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manic-nova · 3 years

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Returning The Favor: Tartaglia x Fem Reader

Summary: You go on a mission with Childe to return the favor on your long list of I-owe-you’s indebted to him. When things begin to go south, he has alternatives in mind.

Word Count: 8,703 words

Characters Featured: Tartaglia, Fem Reader

TWs: NSFW THEMES MINORS DO NOT INTERACT, themes of blackmail, blood, knives, death threats, nonconsensual touching and holding (not in a sexual context).

Part 1 of 2.

*Pls, he’s so sexy 🥵🥵

You had become rather infamous in Liyue as of recent. The foreigner who took any job (for the right price). You were endowed with talents by the gods that made you an expert at stealth and hunting. They would get you wrapped up in many lucrative and taboo jobs. For this reason, you had many friends in high places, and lots of enemies everywhere else. However, there was one particular organization that continued to get in the way of your work: the Fatui. The wishes of the Tsaritsa seemed to contradict the requests of your clients more and more these days. You had questioned if crossing an Archon was really a great choice in retrospect, but you were also not about to pass up 3 million mora. That money was as good as yours.

At dusk, in the bustling streets of Liyue Harbor, you sat atop a rooftop draped in black with keen eyes, watching the people come and go from Northland Bank. The target was set to arrive within the hour, all there was left to do was wait to strike. The man showed up in a grey suit and a fedora that covered his face, but you knew it was him. He was wearing the pure gold watch encrusted with Noctolucus Jade you were told to keep an eye out for. Rookie mistake to leave something like that so visible if you were attempting to hide your identity. You pulled the string on the bow you had been clutching and carefully aimed at the target. One shot. One kill. That’s how you had always done it, and you didn’t miss. You watched closely for the moment of a clear shot, being sure not to catch a civilian in the crossfire, and went the viewpoint finally opened up-

“I thought I told you to stop trying to kill my associates.”

Childe, also known as Tartaglia of the Fatui Harbingers, was here in perfect time to foil your plans… once again.

You let out a deep sigh of disappointment, Childe’s blades were already right at your neck, and the target was gone. You dropped your bow and threw your hands up reluctantly in surrender.

“Oh, how I wonder how many times we’ll do this little routine until you finally learn your lesson,” The harbinger teased with hints in his voice of impatience has he firmly grabbed you by the chin and forced your eyes to meet his.

“Each and every time we do this I consider dropping all of my other jobs simply so I can collect the bounty that’s over your head, Childe.” You replied in annoyance.

“Aww, you think you can kill me when you can’t even sneak past me,” he cooed, removing the blade from your neck and his grip on your face. “How cute.”

“Alright, Childe. What do you want?”

“What I want is for you to stop trying to murder my clients, but I suppose such foolish hopes are a lost cause,” he explained. “You know, the second you get caught is the second I may very well have to kill you.”

“And yet, here I am,” you asserted. “Can’t get rid of me that easily. Of course, you could always rat me out to your Fatui colleagues, then I’d probably be toast.”

“Oh, darling, why would I do that? You keep me on my toes.”

“Childe…”

“Right, right…” he murmured. “Back to business. Once again, I will conveniently forget to report this incident to the Tsaritsa, and in exchange…”

“I owe you one…” you declared in utter defeat.

The conversation had always ended with a vague assertion of an IOU. It must’ve been the 6th or 7th time Childe spared your life, and each time he’d say he’d cash in that favor next time just to put it off again. You had your doubts that Childe would ever take you up at this point, and yet you also feared that he was letting the debt collect on purpose. That thought always left you with a tinge of paranoia when you and the harbinger parted ways, and you expected to leave tonight under the same circumstances.

“Actually, I think I’ll use those favors, if you don’t mind.” He let of a slight chuckle followed by a warm, closed-eyed smile.

“Oh?” You answered him skeptically. “Well, what exactly is it you need?”

Tartaglia’s eyes quickly darted around the area suspiciously. This lasted for many seconds before he turned back to you and began to brief you about an assignment of his.

“He works for a ship manufacturing company that borrowed a large amount of lumber from Shneznaya many months ago, and the Tsaritsa is desperately awaiting reimbursement, as well as the interest owed. I’m supposed to be at Wangshu Inn in a couple hours to collect.”

“And where exactly do I fit in here?” You asked.

“Well… he owes a considerable amount of mora to which there is no room for negotiation, and I suspect he might get a little aggressive when he realizes that we are no longer kindly asking for the amount owed. If he attempts to attack me, I cannot defend myself, not because I am not capable, but because it would look very bad for I, a Fatui Harbinger, to attack a visionless, well known business man. I, and the rest of the members of the Fatui, are on thin ice with the people of Liyue as it stands.”

“Ahh yes. How could anyone forget about you summoning an ancient god that nearly destroyed the whole harbor? What a model citizen you are,” you jabbed at him.

“I told you, I had my reasons,” Childe insisted, whining in defense.

You rolled your eyes in utter impatience. “Yes, you have indeed explained to me how you tried to draw out Rex Lapis, because you thought he faked his death, even though he was in fact actually dead.”

“But he’s- ugh, nevermind,” he conceded. “The point is, I need you specifically because you’re not a member of the Fatui. If he lashes out and you attack him, people will believe it was just an assassination attempt and the Fatui had nothing to do with it.”

“Ya, but the only way they’d be able to confirm that is if I got caught. You’re not betting on me being captured, are you?”

“Now why would I do that? Admittedly, it would be preferable if you were at least seen, but the likelihood of you being caught… remind me again who the only person to ever catch you in the act has been.”

You let out a deep and reluctant sigh. “You, Childe.”

“That’s right,” he asserted proudly. “Certainly no Millelith guard at the Wangshu Inn could even dream of having skills like mine, so you have nothing to worry about.”

“Is that so?” You asked, glaring at him skeptically.

He smiled. “Of course it is! Besides, if we get there early, I’ll treat you to dinner. Free food!”

You continued to glare at the brightly smiling boy. “Anything I want?”

“Anything at all,” he insisted.

Your body tensed and your eyes felt like they’d rolled all the way into the back of your head. Spending your whole night on a mission with Tartaglia was the last thing you wanted to do, but if this was all it took for you to finally be free from the clutches of the debt you owed him, then truly it would be worth it in your book. “Fine,” you said reluctantly, “let’s hurry up and head out!”

“Yes ma’am!” He answered back enthusiastically.

The two of you immediately left Liyue Harbor, passed the Golden House, and set your sights on Wangshu Inn. Childe didn’t even need the map. He knew the directions perfectly and even had some clever shortcuts. You two were making excellent time.

Up in the distance of the dirt path you had been following, you saw Wangshu Inn towering above the surrounding land.

“Well, looks like we’ve arrived. Time to devise our plan b,” Childe instructed. “Wangshu Inn is a place of high traffic but low security. For now, you’re fine, but when he arrives it’s imperative you stay out of sight.”

“Yes, I understand that, Childe, you don’t need to dumb it down for me.”

“Good, cause of this goes south it’ll be a whole lotta wasted time on your part.” He asserted. “We should scout the meeting location for a vantage point that you can use, then we can flesh out a strategy over dinner.”

“Sounds, good to me.” You agreed reluctantly.

You and Childe ventured to the top of Wangshu Inn and took a detailed account of the area, looking for a point where you could see everything but no one could see you. You both agreed that the roof was the best and only option, closer than you would prefer, but beggars can’t be choosers, and with that settled you headed back to the ground floor for some food.

Childe pulled out a chair for you at a table far away from the others, then took a seat of his own soon after. The waitress walked over to the table, and smiled. “Hi there! Welcome to Wangshu Inn! How are you two enjoying yourselves tonight?” She asked with a suffocating perkiness.

Childe smiled back at the waitress, his eyes squinting and teeth wide. “We’re doing just fine, thank you,” he replied gentlemanly.

“Wonderful,” the waitress beamed. “So, what will the lovely couple be having for dinner this evening?”

You nearly spit out the Osmanthus Wine you had been sipping on out of pure shock. You instinctually went to correct her. “Oh, we’re not-“

“We’ll have today’s special,” Childe answered the lady, completely washing over your own words.

“We actually have two specials tonight. Which one were you wanting?”

“We’ll take both,” he replied, handing the waitress our menus before I could make any objections.

“Right away, sir.”

The waitress scurried off to tell the chef, and you turned to Childe much less than pleased.

“What’s wrong?” He asked completely nonchalantly. “Oh don’t tell me you’re upset because I let that waitress think we’re dating.”

“I wouldn't say I’m… upset exactly.”

“You seemed quite shocked at the notion. Why? Couldn’t see yourself with someone as handsome and successful as me?” He teased.

“Ha! Handsome? Debatable. Successful? Only at screwing things up,” you gave his shoulder a light punch.

“You don’t think I’m handsome?”

“I think you’re arrogance makes you quite unattractive,” you told him.

Did you find him attractive? Of course. You weren’t blind, but you had no intention of giving him the satisfaction of knowing.

“Well, that’s quite unfortunate. I’ve always thought you were rather stunning myself,” he exclaimed.

You felt a tiny of redness come to your cheeks. The table fell silent and you tried to slow the accelerating pace of your heart before things got awkward.

“I- excuse me, I’m going to find a restroom before our food gets here,” you told him, and you quickly stood up from your seat.

“Oh, of course,” Childe answered back, face dying down into a duller stare. “Don’t take too long. We are on a schedule after all.”

“Ya, I got it,” you told him, rushing away from the table. You went back into the Inn and into the women’s restroom. You doused your face in a handful of water and tried to clear your thoughts. There was a mission at hand, and you didn’t have time for this foolishness, and yet, no matter how hard you tried, you couldn’t erase Tartaglia’s earnest smile from your mind as he called you stunning.

You couldn’t stand Tartaglia. He was arrogant and scheming and an awful tease. It drove you mad with anger, but you couldn’t deny the kind of butterflies that grew in your stomach every time you and Childe engaged in your usual back and forth banter. It was irritating and yet enthralling, like a song on repeat you couldn’t get out of your head. You prayed to the archons every time you wouldn’t see him again, and yet fate of your subconscious or some other unknown force brought you back every time, because he made you burn with rage and glow with desire at the same time. You couldn’t stand Tartaglia, because he set you on fire in so many different ways.

You mustered up the composure to leave the bathroom and head back to the table. As you left, there was a shady looking man approaching the check in counter. Something about him was giving you bad vibes, but you moved closer to investigate. As you approached, you felt a pair of aggressive hands pull you into the darkness under a staircase, covering your mouth and holding you tightly as to keep you from squirming. You tried to wriggle yourself free from their grasp, but they wouldn’t budge.

“Shh! Shh… if he sees either one of us here right now the mission is over, so try to stay calm,” the figure whispered into your ear.

He slowly removed his hand from your mouth and you too a deep and calming breath to get over the scare. “Childe?”

“Who else?”

His hands were still wrapped tightly around you, keeping both you and him within the small area of shadowing under the staircase. Childe was extremely quiet, a sign he was in deep focus, listening for when the client would leave. You, however, were having a hard time focusing on anything but the feeling of his hands on you and his body pressed against yours. It felt safe, like you could melt into him and stay there forever.

“Try to calm yourself. Slow your heartbeat. That’ll definitely- oh. You’re heart rate went down. That’s weird. You seemed really startled before.”

“Actually, I think my heart just straight up stopped.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t catch that.”

“Nothing!”

Childe’s hand reflexively moved back to your mouth. “Shh! You’re gonna get us caught.”

“Mhfmmrrffm.”

“Stop. Talking.”

Your head hung low in the embarrassment of your highly unprofessional mistake, and you reluctantly nodded your head in agreement, and Childe released his hand from your mouth once again. You gave up struggling and Childe seemed to engulf your whole body in his tall frame. Your mind went blank and all you could remember was the feeling of his skin, warmth radiating off it, and making your body temperature rise under the stuffy staircase.

Childe leaned his face closer toward yours, and the hand that held your face was now wrapped around your chest. "You doing okay, comrade?" he whispered gently.

His breath sent a cold chill down your spine. "I'm fine," you answered, staring blankly in front of you. You were dead still. The heat between your bodies felt like it would combust at any second, or maybe it was just your imagination. His hands wrapped in leather grasping your body for dear life, his ginger hair brushing against your skin, his broad chest pressing on your back... It felt like a dream, a hallucination even. It felt like you'd blink and he'd be gone.

A pair of loud footsteps trampling above you prompted Childe to pull you in even closer. The bulge of his pants was right up against your ass, and this time you grabbed Childe's hand and forcefully pressed it back against your mouth to suppress the moan attempting to escape your lips. He simultaneously buried his face into the back of your head and you felt the vibrations of his voice pass through you. The footsteps grew distant and then finally disappeared. Childe's hands released their grip on you and you went tumbling to the ground, and he immediately followed. You were both panting, a combination of the heat under the stairs passing through both your bodies, the nervousness and fear of being caught, and the rising tension between the two of you. Your eyes briefly met while you still tried to catch your breath then immediately darted away from each other.

Childe was the first to pull himself together. "I- uh- apologize for startling you. I saw the guy enter the building and I knew you two would cross paths if I didn't intervene, so naturally, I-"

"I get it," you responded, still averting your eyes from his gaze. "I'm sorry I almost got us caught."

"Oh, no worries," he assured you. "We're still in the clear for now, that's what matters."

With that, Childe pulled himself off the ground and offered you a hand to do the same. His eyes were also still avoiding your own, but you took his hand regardless, and he yanked you off the ground, slamming you right into his chest. You immediately pulled yourself away, and Childe's normally confident facade seemed to completely crumble before you.

"My sincerest apologies! I should've been more careful-"

"Ahh, no! Forget about it..." you quickly stopped the blushing and stuttering mess Childe had become that was only fueling your own nerves. You shook your head ferociously, trying to shake away your intrusive thoughts. “Alright, we don’t have time to mess around. We need to get out of sight before he has a chance to come back around.”

Childe took his hand to his forehead and let out a large sign. He seemed excessively stressed and a little angry as well. “You’re right,” he answered back. “I already reserved a room before I came here. We should hide there and take the remaining time we have to take into account the new factors and adjust our plan.” He had already grabbed onto your wrist and was pulling you with him.

“That sounds like- wait… did you seriously reserve us a room?” You asked suspiciously. “We’re you expecting something to happen?”

Childe stopped and looked back at you in the corner of his eyes. He let out a small chuckle that eventually grew into a devious laughter.

“I- what’s so funny?” You questioned, yanking your hand away and defensively pulling back from him. “Childe, you’re making a scene, so you may as well spit it out already!” You chastised hun, taking your now free hand and slapping it across his shoulder in reprimand.

He kept laughing, his eyes lighting up and his cheeks glowing with a rosy tint. “Do you not hear yourself??” He questioned back,

You glared at him, confused and offended. You couldn’t even figure out what he was trying to get you to say and it left you stumbling over your own tongue, mind spinning in a daze. “What am I missing here?”

The laughter finally began to die down and the Childe that was so thoroughly stressed a moment ago seemed elated, which made you slightly uneasy. “Honey, I got that room for myself,” he affirmed. “You came up with us all on your own.” He teasingly placed the hand that was holding yours on your cheek and stepped closer to you, your faces becoming mere inches apart. “Now tell me, were you expecting something to happen?”

Silence fell over both of you. Your heart sank into your stomach and a feeling of stupidity and humiliation ran over you like a truck. “Let’s just… get to the room before we have a chance to run into that guy again.”

“If you’re so eager…”

“Childe.”

“Ya, ya. It’s right over here.”

A few doors down from where you were standing, Childe inserted a key and opened the door, motioning for you to come inside. You reluctantly entered the room. If was elegant but lacking in character, pristine but lifeless. You took a seat at the chair in the corner, and Childe leaped and flounced onto the bed in the center like a… well, a child. He flipped himself over onto his back, resting his head onto his hands in a lazy position and crossing his legs over one another. He watched the ceiling fan above him meticulously, watching it go round and round again. You realized while he was staring into space you had been staring at him, and quickly redirected your sight to a painting above the bed that you didn’t particularly care for, but it was something to keep your mind occupied.

Childe sighed loudly. “He’s definitely up to something,” he spoke bluntly.

You perplexed. “What makes you think that?”

“A few small details,” he answered. “First off, I’d understand if he showed up a couple minutes early, even an hour, but, we’ve still got two hours until we meet so why is he already here?”

“I mean, ya, it’s a little weird, but there are plenty of logical explanations for it, that alone isn’t a reason for suspicion.”

“That is true, but… I’m also concerned about what was on him.”

“What do you mean? There wasn’t anything on him,” you further perplexed.

Childe stood back up from the bed and placed his hand on the back wall. “Exactly,” he said, his tone growing frustrated once again. “If he didn’t have anything on him, where the hell is the money? And if he wasn’t going to give the money, why the hell did he show up in the first place?!”

Childe drew his hand into a fist and forced it into the wall in front of him, sending a loud banging noise throughout the room. You got up from your chair and gently placed your hand on his shoulder. “Childe, I know this is stressful, but we need to pull together and take into account the new possibilities. Let’s just sit down and talk this out.”

He took a deep breath and let the anger wash away from his expression. He took your hand, removed it from his shoulder, and began to move towards the door. “I’m going out to do some reconnaissance. You should get some rest while I’m gone.”

You took his hand back and quickly stopped him in his tracks. “I’m sorry, weren’t you the one who was just saying we needed to stay out of sight, and now you’re going out?”

“I will stay out of sight,” he asserted.

“Well then I’m going with you-“

“No,” he interrupted. “If I get spotted I can talk my way out of it. If he sees you, it’s all over. Your reputation precedes you enough to ensure that.”

“I- Childe…”

“I’ll be back in an hour to relay the intel I’ve gathered to you, then we’ll commence the plan.”

You grew silent as you could see there was nothing you could say or do to get him to stay. His mind was set. There was something he felt he had to do, and you nor anyone else would stop him. You released his hand and watched as he left the room. You watched him fidget with the knob as he locked the door behind him, trapping you inside. That was the least of your concerns. You were more worried about the risk Childe was making by traversing the area before the meetup time. Childe was indeed a smooth talker, but one slip up and the plan was in shambles, and the debt you owed him would only continue to grow.

You took a look at the bed and remembered his suggestion for you to get some rest. Your hand ran across the sheets he had lain across minutes ago. You could still feel the warmth of his body as you laid onto the bed and let the covers envelope you with his scent. He smelt like citrus and the ocean. Childe… his name and face ran through your mind like a record on repeat. You needed to stop thinking about him for two seconds, but you just couldn’t bring yourself to, and soon your mind became numb again, drunk of the memory of his touch. You took one of the spare pillows and buried your face into it, wishing you could expel these thoughts, but instead you became drowsy and drifted into sleep.

From Childe’s perspective…

Childe sat atop the roof of Wangshu Inn and watched as the stars made their grand appearances in the sky, one by one, trying to clear his head. What was always intended to be a straightforward mission has grown more and more complicated over the hours, and Childe couldn’t help but be struck with an ominous feeling. Something was bound to go terribly wrong. He could feel it. You and him had already narrowly avoided failure once tonight, he certainly had his doubts that you’d be able to pull that off again. Still, he was thankful you both skated by the first time around.

He could still feel it, the feeling of you in his arms, the way you sank into him so trustingly. He could remember the faint scent of silk flowers on your hair and the soft texture of your skin. Everything was so tense in that moment and yet his mind had never been more clear, that is until you began to become far too… distracting. It undoubtably took everything in him to maintain a sense of professionalism in that moment. Such things are normally not a concern for him, but on a mission, he knew it was best for both of you this way.

He began to wonder if he had pushed your own boundaries a little too hard at dinner, noting the way you hastened away from the table. Maybe his comment about finding you beautiful could’ve best been left for after the mission, but he simply couldn’t help himself. He’s a natural tease after all, and dinner at sunset was undeniably romantic. Besides, you were so cute flustered, and he found himself with the irresistible urge to flatter you further. It was quite unfortunate that your alone time got cut short. Maybe he could get you to stick around after the mission, and maybe then, just maybe, he could get you flustered all over again.

Childe couldn’t seem to make up his mind on whether or not his choice to bring you along with him on the mission was a wise choice or one that was ultimately turning out to be a hinderance. After all, he sat atop the Wangshu Inn where he should’ve been considering his plan for the mission and instead found himself trying to decipher the inter workings of your mind. There was a lot of things about you he couldn’t make his mind up about, like whether or not the rushing feeling he got around you was the result of a desire for battle and rivalry or the thrill that came with chasing hopelessly after a romantic interest. He knew it was one of those two reasons he continued to spare your life, but which of the two he couldn’t decide. Which ideal did the fixation of his heart arise from: love or war? Did he want to face you in glorious combat or find you peacefully in his arms?

This mission… was going to be a lot harder than he thought.

Back to your perspective…

When you woke up, Childe was sitting on the edge of the bed looking out the window when he noticed you started to move.

“Dream of anything worth noting?”

“Uhh… not really. I don’t think so,” you answered with a yawn.

“Oh really? Is that why you’re straddling that pillow between your legs? You know, come to think of it, I think that’s the one I was using earlier…”

Your eyes immediately shot down to between your legs, and sure enough, there was a pillow you had seemed to place right there in your sleep. Your face grew red, and you took the pillow and chunked it right at Childe’s face. “In your dreams, dumbass.”

He caught the pillow one handed. “Nope. In yours actually. Just know next time if you want me to stay with you all you gotta do is ask.”

“Are you forgetting that the goal at the end of this is for there not to be a next time?” You chewed him out. “I’m here to return the favor for you, that’s it. So let’s talk mission.”

He took a deep breath and stood up from the table, his smile fading into a blank and serious expression. “Upon further looking into the matter, I believe I have a more clear idea of how this ordeal will likely play out. I went and asked the front desk if they were holding any belongings of his for safekeeping since we didn’t see anything. I made sure to pay them hush money as well, but sure enough, nothing. I don’t think this guy brought the money at all, so either he’s holding it some place off sight, or…”

“Or this is about to get confrontational.”

“Exactly,” Childe acknowledged.

“So… what’s the plan now?”

“I have one adjustment,” he declared. “If he does in fact outright refuse to pay, I want you to send a warning shot, and we’ll see what lengths we’ll need to take from there.”

“Seriously?! I thought the whole point of bringing me along was for me to make my own moves without them being associated with you.”

“It was, but that’s not going to cut it anymore. He needs to know we’re willing to take the force necessary to get our way, but I’m still in no position to be making moves of my own out in the open, so your purpose for being here still stands. Besides, we don’t have time to think it over any longer. We need to get set up. It’s now or never.”

You took a deep breath and braced yourself for the hard part. Despite the minor distractions and changing details, you and Childe had devised a thorough plan, and you were now at the point of no return. This was the business in which you dedicated your life to, where one minor mistake could have fatal consequences.

You left the room alone and shut the door firmly behind you, making sure to be aware of your surroundings. The first step was to get away from that room and Childe. The second was to make your way to the rooftop without drawing suspicion, a simple enough task most of the way. Smile and wave at staff, go and “watch the stars from the best view”, slip into the shadows of the night and onto your vantage point, retrieve the bow you stashed their earlier when you were scouting the location. From here it was like deja vu, muscle memory. You were right back where you had started that night, bow in hand, waiting, watching, listening, a routine you had revisited hundreds of times before.

You heard a set of footsteps approach the meeting spot and peered over to find the man you saw earlier walking toward the balcony railing. He was, once again, suspiciously empty handed, but also surprisingly calm, which made you uneasy. Something about his self assured demeanor in the moment was telling you he was up to something. You started trying to analyze your larger surroundings, looking for potential tools or buddies he might’ve invited to take along, but despite your keen eyes and ears, everything else seemed completely normal to you.

About ten minutes later, a second set of footsteps indicated Childe’s presence. The plan was now fully in motion. There was no longer time to divide your attention looking for something that may not have been there. All you could do was watch and wait for Childe’s queue to take the shot.

“Hello there, kind sir. We meet again.” Childe addressed the man, a smile plastered on his face you knew all too well was grossly in genuine. “How we’re your travels? Am I to assume smooth sailing since you stand before me in one piece?”

“You’re as eloquent as ever with introductions. Certainly “Tartaglia” could not be more ill fitting alias for someone like you, kid.”

The man’s voice was comparatively more mature than the harbinger’s, but it held the same stylistic flair and boastfulness as Childe’s speech patterns. Right from the first sentence, he’s well spoken, like a seasoned business man, matching the energy of his associate to the tee without even skipping a beat. Often, you can tell a lot about a persons character by the way they speak.

“My voyage here was okay, I’d say, aside from when we got near the Inazuman border. No avoiding that though.”

“Well, I’m glad you could make it,” Tartaglia addresssed the man.

“I very much agree…” the man confirmed. “It seems we have quite a bit to discuss.”

Tartaglia let off a slight chuckle, flashing that signature smile of his. “Why, yes. Yes, we do,” Childe continued. “I’m sure it would be advantageous to both of us to get to the business at hand. So with that said, will you be wanting the official record of fees owed to the Tsaritsa?”

“Why, yes, that would be just convenient.” He told Childe agreeably.

“Well then…” Childe began to fumble with the folder that was stuffed in the back of his waistband, opening it up and pulling out a neat slip of paper which he handed to the man. “Her majesty, the Tsaritsa, has kindly taken the initiative of putting together a list itemizing the amount owed dating back to the first month in which you entered the contract. By all means, feel free to review everything and make sure our information is correct. We strive to be thorough with these kinds of things.”

The man took the paper from his hand and took a brief once over of it, unfazed as when he arrived. Childe was watching the man closely as he scanned over the document, but he seemed to be more attentive to him than the man was to the bill. After a brief moment, he looked back up from the paper and at Childe once again.

“So, are there any questions regarding the charges listed? Does everything look correct to you?” Childe asked.

The man smiled. “Why, yes. It seems just fine to me.”

The visible tension in Childe’s back and neck muscles seemed to loosen a bit. “Fantastic. Since we are in agreement about the amount owed, I must ask, how will you be paying?”

The business man’s slight smile began to grow into an eery wide grin. “I think I’ll pass on that part.”

A sense of incoming danger washed over your body and unease seemed to seep into your bones. This was an outcome you half expected, and yet the look on his face and tone of his voice were telling you something was extremely off here.

“I beg your pardon, sir,” Childe responded, the tension rising back up his spine and his voice struggling to keep composure.

“I believe you heard me loud and clear, kid,” the man replied.

Childe took a deep and shaky breath before taking an assertive step forward toward the man. “Sir, I’m not sure what kind of impression you were put under before coming here, but let me be abundantly clear. Given the amount owed and the time in when it has been owed, this is no longer negotiable. The Fatui would hate to have to go to extreme measures.”

The man stood his ground before the harbinger and looked him dead in the eyes. “You’re so full of shit, Tartaglia,” he grimaced. “You know, I really thought more highly of you, but I just can’t believe you brought a friend along so that they could do the dirty work for you.”

Your body jerked in shock at the mans statement. Did he really find you out, or was he just bluffing? Regardless, the nerves in your body continued to swell and stomach was began to feel like it was twisting into knots.

“Alright, missy, come on and show yourself!” The man called out to the open.

You stood frozen in place, unsure what move to make other than no movement at all. He knew, he knew all along, and somehow at some point you let him find out. You hadn’t messed up a mission this badly since your early days, and you weren’t prepared to make backup plans for these kinds of occurrences, but at the very least, you knew that if he was asking you to come out, he didn’t know where you were out there, only that you were out there, and that was your last and final advantage. Childe had little to say as well. All he could do was act oblivious to the accusations that this man was making and hope for the best, but he persisted onward. You saw a flash of light come from his pocket, reflecting the lanterns of the Wangshu Inn, and instinct knew exactly what the illusive object was.

“Fine, then. If you, Tartaglia, are the only one up here…” a swift motion of his hand had the shining object right up against Childe’s neck in a heartbeat, “then I guess I should have no problem taking you out of the picture!”

It was a finely sharpened switchblade which had already broken skin and was letting a small stream of blood from Childe’s neck. It was a bluff, certainly. Killing Childe would only make the forces of the Fatui go after him that much harder, but… Childe was defenseless to do anything about it himself in fear of drawing attention, and there he stood continuing to draw blood. He was in physical pain. Something was so incredibly wrong, and then you saw the red glow of the knife and the matching glow of the pocket in which it came. From there, you put two and two together. The visionless man in question had in fact managed to attain a vision, a pyro one, and he was using his new power to burn into the Harbinger’s skin.

The overconfident and self assured attitude that had been making you uneasy this whole time suddenly made much more sense. Visions gave people the power to become new people and have power over other people. This man knew that if he played his cards right he could walk free of the reins of the Fatui with this new power, and we were playing right into his hands.

The mans wrist made the slightest twitch, indicating that he was prepared to follow through with what he started, and you had seen enough. You stepped into the lantern light, aimed and armed, and the man quickly turned Childe to face you.

Childe’s discomfort continued to grow and become more apparent as you tried to aim a clear shot at the man, but he continued to move Childe around as a human shield, the constant squirming forcing the shallow wound on his skin to widen as they moved synchronously.

“This is between you and me now. I have nothing to do with him, now let him go,” you seethed, teeth clenched in an attempt to suppress your growing nerves.

