#where all restraint and all pretense is torn away and they fall together

[scrawnytreedemon]

GUESS who just finished reading Carmilla after MONTHS of inexplicably not picking it upfhfsjkhjkkhjfvd

[swampofiniquity]

Gasoline (Leon Kennedy x Reader)

Part Three of Point / Counterpoint

Rated: Explicit

Word Count: 2829

Summary:  It took several years and almost being killed on the job, but you and Leon finally reach the breaking point.

Warnings: Explicit sex, rough sex, unprotected sex, fighting

Part One / Part Two

You could feel the judgmental gazes of the rest of the team, could hear their frustrated muttering as they filed in behind you. Someone even dared to joke, quiet laughter breaking out until a sharp warning glare from Leon sent people scattering like cockroaches after the light switched on.

So much for all the hard work you had put in to earn their respect.

Your fists were clenched so tightly that your fingers ached and your palms stung from your nails digging into the tender flesh. Your tongue was bleeding from being held so tightly between your teeth for the hours it took for the mission party to return to HQ. It was all you could do to keep your frustration from exploding all over the place like a fifth grade science fair volcano.

You were beyond furious. Rage, white and hot coursed through your blood, searing your veins as Leon shoved you bodily into the elevator, his own anger rolling off him in sickening waves. Never before had either of you been so upset with one another.

The indignity of being thrown over his shoulder and removed from the mission like a petulant child. The utter disregard for your expertise or competency as an agent. The fucking audacity to stand between you and your target, to yell at you in front of the whole team. As the elevator climbed, you could concentrate on nothing else, not the vice-like grip he still had on your arm or the acrid, lingering scent of gunpowder on your clothes. Not even the nagging worry in the back of your head that this had done irreparable damage to your friendship.

After what seemed like forever, the elevator finally stopped at the top floor and Leon shoved you out, dragging you to his office and locking the door. He turned to you with a kindred fury burning in his blue eyes.

The room echoed with two warring shouts of “What the hell is wrong with you?” and “You nearly got yourself killed!”

“Goddamnit Leon, he was right there! Another second and I could have had him if you hadn’t -” you cut yourself off, fuming. Your hands shook as you slid off the ridiculous stiletto heels that were part of your disguise. It took every ounce of what little remained of your restraint to not hurl the uncomfortable shoes at his office window.

While you primarily served as medical support out in the field, being the youngest woman on the team you also did a fair amount of what was jokingly referred to as ‘honey pot’ missions, where your job was to dress a certain way, go in and extract information from or otherwise distract targets that had a known weakness for women. It was a bit demeaning having to show up to work in a thong and push-up bra, but you had been instrumental in putting some pretty big players in the B.O.W. market out of commission. You were damn good at your job, even in a dress and heels.

And you had never failed at it, until tonight.

“We had a plan!” he roared, stalking towards you until you were forced to take a step back. “You were not to engage until backup was ready. His security made you, you realize that right? Another second and you would have been dead!”

You shook your head, bristling under his glare, his anger feeding into your own. “You of all people should have trusted me!”

Leon growled, grabbing your shoulders and shoving you hard into the wall. A twisted, pained sort of scowl marred his face. Still furious, even beyond the shock of his actions, you bared your teeth at him in a cruel smile. You weren’t some spineless rookie agent he couldn't intimidate, and you were going to just let him manhandle you into submission.

After a tense moment, he finally took a step back and let you go. Leon rolled his neck and turned to walk to his desk, to put some distance between the two of you. But somehow, the sight of his back made you even more livid.

“Coward,” you hissed.

He was back in a second, pushing you roughly into the wall with his bulk and grabbing you by the throat. For a fleeting, terrifying second you thought he meant to squeeze, but then he leaned down and pressed his mouth to yours so forcefully you were sure your lips would bruise.

