#we already knew she was the most street smart and the best liar out of the party

[lucascsinclairs]

Max Mayfield in Stranger Things 4 | Chapter Seven: The Massacre at Hawkins Lab

“And they dared me to say what I said. About the killer.”

[danniburgh]

Unexpected, unavoidable, unforgettable.

so, i asked if anyone wanted to read something like this and it had 13 notes so i did it

Pairing: Marcus Moreno x f!reader

Summary: Marcus Moreno has a new assistant, a new, very pretty assistant, and struggles to keep it professional, even when she's what he was looking (not that he was looking) for in someone, even when Missy is totally on board with her as her dad's girlfriend, even when she helped them save the world (again) until he can't anymore.

Word count: +8.2k

A/N: ITS FLUFFY GUYS ITS PURE FLUFF OMG IM SURPRISED IT EVEN HAS A PLOT LIKE I IMAGINED THIS SHIT YESTERDAY AKDJNAKDJNA

Masterlist // Read in ao3 // ko-fi

If you said you weren't nervous you would be a complete liar. You were shaking, it was like you were standing in the middle of the street with nothing on but a t-shirt and shorts while it was snowing. You felt exposed, nervous and somehow vulnerable.

It was your first day at your new job. At your dream job.

Even since The Heroics were around you always wanted to be one of them, even though you didn't actually had any powers of your own you wished to the stars almost every night to be part of them, they were, as well as maybe all children's on the world, your heroes.

And now, two minutes before eight o'clock, there you were, playing with the strap of your messengers bag, waiting for the security guard to let you in while he was looking for your name on the list of expected people, wondering how the offices looked like, imagining who you'd be working with.

When they called you to tell you, after a week of trials and interviews, that you got the job, they didn't actually let you know who you'd be working with, what they did tell you was that you'd be someone's assistant. A Heroic's assistant.

And for you that was enough, you weren't expecting more than that, you didn't want any more than that. That was perfect. More than perfect, wonderful, marvelous, even.

The guard let you in and told you that at the end of the day they would have ready your clearance card, so you can enter the building without issue, that made you shiver, you'll have your own card, to The Heroics HeadQuarters. You felt a bit dizzy only by imagining it, you walked (as best as you could on those evil high heels you put on that morning) to the open elevator and pushed the button to the twenty-fifth door, where they'd told you someone was expecting you.

When the elevator doors opened you saw one of the people that interviewed you for the job tapping on her data pad, you walked towards her and she swept you over with her eyes.

"You dressed well" you frowned, looking at your pencil skirt, wondering if she was being amicable or sarcastic "follow me" you nodded and she started walking through the hallway "so your new boss is expecting you, he already knows about you and he already has work for you to do" you walked in front of a glass table with a small datapad on top and a wireless phone on the side "this one is your desk" she said tapping her fingers on the glass, you rushed to let your bag on the table while following her, she stopped walking in front of a fogged cristal door and you with her "please, you went through a difficult selection process, don't mess it up" you shook your head, not knowing what to respond, she knocked on the door and it opened to the side "Mister Moreno? your new assistant is here" you eyes went shut and you let out a small gasp when you heard his name, you were going to be Marcus Moreno new assistant? you were sure this all was a dream, the man was a legend!

"Thank you, Sid" you opened your eyes at the sound of his voice, Sid turned to you and gestured for you to come into the office of the Leader of The Heroics, you gave to steps into the office and were about to pinch yourself on the arm when you saw his tall figure walking towards you and raised up his hand to shake yours "welcome" he said your name and you smiled at the sound of it on his voice "come, sit, we have work to catch on" he turned around to sit behind the desk, you heard the door closing and turned, Sid wasn't there anymore, you stood for a few seconds, trying to process everything that was going on, then you felt an intense stare in your body and looked at your new boss, he smiled at you lifting one corner of his lips and moved his head to indicate the chair in front of him for you to sit.

"Thanks" you muttered as you sat, and as he started explaining his way of working and what would become your basic functions as his assistant, you couldn't stop thinking about all the times you've seen that same man sitting in front of you fight criminals, end wars, save people, hug children and talk to important people all over the world. A few days ago that man in front of you was just an image on your tv (and phone and computer, if you were honest, but no one was counting) and now he was there, in front of you, in the flesh, talking to you, addressing you, knowing you, looking at you. This was one of the best, most unexpected surprised you've ever gotten.

"Is everything clear?" he asked you, you woke up from your daydream and nodded. You weren't sure at what, but you'd figure it out eventually. 

"Yes, Mister Moreno" he smiled again.

"Great, can you do me a favor?" he said, adjusting his glasses on the bridge of his nose, you nodded "can you go downstairs and get Missy? she's training" you nodded a few more times.

"Sure, I can do that" you said, getting up, really unsure of what he meant by downstairs but you didn't want to ask, you walked to the door and it slided open, you turned to him, he was holding the door remote.

"Basement two" he told you, you nodded again "thanks" you heard while getting out.

"No problem" you yelled back, already out of the office.

He saw you walking away and closed the door again, wondering if you'd be able to find your way to the training basement, he thought you could, you seemed to him like a smart girl... like a smart woman. 

He would be lying if he said he didn't liked you at first sight, for him you had something that he didn't know how to describe, but he probably could point out to others, he did think you'd be an excellent assistant by just looking at your resume, that's why he chose you it the end, but when he saw you on the doorstep of his office for the first time he noticed it on you, he didn't know what it was, but it was there, in your eyes, in you, and he liked it.

Wandering through the hallways of The Heroics HeadQuarters looking for the exact room in which your boss' daughter was trying wasn't exactly how you wanted nor expected to spend your first day on the job, but you knew Missy, at least how she looked like, you didn't think she'd be that hard to find.

After what it felt like an eternity (but it was more like ten minutes) walking on your devilish heels you found the room where Missy, along with a blond girl (that looked really small to be lifting fifty pound weights), a stretchy slim boy and a tall floating girl were training, you weren't sure if you were even allowed to enter the room so you stood in the entrance just waiting to be noticed by either one of the kids.

"Who are you?" you heard a small pitchy voice below you, you turned down and saw the small strong blonde girl "my name is Guppy" she said, you smiled.

"Hi Guppy, I'm Mister Moreno's new assistant" you answered, extending your hand so she could shake it with hers "it's nice to meet you" She shook your hand very strongly and ran to Missy, the girl was dressed in a pink shirt and had her brown hair tied up in a low bun, she looked at you and somehow made you feel really small. She approached you and you felt as if she was studying you with her stare "hi Missy, your dad sent me for you" you said, very low, intimidated by a middle school girl.

"You're the new one?" she asked, with a warning look and crossed arms on her chest, you nodded, she took a step closer to you, an action that made her tilt her head upwards to look at you in the eyes, normally looking at a kid like that would make either one of you laugh, but her eyes were deep (as deep as her father's, you noticed) and she had one eyebrow raised. You didn't know what to say, or what to do for that matter, you didn't want to disrespect your boss' daughter, but you were starting to feel very uncomfortable "I'm Missy, it's very nice to meet you" she said suddenly with a smile, taking your hand to shake it. You let out a small, very surprised "oh" when she changed her attitude. She released your hand and started walking, you followed her.

For a slim and small girl she walked really fast, you had to almost run to keep the pace (you were blaming the shoes at the time, after some time you did realise she was indeed very fast), and she was speaking (quite loudly) about her training while walking.

"And Guppy really, really likes to throw those little fish she makes with water at us, even though we told her to stop, but she's cute so she gets away with it" she said, pressing the elevator button to get the doors to open "you know, I'm really glad my dad has someone to help him" she said, entering the elevator with you behind her "maybe now he can finish up earlier and we can have dinner at home instead of his office" she let out with a sigh.

"Don't worry, I will make sure he gets home to have dinner with you" you said, minding more the pain in your feet and glancing at your wrist watch, not actually knowing how important those words were to the girl, you didn't see her smile when you said that, you didn't see the glow rising in her eyes when she watched herself sitting next to his dad, having a half nice, warm, almost cooked dinner at home while watching some movie on tv, instead of sitting in front of him in his office eating take out.

She stood there in silence, you felt her stare, you actually felt her eyes looking at you, all of you, but by that point you didn't even mind, you wanted to sit down as soon as you could and start with whatever your boss told you to do. The elevator opened and you both walked down the hallway towards the office, she knocked the door three times and it opened, Missy entered the office very nonchalantly.

"'Sup, father figure" she said, making you snort, both Moreno's looked at you standing in the doorframe.

"Sorry" you said, and walked backwards to sit behind your desk, you heard the door slide closed and you sighed, it was only nine in the morning and you were already exhausted.

Missy looked at his father, who was looking back at his datapad, she sat in one of the chairs in front of the desk, Marcus felt his daughter stare on his head, he looked up to her and took off his glasses.

"What?" he asked her, Missy smiled.

"I like her" the girl said, he glanced at the door and looked back at his daughter, nodding "she's really pretty" she said, making her father smile "so you agree?" she said.

"Missy..." he cut her out, the girl laughed.

_____________________________

The phone rang again, you took the call without looking at who was calling.

"Marcus Moreno's office?" you said still typing on you data pad.

"Hello" Missy said "he forgot to pick me up from school again?" she asked, you jumped out of the chair, looking at your watch.

"Oh gosh, Missy" you gasped, it was twenty minutes after Missy's school day ended "I'm so sorry, he's still on a meeting" you said, thinking of what to do "don't worry, hang in there, I'm coming" you said, hanging up the phone.

You took your bag and ran as fast as you could, you pushed the elevator button several times until the doors opened and pushed the main floor button. While the elevator went down you typed a message for your boss to see when his meeting was over "If I'm not there when you're done, I went to pick up Missy from school". The elevator doors opened and you ran to the tramcar so it'd take you to the parking lot.

When Marcus checked his phone, half an hour later, he felt (once again, for the third time on that week,  and the first time in the day) like the worst father ever. He quickly dialed your phone number (that he'd already memorized) trying to think what to say, trying to think how to thank you for what you were doing, knowing you didn't have to.

"Mister Moreno?" you answered.

"Oh god, I'm sorry" he said "I know it's not your job, thank you so much for going to take her, thank you, I promise you won't have to do that again, and I will make it up to you"

"You're welcome" said Missy, Marcus widened his eyes "I don't mind if she comes to school for me everyday, you know?" you smiled.

"Missy" Marcus muttered, realizing just then he was on speaker and they were on the car. "I'm sorry, honey, I'm really sorry"

"I know that, don't worry" she said, Marcus felt doubly guilty, because his daughter had all the right to be angry at him yet she understood that her dad was bussy "did you know she drives an ecological car?" she asked, turning to you, she was sitting in the co-pilot's seat, smiling widely "it's so cool!"

"I-I didn't know, that's great" Marcus said, smiling at the sound of her daughter's happiness.

"So she's been working with you for two months and you didn't know the car she drives? That is cold, father" Missy scolded him, making you laugh. Your laughter made Marcus smile.

"I'm sorry" he apologized, you didn't know if it was to you or to his daughter or maybe to both, there was a small pause "see you girls here." he said suddenly and hung up the call. Missy looked at you.

"What are you smiling at?" she asked, you gulped, not even knowing you were smiling and glanced at her, Missy noticed how you gripped the steering wheel tighter.

"Nothing" you said. Missy grinned at you.

"Look, I may be a kid, and I may not know very much about things, but I've seen those kind of smiles" she said, playing with a strand of her hair. "my teacher smiles like that when she talks to the soccer coach, and the soccer coach smiles like that as well when she talks to my teacher" you didn't know what to say, or how to act. "do you like my dad?" she asked, you choked a bit on your own respiration and Missy gave you a quick worried glance.

"Missy..." you stuttered.

"It's ok, y'know?" she said, trying to reassure you "I see how he looks at you" you closed your eyes a bit, forgetting for a split second you were driving, feeling your stomach turn at the mere thought of Marcus Moreno even looking at you in any way. "and I really think he shouldn't be alone anymore" she murmured, looking out the window, you looked at her, she was playing with the thin necklace she was wearing, with a small, barely noticeable smile on her lips and a nostalgic stare on the street "he's been taking care of everything for so long, I think he needs to let someone else take care of him" you smiled at that "and you do that when he's at work" you looked at her "besides me, but he doesn't listen to me anyway" she said, returning at her normal sassy, know-it-all self.

A comfortable silence fell upon the both of you, you were trying to process what she told you, trying your best to not focus only on her statement of her dad looking at you, but admiring her maturity, amazed by that girl sitting next to you, barely able to look out of the window of the car, that was so assured of herself and was so aware of her situation that she was thinking about her father's happiness, interest and well being. Then you got self-conscious, was your crush for your boss noticeable? was Missy the only one that had any notion of how you looked at her father? did your co-workers know about how you looked at your boss? You hoped they didn't, because it was nothing, even if Missy just told you he looks at you in some way , it was nothing, you were sure of it. Yes maybe you dreamed about your boss taking you out, maybe when the day was slow you daydreamed of him making you go into his office and getting comfy on the one couch he had on it and just talk to you until he remembered he had something to you, and maybe sometimes you got those dreams that were dirty and steamy as well but it was nothing. Wasn't it?

"You okay?" Missy asked when you parked. You nodded and smiled at her. "you didn't answer my question" she said, looking at you with a funny but serious face.

Your smile grew wide, you looked at the girl and somehow knew she wouldn't tell him a single thing you two talked inside that car, you knew that even though she was a kid, and that she was your boss' daughter, she would keep the secret guarded until you wanted. 

"Yeah, I think I do" you said, Missy smiled at you "I like him" she clapped a few times before getting out of the car, making you laugh.

_____________________________

You were so concentrated to get everything your boss told you to write in the email you were typing that you didn't notice the little crouched shadow trying to sneak next to your desk.

"Hi" you heard, you jumped, startled. Missy smiled and stood up straight.

"You scared me" you said, putting a hand on your chest, smiling back at the girl standing in front of you with her backpack hanging from her right shoulder "honey, your dad is busy right now" you told her "he's on a conference call" you pointed to the conference room at the beginning of the hall.

"Yeah, I know, I came to see you" she responded with a more serious tone, you tilted your head in surprise. 

"Oh yeah? what for?" you asked.

"I wanna talk to you" Missy said, walking towards her father's office, waiting for you to open the door with the remote she knew you had.

"Alright then, let's get inside" you stood up with your datapad and your phone and opened the door for her. You both walked into the office and she dropped the bag she was carrying on the floor next to the door, she walked to the couch and sat there, then she tapped the seat next to her with a hand, you closed the door and went to sit next to her. "do you mind if I finish up some emails while we talk?" you said, she nodded.

"Yeah, no problem" you smiled at her response, even so wary as well of her tone.

"So..." she started, you made a small noise while resuming your typing, acknowledging her "how long you've been working here?" she asked.

"Three months now" she made a thinking sound and you saw her putting her hand on her chin. 

"I see" 

"Why?" you asked, sending one email and opening a new draft.

"Just wondering" she said, looking over your shoulder, curious of what you were doing.

"I see" you said, she laid back into the back of the couch, smiling, you crossed one of your legs over the other.

"Do you trust my dad?" she asked, looking at your shoes.

"Of course I do" you looked at her, you noticed her almost spaced out expression "Missy are you ok?" you asked, she nodded.

"Yeah" she looked back at you and smiled, you smiled back "I'm just asking" you hesitated a bit but let out a sigh, agreed to her silent reassurance that she was indeed okay and looked back down into the datapad.

You both stayed there, enjoying each others company for a few minutes, she was looking at you, letting you finish your job, she was thinking at how much better things had gotten since you came to work with her dad because somehow you'd make her dad's life easier, she was thinking at how he put more attention to her than before, and more attention in general, she was thinking at the way her dad looked at his assistant, even though he has told her many (many) times now that he can't look at her in any other way than his assistant because that what she was, even when Missy knew that they both wanted to be something else, she didn't know what, she just knew that the wanted something more, she also was thinking about you, about how it'd be fun to have you around more, about how she would really like to have somebody to talk about stuff she knew she couldn't tell her dad, like the way she was starting to see Wild Card or how her body made her feel sometimes, she thought about how it would be really fun to have someone to mother her, once she saw you hit send to the last response you were supposed to write she called your name.

"Can I hug you?" she asked, you frowned worried and put down the datapad, you wanted to ask her again if she was okay, but when you looked into her eyes you saw that she really wanted it, it was almost as if she was smaller than she appeared to be, she even seemed younger, you didn't respond when you already had your arms around her slim body. You heard her gasp and smile, and felt her small arms around you as well "this feels good" she whispered, you smiled and held her tighter, she rested her head in your shoulder.

"It's everything ok?" you both heard next to you, you broke the hug and you felt Missy reluctantly sitting up.

"Yeah, dad, we're fine" she said, standing up and going to hug him without saying another word. You smiled at the scene, standing up and walking to the door, Marcus looked at you as he hugged his daughter and Missy buried her face into his chest.

"Is she okay?" he mouthed at you, you looked at the girl and nodded.

"Just enjoy it" you mouthed back, looking at him in the eyes, making him smile "I'm gonna go" you mouthed again, and for a brief second he wanted to tell you to stay, he wanted to grab you and hold you with one arm while holding his daughter with the other, he wanted to rest his head on your shoulder just as Missy was doing it just two minutes before and smell your perfume that he liked and brush your back with his hand, he wanted you to say there with them, he wanted to tell you to stay there with them forever. But he remembered where you were, and who he was, and who you were, and brushed of as much as he could of those thoughts and nodded back at you.

They both stood in the middle of the office, hugging, while you got out and closed the door.

"Missy, you're okay?" he said, brushing her brown hair with his fingers.

"Yes, can't I hug my dad?" she said, still inside his arms.

"I mean yeah, but a hug like this on a random tuesday?" he said, making Missy laugh and look up at him.

"When are you gonna ask her out?" Marcus choked at his daughter's question.

"Ask who?" he said, playing dumb, Missy broke the hug and went to sit on one of the chairs in front of his desk.

"Ask who?" she imitated him, Marcus smiled at the way she did that, exactly like his mother.

"Why are you asking me that?" he said, sitting in the other chair, next to her, taking off his glasses.

"Because you obviously like her" she said, thinking if she should tell her dad what she knew, wondering if you would get mad if she did, she decided that she wouldn't tell him yet "I mean, you do, right? like her?" she asked.

Marcus rubbed his eyes with his fingers and sighed.

"Missy, there's things that kids don-"

"Please don't do that" she cut him off "don't treat me like I'm dumb... because you and I know I'm not" he nodded "I just want you to tell me truth" 

"Why do you wanna know this so much?" he asked, genuinely curious.

"Because I think you deserve it" she shrugged "I think you should go on a date or something"

Marcus smiled and shook his head, putting back on his glasses.

"Thank you, honey" he said "but have you asked me if I am ready to date somebody?" Missy frowned and looked at him.

"Well, are you?" she said, loudly "dad I think you are, but don't want to admit it" Marcus smiled again, sometimes his daughter outsmarted everyone he knew, even himself "besides she's really cool" Missy said, crossing her arms in her chest "and she gives really nice hugs" she finished, in a cocky tone.

Marcus was about to try to give his daughter a rebuttal when an alarm went off. Missy stood up of her seat and looked at him, he rushed to his datapad and Missy ran to grab her backpack.

The office door opened and you stood there wide eyed and clearly scared. That wasn't a fire drill alarm, that was a different one that you've never heard in your life.

"What's going on?" you asked, agitated, Missy looked at you and then at her dad, that was looking at his datapad.

"There's a spaceship trying to land on our territory" Marcus said, Missy ran up to him and snatched the device from his hands, your boss looked at you "it's just one, the guys are gonna take care of it and we'll be f-"

"Dad" Missy said, he looked at her and she showed him the screen "it's not just one, it's more" Missy looked at you and saw you breathing fast and heavily, she ran to you.

"Are you ok?" she asked, scared you shook your head "it's gonna be ok, I promise" the girl said on top of the alarm that was blasting everywhere, and even though you were taller, older and somewhat stronger than her, you believed her and nodded, she helped you sit down in one of the chairs in front of Marcus's desk.

"Marcus Moreno, please report to the Directors office" you heard on the datapad your boss was holding, he looked at you and then looked at Missy.

"Turn on your bracelet" he said to Missy, she nodded you saw the girl tap twice to the bracelet she was always wearing and then saw your boss doing the same with his watch "take her to the bunker downstairs, and then stay there with her until I call you, okay?" he said, Missy nodded and looked at him.

"A bunker?" you whispered, they didn't seem to hear you.

"We're gonna do this together, right?" she asked, Marcus looked at her and took off his glasses.

"We made a deal" he said, Missy rushed to you and helped you stand up, you looked at your boss waiting for him to tell you something, anything "stay with her, she will protect you" he told you, you felt your head spin and nodded as much as your neck let you, Missy took your hand and the three of you rushed out of the office, you saw people running away and towards you, everyone seemed like they had somewhere to go or something to do, while you were being escorted by a little girl to a bunker you didn't even know existed even though it was very obvious they would have one.

You saw Marcus running away from you while Missy pulled you from your arm to a set of stairs that went down way too many floors.

"Wait, wait" you said, Missy stopped and you took off your high heels with one hand, you didn't even bothered to take them with you as you heard a really loud crash on top of you, the alarm ceased and now there was just silence, you ran with Missy until you felt your lungs sting and your breath was getting shorter by the second.

"Missy, they crashed onto the building, please stay in the bunker, both of you" you heard your boss voice through Missys bracelet, the girl looked at you and you both ran the fastest you could, you reached the third basement and started running to the bunkers door, that was already closing.

"C'mon!" Missy yelled, you weren't sure if she was yelling at you or at them, but when the man that was closing the bunker's door saw you it was too late, the door couldn't be stopped and you both stayed out.

"Damn it!" you cursed out loud, Missy looked at you "sorry". The girl talked into her bracelet.

"We were late, they closed the door already"

"Stay there, please" you both heard. Missy frowned and looked down, you were trying to recover from all the running and then saw the girl walking confidently towards the elevator.

"What are you doing?" you asked hurriedly "Missy, come back!" she opened the door and you jogged to reach her, the elevator closed and started moving "where are we going?"

"Back up" you looked at her like she was crazy.

"What?" you said, looking down and just remembering you didn't have any shoes on. You were getting anxious "for what?"

"Do you know how to fight?" she asked, you looked at her back and blinked a few times.

"I mean... a little" you tried to remember when was the last time you went to the gym or some moves you learned when you were a kid and went to karate school and your anxiety grew more with the little number on the elevator screen that showed the floor you were on "what if I don't remember much?" you asked Missy.

"Then find something and hit them with it" she said, stretching her arms.

"Hit who?" you said, almost crying.

"Hit the aliens!" Missy yelled, the elevator door opened between floors and you heard the little girl sigh in desperation, you were trying to process what she told you.

"Aliens? like the last time?" you asked, watching her climb the space to get to the floor that was a few inches below your waist, you could hear people struggling in there and Missy looked at you, crouched on the floor.

"This time they're real" she said, she extended her hand for you to take and she helped you climb as well "stay down" she said and you nodded, still trying to make sense of everything that she said and what was happening, you could see some sort of amorphic four legged beings, with gray skin and three eyes, they were just walking around, didn't seem to notice you slowly walking behind them "dad? we are in the seventeenth floor, where are you?" she whispered into the bracelet on her wrist.

"Outside! do you see them? how many are there?" Marcus said back. Missy looked at you and you counted the ones you could see.

"Eight" you whispered as she got the bracelet close to you

"Be careful, they appear to be deaf, don't let them see you" 

Missy looked at you and you tried to examine the floor, looking for any weapon, you tried to get back to the elevator to go outside. One of the things saw you two moving and walked towards you, you started shaking again and when it tried to grab you Missy kicked its front leg, it then stood in its two back legs and you mimicked Missy's kick, then punched it in the neck and ran back to the elevator while it stumbled backwards.

"Missy, are you coming?" your boss asked.

"Yes, we're coming" both of you crouched back to the elevator and begged for it to work "where did you learn that?" Missy asked you, you pushed the button to the main floor and the machine went faster than before, you braced yourselves to the rails on the side.

"Did you think they'd hire me without me knowing some stuff?" you grinned tiredly.

"Wait, what, we?" Marcus' agitated voice broke the silence.

"Well who else?" you said "both of us" Missy smiled at you.

The elevator opened, this time it did correctly, the first thing that you saw was Guppy, the little girl that really amazed you, throwing one of the four legged aliens into a wall, Missy ran around her and you behind her, crouching, along the main hall was Wheels protecting the entrance while Wild Card electrified two aliens at the same time, no one of the kids seemed to notice you run. You got out the building and saw a huge octagonal shaped spaceship hovering over the building, you could see Lava Girl, Miracle Guy and Shark Boy trying to move it together while Crimson Legend and the twins were fighting (and messing) with a horde of aliens on the left side of the parking lot, on the right side there was Invisi-Girl and Lighting Fury along with Noodles and Marcus fighting to stop some of the creatures that wanted to get inside the building.

Missy ran to them and you ran behind her, concentrated on not falling and also on the way your boss brandished his katanas. 

"Dad!" Missy yelled, Marcus turned to her and frowned one of the aliens grabbed him and threw him into the air, you felt dizzy, Noodles stretched his arms to catch him before he landed on the pavement.

"Thanks, buddy" he yelled when the stretchy arm left it sitting on the floor, Missy ran to him and you were about to go after her when you saw one of the creatures running towards her as well.

Adrenaline started pumping into your body, you saw one of Marcus' katanas on the floor and started running to grab it, for you it all happened in two seconds; you grabbed the weapon and then ran towards the alien, you sliced one of its back legs and it turned to you, it tried to turn around to grab you and you sliced off the other back leg, it screeched in pain and you jumped, lifting the katana and with all the strength in your body perforated its body with it. It stopped moving and you dropped the weapon looking around you, feeling the adrenaline pumping into your head and your chest.

Missy and Marcus were looking at you jaw-dropped.

You picked up the katana and walked towards the other one, picked it up as well and walked towards your boss, he was getting up the floor when you handed him the weapons.

"That was so badass!" Missy yelled looking at you, you smiled at her shyly and then looked at Marcus, he took only one of them.

"Take the other one" he said, his voicetone was deep and you noticed his sweaty forehead and the way his eyes looked all blood pumped because of the adrenaline, you wanted to stay there and look at him until he told you to stop, and you were wondering if, by the way he was looking back at you, he maybe wanted the same thing. Missy cleared his throat and made you wake up from your daze, you nodded and looked at Missy with a smile on your face.

"Does anybody have any idea what on earth do they want?" the voice of Miracle Guy could be heard through the intercoms.

"What if they just want to takeover the world?" Noodles voice was heard.

"It seems possible" Ms. Vox said then, you looked around and didn't see her outside "they look like they're looking for something inside" she said while a sharp g note was heard on the background. 

Missy took your hand and you both walked towards the dead alien in the middle of the parking lot while the others fought its friends.

"What are we looking for?" you asked, Missy shrugged, for you it just looked like a short-necked giraffe with gray skin and an extra eye. Then you noticed a small black piece of metal inside of a hole it had on a side of its neck "Missy" you called her, she came to your side and you pointed to the thing with the katana. Missy raised his wrist.

"Dad? we found something" she said, she reached to grab it and you stopped her with one arm.

"It could be dangerous to touch" you said, shrugging. Marcus jogged towards you, Missy showed them the metallic thing and he got closer to the alien's corpse to see, he then shove his hand into the hole and you and Missy made a grin in disgust. You saw your boss examine the small thing and weighting it in his hand. He turned to Missy.

"Take this to Wheels" he said "go!" Missy nodded and grabbed your free hand to take you with her, Marcus stayed back, he couldn't help but smile at the way his daughter grabbed you and grasped your arm so tight to not lose you, he was surprised at how you were taking the situation and he was so amazed at the way you were fighting, every single extra minute he got to see you he realized he liked you more and more, and by that moment in which you held and gripped one of his katanas, he knew he was screwed.

Up until that moment that you were running with Missy you realized (again) you were shoeless, but somehow it made you run faster, you got inside the building again, the boy's wheelchair was set on the covered part of the entrance, Missy went to him.

"Cover us" she told you, you widen your eyes and even though you nodded you didn't even know how to do that. You glanced around and saw Guppy sitting down on the reception counter, sipping water, while Wild Card walked around the lobby (or what was left of it) amongst two dead aliens "we found this inside the alien" Missy said, handing the metal piece to the boy, he looked at it and then he rested the thing on top of one of the datapads his wheelchair had.

"It looks like some kind of... remote control" he said, surprised, Missy looked at him and then back at you

"Alien!" Wild Card yelled, a creature was running towards him, Guppy jumped down the counter and you ran to it, tried to slice it but didn't reach it the first time, the second time you waved the katana from below and got his upper thigh (or what it looked like it anyway) you saw the boy throw fireballs at it and you called him.

