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mari-lair · 9 months

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Wip of the Phantom Thieves AU prequel

Rated M

Pairing: Terukane.

Warning: OOC for being a decade older. Violence. Teru and Akane are mostly in the 'enemies' stage of their relationship here so they are assholes. Sexual Tension. Sexual Comments. Lust. Questionable consent in 1 scene. Incompleted scenes. No beta reader.

Word count: 9000 (HOLY SHIT I DIDN'T KNOW IT WAS THAT LONG)

Title: Catch Me (I Know You Can)

There was something off with this room. He knows some rich assholes consider minimalistic decor fancy, but the cheap glass roof, and colorful paintings didn’t scream money, just a marble floor isn’t enough to mask how barren it all feels. No furniture. No decor.

Like the room has been emptied beforehand.

He narrowed his eyes at the lack of windows

Or maybe it was never occupied in the first place, build like a cage, not a room.

Click.

A door opened.

Akane immediately jumped to the darkest corner of this fancy cage.

The unwelcome visitor glowed in the weak moonlight the glass ceiling offered, so it must be a high-ranking officer with their pristine white uniform. Not that Akane cares, recruits and admirals alike are child’s play to deal with.

Akane picked a spoon roughly the same weight as a key from his pants pocket and approached the officer as quietly as possible, noticing a sheeted sword and the metallic hint of a gun partially hidden by his cape, focusing on a much smaller glint on the opposite side of his belt.

Bingo.

Akane lunged, as quiet as he could in this echo-y marble floor, touching the edge of the key and freezing when his moves were stopped by a firm grip on his arm.

That’s unusual, he tends to be too fast to be caught.

“Phantom Thief, so glad you came.” The cop said, his smile polite but his blue eyes cold, glowing like radiation in the dark “You’re as foolish as the rumors say.”

Foolish?!

Akane bristled, abandoning his jacket to slip out of his hold. The man stared at the empty sleeve in his hands with a frown, but he didn’t panic, throwing his jacket on the ground “And just as slippery.”

Akane didn’t comment, trying to search for a way out. The room was pretty big, but just as he had suspected: there wasn’t a window he could use for a grand escape in sight.

“You’re under arrest for multiple robberies, unauthorized possession of poison-”

“Poison?” He doesn’t have poison, what the fuck is he talking about?

“-and assault of seven officers,” The man said, raising two fingers up and immediately turning on the lights, making everything too fucking bright. It confirmed his suspicions this place only has one exit, but now what? “If you turn yourself I’ll be generous in your sentence.”

“Does that offer ever works?” Akane mocked, walking towards the only door and feeling just a tiny bit wary of the calm way this man followed him, still composed after witnessing Akane's speed.

“You would be surprised,” The man said, grabbing a whip from behind his cape, which is an odd weapon for a police officer, odd enough for Akane to pause, connecting the dots: Golden hair. Glowy eyes. Whip. Now that’s a combo that sounded familiar.

Akane resisted the urge to laugh, realizing he is dealing with the very top of the food chain, the chief of the police, infamous for being a monster in every criminal bar Hanako had dragged him against his will.

Akane doesn’t feel any camaraderie with other criminals, finding way too many rotten people in the ‘business’, but their popular rumors are worth listening to: The sewer is a good emergency exit, no cop will ever dirty themselves for their dear law. The industrial area is so loud you can fire a gun without being noticed if you time it right, so criminals and police officers alike are bolder. And if you fall for one of Chief Minamoto’s traps, it’s wiser to surrender on the spot.

It made his heart speed up, getting some hope for the asshole in the uniform. He would hate to end the night with his hands empty, but if he steal something from this monster, he will be unbeatable.

The chief badge is perfect. He wants it.

What he wants, he takes.

Akane has never been caught before, no doubt his name has plenty of rumors attached to it as well. He isn’t scared of monsters, just because he never ‘raised the bar’ of his crimes, as Hanako so stupidly puts it, doesn’t means he isn’t the best in his field. He can handle a pompous asshole with a whip.

Akane threw his cape at his face and run for it the second it got close enough to hide Teru's eye, cursing the easy way he keep his predatory eyes on Akane’s shadow, slashing the air in a perfect arc that caught Akane’s cape mid-air and slammed the ground far too close for comfort, the sound of his whip breaking the air made Akane’s ears ring, forced to jump back.

This demon is fast.

Teru's voice changed from coldly polite to authoritarian, “Get on your knees and put your hands where I can see them or I’ll be forced to use violence.”

“Fuck you-” Akane eyes widened, barely dodging his attack and running farther out of range, waiting for an opportunity to try to steal his keys again-

He yelped when a slash nearly hit his head, the force of it damaging the wall behind him. Holy shit, is the bastard trying to kill him?? Akane sped up, needing a proper plan-

He felt something wrap around his leg, yelping at how it burned his skin and losing equilibrium when Teru pulled. Akane slammed on the ground, hitting his chest on the hard tiles and breathlessly cursing the fucker.

“Watch your tongue, thief.”

This piece of shit-

Akane tried to jump back on his feet, but was smashed on the ground by a slash on his spine. The impact hurts like hell, and the fall didn’t help, making him get familiar with the ground again in the spam of a minute.

Something heavy pressed on his back.

Shit shit shit

“Get off me!” He tried to shake him off, panicking at how little he could move as he feel his arms be restrained “Watch your hands you son of a-”

Click.

Hard metal wrapped around his wrists. Akane froze, having not been caught in one of these in years.

Teru pushed him by his restrained wrists and analyzed him as if he was a chore, Akane tensed up, doing the same: The chief looks weirdly young, can’t be older than thirty, his disgusting cop uniform and the cold apathy in his eyes putting Akane on edge.

Akane usually likes beauty, but it was impossible to care about his ‘long lashes and ocean blue eyes’ when the bastard looked at him like he was a piece of trash.

“What’s your name.” Teru ordered.

Akane spat in his eye, annoyed by the easy way he dodged, acting as if Akane was a badly behaved child. He grabbed his handcuffed wrists and roughly pushed him back on his feet.

“Get off me!” Akane snarled, his cursing cut by a pained hiss when Teru pushed his hair.

“Name.”

Akane just snarled, trying to get off the handcuff. These chains aren’t the cheap ones but he can do it.

Akane waited until he was sure the bastard wasn’t looking to slip the hairpin he hides inside his gloves to the tip of his finger.

“I’ll save the interrogation for later.” Teru commented, keeping a firm hold on his shoulder as he dragged him. His grip was uncomfortably tight, even if Akane didn’t have handcuffs on, he wouldn’t be able to slip out of it.

Tch.

Akane pretended to have given up, not resisting when Teru unlocked the door and pushed him out but still glaring when the chief narrowed his eyes, wary of his ‘docile’ attitude.

Teru grabbed his hand and confiscated his hairpin, startling Akane.

Teru ignored his curse, keeping a firm hold on his shoulder as he confiscated the hairpin on his other glove and pat him down.

Akane snarled, watching all the tricks he hide up his sleeves, shoes and pants be confiscated, feeling almost naked without any of it.

He was visibly more grumpy but he didn’t complainwhen Teru picked up the pace, taking note of an open window ahead. It was the one he had used to get inside this hell hole: two meters up, which isn’t ideal: Still, an escape route is an escape route, if he used Teru’s body as a step ladder he could make it.

He tried to steal his key, able to do so the second Teru glanced at the window Akane has his eyes on, but his victory was short lived, barely getting enough time to twist himself out of Teru’s hold before his scalp burned, the damn cop not gentle when pushing his ponytail.

“Escape attempts will only increase your sentence.” He said in a pleasant tone, smile falling as Akan’s handcuffs clattered on the ground. “You already unlocked?”

He sounded almost impressed. Almost.

“What else would I do with a key?” Akane hissed, changing his approach. If the wary bastard won’t let him out he’ll do it by force.

He grabbed his arm, aware his shoulder throw is a force to be reckoned with, but being tripped the second he touched Teru, losing his balance.

There must be metal on his boots cause his kick hurts.

Akane held his injured leg, cursing when he was restrained again.

“Keep this up and I’ll resort to violence.” He said calmly.

Ha! As if he wasn’t already fucking using violence.

“Eat shit and die.”

“Very well.” Teru's smile gained a sadistic edge to it, punching him straight in the gut.

Akane felt the air leave his lungs, swaying on his feet, his vision got blurry at the edges. The only reason he did not fall was the firm grip on his arm, dragging him.

“...Bastard.” He groaned, trying to dig his feet on the ground to make his life harder but all he achieved was to trip on the stairs.

He was shoved on a cell, his clothes changed into an awful striped prison uniform. Even his tie was confiscated, making his long hair stick to his neck.

…Great.

At least the handcuffs are off, this city’s prison cleaner and more spacious than the one on his old town.

“They really caught you, pal” a very familiar and annoying voice said “Thats rough.”

Great. Just who he wanted to see in this shithole.

“I’m not your pal No.7” Akane glared, his mood dropping even lower “What are you doing here?”

“Just visiting, thought you would be lonely in this cold cell.”

“I will call the cops” Akane deadpaned, hoping that demon whipped the smirk off Hanako’s face.

“Awww~” Hanako eyes crinkled, amused “You want me as your cellmate that bad? I missed you too my fellow thief!”

One of these days he will be charged with murder and if the bastard doesn’t disappear right now, he’s afraid the allegations will have basis.

“Police! Help!” He yelled, pretty sure they wouldn’t care, but trying to send Hanako a message by giving him a deadpan stare “I am being harrased.”

“You’re so mean to me~” Hanako whined but he looked happy.

The lonely brat probably just wants attention, doesn't matter if is good or not.

Loud footsteps made Hanako immediately shut up, getting out when the door opened.

Hanako didn’t even grab a key for him. What a waste of space of a ‘partner’.

“Thief!” A young officer with bright blue eyes and way too much enthusiasm said “What’s the problem?”

Akane raised a brow, both by how similar to the chief he looked, and by his question “I am in a cell”

“For your evil deeds,”

He snorted.

Sure. Very evil. “Like stealing?”

“Of course”

“And trapping and hurting a person?” He said, snorted went the young man nodded, taking a moment to notice Akane was showing off his damaged wrists.

The boy opened his mouth but didn’t come up with anything to say, looking stupid.

Must be an amateur

Akane tried to steal his keys, surprised by how quickly the young man grabbed his hand “You’re not escaping this prison, evil villain!” He gave him a determined look “I, Minamoto Kou, will make sure of it.”

Another Minamoto?

Just his luck.

His meal was way better here than in his last city's prison, it actually tasted pretty alright, filled him up too... Who would have thought?

Akane was pretty sure he figured out a way to escape by the end of the day, Kou may be fast but he seems easy to trick, eager to impress.

“Hey Minamoto!” Akane yelled, getting ready to put his plan into action, when the wrong Minamoto opened the door, his high-heeled boots clicking on the concrete floor.

Well, shit.

Akane held on tighter to his prison bars, looking up at Teru with a mocking smirk “Well well, if it isn’t the chief! What brings you to my cell?”

“Phantom Thief.” He greeted back, with the same cold smile. “I have a few questions for you.”

Of course he does. It would be a miracle if they could shut up.

“Were you behind the heist of the central bank last week?”

“Yes?” Akane was so confused he didn’t even try to withhold information “I thought that was the whole reason I am here?”

“Just making sure,” Teru commented, sounding a bit curious…? Maybe? It’s hard to read his mood. “Why?”

“I like kicking your arrogant subordinate back in their places” Akane was honest, staying as close as he could to the bars “The money is a good bonus.”

“I see” Teru gave him that cold smile “I’m glad I’m working with such an honest criminal." He picked up a sheet of paper "Now, I have countless witnessed that claim the phantom thief have smuggled poison.” His eyes narrowed “Would you care to tell me more about It?”

“Wrong thief.” Akane sighed. “Hanako is the one you're after. Bastard stole my title. I think he is butthurt I don’t want to be his partner, but I have no idea what goes on in his head.”

Instead of not believing him, Teru nodded, putting a hand on his chin “So there truly are two phantom thieves… What is your name then?”

“None of your business.” Akane waved him off, walking away.

“Are you an illegal immigrant?”

Akane didn’t reply.

“Very well” Teru grabbed his whip.

click

Akane froze, turning around and lo and behold, Teru entered the cell, that coldly polite smile on his face “Now now, we don’t need to drag this out longer than it have to.” His eyes flashed dangerously “I have better things to do”

Akane felt a shiver down his spine, his muscles still aching where he had slashed him.

Akane spat blood on the ground of his empty cell, narrowing his eyes at the stain in his otherwise clean cell.

Bastard is clearly holding back but his lashes still fucking hurt, those cold eyes making him feel like a bug he would have no qualms in ripping it limbs one by one.

Despite what some people may say, Akane doesn’t like pain, so he gave Teru the fake name of “Shiki Nagisa” to buy himself time. It was incredibly annoying to give the bastard the satisfaction of even a fake full name.

‘You didn’t win anything’ Akane wanted to growl at the cop's pleased face, but he held back to only a glare ‘Good luck finding Nagisa, bitch.’

He tries to steal from Kou again the next time he saw the guard, playing up his injuries and putting effort into distracting him, able to keep the conversation going for long enough for the teen to lower his guard and not realize the keys in his belt were missing.

When Kou got out to get him bandages, Akane was soon to follow, leaving his cell behind.

He spotted Teru talking to a lieutenant near the building entrance, and fought back the urge to punch him. Even with the element of surprise, Akane isn’t sure he is faster than Teru's reflexes, so he settled with stealing more keys and throwing them to every captive he crossed.

“Akane-kun.” Aoi greeted him with big eyes, “Did something happen? You didn’t visit last week at all.”

Akane smiled awkwardly, not sure how to tell her he was in prison. She knows about his late-night robberies but not in detail, not that he is the phantom thief or that he is considered one of the seven most skilled criminals in town.

(...Which he doesn’t particularly like, hating the other thieves he have been lumped with)

“I was on a trip, for my night job”

“How exciting! I hope you had fun,” Aoi hummed, understanding he was talking about his life as a thief when he mentioned a night job “Do you want the usual?”

“I will like a blue lagoon today, Aoi-chan” He smiled “And a raspberry juice too.”

Aoi nodded, going to the kitchen.

The raspberry juice was a bit emptier than his by the time she came, both knowing it was asked for Aoi.

“You don’t usually ask for alcohol, is everything alright?”

“Met an asshole on this trip” Akane sighed “I have a feeling my job will get harder”

Aoi either hate his heists, or is jealous of them. Till this day, even after knowing her for three years, he wasn’t sure.

She had once told him he isn’t fit for thievery, that he likes to give more than he likes to take, and that he should become a waiter at the cozy coffee she works on.

It is a lovely idea, Akane know they would have fun talking about clients behind their back and working side by side, but he can’t picture this dream like scenario lasting.

He was born to be on the run, filling his pockets with gemstones and wallets and on instinct, his insides burning when he set his sights on something that he cannot have. There is an itch under his skin that didn’t let him stay still or play nice for long, lingering in the danger zone to catch every hint of fear and awe in his chaser’s eyes, the insult thrown his way only fuelling the fire in his veins.

He shouldn’t worry her.

Akane had no trouble finding Teru’s house. It wasn’t as stupidly extravagant as most noble mansions but it was still far too big for someone that reportedly lives alone.

Akane very carefully sneaked to a balcony on the second floor, expecting the chief to already be out and about, leaving his house free to be robbed but finding someone curled up in bed, engulfed by fancy blankets.

What.

It’s already 7 am. The police station opens in half an hour.

…Was his info-gathering flawed? Does Teru actually live with someone? Did he have a secret lover no one is aware of??

Akane was about to open the window, and do proper research, when a yawn made him freeze up, ducking and only occasionally glancing at the very sleepy man stretching: the man was slim, and not very intimidating, but he knew that pale hair and glowy eyes anywhere.

The chief rubbed his eyes like a little kid and dragged himself to one of the three doors in this bedroom. Of course the rich bastard's bedroom has a personal closet and a private bathroom.

Akane waited in pure silence for a bit, relaxing at the sound of the sink being turned on and using it as cover to sneak the window open, testing the floor.

Akane glared when Teru slammed him on the ground, keeping his restrained wrists in an uncomfortably tight hold above his head.

He tried to get free but teru only used more force, his smile tenserp “You never learn, thief.”

“You're a bad teacher"

Teru grabbed his neck and Akane snarled.

Teru narrowed his eyes when Akane threw his handcuff into the horizon but immediately started running after him, jumping high, and hitting the ground with a roll, the sword on his hip scratched the concrete, his long coat not made for this, but Teru kept his eyes on him, not slowing down.

Akane cursed, jumping off the roof and sliding into a balcony, using it to reach the fire escape in the next building and yelping at the feeling of a whip wrapping around his leg.

Shit

His jump lost power, barely able to reach the edge of the fire escape, holding on tight to the rusty metal.

“Too slow.” Teru pulled him back to his side, stepping on his chest the second he his back landed on the rooftop ground, his heavy boots digging in his ribs.

“I hate you,” Akane groaned, trying to kick him, and freezing at the way he grabbed his cravat, pushing it until the back of his neck hurt.

Teru took his cravat off and give it a quick once over, throwing it away.

“Hey!”

Teru ignored him, putting a hand on his hips and making Akane freeze, his eyes widening when Teru took off his belt, his gloved hand on his stomach far too warm.

Akane heart skipped a beat, panicking.

He tried to fight him with more vigor, face growing hot with frustration but the chief just held him tighter, keeping him pressed on the concrete.

Akane shivered at the dark look in those eyes, not remembering anyone who had ever immobilized him so easily.

“That should do,” Teru said.

“What?”

Teru wrapped the belt around his wrists, keeping it extra tight and pulling at it as if it was a leash, forcing their faces near “Now,” His polite smile was overflowing with malice, “be a good boy.”

Akane felt blood rush to his face as he stumbled to his side, the spark he had felt turning into rage. He tried to bite his nose, hating how unimpressed he looked, grabbing his neck before he could even scrap his teeth on his face. “Keep treating me like a fucking dog, and I’ll bite you.”

Teru's nearly choked him, the pressure making Akane cough.

“Don’t make me buy a leash.”

Akane snarled, finally having the bastard off him, and hurrying up to keep up with his pace, barring his teeth. Teru seemed amused by it.

Asshole.

They walked in silence. Akane tried to undo the dead knot of his belt restrain, but it didn’t budge, all attempts rewarded by Teru tightening the knot.

Well... This sucks.

'At least my pants are tight enough to not fall without the belt,' he tried to be optimistic. 'it could be worst'

drip.

Akane blinked.

drip

He frowned, staring at the grey sky. It will rain.

Great. Wonderful even...

Teru pulled at the tie when he slowed down, seemingly ignoring the increasing rain as he headed to a small store “Have you ever hurt a civilian?”

“...No?” Akane blinked, not expecting this line of questioning. Frankly, it was a bit offensive “I am a criminal, not a monster.”

Teru was unimpressed, but his track of only bullying cops must have led to enough credibility to earn the benefit of the doubt.

“Can I trust you to behave inside the store?”

He hissed “I can ‘behave’ just fine when people aren’t a stuck up pieces of sh-”

“If you make civilians feel threatened I’ll punish you.” Teru tugged harshly at his wrists, dragging him far too close for comfort, and narrowing his glowy eyes without a hint of a smile, the rain sliding down his cap forming a small waterfall between them “I want your word.”

Akane felt a sting in his chest, never seeing himself as a danger for civilians, but understanding how someone might get wary about a ‘criminal’ in a bad mood.

“...Fine.” Akane said as if it physically hurt him, hating that he can see Teru’s point. “I promise I’ll behave.”

Just while they are at the store, it will be quick.

Teru nodded sharply, the silent warning heavy in the air, and twisted his hoster, putting his gun in the back, out of view, before stopping in front of a big store.

He forced himself to relax when Teru opened the door, wearing an innocent look and staying quiet. He looked at Teru instead of the customers, even if he could feel their eyes on him.

He was surprised by the way Teru behaved, not teasing him for playing nice, merely buying an umbrella and a bag to guard his wet cape, smile far kinder than the one Akane is used to, tone comforting, far from humble but still grateful when the owner gave him a discount, the warm talk alluding Teru have helped them before.