It was less kissing than combat, the resulting embrace. It was remarkable how easy it was to go from hate to need. Or perhaps more aptly, for the two to blur together so seamlessly. As soon as you felt his hard body up against you and his lips pull viciously at your own, the boiling blood under your skin took on a different purpose.

It didn't matter that he was your friend or your superior or that he had just humiliated you on the job. Years of tension came to head spectacularly, leaving the two of you powerless to do anything but give in.

Your frantic hands clawed at his jacket as he gripped your waist and hauled you up, forcing you to wrap your legs around him. The ragged fabric of your once elegant gown, now torn and dirty from the harrowing failure of a mission, rucked up past your hips.

“Oh fuck,” you panted against his mouth, instinctively grinding into him. Leon groaned into the kiss and your head spun as you felt him harden through his pants.

"Jesus, gorgeous." Hit bit down on your lips as he pressed his growing erection further into you.

You were flushed. The room and your blood too hot. Your skin too sensitive. Your clothes felt like they were suffocating you. Desperately, you tried to reach the zipper of your dress with one shaking hand, the other anchoring tightly around his neck. But you couldn’t quite grasp it. A frustrated whine caught in your throat.

“Get me outta this,” you demanded, tearing your mouth from his. Leon nipped at your lips before reluctantly returning your bare feet to the floor.

Instead of bothering with the zipper, he used both hands to rip the satin fabric of your dress, the rasping sound of it tearing making you wince. What remained of the dress fell off you and pooled at your feet. His darkened eyes tracked its movement down your body and your feverish skin erupted in goosebumps under his gaze.

“Fuck,” he grunted and you weren’t sure what felt more intoxicating, finally being free of the restricting clothes or his reaction to your bared body.

You answered by throwing yourself back into his arms with enough force to make him stumble. He found his balance while you found the pulse point on the side of his neck and bit down. Leon gasped then sucked in air between his teeth as you used your tongue to soothe the mark.

“Desk,” you muttered against his skin, knowing that your legs were unlikely to hold you upright for much longer. It was the only word your brain could manage, most of its power now being focused on the feeling of his kiss, the strength of his arms, the musky spicy scent of his skin.

“No,” he bit out and his voice sounded ruined. “Here” With that he had you shoved up against the wall again, pinning you with his hips.

Your stomach swooped, like during a free-fall. He was impatient, near frantic, running his hands over every inch of you he could reach. The feeling of familiar hands in such unfamiliar territory, mixed with the adrenaline and anger from your fight left you shivering despite the fire you could feel building up to a steady roar beneath your skin.

You took a second to lament the fact that you couldn’t possibly undress him with even half as much flair or drama as he did you. Not needing to seduce anyone like you did, Leon had been running the mission from the shadows, and the usual jacket and jeans combo he was wearing was still pretty sturdy even after surviving the disastrous end of the job. You settled for slipping your hands under the jacket and sliding it down his broad shoulders. He grumbled, upset to have to take his hands off you to get the damn thing off, and flung it away carelessly. Any further attempt you made to divest him was foiled by Leon gripping both your wrists in one large hand and pinning them to the wall above your head.

“Later,” he breathed like a promise into your ear. He bent to suck and kiss down the taut muscles of your neck as his free hand grabbed one of your knees to drag up and hook around his waist. Unconsciously, you tilted your hips so your wet heat pressed firmly against the firm bulge at the front of his jeans. Your whole body shook as your clit caught and dragged deliciously on the rough denim.

All pretense, or what little was left of it, melted away at that point. Leon shuddered against you, then moved quickly to unfasten his fly and push his pants and shorts far enough down his hips to release his hard cock. You could feel the velvet heat of it brush against the inside of your thigh as it came free and a surge of liquid warmth swooshed past your belly and down to your cunt.

Without ceremony, he pulled your thong to the side and guided himself into you, bottoming out with a sharp snap of his hips. You cried out. It was almost too much, the sudden stretch and fullness. The intensity. Fuck, your best friend was inside you. You struggled, trying to pull your hands free, but his grip only tightened.

