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stusbunker · 3 years

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Hunters’ Crossing: Moving In

A Kinky Swingin’ Supernatural AU

Featuring: Dean Winchester x Wife!Reader

Written for: @spnkinkbingo

Word Count: 3535

Square Filled: Teasing

Summary: Dean and you work on moving into your new house. Which just happens to be Sam and Rowena’s old place. A neighbor stops by while Dean is out, welcoming you to the cul-de-sac. As the day goes on, you enjoy distracting your husband until he has had enough.

Warnings: 18yo+, shower sex, oral sex (both), penetrative sex, fingering, anal sex, analingus, dirty talk, just happy couple smut.

Pre-read by @cracksinthewalls & @thoughtslikeaminefield (who also made the awesome header).

Dean had been up and itching to get the show on the road for over an hour. The only things left unboxed in the two bedroom ranch, you had been renting since moving back to town, was the mattress, bedframe and a change of clothes. As of sometime after midnight, Dean and you were packed and ready to go. Unfortunately for your husband, you were still sound asleep.

He started pacing, or what sounded like pacing from your exhausted face-down state. It turned out he had started moving the boxes from your room to the driveway.

Dean wasn’t being loud, but it was really fucking early for that.

You crawled out of bed just after eight, shrugged into the old top and leggings you had left out the night before, and prayed he had gotten coffee.

“And she’s up,” Dean snapped his fingers in excitement. You grumbled your good morning, but snuggled into his side as he dialed Benny, his lead mechanic and the guy who was bringing the trailer. You nursed your coffee (with all the right fixings) as Dean finished his call.

“Can you believe where we’re gonna be livin’?” Dean kissed your temple, then looked down at you like a kid on the way to Disneyland.

“Uh, yeah, so can the bank account. You’re lucky you’re so cute and Sam’s lucky you have a soft spot for him,” you finished on a mumble.

“You love that house, don’t be like that,” Dean tisked at you.

“I do! I do. It’s just, I could have slept for like four more hours,” you whined. “Thank you for my coffee.”

Dean rolled his eyes at you, but you could tell he was pleased he had done good. You left a quick kiss on his jaw before he walked away to start hauling more things outside.

Barely ten minutes had passed when Benny and Bobby sauntered up the walkway. Before you had even metabolized the caffeine, the first trip was underway.

Hunter’s Crossing was the last cul-de-sac at the end of Lawrence Lane. Which ran the length of the development known as the Ethereal Estates. The four bedroom, three bathroom McMansion that you and Dean had purchased from his younger brother Sam was on the northern corner, facing south. Dean pulled the Impala into the garage with Benny and Bobby with the truck and trailer filling the driveway right behind you.

As you climbed from the passenger’s seat, Benny let out an impressed whistle.

“Damn, Boss, you’ve gone full country club on us,” the large man drawled.

“Can it, nimrod, or you’ll give him an even bigger head,” Bobby warned. Benny and you both laughed.

“You done? Cuz, last time I checked you can walk and talk,” Dean snipped, only half-heartedly. Bobby gave you a gentle smile as you shivered against the early spring air. You all fell in line behind Dean and awaited your assignments.

Two hours into hauling furniture, Garth showed up to give a hand. Unlike Bobby and Benny, who worked directly for Dean at Winchester & Son’s garage, Garth, a long time friend, was an accountant who helped Dean learn the books when John retired. His wife Bess was the kindest person you had ever met.

You were settled into organizing mode when the guys left to pick up the last round of boxes. Then, the doorbell rang.

A man stood on the front porch, draped against the doorframe like he had known you for years, tucked into a fitted black suit paired with the softest looking tee shirt you had ever seen. His mischievous eyes crinkled above a flirtatious smirk as he introduced himself.

“Baz, hi, I’m at the center of the loop. Welcome to the neighborhood, wish it were over better circumstances, but happy to keep it in the family, as it were,” he rolled off before you could even reply. He must be in sales, you thought.

“Hi,” you gave him your name, finding it easy to smile under his charms.

“You're the sister-in-law? So where’s brother dearest?” He teased in a tonal accent.

“Oh you know, sent him to do the heavy lifting. They’ll be back before long.” You stood up straighter.

“Right, well, we’re having a dinner party next week. It’s kind of a regular thing, we take turns hosting, and my wife’ll kill me if I don’t pass on the invite. Friday at seven? We have cocktails, and get gussied up for one another,” he mentioned passively, but you caught the drift. It wasn’t a backyard barbecue. “It’s all a bit pretentious if you ask me-- Well, who am I kidding, right?”

You couldn’t help but giggle a bit at his expense. “It sounds great--- Bash?”

“Baz,” his voice sizzled along the last letter.

“Baz, sorry. Uh, I’ll have to check with Dean, but I don’t think we have anything going on.” You gave him your best customer smile.

“How about I’ll just pop back when you’re better settled? I didn’t mean to pressure you, love,” Baz waved as he backed off the porch.

“You’re fine, really,” you apologized. “It’s just the first day, a lot to sort out.”

“Of course! Take your time. Right, well, I’ll be seeing you, ta ta,” Baz waved with a tight lipped grin.

You closed the door and exhaled. That was more than you had heard from your neighbors in the three years you had lived at your last place. It was kind of exciting getting an invitation on the first day, now if you could just convince your husband to go. But Dean didn’t really get ‘gussied up’ for much.

Dean found you in the kitchen, kneeling on the counters as you sorted the plates. There was so much space, everything was able to get its own shelf. You heard him start the tap, just out of your line of sight. Quickly, you sensed his amusement as you continued to stack and place the piles by size.

“Don’t laugh at me, it’s easier this way,” you said without looking at him. When he didn’t reply, you grew curious to what he was up to, slowly you turned around to find him leaning against the island which held the double sink, eyes firmly on your ass. You sighed, but leered back at him, down to just his t-shirt after the last of your belongings had been unloaded. He wiped his wet lips with the hem of his shirt, flashing the sweaty plane of his abs at you.

“Don’t mind me, carry on,” Dean sassed, waving you back to the task at hand.

It was your turn to roll your eyes, pushing off the counter with an exaggerated arched back. You broke down the box and moved onto the next, knowing Dean was enjoying his water break more than he should.

“Why don’t you call for pizza? Get the guys fed for all their help,” you suggested as you climbed back up to stock another set of cabinets, this time with glassware.

Dean nodded before he finished off the last of his water. As he scrolled through his phone for a number, you remembered your visitor.

“Babe? You got anything going on on Friday?” You watched him think.

“No, why?” Dean didn’t look up, brow scrunched in concentration.

“We were invited to the neighbors’ for a dinner party,” you sing-songed the last words, emphasizing the level of chic.

“What neighbors?” Dean paused.

“The ones in the big house in the middle. Baz, was his name. Said they do it a lot and take turns hosting,” you shrugged. “Could be fun. It was nice to be welcomed to the neighborhood.”

“How long was this guy here?” Dean’s face froze in suspicion.

“He just stopped by!” You chuckled aghast, but you couldn’t hide the blush Dean’s interrogation had brought back.

“So, what, he just conveniently shows up to check out the hot new neighbor when he saw us leave?” Dean shook his head and stood straight, squaring off. “I don’t know, sounds like a creepy thing to do.”

“Shut up, he’s married! He said his wife would kill him if he didn’t extend the invitation. Calm down, would ya?” You hopped down to face him. Dean grumbled and went back to his phone. “Hey?”

“What?” Dean huffed.

“I love you.” You placed your chin on his shoulder as he got over his temporary pouting.

“Yeah?” Dean cocked an eyebrow, and smirked at you.

“Yep.” You popped the p.

“You want the usual?” Dean put his phone to the opposite ear.

“Please?” You grinned, as he settled against the sink once more.

His fingertips swatted the curve of your hip as you walked away.

You had left an entire room for the empty boxes. Without enough furniture to fill the space and after Sam and Rowena sold off half of theirs to cover the costs of the divorce, it was easy to let the cardboard pile up as the day went on. As you waited for lunch to arrive, you trudged through the living room to drop off another few flattened boxes.

Dean asked Benny and Garth to reassemble your bed and the guest bed upstairs, while he and Bobby organized tools and lawn equipment in the garage. You could see Dean and the older man talking through the window in the study, or the current box depot. Your husband had a fantastic profile and you took a few moments to appreciate it.

Slowly you tore yourself from your reverie and started to break down the remaining intact boxes. You quickly grew overheated and bent over to crack the window. You caught Dean’s eye as you wrenched the stiff windowpane up. He was watching you from the tops of his eyes, mouth open as his tongue played with his top teeth.

He always had such a sinful mouth.

The glint of chrome flashed from his window up to yours, the wrenches he was lining up nearly forgotten as you ducked your head out the window, strategically pinning your breasts between your folded arms. He was not shy about taking in the show, his eyes grew dangerous with want.

There was a sudden pounding on the front door. Just as quickly as you draped yourself out the window, you rocked back and away from Dean’s hungry glare.

The beer bottle was cold against your lips as you let the tangy liquid wash down the mouthful of pizza you had practically inhaled. You hadn’t realized how hungry you were until the smell wafted in from off the porch. Best pizza around and you were finally in the delivery radius, suburbia already had its perks.

“Save some for us, darlin’,” Benny teased, as he cracked off the top to his bottle.

"Hey, I'm not the one driving anywhere, you get your one, the rest are mine," you sassed back.

You took another sip, locking eyes with your husband across the table. He licked his lips before taking a generous swallow of beer. A familiar heat sizzled in his eyes.

"Good to know who's really in charge," Bobby nudged Garth to hand him his beer, which Garth passed on.

"I don't want to get drunk," the skinny man reasoned.

"Yeah, and I don't want to have to call Bess to pick you up," Dean agreed and took the offered beer from Bobby, though his was nearly full.

"Somebody's ready to celebrate," Bobby teased.

"They're ready for something," Benny taunted. "A little horizontal mambo seems to be in the cards."

"It has been a long day, a little might be all he's got left," Bobby agreed.

You almost spit out your beer as you giggled with their banter. Dean chugged his beer and rolled his shoulders.

"Mind your business, or I'll have you work late every Friday until I'm sick of looking at ya," Dean said after a faint belch.

"Yes, sir," Benny nodded, smirking at you with a little wink. You shook your head and sighed. The food quickly disappeared alongside the beer, leaving you all stuffed and lethargic. You rolled your shoulders and followed the guys out through the garage. Dean shook hands goodbye while you leaned against the double wide door frame, smiling and waving. You were grateful for all they had done to get you settled in.

“Have a good weekend, boys!” you called, watching them climb into the truck. Dean sauntered back to your side, sweat stained shirt rumpled, hair askew, and handsome as ever.

“Ready to go break in that fancy shower?” he asked, fingertip dragging your hair from your pulse point. A devilish chill ran down your spine, you couldn’t help but shiver from his touch.

“I am beat, Hot Stuff,” you lamented. “A shower does sound amazing though.”

“Let’s get you naked, then we’ll see who’s beat,” Dean punned horribly.

You groaned and then gave him a meager chuckle. “Do you even hear yourself sometimes?”

“I’m fucking hilarious, it’s one of the reasons you married me,” Dean insisted, leading you back into the house by the small of your back. You stomped through the mudroom and passed the kitchen to the stairs, every step up felt like you had concrete bricks for feet.

“No rush or anything,” Dean teased, hands firmly on your hips, always so supportive.

“Why did we buy a two story house?”! You fell dramatically forward, slumped on the landing, with your legs and arms askew like limp noodles. “Can I just nap here first? It’s so far!”

Dean stood two steps behind you, hands on his hips and bitch face on. “Really?”

You rolled to your back, knees bent and propped yourself up on your elbows, as if it was the hardest thing in the world. Starring up at his annoyed face, you got creative.

“Please? Just take a little break with me?” You opened your legs suggestively, seeing his eyes rake over your body before he rolled them in mock annoyance.

“Five minutes, then I’m getting clean, with or without you,” Dean warned. He fell into the cradle of your thighs, his chest was flush with your heat, as his face burrowed into your cleavage. His arms snaked around your shoulders, holding you up to him like a pillow. It would have been uncomfortable, if he didn’t feel so damn good squishing you into the plush carpet.

Every inch he touched burned through your clothing, the radiant heat of his body oozing into your tired muscles, turning your blood into molten sludge, pooling at your core. Dean hummed and shifted above you, the tip of his nose teasing a nipple.

“I can’t wait to fuck you in every room of this house,” Dean murmured, voice husky and full of promise. “Gonna make you scream my name until there is no doubt every inch of this place belongs to me.”

“To us,” you replied, pulling his face up to look at your lust blown eyes.

“Just you and me,” Dean agreed, kissing a clothed tit, and then the next. He slid up on his toes until his hard edges crooked against your welcoming curves. Then he kissed you blind.

You twisted your hands into his hair and the back of his shirt, clinging to him as he sucked every memory of exhaustion from your mind. The satisfaction of a day’s work done and the hope of new beginnings flooded into your already happy existence, filling you with a blissed out giddiness as Dean began to grind his hips against you. You gasped, breaking the kiss, before dragging his shirt over his head.

He leaned back and placed a swift kiss on your lips. “Five minutes are up.”

You groaned in dismay as Dean untangled himself from your limbs and climbed the last six steps to the second floor.

“You coming or what?” He barked at you, belt already flapping open, erection poking his shorts out of his fly.

Dean usually hated shower sex, too many slippery surfaces and not a lot of space to get things done. But now that you had a walk in shower stall, custom-made for his giant brother, Dean had become an enthusiast.

What started on the stairs, led to him staying dressed on the bottom half until you were completely bare. Then he started the water, letting it get as close to boiling as he could stand and how he knew you liked it. He escorted you under the massive showerhead and pulled back your hair, letting the water soak every inch of your skin.

He wouldn’t let you touch him.

Then he started to scrub, louva sudsy and soothing over your shoulders, under your arms, around your breasts, leaving the parts that needed him most tight and wanting. Once you were as clean as he was going to let you get, Dean brought out the shampoo, letting you finish, not trusting himself to be gentle enough with your tresses.

It took him less than five seconds to finally get naked.

Once your hands reached above your head, Dean started his attack. He lapped one nipple into his hungry mouth as you groaned. Dean watched you the entire time as he mouthed your tits, wanting to push you to the edge as many times as he could get away with.

Fucking tease.

Then he moved between your legs, and the way he left parts of you unwashed all made sense. Because he wanted to taste you, not your floral body wash. He fell to his knees and hooked a thigh over his shoulder, leaving rough kisses on each thigh. Back and forth he went until you were dizzy and whimpering. He rinsed his hands and licked his finger tips for good measure, watching you wait for him to get on with it.

Then he began to stroke your folds. Ever so carefully, he pulled you open, cherishing the way you quaked for him. Your wetness only aiding in the tortuously slow glide of his fingers, front to back, back to front. After more breaths than you could keep track of, Dean pressed into you, two calloused fingers as deep as they could go.

You grasped his neck, desperate to hold on, because as soon as he would, you needed Dean’s tongue on your throbbing clit.

“Whoa--- everything alright up there?” Dean said with laughter in his voice.

“God, fuck, Dean,” you begged.

“Yeah?”

“Please, stud, I need you,” you panted, nails digging into his back.

“Might want to think about how you were acting all day then. Climbing around like a jungle cat. Practically flashing me and Bobby in the garage. Flirting with the neighbors,” Dean tisked at you. “I’m just giving you what you gave me.”

Then he shut up and put out. That sinful mouth decadently pulled and puckered every inch of flesh, until you were screaming over the torrent of the shower. Once his tongue joined his fingers, you were gone. Liquid heat squeezed out of you as your body shuddered out the aftermath, thanking his skillful digits for their efforts.

At long last, you were bent in half, hands braced against the intricate tile as he speared into you from behind. Your body fighting to keep the water out, which only pushed Dean to thrust harder against the unrelenting tightness. Your legs were going to give out soon, it was all too much, the warmth of the shower and the way, even on your tiptoes, Dean had to crouch with his bowed legs to hit your sweet spot with every single stroke.

When he smacked your ass, you faltered, elbows bending and falling forward. He caught you, slowly easing out of your abused cunt, until you were back on steady feet. You turned to kiss his pink lips, still heady with your juices. Carefully Dean reached behind you to turn off the water, brushing his chest against yours. You reached up and pinched his nipple. In return, he let his hand drop down to cup your mound, tapping a gentle rhythm across your slit.

“Ready for that nap, now?” He offered, kissing your temple.

“Definitely.

You spent the rest of the weekend unpacking and screwing, just like Dean wanted: in every room of the house.

He ate you out as a pre-breakfast in bed, first thing Sunday morning, slow and dirty. The noises that came from his plush lips made you writhe just as much as the work his tongue put in. You sucked him off while he made you a proper meal, but only during the prep work as bacon spatter is nothing to toy with.

You rode him while he tried to watch opening week baseball highlights in your new living room, your bare legs deliciously smooth against the leather of the couch. He took your ass after he watched you doing laundry, bending down to pull the hot towels out of the dryer was too much for him. So, he dragged you up stairs to a spare bedroom, licked you clean and then worked you twice over before slamming home and filling you filthy.