The energy was so cozy it felt like being hit in the head. Either he is one hell of a good actor, laying deep into the image he was given, or Teru has more than violence in his heart, he just… doesn’t see Akane as a person.

The idea was annoying.

(It hurt, but Akane refused to acknowledge anything about the demon could hurt him.)

Akane tried to pocket a candy to distract himself from this creepy ‘sweet’ side of Teru, but before he could dream of touching it, Teru made a show of raising his hand to scratch his cheek, which tugged at the belt trying Akane’s hands, keeping them far away from his goal.

Tch.

He didn’t glare though, he keep his promises.

When they got out Teru was back to being a dick “I’m impressed you only tried to steal once.” He opened the umbrella “Good job, I’ll give you a treat~”

“Oh, I’ll show you a treat you two-faced pig.” Akane dropped the docile attitude too, yelping when he was tripped, nearly stumbling on his arm.

“Watch where you’re walking” He mocked.

He made a face at the way he had to almost lean on the bastard’s arm to escape the rain, “Watch your step, bitch.”

Akane huffed, but he reluctantly appreciates being protected from the rain, Teru’s fancy jacket was warm and dry from having been under his discarded cloak.

Akane had no idea what to do so he stayed silent, watching the downpour eat up the city, the road infested by puddles. His socks was wet and uncomfortable, clearly more on the edge of the umbrella than Teru, they haven’t even crossed a block and half of his fringe was already dripping wet.

Teru was starring at him when he focused on the asshole again.

“Like what you see?” He mocked,

The chief wordlessly tilted their umbrella, soaking Akane to the bone.

Akane spluttered, trying to take his wet fringe off his eyes and yelping when it only earned him a harsh tug, his belt digging into his wrists, burning his skin.

“Oh I do” Teru smiled maliciously.

Akane glared at him, uncomfortable at the way the demon blushed, liking to make his life harder. So he wasn’t imagining, the bastard really is a sadist.

He smiled pleasantly at his anger, and Akane resisted the urge to spit on his eye again.

After two blocks, the rain slowed down, still strong but not enough to create a river on the streets.

“It’s weaker” Teru commented, keeping his hold on the tie tighter, but his shoulder was not as tense.

“You stole Hyuuga’s necklace haven’t you?”

“Damn right,” He smirked “You couldn’t catch me.”

Teru gave him a side look, mood impossible to decipher “And you returned it”

Akane's smirk fell “So what?”

“Why?”

Akane sighed “He was bawling his eyes out about it, I can’t just take his only connection to his lover or whatever his 'Lady' is”

“How nice of you” He mocked.

“Fuck you too”

When they had to climb a set of stairs, he noticed Teru was making an effort to keep him under the umbrella, focusing more on measuring their steps. It was… admittedly not something he had expected of him, but he still wouldn’t call it ‘kind’: Teru pulls are harsh when Akane slows down, and he doesn’t try to warm him up, letting akane stay soaked, smile still unreadable and eyes cold.

Is a blessing in disguise. The idea of being hugged or borrowing his jacket makes Akane stomach twist, not wanting to cozy up to the sadistic cop with a rotten personality or feel comfortable while being led to prison.

Prison...

He bet the cell will be very cold tonight. Way too cold.

He can’t have that.

Akane tripped Teru when they were near the end of the wet stairs, being pulled down with him but able to sneak out of his belt, and running away and grabbing the umbrella while he was at it by instinct “See you later chief,”

Teru got back on his feet quickly. Always fast to act.

Akane smirked, disappearing into a back alley. It was hard to hold on to drenched posts and plants littering the wall with his hands tied but he managed.

Akane peeked from the balcony, not surprised, but still feeling adrenaline make his heartbeat ring in his ears at the way Teru was chasing after him, with his little cape and cap, rain be damned.

Akane jumped away from his whip with a smirk, umbrella under his arm, making his escape harder, but worth it from how being wet annoyed Teru. There was a sharp edge on a window, so Akane used it to nick his belt and get enough of an edge to undo his restraints, picking up speed and leaving the chief in the dust.

Teru had taken the fire escape, his cap getting lost at some point, rain dripping down his hair, getting in his eyes.

Akane opened the umbrella, more to show off his victory than really get any safety from the rain. He is drenched already, they both are. It’s no wonder Teru isn’t smiling, a cold look in his eyes.

There was something about watching him struggle to catch up, hair darker and flatter, that was hard to look away from. The way he whipped his fringe off his eyes is too pretty for such a bastard, it’s a wonder he turned into a cop instead of a cover model.

“You look like you’re having trouble” Akane yelled to be heard over the rain, throwing a closed umbrella at him, watching him grab it before it hit him in the face “Don’t catch a cold chief!”

And off he went.

“Careful, you wouldn’t want me to involve your sibling-”

Teru kicked hard enough to feel like he broke his spine when he hit the ground, barely able to cough before he stepped on his chest and put a blade on his throat, the tip of the cold metal pressing him on the ground with enough force to damage some of his skim.

“Touch my family and I’ll kill you” He has never seen such a cold expression on his face, his tone making it clear this isn’t a threat. It’s a promise.

Akane narrowed his eyes, feeling scared, but unwilling to show it “Ha!" The laugh made the blade dig deeper "Bet Kou would adore to learn his dear bro killed someone-”

A sharp pain made Akane scream, surprised to have Teru slash his chest, soaking his shirt with blood.

He only got his wound treated at his cell, when Teru realized he wasn't being serious.

He didn't let Kou guard him Akane again tough.

Akane clenched his fists as he cleaned his bleeding shoulder, sure it would be harder to escape now.

Akane usually only went out into the night after careful planning, once every two week, or every month depending on how busy his life have become, but there was a buzz under his skin, a desire to see Teru again, attracted to those glowing eyes like a moth to a flame, wanting to scream at him, prove to himself that he is worthy of the chief's attention.

It’s no good, no good at all.

He is no fool, he knows the chief is a real threat, but he still wants his eyes on him, he wants to be the one to trip him, to tear that condescending smile apart with his teeth.

So he went out again.

Akane smirked, the chimney proving to be a good shortcut. He stopped right before he hit the ground and stepped out of the coal’s way.

He grabbed a bag of expensive clothes and jumped out the window, using the electricity post as a boost and support to reach the top of fancy wall, feet in between two spikes.

“Too late chief!” He laughed darkly, looking back with malice and feeling this euphoric adrenaline crash at the sight of a baffled commander whose name he doesn’t even know.

What.

No!

He want to leave Teru in the dirt, outrun him- It wasn’t worth trying something new on these guys, he could have escaped even by walking through the front door.

Akane glared, slipping into the house he jumped over instead of running back to his home.

Where was that stupid cop?

After picking from three more houses, with no sight of Teru, Akane huffed, frustrated by his absence.

He grabbed the haul successfully though so he should be happy. Usually this would be a big win, but he only felt a vague disappointment. Dropping the gems in his bed and freezing at the realization he had been looking forward to mocking Teru.

Oh, would you look at that! the missing chief!

Akane silently moved through the shadows, smirking at the way he analyzed writing on the walls, Sumire’s doing, that one is a dangerous girl. Till this day he has no idea if she causes destruction on accident or on purpose.

“My, if it isn't th-” Akane started his monologue, surprised by the gun pointed his way, the barrel dead set on his face.

Akane froze, too tense to notice his finger wasn’t on the trigger.

Teru's unreadable look didn’t disappear, but his shoulder slumped “Thief.” He lowered his gun, still far more tense than usual.

“On edge aren’t we?” He mocked, feeling a drop of sweat on the back of his neck. “Did a filthy criminal outsmart you?”

Teru's face closed up “Do you have any ties with the masked murderer?”

“I don’t associate with murderers” Akane deadpaned “and masks aren’t uncommon for criminals-”

“A skull mask.”

Oh.

Akane face closed up, he know the guy. Hates his guts, sure No.6 used to work with a cop, a while bback. A true disgrace for a criminal.

“Why would I tell you?”

“I won’t try to run after you if you do”

“Oh?” He smiled “You’ll let a filthy thief get away?”

“A murderer is my priority over stolen jewelry” Teru deadpaned “Do you have any information or not?”

Murderer…? Sumire is not a murderer.

He froze.

There is blood on his cape. He cannot tell if it’s Teru’s or someone’s else, but from the bloodstain angle, he is inclined to say it’s someone else.

Ha.

“Shouldn’t you lock yourself up then?” Akane mocked.

Teru smiled politely “No info then.”

Akane dodged his whip, still not on the same level as the bastard, but knowing him well enough to hold his own in a chase.

When they saw each other again, he had the urge to make him bleed.

Everything about the chief always felt too cold, too calculated. He wonders if he is even human underneath it all, if he will drop the politely amused smile if Akane choked something out of him.

He didn’t care about an image anymore, he grabbed Teru's jacket and kicked him as hard as he could, dragged Teru to the ground with him.

He probably sprained his ankle, it hurt, but Teru was down as well, immediately focusing on grabbing his arm so Akane didn’t run, “Why would you think this would work?” Teru hissed, a hint of annoyance in his voice “Stop always struggling!”

“Sorry for not liking jail, asshole.” Akane sassed, spotting a hint of red under his fringe.

Hah

He does bleed.

When Teru dragged him by the collar, Akane felt a shiver down his spine, wary of his smirk, panicking when it looked like he was going to kiss him-

“Watch your tongue” Teru used his authoritarian voice, shaking his bones. It made him tense up for all the wrong reasons “If you tell me how you got to the museum, I’ll give you a blanket for the night.”

The disappointment when the kiss didn’t happen was such a shock Akane didn’t have a witty comeback.

Akane glared as Teru disappeared.

That’s not good.

Akane paced his cell, understanding the man is beautiful but this is ridiculous.

Akane hates cops, disgusted by their superior attitude and their incompetence, the way they stretch the definition of what’s ‘legal’ the second it becomes convenient, putting a price on lives as easily as the criminals they condemn.

The highlight of his heists is always outsmarting them, the rush of pulling the rug from under their feet, to kick them off their high horse with only his shadow in their memories, watch what rumor they come up with to protect their pride.

And Teru is everything he hates the most, the arrogance, the clear sense of superiority, and sadistic tendencies. He would never get excited by his pretty face.

‘Behave’ That mocking smile came to mind, as infuriating as it was attractive, dark gloves holding on tight to his hair. ‘Or you’ll be punished'

Akane shook his head at the mental image, disgusted with himself. If he was that needy he should just get a one-night stand.

Akane isn’t very fond of those, he may not be as romantic as he used to be in his childhood, but he still believes being intimate is better with someone you trust.

(Even if the thrill of bringing a stranger to his bed and dangling his identity in plain sight is hard to beat, a road that can get addicting.)

Akane huffed, rubbing his wrists, unable to get any fluttering feelings when he pictured the asshole, at most begrudging respect for his skills, so at least it wasn't something as stupid as a crush.

Akane laughed, distracted by how close they are “And here I thought I was being subtle.”

“Oh thief,” He leaned even closer, his amusement cruel, the condescending smirk begging to be ripped to shreds “You’re as subtle as a dog near a slab of meat-”

Akane closed the distance, stealing a kiss to shut him up.

Teru’s lips are far softer than he expected.

The chief’s hold grew slack when he forced his mouth to open, eyes wide in a way Akane haven’t seen before.

(It set of a spark in his stomach, adoring how big his eyes looked when knocked out of his high horse.)

He will be lashed for this regardless of what he does now, so Akane didn’t hold back, sneaking out of his restraints to grab his silky hair and deepen the kiss, intrigued to feel something sharp, a pair of small fangs on an otherwise flawless set of teeth. He could feel Teru’s mouth turn into a snarl, unsurprised Teru wrapped his fist on his collar the second the shock passed, pushing Akane off and slamming him into the wall.

Akane's brain bounced at the impact, not sure if he felt dizzy because of the blow or because he actually kissed the bastard. He inwardly laughed in the the face of his anger, not giving Teru the time to get his cool back before he dragged him down again for another kiss, trying to take the lead and succeeding, shivering at the way Teru tasted, getting on his tiptoes when Teru was able to straighten his back, lifting Akane to his level by lifting him up and scraped his back on the concrete wall, the pain only serving to blur his vision, making it all feel more surreal.

Akane got his tongue bitten for his audacity but he couldn’t stop, having never seen those icy eyes so wide before, his discomfort tasted like victory.

He wrapped a hand around his neck when he felt the pressure on his back lessen, not wanting to lose this equal height, and tilted Teru’s head, getting more demanding. Teru did not like that, slamming him back on the wall and sinking his fangs where he could hurt him, but kissing back regardless. The hand on the collar of his shirt choked him at some point. It hurt.

He was out of breath by the time Teru threw him away, straight to the ground. The persistent ache on his bitten tongue even after getting air back, and blood on his gums, reassuring Akane this is real.

Teru stared at him with hatred, his shoulders tense, hands turned into fists as he breathed a bit faster than usual. He wasn’t amused anymore, his wet lips with a brand new bruise on it.

Akane felt heat coil in his stomach at the sight, addicted to his unease, for once being the one to look down on him.

Akane resisted the urge to kiss him again, using Teru’s wariness as an opportunity to jump away, feeling invincible to taste freedom while his mouth is still bleeding.

(He could have run, but he stayed near, watching him, mesmerized)

Teru spat on the ground, and cleaned his lips with the back of his glove, positively furious “Have you grown desperate enough to use cheap seduction tricks?”

“Have you sunk low enough to enjoy them? ” He licked his bruised lip, “You’re pathetic,” His smirk widened into something cruel, high on the way his eyes glowed with hatred, forgetting it all to focus on Akane and Akane only “Just throw your badge away chief, go use your mouth for something useful, I’m sure you’ll have fun sucking dic-”

Teru jumped his way with a murderous glint in his eyes, fast as lightning.

Akane tried to run away, heart skipping a beat for all the wrong reasons, but he was grabbed by the neck before he could jump to the next building, coughing harshly at the tight grip but still high on the way he had ripped that condescending smile off his face, his anger uncontrolled for once.

“W-What?” Akane wheezed out, well aware he can’t escape his iron grip but still feeling victorious “Can’t handle the truth? Thirsty bitc-”

He expected the punch, frankly, he had expected sooner, but the explosion of pain in his gut was far stronger than usual, packing enough power to make him lose his conscience.

Akane woke up to see a dirty concrete floor, his vision blurry… Body moving without his consent. He vaguely registered that Teru was dragging him by his hair because of a sting on his scalp.

Hah…

He really angered the asshole this time.

Akane felt a hint of satisfaction before blacking out for good. A few days in jail is worth it.

Akane startled awake, cursing at the feeling of water dripping all over him.

He shivered, trying to clean his face and nearly falling, realizing he was sitting on a slippery surface, his hands handcuffed behind his back and wrists aching from the awkward pose, completely unprotected from the rain.

Akane froze, slowly processing that he was trapped on the rooftop of what seemed to be an abandoned house located who knows where, his stomach still hurt from Teru’s punch, and the creeping night made the surroundings dim.

That son of a bitch.

Akane rested his back on the cold chimney he was handcuffed too and groaned at the way it was too short to offer much back support, its cone tip digging his spine. The rain didn’t take long to completely soak through his clothes as he tried to get out of his restrains and not slip down the wet shins. There is a window near this chimney, so at least he will get immediate cover once he is out-

Akane paused his struggles, taking a better look at the dirty window and noticing a shine on the windowsill, the key to his handcuffs innocently resting on it, out of reach but only by a meter.

Ha!

“You’re one petty fucking bastard.” He hissed, remembering Teru’s anger and smirking.

The chief was always so cold, so high and mighty and unbearable, it felt strange to realize he is endearing.

He hid it well, rigid when Akane forced him into a dance, always ready to use violence, but he got tense by his flirting after being kissed, making a conscious effort to not let his eyes linger on his lips, clearly affected by his stupid taunts-

That’s so cute.

He was aware he should run, but the urge to make him angry, see if he could make him cry, made him greedy. The feeling was addicting, not resisting when Teru grabbed his hand, counting on it.

“You can kiss me back, is only fair~”

Teru laughed, so disgusted Akane may have misunderstood his intentions “Fair.” He grabbed his chin, fingers digging into his jaw “Is to put you in your place.”

Akane shivered, wanting to kiss him, pour gasoline until his eyes burned with hatred again but the merciless kiss he had hoped expected never happened, pushed down the fire escape stairs.

“I wish he’d fuck me” Akane admitted after swallowing another glass of alcohol, blinking slowly when Hanako choked on his wine, but unfortunately didn’t die from it.

“What?” Hanako was looking at him like he was insane.

“He is pretty.” Akane shrugged, not understanding why Hanako looked sick, or why his body was shaking so much.

Or wobbling? Yeah wobbling. Everything was kind of wobbly now the he think about it...

Wait no, Akane’s vision is the wobbly one.

Hum…

… Maybe he is a bit drunk.

Or tipsy? It’s been a long while since he drank more than a polite glass of wine.

Was this even wine? What the hell is he drinking?

His head hurt when he tried to read the label of his bottle so he just re filled his cup. It tasted good. So whatever.

“He nearly cut your arm off.” Hanako pointed out.

“Pretty and strong” Akane agreed, smirking at his discomfort but feeling a hint of annoyance at the thought of Teru's stupid face as he watched Akane scream “Mean too… Hate his guts. Need to get off his stuuupid high horse.” Akane frowned at his glass, imagining his bitten lip and blushing at the memory of his undivided attention as he glared at Akane, wanting more of it, “I want him to look at me. Break his back for once, bastard is so cold...”

He would lose a limb if he try to kiss him again, definitively die if he squeezes his ass, but it would be so worth it, just to see the rage in his eyes again.

‘He has been more violent with me lately… Bet he can’t get me out of his head’ Akane licked his bruised lips with self-satisfaction.

Hanako seemed traumatized.

Heh… That’s funny.

“Pussy.” Akane mocked, stumbling out of his seat and raising his glass up high “Hey! Who here wanna fuck the police chief?!”

He expected a solid three people to agree, aware that much beauty can blind some folks even after said pretty man ruin their lives, but a solid one third of the bar raised their glasses, starting a roll of yelling both of agreement and of judgment.

“Make him pay!” someone in the back snarled.

“Yeah!” Akane cheered, taking a swing of his drink. Something about the number was too high for comfort, it made him annoyed, he wasn’t sure why, but he really didn’t like it.

Half these people wouldn’t be able to escape prison, so they must have never gotten their face smushed on the ground within seconds by Teru, or felt their lips split open by his fangs.

What do they know? Bet they don't even know the bastard have fangs.

Akane frowned, feeling an annoying itch in his stomach. Surely they would have bragged about it if they had kissed Teru.

…Right?

Fuck it, he raised his glass again “Who here has kissed the guy?!”

The bar got silent.

Akane laughed, this time louder, far more genuine.

“...You didn’t” Hanako paled.

Akane smirked, giggly with victory. Now that’s more like it. “And I’ll do it again!”

“Thief, what the fuck-”

“How are you still alive??”

Akane woke up with a hangover and four different wallets on his bed, two more on the floor, which had likely fallen when he moved in his sleep.

He has no idea who he stole from, but he really hopes one of his targets was Hanako.

Akane got up, groaning at his aching head and drinking a generous amount of water before looking through his haul, smirking when he found a flashy wallet with 320 bucks in it, and another with no identity card and way too much paper money, the picture of the newbie reporter, Yashiro, making it obvious Hanako was the owner.

Nice.

Akane blinked at a picture of the youngest Minamoto hidden between two bills, amused to realize the fool also seemed to be interested in a Minamoto.

He feels sorry for the kid, Hanako's way of flirting make people's life hell. Akane would know.

Akane agreed to be his informant.

Why? He doesn’t fucking know.

He seriously considered not showing up to their meeting spot, but the mental image of Teru's disappointed look and a condescending “Shouldn’t have expected anything else from a thief” made him fume.

Akane kept his hair in a tight bun and wore a pair of reading glasses, which is a low-effort disguise but it worked since people rarely see the phantom thief in the night anyway, seemingly only knowing him from his cape and his ponytail. On his way he could hear a commotion, reluctantly checking it out when he realized it came from a jewelry store he planned to rob when he had the time.

He couldn’t get too close, police were blocking the way, but he could see a broken window and hear a girl, around twelve, maybe less, screaming for her mom.

Teru was speaking to her in a tone that was very gentle, too soft for Akane to discern words. He looked uncomfortable.