“Holy shit, Leon,” you moaned, his name leaving your lips in almost a wail as he started thrusting in earnest.

"God, you’re so fucking tight, so good,” he grit out through clenched teeth, his nails digging into the soft flesh of your thigh as he fucked you.  

You tried to keep up and give as much as you took, but he set a rough, near punishing pace. And you were only human. It didn’t take long for the spreading warmth and tingles he elicited in you to expand, then violently contract.

Your climax hit you hard and fast, like a tidal wave. You thrashed, throwing your head back against the wall and crying out nonsense oaths, either uncaring or oblivious to the other offices on the floor that could surely hear you from behind the thin walls. Leon fucked you through it, not stopping or slowing, not even when the resulting contractions in your pussy made him shout out loud.

When the wave finally began to ebb and your energy started to bleed away, you sagged, boneless, in his grip. But Leon didn’t miss a beat, dropping your wrists in favor of seizing your hips with both hands. This forced you higher up on the wall, and change of angle made his thrusts hit home deeper, the blunt head of his cock hitting your cervix.

You gasped, fingers and nails clawing into his shoulders as you held on tight. It felt like he was trying to break you in two and the new, dull pain mixed exquisitely with the pleasure every movement still sent through you.

“Oh fuck,” he groaned, burying his face into the side of your neck.

His arms were shaking now and you could tell he was close. You brought your other leg up to wrap around his waist and used what little strength you had left to match his pace with your hips.

That seemed to send him over the edge. A jagged moan ripped from his throat and his fingers tightened painfully into your flesh. With a few more deep thrusts and a gush of wet warmth, he came inside you, your name leaving his lips like some kind of sinful prayer.

“Fuck.”

You ran your hands through his mussed, sweaty hair as he came down and finally pulled out. Leon slumped forward, nuzzling the flushed skin of your chest. His five o’clock shadow tickled and you squirmed, clearly overstimulated. It was enough to take you out of the post-climax haze.

“Leon,” you whispered, fear and uncertainty starting to fill in the space in your chest that your previous rage and indignation had left behind. With some space and time to cool off, you had been reasonably sure your friendship could have bounced back from the earlier clusterfuck. But this… You knew a line had been crossed here that the pair of you had religiously toed for a reason .

You were now scared you had just ruined everything.

“I came so close to having to watch you die today.” It was so quiet that you wouldn’t have caught it if his face wasn’t still so close to yours. Leon took a shaky breath before finally meeting your eyes. “I don’t know what I would have done if I had lost you.”

The honesty hit you like a sock to the gut. “ Leon -”

“No, just let me say something first.” He squeezed his eyes shut. “I know I shouldn’t have reacted the way I did and I know that you’re a good agent, but damn it Y/N, you can be so fucking stubborn sometimes. I don’t know where you got it stuck in your head that you have to do everything yourself, but you don’t. You said I should have trusted you, but you gotta trust me too, sweetheart. Or else none of this shit works.”

Your heart sank, knotting with your stomach in guilt, as you finally realized what all the anger and yelling and fighting had been hiding. He wasn’t just upset that you had gone against his plan. He had been scared.

“I don’t - I didn’t,” you tried, but the words wouldn’t come.

Leon shook his head. “ I don’t ever want to feel like that again. I don’t care what I have to do, what we have to do, but I… I can’t lose you, okay?”

“Okay,” you breathed, your heart clenching in affection for the man in front of you.

“Okay.” Leon pressed a kiss to your temple and sighed heavily, the tension finally starting to bleed from his body. Suddenly, he straightened, wrapped his arms snugly around your back, and started to carry you away from the wall.

You flailed for a moment as your center of gravity shifted, but Leon never dropped you. Even though your behavior from earlier would have warranted it. You felt awful about the whole shit show of a day. With some hindsight, you could admit that maybe you had been a little too hotheaded, a little too eager to prove your worth.

