to his desk and sat against the edge of it, offering you a smile. “Well good news for you, they both tried to sell each other out and we have their full confessions. Neither one of them are getting out in their lifetimes.”
You closed your eyes and breathed deeply, letting a small smile form on your face. You nodded, slowly peeling your eyelids open, Beau looking you up and down. “Now what happens?”
“Now? You go back to the hospital and let them finish those tests, probably get in some kind of therapy for a bit and try to live the rest of your life. Easier said than done but I got faith in you, darlin’. You’ll be just fine.”
“I hope so,” you said. “I guess this means I should get out of your hair.”
He shook his head. “You were never in my hair, Y/N. Come on. I’ll give you a ride to the hospital.”
Two Months Later
“Well, well,” said Beau with a big smirk as he sat down next to you at the bar. “What are you doing in town?”
“Fresh start. I moved here officially. It’s peaceful when no one’s trying to kill you,” you said, Beau holding up two fingers and pointing at the beer you were drinking.
“I know about that. You doing okay?” he asked. You smiled and nodded, turning your body towards him.
“My therapist says I should try things to get me out of my comfort zone, rebuild confidence, that sort of thing.” You leaned in close and brushed your lips over his, pecking a soft, slow kiss on him. “You are super hot by the way and not because you saved me. You’re…kind. I like that. See, that’s normally something I never would have said or had the guts to do but-”
Beau cupped your cheek and pulled you back into the kiss, grinning hard throughout it, only letting you go when your drinks were set down.
“I like this therapist of yours,” he murmured. You grinned, Beau resting his elbow against the bar, putting his chin in his hand. “Give me your best pickup line.”
“My what?” you laughed.
“Your best pickup line. I need to see if our styles of humor are compatible, darlin’. Woo me,” he chuckled. You laughed and grabbed your beer bottle, taking a few steps away before spinning around and walking back over.
“You know handsome, I’d ask you to go to the movies with me but they don’t let you bring in snacks,” you said. He covered his hand with his mouth as he burst out laughing, keening forward in his seat as giggles wracked his body. “Thank you, thank you. I’ll be here all week.”
“Wow. That was awful. And you totally passed,” he laughed. 
“Your turn,” you said as you sat, Beau raising his eyebrows. “Oh you don’t get this just cause you saved me and you’re pretty. As you would say, woo me.”
He cleared his throat and put on smoky bedroom eyes, licking his lips. “You know what my shirt’s made out of? Boyfriend material.”
“Oh my god,” you groaned, laughing and slapping his thigh. “That was so lame!”
“Yeah but you laughed,” he said. 
“I guess that means you passed too,” you said, lifting your beer. He clinked his bottle against yours, smiling as he brought the rim to his lips. “Want to go for two or nothing?”
“Worst pick up line pays for dinner?” he grinned.
“You’re on, Arlen.”
_______
A/N: Want more Beau x reader fics? Let me know!
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