The girl stopped screaming but she still cried and shook her head, visibly shaken.

The chief orders were noticeably less loud and authoritarian when he asked his subordinate to get her a blanket, measuring his volume near the civilian.

Akane just stared, noticing Teru never touched her, keeping a certain professional distance, but he let her hold on to the edge of his long coat for support, seemingly genuinely trying to calm the girl down despite his discomfort, talking in a quiet tone.

When the officer he requested a blanket shook his head, Teru seemed a bit troubled, unclasping his cape, offering it to the girl with a gentle smile, and letting her wrap herself in it.

Akane felt frustrated by it all, ceirtain now that Teru isn't a demon, he just just doesn't consider Akane human enough for kindness.

( but also felt weird at the sight, something more sticky and troublesome. )

He has been vaguely aware Teru, in all his arrogant and cruel ways, is not as simple to pin down as the other cops he dealt with: He carried a sword and a gun, but rarely used them. He refused bribes, only locking up those he was confident were guilty for their crimes but Akane know nobles well enough to know there must be something shady going on with the Minamotos. Teru failed in many areas, treating people like garbage the second they were deemed a criminal, but he made an effort into keeping his men in check, putting work. He doesn't seem to trust anyone. But he help citizen.

Is odd, even if he reluctantly understands Teru lowered the town crime rate considerably, he does not like his approach, he can’t help but tense up at his presence. Hating his arrogance, his stubborn attitude, and his pristine little murderer uniform.

And yet…

When Teru smiled at the girl, the stranger, there was so much kindness put in the spotlight, the dangerous glow of his eyes soft and comforting.

For the first time, he perfectly understood why so many civilians called him a prince, a hero.

‘I’ll protect you, everything will be alright’ His actions seemed to say, keeping his energy light when asking her to describe the “bad guy” that invaded the place.

(It felt wrong, like a fake advertisement, and yet…

Akane couldn’t help but remember the umbrella store.

He couldn't look away.)

Akane held his face, his gentle touch making Teru narrow his eyes. Hard to read.

‘I want you’ He thought, but he couldn’t have that, so he settled for gently brushing his fringe behind his ear and using his shock to steal his hat, hiding it behind his back and flashing him a smug smirk “See ya chief!” He gave him a mock salute, only exchanging his small tophat for the chief’s cap when he reached the next house roof, smirking at the immediate sound of footsteps after him.

“Thief!” Teru hissed, his voice commanding, reaching his very soul. “Return it. Now.”

He looks good without a hat.

“Came get it!” Akane egged him on, jumping on top of a lamp post and using the momentum to dive straight into a four-story mansion balcony, disappearing inside the room and walking out too quickly for the arguing couple in front of the fancy bathroom to notice he was ever in their house.

From there he just had to climb one store up and hop around, determined to run away, keep the cap as a souvenir. He run until his legs ached, crossing many restricted areas and civilian houses any law-abiding citizen would have trouble walking around willy nilly.

He lost Teru after a few blocks, disappearing into the night and slipping inside his bedroom window.

“My win” Akane laughed in his empty room, touching the dumb white cap in his head with pride, the sight of him with it in the mirror made him feel weird. He hates cops and their pretentious uniforms, but he couldn't deny he felt something at the idea this isn’t just a cop’s hat, but a part of Teru’s uniform.

It made him feel closer to the chief.

“How pathetic” He mocked his reflection.

#i'm going to post one wip at a time. all at the same time would be too much #ao3 phantom thieves au #this was supposed to be around four big chapters (like the red house fic!) so a lot of big things are missing rip #ngl i added a scene while i was editing the wip cause i forgot how fun it is to write thief akane #there is tiny tiny microscopic hints of other ships but they aren't worth mentioning i feel #terukane

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shewhowantsmouseears · 3 months

Text

magic mafia morgana???

So now that I'm in love with yet another 17Morg design - i simply had to come up with ideas with her. Two came to mind!

One that instead of using guns (kid-friendly show and all that jazz), she instead uses "finger guns" - spells as "bullets" and firing them off with her fingers. As such, the only way to stop her is to exhaust her or bind her hands.

And of course, the Morgwing idea - that after Darkwing first defeats whatever evil plan she and her gang had done, she appears absolutely furious (snarling and growling with fangs and glowy eyes) and chases him across rooftops, nearly burning his tail-feathers off with her spells until she's cornered him, ranting and raving how he's bested her at every turn, he refuses to give up no matter what she throws at him - at this point he's in danger of falling off this particular rooftop as she stalks towards him, LP and Gosalyn are trying to get to him but clearly won't make it in time!

He's insufferable, she snaps! He's infuriating! He's... he's... she grabs him by the lapels, and smooooooooooooooooooch -

("Awww," says LP. "WAT." says Gosalyn.)

She then crushes Darkwing close to her chest while babbling in gratuitous Italian (AMORE!!! TESORO!!! CARA MIA!!!) (LP helpfully translates "Oh she's calling him a bunch of pet names-" Gosalyn: OKAY THANK YOU BUT I STILL FEEL SEVERAL STEPS WERE SKIPPED HERE-) before she finally explains she never thought she'd meet a man worthy of her but he's obviously the one for her, she's so happy to have found her one true love, and he should join her "familia" and together they can rule over St. Canard!

DWD doesn't say no right away, mostly because he just got this complete hottie to kiss him and hold him and confess her undying love for him, but once reality and clarity return to him, he tries to gently turn down her offer - he's not gunna say he's not flattered, but he's a hero! Maybe they can slow this down with dinner and a movie, you know, once she's stopped... being a criminal?

She just laughs, oh good he has a sense of humor too, because he thinks he has a choice about this, and suddenly slaps a one part of handcuffs on him, the other on her, making it clear he's not going anywhere.

anyway that's just what I came up with and thought it would be really funny if this time around it was Morgana the one who was pursuing him aggressively and DWD is. well. enjoying it on some levels he shouldn't admit to.

#morgwing #darkwing duck #morgana macawber #goth rock morgana still reigns supreme #but this one is a close second ngl

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boyakishantriage · 11 months

Text

"Do I even want to know?"

Asked the alien lady, more than done with my shit as I looked back at her.

"I dunno. Do you?"

She looked back at me.

"I can't tell if that's a joke or not."

"I'm being serious. Do you want to know?"

"... Sure??"

"Ok. So"

The bar were bumping with activity, aliens laughing as the human advisor outdrank her opponents.

"HAH, YA CUNT! C'MON IT'cks ONLY FOURTEEN!" She stated, slurred, the full glass empty as her opponent's were still half full.

He bowed out soon after, the crowd cheering as the bar just as quickly quietened.

Looking around, the bounty hunter Zark watched the crowd.

"You."

Ignoring the man, she laughed to herself, humming to some song as he snapped his fingers at her.

Still not responding, her reached for his weapon.

That got her attention, dropping the act in seconds, still slurred but snapped awake as she drew her pistol and aimed at the bounty hunter. Eyes quickly making notes and assessing the situation.

"HOLD THE FUCKING BALL. ZARK???"

"yes. That was his name."

"The guy who stops international wars??"

"He does?"

"You don't know him??"

"Am I supposed to?"

"hic Ok. Who the fuck are you??" She asked, looking up at the large dark chitin body plates, well more accurately a form of natural steel chitin, but semantics.

"You're coming with me."

"Oh fuck off posh- hic -posho!" She spat onto his armour, laughing as she cocked the revolver.

"You wanna. Fucking. Ohh, did someone turns the lights off?" She asked, rolling back wards as the bench top broke from the full force of his strike.

"Me. Now."

"Buy me a drink first mate." She laugh, snorting at her own joke as she leaned back into the steaming hole to drink more-

Glass exploded, with only really the hand left, she took a deep sigh.

"Of all the days. OF ALL THE FUCKING TIMES. You could possible interrupt me. Can't even-"

She was then thrown to the grown, hair tie breaking as she fell to the floor.

"fuck that hurt my arse." She stated, tail still wagging lazily as the crowd thinned.

"You're. With. OW-"

The large woman let go of the girl, as she wiped the blood off her lips.

"You taste disgusting."

She said simply, her boss staring at her like she were mad.

She cocked her gun.

"Rago! I'm taking you in-"

The gun was then kicked into the air, the woman looking up as she caught the weapon in her hands.

"I have no idea how to fire this." She realised, before noticing the glowy bits.

Before Zago could do anything, she muttered to herself. "Really hope this works." Before throwing the weapon to the ground. The bar quickly filed out, the bounty hunter slowly stepping away from the weapon watching as it did nothing.

Finally, she reached for it.

BANG.

The weapon then whirred to life, something was happening and judging off her horrified expression...

I sprinted out the building, jumping behind a stall as she slammed the door behind her. The bar then exploded, the bounty hunter being thrown into the building beside her, bartender peaking head from the crater in the bar.

"Right, I'll take a beer." She said simply, tossing coins at the bartender as she reloaded her firearm.

"And you just went back to drinking?"

"I mean I needed a drink to pass out to."

"And you fought Zago and lived."

"Yep. No idea who that is, but yes. I fought a bitch."

I could tell she wanted to say something. Anything. But she didn't, she let me go. Muttering. "Crazy humans." as she rested atop the table.

#tag #Triage #humans are space orcs

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braindancer · 1 year

Note

for the OCs thing can i get SLUDGE my boy sludge

01. Full name: Remington Harold Spalding - Sludge to his friends and enemies

02. Best friend: Skippy (the gun)

03. Sexuality: bisexual but no one wants him

04. Favorite color: radioactive green n gunmetal grey

05. Relationship status: in his Totentanz bathroom hookup era

06. Ideal mate: Insists up and down that he doesn’t need anyone. That he’s a lone wolf, a maverick, that he walks the rebel path. He’d actually really really like someone to hold his hand though.

07. Turn-ons: restraints and getting choked out

08. Favorite food: CRICKETS. Crickets on anything and everything - he likes the crunch. His dream is to have a live one someday, but those are awfully hard to find.

07. Turn-ons: restraints and getting choked out

08. Favorite food: CRICKETS. Crickets on anything and everything - he likes the crunch. His dream is to have a live one someday, but those are awfully hard to find.

09. Crushes: Blatantly crushing on his new boss. Also wouldn’t mind putting the Smasher in Adam Smasher.

10. Favorite music: Tinnitus, thrash-metal, closeted Lizzy Wizzy stan

11. Biggest fear: Hell’s real and he’s going no matter what

12. Biggest fantasy: Same as every solo wannabe - to make it big in Night City. He wants everyone to know his name, but for good reason this time. He wants to be wanted.

13. Bad habits: Uses his titanium teeth to bite through anything and everything - even stuff that should be nowhere near his mouth.

14. Biggest regret: He thought that helping his gang catch Saul would change…something. That he could get Saul to look at him as someone to fear instead of someone to hate and pity in equal measures. Or at least, that he’d have proven himself as useful to the Wraiths. All it got him was a fiery crash out in the middle of a sandstorm.

15. Best kept secrets: While it’s no secret that he blasted his boyhood rival point-blank in the face, the truth is that he didn’t really mean to. It wasn’t the first time he’d gotten all worked up, waved around his shotgun trying to be a big man - it was just the first time his finger slipped.

16. Last thought: That expiration dates are more a suggestion than a rule.

17. Worst romantic experience: He got crabs at Totentanz once. Cybernetic crabs, with little glowy red eyes. Made by a Maelstromer who used them to hack into his bank account and stole his last $200.

18. Biggest insecurity: Everything and everything about himself.

19. Weapon of choice: Light machine gun, tire iron, Skippy. 20. Role Model: Unfortunately, Johnny Silverhand. (“Too bad his band sucked.”)

#oc: sludge #ask meme #wraith oc #cyberpunk oc #raffen shiv oc #THANKS FOR THE ASK BB I LOVE YOU

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starbudspresents · 2 years

Text

Re.Gray 015 - Aria, pt. 7

[ Masterlist ] [ Read on AO3 ] [ Raws ]

Summary: Hollow victory.

♦ 143

sfx: GYUO! [blammo!]

Akuma: !!

Kanda: It fired—!?

sfx: dododododo [long rods of light thud into the Akuma and the ground around it]

Akuma: GYAA

♦ 144

sfx: dodododo [LAZER: FIRIN] sfx: dododo [STILL FIRIN] sfx: DON [conclusive final shot] sfx: do [Allen lands lightly on a rod, which tops a whole game of magic glowy pick-up sticks] sfx: hyuoooo [wind blows through the sudden silence]

♦ 145

sfx: gin [Allen's cursed eye detects the presence of the Akuma behind him] sfx: zazazazaza [Akuma scuttles around under the sand] sfx: zazaza [scuttle scuttle]

Akuma: Guess you can't destroy me if I turn into sand~!

♦ 146

sfx: jaki [Allen takes aim with the cannon again] sfx: dotsu [Akuma's copy of Allen's arm stabs up out of the sand toward him] sfx: gyan [whiffed it; Allen jumps up and the spear-hand passes beneath him] sfx: DOGAAAA [the wall or floor where the spear makes impact explodes into rubble] sfx: gun [a face made of sand suddenly zooms right up into Allen's space]

Allen: !!

♦ 147

sfx: zua [the sand-body engulfs Allen entirely] sfx: zu zu zu zu [the sand moves around in currents as it drags Allen in and down]

Akuma: Hee hee, gotcha! sfx: BAN [Akuma pats its giant sand belly] Akuma: You're done for, kid, done for!

sfx: shi—-n [absolute darkness] Allen: Too dark to see in here.

sfx: vun [Akuma's fake hand turns into a trident] Akuma: If I stab you a whole bunch, will you die~? sfx: dosu [Akuma stabs its own sandy belly with the trident] sfx: dosu dosu dosu dosu [again again again again, at different angles]

♦ 148

sfx: dosu dosu dosu dosu [stabbity stabbity] Akuma: Gyahyahyahya!!

Toma: Sir Walker!!

Kanda: It's all right. Kanda: I can still feel Kanda: his bloodthirst.

sfx: gakiiin! [a sudden burst of... something]

Akuma: What's th—?

♦ 149

sfx: bakinh [when Allen blocks the Akuma's false hand, its fingers shatter]

Akuma: My spear—

Allen: The cross is telling my brain through my nerves, Allen: and my brain is telling my body Allen: how to use this new weapon.

sfx: vuon [wide mouth of the cannon suddenly contracts around a single protruding rod of light, like a gauntlet/lightsaber mashup]

♦ 150

sfx: ZUBA [without hestitation, he splits the Akuma in half like a block of firewood, top to bottom... again] sfx: piri [the sand splits like skin, because it is] sfx: paka [the sand armour pops open into halves, revealing the Akuma within]

Akuma: Ack! My sand-skin!!

sfx: zarara [the sand-skin continues to slough away]

Allen: There's the real you.

♦ 151

sfx: zah [Allen makes a neat three-point landing the sand]

sfx: doshaaaa [the sand of the Akuma's skin, unbound, falls to the ground like a swift rain]

sfx: batsu [the mouth of Allen's weapon opens into a cannon again, narrower this time] Allen: Not giving you time to copy this. Allen: I'll blast you out of existence.

Akuma: I still have your arm, stupid! sfx: gotsu [makes a hard thrust at Allen]

sfx: DO [Allen's cannon fires another batch of lightsabers]

♦ 152 & 153

sfx: GOA [the bundle of light slams the Akuma into a wall even as it holds it off with the fake hand]

Akuma: !!

Guzol: I am... an ugly person. Guzol: I didn't want to see Lala destroyed at the hands of strangers. Guzol: Lala... Guzol: When my time comes, let mine be the hands that break you.

Allen: Guzol... Allen: truly loved Lala.

sfx: ooooo [wind and sand]

Allen: You'll pay for this!!

♦ 154

sfx: boro boro boro [the fake arm begins to corrode as if splashed with acid] Akuma: C-Crap— Akuma: Why!? It's the same dang arm— Akuma: How am I losing...!?

Kanda: Because you've hit your limit. Kanda: Same weapon, sure, but different wielders. Kanda: Only an Exorcist1 can properly handle an anti-Akuma weapon. Kanda: Fuller synchronization with our Innocence can give us more power.

♦ 155

sfx: dokun [Allen's heart palpitates] sfx: goh [he pukes blood] Allen: !? sfx: bubutsu [his arm suddenly reverts to its resting state in staggered stages] sfx: dokun dokun dokun [his heart is hammering] Allen: Oh damn.... Allen: Rebound! Allen: My body can't keep up with the stronger weapon?

Akuma: Got you now!!

♦ 156

sfx: kii [Kanda, suddenly appearing in front of Allen, deflects the Akuma's attack with Mugen]

Allen: !? Allen: Kanda!

sfx: giri [Kanda sweats and trembles and holds it off, teeth clenched] sfx: Tch. sfx: jiwa [blood stains the bandages over his newly reopened wound]

Kanda: Don't faceplant at the finish line, you gutless wimp!! sfx: kuwa!! [snarl] Kanda: You're the one who went on and on about helping them!!!

sfx: hii [Allen flinching back from Kanda's righteous wrath]

♦ 157

sfx: giri giri giri [the fingers of the fake hand flexing, unable to get past Mugen]

Kanda: I can't stand high-minded know-nothings like you, Kanda: but I hate people who flake on their word even worse!2

Allen: Ha... ha. Allen: So either way, you hate me...?

sfx: dokuh dokuh dokuh [Allen's heartbeat steadies] sfx: goshi [he regains his feet] Allen: I haven’t faceplanted, you know. Allen: I've just... taken a little breather.

Kanda: ......You drive me up the goddamn wall.

♦ 158

sfx: gishaaa [Mugen slices through the fake hand, amputating it]

Akuma: !!

Allen: Please, just one more shot. Allen: Innocence: initialize!!

Kanda & Allen: Bite the dust!!3

♦ 159

sfx: go [Allen riddles the Akuma's upper half with lightsabers]

Akuma: F— Akuma: Fuck yooou, Exorciiiists!!

sfx: DON [Allen's final attack blows out an entire section of the city from below]

♦ 160

{This page is just an invitation for readers to submit their own designs for the Earl of Millennium's costume, even if it's just a new idea for what to put on his hat-brim.}

♦♥♦

FOOTNOTES

Mismatch. Kanji: 適合者 tekigousha “Accommodator” Furigana: エクソシスト ekusoshisuto “Exorcist”

It’s actually remarkable how well the Akuma has done, considering it was pretty literally born yesterday. Its version of Allen’s arm doesn’t have Innocence powering it, so it must be powered by its own Dark Matter core, which is far more integrated – one could say “synced” – into its being than the Innocence is to Allen. It also clearly doesn’t lack for ingenuity or flexibility. I suspect the real problem here is less that the Akuma isn’t up to the task and more that Dark Matter cores are mass-produced and start out considerably weaker, individually, than Innocence. A quality vs. quantity issue, essentially. They can get stronger, obviously, as the Akuma obeys its prerogative and takes life, but again: born yesterday. This one didn’t have time to reach its full potential, which would, I think, I have been very scary. [ ♠ ]

Haha okay what Kanda actually said here: お前みたいな甘いやり方は大嫌いだが...口にしたことを守らないやつはもっと嫌いだ！ Omae mitai na amai yarikata wa daikirai da ga... kuchi ni shita koto wo mamoranai yatsu wa motto kirai da!

This is just a case of a lot of things that don’t translate well into English lining up, so I leaned heavily on conveying the spirit of things rather than the letter. A more literal translation would be “I hate people like you’s naive way of doing things, but I hate people who don’t protect what their mouth has done even more.”

Or, colloquially put: “Don’t let your mouth write cheques your ass can’t cash.”

If you’ll recall what I said last chapter about that word 守る mamoru, usually translated as “protect”, you’ll see that in this context it means to "keep" (one’s word). It forms a narrative chord with the earlier line “You were the one who went on and on about helping them”, because “help” here is once again that same word, 守る mamoru. [ ♠ ]

Untranslateable: 消し飛べ keshitobe, a compound composed of “erase/delete/extinguish” and “jump/fly” that basically implies “fly [apart] and cease existing”, basically “become dust”. Really can’t think of any succinct, shoutable way to say that in English, and they’re in a literal ruin full of dust and sand, so. [ ♠ ]

#dgm #dgm translations #dgm meta #d.gray-man #d gray man #re.gray

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rottmntliberation · 1 year

Note

PLEASE when you have the time tell us about your oc's and hc including about lego monke kid i would love to hear it too!!