Though whether or not you were ready to admit that to Leon was another story.

“Where are we going?” you asked, stifling a laugh as his open pants slid down to his ankles, forcing him to waddle like an overgrown penguin.

“Couch. I’m exhausted and you’re getting heavy.”

You scoffed in fake indignation as he finally reached his goal and deposited you on the plush cushion of his office’s modest couch. Before he could pull away, you leaned in and caught his lips in a soft, tender kiss. His hands went to the back of your head, blunt nails massaging your scalp in a way that made you melt. When you pulled away, you didn’t bother to hide your smile.

Leon frowned down at you, forehead wrinkled in suspicion. “What was that for?”

You shrugged and pecked his lips again. “Just felt right, I guess. Hey - “ he started to straighten again, but you pulled him back down until he was practically straddling you on the couch. “You know I couldn’t bear losing you either, right? I - you’re important to me.”

The L-word had been on the tip of your tongue, but you forced it back down. You had said it to each other before, but only under strictly platonic circumstances and usually with the help of more than a few drinks. Not naked and vulnerable and thoroughly fucked. After the emotional whirlwind you had just been through, you weren’t sure you could survive opening that can of worms.

“Yeah, you’re important to me too, gorgeous.”

There were sure to be consequences, both numerous and harsh, from everything that occurred. The failed mission. Going against orders. Yelling at a senior agent in front of the entire team. And it would be nothing short of a miracle if no one found out about what had just happened between you and that same agent. You’d be lucky to walk away with a suspension.

But as Leon settled down next to you and tucked you gently into his side, you found it hard to focus on anything other than how good it felt to be in his arms.

[outshinethestars]

Falling Gently (Hetalia)

Life is a succession of moments, one following from another, small, ephemeral things, like dust blowing in the winds of time.  Sometimes there are no grand turning points, no transformations.  Love and growth and change occur by degrees, infinitesimally, and you are unaware of your own movement from one mode of existence to another, until the world has shifted beneath your feet, and you have found yourself somewhere new and look back.

But in that light of hindsight there are some moments suspended in memory, no more significant than those around them, perhaps, but typical of others, steps reminiscent of a journey, like lights along the path.

So, these are moments.

You are still his servant, and you hardly know him at all.

You resent him, of course you resent him.  You resent his snobbish pride, his arrogance.  You resent that you must serve him.  You have always been proud.  You resent him for having power over you.  Your practicality, though, is greater than your pride.  You are willing to bend and bend and bend so long as you do not break, because above all you refuse to break.  And so you are willing to bow to him.  Willing to reshape yourself to gain his favor, because you are determined to take from him all you can.

But, one day he is playing the piano, and you don’t think anyone has ever played anything as beautifully as he does (and you resent that but you enjoy it too.)  And he looks up at you and smiles a little, and says, “Thank you.”

Later, in memory, you will not recall what you were doing or what he is thanking you for.  It could have been any number of inconsequential things, he always is scrupulously polite.

But there is something in the way that the light hits his face, the resonance of notes fading as he pauses in his playing to speak to you.  Something in the small, soft, almost-shyness of his smile that feels so genuine.  You look at him in that moment and you think Oh.  Oh, he’s handsome, isn’t he.

You feel your cheeks heat up and you duck your head down into a curtsy and hope he doesn’t see, and mumble something polite and servantly to him before retreating from the room.

You have never had a crush before.  It strikes you as a very silly girlish sort of affliction, and if you could choose to be attracted to anyone in such a way it certainly wouldn’t be him.  

***

It is the evening after your wedding.

The marriage is one which you are amenable to, because you hope it will grant you greater power and agency.  It is a matter purely of politics, but then so are most marriages, and anything, you think, might be better than being his maid.