The man scoffed, his grip on the harbinger unshaken. "Nothing to do with him? Don't make me laugh. You outed yourself as his co-conspirator the second you showed your face here-"

"You're wrong," you intervened, furious at his self-assuredness. "I received a tip that you would be meeting with a Fatui Harbinger to discuss business negotiations tonight and followed him here. He's no more than a bystander in my own business endeavor. I prefer not to let other people get caught in the crossfire of my business, therefore I suggest you to release him. Would you rather face me or the entire Fatui?"

A devious smile began to grow across his face, and soon maniacal laughter ensued. An uneasy feeling seemed to coat your entire body, it shaking under the pressure of his neurotic staring. With every small movement he made, like so much as a twitching of his brow, it became more and more obvious that something was so incredibly wrong here. But what was it?

"Oh, how low you must think of me to think I'd be so foolish as to not consider that before hand," he pestered. "I could never be so naive, but you... you're my perfect alibi."

His wild eyes darted over to the Millileth guards who had been in the near distance, watching closely as the events unfolded, arms crossed and shoulders lazily relaxed, and things suddenly began to make a whole lot more since.

"You... you payed them off," you seethed, anger mixed with anxiety whirling inside of you.

His scaly grin stretched maniacally across his face. "Why of course," he boasted. "I used every penny I had saved up to pay the Tsaritsa before you Fatui assholes tried to rob me!"

"You bastard!" Childe exacerbated.

His only response to the harbinger was the subtle but effective twisting of the knife, forcing a subdued cry from his lips.

"Now... let me tell you how this is gonna end. You could make the smart choice, drop your weapon, and let me leave and never have to lay eyes on a disgusting Fatui member again, or our lovely friends from the Millileth are gonna have to go to Northland Bank and tell the Fatui about how one of their prized diplomats was brutally murdered by an infamous bow wielding assassin from Liyue Harbor."

"You wouldn't dare-"

"Try me," he challenged. "Whether he dies by my hands or yours, if you try to shoot me that's exactly how this'll end. So now I ask you... would you rather deal with me or the Fatui?"

You winced. You and Childe both were being played like cards, manipulated like puppets, a Fatui Harbinger and a veteran assassin brought to their knees by a common business man. It was a cat and mouse game, except you and Childe had been on this chase thinking he was the mouse. It riddled you with shame, fear, rage...

Your hands were shaking. You hadn't had problems with shaky hands when your bow was in your clutches in many years. You gripped the weapon firmer to attempt to quell the vibration to no avail. Never on a mission had you been such a mess.

Childe looked up at you in pain, his high levels of shame matching your own. He let out an intense breath of frustration. "Take the shot," he said.

You felt your stomach drop as he stared you down with cold blue eyes, demanding and serious.

"Childe, if I-"

"Take the shot, y/n..."

"But if I hit you-"

"I said take the shot!" The harbinger thundered. "There's no time to hesitate on this, you have to take him out!"

"I- stop talking down on me!" You grumbled back, hesitantly pulling back in the string of your bow, desperately realigning your aim away from Childe's head over and over again. Shaking and heavy breathing seemed to nearly take over as you watched Childe open his wound further as he struggled to try and pull away far enough to give you an opening. His eyes darted around at your unsteady arrow. You braced yourself to take the shot, wishing you had the time to get on your knees and pray for the gods blessings. No god was coming to your aid now though, and so you mustered what composure you had left to steady your bow and align your aim. You pulled all the way back on the bow, a deep breath in as you prepared for the release, and as you finally began to let go, you watched the arrow glide past both of their heads. Close. Too close.

He loosened his grip in the shock for only a second, but it was enough. You came barreling across the balcony toward the man, Childe falling to the ground like a ragdoll as you gripped your one hand across the man's neck, the other with a spare arrow readily at his heart. He chuckled in your grasp with a disgusting smirk. You wanted to kill him there and now, for your pride and the pain he made you witness your traveling companion feel before your very eyes, but you looked him dead in the eyes and said: "If I ever see your face again, I'll make sure it'll be the last time anyone does."

He paid no mind to his position, offering a simple nod before you removed your hands from him and he began to leisurely walk away, watched carefully and soon followed by guards he had paid off.

You turned to Childe, eyes teary with fear and concern, but Childe had already gotten back off the ground, hunched over in a mixture of pain and exhaustion.

"Childe, you shouldn't-"

"Why didn't you take the shot?" He questioned, eyes facing the ground in shame.

You perplexed before him. "I... I could've killed you. What else could I have done?"

"Oh really," he speculated, his tone leaning on deviance. "I didn't think you valued my life all that much."

"Childe... we have our differences, but I-"

The harbinger finally lifted his head away from his chest, stampeding toward you in a heavy footed rampage, eyes lit up in a fierce stare. You began to stumble back, nearly tripping over your own two feet, but he caught you firmly in his hands, gripping your shoulders and pushing you up against the walls of the Wangshu Inn. "Are you an idiot?!" He screamed, "Why? What happened to wanting to get rid of me, huh?! Either you took the shot and landed him and you no longer have to worry about owing me, or you hit me and never have to deal with me again, so why?!"

"Childe, let go of me!" You squelched, struggling to break free. "What's wrong with you! Did you want me to kill you?!"

"I want to know why you spared me! There's gotta be a reason, and I won't let you go until you tell me. Why'd you do it? What's your motive?!"

"Why?!" You exacerbated, "Why?! Because, Childe, I came here so that I could finally leave you behind, but if you died by my hands... I would've never been able to forget you!" You answered, shoving him off you in a rush of adrenaline.

Childe stumbled away from you, the intensity in his eyes quickly dwindling. He looked so conflicted and ashamed, silence overcoming him. Disappointment was written all over him and you felt yourself shrivel under his gaze.

"I... I shouldn't have said that," you quickly backtracked, resisting the temptation to bury yourself in the wall in your embarrassment. "You know what? You should just forget I even said anything. It was stupid, and I wasn't thinking..."

His eyes seemed to grow tired as he walked back toward you. You felt fearful of what he might do, but continued to stutter defensively.

"Childe, seriously. I wouldn't put too much thought into it, I just... don't like playing dirty like that. Besides, I don't want to deal with the Tsaritsa or the other harbingers, so please just..."

"Shut up," he told you, his hand hanging over you as he leaned his body weight against the wall above you.

"I... please don't kill me."

"I said shut up," he repeated monotonously.

And silence fell over you instantly, nerves overcoming you as Childe's face seemed to hunch over yours. Your heartbeat began to accelerate as you felt his sturdy hands cup your face and bring your lips closer to his, and suddenly, you weren't afraid anymore.

It all happened so fast. As his lips pressed up against yours all fear seemed to disappear. You were safe. Nothing else mattered as your lips intertwined with his, as his passion seemed to flow into you with every perfectly timed movement, every fervorous exchange of devotion.

"Don't forget me," he pleaded in between kisses. "You can't get rid of me that easily."

"I'm okay with that," You told him back sincerely.

He pulled away from you, his neck wound on full display in front of you as it finally began to stop dripping blood.

"Childe, we should clean up your wound," You told him, heavily concerned.

"It's fine," he said, covering the wound with his hand almost shyly.

"It's not," you protested, pulling out a handkerchief you had been holding onto in one of your belt pockets. "We failed the mission. This is the least I can do. I still owe you, you know." You took the handkerchief and began to dab away the blood around the wound, paying little focus to Childe's wandering hand on your hip.

"I... I can think of other ways that you can pay me," the harbinger spoke, his voice weighted in heavy, nervous breaths.

You eyes met his once again, the redness of his cheeks and the slight sparkle in his eye extremely noticeable. You dropped the handkerchief to the ground, your hands immediately moving to your face to hide the heat that was glowing on your skin. "I- are you- how could you just-" You struggled to form proper sentences, the butterflies in your stomach flourishing as you noticed the sensual figure eights his thumb was drawing out on your lower back.

He let out a slight chuckle at your nervous habits. "You've been holding all that back all day, haven't you?" He teased.

"Childe!" You whined, having little composure left to deny him.

"Oh come on," he said, "The way you rushed off at dinner the second I gave you a compliment... how you kept zoning out when we were hiding under the stairs. Was I not supposed to notice those things?" Childe removed his hand from your waist, and began walking himself over to the balcony railing. You couldn't help but float close behind him as he did. "If I'm being honest... it wasn't really hard for me to notice such things, because I'm always looking for them when I'm around you. It's every time I find you in my arms, whether I'm chasing you down on Fatui business or keeping you hostage underneath a staircase, in whatever bizarre context get us there... it just feels-"

"It feels right," you answered, a sort of calm arising from the mutual understanding.

He smiled, eyes glistening under the stars. "Ya," the harbinger confirmed. "But you... you've always been so hard to read. I just had to figure out how to get you to show your true colors to me. Turns out all I had to do was get you alone, and your body told me everything I needed to know."

"My body?" You questioned. "Oh, give me a break. What exactly is it that you think my body told you?"

Childe's gentle smile seemed to morph itself into an insidious smirk. Walked himself back around you, sending chills throughout your nerves as he pressed his whole body against your back, his hands worming their way down your abdomen and wrapping around you like a snake. He brought his lips down to your ear and whispered softly but self-assuredly, "It tells me that you wanna fuck me so bad it's been driving you crazy."

Your mind felt like it was one wrong movement away from short-circuiting as Childe continued to work his hands further down your body.

"You know, you can be super annoying when you get all cocky like this," you scoffed at the boy.

He chuckled lightly. "Oh? Am I getting on your nerves now?" He asked. "Well, I supposed you can look at it this way. If you let me have just one night to do what I want with you, I'll forget about all those favors you owe me afterwards, and you won't ever have to see me again. However... if you decide you wanna see me again after all, I won't stop you. That I can promise you. So either way, from your end, it's a win win," he declared.

"You'd really accept never getting to see me again just like that?" You asked him skeptically.

"Oh, I'm not worried about that," he told you.

"And why is that?"

You felt Childe's hands begin to fidget with the mechanism of your belt. "Because," he said. "I'm gonna make you feel so good tonight, princess, you'll be begging to see me again. How does that sound?"

End of Part One

A/N: Part two is already in the works. I've simply decided to split it up into two parts because the main story line was already longer than usual, and the spicy bits... well, a lot happens. I will be sure to tag it in this post as soon as it is up, but for now, this is just part one of "Returning The Favor" to be followed by part two, which is currently titled "Six Rounds of Karma". If that doesn't make it obvious why these need to be two separate parts, I don't know what will. I appreciate all of those who read this all the way to the end, and I thank you for your patience as I work on the second part.

#childe x you #genshin impact smut #childe smut #tartaglia #tartagalia genshin impact #childe thirst #childe #childe x reader #tartaglia x reader #childe genshin impact #genshin x reader #genshin impact angst #genshin smut #enemies to lovers #genshin x you #genshin thirsts #fatui

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kiyosimp03 · 2 years

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Ultimate Assassin Kiyotaka AU Part 1

inspired by: @krynutsreal ‘s talent swap AU , a quote from @incorrectshsl and some stuff that i found on @perfect-ishimondo-boys

It all began when Taka, as his friends and his father call him, was 13 years old. His father struggled to pay the crushing debt of his grandfather, while taking care of him. His grandfather in turn only complained about everything. From that his room was too small to the fact that neither Takaaki or Taka could spend any time with him.

But actually that wasn’t the problem, Kiyotaka was used to the endless complaining. What he wasn’t used to was to find his father crying about something his grandfather said. Still, here he was. Watching his father crying in the dark living room. The worst thing about it was that he couldn’t even switch the light on for him. As energy wasn’t as cheap as it used to be.

Unfortunately from this day on Kiyotaka noticed Toranosuke being mean to his father on many occasions. So in the naïvety of his youth he called a random government official, to ask why the former prime minister wasn’t in prison yet. To which the official ranted for hours that he wished that he could put him in prison. But sadly too many of Toranosuke‘s friends were somehow still active politicians.

„Believe me, if i could get rid of those corrupt beasts, i would. But putting them in prison won’t work.“ the official ranted.

„Well then what would work?“ Kiyotaka wanted to know.

„Honestly. Probably only killing them. I would do it myself, but murdering doesn’t exactly help with a political career“ answered the politician.

Now Kiyotaka had an idea „tell me your price, names and addresses, maybe if the offer is well enough i‘ll do it“.

The official began to laugh „well if that’s the case try the former prime minister himself first, but watch it. His son is still a very much feared police officer, you know? The address you have to find out yourself. But if you finish him, let’s say, within this week, i‘ll pay you twice the money Ishimaru owes to the government“.

„Deal“ Kiyotaka said and continued „but use part of the money to clear his family’s debt then“.

„Sounds quite charitable, but why?“ the official wanted to know.

Kiyotaka answered „Wouldn’t it be unfair to leave a family with a debt that they actually aren’t responsible for?“

Just a few days later Taka switched Toranosuke‘s actual injection with insulin. Later a government official declared Toranosuke’s debt for cancelled and officially said that the former prime minister’s family wasn’t to blame.

A week later Taka was given more names of corrupt politicians and even an secret office in the police department to prove corruption scandals when there was one and to take out the corrupt politicians. Thankfully Takaaki Ishimaru was unaware of this. Because even if he wouldn’t be mad about Toranosuke’s death, he knew how it was to stand against corrupted politicians, gang members, yakuzas, and the likes. So it was understandable that he didn’t want this life for his Taka.

Kiyotaka lived the life anyway. In the daylight he was an straight A+ Student and (according to Takaaki) the best son anyone could have. Also if one didn’t know better they would think that Kiyotaka was far too pure and naive for this world. Maybe even a little to sheltered.

But as soon as Takaaki either went to sleep or to work, Kiyotaka would step into his office through the secret entrance and work either on the paperwork for the next case, doing some research, or more often than not prepare and execute an execution.

He had few free days, but when he had one he always made sure to spend them with his father. Like Takaaki’s birthday today. The first debt free birthday of a family member in years. So of course Takaaki insisted that he would take his son to a restaurant. Not even because it was his birthday. But because they were living on a police officer’s salary now and he wanted his son to know this.

So even if a few old friends and his ex wife had contacted him that day to congratulate him, he didn’t feel the need to invite them. They didn’t need Takaaki or Taka when they were poor, so they definitely didn’t need them now.

But before the meal arrived Kiyotaka gave his father two neatly wrapped gifts. One was a watch, a good one, Takaaki noticed and definitely not one Taka could possibly buy from the pocket money he recently got. After Takaaki asked where the watch came from, Kiyotaka said that he sometimes, when his schedule allowed it, would work for a few hours.

Takaaki sighed and thanked Taka for the gift. Even if he spent some nights thinking about the fact that Taka was far too young to have a job. (He strongly blames Toranosuke for it.)

The second one was a spray bottle full of tear gas. It was for self defense purposes, Taka had told him. But who the fuck sold tear gas to a thirteen year old boy? Takaaki was quite sure that it was better if he didn’t know.

Three years later Kiyotaka was invited to a conference about the national safety. Well rather international safety, since the world leaders from all over the globe were present to discuss something about a girl that wants to push the whole world into despair or something like that.

At the end of said conference the world leaders asked Kiyotaka to go to Hope‘s Peak and observe what’s going on there. Even if it was far away from home, it was a deal he couldn’t possibly refuse as he: would go to the best Highschool of the world, be paid a good sum every month he went to this school and be paid an even better sum when he finished the mission.

So he was now the ultimate assassin, better known as the ultimate moral compass.

And the first few months of school were fine, really. He was just an very uptight Hallmonitor whom was not sought after unless absolutely necessary. But one day Aoi was upset because of something. To this Taka didn’t know what it was, but it was bad enough that the whole class was in her room to comfort her.

So he looked up some information in his documents and then proceeded to curse in his thoughts because there wasn’t a single bakery in this city, that sold donuts. So he did the next best thing and looked up how to make donuts.

When he was done, knocked on Asashina‘s door and first informed his classmates that they would break the curfew within a few minutes. To which Sakura, Mondo, Junko, and even Byakuya and Kiyoko proceeded to shout at him that no one fucking cared about the curfew right now.

After he had listened to their complaints, he put the bag of donuts in Yasuhiro‘s hand and disappeared into his room. On the bag there was a note that said that there were enough donuts for everyone in there. And the notes were right. There were even more Donuts in there than Aoi could eat on a good day.

Which of course led to the question from where the Hallmonitor had summoned the donuts, which promptly was answered by Celeste, whom noticed that Taka had not only flour on one of his hands, but also a single drop of chocolate on his white uniform.

Of course, and to Kiyotaka’s absolute dismay, the class saw him in another light after that. So it was only a matter of sweet sweet days until they tried to integrate him in the class on every turn. Was it too much to just wanting to graduate and prevent the the destruction of the world while being at it? Probably. At least according to his classmates.

So he often found himself in very ridiculous situation in the next few weeks. From helping Junko with some of her Outfits for men, to being invited to spar with Sakura and actually being good at it. Well at least better than everyone expected from the Hall Monitor.

That whole becoming part of the class thing proved to have it‘s advantages in the end. So he bonded with Enoshima about the unfair treatment they had to endure in their past, with Ikusaba about some of their combat experiences.

He also made less important friends as well. For example Mondo Oowada, whom was his best friend. At least until Mondo interrogated him about the rumors that he had a crush on Junko, which were obviously not true. After that Mondo kissed him and became Kiyotaka’s boyfriend.

Six months in Taka knew he was fucked. Partly by mondo, partly by the fact that he wasn’t supposed to be the ultimate caretaker for teenagers, but the ultimate moral compass/ assassin.

He sighed and checked the weather again.

Then he opened the class chat:

Mom (Kiyotaka): Remember that it’s going to be hot today, so drink your water everyone!

ButterCorn (Mondo): No.

Mom: Then become the dirt i walk on.

SuckMyBasedBalls (Leon): Guys seriously, do these convos hit you that hard too? Like Taka always swings back with a new type of bat and I’m never Prepared for it.

ButterCorn: I know what you are feeling Leon

Donuts (Aoi): Yeah Taka is just like that sometimes

FightClub (Sakura): that seems to be the case.

Closing the chat, Kiyotaka resumes to his study of the so called Urban Dictionary (he fell for updog and ligma one time too many).

It wasn’t long after that when he was on a video call with the world leaders where he explained in English: (…) and according to these proofs i do believe her to be guilty of being the ultimate despair. Therefore it should only take a few months. Maybe a year to gather enough evidence to justify a death sentence.“

When the call ended her turned around to see Mondo, whom thankfully couldn’t speak or understand a single word of the English language.

„Hey Taka, why were ya speaking English ?“

„Oh i was on a Video call organised to promote cross cultural communication“ it by far wasn‘t Taka‘s best lie, but it was still good enough for him to not question anything. (the fact that Mondo didn’t know any politicians face helped immensely there)

All in all Taka‘s life in hopes Peak was more peaceful than he thought it would be. At least until that day when he watched the news and it said that several police officers and gang members had suddenly disappeared. So of course Taka panicked just a bit and tried to call both Mondo and his dad. Just to reach none of them.

Meanwhile Mondo, Daiya, Takaaki and several other people were imprisoned in a warehouse.

„Why the fuck are we here?“ Takaaki wanted to know.

„To become one with the despair itself“ one of the captors answered.

„Just watch it“ another one said as they took one member of the Crazy Diamonds and put him in a brain washing device.

„No! Fuck what did you do to him?“ Daiya cried as the once gang member stepped out of the Device and proceeded to do anything the captor ordered him to do.

„And now“ another captor laughed „Drive home and kill your entire family“.

„Ya can‘t do that! screamed Mondo „he‘s a single dad of a 3 year old lil girl!“

Sadly the captors said that this only made it funnier. Takaaki normally wasn’t one to cry, but the mere thought to be ordered to kill his sweet innocent Taka. He couldn’t bear it.

Suddenly the brainwashed gang member dropped to the floor. Groaning. Few gunshots later some of the captors followed. After the remaining captors each got a gun, they tried to shot down the offending shooter, only to fall over one by one.

Before Taka went down to see how everyone was he let the next special troupe near his location know about the incident. Then he dramatically jumped down to the floor and restrained the surviving captors and the brainwashed gang member with some good old cable binder, before freeing the kidnapped gang and police members.

But as soon as everyone was freed Takaaki and Mondo ran up to Taka just about to catch him in a hug, when they notice each other. Which is how Taka’s father find out about their relationship. Luckily (not for Taka but for Mondo) Takaaki doesn’t have the time to be not impressed by Ishimondo as his baby son (soon to be 17, but baby) just has freed him and several others from a situation that Taka shouldn’t even know about.

At least the special unit arrived soon and took him away before Takaaki could ask any serious questions about his occupation. Mondo was meanwhile teased by Daiya for dating a sexy sniper.

Obviously that didn’t prevent Takaaki to terrorize to terrorize the remaining special troupe members into telling him at least half of the truth.

„So you want to tell me that my dear son deserved his title ‚ultimate moral compass‘ by helping you out solving some crimes and being his usual righteous self, so when you found out that he would go to Hope‘s Peak you thought that it was a good idea to ask him to fight against an international threat that is able to brainwash people into whatever happened to that gang member?“ Takaaki asked after that.

The special officer was afraid to do anything. But with all their remaining courage they managed a nod.

Takaaki‘s shouting could be heard in the whole area „I CAN‘T FUCKING BELIEVE YOU!“

Mondo and Daiya meanwhile sat somewhere in the background, fearing for their lives.

After Taka came back to school he suddenly had a message from an unknown number.

ShineBrightLikeADiamond: Hello Taka, this is Daiya. Mondo‘s big bro and your current bro in Law.

Everyone‘s Mom: These are far too many words for no message.

ShineBrightLikeADiamond: Yeah, me sorry Mr Sniper! Don’t kill me pls !!!

ShineBrightLikeADiamond: let me get straight. To the point of course. Not going straight anywhere else.

ShineBrightLikeADiamond: So my lil baby bro and that scary demon officer think that you’re a poor little meow meow, that somehow accidentally stumbled into this whole saving the world business. Even after seeing you fight. Crazy, right?

ShineBrightLikeADiamond: So they now have some kind of chat group where I’m included as well and well yea ya get what I’m saying. I’ll tell you what they are planning and you do whatever with that knowledge and save the world or whatever.

ShineBrightLikeADiamond: what‘cha say?

Everyone‘s Mom: I guess i don’t have any better option than saying yes in the moment. So take it as a yes.

ShineBrightLikeADiamond: Yay!

After that Daiya opened a chat called ‚Save the Taka‘

ShineBrightLikeADiamond: well after talking to him i indeed believe that he definitely accidentally stumbled into that world saving position. Poor little meow meow.

(To Daiya‘s defense, he thinks that he did a good job)

[ want to know more about how it‘ll go for Taka? If yes send me a question for that Au, maybe you’ll even inspire me to write a second part if you send enough questions and don’t forget to reblog! )

#ishimaru kiyotaka #Ishimaru Takaaki #talentswap #ultimate Assassin Kiyotaka Au #daiya oowada #class 78 #mondo oowada #Taka went to the darkside #Now he has to figure out how to get Junko killed #takaaki ishimaru #kiyotaka ishimaru #ishimondo

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nastybuckybarnes · 3 years

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Hoist The Colours - 3/3

Pairing: Pirate!Bucky X SeaGoddess!Reader

Summary: An encounter with the man you used to love lands you and your new crew in peril, stuck on a ship with the people responsible for binding you. And what they have planned for you is far worse than what you’d first imagined.

Warnings: Language, Angst, Fluff, Violence, Injuries, Death,

Word Count: 2.2K

A/n: Oof another thing is finished. I’m gonna start actually finishing stuff but Idk what to write I’m sad that my stuff is ending :( But I hope you enjoy this!

~*~

The door to your cell gets wrenched open, pulling you from your light sleep.

“You!” Rumlow snarls, grabbing you by the throat and lifting you to your feet.

“Where have they taken my prisoners?” You furrow your brows, yanking out of his grip.

“How am I supposed to know? I was left behind.” He grinds his teeth together and grabs your bicep, dragging you out of your cell and onto the main deck.

The clouds are dark and gloomy, the waters wild and violent, but not by your doing.

“You must’ve helped them, that other witch too! So tell me, how did you do it?” He shoves you and you gasp, tumbling onto the wet wood of the deck.

“How could I have helped them? You have me chained up like a dog!” You spit, glaring up at him. He stoops down to your level, grabbing your face harshly.

“You will watch your tongue or you will lose it. You do not need your voice to do my bidding.” He shoves you back down and you bite back a yelp of pain.

The sky darkens further, thunder booming and clouds rolling in.

“I will never do your bidding!” You snarl, a flash of lightning punctuating your words.

Rumlow’s eyes widen for a moment, and then he’s got his sword pointed at you, the tip just brushing your throat.

“On your feet, witch!” You obey, standing up with your chin held high.

“You will do my bidding, or you will join all those who you have sent to the depths. It is your choice.” You follow his gaze over your shoulder to where the plank is being extended over the raging ocean.

You look back at him, jaw set, and he knows you’ve made your decision.

The wind whips around your hair as he walks you to the plank, his sword digging into your back just hard enough to cause discomfort, but not pain, not yet.

You carefully step onto the plank, taking deep breaths of the salty air as the water rages beneath you.

“I will give you one last chance, wench. I will spare your life, all you need do is swear your powers to me. You’ll have the sea back in your grasp, the power to do what you please. You need only do so at my side.”

Raindrops splatter against your face, just gently at first, until you’re consumed in an intense storm, the water pelting down against you.

“You’ve forgotten, Captain, that you are not sending me to the depths,” you look over your shoulder at him with a small smile, “you are sending me home.”

You look down at the water, preparing yourself for the cool embrace, when a particularly harsh wave rocks against the ship, sending you stumbling back a step.

A wave rises up over the ship, a spiral of green swirling inside of it and for a moment you think that you’ve already died.

The wave crashes against the ship, sending the men falling and scrambling, submerging the deck for a moment.

But you stay rooted in place, the familiar green hue just touching your fingertips, the ends of your hair, then slowly becoming part of you once more.

You hear the men shouting and coughing, feel Rumlow’s sword pressed against your back once again, but you only turn around to face him.

The storm continues, the waves fighting the ship, and you cock your head to the side, sending a gust of wind towards the man threatening you. He stumbles back, eyes wide with fear.

“H-how do you...” You take slow steps towards him, waving your hand behind you as his crew-mates try to run at you. The wind pushes them back, keeping them a safe distance from you and the captain.

“You will give me answers and you will give them to me now!” You hiss, glaring daggers at him.

“Whatever it is that you wish to know, I will tell you. Just please, spare my life.”

You watch him for a long moment, fighting tears as the question bubbles out of you.

“Why? Why did he do it?”

Rumlow only shakes his head, on his knees and ready to beg for mercy.

“’twas me... I caused him to do it. With the help of a siren for the price of his left arm, I got the binding spell from him. He knew not what he was doing, though he gave the information.” You let out a shaky breath, a weight lifted off of your shoulders.

“All this time I had thought it was he who betrayed me... but it wasn’t.” You turn your gaze to him, eyes glowing green with the influx of power.

“It was you. You and your greed.” He shakes his head and scrambles back desperately.

You step aside as a sword comes down right where you were standing, and Rumlow uses your momentary distraction to sprint away.

“Kill her! Kill the Witch!” He shouts, grabbing his own sword.

You shake your head, the wind whipping strong enough to keep them away.

A nagging in your mind stops you for a moment, and a smile tugs at the corner of your lips.

“The King and his men stole the queen from her bed... and bound her in her bones.” Your voice travels on the wind.

“The seas be ours, and by the powers, where we will, we’ll roam.”

“Captain! We’ve got a ship coming up starboard!” A man shouts, pointing his sword at the familiar ship.

“They’re upon us! Battle stations!” The men scramble to their stations, trying to get prepared as the ship approaches.

“Yo ho, all hands, hoist the colours high. Heave ho, thieves and beggars, never shall we die.” The voices ring out to you clear as day, responding to the call.

It’s only a matter of moments before canons start firing and men start boarding the ship, swords clashing and guns firing.

Your eyes scan the crowd, freezing on a man approaching you. You simply look at him and he crumples to the ground, grabbing at his throat.

“Rumlow!” You shout, following your instincts up to the foredeck and finding the captain cowering, exactly how you thought he would.

“You want to throw me overboard, captain?” You sneer his title, taking another step towards him. He stumbles back, slipping on the wet wood and scrambling away from you and towards the main deck.

“You forget that I am the sea and all things in it.”

The rain pelts down on you and the wind whips your hair around your face wildly, your eyes glowing green with the force of your power.

At that moment, you look every bit the sea goddess that the stories described. And today, you’re planning on being just as cruel.

“You stripped me of my purpose, my power. Bound me to my form and took away my reason for existence! You sacrificed the man I love for your own greedy gain. What do you have to say for yourself?” Your powers protect you from the fighting around you, the man before you protected as well.

No one will take your vengeance from you.

“I’m sorry!” He cries, slipping back further.

You shake your head and grab him by the front of his tunic, tossing his sword aside and glaring into his eyes.

“No, you’re not. Not yet. But you will be, that I promise you.”

You cock your head to the side, your free hand coming up, fingers flexed.

The water on the deck swirls around your ankles, clawing up the man before you.

“You’ve never had your purpose taken from you because a man like you has no purpose.” You twist your wrist, controlling the water around you and watch in satisfaction as his eyes widen, the water rising up over his face.