Moving was the best idea you’d ever had. You loved the house and couldn’t wait to get to know your neighbors. Life was good, you just didn’t realize it could get even better.

Tagging: @dolphincliffs @fangirlxwritesx67 @foxyjwls007 @akshi8278 @dontshootmespence @smi727 @ericaprice2008 @deandreamernp @mrswhozeewhatsis @itmighthavebeenintentional

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getitinbusan · 4 years

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September 1st

Jungkook's Proposal

Lazy days with Jungkook were a rare luxury. His large reserves of energy meant he was always up to something even when he was on a break.

The balcony doors were open and a cool breeze drifted through the bedroom ruffling the sheet that covered you. It was already noon but you were still tucked happily under Jungkook's arm. Both scrolling mindlessly through your phones you brought it up, “You’re going to be 23 soon, I think we should have a party.”

He put his phone down and rolled into your side. “I was thinking about going to Jeju,” he said matter of factly.

“Oh, were you going to invite me?” you asked smiling.

“I was going to invite everyone, my family, the guys and yes,” he giggled, “I guess you can come too. Would that be okay?”

Running your fingers through his messy hair you pushed it back out of his face and nodded.

“You shouldn’t have to plan your own party Jungkook, we can do it together."

You had a week to figure things out, guests, accommodations, food. You really just wanted to give him the best birthday, he deserved it.

Jungkook however, wasn’t being very cooperative. Everytime you asked questions he shut you down, if you brought it up he brushed you off. He was downstairs at the gym when you came across his to do list.

Call and confirm guests✔

Book Flights✔

Book Hotel ✔

Schedule Dinner and party space✔

Reserve private beach✔

*do not forget to pick up the package*

Puzzled as to why these were already checked off as done you messaged Joon.

Y/N: Hey Joon, I just wanted to invite you to Guk's party in Jeju. Are you down?

Joon: Yep, already confirmed with JK last week.

Y/N: What kind of cake do you think I should get?

Joon: I thought that the guys were taking care of the cake? Don’t worry about anything, I think everything is already organized.

Y/N: Oh… okay, thanks.

Flopping on the couch your mind wandered to a million different conclusions as to why he was cutting you out.

Jungkook’s key turned in the lock, the door squeaking open announcing his arrival. He was looking through his phone as he dropped his duffel bag on the floor.

"Hey Babe, Joon said you messaged him about the party?"

He walked over to where you were sitting and tapped your nose with his finger.

"I’ve already taken care of everything, all you have to do is pack."

Feeling disappointed your face fell into a frown.

"What's wrong?"

"Jungkook, I just wanted to take care of you for once, to be able to contribute something.”

He looked flustered, “I’m sorry baby, I just didn’t want to burden you with it.”

Upset you stood up, “I can’t believe you would think that throwing you a party would be a chore for me…I feel fucking useless."

Your statement trailed off as you walked away to your bedroom.

Y/N: I know I’m probably overthinking and being too sensitive but Tae...does he think I'm incompetent?

Tae: What’s wrong love?

Y/N: If Guk doesn’t think I’m capable of throwing him a party…this is so stupid… but he certainly can’t think I’d be a good wife. It’s been two years Tae, we’ve never even discussed marriage. Does he think of me that way at all?

Tae: Noooo Y/N, he loves you so much. You are totally over reacting. Please, don’t make this an issue, it’s his birthday.

______________

You didn’t know but in the other room Jungkook was busy texting Jin for advice.

JK: I don’t know what to do, Y/N is mad at me for not letting her help with the party.

Jin: Coming to your smartest Hyung for love advice, good choice. Here's my wisdom, Just make up a job and ask her to do it.

JK: That’s Brilliant!! Thank you.

He made a quick call, arranging that you would be the one picking up the last unchecked item on his to do list, the package.

He pulled the bedroom door open and lay down beside you, “I’m sorry, I’ve been keeping a secret from you.”

You set down your phone giving him your full attention.

“My brother is going to propose to his girlfriend, he swore me to secrecy, that’s why I’ve been planning everything, so she won’t find out.”

You felt your temper rise, “Are you fucking kidding me? You finally get your birthday off, you haven’t had a personal party for years and your brother's using it to propose to his girlfriend all while making you plan it for him?”

Jungkook laughed, “It sounds kind of shitty when you put it that way. It’s really not that big of a deal Y/N, I’m happy he wants to share it with everyone.”

How could you fault him for wanting to help his family? He was such a giving person and it was part of the reason you loved him so much.

“If you really want to help there’s one thing left that you can do."

_____________

It was all set, the flight was leaving at 3pm and you had been tasked with picking up the box and keeping it safe until the party. Arriving at the jeweller the older man greeted you kindly. "Would you like to see it?”

He opened the iconic tiffany blue box while you nodded. It was a beautiful square cut diamond on a vintage white gold band, it was breathtaking.

“The gentleman took a long time deciding on this particular ring, he said it had to be perfect. What do you think?"

Your heart was aching in your chest. Lately you found yourself daydreaming about marrying Jungkook, him placing a ring just like this on your finger.

"She’s a lucky girl, I’m sure she’s going to love it.”

It’s not that you weren’t happy about the engagement, you were just completely, full on green with envy, jealous. Not even together a year and Jung- Hyun is ready to propose.

You knew you were being an idiot. Jungkook loved you, you lived together, he always made sure your needs were met but here you were upset because she was getting a ring first.

Taking the box you snapped the lid closed and put it into your purse for safe keeping.

Enough, you needed to stop thinking about yourself. It was Guk's birthday and it was time to think of him and what he wanted. But what do you get someone who has everything

Wandering around you came across a neon lit sex shop, perfect! Three days away, three new sets of sexy lingerie and a bag full of goodies.

Maybe you didn’t get to plan the main party but you could make sure it was an afterparty he wouldn't forget.

The flight was short and smooth, you were amongst the last to arrive.

Making your way to the suite to change for dinner Jungkook flung himself down on the bed, “I’m calling dibs on the first shower!” you called out.

You got ready, putting on your new black lace thong set, loose black mini sundress over top and wrapped your hair into a messy bun.

Exiting the bathroom you found Jungkook in the same position on the bed snoring lightly.

Crawling on top of him, you pulled back his bucket hat to reveal his closed eyes and pressed a soft kiss to his lips. Instinctively he wrapped his arms around you and pulled you close for more.

“You need to get up babe.”

He hummed softly into your neck, “that’s the problem, I am up."

He moved your hand to his bulge. Placing his hand on your ass he could feel the lace under your dress. He let out a needy moan as he squeezed your cheek.

“Jungkook we need to go, everyone’s waiting.”

He pouted, “But it’s my Birthday.”

Getting off of him and laughing you couldn’t help but throw it in his face.

“Yes, and if I had planned this party I would have pushed dinner back so the birthday boy could have gotten his dick sucked beforehand. You really only have yourself to blame."

He knew he was defeated, rolling off the bed he sulked his way to the shower.

Coming out about 20 minutes later his skin was glowing, he looked stunning in his tan hanbok pants and white dress shirt, his hair was long and fluffy.

“You look amazing Guk.”

Walking over you hugged him, sneaking a kiss onto the side of his neck.

“You had your chance Y/N, now we both have to suffer all night"

Walking hand in hand to the open air dining room most of your friends and family were already waiting at beautiful white rose adorned tables.

"Jungkook, did you arrange all these details?”

Smiling he nodded, “Did I do good?”

That dull ache hit your chest again, yes he did good, he’d planned the perfect proposal… for someone else.

You kissed his cheek and lay your head on his shoulder, “I think you’ve created every girls fantasy”

Trying to hide your melancholy throughout dinner you stayed pretty quiet only offering small smiles instead of conversation. You didn’t want to be selfish but you knew in a few hours all talk would be about weddings.

The thoughtless question on everyone’s lips would inevitably turn to, “when are you going to take the plunge?”

It usually happened at family gatherings, you’d watch them corner Jungkook and he’d awkwardly explain that one day when his career wasn’t so busy he'd be able to think more clearly about it.

You hated how calculated of a decision marrying you would have to be for him. Seeing how romantic he could be with the laid out gestures before you, you questioned why he could do it for someone else but not you? Maybe he didn’t think you were the one?

Like he could hear your inner thoughts he put his hand on your thigh under the table. “What’s going on, is everything ok?”

“Just thinking about getting you back to the room later, that’s all.”

You lied.

He kissed your cheek but you knew he didn’t believe you. Seeming a little out of sorts himself, maybe this whole situation had him questioning your future as well.

“I think maybe we need a minute to talk, let’s go while everyone’s finishing.”

He took your hand and led you away from the group towards a private area of the beach.

Sitting in the sand he motioned for you to join him.

You sat with your back against his chest, head on his shoulder, his arms around you.

The sun was beginning to set into a light shade of purple and orange. “I want to know why you’re sad.”

He asked like he knew the answer but needed confirmation.

“I just wish that this party was about you, for your birthday, that it wasn’t about engagements…”

You were trying hard not to sound jealous but he could see through you.

“How about you tell me the truth?”

Reaching into your purse you pulled out the box and handed it to him.

“This, this is what’s bothering me. Jungkook…do you think that you’ll ever want me to be your wife? Do we want the same things?”

His arms still around you he held the box in front of you and opened it slowly.

“It sure is a beautiful ring,” he said.

You closed your eyes, knowing it wasn’t for you. “It really is,” you answered softly.

“Do you really not know what I want Y/N?"

He kissed the top of your head.

"I love you more than anything in this world. The ONLY thing I wanted for my birthday was to bring you here, to sit on this beach with my arms around you….and to propose with this ring. So… you tell me, do we really want the same thing?”

Absolutely 100% shocked you turned to face him.

“Are you joking with me Jungkook?” you punched his shoulder.

He laughed, “I think I know better than that”

Still skeptical you asked, “So all of this was a lie? You really made me carry around my own engagement ring all day thinking it was for someone else?”

His grin gave away the fact that he was pretty pleased with himself.

“No, you haven’t said yes yet, so technically it’s still not yours. Do you want to marry me Y/N?”

You crashed your lips into his as he pulled you back on top of him.

“Yes!”

Walking back to the restaurant the tables had been moved and outdoor furniture and candles had taken their place. Everyone was chatting and drinking until they noticed your arrival, silence fell and eyebrows raised waiting for the news.

“Of course she said yes!”

At Jungkook’s declaration everyone cheered and the waiters came out with trays of champagne. The boys carried out a large white cake adorned with sparklers while singing Propose, tears of happiness gathered in everyone's eyes.

The rest of the night was perfect, you danced in the sand oblivious to the guests filtering out back to their rooms for the evening.

Looking around, you realized it was just the two of you left, lost in your own world.

“Maybe we should call it a night?”

“Maybe, but I don’t really want this moment to end” he responded with a kiss.

“Maybe… you forgot what I’m wearing under this, and that it’s also your birthday, and that I still haven’t given you your gift”

He grinned and pulled your hand leading you back to the room.

You left him waiting on the bed as you got ready. Finally revealing yourself, fully naked.

He whined, “Babe what happened to the lingerie, I mean you’re beautiful naked but… ”

You cut him off, “but I’m not naked, I’m wearing this beautiful ring...and...it also just so happens that I bought you a ring too."

You threw him the little black bag and he pulled out his gift blushing.

“Oh, mine's a little bigger...and silicone...and definitely not church appropriate.”

You cocked your brow and grinned, "It vibrates too!"

"Put it on me?"

You slid the cock ring down his shaft and sucked his tip.

"Do you take me to be your wife?"

"Fuck, yeah I do."

#jungkook #jungkook smut #Kookie #guk #bts #nochu

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oddsnendsfanfics · 4 years

Text

Holding On for Dear Life

Genre: Fan Fiction (Vikings) Pairing: Hvitserk/OFC Warnings: Medical, Illness, Sexual Content Rating: M Length: Multi Chapter Disclaimer: a strict work of fiction, I own nothing except the original characters and the plot line. In no way am I affiliated to any of it.

A/N: Okay, this is something that I have been wanting to write for a long time, but never got to it. It’s not exactly polished a I would like right now, but wanted to posted the first part to see how it went over. Keep in mind, I am doing my best to go about Emmer and her illness as correct as possible, but a good portion of her is actually personal. I mean sure I can bog us all down with medical by the book, but personally I like my own life experience better.

thank you @flowers-in-your-hayr for the header

Catch Up Here

Hospitals, yuck!

Hvitserk wasn't a fan, then again was anyone?

Ironic that they would be there on the anniversary of them meeting, in this very hospital. Waiting for his best friend – sometimes girlfriend, Hvitserk had sat quietly watching a news programme on mute with captions scrolling across the screen. After what felt like ages, Emmer emerged, slightly sore and exhausted asking Hvitserk if he could take her home.

Cozy in her apartment, Emmer yawned and insisted that Hvitserk was fine to leave her. She'd been through this before, it was nothing new. Bed rest, only fluids, and pain meds only when the label dictated. Although Hvitserk admired her trying to ship him off, he knew better. The last time he listened to Emmer, she had gone and ordered a large pizza and proceeded to eat half of it. Landing her back in the bathroom sicker than when she'd gone to the hospital.

This time, he refused to leave.

“Hvits, I'm fine.” Emmer rubbed her eyes, yawning from the cocktail of medications that she'd received at the hospital.

“Nope, you're not getting rid of me.” Hvitserk shook his head, fluffing the pillow on her couch. He had zero intentions of moving, besides he was too tired to drive again. It didn't matter that his apartment was only a block away.

Hands on her hips, head cocked, Emmer scowled. “I'm not Ivar.”

“Thank fuck for that,” Hvitserk smirked laying down on her couch and yawning.

His baby brother was a far worse patient than Emmer ever thought of being. Although their diseases were nothing alike, they'd both had their fair share of surgery and hospital visits. It was during one of Ivar's stay overs that Hvitserk had wandered the halls of the ward, bumping into the frail girl with the IV pole. Emmer had recovered, gained strength, and a Hvitserk all in a few short months.

“Hvits,” Emmer whined.

“Bed, Emmy. The doctor said you should be on bed rest until tomorrow. You know the drill. If you need me, I won't be far. But I need some sleep, first.” Closing his eyes, Hvitserk took a deep breath, snuggling into the blanket that he'd pulled down from the back of the couch.

Ignoring her would eventually work, growing bored of sitting in the kitchen alone, Emmer would go to bed. If this were under any other circumstance, Hvitserk would have gone to bed with her. Knowing that she'd been in so much pain a few short hours ago, he didn't want to crowd her. Giving her space to wrap her head around the night's events.

Emmer was unfazed and not at all bothered by what had happened, but spending hours in the ER with a blocked stoma took a lot out of a person. Ulcerative Colitis was a cruel mistress, not only causing severe abdominal pains and cramping, but leaving one swollen joints, ulcers in various places, and fatigue. One time Emmer had told Hvitserk on top of that, it was literally the shittiest disease ever. Pun and no pun intended. Tonight's trip had been courtesy of something causing a block in Emmer's small intestine. Unable to pass, sending blinding pain shooting through her abdomen.

She'd called Hvitserk around the third hour of vomiting, asking for him to come over and keep her company. Arriving to find Emmer in the bathroom on the floor soaked in sweat, complaining that she was dizzy Hvitserk grabbed her emergency bag and escorted her to the car.

“Damn peas,” Emmer mumbled leaning against Hvitserk on the way to the car. She'd known better than to eat them, but she couldn't resist. They were there in all their green glory taunting her.

Home and somewhat comfortable in her bed, Emmer laid looking through her phone. Hvitserk on the other side of the door, stretched out and sleeping on the couch. Outside in the morning sun, the birds sang and the city slowly came to life. Oblivious to what some people were going through.

Each person lived their own life on their own path. Emmer had always believed that, even more so now. Her path had taken a turn, sick for months on end without reason or cause. Doctor's office after Doctor's office. Specialist after Specialist. Disease had nearly ruined her life. Easily, she could have allowed it, but why?

So she'd had some surgeries, a ruptured bowel, no large intestine, and had a bag on her side which was now her new bowel. It wasn't the end of the world and certainly wasn't the end of her life. Emmer enjoyed the freedom it had given her, now she was able to go places and not worry about whether or not she would be left in tears, over not being able to find a public restroom.

Meeting Hvitserk days after her first surgery had been another weird little blessing. He was quirky, sweet, and his own kind of funny. Not to mention he was a pretty good boyfriend. He was patient and gentle, even sticking around to be the supportive best friend when they weren't dating.

Rolling on her right side with a slight wince, Emmer rubbed her tummy above the spot where her bag resided.

“Really Eir?” She rolled her eyes at the grumbling stoma. “Now you're talking?”

Whatever. She shook her head, closing her eyes. Hvitserk would be in shortly, she was sure of it. His love for her plush bed would eventually take over, once he realized the couch was a tad to short.