You are dancing with him at a ball in honor of your marriage, and you are dressed in the most beautiful and costly dress you have ever worn.  Perhaps it is the dress, or the music, or your own imagination, but when he looks at you there is a light in his eyes that usually seem so distant and cold, and you think he might be in love with you.

It catches you off guard, this thought, this fancy, the possibility, though perhaps it should not.  You have, after all, served him humbly, shaped yourself so as not to offend him.  It is not strange, in a sense, that this self which you have created, in part to please him, since embracing your womanhood, should be a person he would fall in love with. 

But you had not expected it, because before now it had never occured to you to think of him in such a way, as a man with a heart and feelings, who might fall for a girl who cleaned his house and brought him tea, who wore embroidered aprons and a flower in her hair because she thought they were pretty.

You knew he was gentle with you because he is a gentleman, but it has not occurred to you  until this moment that perhaps he likes you.

You dance.  And you see the way he moves in relation to you, observe the angles of him, how he reaches to you almost reverently, the tautness and the restraint of him.  He wants you, but he knows you do not reciprocate.  He wants you, but he will not take you by force, not when it comes to this.  He respects you.

His hands in yours are slender and smooth and soft.  They are the hands of a musician and a nobleman.  Your own hands are rough from washing and calloused from fighting with sword and bow.  You have the hands of a woman and a warrior.

When you were a girl (or a boy) you had respect only for men who were like yourself, men whose hands told the tale of their work, whose skin was touched by dirt and sun, who could hold their own in a fight.  

He is a different sort of man, one of sly intelligence and refinement.  But he has a strength and cruelty of his own.  Power is no less powerful for being won by treaties and marriage alliances than by the sword, and there is something to be said beauty and music as well.  You have come to know him well over the time you have lived in his house, and you have learned to respect him, also.

He is a gentleman and you are a lady and you dance together.  You are husband and wife, and maybe he loves you.  He respects you and you respect him and that is far more than most have.  If you must marry anyone, you are glad to have married him.  You grant him a kiss, and he blushes comically beneath your lips.

***

It is after a battle with Prussia, and he is not even there.

You and Prussia are meeting together as you often do after having torn each other to pieces in battle (or in this case, after you have torn Prussia to pieces), reminiscing and boasting and telling tall soldiers’ tales, and arguing tactics and strategy without ever giving away anything important, in the bright, comfortable way of old enemies who are also friends.

Your conversation wanders, and you tell Prussia a story involving Austria and a bit too much beer and your own slightly inebriated attempts to keep him from embarrassing himself entirely, and Prussia laughs until he winces with pain.

“Fuck, Erzsebet,” he says, “You can’t break my ribs and then tell a story like that.  It’s not fair.”

You just grin smugly at him, “It’s not my fault you’re a fucking wimp.”

“Fuck you,” he says, eyes still laughing, and the two of you descend into a companionable silence.

But then he’s looking at you, considering, in that way of his, as though he’s trying to take you apart in his mind, examining you like the inner workings of machinery that he can disassemble and put together again to understand how it works and make it better.

“Do you love him?” he asks.

The question startles you, coming from nowhere as it does.  He does not speak of such things, is not interested in feelings and relationships, or perhaps he is simply not adept at them.  It is not the sort of question he would ask, but then again, he never fails to say what he wishes to, however indelicate.  

As for you...

You are not an honest person.  Your heart is your own to govern, yours immutably in a way that little else is.  And it is such a complicated question asked so simply.  That is just like Prussia.  He is such a straight-forward person, and always demands simple answers where there are none.  But you would tell him it is none of his business, because it isn’t.  That is what you mean to say.

Except.

Except.

Perhaps it is the blue sky above you, the green grass beneath, the golden daisy you worry between your fingers.  Perhaps it is the blood under your fingernails and the warmth of triumph, the settled feeling after a satisfying battle.  In moments like this your life is brought to a point, there are no important dignitaries, no matters of state, no complications.  Regardless, you have always had little need for pretense with Prussia.  Somehow, you are without your facade in this moment, and there is no overshadowing of what ought to be, or what might be best for your purposes, only what is.  And what is is simple.