“So what else can I take, but your life?” You ask rhetorically, watching as the water trickles into his mouth and nose, slowly at first, then picking up speed.

He tries to claw at you, but his hands can’t reach you. His struggles are futile, though that doesn’t stop him.

You steal the life away from him, exactly the way he did to you.

He collapses on the ground, his body convulsing for a moment before falling still, death embracing him.

You take a deep breath, embracing your freedom, then slowly turn around.

You’re instantly meet with piercing blue eyes staring at you from across the ship. His chest is heaving and he’s squinting through the downpour, but his eyes are on you.

You walk over to him, the rain lessening with each step you take until you’re right in front of him.

The wind dies down and the ocean becomes calm. The fighting around you draws to a sombre end, victory on the tip of your tongue.

His sword clatters to the ground, his hands finding yours ever so gently, his eyes filled with so many emotions.

“Gentlemen, the ship is ours!” Steve shouts, a smile on his face. You turn around, pulling Bucky’s arms around your waist as you watch the crew celebrate their success.

Your eyes find Wanda’s and Tony’s through the crowd, both of them smiling brightly up at you.

The two crews celebrate, Pirates and Kingsmen, and you can’t help but smile at them.

“Back to the ship! We’ve gotten what we came for. The King can enjoy plundering Rumlow’s ship. I trust that will keep him off of our back for a while, yes?” Steve looks at Tony pointedly and the brunet nods.

You step out of your lover’s arms and walk down to the two men, one hand gently finding Tony’s forearm.

“I owe you a debt, Tony. One I fear I may never be able to repay.” He shakes his head, taking your hands gently in his and smiling at you.

“You’ve no debt to be paid. But if you feel so inclined, could you maybe hold back any storms for the next day or so? I’d like a chance to dry my clothes.” You giggle and nod, pressing a kiss to his cheek.

“Thank you, for all that you’ve done for myself and Wanda.” He gives you a tender smile and nods.

“It’s what I wish had been done for my mother.” He sniffles then straightens up.

“Now come on, men. It’s time we return to the King!” His crew-mates start busying themselves quickly.

“Alright lads, back to the ship!” Steve calls, leading his own crew members to their ship.

You watch as everyone eagerly crosses, smiling encouragingly at Wanda. She crosses swiftly, her eyes drawing to the helmsman for a moment.

“Are you ready?” A soft voice asks from behind you. You take a breath then nod, looking over at him.

“Yes.”

The two of you cross back to his ship, the ship almost cooing at you as soon as your feet hit the deck. You can’t fight the smile the spreads on your face at being back, and you don’t try to.

“It’s good to have you back,” Steve says, giving you a nod. You do the same, sighing happily.

“It’s good to be back, Steve.” Bucky takes your hand then and tugs you gently towards his quarters.

The door closes softly behind you and you take a moment to reacquaint yourself with the room.

You can feel his eyes on you, the tension palpable but not unpleasant.

Without looking at him, you speak.

“Could you help me out of my gown? It’s far too heavy.” He walks towards you, untying the back and watching as the fabric slides down your body, leaving you only in your white slip.

His hands hesitantly trail over your skin, one cold and one hot and the contrast is so delicious.

You close your eyes and lean into his touch, head falling to the side as he presses soft kisses to your neck.

“You have no idea how much I’ve missed you, my love,” he whispers against your skin, spinning you around to face him.

You gaze up at him lovingly, one hand coming up to cup his jaw.

“Show me,” you whisper, leaning up to gently brush your lips over his.

“Show me how much you missed me. Give me a reason to clear the skies and calm the seas. Make me give us good wind and easy sail. Prove to me that you’re still worthy of my mercy.”

He brings your hand to his mouth, kissing each one of your fingers then smiling.

“I’ll never truly be worthy of your mercy. But I am more than willing to both swear and prove my loyalty to you. I will give myself over to you; body, heart, mind, and soul.”

You look up at him tenderly, cupping his cheek gently.

“I will sail to the ends of the Earth for you, fight the gods if I need to. Anything to keep you in my arms.”

“My heart belongs to you, James. And never will it belong to anyone else.”

#pirate #pirate AU #pirate!bucky #pirate!bucky x reader #Pirate!bucky x sea goddess!reader #bucky x sea!goddess!reader #pirate!bucky x goddess!reader #bucky x goddess!reader #pirate!bucky x seagoddess!reader

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mirasmirages · 3 years

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Mira Masterpost

Hi, I'm Mira!

I've been a part of the whump community for about two years now, mostly on Discord. Sometimes I write or draw or make other stuff, and I've role played quite a bit.

I love talking to people, so don't be afraid to say hi! I can be a bit awkward, though, so I apologize in advance for anything I say.

I've made a couple of ask games, and sometimes I send asks to people who reblog them:

Let me ask you something

Character ask game: Dating

Character ask game: Careers

Character ask game: Relationships

You can find my OCs and writing under the cut.

Henry Baker

Henry was made for a role play with @starliight-musings.

His mother died when he was nine years old and his father raised him alone after that, while drowning his feelings in alcohol and trying to deal with the debt after his wife's stay in the hospital. When Henry was 18, a man named Charles Duncan came by and offered to let Henry pay off his father's debt, and made it seem like if Henry didn't accept, his father would be killed.

Tag: #OC Henry Baker

Whumper Henry (er!Henry):

Henry managed to negotiate with Charles so that Charles would pay for his education so that Henry would be able to make himself useful and pay off the debt. He went to college and was very cool for a few years, but thanks to Charles, that didn't last. Henry grew up and started a demolition company, and then a cleaning company. For the right price, he can make anything disappear.

While er!Henry is good at the core, that core has been beaten and bruised and covered in fear and anger issues, privilege and money.

Henry, dispose of your guns - Henry gets rid of all his guns.

Haunted house - Henry and his boyfriend flirting on Halloween.

You wanna taste? - Some little drawings.

Anniversary fic - It's the anniversary of Henry getting stabbed and James saving him!

Why can't you just be happy? - Henry and James have an argument.

Whumpee Henry (ee!Henry):

In this version, Henry agreed to pay off his father's debt - and accidentally sold himself into slavery. Oops? Charles uses ee!Henry to bribe and blackmail people as he sees fit. This story is very NSFM but I haven't written any of it down yet.

Choking - Whumpee!Henry trying to do his job. 1993 words.

NoCharles Henry (nC!Henry):

What if Henry mever met Charles and got to just be himself in his wonderful self? Well, he would go to college with the help of some scholarships and be very queer and do a lot of activism. Eventually he works for and then runs a shelter that focuses on helping homeless queer people and runaways.

I don't have any writing for this but it's relevant if you're planning on reading @starliight-whump's villain!James series.

Baby, if you were words on a page, you’d be what they call FINE PRINT! - Cheesy flirting with lots of pick-up lines. Not whump. 747 words. (This doesn't belong to any particular AU, but I had to put it somewhere)

villain!Henry

In a world where some people have superpowers, 19-year-old Henry was walking outside when some powered people were fighting. The fight caused a building to collapse over Henry, nearly killing him. He wakes up in a hospital bed, where he is told that Charles Duncan saved his life and that he now owed his life to Charles. Through a lot of experiments, Charles's team gave Henry superstrength, speed and enhanced healing. Henry became the supervillain Mass Destruction, and was forced to do whatever Charles told him to.

I forgot to title this - CW: mentions of rape. 678 words. Part 2 1249 words.

Fall In Line (updates mondays) - Part one - Heroes, Part two - Contract, Part three - Therapy, Part four - Friend

Charles Duncan

Charles is a man with a lot of money and power, and he wants more of both. He owns a pharmaceutical company.

Tag: #OC: Charles Duncan

Charlotte Duncan

Charles's wife. She is completely on board with what her husband is doing.

Girl/Valerie

When er!Henry's company is hired for a cleanup job, his employees finds a little girl who is barely alive amongst the bodies. Henry gets her the help she needs to survive, but then gives her back to her owners, and the guilt won't leave him after that.

Tag: #OC: Valerie/Girl

The Christmas Gift - Part one of Single Dad AU. Henry Baker, owner of too many guns, is tricked into adopting a traumatized 8-year-old. 2385 words.

Whumpmas In July day 3: Sleep - Val has a nightmare. 638 words.

Odd and Even

Even was er!Henry's boyfriend when Henry was an exchange student in Europe, and Odd is Even's twin. They are both doctors. Odd really likes performing lobotomies and doing less than ethical experiments.

Tags: #OC: Odd Gaustad and #OC: Even Gaustad

In the dark - Henry and Even’s first date. 1095 words.

Richard and Maria

An older couple who works for er!Henry and lives in his building. They are the closest he has to parents. They don't quite support the bad things he does, but they have accepted that that's how it is, and support him as well as they can.

Tag: #OC: Maria

Hailey

A runaway teen er!Henry found on the street and let stay in the empty apartment in his building. She really wants to get a job at Henry's company but he doesn't want her to get involved.

Nadir Khan

Nadir is a fireman who works in the city Henry lives in. He's a hero in Superhero AU.

Tag: #OC: Nadir Khan

Maya Campbell

Maya is er!Henry's best friend. Like Henry, she agreed to take on her parent's debts when Charles offered. She now runs a café that is mostly normal. You should try the special blend coffee, I hear it's great. The café has soundproof rooms if you prefer some privacy. Maya can get you pretty much anything you want, if you're willing to pay the price. If you don't have money, she might agree to let you owe her a favor instead.

Tag: #OC: Maya Campbell

Mind control (1414 words) A young Maya agrees to work for Charles. (Superhero AU)

Aaron

Aaron is Maya's husband and the father of their two children. He doesn't know what exactly Maya does at her job, but he does know that he doesn't want to know, and that it's better not to ask.

Tag: #OC: Aaron Campbell

Gavin

Maya and Aaron's oldest son, born in 2015. Talkative and affectionate.

Tag: #OC: Gavin Campbell

Leo

Maya and Aaron's youngest son, born in 2017. Careful and quiet, but sharp as a knife.

Tag: #OC: Leo Campbell

Liam

Liam is one of Maya's employees. His parents sold him when he was 14, and then he was sold again when he was 18. His new home gets gradually worse, until he makes a deal with Maya so that she'll help him get away.

Tag: #OC: Liam

Andrew

Another one of Maya's employees. Andrew feels like he deserves a better life than what he got, and is bitter about it. Instead of working on himself to improve his circumstances, he decides to get a human pet. He's tidy and systematic and likes cooking.

Tag: #OC: Andrew

✄ - Kay walks in on Andrew killing someone. A-K-verse.

Sky/Sarah

Sarah was a normal teenager about to go to college when she was kidnapped and sold to Andrew, who trains her to become a pet. He names her Sky, and after a few years, there's not much left of Sarah in her.

Tag: #OC: Sky/Sarah

After Alistair - part one (983 words), part two (1030 words), part three (663 words) (Andrew-Kay-verse)

Don’t touch me! - Caretaking with Sky. 438 words. (Andrew-Kay-verse)

“What would it take for you to murder Andrew?” - Drunk!Sky talks to a stranger. Short. (Gale AU)

Whumpmas in July 2021: Day 9 - “Look at me” (Gale AU)

Gale/Sarah Assassin Duo AU - In which I do not do what the prompt says. (Gale AU)

Giggly cuddles - Kind of fluff with Sky and Andrew.

What if Andrew never managed to break Sky? - Andrew gives up on his pet.

What if Andrew went to prison for what he did to Sky? - Meta talk.

What if Sky got the happiness she deserves? - One good day. Spoilers for the Sarah story.

Starvation - Sky, pet whumpee, is underfed to force her to beg for food. 218 words.

Falling through ice - Sky is on a trip to a cabin with her owner Andrew and his friend Rory. Mostly fluff. 1074 words.

Headache - Rory babysits Sky while she has a headache, before her old identity is completely erased. 1907 words.

The Sarah Story (pet whump, lady whump) (On hiatus) (Currently unavailable):

The Sarah Story was not written to be good, it was an attempt at publishing with a consistent schedule. It has it's moments, but it's not great. One day I'll finish it and post a better version.

Part 1 - Sarah wakes up in a new, unfamiliar place. 1803 words.

Part 2 - Sarah’s first day of being kidnapped. 2004 words.

Part 3 - Sarah finally eats. 1309 words.

Part 4 - An escape attempt. 1978 words.

Part 5 - Regaining Andrew’s trust and a new chance. 1485 words.

Part 6 - Birthday Party! 924 words.

Part 7 - Going outside. 1375 words.

Rory Cooper

In Andrew-Kay, a role play with @tcurniquet's character Kay, Rory was one of Andrew's friends, who became a caretaker and helped Kay escape.

Tag: #OC: Rory

If I can’t have you - Set in Andrew-Kay-verse. What if Kay(whumpee) tried to go back to Andrew (whumper), but Rory (caretaker) didn’t like it at all? 1136 words.

Hanae

Parker belongs to @greatandquestionablecontent

Tag: #OC: Hanae

This isn't Shakespeare

Hanae is a hacker who lives in a made-up European country. She's working with a journalist to investigate why people seem to be disappearing without the government caring at all. Her not-boyfriend Parker (they are dating but Parker is not a boy) works at the NIS (National Investigation Service). Hanae and Parker don't know what each other's real jobs are. There is drama, there is torture, and the relationship will be hard to save.

Good enough - A Halloween story, set after the role play This Isn’t Shakespeare. Dating the person who tortured you can be kinda difficult sometimes. 755 words.

This isn't Burglary (NSFM (kinda))

Hanae is a burglar who thinks she's breaking into an empty house, and is surprised when Parker pins her to the wall with a knife to her throat. They tie her to the bed until they decide she's scared enough to let her go (and also Parker is too tired to keep going). They meet again some weeks later at a BDSM conference. It's very awkward but they go get milkshakes and talk. Instead of asking Parker on a date like a normal person, Hanae decides to dress up and break in again - and that's when we stopped writing, so who knows what will happen.

This isn't Buffy

Prompt fill for Febuwhump where Hanae is a vampire hunter and Parker is a cop.

Impalement (1297 words)

Succubus!Hanae (NSFM)

In which Hanae is a half-succubus who feeds on people's sexual energy. She lives in her car and travels, never staying in one place too long.

A Strange Child - Backstory from her mother's POV. 1673 words.

Prompt fill - Set a short while after A Strange Child

Hugo

Hugo is an autistic boy who loves trees, nature, pop rocks and trees. He is the first character I role played, and the one that got me started writing whump. Ignore the bizarre shoe situation in the picture please.

Tag: #OC: Hugo

Landslide - Hugo experiences a landslide. 353 words.

Norina

Val belongs to @sableflynn

Tira was born in the kingdom of Auria. Her parents couldn't affort to keep her and gave her to an orphanage.

Adoption has an important role in the religion in Auria, and when Tira was eight, she was adopted by a noble family and given the name Norina. Norina works hard to fit in with her new family, to be as similar to her new family as she can in how she looks, acts and thinks, and she becomes deeply religious. When she is 20 she gets adopted again, this time into the royal family, so that she can marry the prince of a neighbouring country and prevent a war. Unfortunately, on the way to her new countries, she is kidnapped by pirates.

Tag: #OC: Norina

Norina - Opening to Norina’s story. Nori gets adopted into the royal family and is crowned princess. 1378 words.

Distracting kisses - Val Norina modern!AU in which they (don’t) build a table. 435 words.

Nori, give Butters a bath - Val Norina modern!AU - Norina gives the cat a bath.

What if Tira (Norina) recognized Val at the ball? - The opening of Val-Norina, slightly altered.

Imprisonment (308 words) - Norina remembers her time on the ship.

"Just play along. Please." - Modern!AU Valnori. 737 words.

Whumpmas in July 2020 (finished): Tira the Little Mermaid (Valnori AU) Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

Niel

Norina's brother from when she is eight to when she is twenty. They love each other a lot and are each other's closest friend. Niel gets stabbed when he tries to stop the kidnapping.

Tag: #OC: Niel

Devin

The princess/Josephine belongs to @no-whump-on-main

Devin works as a stable boy in a medieval kingdom. One night when he's twelve, he meets the princess who is sneaking out of the castle, and they become friends. Years later, the princess discovers that Devin is being abused by the cruel Stable Master and decides to get him out of there, and they run away together.

Tag: #OC: Devin

Devin and Kelsea - Devin gets his first kiss a few days before his birthday. Pure fluff. 529 words.

Pyralis/Nix

Nix is a phoenix who is sometimes reborn with a new body and none of their old memories.

Tag: #OC: Pyralis

“I can’t take this any more!” (271 words)

A mob boss character for a pet story I might write in the future.

Tag: #OC: M

You know what I want

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tarotdeckshuffle · 2 years

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Where did I go?

I know this is a comatose blog, but I feel like I owe my followers, especially some of my most loyal ones, an explanation of what happened.

It’s been what...3 years since I was truly active? Gosh that’s been a long time. Here’s an explanation of why I left, what’s happened since, and the future.

Why I Left

It sounds cliché, but life got ahead of me, mostly my work swallowed me whole. Why is that?

Well, your Taro is a lawyer. I’m not your lawyer and I will not give you legal advice.

I started writing after I got my degree and started clerking. I was writing on slow days as a way to keep my writing sharp for the judge. After my state cut that position and buying our first house fell through, I moved on to working on immigration law.

But that boss was a prick.

That’s when an amazing man contacted me through my old boss and said that he had an opportunity for me to help make the world a better place.

Since then, I’ve been a public defender.

I love my job, I love my clients, but...it’s a tough job for various reasons I’m sure you can imagine. Needless to say, I typically become brain dead when I get home. This job has left me little left to explore my creative side and even less of me left to take care of myself.

But I’m trying to work on that.

I’m not leaving my work, just trying to do better.

What’s Happened?

I’m still happily married to my soul mate :). We moved back by my parents and they’re so happy to have us.

We built our own house at the beginning of COVID. We started construction just before the lockdown and managed to cash in on low interest but had down payments paid just before prices increased. I’m thankful everyday we have our own home knowing full well if we had been even a month later, none of this would have been possible.

I lost the last of my grandparents. This hurt so bad and left me in a very dark place for a long time. I had to wrestle with my love for them but also my fear. They were toxic, wicked people that I knew would turn on me at some point, even if they never got the chance to.

After that, I sought professional help and we got another dog. She’s a 6 year old husky and I think she’s smarter than me lol.

Thanks to that professional help, I was diagnosed with ADHD. Yes, I hyper fixated on writing all those years ago so no big surprise there. I also got hormonal help and, for the first time in my life, I feel real RAGE. Not frustration, but rage. I never truly felt anger before. It’s sometimes tough to control but it’s nice. As they say, the anger you feel at being treated poorly is that part of you who still loves yourself standing up for what’s right.

I think I’ve dramatically matured over the past few years. I’ve become more aggressive in defending others and myself, but I also try my best to stay kind and forgiving. It’s really not been a road I’ve traveled but a roller coaster I chose to get on but can’t control.

I thought about this blog and all of my followers and friends all the time. I had so much guilt built up over not posting but fearing the expectation of having to resume posting if I came back. I just didn’t know if I could do it all.

The Future

That is why I say this to you with every ounce of love in my heart: Screw any expectations you may have of me, lol. I don’t expect you have expectations, but I’m telling myself that even if you do, I don’t have to follow them. I’m aggressively giving myself permission.

I do have some stories in my drafts and in my head that I want to put out to the world. Someday, once all of my debts are paid and I can live comfortably, I want to get back to writing full time. My dream is to put my own book out there for the world.

For now, I think I’m going to put stories out into the world as I’m able. I don’t know how often it will be, perhaps once a year? Perhaps once a week? I also don’t know what the subject or fandom will be. This time, I’m discovering the path as I go with no destination in mind.

I am here, I look at all of my notifications, and I miss all of you. I hope you find pleasure in my writing.

In closing, I love you all and hope you can find peace in all I can give you.

#writing #hiatus #Taro writes

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agentrouka-blog · 4 years

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Tyrion and Tysha murder mystery hints - first mention in the text

This thing just keeps tugging at me, and this recent thread made me ambitious to examine it in more detail. So I’ll look at hints for an even darker edge to the story of Tyrion and Tysha in the parts of the text that actually mention her.

Since I have limited time, I’ll do several posts. This one is about how we learn about Tysha in A Game of Thrones.

We head into AGOT, Tyrion VI via a chapter transition from AGOT, Jon V, where Jon talks Maester Aemon into choosing Samwell as his assistant. In the presence of his current assistant Chett, who - it is revealed later in the ASOS Prologue - murdered a girl he liked for rejecting him.

Chett gave a nasty laugh. “I’ve seen what happens to soft lordlings when they’re put to work. Set them to churning butter and their hands blister and bleed. Give them an axe to split logs, and they cut off their own foot.”

“I know one thing Sam could do better than anyone.”

“Yes?” Maester Aemon prompted.

Jon glanced warily at Chett, standing beside the door, his boils red and angry. “He could help you,” he said quickly. “He can do sums, and he knows how to read and write. I know Chett can’t read, and Clydas has weak eyes. Sam read every book in his father’s library. He’d be good with the ravens too. Animals seem to like him. Ghost took to him straight off. There’s a lot he could do, besides fighting. The Night’s Watch needs every man. Why kill one, to no end? Make use of him instead.”

Maester Aemon closed his eyes, and for a brief moment Jon was afraid that he had gone to sleep. Finally he said, “Maester Luwin taught you well, Jon Snow. Your mind is as deft as your blade, it would seem.”

“Does that mean …?”

“It means I shall think on what you have said,” the maester told him firmly. “And now, I believe I am ready to sleep. Chett, show our young brother to the door.”

(AGOT, Jon V)

The chapter is followed by AGOT, Tyrion VI, where Tyrion and Bronn rest on the high road after being kicked out of the Gates of the Moon, after he won his trial by combat:

They had taken shelter beneath a copse of aspens just off the high road. Tyrion was gathering dead-wood while their horses took water from a mountain stream. He stooped to pick up a splintered branch and examined it critically. “Will this do? I am not practiced at starting fires. Morrec did that for me.”

The entire conversation between Jon, Aemon and Chett sets up Tyrion. A lordling, bad with manual labor, but smart and a reader. Yet we know he is no Samwell Tarly in his sensibilities, and the last sentence is dedicated to Chett.

Chett...

The only women Chett had ever known were the whores he’d bought in Mole’s Town. When he’d been younger, the village girls took one look at his face, with its boils and its wen, and turned away sickened. The worst was that slattern Bessa. She’d spread her legs for every boy in Hag’s Mire so he’d figured why not him too? He even spent a morning picking wildflowers when he heard she liked them, but she’d just laughed in his face and told him she’d crawl in a bed with his father’s leeches before she’d crawl in one with him. She stopped laughing when he put his knife in her. That was sweet, the look on her face, so he pulled the knife out and put it in her again. When they caught him down near Sevenstreams, old Lord Walder Frey hadn’t even bothered to come himself to do the judging. He’d sent one of his bastards, that Walder Rivers, and the next thing Chett had known he was walking to the Wall with that foul-smelling black devil Yoren. To pay for his one sweet moment, they took his whole life.

But now he meant to take it back, and Craster’s women too. That twisted old wildling has the right of it. If you want a woman to wife you take her, and none of this giving her flowers so that maybe she don’t notice your bloody boils. Chett didn’t mean to make that mistake again.

Like Tyrion, Chett is rejected by others for his appearance, has a violent father and a lot of resentment that comes out in the shape of murdering “slatterns”. He also mixes it up with the idea of marriage. Like Tyrion, the cold night reminds Chett of the girl in his past.

He could see Bessa’s face floating before him. It wasn’t the knife I wanted to put in you, he wanted to tell her. I picked you flowers, wild roses and tansy and goldencups, it took me all morning. His heart was thumping like a drum, so loud he feared it might wake the camp. Ice caked his beard all around his mouth. Where did that come from, with Bessa? Whenever he’d thought of her before, it had only been to remember the way she’d looked, dying. What was wrong with him?

Chett killed her in a rage, but the truth is layered and haunts him.

But back to Tyrion.

Tyrion VI emphasizes Tyrion’s cleverness as he converses with Bronn, explaining his strategy in the Vale for how to steal Bronn from Cat’s service and make use of his practical talents, and his strategy for their travels in the Mountains of the Moon. Tyrion talks, Bronn listens and agrees to serve him.

The point is, Tyrion is very observant and smart. Reader, trust Tyrion’s judgent and words, is the message. Then we get more personal.

As they light a fire and eat a goat, Tyrion remembers his goaler Mord who treated him cruelly in the sky cells.

(Mord, btw, translates to murder in many a germanic/Scandinvian language.)

“And yet you gave the turnkey a purse of gold,” Bronn said.

“A Lannister always pays his debts.”

Even Mord had scarcely believed it when Tyrion tossed him the leather purse. The gaoler’s eyes had gone big as boiled eggs as he yanked open the drawstring and beheld the glint of gold. “I kept the silver,” Tyrion had told him with a crooked smile, “but you were promised the gold, and there it is.” It was more than a man like Mord could hope to earn in a lifetime of abusing prisoners. “And remember what I said, this is only a taste. If you ever grow tired of Lady Arryn’s service, present yourself at Casterly Rock, and I’ll pay you the rest of what I owe you.” With golden dragons spilling out of both hands, Mord had fallen to his knees and promised that he would do just that.

The image of coins spilling from hands is picked up later.

Tyrion was hoping to lure in the mountain clans, but they take their time showing up, so he tries to be even more conspicuous.

Tyrion chuckled. “Then we ought to sing and send them fleeing in terror.” He began to whistle a tune.

He chooses the “terrible” tune himself. It leads straight to his memory:

“Myrish. ‘The Seasons of My Love.’ Sweet and sad, if you understand the words. The first girl I ever bedded used to sing it, and I’ve never been able to put it out of my head.” Tyrion gazed up at the sky. It was a clear cold night and the stars shone down upon the mountains as bright and merciless as truth. “I met her on a night like this,” he heard himself saying. “Jaime and I were riding back from Lannisport when we heard a scream, and she came running out into the road with two men dogging her heels, shouting threats.

Myrish, as in the Myrish lens. The object Lysa sends Catelyn, which has a false bottom hiding the real message in a secret language, a message of murder and conspiracy. A secret language, a foreign language, like Mord.

"A lens is an instrument to help us see." (AGOT, Catelyn II)

Bright and merciless as truth.

My brother unsheathed his sword and went after them, while I dismounted to protect the girl. She was scarcely a year older than I was, dark-haired, slender, with a face that would break your heart. It certainly broke mine. Lowborn, half-starved, unwashed … yet lovely. They’d torn the rags she was wearing half off her back, so I wrapped her in my cloak while Jaime chased the men into the woods. By the time he came trotting back, I’d gotten a name out of her, and a story. She was a crofter’s child, orphaned when her father died of fever, on her way to … well, nowhere, really.

Where Tysha went will become a theme. @une-nuit-pour-se-souvenir examines that beautifully here.

But even right here, the tone is ominous, and GRRM goes out of his way to emphasize it with the ellipses.

We get the story of Jaime chasing after the outlaws and Tyrion and Tysha falling into bed at an inn after drinking, eating and talking, and the story of their marriage, and its end.

Tyrion was surprised at how desolate it made him feel to say it, even after all these years. Perhaps he was just tired. “That was the end of my marriage.” He sat up and stared at the dying fire, blinking at the light.

“He sent the girl away?”

“He did better than that,” Tyrion said. “First he made my brother tell me the truth. The girl was a whore, you see. Jaime arranged the whole affair, the road, the outlaws, all of it. He thought it was time I had a woman. He paid double for a maiden, knowing it would be my first time.

NOTHING about this makes sense, which is ridiculous when you consider we were just hammered over the head with how smart Tyrion is supposed to be.

Since when is Jaime prone to setting up complex schemes? Why would feel the need to push Tyrion to have sex at thirteen, and why would be ever do it this way? Why would be hire him a virgin for his first time? We don’t question it because GRRM has told us not to question the smartiepants. But as we later learn, that was all. not. true. So maybe other things aren’t true, either.

“After Jaime had made his confession, to drive home the lesson, Lord Tywin brought my wife in and gave her to his guards. They paid her fair enough. A silver for each man, how many whores command that high a price? He sat me down in the corner of the barracks and bade me watch, and at the end she had so many silvers the coins were slipping through her fingers and rolling on the floor, she …” The smoke was stinging his eyes. Tyrion cleared his throat and turned away from the fire, to gaze out into darkness. “Lord Tywin had me go last,” he said in a quiet voice. “And he gave me a gold coin to pay her, because I was a Lannister, and worth more.”

The parallels to his memory of Mord are striking. Silver and gold, coins spilling from hands, a “price” beyond expectation... and a promise of something very sinister at the next meeting.

After a time he heard the noise again, the rasp of steel on stone as Bronn sharpened his sword. “Thirteen or thirty or three, I would have killed the man who did that to me.”

1) Nice how Bronn makes it about Tyrion’s pain. Tysha’s pain does not exist to them. And so the reader is also drawn away from it. Poor Tyrion.

2) Another reference to killing. It foreshadows Tyrion’s murder of Tywin over this very matter, of course, but at the same time...

Tyrion gestured impatiently with the bow. “Tysha. What did you do with her, after my little lesson?”

“I don’t recall.”

“Try harder. Did you have her killed?”