KWAAAAAA OKAY OKAY OKAY

So so so

I have a Rise OC I rlly rlly love, her name's Akahana (goes by Hana or Hannah depending on the crowd)

She's a half Japanese water-dragon yokai, half American NYC human. Because she's only half yokai she doesn't get cool mystic powers BUT her father has a mystic needle he fixed into a tattoo gun, and basically, whatever he tattoos kind of gains self-awareness and life in the 2-d plane. Even tho Hana's only 16 she has two golden dragon tattoos winding down each arm, but because they're tattooed by her father, they can come to life and slither around her body as well as jump from her hands to be used as weapons!! I imagine them wrapping their tails around her wrists and extending themselves off her fingers to either be used as swords, chains or weights. They both have distinct personalities and kinda go all glowy-cool when in use

AND THEY LIKE TO CHOMP they're very silly their names are Fuji (the calm one) and Tatsu (the batshit one)

I'll have to draw her sometime to show you guys BUT BASICALLY

Hana is more of an anti-hero/vigilante who fights for mutant and yokai rights

On the surface she's seen as weird or abnormal bc of her sharp teeth and patches of scales on her knees, elbows, and shoulders, but on the other hand she's also not seen as a "real yokai" and basically she thinks that's dumb so she likes to hang with the city mutants after dark

BUT ANYWAYS THIS IS GETTING LONG AND I SUCK AT WRITING SO IMMA STOP HERE THANK YOU SO MUCH

- Mod April 🍑

#ILYYYYY

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screechthemighty · 2 years

Text

Okay, so just so that my suffering can have some extra benefits. Here’s all the tips I can offer for Village of Shadows difficulty. I can’t PROMISE these will work for you, but they worked for me somehow.

Weapons:

Fully upgrade the STAKE. Fully upgrade the grenade launcher. Turn on unlimited ammo. Stun grenades to stagger, STAKE to finish them off. It’s really powerful and even on VoS it one shots weaker enemies.

New Game Plus:

HOARD. HEALS. IN AN EASIER DIFFICULTY. Hoard them and hoard crafting supplies. Trust me on this. This is also how you can get the STAKE and get it and the grenade launcher to full. Do a string of New Game + runs in a row if you have to. You get a New Game + by saving the completed game file at the end of a regular run, then instead of starting a new game, LOAD that file. You’ll start at the village with whatever you had in the last playthrough. This is how you can start the VoS playthrough with a strong gun.

Speedrun It:

FR you don’t want to be wandering the map, the night is dark and full of terrors.

The Timed Section at the Start:

HIDE IN THE BASEMENT. In VoS, an armored Lycan spawns in that little cubby near the exit; you can take him out with the grenade/STAKE combo and then STAY THERE. Lycans will keep coming from your right; you can lay down mines or take them out with the STAKE. Once Ethan gets the line of dialogue that indicates the big dude has showed up, wait a minute and a half to a minute forty seconds and THEN leave. The cutscene SHOULD trigger and you’ll be in the clear.

Lady D’s Castle:

Vampires spawn when Lady D is chasing you after she cuts your hand off, so you’ll have to dodge/block them, too. It sucks. She also spawns more bugs while fighting in the boss fight so just keep moving to keep them from swarming you too bad.

Heisenberg Boss Fight:

This fight is HARD AS HELL, so be prepared for that. The initial tank section is the worst part. This really was a “keep doing it and then eventually one time you’ll do everything right and win” kind of deal, but here’s the guidelines I tried to stick to (it worked out eventually):

DO NOT keep your finger on the trigger. it slows you down. Only shoot at Heisenberg when he’s a safe distance away and/or not charging you.

The second he starts charging, you need to get out of the way. Stop firing, start blocking, and start strafing left or right (the opposite of whatever hand he has up to attack) to dodge the attack. The tactic I tried to use was acting like I was in his orbit: stay facing him, move more in a circular motion rather than just straight side to side, KEEP blocking.

Save the rockets for charges or other attacks that you can’t dodge, or if you’re in a bind and need to get some distance from him.

Keep hitting his weak points (the glowy red parts).

TRY to disrupt his debris launches if you can. Keep shooting anything that’s visibly glowing, if it explodes, you can stop him before he does too much damage.

Eventually the stars will align, things will work out, and you’ll get knocked out of the tank. Hilariously, the fight is way easier once you’re on foot and have access to the STAKE and heals.

Chris’s Section:

Okay I’m going to be real. I have no idea how I beat this. Block is your friend. You CAN bull rush past the big wolf guys before the clearing if you’re careful. Try to save your grenades for the part where you have to blow up the major megamycete structure. There’s a house to the left of that clearing that you can climb that’s a good vantage point for using the lock-on thing (just try to clear out enemies beforehand with grenades). The fight against the big guy with the hammer is gonna be annoying; use the lock on thing to knock him down and then shoot him in the back. For him, you’ll want to stay moving, only put up block when an attack is ABOUT to hit near you, but otherwise just keep dodging and pray.

Honestly, it’s not the most impossible thing I’ve done, but yeah, never doing that again, LMAO

#screech is bad at resident evil #hope this helps tho

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worstloki · 3 years

Text

theory: they didn’t let loki go to frigga’s funeral because he wouldn’t have let go of the glowy blue light

#okay sure make it angsty whatever floats you boat (*finger guns*) but what i meant is casket sceptre tesseract are all also blue and glowy #and he's obsessed with those #so #if he was in attendance he would've run off with the light #which is why they just #didn't invite him #this can end either with loki sobbing in a corner refusing to let go of frigga's memory and running away to grieve her loss alone to yell #OR we can assume he's run away and whispering ''prreeeeccioouusssss'' as he hides from the entire guard searching for him

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shurisneakers · 3 years

Text

harmless (xvii)

Summary: Bucky volunteers to go stop a small time villain, but nothing can prepare him for what exactly he has to deal with. (Bucky x villain!reader)

Warnings: cursing, frustrated bucky, dramatic reader, obnoxious flirting, mention of death, kidnapping, explosives, blood and stuff

Word count: 10k

A/N: ok this chapter is very long and she is very stupid in this. just like me. thank you to @buckysboobs for suggesting one of the things miss villain pulls here, @em-august for her beautiful artwork that i had to include in one way or another because it was so damn cute,

If you want more nonsense, you can head on over to Harmless Mini Drabbles :))

Previous Part || Series Masterlist

“Alright, let’s keep this short,” Tony instructs, his fingers clenched into a fist. “Barnes, you’re covering Rogers. If you see him, you take him down on sight.”

“Copy that.”

Sam points to the right side of the floor plan. “That’s our blindspot. We need someone stationed there.”

“I’ll do it,” Nat volunteers, feet kicked back onto another chair, easy and confident. “Should be easy enough. It’s dark, they won’t see us there.”

“If you see Barton, you shoot. No favouritism.” Tony’s eyes are unforgiving- they don’t have a lot of time to prepare.

Luckily, her answer comes back smoothly. “He’s going down first.”

“Is Vision on our side?” Bucky glances up at the team huddled around the round table, hair pulled back into a low bun and away from his face to eliminate as many distractions as possible. The low hum of the air conditioner, however, he can’t escape.

“He is, but I don’t think he’s really invested.”

“Why?” Nat asks, leaning forward on her elbows, gaze strong. “Is it because Wanda’s on Steve's side?”

“Says he doesn’t want to harm anyone.”

Sam doesn’t look too happy with the revelation. “Does he understand the concept of laser tag?”

“He does, but the guy’s worried his actual laser eyes are gonna act up if he gets too excited.” Tony gives a long drawn exhale. “I don’t wanna pay for the damages to the arena again.”

The bi-annual laser tag night tended to get... intense.

Tony’s had to pay to remodel the place a few times over already; the only reason they’re not banned so far. For all the complaining he did, no one knows why he was the one who fervently kept the tradition going then.

“You can put him in the corner or something,” Sam suggests. “Like a Christmas Tree. He’s got the colours for it too.”

“Vision moves to the corner.” Tony drags the Top Hat piece from the shared Monopoly board to the corner of the chart. “Barnes, you should flirt with the guy at the front desk, get him to disable their guns for a while.”

“I did that last time.”

“And it worked like a charm,” Tony says, fingers entwined with each other as he looks at him expectantly. “Do it again.”

“No.” For the record, Bucky thought the guy was really cute. Hell, they even went out for dinner once after Clint managed to create a human-sized hole in one of the arena walls. “He’s in a relationship now.”

“Fine, then we need a new strategy.” The blueprint of the arena had a bunch of scribbles on it of possible vantage points, a few Monopoly pieces to represent team members. Bucky’s been stuck as the thimble for the last one hour and he fucking hates it.

The Tower cafeteria was more or less empty, providing them a good meeting spot for their strategic sessions. Steve’s team took up the common room like the hoarders that they were, establishing their rule over the room as early as four in the morning. It’s not like they were planning the entire day; it was pure pettiness and spite, forcing everyone else to find another place to meet.

But Steve’s team probably didn’t track down the contractor and bribe them to get the floorplan of the building. Steve’s stupid team was probably drinking tea and watching Jeopardy like the old fucks that they were.

Steve should have been the thimble.

“What about Wanda?” Sam brings up a new point. “She’s annoyingly good at this.”

“Yeah, she has the whole glowy thing going on, it’s confusing-”

There’s a loud crash from beside them- table hitting chairs, the clang of metal against tiled floors.

“Spy!” Tony whips around, fury in his eyes. “Instant disqualifica-”

Except it’s not a spy.

You kick a chair away from yourself in an attempt to detangle your body from the cafeteria furniture, stepping ungracefully over the gigantic mess you managed to create within the ten seconds you were there.

Bucky’s not even surprised.

“Fuckin’ there you are. Finally.” You huff out a breath before plastering a smile on your face. “Hey guys.”

Sam and Nat just wave, while Tony doesn’t move.

“Hey,” Bucky says. “What’re you doing here?”

“Are you busy?”

“Not really.” He takes a peek at the more or less finished battle plan, knowing that on the day, all this nonsense would be forgotten in exchange for unbridled chaos. Still, Tony pays and therefore everyone indulges him. “Why?”

“D’you wanna go do something?”

“Do what?”

“You’ll see.” The grin on your face is telling. “Wanna go?”

He does a quick survey of the table’s occupants, finding only nods of affirmation. “Give me ten.”

“Cool. See you.” Your form vanishes following a small wave.

Bucky returns back to the plan as if nothing happened, finishing off the little drawing he was making of Steve, complete with his stupid frisbee in the centre of the room.

You reappear approximately four seconds later, looking slightly embarrassed.

“I forgot to tell you where we were going."

"You can just text me," he reminds you without even giving you a glance.

"Yeah, okay, bye.” Before you take your leave this time, you turn to the others and shoot them finger guns. “Looking good, guys"

“You too, Y/N,” Nat calls out. You blow her a kiss and disappear.

Bucky taps on the blueprint. “Sam’s taking the left, I’ll cover Steve. Nat can do whatever she wants.”

“Hold on-” Tony holds up a finger, all interest in his Athenian war strategy currently lost.

“I’ll take Wanda if you handle Clint,” Nat offers and Sam agrees. “Stark?”

“Whatever.” Tony stares at where you were just a second ago. “Does anyone wanna tell me how she was able to bypass six layers of security?”

“Oh, she can teleport.” Bucky stretches his arms above his head to get rid of the soreness.

“She can what?”

He knocks over the thimble with a unique sort of annoyance before letting out a, "Yeah.”

“She can fuckin’ teleport and no one thought it’d be useful for us?” Tony asks the remaining members, all of whom don’t really have an answer. “Climate change’s still a thing, think about our carbon footprint.”

Bucky pushes himself away from the table, chair scraping against the ground. "Catch you guys later.”

Nat’s feet shift to occupy Bucky’s chair. “Everything we use runs on sustainable energy. This table is biodegradable.”

“Think about the foot, Natalia.”

Just a regular old Wednesday.

Bucky shoves his hands further into his leather jacket, doing a brisk walk to catch up to you at the entrance of the parking lot. The whole affair is a fair distance away from actual civilization, but he knows why you’ve brought him here.

Your backpack’s pulled over your shoulder as usual, and you’re looking down at your phone until you hear his heavy footsteps approach.

“You made it.” Your eyes light up, tucking your phone into your pocket.

“I did.”

You stick your hand out for a handshake. Bucky looks at you incredulously.

“Colleague.”

He knows it’s a joke, he can’t really explain the things you did sometimes. But he notices the bracelet he gave you strung across your wrist as you jut your hand out further, it pulls an unnatural twinge of happiness from deep within his stomach.

“Fellow associate.“ He shakes the outstretched palm firmly. “I brought the motorcycle. Now, will you explain why?”

“Nothing, it’s just been a while since I’ve seen that beauty,” you coo, dropping his hand, “and the live thirst trap of you on it.”

“Coulda just asked for a picture.”

“Why would I do that when I could just have the real thing?”

Touche.

“Is there a reason we’re just standing around a parking lot?” he asks, scouring the land that was filled with vehicles for as far as he could see.

“Yeah, thought it’d be fun to look at bumper stickers.” You throw a nod towards a car. “That one there says ‘Caution, this vehicle makes frequent stops at your mom’s house’.”

“Interesting.”

You look back at him with a smile playing at your lips. “The circus is in town and they built a fair around it.”

“I didn’t know your family was visiting.”

Your jaw drops. “You callin’ me a clown, Mr Barnes?”

“I’m sorry.” He stifles a laugh.

“You should be, that was mean.” Still, you gesture for him to walk with you.

“Thought you’d be used to it by now.”

“Clearly I’m not.” You huff. “Which means you should be seeing me a lot more.”

“Weekends not enough for you?”

“Never,” you drag out. “That’s for work.”

“We’ve spent time outside of that,” he points out. “Pretty sure there was no inator two weeks ago at the bowling alley.”

“Did you think I got six strikes in a row just because I’m good at bowling?”

No, he didn’t. He called you a cheater right after the first one. “I’m talkin’ about ‘taking over the tristate area’, ‘ending the world' inators.”

“Oh yeah, none of those,” you agree. “Guess we do spend time outside of work.”

“And that’s not enough either?”

“Never,” you drawl again, “because you’re totally hot.”

Bucky’s laugh is airy.

“What?” You look at him teasingly. “You are.”

The corner of his eye catches your movement. “If you told me a year ago that I’d be hanging out with you outside of work, I’d call bullshit.”

“Was it my charm that wore you down?”

“You were never the problem in the first place.”

It’s a little confusing to you. “Then what was?”

“I don’t know.” Bucky pauses. “Never thought anyone would wanna do that.”

He knows the silence is your way of giving him space; passing the ball to his court in case he wanted to talk. He can only hope he doesn’t come off as a pick-me-boy, or whatever else that specific brand of people he’s seen YouTube compilations of are.

“I don’t know,” he repeats, the phrase his crutch. “You know that day when you were trying to take the sun or whatever?”

“Harness the power of the sun.”

“That.” Bucky nods. “And you zapped me with that thing and I lost my powers for like, ten minutes?”

“Yeah,” you say slowly and more like a question, unsure of what that stupid plan from well over a year ago had to do with this.

He gives you a half-smile. “Couldn’t stop thinking about how if I don’t have them, I don’t have anything. No real reason for me to be around.”

There’s a moment of quiet as you process what he just said. He wonders if he worded it right since he didn’t really bring this up with anyone other than his therapist, and he was always so calculated with her.

“Bucky, I'm so sorry.” Your eyes soften. It’s like a blow to your gut.

“You got nothin’ to be sorry for, wasn’t your fault,” he dismisses the notion immediately, making sure to look you in the eye as he did it. “It’d been there for a while. Just realised it that day.”

“Still.” You bite your lip. “I didn't know you felt like that.”

“I don’t. Not anymore.” Bucky shrugs. “At least not as much. Therapy helps.”

“You still going twice a week?”

“For now.” He sends you a quick glance. “Have a feeling it’s gonna go down soon.”

“Oh?”

Bucky simply nods. Things were good; had been for a while now. It’s clearer in his head now that it has been in months.

“Doc says hanging out with you helped,” he puts forth, staring straight ahead because it’s difficult to meet your eye at the moment, “a lot. I think that too.”

It’s met with a distinct lack of response that he knows isn’t a negative sign. It’s contemplative, thoughtful- he knows it well enough by now.

“I don’t know if you remember,” you begin, looking at him, “when I said that if I had one hour to live, I’d lie with my friends on grass or some shit.”

Bucky does, clear as day.

"I'm very selective about who’s invited."

"Yeah?" He raises an eyebrow.

"So the only people there is the cashier from my grocery store, the cast of Twilight, T, Jake, Alpine, every single person who's ever appeared on an MTV show, the One Direction boys and the man who once tried to sell me illegal CDs in the subway."

"Small list," he notes.

"Yeah." You nudge his shoulder. "You're there too."

He gives a short exhale in the form of a laugh, a faint smile on his face. “Good to know.”

The evening’s slipping into dark and the smell of sugary confectioneries is getting stronger. There’s a shift in the atmosphere with the bright orange lights casting a glow in the air and excited chattering in the distance. It makes his heart swell.

“I’m really proud of you, Buck.” It’s sincere, kind and said while looking him straight in the eye. His stomach does a little twist.

“Thank you,” he says softly.

You link your elbow with his, pulling him closer. His hands are still tucked deep into his pockets, keeping his arm steady enough to support yours.

“Okay, back to our regularly scheduled flirting,” you announce, tearing your eyes away from the flyer at the entrance. “Superpowers or not, I’d still pick you to take home.”

Bucky smiles widely. “To the circus?”

“You dick.” You laugh loudly. “Yes, to the circus.”

The grounds are crowded and the whole event just lifts with joy. It reminds him of summers at Coney Island, and more recently, the team’s outing to Six Flags.

“What’s the plan for this evening?”

“No plan, just vibes.”

“Bullshit.” He laughs.

“Maybe there’s one plan,” you test. “But, for now, it’s irrelevant.”

“You’re not gonna tell me, are you?”

“Nah,” you say, “unless you want me to tell you now, you can confiscate the stuff and we go back home.”

He thinks it over for a second. Pretends to, more like, just for the sake of it because you and him both know he’s in too deep now.

“Do you think they sell orange soda?”

Unsurprisingly, any game which requires Bucky to use a gun is an instant win, regardless of how many churros he has in one hand while doing it. The record so far is three.

Every stuffed animal makes its way into the void of your backpack for safekeeping. Till now there’s a wolf, an alligator, a dog and two ducks at your behest.

However, and as much as he hates to admit it, the only thing he can’t seem to figure out is the fucking claw machine.

A good fifteen minutes has already been spent at it while Bucky tries to win a stupid cat. Not because he has any particular inclination towards it, but the fact that he grew up with siblings makes his competitive spirit jump out a little higher this time. He will get that shitty stuffed animal even if his life depends on it.

“Move it an inch,” you encourage, holding onto his churros for him, only occasionally taking a bite, “or else we’re gonna be here all night, Buck.”

“Better tell Jake not to wait up,” he mumbles, trying to calculate the trajectory of the claw’s drop and the distance between the cat and him for reasons.

“Jake’s at yoga camp or something.” You dip it into the chocolate, taking another bite. “So you should definitely come over. You can move in for three weeks, I’ll even throw out his stuff for you.”

“I got a mission,” he says distantly, eyes focused on the stuffed cat in the corner of the glass cage. “Leavin’ this Sunday.”

“When are you coming back?”

“In two weeks.”

“How do I live without you for two weeks, honey?”

“I’m sure you'll manage, darling,” he dishes right back, hearing you bark out a laugh.

Bucky only lifts his head to make sure that there’s no line forming behind him. Other than the two people that had been staring at the machine for a while waiting their turn, there seems to be no one. The other console was free, but this one clearly had the bigger and better prizes so no wonder they were hellbent on staying here. Sucks to be them, the night was still young and Bucky had an incredible amount of determination.

“Move it an inch,” you advise again through a mouth full of fried dough.

“You’ve been saying that for the last ten minutes.” His body towers over the tiny console.

“Because I’m right. Your aim’s always a little bit off.”

“My aim’s fine, this game’s rigged.” He drops the claw again, watching with extreme optimism as the claw drops onto the cat.