Stretched out on the couch, his feet resting on the arm rest at the end, Hvitserk was surprisingly comfortable. Although he wished Emmer's couch was about seven inches longer. It was plush, comfortable, and like a cloud, until his ankles began to go numb. Curling his legs up, Hvitserk shifted over onto his side trying to stop his feet from tingling. Picking his head up, when he heard the bedroom door open.

No matter how hard she tried, Emmer wasn't exactly stealthy. The bottom door hinge and the floor board right outside of her door gave her away. Hvitserk pushing himself to sit up, scratching the back of his head, he looked like he'd been the one in the ER all night, in pain.

“Hey Hvits,” Emmer raised her hands over her head, stretching her shoulders, then dropping them. “What's for breakfast?”

“Why are you out of bed?” Hvitserk scowled with concern.

“Because I'm not tired? The day awaits us, Hvits.” She'd slept for three hours, it was almost 10AM. Time to be awake and out doing something.

“Your day is going to be spent in bed, binge watching cheesy sitcoms, while drinking tea, and eating broth.” Hvitserk smiled wide at her. “I'll even join you, once I clean up a bit.”

“You don't have to clean my apartment.” Emmer rolled her eyes at him. “I can do it.”

“I know, but I want to help. Besides, if I stay here it's an excuse not to go home. Ubbe had a new lady friend over, I should at least give her time to get out.” He shrugged. His older brother really needed to pick one of his rotating women and settle.

“He still on the rebound?” Emmer dropped onto the couch beside Hvitserk. Leaning over onto his shoulder, glancing up at him.

“Yep,” Hvitserk nodded. “Margrethe really fucked with his head. We have a talent for picking bat shit crazy women, you know. I think it's genetic or some shit.”

“Your mom isn't bat shit crazy.” Emmer countered. “She's just angry that your dad kept fucking around on her.”

“Understandable, although what did she expect? He did meet her, while he was married.” Rubbing his face, Hvitserk sighed. His family would never be up for any sort of Family of the Year awards.

“Your dad still seeing Yidu?”

“Nope, she grew some common sense and left.” Rolling his eyes, Hvitserk scoffed. “Did you know she's the same age as Bjorn?”

“I had a feeling she wasn't your dad's age.” Emmer shrugged. “Every family has their bullshit, what can I say?”

“There is family drama and then there is the Lothbroks. But, enough about my parents. How do you feel, now?” Leaning his head on top of Emmer's; Hvitserk nuzzled his nose into her hair. “And for the record, you're not bat shit crazy.”

“Thank you, I think.” Emmer laughed. “And I'm still a little sore, but feeling better. Really, I'm hungry. Can we eat?”

“Sure, but you're not getting anything solid.”

“Well, ice cream isn't solid. Oh! Let's go get ice cream.”

“Or, you can stay here, in bed while I go get some ice cream and bring it back. What kind do you want? Chocolate?” Hvitserk slowly lifted his head from Emmer's. “I can also bring back some coffee. Iced latte with almond milk and one shot of caramel syrup?”

“Yes! Yes that sounds amazing!”

“Alright, I will go get previsions. You stay in bed and rest. I shouldn't be long. Promise me, you won't try to do anything until I am back?”

“Well, I may shower.” Emmer shrugged, pretending to smell herself. “I stink like hospital, you know how much I hate that.”

“Fair enough, but nothing else. I will do the housework, when I get back. Okay, Em? I don't want you to get hurt or over strain yourself.”

Rolling her eyes, Emmer nodded. “Okay, fine, I will behave. Now go, I want my latte and ice cream.”

“Bossy Britches,” Hvitserk mumbled, grabbing his phone, keys, and wallet.

“Damn right I am!” Emmer called after him, gently tossing a pillow from the couch at his back.

Turning to blow her a kiss, Hvitserk laughed, closing the door behind him. A click indicated that he'd used his key to lock the door, saving Emmer from having to get up and walk twenty feet to the door. Hvitserk was always that way, making sure she was taken care of and he did anything to make her life easier.

Sometimes, it was annoying. Others, it was welcomed. Especially on days when Emmer had no energy. Some days she could barely make it out of bed, those were the days when Hvitserk's overbearing need to cater to her were welcomed the most. He was good at knowing when she needed him to take over, but not so good when knowing he had to back off.

Emmer adored him, but had no problems telling him when to lay off or go away.

In a family of six children, Hvitserk was number 4.

Since an early age, he had been the caretaker. Right after his older, half, sister Gyda. He was constantly taking care of his younger brother Sigurd while his mother focused on his baby brother, Ivar. Gyda kept her brothers from killing one another, while Hvitserk kept Sigurd from somehow killing himself. A task and a half to take on as a five year old. If they wanted Ivar to see his 10th birthday, it was a small price. Twenty years later...

Hvitserk had the ice cream in the car, thankful that the coffee shop wasn't overly busy. Along with their drinks he had gone ahead and ordered brown sugar oatmeal for Emmer and a bacon sandwich for himself. Food in hand, he tapped his foot lightly to the music that softly played through the shop. Lost in his thoughts and tiredness, he jumped when his phone rang.

“Hel-”

“Where are you?” Ivar huffed over the phone.

“I'm getting breakfast and heading back to Emmer's.” Hvitserk smiled his apology to the barista as he accepted the iced latte and the flat white. “Why?”

“You were supposed to drive me to that appointment, this morning. I tried calling you.” Ivar grumbled. Hvitserk didn't have to see Ivar's face to know it was twisted in a scowl. “I had to get an uber.”

“Sorry, fuck. Shit.” He hissed. “Ivar, look I'm sorry. Em had to go to the emergency room. She wasn't well and I had to stay with her.”

“So getting laid, because you played the hero, is more important than family?”

“No, Emmer had an emergency. Listen, I'm sorry. I am. Where are you now? I can come get you, before I go back to Em's.”

“Gyda came to get me. Unlike some people, she cares.”

“I care, Ivar.” Hvitserk defended himself. His younger brother was so dramatic. It came with being the baby. “Tell her I said hi.”

“Fuck you.”

Hvitserk sighed, the line went dead with a beep. Whatever. Ivar would get over it. Eventually.

It wasn't like Hvitserk intentionally forgot about his brother. Had Emmer not needed him, he would have drove Ivar as promised. Ivar was more than capable of getting places on his own, he simply refused. Unlocking the car, Hvitserk groaned and shook his head. Ivar was petulant, but still his brother.

Whatever, he could worry about that later. Right now, Hvitserk had to deliver ice cream and an iced latte, before Emmer sent out a search party or put a bounty on his head.

@danceyreagan @gearhead66 @supernaturalvikingwhore @funmadnessandbadassvikings , @smutgoblin , @nickysurfer28 , @igetcarriedawaywithyou , @lif3snotouttogetyou, @akamaiden, @laketaj24 @neeadinghugs, @thoughtsmeander2tumblingblindly, @ilvebeenabad , @naaladareia, @tephi101 , @sdcyumyum , @imgoldielikehawn , @sparklemichele , @titty-teetee , @smolasianwinterbean , @sweetvengeancee , @capitanostella , @ateliefloresdaprimavera , @branflakes82 , @lordavanti , @vvigilantes , @angelswannawearmyredshooz , @kawennote09 , @bluearchersstuff , @lisinfleur , @fumblingthroughchaos @pebblesz892 , @angelaiswriting , @kiiiimberlyriiiicker1995, @unacceptabletatertots @itsspecial-itsnotforeveryone, @captstefanbrandt, @writingfromasgard, @happydaysandersen, @letowolfie, @alicedopey, @beautifulramblingbrains, @equalstrashflavoredtrash, @rosepetals-flyingbirds , @ivarswickedqueen, @oqueequesentes-borboletas, @sodanova, @groovyzombiellama, @therealcalicali, @rekdreams-fandom @grungyblonde, @nevlahhh , @natalie-reader, @ivarlothbroks, @lol-haha-joke , @medievalfangirl @fictionbanshee @thisisabigmaze @ethereallysimple @emilie1993 @mariaenchanted

*I am operating on an old tag list, if you wish to be added/removed, please let me know*

#hvitserk ragnarsson #hvitserk lothbrok #hvitserk fanfiction #marco ilsø #hvitserk lothbrok fanfiction #Hvitserk Ragnarsson fanfiction #hvitserk's heathen feast #modern hvitserk #tw: medical #tw: illness

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zutaradreams · 4 years

Text

Day 22: Blood Moon

Zuko follows the signs to Katara.

@zutaramonth

He had thought of her as the rain poured down around his home and brought in the fresh scent of fire lilies. Mai had long left him for a less depressing life. Suki had left to marry Sokka; Ty Lee led the Kyoshi warriors now. Aang visited him at peace summits every year. Toph visited much more often. One day he realized he hadn’t heard any news about Katara in ages, and it left him feeling hollow. Just when he toyed with the idea of writing to her, the heavens opened up and her element unexpectedly inundated his capital city.

He got the message from the universe loud and clear - write Katara.

So he wrote her, and she wrote back. Scroll after scroll passed between them, some short, some long, all of them cherished. While having tea with his uncle, he accepted a letter from Katara and read it right at the table.

“I’ve never known a piece of parchment to make a man smile so much,” his uncle commented with a raised eyebrow.

Zuko laughed nervously. Okay, so he had a crush on a waterbender worlds away. His uncle knew. His staff may have even suspected. “Katara sends her warmest regards. I told her you were visiting,” he replied.

“When are you going to invite her to the Fire Nation, my nephew?”

“Never.”

“That is no way to woo a young lady.”

“I’m not trying to woo her.”

“You should be. She is very extraordinary.”

“I know that.”

“And you like her. Don’t bother denying it, I know you do.”

Zuko said nothing. His silence was enough of an answer. He skimmed over his most recent letter from Katara, hoping to see anything that hinted at something more than friendship. They did flirt every once in a while - at least he thought it was flirting. Was it flirting if she said on her coldest nights she thought about the summer she spent with him? Or what about the time she joked, “Asking for my advice again, Fire Lord Zuko? Next time you better send me a necklace,” and he had replied, “I’ll make it my top priority to learn how to carve.”

Would she be receptive to staying in the Fire Nation? Would he even be able to see her much during her stay? He was always so busy. She was too. The waterbending school she’d worked tirelessly on was opening at the end of the week. Was the Fire Lord even allowed to take a break? Things had calmed down since he first took the throne, but they weren’t nearly calm enough.

“Let’s talk about something else.”

“Very well, but sleep on the matter. An intimate friend is the hardest to find. You and Katara always seemed to understand each other so well. Do not keep her away because you’re afraid of your feelings for her.”

He slept on it, as his uncle suggested, and dreamed of the house on Ember Island. He was standing at the water’s edge, staring out at the sea. Behind him, he heard laughter. He didn’t have to see the woman to know whose laughter it was.

When he woke, his mind was made up. He was going to invite Katara to spend a week with him at the Ember Island house. They both needed a vacation. Her reply was prompt as always, and his heart sped faster and faster as he broke the seal. He was already thinking of ways to draft an apology when he read the line, “Yes, please! I can’t think of anything better than a beach trip.”

Now how was he going to tell her she was the only one he invited?

He decided the best thing to do would be to leave it up to her. He asked if she wanted to pass the invitation along to any of their friends. She replied that everyone else was too busy to go. His mind dueled between two thoughts: Hmm. Busy. Sure they are...and...Maybe they actually are. They lead complex lives.

Even his staff was not accompanying him to the house. They had orders to stay at the palace and wait on his uncle, who was acting as Fire Lord in his place. It would just be him and Katara. It would be perfect. Now if he could just get his palms to stop sweating.

“Zuko!”

He smiled fondly. “Katara.”

They both made the decision to embrace each other at the same time. It was the happiest he’d felt in months.

“It’s so good to see you,” she said. “Letters are one thing, but to actually visit…”

“I know. We’re overdue for some catching up.”

“We are.”

It was such a large house for two people. It didn’t take Katara long to unpack the items she’d brought and pour herself a cool drink. She jumped onto one of the sitting room’s benches and rested her legs comfortably along the arm. As she relaxed, Zuko was able to appreciate just how beautiful she was.

She closed her eyes. “I can’t tell you how much I needed to get away.”

“I’ll drink to that.”

“Are we going down to the beach soon?”

He shrugged his shoulders. “It’ll be dark soon.”

She opened her eyes and smiled at him. “Even better. I can’t wait to see what the moon’s going to look like tonight.”

“Why do you say that?”

She looked down at her hands. “My bending’s felt a little different all day.”

His eyebrows raised. “So has mine.”

“Really? Like weaker?”

“No, it’s been stronger.”

“But my bending’s been stronger,” she told him.

“Huh. That’s strange. We draw from opposite sources.”

She jumped off the bench. “Well now we have to go to the beach,” she said.

They walked out onto the sand with two blankets and laid them side by side. She sat on one, and he sat on the other. The sun was setting in the sky, in an array of reds and oranges he didn’t get to appreciate nearly as much when he was acting as the Fire Lord.

“I’m so glad we’re writing to each other now,” she told him.

“Me too.”

“What made you write that first letter?” she wondered.

He turned to her. Her blue eyes looked even prettier out in the fleeting daylight. “It’s going to sound stupid.”

“I won’t think it’s stupid. I promise.”

“Okay, so it rained in the capital. It poured for a whole day nonstop, and before I had been thinking about how you were the only one I hadn’t heard from since...well since I was crowned. I don’t know. I guess I took it as a sign that I needed to talk to you.”

“What if it hadn’t rained?”

“But it did rain. I’m just saying that-“

“You only decided to write me because of the weather.”

He couldn’t believe she was getting angry about this. “Ugh, don’t you believe in signs?”

“Not as much as you apparently.”

“Please, you believe in fortune tellers, and destiny, and all that.”

“Not anymore!” She protested. “Turns out those fortunes were wrong, and my destiny was wrong.”

He hoped she wasn’t referring to Aang. He had thought the two of them parted amicably, much more amicably than he had with Mai.

“I would have written you even if it hadn’t rained,” he assured her.

And if he hadn’t, he would have regretted it because even if she was harping on him, he was with her on a beach and enjoying every second.

“Good.”

“You could have written me too,” he pointed out. “Why’d you wait for me?”

“I don’t know. You just seemed busy.”

“I am, but not too busy for my friends. I enjoy your letters.”

She smiled at him. The light was fading more now, and the air was getting cooler. “I enjoy yours too.” She laughed.

“What’s so funny?”

“Nothing.” But she kept laughing. It made him self-conscious.

“Seriously, what?”

“Just thinking about Sokka. Whenever a letter comes from you, he usually gets it first and he always says ‘here’s another letter from your boyfriend.’”

He laughed nervously. “That is funny. Yeah, um, Uncle teases me too.”

“Really?”

“But I always correct him. I tell him we’re just friends.”

“Yeah.”

“I mean, we just exchange letters.”

“Yep, but those letters have really rekindled our friendship, and they mean a lot to me…”

“They mean a lot to me too,” he insisted. “I save them.”

Her eyes widened. “You do?”

He could feel his whole face going red. Was there a platonic way to say he kept them in a locked chest beside his bed? “Yeah.”

Her whole face brightened. “I save yours too.” Then he saw her shiver.

Without thinking, he stood up and shook out the blanket from beneath him. He draped it over Katara’s shoulders and she wrapped herself in the fabric. She smiled up at him gratefully and patted the space beside her on the blanket she’d been sitting on. When he sat down, his leg was pressed against hers. He decided to lean back all the way and cradle his head in his hands. She did the same. He felt the warmth of her body laying beside his.

“Zuko, look!” she exclaimed.

His eyes followed her outstretched hand, all the way to the moon, which had turned crimson in the matter of minutes.

“What in the world?” he asked.

“That’s what’s affecting our bending!”

“I’ve never seen anything like this before.”

“Doesn’t it look amazing?”

“Yes. Is it an eclipse?”

“I think so, but it’s making us stronger instead of weaker.”

“I wonder why that is,” he said, more to himself than her.

She turned on her side towards him, staring at his face. He met her gaze. “Do you think it’s a sign?” she said teasingly.

“Yes.”

She rolled her eyes at him, but then he pushed closer and wrapped an arm across her shoulder. His fingers played with her hair. He could hear her breath catch, even over the thrum of his pulse in his ears. If there was ever a sign that he was meant to be with her, this red moon, this manifestation of their elements reigning the sky together, was it. He pressed his lips to hers and felt the exhilarating bliss of the moment that would change his life forever. When they finally pulled away from each other, hours later with earnest smiles and no intention of spending the night apart, the moon had already returned to its pallor.

Katara could never mock him for his superstitions again.

#zutaramonth #zutaradreams #zutara #zutara month day 22

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quickspinner · 4 years

Text

Second Chance - Ch 7 Why Wait

“Luka.”

“Nngh.”

“Lukaaaa.”

“Hnh?”

“Wake up so I can kiss you goodbye, you jerk.”

“It’s the weekend, where are you even going?” he mumbled.

“Brunch with my parents. Are you sure you don’t want to come?”

“Marinette,” he moaned. “Your parents are amazing, you’re amazing, you’re gorgeous, I’m so in love with you, but that concert last night killed me. I’ll beg their forgiveness later, but please, please, please just let me sleep.”