His father pursed his lips. “There was no reason for that, she’d learned her place … and had been well paid for her day’s work, I seem to recall. I suppose the steward sent her on her way. I never thought to inquire.”

“On her way where?”

“Wherever whores go.”

Tyrion’s finger clenched. (ASOS, Tyrion XI)

I don’t think it can be emphasized enough that this happens right after he murders Shae. Shae the whore.

“Did you ever like it?” He cupped her cheek, remembering all the times he had done this before. All the times he’d slid his hands around her waist, squeezed her small firm breasts, stroked her short dark hair, touched her lips, her cheeks, her ears. All the times he had opened her with a finger to probe her secret sweetness and make her moan. “Did you ever like my touch?”

“More than anything,” she said, “my giant of Lannister.”

That was the worst thing you could have said, sweetling.

Tyrion slid a hand under his father’s chain, and twisted. The links tightened, digging into her neck. “For hands of gold are always cold, but a woman’s hands are warm,” he said. He gave cold hands another twist as the warm ones beat away his tears.

And just before he asks him about Tysha, Tywin assures him he was meant to be sent to the Wall. Whether or not that’s a lie, we’re looking at another Chett parallel. Murdering a “slattern”, facing life at the Wall.

We close Tyrion’s memory of Tysha:

Tyrion swung around to face him. “You may get that chance one day. Remember what I told you. A Lannister always pays his debts.” He yawned. “I think I will try and sleep. Wake me if we’re about to die.”

He rolled himself up in the shadowskin and shut his eyes. The ground was stony and cold, but after a time Tyrion Lannister did sleep. He dreamt of the sky cell. This time he was the gaoler, not the prisoner, big, with a strap in his hand, and he was hitting his father, driving him back, toward the abyss …

Like Chett, his thoughts return to the girl. He turns into the goaler, Mord, his rage comes through, his capability of great violence. In ASOS, his lashing out at Tywin is preceeded by directing his violence toward the “whore” who allegedly betrayed him. Which is preceeded by a truth about Tysha.

“Thank you?” Tyrion’s voice was choked. “He gave her to his guards. A barracks full of guards. He made me … watch.” Aye, and more than watch. I took her too … my wife …

“I never knew he would do that. You must believe me.”

“Oh, must I?” Tyrion snarled. “Why should I believe you about anything, ever? She was my wife!”

“Tyrion—”

He hit him. It was a slap, backhanded, but he put all his strength into it, all his fear, all his rage, all his pain. Jaime was squatting, unbalanced. The blow sent him tumbling backward to the floor. “I … I suppose I earned that.”

“Oh, you’ve earned more than that, Jaime. You and my sweet sister and our loving father, yes, I can’t begin to tell you what you’ve earned. But you’ll have it, that I swear to you. A Lannister always pays his debts.” Tyrion waddled away, almost stumbling over the turnkey again in his haste. Before he had gone a dozen yards, he bumped up against an iron gate that closed the passage. Oh, gods. It was all he could do not to scream.

(ASOS, Tyrion XI)

The turnkey here is interesting. Once again, Tysha’s memory is associated with a cell and the presence of a turnkey. In his anguished memory, Tyrion almost stumbles over him. The last turnkey was Mord.

So, just looking at Tysha’s first mention, there are so many ominous connections. Murder murder murder.

The chapter ends with Tyrion meeting and “hiring” the mountain clans. How? To avenge himself on Lysa Arryn, he promises them the entire Vale. Really driving home that “a Lannister pays his debts” is all about disproportionate retribution.

A few chapter later, to create some distance to this dark tale, Tyrion meets Shae and sets up to re-create his entire Tysha trauma. The two are intertwined, so why should their ends not be?

That’s fodder for a different post, though.

#asoiaf #anti tyrion lannister #tysha #murder mystery #long post #Shae #tywin lannister #bronn #mismemory #memory edit

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ravs6709 · 2 years

Text

Set My Heart Alight- Marellinh (Part 1)

Part 1 (here). Part 2.

Read on ao3 here! (recommended, it's like 14k words)

Part 2 of Open Up My Heart (And Let My Feelings Fly Free)

I am back at it with my omniscient reader's viewpoint!KOTLC au! The first part to the au is called Reading The Heart (23k words), which isn't necessary to read, but it is recommended. In case you need a recap/don't want to read RTH, the recap is that Keefe reads a comic about Tam surviving an apocalypse by clearing video game-like scenarios. That comic comes to life.

This two-shot takes place around the same time as RTH, but now we're looking from Linh's POV! Hope you enjoy!

Warnings for this chapter include *but not limited to*: Violence, background character death, drowning/fear of water, pretty graphic depictions of child and animal death, trauma in response to prev point, brief suicidal thoughts in response to trauma

•~•~•~•~•~•

"Tam, come look at this shell I found!" Without waiting for his reaction, Linh dragged ver brother by the arm across the beach towards the shell that ve found.

Tam pulled out his camera. "You just wanted me to take a picture, didn't you?"

Ve beamed, and he took the picture.

"I'm taking the shell with me too," ve said. "I just like watching you take pictures."

"You want one with you holding it?"

Ve nodded happily, and posed. Tam took the picture, a smile on his face.

•~•~•~•~•~•

Linh Song was ver name, but there was something odd about seeing the last name there. Ve had no knowledge of a family. All ve knew was that ve had woken up one day with ver brother Tam at the age of twenty two. What happened beforehand?

Despite having nothing going on for them, making their life was quite simple. Records of their existences already existed, with education levels (information ve couldn't recall learning, but knew anyway), and other important details. They were all pieces to some giant puzzle, but ve had no idea what the full picture was supposed to look like.

Tam became a professional photographer, famous for being able to work with bizarre requests for odd lighting. Linh got verself a job at the aquarium; ve loved taking care of the animals and it was fun to give tours to wide-eyed, curious children.

"Everyone, you're allowed to put your hands in the water here and pet the animals inside, if you want," ve said. "Be respe—"

There was a bright flash of light that blinded ver, scaring the animals.

"Excuse me," ve said calmly, "if anyone has their camera flash on, please make sure it is o—"

Linh froze. In front of ver, a white fluffy creature was floating. Ve loved animals, but this thing came out of nowhere, and stared at ver with deep black eyes and a mischievous smile.

"Children, please stay calm, and stay quiet for now, okay?" ve ordered, taking deep breaths so ve wouldn't freak out. Ve looked at the two teachers and they got the message, quickly herding everyone into a line.

["Listen up!"] The creature said, and one of the children screamed. ["Children know how to listen, right?"]

Linh moved and picked up the child, ignoring manners in favour of calming down the screaming child.

"What"— are you— "do you want?" Linh asked, forcing verself to be brave in front of all these terrified children.

["I was getting to that, but I'll let it slide. So— of course I get stuck with dealing with the children, they're too stupid to understand anything. But fine, I'll make things simple. Every single one of you owes money."]

"How much?" Linh asked. "How long until this money is due?"

"You should ask that thing why we owe money in the first place," one of the teachers muttered.

["Living costs a price in this world, and so far, you've all been doing this for free. So now, you have to make up for it. Your debt increases as each second passes by. It's not ordinary human money, the Star Stream runs with coins. Don't worry though, you've got your whole life to pay out the debt.

"You gain coins by clearing scenarios and oh! Here we are with our first scenario."]

A blue panel popped up in front of Linh, and looking around showed that it happened to everyone. This was going from weird to unreal really quickly. Ve put down the child ve was carrying and began reading the text on the panel, ignoring the massive headache that came out of nowhere, and the pull ve felt towards the animals.

◇◇◇◇◇

[Main scenario #1- Proof of Worth]

Category: Main

Difficulty: F

Clear Conditions: Kill one or more living creatures.

Time Limit: 30 minutes.

Reward: 300 coins.

Penalty For Failure: Death

◇◇◇◇◇

The dokkaebi smiled. ["Now I hope that you all provide a fun story to tell."]

That headache ve felt grew stronger, but ve needed to be strong. "Everyone, let's try and leave. I know the closest exit to here!"

The two teachers nodded. "Everyone in line, now."

As Linh tried to leave the room though, yellow sparks emerged, blocking ver from moving.

["You can't leave until the scenario is cleared."] The creature said.

"What do we do?" A teacher asked.

"We are not touching the children," the other teacher said.

Linh nodded. "I would never ask for that."

Ve reread the instructions, hoping that somehow, somehow , ve had misread them. But no, it was just as it said. Kill a living creature. The failure was death.

"Ooh, a clownfish!" One of the children said, reaching into the water and trying to grab one of the clownfish that were swimming. The child was so young, they probably couldn't even fully read what the scenario was about. And now they were thrust into a situation such as this.

The two teachers locked eyes, and Linh's stomach lurched. Ve knew exactly what they were thinking.

"I'm sorry, but we can't," ve said.

The headache that ve had grew longer, and it almost felt like ve could also feel the pull of the water.

"We have to," the first teacher said. "For the sake of the kids, we have to. We have no other choice."

"Alright, everyone!" The second teacher said, "reach into the water and take out one fish."

"Please," Linh whispered, even though ve knew that this was the right thing to do. The children should take priority over the animals. Then why… why did seeing the fish swim away in fear tug at ver heart so much?

Small bursts of feelings—feelings? Voices?—erupted in ver mind, everything was flooding ver, the pull of the water, the feelings of each and every individual animal.

" Please stop ," ve said, and there were tears. Ve instinctively reached out, but had to restrain verself.

They are literal children! ve told verself. The children have to live . If the children die because I decided to be stupid , I could never forgive myself.

But ve could feel the weight of countless gazes of ver, the eyes of each and every single animal on ver.

We want to live , ve could hear, a tragic melody, louder than the roar of the water, pulling at ver entire being. We don't want to die.

"Stop!" ve screamed, closing ver eyes. "Please," ve begged, but even ve couldn't tell what ve was begging for. For the headache to stop? To let the animals live? To the creature who orchestrated the entire event to stop this? This creature who was willing to kill children for… for what? For some kind of debt that nobody was even aware of?

Ve couldn't do anything more than murmur please and plant ver hands on ver ears to block the sound of everything, but the world only grew louder and louder until—

Glass shattered, and Linh opened ver eyes to see water flooding everywhere, animals being swept away from the grabbing hands of the children. Water kept flooding, more and more as the water level began to rise.

There was screaming again, the teachers, the children, maybe the animals too. Maybe even verself— definitely verself, ver throat began to burn as the water just kept rising.

There was no true way to prove it, but ve knew that all of this was because of ver. All ver fault. It was all ver fault as the water kept rising, and not a single drop was allowed to escape the room because of the yellow barrier that prevented them from leaving. It was all ver fault that the roar of the water grew louder, overpowering the screams of everyone. It was all ver fault that the screams turned into silence, until the sound of the water was so loud that ve couldn't even hear it anymore.

Stop! ve pleaded, to whatever being was willing to listen. I beg you, please stop this!

Ve closed ver eyes, hoping that this was some nightmare. Ve'd wake up in ver room, make some tea, and maybe Tam would be awake too. He'd comfort ver, just like he'd done over the two years that ve could remember.

⸢"It's okay Linh," Tam would say, "it's just a nightmare."

For a brief moment, ve wondered if at this age, ve should be able to deal with nightmares. But with Tam's fingers linked with vers, ve decided that it didn't matter. As long as Tam was willing to do this, there was no reason to worry.⸥

Ve opened ver eyes to the sight of utter destruction. Shards of glass were scattered everywhere from the water—and so were the bodies. As if the water had managed to tear them apart . As if it were some kind of weapon that ve had unleashed . Laughter burst out of ver unexpectedly, an ugly, horrific sound to ver ears. The laughter didn't cease, ve hunched over, falling to the floor as tears streamed down ver face, until the laughs turned to sobs, until ve lost ver voice entirely.

Why? Ve thought. Why why why why why? Why did I stay unharmed? Why am I still here?

[You have killed a living thing. 100 coins have been earned as a reward.]

As if to reinforce the sins that ve had just committed, ve received dozens upon dozens of that message, each one for a body that ve killed. But then there were more and more and more and surely there weren't that many people in the room, and even with the animals included, ve couldn't have killed that many, why were there so many messages and ve knew for sure that it was exceeding the number of living beings in the room now and why were the messages still coming?

Ver headache subsided slightly as the water began to calm down, and dazed, ve realized the answer to ver question.

This wasn't the only room in the aquarium. There were more, there was more water to use and hurt and kill —

["Wow, this has got to be one of the most exciting results of the first scenario that I've seen in a long time. Ve seems to be earning quite a number of coins, isn't ve off to a great start?"] the dokkaebi said. ["What do you think about Linh Song, dear constellations?"]

[The constellation, One Who Lost Her Heart is interested in your power.]

[You have been sponsored 100 coins.]

Various other messages popped up, saying similar things. Only two messages stood out from the rest.

[The constellation, One Who Seeks The End looks at you with sympathy.]

[The constellation, Lady Of The Darkest Depths wishes to help you.]

One of them felt bad for ver, while the other seemed to want to help ver.

["Well,"] the dokkaebi continued, ["I'll explain this quickly, since it's only you here…"]

Linh made out words relating to some kind of sponsor selection that would allow for "incarnations" to live. All ve could think of though were the words "it's only you here".

Only me… only me in the entire aquarium? I'm the only one left living here..?

[1. One Who Lost Her Heart

Lady Of The Darkest Depths

…]

The sponsor selection began, and there were a decent number of constellations there, four. But ve only recognized two of the names; the one who was interested in ver power and the one who wanted to help ver.

Ve chose the Lady Of The Darkest Depths .

[The constellation, Lady Of The Darkest Depths nods her head in approval.]

"What do I do next?" Linh asked ver sponsor.

[The constellation, Lady Of The Darkest Depths says for you to take a look at your attribute window and stats.]

An attribute window? With that thought, another blue panel appeared in front of ver.

◇◇◇◇◇

[Personal Information]

Name: Linh Hai Song.

Pronouns: Ve/ver.

Age: 24.

Constellation Support: Lady Of The Darkest Depths.

Attribute(s): One Of Many Floods (Rare).

Skill(s): Hydrokinesis (Level 1), Diverse Communication (Level 1).

Stigma(s): Great Wave (Level 1).

Overall Stats: Stamina (Level 3), Strength (Level 2), Agility (Level 4), Magic Power (Level 3).]

◇◇◇◇◇

Oh. Whatever this was seemed to know a lot about ver; name, pronouns, age. It vaguely reminded ver of a video game—was that what all this was? A video game?

Was ve just some character used to… used to…

[The constellation, Lady Of The Darkest Depths tells you that this tragedy was due to circumstances, it was not your fault.]

But it was. Ve knew that it was.

"Who are you?" ve asked instead.

[The constellation, Lady Of The Darkest Depths cannot tell you her true name, not until you are able to meet her.]

"Oh," ve murmured, upset. The only being who truly seemed to understand the tragedy of the situation could only communicate like this, distantly. "Well…" ve tried to think of what to say next, but usually observing ver surroundings helped with that. But right now… ve could only keep ver gaze on the attribute window, which blocked the view of the aquarium. "There's… there's um… stats? How do I upgrade them? Do I use the coins I received?"

If ve could just focus on anything but the world around ver…

Ve received a reply in confirmation, and ve began to upgrade some of ver stats. Ve had more than enough to raise ver stats to level five, and still had well over twenty-thousand coins. Based on the fact that upgrading a stat costed only three hundred coins, ve probably had more coins than a lot of people.

All because I killed so many people. Most people wouldn't have killed as many as I have.

Was it possible for Linh to repent for the killing of so many?

Ve received another message, this time detailing the second scenario.

…there's more. There are more scenarios.

This new one didn't read as difficult as the previous one, but still, there were more and ve had no idea how long this hell was going to last.

As ve stumbled out of the aquarium, ve pulled out ver phone—surprisingly unharmed. Tam, ve needed to text Tam.

Ve froze. Was he okay? Was he able to clear the scenario… did he too have to kill? Whatever he'd do though, it could never be as bad as what ve had just done. What would he even think of ver? Would he see ver as a monster?

Ve smiled sardonically, ve wouldn't blame him for thinking so.

Finally gathering the courage to open up ver phone, ve saw a text from Tam. Twenty minutes ago, shortly before the first scenario would have started.

Linh. It read. There was nothing else.

Please text me if you're okay, ve typed back and pressed send. However, there was apparently no signal, so it couldn't be sent.

What now? Ve had no idea if he was okay. Ve had no idea where to even begin looking for him. Wait. He was probably taking the subway on his way home. If the second scenario for him was the same as vers, then he'd have to head underground. Ve wouldn't know which stop he got off at, but ve knew that he'd be somewhere underground. Maybe he was already looking for ver.

With one last glance at the place that ve had loved dearly, ve left the aquarium and made ver way to the nearest subway station.

•~•~•~•~•~•

Wandering alone in the subway tunnels was simultaneously relieving and stressful. There was nothing around to remind ver of what had just happened, but it wasn't like ve needed a reminder to think of it.

(Really, all it took was five minutes to send Linh into a mental breakdown.)

Ve had a purpose, but was also left to ver own thoughts. Each step was another step towards living, a chance that so many people weren't able to have. The weight of each step was huge, and ve could hear the echoes in the tunnels.

(They were echoes of the people who should have been here.)

The echoes were so loud that they seemed to attract some kind of animal. Its feelings weren't as pronounced as the ones in the aquarium, but ve could feel something.

What are you doing? ve thought as the animal charged at ver. This small feeling pulled at ver gut, a low, silent hum. Ve tugged back, hoping it would listen. Please back down.

[The constellation, Lady Of The Darkest Depths says that you will have to kill it.]

It was attacking ver, it was clearly aggressive, yet it felt wrong to hurt it. After a close dodge, ve upgraded ver agility by two, so ve could figure out what to do next.

[The skill, Diverse Communication (Level 1) has been activated.]

Ve tried to tame it, to look into its mind and do something, but it wouldn't work. Whether it was due to the low level or something else, ve didn't know.

[The constellation, Lady Of The Darkest Depths says you need to use your hydrokinesis.]

"No, I can't," ve said immediately. Ve refused to use it.

But without being able to tame the creature, ve had no other weapon, and ve had to kill it, otherwise, ve would die.

But , a very dark part of ver mind whispered, was that so bad? The people you killed will never be brought back to life, so what better way to repent than to let their killer die?

And for a long moment, ve considered it. But when the animal lunged at ver, ve moved out of the way, and as if ve had done it a hundred thousand times, ve pulled out water from the air and made a whip.

It was only when the animal laid deathly still that Linh realized just what ve had done. Another life. Another life had been taken because of ver.

The whip dropped out of ver hands and evaporated back into the air.

•~•~•~•~•~•

Ve wasn't sure if it was luck or a coincidence, but after a while wandering through the tunnels, Linh somehow managed to run into Tam.

"Tam," ve breathed, and practically threw verself at him, wrapping ver arms around him tightly.

Ve expected him to return the embrace, so it was surprising when he didn't hug ver back, and instead stiffened. Ve pulled away almost immediately, only then noticing that there was blood on his clothes.

"Sorry," ve murmured, pulling away, ignoring how awful the blood felt on ver fingers, "are you okay?"

Tam stared at ver with wide eyes, as if it were the first time that he'd seen ver in years. He blinked and that startled look was gone, as if it were an accidental display of vulnerability. "I'm fine," he said, voice low. "And… and you?"

"I'm… I'm okay," ve lied, not able to bring verself to tell him what had happened.

Linh was his sister, and ve knew how to tell that he, too, was lying. That he was acting stronger than he felt. Linh did the same. They were twins, after all.

Tam told ver some details about the scenario, and together, they made their way to their next destination. Ve thought that now that they were together, things would be okay. They would talk and they could ease their pain. Instead, there was silence, no assurances or comfort. Walking with him, it felt like there was some kind of wall between them, a wall made of apathy and pain, growing larger and larger with each step they took.

What happened, Tam? ve wanted to ask. What happened that's made you like this? Talk to me, please.

"How many coins do you have?" Linh asked, looking for a way to start a conversation.

"Thirteen thousand," he said after a few moments.

Thirteen thousand. Not nearly as much as ve had, but still more than ve had expected. How many people died in his subway car? (How many people died because of him , was the better question, but ve couldn't think that he had killed so many people).

Still… ve moved a little closer to him and put a hand on his shoulder. His whole body jerked to look at ver, and his eyes widened again as he read the message.

[You have given 5,000 coins to the character Tam Song. ] Was what the panel read for ver.

Tam let out a breath, and ve could feel the weight in that one breath. As ve retracted ver hand—even though ve wanted nothing more than to leave it there—Tam grabbed it quickly.

[You have received 3,000 coins from the character Tam Song. ]

Just like that, he immediately let go of ver hand.

"If you have coins to spare, use them on yourself," he said, turning away from ver.

You still kept two thousand, Linh wanted to tease, but he began walking up ahead, his black coat fluttering behind him, blending him into the shadows. The wall between them only grew larger.

[The constellation, Lady Of The Darkest Depths asks if your brother is usually like this.]

"No," ve whispered, quietly so Tam couldn't hear the echoes of it. "I don't know what's happening."

[The constellation, Lady Of The Darkest Depths wants to demand how he could treat his own sister like this!]

A laugh spilled from ver lips, and ve was surprised that it almost sounded genuine. "You don't have to do that. He'll come back to me when he's ready."

Ve could only hope that this was the case.

•~•~•~•~•~•

⸢"Oh, Linh, you're home," Tam greeted, finding ver in their kitchen. "How was your first day of work?"

"It was stressful ," ve replied. "The children are adorable but they're loud. I almost forgot my animal facts, but it was fun. How about yours?"

"You wouldn't believe how picky some of my clients are," Tam groaned, going into the fridge and taking out a bottle of water, drinking half of it in one go, "I did exactly what he wanted and then had the audacity to complain. I don't want to deal with him ever again."

"Did he pay well at least?"

Tam snorted. "No."⸥

The two travelled toward the area with the second scenario, and Linh was able to observe the changes in Tam properly. He was quiet—even more than usual.

He talked to ver, but mostly when it related to the scenario. Otherwise, ve was the one who had to initiate the conversations. Ve knew that Tam was reserved, but this?

What was going on?

Whenever a creature came and tried to attack them, he controlled the shadows to kill them off. Looking at him, ve could tell just how strong he was. It wasn't just the control in his own abilities, but physical strength too. He could kill a monster in half the time it would take ver.

"Stay here," Tam said when they encountered a mini-dungeon. "You can stand guard."

Tam entered the dungeon and Linh waited.

[The constellation, Lady Of The Darkest Depths asks if you're just going to let him take all the treasure for himself.]

"That's not what he's doing," Linh said. "He wants me to stay because he wants me to stay safe. I don't appreciate your tone."

Ver sponsor didn't say anything else, thankfully. When Tam returned, he smelled of blood—more than usual, at least—and he had a few items in his hands. There was a sword at his waist, some kind of candle-looking object, and a bracelet.

"Take this, I don't need it," Tam said, handing ver the bracelet.

Ve took it and slid it on. "Thank you."

But by the time ve had taken it, Tam already turned to move on ahead to their next destination.

Ve took a look at the stats of the bracelet. It mentioned something about a slight calming effect.

Linh looked up smugly, ver sponsor silent.

•~•~•~•~•~•

The second scenario was… brutal. Not as awful as the first, not for ver, at least, but still awful. It was about hunting food—which ve had done before—but also about surviving other people.

Tam seemed to have no qualms dealing with the group that they faced off against. He simply pulled out his sword.

"What are you doing?" Linh asked him. "These are people ."

"They're awful people, Linh. They take power by harming the unfortunate."

"You can't know that!"

"I passed by here when I was looking for you," he explained, but something about his measured tone made it seem like he wasn't quite telling the truth. But why lie? "It would be better if I didn't say what they did."

Linh stared at him. He was probably right about the things that they had done but… kill them?

“One of my skills is called Shadow Reading ,” Tam said finally, “it allows me to see a person’s stats, but also tells me the weight of their sins.”

“Oh,” ve said. If he used the Shadow Reading skill on ver, what would he find? Would the weight of ver sins outweigh everyone else’s?

“I’ll deal with them if you don’t want to.”

Then he rushed into battle, his body a black blur as he used his sword to cut people down. He moved just like the shadows he was able to control—dark and deadly. He swung his sword with the ease of a swordsman who had trained for decades. So unlike the brother that ve knew.

⸢"Hey Linh," Tam said, and ve could immediately latch on to the very slight tremor in his voice.

They were cooking dinner together in the kitchen, so ve couldn't see him, but ve could hear the hesitation when he normally chopped the vegetables with ease.

"Yeah, what is it?"

"I've gotten my first professional photoshoot," he said. "I'd like you to be there with me."

"Is that allowed?" ve asked.

"I've already gotten permission."

"Then of course I'll come!" Ve turned to him, and once ve saw that he paused chopping the vegetables, ve elbowed him. "I'd love to be able to witness what people mean when they say you're the 'Master with Shadows'."

He rolled his eyes. "Please, they're being ridiculous." But upon closer inspection, his cheeks flushed a very faint pink and his lips twitched. All the tension left his body.⸥

The fight was over before ve could realize it.

“Linh,” Tam called out, “let’s go.”

Numerous messages popped up telling ver that ve was done with the second scenario, but ve ignored them in favour of watching his back. His entire body was straight and unyielding, his head held high as his coat fluttered with every step he took. Every step he took was quiet and even.

Still, despite how collected he moved, there was something stiff about him. There was some kind of tension, something so ancient that weathered him down.

What's weighing you down?

What happened to the brother who could smile brightly, to the brother whose laughter was like music, who took a camera wherever he went and took pictures? Because as much as he didn't seem like it, he always saw the beauty in life.

"Where's your camera?" Ve blurted.

He turned abruptly and ve could see the splatters of blood on his face, and his cold, haunted eyes. Ve flinched.

(The moment Linh realized ve flinched, ver heart broke. What reason did ve have to flinch?

Something shifted in those dark eyes of his, and ve wondered if he'd noticed.)

"I still have it," he replied, his voice flat and unchanging. "But there's nothing worth taking pictures of anymore."

Which, in a way, was true. Being under the tunnels only amplified how apocalyptic the world seemed. Everything was only lit by the few light bulbs that were still working, and Tam seemed to have some kind of skill that allowed him to see.

What could be seen could be called nothing short of horrifying. Random animals created by the scenario kept charging and attacking, and the walls were stained with blood. Sometimes, it wasn't even animal blood—it would be human.

"What are you going to do with it then?" The question left ver mouth before ve could even finish the thought.

His hand moved to his pocket. "I'll keep it until I can keep it somewhere safe."

Ve let out a sigh of relief. Ve didn't know what kind of answer ve had been expecting, but this was the right one.

•~•~•~•~•~•

"Those people…" Linh whispered. "How could they do such a thing?"

Upon finally arriving at the area of the third scenario, ve was horrified. There were spots known as "green zones" or "rooms" that people needed to stay in so they could survive the wave of monsters that came out at night.

The first problem was that there weren't enough rooms for everyone. The second was that there was a group of people that hoarded the largest room, and only allowed people in after charging a large number of coins for each night.

"You'll have to get used to sights like these," Tam said, his voice filled with apathy, "in the apocalypse, people will resort to everything. We can't be naive."

What happened to you? Ve wanted to ask. Tell me!

(But if ve had to be honest, ve was almost glad for this, as selfish as it was. The more time ve spent stressing over this, the less time ve had to think about the… incident at the aquarium. It already haunted ver enough in nightmares, or whenever ve was idle, but this almost seemed like a pleasant distraction. Ve wished that ve felt worse about it.)

"Shouldn't we do something? What about the previous scenario?" The one where you ruthlessly killed the group was left unsaid.

"They're too strong for me to kill," Tam replied. The nonchalance of his tone made ver shudder.

"That doesn't mean we can't do anything, we have…" all these coins, ve didn't say, because there were people around.

"Even if we help them now, they won't be saved," he said without hesitation. "There's no point in using them to help others. Save them for yourself. You should go find yourself a room, night will start in three hours."

Find yourself… "And what about you?"

"I can survive without one."

"But—"

"Linh." He stared at ver, his gaze piercing. "...stay safe. I'll be back soon."

He turned on his heel and went off to do his own thing. His tone was dismissive, but Linh found verself smiling.

Stay safe.

"Okay," ve murmured, "I will."

Ve walked around, looking for any free rooms, but the longer ve watched, the more ve knew that ve had to do something. Ve left the station and began wandering around the immediate surroundings.

[The constellation, Lady Of The Darkest Depths is wondering what you are doing.]

"I have to do something ," ve said. Then, quieter, so nobody else but ver sponsor could hear ver, "other than that group, I might have the most coins in the area. Even if I can't offer them all my coins, I can provide food. I'll hunt and I'll earn coins for it."

[The constellation, Lady Of The Darkest Depths says reluctantly that your brother may have had a point.]

"I get why he's cautious, and maybe he's right. Maybe they won't survive this night, or maybe they won't survive the next. But I refuse to do nothing about it."

As ve encountered an animal, ve hunted it down with the only weapon ve had—ver hydrokinesis. It wasn't easy, it took all ver mental strength to be able to create the water whip, but a whip was small and thin and wouldn't drown anyone. One animal went down, then the next, then another came until ve cleared out the area.

As ve began carrying the carcasses back—which became much easier when one could upgrade their strength—ve came across a group.