"Can you electrify this katana?" you asked while slicing the alien on one of the front legs, the kid grinned and nodded, you threw it at him and he catch it with no issue.

"Electric powers" he said, making the blade of the katana glow with energy, you grabbed Guppy and ran with her on your arms, you looked at the kid slide below the alien, nailing the weapon inside its stomach with one single push, the thing screeched loudly and the girl in your arms cheered at the boy. He walked towards you and handed the weapon, you let the girl down and she raised her hand to give you a high five.

"They're controlled!" Missy yelled, you turned to her, wiped the sweat from your forehead and walked to her "Wheels found the control inside of that ship" she pointed at the one in the sky, the huge one that Lava Girl, Shark Boy and Miracle Guy were still trying to move. She repeated the same into her bracelet to her dad.

"We're going, you cover us down here" Marcus said, the five of you walked out of the building again, Missy grabbed your hand, you looked down to her and smiled at her. "Wheels, guide us over here, buddy" 

You saw the boy putting down the other screen on his wheelchair and started tapping and speaking to the adults that were about to heist their way into the ship, suddenly all of the aliens outside noticed that most of the heroes were trying to get inside their ship and went onto them, Guppy and Wild Card ran towards them to fight them, you were about to follow them but Missy grabbed your arm and pulled you back.

"Please stay with us" she said, you nodded and watched as below the ship another battle started, you saw Marcus slicing and dicing aliens and in some way that was not at all weird for the moment you felt your stomach turn at the way he was fighting to protect the world.

"I need my other katana" his voice was heard on Missy's bracelet, you felt he was looking back at you, you raised the hand that was holding the weapon and felt it vibrate, you saw him lift is hand as well, calling his companion to return to him, your hand was pulled by some invisible force that took the katana from you, you saw Marcus move his hand and the weapon moved as well, while traveling to him the katana was stabbing and slicing aliens, you smiled as you watched him.

"Show off" Missy said under her breath, you laughed.

The battle continued while Wheels guided his dad and the rest of The Heroics, already inside the ship, to the controller of the aliens, then he guided them on how to dismantle the controls and you saw in awe how all the aliens dropped to the floor, keeling towards the ship. 

Wheels took over the controls on her datapads.

"Get out of the ship, I'm about to send it home!" he yelled, they got out together and the boy beside you tapped some more, made the ship pick up all the aliens and sent it back from where it came from. Missy cheered up and you finally caught a breath.

"Well done, Wheels, really well done!" Missy said, you smiled at the boy and turned to see Missy, she smiled back at you and then turned around to see her dad, she ran up to him and hugged him. 

You could hear him prasing her work as they walked back inside alongside the others. Your boss looked at you and raised a hand to grab your shoulder. You felt a shiver go down your spine when you felt his touch. He smiled at you.

"Good job" he said, clearing his throat. You stood there, blinking. You knew you didn't deserve anything else from him, you knew you weren't entitled to something else than that, because after all he was still just your boss, and you were his assistant... But, to you it was unavoidable, to want something else, to want another thing, to want more. Because you weren't supposed to even be there, brandishing one of his weapons, slicing aliens, getting covered in their weird bodily matter, shoeless, sweaty and tired. That was not your job, and you did it anyway, you did it selflessly and to help but you still felt like you deserved more than just what he was giving you.

"Thanks?" you said, he nodded, tightened up the grab on your shoulder and then dropped his hand to the side, walking past you to the elevators. Missy watched him in disbelief then looked at you, you looked back at her and opened your mouth, not even knowing what to say.

"Really?" she whispered, you smiled, bemused and kind of frustrated by what just had happened.

"I-I don't even know" you muttered.

"C'mon, let's find your shoes" she said, making you laugh.

_____________________________

They'd given you a week to rest after the battle, and they told you as well they would start training you to be an agent, that was, somehow, a raise.

But you weren't as happy as you were sure you should, because after your week-long rest, everything was the same, everything came back to normal. Just you, your boss and your boss' daughter that appeared out of nowhere and lightened up your days.

You checked your watch, longing for the end of the day so you could drive back home to put on the pajama and watch some cheesy movie about a romance that you wanted to live.

"Can you come inside, please?" you heard Marcus' voice through your new intercom, you didn't bother answering, insead you stood up, grabbed your datapad and opened the door.

"Yes?" you said, walking inside the office, you saw Marcus close the door on his end and shifting in his chair "do you want me to bring you anything?" you asked.

"Sit, please" you hesitated for a second before doing it, and waited for him to talk.

You saw him fiddle his fingers and avoiding eye contact, he was nervous, and he was getting you nervous, for a moment the thought that he was going to fire you crossed your mind but you shoved that right where it came from.

"Are you ok, sir?" you asked, he cringed a little and made a grin.

"Call me Marcus, please" he said, he took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes with the palm of his hands.

"Are you ok, Marcus?" you said his name with stealth, almost as if it'd wear out if you said it, he looked at you when you did.

"Now I am" he responded, he stood up and walked around his desk to sit in the chair next to you "see, there's something I need to tell you, because I didn't before and that won me a scolding from Missy" he said, grinning, you frowned, amused.

"And what is it?" you asked, kind of hopeful.

"What you did out there" he said, pointing at the window "that was incredible" he smiled, you smiled back, satisfied, because that was what you wanted after all, recognizon (you wanted more, you did, but he couldn't know) "and for me, how you did that to save my daughter, that's unforgettable" he got closed and grabbed one of your hands that were resting on your lap, your body started sending you alarms, what was he doing?, why was he touching you like that?, why was his thumb rubbing slowly the back of your hand?, why were your eyes getting watery?, what was going on? "you were unforgettable".

You let out a sigh, and bolded up and turned your hand to grab his. You noticed how that surprised him, but he didn't take it back.

"I know we probably shouldn't do this" he said, putting his other hand in top of yours "but I wanted to ask you for quite some time now..." you tightened your grip on his hand "if maybe you'd want to grab dinner with me." he said the last part in a mumble, dropping his gaze down, you smiled and got closer to him to hold his chin up with your fingers, he looked at you, amazed by the contact. You nodded.

"I'd love to grab dinner with you" you whispered. He smiled at you.

You bolded up a second time, this time it took out more energy out of you but you knew it was something you needed to do. You spreaded your hand along his jaw and got closer to him, he immediately closed his eyes and leaned into your hand, tearing a smile out of you, you closed the distance between you and pressed your lips against his.

His lips were soft and steady, you let out all the air you had in your lungs when he deepened the kiss, moving his mouth to taste your lips, it was something taken out of the movies, the way his facial hair felt on your skin was almost heavenly, and the way your breaths synchronized into one while he stopped holding your and and leaned in to grab your waist and your back made you melt into his arms.

It was incredible, and at that moment you realized something. Something that you hadn't think of before until his mouth was into yours, his hands were holding you and your heart was racing at double speed.

You were utterly and completely in love with him.

Unexpectedly, unavoidably, unforgettably in love with him

[mcu-fan-fics-blog]

The Helping Hand

This is a Repost from my Ao3 I wanted to bring it to Tumblr. As I was editing the last chapter I decided to go a different direction than on Ao3. So moving forward the story will be different.

Word Count: 2200 approx

Summary: Y/N Krast Illegitimate Daughter of Tony Stark. Product of an unwanted teen pregnancy. What would Howard Stark be capable of doing to assure his sons future? What will happen when Tony meets our Beautiful, young, genius, rich philanthropist.

Tw: Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Drug use, Drug addiction, Teen Pregnancy, Slight Stalking. (If there are any I missed please tell me.)

Ch.6

Chapter 7: Time is Running

Ch.8

The pain is unbearable and the bright light just isn't helping. You start to see shadowy figures around you, you close your eyes again trying to focus. You feel cold, then suddenly a hand in your own. You turn to see who it belongs to, you're slightly surprised to see Tony there holding your hand. He stands when he realizes you've woken up. He's saying something but you can't quite put it together.

"What-what happened to me?" Your voice is dry and hoarse. Suddenly Bruce is at your side as well. "Well, that's what we want to know Y/N." You look at them confused. "I-i don't know what this is, but it's happened before…" They both look at you intrigued, prompting you to continue. "When I was little I was really sick in and out of the hospital. Until one day it got very bad, long story short I had heart surgery." Still not getting the point you continue. 

"And I had this dream, it felt exactly like this. My mom was there…" You say to finish your statement. "Your mom?" Tony repeats walking towards you. You simply nod. "What did she tell you… anything important?" He asks rather impatiently. "She's dead… my- my dad he's alive." You say quietly like you didn't want to believe it. Tony and Bruce share a look, but you don't mention it. "I don't know what happened." You sigh again "Did you check my Heart?" Your question seems to knock them out of their daze. 

"No we didn't, your vitals were stable… Um, do you want me to?" You nod. "It's for the best, considering what happened last time." He begins to walk out “Bruce I would appreciate your discretion on the matter. No need to worry the team.” He hesitates but ultimately agrees. You watch him walk out and turn to Tony. “I’m going to ask that you do the same.” He goes to speak but you stop him before he can start. “Tony, please I don't need their pity, and therefore mentioned yours.” He sighs in hindsight he should have told them but he didn’t and you appreciated him for it.

The next couple of hours Bruce spent running tests on you. You knew something was wrong when he decided to re-test for “better images”. Just as he’s about to walk away and run the said test for the third time you stop him. “What’d you find Bruce, be honest with me running the damn test again won’t change the results.” He rubs the bridge of his nose and sighs. “It just doesn’t make scene Y/n, earlier when I ran these tests everything was fine, and now your results are all over the place.” He gives you a worried look. “When Wanda tried to look into your mind she said you were blocked off she couldn’t get through the barrier. I think It was keeping you stable Y/n.” 

“So you’re saying that whatever is happening to me Is keeping me alive?” He nods and builds on his theory. “It’s like a survival instinct it kicks in when you’re in danger.” You scoff and rub your hands together. “More like imminent death, show me my heart scans.” He walks off and hands them to you. “Oh, fuck me. That’s bad isn’t it?” He nods. “The surgery you had did not fix the initial heart issue you had, It actually got worse with time.” 

You close your eyes trying to calm your thoughts. “What does this mean Bruce can we do something?” He sighs “You’re gonna want to talk to Tony about this, Maybe he can do something with the arc reactor. Maybe Vision could help us; he won’t tell anyone.” He adds quickly at the end. “Y/n they need to know about this…” You cut him off  “No, Vision, Tony, and you need to know about this. There isn’t anything the rest of the team can do.” You stand from the examination table and clothe yourself. Bruce didn’t want to look but curiosity took over. “Y/n where’d you get those?” he asks quietly looking at the scars on our back. “Bruce the Foster Care System is fucked.” you say while putting your shirt on. “Do-do you want to find your father?” He asked another question this time you freeze in place. 

“Bruce, thin ice bud.” You say walking away. As soon as you walk out you see the team sitting in the common room. “Steve, Pietro, Nat, Wanda I owe you all an explanation…” When you try to continue Natasha stops you. “Y/n you owe us nothing, when you’re ready to talk we’ll be here waiting.” she says casually. You look around the room and everyone is agreeing which is odd. Something is going on, they know something you don't, you look at Steve, his eyes immediately shift away from yours. “You are all terrible liars.” You state bluntly, them being closed off huddling together after all the “we’re a family, we’ll be here” crap just makes you less inclined to ever open up to them. 

“Vision, Tony and Banner want to talk to you.” You say changing your attention to the synthezoid currently floating in the corner of the room. He simply nods and phases through a wall. You stare blankly at the wall, a ‘that’s new’ leaving your lips. Not minding the rest of the team behind you, you leave them there heading back to the lab. "Right have you gotten Vision onboard." He simply nods. "Y/n I have to ask your heart since when has that been going on." Vision asks and you nod "When I was dropped off at the hospital as a baby I had minor non invasive surgeries, later on I got this bad boy." You point out lifting your shirt to reveal a rather large scar. 

"Y/n would you mind if I accessed your medical files." You ceded "It's fine do what you must. Bruce? Um thanks for all of this... What's your estimate?" You ask quickly he almost didn't catch it. "Y/n you don't need to know that." Your anger rising "The hell I do Banner. Look I don't have my affairs in order. I need you to tell me whether or not I should get started on that. Or I could just ask Vision." He shakes his head. "At the deterioration rate your heart tissues are in I'd say 4,5 months." That takes you by surprise and it takes you a moment to process. You look up at him, your smile faltering, you nod and head out of the lab.

Surprisingly a certain red head was waiting for you outside the lab. You walk up to her "Do you want to go get that dinner you promised?" She's surprised by your sudden invitation, but you don't back down. "I would love to." You nod. She clears her throat "so what's actually going on with you?" She tries to ask casually but ultimately fails. "I won't ask about your little secret and you won't ask about my little episode. Sound good? I just want to enjoy the night." She nods and you both make your way to the elevator. The walk to the restaurant was pleasant. “So tell me Y/n how’d you become the billionaire you are today?” You laugh at her phrasing no one’s ever asked you that. “I wouldn't paint myself in that light but I guess I am a billionaire, but I’m smart.” She scoffs “So, Tony’s also smart, tell me something I don't already know.” 

“Fine, let me think… I had Howard that's how I did all of this I guess if it wasn't for him I would probably be on the streets.” She stops walking. “Another fun fact, that for my 12th birthday he gave me my first Million Euros.” She tilted her head. “Why Euros you may be asking yourself? He said  ‘Y/n anyone can give you money, but I, I got you the best money there is.” Natasha broke out in laughter. “So Howard was rich, that must have been like culture shock.” You nod. “Well It should have been, but when your bestfriend gets a private island for her birthday your expectations change.” You mention casually. “Who is this best friend of yours?” She asks curiously. “Remember when we ‘met’ the coffee place? My friend Jenna owns the place.” 

“What is she doing working at a Coffee shop?” She asks Intrigued. “Well, her family comes from old money. And something that usually comes with old money is strings. So she cut herself off.” Nat shakes her head. “That must’ve been hard.” You nod. “It was but by then I had my own money I could help her out when she really needed it.” You stop abruptly and turn to nat. “I can't believe I almost forgot, there's this place that has the best grilled cheese I’ve ever had!” You basically drag her down the street to the food truck. “Thank God! It's still here.” You exclaim trying to catch your breath. 

“See, I was thinking candlelit, waiters and wine!” She mentions jokingly you give her a playful glare and proceed to order. “You see I’m not the wine and dine type of Girl.” she chuckles “I’m beginning to see that.” You take the first bite and it’s like heaven on earth. “It’s still as good as I remember.” You say in between bites. Natasha can only nod “You know you eat like a child right?” you fain being offended “Nat I’ll have you know I have the most refined palate. You can't tell me It’s not good. ”She hums taking another bite of her grilled cheese. “I never said it was bad Y/n.” She teases. Her eyes met yours and for a moment it felt like it was just you and her. When suddenly the world your eyes have created is brought to an abrupt stop.

“Y/n is that you?” fuck… “It’s me Zack from last night.” How can this keep getting worse. You turn your head towards Zack meeting his gaze. “Yeah, I remember you. My new favorite barista, thanks for helping me out yesterday.” You say plastering on the most artificial smile you could. “You like Doc’s too, I used to come here as a kid with my parents.” Your demeanor falters at the mention of his parents. “Yeah, It's my favorite. It was nice to see you Zack, but we gotta go see you around.” You take hold of Nat's hand and walk away from him. Once you're a safe distance away you let go and finally notice that you're breathing is of the charts. “Sorry that guy just creeps me out.” You say while catching your breath. “You could’ve fooled me. Your favorite barista?”

“Nat? Are you jealous… Cause if you are.” You stop talking when you notice her glaring at you. “He’s not my favorite barista far from it. Who would’ve thought an international spy Jealous.” She scoffs “I think you’re getting ahead of yourself Y/n. We haven't even gone out.” Now it's your turn to laugh “We haven't? Then what is this we’re doing?” The words in Natasha's mouth go away. She's left there opening and closing her mouth. "Right, now how about you pick dessert?" You say changing the subject. She nods "How does Ice cream sound, I know a really good place around here."

"That sounds Perfect." You hum as you start walking. "You know Zack, he's a horrible person. He's not in my good graces I guess is what I'm trying to get at." You mumble. She turns to you with a worried look. "Y/n are you okay? We can go back if you're not feeling well." She states taking hold of your shoulder. "No I'm okay I just wanted to clear the air." She nods and you continue walking. Once you make it to the ice cream shop you order and sit in a both. "So Y/n If you don't like Zack why pretend?" She asks "To put it simply he doesn't remember who I am hence what he did to me." 

"What are you planning to do with this guy then?" She continues down the same road. "Nothing… It's not my priority right now." You say taking another bite of your ice cream. "So Natasha tell me about you. Yes, I know it might be surprising you might have picked up on how I like to make things about me. It's your turn now tell me something I don't know." You say and she chuckles. "I was beginning to think you'd never ask." She teases. "Well I'm Russian. I was trained to be the best assassin there is and I was until Barton recruited me." You nod. 

"See we've already got something in common. You have Clint I had Howard." She laughs at the fact that you completely flew over the International Assassin part. "I would like to do this again some time… of course if you want to too I mean." You go on. "Nat, are you listening to me?" You notice her eyes looking elsewhere. "Y/n he followed us here." You almost drop your ice cream. "He what?" She takes your hand. "Zack creepy guy followed us here. I'm starting to think he does remember you." 

[animeyanderelover]

This was requested privately by @headmastermephistopheles. Remember that there will be changes in the original story. I also skipped a lot in here because I didn’t want to rewrite the whole episode. I obviously have to split this in more than one part.

Warnings: Yandere themes, threats, manipulation, blood, death

Summary: Working for the young Phantomhive had always been very interesting, especially if his butler seemed to have a huge interest on you. You yourself had never been normal as well. But who would have thought that one visit in a town would lead you to gain two obsessed admirers and leading you to find out that you were so much less human than originally thought?

Pairing: Yandere Angela/Ash &

reader

Angel, hope of my life

“Holiday, Holiday, we’re going on a holiday! Holiday, holiday, we’re going on a holiday!” Why couldn’t they just shut up? Did they seriously expect the young master to bring you all along just so you would get some rest too? No way that the young master was that kind. You bet he had been just afraid to leave you all alone there to find his manor burned down when he and Sebastian would come back. He did trust you, but he didn’t trust the other three. But you decided to not tell them this, for their happiness sake. You noticed a signpost that you passed by. “Welcome to Houndsworth.”, you read out what stood on it. If you were completely honest with yourself, it didn’t look like the place you were heading to was the paradise on earth, more the opposite. Your suspicions were confirmed when the carriages suddenly stopped and you heard Sebastian speaking:”It seems we arrived at the village everyone.” To say that the scene in front of you was godforsaken would be too nice. “I forgot to mention something. The resort that the queen is planning is yet to be constructed.”, your young master told you. “Yes master.”, all four of you answered and you couldn’t help, but feel bad for Mey-Rin, Finny and Bardroy. Damn that child. Almost as if Sebastian had heard your thoughts his head suddenly turned around and his blood-red eyes met yours. You narrowed your eyes at him whilst he just sent you one of his charming smiles that would have worked on all other persons, but not on you.

Something about Sebastian had always been fishy, he seemed not normal, not human. The way he did everything always so perfect wasn’t normal. But there were many things that weren’t normal in this household. Best example were all the servants, including you, in there. All three of you had a pretty shitty past and all of you had been hired by Sebastian because of your special abilities. You had lived on the streets back then, having run off from the orphanage you had spent your first years of life in. Your parents had set you for whatever reason right in front of the door when you had been really young and the people working in there had taken you in. You had lived in there until you had become eight years. That’s when things had gotten bad for you for a rather abnormal reason. You didn’t know until today how exactly it was possible, but somehow your own body healed visibly faster than others. It was a really benefitting power, but humans were naturally afraid of things they couldn’t understand and so the people in the orphanage had started to avoid you because every wound you had gotten seemed to heal within a day. The children had started to call you witch and no one had wanted to do anything with you. You had felt lonely and unappreciated what had led you to the decision to leave.

Living in the streets had forced you to grow up faster, needing to fight in order to survive. You had learned many things from many people, each one of them helping you realize a important messages in life or tricks that had proofed to be very useful. You had learned how to fight and you didn’t want to compliment yourself, but you were a good fighter. You didn’t possess the strength Finny had, but you were athletic, smart and knew a lot of moves. Sebastian had encountered you one day when you had currently fought against a few other men on the street who had wanted to steal the food that you had honestly earned. You had been too busy with fighting to really hear what he had offered you, taking three from the five guys without much troubles down. When you had been ready to take the remaining two, they had already been laying on the ground, Sebastian standing over them. That’s when he had offered you to start working for his young master. You had refused, but for some reason the man hadn’t leave you alone, instead following you until you had enough and had yelled at him that if he would beat you in a fight, you would join. If you would have known how he was beforehand you would have never made this offer, but you had been so stupid at that time. The fight had been short and humiliating, you had lost and had joined the servants.

The whole landscape plus the city were in your eyes just bleak and the people in there have you some bad vibes, however, it was no wonder. They were probably all highly alert and leery. Who wouldn’t when a giant wolf was killing the citizens. Your young master was honestly such a liar. You just knew that he didn’t bring you here on a holiday. He had a mission and for the manor’s safety he had brought you all along. You felt almost disgusted when hearing that the people in here killed dogs just for fun. That was nothing, but heartless. You were thrown out of your thoughts when you suddenly heard your fellow servants making words of admiration. It looked like you had arrived at your destination. It was an old manor, nothing compared to your master’s manor, but you guessed that not everybody had a Sebastian as a butler. That’s when your eyes suddenly landed on the lady who you assumed was a maid for the one who owned this manor. You would have lied if you would have said that she wasn’t gorgeous. She was very pretty with her greyish hair and amethyst eyes. You didn’t know if she felt your intense staring because suddenly her eyes shifted in your direction. Her eyes widened and for a moment it almost looked like she had just discovered the most beautiful creature on earth. But she quickly pulled herself together and led you inside the house. You couldn’t stop staring at her. It wasn’t because she was pretty, but because of the...strange feeling you had about her. It was somewhat similar to the feeling you always had about Sebastian, yet at the same time it felt like the complete opposite. But it felt dangerous nevertheless.

You stared shocked at the walls in the room the maid had just led you in. Covered with heads from stuffed animals. It wasn’t the first time you had seen this, but the sheer amount of it was what shocked you. It almost looked like the owner of them killed just for fun. A sudden scream and a whipping noise made you turn your head around. You gasped when you saw the scene right in front of you playing. A man, most likely the owner of this house, was hitting the maid with a whip whilst yelling angrily at her. For the first two or three seconds you were speechless, disgusted by this act of cruelty. But the very next moment, before your master could even order Sebastian to do something, you suddenly sprinted towards the woman who was lying helplessly on the ground, preparing herself for the next hit. But the next hit never reached her because you suddenly jumped protectingly in front of her and catched the whip with your hand, ignoring the searing pain you felt. “And who the hell are you stupid little thing?! Get out of my way or else I won���t hesitate to hit you until you whine like a child!!” He raised his whip one more time threatening. But you didn’t move, instead you glared angrily at him. “You’re truly despicable, sir. Hitting a poor woman just like this. Don’t you have any sense of honor left in that pathetic body of yours? I warn you, the next time you attempt to hit I’ll attack. And I swear, I’ll give you each hit you gave her twice as bad back.” For a short moment the man looked shocked, clearly not having expected to hear such with dislike laced words. But in the next second his face twisted into an angry expression. “How dare you, you little brat!!”

You prepared to give him a strong kick in his private parts, but before he could even attempt to hit you he was suddenly stopped by Sebastian. “Couldn’t you have interrupted all of this earlier?!”, you snarled at him. “I waited for my master’s orders. By the way, it isn’t my fault that you played the hero.” You groaned before quickly bending down to the woman. “Miss, are you alright?!”, you asked her worriedly. She stared with wide eyes at you before letting her eyes wander to your hand where a red mark had already started to form. “Why would you do that and let yourself get hurt? I’m not worthy for you to get hurt!”, she said panicked and grabbed your hand, observing the wound carefully. She mumbled something that was, despite the fact that you were so close to her, couldn’t understand. You were a bit surprised by the way she acted, the panicked and terrified look in her face whilst looking at your hand was a bit off for the fact that it was a rather harmless wound and that the both of you had just met each other. You pulled your hand away from her almost desperate grip and she tended up as soon as she didn’t hold your hand in hers anymore. “Listen Miss. I did it because it was the right thing to do. And compared to your injuries this is nothing. By the way, my wounds heal faster than others so it shouldn’t take too long for my hand to recover.” You offered her your unharmed hand which she gladly took. She didn’t let go of your hand, holding it for a bit too long before finally letting go. She glanced shortly at the hand that had touched yours and you saw something sparkling in her eyes. An emotion which you couldn’t quite grasp. What was that? Admiration? Adoration? Love? Why the hell would she have such emotions in her eyes? You couldn’t find a solution to your questions because suddenly Sebastian tapped your shoulder. You blinked confused at him. “Didn’t you forget something (y/n)?” At first you didn’t understand before you realized it. “Damn it! I was supposed to help the others carrying all the luggage in!”

She didn’t stop staring at you. The whole time all of you were sitting on the table she didn’t stop glancing every few seconds at you. It made you feel uneasy, the emotions from before still swirling around in her eyes. It kind of unsettled you. Such strong emotions shouldn’t be reflected in a person’s eyes. Especially not after only meeting someone for barely an hour. Mey-Rin, Bardroy and especially Finny seemed to not notice that. They were busily acknowledging Angela. “...After all we servants go to stick together, right? (y/n), am I right?” You turned around to him. “I’m afraid I didn’t listen. What did you say?” Bardroy gave you a betrayed expression. “Come on, why are you always ignoring me? I said if Angela needs any help we’ll help her. Right?” All attention shifted to you since you were after Sebastian and Tanake the highest ranking servant in the house simply because Sebastian trusted you the most when it came to responsibility. One short glance in Angela’s direction made you feel nervous. She looked at you like your answer would decide something really important in her life. You could understand to some degree that it must be hard to serve for such a jerk, but that still didn’t justify these intense feelings in her eyes. But who were you to judge someone? Angela had been probably beaten up many times before so to finally have someone step in must had been a new experience for her. “Of course. Just call us when you need a few extra hands.”, you answered. “How kind of you to offer your help. Thank you all.” This sentence should have been meant to all four of you, but why was she just staring at you and made it sound like she only meant it for you. You glanced around. Did the others not realize how she kept staring at you? A sudden ringing interrupted the silence and Angela instantly stood up. “I have to go right away. My master is calling. Please excuse me.” Before she disappeared through the door she turned one more time around, glancing at you. You didn’t know why, but your gut told you that there was something dangerous about her. And so far your gut had always been right.

“How are your hands doing? Are they better?” Angela nodded. “My hands are just fine, but what about your hand. I’m far more concerned about that.” You waved your completely healed hand in front of her face. “Told you that you don’t have to worry.” She slowly stretched her hands out to grab yours and observed it closely, just like she had done it when there had been the fresh wound. “Perfect.”, she muttered with an almost worshipping gaze out. You laughed nervously and pulled your hand out once again. “Why are you keep doing this? You make me nervous with that.” She gave you a shocked expression. “I’m sorry! It wasn’t my intention. I was just so glad that your hand healed so quickly! I felt so incredibly guilty when you got hurt just for my sake. I’m not worthy of this sacrifice from your side!” Her outburst was unexpected and confused you. Why was she so concerned about this. “I’ve endured worse than this. Believe me, this was nothing compared to what I’ve endured in the past.” You had hoped to ease her a bit with this, but it had the complete opposite effect. “You got hurt even worse before?! Promise me you won’t bring yourself in troubles again!”

“Master! I beg you! Show mercy this one time! These people don’t deserve the punishment!” So much to promising her to not bring yourself in troubles again. Quite the serious troubles. Being tied up and needing to watch how the young master was chained to a wall just so the dogs could rip him to shreds was indeed very humiliating and frustrating. Not to mention that all of you were left. That was insane! You were being punished for saving a dog! You were being punished for showing humanity! What was wrong with those people?! Where was their honor?! Where was their heart?! You just wanted to punch these bastard Barrymore in his face. He was truly a pathetic human being and if you would have still been able to speak you were sure you would have cursed the whole village by now. So it was probably a good thing you weren’t able to or else you would have angered them even more. “Leave this village immediately and advice her majesty never to send her minions near it again.” You gave a muffled scream of protest out and gave your master a sharp look. “Don’t you dare to humiliate us all like this!”, you screamed in your head at him. But you shouldn’t have worried about your young master. When you heard his words you felt almost proud. Sharp and cruel with his words as ever. But when you glanced at Angela you noticed that she looked absolutely terrified at you. It wasn’t the worst situation you had dealed with. That was at least until you would be chained to this wall as well. Then you would have a problem. “...Get him!” With these words the dogs stormed straight towards Ciel. “Sebastian, you idiot! Where are you when we need you?!”