By the miracle of God himself, it’s lifted up by its ear, making its way to the drop-

Before it falls again.

Bucky curses loudly in an exciting mix of Russian and English.

“Move,” you announce, dusting your hands off. “Let the expert show you how it’s done.”

He sighs, taking a step back.

“I’m gonna be mad if you get this,” he says playfully, relenting.

“Yeah?” You hand him the churro. “What animal do you want?”

He scans through the available toys, finally using the churro as a pointer. “That bear.”

“I’m gonna win three, just to piss you off.”

“That’s impossible.”

“Watch me.” The mischief in your face makes a return. “If I win, what do I get?”

“A stuffed animal.”

“That’s for you. I need an incentive.”

“First win, then we’ll see.”

“Why?” You raise an eyebrow. “You got somethin’ in mind already?”

Yeah. Another churro from the food truck near the entrance. Maybe a date. Possibly another duck plushy.

“You’ll just have to see,” he replies, pointing to the machine. “Go on.”

“I love a good tale of suspense.” You crack your knuckles before inserting a coin into the machine and positioning yourself. A lot of theatrics just for a claw game that you were inevitably going to lose.

Bucky spends the few minutes before the blow to your ego looking for the next thing to do.

There was still one of those strength tester games where he’d have to hit hard enough to ring a bell, but he’s pretty sure he can’t get away with winning a game like that and not draw attention to himself. The roller coaster was an option, the actual circus too. More churros- God, they were fucking addictive.

While turning, he catches sight of the guys still waiting in line for their turn again, considering sending them an apologetic stare. They look away immediately, just as Bucky faces them.

His eyebrows knit together.

“Do they look familiar to you?” Bucky squints at the pair who were now forcing a laugh between themselves in an attempt to throw off suspicion.

“Who?” You bite your lip, edging the controller a bit to the left.

“The guys standing there, ten o’clock.” He turns back to the machine, the hair at the back of his neck standing upright. His senses automatically switch to high alert.

“You trynna distract me, Barnes?” You keep your eyes trained on the claw’s shadow. “You can try but there’s no way I’m not winning.”

“No, I’m serious.” Bucky doesn’t back down from their stare, running through a list of faces for a possible name. “They’ve been watching us for a while now.”

You finally pull your eyes away from the bear and towards the guys Bucky was holding a steadfast gaze with. They give up on their act of subtlety, instead, going eerily silent.

“You know ‘em?”

“Oh, he’s one of the guys who kidnapped me.”

“What?” Bucky watches the both of them press a phone to their ear, speaking hurriedly into it. Backup, definitely.

“Both of them are, actually,” you say on closer inspection.

No wonder they looked familiar. The last time he saw them, they were withering on the floor of the room you were locked in.

“I’m gonna go deal with them before this gets outta hand.” He was having fun, there was no reason the evening should be ruined by those assholes.

“No, don’t.” You pull him back by the sleeve of his jacket. “Whole gang’s here, by the looks of it.”

In a second you were proven right. More and more people started showing up pretty rapidly, banding together to form a group of adults dressed as the cast of The Matrix. The both of you were definitely outnumbered, but Bucky’s dealt with worse. The only issue was the crowd of bystanders that would serve as collateral damage.

Their leader, a guy Bucky doesn’t even remember, stands right at the front. His one hand finds its way into his pocket and he keeps it posed there.

“This is ridiculous.” Bucky rolls his eyes at the absurdity of the whole situation. “We’ve done this once, we can do it again.”

“We should run,” you say casually.

“Why?” He peers at you.

“They have one of those kill-rays or something.”

“What?”

“They brought a kill-ray. Death-ray, whatever,” you explain. “We actually might have a very real chance of dying.”

“What?”

“I’m evil but I’m not a fuckin’ piece of shit.” You don’t look at all impressed. “Death-rays are so violent, and for what?”

“You’ve gotta be kidding me,” he mutters.

“I’m very serious.” You look straight ahead to where one of them shouts a signal. “Look, he’s holding it up right now. If this thing works the way they want it to, and I’m not sure it does, then-”

There’s a large zap before the machine right next to you disappears, leaving a large empty space on the ground.

“My fuckin’ claw machine!” you cry out. “I was so close to winning, you assholes-”

Bucky, however, doesn’t wait for another shot. He grabs hold of your backpack and pulls you behind the remaining claw machine before breaking out into a run.

“How do you know it’s a death-ray?” Bucky shouts, hearing them yell instructions at each other; various ways to get you.

“I’ve seen those plans before-” you’re cut off with a yelp as their ray hits a large stuffed kangaroo hanging on display outside a game stall, only inches away from your face. “I don’t think it actually-”

“Over there!” You hear one of them in the distance.

You don’t get time to assess how far they are before Bucky points to a large grey building, “In there.”

You comply, keeping your head low and pushing your way through anyone in your way before jumping straight in.

Reflections of yourself from what seems like all sides hit you in the face, forcing you to falter in your footsteps. The House of Mirrors was probably not the best place to hide.

“You’ve gotta be shittin’ me.” Bucky has the same thought as you.

“Don’t run,” you tell him, holding your hand out to feel for mirrors in front of you as you walk as fast as you can alongside him. “Sometimes they just use glass to confuse you.”

“Wasn’t plannin’ to.” His eyes search the ceilings and floors where the large mirrors were attached, looking for a tell in the way they were arranged. There was yellow tape along the glass, so maybe if they-

Bucky walks straight into you, paused in front of a mirror. You don’t budge, clearly enamoured by whatever’s captured your attention.

“Look, my face is all weird.” You grin, pointing to one of the misshapen ones. Sure enough, your reflection was stretched long and wide, the smile on your face all distorted.

“Still look great,” he comments, prodding at you to continue walking. His face didn’t look much different from yours either.

“Aw, thanks,” you coo. “You do too. Look at us, power couple.”

“Keep it moving, Y/N,” he urges, with an exasperated smile, fully intending to just get out of there and hide in a more secure location.

For a second you’re distracted enough to forget your situation. “D’you wanna take a pic-”

You’re crudely reminded of it a second later through a series of screams and incomprehensible dialogue. You hurriedly pick up the pace, using your arm in front of you as a guide, only occasionally running into a mirror with a small ‘oof’.

The exit signs were starting to increase in frequency. “Almost there-”

“Found them!” One of them yells.

Bucky’s brisk walking shifts into a jog, “We need to get out-”

Not even a second later his body comes to a grinding halt, stomach dropping.

The gang glares back at him. No one moves until their leader pushes through the members to make his way to the front. They part like the Red Sea.

“We meet again,” he snarls, low and menacing, gun held up to his chest.

“Yo,” you say.

Bucky holds a hand out in front of you. You resist the urge to give him a high-five, knowing that as funny as it’d be for you, he was in no mood to joke.

“I got this, we’re fine,” you whisper, letting your fingers rest gently on the small of his back to ground him. “I’m gonna talk to them, and then we’re gonna get out of here.”

Bucky looks at you, a crease between his eyebrows. You want nothing more than to smooth it away.

He reluctantly lets his hand fall, eyes trained on you.

The group watches you intently as you take a bold step forward. You scan through them, unfazed until your sight finally zeroes in on their leader.

“Hold on, I remember you.” You narrow your eyes. His ears perk up. “You’re Mega Dick.”

“Megedagik,” he roars, immediately resorting back to his heavy breathing from all the running they just did.

“Calm down, dude.” You roll your eyes. “You weren’t in charge the last time I saw you. Where’s Chad?”

“That’s because I rose through the ranks.” He puffs out his chest. “I duelled and fought-”

“Chad quit after the whole showdown in the warehouse,” one of the ones in the back pipes up. “S.H.I.E.L.D. roughed him up real bad.”

“Oh no,” you say empathetically. “Must have been tough, new management and all.”

“Yeah, took a while to get the band back-” the guy doesn’t continue as someone whacks him over the head rather loudly to get him to shut up.

“So, you’re like-” You turn your attention back to their leader, wiggling a finger at him “-in charge now?“

“Yes, and I’m gonna-” Megedagik takes a step towards you.

“What’s your team name?” you interrupt.

“What?” He pauses, eyebrows knitting together.

“What’s your team name? Your evil organisation name,” you clarify. “I know you weebs have one. What is it?”

“Obsidian Crew,” your oversharer from before prompts up again. Someone says his name- Nico- to get him to stop, but he soldiers on. “What’s yours?”

“Hey, what’s our team name?” You twist your head towards Bucky who just looks back at you in confusion, clearly dragged away from whatever train of thought he was following.

“We don’t have…” he trails off.

You hum. “What’s the last show you watched?”

“Brooklyn Nine-Nine.”

You spin around to face them. “Team Sex Tape, bitch!”

“No.” Bucky’s eyes nearly bug out of his head.

“Fine, Team Dumbass.”

His lips turn downward in a ‘fair enough’.

“We don’t car-”

“Is that a death ray?” You return to your conversation with the guy in charge.

“We’re not really sure what it does,” Nico says from the back. “We just found the blueprints off the internet.”

“How are you so sure it works, then?” you challenge. “What if it just sends people to Jersey?”

Horrifying, Bucky thinks. A fate worse than death.

“It might, actually-”

Megedagik just exhales deeply, eyes rolling so hard you could see the whites.

“Dude, you’re gonna get us fired,” his partner whispers furiously.

“Sorry, bro.” Nico doesn’t sound like he cares too much. Bucky knows you just found your newest talking point.

“Mr Dick, your employees don’t sound very happy,” you quip. “Is the allowance not good, or-”

Bossman charges full speed towards you with a battle cry.

Bucky damn near pushes you, forcing you to start running. Behind him, you hear a large thunk as they run straight into the mirror they were too stupid to realise was there.

“I told you we’d be fine.” You laugh as he navigates you out the exit cleverly, clearly having figured out the structure of the building like the smartass that he was.

“We are not fine, we are very not fine,” he murmurs, taking a sudden turn into the crowd forming outside the circus to try and lose them.

People either jump out of the way or are rather uncomfortably pushed aside as Bucky weaves through the audience in a desperate attempt to find a decent place to call for backup.

“What’s our plan here?” he shouts, forcing you to keep your eyes on him so he doesn’t lose sight of you.

“To run,” you call back unhelpfully, apologizing in a rush to a woman you bump shoulders with.

“After that!”

“We haven’t gotten to that part ye-” You stop dead in your tracks, dragging him back with impressive force. “Wait, wait, wait!”

He skids to a halt, eyes wide. “What?”

“Bear,” you say excitedly, pointing at the shelf over the rows of stuffed animals at the milk bottle game. “I wanna try.”

“Are you kidding me,” he hisses.

“Absolutely not.” You’re already halfway through handing the money over to the game operator who slides three balls over at you. “I got this, hold on. My chance to win this for you.”

“They’re still in pursuit.” He knows for a fact that the dumb game is rigged. He can see remnants of tape and chipped wood on the table and either way, the stall owner looks slimy enough.

“I am in pursuit-” You hold a ball with one eye closed in aim “-of this bear.”

“Just give me that.” He grabs two of the three balls off the table.

With speed, accuracy and strength that no human should possibly possess, he knocks down two of the battle pyramids clean off the shelf.

Bucky turns to you. “Throw it,” he says impatiently.

“Uh, you can have it.” You hand the last one to him. “If you miss, it’s gonna be embarrassing for both of us.”

But he doesn’t, and in between whipping around and looking for a sign of where they are, he points out the stupid bear from the line-up.

The shop owner moves much too slowly for his liking, and by the time you’ve gotten the stuffed animal of your choice, he can see them round the corner and end up a few stalls away from you.

“Y/N.”

“Coming, coming.” He agonizingly watches you zip the backpack closed, swing it across your shoulder and clear your throat before bursting into a sprint.

He struggles to pull his phone out of his pocket while he’s running, forcing him to re-evaluate whether switching from tactical clothing to jeans and t-shirts for these outings was really the best choice he could have made. At least he’d have a stun gun or something hidden away on the other thing.

“Buck,” you call loudly.

“No more games,” he shouts, looking at you in warning.

You grin.

In a quick second, you take a sharp turn and yank him into a tiny space, illuminated by a single light bulb.

“Fuckin’ hell,” he groans when you drag the curtain shut and push him down on the tiny seat.

“Would you look at that?” you gush. “We’re in a photo booth.”

Bucky’s too busy dialling Hill’s number to care about whatever shit you were up to. “Keep your volume down.”

“Sergeant Barnes-” She picks up immediately, knowing that never calls her line directly without good reason.

“Code six,” he cuts her off mid-greeting. “Case number 8475. Hill, I thought we dealt with these idiots months ago.”

There’s a flash of light from beside him and he glances over only for a second to make sure you’re okay before turning his attention to the ceiling of the booth to look for any openings.

“Where are you?”

Another bright flash of light and he can hear you laugh. His mind goes into overdrive.

“The fair downtown.” He pulls the curtain back slightly to see where the people chasing both of you were.

Bucky watches one of them run past and he pulls the curtain shut again, swiftly retreating. There’s no curtain on your side, just the wall. He's glad you’re not directly exposed to danger right now.

His gaze is in the middle of travelling from the wall to you when the third flash goes off. He frowns at the little screen in front of him.

“Get them out of there, too many civilians,” she directs. “We’ll send someone down.”

The fourth burst of light catches him by surprise while he’s looking directly at the screen, leaving him blinking furiously.

Bucky feels you nudge his side.

“Sergeant Barnes?”

“Uh, yeah.” He closes his eyes to get rid of the spots that are dancing in front of his vision.

“Get out on the east side. Take that road, stay clear of any residential areas.”

“Noted.” Bucky hangs up, shoving the phone back into his pocket. They were instructions he already knew; he just needed to let them know he might require backup.

“What’d she say?”

“You need to leave.” His voice is serious with no hint of the humour or lightness that had been there all evening.

“Like hell I’m leaving you.” You scoff. He opens his mouth to protest but you just cut him off. “Don’t even start with that self-sacrificial bullshit now, you know I’m not going to listen. What’s the actual plan?”

He rolls his eyes, mumbling a whole lot to himself before saying, “We need to lead them away from here.”

“Are we working together now?” you ask as he pulls the curtain back again. “That’s so exciting for us.”

“We are not.” The path is clear, or so he thinks. Them wearing black trench coats made them easier to spot. “This is not a mission. You’re leaving the first chance you get.”

“Fine, then the least we could do is kiss.” You peek over his body to check the coast too. “Like in the movies, right before we race off into danger.”

“The only thing we’re doing right now is running.” Bucky turns back to compose himself, planning a route out in his mind.

“Fine, we’ll talk about this later.”

Whether it was the adrenaline of the evening so far or the possibility of death looming over your heads, he takes a moment to really stop for a second.

The light bulb casts a shadow over your face and there are beads of sweat lining your skin, but he still thinks you look beautiful. His eyes run over your entire face for any sign of injury or distress. Nothing of the sort, just an excited face looking back at him questioningly.

“You ready?” he asks, voice surprisingly soft.

“As ready as I’ll ever be, partner.”

Bucky’s lips upturn in a small smile. “Let’s go.”

The pit stop proves to be useful. It’s easier to navigate when the both of you are not running around with the directional sensibility of a headless chicken.

He knows for a fact that they’re all over the place and that both of you trying to blend into the crowd is not really possible when people are leaping away from you, leaving a trail of gasps and angry complaints, but he hopes for a clear road to the parking lot.

“You know what’s a good place to hide?” you ask with a grin. “The ferris wheel.”

“No,” he says immediately, pointing to the right. You follow without a question, and the path takes you behind a row of food trucks.

“Why?” you whine. “Is it because you’re scared of being with me for too long in one of the most cliche romantic setups ever? Not like we didn’t just do that.”

“There are no exits, we’re in open air, the booth is unstable, and it moves too slowly,” he lists off, head turning to see if anyone was following you. His pace drops by the tiniest bit, just so that he always has your back covered.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever,” you dismiss. “Murder shmurder. Just say you don’t want us to kiss and go.”

He sends you a side-eye. “Now when did I say that?”

You’re only left to gape at him as the border of the fair comes into view, a thin barbed wire fence separating the attendees from the rest of the city.

You know for a fact that he plotted this route to specifically avoid people, since no one really strays this far out, leaving it the least populated area of the entire event.

“Okay, once we get to the parking lot, you’re gonna leave,” Bucky instructs. “I’ll get them away from here unt-”

Something whizzes past his ear and hits the fence, leaving a gaping hole in its wake. You pull him back harshly, heart jumping to your mouth.

“Not so fast!” One of them yells from behind you, but you pay no heed to it.

“You okay?” you ask Bucky quietly. He nods, giving you a tight smile in reassurance before turning around slowly.

“You didn’t think we would let you get away so easily, did you?”

As if that was the plan anyway. Losers.

“You really wanna get involved with S.H.I.E.L.D. again?” Bucky questions as they surround you, leaving no room to escape unless he ploughs through them. “They let you off easy last time.”

“Easy?” Megadigik guffaws, loud and obnoxious. “They ruined our fucking lives.”

“You kidnapped me, asshole,” you call out. “In case you forgot, that’s illegal.”

He turns to face you. “You weren’t even worth it.”

You scoff, offended. “Take that back right now.”

“You will pay,” Megadigik bellows, raising the gun high.

“Fuck you,” you spit, specks of blood landing on the ground in front of you.

Nothing moves for a second.

“Why are you bleeding?” The leader looks at his comrades. “None of us have touched you yet.”

“Yeah, exactly. What the fuck?” Bucky voices out loudly. “Where is this coming from?”

“Just let me do my thing,” you insist, pulling out a napkin to dab at your mouth. It was probably the same one you got from the churro lady.

“You’ve been with me the entire evening, when’d you get hurt?” Bucky takes a step towards you.

“I’m not hurt, oh, my God,” you exclaim, throwing your hands forward. “Can’t a girl cough up some fake blood every once and a while?”

“It’s not real?” Nico, the only valid henchman ever, asks in wonder. “That’s so cool.”

You beam at him. “I know right? It’s this little switch-”

Bucky lets out a singular cough in disbelief. “You’re-”

“Yeah, yeah, annoying. I know, we get the drill.” You wave, cutting Bucky off.

“I wasn’t gonna say annoying.”

“You certainly weren’t going to say ‘love of my life’, were you?” you fire back.

“Maybe I was, how would you know?” he argues.

A green light hits the fence behind you violently.

You yelp and duck, dragging Bucky down with you. “Motherfucker.”

“Shut up, the both of you!”

“Don’t you tell him to shut up!” you exclaim. “Only I get to do that.”

“I don’t care,” Megedagik rages.

“Maybe don’t try to piss off the guy who has a death gun in his hand,” Bucky murmurs, tugging you back slightly.

“He’s pissing me off.”

“Do you have a death ray in your hand?” he presses. “Then stop trying to get us killed.”

“It’s not a death- ugh, fine” You roll your eyes. “Since you would rather take his side than mine-”

Without any warning, an explosive sound rings through the air. A thick cloud of blue smoke stings eyes that respond too slowly to it. In the middle of it are shouts of confusion and gagging.

“Run, run, run, run.” You shove at Bucky from behind. His training kicks in as he backhands a henchman out of the way before grabbing onto your hand and breaking out into a sprint.

“Where the fuck did that come from?” he yells, pulling you along as fast as he could.

You lift your hand and shake your wrist to prove your point. The little gift he gave you on Valentine’s day rattles against your skin.

“You turned the fuckin’ thing into an inator?” Fuck, it’s insane how much he likes you.

“Obviously,” you shout. “You know, maybe we should be Team Bracelet.”

“Shut up and run.” He wants to laugh.

“Bracelet Bitches.” You have no reservations about it, however. “Look, there’s a Whack-a-Mole over there, let’s-”

“Y/N.” Never mind, he takes back everything he thought a few seconds ago. He dislikes you very much.

“Bucky,” you say back mockingly. “Don’t let them distract you from the fact that we can destroy every stall here. We still have to hit the rides-”

“We are leaving.”

“But my rollercoaster,” you complain, your list of priorities very well sorted.

“Just build one.”

“What am I, eight?” You sound like the mere thought of it is silly. “And, where do you propose I build one? In my backyard?”

“Wouldn’t be the worst thing you’ve done.” Definitely wouldn’t.