He couldn’t see her pouting, but somehow he knew she was. Too tired to question whether one could hear a pout, Luka raised up with only one eye open, pressed a kiss in the general vicinity of her mouth, and then buried his face in the pillow with a groan. Even so, he smiled as he felt her soft lips on his bare shoulder.

“I love you too, vampire boyfriend,” she teased.

“Love you,” he muttered as he pulled the blanket over his head to hide his grin. He was too tired to be this happy, damnit.

***

Having Marinette there when he woke was one of Luka’s favorite things about the weekend, so he may have done a little pouting himself when he dragged out of bed. Luka had tried adjusting his hours a bit to make more time with her, and had been moderately successful until his next round of scheduled performances, which quickly put him back on night owl hours.

Still, they made it work, and the last few months had seen a great deal of improvement in Luka’s life, even with Marinette now working more standard hours. She’d declined to work with Adrien at Gabriel, and had negotiated a very favorable contract with another major design house, but she still had to work when everyone else was working. Luka had plenty to fill his time when she wasn’t around, especially with tour season quickly approaching, but he’d also taken Marinette’s advice and devoted more time to his personal life outside of her.

He’d started getting together with Ivan every few weeks, and he’d been drawn into Marinette’s circle of friends as well. Adrien has been by to see them a few times with minimal awkwardness. They’d had dinner several times with Alya and Nino, and as Nino also had a career in music that frequently meant he worked odd hours, he and Luka had struck up the beginnings of a friendship outside of their girls. Anarka was back in Paris, and she always had time to see him when he was bored or frustrated, or when he just wanted to get away from the reporters who’d been dogging him ever since his relationship went public. Luka secretly loved watching his mother tell off the paparazzi who had the audacity to set up around her boat, just before she cast off and left them on the bank as she sailed them out of reach, her booming laugh echoing across the water.

He’d found more of a balance, just as Marinette had suggested, and Luka felt much better for it. Lucille took the dip in his efficiency in stride, even though it made managing his schedule more work. “You couldn’t keep the pace you were on forever,” she’d said briskly when he’d apologized. “It’s fine for you to be human, especially if it means you’re writing more songs.”

He was, he had almost a full album’s worth of tracks at least partially written, and the ones he’d demoed for the producers had been well received. At home, Marinette had helped him turn his apartment into something more personal and comfortable for them both. The windows now sported curtains Marinette had sewed herself, dark blue in his bedroom and cheerful red in the living room. There were throw pillows on the couch and leafy, living plants here and there (Marinette promised to help him keep these alive). A knit blanket lay over the back of the couch whenever they weren’t wrapped in it. Framed prints of Luka’s album covers were artfully hung in the living room, and pictures of friends and family were scattered on the walls of the hallways and bedroom.

Technically, Marinette didn’t live with him, but the distinction at this point was a fine one. His spare bedroom was littered with her projects. The clothes she wore most often were in his closet and dresser. Her cosmetics competed for space with his in the vanity and there was a neat row of sweet-smelling bottles with pictures of flowers and fruit on them lined up along his bathtub. His kitchen cabinets housed at least half her collection of mugs that she had picked up in the various places she had visited, most handmade or hand painted and all far more colorful than anything he owned.

Most importantly, Marinette slept in his bed almost every night, allowing them to take advantage of every mutually convenient moment in their very different schedules. Maybe he couldn’t wake up with her and maybe she was almost always asleep when he came to bed, but Lucille worked his schedule to keep their overlapping hours open, or at least booked with tasks he could do at home.

Luka sank down on the couch, leaning back into the soft blanket, and tried really hard not to think about the tour starting in...crap, it was barely a month now. He sighed and let his head fall back with a little groan. He got homesick on tour at the best of times. It was going to be even harder now. He smiled at the ceiling. At least he’d have something really worth coming home to.

Luka perked up at the sound of a key in the door.

“You haven’t even gotten up the energy to make coffee yet?” Marinette teased when she saw him. “You really are tired. Fear not, your savior has arrived.” She waggled a large to go cup at him.

“God, I love you,” Luka sighed, reaching his arms toward her. She came to him and perched on his knee, kissed him, and offered him the coffee.

“I have pastries too if you’re hungry.”

“Mm,” Luka took the coffee, but nuzzled into her neck. “I’d rather have woken up with you, but I’ll take it.”

“I gave you the chance to wake up with me and you begged me to let you sleep.”

“You know what I meant. How are your parents?”

“Same as always,” she smiled brightly. “How was the show? You were too wiped out when you got home to tell me. This was the benefit show for the children’s hospital, right? The one Rose works with?”

“Yeah. It was amazing,” Luka shook his head. “So much energy in the crowd, it felt fantastic. Pretty emotional, though, with the speakers and all, so I really just had nothing left when it was over.” He sighed. “Those people are amazing. There was so much strength—“ he stopped, choked up, and cleared his throat. “It was a lot,” he finished thickly.

Marinette kissed him softly, giving him a tender look, and then got off his lap, heading for the kitchen. “We can take it easy today if you want. Do you have to work?”

“First weekend of the month is fan mail weekend,” he reminded her, accepting the plate and napkin she brought him. “So, yes, but I can work around whatever else we decide to do.” Marinette put the box of pastries on the coffee table near him, and then pulled out her sketchbook. She settled with her back against the arm of the couch and her feet in his lap.

“I don’t mind. You know I think it’s great that you make time to answer your fan mail.”

How is this my life? Luka wondered as he selected a pastry and put it on his plate. It was good, it was comfortable, it was right, and Luka was suddenly struck by the thought that he never wanted it to end.

Luka didn’t realize how he was staring at her until Marinette spoke.

“What are you thinking about so hard?” Marinette asked him without looking up from her sketchbook.

“I want to marry you.”

Marinette straightened and set her pencil down to look at him. She didn’t whip her her head up and stare wide-eyed, which he took as a good sign, so he set his plate down on the coffee table and continued.

“I love you and there’s no doubt in my mind that you’re the one I want to be with. I want this—“ he motioned between them, “—all the time, forever. So I’d like to know how you feel about it. If it’s something you think you might want someday too.”

Marinette rapped a fingernail on her sketchbook. “Someday?”

“Or today.” Luka quipped with a shrug. “I’m sure we could make that happen.” He was mostly kidding, but his eyes widened slightly as Marinette frowned and pulled out her phone. He waited, a weird feeling curling in his stomach as she swiped and scrolled and chewed her lip.

Then she looked up at him and his pulse shot up so rapidly that he nearly didn’t hear her over the pounding.

“I’m sorry, can you say that again?” he managed.

“I said I don’t think today will work, but we can do next Friday. I think everyone we’d need is free.”

Luka could barely breathe as he stared at her. “You want to get married next Friday?”

Marinette smirked at his expression. “Yep.”

Her smirk softened at the smile that bloomed on his face. Luka leaned forward and put his elbows on his knees. “Who are you and what have you done with Marinette queen-of-overthinking Dupain-Cheng?”

She mimicked his pose, leaning in until her nose was nearly brushing his. “She doesn’t live here anymore. Meet the new resident, Marinette not-stupid-enough-to-miss-her-second-chance Couffaine.”

He nearly tackled her in his enthusiasm to kiss her. Marinette shoved him off, laughing. “We don’t have time for kissing, we’ve got phone calls to make.”

“Right.” He whipped out his phone. “Lucille! Hey, listen, Marinette and I are getting married next Friday. Call her in an hour and whatever she wants, you make it happen. If you get stuck on anything, call Penny. In fact, call Penny anyway and tell her she and Jagged are invited.”

“Oh,” Lucille said blankly, and then “Oh! Yes, okay. Um, budget?”

“Break the bank, I don’t care. Just don’t kill anyone, don’t get anyone fired, and try not to make too many threats. Okay?” He grinned at Marinette, who had her own phone to her ear but still heard enough to wrinkle her nose at him.

“You take all the fun out of everything.” Lucille drawled.

“You’re the best, Lu, I’ll call you later and check in.”

“How much does she hate me?” Marinette asked in a whisper, holding her own phone at arm’s length while Alya screamed.

“She wasn’t even phased. She lives for stuff like this.” Luka grinned. “It’s good for her resume. And I’ve been so low maintenance that I’ve earned a few outrageous demands.” He kissed her temple. “I’ve gotta go.”

“What? Where are you going?”

“Gonna grab Juleka and go find a ring.”

“What? Luka, you don’t have to do that, it’s barely two weeks, I don’t need a ring.”

He leaned in and kissed her, caressing her face tenderly. “I’m gonna do it anyway. Unless you want to come pick it out?”

“No,” Marinette said faintly, “No, whatever you pick is fine, just—don’t go overboard.”

He kissed her again. “Okay. But when Lucille calls, you tell her what you want and don’t worry about the money.” Another kiss, and Luka giggled against her lips. “I’ve never been able to say that before. I want you to have the wedding of your dreams even if it is on short notice.”

“Isn’t there anything you want?” Marinette asked, looking concerned.

“I want you, Marinette,” he breathed, and then grinned. “I want to dance with you. I want my guitar and an amp handy. I’d really like to not wear a tie, I hate those things. But mostly I just want you there and as happy as you can possibly be. Everything else is negotiable.”

“Oh my God, girl,” Alya screeched over the phone. “I take back everything I just said, marry that boy pronto.”

Luka laughed. “Hi Alya! Bye Alya!” He kissed Marinette one more time, grabbed his jacket, headed out of his door and straight over to Juleka’s, and pounded a little more forcefully than was probably necessary. Rose opened the door, looking surprised.

“Luka, what's going on? Is everything okay?”

“Everything’s fine, Rose,” he said, smiling like his face would split. He leaned past her and hollered, “Jules! Get decent and get out here, I need to go buy Marinette a ring and you’re coming with me.”

Rose squealed, covering her mouth with her hands. Luka winked at her. “You’re welcome to come too, Rose.”

“That’s amazing Luka, I’m so happy for you!” She threw her arms around his neck. “Oh! Have you planned how you’re going to ask her?”

“Already did. We’re getting married next Friday.” His brow furrowed. “Shit, I better call Maman.”

Rose just gaped at him with her mouth open. Then she screeched and ran back into the apartment, screaming for Juleka. Luka chuckled and stepped inside, shutting the door. He pulled out his phone and called his mother. Anarka sounded simultaneously exasperated and delighted, but she promised to be there and that was all Luka cared about. By the time he was off the phone with her, Juleka had emerged, dressed in nondescript black without her usual lace accents, her hair pulled back in a knot that hid most of the color and her purple tipped bangs tucked under a hat. She said nothing, just wrapped her arms around him. He folded around her and returned the hug. When they separated, she reached up and smacked the back of his head, then walked out the door without looking back to see if he and Rose were following.

“The press is going to be all over you,” Juleka mumbled as they got in the car. “They’ve been staking out the building ever since that premier. They’re going to follow us.”

Luka made a face. “Yeah, I know. I’m hoping we can make it look like we’re shopping for you, but if they do, they do. Lucille will have to find a way to keep them off my back.”

“With the tour about to kick off, they’re going to say it’s a publicity stunt,” Juleka persisted, looking sideways at him.

“I don’t care what they say, never have.”

“They’ll probably dig up whatever they can about Marinette. Probably your old girlfriends, too.”

Luka shrugged. “Everyone has a past, it doesn’t matter. As long as none of them show up at the wedding I couldn’t care less.”

“Marinette might care.”

“I’ll talk to her about it when we get home.” He hesitated. “Although I guess we didn’t really talk about—” he stopped and pulled out his phone.

Marinette picked up immediately. “Hey.”

“Hey,” he replied, unable to help smiling at the sound of her voice. “Listen, before I do this I just wanna make sure, you know the press is going to get wind of this right? Even if I manage to cover up what I’m doing, something is bound to leak if we do this in a hurry.”

“I suppose you’re right, but at least they’ll only have a couple weeks to freak out. Better than planning a wedding for months under that kind of scrutiny.”

“You’re right. We should probably just make a statement,” Luka mused. “I’ll talk to Lucille about putting one out once you’ve talked to everyone you need to. I just wanted to make sure you were okay with everything because the second I walk into a jewelry store, there are going to be rumors, even if we try to make it look like we’re shopping for Juleka.”

“I told you you didn’t have to.”

“You’re not cheating me out of getting to do this just because you’re impatient,” Luka told her, laughing.

“I didn’t expect you to be so traditional,” Marinette giggled.

“I’m not,” Luka chuckled. “Keep the traditions that make you happy, throw the rest out, I don’t care. But this one makes me happy, so I’m doing it and you can’t stop me. I mean, I guess you could decide not to wear it, I’d survive. But I still want to pick one out and give it to you. If you don’t want to wear it I guess we could frame it and hang it on the wall or something.”

Marinette’s laugh was rich and full and brought a dopey grin to his face that he knew he would catch hell for later. “I’ll wear it,” she giggled. “I will. Whatever makes you happy, Luka.”

“You make me happy,” he told her, ignoring his companions as Juleka made gagging noises and Rose shushed her, giggling.

***

When Luka got home carrying a tiny pretentious bag full of fancy tissue paper, he found Marinette waiting on him with a strange looking box on the coffee table and a “we need to talk” expression. His excitement turned to ice in his stomach and he came into the room a little warily. “Hey. Something up?”

Marinette smiled tightly. “Nothing disastrous. Just a conversation we need to have before we go through with this whole thing. I figured we’d better do it now before we let Lucille loose on Paris.”

Luka frowned. “Okay. You know, I’m ready any time, but I can wait, we don’t have to rush into this if you’re not—”

“I am,” Marinette interrupted him. “But I need to make sure you are too, and that can’t be true until we’ve talked about this. Come sit down.” She patted the couch next to her.

Luka sat, eyeing the box on the table. “Please tell me these aren’t the ashes of your enemies. That would be a little creepy.”

Marinette laughed and patted his hand. “Not hardly.” Marinette leaned forward and did something to the box. A series of compartments opened seemingly on their own, revealing...jewelry? He glanced at her, still puzzled, until she lifted a familiar green bracelet from the box and his eyes widened.

It had been nearly seven years since the defeat of Hawkmoth—not a terribly long time in the span of global history, but Luka found now that trying to remember those days was like trying to remember a dream. The bracelet Marinette held was the one point of clarity. Luka remembered what it was and what it did, but had a hard time remembering why it mattered.

“The Miraculous magic,” Marinette told him matter-of-factly, watching his expressions shift. “It doesn’t actually erase anything that happened, or any record of it happening, it just makes it hard to think about. If you tried hard enough, and long enough, you would still remember everything.You’d just be easily distracted and constantly wondering what the point is of trying to remember. It’s been a real blessing for people whose akumatizations were especially difficult, and even more so for Adrien.”

Luka blinked at her for a moment, and then gasped. “Adrien’s father was Hawkmoth.”

Marinette nodded, and then shrugged. “Thanks to the magic, people forget. Or rather, as I said, they just don’t think about it. He hasn’t faced nearly as much persecution as he would have otherwise. Here, it’ll be easier to have this discussion once I give you this.”

She put the bracelet in his hand and he was nearly blinded by a flash of blue-green light. The slight fog in his mind cleared instantly, the clarity suddenly flooding back into his thoughts. Luka remembered everything now. He blinked away tears from the light and the rush of memories and stared into familiar yellow eyes. “Sass,” he breathed.

“Ssssalutationsss, Luka,” the snake kwami smiled, showing his tiny fangs. “My how you’ve grown. Humansss change ssso quickly.” He put his flipper hands on Luka’s finger. “It isss good to sssee you, my friend.”

“Luka Couffaine,” Marinette intoned quietly. “I present to you the Miraculous of the snake, which gives the power of Second Chance. You will use it for the greater good, and for the protection of the Miracle Box and its Guardian.” She smiled and shrugged. “That would be me.”

Luka looked up from the bracelet in his hand. “Thank you, Ladybug.”

Marinette’s smile widened. “You knew the whole time, didn’t you?”

“I guessed,” he admitted. “I wasn’t ever totally sure, but I figured it was safer that way.” He rubbed his forehead. “I don’t know how I’d forgotten until now.”

Marinette raised her hands slightly. “Magic.”

“Right.” Luka shook his head. “Weird.” He slid the bracelet over his arm, watching in mild surprise as it flashed and turned into a silver band decorated with Celtic knotwork. “It’s different,” he observed.

“The disssguise adaptsss,” Sass agreed. “You are different now, so the disssguise isss different.”

“Huh. That design, though, it’s almost as if—.” Luka reached into the little bag full of tissue paper he’d left at his feet, and pulled out a small box. Marinette’s eyes widened, and, regaining some of his earlier enthusiasm, Luka felt a goofy, lovesick smile spread over his face as he opened the little box, and held the wrist bearing the snake Miraculous up next to the ring. The little platinum ring had a repeating Celtic knot pattern around the band and a small but beautiful channel-set sapphire in the center. The Miraculous bore a similar knot pattern repeating across the bracelet.