“You fool! Couldn’t you have appeared 5 minutes earlier?! Then we wouldn’t have been tied down! I mean, I understand that you needed to collect the evidence, but still!!” “Shouldn’t you thank me for saving your life?” The nerves of this man. “Thanking you?! Keep dreaming! You always need to make such a show!” You had actually a few more words to say, but couldn’t because Angela suddenly turned you around and started looking for any injuries. “I thought you promised me that you wouldn’t get yourself in troubles anymore!! Are you hurt anywhere?!” You slowly pushed her away from you. “I’m not hurt and apologize for this. But I did the right thing. I believe that it’s always worth the trouble to stand up for what you think is right.” She looked at you as if you had just spoken nonsense before you continued:”Shouldn’t you be happy as well? After all the guy who mistreated you was just sent to jail. That means you can finally be free.” “Y-you care for me?” You nodded. “It’s as Bardroy said. We servants gotta stick together.” Your attention was turned towards Finny who was holding the dead dog and crying. A shadow clouded your eyes. The dog had reminded loyal to his master the last minute. Sometimes you were surprised how much more humanity you saw in animals than in humans. “Humans can be so disgusting.”, you mumbled out. Angela glanced surprised at you. “I can’t believe that they did this. Of course they now know who was all behind this, but still. To let a living creature die like this. It’s disgraceful. Especially Henry Barrymore. Someone like him deserves to rot in hell.” Angela turned to face you fully. “Do you think that all humans are like this? Dirty?” You looked at her irritated. What was that for a question. “I...suppose that not all humans are bad. But all humans can be corrupted if they aren’t strong enough. But no one is born evil. That’s what I believe. Why asking this?” Angela didn’t answer, instead staring somewhere in the space with a thoughtful look in her eyes.

“What’s wrong Mey-Rin? Why are you screa-“, you paused your sentence when you saw the scene right in front of you. The cellar in which Barrymore had been kept was destroyed. The wall behind the wall was completely destroyed, telling you that something with incredible strength must had done this and the large pool of blood told you what faith the man most likely had suffered. “What...happened in here?”

[harryskalechips]

It’s all about connections

A/N hello! I’m sorry about some other pieces being delayed. I’m working on it right now. Here I have a little angsty piece for you that an anon requested! enjoy

Y/N and Harry have been happily dating for three years except when Y/N’s cousin Olivia, comes back from America. Everything turns into a hell that Harry has been running from. 

word count: 2370

“So you’re sure you’re free to come tonight?” Y/N bids Harry goodbye at her front door as he puts on his coat.

“I promise baby, I’ll be here by 6.” He tries to reassure her.

“I really don’t want to drag you back here for dinner but my mom wanted you to meet Olivia’s parents too since they’re so interested in us.” Y/N rolls her eyes. She missed the way Harry’s cheeks flushed a bit.

Olivia, Y/N and Harry went to the same high school but Olivia ventured off to the States for university leaving Harry and Y/N to attend their local one in the city. At first, Y/N never thought she would end up dating Harry but after having a few mutual classes in first year and having mutual friends, the pair clicked off and they’ve been dating for 3 years now. There’s no wonder why Olivia’s parents want to meet the man. They are a very close family and since it’s spring break they decided to take a flight back to Canada to see what’s been happening. Olivia couldn’t be more excited.

“Maybe because they just want to see who’s been keeping you happy.” His hands pull Y/N closer to him. “I love you. I’m just going to run some errands for my mum and I’ll be here okay?”

“Mhm.” Y/N pouts as she watches him walk off her pathway and into his car. Harry was hoping that she couldn’t hear the anxiety in his voice. How his heart was beating so fast. Did Y/N know he used to be in love with her cousin? No. Was he over Olivia? I mean… he had to be… right?

~

“Oh my God, Y/N you’re so pretty!” Olivia runs into Y/N’s arms as they hug one another so tightly. Since they were both the only child of their parents, they practically grew up as sisters until Olivia had to leave.

“You’re really pretty too! Wow, look at this tan. Olivia, I’m so jealous you’re living in Florida!”

“Pshhh, I rather be here. I miss you and Canada so much. It feels so different being in the States. Do you know how many times I got corrected by the way I spell things?” Oliva was radiating. Her volumized curly blonde hair. Her thin hips. Her pretty smile. Y/N always felt like she was 2nd best with her but after Oliva left. Her parents stopped comparing her to her all star cousin. Plus, she had Harry. The man of her dreams. He’s everything she wanted and she can’t be anymore thankful that he loves her just as much as she loves him.

“Oh look who’s here, Harry come in!” Y/N’s mom opens the door. Harry’s eyes light up as he sees Y/N but the moment his eyes caught on to Olivia’s, he started to feel things. Bad things that a taken man shouldn’t feel. Maybe, it was a bad idea for him to come tonight but he wanted to prove everyone wrong, most definitely himself. He doesn’t like Olivia. Y/N is here. Olivia lives in the states!

“Harry!” Olivia squeals as she untangles herself from Y/N to hug Harry.

They were a bit close in high school. They had many of their classes together and Harry was always helping Olivia with her homework. In return, Olivia would help him study too. She used to drag Y/N with her to come watch his soccer games. “I missed you so much! Wow, your hair! It’s so different. I love it!” Harry wraps his arms around her as he makes eye contact with his girlfriend. Y/N didn’t seem to mine but Harry felt like there was no oxygen in his tank anymore. Why the fuck is his heart feeling like this?

Dinner was already placed on the dining table thanks to Y/N and her parents. After Harry left, they focused on every little detail in the dining room. Y/N’s father sat at the head while Y/N’s mom sat with Olivia’s parents. Y/N sat in between her boyfriend and her cousin.

“Harry, it’s so nice to meet you. Olivia here mentioned your friendship with her back in high school. It’s amazing how destiny led you to Y/N.” Olivia’s mom spoke up as they ate their meal. Tonight, Y/N’s mom was serving spaghetti.

“Um, yeah. I think so too. I’m very lucky to be with Y/N.” he looks at Y/N which she smiles back and holds his hand underneath the table.

“Hopefully, you guys will be able to help Olivia settle in your University when she comes back next year.”

“What?” Y/N speaks out in shock. Harry pulls his hand away from her so he can take a drink of water after choking a bit. As Y/N looked around, nobody else was in shock, meaning her parents knew the whole time.  “You guys knew?” She looks at her mom and dad.

“Surprise sweetie!” Y/N’s mom smiles widely with  jazz hands in front of her chest. Y/N’s dad just nods. He knew it wasn’t the best surprise, he noticed that his daughter was quite insecure about her cousin. Harry just looks down at his plate for the rest of dinner, staying silent as the family catches up. It felt weird. He felt weird.

Dinner was finished and since Y/N’s family was hosting, she had to help clean up while Olivia and her parents spent time talking with Harry. The conversation was light but after Olivia’s mom went to help in the kitchen and her dad went on a smoke break, he was sadly left with Olivia. The girl he used to be so in love with. He used to be her little puppy back in the day and to see her again, he knew he was about to fall down that little rabbit hole once again.

“Your hair is still as soft as it was 4 years ago.” Olivia playfully runs her finger around his short hair since they sat on the couch together. Okay, the thing about Olivia is that yes, she’s smart and pretty. Every man’s dream but she also comes off in a flirty way when it comes to boys even though it may not be her intention. You understand right?

Well, Harry didn’t. It’s the reason why he was so head over heels about her before. Probably, why he is right now. “Yeah, I still use the same hair routine. Y/N also has this hair serum that smells really good and I started using it.” He tries to move away a bit so he can play with his hair himself. Just an excuse to create some distance.

“You know, you two are really cute.” Olivia looks down then looks at him. “It’s so weird for me really. I see all these pictures of you two on social media and I just never expected you guys to start dating. I mean you were a popular athletic guy and she was just chilling in high school. I don’t know.” Olivia begins to ramble as Harry just stares at her. While she was talking, everything went through one ear and out the other. He was looking at how pretty she was. How she never changed. She was still the girl he fell in love with. The girl who still had her hair tied up. Who had the most pretty blue eyes. Y/N had brown eyes but that wasn’t the point. Olivia was his dream girl.

“It’s crazy. I used to have a big crush on you in high school! I used to drag Y/N to your games!” That statement just made Harry come back to earth.

“What?” His eyes were practically wiped out as Olivia looked at him. He just had question marks swarming around his head and as she looked at his eyes, she could tell she caught him off guard. She never thought it was a big deal.

“I used to like you in high school.” There was a brief moment of silence until Harry just had to say it. Maybe, it would make him get over her. Give him that little push to let the feelings out. Plus, it’s been four years, can anything really happen between them?

“I used to be in love with you, Olivia. Like madly.” But Olivia’s eyes weren’t focused on him as she hears the sudden clash of bowls filled with Ice cream crash on the wooden floors. Y/N heard.

She was walking into the living room after being instructed to bring dessert to the guests. The moment she walked in though, she heard her boyfriend practically confessing his feelings for her cousin. Of fucking course, her cousin! Her cousin who can have anything she wants. Her cousin who practically gets to do what she wants. Want to study in America, honey? Yes. Want to move back to Canada, honey? Yes. Want to steal your cousin’s boyfriend, honey? Oh my fucking god, yes!

“Y/N.” Harry gets off the couch immediately as he chases Y/N out her front door. It was midnight and there was a cold breeze but that didn’t stop Y/N from running her heart out. She was just confused why this man was chasing after her. Harry’s head turned a bit as he caught eye contact with Olivia’s dad who was just about to crush his cigarette.

“Shame on you.” He tosses the bud and walks inside the house as Harry speeds up again to chase Y/N on the streets.

“Why the fuck are you chasing after me, Harry!” Y/N looks back as she stops running and begins walking. A girl can run a block probably more, but Y/N can run for 15 seconds then call it a day. Since she knew Harry loves to run, there was no point wasting her energy trying to outrun him. Want to follow me? Fine but fuck off a bit mate.

“Y/N listen-” The audacity this man had to follow her out here. Y/N turns around and stops in her steps.

“No. I really don’t want to hear it H.” She wipes away her tears and looks at the streetlights behind him. She couldn’t look at him. “You were in love with her and you never fucking bothered to tell me.”

“I knew you were insecure about her!”

“Fuck you!” Y/N screams. “You’re a liar! You’re a user! You have the audacity to chase me after telling my cousin you were madly in love with her!”  She laughs sarcastically. “You know after dating for 3 years, I figured we would tell each other everything.”

“I’m sorry, baby please.” He tries to approach her but she takes a couple steps back.

“Were you using me to see her again?” Y/N blurts out. She knows he wouldn’t do that but a part of her just needed to be sure. Harry just sighs as he runs his hand through his hair. “You fucking asshole!” She cries out. With the need to leave, she brushes past him on her way back to the house. “Don’t fucking follow me. I don’t want to see you ever again!” Harry speeds up and finally grabs her hand to keep her placed in front of him.

“Please Y/N. In the beginning when we first started dating sure. But I promise you I fell in love with you! I love you please!”

“You don’t fucking get it!” She pulls her hand away as Harry frowns. “Your intention in the beginning. Your lies. I can’t fucking take it. I don’t want to. You were in love Olivia!”

“I was in love with her fine okay, I admit that! I don’t think it matters anymore. I'm with you now.” He’s trying so hard to convince her. He’s trying so hard not to let her slip through his fingertips all because of a stupid confession.

“No, you’re not because we’re over Harry.”

“No, don’t say that. Don’t say that!”

“What do you want me to say?” Her eyes widened. “Do you want me to say, it’s alright baby. Thanks for letting her know before me? Thanks for dating me so you have a better chance of seeing her again!”

“No.” “Harry, why did you have to date me? Why did you have to make me go through this!”

“Because I fucking liked you! God dammit!” He finally explodes. “I was in love with Olivia and when you and I started seeing each other more, I was attracted to you and I don’t know what happened. I guess I started pursuing you because you’re close with Olivia but at the same time, I wanted to know you more and spend time with you.”

“I don’t know what to do!” Harry watches the girl in front of him break down. He takes his flannel off and puts it on her. Thankfully, she gladly accepted it.

“I’m sorry, baby. Please I’m sorry. I was scared if I told you, you would get mad and then more time went by, and it was no longer right to tell you.” “I don’t feel good right now.”

“Can I walk you home?”

“Yeah.”

The walk home was excruciating. They were 3 feet apart just walking along at night. They were no longer Harry and Y/N but just Harry and Y/N. It felt weird to be honest. At least on Harry’s end. A part of him was doubting how he felt about Olivia and Y/N but now after seeing Y/N this way, he knew who his heart belonged to. It was the girl who thought of herself as average. Who was pretty quiet but very outgoing in the same way. It was the girl who accepted him and gave him all the love he could ever ask for. Maybe, it was a bad idea confessing to Olivia tonight but one thing is for sure, if he was madly in love with her, he is irrevocably in love with Y/N and there was no chance in hell, he’ll be letting her go anytime soon.

Part 2 here

[twodaysintojune]

Arranging Weddings

The Untamed / Mo Dao Zu Shi / The Grandmaster of Diabolic Cultivation

WangXian, background XiCheng, warnings - None 

Find me at AO3

It had not even been a month since the passing of Jin GuangYao and Lan XiChen was not feeling better at all. If things kept on going that way he might head into seclusion soon rather than half ass all of his work like he was doing right now. He was never feeling like doing anything and right now he was feeling it even less since he had to stand his uncle's outrage for the eleventh time at nine in the morning.

"... Anything could happen to WangJi at any moment and we don't even know where they are right now! The inconceivable, utter disrespect to the most basic premises of morality! He did not only stick his cut-sleeveness on my WangJi but he also… he also forced him to elope! Just like that! Can you believe it XiChen!? The shame he has forced on our Sect by dropping off the last sense of decency by not getting married!???"

Lan XiChen wondered for a moment if it was wise to remind his own uncle of rule number seventy five on the wall of rules: "Causing Noise is Prohibited" to satisfy his own pettiness or if his uncle was in need of another cup of tea before any kind of smart backlash when both men heard a coughing coming up from the exterior of the room.

Lan XiChen beamed as much as his proper upbringing could allow. Standing still and quite elegantly poised, like the Sect Leader he was, was Jiang WanYin.

"Sect Leader Jiang! What a pleasant surprise! We didn't expect you until…" Lan XiChen turned to look at the hour and realized his own mistake of letting his uncle rant for literal hours now "oh, Oh. Please forgive me, Sect Leader Jiang. I have failed to properly receive you at the appointed hour."

"Please, no need to apologize, Sect Leader Lan, Master Lan Qiren." Jiang WanYin bowed to both men as appropriate to the occasion "I would have waited without a problem for you but I must admit your conversation got me quite intrigued. Is master Lan Quiren implying that he wouldn't have that much of an issue with a pair of cut-sleeve relationship were they properly married?"

Lan Qiren scoffed. "I admit that would be a great start."

Jiang WanYin's smile widened wildly for just a glimpse in a way that reminded Lan XiChen of those moments he knew he had the winning hand during the few times they fought together at the Sunshot Campaign. A thing that made him excitedly anticipate the great Sandu Shengshou's upcoming actions.

"I am quite relieved to hear of this. If that is the case, Master Lan Qiren, there's a proposal I would like, no, I would love to discuss with you." 

---

Wei Wuxian was somehow splayed on top of Little Apple, looking at the increasingly brightening sky while Lan WangJi was pulling the reins, walking towards the closest city after being travelling through the mountainside a couple of days.

"Ahahahaha oh Lan Zhan, my Lan Zhan, did you really see that grave digger's face when all the corpses around him began to rise? Ahahahaha~"

Lan WangJi smiled warmly at his husband's figure. How could he deny him of such pleasures when they brought him so much happiness? Especially when it meant they were doing good. Keeping the spirits to their proper rest.

When they arrived at the city, the place was bustling with energy despite being so early in the morning but it was not the usual one from a large place like this, there was some sort of effervescence and giddiness in the way everyone behaved that both men felt was just a tad bit too excited.

Being a naturally curious person, Wei Wuxian asked the nearest steamed buns stall owner.

"Excuse me, Ma'am" he took a couple of buns while Lan WangJi was already taking out the money to pay. "Can you tell us what is going on that the city is so excited about?"

"Oh my boy! Haven't you heard!?" Said the owner, almost jumping on her heels as if she had just been waiting for someone to ask "The leaders of the Lan and the Jiang sects are getting married!"

Wei Wuxian paled and felt like he had suddenly become a walking corpse while he heard a couple of coins dropping to the floor by his side. He forced a smile on his face.

"Surely that's… that's not right? Is it not, maybe, a pair of disciples?"

"Oh, no, no, no. If it was that they wouldn't be announcing it to the whole world, would they? Just look at the announcements board at the plaza! If you can't trust this old hag, then you can surely trust an official document."

Wei Wuxian somehow brought up a more charming smile "My dear lady, I could never not trust someone that has so much more experience that I can ever dream of"

The old lady cackled while receiving the coins Lan WangJi had picked up again "oh my, you're such a flirt. Here, have another bun for the ride."

Wei Wuxian thanked her and turned around with his mouth open only to see that his man was well beyond him, already walking towards the plaza. He ran towards him and reached the board.

There, in the middle of it all, was a very official looking paper with celebratory imagery surrounding the edges of the announcement.

"It is with great pleasure to announce that the leaders of the Jiang and the Lan sects are organising a wedding to be held in Lotus Pier during the auspicious upcoming new moon of the month of Xin Si at sunset where they expect to celebrate a wedding that will tighten up the relations between both regions of Gusu and Yunmeng. All blessings for the grooms to wed."

The announcement ended with a beautiful seal that joined both sects imagery, a lotus flower floating over a cloud. 

Wei Wuxian read the thing three times before anything made any kind of sense and then one time more.

"The upcoming moon of… oh heavens, Lan Zhan. That is in eight days!!! This is… We cannot stay here! We have to stop this nonsense wedding!"

Lan WangJi was looking at his soulmate with a stern glare that was completely agreeing with Wei Wuxian's exclamation.

"Mn."

Soon enough, they were running to the stable where they had left Little Apple and began their journey towards Wei Wuxian's old home.

---

The day arrived, the whole city of Yunmeng was dressed for the celebration, people wandering excitedly throughout the streets, waiting for the announcement that the marriage was completed. Inside of Lotus Pier, two fine figures in relatively simple red robes were alone, kneeling already at the ancient hall, just waiting for the exact hour. A red veil covering the head of one of them.

"After knowing you through all these years and battles, I have to be honest and say that I know I shouldn't, but I am still impressed about your boldness. Sect Leader Jiang."

Jiang WanYin laughed "Turns out I'm not only good at slashing things, eh?" He winked at the elegant face behind the veil. "Also please call me Jiang WanYin, I hope we're well past certain formalities after this."

The veiled man snickered "Very well, then please do call me Lan XiChen. I'd feel quite saddened if you felt there was any need for formalities with me as well, Jiang WanYin."

Jiang WanYin smiled brightly at the man by his side.

A couple of minutes passed when Lan XiChen began to fidget.

"Are you sure they will come?"

"Oh trust me, I don't know about your HanGuang-Jun but Wei Wuxian will definitely be here. And if he is here…"

"Then WangJi is going to be here as well."

Jiang WanYin nodded in agreement. As if they had summoned the chaotic couple, they heard a commotion starting on the Swords Hall.

"It's the Yiling Patriarch and HanGuang-Jun!"

"Somebody stop them!"

Both men heard the sounds of blades and general fighting getting nearer at each second, sometimes yells of pain.

"Will your disciples be alright, Jiang WanYin?"

"Are you kidding me? They were ecstatic when I told them they would be able to test their skills against the Second Jade of Gusu-Lan. Not that they're anywhere near him but that will help them assess their own strengths."

Lan XiChen snickered. Soon enough, the commotion was right behind them and suddenly the doors of the Ancient Hall burst open and in came Wei Wuxian and Lan WangJi.

"JIANG CHENG!"

"XIONGZHANG!"

The pair in red stood up from their kneeling position and turned to look at the newcomers.

"Ah, my dear WangJi! How auspicious that you managed to arrive in time!"

"Yeah, we would have had a real problem if you didn't show up."

The couple at the doors looked at each other in shock and then glared at their counterparts while approaching them. Wei Wuxian fisted Jiang Cheng's robes and pulled him forward while Lan WangJi almost fell on Lan XiChen's arms, almost imperceptibly glazed eyes.

"Can you tell me what sort of nonsense this is!?"

"Xiongzhang, please!"

Both men in red gave their brothers a smile, albeit one would have been considered saintly while the other devilish. Suddenly, the doors of the Ancient Hall closed once more, startling Wei Wuxian and Lan WangJi. They turned around and saw, appalled some very well known faces.

"HanGuang-Jun, Senior Wei, I'm really glad to see you're well."

"I mean, not like we actually cared but…"

"Oh, don't be a liar! You're the one who wanted to see Senior Wei the most!"

"Can we get going with this? We'll be late for the banquet at this rate."

Before he was able to completely understand what the junior quarter was doing there, Lan WangJi heard his brother.

"Please forgive me WangJi, we cannot afford more stalling, you are indeed a little bit late."

And just like that, he clearly sensed how his spiritual energy was blocked by his own brother's hand.

"Alright, you can take him, Jiang WanYin."

"Gotcha!" Exclaimed the man while leaning forward and carrying a very startled Wei Wuxian like a potato sack and jumping through the threshold that the juniors had opened once more, disappearing through the hallways.

"W… Wait a second! What are you doing!? Lan Zhan! LAN ZHAN SAVE ME!!!"

"WEI YING!!!"

Lan WangJi did his best to get away from his brother's grasp while the frantic screams of his lover moved away from them but it was impossible without his spiritual energy. He turned to look at his brother, a pair of tears menacing to roll over his cheek.

"Now, now, don't look like that, let's go get you changed and refreshed, you'll be able to see him soon."

Unable to do much more, he allowed himself to be guided through another hall towards a guestroom with a sigh, shoulders slightly falling.

"Tche, what's all the drama for? It's not like they're gonna be apart forever."

"Look who's talking, Mistress."

"You-!"

"Please guys, let's not do this right now."

"Yes! A wedding is a very important occasion!"

Chided by his brother, Lan WangJi took a quick bath and began to dress himself in layers of increasingly dark blue without paying too much attention but stopped when he finally noticed the outer garment his brother, now properly dressed with his best silver and light blue robes, was providing. He had in his hands a deep red robe accented with dark blue and silver embroidery reminiscing of clouds around the edges that was to be matched with a dark blue, almost black sash. He looked at the clearly elegant garment in awe and then turned to look at Lan XiChen.

"Xiongzhang, this…"

Lan XiChen gave him a soft smile, already holding a comb. "Come on, dress up, let your big brother do your hair."

Lan WangJi's eyes widened up in comprehension. He felt his ears burn when he finished dressing himself and sat down.

"Xiongzhang, I'm sorry. I thought, we thought…"

Lan XiChen let out a soft chuckle.

"We know." Lan XiChen began to brush softly WangJi's hair. 

Both men got lost in the process of brushing and hairstyling, reminiscing childhood days where the older man took care of the younger in the same way. Lan XiChen sighed while pulling up the hair for the bun after being done with the brushing.

"You know WangJi, I'm really glad I'm able to be here for you today."

Lan WangJi frowned. "Xiongzhang?" 

It was barely a whisper but that didn't stop Lan XiChen to feel the worry.

"I'm going into seclusion WangJi… Don't move, you'll ruin the bun…" Lan XiChen sighed once more "Maybe one of the reasons I agreed to this mad scheme was precisely because I did not want to miss this particular day and knowing how erratic your movements can be I was not sure if I was going to be here otherwise."

Lan WangJi looked downwards, faintly blushing, feeling his brother fix the decorative pins. 

"Which is why I also wanted to tell you…" Lan XiChen grabbed Lan WangJi's forehead band,and began to arrange it on the hairstyle he had fixed, oddly out of place in the middle of so much red and dark blue. "That I don't really have much to tell you about the importance of treasuring your soulmate, since I saw you learn that lesson yourself." Lan WangJi saw a tear trailing down his brother's cheek through the mirror. "...But I can tell you that I am happy for you. And no matter where you go from now on, I hope your travels bring you nothing more than bliss and joy. And that I support you, today and tomorrow and all the years to come."

Lan WangJi felt a knot on his throat.

"There, it's done. Let's go back to the Ancient Hall. I'm sure your future husband is there already."

Lan WangJi stood up and turned to look at his brother. Lan XiChen smiled and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Ready?"

Lan WangJi looked at his brother for a second and threw himself at him with a hug. Lan XiChen hugged him back a little startled and felt more than heard his little brother's soft sniffle. He hugged him tighter.

"I love you too."

---

Lan WangJi walked inside the Hall once more. He was shocked when he saw his uncle standing there as well. Feeling overwhelmed, he walked towards him and bowed. The old man scoffed and shooed him towards the altar. Lan WangJi nodded and turned towards the center of the room.

The perfect figure of his husband to be was already kneeling in front of the altar, not slouched or slant but immaculately poised. Bright red gown speckled with gold and lavender motifs of lotus flowers in both the sash and the veil. His face was barely visible but his body showed he was clearly moved. He knelt down by his side.

"Wei Ying" 

His voice had been but a breath but Wei Wuxian had heard him alright. He turned towards him with the brightest smile.

"Look at this Lan Zhan," he whispered "We're finally in front of them… Do you… do you think shijie would have given us her blessing? And Uncle Jiang? And Madam Yu?"

Lan WangJi gave him the softest smile yet.

"Mn."

Wei Wuxian took in a deep breath. Clearly trying to restrain the tears that were already rolling through his face and nodded. Unable to say a thing, very unlike his usual character.

The ceremony went incredibly fast after that. Both Jiang WanYin and Lan XiChen said a couple of words as the ones preceding the ceremony, Jiang WanYin dressed in proper purple, navy and gold robes. The grooms exchanged bows, too short and surprisingly not embarrassing from Wei Wuxian, too long and incredibly bold from Lan WangJi, and then prostrated three times as per the tradition. 

The juniors, the ones acting as witnesses standing behind were all tearing by the end. Jin Ling had been the first to be noticed but Lan JingYi's teasing was not really effective since he was crying as well.

The banquet had been a success. The entire city was celebrating the newlyweds after all so the noise and celebration was everywhere. Around nine, the newlyweds finally bid their goodnight and stepped away from the hall in the middle of catcalling and whistles that Wei Wuxian encouraged, absolutely elated after three bottles of wine. Being carried bridal style by his now very official husband.

The following day they were caught by the juniors before they could run away on Little Apple once more and received a thorough scorn from Jin Ling who screamed at them something about being already married and not seeing the point of acting like a pair of runaway, wanted criminals anyway and that Wei Wuxian better go see him at LanLing or else he would definitely hunt him.

Meanwhile, Jiang WanYin was supervising that not a place had been left uncleaned, with Lan XiChen by his side.

"Are you sure you're not gonna say goodbye?"

"If I say goodbye now, Wei Wuxian won't need to come back later." Jiang WanYin said matter of factly "What about you? I don't see you at the backdoor of Lotus Pier right now."

"I already said all that I needed. Now I feel like I can finally go into seclusion."

Jiang WanYin eyed his counterpart carefully and scoffed. 

"You don't approve of that."

"Obviously Not. You're saying it like you're about to die."

Lan XiChen laughed tiredly.

"You're being dramatic."

"All I'm saying is that this seclusion thing is not going to work for you at all. If you don't come out of your personal coffin after a year I'll come raise you from the dead."

Lan XiChen gave out a tired scoff but said nothing more about it. After all, there was no way Jiang WanYin would know him better than himself. 

"I'll take that as your permission."

Finished the man by his side, ending the conversation.

Both leaders kept on supervising the cleansing of the whole Lotus Pier and making sure it went back to its usual state while, on another side, a figure in black mounted on a donkey waved goodbye to a bunch of sniffling teenagers while a figure in white pulled softly the donkey's reins.

[slashingdisneypasta]

Teen!Chucky /Charles Lee Ray x Reader || Oneshot

Title: Night Time Air 

Notes:

·         Y/B/F: Your best friend

·         This was inspired by Season 5 Pretty Little Liars when Caleb and Alison are rocky and Alison tries to tell Hanna not to be with him, and she goes ahead and gets back together with him. 

·         Told you I would overuse this gif. 

·         I should be doing requestssssss

Plot: 

Chucky is the boy at your school, that is well known for all the bad things he has done. He has no respect for anyone except… maybe you… and he is unpredictable, which is exactly why your friend, your bitchy, not-really-your-friend, frenemy-that-you-only-spend-any-of-your-time-with-because-your-real-friends-like-her tries to order you not to hang out with him.