Regardless of your carnival fun regrettably slipping through your fingers, you sprint towards the open parking lot, dodging in between cars and other automobiles to throw them off your trail

It takes a whole minute before you end up at his bike which he managed to park as far away as possible. It was like he knew it’d make your life harder, like the nemesis he was.

“Jesus fuck, we’re never doing that again,” you wheeze, bending over slightly.

“We gotta go.” He leans beside your body to check how far behind they were. “The longer they stay here, the more dangerous it is for everyone else.”

“They’re so irritating,” you groan. “Just leave it up to S.H.I.E.L.D., we’re out of here. Where’s your teleportation watch?”

Bucky returns his attention to you. “What?”

“Your teleportation watch,” you repeat.

“Why would I bring my fucking teleportation watch when I have my bike?” he retorts. “Where’s yours?”

You smile brightly. “Why would I bring my teleportation watch when you brought your bike?”

He doesn’t know whether he wants to kill you or kiss you.

“Also-” You lift up your hand which still had his metal fingers clasped around it. “You plannin’ on letting go? Or are we just gonna hold hands for the rest of the night?”

“Like you’d have a problem with that.” He rolls his eyes.

“I wouldn’t,” you say, “but I need both of ‘em for this next part.”

You hold up your free hand, jingling the keys to his bike.

“How did you-” His eyes widen.

“Get on,” you instruct.

“When did you get my fucking-” Bucky’s question never completes as blue dust-covered buffoons point at you from across the parking lot, yelling obscenities. Like an r-rated Smurfs.

“We’ll argue about that later,” you urge. “Get on the bike.”

“You are not driving.”

Your gasp is accusatory. “You said I could drive!”

“To your clone.”

“It’s the same thing, it counts. ” You look behind to where they were now running towards you. “And we’re in a time crunch here, so let’s go.”

They were getting awfully close. “Do you even know how to drive?”

“Fuck yes.” Your eyes gleam. “I actually got the stupid license just to prove that I could.”

“You have the license here? Right now?” His eyebrows furrow. “Why would you-”

“Get on the bike, Bucky,” you say loudly.

He can hear the sliding of a van door shut before headlights turn on in the distance. Their ride sputters to life.

Still, he’s not one to break a promise, especially to you or your clone. “If we die, it’s on you.”

“At least we die together, lover.” You press your palm to his cheek. His heart flutters annoyingly.

A ray hits the pole beside you and it instantly disintegrates. “Okay, but get on right now, we gotta go.”

“We’re so fucked,” he says under his breath, but he straddles it anyway, not before pulling the helmet down on your head and tightening the strap.

“Have some faith, dude.” You rev the engine loud enough to be heard across the city.

“We’re gonna die.”

“We’re gonna survive.” You smile deviously. “Team Dumbass always does.”

There is no goddamn natural progression with you. The bike lurches forward and into a speed so high he’s sure that there are skid marks left behind on the tar from the tires.

The bike flies out the parking lot and down the road, an insane amount of balance for something running that fast.

“Holy fucking shit,” Bucky isn’t sure you can hear him until your laugh reverberates through the wind.

He is so glad the road is deserted as the van pulls up behind you, loud and filled with irresponsible morons with too many resources.

“Slow down,” he yells, holding on for dear life.

“They’re right behind us,” you yell back, looking over your shoulder. Someone had half their body out the passenger side window with the gun pointed at you.

“Eyes on the damn road!” The way his adrenaline is pumping right now has him wondering if he’s going to go into cardiac arrest. 107 is too young to die of a heart attack.

A ray hits the road ahead of you and you swerve to avoid it. He doesn’t know where you picked the stupid trick up from, but you change the bike’s path from linear into random zig-zags, making it all the more difficult to hit you.

“Where the fuck is S.H.I.E.L.D.?”

“I don’t know.” If they were going to be fucking dramatic and erupt from the ground or something like they usually do, Bucky’s handing in his resignation the next day.

A telephone pole off the side of the road disappears with a bright green light. Even if it was death, it wasn’t good.

“We need to get rid of that stupid death ray.” Bucky looks behind him.

The amount of commotion- instructions, curses, shouts as the vehicle jumps every speedbump- there’s a lot of noise coming from that one singular van. He can see your new buddy Nico at the wheel, struggling to keep up with instructions. Clearly, he was the muscle of the group and didn’t look like really wanted to be there.

“It’s not a death gun,” you say rather uselessly.

“I don’t want to test that.”

“The guy said they didn’t know what it did.”

“How does that matter?”

“I’m telling you, that thing is-” You stop talking for a second before tugging the bike to the left again, narrowly avoiding a blast. “Okay, listen. There’s something right at the front of my bag. Grab it.”

“What?” Bucky chokes on the draft hitting him in the face. “I’m not using your evil shit.”

“Do you have another idea, James?” He can hear you roll your eyes. “Put your morality aside for a second, no one’s gonna see you.”

He groans inwardly, every decision he made that led up to this point flashing before his eyes. Ultimately pulls open the zipper, one hand struggling to reach into your bag while also keep himself on the bike. He finally grabs hold of something unfamiliar after shuffling through three hundred different stuffed toys and possibly his remaining churro.

“Did you find it?”

Bucky whips it out, immediately staring at it like something was fundamentally wrong. And he wasn’t wrong, there was something terribly underwhelming about the contraption in his hand.

“This is a fuckin’ hand mirror.”

“Yeah, that’s the one.”

“Y/N, they have a death ray and we have a mirror.” Maybe he wants to cry.

“Mighty observant of you.” You hit a speedbump and he nearly drops the stupid mirror to grab onto the bike. “Do you trust me?”

“Obviously,” he exclaims, gently veering your head to the side to narrowly miss a ray.

“Great, then when they shoot next, I’m gonna need you to make sure it reflects off the glass and right back at them,” you explain loudly, your zig zags getting noticeably less steep in preparation. “Hope you’re good at geometry, king.”

“Not half bad,” Bucky mumbles to himself. He never expected to thank his stars for the days he spent eons ago trying to impress his math teacher’s daughter, but here he is.

He shoots off a quick prayer to whoever may be listening in at that moment that you do not manage to injure yourself in the few seconds he turns around, before pivoting his body.

He calls out a quick ‘hey!’ and waits for them to shift their aim towards him, his body lifting off the seat slightly.

“Just shoot him!” His ears pick up Megadigik’s scream as the guy leaning half out the window pulls the trigger.

It’s like the ray barrels towards him in slow motion, a bright green light head straight for his chest.

In a split second, he yanks his hand up and winces. The zap hits the mirror almost blindingly, a sharp screech soon following before there’s silence. Is this how it ends?

“Nice one!” you holler.

He pries an eye open slowly, taking in the empty road behind him. He lets out a breath he didn’t realise he was holding.

“Why didn’t we do that earlier?!” He swiftly reverts back to his original position, keeping the mirror on hand just in case they came back or something.

“Because we needed all of them in one place and now was the only time,” you explain. The pace of the motorcycle gradually slows now that you were confident there was no one around.

Bucky looks at the apparatus in his hand, flipping it back and forth to assess the damage done on it before horror slowly dawns on him.

“I’m evil now.”

“This is your hero decay arc, baby.” You laugh maniacally. “You’ve joined us on the dark side.”

“Fuck no,” he mutters, shoving it back into your bag quickly.

“I’m gonna lodge a formal complaint. ‘Avenger goes rogue, uses’-”

A loud whir of mechanical wings and a beam of light shining down brightly on you forces you to look up. If an alien abduction was to ever take place in your life, it might as well be now. Things were already so goddamn weird.

“Right on fuckin’ time,” Bucky says under his breath as S.H.I.E.L.D.’s helicopter hovers overhead.

It takes a good forty minutes of talking to S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, recounting everything that happened that evening and Bucky promising to file a complete mission report before they agree to take a proper statement from you only tomorrow after a good night’s rest.

You tell them they should check New Jersey for any sightings of a clown car. They say they’ll look into that as soon as possible. You also tell them that their director is going to be receiving a very strongly worded email and no holiday card this year. They don’t have a reply to that.

Once they finally depart, it takes another fifteen minutes of an argument with Bucky to finally convince you to switch places with him. His logic of ‘after escaping literal death rays and kidnappers today, I’m not going to let your shitty rash driving be the thing that ends the both of us’, was pretty solid.

He takes the most convoluted path to your apartment, making sure that there’s absolutely no one following you for miles. You accuse him of just wanting to drive you around like some mobster. He ignores you, predictably so. The only sound that comes from him is a small sigh when you lean your head against his back, shuffling closer.

When he finally pulls up in front of your building, it takes another several minutes of surveying your street, all neighbouring apartments and their roofs before he finally lets you dismount. He politely offers his hand for support and you take it.

“S.H.I.E.L.D's stationing an agent here tonight to keep watch,” he informs you, watching you hop off.

“Dramatic.”

“Necessary.”

“You gonna let go?” you ask for the second time that evening, holding up your arm.

His metal hand latches loosely onto your little finger. The solar system bracelet is a nice contrast to your thin inator charm.

“No,” he says simply.

“Fair enough.” You fight a smile, instead choosing to lightly swing it back and forth. “So… fun evening, huh?”

Bucky looks at you dryly. “It was definitely something.”

“Good thing you brought the bike.” You wiggle your eyebrows.

“Sure was-” he starts but falters mid-sentence as another unwittingly thought crosses his mind. “Wait a minute.”

“What?”

“Did you- did you have that all planned out?”

“Did I what?”

“Too many fuckin’ coincidences.” He narrows his eyes. “You knew they were coming, didn’t you?”

You gawk at him. “How are you so sure I did?”

“You didn’t even look surprised to see them. Why would you come here if you knew they were after you?”

“They’ve been threatening me for weeks, how would I know they’re showing up today?” you complain. “On a weekday too. It’s technically off hours.”

“Then why’d you have that mirror on hand?” He points to your backpack.

“Because I’m very prepared, Bucky, I’ve been carrying it around all week,” you defend yourself, although his suspicions were definitely valid.

“How’d you know what to build, huh?”

A faint smile appears and leaves your face. “Maybe someone spied on their lair and knew exactly what they were building. Maybe someone even managed to tweak their blueprint to make sure it wasn’t dangerous.”

“You did what?” he asks in utter disbelief.

“I said someone, not me.”

“We almost got killed.”

“No, we almost got sent to Jersey. I even tried telling you but we kept getting interrupted.”

Bucky wants to facepalm so hard. “What the hell was your plan?”

“Well, in the moment it was run-” You hold up your finger as you list them off- “convince you to give me the motorcycle, get rid of them. I think I got all of it.”

“Then what were you talking about at the beginning? The one plan you had?”

“To get you to let me drive,” you emphasize. “It’s why I brought the stupid license along too. For proof that I learnt how to.”

Bucky stares at you. “You’re insane.”

“Now that’s an exaggeration.” You scoff. “I was completely prepared.”

“And what if I didn’t bring the bike? Then what?”

“Then I’d deal with it.” You shrug. “What’s the worst that could happen? We end up in New Jersey.”

“So, there was no plan.”

“There was a plan.” You cross your arms over your chest. “Made it up as we went along, but definitely a plan.”

He stares at you.

“I genuinely didn’t think they’d show up today,” you swear honestly. “If I did, I wouldn't have gone to such a public place. I wouldn’t put you in mortal danger unless it was me causing it.”

Reassuring.

“I’m getting you a security detail,” he grunts. “For the rest of your life.”

You let out a small ‘ooh’. “If you’re my bodyguard then we can have that whole illegal romance thing going.”

“I’m not going to be your bodyguard.”

“You suck.” You pull your backpack off your shoulders. “You won’t even admit you had a good time.”

“We almost died.”

“We wouldn’t. C’mon, grumps, it was fun, and look-” you fish the four-panel photograph you took at the booth out of your pocket “-a memento of the time you actively disregarded your job to save my life.”

“That’s not-” he begins but realises it’s of no use.

“Here, you can have half.” You tear it carefully down the middle and hand it to him.

He supposes it’s the better half of the strip. It’s not like he’s smiling or anything- he looks more agitated and distracted than he ever has- but you’re grinning from ear to ear in the ones he’s been handed. It’ll do.

“And hey- look at all the animals we won.” You pulled out an alligator. “D’you want one?”

“No.”

“Here, have the duck.” You toss it at him. “Look at it, it’s adorable. It’s my favourite.”

Bucky catches it with one hand. It looks back at him with beady eyes. His previous experience with ducks and geese or anything alike has been less than positive, but this may just make up for it.

“Thanks.”

“You’re welcome.” You look pleased with yourself. “Does this make us partners now?”

“Absolutely not.”

“T’was worth a shot.” You pause. “I think I like you better as my enemy anyway.”

It brings a smile to his face that he tries very hard to get rid of. “Enemies don’t buy each other churros.”

“Maybe it was poisoned.”

“You ate it too.”

“So maybe we do die together tonight, lover,” you fawn. “What if that’s been my plan all along?”

“It’s a stupid plan.” He shakes his head, breathing out slightly. “You’re ridiculous.”

“You love it.”

Bucky passes the duck back and forth between his hands like a baseball. “You got any other shit planned for this week?”

“No, today was special. Last week didn’t count because we were interrupted.” You swing the backpack over your shoulder again. “You have the rest of this week off, Sergeant.”

He wonders how Agent 7 was coping after his first and last day with you. He genuinely hopes the kid’s assigned to something more lowkey, he deserves it.

"In that case,” he brings up, “can I see you this Saturday?"

"You always do, doofus."

"No," he says calmly, “I mean like a date.”

Even though the duck is tossed cleanly between his hands, his palm has never been clammier. The spike in his heartbeat is not a reaction that he anticipated and is one that he is wholly unprepared for after years of dormancy.

"Oh." You blink, taken aback. "Oh."

He rubs the back of his neck, feeling the heat travel to his face. The duck stays in his metal hand, plush under his fingers like a stress toy. If he squeezes it any harder, it’s going to explode.

"I knew it." A shit-eating grin grows on your face. "I knew you had a crush on me."

It’s not like he tried very hard to hide it. It’s barely like he tried at all.

"I don't have crushes," he says gruffly.

"Right, of course." The smile never leaves your face. "You are, in fact, too cool to have crushes on people."

Bucky simply nods. You haven't given him an answer yet and he's starting to worry. His gut twists uncomfortably.

"So-” You boldly take a step forward. He stays rooted in his spot against the bike. "Would it bother you if I did this?"

You drag a finger down his jawline slowly. He swallows thickly.

He doesn't stop you when you caress the side of his face tenderly, giving into his impulse of leaning into your touch.

Your thumb swipes across his lips. His knees nearly buckle.

“You had a bit of sugar there, sarge,” you whisper. “Must be the poisonous churros.”

You pull away your hand, turning around to leave without another word. It takes him a second to pull himself back to reality.

“Now that’s just evil," he groans. His voice betrays him, much lower than what it was a second ago.

Your head turns at the sound, giving him a small laugh. "Pick me up at 7."

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#bucky x reader #bucky barnes x reader #mcu fic #bucky fic #bucky barnes fic #bucky fluff #bucky barnes fluff #bucky angst #bucky barnes angst #harmless fic #winter soldier x reader #Winter Soldier #bucky barnes #bucky

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thesurfaceofthelight · 2 years

Text

After All This Time

"Oh, sheesh! I hope I'm not too late!" Tangle bolted towards the torn down opening to Barricade Town. Fire and smoke filled the sky above it. It was another Eggman attack. This one seemed far more devastating than anything Neo Metal Sonic or Starline could ever do. It was an assault that seemed almost as bad as the ones during the war. Members of The Restoration looked weakened, and while they were holding off Badniks, it was uncertain of how much longer they were going to last. At least there were no dropships. It was a grounded army attack, and any fliers would be after Tangle was done. "Alright, good, there's still time." She smiled confidently, smashing robots to pieces with her tail. Whether it be throwing them at one another or simply smashing them to pieces, Badniks were broken. "Huzzah! We got backup!" One of The Restoration members cheered, causing a small group to rally morale. "You bet your bottom dollar!" She finger gunned to her fighting allies. "And it's still coming! So keep on doing great! Don't give them an inch, but keep yourself from pushing too hard!" She encouraged the others. Whether they were fighting or retreating, progress was being made. The latter advice was particularly effective. They likely wouldn't have even considered fleeing if they weren't told not to overexert. After smashing together more Badniks and blowing them up in chains, Tangle, in a search for more, took notice of something in the distance. It was red and unusually glowy, perching itself atop the barricade. She squinted her eyes at the sight. "Why would something be all the way over there instead of out here?..." She asked herself, gasping upon having an idea. "What if it's charging up a big laser that'll blow us all up?!" She gasped, beginning to run to the barrier. "But how am I gonna make it up there? It doesn't look like I can climb up..." Tangle looked around the town, noticing two lampposts close together. They were too far away from the barricade to be of any use, but... "...That's how I get up there." She opened a palm, putting her fist down on it as she hatched an idea.

Infinite stood on top of the barricade surrounding Barricade Town, overlooking the destruction that was being made. “It’s just like I remember it…” He mumbled to himself, looking at his hand. “But… I can’t keep doing this forever… can I?” The jackal asked himself. He took note that the empire was being shoved back, frowning. "I still have work to do, it seems. I can ask myself later." Out of the blue, something shot at the Phantom Ruby sitting on his chest. It cleaved the jewel in two, the half outside of his chest falling to the floor. He looked in the direction of the shot. Whisper stood with her Wispon in hand, infused with the Cyan Laser ability. A tense silence filled the air as the two stared at each other. “…I remember you.” Infinite spoke, breaking the sound of nothingness. “You were the spark of hope the rabble held dear. And yet, you… vanished after Sonic took center stage once more.” "How did you return? Why are you still doing this?" Whisper questioned, demanding answers. Somehow, she kept her quiet nature while questioning. "Straight to the point, I see." Infinite commended, clapping his hands. "Unfortunately... I don't have the answers for either of your questions. I'm searching for those myself." The jackal explained, crossing his arms. Whisper altered her position, making a slight shuffling sound thanks to her gear. "The war has been over. I'm not letting you reignite the fire." She warned, her finger just above the gun's trigger. The wind blew harshly in the background. "I'll sift through the ashes of this world if I have to. You'll lose it all in the fire." He beckoned for her to come forth, motioning with his hands. "Now, come. Show me what you're made of." The female wolf took no chances, immediately drawing fire with her Laser Wispon. The male, masked figure evaded the shots. He left behind a trail of red afterimages in his image as he evaded the attacks as a red aura glew around his body, allowing him to deflect the final laser shot. Infinite brushed himself off in a condescending manner as he finished. "You've barely improved." He taunted. An angry, yet concerned frown was worn underneath Whisper's mask. Laser was no good and Spikes was likely too slow to hit him. Cube and Drill were close ranged weapons. Infinite formed two cubes in the palms of his hands, firing them at the ground. He hasn't changed much either. Hypocrite. Whisper rolled out of the way as they exploded, shifting to the Orange Rocket power and firing immediately as she finished the roll. Infinite was forced to evade the attack, drifting away from the missile. Infinite surrounded himself in a crimson colored atmosphere, launching himself directly at Whisper's position. In a flash, she changed to her Cube Wispon. She bludgeoned his face into the barricade they were battling on top of with the hammer formed. Cracks were created from the impact, an aura of distortion appearing around Infinite as he let out an unearthly howl. He teleported away and reappeared behind the wolf. However, she easily smacked him in his sides with the Cube Wispon almost immediately as he came back around. For a moment, it felt as if time had stopped. His left eye visibly twitched as he disappeared once again, this time reappearing further away from the wolf. "No, no, no!" He cursed to himself, angrily muttering. "Stop underestimating your opponent you idiot! That's what nearly got you killed in the first place!" Whisper took this opportunity to shift over to the Cyan Laser power, carefully aiming while Infinite had his breakdown. "...No more mistakes." She fired, only for the jackal to leave behind a copy of himself to take the blow instead. Multiple copies of Infinite appeared before him, the Phantom Ruby in full glow now. It sparked with distorted energy, red lightning spewing across the area. The jackal had them fly at her, almost like they were living missiles. Whisper took out small, light blue crystals and tossed them into the air. They were sent forwards before stopping in place. The female wolf fired a laser at one of them, refracting off of each crystal and taking out the illusions with utmost ease. They created dust as they exploded, to which the real Infinite launched himself right at Whisper, claws in front of him. It looked as if he was wearing see-through armor that took his shape. Whisper shifted to the Yellow Drill power, thrusting her weapon forwards only for Infinite to grab ahold, causing it to screech in an unhealthy manner. His claws dug deeper into the weapon, damaging it further. "H- He's tearing into the Wispon!" The wolf gasped. "At this rate, the Wisp inside-" Before she could think any further, Infinite kicked the weapon into the air. During this time, he grabbed ahold of the girl by the neck, raising her up and slamming her onto the ground below. She let out a pained whimper, the jackal repeatedly bashing the back of her head against the ground. A Drill Wisp popped out of the Wispon, returning it to it's normal form before it hit the ground. It clattered upon impact. The yellow alien attempted to charge right at Infinite, utilizing it's power to attack him only to be backhanded by the masked, male figure. It cried in pain and landed on the ground with a thud, Whisper reaching out to the Wisp. The others appeared from 'behind' her, ready to help defend their friends. "Insolent little worms!" Infinite growled, slightly raising up the wolf once again. "Accept your fate, lie down and die! No more mistakes!" Before he could make another move, he was raised into the air, letting go of Whisper and was slammed against the ground. The female wolf gasped for air, holding near her chest. "Who dares?!" He demanded to know who was behind all of this. "I dare! And pretty easily, at that!" Tangle had the jackal wrapped up in the grasp of her tail, slamming him against the ground. "If you like hurting people that way, why don't you try it, jerk!" She insulted him. He disappeared from her grasp, floating in the air before the crowd of an angry Wisps and one determined girlfriend. He held his chest, the Phantom Ruby's power diminishing. "All of you... hate... you earned hate... my hate..." He babbled nonsense, pointing a finger at them. "All of my hate... you... regret..." With those... words spoken, he took off. A faint, red aura surrounded him as he departed. The Wisps assisted Whisper in standing up, Tangle holding her fists in a fighting position, watching him leave. She flinched upon a realization, quickly running over to Whisper. "Are you okay?!" She frantically asked, seeing her weakened state. "That jerk's lucky he's wearing a mask... if I saw his face again, I'd cave it in! In fact, I'm gonna do it anyways, despite the fact that he's hiding behind a mask!" Tangle swore. "He... He's still out there..." Her already, near, inaudible voice was even quieter. Tangle had to lean a tad close to process this information. "I... I can't risk it..." "Risk what? Who is that guy?" Tangle asked. As she asked the question, she looked around the barricade. Getting down was not going to be as easy as getting up... and that in of itself wasn't so simple. If she could just run on walls, then...