“Oh,” Marinette gasped lightly. Luka took the ring out of the box and took Marinette’s hand.

“May I?” he asked tenderly, and she beamed at him.

“Yes.”

Luka slid the ring on her finger. “I thought you would prefer something flat.” He grinned at her. “See, I’m not as traditional as you think. I liked it so much that I had them reserve the matching wedding bands for us, but you don’t like them, we can go pick something else together.”

“It’s perfect, I love it,” Marinette breathed, smiling up at him. “And this is a good thing,” she added, picking up his arm to look at the bracelet, and then holding her own hand next to it to compare it to her ring. “Since it matches, if anyone asks, it was my engagement gift to you. That gives you an excuse to always have it on you.” She smiled. “It’s sort of true, anyway.”

“Sort of true?”

“Well, like I said, I figured I needed to talk to you about this before we really went through with things,” Marinette sighed. “And Tikki and I agreed that if we’re going to make a home and a family together, you should be protected, and empowered to protect us, so...” She waved a hand at the bracelet.

“Tikki?” Luka asked, feeling rather overwhelmed.

“Tikki,” Marinette called, and a tiny red kwami zipped up from her side to haven between them. “Luka, meet Tikki, the kwami of creation,” Marinette gestured. “She’s the source of that energy you kept noticing, by the way.”

“That’s only partially true,” Tikki interjected. “Marinette has a strong creative spirit on her own, which makes her very well suited to be Ladybug. The resonance you feel is because we’re so closely attuned.” She smiled, zipping close to examine Luka’s face. “You wouldn’t be able to sense it at all if you weren’t a true creative spirit too.”

Sass hissed a quiet laugh and perched on his shoulder, tail curling around Luka’s neck. “Don’t get greedy, Tikki. Thisss one isss mine.” Tikki rolled her eyes, giggling, and zipped back to Marinette.

“So, if you haven’t changed your mind after learning about all this unexpected craziness that comes attached to me,” Marinette was trying to be positive, he could tell, but there was still an edge of apprehension in her smile. “The bracelet is yours.”

“Of course I haven’t,” Luka exclaimed, putting his hand on hers. “I mean, I’m not saying this all isn’t kind of heavy, and it makes me nervous that we’re—that I’m in the public eye so much. But if you’re okay with this, then so am I. I trust your judgement.”

Marinette flipped her hair. “I plan to be famous with or without you, mister rock star, so don’t go playing the martyr.” She smiled at him and squeezed his hand. “We’ll make it work. Just like everything else. The butterfly and the peacock have been recovered and repaired, there’s no reason for anyone to come after the Miraculous now that the magic is nudging people’s thoughts away from it, and no one but Adrien knows I was Ladybug, so no one would even know where to start looking. We should be fine, this is just a precaution.”

Luka blinked at her for a moment, putting things together. “Adrien is Chat Noir,” he said after a moment. Sass chuckled from his shoulder.

“Yep,” Marinette smiled. “It’s the only Miraculous not in my possession. I couldn’t bear to take Plagg from him after everything that happened. Most of the kwamis prefer to stay in the Miracle Box unless they have a bearer, but sometimes they like to come out and have a chat and they’ll probably all want to meet you sooner or later, so just be prepared and try not to scream.” She narrowed her eyes slightly and pointed a finger at Sass and Tikki. “And you tell them the bedroom is a kwami-free zone, got it? Divine being or not, the first kwami that interrupts us is going to find themselves sealed in their Miraculous and dropped to the bottom of the Seine.”

Luka blushed as the kwamis tittered.

“So, uh…” Luka rubbed a hand through his hair, dropping his chin to his chest as he tried to process. “You got any more bombs to drop on me?”

“This was the big one,” Marinette giggled. “Nothing else but the usual stuff left. Money, living arrangements, future plans, kids.” She paused. “You’re okay with kids, right?”

Luka’s head snapped up and he stared at her, wide-eyed. “You want to have children...with me?”

Marinette sat back slightly and she blinked at him. “I mean, not right now, but in a few years, yeah. Is that...not something you want?”

Luka was having trouble processing. “It’s...honestly not something I thought I could have.”

She tilted her head. “Why not?”

“I’m...I didn’t...I mean, I haven’t exactly had the best example. Or...any example, really.” Luka rubbed a hand through his hair sheepishly. “I mean it sounds kind of stupid when I say it out loud, but I guess that’s always how I felt in the back of my mind. I guess I’ve never been serious enough with anyone to give it any real thought.”

Marinette relaxed a little, and though there was still tension in her forehead, her eyes were soft. “Why wouldn’t anyone think you’d make a great dad? You’re kind, thoughtful, committed, gentle, respectful, supportive, protective. I could go on. Any daughter would be lucky to have you for a father,” she said, taking his hand and squeezing it. “And I can’t think of anyone I’d rather have teaching my sons how to be kind, compassionate, respectful men.”

Shit, he was going to cry and he still couldn’t look away from her.

“And if it helps, you’ll have a father now. My father. I know he’d be thrilled if you asked his advice. Most importantly,” she said, leaning in, “You have a huge heart and so much love to give. I know you’ll be fine. And when the time comes, we’ll figure it out together.”

Luka was reminded of his own words to Ivan and smiled faintly.

“But is that what you want, Luka?” Marinette squeezed his hand. “That’s kind of an important question.”

“I—yes, absolutely,” he breathed. A little girl with his eyes and Marinette’s smile and a too-big guitar in her arms, or a little boy covered in flour as he learned how to make bread from his grandparents—he’d never thought about it before but now that he had, he absolutely wanted it.

Marinette relaxed, and her smile turned blinding. “Good.”

For a moment, they just looked at each other, and then Luka took her face in his hands and kissed her—or started to, before realizing his abrupt movement had tumbled Sass off his shoulder. Luka had completely forgotten the kwamis were there. He’d also forgotten they could float, he nearly knocked Marinette in the face as he scrambled to catch Sass, who caught himself and levitated, chuckling at Luka’s floundering and apologies.

“He’s fine,” Marinette reassured Luka, laughing, and then she grabbed the front of his shirt and pulled him back to her lips. “And so am I. Come back here, already.”

The tittering kwamis made a discreet retreat as the newly engaged couple embraced.

***

The rest of the day was consumed with phone calls and a lot of screaming. The next day, Marinette wasted no time getting moved in for good. Luka had a stupid grin on his face the whole day and didn’t make even the slightest effort to hide it.

“I don’t know why you’re so excited,” Marinette giggled. “I practically lived here anyway. The only real difference is now I have to find somewhere to put all my crap.”

“It’s an important difference,” Luka protested. “And I know even though I told you to feel at home, you still think of this as my place.”

“It is—was your place.”

“And now it’s really our place, and that’s why it matters,” Luka told her, and then he sighed. “I almost wish we could get a new place that we picked out together,” he mused.

“Luka, this apartment is amazing, it’s perfect for what you need, and you love it,” Marinette said practically. “I’ll fit myself in, you’ll see.”

“You shouldn’t have to fit yourself in around me, though.” Luka rubbed the back of his neck. “It doesn’t seem fair.”

“Stop worrying about it, Luka,” Marinette told him, picking up a pile of clothes and carrying them into the bedroom. “You’ll be gone on tour for months, remember? That’s plenty of time for me to get rid of your stuff.”

Luka huffed a laugh at that. Nope, there was no wiping the stupid grin off his face and it was pointless to try.

A knock on his door startled him, and he and Marinette looked at each other.

“Juleka?” Marinette suggested.

Luka shook his head and got up to answer the door. “She’s shooting a new cosmetic ad this week, and Rose always goes with her when she’s got to be on camera. Maybe a delivery? Usually security calls me first though.”

Marinette shrugged and picked up another pile of clothes to carry to the bedroom.

Luka opened the door and blinked, momentarily speechless.

“Hey,” Adrien grinned, hands in his pockets. “I brought Marinette a wedding present.” There was a small knot of people behind him with expressions of longsuffering and a bright red ribbon tied around the whole group with a big bow. Luka glanced over them in puzzlement, and then, recognizing a couple of faces, he turned and called into the apartment.

“Marinette? I think you’d better take this delivery personally.”

“What?” Marinette’s voice came from his bedroom.

“Come on out here.”

She came, but pouting. “Luka, I still have so much to do.”

Luka just stepped aside and opened the door wide. Marinette stopped and went pale as she took in the scene. Then she looked at Adrien. “What did you do?” she asked flatly.

“A little bird told me you were making an exception on your stupid polciy about wearing your own designs for the wedding,” Adrien said with a flicker of a smile. “I thought you might need a little help with your dress, given your frankly insane timeline.” Marinette stared at him, and Adrien quickly added, “And before you go off on me, I’m paying them, and they volunteered.”

“They won’t even all fit in here!” Marinette gasped, and Adrien chuckled and tossed her a key. Her hand snapped up to catch it, proving her superhero retirement hadn’t diminished her reflexes in the least.

“They come with a workspace,” Adrien said smugly. He raised a cautionary finger at Luka. “You’re not allowed. No peeking before the big day.”

“I think I can handle it,” Luka said wryly. He smiled at Marinette’s still gobsmacked expression and kissed her cheek. “I’ll go in the bedroom so you can haul out all those supplies I know you bought without me watching.” He held out a fist to Adrien. “Thanks Adrien.”

“Congratulations, Luka.” Adrien bumped his fist with a bittersweet smile that Luka couldn’t really fault him for.

Luka looked at Francis in the middle of the group. “Make sure she takes breaks to eat for me, okay?” Francis nodded vigorously.

Marinette made a few more inarticulate noises that ended in a huge hug for Adrien and as Luka retreated to the bedroom, he could hear her giving orders to get that stupid ribbon off those poor people, what is wrong with you, you big dork?

***

The next few days were...weird. Luka was walking on a cloud most of the time, going through the motions of his everyday routine with giddy disregard for what he was actually doing, only really tuning in to answer questions periodically from Marinette and Lucille about wedding arrangements or preferences. Even the press mobs didn’t bother him as much as usual, as tedious as it was to have to have his bodyguards follow him around everywhere he went just so he could get in the door. He made time to have dinner with Marinette and Tom and Sabine, letting the warmth of their happiness flow over him. He took Marinette to have breakfast on the boat with Anarka, too. They got on as well as they ever had in that ‘live and let live’ way that both of them shared.

However, having little tiny flying creatures pop up at random was a little unsettling even when he knew it was coming. Most of them were perfectly pleasant little...god-things. Some of them were more eccentric than others. The ones who hadn’t gotten out of the box much were zipping all over the apartment, fascinated especially with Luka’s music gear. He shared a cup of tea with Wayzz and Sass, and Wayzz answered some of his questions about what it meant for Marinette to be the Guardian. Trixx was perfectly pleasant to speak to, but rearranged Luka’s pick collection while no one was looking. Duusu popped up in his studio and they had a little jam session, Duusu dancing manically in the air while Luka shredded. Kaalki examined Luka’s album covers and awards and proclaimed him sufficiently exceptional. Sass and Tikki together had to chase Xuppu back into the Miracle Box, and that was a trip and a half, watching them zip around phasing through anything in their way, before Tikki had sufficiently intimidated Xuppu from causing any further chaos. One afternoon he opened his eyes from his meditation and found a small circle of tiny gods gathered around him, mirroring his meditation pose.

“They like you,” Marinette confided in him one night, sliding behind him on the couch and draping herself over his back. “They say you have good energy, and they like your music. Kwamis sing, you know?”

“Really?” Luka lifted his eyebrows slightly.

“Yes, when they’re separated, they do some kind of magic singing to connect with each other.” She nuzzled his neck affectionately. “The novelty will wear off in a while and they won’t be around so much.”

“I don’t mind,” Luka said, picking a few notes thoughtfully on the guitar. “They’re cute, and mostly they’re just...there. It’s a bit strange, but I’ll get used to it.” He leaned his head back to press his cheek against her hair.

He’d grown to love playing with her wrapped around his back. Sometimes he played whatever she requested. Sometimes he played her the sappiest love songs he could think of, until they lost themselves in laughter and kisses. But her song was still his favorite, being tuned in completely to her, playing for the sheer joy of it, with her pressed close against him, silent and still except for her quiet breath and soft touches against his skin.

“I love you,” he said softly, smiling as he played.

“I love you too.”

“I’m gonna marry you, weird entourage of tiny god-fairies and all.”

“I’m so lucky,” Marinette sighed, and he sensed the shift in her emotion even before he heard her voice go rough and her arms tighten around him. “I’m so lucky, Luka. I love you so much. I almost wish I could just marry you in the morning, but my parents would kill me and Lucille would probably have an aneurysm if we changed the plans at this point.”

“I’m not going anywhere,” Luka sighed contentedly, turning his face to nuzzle and kiss her cheek. “We can make it.”

***

The next day, Sass was asleep on Luka’s amp in a small nest of soft fiber scraps pilfered from Marinette’s workroom. The snake kwami found the vibrations soothing, which was convenient, Luka thought, since he spent so much time playing. Suddenly Sass stirred and sat up, and gave a smile that was somehow gentle despite the fangs. “Nooroo. Welcome, friend.”

Luka looked up but saw nothing.

“There isss no need for fear,” Sass said soothingly. “Pleassse join usss.”

A small purple face peeped around the door frame. The kwami eyed Sass, and then turned his eyes to Luka. He shrank back behind the door when he saw Luka’s gaze on him. The edge of a butterfly wing visible over Nooroo’s shoulder explained a lot, and Luka’s eyes widened slightly.

“Hello,” Luka said as gently as he could. “You can come in if you want. You’re very welcome here.” Nooroo didn’t move, and Luka went back to his guitar, playing something soft and soothing, watching out of the corner of his eye but trying not to be too obvious about it.

“I know you can sssensse him,” Luka heard Sass say. “You know you have nothing to fear. But if you are not ready, we will not take offenssse.”

Another moment, and the butterfly kwami slipped inside, skirting the wall toward Sass’s nest.

“He feels gentle,” Nooroo said, very quietly, as he settled next to Sass.

“He isss,” Sass soothed, curling his tail protectively around his friend. “Ressst, if you like. You are sssafe here.”

Nooroo cuddled up next to Sass, his tiny expression enough to break Luka’s heart. “Safe,” he murmured, a little doubtfully.

Luka swallowed hard. He couldn’t imagine what the kwami suffered at the hands of Hawkmoth. Luka was empathetic by nature and practice, and that could be painful enough in the wrong situations, but Nooroo literally sensed emotion. To be forced to feel out the worst emotions he could find day after day must have been incredibly painful. Not to mention serving Gabriel Agreste was no picnic. One only had to look at Adrien’s issues to imagine how much worse it would be for a creature Gabriel believed to be nothing more than a tool. No wonder Nooroo had preferred the quiet, passionless world of the Miracle Box for years after Gabriel’s defeat.

Luka wondered if the kwami could feel his pity, and tried to decide what would be the most soothing for him. After a moment of thought, Luka began to play an old Scottish lullaby from his childhood, one that he associated with warmth and safety and his mother’s boundless love. He darted a glance at Sass and the little snake gave a tiny nod of approval.

He wasn’t sure how long he’d been playing before Marinette appeared in the doorway, looking concerned. “You okay?” she asked softly. “You usually play that when you’re upset.”

“Fine,” Luka smiled at her. “Just felt like relaxing a bit.” He flicked his eyes toward the kwami nest. She followed his gaze.

“Nooroo,” Marinette said, face lighting up. “I’m glad to see you.”

Nooroo shrank into himself a bit. “Thank you, Guardian. I felt it would at least be polite to meet your intended.” He paused, looking between Luka and Marinette with a thoughtful expression. “I have seen great love twisted into selfishness and isolation,” Nooroo said solemnly. “But this is a soft love, a...generous love. It makes room for many. It is...good.”

Luka smiled. “There’s room for you too, Nooroo, whenever you feel the need of it. You’re always welcome.”

Nooroo nodded. “Thank you.”

“I’ll leave you to it,” Marinette smiled, and blew him a kiss. Tikki slipped around her to join Sass and Nooroo. Tikki hugged the butterfly and Sass patted his friend gently. Between the two of them, he seemed to relax a bit more. Luka smiled to himself.

Yeah, it was a little weird, but when in his life had he ever been “normal” anyway?

***

The two weeks somehow went slow and fast all at once. Luka remembered the feeling well; he’d felt the same in the last few weeks before his first tour.

Friday morning saw their apartment invaded by a horde of women. Alya, Sabine, Rose, and Juleka took Marinette over to the girls’ apartment to get ready, leaving Luka to the tender mercies of his mother to make sure that he was ready and presentable on time. Luka rolled his eyes and refrained from pointing out that it was Marinette who had the reputation for chronic lateness, and that Anarka was the last person he would have picked to enforce order.

Still, he was glad Anarka was there. She went straight for his music studio and picked up his guitar, playing old tunes he remembered from his childhood. It soothed his jitters a little bit. It wasn’t that Luka was nervous or afraid exactly, he just...wanted to get on with it. He wanted to marry Marinette.