You don’t take it well.

Warnings: Language maybe? 

~~~

It takes a few seconds before I can clear my enough, and stop myself from jumping to the conclusion of what she’s trying to tell me. Demand of me. “What?”

“You shouldn’t hang out with him anymore. I mean, I know he’s pretty and everything,” With a roll of her eyeshadow heavy eyes, she tries to infer to me, that my friendship with Chucky is so skin deep. Again, I bite my tongue and stop myself from saying anything, but oh, are there things coming to mind that I wish I would say. “But he’s never been any good, since kindergarten. I’m just looking out for you, you know. You know that I love you.” Oh, sure.

My blood boils at her words, and the fake way she tilts her head and furrows her eyebrows, the  touch she manages to land on my arm before I flinch away that makes me feel disgusting. She has to be aware that we are not friends, and there is no one else around so where does she get off saying this stuff to me. Demanding something, from me like she’s got any authority. “Maybe you didn’t sense my complete disbelief the first time through your hairspray; I understand chemicals can interfere with alien sensory technology. So, let me say it again. What?”

“Woho,” She laughs, but I see under the thin, unimpressive veil of counterfeit that completes her look of total bitch, that she was not expecting a snap back like that. “Wow, Y/N. No need to get salty… “

Something about the night air has made me confident tonight, for sure. Because at school, there’s no way I’d say these things to her. I’m glad I came out tonight! “I don’t know where you think you get the authority to tell me what to do, but you’re mistaken.” Nervously, I glance past her into Y/B/F’s house to see if they were looking at us, because the last thing I need is drama with the others after this, and then stonily back at Jane. “Tell the others whatever, I’ll set it straight tomorrow. I gotta go, I happen to know where Chucky’ll be tonight.”

She narrows her eyes and looks miffed, but I’m already turning around, shoving my hands into the pockets of my jacket and walking off down the street. God, I’m glad I said that. Its been dying to come out since I realised I didn’t like her in the first place- it might stir some trouble in our group, but its better she knows I don’t like her then to let her keep thinking she any control in my life. Besides, I’d kinda… I’d much rather go see Chucky then stay in and play forced Monopoly with her for the rest of the night, and wake up in the morning with moustache drawn on my face.

When I get to my destination, I don’t see him but I don’t get to wonder if he just hasn’t come to the playground tonight like he brags he does every night -like some edge master on the big screen,- because he calls my name and I turn around to see him walking over from another street. “What are you doing here?” He stops in front of me on the woodchips and stuffs his hands in his trench coat pockets, grinning down at me in a way that gives me the strangest feeling that he’s glad I’m here. “Thought you’d be… Ahhh, I dunno, enjoying skimpy girl sleepover activities? See, I listen to you. Unless I got the day wrong?” I wish we could move somewhere else, maybe walk around, but he’s just standing and looking at me with his grin like I’m a weeping angel.

Instead of staying there and talking about my run in with Jane, although I’m sure he’d love to hear about it -he doesn’t like her either. One of the many things we talk about when we’re together,- , I turn and head for the swing. “Skimpy girl sleepover activities? Sounds like you put some thought into that!” I tease, sitting in a swing and pushing off. There’s something very free, about playing on a playground when its dark, and no on else is around. I suddenly get why its such a popular teenage stereotype. Not too far out of my comfort zone like most adult things that I want to do or am being pushed to try, but still new.

He laughs. “Would’ve come by and visited if I knew where your girl friend lived.” Turning my head, I watch Chucky come around and get in the other swing, but not push off.

“You would’ve been disappointed. We had intensive plans to snuggle up in our skivvy’s and raincoats and watch Singin’ In The Rain. But I would’ve made room for you!” Which is true. I would. I definitely would. I’d love to ‘accidentally’ fall over and snuggle with him. Totally would. Any day. Yes.

Watching him grin to himself at my dumb joke gives me little tummy squirms, so I take a deep breath as I swing and look away. “Oh well. Glad I get you, tonight. They always seem to win your time.”

“They’re my best friends… “I say, falling backwards and feeling my hair fly after me, on either side of my face. Then turn and grin at Chucky, curiously. “You’ve never expressed any desire to hang with me more, before.”

“Well its not like I have many friends apart from you… “He trails off, but his face doesn’t reveal any sadness or forlorn desire to change that. I know, for a fact, that he doesn’t like anyone else at our school. He has nicknames for them all! And none flattering. He turns to me sharply, causing my heart to seize in my chest. Oh my god. “Custody agreements, how would I go about winning weekends with you?”

Rolling my eyes, I look away and keeping swinging, distracting myself from him. “Mm, payment’s a bit dear,” I mutter, loud enough for him to hear but quiet enough to be a mutter to myself. I wanted to reply, but I don’t want him to hear the rest of that quip. Which is ‘Its you have to kiss me’.

Seems the night air isn’t just making me confidently mean, tonight…

“I bet… “He says back, not quite to me and under his breath, the same as how I said it. Then he gets up from the swing and looks around, shifty eyed. “Let’s walk around a bit.”

He looks bored, so I slow down the swing and pop off, not noticing he moved right in front of me until I’ve hopped right into him. “Nice going, pal! Smart move!” I exclaim sarcastically, and push out of his arms and away from his face, which is grinning cheekily and laughing.

“Dunno what you’re complaining for, I’m not the only one who got to second base just then! Wanna try for first?”

“You’re very funny.” I say, forcing an irritated tone through my smiling face. Its times like these, when I thank having a crush on such a loudmouth and tease. “As if.”  

“Yeahh, right. Whatever, come on.” He starts walking, scooping me up on the way, walking with his arm over my shoulders… like friends. Friends. This is friendly, I remind myself quickly. These moments, when he touches me and acts like we’re a couple, are when I curse having a crush on such a loudmouth and tease. We walk around the park, not leaving the gleam of the streetlights, but leaving the mulch of the playground for the grass surrounding it. After a while of conversation about school, and other kids in our class -never touching his father or mine, this night time playground acting as sanctuary, - , we hit a lull in the conversation, and I watch our feet wading through the luscious grass, due to excessive levels of rain recently. My fingers feel like icey poles. He hasn’t removed his arm from me the entire time we’ve been walking, though, so at least the rest of me is warm. “So, what happened to your sleepover anyway. Cancelled or did you blow them off?”

“Uh… I blew it off.” For you. Of course, I don’t utter the last words. Too much of a chicken shit to finish the deal, even feeling the night air on my cheeks.

“There’s my bad girl.”

“Hah,” Thank god, its too cold for my cheeks to heat up. I glance at his face, and do a double take. He’s waiting for the rest of the story! Uhhhhh… “Um, well, we… Jane said something annoying, you know.” Flashing him an awkward half-smile, I see he’s still waiting for the kicker and look away again, picking up his other hand and lacing my fingers through his, to distract me. “Here, warm my fingers up, they’re icey.” As his fingers willingly wrap around mine, I don’t have to glance to feel his look edging me on for the rest of the story. I sigh. “Well, she said something dumb about not wanting me to hang out with a certain bad boy loner type with yucky hair, and I didn’t feel like sticking around.”

“I’m gonna ignore the part about my great hair for the moment, because I’m too chuffed that you stuck up for me… “Remarkably, somehow, his voice is grinning, as he slows us immediately too a stop and moves to stand in front of me, loosening his arm around me just enough to do so, but not letting go so I’m kind of… well, I’m enveloped in him. I can smell his familiar shampoo and aftershave, and feel weirdly, wonderfully small in front of him, who is taller. Which is usually not too noticeably because he isn’t magnificently tall, but he is… 3 to 5 inches taller than me? And because we’re so close, you can tell.

Embarrassingly, I just stand there silently as he grins, and brings our linked hands up to his mouth, to tap a kiss to mine. What? What? WhAT! This is not… this cannot just be friendly, can it? I glance away from his blue-blue eyes, so I can gather my voice back. “Not a big deal.”

“Maybe not, but I like it.”

With nothing else to use my voice for, because I can’t think of anything else to say, I look back up at his, our hands still close to his mouth a grin on his lips. There, I decide to do something. I decide to make or break our friendships, to see what happens, to do something I want to try.

I decide to kiss him.

I tilt my head, and pull down our hands and close my eyes, not allowing for any second thoughts before I get up on my toes and hopefully touch his mouth with mine. I remember wondering what happens if I actually get his chin or his nose, before my lips connect with his and everything goes starry.

Because immediately like he was prepared for it, like that, he kisses back. Pulling me in comfortably with his arm and letting go of my hand so he can cup the side of my neck, his thumb resting on my jaw. I use my new freedom to bunch his coat in my fist, and bring him warmer to me. Not that it could get much warmer for me, with his mouth laying a long, soft kiss to me.

This is definitely the ideal outcome to my decision.  

“Took way too long for you to do that, sweetheart.” Is the first thing he says post-first-kiss, husky and quietly, against my lips as he looks from them to my eyes which is way too attractive a power for a teenage boy to have if you ask me, before kissing me again, this time deeper and with his tongue. All I can do is stand there and try my best to reciprocate the sheer, hot passion that somehow he’s able to convey to me without words, despite this being my first kiss, to the best of my mediocre abilities.

“I… didn’t know you were waiting for it,��� I say, when he seems done for more then 2 seconds. A flash of a smile crosses his face, rolling his eyes.

“I wasn’t obvious enough for you??”

“No!”

“I said that I’m glad I get you tonight!”

“That’s code for ‘Kiss me’???”

“Yes!”

“Well, I’ll remember that now!”

He sighs in exasperation while smiling, which is good because I’m grinning too. “Do you wanna just make out some more?”

“Oh, yes, we shall. Good idea.”

[andtheyweredeskmates]

In which Chat Noir is an idiot and Marinette is a really “good friend”

Oh my god I didn’t proofread this, its 6 am and I haven’t slept yet don’t judge me

Edit: I made a comic companion piece to this

It honestly started with Chat trying to be nice. He was on his way back home after an akuma attack when he saw Marinette walking and shivering in the cold.

“Cold, little lady?” Marinette gave him a disapproving look.

“NO,” she chattered. Chat chuckled and gestured to his stick.

“Wanna ride?” Marinette raised an eyebrow.

“C’mon, I’m not gonna bite, just hop on my back.” Marinette hesitated, but after a long moment, she wrapped her arms around his neck and hopped on his back .

Chat leapt from building to building, admittedly showing off a little bit. Whe he glanced back he was happy to see Marinette looking longingly at the world as it passed by.

“Liking the view?” Marinette grinned at him.

“I’ve never really gotten the chance to admire everything. I’ve passed these streets a million times but I’ve never taken to time to see how beautiful Paris really is.” Chat gaped at Marinette for a moment before abruptly turning his head back to the path ahead.

“Yeah its really something,” he said softly. He tried to think about all the times he’s hung out with Marinette at school. He’d never seen her as calm and comfortable as she was now. She had always seemed awkward and panicked. Chat had to admit that he liked seeing this side of her. When they finally made it to the balcony of Marinette’s house Chat shot her a wink.

“Hope you enjoyed the ride.” Marinette rolled her eyed.

“Thanks kitty, I’ll see you around.”

“Oh yeah?”

And just like that Marinette was as flustered as she always was.

“Um yeah, ya know, like on TV while you’re out saving the world… and stuff.” Chat laughed.

“Right, well I bid you adieu mademoiselle.” He gave her a little salute before making his way back to his own home. All he could think about was that face she made as they’d leapt around the rooftops of Paris. He hoped he’d see it again.

The next time Adrien saw Marinette as Chat, he was furious. He was tired of being cooped up at home and tired of being treated like a child. So he left. He was wandering Paris aimlessly when he saw her on the balcony. Marinette was gazing at the stars in what looked like her pajamas and it was the very same gaze she’d had when Chat had carried her across Paris. He stopped for a moment to admire her. She looked so content. Chat wanted to feel like that. More than anything. He blushed a little when Marinette noticed him giving him a little wave and a chuckle. Without even thinking he made his way to her balcony and settled atop the railing.

“Are you stalking me now kitty?”

Chat ran a clawed hand threw his hair and over his ears, throwing his head back dramatically.

“I knew you wanted to see me again.” Marinette rolled her eyes.

“Oh yes, my hero,” she said sarcastically. Chat grinned.

“Stargazing?”

Marinette smiled softly.

“I like looking at the stars sometimes. Gives me a little perspective. I feel like sometimes I get too caught up in my own little world.”

AS Chat looked up at the sky, he said, “Yeah I know what you mean.”

“What are you doing out here? Out on patrol?”

Chat scratched his head and looked back down apologetically.

“Not exactly, I guess I needed to get out of my own little world too.”

“Well your welcome to sit out here with me if you want, just try not to ruin the moment with stupid puns.” Chat grinned.

“Your wish is my command princess.”

There was a slight blush that appeared on Marinette’s face when he said that but Chat didn’t notice. He’d already turned his head back to the sky. They sat like that in silence for hours. Marinette slowly transitioned from standing, to sitting, to laying on her stomach until eventually she fell asleep. Chat chuckled a little as he picked her up and brought her back down into her room, placing her gently on her bed. His eyes lingered on her face for a few moments before Chat padded out of the room and made his way back home. And all he thought about the rest of the night was the face Marinette made when she was sleeping.

+

It became a regular occurrence for Chat to stop by Marinette’s house when he went out to blow off steam. She always found a way to make him feel better. He had to remind himself at school that Adrien didn’t have the same relationship with Marinette that Chat did and it bothered him. He hated that Marinette seemed so uncomfortable around him when she was able to speak so effortlessly with Chat. He tried to confront her about it subtly but he ended up more confused.

“… and that’s when Alya spilled her lemonade all over me and when I got up to clean it all up I ran right into this really popular guy from my class and I looked like an idiot and it was so embarrassing so I...” Marinette was rambling but of course Chat knew exactly what she was talking about. He decided to use this as an opportunity.

“Popular guy, huh?”

Marinette leaned back with a defeated look on her face. She groaned

“Yeah, his name is Adrien. As in Adrien freaking Agreste. The famous model.”

“Wow, you go to school with that guy huh?”

“Yeah.”

“Do you like him?” Marinette started blushing profusely.

“I mean I like him but I don’t like him -like him, I mean, he’s just a friend- well we’re not really friends but he’s always been nice to me-“

“Mari, calm down, I just meant do you think he’s nice.” Marinette straightened up.

“Oh, yeah I do. I think he’s really thoughtful and sweet.”

Chat had no idea what to do with that information. If Marinette thought he was thoughtful and sweet then why did she always freak out around him? He had no idea how to ask why she was so weird around Adrien without giving up his identity so he just let the confusion slowly drive him insane.

+

Eventually Chat was visiting Marinette more than he wasn’t .Even Ladybug seemed to notice how quickly he was ready to race back to Marinette’s every night after patrol.

“Got any plans after this Minou?”

“Oh just gonna go see a friend.”

“Oh? Whats she like?”

“Incredible. She’s strong, she’s funny, she’s smart. Way cooler than me.”

“She sounds great Chat.”

“Yeah, she is. She’s kinda like my best friend.”

+

They talked for hours and they didn’t hold back.Sometimes he would model designs that Marinette wanted to try, sometimes Chat would sit in front of Marinette while she played with his hair and put it in braids, sometimes Chat would try out new puns and Marinette would rate them, sometimes they would talk about Hawkmoth and how they hoped he would be caught soon. Sometimes they would comfort each other.

Chat nearly lost it when he came to Marinette’s balcony and saw her red rimmed eyes.

“Mari, whats wrong?” Marinette started sobbing immediately. Without even thinking, he pulled her in for a hug and let his head settle on the top of her head.

“It’s okay,” he whispered. He was a little frightened. He’d never seen Marinette like that before. Ever.

“I’m sorry,” she said, pulling away and wiping at her eyes.

“It’s just this girl at school. She’s a liar and I can’t stand it so I tried to call her out but no one would believe me. They all told me that I was just jealous and it was my own friends and I-“ Marinette broke down again. Her words were almost incoherent but Chat already knew what she was talking about. His heart broke a little. He knew Lila was a liar. He knew that Lila was being mean to her and he knew that no one at school believed Marinette. Except him. He had let it all slip from his mind because never in a million years had he considered that Marinette would be fazed. She was so strong and so resilient it hadn’t even occurred to him that Marinette could get knocked down. And then Chat felt like an idiot.

Of course Marinette was hurt. Anyone would be hurt if their own friends turned on them. Marinette was a normal girl like anyone else even if she was strong, and she had feelings. That’s when Chat got mad. Not just mad, but pissed. The kind of pissed that makes you shake so hard that your vision turns red. He made up his mind right there. Tomorrow he was gonna put a stop to this. No one deserved to be treated like this, least of all his Mari.

Chat was so caught up in his own thoughts as he held Marinette in his arms he didn’t even notice that from then on, when he thought of Marinette, he always thought of her, as his Mari.

+

The two of them got increasingly more comfortable with each other. After that night, they stopped just being close emotionally. It wasn’t uncommon for Chat to lay his head in his Mari’s lap or for her to lay her head on Chat’s shoulder. Sometimes when they would look at the stars, Chat would drape his arm around her shoulder.

After that night, Adrien made more of an effort with Marinette at school. He wanted her to know that there was always someone on her side to stand up for her. Not because Marinette couldn’t stand up for herself, but because he didn’t want her to have to.

“You know I find it a little crazy that we talk almost everyday and you haven’t talked about boys once.” Marinette stiffened.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean we talk constantly but you’ve never once talked about a crush or a guy you like. I think its weird. You know that I’m in love with Ladybug. How come you won’t tell me who you’re in love with.”

“Maybe I’m not in love with anybody!” Marinette protests. The two of them were together on the balcony again. Marinette was sitting with her legs crossed, leaned back, supporting herself on her arms. Chat had his head in her lap, body strewn out as he played with a flower he’d stolen out of someones yard. They’d already been sitting together for at least an hour but they’d spent most of it in a comfortable silence.

“Everyone has a crush on somebody. You’re 16.” Chat was smirking as he started to pick the petals from his flower one by one.

“Well how old are you? I heard you were over 5,000 years old so I bet you can’t even remember what it’s like to be 16.”

“First of all, my age is classified information. Second, you’re avoiding my question. You can’t lie to me, Mari.”

Marinette was quiet for a moment.

“You can’t make fun of me.” Marinette suddenly looked embarrassed and she looked away.

“I would never! Scouts honor.”

Marinette sighed before placing her head in her hands

“Ammphm.” The sound was muffled and completely unintelligible.

“Mari, I can’t hear you with your face in your hands.” He could, however, hear her groan of frustration.

“It’s Adrien. I have a huge, stupid, giant, crush on Adrien.” Chat sat up so fast his head slammed right into Marinette’s.

“Ow, Chat what the hell?”

“Adrien?” Marinette rubbed her head.

“I said you can’t make fun of me.” Chat straightened a little, trying to appear unfazed.

“No I’m not making fun of you, just surprised I guess.”

“Why are you surprised?” Chat was backing himself into a corner and he was scrounging for ways to get out.

“Um- because- I – I mean- I met him once and he seemed like a jerk.” Chat was mentally hitting himself. He seriously couldn’t come up with a better lie than that?

“That doesn’t sound like him. Maybe you just met him when he was in a bad mood?”

“Well, are you sure that you don’t just find him attractive because he’s famous?”

And just like that, Marinette shoved Chat out of her lap faster than Plagg could gobble Camembert and she gave him the look. The one that she used when Chloe was terrorizing her classmates or when Lila would lie. The look that he’d prayed to God would never be directed at him.

“Of course not you ass. You don’t even know him. He’s kind and thoughtful and all he wants is to make friends. And you know what?! I don’t even care that he’s famous. And quite frankly I can’t believe that you would even think that matters to me.” Marinette stood up and crossed her arms.

“You can show yourself out.” She stomped her way down the ladder and into her room, slamming the door behind her without so much as a second glance.

Chat put his head in his hands. “I’m such a fucking idiot.”

+

Adrien didn’t know what to do. He laid in his bed and stared at the ceiling, thinking about how he had no clue what to do. He replayed Marinette’s words over and over and over in his head.

He’s kind and thoughtful and all he wants is to make friends. And you know what?! I don’t even care that he’s famous.

He hadn’t really thought about the way he felt about his Mari. She was funny and strong and cute and she was his very good friend. Was she just a friend to him?

He was in love with Ladybug. But lately, he’d kind of put his thoughts for her on the back burner. It was almost a knee jerk reaction. Who did he love? Ladybug. It was automatic. And it wasn’t like he just wasn’t in love with her anymore. If anything he felt like their relationship had gotten a little stronger. Their teamwork started to feel more in sync. She started to laugh at his puns instead of looking at him like an annoying little brother. She didn’t scold him for his flirting.

He knew he could never let go of what he felt for Ladybug, but he couldn’t dismiss that he might also have feelings for Marinette. Would he be an asshole for pursuing her while he still had feelings for Ladybug? Adrien was so screwed. He couldn’t keep up with all of his thoughts and he hated that he couldn’t confide in anyone about it. Especially because usually when he wanted to get something off his chest, he would immediately talk to Marinette.

How did it happen? How did he get there? How did it go from being nice, being friendly, to whatever this was? When did he start feeling like this? He felt like an idiot.

Adrien felt like an idiot and all he wanted to do was scream. What the hell was he gonna do?

“Plagg.”

“Yeeees?”

“I don’t know what to do.”

“When in doubt, I just do what I want. It usually works out.”

“Didn’t you tell me you destroyed Atlantis.”

“I said usually works out.”

“You aren’t making me feel any better.”

“Look kid, I don’t know anything about love, but I know that you’re gonna do the right thing. In the end, you always do.” Adrien didn’t respond.

+

When Chat finally decided he was ready, he made his way to Marinette’s balcony. He was so nervous he was shaking and he was shaking so much that petals were beginning to fall off the flowers he’d gathered into a bouquet. She wasn’t on the balcony when he got there but he bent down to the trap door and knocked gently. Chat felt like time was passing around him in slow motion. What seemed like hours later, Marinette cracked open the trap door.

“Have you come to apologize for being an ass?”

“Yes ma’am.”

The door flew open and Mari climbed up until she was sitting on the edge, legs dangling into her room and arms crossed. Her hair was down and she was in her pajamas and most importantly, she looked beautiful. Even if there was a scowl on her face.

“I’m listening.”

Chat took a deep breath.

“I’m an idiot.” It came out fast and loud like the words were tumbling out of his mouth. Marinette looked unimpressed.

“Uh huh.” Chat scratched his head.

“I was acting like an idiot. I know you aren’t the kind of person who would fall in love with someone just because they’re famous. You’re smart and a good judge of character and you would never feel strongly about someone just because of the way they look on the outside. I know that. You caught me off guard and I didn’t know what to say so I just said something stupid and I’m really sorry.” Marinette held her expression for a mere moment before giving up and giving Chat a soft smile.

“Thank you.”

“Well, there’s more..”Marinette cocked an eyebrow but said nothing.

“I have something I have to tell you and its really important to me.” Chat handed the flowers he’d been holding to Marinette.

“Okay, whats wrong?”

“Look Mari, I trust you more than anyone else in the world. You’re my best friend and you’re the most incredible person I’ve ever met. You’re strong, you’re smart, you’re kind, and- and you’re beautiful.” Chat looked everywhere but at Marinette’s face as he kept talking.

“I’ve thought about it a lot over the past few days and I realized that you’re one of the most important things in my life. And because of the trust I have in you and the way I care about you, I decided that you deserve to know who I am.”

“Wait- Chat-“

“Plagg, Claws In.”

Marinette dropped the flowers.

“Oh my god.”

“Marinette I love you and you deserve to know that.” Marinette put her hand to her forehead.

“Oh my god.”

“Mari, are you okay.”

“Um…. Oh my god.” Adrien fidgeted with his shirt awkwardly.

“Not to ruin the moment, but I’m staving.” Adrien rolled his eyes and pulled a pieve of camembert out of his shirt pocket.

“Plagg, please shut up and sit down. Marinette do you want me to do anything right now? I know this is a lot, I didn’t mean to overwhelm you.”

“I- Chat-Adrien-Oh my god.”Marinette was staring at the trap door like she wanted to slip down into it. Adrien was standing there awkwardly, still fidgeting with his shirt. Finally Mari pushed herself up to stand, put her hands on her hips and looked Adrien dead in the eye.

“Tikki spots on.” Adrien stared and for a moment it didn’t register with him. But then-

“Oh my God.” And then Adrien was laughing. It was a hysterical laugh that laughed when nothing else made sense. When irony is shoved so far down your throat you think swords will come out of your ass.

When Adrien finally stopped laughing, he plopped himself down on the floor of Marinette’s balcony and laid down so that all he could see was the stars.

“You broke him,” Plagg said.

“He broke me first,” Marinette grumbled. She sounded far away.

“I don’t really know what to say,” Adrien admitted.

“ Me neither.” Adrien glanced at Marinette who was transformed right in front of him. She looked as far away as she sounded.

“Can you just lay here with me and hold my hand while I figure it out. And then Marinette looked at him and Adrien felt like an idiot all over again. Because in her face he could see her. She wasn’t Ladybug, she was his Mari. And they weren’t two people he loved they were one person he loved and somehow things were simpler and more complicated all at the same time.

Marinette didn’t respond to him. She just walked over to him and all but fell down in the space next to him and grasped his hand tight in hers.

And after a long while of the two of them rifling through their thoughts, Marinette spoke.

“You’re an idiot.”

[dontmindthefangirling]

The Heartbreak Prince {p.p.}

chapter 6

gif not mine!

Bad Boy!Peter Parker x Reader AU

Summary: The heart is fragile. Easily broken, difficult to build back up, and Peter Parker knows that. Maybe his own heart is fractured and that’s why he goes around breaking others. Will you let him break yours?

Warnings: angst, angst, angst, enemies to lovers, suggestive conversations, language, underage drinking, violence, both reader and Peter are 18+

chapter 5 | series masterlist

-

Okay, okay calm down you told yourself. You had no concrete evidence that Peter was Spider-Man just a butt-load of speculations. You were unsure what to do with all of this information that you had. Should you confront Peter about it? That didn’t seem like a smart idea considering he was already pretty unpredictable. Maybe Ned would tell you more. 

You glanced down at your phone to see the time and cursed under your breath. You wanted to stay and possibly see Peter come back out of the building, but he could be in there for hours and you had a Spanish quiz around noon. You gave the tower one last glance before rushing to catch the next train to school. 

-

The elevator doors opened with a loud ding! and Peter stepped out of them gingerly. His heart was pounding against his rib cage, recognizing what was left of Tony’s penthouse. Most of everything that had been here had been shipped upstate (after almost being stolen by the Vulture which Peter put a stop to). He thought back and realized how long ago that seemed. So much has happened since. 

He stood in the center of what used be the living room, looking out at the skyline of New York. He inhaled sharply when he heard voices approaching from down the stairs. He turned just in time to see Happy walking up the stairs from Tony’s workshop with Pepper and Morgan behind him. 

“Peter!” Morgan shouted giddily. She rushed towards him, her arms in front of her. Peter laughed as he picked her up, spinning her around. 

“Hey Morgan,” he greeted before placing her back on the ground. She had grown a few inches and her hair was longer. His heart twisted. She was getting older, and the innocence would be tainted with the truth of what happened. 

“I missed you!” she exclaimed. She crossed her arms and pouted at Peter. “Where have you been?”

Peter crouched down so that he was eye-level with the now seven year-old. 

“Sorry kiddo, I’ve been busy with school,” Peter apologized sheepishly. Morgan stuck her tongue out.

“School is gross,” she whined. “You should go to school closer to us!” 

Peter smiled weakly. He couldn’t bring himself to go upstate, but he didn’t want to disappoint Morgan either. 

“We’ll see about that, kid,” he said, ruffling her hair making her giggle. Suddenly, her eyes lit up.

“I have to show you the new toy I got!” she gasped. “Stay here! Don’t move!” 

Peter laughed as he held his hands up. “Not moving!” 

Morgan scurried back towards the stairs, disappearing down them. 

“Morgan! Walk, don’t run!” Pepper called after her. Once she was out of view, Peter stood to his feet and shoved his hands in his pockets. Happy and Pepper were looking at him like they couldn’t recognize him. 

“You look...different,” Happy managed to finally say, breaking the silence. 

“What, cause of the jacket?” Peter scoffed. He knew his style changed but that was mostly to incorporate darker colors into his attire. He wanted to match how he felt. 

“No, just uh...your hair’s longer,” Happy added. Peter turned away from them, not wanting to make small talk. He was here for Morgan and that’s it. 

“Peter,” Pepper said gently. 

“I don’t want to talk about it,” Peter snapped, feeling a twinge of guilt for being aggressive towards Pepper. 

“We’re worried about you, kid,” Happy added. 

“I’m fine,” Peter grumbled, not even convincing himself. Before either Happy or Pepper could say anything more, Morgan came bouncing back up the stairs with a toy in her hand. 

“Look! It’s Daddy!” she exclaimed, showing Peter her new Iron Man action figure. “It lights up, just like he did.” She pressed a button and lights lit up where Tony’s repulsors would have been 

“That’s really cool, Morgs,” Peter said, swallowing thickly. 

“It makes me happy when I miss him,” she said. “So I got you one, cause I know you miss him too.”

She pulled out another Iron Man action figure that she had been hiding behind her back, holding it up to Peter. 

“Mommy and I picked them out,” Morgan said, beaming up at Peter. A lump formed in Peter’s throat as he knelt down, taking the toy gingerly from Morgan. He felt the stinging of tears behind his own eyes, but blinked them away furiously. 

“Thanks kiddo,” he managed to say with a smile. “It means a lot.”

Morgan rushed forward, pulling Peter into a hug in her little arms. Peter put the toy down so he could hug her back, closing his eyes to keep the tears from rushing forward. He could feel Pepper and Happy’s eyes on them. 