"His name is Infinite." Whisper was resting on a bed in Spiral Hill Village. Tangle, Jewel and her Wisps were by her side, ensuring she had everything she needed. Even Sonic was there, listening to the wolf. "You two have no idea how glad I am that you're both alive. And that you even chased him off, brownie points to you, Tangle." Sonic complimented, trying to lift the mood a tad while sharing his concerns. "I'm surprise you don't know who he was... Infinite was a BIG deal." Jewel added, replacing Whisper's ace wraps with cleaner ones. "During the Eggman War, he played a large part in helping Eggman conquer the world." Tangle looked as if she had finally realized what they were talking about. "Oh... that event..." She recalled. She was a prisoner until the big 'Death Egg Prison Break', in which she helped win back Spiral Hill Village. Seeing Sonic lay a smackdown on the Zavok faker still brought her a smile to this day. "I was... incarcerated for a while." "Yeah, same here." Sonic chimed in. "Infinite caused untold amounts of damage... he's not like Mimic, not one bit." Whisper shook her head, contrasting the two. "Infinite isn't afraid of a fair fight. He doesn't ambush. That's not his style." "And all of that damage is gonna come right back at his face!" Tangle pounded her fist against her open palm. The idea of Tangle going up against Infinite seemed... well... bizarre, but, hey, they were there to brag about the fact that he fled, mumbling nonsense. Speaking of which... "...Why did he retreat?" Whisper questioned, making eye contact with the ground. Wisps carried in drinks and food for her, often snuggling right up to the wolf. She would comfort them in return. Sonic looked for the door, crossing his arms and frowning. "I'm not sure of what's going on, but I'm sure of what I'm gonna do."

Author’s Note: Hello everyone. I didn’t have any plans to post, or even write this, but a very special friend of mine was feeling down, and I felt obligated to do this. They are a massive Whispangle fanatic, and I like Infinite a whole lot. In fact, Infinite and Whisper are quite similar. Both of them are masked canines with an air of mystery around them, except one of them was written good. With Infinite being a massive part of Forces, you can bet your bottom dollar Whisper would not be happy seeing him again. This is my first time writing Whispangle, and I’m hoping I did the ship justice, even if it’s not the primary focus. Thank you guys for reading as always and I will see you all next time. Sayonara.

#sonic #sonic the hedgehog #sonic idw #infinite #infinite the jackal #whispers #whisper the wolf #tangle #tangle the lemur #sonic forces #jewel #jewel the beetle

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phantomphangphucker · 3 years

Text

Phic Phight - The Weird Little Shit

For: @darks-ink

A class discussion held by Wes about Danny’s weirdness was never not going to be an absolute cluster fuck

Wes smacks the board, “alright, fuckers, thank you for coming-”.

“We’re only here because we lost a bet”.

“Shut up, Dash. You shouldn’t have to be strong-armed into learning the truth”. Everyone rolls their eyes at Wes pretty actively. “Anyway, since you all refuse to see or even listen to the truth of what Danny Fenton is. Instead, this. Weird shit about Danny Fenton one oh one”.

Dash snorts, “now this I can get behind, little shit weighs, like, ten pounds or some shit”. Wes points at him aggressively, “exactly”. Scribbling down ‘weighs less than a sack of potatoes' on the board. Star throwing in her two cents, “yeah and I’ve seen Sam just pick him up under her arm and run off”.

Brittney smacks her desk, “half the time he makes food directly in home ec it’s fucking cold, which ew, but also really weird”.

“Oh yeah he does that with his drinks too. He whole ass ‘drank’ a solid chunk of ice, major power move honestly”.

“And remember that snowball fight? I don’t think he ever actually made any snowballs, he just kept acquiring them”.

“Kid made for a great air conditioner when all the windows got stuck shut though; guy runs cold as fuck”.

Wes is just aggressively scribbling more down with a mildly manic grin.

“We should totally invite him to parties so he can keep the fucking beer cold”.

Dash laughs loudly and smacks Dale on the arm, “now there’s an idea!”, deadpanning, “still not inviting freaky Fenton though”. Dale chuckles very awkwardly.

“Well he’s an ice sculptor so that’s not surprising”.

“What the fuck do you mean ‘ice sculptor’? He clearly lifts weights in his spare time”.

“Oh yeah, he lowkey picked up the back end of my car once”.

“James, your car is a tiny little piece of shit. I could lift that damn thing”.

“Hey”.

“Anyway. Like I was saying, people who handle cold shit all the time, you know, like ice sculptors, usually have cold hands”.

“He lifts weights! Not ice sculpts!”.

“Here I though he was a painter”.

“Why the fuck would he be doing that?”.

“Well he’s always randomly splattered in green paint”.

Basically everyone pauses to look at Hanna. Kwan blinking, “the green is ectoplasm, duh”. Emilie shrugging and nodding, “everyone knows that”.

“Well I thought it was paint”.

“Well you’re clearly stupid”.

“Shut up”.

Dash waves everyone off, “so clearly not a painter or weight lifter, because have you seen his goddamn noodle arms?”.

“He lifts weights!”.

“No he doesn’t!”.

“Who cares! Have you seen his dad? Of course he’s a strong little shit! What really gets me is him getting out of locked rooms”.

“Oh he whole ass climbs out windows and shit”.

“All that ecto that gets on his skin makes his hands all sticky, hence why he can climb the side of buildings”.

“When the heck did you see him doing that?”.

“Oh I totally saw him showing off knife swallowing to some elementary kids”.

“I think he hangs out and does drugs or some shit on the roof”.

“So he climbs up the school building to do drugs? Why wouldn’t he just use the hidden steps like a normal person?”,

“I’m pretty sure the kitchen staff actually include him in their budget for missing utensils cause he eats so many of them”.

“Julie, no one’s saying Danny’s close to normal. Also kids got an iron stomach damn”.

Dash has to jump in there, “I totally made him eat my underwear once”. Earning him a round of judging glances. “What? I didn’t expect him to actually do it. I was planning to mock him for pussying out. But then the little fucker went and did it”.

“Power move”.

“Shut up”.

“You fed your underwear to a guy who builds guns?”.

“Excuse me but what?”.

“Maybe him doing so much dangerous shit is why his heartbeats all slow and stuff”.

“Again, excuse?”.

“Well we totally tested everyone’s heart rates and breathing and shit and he’s super low. He blamed his corn supper”.

“That’s stupid”.

“His corn supper had teeth, Todd”.

“Back to the gun making because what?”.

“FentonWorks is a weapon company what do you expect?”.

“James, he made a shotgun out of a pencil, two toothpicks, an elastic band, and a snapped in half penny. The thing was magically welded together”.

“You can’t weld a fucking pencil. It’s wood, moron”.

“Well it was goddamn wielded”.

Wes grumbles, “yeah he welded my binder zipper together once, stupid pyrokinesis”. Star glares at him, “I thought this wasn’t about your crazy conspiracy crap?”. Wes glares at her like she’s stupid.

“Ignoring Wes being crazy again. You guys do know he has laser beam lipstick right? He could totally weld stuff with that”.

“Didn’t he have a tail that one day?”.

“Huh?”.

“That lipstick of his is the plasma peach one right? Because girl I so need some, it makes amazing blush”.

“Oh no a dog just crawled under his shirt. I think he was trying to hide the treats or some shit?”.

“Fucking where? in his shoulder blades?!?”.

“Oh my god that’s right, he can totally pop all his joints out so probably yeah”.

“Since when could he do that? Better yet, why? Fucking ow”.

“His fingers also glow green when he cracks them”.

“Right Right I remember that! We also got him under a black light, totally wild”.

“I wish I could pop out my joints randomly”.

“He probably just eats glow sticks and they leaked into his joints and shit”.

“THAT MAKES NO SENSE”.

“Who cares, take him to a rave”.

“Oh my god yes he does amazing makeup”.

“Wait Fenton does makeup now too?”.

Wes points at Dash, “he’s got to cover up the dead parlour to his skin somehow”. With half the class shouting, “HE’S NOT DEAD”.

Emilie pursing her lips, “but what if he was, that would be hot”.

“EXCUSE ME!?!”.

“Oh get off your vanilla basic bitch high horse, Karen”.

Wes rubs his forehead, “not this shit again”. Smacking the board, “weird shit about Fenton, people! Not y’alls weird necrophilia fetish!”.

“Hey that’s just Emilie”.

Jesse looks genuinely offended, “bitch what? Have you seen a ghost? That glow? Mmmmmh yeah, daddy”.

Star chokes, “oh my god. I love our town”.

Wes sighs, “I should just start blocking you people from seeing ghosts at all. Cover those eyes until you stop BEING FUCKING BLIND”.

“Eyes never stop seeing, they just get covered”.

“NO! NO! BAD!“.

“That weirdly reminds me that Danny can totally walk with his eyes closed”.

“That’s weird how?”.

“How ‘bout you fucking try it then!”.

Dash shrugs, “well his eyes go glowy green all the time so no surprise he can just see through his eyelids”. More than a few people look to him, “why did you not add that to the weird list?”.

“Because it’s not weird”.

“Dash... do you know anyone with goddamn glowing eyes... besides ghosts”.

“Uhhh the entire Defect Quartet”.

“Excuse?!?”.

“Honestly him biting open pop-cans is weirder”.

“Oh god yeah, that’s horrible to hear”.

“He dead ass cut his lip up once doing that and just... kept doing it. There was blood all over his neck”.

“Why the heck didn’t anyone take an edgy aesthetic photo of that? Goddamn”.

“I feel like this is more an off-the-books class on discovering that Danny might actually be hot”.

“You wanna say Fenton’s hot again? I’ll goddamn choke you, motherfucker”.

“Do it you fake ass bear dom”.

A couple of people shuffle out of their desks and away when Dash actually throws a punch at Jasper.

“On a side note, once saw Danny sleeping in a trash can”.

“How is that weird”.

“How isn’t it? It’s a trashcan”.

“And he’s trash, your point”.

“YOU'RE GONNA HAVETA HIT HARDER IF YOU WANT TO MAKE AN IMPRESSION ON YOUR TWINK BOY! HE’S DURABLE AS FUCK!”.

“FUCK YOU!!!”.

“Huh, he did survive falling from the ceiling multiple times and that drowning once”.

“Fucker wasn’t drowned, he can breathe underwater”.

“Excuse me?”.

“WHAT IS GOING ON HERE!?!”.

Dash snapping his head around, “IM TEACHING HIM A LESSON!”. Jasper just smirks, “I DON’T NEED BREATH PLAY TIPS FROM YOU!”. Dash tries punching him again.

“This is ridiculous, I mean really, Danny would be the dom”. That silenced the entire room.

“What?”.

“Come on, he ate Skulker once ‘cause the guy was coping him an attitude”.

“DANNY EATS GHOSTS?!?”.

Wes turns around and slams his head on the board, “God fuck this is such a cluster fuck”.

“You’re hosting this and holding us hostage here”.

“YOU’RE NOT MY HOSTAGES! YALL LOST A BET!”.

“Oh suck my toes”.

“WHAT?!”.

“While Wes loses his mind for the fifth time this week, what we’ve got is he’s icy as shit, likes welding and makeup and ice sculptures and weight lifting, weighs fuck all, just vores goddamn everything, and climbs shit weirdly well?”.

“You’re forgetting all the glow shit”.

“HA! Glowing shit”.

“Fuck Todd, you are a dumbass”.

“IN SHORT LOCAL ELDRITCH TEEN BUT HE’S STILL NOT A GODDAMN GHOST WES!”

“FUCK YOU! IT’S SO GODDAMN OBVIOUS HOW ARE YOU PEOPLE LIKE THIS OHMYGOD!”.

Just then Danny Fenton opens up the door, the class going dead silent while he glances around slowly. Him looking to the whiteboard, then slowly back to his fellow teens, speaking “Oh no. Oh no. Oh no, no, no, no, no”, while slowly backing out and closing the door.

At first, no one says anything before Star snickers, “pffft”; the entire classroom bursting out into laughter directly afterwards.

Wes turning around and smacking his head on the board once again, “why. Just. Why me”.

END.

Prompt: Wacky reveals (ex: Danny drying up too quickly bc intangibility, Danny's drink stays cool way too long, people's electronic devices are always more charged when they've been near Danny, etc)

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saveourskinship · 3 years

Text

100 Ways To Kill Voldemort

“We could just yeet him into a woodchipper,” Harry suggested cheerily, “Write that down.”

Hermione went to, then paused, “With what?”

“Huh?” Ron asked.

“How are you yeeting Voldemort?” Hermione queried.

“Well, we could conjure a catapult or, you know, Scorpion him. ‘Get over here’!” Harry turned his voice low and gravelled, making a whipping motion in the air.

“What the fuck are they doing?” Draco hissed at Theo.

“Obviously,” Theo drawled, because it was obvious, “they are writing a list of ways to kill our Lord and Saviour.”

“In the library?” Draco sputtered, flabbergasted.

“I hate to repeat myself,” Theo crossed his arms, “so indubitably.”

“Malfoy and Nott are eavesdropping,” Ron stated.

“Well, anyone who thinks we aren’t planning on killing Voldemort is an idiot. It’s not like we have to hide it,” Hermione sniffed, writing down Harry’s Scorpion idea.

“Hey Malfoy! Nott! Come help us!” Harry called.

“Muggle Jesus wank, they know we’re here,” Draco panicked.

“I’m just going to be relegated to one flock of synonyms, aren’t I?” Theo inspected his fingernails. “Unquestionably.”

“Malfoy and Nott are here?” Hermione blinked in their direction before turning back to Harry. “They could be quite helpful.”

“Are you both mental?” Ron whisper-yelled at them.

“Undoubtedly,” Theo commented, rolling his eyes. “Honestly, I don’t even know why I’m here. I’m just a Rick-Roll of the same quips. May as well make this interesting.”

He walked over and conjured a chair right in between Harry and Hermione, distinctly closer to Harry, then leaned his upper arm flush with the table and rested his head on an elbow. “Hello, Potter.”

“Errr, hi?” Harry frowned a little at him.

“Salazar’s holy taint and balls,” Draco uttered under his breath, walking over too, glowering over them. “And how the ever-loving fuck do you think I could help?”

“Well, you are a Death Eater,” Harry said.

“Yeah,” Hermione chimed in.

“Wait, what? You’ve been telling me all year I was wrong about that!” Harry said, outraged.

Hermione tsked and placed her quill down primly on the table, “Harry. I’ve barely been speaking to Ron this year because of Lavender and so I needed to be contrary with someone. And I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to be right too often. You have a lot of dangerous ideas.”

“Where is Lavender?” Ron said, looking around for her. “Feels weird having my tongue in my own mouth.”

“Ugh,” everyone said.

Except Theo, who disgustedly enunciated, “Incontestably.”

“My idea’s aren’t dangerous,” Harry insisted.

Draco scoffed, earning him a nod of approval from Hermione.

“Here are your contributions thus far,” Hermione told him with a cough to clear her throat.

“Stop,” Ron shook his head as if clearing it. “I think I broke up with Lavender because when Malfoy poisoned me I think I asked for you when I woke up, ‘Mione? Aren’t we supposed to be getting together now?”

Everyone turned to Hermione for her answer. She sighed and rubbed a weary hand across her forehead, “Look, Ron, we probably are going to awkwardly fumble around each other for another year and then finally kiss over the corpse of some heinous monster somewhere and we will try, but our puppy love will fade when we are faced with the real world. Because it’s a bit weird for too many people to marry their highschool sweetheart, takes the sweetness out of it, you know.”

They all nodded like that made sense.

“So we will amicably split up and I will travel and fuck my way around the world for a bit then come back a changed woman but not so changed that I won’t utilise my contrarian charms on someone like Malfoy.”

“What?” Draco balked.

“Certainly,” Theo shot her a finger-gun to show he gave his blessing.

“So you end up with Malfoy? That’s gross.” Ron screwed up his face.

“It’s not that gross,” Draco said, so tellingly it was basically a Witch Weekly article.

“What about me?” Ron waved his arms around a little madly.

Hermione waved his offense away, “Don’t worry, from my calculations you end up with Pansy or Daphne or both.”

“Gross,” Draco parroted.

“Oh, okay. That’s cool then,” Ron bobbled his head.

“Definitely,” Theo added. “Do Harry now.”

Hermione looked at him like it was obvious and as Captain Obvious he should know that.

“Clearly,” she began, “Harry will be straight until the end of the year when he’ll finally realise that oh! you can be attracted to boys, too!” she gave Theo a Significant Look™.

“Naturally,” Theo inclined his head, returning said Look with a nice lob.

“Of course,” Hermione returned the swing.

“Unmistakeably,” Theo hit back.

“What is happening?” Draco edged out the corner of his mouth to Ron.

“No. Idea.” Ron gritted back.

“Enough.” Hermione ended the volley. “Now, Harry, your list -” Hermione flicked the parchment.

“Nothing wrong with it!” Harry harrumphed.

“Without doubt,” Theo shifted even closer to Harry.

“Aside from yeeting Voldy-Knob Knees into a woodchipper with a Scorpion style Accio, you have also said we should: shoot him with a bazooka; ask for the Time Turner back to kill him at the orphanage; conjure him into a wetsuit with a Portguese Man o’ War inside it; use your connection to his mind to convince him he’s not an evil wizard but actually a McDonald’s employee. Specifically a bad one; drop a hive of murder hornets on him and..” she scanned the list, “Oh yes, blow up Malfoy Manor.”

“You can’t blow up my house!” Draco yelled, outraged.

Harry shrugged, “I’m more partial to the wetsuit/jellyfish idea anyway.”

“See, dangerous,” Hermione concluded.

“Rather distinctly,” Theo agreed, fanning himself.

“Well, when we started this list in fifth year, your best idea didn’t exactly work out, did it!” Harry accused Hermione who raised her eyebrows.