“It’s my wedding day,” he said softly to the mirror, just to make it real. “I’m marrying Marinette today.”

“You are,” Sass agreed, hovering beside him. “Are you ready?”

“So ready,” sighed Luka. “More than ready. Why can’t we already be married ready.”

It still felt surreal as he mechanically dressed himself. His suit had been provided by Marinette’s employer, as a bribe to let Marinette off work early for all the things that had to be done over the last couple of weeks, and for the wedding today, but Marinette had done the fittings herself, so it looked impeccable on him. It included a vest, but as he had requested, no tie.

“All right, let’s have a look at ye,” Anarka said, stumping around him. “Can’t be having you looking sloppy for yer bride, eh?” When she had circled him twice, brushed some imaginary dust from his shoulder, she sighed and said, “Well, I guess yer grown up after all, me boy.”

“I love you, Maman,” he said, smiling fondly at her, pretending he hadn’t seen her eyes watering behind her glasses. She returned the smile in kind, and then hugged him tight.

“Come on,” she said. “Play with yer old Maman for a bit. Those girls’ll be forever getting ready, and you’ll just fret if ye do nothing.”

“That sounds great, Maman,” Luka said with relief, going to retrieve his old guitar.

They played duets until Juleka came to tell them that Marinette and the car were ready. The original Couffaines indulged in a quick group hug, and then Luka hugged them each individually again.

“You’ll get wrinkled,” Juleka chided in a mumble. She looked up at him and he looked back at her and for a long moment they were silent. She didn’t need to speak for him to know how happy she was for him, and how relieved, and how much she wished for his happiness. He didn’t have to say anything for her to know how much he loved her and that he would always take care of her and that she would always be his sister.

“Come on,” she said at last, voice thick. “Let’s go get you married.”

Lucille took a step forward from where she stood by the door, clipboard in hand. “I sent everybody else down to the cars already so you two can have a moment. We’ll be waiting for you downstairs.”

For practicality’s sake, the couple and their witnesses were all going to City Hall together in the limo, while the others went ahead to the reception. Lucille ushered Juleka and Anarka our and to the elevator, leaving Luka alone.

Well. Not quite alone. Suddenly there was a small floating rainbow of tiny gods stretched across his living room. “We give you all the blessings we can bestow on this day,” Wayzz spoke for them.

“Oh, it’s so beautiful!” cried Duusu, darting back and forth in her excitement. “Love is so beautiful!”

“Thanks, friends,” Luka smiled. “Really.” Wayzz nodded, and the kwamis zipped back out of the room, except for Sass, who took his place in Luka’s pocket.

Luka crossed the hall to Juleka’s apartment and stood there for a moment, just trying to breathe, outside the door.

“She isss the sssame woman you loved yesssterday,” Sass said quietly, peeping out from his pocket.

“Yeah,” Luka said with a lopsided smile. “But now she’s all dressed up and we’re getting married.”

The kwami chuckled. “Indeed.”

“Okay,” Luka said, feeling his breathing speed up in spite of himself. “Okay, here we go.” He knocked on the door, and then let himself in.

“Marinette?” he called softly.

“In here,” she answered, and he went a little further into the apartment. She was standing in the light of the living room window, nearly glowing in her fitted white dress, her modest train artfully arranged behind her. Her hair was elaborately piled up and adorned with a tiara that he recognized as Rose’s. Her miraculous was in her ears, of course, and the blue seaglass pendant lay against her collarbone.

Marinette smiled with trembling lips. “They posed me like a statue and made me promise not to move until you came in.”

“You look stunning,” he told her honestly. “I’m almost afraid to touch you.”

She held her hands out to him and he quickly crossed the room to take them. “You’re shaking,” he observed.

“I’m going to lose my mind if we don’t do this soon,” she admitted, and they laughed together.

Luka raised her fingers to his lips and kissed all of them reverently. “Then let’s go, before we both fall to pieces,” he said, offering her his arm.

***

The ride to City Hall was a blur. All he remembered was Marinette’s fingers gripping his as tightly as he held hers.

Once they stepped inside, everything seemed to go in fast forward until he heard the mayor say, “I now pronounce you husband and wife.”

The words gave Luka a swooping feeling in his stomach and his knees went weak. He looked at Marinette and she met his eyes with the same awed look on her face. Then they both broke into huge smiles and threw their arms around each other. Luka sighed deeply as he hugged her, the butterflies in his stomach disappearing into a profound sense of relief that felt like stepping into his apartment for the first time after a three-month tour. ”I love you,” he whispered into her hair, and felt her snuggle closer. Then she lifted her face and he kissed her reverently. The mayor had to clear his throat before Luka could manage to let her go. As soon as he did, she was enveloped by her parents. Luka wiped his eyes discreetly as Lucille shuffled them off to another room, and chuckled when he saw Juleka doing the same.

Heaven help them if the world ever found out what a bunch of softies the Couffaines were under their punk-goth-pirate exteriors.

Juleka hugged Marinette and gave Luka a wicked smile over his new wife’s shoulder. “Marinette’s my favorite,” Juleka told him smugly. Luka just laughed and put his arms around the both of them, kissing each on the top of her head, and then turned to give Rose the same treatment. The moment he turned away from her he was caught up into the most epic bear hug of his life courtesy of Tom. He’d have laughed again if he could get enough air. Sabine pounced as soon as Tom set his feet back on the ground, and damn if the small woman didn’t hug him almost as hard as Tom.

“Whew,” Luka put his hand on his chest when Sabine released him and grinned at Marinette. At his wife. “I’m going to have to step up my hug game now that I’m part of the family.”

Marinette giggled and moved toward him, but Juleka caught her arm. “Nuh-uh. We’ve got a party to get to and if you go over there now it’ll take a crowbar to separate you.” She spun Marinette towards the door. “Let me remind you that Maman is waiting, and keeping Maman waiting with nothing to entertain her is unwise.”

Rose gasped and Luka winced. “She’s right, we better go,” he admitted, offering his hand—to his wife.

“If we must,” Marinette sighed, but she was smiling brightly as she put her hand in his. “I suppose your adoring fans and annoying followers are waiting for us too.”

Luka grinned at her. “Just this once, shall we give them what they want?”

Marinette flashed him a grin. “Lead the way, husband.” He had to grab her up and kiss her for that, much to Lucille’s frustration, and it took another minute to get her smoothed back out and camera ready.

Luka didn’t make the least effort to hide his joy or his love for Marinette as they emerged from City Hall into the bright morning light and cascade of camera clicks together, hand in hand. He wanted everyone to see it. They smiled and waved, and Luka bent Marinette back (not into a full dip this time, just enough to make the folds of her dress fall in elegant points toward the ground, like they’d practiced) and kissed her tenderly. Then he bent down and she jumped on his back, the two of them laughing as he piggybacked her through the path their security team cut to the limo, trailed by the long-suffering Lucille and the rest of the wedding party.

Luka waved everyone else into the limo before him, and then turned and waved one more time to his fans, though he couldn’t see much past the cameras. Then he slid into the car next to Marinette and locked their fingers together.

Somehow Marinette and Lucille had conspired to rent them a boat instead of a party hall. The Liberty was too small to hold all the guests, but Lucille had found them a boat with a stage and a largely flat deck made for dancing. It had the benefit of letting them have their wedding outdoors while keeping them secure from party crashers and reporters. The Seine had always been a huge part of Luka’s life, and he was glad to be on the water for such a momentous occasion.

Most of the guests were already on the boat, and Luka made his grand entrance over a gangplank decorated in flowers and ribbons with Anarka on his arm, trailed by Juleka and Rose, and then Marinette’s parents escorted her across.

The ship cast off and everything was a whirl for a while. They exchanged rings on the stage and spoke simple, sincere vows in front of all their gathered friends and loved ones. Luka danced with both his mother and sister, a three-person Scottish reel they’d danced together since he was a child, performed this time with so much gusto and at such a tempo that it left all three of them laughing and breathless (he had no idea where Nino had dug up that track but he was going to have to get a copy). Tom waltzed Marinette around the room with such enthusiasm that Luka wasn’t entirely sure her feet actually touched the floor at any point.

Then Marinette was in his arms again, and he was so lost in her eyes that he missed Jagged beginning to play at the piano until her smile turned teasing and her eyebrows lifted. Luka wasn’t the best dancer, but it didn’t matter; all he wanted was to hold her close and let the music move them. Marinette seemed to feel the same, resting her head on his shoulder with a little sigh of contentment as the rest of the party was invited to join them on the dance floor.

Luka gave her up to Adrien for a dance with only a little reluctance. Luka understood now better than he ever had how deep their bond ran. Before Adrien took Marinette to the dance floor, he leaned close to Luka and held open his coat for a moment. “Plagg wants to talk to you,” Adrien whispered, and a black blur shot from his coat to Luka’s. “Better find somewhere private, he’s not patient,” Adrien warned.

Luka excused himself at the first opportunity to the men’s room, which was thankfully empty, and the black blur popped out of his coat and hovered in front of him, looking unimpressed. “So,” the little cat kwami said, more intimidating than anything that cute had a right to be. “You married my Guardian.”

Luka nodded warily. “I did.”

“I know Sass is all about second chances and that crap,” Plagg said, rolling to float on his back for a moment, and then sitting up to hover right in front of Luka’s eyes, his own cat-green eyes narrowed. “I’m just telling you now, I don’t go for that. I’m destruction, you got it? There won’t be any second chances with me. So you better take care of my Guardian, understand?”

Luka lifted his eyebrows. “Did you have this talk with Adrien?”

“One, that’s none of your business. Two, my kitten has extenuating circumstances. Three, you bet your ass we had words about what went down before. But I like him, so all I did was give him shit luck for a few months. You can ask him how much fun that was.” Plagg narrowed his eyes again. “I don’t like you. I don’t know you. If I hear from Marinette or Tikki that you stepped one single toe out of line—”

“Are you quite finissshed?” Sass popped his head out of Luka’s breast pocket. “Enough posssturing, cat. You made your point. The Guardian isss resssponsssible for much greater decisionsss than this. Do you trussst her judgement so little?” Sass huffed, and Luka would have said the kwami stuck his nose in the air if he’d had one. “Or mine?”

“Yeah well I’ve been around for a few thousand cycles longer than you, fangs, and even smart women can be stupid about the men they love,” Plagg spat. “So there’s no harm in making things clear from the start, right?”

“Fine,” Sass huffed. “You have done ssso. Now return to your bearer and leave mine to me.”

The little cat folded his flipper arms and did stick his nose in the air. Before the cat could say anything else, Luka interrupted. “Plagg—Thanks. For everything you and Chat Noir did back then. For all that I’m sure you do for Adrien now. And especially for looking out for Marinette. I really appreciate it.”

“Didn’t do it for you,” Plagg mumbled.

“Even so. Come on, let’s get you back to Adrien. I want my wife back. No offense, but I don’t think this was a fair trade.” Luka grinned.

Plagg made a noise that might have been a chuckle if he weren’t trying to act tough, and zipped back under cover.

“Charming friend you’ve got there,” Luka commented as he found Adrien.

“Sorry,” Adrien shrugged. “I hope he wasn’t too awful.”

“It was fine.” Luka stepped close for a moment to let Plagg slip back, and then moved away. “All the same, I think you can keep him and I’ll go find my wife.”

Adrien grinned. “She had her ‘up to something’ grin on, so good luck with that.”

“Oh boy,” Luka sighed, but he was grinning as he said it. He hunted through the crowd, stopping for handshakes and backslaps and congratulations. Really, considering the short notice they’d given, a surprising number of people had been able to attend. There were a fair number of industry people here that Luka had felt kind of obligated to invite, but the crowd was mostly friends and loved ones of friends, and that was perfect.

He finally found Marinette conspiring with Nino. “Now what are you up to?” Luka asked, slipping an arm around his wife.

Marinette grinned up at him. “I just think we should take a quick peek back at where all this started.”

“Oh my God,” Luka laughed, as the big screen over the currently empty stage lit up and a familiar kittycorn logo flashed up on screen. “You didn’t.”

“Of course I did,” Marinette giggled, as Kitty Section’s very first music video played, the one they had sent to Bob Roth’s contest all those years ago.

“Wow, that brings back memories,” Luka sighed. He looked at the stage, and then spotted Juleka moving through the crowd near him. “Hey Jules,” he bellowed, more than loud enough to get her attention. She turned toward him with an exasperated expression and Luka nodded at the stage with a grin. “What do you think?”

Juleka grinned back. “I’ll get Rose.”

“Nino, tell them to get the mics live up there,” Luka instructed, and then he kissed Marinette’s cheek and headed for the stage. Juleka and Rose were right behind him as he picked up his guitar and slung it over his shoulder. He stepped up to the microphone and tapped it. “Turn me up guys,” he hollered, waving at the sound techs. They jumped to it and the microphone crackled to life. “There we go,” Luka grinned. “Adrien, come on up here. Hey Mylène,” Luka called. “Can I borrow Ivan for a minute?” Mylène smiled and shooed Ivan toward the stage. “Come on up here big guy.” Ivan rubbed the back of his neck, smiling shyly, but the way he spun the drumsticks between his fingers told Luka he wasn’t too out of practice.

“All right,” Luka surveyed his former bandmates, every one of them grinning widely, even Juleka. “You ready, Rose?” At her thumbs up, he grinned back at Ivan. “Count us off, man. No, wait,” he held up a hand, and turned back to the crowd. “We’re still missing somebody. Marinette, get up here, baby.” He grinned. “You’ve always been my unicorn.” There was a chorus of “aww’s” and a few laughing “eews” as Marinette made her way to the stage. She came to stand beside Luka, and he put his arm around her waist and kissed her temple. “All right, let’s do this. Go for it, Ivan.” He released Marinette and slid his guitar into position.

“YOU KNOW I LOVE UNICORNS,” Rose belted, proving the years had not diminished her lung capacity in the slightest. Luka joined in, improvising a harmony to the old but familiar vocals as he sang to a laughing Marinette. It wasn’t a perfect performance, they were all a little rusty, but it was more fun than Luka had had in years.

Afterwards, Adrien and Ivan relinquished their places to Luka’s regular backup, and he had someone bring up a stool for Marinette so she could be comfortable. He wanted her close to him. She put her hands over his mouth in surprise as he played the opening riff he’d been working on, and he winked at her as he stepped up to the mic. This was his first ever performance of Lightning on the Water and he wanted it to be perfect. Luka knew how to play an audience, but this one time, he ignored them and sang just for Marinette. The crowd of guests was nearly silent as his guitar mimicked sparks dancing over the water, and he sang in low, smokey tones about the draw of deadly beauty, buzzing over his skin, the desire to dive deep and never come up again.

The silence lasted for a long moment after he finished.

He was still staring into Marinette’s eyes when a whoop came from the crowd that he immediately recognized as Jagged. “Now that’s a hit, kid!” the older rock star hollered. “I’m pissed I didn’t write it myself!”

Everyone laughed, and the atmosphere lightened. “You can go down if you want,” Luka whispered to Marinette, and she shook her head.

“Just this once, I want to stay up here with you for a while,” she whispered back, squeezing his arm.

“Kiss her!” someone screamed (Marinette’s grandmother, Luka thought), and laughing, Luka did.

“What do you want me to play next?” he asked her, and she pulled him down to speak in his ear. “Yeah, I can play it,” Luka chuckled. “Too bad Clara couldn’t make it, but we’ll make do.” He stepped back to the mic. “You guys remember this one, right?” He played the opening to Miraculous.

The guests remembered the song and the dance that went with it, and Marinette danced beside him as they belted the lyrics into the microphone together. Luka had to catch the stand once when she knocked into it, but he was well versed in keeping things rolling over those kinds of incidents, so aside from a little laughter, the show went on.

Luka hadn’t planned a set list, hadn’t exactly planned an impromptu concert at all, but this was who he was, and this was what he did. When his heart got too full, it overflowed in music, and it was pouring over today. And this wasn’t like the concerts he was used to playing. This was his friends and the people he loved, a party just like they used to have in the old days. They rolled through song after song, some he’d written and some of their old favorites from other artists, some that came to his mind and others shouted at him from the crowd, and he let his happiness and love shine through in all of them. He bounced with the drumbeat pounded behind him as he belted, “I don’t care what people might think, I got your name in permanent ink—” Marinette leaned up to sing the next line with him. “Baby this ship ain't never gonna sink!” they hollered into the mic together, and he went on as Marinette laughed, dancing with her hands over her head and the beads on her white dress sparkling in the sun, “Just kiss me like nobody’s watching! Yeah people are talking, it doesn’t matter what they say. Just kiss me in the middle of the street to let the whole world see that there’s nobody else for me!”

Of course Jagged couldn’t stay out of things for long, but by the time he leapt up on the stage, Luka was ready to let him take over. He held his wife’s hand as they went back down for more dancing and hugs and congratulations, but it was all a haze to Luka after that. Playing had finally drained off all that excess buzz he’d been carrying around all day and tucked his soul back into his body, and he just felt...peace. Peace, and maybe a little bit of impatience to be back at home with the love of his life and the weight of this day.