“Yes,” you say, “Yes, I do.”

Your heart pounds with the truth of it.  It is a strange revelation, and you do not know what to do with it.  Do not know where it came from, how this came to be.  But you do love him.  You do.  It is obvious in your heart, and you do not know how you never noticed it before.

“Well shit,” Prussia says, “I never took you for a madwoman.”  His tone is jokingly scornful, but his shoulders relax just a little.  He is relieved.  He is happy that you are happy, that you have not been forced into an unhappy marriage against your will all these years.

This is much more comfortable territory for you, strange as it may seem to most who know Prussia.  You had not realized he was so worried for you even still, but it is not a shocking revelation.

“It’s sweet of you to care so much,”  you say, because it is, and because you enjoy teasing him.

“Ugh,” he says, wrinkling his nose up in exaggerated disgust as his cheeks grow pink in true embarrassment, “How could you?  I don’t believe I’ve been so insulted in all my life!”  And you laugh at him cheerfully.

Love is such a strange thing, tossed on the careless waves of time, lost beneath the troubles and ambitions and concerns of life.  Fitting in to place between waking and sleeping, growing slowly in the spaces between smiles and arguments.  Moments follow moments, flitting away without trace.  You look back and try to find the thread, but it is woven so skillfully into the tapestry of time, and there is no pattern for you to grasp.  You love him.  You cannot find the reason.  Perhaps it is because he is handsome and charming, but it cannot be only that.  Perhaps it is because he loves you.  But you are not so kind hearted to let that sway you on its own.  Perhaps love is not a thing bound to reason.  Or perhaps the reasons are countless and forgotten and insignificant.  Perhaps what matters is simply what is.

Austria is your husband, and he falls asleep in your arms, and you love him. 

[dailychapel]

Almighty God, We bless you for our lives, we give you praise for your abundant mercy and grace we receive. We thank you for your faithfulness even though we are not that faithful to you. Lord Jesus, we ask you to give us all around peace in our mind, body, soul, and spirit. We want you to heal and remove everything that is causing stress, grief, and sorrow in our lives.

Please guide our path through life and make our enemies be at peace with us. Let your peace reign in our family, at our place of work, businesses and everything we lay our hands on.

Let your angels of peace go ahead of us when we go out and stay by our side when we return. In Jesus' name, Amen.

[Pro 29:8-18 NKJV] 8 Scoffers set a city aflame, But wise [men] turn away wrath. 9 [If] a wise man contends with a foolish man, Whether [the fool] rages or laughs, [there is] no peace. 10 The bloodthirsty hate the blameless, But the upright seek his well-being. 11 A fool vents all his feelings, But a wise [man] holds them back. 12 If a ruler pays attention to lies, All his servants [become] wicked. 13 The poor [man] and the oppressor have this in common: The LORD gives light to the eyes of both. 14 The king who judges the poor with truth, His throne will be established forever. 15 The rod and rebuke give wisdom, But a child left [to himself] brings shame to his mother. 16 When the wicked are multiplied, transgression increases; But the righteous will see their fall. 17 Correct your son, and he will give you rest; Yes, he will give delight to your soul. 18 Where [there is] no revelation, the people cast off restraint; But happy [is] he who keeps the law.