“Daddy wouldn’t want you to be sad,” Morgan said softly so only Peter could hear. He squeezed her a little in their hug and whispered a quiet ‘thank you.’

-

You slid into your seat next to Ned just in time for your Spanish quiz. You forgot to study considering you were too busy snooping around Peter Parker’s life, so you had to really rack your brain for information from what you could remember from class and homework. 

Once it was finally over, you met Ned out in the hallway. 

“You alright? You weren’t in calculus this morning,” he pointed out. 

“Yeah,” you sighed. “Just a rough night.”

Ned nodded. “Those are the worst.”

You looked at him, wanting to blurt out and ask about Peter, but you didn’t think doing so in a crowded hallway would be a smart move. You looked around before grabbing Ned’s wrist and pulling him into an empty classroom, shutting the door behind you.

“(Y/N), what-”

“Is Peter Spider-Man?” you asked, the words bubbling to your mouth before you could even really comprehend them. Ned stared at you, wide-eyed and blinking. 

“W-what? H-How- I don’t-”

“Is he?” you pressed. 

“No he’s not-”

“You’re a terrible liar.”

Ned sighed and ran a hand through his hair.

“(Y/N), I don’t think you should be asking these questions,” Ned said while looking around, as if anyone could walk in at any moment. “It’ll put you in danger.”

“Like you and MJ?” you asked gently. Ned’s gazed flickered down at his feet and his shoulders slumped. 

“I’m sorry,” you apologized. “I was just looking into some stuff and-”

“It’s okay,” Ned sighed. “If you put the pieces together it’s not that difficult to figure out.”

You were silent, staring at him. Maybe you over-stepped, and you realized that Ned was grieving the loss of both of his best friends. MJ, who died, and Peter who cut him off. He must be struggling just as much as Peter.

You stepped forward, enveloping Ned in a hug. Ned graciously accepted, wrapping his arms back around you. 

“Thank you,” he murmured. You pulled back and looked at him sadly. 

“I can’t even imagine what you’ve been through,” you admitted.

“It’s been hard,” Ned sighed. “Really hard.”

“So that’s why you and Peter fell apart?” you asked gently. 

Ned nodded. “He blamed me for MJ’s death.”

“You don’t believe that, do you?” you asked. Ned sighed, shaking his head.

“I don’t know...it’s survivor’s guilt. Why did she die and not me? Why couldn’t we both have lived?” Ned murmured. “And Peter blames himself more than anyone else, which is why he’s pushed everyone away.”

You frowned. Peter had so much hate in him and for the world, and you were now realizing that it was directed mostly at himself. It made you sad for him. 

The bell rang, and you and Ned both jumped in alarm. 

“C’mon, I’ll buy you a coffee at the Starbucks across the street after class,” you said, slinging your arm around Ned’s shoulders. Ned chuckled. 

“I’d like that.”

-

Peter swung from building to building, feeling the wind around his face as he took in the New York skyline that he had missed so much. After seeing Morgan again, she reminded him of what Tony would have wanted, and that was him being that friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. 

He still felt like an impostor putting on the suit, but he kept reminding himself that the world needed saving. It wouldn’t stop just because Tony and MJ were gone. 

Morgan reminded Peter so much of her dad and she was only seven. He loved that kid with all his heart, and he vowed to Tony that he would protect her and raise her to be as amazing as her dad was. He knew Pepper was already doing a good job at that, but every time he talked to Pepper or Happy, he felt a bitterness in his heart. 

He didn’t want to be bitter. He never asked for any of this. 

But he was swinging around New York for Morgan and because he knew she would be so sad if she learned he wasn’t being Spider-Man anymore. 

The Iron Man toy she gave him was tucked safely away in his backpack as he looked for trouble to put an end to. 

For the first time in a long time, he was feeling good. The sun was shining and he stopped two attempted robberies as well as some petty thefts. He finally stopped on top of a building for a rest, looking down at the streets below. He felt so light-weighted and free for the first time in a very very long time.

But it was short-lived. 

His heart was heavy in his chest, weighing him down, and he couldn’t help but think about you and how guilty he felt for having those damned butterflies in his chest every time you so much as looked at him. He ripped his mask off, running his hand through his curls. 

He didn’t want to move on from MJ, as much as she would yell at him to if she could. He wanted to live in the black cloud that he had wrapped himself in because that’s what he felt he deserved. And he had just broken out of that cloud for the first time and the guilt was calling him back in. 

He took a shaky breath, putting his mask back on before swinging home.

-

After having a more lighthearted chat with Ned after school over some coffee, you headed home in a better mood than before. As you approached your apartment building, you noticed Peter standing out on the fire escape. He had never shown up to school, like he said he wouldn’t, but you still couldn’t help but wonder what he was doing in the old Avengers’ tower. 

You also wondered if he was okay. 

You stalked over to the fire escape, grabbing the nearest ladder and pulling yourself up before climbing up three more flights before you poked your head up next to where Peter was standing. 

“Ah! Holy shit, (Y/N)!” Peter exclaimed, causing you to laugh as you swung your leg over the railing. 

“Sorry,” you apologized while giggling. 

“Don’t scare me like that,” Peter huffed, amusement in his eyes. 

“I didn’t think the big bad boy of Midtown could get scared,” you teased, dropping your backpack to the ground. Peter scoffed and rolled his eyes. 

“Yeah, whatever,” he grumbled. 

“What are you doing out here?” you asked, leaning against the railing next to him. 

“Just enjoying the sun, I dunno,” he muttered, shrugging his shoulders. You looked at him, really looked at him, and took in the way his curls softly blew in the gentle breeze, how the sun made his usual chocolate brown eyes look golden, and how his jaw seemed to be locked in place as he looked at the world with such cold eyes. You knew there was warmth in there somewhere. 

“What?” he asked, turning when he felt your eyes on him. 

“Nothing,” you sighed, looking down for a moment and then back up at him. “You just look like you could use a hug.”

Peter furrowed his eyebrows. “What-”

Before he could say no, you wrapped his arms around him, feeling a sort of sadness and emptiness in your chest for him. He was taken aback at first, his arms still at his sides, and you expected him to push you away almost immediately. Instead, his arms slowly encircled your waist, and he rested his forehead on your shoulder, gingerly and carefully like he was testing the waters. 

You were surprised, to say the least, but feeling him almost relax in your arms made it worth it. You wondered if anyone had shown him any sort of love and support since the accident. 

Maybe it was what he needed. 

You both stood in silence for a few moments, as his breathing slowed. You didn’t want to tell him that you knew he was Spider-Man because you figured it would just bring up bad memories. 

So instead, you just hugged him because he was Peter. 

When you finally pulled away, you weren’t expecting him to still hold you around your waist, just leaning back far enough to be able to see your face. Your breathing stilled in your throat as you looked up at him. The hardened expression that seemed to be permanently plastered on his face was gone, replaced by soft eyes and a trembling lip.

“Told you, you needed a hug,” you whispered, afraid to raise your voice anymore for the fear that Peter may immediately revert back to his old self. He chuckled lightly, looking down while his arms still encircled your waist. You rested your hands on his arms, not sure where else to put them, and you hated the way your heart picked up its pace. 

Peter looked at you, and his heart swelled. He hadn’t felt any ounce of happiness since the accident, and ever since you walked into his life you only brought just that. His eyes flickered down to your lips, then back up to your eyes that he was now realizing were his new favorite color. 

He could hear the way your heart picked up its pace from his heightened senses, and he wondered if you wanted this too. 

But then it was like something inside him snapped. 

His hands immediately fell to his sides and he took a step away from you, his heart racing as he realized what was happening. You stared at him, confusion evident in your face. But Peter was now terrified. He couldn’t live through what happened with MJ again, he just couldn’t. 

“Peter-”

“Please...leave,” Peter managed to say, looking away from you so he wouldn’t see the hurt on your face. 

It was silent for a minute, and then he heard you shuffle as you put your backpack back on and climbed down to the floor below him where your apartment was. 

As soon as he heard the window to your apartment shut, he punched the railing, denting it.

“Fuck!” he hissed, burying his face in his hands as he blinked away the tears viciously. 

He had shut his heart out to the world for so long, and letting you somehow make your way into it was almost too much to handle.

-

You blinked away a tear as you heard Peter yell from the fire escape above you. He was shutting you out and you knew it.

You shook your head, shutting your blinds.

-

chapter 7 

I hope you all enjoyed xx

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[namjuicyy]

Your Brother’s Best Friend - Jungkook NSFW

Masterlist | Commissions are open

Genre: Fluff, smut.

Word Count: 5k.

Summary: Your best friend's younger brother has always had a crush on you, but it takes coming home from military service to make you realise you like him, too.

Warnings: strong language; copious amounts of teasing; mixed signals;  hella cheesy lines; very very minor choking; nipple play; oral (f receiving); male masturbation; protected sex (FINALLY); p-i-v sex; fingering; overstimulation; creampie; 

Additional tags: slightly unrealistic depictions of military life; slow burn.

For all those years, you remained oblivious. You were so wrapped up in your own little bubble, you had no idea that you were causing someone else anguish just by treating them as a friend - even a little brother. The issue you had was that Jungkook was shy; quiet. He never said anything to you, especially at the beginning because he was afraid of you. Besides, his older brother, Taehyung, drowned out his voice too quickly for him to even attempt to get to know you. Because of how your best friend, Tae, treated him, especially around you, you had also grown into the habit of acting that way around him. Growing up, he was always your best friend's little brother, so by extension, he was yours. Which meant that you would tease him as though he were your own flesh and blood, or support him as such. 

The first fight you ever got in was to protect him. This weedy little boy, no older than twelve and frightened of the big bad junior high school he had just moved to. Graduated from the younger years and moving onwards and upwards towards the harsh reality of adulthood, one torturous day at a time. He was bullied… a lot.; but because he was so shy he never told anyone or said anything meaning he had to go through it completely alone. Until you saw it one day and put a stop to it immediately. 

The kids bullying him were so much bigger and older than he was, there was no way he could ever stand up for himself. They would have just knocked him back down, or broken him like a toothpick. Though they could do the same thing to you, because it was Jungkook and you loved him. He was a good boy and didn’t deserve to be treated like this. So, despite your small frame, you picked out the biggest one in the group (as you had been taught to by your parents) and you asserted your dominance… and may have injured the boy in the process. You did break his nose, which got you a suspension from school for two weeks to ensure no charges would be pressed. But Jungkook got his lunch back, and he was never bullied by anyone again. Especially when you came back to school after your suspension and found that most of the school either cowered away in fear you’d do the same to them, or attempted to be your friend. Since then, you had become fiercely protective of Jungkook. Which made him feel inferior. 

He never hated you for it - in fact, he was grateful. But he always felt like he had to remind you that he was, in fact, a young man now and he should be protecting you, not the other way around. He spent a lot of his teenage years trying to prove this to you - trying to show you that he was a big strong man now, however introverted he may be. When he was sixteen and in the throes of high school, he started working out more, trying to get your attention. He knew that, at this age, all the girls in his class had a crush on him, and it helped to boost his confidence. Yet even then, when he was filled with confidence and knew that he was the most sought out boy in his year group, he still remained the puppy dog he always was around you. The big-eyed baby who followed you around and tried to subtly get your attention. All of his attempts, of course, went completely unnoticed; but never once did he stop trying. You were worth fighting for. 

When Jungkook was eighteen, Taehyung ran to your house in tears. He had announced that Jungkook had signed up for the army and he was undergoing that process. No one knew how long it would take him to actually get into training once he’d passed all the preliminary tests and taken the oath, but it wouldn’t take him long. He was a smart and athletic young man, and he was ready to go and do what he deemed to be right. Everyone was terrified for him. His mother had heard so many horror stories about the army and was scared for his safety and wellbeing. She was so afraid they’d beat out the sweet and innocent young man he was, and replace him with someone much more violent and cold. Jungkook assured everyone that wouldn’t happen, that his only changes would be physical. But, of course, it was after all a mother’s job to worry, wasn’t it?

His training came around. Much to his mother’s delight, Jungkook decided to go into the air force, which meant his training time was slightly shorter than other departments. However, he would be deployed almost immediately after his training. He wouldn’t have time to come back home. So saying goodbye to him was heartbreaking - especially for you. Him leaving meant you couldn’t help your best friend protect him anymore. He was going off to protect you. He arrived on your doorstep the night before, nervous about his future. It wasn’t that he regretted his decision, it was more of a fear of the unknown. But, he felt like he couldn’t tell anyone in his family about this because they’d try and convince him to stay and quit the army already. He knew you respected his wishes, however worried you may have been. He didn’t, however, announce his arrival, which meant you were looking very worse-for-wear in your pyjamas with a sheet mask in your hand. 

“Jungkook!” You said once you saw the young man standing at the door to your apartment. 

“Sorry… I should have called.” 

“No, it’s okay. Come in.” 

“I don’t want to interrupt your evening. You look like you’re having an evening of self-care.” 

“I have plenty of sheet masks for you, too.” You stepped aside and invited him in, the invitation was accepted. 

“I’m only coming in for the sheet masks.” 

“Well, damn. If you don’t want my company, kid, then you can just leave.” 

“I’m not a kid. Also, truth hurts.” 

“You little shit.” 

Once you had made a fruit mocktail for him (he was too afraid to drink alcohol just in case he got screened for it and reprimanded), you both sat on your windowsill seat with the windows open, staring out into the streets around your place. The air was very sombre, but there were no prizes for who could guess why. 

“Are you coming to say goodbye to me tomorrow?” Jungkook asked you, breaking the silence. 

“I was going to. But now you’re here I might say goodbye to you tonight instead. Tomorrow’s for immediate family.”

“But you’re family…”

“I know… but tomorrow is best kept between you and the people who share your blood. I’d rather this anyway. At least if you cry, I’m the only one who can ridicule you.” 

“Who says you won’t cry? I can hear your voice shaking.” 

“It’s the juice - it’s making my voice sticky.”

“Liar.”

“Baby.” 

He poked his tongue out at you childishly. 

You sighed. “I can’t believe you’re going away tomorrow. To the army of all places. The weedy little creature I had to protect is going off to fight in wars and save the people. He’s off to be a hero. 

“I’m not a child anymore.” 

“I know. But it’s like you’re my little brother, it’s hard to think of you as a young man. I can still see the kid who got on the wrong bus but was too shy to get off.”

Jungkook put his head in his hands. “I can’t believe you remember that.”

You laughed. “We all had to come out to get you!”

“No!” He whined. “It took me forever to get that out of my brain, why would you bring it up again?”

“Because it’s funny.” 

“I need to go… bleach my brain or something, I think. You’re evil.” 

“No, but in all seriousness, Jungkook, I’m so proud of you. You’ve worked so hard to get to this point and no one deserves it more than you do. You’re smart, funny, kind and so brave. I don’t know how you’re doing this, honestly. I admire you so much. I’m gonna miss you, kiddo.” 

Saying goodbye to Jungkook was such a weird thing to do. You always remember him being right there whenever you were around; but now he will hardly even be a phone call away. He’d be too busy to contact you; he’d be having too much fun. Despite him being your best friend’s little brother, you loved him and enjoyed spending time with him away from his family. Those days were over, though. This night of face masks, mocktails and light mockery would be the last one you’d both have for God knows how long. 

He left you alone when his drink was finished and his face was sufficiently moisturised; leaving behind the weight that was on his mind when he first entered your door. You gave him one final, tight hug and sent him back to his home so he could spend it with his family. You couldn’t lie and say that you didn’t spend a good amount of your evening crying over Jungkook. 

You received a visit from Taehyung the next day while he was in an almost inconsolable state. They had just sent him off for his eight weeks training. 

“A part of me thought it would never happen, you know?” Taehyung told you through sniffles and tears. “I thought he would change his mind at the last minute and stay home with us. Or he’d tell us last night that it was all a lie and that he wasn’t really enlisting - he just did it for attention or something. He’d get a shitty job in a convenience store or something. I didn’t think he’d actually leave.” 

“Tae, you know he’s much smarter than a shitty convenience store job. The air force is the best place for him. He gets all the physical training, plus his brain will be active the entire time. He’s going to be living his best ‘Top Gun’ life, isn’t he?”

Tae wiped his nose and chuckled a little. “Yeah he’s not as good looking as Tom Cruise though.” 

“This is what he wanted. He’s going to thrive in this situation, just wait and see.”

“I know he will.” Taehyung started to cry again. “I’m just gonna miss him so much.” 

You scooped Taehyung in your arms and tried to comfort him. There wasn’t really much you could say that hadn��t already been said. Everyone Jungkook left behind was thinking the same thing, so all you could do was take comfort in the fact that none of you would be alone in missing him, and eventually life would go on as normal. 

You were able to go and visit him, however. After his training was complete, him and all the people he trained with were given a graduation ceremony to commemorate their hard work and celebrate the fact they’d passed such rigorous training. You all dressed up and attended to support your baby boy who was growing up so quickly. Jungkook looked so cute in his uniform. It fit him perfectly, yet somehow he still looked like he was a small boy playing dress-up in his father’s clothes. He looked so smart and mature, but he was still, of course, the kid brother you adored. A proper little man. But, true to what everyone had been told, Jungkook wasn’t able to come home after his eight weeks of training. He was, in fact, deployed immediately. He’d be spending six months in Germany before coming home. But him being “home” didn’t mean he was back with his family. He would be in the country, just in a completely different city. He wouldn’t be home for quite a while. 

Time ticked on until eventually five years had passed. While you spoke to Jungkook every other week, and still remained almost as close as you were when he’d left, you’d never actually seen him. He had been home a few times, but they were for at minimum two days, and you were never able to come and visit. Something you profusely apologised for, of course, but Jungkook understood. He always understood. It was just difficult for you to go and see him, and you missed him terribly. 

However, Taehyung arrived on your doorstep as he often did, with a beaming, boxy smile on his face. “Jungkook’s coming home!” He announced. “For a whole year!” 

“What?” 

“I know! Apparently, he’s being sent to the base near here for some more training and general work, and that will take him twelve months. He’s home for a whole year, ___. A whole year!” 

“Oh my God!”

“So, here’s what we’re thinking, we get all the family and Jungkook’s friends together and have one big surprise welcome home party. There will be banners, and food, and lots of music. You in?” 

“Yes! A thousand times yes!” 

“Great! My house; 5pm; Tuesday. You don’t have to bring anything. Okay?”

It was definitely a shock to the system knowing that Jungkook was on his way home, and will be home for a significant amount of time. Maybe things could get back to normal. Even if it was only temporary normalcy. 

When Tuesday rolled around, for some reason the nerves were getting the better of you. Maybe it was because you hadn’t seen Jungkook for half a decade, you couldn’t say. All you knew was that you were anxious to see him. Would you both be awkward seeing each other in person now that such a significant chunk of your lives had passed? Or would things be exactly the same when you saw him? You couldn’t tell. All you knew was that in just a few short minutes, he would walk through that door again and he’d be back in your life. 

Taehyung had taken Jungkook out for the evening, a movie and some ice cream like they often did while you and the boys’ parents prepared for the party ahead. You only had a short amount of time to get everything perfect, so the three of you were working like mad trying to get everything organised. Thankfully, one of the boys’ aunts arrived earlier than expected, meaning there was an extra pair of hands around to finalise the details. Sure enough, the guests began to arrive, filtering into the small house one by one just as the final decoration was hung, meaning that their parents could focus on other issues - like the food and drink situation. It was your job to make sure the guests felt comfortable; after all, you were pretty much a part of their family at this point. So everyone related to Taehyung and Jungkook, be them blood relative or friends knew exactly who you were and were comfortable with you being around. 

At seven o’clock, the boys’ mum received a text from Taehyung telling them that the two were on their way back home, so everyone turned out the lights and waited in silence until the door opened and they could scream at Jungkook. You were at the back of the crowd, hidden from view, hoping that you could put off seeing Jungkook until right at the end. Give you enough time to think of an ice-breaker so that things wouldn’t be too awkward. There were giggles in the pitch-black room surrounding you, people clearly unable to contain their excitement as Jungkook was approaching the front door. 

Three…

Two…

One…

The front door opened, the lights turned on and everyone screamed “welcome home, Jungkook!” Party poppers were set off, covering the youngest in confetti and paper streamers. You stood there completely dumbfounded. Was that really Jungkook? 

When he left he was just a weedy little boy, so skinny he looked out of place in his uniform and not at all prepared for life in the army. But he stood before you, a 23-year-old man, filling out his once baggy clothes that were hanging off of him in just the right ways. You could see the toned muscles that had reshaped his skin, his chest was puffy and holding his neck up were two, broad shoulders that definitely weren’t that thick before. His hair was a little longer than what you knew to be army protocol, and was parted slightly off-centre. It hung off his head sporting an almost wet look that made you drool. How could one man change so drastically? What did they do to him while he was away? 

Yet, he smiled widely and his big, doe eyes lit up. He bowed to the guests to show his appreciation for them, and he still seemed to be the same person. Still the polite, sweet young man with a bunny smile and a soft aura. Even those muscles couldn’t make him seem less gentle. “Oh my God!” He exclaimed. “I had no idea.” Wait… since when was his voice that deep? It was smooth and clear, but still just as quiet. Unchanged in the way he sounded gentle and calm when he spoke. How could he be such a contradiction? 

Despite being at the back of the room, though, Jungkook still saw you. He stopped what he was doing, drank in your appearance as if he was processing that it was you he was looking at, and then ran towards you. Immediately, you felt those strong arms around you, holding you securely in his grip and pressing you to his firm body. His tight hug was comforting and reassuring. That combined with the smell of his laundry detergent and you felt peaceful. It felt right. 

Wait… what? No, no, no! Do not think these things. Push them down! 

“I’m so glad I got to see you, finally!” He told you. His voice was muffled slightly as his arm had covered one of your ears because it was just so big. When he finally released you, you saw his  bunny smile had returned. “I thought you were avoiding me.” 

“I was.” You teased. “I was dragged here against my own free will.”

Jungkook laughed. Your jokes were never that funny, but Jungkook always seemed to think so. “Now I know why I didn’t see you over the last five years.” 

“I am genuinely sorry about that.” 

“I know you are. I am, too. I should have made more of an effort to see someone I care about.” 

Jungkook took you over to get a drink with him and to catch up properly over the last five years. But the conversation was mainly you asking him questions about his job, and begging for stories. Your life wasn’t quite as interesting as his, so it was nice to hear him talk about all the adventures he’d been on and how well he’s enjoying his job. 

“I, uh… I missed you a lot, though.” Jungkook confessed shyly. 

You smiled. Your hand found its way to the back of Jungkook’s head and gently stroked his hair. “I missed you, too, kiddo.” 

“I’m twenty-three now… I’m not a kid. When will you see me differently?”

“I’m sorry, Kookie. It was a force of habit. I won’t do it again, I swear.” 

“Seriously, ___. I like you a lot.”

“I like you, too.” 

Jungkook groaned, clearly frustrated. “How can you be so smart, yet so dumb at the same time?” 

“Hey!” You playfully slapped him on his arm, making him chuckle a little. A comfortable silence descended over the two of you, but it wasn’t long before that silence changed. You didn’t have time to register what was happening. One minute Jungkook was standing in front of you talking to you, the next his arm was around your waist, pulling you closer to him. He put his drink down on the table and instead of holding that, he held the side of your neck, and pressed his lips to yours. You were shocked at first; your eyes were wide and your free hand was pushing at his chest to get him off you. But feelings you had no idea you had started to bubble up and take over, and you stopped fighting him. You let your eyes close and give yourself over to the feeling of his lips on yours. That was until you remembered what was happening. You had ten blissful, beautiful seconds of ignorance before your brain switched back on and told you that this was wrong. He was your best friend’s younger brother - he was as close to your own younger brother as you could possibly have. You shouldn’t be kissing him. You frantically pushed him away. “S-stop, stop!” You said quickly. “We shouldn’t be doing this.” 

“What… why?” 

“You’re my best friend’s younger brother. This is wrong… this is so wrong.” 

Jungkook allowed a devilish smirk to play on his lips. He pushed you back into the kitchen counter and took your drink off of you. “It is wrong, isn’t it?” He said lowly. He was moving toward you again. “We shouldn’t ever do this again.”

“N-no, we shouldn’t. Such a bad thing to d-do.” 

No more words were exchanged, just Jungkook’s lips back on yours. The longer he spent attached to your body, the more fuzzy your brain became. You could feel yourself getting more and more turned on with each kiss he gave you. Your heart and your pussy jumped when he started using his tongue. It was the perfect kiss. Just the right amount and not too forceful, but dominating enough for him to get across everything he needed to say in a simple movement. The kitchen was silent except for your lips moving together. You pulled him closer and closer until there was no room for anything between you. 

The kitchen door opened, however, forcing the two of you to pull apart. Thankfully, it was just one of Jungkook’s old high school friends and not Taehyung, but it was definitely a close call. The two of you scarpered out of the kitchen in separate ways and didn’t see each other for the rest of the night. 

It had never occurred to you until the moment you left the party that Jungkook could be harboring some kinds of feelings towards you. And until you saw him that night you had no idea that you could even think differently about him either. There was a slight guilt you were feeling about the whole situation, but it was more over the fact that Taehyung didn’t know about your sudden change of heart. You wondered how he would feel if he found out that his best friend had developed feelings for his younger brother. Though, you also wondered how much further things would have gone had you not been interrupted. 

Life returned pretty much to the way it did before Jungkook joined the army. He moved back in with his family, and you were around their house almost every day. You and Taehyung still saw each other almost daily, but because Jungkook was home, whenever he was free he would often hang out with you. During movie nights, Taehyung had set up camp on the armchair which meant you and Jungkook would have to share the sofa. Most nights the two of you would share a blanket, which allowed you to start messing with Jungkook in different ways. You would put your hand high up on his thigh, or reach over him to grab your drink from the table next to him so your breasts would touch his body. But every time he tried something in return you were quick to shut him down. “You’re my best friend’s brother,” you kept telling him, “we can’t do this.” Despite the fact that you both were growing desperate for each other, you kept playing this game of cat and mouse. At first, Jungkook tried to keep his thoughts pure. Every evening he’d text you asking to take you out on a date, but you’d reject him every single time. It was so wrong of you to act the way you were but you just couldn’t help it. 

Of course, one day Jungkook snapped. 

You had been over to their place for one of your regular movie nights when you let your teasing go too far. Instead of your hand resting on Jungkook’s thigh, you used him as a footrest. Only you made sure your food went a little further than his thigh, and let the balls of your feet rest on his cock. It was a gentle touch, and you’d move every so often so eventually, you felt him get hard underneath you. It was fun to torment him and turn him down at the same time. But you should have known when you left to go to the bathroom, he’d follow you. 

When he heard you were finished washing your hands, he tried the door and entered when he realised you didn’t put the lock on. You ignored his presence, fixing your hair in the mirror but subtly watching him move towards you. He turned and leant up against the bathroom counter, so he could look at you ignoring him. “You think it’s fun, huh?” He asked you. His voice was low and deep, sending rumbles right through your body. “Teasing me like this?”

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

“No? So then what was that whole foot fiasco downstairs?” 

“No idea.” 

“So you’re not pretending you don’t want me?”

You laughed. “Jungkookie, you’re Taehyung’s younger brother. I promise you, I don’t want you like you think I do.” 

Jungkook turned around. “Fine.” He smacked his hip into yours pushing you out the way so he could have the mirror to himself. “You want to pretend, so will I.” 

You scoffed. “You actual shit.” You pushed him back, taking over your spot again. You could hear Jungkook laughing at you. 

His arm came up to your neck and pulled you flush against his back. He heard your breath hitch. His lips came down to your ear and started nibbling on it. His free hand moved to your side and began to playfully tickle you. “Jungkook!” You squealed. 

“Say you’re sorry.” He ordered. “Admit you want me.” 

“No.” The word could barely be formed over your laughter, but you managed to get it out of your mouth eventually. 

“Suit yourself.” He moved his other hand to your side and continued to tickle you. 

“Fine! Fine!” 

“What was that?” 

“I want you! Stop!” 

He did as you asked and pinned you once again to the counter. “Since when?” 

“Since you came home a man.” You told him, caressing his cheek softly.