Jagged relinquished the stage at last to Anarka, Juleka, and Rose, who sang a beautiful three part harmony of The Parting Glass as the ship came back into dock, and then it was a long string of goodbyes and la bise before they finally found themselves alone in the car back to Luka’s apartment—their apartment.

It felt intensely quiet after all the excitement, and Luka found himself grateful for it. He slipped his arms around Marinette’s waist and she lay against his chest. They cuddled in silence all the way home. As soon as they were out of the limo, Luka scooped her up. Marinette protested, laughing, as he carried her into the building, up the elevator, and all the way up to the apartment.

“You’re wearing yourself out for nothing,” Marinette told him as she dug through his pocket, looking for his keys.

“All that time at the gym might as well be good for something,” he said as she unlocked the door for them. “You’re heavier than you look with all that superhero muscle, but you’re still pretty light.” Marinette pushed the door open, and he carried her inside.

Luka set her down gently on the couch, and then sank down beside her, stroking her cheek tenderly. They kissed softly for a moment, and then curled together again. Sass and Tikki zipped out of their hiding places, and with a quick cheek cuddle for each of them and a whisper of congratulations, the kwamis made themselves scarce. The hem of Marinette's dress was grey with dirt, her hair was coming loose, and when she smiled up at him he could see the exhaustion on her face. Luka smoothed the loose hair away from her eyes. “We’re married,” he said softly.

“Yeah,” she smiled up at him.

“Now what?"

“I don’t know,” Marinette put her hands under her chin on his chest and blinked up at him. “Never been married before. It was fun but I’m kind of worn out. Maybe you can help me get out of all this stuff and we can go take a nice warm bath and relax, and we’ll see how we feel after that.”

“That sounds amazing.” He nuzzled her temple. “My wife is a genius.”

Marinette giggled. “My husband is a sweetheart.”

“God, say that again,” Luka breathed, putting his arms around her.

“My husband,” Marinette murmured, smiling.

“My wife.”

“Marinette D.C. Couffaine.”

“I love it.” He kissed her softly, and then couldn’t make himself pull away until he was out of breath. “Let’s get the bath running, and then I’ll help you get rid of all this stuff.”

Marinette giggled. “I should warn you there are about fifty thousand pins in my hair. It might take a while.”

“Then the bath should be full by the time we’re done.” He cupped her face and kissed her. “I love you so much, Marinette.”

“Don’t make me cry before we get the makeup off, Luka,” Marinette smiled shakily.

“You know I don’t care,” he scoffed. “Come on.” Luka pulled her up gently.

Luka sat her down at the vanity, turned on the bath water, and then crouched beside her and helped her clean the makeup from her face. Together they found and removed all of the pins in her hair, and Luka brushed it carefully. One by one he unhooked the seemingly unending line of buttons down the back of her dress and helped her out of it, and he quickly became distracted with kissing and touching her, until she pushed him away, giggling, to turn off the bath before it ran over. Marinette slipped on a robe and left him, pouting slightly, to get undressed on his own. He forgave her though when she came back with two glasses of champagne and slipped into the bath with him.

“I don’t think I told you with everything else that was going on,” he commented as she leaned back against him, “My album proposal was approved. They loved the demo tracks I did.”

“Of course they did,” Marinette sighed, laying her head back on his shoulder. “What are you going to call it?”

“Second Chance,” he told her with a smile.

Marinette craned her neck to smile back at him. “Perfect.”

#quickspins #second chance #backlog #lukanette #i am lukanette trash i admit it #luka couffaine #marinette dupain-cheng #miraculousladybug #miraculous ladybug #mlfics

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razorblade180 · 4 years

Text

Shackles pt2: Long time no see

Heat, blistering heat almost intolerable by man. Oh how Blake missed it, The sun beamed down over the evenly tanned High Leader as she sat comfortably on the docks. Patiently watching a ship approach while she spoke on her scroll.

Blake:I see a ship with the word pride on it? Is that the one you’re on?

Yang:Yep! Try to look inside the captain space!

She held her hand up to block the sun and squinted the best she could. It was a little difficult but she could make out an interesting site. Behind the wheel of the ship was her dorky blonde hair companion wearing the captain’s hat and swaying her hips.

Blake:Are you.....are you driving the boat!?

Yang:I beat the entire crew in cards so they had to teach me! I’m gonna dock the ship!

Captain:No you won’t!!!

Yang:I am not gonna be the one to dock the ship..... I’m keeping the hat though!

Captain:Fine!

Blake:*giggles* See you in a few minutes.

Yang:More like seconds...

Blake jumped slightly as the sound of a shotgun blast echoed through the air. The intense heat was momentarily blocked as a shade was covered over her. A smile spread gently as she looked up to see Yang free falling while wearing the aviators the blonde couldn’t seem to live without. Blake spread her arms wide and caught her partner; the two beginning to spin around and laugh before falling. The wildness of it all only making their laughter stronger. Anyone around might’ve thought them crazy but honestly it’s a fair assumption to make after all they’ve been through. Yang is the first to get up and takes Blake’s hand to lift her.

Yang:How’d you like my entrance?

Blake:Hmmmm seven out of ten. Needs a better landing strategy.

Yang:That just means you should brace for impact next time. You look good. As in like healthiness that is! Not to say that you don’t actually look good. *rubbing her head* I mean that tan is really-

The cat faunus’s finger slowly goes over her rambling mess of a partner. Yang stares at Blake who is shaking her head playfully. Thoroughly enjoying how fast the conversation spiraled out of control.

Blake:Thank you. I see you’re doing well too. Glowing even.

Yang:Hehehe, aren’t I always?

Blake:Ooooo loaded question. Come on, let’s walk and talk. *walking backwards*

Yang:Pfft, after that insult? Oh how you wound me.

Blake:Be wounded as you walk.

Yang couldn’t believe her ears. Was she being teased? Her of all people? Not just that, but Blake has already gotten a move on so Yang couldn’t even respond back in defiance. Truly she was cornered. Yang had no choice but to follow her. No way she could just let Blake get one over on her like that.

Blake walked with a little bit of a hop in her steps as she passed all her neighbors. Her hands cuffed together and behind her back. It was easy Yang’s foot steps quickly get closer and not slowing down a beat. Patiently Blake watched Yang’s shadow get closer and closer until it was about to touch hers. Right at the last moment, Blake used her semblance to sidestep and watched Yang almost fall forward. The blonde looked to her left to see Blake continue facing forward and trying not to laugh.

Yang:Well look at you. *smiles* All playful and what not. Is this what happens when war is completely over?

Blake:This is what happens when I sleep in my own bed! Which is what I need with all the work being done around here.

Yang:Yeah, starting a new organization seems pretty complicated. Don’t know how you’re managing.

Blake:My dad fortunately. We might still be in the planning stages but it’s pretty well developed because of him. We’re organized, ready to motivate, and the word of group is already around Remnant. Some officials have already visited to see me. Atlas is now reshaping all of faunus related worksites.

Yang:Wow, big moves for sure.

Blake:Very big. Unfortunately we’ve also met a fair share of people who are just fine with how things were and some willing to get violent.

Yang:Makes since. Atlas wasn’t built in a day. It’s still amazing what progress can happen in a couple years.

Blake:As much as I would like to believe that, I can’t. This change that’s been happening. Me in power, it’s been building up for decades. Cooperation, ideals, everything with-

Yang:Gee, you really got your speech skills down packed.

Blake:*red* Hehehehe, you get what I’m saying though.

Yang:Yep, I also get that all of it still needed someone to push all that build up. You’re responsible for this just as much as everyone else.

Blake:......... You know that includes you too right?

Yang:Me!?

Blake:Without you and everyone else I wouldn’t have made it this far. Thanks, you’ve been a big help .

Yang:Yeah? Well... *turns away* all I did was punch a few things. Crack a few jokes, pushed the boundary. No big deal.

Blake:Boy, Jaune sure has mellowed you out.

Yang:*turns back* You take that back! I’m as amped up as ever.

Blake:If you say so.

Has Jaune mellowed her out? Maybe. Yang never thought about it too much. She’s pretty much the same as she’s always been in her head. There might be a few differences but little ones. Well....as of now anyways. Blake however...

Yang:Sun seems to have brighten your life up.

Blake:*stops walking* Yeah. He’s wonderful....

Yang:No doubt. I mean I’m the end, you chose him and all.

Blake:.....

Blake:This conversation was unavoidable wasn’t it?

Yang:Don’t wanna talk about it?

Blake:It’s not that I don’t. It’s just that you literally got here minutes ago to visit me after all this time. I don’t want to blow this with you. I miss my best friend.

Yang:I know. I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t miss mine too. So if we really miss each other then we should clear the air. Now then, how is Sun? Don’t hold anything back this time. In case you forgot... *lifts wedding ring* I’m not exactly single and pinning over you dork. *smiles*

Blake:Are you sure? I don’t want to sound rude to you or any-

Yang:You can gush over him...

Blake:*blushing* I’m stupidly in love with him. Like I can’t take it and thinking about it is even more wonderful because I get to tell you.

Yang:*hugs her* I see he’s made you extra emotional.

Blake:Shut up. *hugging her tight* Gods I’m so happy you’re here.

Yang:So am I. Now can you finally show me your house and look at me for more than three seconds.

Blake:Deal. *wiping her eyes* Phew, Welcome to Menagerie!

Yang:Glad to be here.

Blake couldn’t explain it but suddenly things felt different; the heat....didn’t feel intense anymore. The two of them continued chatting as they went to Blake’s home. Both of them making up for lost time by telling stories of crazy missions and hilarious ways both of their parents reacted about the men in their lives as they approached the front door.

Blake:Hahahaha! Tai really challenged Jaune to fight when he proposed?

Yang:I shit you not. One minute Jaune is on one knee with a beautiful sunset proposing. Next thing I know I’m watching him roll out the way and grabbing his shield as my dad is leaping of our roof performing a rider kick. That sunset went from romantic to a dual in almost no time at all.

Blake:I thought your dad liked Jaune.

Yang:He loves him to bits. Doesn’t stop him from going dad mode with every huge milestone.

Blake:Sounds about right. My dad constantly looks like he wants to suplex Sun just for holding my hand.

Yang:Does that mean I should expect a wrestle mania wedding? Can I be the announcer!!!?

Blake:Uhhh sure. If marriage is on the table....

Yang:If? What does that mean?

Blake:You know....if. Just if it happens.

Yang:......

Blake:....What’s up?

Yang:What’s up with you? One minute your laughing and now you’re getting all...Blakey

Blake:I’m just not real big on marriage and “getting Blakey” should not be a term.

Yang:Why not? The marriage thing, not the term. Aren’t you in love with him?

Blake:I am but so much is happening. So much is always happening. My whole life has been jumping from one rebellious group fighting for freedom to the next. I can tell he’s up for it which only makes me feel bad! Trying to change the world as I am now is already daunting and hard to do at times. Being married, all the legal and perception changes that come with it is just another layer. Maybe if things slow down....

Yang:You never slow down. Ruby pumps the brakes more than you and that’s saying something. Plus you’re always changing as far as perception goes and so do the things around you. What’s one more to the list. This one is vow that you would never do it alone. I don’t know about you but that’s a change I think everyone needs. After all, who knows what it could bring? A mess or the answer you’ve been looking for.

Blake:.....I’ve told you that I’m really glad you’re here right?

Yang:About a thousand times. You can tell me it more once we’re inside.

Blake:*Grabs knob* Sounds like you everything in life figured out.

Yang:Hehe almost everything. One thing I actually wanted to talk about was how I’m-

Blake:Something is wrong.....

Yang:Huh?

Blake:The door. It’s not locked.

Yang:Your parents?

Blake:Dad’s on trip until later today. I know I didn’t forget to lock it.

Yang:Blake. Look at the ground.

Sand was all over the the doormat. Blake slowly opened up the door carefully; sand was on the otherside too. Someone had broken in and by the way Blake’s ears started to perk up they were still hanging around. Her left hand moved to rest on her sword as she pushed the door open some more. No one was there and the lights were still turned off.

Blake:Looks like I have an unexpected guest.

Yang:Who would be bold enough to break into here? A radical like the ones you mentioned?

Blake:Don’t know. Let’s find out. Scouting formation.

The two of them walked into the house with Blake in front and sword drawn. Yang was crouched lower and behind her using her hair to dimly light the surrounding area. If Yang was looking in one direction then Blake looked the other. Each step synchronized perfectly. Time might have had effected their feelings but not the years of team work. Ruby made sure to drill each formation into their very being. It’s what kept the alive; in more ways then one.

Blake abruptly stopped and looked at the ceiling. One ear wiggled while the other motioned back and forth to communicate with Yang. The intruder was upstairs and moving forward to the staircase to walk back time. Perfect timing for them. Yang slowly backed up and closed the front door quietly to once again fill the room in absolute darkness. Not one sound was made by them. Right now the space around them was nothing but an abyss with the sound of old wood creaking like bones. Blake reeled gambol shroud back towards the floor. The instant the tip of blade tapped the ground the plan was set up. Yang’s hair lit up like a Christmas tree and flashed the entire room in less than a second. The flash bang caused the intruder to cover their eyes in shock and was rewarded with Blake driving her leg sweep theirs as well as a blade to the throat the moment they fell.

Blake:I got em!!!!!

Yang:*opens door* Good, now let’s see who-.... you!?

Jacquelyn:Ow...Nlice to see you too.

Blake:Jacquelyn!? What are you- how are you here? *picking her up*

Jacquelyn:Wrong questions. The only thing that matters is why I’m here. I need your help Blake. It’s Adam; he’s missing.

Blood felt like ice at those words. The more light that was let in showed the young maiden’s condition. Her clothes were noticeably soiled. Not to mention how much of a mess her hair was. It was frizzled their was tiredness in her eyes; body tense with anxiousness. This wasn’t a prank or a dream. You don’t meet someone you haven’t seen in a couple years for that.

Blake:Missing? What do you mean missing?

Jacquelyn:I...I don’t know!? I was out getting food and ended up hunting all through the night. Moment I come home he’s...he’s just not there! There wasn’t a note or anything! Not even foot prints because of the sand and-

Blake:Wait wait wait......sand? He vanished here in Menagerie? Why would you come here?

Jacquelyn:We......we’ve sort of been living in the desert.

Blake:You’ve been here the whole time!?

Jacquelyn:There’s not many places we could go! The world thinks he’s dead so we thought we should go someplace no one goes to. The desert here is like hiding in plan sight.

Blake:Do you have any idea what would happen specifically someone here sees him!? So many things would be called into question. I might be called into question...

Jacquelyn:Listen, I did not come here for a lecture Blake.

Yang:Then why did you come here? No offense but he’s got another thing coming if he’s trying to-

Jacquelyn:Help me.

Blake:What?

Jacquelyn:I want....I need your help to find him. You know I wouldn’t ask unless I meant it.

Yang:Take it from me, chasing people who run away is a waste of time.

Jacquelyn:He didn’t run away! Something else happened.

Blake:*eyes widened* Something else like what? Abduction?

Jacquelyn:I..... don’t know. Maybe? Or a grimm caught him off gaurd.

Yang:You’re joking right? Do you really think-

Jacquelyn:Hey! Last time I checked I wasn’t talking to you so butt out! *eyes glowing*

Yang:Watch your tone with me.....*red*

Both women glared intensely as Yang walked closer before Blake’s arm held her back for the sake of the house. She helped Jacquelyn up then stood in between them.

Blake:Calm down! Both of you!

Yang:....She started it. *crosses arms*

Blake:Yang, please....

Yang:......Sigh *lilac*

Jacquelyn:*calming down* I apologize. If you haven’t noticed I’m a bit one edge. Not really making a strong case for why I should get help.

Yang:Yeah no kidding. Do you have any proof that he’s been taken anyways.

Jacquelyn:N...no..... I just ugh, he wouldn’t simply run off okay!? He’s not like that. Not at all. Blake you believe me right? *takes her hand*

Blake:Well, I couldn’t say. Wouldn’t be the worst thing he’s done. Jacquelyn maybe he was bidding his time to-

Jacquelyn:*tearing up*Things are different. He’s changing; really changing. I’m not saying Adam is a brand new person or doesn’t have things to iron out but there’s no way he’s just gone. I’d put it on my mother’s grave. So please, help me find him.

Blake:.....

Blake:I can help when my parents get out the meeting.

Yang:Huh!?

Blake:I’ll go to your house and see if there’s anything you mi-

Yang:Wait! Just.....

Yang grabs her arm and walks her a few feet from Jacquelyn and keeps her voice low.

Blake:What?

Yang:There’s no way you’re actually helping with this are you?

Blake:So what if I am?

Yang:So what if- this is Adam Taurus we’re talking about. He’s really someone you are about to go on a search for after getting rid of him? Do you really believe he’s different? Doesn’t she sound like a certain someone?

Blake:I get that it sounds crazy.

Yang:Insane actually.

Blake:But what if it’s true? What if.... he is different? You were there with me when we broke Jacquelyn out. Even back then something felt strange about him.