"Here, I'll help you," a person with shoulder-length blonde hair said, and ve gave them one of the loads. "Are you bringing them to the station?"

Linh nodded. "Yes, I am."

"Did you beat all these by yourself?" Another person asked, with dark hair and brown skin. "That's pretty cool! These things are so annoying because of how often we come across them. They're disgusting and my nails feel like crap." Still, though, they also helped pick up a carcass.

The group seemed friendly enough, though there were blood stains splattered across their clothes. However, ve didn't fear them, not when the same applied to verself. At this point, the blood was something ve was learning to get used to.

"Oh, I should probably introduce myself," Linh said, "I'm Linh. My pronouns are ve/ver."

The others then introduced themselves: Marella, the one who introduced himself to ver, Biana, the dark-haired woman, Fitz and Dex who stayed quiet, and Keefe, who was also quiet, but his gaze was on ver as he if found ver to be familiar…

They arrived at the station, and Linh gave out the meat to the struggling people.

"Thank you," someone said, "how can I repay you?"

"You don't have to," Linh told them. This is the only way I'm able to help you.

Linh made ver way to leave but was interrupted by Keefe. "Hey, your brother's Tam, right?"

Linh turned around and tilted ver head. He knew Tam? "How do you know him?"

"Tell him that his companion is here. He'll know."

His companion… Somehow, ve doubted that. The word "companion" was vague, but it also felt strangely… personal? It wasn't like Tam had a boyfriend or any ex-partners, so it didn't mean romantically. His only friends were from his work, but if Keefe was a friend from work, he could have just said so.

Did he meet Tam when the apocalypse first started? Did he… did he see what caused Tam to change? As soon as the thought appeared, ve stamped it out, ve couldn't get so hopeful about this. If that was when they met, if they were companions , why didn't ve find them together? Why was Tam on his own?

"I'm not sure who he'd know that I wouldn't, but I'll go find him. Don't go anywhere," ve settled on, then made ver way to go find him.

It took a little while to find him.

"What are you doing here?" Tam asked, not even turning to look at ver. "You should be in your room."

"Someone came looking for you and said that he's your companion," Linh told him, omitting the fact that ve had never gone to a room in the first place.

"Companion?" He asked.

Ve nodded. "A man named Keefe said that and that he wanted to see you."

"He's at the station?"

"Yeah, him and the rest of his group."

Wordlessly, Tam turned around from what he was doing and began making his way back to the station.

"Wait, Tam, do you really know him?" Linh asked, surprised by his reaction.

"I've met him once, earlier. Before I found you."

"Did something happen? How come the two of you didn't travel together?"

"I didn't want to," he said simply. "He's also not my companion. But I do need to talk to him."

"Then why leave?"

"No particular reason." There was silence for a few moments. "And Linh?"

"Yeah?"

"Can you tell your sponsor to not interrogate me?"

Linh blinked, and then he was walking further up ahead.

"Lady Of The Darkest Depths?" ve called out.

[The constellation, Lady Of The Darkest Depths says that incarnation Tam Song shouldn't hide anything from you!]

"It's okay," ve said. "I'm going to give him time. You don't have to do anything."

Then ve walked faster to catch up to ver brother, ignoring the indignant messages from ver sponsor.

•~•~•~•~•~•

When they arrived back at the station, Linh tried to observe as much as possible. Keefe, who had been relatively quiet, suddenly seemed full of life.

"Did you miss me?" He asked.

Tam rolled his eyes. "Not really."

It was dismissive, but it was more of a reaction than he'd shown to most things. Then Keefe suddenly grabbed Tam by the arm and dragged him off to somewhere quiet. Linh thought Tam would tell him off or look annoyed, but he didn't really do much about it.

"How do they know each other?" Linh asked the group.

"To be honest, I don't really know? All I know is that we had to cross a bridge of even numbers. Dex and I crossed together, and Keefe was alone. If Tam made it past, that meant he'd crossed with Keefe, but only Tam actually made it past that scenario. He told us that Keefe was alive, and then after a day or so, he left," Fitz explained.

"The more I hear about this the more I agree with Biana's theory of that guy throwing him off the bridge," Marella muttered, but it was loud enough for ver to hear.

"I don't think Tam would do that," Linh said. "He's not the type of person to do that."

Though… what kind of person was he? He was willing to kill people without hesitation.

"I don't know him," Dex said, "and I don't know what Tam has told you, but he took the same subway as us. He was in the car behind us, and there was an explosion. He was the only one who survived in his entire car."

"He wouldn't…" ve murmured, eyes wide, "I know him, he wouldn't…"

Tam, involved with an explosion? There was no way. He could never do that, he couldn't. How would the explosion even happen? As far as ve knew, his skills had more to do with shadows or allowing himself to be better at fighting. So how could he even cause an explosion to happen?

Maybe someone else had an explosive, and Tam wanted to disarm them, but the explosive was accidentally set off. It would have been an accident, and Tam probably blamed himself for being unable to save them. Something so traumatic would explain the change in his behaviour. Maybe him being unable to save them made him feel like people couldn't be saved.

"Hey, it's alright," Marella said, putting a hand on ver shoulder, probably mistaking ver silence for something else.

If anything, ve was relieved, wondering why ve doubted ver brother in the first place.

"Linh."

Ve turned and saw that Tam and Keefe had come back.

"I'm going to the building right next to the station," he said, "there's a hidden dungeon there that will take me a day to explore. You should stay with Keefe's group until I'm back."

"Okay. Be careful," ve said.

He nodded. "You too."

Yes, there was no way that Tam was like that. He still cared for ver, even if it wasn't obvious.

•~•~•~•~•~•

"So what the hell's going on here?" Marella asked, "all these green… things hurt my eyes."

"They're green zones, but everyone just calls them rooms," Linh explained. "You need to be inside them when night starts, otherwise the wave of monsters will come out."

"What's the catch?" Marella asked. "We all know these f*cking dokkaebi wouldn't make it this easy."

Linh nodded, finding her skepticism a little soothing. "There aren't enough rooms for everyone. There's a large one upstairs but there's a strong group hoarding it."

Marella cursed again. "I'm going to go up there and I'm going to set fire to them."

"They're too strong," Keefe interrupted.

"Says you?" Biana scoffed. "The one who nearly got into a fistfight with my dad when he was being an *ss? Since when did you believe in being too weak to rebel?"

Keefe shrugged. "Fighting your dad wouldn't get me killed."

"It's not like you're alone," Marella said. "Even if my fire doesn't kill, Everblaze would cause panic."

"That might work," Linh said, and everyone turned to ver. "But the issue is that the leader attacks from long-range, and just stepping into his area will notify him that you're there."

"What about something like this?" Biana asked, disappearing for a few seconds, only to reappear. "That's Vanishing , and I think Invisible Dome might help with the detection issue."

"My stigma is Absolute Shutdown ," Dex added. "I can disable a skill or stigma as long as I've got some kind of technology on me. I've got my phone, so it should work. I can disable the leader's special skill, Biana, you could use Vanishing and probably take down the leader while they're confused."

"Slit their throat," Keefe told Biana. Then he mimed the motion by getting behind Fitz, quickly grabbing him in a way that would easily allow access to the throat. "If you cut the carotid artery, they'll die in about a minute."

"That's a… specific detail to know…" Biana said. "You also pulled off the example really well."

“Yeah, my neck hurts,” Fitz added.

"I read a lot of comics and stuff, I was curious about the accuracy," Keefe said with a shrug. "Super easy to look up online. And sorry Fitzy, guess these stats made me underestimate my strength.”

Linh didn't know anything about Keefe, so ve wasn't going to say anything about that. "If you're going to do this, you'll have to act quick. Night will start in around half an hour."

"Aren't you coming with us?" Marella asked.

"I won't be of any use to you in battle." I can't bring myself to kill any more people right now, even if they're evil. "I wish you luck, I'm going to go check on the people. I can tell them the news that there will be more rooms for them to stay in."

"Well, thank you anyway," Marella said.

•~•~•~•~•~•

Keefe's group dealt with the hoarders, which meant that the innocents finally had a chance to use the rooms free of cost. They all lived through the night, and the next morning, they broke the rooms to forcefully change the scenario.

Linh would have never thought to do something like that, but it was Keefe's idea, and he said that it would help everyone since the number of rooms would decrease drastically as each night passed, meaning that there would constantly be a fight for rooms.

Soon, the fourth scenario appeared. The scenario required for a leader of a station to be elected—the people seemed to be fine with Linh or Marella, but it was ultimately Keefe who became leader—and each station had their own flag. The scenario was ultimately one large game of capture the flag (though, slightly modified).

"I'm willing to stay behind and defend the base," Linh said.

"I'll stay with ver too," Marella offered. "We'll need a lot of firepower—do not make the joke!" she said as Keefe opened his mouth.

"Okay, that works," Keefe nodded.

As they prepared to leave, there was a loud noise that came from nearby.

"Everyone be careful!" Keefe warned.

As they prepared themselves, a new group of people made their entrance to their station. They all wore cloaks and they seemed really strong. Linh had hoped that maybe the new group would be friendly, but it seemed like they were just here to take over the station.

"What?" Linh heard Keefe murmuring, turning to see Keefe staring at the enemy group wide-eyed.

"You know them?" Fitz asked.

"No," Keefe replied. "We'll have to fight right now though."

The enemy group attacked, so they defended, and the group was really strong. Tam returned from his quest to the dungeon and helped them fight back, and it became an easy victory as Tam cut off the last one's head.

The head rolled across the floor, only for it to move a little on its own. Linh covered ver mouth with disgust as the head began to talk.

"Tam Song, I'm sorry to have attacked your station, but I needed your attention. I know the future, and I want us to become companions. You'll need me for the 46th scenario."

Tam looked surprised for a moment, then looked at the head with interest. How… how was he not horrified by such a thing?

"You're telling the truth. But this isn't your true body. Come back with your true body and then we'll talk," Tam said coldly.

"Before you kill this body, I want to warn you to watch out for them," they pointed at Keefe. "They might get you killed."

"We'll see." With that, Tam stepped on the head, and it faded into blue sparks.

"Are you going to recruit them?" Keefe asked.

"Does it bother you if I do?" Tam asked, an odd, amused look on his face. "Their sponsor is Moonlark That Soars Through The Sky."

"What?" Keefe asked with wide eyes again.

"You couldn't even foresee that, despite being a Prophet?" Tam asked. "Maybe they're right, maybe joining with them will be more favourable to me. After all, I don't even know who your sponsor is."

Keefe stayed silent, looking forward with a distant, confused expression.

"I'll see you again at the Throne, Prophet," Tam said, then turned on his heel and left.

What was that? What were they talking about? True body? Recruiting? A Moonlark? Prophet? Throne? A talking head?

"I think we'll get going now too," Keefe said, and his group left in the opposite direction.

"Well, damn, that was really brutal," Marella said. "Your brother… is really intense. He just like… stomped on a head that was talking. Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm okay, I think," Linh replied, not saying anything about Tam. Ve had to admit, it was a little terrifying. "I mean, as okay as one can be in an apocalypse like this."

"It's f*cking awful, isn't it."

It wasn't a question, they both knew the answer.

"I've joked with my friends about committing arson before, but I never thought I'd ever actually set fire to people and harm them," Marella said. She looked up. "I don't even know if they're alive or not. Or my family. I wonder if my mom's doing alright, but maybe not, I don't think she would've been able to handle something like this in her condition."

"I hope your family is okay," Linh told her, because that was all ve could offer at the moment.

Ve could only think of ver own friends, some that had been working at the aquarium at the same time as ver—oh, god, ve had killed them too, hadn't ve?

"What about yours?" Marella asked.

"I don't know, I haven't seen them in a long time," Linh replied. I don't know if I've ever seen them, or if all my memories of them are lost like the rest of my childhood memories.

"Oh," Marella said.

There was silence for a while, even as they went together to hunt more food for the station, and did patrols to make sure that the area was safe. Yet unlike with Tam, the silence wasn't as stifling.

Maybe it was because the two of them were merely strangers, they had no expectations of each other. They knew nothing about each other, no memories to judge each other based off of. Two strangers who didn't have to worry about showing their best side, because the apocalypse was already bringing out the worst in them both.

They were both murderers, they both knew it, but there didn't need to be any tension over it. Linh felt like that if ve wanted to talk, Marella would listen, because in the end, they were both human, and wanted company and comfort in this ruined world.

•~•~•~•~•~•

There weren't really any dangers, so Linh found verself talking with Marella some more.

"So how'd you meet the others?" Linh asked.

"I was on my own at a different station. I was helping out a group when they ganged up on me and tried to kill me. I managed to escape but the toxic air left me unable to move. That's when Keefe found me and saved my life."

"Oh, that's good," ve said, "what happened to the group after? I can't really see you letting something like that slide."

He nodded. "I killed them. They were hoarding food and doing things similar to what that group was doing here. I can't let people hurt others knowing that I have the power to stop them. It's probably why I'm the Enforcer of Justice. What's your attribute?"

One Of Many Floods. Something so horrible, pathetic. "Ah, nothing as grand as yours," ve laughed.

Enforcer of Justice, that sounds like something you could only get if the people you harm are those who deserve it. You're more innocent and heroic than you think. How would you cast your judgement if you knew what I had done?

As Linh got to know Marella better, ve learned that while he was someone quick to resort to violence, it didn't mean he was a ruthless murderer. He only did so because he cared for those that suffered, and wanted to enforce justice. He was quite nice, actually.

"You're strong," Linh complimented. "Do you have experience fighting?"

"I took some classes, but nothing major. If anything, I find it cool with what you do with your water whip."

Ve smiled. "It's not easy. It requires a lot of control." Because without control, ve could draw too much water and make a mess out of everything.

"You know who makes fighting look easy? Your brother. Remember when he was fighting that Apostle group that attacked our station? Did you two ever take sword fighting lessons or something?"

Ve shook ver head. "No. It surprised me, looking at him. Maybe he bought a skill or something, he probably has the coins to do it."

"Maybe. Still have to wonder what's up with him though, he just goes along doing whatever he wants and hardly ever speaks."

It was true. It wasn't like Tam needed ver permission to do anything, but he was tight-lipped about whatever he was going to do. He just offered a short explanation and then left before anyone had the chance to complain. Though…

"I find that Keefe can be a little similar. He comes off as someone light-hearted, he's certainly more energetic than Tam, but he seems to be similar."

Marella shrugged. "You're not wrong. But apparently, Fitz and Biana knew him from before the scenarios, so I trust him. And well, I trust you, so I'll trust Tam too."

"Thank you. Now if only my sponsor could do the same."

[The constellation, Lady Of The Darkest Depths says that the actions of your brother have been concerning!]

"A protective sponsor, huh?" Marella mused. "Mine likes me, I think, but he's less protective."

[The constellation, Creator Of The Eternal Flame says that his incarnation should grow with his own strength and treating her like a baby will do nothing!]

•~•~•~•~•~•

When Linh opened ver eyes after going to sleep for the night, ve was surprised to see that instead of being in the subway station, ve was back at the aquarium. The aquarium that wasn't destroyed.

Was that… was everything just a dream?

Ve wiped the tiredness from ver eyes, trying to remember where exactly ve was. It took a few moments to realize that ve had been slumped against a desk, and the time showed that it ver shift started in a few minutes There weren't any attribute windows when ve tried checking.

Ve continued on with ver job, and then made ver way to greet the people that ve was going to give a tour to.

Upon looking at one of the teachers' faces, ve nearly screamed.

This can't be.

The face ve was looking at was the face of a teacher that ve had drowned. Looking around at the kids, ve could recognize the child who ve picked up because of their screaming. But… how?

"Welcome everyone!" ve said cheerfully, plastering on a wide smile. "I'm Linh Song, and I will be your guide for today!"

Ve went through the tour pretending that these weren't the people who ve had killed. Was this reality? Or was this the dream?

It certainly didn't feel like a dream right now, ve found that ve was usually good at recognizing dreams. Ve sometimes played around with them, but this wasn't a dream that ve could influence.

The day went on normally, until there was a familiar flash of light that ve knew to associate with the dokkaebi. When loading ver attribute window, ve could now see ver info again. Ve was still a hydrokinetic, ve still had the power to talk to animals.

As if to emphasize that fact, ve could feel the pull of the water. Nothing had changed, but this time, Linh knew what ve needed to do.

As the dokkaebi began its monologue, ve tried focusing. If ve could resist the pull—

["Hey! You! Linh Song!"] the dokkaebi said, ["Are you ignoring me?" ]

Ve startled, and whatever brief moment of serenity ve felt was broken. "We owe the Star Stream a debt, right? That's why you're here."

If ve had to be honest, ve was still confused over this whole debt thing. There were no panels that showed a "debt owed" or anything like that. Ve had no idea how much ve owed? Plus, there was the fact that that coins were constantly being used to upgrade stats. How was one supposed to save up coins?

["Good. You've been listening. Anyways…"]

Ve breathed in. Then breathed out. In again. Out again. Over and over, ve did this, and it felt like it was going to work out better this time.

I will not let anyone die.

"Mx. Song," one of the teachers said, tapping ver shoulder. "You should take this."

Ve looked at their hand and saw that they were tightly gripping one of the clownfish.

Right. The requirements for the first scenario were to kill a living creature. Ve couldn't just stand around, otherwise ve would die. Slowly, ve took the fish from their hand, focusing on not letting it slip from ver grasp. The contact made all the sensations worse. There was water in ver hand, the fish's feelings seemed to be amplified.

I will not I will not I will not—

"Mx. Linh, the fish."

I am stronger I am stronger I am stronger—

Ve squashed the fish in ver hand. The children and the teachers all did the same, and each death felt like a kick to the ribs.

Stay in control stay in control stay in control—

Glass cracked.

No no no nonono—

Protectthemprotectthemprotectthem—

"No, please," Linh begged.

Everything shattered.

"No!" ve screamed, trying to calm down the roar of the water, but there was just too much.

"No!" ve shut ver eyes.

Ve sat up with a jolt, ver heart pounding in ver chest. As ver eyes focused, ve realized that ve wasn't in the aquarium, but in the subway station.

"Hey," someone whispered, and Marella kneeled in front of ver. "You okay? You were screaming."

Her voice—usually shrill—was soft and soothed ver heartache a little bit.

"Sorry," ve murmured, "it was a nightmare."

"You wanna talk about it?"

Linh shook ver head. Ve didn't want to talk about that memory. If ve told her, then she would judge ver.

"Would a hug work?"

"I think it would help," ve said, and Marella hugged ver.

She was warm, and god , Linh really missed this, missed being able to hold someone. Usually ve got the chance to hug Tam, but after their reunion where he had stiffened, ve barely even had the chance to do as much as hold his hand. Without thinking, ve squeezed a little harder, hoping that this moment could last forever.

Eventually ve had to pull away.

"Did that help?" Marella asked, voice still so soft, her fingers moving down to brush against ver own.

The touch was feather-light, yet ve could feel it with ver entire being. "Yeah," ve whispered. "Thank you."

Ver heart was pounding in ver chest, this time for an entirely different reason.

•~•~•~•~•~•

Keefe and his group eventually came back with enough flags, and one of the first things Keefe did was ask to talk with Marella.

When she was done talking with him, Linh found that she looked tense.

"Marella, what's wrong?" Linh asked.

[The constellation, Lady Of The Darkest Depths is warning you to be careful of incarnation Marella Redek!]

Ve ignored ver sponsor and put a hand on Marella's shoulder in what ve hoped to be a comforting gesture. Instead, she stiffened.

It's just like with Tam…

"Sorry," Marella said, "I need to talk to you. Come with me."

To her surprise, Marella took ver hand and led the way. That little bit of contact eased ver anxiety.

"Okay, what is it?" ve asked.

Marella leaned really close. Ve resisted the urge to take a step back.

"I can't let the constellations hear," she whispered. "At the end of the fourth scenario, I need to threaten you."

"What?" ve asked, loudly. Then ve realized ver volume. "Wait- why? And why tell me?"

"Because I don't want you to feel betrayed," she said, somehow managing to be even quieter.

"Why do you need to threaten me?" ve asked.

Marella closed her eyes for a long moment. "I can't say. Linh, do you trust me?"

"Yes," ve said in a heartbeat, "I trust you."

•~•~•~•~•~•

As the fourth scenario progressed, ve became more curious about what was going to happen at the end of that scenario.

[The constellation, Lady Of The Darkest Depths says that incarnations Marella Redek and Keefe Sencen are hiding something from you!]

"You insist that everyone I am friends with is hiding something from me," Linh said, "I think I'm capable of judging a person."

[The constellation, Lady Of The Darkest Depths says that they speak of filtered information related to you behind your back, as does incarnation Tam Song. ]

Ve had no idea what "filtered information" was, but that didn't matter to ver.

"Lady Of The Darkest Depths."

[The constellation, Lady Of The Darkest Depths just wants you to be safe.]

Linh stared at the message, confused. Ve knew that ver sponsor was a little unusual. There were various different incarnations who committed acts of evil, but they only had the power to because there were constellations who supported them. In the station that ve was at, ve had learned that so many incarnations were weak because their sponsors had no intention of actually helping them.

"Why are you so protective over me?" Linh asked, looking up. It almost felt like ve could feel her gaze.

[The constellation, Lady Of The Darkest Depths says that you remind her of herself.]

"Did you… did you ever harm so many people?"

[The constellation, Lady Of The Darkest Depths nods solemnly.]

"Oh," ve murmured. So that was it, she saw Linh and saw a struggling person, unlike so many constellations who saw their incarnation as a tool for them to use. "I do appreciate your concern, but I trust Marella."

There was no response, and ve figured that she got the message.

•~•~•~•~•~•

The end of the fourth scenario was a confrontation between the Kings to fight for the Throne. Both Tam and Keefe were Kings, along with some other incarnations that Linh didn't recognize. The Kings dealt with each other, and then only Tam and Keefe were left.

Marella squeezed ver hand. "Any moment now," he muttered.

Linh nodded.

"Marella! Now!" Keefe yelled.

"Hey! Tam!" Marella called out, grabbing Linh with one hand, and putting the other to ver neck. The hand at ver neck grew flames. "Give up the fight and I'll spare Linh!"

For the first time since the apocalypse had started, Linh saw Tam hesitate in a fight. He always fought so effortlessly, but this time, he froze. Ve could see the look of betrayal on his face.

"You…" Tam growled, and Keefe grabbed his flag in his moment of hesitation.

[Incarnation, Tam Song has been disqualified.]

Linh thought that it would be over, but instead of stopping, Tam took his sword and swung it at Keefe. "Keefe Sencen, I swear, I'll kill you. Why did I let you live?"

"Hey! If you hurt me, Linh'll be hurt. Do you want that?"

Linh wanted to assure Tam that ve was okay, but Marella whispered it was better to stay quiet.

"If you wanted Tam to surrender, couldn't you have just had me ask him?" Linh whispered. "I know it doesn't seem like it, but he would listen to me."

"Keefe brought that point up," Marella replied. "But he needed a guaranteed way, and there would be too many questions."

"Still…"

"I know. It's a sh*tty move, isn't it? I told him that."

"Keefe should have trusted him to listen. After all, I trusted you."

"Set ver free," Tam ordered, his face twisted into a fierce scowl, and it was probably the worst expression that ve had ever seen on him.

He slowly backed away, his arms raised up, showing that he truly was surrendering. Marella let Linh free. Linh went to go talk to Tam, but before ve could tell him that ve was fine, Keefe broke the Throne and the dokkaebi teleported them with a flash of light.

When ve opened ver eyes, ve froze.

This is just a dream this is just a dream this is just a dream—

[The constellation, Lady Of The Darkest Depths is angry at the dokkaebi!]

This… this was real. Linh was really standing inside the aquarium. It wasn't like ver dream—which was just a memory. This felt more realistic, and now ve was facing the aftermath of ver destruction now that all the water was gone.

Shards of glass were everywhere , and he couldn't tell if ve was disgusted or relieved to know that ve couldn't see any signs of former life. Whatever blood there could have been must have been washed away. But where to?

"I'm sorry," ve whispered. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry."

Slowly, ve looked around, belatedly realizing that there could be people around. If any of ver friends had heard ver, they'd have questions and ve wouldn't be able to give them any. So just in case they were nearby, ve wiped ver tears and stood up straight.

Linh wanted to leave, but if ve wanted to find anyone, it was better to stay put.

•~•~•~•~•~•

It turned out that ver friends were nowhere nearby, and it was Tam who had found ver first. Tam was the only one to know ver from before the scenarios, the only one to know that ve worked at the aquarium.

"Linh…" he said, and ve flinched, mentally preparing verself to hear questions about what had happened to the aquarium.

"Let's go," he said.

Ve stared at him, confused. Was he not going to say anything?

He took ver hand and then they were moving.

"How'd you find me?" Linh asked, confused by everything.

"I was sent to my workplace. I think we were sent to places that were significant to us," he explained. "I thought I'd come find you here. We're going to meet up with the others, I've already run into Sophie and Keefe."

"Okay," ve said, grateful that he wasn't saying anything.

He still walked up ahead of ver, and didn't look at ver at all while he spoke, but he was holding ver hand this time, he was saying nothing about the circumstances, and that was what mattered to ver the most.

•~•~•~•~•~•

They all met back up for the next scenario—to fight a being known as the Disaster Of Floods. Keefe stressed that the Disaster was incredibly strong, and that they needed to prepare.

"I'm going to find myself a new weapon," Tam told Linh.

Linh nodded. "Be safe."

While Tam was gone, Keefe took charge and had them train their skills. Linh didn't like that the Disaster Of Floods would be fighting nearby a lake, but that was something that ve was going to have to deal with.

"Hey, you look sick," Marella said, putting a hand on ver forehead.

Linh instinctively closed ver eyes and leaned into his touch, then opened ver eyes in a panic when ve realized what ve had just done.

And oh. Marella's face was really close to vers. And even though he probably smelled (ve was growing numb when it came to smell) and there was dirt on his face, Linh felt the urge to kiss him.

"You don't uh- have a fever, that's good," he said, retracting his hand and moving his face back. "Is everything all right?"

"The water's a bit much," ve found verself admitting. "But it's okay."

"We can relax, the fight's tomorrow," Marella said. "We've worked hard."

"Okay," ve conceded. Resting was also important.

•~•~•~•~•~•

"Everyone!" Keefe called out urgently, "We need to leave now . The Disaster is going to awaken."

"Where's Tam?" Linh asked. "We're going to need him."

Keefe didn't reply, and muttered something under his breath.

"Keefe?"

"Bangs Boy'll meet us there," he said, annoyance in his tone.

They all followed Keefe, and when they arrived, the Disaster descended. Tam was already there—no, he was staring down the Disaster. The Disaster of Floods who was… who was—

"It can't be," Linh gasped, and ver knees buckled. Ve would have fallen if it weren't for Marella's steady hands holding ver up.

It couldn't be. It couldn't be possible . But the Disaster Of Floods stood with tan skin and long black hair, framing dark brown eyes and a gentle smile that Linh was all too familiar with. How could ve not, when the Disaster Of Floods was verself? The only thing that made the Disaster different were that ve was slightly older, and there were silver tips added to the ends of the Disaster's hair.

Still… how was this possible? How could ve be a Disaster?

"Oh, brother," the Disaster greeted, and ve even sounded just like Linh, if not a little more ancient. "It's been such a long time. I'm finally able to meet you again!"

"It's my third regression, and I have a favour to ask of you," Tam said calmly.

There was no fear, no concern in his tone. How? How was he not afraid to look at the Disaster Of Floods who was his own sister and speak to ver as if he weren't surprised?

The Disaster frowned. "Your third- not second? What happened last time?"

"The Prophet had betrayed me. Please Linh, is there any more information you can give me?"

"What the f*ck are they talking about?" Marella whispered.

"I don't know," Linh said, "I don't know what's happening I swear I didn't know about this—"

"I believe you, don't worry."

Linh took a breath of relief and looked back at the Disaster who smiled sweetly, but Linh recognized that as the smile ve wore when ve was angry.

"You can let go of me, I'll be fine," Linh murmured. Marella squeezed ver hand once, then let go.

"Is that what you want from me?" The Disaster asked, "Is that all I am to you? Well, I can't say I'm surprised, considering what you did."

"I don't… I don't understand…" Linh said, and ve approached the Disaster. Ve needed to understand what this other Linh Song was referring to. "What are you talking about?"

"You didn't even tell ver anything this time?" The Disaster asked, directing a dark look towards Tam. "You're going to leave ver in the dark?"

"Leave me in the dark about what ?" ve asked, then turned to ver brother. "Tam, I don't believe anything that the Disaster says, don't worry. I trust you."

If it came down to trusting ver brother and trusting a Disaster , ve knew which side to believe in.

The Disaster's smile faded, ver face twisting into an expression akin to a snarl. Ve looked so pained.

"Do you know what happened?" ve screamed. "You see Dex, he was a companion of mine! He was one of my best friends! Do you know what Tam said about him when he died? He said that the future scenarios would be difficult without him. That's it! He didn't grieve or anything! And I still trusted him, even when we were the only two left! He sent me out of the worldline so I could gather information so I can give it to his previous regressions. And I did that, so I could see him again. But look where we are now.

"Tell me, brother. You asked me to fulfill a task that had taken a thousand years, and you still ask for more? I'm tired of what you've done to me and my companions! I won't let you use me anymore!" Ve lifted ver arms in the air, water swirling.