He smiled his beautiful smile at you, then proceeded to kiss you. You didn’t think you’d ever get used to his kisses, but you loved them nonetheless. When he first kissed you it felt strange, but now it was one of the best feelings. It felt right this time around. 

As it did in the kitchen all those weeks ago, things began to get heated. This time, however, neither of you were particularly worried about being interrupted. Mainly because you forgot you weren’t alone in the house. Jungkook had you up on the counter in no time, legs spread for him so he could slot himself in between them and kiss you comfortably. Your legs were against his small waist enjoying the feeling of his presence. “This isn’t how I wanted it,” Jungkook told you through kisses, “but I need you. Can I have you?” 

“Take me.” 

Jungkook didn’t need to be told twice, nor did he wait a second longer to have you. He pulled your shirt off you immediately and, while kissing you, pulled the cups of your bra down so he had access to your breasts. His kisses trailed from your lips, to your neck, and finally stopped at your nipples. He took one of them in his mouth, sucking it and waiting for your moans to tell him he was doing the right thing before moving on to the second nipple. “God, I love your body.” He told you. “So soft. So beautiful. Let me taste you?” 

Within seconds of getting your permission your jeans and panties were off and his tongue was on your pussy. There was no teasing, though he wanted to after all these weeks. Instead, he just went straight for your clit, sucking on it like he did with your nipples, alternating the strength. He looked up at you from where he was knelt on the bathroom floor, keeping eye contact with you as he ate you like a man starved, appreciating you. Worshipping you with his mouth while he was on his knees for you. He didn’t come up for air, and he didn’t use his fingers. He just kept maneuvering you to where he needed you so he could lick your snatch to your completion. Never once did he leave your clit, even when he pulled his sweatpants and underwear down to free his cock from its confines. Even when he wrapped his slender hand around his cock and started to touch himself, he never once stopped your pleasure. 

“J-Jungkook,” you moaned. “Feels too good. I’m gonna cum.” 

Jungkook groaned in affirmation and all it took was the vibrations from his deep voice to send you over the edge. You grasped onto his hair and pulled it harshly, completely accidentally, as you climaxed on his tongue. Still, Jungkook didn’t stop. He waited for you to push him off of you before he gave up his feast. “Are you okay?” He asked, resting his forehead on yours and waiting for you to regain your breath. 

“Fuck me, where did you learn to do that!?” 

Jungkook laughed. “I’m just a natural, baby girl.” 

“Doesn’t surprise me. Come here.” You pulled him down to you by his neck so you could kiss him some more while you waited for your pussy to recover. But soon enough you felt empty. “Jungkook?” 

“Yeah?” 

“Please fuck me.”

“Are you sure?”

“Please.”

“Condom?” 

“I’m on the pill.” 

“Clean?” 

“Yeah. Never had sex without a condom, you?”

“Same.” 

He added a little bit of spit onto his cock to make sure the slide was comfortable for you before slipping his length inside. The initial stretch was perfect - eyes locked, butterflies in your tummy. Both of you groaned at the feeling of him entering you, and it felt so good for Jungkook he collapsed onto you for a second. “Can I move?” He asked. His voice cracked. “Please tell me I can move.”

“Please, Jungkook.” 

He started off at a slow pace, grabbing your ankle and pulling it up onto his shoulder to give him more room to enter you. With every thrust, he got deeper and deeper, stretching you out to perfection. His pace kept altering, one minute it was soft and loving, then he just pistoned into you like it was the last thing he’d ever do, then he went back to soft. You never knew what was coming with Jungkook. You couldn’t work him out. You didn’t want to. It felt too good having him inside you. 

It turned out that Jungkook wasn’t much of a talker when he was inside you, but he was noisy. Very noisy. His moans rivalled yours in terms of loudness, but he couldn’t help them. Not that you were complaining, of course. He was the loudest man you’d been with and it definitely felt like a compliment. Instead of talking, you could feel his affection for you in every other way: the way he looked at you while he was inside you; how he touched you; how he played with your clit when you told him it felt good. It felt as though he only existed to please you, to make you feel good and his own pleasure was secondary or even irrelevant. He kissed your breasts while he was inside you, your tummy, your neck, your lips. Any uncovered piece of skin he could get his mouth on while he made love to you on the bathroom counter, he would touch. 

Jungkook’s thrusts started to get sporadic though, inconsistent. He pulled out really quickly. “Fuck, I almost came.” He kissed you. “You feel too fucking good.” 

“It’s okay. C-can I move? My ass has gone numb.”

Jungkook laughed and kissed you again. He moved back. “Turn around for me, baby.” 

You did as you were told and bent over the counter, expecting to feel him push back into your pussy. Instead he got back onto his knees and ate you out again, giving him some rest to go on for a bit longer. This time, he used his fingers, hitting your g-spot over and over again, alternating between both his tongue and his hands. The added sensation and constant hit on your sweet spot made you reach your peak quicker than before, yet just as exhausted as the first time. Your legs were shaking, your entire body was weak. You were so thankful you had the counter to lean on otherwise you would have collapsed onto the floor. There was no way you could take another orgasm from him, and you prayed he wouldn’t try. 

Jungkook didn’t let you rest after your orgasm this time. Instead, he got back up to his feet and entered you once more; pounding into you a lot rougher than before. At this point, you couldn’t even make any noise. You were so overwhelmed with the feeling of him inside of you, all you could do was feel him: how thick he was; how much he stretched you; how good he felt. Everything in your mind had been erased save the thoughts of him. That had never happened before. But it wasn’t long until Jungkook began to lose his rhythm again. He couldn’t help himself, he was too wound up at this point. “I need to cum.” He announced. “Where should I cum?” 

“Inside me. Oh my God, Jungkook. Please let me feel you cum inside me. Fuck!” 

Jungkook came not moments later, filling your pussy up with ropes of cum until he was completely spent. He pulled out of you quickly, man on a mission for cleaning you up as best he could. You winced when you felt a damp cloth on you. “I’m sorry.” 

“Don’t apologise after that. Shit. I can’t feel my legs.” 

“I’ll run you a bath.”

“We don’t have time. Tae will probably be wondering where we got to.” 

“I don’t care about him, I’m more concerned about you.” 

You laughed. “I’ll be fine.”

The two of you began getting dressed again, attempting to make yourselves look as presentable as you could after a literal work out in the bathroom. Jungkook broke the silence once more. “Is it too early to tell you that I love you?” 

“Yes.”

“Okay good… because I definitely wasn’t going to.” 

“You can tell me when you’ve taken me out a few times, how does that sound?” 

He grabbed hold of your waist and pulled you into a gentle embrace. “I’ll hold you to that. Come on, let’s go face him.” 

Your stomach churned at the thought of seeing your best friend after you just sinned with his brother. You both crept down the stairs in order to not draw any more suspicion than you had to. It would already seem weird that you two were together as it was. When you walked into the living room, you noticed the television was quiet. It was back on the DVD menu. There, in the armchair, Taehyung slept, curled up into a tiny ball. 

It was safe to say that both of you were incredibly relieved. 

This was a commission requested by dragonLynk on Twitter! Thank you for the commission, Lynk! I hope everyone else enjoyed it too. 

 My commissions are open now, so if you would like me to write something, you're more than welcome to request.

https://ko-fi.com/namjuicyy

[robronanniversarycelebration]

Killjoys

Shamelessly stealing the title from the show. 4.8k of silliness. Spoiler: Robron love each other.

For the stunning, amazing, friendly yet sleepy Mally Mal, @robertisbisexual. I hope you enjoy the pilot episode of Robron IN SPACE!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Aaron’s biggest reward was resting on this moron’s inability to hide away even though he has several planets and moons that would be a better choice than the most populated one. Aaron is thankful though because he can cash in on the warrant because Eureka Maru was getting old and rusty and she was barely functioning. He thought to himself, eyes up, hand to gun, and in the dirty bar overrun with aliens of the lowest walks of the moons. Aaron looked around, he was feeling a bit nervous. No sign of any person of interest. There was loud screaming coming from the people gathered around a cage where some sort of boxing match was happening.

He decided to stay at the back of the crowd watching, waiting for something to happen and for his mark to come in. All of a sudden, the crowd parts and he can see on the other side of the boxing cage and he sees a familiar face. A face staring him right in the eye, like he was sitting there just waiting for the perfect moment to make his presence known in the most dramatic fashion he could conceive. Aaron hated him, his Killjoy nemesis, the one who was always one step ahead of him, one minute earlier than him, Robert. Tall, blonde, as far as Aaron was concerned Robert had sex with half of the planetary system and he was planning to get through the other half. Aaron’s thinking was that the warrant is everything. Nothing else mattered to him and Robert was only an unfortunate obstacle that he would have to get over. At least he knew that his rival was there and he had to get to the target before anyone else.

Robert smiled from across the cage as two men were punching each other, as Aaron stared him right in the eye, then he moved to the right and Aaron followed the same direction of movement when all of a sudden commotion happened and he saw someone running away just as Robert himself started running.

“Tenlio! Stop running!” Aaron yelled as he tried to push drunken people out of his way but he lost visual contact with his target. He tried looking for Robert’s big blonde head but he couldn’t see him either. He decided to still make a run for it in the same direction and as he was pushing through the crowd, he noticed that Robert was grabbed by a group of very strong built nefarious characters. He stopped for a second, and then he thought that nefarious attracts nefarious and followed the same direction.

It led him out of the bar, somewhere in a street with random people. He went in the middle of the street and saw Tenlio running away, so he followed suit yelling after him and pulling out his gun in nonkill mode. As he was running he saw Robert being punched into a small vehicle. Aaron stopped in his tracks and looked. Robert was hunched down, beaten, not looking around him. He was looking dark and scared which for one second made Aaron dark and scared. But he switched focus back on his target because the warrant is everything.

As he was running after Tenlio he felt his feet slow down, his entire body becoming heavier with each step he took, his breath was unwilling to cooperate and his eyes were curious about what was happening in a corner, rather than following Tenlio.

“Goddamn it. GODDAMN IT!” Aaron shouted to himself as he turned around and made a sprint towards where Robert was being shoved into the vehicle.

“I’m regretting this move already”, Aaron said to himself again as he was running in the opposite direction of his warrant. One of the most prolific killjoys in the galaxy and he was leaving his target to runaway. He knew in that second that he will be mocked for it, but truly the reason why he was so competent at what he was doing was because he had Robert as competition.

Robert’s brother had mysteriously disappeared after having been accused of crimes that weren’t ever truly specified. Robert’s father has poured all his energy and money into trying to find his other kid, leaving Robert to live a life of thieves. He mostly raised himself from his teenage years, wandering through bars, picking fights, ending them on the ground. But mostly he listened. He listened to people and then talked to them back with a charm that cannot be matched and he would obtain absolutely any kind of information he wanted. The day he was approved to become a killjoy, Robert solved 3 warrants. He was smart, on his feet and willing to do whatever it took. It kept Aaron on his toes all the time because he was competition. They would often pick the same target, because they wanted to measure against each other.

Many times they have shook hands and decided to work together on catching a target. Many times they have talked over some drinks, or in the same tight spot while doing surveillance, many times Aaron never felt that snakey charm taking over him. Robert never acted like that with Aaron even though he would have multiple reasons to sneak out information from his rival Killjoy. Surely, there have been one conflict or two. A push and shove against a wall. Hot breath against hot breath, brushed fingers against skin by accident.

This is why Aaron couldn’t leave Robert in the hands of those people, whoever they were. Maybe they were enemies, maybe they were the family of someone he’s turned in for a warrant. However, that decision that Aaron has made was that he was about to save his nemesis, just because having a bit of competition made him better at finding people.

Many hours later, he found the place where Robert was kept. The security was laughable at best, all he had to do was immobilize a guard and steal their coat, nothing more, nothing less. He followed the voices that were coming through a dimly lit hallway.

“So, tell us where he is and you can go free, promise”.

“Look, you tell me where that moron is and I’ll finish the job myself”, Robert jabbed back and Aaron decided to follow his voice. He tried to tune in to his breathing from that line, he had hoped he could pick up inflexions in his voice. However all he did manage to pick up was a groan of pain as the sound of knuckles hitting a jaw bone have reverberated through every fibre of Aaron’s muscles. He tensed up again, but he didn’t lose his cool. He had a plan, and he would stick to that plan, besides Robert can take a punch.

“You, Killjoy, tell me that you cannot find your own brother? How do you still have a job?”

“Well, even my skills aren’t good enough to track down someone with his training. What am I going to do? Look through every snake hole in the universe? Besides, he can die for all I care, he’s not my brother”. Aaron believed him, he knew Robert harboured this deep dislike for Andy, who could not ever be wrong. Even as he was suspected of murder, Andy was still loved by their father. Robert was left alone to mend for himself because the family needed Andy to come back. Robert told this to Aaron some months ago over too many beers. Aaron’s heart broke and that’s when he grabbed Robert and hugged him. And he did it back. Aaron knew when Robert was being honest and this was one of those moments. The bad guys, whoever they were, had a different opinion on the truthfulness of their prisoner.

“I have reasons to believe you’re a liar, Sugden. You’ve stole, cheated, lied and slept your way through half of the galaxy. How can I believe the words of a renegade Killjoy?”

“You don’t believe anything then.” Aaron marched in there confident. “I’ll take it from here. Would you rather leave or stand back and watch as I make this one talk?”

Aaron didn’t plan further than impersonating a guard. He looked around panicked because he had no idea where to move from this point on, and he could clearly see some relief in Robert’s eyes and at the same time he could see a little bit of anger. Aaron then spotted next to Robert a case of torturing instruments. He moved towards that direction while rolling his sleeves up.

“Well, I reckon words will flow out of your mouth easier if it weren’t for all those teeth acting as a barrier..” Aaron said to Robert while gesturing desperately from his eyebrows. Robert’s expression has turned to full annoyance

“Sure, because that’s how speaking works”.

Aaron didn’t understand what was happening to Robert and he took a second more before pulling out his gun, not set on kill mind, and emptying the room.

“What have you done, you idiot!” Robert yelled from his tiny little chair. He was beaten, bruised, bloodied and even though, it was quite clear that the anger he was spitting out was directed at him, Aaron was fantasizing about dressing his wounds.

“I was working, this moron was giving me everything.”

“He was giving you everything he had in his knuckles, yes. I have noticed and yes, you’re welcome Robert. Now sit still so that I can untie you.”

“I don’t want to be untied, I want that dude awake because I know he knows my brother’s last whereabouts.”

“You know what? Fine.” Aaron dropped the knife he was cutting the rope around Robert’s hands and turned his back and walked away.

“Wait!!! Don’t leave me here!”

Aaron kept walking.

“Fine!! Ok, i’m sorry, I should have had a go at you. Please untie me?”

Aaron stopped, turned around and picked up the knife from the floor. Although he wasn’t looking at Robert he knew that the jerk was smirking. He could feel that smug smirk, Aaron swore that the temperature in any room would go up two degrees whenever Robert does that.

“That’s a phrase I’ve never said before. It’s usually the reverse” Robert said to Aaron as he leaned towards him. Aaron felt it, and moved back up. “Come on, we don’t have a lot of time. Where’s your ship?”

“My what?”

“Your ship? The thing you travelled here on?”

“Oh”, Robert rubbed the back of his head while looking at Aaon and smiling cheekily. “I don’t have a ship anymore. I came to this godforsaken moon with someone. Uhm.. he was kind enough to drop me off on here while he.. Uhm… carried out his journey to another moon. Actually, I was kind of hoping to find you here working this warrant. It’s the only reason I took it. I knew I was being followed, and I knew that you would be here in case I needed help. So I decided to take the same warrant as you, hitch a ride here, and then keep you close enough so we could… do this.”

Aaron couldn’t believe what he just heard. He was manipulated in the worst way possible, not only did Robert know exaclty what he was going to do, he also assumed that he would care enough to go on a dumb rescue mission and neglect the warrant. He was frustrated, angry, hateful and impressed at the same time, but he didn’t want to let Robert know he felt anything, so he kept his cool front and replied with “OK, loverboy, let’s get that warrant. Regardless of your plans, it’s not a good look on either of us to allow a target escape like that.

Robert showed one of his few genuine smiles, filled with sincere joy. He sprung up from the chair where he was held hostage and he felt his bones hurt and let out an involuntary “ow!”. Aaron made a joke about him getting too old for this business and Robert poked his side triggering the lesser known and very well hidden, Aaron’s ticklish side.

As they were chuckling and crossing the hall together more footsteps echoed. Robert put a hand on Aaron’s chest and told him to stay back, putting his much taller, leaner, wider body in front of Aaron as if he was being shielded by this offensively good looking man.

“Wait what?” Aaron shook himself awake.

“I said wait here, behind me. They’re gone now, we can leave this place” Robert replied and Aaron thanked all the moons that he managed to avoid that awkward moment. He entertained for a second the idea that Robert could have a different interest in him rather than just some good old competition. He smiled and he shook his head at himself.

“Move faster, Sugden, we don’t have all day to drag your old bones through dodgy hallways.”

Robert smiled at him again, and Aaron swore that the hallway was all of a sudden brighter. And it actually was, because they were outside where this flickering street light was trying to do its best at a corner of an empty street.

“Right, so where’s Eureka Maru?! Let’s go!” Robert started pacing across the street and Aaron stood there until Robert realized he wasn’t followed.

“Erm.. it’s.. Resting. She’s broken and I can’t fix her because she needs this part, that is kind of hard to get so.. I.. I don’t have one, no.”

Robert stood under the flickering light and if one were to choose to see the humour in this situation would be that the flickering light was nothing but a metaphor of Robert’s mind trying to work out the information that they have no means of escape from the compound of these people who they have royally pissed off and who were most likely to come after both of them, to kill them in a few minutes.

“OK, OK, it’s alright, I can fix this” Robert started muttering while walking into circles like a scared animal.

“I know a solution. Mine’s 2hr walk from here, where’s yours?”

“Back, but In the basement.”

They were walking through complete and utter darkness. Aaron couldn’t see an inch in front of him.

“Aaron, I know I usually follow you because warrants and stuff, but please know that this will be the last time I follow you anywhere.”

“Shut up and stop complaining. We need to get out of here. We need a ship, their ship is in here, we’re stealing” Aaron said in a firm tone of voice as he moved his hand around until he found Robert’s.

“Hold on tight. We’re getting out of here” and he held Robert’s hand as tight as he could, with a force that could not be broken by the strongest winds. And Robert squeezed back. They’ve put their confidence of survival into each other. Aaron, the one who was always supposedly one step behind was leading Robert to freedom. Robert, the control freak, the one who needed to have all the cards dealt before he could make a move, he let himself guided by this yelly and grumpy Killjoy.

In the hangar where the ship was parked light came back to them and they stood and watched it. Hand in hand until Aaron got excited and sprinted to the ship. He looked back at a frozen in place Robert who had this warm expression on his face. Aaron marched to the ship and he heard Robert’s footsteps behind him.

They climbed in the ship, Aaron made it start immediately under Robert’s admiring eyes.

“Are you ready to do this?” Aaron asked even though he knew the answer.

“Yeah.” Robert replied softly.

And off they went. Aaron was hoping he would be able to put the ship outside of the atmosphere and outside of the defense sensors. In spite of all the story start to finish, he was having a good day.

“So, are we going to chase Tenlio, or… do you have someplace you might want to check out” Aaron tried to make a suggestion to Robert.

“Tenlio is too stupid to be the one warrant that should claim that they’ve escaped the Sugden - Dingle duo. So after him we go.” Aaron tried to say something, but Robert cut him off “I know what you’re about to say, and no, I don’t want to, and yes I am sure. I don’t know where he is. So we keep ahead of course.”

“Alright. Our job it is then.” Aaron looked at Robert with a softness in his eyes that he didn’t know he had. Robert had this deep stare. Fixed and intense. Determined. “What’s happening?”

“Nothing” Robert shook his head and got up from the seat near the left side panel of controls of this ship. “Do you know the name of this ship?”

“No. Why would I? What does it matter, it’s just a loan”

“Do you really want to go back to that moon?”

“Of course not, but I know these things are worth a lot in scrap value. Spare parts are a good commodity to negotiate with around these moons.” Aaron replied but he wasn’t really in the mood for this conversation.

“Yeah, well, you shouldn’t negotiate with idiots”

“Oh that is long done and dusted since I’ve met you”

“When did you meet me? Where did you see me for the first time?”

Robert started leaning his tall body against the wall that would lead to the sleeping rooms downstairs.

Aaron didn’t even have to think about that moment. He remembered that day as if it were yesterday, the memory of seeing Robert for the first time would be etched into his eyelids forever. He was just getting his badge from the receptionist at the RAC and he was making googly eyes at everything that was moving. They locked eyes for a nanosecond and Aaron’s felt that deep burn inside of him since then. He needed to know things about Robert since then.

How does he go about his day, how long does he sleep, what does he eat, where does he come from.

When he used his RAC accredited search prowess, Aaron couldn’t find any information on Robert. There were loads of stuff about his family, his hero brother, his hero father, his beloved and late mother. But nothing about Robert specifically as a person. Just some silly paperwork, but it was as if he had nothing special about him, as if he had only existed inside his little norms. On paper, Robert was unremarkable. In person, Robert was a volcano.

“I know how I met you”. I was drinking at the bar on the furthest moon and you walked in, waved your credentials and gun and caught this guy and you got money. I wanted to be like you. Walk in anywhere, free of the stigma, free of the family name. So i went and gave it up when I signed on. I had hoped that we could become partners but then I learnt that the majority of the Killjoys were going about it alone. But I didn’t want to do that, so I had to find you.”

Aaron froze on the spot as Robert was being more honest than ever with his words, his voice changed, his entire body language was trying to be silenced by the brain. “Well, you should have said something”.

“I’m saying it now.” And Robert just moved in and he grabbed his face and he kissed Aaron so hard that Aaron almost melted in a puddle at Robert’s feet. But he caught up fast as the shock of the first two seconds had washed off and he started pulling at Robert’s jacket. Robert started pulling at his hoodie’s zipper and immediately jammed his hands underneath Aaron’s tshirt. Aaron felt his hands like something his skin didn’t know it needed. Aaron felt Robert’s touch with every second passing the more intense, the more sure, like his hands were made to touch him.

His tshirt flies away and a hand is taken away from his skin, only to be met with his belt buckle as it was dragging it downstairs towards the sleeping chambers.

They stumbled on each other, Robert’s head got stuck in his shirt, Aaron has hit his elbow as he was trying to shove off his trousers. They were clumsy but they were doing it together. Each second when Aaron didn’t have Robert’s lips and tongue on his, those were wasted seconds. If only he could have accepted to himself earlier that the reason why he was so infatuated with Robert and his loud and obnoxious stories was because he thought that he was painfully unavailable. Robert on the other hand was just trying to be obviously available. They only needed the better part of a year, light kidnapping and theft of a spaceship in order to give in to the attraction.

That hunger they both felt as they were undressing and the state of contempt and calm Aaron was experiencing in the moments when Robert was in between his legs. No one else has fit that way, no one else has felt that way and no one else has touched him that way. He needed it so bad, he grabbed Robert’s shoulders and dug his fingers into his skin, receiving an approving moan back from Robert.

Neither of them realize how long it has been, or what was happening on the screens because they have been intelligent enough to disable the ship’s AI.

As they sat in bed super satisfied, peaceful and calm, Robert was holding Aaron who was facing the opposite way. Every inch of his skin was covered by every inch of Robert’s skin. They were tangled with legs, arms, fingers and purpose.

“You know, I heard that Killjoys that are couples have a better success rate in closing warrants”.

“Did ya really?” Laughter came out with that reply from Aaron’s mouth. Truth is he was feeling happy. He didn’t quite understand why this feeling was so closely tied to Robert. He’s had a plethora of men suitors, but none of them has ever felt like Robert did then.

He was laying on his side, fingers tangled with Robert’s. He was peaceful and he closed his eyes and fell asleep against an already sleeping Robert.

Nothing to wake him up like a good healthy jog of the ship. Robert however was having none of that and he looked just as calm and perfectly asleep as before.

“Robert, wake up!” Aaron shook him with his entire body, and he jolted a bit.

“Yeah I’m awake, what happened where’s the rush?” Robert attempted to make an effort as he was clearly only half conscious.

“We’re being boarded you idiot, quick, wake up, please wake up and grab your gun”

“We’re being wh.. OH!” and that was the exact moment when Robert’s brain decided to produce some cooperation. They both simultaneously jump from the bed and look for their guns in the pile of clothes on the floor and Aaron can’t find his. “Well, where did you put it?!!” Robert looked at him with giant panicking eyes.

“Well, I don’t know Robert, I was so careful and meticulous with how I undressed before my slumber last night.” Aaron mocked him and he saw that Robert enjoyed it.

“Dingle, you’re meticulous alright but in other areas of activities” and Aaron felt Robert’s eyes on his body, measuring him up and down. Too bad this flirting was rudely interrupted by the door of the chambers being knocked down, Aaron jumped behind Robert’s back as Robert began to fire his gun and then lunge very naked at the people trying to fight them.

As Robert was trying to keep them at a distance, two other men came storming in and Aaron went on hand-to-hand combat in which he had a slight disadvantage with him being naked and all. Robert paused for a second to admire Aaron’s naked fighting skills.

By some miracle they manage escaping the first wave of attackers. Without thinking twice or even showing a remote to stop to get dressed even a little bit, they advanced in the halls. The ship’s emergency systems weren’t activated either which was an inconvenience, but at least they can put this chapter to the lessons learnt section.

“I hope some other dude comes at you trying to best you in combat. I like to see you fighting” Robert told Aaron and he rolled his eyes in reply. They kept advancing along the halls of the ship, in complete silence. Aaron’s focus isn’t fully on their escape from the stolen ship. He likes to occasionally take a glance at Robert, and once he caught Robert doing the same thing.

“OK, this is serious now. We have to focus and decide how we’re gonna get out of this mess” Aaron tells Robert.

“Well, finding something to wear is high on my list. And I think we can take on these guys. How many can they be? 10-15? We just took out 4 of them with barely any problems. We’ll be fine, Aaron, trust me” Robert said before he gave Aaron a quick kiss on the top of his head and also before a voice came from behind.

“Well, I’ve seen a lot more things than I was planning on seeing today, so let’s cut this short, shall we? You tell me where the other Sugden brother is and then I will kill you quickly, I promise no pain. Never had any complaints so far, so you can trust me.”

It was the same man that was interrogating Robert when Aaron came in and fooled him into taking a step back. They turned around and were facing him.

“I don’t know where he is, and I am not interested in finding him. The further away he is from me, the better. And for the record, he’s not my brother, so you can stop using that word.” Robert spat back. Aaron knew that this attitude would get them in trouble, and he tried to motion with his head and eyes that he should probably stop being like that, considering their present circumstances.

“Right, sure. I believe you. And to show you a token of my belief you will have the privilege of coming with me.” he turned around and gestured to his goons to take them away as well. However, when one of them tried to grab Aaron’s arm, he started fighting back, disarmed the guard and immobilised 4 of them in a few seconds. Before Robert could understand what was happening, Aaron had his gun pointed towards the interrogation man.

“Yeah, I don’t fancy going back to that moon, ta.” and he shot him, neutralising but not killing him. “Alright, so I think these were all. I think they need sending back home, don’t you?”

Robert was standing there stunned, in full admiration and disbelief that Aaron would do anything for him.

“Yeah, let’s send these suckers back to where they came from.” and they started dragging their currently neutralised bodies back to their ship. While Robert was carrying out the last few, Aaron rigged the autopilot to send them to the furthest moon in the Quad system.

“There. Gone.” Aaron said as they watched the small ship pulling away and flying off into the dark void. Robert turned around, crooked smile on his face, and kissed him. Hard and decidedly. “You know, we did all this while naked and basically unarmed. Imagine what we can do when we are armed and clothed.”

“Well, I don’t plan on putting on clothes anytime soon.” Aaron got up and took Robert’s hand into his, leading him back to their chambers. He didn’t look back, he knew Robert would follow with that dumb look on his face, but unexpectedly he felt Robert stop. “What’s wrong?” Aaron turned around to find Robert staring wide eyed and basically frozen at a piece of paper on the ship’s floor. Aaron examined the paper closely, and he saw that it was from an old book. He hasn’t seen one of those in a long time, and next to it, there were some words scribbled by hand. Aaron never learned how to read old human handwriting and he asked Robert what was it.

“That’s 1984. That’s…” he took a small breath and paused a little before finishing what he had to say. “That’s my mother Sarah’s favourite book. She was reading this for the millionth time right before she died. I think this is a message from Andy, to me. This is why they thought that I knew where he was!”