[1Sa 28:1-25 NKJV] 1 Now it happened in those days that the Philistines gathered their armies together for war, to fight with Israel. And Achish said to David, "You assuredly know that you will go out with me to battle, you and your men." 2 So David said to Achish, "Surely you know what your servant can do." And Achish said to David, "Therefore I will make you one of my chief guardians forever." 3 Now Samuel had died, and all Israel had lamented for him and buried him in Ramah, in his own city. And Saul had put the mediums and the spiritists out of the land. 4 Then the Philistines gathered together, and came and encamped at Shunem. So Saul gathered all Israel together, and they encamped at Gilboa. 5 When Saul saw the army of the Philistines, he was afraid, and his heart trembled greatly. 6 And when Saul inquired of the LORD, the LORD did not answer him, either by dreams or by Urim or by the prophets. 7 Then Saul said to his servants, "Find me a woman who is a medium, that I may go to her and inquire of her." And his servants said to him, "In fact, [there is] a woman who is a medium at En Dor." 8 So Saul disguised himself and put on other clothes, and he went, and two men with him; and they came to the woman by night. And he said, "Please conduct a seance for me, and bring up for me the one I shall name to you." 9 Then the woman said to him, "Look, you know what Saul has done, how he has cut off the mediums and the spiritists from the land. Why then do you lay a snare for my life, to cause me to die?" 10 And Saul swore to her by the LORD, saying, "[As] the LORD lives, no punishment shall come upon you for this thing." 11 Then the woman said, "Whom shall I bring up for you?" And he said, "Bring up Samuel for me." 12 When the woman saw Samuel, she cried out with a loud voice. And the woman spoke to Saul, saying, "Why have you deceived me? For you [are] Saul!" 13 And the king said to her, "Do not be afraid. What did you see?" And the woman said to Saul, "I saw a spirit ascending out of the earth." 14 So he said to her, "What [is] his form?" And she said, "An old man is coming up, and he [is] covered with a mantle." And Saul perceived that it [was] Samuel, and he stooped with [his] face to the ground and bowed down. 15 Now Samuel said to Saul, "Why have you disturbed me by bringing me up?" And Saul answered, "I am deeply distressed; for the Philistines make war against me, and God has departed from me and does not answer me anymore, neither by prophets nor by dreams. Therefore I have called you, that you may reveal to me what I should do." 16 Then Samuel said: "So why do you ask me, seeing the LORD has departed from you and has become your enemy? 17 "And the LORD has done for Himself as He spoke by me. For the LORD has torn the kingdom out of your hand and given it to your neighbor, David. 18 "Because you did not obey the voice of the LORD nor execute His fierce wrath upon Amalek, therefore the LORD has done this thing to you this day. 19 "Moreover the LORD will also deliver Israel with you into the hand of the Philistines. And tomorrow you and your sons [will be] with me. The LORD will also deliver the army of Israel into the hand of the Philistines." 20 Immediately Saul fell full length on the ground, and was dreadfully afraid because of the words of Samuel. And there was no strength in him, for he had eaten no food all day or all night. 21 And the woman came to Saul and saw that he was severely troubled, and said to him, "Look, your maidservant has obeyed your voice, and I have put my life in my hands and heeded the words which you spoke to me. 22 "Now therefore, please, heed also the voice of your maidservant, and let me set a piece of bread before you; and eat, that you may have strength when you go on [your] way." 23 But he refused and said, "I will not eat." So his servants, together with the woman, urged him; and he heeded their voice. Then he arose from the ground and sat on the bed. 24 Now the woman had a fatted calf in the house, and she hastened to kill it. And she took flour and kneaded [it], and baked unleavened bread from it. 25 So she brought [it] before Saul and his servants, and they ate. Then they rose and went away that night.

[Mar 12:35-36, 38-40 NKJV] 35 Then Jesus answered and said, while He taught in the temple, "How [is it] that the scribes say that the Christ is the Son of David? 36 "For David himself said by the Holy Spirit: 'The LORD said to my Lord, "Sit at My right hand, Till I make Your enemies Your footstool." ' ... 38 Then He said to them in His teaching, "Beware of the scribes, who desire to go around in long robes, [love] greetings in the marketplaces, 39 "the best seats in the synagogues, and the best places at feasts, 40 "who devour widows' houses, and for a pretense make long prayers. These will receive greater condemnation."

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.