What happened next was a blur. Water launched at them. Keefe jumped in front of them and took the hit. Marella yelled. Keefe with a hole in his abdomen, bleeding out as Tam kneeled over him. Keefe dying.

Tam stood up and unsheathed his sword, brutally fighting the Disaster. Linh could only watch the two as they moved in black and blue blurs.

"Are you mad?" The Disaster asked, frantic. "Are you actually upset at that guy's death? Who even are they? I've never seen them in my life!"

Tam glared at ver. "His name is Keefe Sencen, and he is my companion."

Ver face contorted with rage. "Companion? You call him a companion? Who is he that you call him a companion when the very people who loved you for years were worth nothing to you?"

The Disaster shot another ball of water to Tam, and even though Linh was still so confused, ve knew that ve couldn't let anyone else die. Keefe's body was right there, and ve didn't even have the time to grieve. All ve could do was stop that ball of water from hurting anyone else. Any fear of controlling the water was temporarily dispelled as ve launched it right back at the Disaster.

"I still don't know what you're talking about," Linh began. Ve sorted through the words that the Disaster had said. Ve seemed to be angry at Tam, there had to have been something that would happen that could bring Linh Song to the point that ve would turn against ver own brother. "But I think that in the future, my brother hurt you. And maybe he'll hurt me in the future too. But I love and trust him, and I trust that whatever he's kept hidden from me was hidden for a reason that wasn't malicious. So I will not let you hurt him and the ones I love."

Ve found ver words ringing true. There were many questions that ve had about Tam, but in the end, ve trusted him. Almost instinctively, ve drew water from the lake nearby, mirroring the Disaster.

The Disaster looked at ver with distaste. "Do you think that you can kill me? I'm stronger than you. And you're still afraid. You're afraid that you'll lose control again, just like how you lost control in the aquarium and drowned hundreds of people during the first scenario."

The words were like knives and they pinned ver in place. The water that ve held shook. Linh closed ver eyes for a moment, then opened them again. "I did do that."

All eyes turned to ver, shock on ver friends' faces. This wasn't… this wasn't how ve wanted to tell them. Ve didn't want to tell them anything if ve had a choice in it.

"I did lose control, and I killed so many people," Linh continued, "and you're right, I am still afraid. I'm terrified that I'll hurt them." That kind of fear would likely never go away. "But I also know that I would never be able to live with the guilt if I never even tried in the first place."

[The attribute of character Linh Song is blossoming.]

[The attribute of Linh Song has blossomed to One Who Controls The Floods (Hero). ]

Linh launched the ball of water towards the Disaster, but it was deflected easily. The Disaster attacked back, again and again, waves of water coming in to flood and drown. But again and again, Linh stopped the water, because ve would not allow anything to happen to those ve loved.

For as long as Linh lived, ve would protect everyone to ver best ability.

With the Disaster's attacks being reduced, the others were given a chance to move on the offensive. Slowly, slowly, the Disaster was weakened, and was knocked down.

Tam stood above the Disaster Of Floods and looked down at ver with a complicated expression.

"You don't have to do anything for me anymore. You can rest," he said, then brought his sword down. Ve closed ver eyes and looked away, because no matter how much this other version of ver wanted to hurt people, it was still Linh, it was still hard to look at.

Tam turned to Linh. "I'll tell you more about what ve said later."

Ve nodded. "All I want is for you to trust me as I do you."

Ve felt relieved. Ve would finally get some answers. But first, before that, they had to deal with Keefe's body. Tam lifted him delicately, and his wounds started disappearing.

"What…" Tam murmured.

Keefe opened his eyes. "So, companion, huh?"

Linh gasped, ver other friends looked at him with shock. They had all… they had all just witnessed him die.

"So that was his plan," Marella muttered from beside ver.

"What?" Linh asked. "A plan?"

"I don't know," Marella replied.

"Linh, let's go," Tam said, for once, offering his hand.

Linh took it with a smile.

[The constellation, Lady Of The Darkest Depths is proud of you.]

Linh looked up wordlessly, hoping that ver sponsor knew how ve felt. Thank you.

Once Tam found a good place to sit, ve finally decided to ask him for answers.

"What was the Disaster talking about, and how did you know ver?"

"I am a Regressor," Tam said.

⸢"It's my third regression."

"You're going to leave ver in the dark?"⸥

"What's a regression?" ve asked.

"They're…" Tam took a breath, "they're lifetimes. Every time I die, I regress back to the beginning of the apocalypse."

⸢"It's my third regression."⸥

"So this… this is your third lifetime?" ve asked, trying to make sense of everything. "What about before the apocalypse?"

"I've only lived that time once. I only relive the apocalypse."

"Why?" Linh asked.

"I don't know," Tam admitted. "All I know is that my sponsor gave me this stigma, and I can't remember why I have it."

"You can't remember?"

"I don't know who my sponsor is, their name is marked as '???' but because of them, I'm now a Regressor."

Linh tried taking all of this in. There was so much going on. "If you've lived a lifetime already, that means you've done these scenarios before."

He nodded. "In my previous regression, I made it to the 46th scenario. I was betrayed by a companion."

"That means that this entire time, you knew."

Did that mean you've known about how I flooded an aquarium this entire time? Will I flood the aquarium in every lifetime?

"Yeah, I knew," Tam said nonchalantly, as if it didn't mean much to him.

He knew . He knew what pain ve had gone through, knew what trauma he received, knew that ve grieved silently and he didn't say anything?

"You could have prevented it," ve said, trying not to be frantic. The flooding could have been prevented, and he did nothing .

"I've already tried." His tone was too monotone for something like this.

"How many times, once? Maybe twice? That's not enough. Even if not for my sake, did the lives of hundreds of people not mean anything to you?" Then ve remembered a previous conversation with Marella. "Tam, what happened to the people in your subway car during the first scenario?"

He looked away, and that was all the answer that ve needed. "You don't understand—"

"Then make me understand!" Linh cut him off, grabbing the collar of his jacket. "Tam, you've got to f*cking talk to me!"

His eyes widened, and surely he knew that ve was being serious if ve was resorting to swearing. Was this how the Disaster Of Floods felt when speaking to Tam? Was there that righteous sort of anger and frustration that was only amplified by the apathy received?

"Just because I've been through so many scenarios doesn't make them easy," Tam said. "I've killed hundreds, thousands of people so I can live. Because I have to live, I'm the Regressor, I'm the only one with the power to save the world, and if I keep having to hold myself back to save every little person, then I'll fail.

"Do you think it's easy, having to think of all the lives I've taken? Those people would have died regardless, but at least now they're dying for a purpose. Linh, I've been living in the apocalypse for decades, I can't escape. I can't escape having to kill and watch people die. Watch people I love die. I've already watched you die twice in my arms, Linh, do you think that's easy to watch?"

Linh forced verself to stay seated and not say anything as Tam finally spoke up. The rage ve felt didn't fade, if anything, it grew stronger. Some of it directed at Tam, but most of it, at the world—at the sponsor who'd made him a Regressor.

"That's why you never hugged me when we found each other, why you've kept your distance."

"It's easier to pretend that I don't care than to lose the ones I love. But it’s not easy.”

Linh stared at him; his dark, haunted eyes, the clench of his jaw, his shoulders that held the weight of the world.

"You could have told me," ve said, finally.

"I know," he whispered, "I know you'll support me no matter what."

"Then what about the Disaster Of Floods?"

This time, he pursed his lips. He really felt bad about this one.

"I don't know everything, it happens in my 41st regression."

"Your 41st? But… this is your third…"

"The future affects the past—"

"You've gone through the scenarios forty one times?"

Forty one times of living and dying and saving and killing. Of hurting and being hurt. Of being brought back to the point where there’s still life, only to watch the world be destroyed all over again. Of being companions with people, making precious memories of them, only to meet them in the next life and remember that they have no memory of who you are. Forty one lifetimes of that?

"I don't know," he said, "that seems to be the case."

"Does that mean this lifetime is a failure?"

"No, not as long as I can allow it." There was determination in his eyes. "This regression is different. Things have changed."

"Okay," Linh said. "About the Disaster… did you refuse to show ver any love?"

What Tam did in this regression unsettled ver, but ve knew he still cared because he still showed it. But to another Linh, traumatized by ver grief, only to have a completely apathetic brother, someone who didn't care about those ve loved…

Ve liked to think that no matter what, ve could never turn evil, but ve could see why the Disaster had done what ve had done.

"I'm sorry, Tam," ve whispered, then leaned forward to give him a hug.

He stiffened—unsurprising, knowing what ve knew now, but still painful—but he quickly reciprocated the action. He held ver tightly as if he could no longer bear the thought of losing ver again.

"You have me," ve murmured, "you have me with you."

"What if I lose you again?" he asked, somehow managing to squeeze even tighter.

"I can't promise that nothing will happen to me," ve said, and it was so painful to say this.

In the apocalypse, ve knew that the threat of death always loomed over ver, but knowing that Tam had witnessed it—twice—was heartbreaking. It was heartbreaking that ve couldn't even assure him. Couldn’t promise him that he wouldn’t see ver die forty one times, maybe even more.

(Did the Linh of the past regression make that promise to him? Did ve have to pick ver words carefully, afraid to make a promise that would eventually be broken?)

"I'm sorry I can't promise that. But I promise to do as much as I can to be careful."

Ve wanted to live, if not for verself, then for the people ve loved. Live for Tam, who would further break with ver absence. Live for the others too, who have helped ver through the scenarios.

"Thank you, Linh," Tam said, pulling away. He stared at ver, stared at ver as if he was taking in ver appearance all over again. Up close, ve could see the shaking in his eyes that slowly hardened.

"Things won't be the same between us, will they?" Linh asked.

He shook his head. "I don't think they ever can."

"Okay, I understand," ve said, more for him than verself. He needed the assurance, and ve knew it because ve would have needed it had ve was in his position.

(Linh wondered how Tam had managed to survive two lifetimes of this hell. Ve knew that just one—one lifetime, one moment—was enough to shatter ver entirely.)

Ve looked up to the stars and cursed the one who forced ver brother to so much suffering.

If Tam never makes it past the Star Stream's apocalypse, if he dies and regresses again and again, will he live through the scenarios forever?

The thought came out of nowhere, and Linh found verself so terrified at the thought that ve didn't dare to ask, afraid of the answer that ve would inevitably receive.

•~•~•~•~•~•

KOTLC Taglist: @keefeinnit , @my-swan-song , @impostertamsong, @subrosasteath

Want to be added/removed from the taglist? Just let me know!

#linh song #tam song #marella redek #marellinh #kotlc #keeper of the lost cities #kotlc fanfiction #ravi writes a thing #open up my heart (and let my feelings fly free)

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burnedbyshoto · 5 years

Text

Todoroki Shouto - Alphabet HC’s

a/n: I went too crazy with this... it ended up being like 7.4k words of pure headcanons. I really love shouto what can I say, I hope you enjoy!!!!!

A = Affection (How affectionate are they with an s/o?)

Todoroki Shouto is not an affectionate boyfriend at first. It’s not that he’s timid or even shy about giving you physical affection it’s just that one, he doesn’t know what couples do together, and two, his parents never showed PDA and Natsuo never has his girlfriend over so he’s clueless.

It takes a joint effort between you and him to figure out where and how comfortable he would be with affection

So, when all the loose ends are tied up how affectionate is shouto?

The answer is very.

He’s a soft boy. He loves holding your hand, kissing the back of your hand before you split ways, gentle kisses on your cheeks, nose, and lips. He loves tucking your hair behind your ear even if there’s nothing wrong with it. And on god, hug this boy. Hugs always make shouto go stiff, but once he sees that hugging is something that makes him fill full, his arms will wrap around your waist, his head burying into your neck as his chest palpitations quicken as he struggles to calm his breathing.

B = Breath (What could their s/o do to take their breath away?)

Late night shenanigans with shouto are the best. The first time you take his breath away happens here. The two of you decided to stay in tonight instead of going out, take out boxes no longer filled with food sitting on the table as you’re curled onto his side. His arm is over you as his fingers rub unknown shapes into your side. You turn towards him, no longer focused onto the show you’re watching and he looks down at you. You lick your lips as thoughts form in your mind and easily escape your mouth, “I’m glad I met you, shouto. I don’t think I could be who I am today without you.”

Praises take his breath away

But the one thing that really gets him is when you pull away suddenly from a rather intensive makeout session. You’re straddling his lap and your arms are around his neck, shouto’s arms are around your waist as he groans softly trying to move back in but you stop him. His eyes stare at you as he notices you’re transfixed onto his scar. His scar has never really bothered him before, sure if he could get rid of it he would, but he sees you leaning in again as your lips press softly against the scarred skin. Your wet and bruised lips press against the forever warm skin, the ugly skin on his face. Sweet nothings and loving promises pour from your mouth as you tell him that you love everything about him, that every flaw is just a new reason to love him. It’s not until afterward that shouto realizes that he hasn’t been breathing and it’s because you shout that he’s turning different colors.

C = Cuddling (Do they cuddle? If they do, how and when do they cuddle?)

Ahem. ahem. Shouto fucking cuddles you every single night. He’s a touch starved boy and once he has you in his life he’s drunk off your touch and will forever want to hold you at night especially. You warrant off his bad dreams for one, you’re soft, and he loves you.

Shouto will cuddle you whenever the two of you are able to lay down together.

How he cuddles? The two of you have a few different positions that you like. The sweetheart’s cradle, spooning (who the little spoon depends on what happened that day and if shouto wants to be held or to hold you), and the honeymoon hug.

Now before you whores start saying that you’ll sleep on his left or right side depending on the weather, I raise you this:

Sleep on his left side always.

Shouto will forever be a bit hesitant and unsure of his left side. Even with his mother’s blessing and the breakthrough of it being his quirk, he has his doubts. Cuddle into his left side because he never imagined his left side to be anyone’s favorite but his fathers. Cuddle into his left side because he can see that someone thinks that his left side can be comforting and strong. Cuddle into his left side so that he can find yet another reason why his imperfect side is something to be proud of and a reason for him to overcome his self-hatred.

D = Dream (What do they dream of doing with their s/o?)

Shouto dreams of being able to do anything that you want to do. Shouto feels like he owes you so much. He thinks that who he is today is because of you and that’s a debt he can never repay you for. Anything you want, anything you need! Todoroki Shouto has it fucking covered for you.

His dream isn’t just to be a great hero for the public, he always wants to be a great hero for you. He wants to come home every day and see that you’re excited to see him and will never leave him through thick or thin.

Also, he wants to start a Cold Soba Food Critique with Todoroki Shouto and Y/l/n Y/n on youtube because first of all the free soba??? Second of all your look of disbelief when he brought it up made his life.

E = Effort (How much effort do they put into a relationship?)

Todoroki Shouto puts in an amazing amount of effort into your relationship.

The night before your first date he texts Fuyumi for advice because he’s nervous and all the advice that Sero, Midoriya, and all the girls gave him just completely overwhelmed him and now he’s nervous he’s not doing enough.

Fuyumi easily goes through his worries and they set up a game plan together.

Shouto, however, shows up to take you on a picnic wearing an expensive suit and you have to stare at him with your cute and yet casual clothes on in horror. You end up going back to his room to pick out something much more casual.

But that super beyond effort and nervous energy are carried on forever.

Shouto just fucking appreciates you so much.

The effort he puts in isn’t even noticed by him. He just genuinely believes you deserve the best of everything that it makes your heart soar whenever he goes above and beyond.

Shouto has everything about you memorized because he’s so observant and notices everything. It is sometimes daunting to see how much he cares, but it just makes you love him more and return the levels of love he always supplies for you.

F = Fear (What do they do if their s/o is scared? How do they handle it?)

Shouto plain and simply does not know what to do when you’re scared. He, however, is a very collected individual despite his own bursting emotions.

When you’re scared he may threaten to go and end whatever it is that’s scaring you. He’ll throw hands with anyone for you, so if it’s a person that’s making you scared, you’ll most likely be wrestling him to keep him from leaving and ending someone’s whole career.

If its something that he can’t physically fight, but instead a concept (like death and outer space for example), he’ll pull you onto his lap as he’s quiet for a while.

Your head will be against his chest as he listens to what you have to say about your anxieties and fears. When you’re done explaining, he’ll give you his own opinion. Something that makes you feel better as you give a watery laugh and snuggle closer into his arms.

If it’s something that makes you go mute, he’ll wrap you up into a blanket and just hold you and give you reassuring kisses until you’re ready to talk.

G = Gifts (What type of gifts do they give their s/o? Do they want a gift in return?)

Shouto gives you either the most expensive gifts or a penny deal toy.

For your one month anniversary, because of his uncertainty and still rather new experience to this all, he buys you the most expensive thing on the goddamn planet.

Its an elegant and beautiful necklace, a diamond sitting in the middle of the chain.

Your eyes widen as you look at the present and you glance at what you were able to buy for him with the twenty dollars you were able to pull together.

“I can’t… I can’t accept this!”

“That’s why it’s a gift, you have to.”

You have a long talk with shouto about price capping and how he doesn’t need to give an arm, leg, and organs to get you a gift.

Of course, it’s not his money, so he doesn’t really care, but out of respect he starts doing smaller presents.

These smaller presents are able to fill you with overwhelming emotions as his attention to detail and observations make him give you some of the best presents in this goddamn world.

He’ll give you his laundry detergent to use to keep his things smelling like him. He’ll give you his old sweaters because you’ll wear the shit out of them. He’ll give you handwritten letters and love notes because he finds them to be the sweetest and most romantic thing in the world.

H = Hugs (Do they hug their s/o? How often?)

Shouto is a low-key hugger.

He’s a bit embarrassed to hug you in front of other people only because it makes him super soft, not that he cares about it but then he doesn’t want to do anything anymore.

He likes to hold you close, his arms around your waist.

His head will always be tucked into your neck, or resting onto your head.

His fingers resting softly onto your waist as you feel like melting.

Shouto also really loves hugging you from behind or having you hug him from behind.

He loves the feeling of your chest pressing up against him as your face presses against her arms. He loves having your head lean against his shoulder as he holds you from behind.

Shouto also loves lifting you up when he hugs you!

Your legs wrapping around his waist as he holds you! When he’s feeling especially playful you best believe he’s going to spin you around in his arms.

He wants to be hugged by you at least ten times a day because it takes his breath away all the time.

I = Intimacy (How romantic are they? Do they have problems with intimacy?)

Shouto isn’t particularly romantic. He is dense. Most romantic things that he does goes a bit over his head and he just doesn’t realize that he is being romantic. But because of the effort, he puts into this relationship he does really end up being romantic on his own half, but he does pull that off with the help of others.

Intimacy with shouto is hard at first, he’s too stiff and awkward and while he is an open book he doesn’t know how to get around to being intimate. He won’t ever initiate anything affectionate at first, but with time he’ll be able to just walk up to you and give you the softest kisses even with the world watching.

J = Jealous (Do they get jealous? How do they act when jealous?)

Todoroki Shouto is a jealous man :)

Shouto is a person who is extremely emotional, yes he is. He doesn’t know how to always express these emotions, but he is an emotional reactor.

So it makes sense that he gets jealous, and how he acts depends on what happened that is making him jealous.

Scenario one (someone is hitting on you. Unintentional jealousy)

When someone is flirting with you, shouto immediately glares. You’re sitting there trying to get out of this situation but you don’t know how to do it exactly. You don’t want to be rude, but you don’t want to be in this situation. Oh my lord, he’s going to come up to you immediately, whipping you around as his mouth pressed against yours. His mouth fervent against yours as his hands grasp your ass as he squeezes your supple flesh. He’ll bite down onto your lip in a way that’ll make you loudly moan and as you panic ripping away from him, shouto will stare at the man flirting with you. “Thanks for taking care of my beautiful girlfriend, but I think I’ll need to take her away.” he’ll say as he presses yet another kiss onto you.

Scenario two (you purposefully get him jealous)

You’re in the club dancing with the girls in your class. Shouto doesn’t want to dance with you right now because he’s too embarrassed to go onto the dance floor. And well, you really really wanted to dance with him. So when someone’s hands wrap around your waist, your eyes fly over to shouto who is already on attention, his eyes on you as he’s ready to watch you punch this asshole to the next galaxy. Except, you don’t. Letting him continue to dance against you as you keep your eyes locked on shouto. His eyes are glaring as he stands up, and his hands are dragging over you but you can hardly feel it as you can almost see the smoke coming off his body. Your eyes shift towards the girls who are staring at you with their jaws on the ground and when you look back Shouto is in front of you ripping you from his grasp as shouto walks away. The next thing you’ll know is that you’re pressed against a corner as his mouth presses harsh and biting kisses against your flesh as he growls into your ear. “Fucking brats get punished.” He’ll say before slamming his mouth against yours.

K = Kiss (Are they a good kisser? Do they like to kiss? How often do they try to kiss you?)

Shouto has full lips and they’re soft and a flushed color.

Shouto is an intense kisser, his feelings overwhelming you as he presses his mouth towards yours. How he kisses you is so evident to the way he is feeling. He makes you forget everything that is going on every time you two kiss and he wants to kiss you whenever he can. Shouto is a good kisser once he figures out how to kiss correctly, and he fucking is obsessed with kissing you.

He loves kissing you when you’re sitting on something; when you’re a few steps ahead of him on a staircase, and he loves kissing you right before bed.

Shouto is also not afraid to make out with you in public, he has no issues with PDA because he doesn’t care about what people think about him because it all affects endeavors image anyways. So yeah, there are quite a few pictures of the two of you making out in public.

L = Love (When do they say they love you? How often do they say it? Do they prefer to say or show it?)

Todoroki Shouto is not and will not be the first person to say I love you. You will be the one to say it. It’s not that shouto doesn’t love you at the time you say it, he’s just anxious that he isn’t completely sure what he’s feeling is love.

Of course, you don’t mind as you comfort and reassure him.

You’ll even tell him that you won’t say you love him until he’s ready as well.

But he loves hearing you tell him that you love him so he doesn’t want you to stop.

He’ll tell you that he’s in love with you one night after a hard day and days of talking to others about if what he’s feeling is truly love. You’ve taken care of him and reassured him that things will be better so he’ll stop and stare at you.

“I… I love you…” he’ll tell you as you curl up into his left side.

You freeze as you look at him.

“What?”

“I love you, y/n.”

You’ll start crying and so will he as you kiss him over and over again.

He says it whenever he can fit it into a conversation with you and enjoys both saying it and proving it to you.

M = Marriage (Do they want to get married? If so, what kind of ceremony?)

Shouto is perfectly okay with marrying you or not.

He’s definitely not in a rush to put a ring on your finger because he doesn’t think marriage is needed to make your love true. But if marriage is something you want, you best believe that he’ll go down on one knee.

The marriage celebration with be a traditional Japanese ceremony with your two’s personal twist to it. It’ll be a somewhat small one, but there are so many people that the two of you know that it may end up growing to numbers the both of you didn’t expect to get it. Not that you end up minding because the more the merrier.

N = Night out (What type of dates do they like to go on? How often do they like to go on them?)

Shouto loves taking you to everything at least once.

Amusement parks, every single restaurant in the world, movies, picnics, paintball games, super smash bros???? You’ll experience everything with him at least once because he hasn’t done anything himself and he wants his first memory of everything to be a good one.

Dates are twice every month sort of thing. Dates require shouto to plan things out unless you make them, but you two always eat together every day. So while nothing fancy happens, the two of you are always loving each other.

O = Out of the Ordinary (What’s something they don’t normally do with/for their s/o?)

Shouto will not normally take you to see his family.

You’ll meet his siblings one night because fuyumi insists on meeting you, but shouto feels weird about taking you to meet his mother and father. When it does happen, rei loves you of course and she cries as you leave as she thanks you for taking care of him for her and loving him.

Endeavor, on the other hand, is a different story. He tries his best to act like he doesn’t like you while also battling to really like you because he’s trying to be a good father. Shouto hates the battling personality that his father trapped himself in but endeavor does at the very least respect you.

P = Playful (Are they playful in a relationship? If so, how do they play around/mess with their s/o?)

Shouto is a pretty easy going s/o and will play around with you, but it’s not in a class clown sort of playfulness. Shouto is the kind to do super obscure pranks that if you’re not looking for it, you won’t notice.

Like with him dying his hair in switched colors during April fools day. You notice there’s something off but it takes you a bit to notice what’s wrong.

He’s the boyfriend who’ll ask you to come taste something for him and while you learn to taste the food on his spoon, he’ll smear it against your mouth as you scream at him. He’ll always clean you up though! Just you know, with his mouth.

Will also get into sass battles with you to see who can think of the most clever comeback, and so far shouto has never lost a single battle.

Q = Questions (Do they ask their s/o their opinion on things? Do they share theirs?)

Shouto sometimes forgets to ask for your opinion on things…

He’s a very commanding person and takes control of things without entirely noticing it at times. He’s a reactionary person and doesn’t think. Of course, that means you’ll know every single little thought, opinion, and detail swimming through his head but if you don’t speak up he may not notice he didn’t ask for yours.

So speak up for your own ideas and then shouto will realize that he hasn’t been asking. At that moment he’ll always remember, or at the very least try, to ask for your opinion first because he does care! He’s just… shouto.

R = Random (How spontaneous is their relationship? Do they do things on the spot or plan ahead?)

Shouto isn’t a spontaneous person, he enjoys having things planned out so he knows what he’s doing.

But he will always try to do spontaneous things!

Some of your most memorable dates with him have actually been spontaneous dates because as expected they’re wild and you both end up having a chaotically great time together.

Like the one time, you two decided to go get dinner at ten at night but it was an hour on the bullet train and by the time you got your food the trains were done for the night and you didn’t have money to spend the night anywhere… it was a pretty great ass time.

S = Sleep (How do they sleep with their s/o?)

No matter how the two of you start off at the beginning of the night, you always end up on his chest. His arms wrapped around you protectively as your hands press up against his chest. Your legs are tangled together and his hold on you is a death grip.

Make sure to pee before climbing into bed with him.

Shouto also talks in his sleep so sometimes you’ll stay awake just to hear him talk and have endearing and often hysterical conversations with him as he tells you about how much he loves how your hair looks when the wind blows through it.

The few times he argues with endeavor is sad and also funny as he roasts the living shit out of him and you struggle not to wake him.

T = Trust (How much do they trust their s/o?)

Shouto would not LIKE you if he didn’t TRUST YOU.

Shouto trusts you so much it’s rather sweet and it makes you almost anxious because he’s like “oh yeah that super hard thing you need to do? I know that y/n can do it with her eyes closed, bet.” and you know what? He’s not wrong ;)

U = Unique (What makes them unique as an s/o?)

Shouto is a boyfriend that requires you to take special care of him as well.

He’s a special baby boy who does need some sweet love and affectionate caretaking and you must give it to him because he deserves to know just how much in love you are with him. Not that he asks for it, but because you know that he needs to hear it.

Also, he can make it snow for you in the summer if you ever really needed it.

V = Vulnerable (How long until they can be vulnerable around their s/o? What are they like in this state?)

Shouto being able to relay his traumatic experiences and being vulnerable are two completely different things first of all.

It actually takes him a while to be vulnerable because he’s never been allowed to express his feelings of discontent and painful sadness.

In this state, shouto can’t cry. He’s just breathing harshly, his mind unable to calm down as he paces or sits extremely still. His fingers in fists as he doesn’t believe anything you say. He’s almost a broken record as he states his false beliefs over and over again until you crack him. It’s then that he’ll start tearing up and will cry into your shoulder as you hold him close. Your own eyes watering because this man deserves so much better.

W = Wild Card (Get a random domestic headcanon of the character of your choice)

By FAR the most entertaining date you’ve ever been on with shouto was to the ice rink.

Everyone, including shouto, believes that he is a talented and genius figure skater because his quirk allows him to manipulate ice. He can create ice and walks on it daily so why shouldn’t he be a graceful skater. Well, you were both wrong.

Shouto is so used to being able to just walk and run on his ice because of his special boots that the first time he hits a rink he eats shit.

He can’t ice skate for shit and will forever stumble around the rink as he tries to maintain composure and integrity.

Hopefully, you’re a better skater and can hold his hands and take him around while you two skate or else you’ll be the couple crying on the floor from laughing so much because you both eat shit while ice skating.

Also, you’ve totally dyed your hair to match his at one point.

X = X-Ray (What would they do if their s/o got injured?)

Shouto is a very by the book caretaker. He’s been trained in a way that he will do everything that is correct. Do you have a fever? He’ll give you the medicine and the blankets to help break you out of it.

Broken anything? Better sit your ass down because he’ll freeze you to it if he has to.

Of course, once you submit to his caretaking it’s then that he’ll climb behind you and hold you because being held by someone is scientifically proven to help you heal faster.

Y = Yuck (Do they have any pet peeves about their s/o? Are there any habits that might bother their s/o?)

Shouto’s one pet peeve is if you don’t respect your own opinions on something. If you choose to do something not because you believe it’s right but because it’s whats lawfully correct (he’s a chaotic neutral don’t @ me) he will fight you about it. He doesn’t like it when you don’t follow your intuitions because if you’re not true to yourself who the hell are you true to?

Shouto’s only habit that may bother you is his occasional lack of words. He just doesn’t respond at times where words are clearly needed, but it’s something he’s definitely working on.