Aaron was stunned and kneeled on the floor next to Robert whose hands were trembling as he was holding onto that piece of paper. Then he looked up at Aaron, eyes shining and shallow and quick breaths. “Will you.. Help me?” he asked as his hand reached for Aaron’s arm.

“ ‘course I will. We’ll do this, together. We’ll find Andy.”

[vitiatasxinficit]

Extraction

Sebastian sat back, cross legged, rolling his apple between nimble fingers. One would think that being on a ‘permanent vacation’ on a beach in Seychelles (with a name he couldn’t even pronounce), that there would be more margaritas and less violence. 

Then again he wasn’t a mercenary for the tropical trees and sweet fruits. 

The Winchester’s stood off to his right. One of the deadliest duos when it came to the hunting game, next to him. Sam and Dean Winchester had done quite alot of hunting in their time and had perfected it. But what they’re best at is disappearing. They could do it anywhere. Everywhere. Off the grid within a moments notice. They were professional ghosts. Behind him stood a man simply known as Gabriel. A lively man with a sweet tooth. Dripped charisma every second of every day. A professional liar, Gabriel could honestly talk his way into the White House if he wanted to (and he has). A master of deception Gabriel could take less than 6 hours and give anyone a new life complete with every document known to man. You could go from a sixth grade school teacher to a French Ambassador in less than a day, no questions asked.  To his right stood a familiar face. Ciel Phantomhive was a man native to London. He’d come into the business having impeccable knowledge of the underground. The drug rings, the software. His brain was a hard drive of rare and damn near unobtainable knowledge. He knew his way around a set of knives and a computer almost better than himself. To Ciel’s left was his wife. Odd to think you’d bring your spouse into this line of work but Elizabeth Middleford was perhaps one of the most dangerous female mercenaries alive, next to the owner of the voice that crackled to life over the speakers in the abandoned warehouse.

       “Good evening Gentlemen. Lovely day isn’t it?” The voice was honey smooth, laced with charm. Not a woman of his liking but a voice that brought a smile to his lips. 

       “Hey Vee,” he called to his sister, sitting up. The screen in front of him crackled to life, a map of the United States now visible. “What do we got?” 

His sister was not in the life before him. In fact she’d come into the business if only to protect her older brother. Sebastian was legendary at what he did but growing up together as close as they were, no one could handle Sebastian better than his own sister. 

And so she put down the stethoscope and took off her scrubs and switched them out for combat boots and a Barrett M82 sniper rifle. 

       “Don’t get to looking so excited. We’ve got an extraction. Pay out? $50 million dollars.” 

The room fell still. If there’s one thing they learned in the business was that the higher the payday didn’t mean the harder the job, but the more liable that they’d get double crossed. 

The screen flickered again, displaying a picture of a beautiful man. Messy black hair. Blue eyes. Thick dark lashes wearing a simple suit with a tan trenchcoat. It zoomed out, it was a photo taken of him crossing the street in gleeful chatter with a red headed woman. 

     “Meet Castiel Novak. Resident of Queens New York. Graduated Valedictorian from highschool.  Summa cum laude from Yale Law School. Currently on his way to partner position Shurley and Associates law firm. He’s worked his way into the highest court in the land. This man is a master in the court room. He’s put away drug lords, rapists, serial killers, you name it? He’s booked it. A real hero without the cape type you know? Type you only read about in the books or see in the movies.” 

Sebastian could feel his stomach dropping. They always did when they did a briefing. Sometimes it’s a diplomats son. Once it was to pick up and return the President’s daughter from a frat party and drop her off into her disappointed parents arms on the front lawn of the White House. 

But these types of things? There was always something else.

       “Who’d he put away?” 

      “Mexican drug cartel leader, Javier Cortez.” 

       “What’s he in Brazil?” 

Sebastian’s head turned and looked at Ciel who was now hunched over his tablet. “Why would he be in New York?” 

       “He was passing,” his sister’s voice said. “Passing off packages.” 

       “That makes sense. But that’s bad, especially if he’s trafficking that pure cocaine crap into the New York pipeline of people. Christ, imagine if they get their hands on that, what type of mess that’ll make.” 

     “It’s not just cocaine.” There’s a beat of silence. “He was passing off humans too. he struck a deal with the Black Dahlia group.”

Sebastian bristled, sitting up. “And that man there, caught him?” 

     “Court barely had to decide. The case was air tight. Put him away for life. But that was just Javier. The rest of his gang never booked any flights out of the US. I’ve been in touch with every carrier in and out of the New York border, both legal and illegal. None of them show up on the passenger manifests.”

      “They’re still there, huh?” Gabriel mused, popping his cherry sucker out of his mouth.

       “They’re gonna take him,” Sam Winchester spoke up, a frown settled deep in his face but his brother’s face looked darker. “Nah, they already took ‘im, didn’t they?” 

       “Indeed. Castiel was taken from his home at 0235 this morning.” 

       “So now I have to ask,” Sebastian spoke, “Who the hell is paying the 50 million for his extraction.” 

       “He goes by Morningstar. That’s all. Drop point will be off the dock in New Rochelle. Port number 9. He’s sent the initial 10 million to engage our services. The 20 million upon proof of life. Then the last 20 million upon the drop. Interception will occur here--” 

The screen before them seemed to travel through the streets until the face of a small cafe came into view. 

       “Silk Road Cafe. They’re exchanging the package to move him out of state. They want him in Central America guys where they plan to publically execute him. He changes hands every 48 hours so no one group knows where he is at any given moment. Right now? You have 40 until he’s swapped and we might lose him. 8 hours after that before he’s most likely dead, understood? Let’s make this nice and neat and no lose ends. You hear me Gabriel?” 

      “What? I liked that little blonde haired girl. She was reallly nice to me--”

     “And that’s why you shot her point blank range in the piazza and Vinice?” 

Gabriel grimaced. “Well you know....I didn’t know she was the one who put out the hit on you.”

Vittoria’s disapproving ‘mmmhmm’ made them all chuckle.

       “You guys listen up. I’m your eyes and ears on this one. This is one hell of a payday but we have to play it smart. And be careful. Get airborn. I’ll check in with you guys when you touch down in New York. Eagle signing off.” 

     “So,” Dean spoke up, “Who’s ready to save the day?” 

Sebastian leaned forward, the screen of the display in front of him flickering back to the photo of their package. Castiel Novak. Sebastian stared, memorizing his face, the crinkle in his eyes while he smiled. Just looked at him. 

       “Let’s do this.” 

[pandemicthestory]

13: ghosted

Emma wanders down a busy virtual street, barely able to keep her jaw from hitting the digital concrete.

She had been expecting a video game, something with pixels and glitches, but what was in front of her seems so much more real. It's almost disturbing.

Skyscrapers are tall, as she has known them to be in the real world. But here, they are round, and they aren’t perfectly straight--they are shaped like an off-balance layer cake. And the lights shine so much brighter. Holographic advertisements cover surfaces. Except, she notices that they’re not for Chipotle or cars, they’re news spots. 

“The death toll in the state of California rises to 12,000, a 200% spike since last week” 

She sees that holograms are delivering news from the real world. 

A car zooms way too close to her, and she jumps back--shaken from her stupor. Well, it looked like a car. However, it has no wheels. Emma smirks to herself at how Madison would react: “I’m already aware that the Camaro is a piece of shit, I don’t need these turbo spaceships to rub it in my face even more.”

Emma marvels at the size of the city and the people around her. Some of them are talking on devices like the one she was handed on the beach--though instead of holding it to their ears like cell phones, it’s at more of a distance from their faces and projecting holographic video. Some people are walking in groups, conversing in a very familiar way. Some people are staring straight ahead, alone, like Emma.

Where is Isabel in all of this? And where to even start looking?

Emma thinks to herself, if she has one of these devices, her sister must have one too. There’s gotta be a way to track her.

“Thanks for nothing, Mason.” Emma mutters to herself, trying to figure out the odd contraption in front of her. She went from being intrigued by this guy, to fascinated, to absolutely fucking pissed. After she finds her sister, she’s gonna find him too. And get some answers.

Emma sits down on a bench on the side of the road, reviewing her device. While very high-tech, it’s surprisingly straightforward. She finds an option to search for other players, typing “Isabel Bradford.” 

While exact coordinates aren’t provided, a green dot appears on a map of the city.

* * * 

Night sits at his desk, staring at his computer screen in front of him.

He’s trying to repress the feelings of guilt that are buried in the back of his mind. Sugar will be fine. He probably left right after Night did. And anyway, Night wouldn’t have left him if it wasn’t important. He’d be having a grand time cutting class even if he was in jail. Night keeps telling himself this.   

Night seems to be playing Universe without wearing a headset, merely with a 2-dimensional view of the game. This version looks older and simpler than the version that Isabel and Emma are playing on--most likely the original from the 80s. 

Night stares at a map in the game and sees the red dot representing Emma lingering not far from the beach. 

*ping*

He keeps forgetting to turn off external notifications, ugh. Oh. He’s just received an email from his teacher, and the beginning of the message is shown in the notification…

“Hello Night, checking in on your absence…” 

Teacher would be surprised that he wasn’t there. It’s not like him to miss class, or really to do anything unruly or “wrong.” Night is expected to come and go quietly, to be somewhat odd, but overall non-disruptive. Like a ghost. 

At some point, he couldn’t remember when exactly, his education had become arbitrary. He saw what was going on...building was all that mattered. All classes had been shifting their focus and slowly morphing into one industry. If you can’t code, you’ll get left behind. If you can’t contribute in one specific way, you’re disposable.

At the beginning of this school year, it had been announced that graduation from the Academy would be pushed forward one year. The board gave the reason that young people were spending too much time sitting in classrooms, gaining information they had no need for, when they could have the opportunity to “get started in life.” 

Some saw this as exciting, but Night knew what it really meant. There were whispers. This change was not for the benefit of the students. It was not so students could be free, it was so they could be put to work. 

Well, Night has no intention of falling in line with the others who mindlessly build. He craves other knowledge, other opportunities. And he believes that the right person can help him achieve this. Her. It’s time for a disruption. 

Night sees the red Emma dot begin to move on screen. She’s walking through the streets now, heading towards the school.

The blinking dot with his name on it stalls in place. He settles into his chair for the search. 

He’ll just have to meet her there.

* * *  

In Zoe’s bedroom, Julian sits in a chair on the opposite side of the room from her bed, where she and Gabriel are sitting. They are at least 6 feet apart, properly socially-distanced. 

Julian’s wearing a bandana that’s covering most of his face. Which is great for Zoe, who kinda despises the sight of it.

“She’s not answering any of my calls or texts. I want to know what’s going on.” Julian says to them, with his trademark entitled tone. 

“Well, there’s a reason for that…” Gabriel starts. But Zoe hushes him. 

“Gabe, we’re not telling him anything. Not unless it’s necessary to protect Emma, which it sounds like it isn’t. Julian, ever considered that she’s ignoring you because you cheated on her, broke her heart, and are generally kind of a scumbag?” Zoe’s temper is rising. 

Julian doesn’t like this. He laughs condescendingly. 

“What the hell is so funny? Wait why haven’t I kicked you out yet?”

“You think Emma’s hiding from me? You don’t know anything about what she’s hiding. Hate to break it to you, but you don’t know her like I do.” 

Zoe’s about to respond, but hesitates. This dude IS a pathological liar, but, why does he sound so convincing…

“You’re lying. As per usual.” Zoe’s smart, she knows that the best way to get a manipulator to spill his guts is through manipulation. She rolls her eyes, for effect. 

“Tell me what’s going on, or you’ll regret it.” 

“You don’t know shit, Julian. We don’t negotiate with terrorists. There’s the door. Buh-bye.”

Julian stands up out of rage. Right on cue. 

“Did she tell you where she’s going next week?” Julian spits out. Bingo. 

“Um, yes, obviously.” Zoe’s lying now, but her genuine curiosity is making it difficult. Meanwhile, Gabriel lies down on the bed and rests his head on a pillow--withdrawing from the conflict. 

“Yeah fucking right. And you know how I know you’re full of shit?” 

“Please, enlighten me.” 

“Because if you’re as good of a friend as you pretend to be, you would have tried to stop her by now. But you haven’t. And I don’t think it’s because you’re not some fucking psycho weird sisterhood obsessed, I think it’s because Emma didn’t trust you enough to tell you that she’s going to start a new life. With me. And far from you.” 

Zoe sits, stunned. Julian is a bona fide liar, so why was she even dignifying this with an iota of her energy? He’s the one who’s full of shit. Obviously. 

Unless. Well, there is that constant curiosity that lives quietly in the back of her mind. Emma had grown a bit different over the past few months. The four best friends knew everything about each other, to perhaps a sickening degree, but yet...there were so many hours of Emma’s time that weren’t accounted for. Not that she isn’t entitled to those hours. But Zoe does wonder. 

“I...um…” Zoe starts.

“She’s leaving. And if you think you have any chance of talking her out of it, you better help me find her. Otherwise, you might just never see her again.” 

“Her phone is broken. That’s why you haven’t heard from her.” Gabriel says softly. 

They both turn to look at him. 

“How do you know that?” Zoe asks.

He takes a few deep breaths. “Because I was with her when it happened. We broke into Best Buy because she needed gear...it was to help her sister somehow...Madison was there, she knows more than I do…” 

And that’s all he has to say. Julian has heard enough to head to his next destination. He briskly walks towards the door. 

“Hold on a second, what happened to working together?” Zoe asks. 

Julian sighs a fake sigh. 

“I think what’s best for Emma will be to have as clean a break as possible.” 

He leaves and shuts the door behind him. Zoe groans out loud, furious. How could she have listened to this monster??

But then again, there’s a part of her that needs to know if what he’s saying is true. She has so many questions… Why would Emma want to leave? Why couldn’t she be honest with her best friends? What happened to Isabel? And where is Emma now?

Zoe lies down next to Gabriel and wraps her arms around him. She thinks to herself about how there were so many bad guys out there, and she had somehow scored one of the few good ones. She feels blessed yet torn apart. 

“Zo, I feel like hell.” he says. 

Zoe realizes the heat of his body, and puts a hand to his forehead. Burning up. 

She can’t let her mind go there. 

“Don’t think about it Gabe. You haven’t seen anyone except me. Okay and Emma and Madison for five minutes, but you were totally safe, weren’t you?” she asks, starting to panic. 

He doesn’t respond. 

“Gabe?”

“Well yeah, the only thing I can think of is…Madison wasn’t wearing a mask.” 

* * * 

Emma keeps walking. The Isabel Bradford dot is getting closer and closer. 

She’s in such a state of disbelief that it will take a lot to shock her even further at this point. 

What will she say to her sister when she sees her? Hi, what the hell is going on? Why is your limp body chilling in our house? What are you doing here?

Isabel has been acting so weird lately. But then again, her family probably thinks the same about her. They’re probably wondering why this emo introvert is even more emo and introverted than usual. Or maybe they aren’t wondering at all. And it’s the lack of wondering that has driven her to run away with someone who may or may not love her.

Where is Julian now? The eternal question. Although one that has plagued her a bit less over the past couple of days. It’s legitimately insane how much has happened in that time. 

And what of Mason? 

Her blood began to boil. Emma has been massively fucked over by a guy before, and she feels that it’s unacceptable for this to become a pattern. Julian cheating and lying and manipulating...ok she can chock that up to a learning experience. Right? Ehhh. But if two guys play her in a row, well than she’s a bigger fool than she could have ever imagined. And she deserves what happens to her.

For a moment, Emma marvels at the fact that somewhere, she is in a closet on a pile of laundry. She can feel no trace of that reality, only absorb every hyper-realistic facet of what’s around her. She continues on these roads that only exist on a hard drive but feel solid under feet.  

Once Emma finds Isabel, who probably knows her way around this game, she’s going to force her to help her find Mason. Like a, “I saved your life, now you owe me one” type of situation. Hopefully Isabel will see it that way.

And soon, she’ll be able to ask her. 

According to the map on her device, she has arrived at the school. 

It’s quite tall--taller than any school she’s ever seen before. It looks more like the other buildings around it than a place where young people would typically go to learn. But this is a game, so, she’ll roll with it. 

But how to get inside..? Like is there even a door? Where’s the front? Hm. 

Emma rounds a corner, and realizes that this is definitely the front.  

Glassy, a giant arch over massive front doors, seemingly thousands of quotations inscribed on the reflective material. It’s somehow modern yet historic. It’s incredible, and Emma is utterly entranced.

“Emma?” 

Emma has a near heart attack. She is abruptly pulled from her stupor by a voice behind her, a smooth voice that says her name like it’s familiar. 

She turns around to see a boy around her age. Dark hair, slim, ghostly.

[dasolution-ns]

Lyin’ Witches - Chapter 1

A Pretty Little Liars Slam Fic by Da Solution

Summer, 2019, Paris, France.

In the middle of a busy Parisian street lies a dollhouse store owned by an American named Mona. To the French people, she’s nothing more than a typical arrogant American, and those croissant-eating bastards would be right for once, but little did they know that Mona has a sordid past. However, this should not be surprising since the French does know little about anything. It’s 1000 (military time) and the shop just got opened when one of my crew from Team Solution came to the store. His name was Hervy. He’s rather new to our team and he was from Haiti and can speak French, so he’s perfect for the job.

Now why I wasn’t there? Well, let’s just say me and France have a very long history, and that I’m #1 on their Most Wanted list since 2002, when I tried to nuke the entire country. I’ve been responsible for over 1,0000 crimes over there, including robbery, arson, and hate crimes. Yeah, they REALLY hate me there, but the feeling is mutual. I MOTHER FUCKING HATE FRANCE! That’s the one country I want to wipe off the face of the Earth. Paris, Marseilles, Lyon, Nice, Toulouse, Annancy; all gone!

When he got in the shop, he looked around a while, pretending to be a customer. Nothing really happened until Mona came up to him.

“Comment puis-je vous aider? (How Can I help you?)”

“Actually, I don’t need your help, but I got something to show you.” He replied back in English, knowing her French is still not up there, despite what others believe.

“Really? What is it?”

Hervy pulled out his cell and showed a SnapApp video of a man… Me.

From what I saw on my screen, Mona eye’s bulged in surprise and fear, as she screamed out, “Oh my God, it’s him!”

“Of course bitch, who do you think it was? Janelle Monae? Hell no, I killed that bi-slut bitch already.”

“What?” She was surprised to hear that. “You know the Community won’t like that. They’re still upset over what you did to Afrika Baambaata, although personally I think he deserved to be killed.” At least we agree on that. Afrika Baambaata was nothing more than a has-been pedo-fag and should have been dead a long time ago.

“I don’t give a fuck about the Community anymore. The Community is not what it used to be. It’s been taken over by those LGBTQABCXYZ deviants.” I paused for a bit so I can catch a breath, know how would up I got for talking about the Community. “Anyways, enough talking about those people, or should I say those PATHETIC people. I’m here to talk about you and me.”

“Hold on for a moment.” She said.

“Hey, what are you doing?” Hervy asked as he was still holding the cell. She didn’t say anything as she quickly switched the sign to “Ferme”, French for “Closed” and locked the door. Smart woman.

“Okay, let’s continue.” She said as she was trying to act calm and cool, but I can still see some nervousness in her eyes. “What is there to talk about?”

I can’t believe she would say that. The bitch must have bumped her head or something. “Quite a bit, bitch. You remember the deal we made while you were at Ridley?”

“Yeah, and I did that. I killed Charlotte, that’s what you wanted, right?”

“Half-right, you stupid-ass ho! You were supposed to do more than kill that transmutant Charles. There was one other person you were supposed to kill besides Charlotte. Remember?”

She finally removed that false bravado of hers and looked down on the groud.  

“Yeah, Alison…” She meekly moped.

“Correct, whore! She was part of deal in order to get your stank-ass out of Ridley. But you negate on it.” She didn’t say anything, because she knew I was right. “Instead, you helped them in capturing A.D. Why the sudden change of heart? You even once had an anti-Alison crew.”

“That’s because Alison helped me out once, even though she had every right not to. Since then, me and Alison has been good friends, and she deserves to be happy with Emily, you homophobic, biphobic, transphobic bigot!” She screamed. Her insults had no effect on me. I’ve heard them all already. “Besides, what are you going to do to me? You’re in North Korea. Is that why you brought this dude here, to kill me? If he does, then my boyfriend will kill him.”

I smiled at her and said, “See that’s where you’re wrong. I am not in North Korea, at all. I am not a 1,000 kilometres away. I’m am not a few cities away.” I was saying this as I walked halfway around the room, with my back still facing the wall. “I am not even a 100 metres away. The truth is Mona,” I said following a pause. “I am right under your nose.” I ended. That’s right, I was in the basement the entire time, and the stupid bitch didn’t even know it.

I turned on the light and there was a frightened Mary and Alex Drake behind me in the other room, seen through a huge glass window. The shock was overwhelming on her face. She quickly ran down to the steps, only to be unaware of the fact that I was hiding right next to the steps. As soon as she got down to the ground, I immediately grabbed her and threw her on top of the table, knocking over the dollhouse on top of it in the process. She hit her head on the wall and crumbled down to the floor.

I grabbed her by the throat and pinned her against the wall. Her feet might have been like ten centimetres from the floor.

“You thought that by moving to France, you would be able to avoid me, right?” She didn’t say anything as tears rolled down her eyes. “Well, you’re wrong, bitch! The reason why I don’t come to France very often is not because of their security and law enforcement. It’s because I can’t stand being in this shitty-ass fuckhole country.”

First thing I did is to slam her head against the glass, pressing it hard. She tried to scream but she couldn’t. However, Mary and Alex were screaming loud! Then I punched her in the ribs, and followed it up with a punch to the face. Now she was begging for me to stop it, but I didn’t listen to that bitch. I grabbed her by her hair and pulled her up. Then I made her face the two Drakes in the room.

“This is what you get when you try to fuck with me. Now you gonna be where Katie Hill and Afrika Bambaataa is right now; two metres deep!” I pulled out a hunter’s knife and slit her throat in front of them. It shocked the hell out of Mary, and it shocked Alex a bit, but not much since she’s used to seeing stuff like this.

After that, I let her go and watch her struggle for her life as she was doing her best to stop the bleeding, but it wouldn’t be, as she died a few minutes later.

Mary face turned pale, while Alex’s face wasn’t, but it was stiff and emotionless. Trying her best to show the British stereotype of that “stiff upper-lip.”

Then her boyfriend came downstairs. He was shocked to see her dead.

“No!”

I came from the shadow and said to him, “Surprise!”  

He screamed. “AAAAHHHH! POW!”

I shot him right in the head. The two losers were dead. Mary and this time even Alex screamed in fright as I stood before two dead bodies.

Calmly, I opened the door for the two ladies and told them. “You two are under me now.” They didn’t protest or anything, for they knew better. I handed them to Hervy and he took them away from the scene. Now it’s my turn to leave, as France is more than willing to arrest my ass.

[wistfulcynic]

Another Brick In The Wall, Chapter 10

a/n: Angst! Angst and pining and indecision. Teenagers are so dramatic.

Summary: Emma Swan, sheriff’s daughter, mayor’s niece, quarterback’s girlfriend, is the undisputed princess of Storybrooke High. She is smart and confident and used to getting what she wants. What she wants is Killian Jones, the new boy in school. But Killian is not easily manipulated, and reluctant to allow the dark secrets in his past to touch the girl he is rapidly falling in love with.

Rating: T

Read it on AO3: Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 | Chapter 9 | Chapter 10

Tags for: @darkcolinodonorgasm @jennjenn615 @hollyethecurious and @resident-of-storybrooke @kmomof4

Chapter 10:

When they returned to school for the spring semester Killian found that his relationship with Emma had undergone a subtle change. The tension that he had carried within him since they’d met, born of his fear of discovery and his sense of having failed at life coupled with his reluctance to taint the bright, shining star that was Emma Swan by association with him had finally been released. He had nothing more to fear, nothing to weigh him down. His secret was out, he’d survived the fallout at school, and he wasn’t going to be a father. Milah was gone from his life, off to Japan. And most importantly, Emma didn’t hate him. His past didn’t disgust her. She was his friend. His friend with the potential for more.

Their interlude in the garden had reassured him that she did still want to be more but that she wouldn’t push him, would wait until he had worked through his feelings enough to take that next step. Nothing had ever meant more to him than her acceptance of him and everything that he was, her patience, and her willingness to let him set the pace. After Milah he desperately needed to feel like he had some agency in his life and relationships. That Emma understood this and wasn’t giving up on him was a treasure more precious than gold.

As the weeks passed and he became more and more comfortable in his own skin, he realised that without really thinking about it he had stopped trying to hold himself apart from his classmates or resist Emma’s naturally affectionate nature. In class he laughed and joked and teased the girls, no longer uncomfortable with the attention his innate charisma attracted. Outside of class he was nearly always with Emma, finally able to relax and enjoy how happy he felt in her company. All the little touches that she gave without thinking no longer made him anxious or upset, though they never failed to increase his heart rate or send electricity skittering across his skin. Gradually, cautiously, he began to reciprocate them, and by the time the snow had melted and spring was beginning to break over Storybrooke, his days regularly included Emma’s head on his shoulder, his fingers tangled in the ends of her hair, her nose pressed into the curve of his neck as she hugged him goodbye. She made him feel things he had never felt before, very different from what he’d felt for Milah. Noticeably different. Different enough to make him wonder if this was actually what love felt like. He thought it was, he wanted it to be, but after the disaster of Milah how could he be certain? How the devil was he supposed to know?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

One afternoon in early March Killian was nearly at the door of Dr Hopper’s office, lost in contemplation, when Neal Cassidy appeared suddenly in his path.

“I see you’ve returned to the scene of your crime,” sneered Killian, though his heart really wasn’t in the taunt. He had no interest in engaging with Neal; more than anything he just wanted the bastard out of his life and of Emma’s, would be happy never to think of him again. “I guess it’s true what they say about that.”

Neal scowled, but he didn’t attempt to retaliate. Instead he shoved his hands in his pockets and shuffled his feet, looking angry but also faintly nervous.

“So, uh, can I talk to you?”

“You already are.”

“Right. Um, well I— I have to— um…”

“Look, spit it out, mate. I’m going to be late, and I’d far rather converse with Dr Hopper. At least he can form complete sentences.”

Neal’s expression darkened and clenched his fists in his pockets.

“I have a plea deal!” he burst out suddenly. “For— for stealing your records.”

“So I heard.”

Neal’s lawyer had managed to plead down to nine months in jail plus three years’ probation and a two thousand dollar fine. He’d tried for no jail time, citing Neal’s age and lack of prior offenses, but the judge had insisted on treating him as an adult due to the very specific malice of the crime. The end result was not as bad as it could have been but worse than his parents had been hoping. If he kept his nose clean Neal would probably be all right in the long run, but the whole thing was still quite a blow to his future. Killian had little sympathy.

“As part of the deal I have to apologise to you,” said Neal, glaring at his feet.

Killian snorted. “Don’t bother.”

“I have to! Fucking judge is making me. If you don’t accept it I get another two months.” He made this admission grudgingly, not wanting to acknowledge the power it gave Killian over him.

With effort, Killian held back a grin. He’d spoken to Judge Merlin before Neal’s sentencing and so knew to expect something like this, but putting that particular condition on Neal’s grovelling was pretty diabolical. “Unless it’s a genuine apology, I’m not interested,” he said, twisting the knife.

Neal shuffled his feet again, looking shifty. “It’s genuine.”

“You’re a terrible liar, you know that?” Killian almost laughed at the insulted look that crossed Neal’s face, but he wasn’t in the mood to pick a fight, and really just wanted to be done with this conversation. He opened his mouth to accept the “apology,” when Neal spoke again.

“Look, why are you being such an asshole?” he burst out. “You won. You’ve got Emma—”

Killian’s eyebrows snapped together. “‘Got’ Emma?!” he growled.

“—and you’re all popular now.” Neal scowled, seeming more put out by the second thing than the first.

Killian however was still caught up on the first. “I haven’t ‘got’ Emma,” he said indignantly.

“Come on, man, I saw you two at Granny’s last week looking pretty cosy,” sneered Neal. “I’d say the best man won, but, well…” he smirked snidely.

Killian shook his head, too appalled to respond to the taunt. “Is that really how you see this?” he asked. “Emma’s just a prize to be won?”

“You’re the one who called her the princess of Storybrooke. Of course she’s a prize. Look what she did for you. Do you really think you’d be anything without her?”

“This is one hell of an apology you’re making,” said Killian drily. “The sincerity is just shining through.”

Neal rolled his eyes and sighed. “What do you want from me, man?”

“Not a thing,” replied Killian decisively. “I never did. If you had just left me alone none of this would have happened. Emma and I have never been anything but friends. But all you could see was someone ‘stealing’ your girlfriend. You only ever saw her as your possession, the prettiest cheerleader, the girl everyone wants. The one who would make people envy you, because she was ‘yours’. Only Emma is not yours, and she never was. She’s her own person, a brilliant, strong, incredible person. And she’ll never belong to anyone but herself.”

Neal was staring at him, mouth agape. “You in love with her or something?” he taunted, the corner of his lips curling into a sneer.

Killian squared his shoulders and raised himself to his full height.“What if I am?” he asked, meeting Neal’s gaze, challenge glinting in his eyes, daring the other boy to make something of it.