“It will work... eventually. It’s more a long-term plan.”

“What is it?” Draco asked, curious.

Harry tucked his chin downward and whispered Parseltongue in the direction of his crotch.

“Whaaaaat the fuck?” Draco took a step back as Harry’s belt slithered out from the loops and snaked up his back to rest on his shoulder, forked tongue darting out to lick Harry’s cheek .

“What the fuck are you doing using a snake as a belt?!” Draco cried in shock.

Hermione cooed at it, scratching under its chin as it cutely rubbed against her finger. “She’s not a snake, she’s a basilisk. Hatched her last summer. Wasn’t hard, all you need is a chicken egg and a toad.”

“Evidently,” Theo inserted excitedly, clapping his hands at the chaos he’d walked into.

“She’s still young, so it will take a few years for her to gain her glowy eyes death thing, but I figured if a basilisk can be trained to Petrify me, I could do the same thing to old Volder-Boulders. Repay the favour so to speak.”

There was a moment of silence where ridiculousness met insanity and settled into a weirdly sane set of logic.

“Float him into space,” Draco suggested, sitting between Hermione and Ron, reaching over her to write it down himself under number 100. “We get enough people to cast Wingardium Leviosa on him and float him into space. He can only use the Bubblehead charm for so long before it fails. And he’ll probably freeze to death first.”

“Surely,” Theo concurred, placing his hand on Harry’s knee who looked at it curiously, but didn’t remove himself.

“Not bad,” Ron mused, rubbing his chin.

“What else you got?” Hermione asked Draco, leaning over his elbow to watch him write.

“More than you can handle, Granger,” Draco smirked.

“True. Right now at least,” she conceded. “But once I’ve satisfied my wanderlust in a few years, you’re going to be shocked, Malfoy. Shocked.”

“This is fun,” Harry piped up, nuzzling his basilisk, which was sadly not a euphemism at that point in time, “we should do it again.”

Theo grinned at him and licked his canine wickedly.

“Obviously.”

#dramione #draco x hermione #nottpott #theo x harry #harry potter fan fiction #draco malfoy #hermione granger #harry potter #ron weasley #theo nott #ficlet #drabble

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wannabe-fic-writer · 3 years

Text

All Over Again - Chapter 2

Summary: What was lost can be found.

Warning: 18+ Smut, Language, Violence. This chapter gets a little science nerdy!

Ch. 1

* * * * * *

“How did you do it?”

Looking up from the red glowing gun, your eyebrows pinch together as you look at the man stepping into your lab. His eyes, like always, flick around to take in your equipment. All your weapons lining the walls.

You lay the sword down,“ what did I do exactly?”

Tony leans on the counter across from you,“ Luthor Corp just bought six shares of Stark Industries and sent multiple emails detailing possible partnered projects.” His eyebrows rise,“ I’ve been trying to go into business with Luthor Corp for years now.”

“Congrats?” You narrow your eyes at him,“ still not seeing where I come in at.”

Your hands glow red as you run them along the side of the rifle, effectively removing it’s glow and energy charge.

“Side note, if you could come do your glowy magic thing on my new reactor, that’d be great.” You save your comments on that for later.“ Anyway, Pepper told me that you made quite the impression on Miss Luthor. I have a hunch her new found interest in my company is because of you.”

“Probably not. We never talked about Stark Industries. We talked about a lot but never the company.”

Frowning, he tilts his head to the side,“ it was an investment dinner, the purpose was to-” he sighs,“ nevermind that. You’re going to National City tomorrow correct?”

“I really don’t want to play company rep Tony. We’re just working on a project of hers.”

Which you found out the day after the investment dinner.

You’d contacted Lena about going out there. She confirmed your guess that she wanted to get your take and help on the power core. For the past two days you’ve been getting a few things done, mainly stuff that needs your immediate attention, so you wouldn’t be leaving anything undone.

After some pleading from Tony you tell him you’ll consider giving Stark Industries a little good press with Lena but you make no promises. Then finishing up your work and leaving the lab.

Sighing, you roll your shoulders, feeling how tired you are. Doing almost a week's worth of work in two days isn’t the most healthy thing.

“Hey, you okay?”

E/c finds deep green and you nod,“ fine.” The smile you try to give turns out to be a grimace.

Natasha watches you,“ you sure, you look pretty tired. I know you’ve been-”

“Romanoff, I’m fine.”

The redhead sighs. She quickly pulls a blank expression and moves to stand directly in front of you,“ how long are you going to act like this with me?”

“Like what?”

“Indifferent Y/n. Every time we talk you give me some off handed generic response like we haven’t known each other for nine years. Three of which we dated.”

You narrow your eyes at her,“ all three you spent keeping secrets. And then left me for said secrets immediately after. I’m not indifferent towards you Natasha I’m fucking hurt.” You don’t mean to snap but you can’t help it.

Since your break up Natasha has moved on and has tried to interact with you like everything was fine. Like she hadn’t broken your heart. Better yet, as if she was scared you’d hurt her.

Getting to the end of the hallway, you turn to her,“ you know what’s funny? Had you just told me, beforehand, that there was something between you and Doctor Banner, I would’ve understood. Because the worst part was being blindsided.”

“Y/n I’m sorry.” If you were close enough you could see the regret in her eyes, might’ve been able to hear her heartbreak.

You nod,“ I know. You told me.”

Avoiding the ex-assassin has become a bit of an everyday thing now. So much so that you almost don’t have to put any effort into doing it before you have to leave. You spend a little time training with Sam and Bucky, walking them both through their new supercharged weapons. You coordinate with Steve on the mission you’re being assigned after you get back.

You also take a moment to research Miss Luthor and Luthor Corp. Alongside finding the controversial opinions on the company and the woman running it. You ended up, not surprised, but impressed with her work.

And of course you spend some time with Wanda. Said woman not leaving your side at all, even as you go to bed. She occupies the empty side of your bed through the night and truthfully you’re grateful for the company.

When you wake up, you make quick work of showering, getting dressed, and starting to pack. Wanda doesn’t move a muscle, much more content with reveling in the warmth you’d left behind, while trying to get you to not go.

“I won’t even be gone long, back by tomorrow for sure.” You push a set of shirts in your bag.

Wanda groans loudly and cuddles further into your fluffy blanket,“ but I just got back and you promised to take me to see Harrison.”

You chuckle lowly,“ it’s Hamilton, Wan. And I’m still gonna take you, just a little later. Think of it as an anticipation builder.”

“Don’t you think I have enough anticipation.”

Shaking your head, you zip up your overnight bag, and sit down beside the young woman,“ come on Wan, it’s not like I’m leaving you alone.”

“Basically you are. Steve and Bucky never leave each other’s sides and Sam follows them around always, and Natasha has Bruce!” She exclaims, only to jolt up when she realizes what she’s said.“ I’m sorry.”

You do your best to laugh it off,“ it’s fine really. Natasha does have Bruce.” You quickly change the subject before that familiar ache returns,“ why don’t you take Clint up on his offer to stay with them for a while?”

Wanda looks down, playing with her fingers,“ I’m not ready to do that just yet.” Those eyes then lock with yours,“ besides I can’t leave you.”

“Hey,” you pull her into your side,“ you know I’m always here for you right?” She nods. Deciding not to leave on a somber note, you joke,“ except for tomorrow, so endure Miss Maximoff, and text me.” Standing up, you press a very chaste kiss to her forehead, and then leave out with a wink.

“Headed out Y/Ln?”

You nod to Steve, holding up your bag in emphasis,“ yeah, I’ll only be gone a day you know.” He nods.“ Oh and Rogers, do me a favor and keep an eye on Wanda yeah?”

While she’s doing significantly better after everything, you know she still has her moments. When they hit they hit hard and feeling/being alone doesn’t help. It’s one of the many reasons Clint invited her to go stay with his family for a while. But Wanda has reservations about that for reasons she hadn’t yet told you.

After getting Steve’s agreement to do so, you leave.

To you, the worst part of traveling is all the little stupid stuff in between. You loved driving, hated traffic. Flying was calming and you loved looking at the clouds sail by, you hated TSA, baggage claim, and boarding.

Luckily National City is merely five hours away and the second you land you feel the difference in NYC and NC. While both are skyscraper filled, fast paced, cities. There’s something about National City that seems freer. People are nicer, the sun shines brighter, the air smells cleaner.

Perhaps it’s just being on the West Coast.

Being the woman she is, Lena has a car service for you, the driver waiting with your name on a white board. You confirm your identity and follow the woman out to the car. On the drive to Luthor Corp, you take in the sights of National City.

Lots of skyscrapers but still a surprising amount of greenery. Eventually you approach your destination, the tall glass building branding the large Luthor Corp logo.

“Thank you.” You nod to the driver, slipping a tip her way, and getting out of the car.

Stepping inside the building, your eyes take in the sunlit interior as you approach the front desk. The young receptionist asks what he can help you with and you respond that you’re here for Lena Luthor and he asks for your name.

In the end you’re told to wait as she’s in a meeting, so you pass the time by texting Wanda, replying to the dozen texts Tony had sent. You tell him you’ll do it if he can get you decent Hamilton tickets and he agrees instantly.

“Y/n,” her voice, while still new to your ears, is easily recognizable,“ I’m so sorry for making you wait.”

You’re waving her off in an instant,“ it’s fine, I’m no greater than anyone else, I can wait.”

She chuckles, nodding in understanding, and silently pleased with your humility. A number of people would’ve demanded they go in immediately.

From there she directs you toward the elevator. As you walk the people walking around look to Lena in seeming amazement.

“It seems your employees are also fans, rightfully so.” You tease honestly.

“They’re a part of a small group believe me. I have more opposition than you could imagine.”

Raising an eyebrow, you shrug,“ a powerful woman is intimidating, especially one as brilliant and compassionate as you Miss Luthor.”

A light blush fans her cheeks and her eyes watch you on the elevator,“ if I didn’t know any better I’d say you’re trying to flatter me.”

“I’m being honest with you Lena, it just so happens that your truth is pleasing to hear.” The elevator dings, letting you both off to a floor of labs, some walled off by glass and others concrete. You look around, some machines and equipment familiar to you and others you don’t recognize.

Lena guides you down the halls to a room at the very end. It’s dark inside at first and then a purple light rises. Repeatedly it shines and then dims and you walk closer in amazement.

Octagonal, metal, plates surround the rock like material in the center, each plate connected by thick wires. The purple light emits from the rock. Lena flicks the lights on and it powers up the monitors and the core.

Still watching in fascination, you walk around the core, remaining a few decent feet away. A very low hum sounds from it and you can practically feel the power of it.

“Wow.” Lena smiles at your amazement.“ I imagine you had to build a stabilizer before you could move it.” You look up at her.

“I did. It was in a ship when I found it so I reutilized the ship's engine.”

Eyes wide, you smile softly,“ instead of the engine pulling energy from the core-”

She nods,“ it pushed the energy back into it.”

“How did you stop it from overloading?”

“Reworked the wiring to continuously transport the energy so there was never an overwhelming amount in the core at one point in time.”

You look back at the core, noticing that is also how she’s currently keeping it from overloading.“ Remember when I said you’re brilliant?” She nods.“ That was an understatement.”

With another laugh and a bashful blush, she brings you over to her monitoring equipment.

The next few hours pass with the two of you working on it. Lena loved the idea of turning the one power core into multiple ones which would require harvesting pieces of it. But it’s not like they make Alien Rock saws or anything on earth.

You’d have to invent a tool strong enough to cut through it without it disrupting or agitating the energy.

It’s well past the late hours of the night when hunger sets in for both of you. Lena insists you join her for dinner. After locking up her office, the two of you go to a restaurant that she sings praises for.

The maitre’d is quick to seat you both, your waiter bringing water, and asking if you’d like anything else to drink. Lena orders wine and you get an old fashioned like usual.

“So outside of being well versed in science,” Lena starts,“ what other talents do you have?”

“I can make a great cup of coffee.” You joke, the woman laughing.“ No um, I’m a weapons specialist. It goes hand in hand with science and my powers. Mental materialization allows me to create just about any weapon with my mind, of course it doesn’t last forever. For the most part I enhance the weapons the team already has though I’ve invented a weapon or two.”

Brown eyebrows raise,“ invented?” Intrigue enters her eyes and you’ve already become accustomed to it.

You nod,“ at the time my team and I were facing a threat we never had before. It required a special type of weapon and of course it didn’t exist.”

“Alien?”

Before you can reply, the waiter returns. They set down your drinks and take your orders, both of you smiling politely before they walk away.

Looking back at Lena, you sip your drink, and respond,“ yes. It took a lot of trial and error, messing around with their own weapons to finally get it. I ended up using the alien technology to build the weapons.”

“And you say I’m the brilliant one.” A smirk plays at her lips over the rim of her wine glass.

It’s then that you replay your own words in your head being hit with a startling realization!

“Lena!” You exclaim. Green eyes widen slightly, eyebrows raising simultaneously.“ A laser saw. We’ve been trying to come up with a material strong enough to cut through it instead of using its own energy to do so.”

She understands quickly, a disbelieving chuckle leaves her lips,“ oh my god, you’re right. Of course we’d have to neutralize the core before cutting it. That amount of energy against itself could cause a cascade of energy failures or something much worse.”

“You figured out how to stabilize it with it’s own engine and now you’ve got me,” she smiles amusedly,“ I’m sure two scientists of our caliber could work something out.”

Lena agrees. Then insisting you two talk about anything other than the work.

As much as she loves her work, she’s been intrigued by you since your first meeting. With this being a much more casual setting than the investment dinner and her lab, she wants to get to know you.

She’s learned how intelligent you are, even if that’s just the tip of your iceberg, but she’s dying to know more. And she does.

Over dinner you both get to know each other better. Lena’s disdain for her last name but need to clear it is something she, almost subconsciously, divulges. You’re not exactly surprised to hear that she went to MIT, in fact you would’ve been shocked if she went anywhere else.

While she avoids going in depth about her family, she does make mention of being close to her brother when they were younger and loving her father endlessly. Her sincere compassion is a trait she seemed to have always had despite the briefly mentioned opposition she faced over being so.

Her taking over the company after her brother was for a number of reasons the main one being that she wanted to prove herself. Luthor doesn’t mean evil, not always anyway. You’re led to believe that while many don’t agree, there’s proof through Lena’s work that she isn’t a bad person.

In turn you tell her about your time as an Avenger. All of it started back when your father worked for S.H.I.E.L.D. Being the dedicated man that he was, he often brought his work home, and being the daddy’s girl that you were, you lingered around and watched as he worked.

You’d picked up on a lot of things from him involving the weapons. By the time you were 16 you knew most guns inside and out from standard pistols to compact grenade launchers.

After high school you went to Stanford and majored in Mechanical Engineering, getting the opportunity to intern at the one and only Stark industries. Upon graduation you had taken an actual job at the company. Some time later you were approached by Fury to assist Stark in building the Particle Accelerator to save himself and take down Ivan.

Tony took a liking to you during your time working together and afterwards was more than happy to work closer with you, especially since you still worked for Stark Industries. Those connections lead you to being picked up by Fury every once and a while with S.H.I.E.L.D business. Until S.H.I.E.L.D fell, your last mission with them being Sokovia.

Eventually, despite the very late hour, Lena’s phone starts to buzz almost incessantly. With a small,“ excuse me,” she picks it up, reading the messages she received.

“Are you up to a few more drinks?” She asks with a soft smile and you find yourself unable to say no under the gaze of her green eyes.

She settles the check, relenting and letting you leave the tip, before you’re both in her car and driving to a different location. This place is a lot less upscale than the last. Funnily enough you find it a lot more comfortable than the restaurant.

You follow beside Lena, who approaches a table surrounded by a decent sized group of people. They all smile brightly at the CEO, a blonde hugging her excitedly. Then all eyes fall to you. Before Lena can even introduce you, a voice speaks.

“Oooohhhh my god!” A man about your height nearly vibrates with excitement in his seat. Brown eyes widen and he bites his lip.“ You’re Artemis, the Avenger!”

It’s impossible to not chuckle at his enthusiasm.“ I am, but without the getup you can call me Y/n,” you reach a hand out to shake his.

“Y/n, yeah of course.” He shrugs with an understanding nod.

Going around the group of people, you shake hands and learn names. After Winn, sits Kara Danvers(Lena’s best friend as she introduces), Kara’s sister Alex(definitely an agent of some sort), J’onn(also an agent), and James Olsen.

While they all seem fairly nice, you can see Alex’s and J’onn’s studying expressions. They watch you cautiously and you don’t blame them. Winn and Kara are the more open ones, excited to meet you and engaging in a seeming nonstop conversation. And James, well you aren’t sure about him yet but he seems okay.

Alex takes a swig from her beer, elbows leaning on the table top,“ what brings you to National City?”

“Lena actually.” All eyes widen, eyebrows rising as well.“ In a strictly platonic and professional way.”

The CEO beside you chuckles softly, hand resting on your bicep,“ Y/n’s assisting me with a project of mine upon my request.”

“What kind of project?” The auburn haired woman asks.

Something in her tone tells you that she’s skeptical, almost untrusting of the woman at your side. Whatever history is there is a little rocky, you can’t place why but it is. And even though you don’t know anyone here all that well, you’d hate for everyone’s seeming enjoyable night to take a sour turn.

“For now it’s merely a test for a new energy source. If it’s not clean energy or it’s unstable it won’t go further than this.”

The woman seems satisfied with your answer, at least a little, and nods. Lena sending you a smile in thanks.

“So, what kind of drink recommendations can a tourist like me get?”

With your simple, easygoing question, conversations start back up. Each person gives you a drink recommendation and you take it, trying each one. Some you don’t like but most of them are great, and strong.

By the end of the night there isn’t a single person who isn’t laughing. The effects of the alcohol you’ve consumed hit you and while you aren’t wasted, it definitely makes things lighter for you.

“Alright, I think it’s time I get this one back to her hotel so she can get home tomorrow.” Lena lightly pats your shoulder.

“Awe booo!” Kara and Winn say at the same time, the latter much more intoxicated than the former.

You pout, looking at Lena,“ don’t you want to hear about the anti-gravity gun Winn is working on?”

“It’s handheld.” He adds in a whisper.

The brunette chuckles,“ I’m sure Winn would be more than happy to tell you about it some other time.”

Sighing you nod,“ fine. She’s right, I have a flight later.” You rise up, the support of the table a great assistance,“ it was a great pleasure to meet all of you, had a lot of fun.”

Kara’s big blue eyes find yours,“ you’re going to visit again right?”

“Not sure when but I will definitely be coming back.”

With a goodbye to everyone, you and Winn slapping hands and nearly missing, and you and Kara high fiving perfectly, you leave.

For the third time tonight you’re in Lena’s car. She leans back into her seat after telling her driver where to take you. It’s a fairly quiet ride back to the hotel, you drinking from the water Lena gets from the center console, and her occasionally looking over at you.

She took great delight in watching you interact with her friends, especially with the amount of alcohol you’d consumed. Drunk wasn’t the proper state to describe you as but the intake definitely had you a lot more talkative and energetic than Lena has seen, though that’s only been twice.

Telling her driver to keep the car running, she accompanies you up to your room. She’d hate if anything happened to you before a friendship could even begin.

You swipe the card over the door sensor and push it open, turning to lean against the frame and address Lena.“ Thanks for today.”

“The whole day?” She chuckles.

“Yes ma’am. I loved every bit of it. Your friends are awesome and I’m really excited to see how the power core works out.”

A little smile pulls at her lips,“ well I may have started this by myself but you’re definitely a part of it now. So let me know the next time you’re able to come back.”

“Really?” Your eyebrows pinch together. Compared to how much was done when you’d arrived everything you did felt like adding two measly cents.

Honestly speaking, you’d genuinely loved every second of working on the power core with her. As much as you love saving the world as an Avenger, there was a newfound excitement and intrigue in you while you worked on this. It could save lives in a way you can’t as an Avenger.

“Only if you want to.” The CEO says, slight hesitation hidden behind her teasing smirk.

“I’d love to.”

* * * * * *

Taglist: @username23345 @depressed-bi-bitch @fayhar @trikruismybitch @aznblossom

#lena luthor #lena luthor x reader #natasha romanoff #natasha romanoff x reader #dcu #dcu x reader #mcu #mcu x reader #reader insert #all over again

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