Z = Zeal (Are they passionate as an s/o? Do they want or like passion?)

TODOROKI FUCKING SHOUTO IS A PASSIONATE MAN WHO WANTS YOU TO KNOW THAT HE SINCERELY AND GENIUNELY LOVES YOU. HE WILL SWEEP YOU OFF YOUR FEET EVERY SINGLE NIGHT AND REMIND YOU OF HOW MUCH HE LOVES. Shouto wants passion because you own his heart and well he will give you all the passion and loves when you give it back.

NSFW (under cut):

A = Aftercare (What they’re like after sex)

Shouto is the man who will lay on his face for a few seconds after orgasming as he tries to gather his wits. He’ll look over at you as he chuckles before shakily getting out of bed asking what you want.

He’ll bring back a washcloth as he wipes sweat and cum from your body as he presses gentle kisses to any red marks on your body. He’ll thank you and say he loves you as he does so. His quirk going off to soothe any aches or pains you may have

He also is a big sucker for taking post-sex showers with you. The fragrance of the bath salts as you lay on his chest.

B = Body part (Their favorite body part of theirs and also their partner’s)

Shouto’s favorite body part on him (besides that long fucking dick) is his arms and hands. I don’t know man, but his arms are so fucking toned and his hands are rough and calloused from handling harsh elements. The way you cry against his body when his hands rub against your body stirs him on and he’ll almost nut on the scene. Plus he loves his back because you rake your nails against his back so much and hehee yes.

Shouto’s favorite body part on you… he can’t decide.

Shouto is a cultured man who loves tits, ass, and thighs equally. He loves seeing your breasts squeezing around his cock as he’s strapped to the bed, your mouth in a sly smirk because you won’t give him your mouth. Plus the soft flesh overwhelms him. Your ass? He really fucking loves slapping your ass as you lay against his lap, counting the number of spanks he’s given you. He loves how soft and how much it bounces with every smack. And your thighs? He loves when you’re riding his face the flesh of your thighs adding pressure as he is desperate in eating you out and eye--

C = Cum (Anything to do with cum basically… I’m a disgusting person)

Shouto’s come is not the worst thing on the planet. He lives a healthy lifestyle and soba is among one of the worst things he eats and it’s actually not that terrible for you to begin with. Shouto comes in a pretty large loud and it’s either burning hot or sorta cold…

His favorite place to see his come is when it’s oozing out of your pussy, he thinks its so fucking vulgar and he loves it.

D = Dirty Secret (Pretty self-explanatory, a dirty secret of theirs)

Shouto really wanted to fuck you before the two of you got together. It’s not something he’s proud of, or even really understood before he was able to understand his feelings for you. All he knows is that you bent over one day and he caught a glimpse at your panties. Afterward, he had one thing on his mind when he was feeling horny but he couldn’t really understand why? He knew that what he saw was, in fact, hot, but why was every single wet dream of his becoming him being fucked or fucking you?

E = Experience (How experienced are they? Do they know what they’re doing?)

Shouto is a virgin who you could not tell if they were. He’s so collected that you have to take a few seconds to make sure that he is, in fact, a virgin and he’ll look at you and go “I literally don’t know what I’m doing.”

So to answer, he’s not experienced nor does he know what he’s doing, but he’s a nerd athlete so it really helped him go at it like he was experienced. Plus… he has no shame asking for help.

F = Favorite Position (This goes without saying. Will probably include a visual)

Shuttle - rIDE HIS COCK AND HAVE YOUR ELBOW AGAINST HIS THROAT??? DOM HIS LITTLE ASS INTO SUBMISSION?!?!??!?! FUCKING DO IT AND HE WILL LITERALLY NEVER LOOK AT ANYONE EVER AGAIN!!!

Anvil - a classic position, he just loves the depth he can reach like this and how you melt within his grasp.

Mirage - suck his cock while he can see your entire body and can also finger you at the same time as he can tease you about being a cockwhore??? yes.

Lap dance - he just really fucking loves your body throwing backward onto him as your gasps hit his ear as he slams into you. Your tits are readily available for him to grab.

Workout - having your hips desperately grinding into him as he fucks you standing up without a wall to help him??? He’s gonna make you lose your goddamn mind.

Watering can - riding his cock and smothering him with your tits???? Switch!shouto is quaking.

G = Goofy (Are they more serious in the moment, or are they humorous, etc)

Shouto is a very serious man in bed. He ranges from being a growling alpha male to being a super needy shaking man who begs for you to ravage him.

Of course, he can be super kind, his touches soft and sweet.

But humourous??? That’s not really shouto.

You can have giggly sex with him, that’s a given, but it’s not that you’re laughing because he’s cracking a joke of the century.

Shouto is an intense man, so it makes sense that his lovemaking and fucking is intense too.

H = Hair (How well-groomed are they, does the carpet match the drapes, etc.)

Shouto’s pubes are the same as his head. Red and white split down the middle.

Now about grooming, shouto wasn’t even that aware that grooming his pubes were a thing so they were a big ole’ mess. Of course, it’s not a defining thing and you talk with him afterward.

He’ll show up the next time bare as a baby butt.

You’ll find a happy medium depending on what you both like because opinions are important and he wants you to be happy and comfortable.

I = Intimacy (How are they during the moment, romantic aspect…)

Shouto and you can get a little too kinky in bed so being intimate and romantic are a bit hard.

However, he is always super into the moment. When he’s fucking you, shouto can only think about you and only you. Damn everything else.

When you two aren’t being horny animals and are instead soft lovemaking lovers, it’s so so romantic. It doesn’t matter who’s on top, breathless cries, sweet moans, rose petals sticking to your sweaty bodies, and the scent of the burning candles set the fucking scene. It makes you truly look at him and realize just how fucking in love you are with him

J = Jack Off (Masturbation headcanon)

Shouto used to masturbate once a month before you.

It gradually increased the more he had wet dreams about you and perverted thoughts.

Now? The only time he masturbates is when you’re at the edge of the bed, his face locked on your smirking face as you say you won’t fuck him until he’s made himself come because he was being too needy earlier.

K = Kink (One or more of their kinks)

Switch - depending on the day he wants you to either manipulate him to your will or he wants to ravage you

Brat tamer - he really fucking loves when you’re being a brat. He wants you to fight him for his dominance because shoving you into the bed to teach you who the fucking dom is right now.

Temperature play - it’s a given, but he’s also a slut for having temp play done on him

Bondage - silk ties, spread bars, gags, blindfolds… on you, on him, he doesn’t care he loves not being able to do anything or seeing you crying in frustration

P R A I S E - HE WILL BE SO WRAPPED AROUND YOUR FINGER IF YOU PRAISE HIM. DO IT, COWARDS.

Marking - let the world fucking know who the both of you belong to. Bites, scratches, the works. Do it.

Roleplay - there’s something about seeing a different personality on the both of you and he just really loves seeing your own personality struggling against the one you’ve chosen

Exhibitionism - he gives no fucking fucks about fucking you outside of the damn house. He finds it so hot seeing you struggle with not going feral outdoors… eye--

L = Location (Favorite places to do the do)

Endeavors bed.

Definitely in one of your bedrooms because that means you can go on for however long and do whatever the hell you want!!!! But he does… sorta love fucking you in the outdoors especially if there’s

M = Motivation (What turns them on, gets them going)

The major thing that will always result in you getting to fuck shouto is makeout sessions.

Straddle his lap and kiss him senseless.

Grind your hip against his as your mouth peppers a trail of kisses from his mouth to his jaw and down his neck.

Give him quiet and moaning praises as his head drops as his fingers leave bruising grips onto your waist.

You’ll look back to him and you’ll see that fire lit in his eyes, the pure love and lust that swirl within his gaze as he smashes his mouth back against your mouth as he stands up. Your shirt is torn from your body as he slams you against the wall promising you exactly how many times he’s going to make you come that night.

N = NO (Something they wouldn’t do, turn-offs)

SHOUTO WILL NOT BRAND YOU OR PHYSICALLY HURT YOU WITH HIS QUIRK. YES, HE LIKES TO USE HIS QUIRK ON YOU BUT IF YOU SO MUCH AS ASK FOR HIM TO PUT HIS NAME ON YOUR ASS HE’LL LITERALLY LEAVE.

He also does not like emotional torture in bed.

O = Oral (Preference in giving or receiving, skill, etc)

Shouto loves the best of both worlds.

Suck him off while he fucking eats you out like a man who hasn’t consumed anything in years. But he loves eating you out more than he loves seeing your mouth fucking him. Especially when you sit on his face.

SIT ON HIS FACE PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD

His skill??? Untouchable, you will never find anyone as good as him at oral, sorry. He aims to please in every aspect so he will find a goddamn way to make you squirt on his face.

P = Pace (Are they fast and rough? Slow and sensual? etc.)

You can do both with him.

He loves the sensual side of the sex with you the most. He loves seeing your body slowly moving due to your actions, how your back arches off the bed, or how you fall forward as you make him squeeze your breasts harder.

But he also loves the fast and rough sex.

The breaking the headboards, permanently altering mattress, the bruises that litter your bodies afterward. Shouto loves seeing your face turn red, veins popping from both of your skin, as cum and sweat drip everywhere.

Q = Quickie (Their opinions on quickies rather than proper sex, how often, etc.)

Shouto is definitely not opposed to quickies, the exhibitionist in him is high off the thrills as he fucks you in a fast and almost demeaning way. He loves having you bent over, having you against a wall, it literally doesn’t matter he’s obsessed about the way you look and how thrilling it feels to have a quickie.

It doesn’t happen that often, once every few months because at the end of the day he’d rather fuck you or be fucking in a bed.

R = Risk (Are they game to experiment, do they take risks, etc.)

Shouto is game to experiment, even if it makes him nervous, even if he isn’t for it initially.

It is how you two found out pegging is a thing you can do together.

As stated before, he trusts you with everything in the world so when you bring anything up he’s going to trust you as either a dom or a sub.

If he finds something that intrigues him, he’ll definitely keep it in for a bit until he fully understands what exactly he’ll be putting the both of you through but it’s always mentioned. Of course, not everything has worked out for the best, but you never keep anything in question.

S = Stamina (How many rounds can they go for, how long do they last…)

Todoroki Shouto???? More like Too many rounds Sho-wreck-you (that was so bad please don’t hate me). He’s been training his entire life so he has the stamina of a fucking ox. When he doms you, fully expect to be a twitching fucking mess who’s literally oozing out his come because he’s gonna fuck you to Pluto and back. When he subs, it’s a bit of a different story. He just has so many overwhelming pleasures from seeing that glint in your eyes to the way you manipulate his body that he won’t ever last more than five rounds.

His stamina is no joke and do not enter this relationship expecting to be able to outlast him especially because he can regulate his temperature to cool himself down.

T = Toy (Do they own toys? Do they use them? On a partner or themselves?)

You two start with no toys. The first time you fuck it’s going to be vanilla and limited to what you already own. Like he uses a sweatshirt and belts to use for binding and your panties as gags.

But with some time you guys end up having a whole ass collection.

You guys do use them, maybe not every single session, but enough to make each purchase worth their use.

They get used on both of you almost a dead equal amount.

Favorite toys include (but not limited to nor in any particular order): a vibrator, fucking machine, strap on, anal beads, and vibrating cock ring.

U = Unfair (how much they like to tease)

Shouto can be the biggest fucking tease on the planet. Especially after you dom him. He loves holding your wrists in one hand because that’s how fucking big they are. He loves to see the sweat slipping down your neck as your hips buck wildly, begging for attention as his free hand grazes your folds, his eyes glancing at you as he chuckles lowly. “Does my princess want my fucking cock?” He’ll whisper as his fingers leave your slit to grab his hard cock, the head barely pressing in but you’re moaning as if he’s fully in you. “Oh no, I don’t think you’re quite ready for my cock princess… I need to see you break before you even get to taste it.”

V = Volume (How loud they are, what sounds they make)

Shouto is initially a very quiet lover, his teeth biting down harshly onto his lower lip as he tries not to let his whines and grunts be heard.

But we love vocal lovers, don’t we?

So with pleading, and a few more encouraging praises shouto can completely transform.

He growls, moans, whines, curses, and snarls so fucking much that you can’t even begin to believe that he was ever once quiet and shy about this.

W = Wild Card (Get a random headcanon for the character of your choice)

Shouto has a really big fucking thing for lingerie.

He buys you so many fucking unique and different sets for you to wear. You have lingerie of every single color of every single design. He is especially fond of a black lacy set you have that has a high waisted garter belt to it because it was the set you wore to dominate his switch ass for the very first time ever.

Plus you obtain these different auras with every set you put on, and he can’t help how fucking hot it is to see just how you’ll turn out to be new ones.

He’s a curious boy, what can I say.

X = X-Ray (Let’s see what’s going on in those pants, picture or words)

Todoroki Shouto is basically perfect??? Have i not made that obvious enough yet???

His dick is honest to god eight inches even when not hard. It’s not massive in terms of girth but it’s still enough to stretch you out in a delicious way.

He has two prominent veins running down the sides of his cock, one on each side.

It’s also a bit darker than the rest of his body.

Y = Yearning (How high is their sex drive?)

Shouto has a high sex drive, he’s just aware of it lmao.

Everything he does in terms of being romantic kinda of always ends with the two of you going at it.

It’s not until you push him away teasingly saying that he’s a horny ass animal does he finally realize that yeah, he’s probably down to bone you 99.9% of the time all day any day.

But I mean, he won’t push you at all if you aren’t in the mood because he is a GENTLEMAN!!!!!!!!!!

Z = ZZZ (… how quickly they fall asleep afterward)

Shouto is a sleepy ass motherfucker, he has definitely fallen asleep on you well before getting to clean you up. But the cum stains the next day were not fun so he always fights his sleepiness to make sure to clean you up. But as soon as your dandy and clean, he’s passing out with you trapped in his arms.

#todoroki shouto #todoroki shoto x reader #todoroki x reader #todoroki shouto x reader #todoroki headcanons #todoroki fluff #todoroki smut #bnha writing blog #bnha #bnha x reader #bnha todoroki #bnha headcanons #mha #mha x reader #mha headcanons #mha todoroki #burnedbyshoto 2000 follower event

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luna-redamancy · 4 years

Text

The Mate pt.6 (Thorin x Reader)

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Summary: When Smaug’s destruction left the pack of Erebor homeless, Thorin has to call in a debt owed to his father to get a new home for his pack members. When Thorin reaches the Blue Mountains and discovers his mate is amongst the humans living in the mountain village, will Thorin give up his hope for one day reclaiming his territory?

The air was thick, the kind that makes your hair raise up on your neck, your senses drill into overdrive mode. Waiting for something to strike from the shadows. It was a sinister feeling, a feeling that settled deep into your stomach and didn’t let go until you were in a safe tavern sitting by a warm fire.

But that didn’t seem to bother Mrs.(L/n) as she strolled across the broken cobblestone path, not even flinching at the sounds of warg growls once they reached her ears. As she approached, the orcs stood up, blades out and ready to rip through flesh.

“Now, now.. No need to be so hostile.” She cooed, a grin on her face as the pale orc, known as Azog came to approach her.

“You smell like wolf scum.” He inhaled deeply through his nose, a glare on his face as he began to circle her.

“Thorin Oakenshield,” She clarified, disdain in her voice as she began to pick at her nails.

“I have come to strike a deal, one I think you’d quite enjoy,” Mrs. (L/n) looked up to stare into Azog’s eyes, not one ounce of fear within her own.

“You get rid of Thorin Oakenshield, I will provide his location and instructions on how to get to the village without alerting the… wolves, of your arrival.”

“Why would you help me, human, in getting rid of Oakenshield?”

She let out a dry laugh. “I will also get something out of his death. My family will be made whole again.”

She held her hand out, “So, do we have a deal or not?” Seeing his hesitation, she sighed, pulling out a satchel of gold.

Azog chuckled, now more sure of himself as he grasped her hand in his. “We do.”

“He is in Bree at the moment, the sooner his head is on my doorstep, the better.”

And so the price for Thorin’s head was sent out across the lands, from petty thieves to packs of Orcs, whoever could return his head to Azog would get a reward.

The sun crept into the room, chasing away shadows with it’s warmth as it spread until it reached your face. Thorin’s chest rumbled as he pressed his face to your neck, rubbing his nose up and down as he deeply inhaled, your scent intoxicating as he pressed a gentle kiss to where your neck meets your collar. The bed wasn’t the most comfortable, he could feel the slight pain in his back from you two barely fitting on it. But it was worth it, for he knew that he couldn’t go all the way to Bree without you.

“Thorin?” You mumbled sleepily, his form practically laying over yours, the slight scratch of his beard against your neck rousing you from your slumber.

Thorin hummed in response, pressing lighter kisses along your neck until he reached your cheek, “Good morning,” his voice was slightly raspy with sleep, his voice deep and husked.

“‘Mornin’” You hummed, twisting slightly so you could get more comfortable. Thorin’s chest lightly vibrated with the satisfied growls leaving his throat as he pressed kisses back into your collar. “Did you sleep well?” You questioned, threading your fingers through his locks as he rubbed circles over your hip.

He nodded, clinging to you like a small babe as you continued dragging your nails across his scalp pressing kisses to his forehead.

Remembering his conversation with Gandalf last night, Thorin frowned, burrowing his face deeper into your neck to hide his pained expression.

Feeling his body tense, you felt confusion crashing over you in a wave as you held him tighter. “What’s wrong, Thorin?” You questioned, shifting so he couldn’t hide in your neck any more.

“I have to go reclaim my homeland.” His voice was stable, yet you could feel the tremble of his shoulders as he thought of leaving you alone for so long. Thorin wasn’t stupid, he knew that having a price upon his head would lead to many trying to get to you to weaken him.

“I see…” You looked up to the ceiling as you pondered what to do, how to comfort him properly. “It’ll be okay,” You decided to say, nosing on his scalp as you pressed kisses to it.

“We’ll be okay,” You reassured, squeezing him just a little tighter.

“I will have someone guard you until I return,” He explained, mostly to himself as a way of telling himself you’ll be safe and sound. “If that will make you feel better,” You responded, knowing he would probably go mad with grief if you didn’t let him do this.

And so the two of you began to pack your belongings to leave, knowing this journey would probably be the last time you two would see each other for a long while.

“Do you really think we need a burglar, Thorin?” Dwalin questioned, not understanding why Thorin felt the need to introduce an outsider to their plan to reclaim their homeland.

“We saw how well our kind alone goes against dragons,” Thorin stated, a numb tone in his voice, yet his mind filled with anguish as he recalled his kin burning alive. “-We are no match.”

Dwalin looked towards the floor, any argument he had soon died as he too recalled the event of the desolation of Erebor. “The wizard seems to trust him, and we could possibly use a burglar to lure that snake out of our home?” Thorin speculated, wondering if he would even get that far - if his land could ever be taken back from Smaug’s clutches.

Silence fell upon them as they looked to the sky, the air tense with the feeling of impending dread.

“What’re you going to tell your mate?” Dwalin broke the silence, never looking away from the sky. Thorin sighed, looking at his hands. He wanted to be a good mate, a good protector, a good alpha to his pack, nothing more. Yet why did it seem like to be all, he had to pay with another.

“That it is the only way I can rightfully ask for her hand in marriage, reclaiming my place as alpha of Erebor” Thorin’s voice was exasperated as if he had the conversation a million times already.

Dwalin snorted through his nose, turning to look at Thorin, “You’re going to lie to your mate?”

“It’s what must be done. If I told her I was planning to leave her side to go try and kill a dragon… Mahal, she’d cut my tail off,” Thorin chuckled dryly, not wanting to think about leaving you any more than he already had to.

“I thought she knew about the dragon?”

“Aye, she didn’t know I was planning on risking my life to kill it… I told her Gandalf wanted to remove the dragon through a spell, and in return, I would give him a portion of gold from Thror’s keep..”

“Well, we can only hope she won’t skin you alive and make a rug out of ye when we return.” Dwalin chuckled, knowing a mate’s wrath is stronger than any other kind.

“If we return…” Thorin mumbled, looking up to the sky and wondering what you were doing. Were you baking? Making a quilt? Fretting over his well being? Caring for his horrendous garden? Were you safe?

Humming to yourself you sat in bed, a book perched in your hands as you carefully read over each page. A knock at the door interrupted your enjoyment of the story, making you frown. “Who could be here this late?” You grumbled to yourself, tying your robe around you to cover up your night-gown. “Who is it?”

“It’s me,” Your guard called out, his voice sounding strained. “Are you alright?” You questioned, flinging open the door.

“Hello, darling.” Your mother stood in the doorway, a grin on her face as she held a knife up to your guard’s throat.

“I think it is time you’ve come home.”

Tags:

Forever Tag- @lady-of-lies @all-things-fandomstuck @fizzyxcustard @izzydaelleth @aquaangel18@raindancer2004 @love-colorfulglittercollection @underthemoon-n @ladylouoflothlorien @unlikelysamwinchesteronahunt @legolaslovely @bthtallmadge2 @abesottedlass @wilhelmyna @tigereyesf @aspookybunny

Thorin Tag- @greennightspider @ashleygrrrl @skylarkvip @makeshift-prime @jumpingmanatee @meraki--mei @theelvenvalkyrie @dabisburntnut @queenofmankind

The Mate Tag-

@thisisparadisemylove @nelswp @hufflepuff25 @elainqueenoffireandroses@dumbgopher1 @deepestfirefun @jumpingmanatee @ashleygrrrl @tschrist1 @thesilversnake666

#thorin oakenshield x reader #thorin oakenshield x you #the mate #werewolf au #werewolf x reader #x reader insert #the hobbit female reader-insert #female reader insert #thorin x female reader #thorin x you #thorin oakenshield #the hobbit x reader #the hobbit reader insert #the hobbit #fanfiction #fanfic #werewolf mate #werewolf mate series

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seokjinsdisciple · 4 years

Text

It’s a Deal- three

supernatural! johnny x reader x jaehyun, mate!au

its heating up my friends and boy is the plot gonna be spicy

Word Count: 1.6k

warnings: language, supernatural stuff

series masterlist

You had decided that whatever happened yesterday was just a dream, some sort of midterms week hallucinations. And you were never, NEVER, going to think of them again. You had to attribute it to a momentary lapse in sanity, because nothing else would be able to explain the absolute shitshow that was yesterday, and to be honest, you didn’t really want any explanations.

So you continued on with your day as you normally would. You worked your shift at the cafe, attended your classes, and nothing happened. You were relieved. You felt the tension that had been building up in you all day long ebb out.

It happened when you were walking home from your last class. You chose to go through the student center, the chill of the night air enough to drive you inside. Something you never allowed yourself to do. You liked walking outside, but tonight, you felt an inexplicable pull towards the student center.

You saw him near the dining hall. He was leaning against the wall and when he noticed you staring he smiled. It was a stunning smile, and it showed his dimples. He chuckled a bit as you stared, walking towards your frozen body. He drew looks from everyone around, and you felt your heart swell with, what was it? Jealousy? Pride? After all it was you he was walking towards. You couldn’t hide your grin as the people around you looked you up and down in shock.

He was in front of you before you could take a deep breath. And now you were stuck breathing in his heavenly lavender scent. It was intoxicating and you were overwhelmed.

“Long time no see,” he giggled, his dimples deepening. You swear you melted, his giggle and his dimples probably the most adorable thing you had ever witnessed.

“That’s something humans say, right?” he asked quietly, taking a quick glance around.

“Yeah some people say that,” you smiled back, “What exactly are you doing here? Don’t you have… I don’t know, prince stuff to do?”

“I do,” he smiled, “but I quite like pissing off my father, and enrolling here also allows me the pleasure of pissing off my brother.”

“Wait- you enrolled?”

Jaehyun just shrugged and nodded, like enrolling in college was some simple thing. Oh my god. The money he had to have spent to enroll, and to not even want to learn something! You could never imagine wasting that much money, let alone even having that much money.

“Why do you look so worried, pet?” Jaehyun said, intertwining his hand in yours and pulling you brusquely through the student center, “Hurry, we’ve got an important event to attend.”

“What event?” you asked, “Jaehyun, where are we going?”

He ignored your questions, mischief in his eyes as he lead you to a part of campus you had been avoiding all day, the quad where you knew the portal to the faerie world lay. Knots formed in your tummy, nervousness seeping out of every pore of your body that Jaehyun had to wrinkle his nose at your now distressed scent.

“Jaehyun I don’t wanna go there again,” you said, halting your movements, “You can’t make me.”

“That pet, is where you are wrong.”

With a flick of his thumb across your hand, and with his words making you more angry than you should be, he effectively distracted you just enough to go through the portal. Before you knew it, you were standing in front of the most magnificent palace you had ever seen. Your anger dissipated as you took in the pearly white stone mansion in front of you. You were in complete awe.

Faeries loitering around the front gate bowed their heads as Jaehyun waltzed passed them, not even glancing in their direction. He was too busy staring at you. He couldn’t help but grin at your wonder, your mouth open in awe at the sight in front of you. He had to admit, the palace was exceptional, even if he hated every moment he spent in its walls.

You took one look at your oversized sweatshirt and ripped jeans, suddenly feeling extremely unconscious. How could you enter a palace in such a horribly under-dressed way.

As if he read your mind, Jaehyun chuckled, “Don’t worry, I picked out a dress just for you, pet.”

You just swallowed, touching the necklace that he had given you around your neck as you followed him through the palace into a decadent blue room. It was the most expensive looking room you had ever been in. Gold detailing on the walls and ceiling. The gold resembling trees, and animals and stars and so many other things. But the stars entranced you, their gold sparkling shapes looking too real to be painted. Plus, you could’ve sworn you saw one of the stars move.

Your eyes fell onto a gown that was hanging in the corner, a gasp leaving your mouth before you could even control yourself. It was a beautiful gown, a dark navy blue that looked expensive as hell. You took one look behind you, to say something, anything to Jaehyun that would express how you could absolutely no way wear something that expensive, but he was gone. Several faeries stood at the door, their makeup and hair done extravagantly already.

“Well what are you waiting for?” An older looking woman said with a smile, “Put it on.”

And you did. The dress was more than you ever expected, flecks of gold and silver shining as you walked. It looked like a piece of the night sky had been cut and made into a dress. You blushed as you looked at yourself in the mirror. Much more of your skin showing that you would’ve guessed just by looking at the dress hanging up. Then again, faeries were less modest than humans, so you supposed no one would notice the extra skin.

The faeries crowded around you at once, hurrying to pull your hair up and do your make up. They were done so quickly you couldn’t believe it. The woman from before, smiled gently at you as she pulled out a golden headband adorned with gold metal stars. Your outfit completely taking you aback, I mean you looked like a completely different person. You looked like a fae.

You took your appearance in, the past 30 minutes feeling like a complete dream. You had never been taken care of like this.

You heard a cough from behind you, and turned quickly to see Jaehyun in an equally stunning emerald silk top. He smiled brightly as he took in your appearance.

“You look magnificent, pet,” He bowed slightly, offering his hand out for you to take.

“Jaehyun, I-,” you started, “Thank you for this, but I really can’t accept something so expensive, and for me to take all this time in your room, I shouldn’t.”

You were halted in the middle of your sentence by a laugh from him, “This room is far too simple to be mine, it lacks many luxuries and necessities. This is simply one of our guest rooms that I thought was perfect for you, along with that dress.”

“Still, you have to let me wear something else, or at least pay you back.”

This received a snort from the prince, “You couldn’t pay the price of this dress in your lifetime pet. So please, let me gift it to you. I picked it out with the thought of you, and would be so offended if you refused. I thought a dress of stars was perfect for someone with a galaxy twinkling in their eyes.”

Now, you weren’t stupid. You studied mythology and creatures everyday. But Jaehyun’s compliment had knocked you off of your game for just a second. Taking a deep breath, you tried your hardest to focus. Knowing if you were going to be indebted to him was important.

“And do I have to give you something in return?” You asked, a sudden lump in your throat.

“Nothing is free here, pet.” Jaehyun smirked, “It’d be best to remember that tonight. You’ll be surrounded by very curious fae. I wouldn’t want you to get hurt.”

You had a sinking feeling as you followed behind Jaehyun warily. The magnificence of the halls sterring your thoughts more towards their decadence, rather than the debt you now owed. You reached large white and gold doors, that Jaehyun pushed open with ease. Jaehyun pulled you into a banquet room filled with elegantly dressed fae, you left to follow behind him helplessly. The laughing and chattering subsiding at the Prince’s entrance.

Jaehyun held your hand tightly as he guided you up the stairs towards the throne where his family were seated in their respective seats beside an older looking faerie. Jaehyun’s father looked you up and down once, before sending a chill down your spine at his words.

“The court welcomes YN LN, beloved betrothed of Prince Jaehyun, and future Queen of Longate Isle.”

You heard a gasp, and you genuinely didn’t know if it came from you. It took you a bit longer to process the words that were just spoken, but when you did, panic overtook you. You whipped your head towards Jaehyun, who was too busy thanking his father for him to notice. You felt a pair of eyes bore into the side of your face, whispers and gasps echoing throughout the room as the shock from the news spread throughout the room.

“Consider us equal for the dress now pet,” Jaehyun whispered in your ear, a sly grin on his face.