Neal dropped his eyes and shrugged. “Nothing, I guess. It’s nothing to me.”

“Good. You can tell the judge that I accept your spurious apology, and now kindly fuck off.” Killian smirked at Neal’s confused expression. He clearly didn’t know what “spurious” meant but Judge Merlin would, and Killian suspected he’d get a kick out of it. Holding the smirk on his face he started walking again, straight towards Neal, forcing the other boy to step aside so he could pass.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

That Sunday Killian hung back after fencing club, waiting until all the others had left and David had gathered all the equipment. Emma was away, having a spa weekend with her mother to celebrate Snow’s 45th birthday, and for once he was glad she wasn’t around. He needed a private word with David.

“Can I talk to you about something, Sheriff Swan?” he asked tentatively, desperate for David’s advice but fearful of overstepping with Emma’s father.

“Sure, Killian, what’s on your mind?” David smiled warmly and Killian relaxed.

“Would you mind if I walked out with you? It’s kind of a long question.”

David gave him a probing look, then nodded. It was clear to him that Killian was struggling with something. “Why don’t I give you a lift home?” he offered. “I know Emma usually does, so it’ll save you the walk since she’s not here.”

Killian smiled. “Thanks.”

They walked in silence to David’s truck, Killian clearly thinking hard about what he wanted to say, and it wasn’t until they had pulled out of the school parking lot and onto the main street that he finally spoke.

“How do you know when you’re in love?”

David nearly swallowed his tongue. “Um,” he said. “That’s— uh, that’s a big question. Are you sure you want to be talking with me about this? What about your brother, or Dr Hopper?”

“Dr Hopper’s always been single, and Liam’s only recently removed his head from his ars— er, asked Miss French out. But Emma told me you and Mrs Swan have been together since you were sixteen. That’s nearly thirty years” —David winced— “so I think if anyone in Storybrooke can speak on this subject it’s you.” He looked imploringly at David. “So how do you know?”

David sighed. “Well, I won’t pretend it’s not a bit awkward to be discussing my daughter this way—“ he paused as a wild thought hit him. “We are talking about Emma, aren’t we?”

“We are definitely talking about Emma,” Killian replied, and David’s lips twitched at the certainty in his voice. He suspected Killian already knew the answer to his question, he just needed some reassurance.

“Yeah, I don’t really want to know the details about that, but I can tell you how I knew I was in love with Snow.”

“If you don’t mind, that’s what I’d really like to hear.”

“It was our last year of high school,” said David, smiling at the memory. “We’d been dating for two years at that point, and I was pretty sure I loved her but I was worried because we were planning to go to different colleges and I wasn’t sure we’d make it long distance. Snow was— well, she was stunning. Bold and bright and beautiful.”

Killian nodded in understanding. “Like her daughter,” he said softly.

“Like her daughter,” David agreed. “Snow was going to Columbia, and I was sure she’d be swept off her feet there by some rich New York City asshole.” Killian’s eyes widened slightly at his language and David chuckled. “Then one day I came home from baseball practice and discovered that my house had been broken into,” he continued. “They took our TV and our stereo, all of that, but more importantly they took my mother’s jewelry bag, which contained her wedding ring. The ring she’d always told me would be mine one day, to give to my bride. Well you can imagine how upset I was. I went to call the police but just as I was picking up the phone it started ringing. It was Snow. She said she’d seen the burglars leaving my house —she lived just across the street— and she’d followed them. She told me where they’d taken our things, and—” he paused, grinning to himself, “—well, let’s just say we managed to get in and get my mom’s ring back. We called the police for all the other stuff, but the ring was what was important. When we got back to my house Snow asked to see the ring, and jokingly put it on. As soon as I saw it on her finger, I just knew. I knew that any girl whose first instinct on seeing a burglary wasn’t to call the cops but to follow the burglars, anyone who could lead me on an adventure to rescue my ring, that was a girl I wanted to spend my life with. And I knew that she’d always have my back, no matter how many rich assholes she met in New York.”

“So to answer your question, Killian,” he said, suddenly serious and conscious of the vital import of the advice he was giving, “I think there are many different kinds of love. I think it’s possible for people to love many times in their lives and to fall out of it just as they fall in, and I believe it’s possible to find the love of your life when you’re sixteen. But if you’re asking me how to know when love will last, and I do think that is what you’re asking, I don’t believe that there’s a— a rubric for that. I think you just know. When you can’t imagine your future without that person; when you know that you’ll be able to survive being separated from them by school or work or life because your bond is strong enough to hold even over long distances but when being with them is what makes you feel strong and whole, and happy even when you’re sad; when they’re the first person you turn to for support but you’re still prepared to put their needs before your own and sacrifice whatever is necessary for them, that’s love that will last. That’s love that can survive anything.”

David glanced over at Killian, who was staring out the window with a thoughtful expression on his face. He didn’t want to push or overly influence the boy, knowing that any decisions about his future had to be his alone, yet David couldn’t suppress the feeling that he was looking at his future son-in-law. Because Killian was right: David did know what true love looked like, even in its infancy, and it looked like Emma and Killian. It looked like his confident, self-assured, (and yes, he’d admit it) slightly spoiled daughter learning to put another person’s needs and wishes before her own, and doing it gladly because she wanted what was best for him more than her own happiness. It looked like this defensive, traumatised boy facing down his demons and learning to open up again for her sake, so that he could be capable of offering the love he felt she deserved. It looked like him taking the risk of speaking to her father, to be sure that what he felt was real.

David hadn’t missed the sadness that had lain beneath Emma’s habitual bright demeanor ever since the Christmas party, the fear that Killian would never return her love. But although his heart hurt for his baby girl, David wasn’t worried. He believed that true loves always found each other, no matter what obstacles lay between them. These two would work things out.

He pulled up in front of the Jones house and put the truck into park before turning to face Killian, who was still sitting unmoving in the passenger seat. “I hope I was able to help,” he said, “At least a little bit.”

“You did,” replied Killian, picking up his bag and opening the door. “Thank you for telling me that story, I know it’s really none of my business.”

It’s our family lore, David wanted to tell him, and you’re family. Maybe not yet, but you will be.

Instead he simply said, “You’re welcome,” biting back the “son,” before it could slip past his guard. Killian smiled and nodded, then turned and shut the door behind him. David waited until he had entered the house before starting the truck up again and driving off.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

At the end of March their AP US History teacher announced that over the next two months they would spend two days a week working on a major research project that would constitute 50% of their final grade. And it would be a pair project. That they would be expected to work on outside of class as well. Amid the groans and whines of their classmates, Emma and Killian locked eyes across the classroom, silently agreeing to be partners. This hellish sounding project might become something actually enjoyable if they worked together, they thought.

Their plans were dashed a moment later by the teacher, who counted off the rows of desks 1-2, 1-2, then informed everyone in row 1 to look to their left and everyone in row 2 to look to their right. “The person you’re looking at is your partner,” the teacher declared. “I don’t want any squabbling or bickering about choosing partners, so I’m choosing them for you. No arguments.”

Emma was barely even dismayed to learn that she would be working with Walsh, a skinny junior she knew for a fact had a massive crush on her —he spent quite a lot of class time drawing creepy pictures of her in his notebook— and who was looking like all his Christmases had come at once. She was far too busy being devastated to observe that Killian’s partner was Aurora. Aurora who clearly didn’t share her dismay, but was smiling brilliantly at Killian and already taking out her phone to exchange contact details with him. Killian, she noted, didn’t look particularly upset either, smiling as he gave Aurora his phone number. Absently, she took Walsh’s number and told him not to call her, she’d call him. She spent the rest of the period poring over the assignment instructions and figuring out how to divide the work so she’d have to spend as little time with him as possible, while determinedly not looking at Killian and Aurora.

She was more successful with the first task than the second.

They looked to be having a great time together.

Her next class was in the opposite direction to Killian’s, so they normally only exchanged a word or two before heading on their respective ways. Today Aurora followed at Killian’s elbow as he left the classroom, chatting brightly about ideas for their project and what times they could get together to work on it.

Killian waved to Emma as they passed, rolling his eyes over Aurora’s head and making a “blah blah” gesture with his hand. “She won’t shut up,” he mouthed, and Emma nodded in agreement, her earlier jealousy appeased somewhat.

“Text me later,” she mouthed back, and he nodded, winking at her in that way that always set her butterflies to waltzing.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Two weeks later, weeks during which Emma’s library lunchtimes with Killian had been routinely invaded by an Aurora who was suddenly more interested in doing homework than she had ever been before in her life, Emma was rounding the corner of the school building heading for the parking lot when she spotted Aurora and Killian a few feet away, deep in conversation. She stopped abruptly, wondering if she should interrupt. She had to go spend an hour with Walsh at Granny’s to work on their project, but she’d arranged for Killian to meet her there exactly when the hour was up, to make sure that Walsh didn’t try to extend the agreed upon time as he’d done at every other project meeting they’d had. It made sense that Killian would spend the hour before meeting her working with Aurora, yet somehow this discussion they were having seemed… different. Not school related.

Emma was torn. She trusted Killian, completely, and with her head she had no reason to believe that he had any interest in Aurora. He treated her exactly the same way he treated every other girl, warm and teasing, making them laugh, but Emma knew him well enough to see the way he used his charm to keep them at a safe distance away. When Killian was being completely himself he was intense and earnest, revealing the full depth of his brilliant mind and sensitive emotions. Emma was certain he could never open himself up that much to Aurora, about whom he made frequent and pointed remarks regarding her minimal intelligence and tendency to chatter inanely and ceaselessly. “She makes my head hurt,” he’d said just the day before, collapsing next to Emma in their booth at Granny’s and dropping the head in question into his hands, allowing her to rub the tension from his neck and shoulders.

And yet there was something about Aurora’s manner, about the way she always seemed to be alluding to things she and Killian had talked about or done outside of school —how much time were they spending on this project, Emma wondered— and the way she never missed an opportunity to touch him, the way he never objected or seemed upset by her hand on his arm or shoulder, the way he leaned his head close to hers when they worked, that planted a tiny, niggling seed of doubt in Emma’s heart that she could not stamp out or uproot, no matter how much logic she applied.

After all, Killian still didn’t seem to want to take things any further with her. Maybe he really did just see her as a friend. An intimate friend, his best friend, surely, but still just a friend. Maybe Aurora, even with all her chatter, was simply more his type. Maybe he found ways to shut her up. Emma’s whole body cringed at that thought. She didn’t believe it, knew it couldn’t be true, but the tiny pinprick of doubt still persisted.

It pricked her sharply now as she stood watching them, wondering what to do, then turned abruptly into a sword and slashed her chest open when Aurora threw her arms around Killian’s neck and kissed him.

Emma stood for a moment, frozen in shock, then forced herself back around the corner on legs that were barely functional, stumbling as they buckled under her and landing hard against the wall, scraping her hand and arm in the process. She pressed her cheek into the abrasive cold of the brick, gasping for the air that had been sucked from her lungs, blinded by tears and immobilised by agony. Desperately she tried to catch her breath, to hold in her sobs, not wanting anyone to hear her cry, wanting only to get away, to find someplace private where she could pull herself together and lick her wounds alone. The idea of anyone seeing her, wanting to know what was wrong, made her chest tighten in panic. She knew she wouldn’t be able to bear any sympathy or concern, wouldn’t even be able to tell anyone why she was so upset. Not even her father, who’d always been her closest confidant. This hurt went too deep to talk about.

She began to run in the opposite direction, back into the school building, heading for the cafeteria and its side door, praying it would still be unlocked. She raced through the halls, ignoring the curious looks from the few students who still remained, ignoring the shouts from her psychology teacher not to run in the halls. Arriving at the cafeteria door she wrenched it open and raced across the small outdoor lunch area, through the gap in the chain link fence separating it from the parking lot and towards her car. She didn’t look over to where Killian and Aurora might still be standing, just visible from where her car was parked, instead pulling open the door and throwing herself onto the back seat. She slammed the door behind her and locked it then curled herself into a tight ball and wept, sobbing out her unrequited love, her dashed hopes, her broken heart.

Twenty minutes later she was limp and exhausted, her eyes swollen and her throat raw, with no more tears left to cry. Dimly she registered that her phone was buzzing and had been for a solid five minutes. Mustering her strength, she glanced at the screen and would have rolled her eyes if they hadn’t ached so badly. Fifteen messages from Walsh, asking where she was. Practically one per minute. Not feeling well, she texted him. Sorry.

Killian would be expecting her at Granny’s as well, she remembered. Part of her wanted badly to see him, a small part that was still hoping that she’d misunderstood, despite the image burned into the back of her eyelids of Aurora in Killian’s arms, her lips on his, but she knew that she couldn’t. She was too delicate, too raw. She needed time to process, to adjust, to figure out how the hell she was going to survive seeing them together, the girl she despised and the boy she loved. Her fingers trembled as she opened her WhatsApp chat with Killian and tapped on the picture he’d sent her just last night. A selfie he’d taken of the two of them at the docks preparing for the sailing trip they’d taken last Saturday. His chin was resting on her head, his arm wrapped around her shoulders, her hands curved around his wrist and forearm. They were both grinning like fools.

They looked so happy.

This was a test of her resolve, Emma realised. She’d promised herself that she would be Killian’s friend no matter what, even if their relationship could never be more than that, and she knew that if she truly loved him she had to keep that promise. Even though she wanted nothing more than to run, to protect herself from the pain of seeing him with Aurora, of knowing that her love was not returned. At least not in the way she wanted.

She couldn’t handle seeing him, not today. Maybe not for a while. Forcing her fingers to cooperate, she typed out a message.

Hey, I’m not feeling well, can we do Granny’s another time?

His reply came almost instantly. Sure, love. Are you okay?

Moisture welled behind her eyes and she almost laughed. Apparently she did still have more tears to cry. Fine, just a headache, she texted back. I’ll see you tomorrow.

It was the first lie she’d ever told him.

[jennygirl2014]

Raven-Chapter 1

(Author’s note: Remember, this takes place after Winter Soldier).

          Fury had been tediously working on salvaging what was possibly left of SHIELD.  After it had been compromised by Hydra and the headquarters had been destroyed Fury still had hope that one day SHIELD would exist again.  He had managed to contact as many straight-arrowed agents as possible, some coming forward on their own and others needing coaxing out of hiding. Every agent had to pass a lie detector test before even being considered for recruitment again.  The new headquarters was underground, and the whole operation was still very small, but Fury was determined to see SHIELD reach its full potential again.  The first two recruits were Natasha and Steve of course, but unfortunately there weren’t many other agents involved at the time with their level of skill.  Most of them were fit for desk jobs and minor duty, and only that.  Along with that obstacle, Fury was also fixated on tracking down any Hydra agents that had anything to do with project insight.

           Times were somewhat bleak for SHIELD, and it put Fury in a position to make a difficult decision.  He called Steve into his office early one morning to discuss the matters of his next mission.  When Steve walked in and stood in front of Fury’s desk, Fury stayed very still and silent in his chair, staring down at the manila folder in front of him.  Steve knew something was up, and from the mood in the room it wasn’t anything good.  “I have a special mission for you, Rogers.” He spoke with a very serious tone. “I need you to find someone, this is a level one priority case.” He pushed the folder closer to Steve.  He picked up the folder and opened it, at the top in large print read: Agent 217-Raven, and a picture of her was clipped to the top corner.  Steve froze and gazed at her picture, it had been so long since he had seen her, but he would never forget her face.  “Turns out Raven was actually heavily involved with Hydra.” A cold feeling shot through his entire body.  There was no way this was right, not Raven.  

“I don’t understand how that’s possible.” Steve looked up from the folder.

“She was always a drifter, we had her out in the field most of the time, but turns out she was Hydra before she became an agent of SHIELD.” Fury explained with a very grim expression. The news made Steve sick to his stomach. “I know she did a lot around here, including help you get on your feet, but we can’t take this lightly.  However, this has to be handled delicately.”

“What are you asking me to do?” Steve didn’t want to believe his friend was capable of such a thing, that she was a lie the entire time.

“Instead of handling this like we have with the rest, I need you to find Raven and bring her back here, alive.  She was a part of Hydra but she did her part for us as well.  I’m not sure how or why but, she seems to be playing both sides. That’s a dangerous game.  The sad thing is,” Fury paused, “She’s one of the best agents we’ve had.  I can’t let all that potential go to waste.” Steve didn’t like the tone in Fury’s voice. He furrowed his brow.

“Go to waste?” he questioned.  Fury sat back and sighed.

“Raven is, without a doubt, one of the finest agents I’ve ever seen.  Yes she’s always bent the rules some, but we just accepted that for what it is.  Last year she killed five of our men, the details are unclear.  At the same time, she’s killed at least a dozen of Hydra’s. Why she’s doing this?  I’m not sure.  I didn’t think anyone would ever be dumb enough…or smart enough to pull off being a double agent.  But she has. That takes skill.  I know how we usually dealt with the other undercover agents we’ve found, but I want her back here to face trial.  We could use her to our advantage.”

“Are you asking me to hunt down my friend?” Steve was already set against the idea.  

“I am asking you to find her, and bring her back here.  I am asking you because I know she will not come willingly.” Fury’s manner was very unforgiving.  “I know that it may not be easy for you to comprehend, especially after everything she has done to help you, but Raven is very dangerous.” Steve shook his head and closed the folder.  He didn’t believe any of it.

“Not Raven.  I know Raven.”

“No, you know the Raven she wants you to know.  Unfortunately that comes with the territory of being an agent of her kind; the face you know is not the face someone else knows.  It’s definitely not the face I know.  I’ve seen Raven in action…it’s intense.”

“She’s a kind person.” Steve spoke very softly.

“She’s a killer.” Fury stopped Steve before he could carry on.  “She’s a double agent with a bad rap sheet, and she’s responsible for at least three dozen assassinations in the past three years.  She’s well trained.” Steve shook his head again.  Fury had to be wrong, this was his friend, the woman who helped him start his new life.  At one point he even had feelings for her.  Now suddenly she was a double agent?

“I’m not doing it.” Steve tossed the folder back onto Fury’s desk.  Fury looked up at him with an evil eye and slowly got on his feet.  “You can find someone else.”

“Give me one good reason.”

“Conflict of interest.” Steve quickly replied.

“But none of the other agents have the skill needed to handle her.”

“Then ask Natasha.” Steve blurted it out.  “She’s a woman, she’s okay doing just about anything.  Raven was my friend.”

“Do not play the sexism card here,” Fury warned, “Natasha is preoccupied on her own mission.” The two of them stood silently, “I know you had in your mind what you thought was a friend. But the truth is she’s a liar. She lies, she manipulates, and she does whatever she has to do to get the job done.  No questions asked, she just does.  Whatever she needs to be, whatever act she has to put on, she will. So the Raven you thought you knew isn’t the real Raven.” The words stung.  Steve swallowed the lump in his throat, he knew that it was his job to take a mission like this, but he didn’t want to believe that the woman he got to know so well was a lie.  She didn’t seem capable of any of that.  “Rogers, I need you to take this mission.  Find her and bring her back here.”  An idea popped into Steve’s head, maybe if he did take this mission and he got to Raven before anyone else did, he could clear all of this up.  It couldn’t all be true.  And she wouldn’t put up a fight, after all they were friends at one point.  

“Okay,” He eventually gave in, “I’ll do it.  When do I leave?”

“Immediately.” Fury replied with a single word, and then added, “We have to get to her before Hydra does.” Steve nodded and walked away, but Fury stopped him, “Rogers,” he stopped and turned back to face him, “She’s armed and extremely dangerous.  Do not give her the benefit of the doubt.”

           Raven’s whereabouts were rumored to be in Quebec, she was supposedly staying in a hotel near the river.  Steve chose to go undercover, no uniform, no shield, no weapons. He was convinced he wouldn’t need them, once she saw that it was him she should be willing to at least talk with him. Once he was dropped off by a SHIELD just outside the city, he chose to go on foot.  It was best not to make any acquaintances in this situation.  He wore simple clothes to avoid standing out, jeans and a leather coat, and the only condemning evidence he carried with him was a communicator he left concealed in his right coat pocket.  He moved quickly, hoping that it wasn’t too late to reach her before someone else did.  

           He stumbled upon a small outdoor bistro one night and figured it was about time he took a small rest; he had been looking for three days straight.  When he sat down with the intentions of getting some food, he stopped when he saw someone he thought he might have recognized sitting outside under a lamp post, alone.  The woman wasn’t doing anything, not eating, no cup in her hand of any kind, just sitting with her hands in her pockets and a hood over her head.  He watched closely as the woman looked around, and caught glimpse of her face when the light from the post hit her just right.  There she was.  

           Relieved he started to inconspicuously approach her, but she got to her feet and quickly walked in the other direction.  He followed her, staying a few yards behind at all times.  She didn’t take the streets, instead she cut through a series of alleys and hidden walk ways, under bridges and then finally she disappeared when she walked into the hotel ahead.  Steve stayed under the bridge and watched the building closely.  It was a small rundown hostel, with only a few lights on in the windows.  He watched the windows closely, waiting to see if one would turn on.  After a two minute wait, in the far left corner on the third floor a light began to shine through the window.  He knew it had to be her.  He rushed over to the building’s fire escape stairwell and climbed up it, trying to make as little noise on the metal as possible.  When he reached the third floor he stepped next to the window and slowly peeked in, but no one was standing there.  Holding his breath he slowly opened the window and climbed in, looking around the nearly vacant room, it was dim and quiet.  He took a few more steps inside and stood in the middle of the room puzzled, maybe she had caught onto him and ran again.  

           His thoughts were interrupted when the cool edge of a sharp blade was pressed against his jugular.  He froze.  “Hello Steve.” Her familiar voice rang in his ears.  She was standing right behind him, and he knew she was the one wielding the knife. “It’s been a while.”

“Raven…” he spoke her name.

“Well this is just fitting.” She sounded amused, but something about her tone was darker than he remembered, and for a moment her voice seemed unrecognizable.  “I knew Fury would have someone looking for me, but…” she scoffed, “I was expecting Natasha, definitely not you.  I’m almost flattered that he sees me as that much of a threat.” Already Raven didn’t sound like the woman he used to know.

“I don’t want to fight you, I just want to talk.”

“You came all this way just to talk?  I don’t think so.”  He felt the blade press even harder against his neck.  Instinctively he reached behind his back, grabbed onto her and pulled her over his shoulder.  She tumbled when she hit the ground and jumped back to her feet.

“Please, I don’t want to hurt you.”

“What if I don’t feel the same way?” she sneered.  Steve’s heart quickened.  This was definitely not the woman he used to know.  She reached into her back pocket and pulled out a gun, and pointed it at his chest.  “What do you want?”

“I’m here to take you back.” He still spoke very softly to her.

“Take me back?” she chuckled, “No.  You got a better chance of ghosting my ass than bringing me back to Fury.”  Steve held his hands out towards her.

“I’m not going to hurt you.”

“At least not yet, right?” she gave him a smirk.

“You’re my friend.” He tried to slowly approach her.  Her face softened.  When he was within arm’s length he reached out put his hand on top of her gun, slowly pushing it down.  Her fingers loosened around the gun and it dropped to the floor. He looked her in the eye, trying to read her.  

“Can you be friends with a criminal, Captain?” she spoke very softly.  And without warning she threw a hard right hook to his face.  He turned back to look at her and received another blow to his jaw, then she planted a hard kick on his chest.  He fell backwards and looked up at her in awe. At first there was a feeling of heartache, he had hoped it wasn’t true.  But then anger boiled inside of him.  He jumped to his feet to meet Raven who was at stance ready to strike again. He furrowed his brow.  

“We don’t have to do this the hard way.” He warned her, his voice now challenging her.  She smirked.

“Well what fun is that?” she threw another punch but he caught her arm mid strike and spun her around. He held her pinned against his chest, and she struggled with her arms to break free.  She jarred her elbow into his nose and planted another kick to his knee. He let her go and she spun around to kick him again.  He grabbed hold of her foot, but she spun and struck him again with her free leg.  They both fell to the floor.  She jackknifed up.  He looked up at her in shock again.  “C’mon Captain,” she jeered at him, “You didn’t think I was going to go that easily, did you?” He slowly stood, and she smiled a wicked smile.  “Don’t worry! You’re not going to hurt me.”  He charged at her and she threw a couple more punches, he blocked and dodged.  She did a backflip away from him and picked up the knife she had dropped.  “You just can’t bring yourself to hit me can you?” she chuckled, “Tell you what,” she tossed the knife to the side, “I’ll make this a fair fight.” She put her hands on her hips.  Steve stood there confused.  “Come get me.” She taunted him more, as if it was some silly game.  He charged at her again and she spun to kick him, he ducked her blow, then stood and threw a punch of his own.  She ducked and his fist went into the wall.  She scrambled from underneath his arm and stood behind him.  He turned and grabbed onto her arm. She tried to throw another punch but he grabbed onto her wrist.

“Stop!” he barked her. She tried to free herself from his grip. He spun her around again and wrapped one arm around her body, pinning her arms to her sides, the other around her neck.  “I don’t want to do this.”

“Then don’t.” she breathed out.  With all her strength she pushed back and the two of them toppled over a small table. She freed herself from his arms and ran towards the open window.  He laid there in the pile of broken wood and watched her jump out.  He rushed over to the window to see her running down the fire escape.  He followed her.  When she saw him rushing behind her she swung herself over the edge and fell through the air. She landed on her feet and took off. Steve did the same and continued to chase her.

           For a brief second Raven turned to look back at him, and then tripped over own feet and fell to the ground.  She rolled over, realizing her feet were bound together. She didn’t trip after all.  She grabbed onto the cable that was somehow wrapped around her ankles, but stopped when she felt something hard press against the back of her head.  She knew who it was.  “Natasha.” She sighed and smiled sarcastically.  Sure enough Natasha stepped around, still pointing her gun at Raven’s head.

“Raven.” She returned the cold greeting.  The two women eyed each other carefully. Steve caught up to them and stopped running.

“Natasha?” he was surprised to see her.

“Hey Rogers. When Fury told me you were going after Raven, I couldn’t help but get involved.” She didn’t take her eyes off of Raven while speaking to him.  “I’ve been waiting for this day for a long time.”

“And yet you still don’t pull the trigger.” Raven chimed in, a wicked smirk growing on her face.  “I was wondering if you would show up.” Natasha’s finger squeezed the trigger.

“No, wait!” Steve stopped her, “Fury wants her alive.” Natasha’s eyes went wide.

“Alive?  You’re kidding me right?”

“He told me himself.” Steve walked up to Raven and grabbed her arms.  He pulled handcuffs from his pocket and clamped them onto her wrists. Raven looked up at him, her eyes shining impishly.

“Handcuffs?  I’ll be out of these in no time.”

“Yeah, well how fast can you dodge a bullet?” Natasha spoke again.  Steve stood up straight and put his hand over her gun.  Natasha gave him a surprised look.

“I have my orders.” He was telling her to put her gun away.  

“She’s not who you think she is, Steve.” Natasha warned.

“Fury told me he wants her alive.” He repeated.  

“Maybe that’s why he sent you, and not me.” Natasha argued as she reluctantly put her gun away. “Because I would kill this crazy, lying bitch in a heartbeat.”  Raven let out a hardy laugh from on the ground.  They looked down at her.

“Oh this is good. Fury sends him knowing we were friends and he wouldn’t kill me.  And then you show up and you’re upset because that means Fury really doesn’t want me dead. Well, you got me.” She announced from where she was sitting, “Either way, do with me what you will.” Steve and Natasha bent down and roughly pulled her up by her elbows.  “So where are we going?”

“Nowhere tonight.” Natasha answered for Steve.  He looked at her confused.  “The chopper can’t make the rendezvous point for another eight hours.”

“So what do we do with her?” Steve asked.  

“Is her place around here?”

“She was in a hotel.” He sounded impatient.

“Looks like we’re going back there for now.” Raven spoke up between them.  They both looked at her.

“Shut up.” Natasha warned her.  They began to drag her away.  Raven turned and looked up at Steve.

“You know, if it’s any consolation Cap, I really did want to go to dinner with you.” Raven said very softly in his direction.  Natasha looked at Steve and rolled her eyes.

“Oh God.” She huffed at him. “Please tell me you didn’t.”

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