You looked at Johnny, realizing he was the one who had been staring at you intently. He was standing, a fact that he didn’t find as troublesome as his sister, who was desperately trying to pull him down by his pants. His gaze was wild and furious, and for a moment, you thought he was pissed at you. You quickly realized he was staring at Jaehyun with murder in his eyes. He cleared his throat, glancing away from his brother and towards you, his face paling the more the news started settling into his brain.

His anger morphed into panic the longer he looked at you. Which made you wonder what the hell you had just gotten into. You were scared. You were mortified of whatever Jaehyun had planned. And you were pissed that yet another faerie tricked you into doing something that would change your life. Your fear was multiplied by Jaehyun’s one word whisper as he passed Johnny to sit down, your shocked frame falling into his lap easily.

Jaehyun’s voice saying checkmate repeating over and over in your head.

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somedayonbroadway · 4 years

Note

Oooo Im interested in your Star Wars newsies AU

Ooooooookay so this is gonna be interesting. I will be basing this particular AU off of the original trilogy (the best one by far. Nothing will ever beat it) though if you’d like to see the prequels or any other Star Wars movie done, or a different Star Wars story that I start making up on the spot, just let me know!

This is also going to be very similar to the storyline of each and every character. So I’m only going to do the three main characters, but if you’d like to hear about more, just let me know!

Star Wars AU

Characters

Racetrack Higgins — Luke Skywalker

Katherine Plumber — Leia Organa

Jack Kelly — Han Solo

Crutchie Morris — Chewbacca

Warden Snyder — Emperor Palpatine

Joseph Pulitzer — Darth Vader

Medda Larkin — Obi Wan Kenobi

Todd Kloppman — Yoda

Spot Conlon — Lando Calrission

Obadiah Wiesel — Jabba The Hutt

Racetrack Higgins

Anthony Higgins lived his life as a farmer on Tatooine.

He lives on this hot, desert planet with his aunt and uncle, who constantly try to convince him that everything he’d ever need is right there on Tatooine.

Anthony does not believe them.

Growing up fascinated by any kind of ship he can get his grip on, he acquires the nickname “Racer” from his friends and is named an excellent pilot. He wants to explore the galaxy, but on the insistence of his uncle is forced to stay at the farm on account of the dangers that would come if he left.

Everyone was terrified of the Empire.

Race wanted to make a difference.

Growing up, Race had always been told that his parents had been good people. His father had died as a pilot during the clone wars and his mother had died getting him to safety.

Race never had a reason not to believe them.

He lives a relatively normal life on the farm on Tatooine, though he longs for so much more.

When Race was born, he was secretly given to his aunt and uncle by a woman he believed to be named Medda Larkin who lives in the desert land away.

This woman looks out for him, against his uncle's wishes, though, upon asking him why the old man has such a quarrel with Medda, only to be left without an answer.

Frustrated by his friends following their dreams and leaving the desert planet, Race finds himself staring into the sunset daily, wishing he could fly past it.

And one day, he gets his chance.

After inspecting new droids his uncle purchases, he finds a message of a beautiful girl begging for help from a Medactrine Larkin (I don’t know. It felt right).

Wandering off, Race goes to investigate, asking Medda Larkin if she was related to this mysterious person after being attacked by Sandpeople who knock him out and nearly kill him.

With the droids, M7-TN and BK-03, Race discovers that Medda is Medactrine and was once a Jedi Knight, one that fought side by side with Race’s father, whom she trained in the ways of The Force.

Though he at first declines Medda’s offer to travel with her to help the woman in the message, a Princess Katherine Plumber, after he tries to return to his farm, he finds it destroyed, the bodies of his aunt and uncle carelessly laid in front of the door to his home.

So he goes.

This embarks Racer on the path to him truly becoming The Chosen One.

Upon running from the people who murdered his family, Medda informs him that they have to secure travel off of the planet

That’s when Race meets Jack Kelly.

Race and Jack weren’t immediately best friends, but Jack wanted to protect him. Race was never entirely sure of why.

The Force is strong with Race, even though he never knew it.

Medda begins to train him in the ways of the force.

Race is forced to watch his mentor get struck down right in front of him and while he’d only known the truth for a few days about Medactrine’s true identity, he felt as though he owed his life to her.

Because she saved him countless times over and he didn’t even know.

Racer joins the rebellion after Medda dies, hearing her voice in his head, clear as day, telling him to run.

He is the pilot that blows up the Death Star whilst the majority of all others who tried died around him in their TIE Fighters.

Medda is guiding him the whole time. He uses The Force.

Race has the piloting skills of his father.

Race travels to a galaxy that many believe to be deserted to be trained by another Jedi Master by the name of Klopp.

He trains for a long time, becoming an unofficial Padawan and learning the ways of the Jedi who are nearly extinct.

He nearly gets killed by a yeti

He gets his hand cut off by the very man the whole galaxy fears.

He is told one day that he is the galaxy’s last hope

Jack Kelly

Jack grew up an orphan

When he was young, his parents were killed by the Empire and he was kidnapped by a local gang and made a part of it, a slave to it.

He grew up in a life of crime. He’d never asked for it.

After escaping that gang, leaving someone he loved dearly behind, Kelly, he runs off and joins the Imperial Navy as a flight cadet, naming himself Jack Kelly in honor of the girl who helped him escape.

After years of service, Jack wants a way out, a way to get away from this life only to be tricked and thrown into a monster’s den by con men who are infiltrating the navy in search of a lot of money.

It is in this monster’s den that he meets a creature with fangs, horns and golden skin with one leg. His name is Charbeddon. Jack calls him Crutchie.

Eventually, after escaping the navy and teaming up with the group of cons and thieves, Jack ends up doing the Kessel run in twelve parsecs in a ship that he nearly won in a game of cards, The Millennium Falcon.

He makes it clear that he’s an excellent pilot. Well, as long as he has his lucky dice with him. They were the first thing he ever stole.

After being betrayed by the small gang, Jack finds that he’s better of when it’s just him and Crutchie

Though he goes back to win the Millennium Falcon off of the man who cheated him at cards, one Mr. Spot Conlon, who is forced to put his money where his mouth is when Jack wins and claims his ship as his own.

After this, Jack and Crutchie leave for a small planet called Tatooine to find a crime lord that had been mentioned to him once who is putting together a big job

Long story short, Jack ends up owing this crime lord a big debt, ending up with a price on his head that sends just about every bounty hunter in the system out looking for him.

Jack meets Race and immediately knows that he wants to protect the kid, though he does not truly understand why at first

Jack Kelly is named the best smuggler in the galaxy at a very young age.

After escaping Tatooine after promising the crime lord he would pay him back within the month, Jack finds himself on a journey that changed him for good.

He saves a Princess, expecting a reward.

He didn’t expect to fall in love

Though he is hesitant to join the rebellion at first, his overwhelming urge to protect Racer like no one protected him growing up takes over and he flies after the kid right before the Death Star is blown up, saving him from being shot down.

Jack and the Princess, Katherine, get off to a rocky start until they finally admit they have feelings for each other

Jack is eventually captured, along with Katherine and their droids, by the empire

Jack is tortured for information; the location of Anthony Higgins, though during the first session of the shock torture, he isn’t even asked any questions.

Eventually, Jack is told he will be the test subject for a trap they were setting for Race. Jack had no hope of escape.

As he’s being led to the trap, Katherine admits that she loves him to which Jack can only respond that he knows

He’s frozen in Carbonite and shipped away to the crime lord that put the price on his head, being fixed as a permanent decoration in old Weasels hide out.

Katherine Plumber

After being given up by her mother, Katherine is adopted by a Senator the Queen of Alderaan

She grows up in a political setting, learning day in and day out about the Galactic Empire.

She vows to be a part of taking it down

She is the reason that Racer joins the rebellion in the first place.

After her ship gets infiltrated, the young princess finds a droid and records a desperate massage for someone her father spoke of often and trusted above anyone else. She asks Madactrine Larkin for help. She’s their only hope.

Katherine had a team of people find a weakness in the Death Star, something they could use to destroy it. She sends the plans with the droid BK-03

And then Katherine is captured by Darth Vader, the man most feared in the galaxy.

Even as she is defiant and strong in her ways, when the evil man aims a planet killer at her home, she caves and reveals what she’d done only for her home planet to be blown up anyway

She is then held prisoner, believing she will be executed soon

Until she’s rescued by a kind boy and a much too devilishly handsome young man who drives her crazy.

Katherine is much more than just a Princess. She’s a senator and eventually, a general

She’s a natural born leader.

Just like her mothers, biological and adoptive

Katherine finds herself often being treated like a damsel in distress, when in reality, she’s tough enough to handle herself.

After she’s captured once again by the Empire and the man she thought he hated but turned out to love was turned into a statue and sold away, she is the one who goes out to save him

Maybe they both get captured immediately, but at least she got that far

She is made a new slave for Weasel even as a newly blind Jack is trying to beg Weasel to leave her alone, that he’d pay him back in full and even more but he is taken away and finds Crutchie waiting for him in the dungeon.

Katherine is forced to wear demeaning clothing and held by a chain around her neck like Weasel's new pet.

Even after Race tries to save them, he gets captured as well. He is fed to the monster they have underneath them only to kill the thing and be taken prisoner like Jack and Katherine has to watch the whole thing.

She is forced to watch while the only friends she has are taken out on Tatooine to be eaten alive by a giant man eating plant

This is where Race gets the upper hand and Katherine is given the opportunity to finally kill Weasel and escape with Jack and Race.

She is very sneaky and very quick and even when Jack tries to protect her, she ends up saving his skin just as much

Katherine Plumber is strong with the force, though she believes Race, her brother, must be the Jedi of the family

She finds out all on her own, through accidental Force Searching that Darth Vader was the Jedi Knight Joseph Pulitzer, who was also her father as well as Race’s.

Katherine is honestly a badass.

Let me know if you guys want to see any scenes from this one!

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lo-55 · 4 years

Text

Tilt The Hourglass Ch. 7

Maul had been many things in his life.

Student, Assassin, Sith- hopeful, Madman, Crime Lord, Ruler of Mandalore.

Now he could add corporate spy to that list.

Joy.

Maul found Kenobi and Si Treemba sitting together in the battered mess hall that the Monument was equipped with, each with something suitable for their species. Zabrak were technically omnivorous, but his particular brand had an affinity for meat. They were hunters first and foremost. They both had their heads down, and Si Treemba’s green skin was pale with his anxiety and disappointment. A plate of dactyl and fungus sat in front of him.

Maul sat next to the pair, and scarred the life out of the both of them. He caught the elbow Kenobi threw at his face with ease. He peered at the jedi, unimpressed.

“You look like someone pissed in your moof juice,” he said before Kenobi could do something silly like apologize. That didn’t stop the little jedi from looking contrite.

“We had no luck. Did you?”

Maul lifted his shoulder. “I found the thermocoms, in a vat of lubricant. So they’ve been recovered but there’s no way to tell who took them. Fingerprints and DNA would have been wiped away. The hutt’s are on a rampage, too. They’re ready to kill someone.”

“I see,” Kenobi’s shoulders slumped. “If only…”

“Mmmm?” Maul prompted him while he stole Kenobi’s dinner out from under him. The boy was so sad he didn’t even fight him. Or maybe Kenobi was just a push over right now.

He looked guilty of something too.

“It was just a thought I had. When Jemba was threatening everyone. Why didn't Master Jinn just use his lightsaber to cut him down? He’s a cruel person and a criminal, and he won’t stop hurting people. Master Jinn could have stopped it, but he chose not to. I just wonder why.”

Maul paused, his stolen dinner halfway to his mouth.

It was disconcerting to realize that Kenobi had had the same thought that he’d had.

It seemed like every time they interacted like this Maul was thrown off course. Kenobi was not chosen by Jinn. Kenobi was willing to kill someone just like that, however he might justify it.

Kenobi mis-read his expression, because the little jedi sunk lower in his chair.

“I suppose that’s not the jedi way, but we’re supposed to defend the defenseless and seek justice in all things.”

Maul mentally gagged. Familiar anger bubbled up under his skin, beneath the scars that Sidious had left on him. If the jedi had found him they wouldn’t have helped. He was too dark, wasn’t he? Too tainted. At best they would have sent him Dathomir to be a slave to the Nightsisters. He had been defenseless and they had never defended him. No one had.

“There is no justice in this galaxy,” Maul told Kenobi darkly, his yellow eyes burning. “Not unless you make it yourself.”

Kenobi looked startled at him, but Maul didn’t pay him any mind. He shoved food in his mouth.

Si Treemba watched him eat, his eyes on the salt resting on the table. That was right. It was a rather horrible drug to them, wasn’t it?

Maul paused.

Maybe he should just poison the hutts and he could convince Jango to leave this job early and go find his brothers? Hutt’s were hardy, but Maul was creative. Starship fuel would do it, right? And he could certainly make it look like an accident…

“You know,” Kenobi said suddenly, “there‘s one think I don‘t understand. Jemba puts on a good show. But I sense he‘s afraid of Clat‘Ha and the Arconans. And the mandalorian too.”

“Jango,” Maul corrected, “Jango Fett. He would be a fool not to fear him. Mandalorians are powerful warriors, capable of going toe to toe with jedi. Don’t they teach you history in that fancy temple of yours?”

Kenobi made a face at him while Si Treemba swallowed a mouthful of dactyl and fungi.

“We think you‘re right, Obi-Wan. He fears us. Even though it is not our intent, he knows we will destroy him one day.”

“How is that?” Obi-Wan asked.

“In Offworld mining, the chiefs and overseers make fortunes, while the common workers make nothing. Many of them are slaves. But at Arcona Mineral Harvest, we have no chieftains, no overseers. Each worker shares in the profits. This did not bother Offworld until Clat‘Ha began to expand our operations. So she contacts the better workers at Offworld. If they are slaves, she offers to buy them and set them free if they will work for us. If they have signed work contracts, she offers to buy the contracts. Now she has the support of a mandalorian and she is more a force than before.”

“That sounds fair,” Obi-Wan said.

“It is fair,” Si Treemba agreed. “That is exactly why Jemba fears us. Many good workers wish to join us, only the bad will stay at Offworld.”

“I see,” Obi-Wan said, touching his chin in a familiar gesture. “So in a few years, Jemba will have only chiefs with no one to boss around. He‘d hate that.”

Si Treemba grinned, then turned serious. “But Jemba has stalled us. He has raised the price on labor contracts and slaves. We can no longer afford to hire Offworld workers.”

Maul quietly filed that information away. He had no love of slavers, and freed slaves were loyal to a fault. He could use that to his advantage.

(Maul ignored the little voice that was starting to sound annoyingly like Tano, or perhaps Ezra, that pointed out that he had been little better than Sidious’ slave once. He was a darksider, he didn’t need weaknesses like sympathy.)

“It’s no surprise. Hutt’s run the crime empire in the outer rim. Of course they’ll use glorified slave labor for legitimate businesses too. Does Jango know all this?”

Si Treemba shrugged. “We thought you would know. He is your guardian, isn’t he?”

Maul curled his lip. “I need no guardian, and I am no Mandalorian.”

“Ah. We are sorry. We had heard that Mandalorians were fond of children.”

“I’m not a child,” he snapped irritably. “But you are not wrong. They’ll adopt anything that moves if given the change.”

“I heard Mandalorians were killers for hire, a violent race that tried to conquer the galaxy,” Kenobi said quietly.

Maul snorted. He wasn’t entirely wrong.

“Mandalorian isn’t a race. It’s a creed. Anyone who swears the Resol'nare is Mandalorian. I haven’t, and he hasn’t adopted me, so I’m not a mandalorian.”

“You are a simple zabrak?” Si Treemba said dubiously.

Maul flashed him his sharp, gap toothed grin.

“Not hardly. I am a-” dark sider, crime lord, warrior, assassin, “Nightbrother.”

Si Treemba grimaced. “You should keep yourself hidden from the Hutts then, Maul. We understand that Nightbrothers are very prized on the black market.”

Kenobi looked ill. He pushed the rest of his plate towards Maul, who had no qualms finishing the bird. Perfectly at ease, he kept talking while he ripped the flesh apart with his sharp teeth. He was still getting used to the feeling of his eye-tooth being missing. Zabrak had a few extra teeth than humans, but his hadn’t even started to come back in, leaving a fleshing gap in his mouth that he kept worrying with the tip of his tongue. It tasted faintly like blood even though it had stopped bleeding some time ago.

“I’m aware. The Nightsisters breed us to be strong and resilient, among other things,” Savage hadn’t enjoyed telling him about their homeland, but Maul had learned on his own. He learned much on his own after the rise of the Empire, about the sith and the Nightsisters both. Some of it was useful. Most of it would have had Kenobi pale and puking if he knew what his people were capable of. “Slavers from Rattatak tried to steal me once, for a warlord there,” he added idly.

“And you escaped?!” Si Treemba stared at him in shock. “We know Rattatak is a dangerous place. They have gladiator tournaments and many civil wars.”

“It wasn’t that hard. There was only a small force, and I was not alone for it.”

Maul looked down at the bones on the plate. Wasn’t Ventress on Rattatak now? Or if she wasn’t she would be soon. Maul wasn’t even certain she’d been born yet. Or would be, if he arrived on Dathomir before she was born. He could not promise the survival of all the Nightsisters if his brothers were not in top shape. Talzin may or may not have been his mother, but he would not allow harm to his brothers go unpunished.

How much would that change? How involved in the galactic plan had Ventress been a part of? She had briefly ruled Rattatak, before being made an apprentice to Dooku, who was in turn an apprentice to Sidious. Had that happened yet? Was Dooku still a jedi master?

Time travel was just one headache after the other.

“Still. We think it is very impressive. There are many brave people on this ship,” Si Treemba said with a small smile. Kenobi returned it weakly. Maul tried not to roll his eyes.

Si Treemba was far too easily impressed.

Kenobi too. Shouldn’t the jedi have prepared him better for this?

In fact, shouldn’t the jedi have sent him with an actual guardian, instead of on his own? Jinn certainly didn’t count. The man was much more useless than Maul had initially thought. He’d respected him for his fighting prowess, and for raising a jedi as good at fighting as Kenobi was, but how much credit did Jinn actually deserve, if Kenobi was here on his own?

“We should tell the others that you found the thermocoms,” Kenobi suggested.

“I already told Jango.”

He’d looked exasperated by Maul going off and doing investigating on his own, but hadn’t scolded him in front of Clat’Ha and Jinn. Even if he had, he wasn’t Maul’s father. Maul owed him a small debt, but that was all.

That was all.

“Oh.”

Maul eyed Kenobi speculatively. “Why aren’t you training to become a knight?” he asked suddenly, the question that had been bothering him for hours. Surely nothing Maul had done would change Kenobi’s life up until this point. Which meant that his Kenobi, the one he’d fought for decades, had had this happen to him too. He’d been sent away from the temple. He’d been assigned a farming job. And somehow he had returned to the temple, made a master out of Jinn, and become a powerful duelist as well.

Kenobi jerked back like Maul had come at him with a knife instead of a simple question. Maul could taste Kenobi’s disappointment, fear, and insecurity. And there, at the center of it all, was anger. Maul had gotten him angry before. Enraged over the death of his loved ones. This was a different kind of anger.

Maul carefully prodded at Kenobi’s mental shields. They weren’t as strong as they would be in the future, and Maul had to be mindful. His own shields were still ragged and being built back up, but he would need more time to get them back in shape.

Maul hid a grin. Kenobi looked away from him, down at the table, and fiddled with his sleeve cuffs.

“I would rather not talk about it,” he said quietly. “The temple decided that I wasn’t fit for- for the role of a knight. That I would be better suited to serve in other ways.”

“As a farmer.” Maul said dubiously.

“Yes,” the word came out sour on his tongue, “The agricorps are an important, honorable way to serve the galaxy.”

Kenobi’s declaration sounded utterly hollow. Maul propped his chin on his hand and his elbow on the table with a ‘thump’.

“Nearly everyone needs food to live,” Maul conceded. “But you don’t want to be a farmer, do you little jedi?”

Kenobi shook his head miserably.

“No.”

Maul watched Kenobi squeeze his eyes shut, his face flushing under his freckles, before he drew his shoulders back and sat up straighter. His expression smoothed, at least a little. He hadn’t perfected his sabacc face yet.

“But it was decided by people wiser than I am. And it was my own fault so-”

“So here you are.”

“So here I am.”

Si Treemba, who had been watching the pair quietly, piped up. “We are glad you are here, Obi Wan. We are proud to be your friend.”

That, at least, got a smile out of Kenobi.

“Thank you, Si Treemba. And thank you too, Maul.” He must had seen Maul’s confusion. “For helping us. You didn’t have to.”

Maul huffed at him. “Of course I didn’t have to. But I’m stuck on this ship with the rest of you. If war breaks out it might be inconvenient.”

The pair looked at eachother, then at Maul, and started laughing quietly.

Maul stared at them blankly.

He hadn’t been joking!

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Maul really needed to find a place that was private, where he wouldn’t be disturbed by anyone.

He was getting tired of only having a blaster and a knife. He wanted his lightsaber back, and unlike jedi he didn’t need to waste his time exploring some overglorified ice cave to get one. He could make his own crystals, and he had his whole life.

His original crystal, the very first one he’d ever made, had been made from necessity. He’d been sent to kill a reclusive jedi master, Siolo Ur Manka. He hadn’t been able to, and when he was forced to flee he drew upon a design he’d found in his masters sith holocron. A blue print left from the weapon of Darth Zannah, Bane’s apprentice and an unbeatable combatant.

It took him four days to properly craft the crystals, two for each one. He had entered a deep meditation, one that almost killed him with dehydration. He’d been sustained by the darkside and his own feelings. In the end he had used the trick of the second blade to run Manka through.

That lightsaber had served him well until he’d lost it after his duel with Sidious on Mandalore. Now, surrounded by hostility and in the presence of jedi, he felt its absence much more acutely than he had on Orsis. It’s weight had always been a comfort on his hip. Even in those years lost to madness he had kept it with him in a box in his scrap cave.

He wished, sometimes, that he had taken Sidious up on his offer to name it.

“It, like myself, is nothing more than a tool in your fist. It is undeserving of the honor of a name. Let it be nothing more than what it is. An instrument of murder, and nameless.”

Still true. Maul was an instrument for murder, an accumulator of power, but it was under his own authority now. Not Sidious’.

His name was his own, whether his mother had given it to him or Sidious had bestowed it upon him, he took it and made it his.

Maul.

Now, years later, Maul had learned how to make a lightsaber crystal in less time than two days. He only needed half of a day to make one now, and a furnace to provide heat to the raw materials.

Those materials, raw minerals and stones, were easy to find on a mining ship. A furnace would be easy too, for the same reason. Miner’s kept small ones with them for any number of reasons, and ships themselves usually had very hot engine’s he could utilize.

The problem came with the face that Maul couldn’t find a moment of peace.

A strange thing for a darksider to seek. Sith did not seek peace, but Maul required privacy at the very least to do this, or he would out himself to both jedi and Fett as well.

He was not interested in that at all. Too many complications.

Anything he needed to build the ‘saber itself was on the ship too. He’d made a small bag of pieces he could use. Spare pieces of mining equipment, ship parts, bits of weapons he’d taken the liberty of removing from the whiphids, would all come together to make a perfectly functional lightsaber.

While Maul wouldn't be able to conceal his saber in a cane anymore, Jarrus and Ezra were wonderfully creative. When Maul had had his fake legs he’d kept his saber in one of them for a time, before he was old enough to warrant a cane.

Now neither of those were options.

Maul ended up patted Jango on the shoulder at breakfast.

“I’m going to go sit in the vents,” he said, the truth. “I’ll see you tonight.”

Jango narrowed his eyes at Maul.

“Are you… okay?”

Maul was fairly certain that he meant mentally or emotionally.

“I’m fine. Don’t wait up.”

Jango caught his shoulder before he could leave completely.

“Maul,” he said, his voice gentling again, “If there’s anything you need, you can tell me. I’ll do my best to help you.”

Maul really didn’t understand him. Maul was no mandalorian, and he really could handle himself, even if Jango didn’t understand that. Jango had no obligation to him. Maul was just some rabid zabrak that had fallen out of a vent and tried to strangle him. He’d known him less than a week, and already he wanted to help him recover his brothers.

He wanted to adopt him for Force sake!

Against his will Maul felt some tension bleed out of him. Jango was genuinely concerned, but also amused. Others might not have given him the same freedom that Jango did. But Mandalorian children were independent too, if not as independent as Maul was. He’d been self reliant for so long.

“I am fine. It isn’t something to worry about…. Well. The Jedi might worry about it,” he admitted, tilting his head.

Jango’s mouth twitched towards a smile. “Don’t get into any trouble you can’t get out of.”

Maul snorted at him.

“Give me some credit,” he chided.

Jango patted his head, mindful of his horns. “Of course. You could take the whole Galaxy by storm if you set your mind to it, couldn't you?”

Maul was aware he was teasing. That didn’t stop the vicious grin from curling on his face.

“I’ll see you tonight,” he said again, and left Jango in their shared room. The man was reluctant to eat outside of it, or remove his helmet anywhere on the ship. Maul doubted he was one of the more hardcore Mandalorian’s who never took it off unless in the presence of family, so it must have been healthy caution.

Maul made sure no one else was looking before he crawled into the vents. One good thing about this ship being so dilapidated was it made it easy for a small zabrak to get around unseen.

He made his way to the engine room.

The engineers were keeping a decent eye on things, but they missed Maul picking his way to the sublight engine. While the hyperdrive was engaged it wouldn’t be used to propel them, but it would still be kept running so it could take over in case they dropped out of hyperspace unexpectedly.

Maul searched until he found the hatch that led to the firing cells. They helped dispurse the heat created by the engine inside, to keep it from melting under the sheer force of fission reaction that happened inside. If they were out of alignment the engine would overheat and explode.

Maul used the Force to keep the heat inside when he pulled the the hatch open, and used it again to guide the particles inside the firing cells. With part of his focus on keeping the raw minerals, small quartz, carbon dust, and simple coal, in the center of the firing cell Maul scampered back into the vents, out of sight.

Then he focused.

Trusting the unrest of the ship to hide his workings from Jinn, and trusting the Kenobi was too caught up in his own turmoil to notice either Maul closed his eyes and focused.

Piece by piece he pulled the pieces together and drew heat around them.

Maul reached into the ocean of his being. Deeper and deeper, past the darkest parts of his being, until he found the harsh center where lava made of rage bubbled lazily. Waiting for his use.

Maul gripped that heat and pulled.

Anger twisted in his grasp and steadily wrapped around the components of his crystal. Layer by layer, he added more of himself and more of his anger. Anger as jedi, for never coming for him, for discarding Kenobi’s potential. Anger at Dooku and Vader for taking his place. Anger at Sidious for a life time of torment and pain.

Anger at himself, for not taking his life into his own hands the first time. For not saving his brother, or Kilindi or Daleen. For failing his men. For failing his own ambitions, and letting himself be struck down by the same man twice.

Maul breathed in, and along with that anger came threads of something else.

Maul had always drawn on his anger and ambition to drive him, but something else seeped into his mind.

Kilindi. Daleen. Savage. Kast. People he had failed once. People he would not fail again.

His hearts twisted hard in his chest. Never again would he allow himself to fail his people. They were his. They belonged to him.

Their lives were his. Their future was his. Their goals and dreams belonged to him. His to ensure, his to defend, his to push them towards.

His.

Slowly, inside the firing cell, the components started to split into two distinct crystals.

Offense and defense. Anger and determination. Vengeance and loyalty.

Sweat beaded across his brow and the heat increased.

Peace is a lie, there is only passion.

Through passion, I gain strength.

Through strength, I gain power.

Through power, I gain victory.

Through victory, my chains are broken.

The Force shall set me free.

Maul poured himself into the firing cell. Each sliver of stone fitted together and sealed with the fires of his being.

Piece by piece.

Maul forced them together, under the head and pressure of his anger and need. A new heat wrapped tightly with the rest as a part of him he’d half forgotten existed cracked open and bled into his crystals.

Gold eyes snapped open and he sucked in a ragged breath.

The engineers had changed. He didn’t know how long he’d been in that fiery state. Maul waved shaking hands at the engineers, who had the sudden idea to go get caf while he stumbled messily into the engine room.

His hands were tremblings.

Maul barely had the energy to open the valve and float his crystals out into his waiting palm. He barely noticed how hot they were when they dropped into his black tattoed hand.

Two crystals. One red, the other scarlet. Just a shade of difference, but enough to catch his eye.

Maul carefully pocketed the two crystals and stumbled back to the vents. He was utterly exhausted, physically and mentally, but he felt more stable to have the stones against his thigh.

Jango came back to the room to find Maul passed out on his bunk, sleeping like the dead. It was the most relaxed he had seen the boy since he’d been nearly comatose on their way to Coruscant.

If it wasn’t for the steady rise and fall of his chest he might have panicked and dragged him to the medical bay.

As it was he settled on the bunk on the other side of their small room and watched the boy rest. He may not know what had happened, but he knew that tension had risen high on the ship today, and he had the inexplicable feeling Maul was responsible for it.

He would have let him sleep, but at that exact moment the ship lurched and alarms sounded, blaring red lights through the room.

They were under attack.

#Darth Maul #Maul #darth maul time travel #Star Wars #star wars the prequel trilogy #jango fett #obi wan kenobi

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