Yang:Because we thought he was dead until that moment! Blake are you even listening to yourself? We’re supposed to be reconnecting. When I wanted to reminisce about the past this wasn’t what I had in mind.

Blake:I know. That’s why I’m not making you tag along.

Yang:Time hasn’t been well to you if you honestly think I’m not going. For all you know it could be a trap she’s in on. It took two of us to beat him after some chance circumstances. Now we have a maiden to deal with. Are you really gonna take that chance?

Blake:.......

Blake:Yang.......I can’t walk away from this. Trap or not, I have to see it with my own eyes.

Yang:........*shaking*

Blake:........

Yang:Damnit, always feisty about the most dangerous things.

Blake:You used to love it.

Yang:I still do. A lot more things to lose this time around though, but I guess that’s always been the case. The moment I think this is a wild goose chase then I’m out. Hopefully by that point so are you.

Blake:You still don’t have to go at all.

Yang:We must be out of touch if you really think that’s a choice. *looks at Jacquelyn* Have you eaten? You look starving.

Jacquelyn:I..I haven’t eaten at all today. Everything has been happening so fast.

Yang:Yeah well it looks like things are about to get faster. Wash up and eat. We’ll head out at dusk. I’m gonna make sure I have everything I need. *walks off*

Jacquelyn:Thank you.....

Yang:I’m not doing this for you. *closes door*

Blake:Hey, let’s get you cleaned up okay?

Jacquelyn:*nods* I’m grateful, truly I am.

Blake:Well this is as big of a deal for you as it is for me.

She said nothing else as she walked off to the bathroom. Blake tried to hide it but there was doubt on her face. Who could blame her? Jacquelyn sure couldn’t, but there was no one else who she could turn to. Her hands were tied and she was running on borrowed time. It took all her strength to hold back her tears she gently held her stomach.

Jacquelyn:(I wouldn’t be too sure of that....)

#rwby shackles #blake belladonna #yang xiao long #adam taurus #my oc’s #jacquelyn frost #rwby #rwby blacksun #rwby dragonslayer

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makduf · 4 years

Text

Just keep scrolling, it's just me, nothing important.

At the nights like this I often feel so grateful to the universe for having her in my life.

She's the sweetest person in the whole world. She cares about me so deeply that sometimes I can't believe she's real. How the hell people can love someone so much?

She's my bright sunshine, my little cute penguin, my soulmate.

Before I met her I didn't believe in love for long terms. I always thought that love shows itself just at the beginnings of the relationships. And after few years it's just a habit to have this person around you. But with her everything is different, everything is better.

We're working together, we're living together and basically spending all the time together. It sounds weird but with her.. everything seems normal. She's my best friend and we're talking about everything - universe, black holes and science stuff? Yep. Literature? Yep. Sports (especially ski jumping or football)? Double yep. Board games? Of course! We know each other very well and knows when we need a time just for themselves, for reading, for listening music or just staring at the window and drinking tea (or anything else - she's a coffee lover, I'm not).

I never thought that one day I'll be considering marriage, planning future, thinking about saving money for a house/apartment/little space just for us.

I just feel like the luckiest girl in the whole world.

And I hope that one day, when the times will be better, maybe our country will finally understand that LGBT are a real, alive and breathing citizens. We're not a somekind of ideology like mr president said. Me and her are just two girls who are deeply in love. Is it too much?

I hope that one day I will marry her. With or without our families but in our country. With whole legal privileges and obeys. Not eloping because we would had to. Eloping cause maybe we would like to.

One day I would like to call her my wife. Because she's the one. She's mine destination, wherever I am and will be.

#lgbt in poland #my stories #love #love love love #LGBT

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retro-rezz-the-est · 5 years

Text

The Right Alpha pt. 2 (Drew/Reader/Roman A/B/O)

Summary: A/B/O action with Drew and Ro accompanied by real time plot lmao. No smut this time, but plenty of angst and fluff.

(A/N: I wanted to get this out for my birthday and for the 500 followers milestone last week but since I’m a lazy piece of shit who’s brain doesn’t work properly, I forgot lol. So here it is! Thanks once again for 500+ and let’s hope that I haven’t lost my marbles due to VKM’s crap by the next milestone. God bless @writinglionqueen and @writing-reigns for being my betas and my support system throughout this. Love y’all both! ^3^)

Warnings: a lot of harassment/sexual harassment, brief flashbacks of the douchebag ex from the first part and Roman and Drew bc they should come with their own warning labels lmao

Word Count: 6728

Read part one here

(Y/n): your name

~~~~~

“You sure you don’t need anything tonight?” Roman asked.

“Trust me, Ro, I’ll be fine,” you said, holding your phone to your ear as you walked towards the backstage door. Even though Ro was still scheduled to be at tonight’s show, he still had yet to show up to the arena. Duffel in hand, you shouldered the door open and were met with the bustling sounds of the production team and the stagehands prepping for that night’s SmackDown Live taping.

You heard him chuckle in your ear. “If you say so, baby girl. Love you.”

“Love you too, Big Dog.”

Your heart felt light as you ended the call, sighing to yourself and holding the phone to your chest. You’ve been floating on air since Roman and Drew confronted you in that hallway after RAW a few months ago and with the implementation of the new, albeit incredibly stupid, “wild card rule”, you were able to spend more time with your Alphas. For the first time since jumping ship to the blue brand thanks to the new rule, you felt…

...happy.

You were actually eager to come into work that day, mentally preparing for your tag match with Bayley against Alexa and Nikki Cross. Sporting one of the merch tees you stole from Ro and a pair of jean shorts, you tried to maneuver your way around everyone and make it to the women’s locker room in one piece. You tugged on it and bought the collar to your face, inhaling and smiling as the scent of your alpha washed over you.

You really have it bad, don’t you? you asked yourself, your thoughts taking over.

Yep, and I don’t mind one bit.

You didn’t notice the figure in front of you until you crashed into them nose-first, bashing your head against the back of theirs.

“Shit,” you said, pocketing your cell as you tried to speak with a mouth full of hair. “Sorry, I wasn’t paying attention!”

“It’s ok, girl. I shouldn’t have been standing around like an idiot,” the voice replied, their body turning to face you.

The now-revealed Smackdown Women’s Champ ran a hand through her long hair and smiled at you, taking her other hand off of her suitcase’s handle briefly to give you one of her iconic hugs. When you first transferred from the Monday show, the Beta was the first person to show you any sort of kindness. So, the two of you became fast friends, looking out for each other both in and out of the ring. “So, how’s my fave tag team partner doing?”

“I’m doing well, actually,” you replied as you started off on you way again, her trailing closely behind you. “SmackDown’s a lot more chill than Raw is, to be honest.”

She let out another short laugh. “You’re not wrong here, (Y/n), but the wild card rule keeps shaking everything up around here.”

“Ugh, tell me about it. If I keep having to see the same people getting pushed when there’s quality talent just sitting back here, I’m gonna pull my hair out.”

“I know, right? I’d love to face some of the other girls here, like Kairi or Ember,” she added, unzipping her dark grey hoodie.

You raised your brow at her suggestions and noted, “I would actually pay to see those matches happen.”

“Well, at least it hasn’t been all that bad lately. You still get to see your mates every day thanks to the rule,” she sighed in content and looked at you. “I’m literally so jealous of you. Two mates! How do you guys even function?”

You started to ramble on about your relationship with the two Superstars as the two of you continued to walk down to the locker rooms, but you soon noticed Bayley glancing at you funny.

“What?” you asked her, brushing yourself off. “Is there something on me? Is there something on my face?”

“Nah, there isn’t. I was just hoping that you were gonna get into the more… juicy details,” she cheekily wondered, a sly grin plastered on her face.

“B-Bayley! I’m not gonna gossip about my sex life here! There are three topics you don’t talk about at work: politics, religion, and sex!”

“Aww, come on, live a little!” the beta whined. “Just this one little thing? For me?”

She already knew the answer the moment she looked back at your face, pouting in defeat. She made a move for her pocket and paused, feeling around in it when her eyes went wide.

“What’s wrong, Bayley?”

Groaning, she answered, “My hair ties. I think I left them with that stagehand I bumped into when I got here about an hour ago. Can you wait for me here and watch my bag while I try to find them? I promise I won’t be gone for long.”

“Of course,” you responded as she handed her small suitcase over to you. She shouted a “thank you” in your direction as she ran off and turned a corner.

You dropped your duffel on top of her suitcase and pulled your phone back out and leaned up against the wall behind you, scrolling through your old texts as you drowned out the hustle and bustle around you. You opened your group chat with Drew and Ro, giggling at how they both complained about working with Shane and his behavior.

Reading through the messages, you didn’t notice the shadow that had just loomed over your body. A hand slapped the wall next to your head, but you didn’t want to look up. You didn’t want to look up because you already knew who it was.

Speak of the fucking devil.

“Hello, (Y/n).”

You could already hear the sickly sweet adoration dripping from his voice, but you still didn’t look at him when you responded. “What the hell do you want, Shane?”

“Woah there, Omega. Is that any way to speak to your boss? I feel offended,” he said, his voice still filled with endless loads of fakeness. You could smell the cockiness rolling off him in waves, so much so that you had to hold your breath whenever he was around. The hand on the wall was slowly moving closer to your head and you could hear it, and you hoped to whoever’s above that someone would do something about it.

But no one ever did.

You could feel your hands starting to tremble as he leaned closer to your face. “I was just gonna ask where your two big, bad Alphas were, sweetheart. There’s no harm in that.”

The weight of his leer felt like a brick pressing against your forehead and you kept getting whiffs of want her and mine that you sure as hell didn’t need today. The Alpha above you moved a piece of hair away from your face and chuckled at your hesitance, already familiar with it.

“Y-You should already know where Drew is, you prick. And Ro’s here as well. He’s just not… here… right now.”

Your wolf was going absolutely batshit at the sight of him, and the thought of him touching you made it even more ravenous.

Hit him! Tear into his smug face! Kick him in the balls! Tell him off! Do something already!

You could feel your teeth start to grow sharper as he chuckled again, his free hand descending to your waist while the other made its way to the back of your head. You could feel his gaze lingering in your cleavage, and you felt more exposed than before.

Why can’t he just leave me alone, for fuck’s sake?

“Oh, he’s not here right now? What a shame. Truly,” he said teasingly. Shane’s hands gripped you tighter as he pulled you closer to him, forcing you to look up at him and drop your phone to the floor with a clatter. His eyes were malicious, but they held in them a caring look so fake and plastic that it made you sick.

Your entire body shuddered as you looked into his empty eyes. “Yeah, he’s not here now. So, w-what do you want from me, S-Shane?”

It was still shocking how no one passing by saw him do this to you. It still shocked you how no one interfered with him tormenting you like this.

“You know what I want, (Y/n). Just say yes and I’ll go.”

Resisting the urge to scoff, you uttered, “The fucking answer’s still no and you know why.”

“Aww, come on, live a little!” he whined, mocking Bayley’s earlier comment and making you cringe. “I could show you a really fun time.”

He managed to pull you even closer to his chest and he leaned down to your ear. “Just picture it: a night out celebrating with me and Drew after beating your pathetic, waste of space mate to a pulp once again. And as the night grows even later, we could get more… intimate, if you will.”

Don’t say anything, you told your wolf despite the immediate pushback from it. Shane’s breath was near potent and you actually felt the need to eject a wave of vomit onto his Jordans. Keep quiet and don’t make this any worse for me.

“Plus, seeing as those two idiots haven’t even claimed you yet, I can show that Scottish dud how it’s really done.”

Gripping your hair, he yanked your head back and bashed your head on the wall, ogling at your unmarked neck while you hissed in pain. With your arms stuck against his body, his head fell and he drew his nose over the skin. “You’d love being mine, Omega. I’d treat you right, unlike those absolute brutes you have for mates.”

Don’t do anything because if you do, then you’ll bite his nose off and we’ll be out of a job.

“What do you say, (Y/n)? You wanna take this for a test drive?”

His wedding band started to dig into your side through your shirt and you yelped, telling him, “You shouldn’t be doing this, Shane. You’re married, right? And you have pups?”

He roared with laughter at your comment, and all you wanted to do in that moment was curl into a ball and hide with your mates at your side. He responded with a large grin, saying, “And what about it, sweetheart? She doesn’t have to know now, does she?”

Moving up to your jaw from your neck, his lips brushed against your cheek as he added, “And besides, you like knowing that, don’t you?”

Before he could move closer to your own mouth, his own phone rang and you thanked every deity in existence that he released you and moved away to take the call.

“We’ll finish this conversation later, (Y/n). I’ll see you around.”

Holding the phone to his ear, he brushed off his chest with his free hand and casually walked away, you looking bewildered as he did so. You felt nauseous and dirty, feeling your now sharpened nails digging into the palms of your hands as you curled them into fists.

You hated this.

You’ve hated it since he started this little “game” of his a month ago, and you sure as hell hate it now. You hated how easily he could corner you and make you feel as vulnerable and weak as a small child. And you couldn’t even do anything about it because he was your fucking boss!

Your wolf howled in anger, letting out kill and must tell mates with every other breath. Everything around you continued as normal, but you knew that it was far from it. Your eyes burned with the feeling of unfallen tears and you could feel your breath grow faint when a familiar voice reared in the background.

“Hey, (Y/n)! I’m back! Sorry I took so long, the stagehand wasn’t in the spot where I had found them originally and I had to go searching for them again but that took ages-”

Bayley stopped her mini rant and took a good look at you, your entire attitude seeming to deflate since she had left originally.

“Hey, are you okay?” the Beta asked you. “You look...sick. Like you’ve just seen a ghost or something.”

Blinking the tears away, you forced a laugh out and moved your hands behind your back. “It’s fine. I’m just… just a little nervous about tonight. It’s my first time going against Alexa and I want my first match with her to go well.”

“Well, I’m sure you’ll be fi- oh my god, (Y/n)!)”

You quickly looked around, eyes wide with shock. “What? What happened? What is it?”

“Your hands!”

“My wha- oh.”

Drops of blood were currently dripping from your fists and onto the floor, making small puddles at your sides. You didn’t feel the bite of your nails digging into your skin, but you chuckled nervously and tried to hide them again. She grabbed your wrists in one hand and reached for her bag with the other.

“We have to get these cleaned and wrapped before out match tonight. Come on!” she told you, hoisting your bag onto her shoulder and dragging you by your wrist to the medical personnel with her free hand.

~~~~~

“Haha, take that, Bliss! You’re never getting your hands on this!” Bayley exclaimed at the blonde as the woman clutched her sides at the champ’s feet, you raising her arm above her head in victory. Moments later, Nikki slid into the ring as soon as you two slipped out of it.

Bayley gave you a hug as she started to make her way up the ramp with her title held high, Bliss and Cross limping back up a few minutes later. You, however, walked in the direction of the announce table where an empty chair and headset were waiting for you. You gave a brief greeting to Graves, Saxton and Philips before situating yourself next to the first man.

The last match of the night was a one-on-one bout between Ro and Shane and as always, Shane cockily walked out to the ring with Drew in tow to the sounds of boos from the crowd and his “best in the world” introduction. Drew grabbed two mics for him and Shane before they both climbed into the ring, looking like they absolutely owned the place. It would’ve made you smile if it weren’t for him being the lackey at the likes of Shane.

Shane raised his to his mouth and was about to talk, but he was interrupted by the blaring sound of Roman’s theme. He came out with a smirk on his face and you could almost hear the thud of his boots as he stalked to the ring.

He threw you a wink when he made it to the ropes closest to you and you smiled, hearing the ref signal for the bell and seeing Shane immediately rush at him from behind. He threw his forearm into the back of Roman’s head and crippled him, making you gasp. Drew applauded at ringside and the two of you locked eyes.

You shuddered under his intense gaze and you quickly looked away just in time to see Shane stomping out Roman, your mate groaning as his heel connected with his chest. You glanced away from the match briefly to discuss other matters with your fellow commentators (minus Graves, of course) before turning back and seeing Shane glaring directly at you, the look in his eyes making feel nauseous as you wrap your arms around your torso.

He winked at you like Roman had, taking his time raking those eyes along your figure and Roman was quick to notice. The Samoan bared his teeth and growled as he began to let out his wolf and rose from the ring floor, charging at Shane and spearing his head into the ringpost he was closest to. As the grey-haired Alpha started to regain his senses again, he threw his chest back and howled with the rest of the Universe and speared Shane again. The match was over before you could even blink, and Roman quickly pinned the other Alpha to pick up the win.

Huh, Shane’s off his game tonight. Good, you thought as you heard the three-count and you stood to clap for your mate. Taking off your headset and thanking the three men at commentary, you made your way into the ring and took Roman’s arm to raise it.

You two quickly moved out of it and began walking up the ramp side by side, his arm thrown around your shoulders and your own wrapped around his waist. Glancing behind you, you saw the dirty look Shane threw you and you smiled internally at that, claiming it as a small victory over him.

He pulled you aside near some supply crates as you made it backstage, bringing you into his chest while you inhaled his familiar scent. It had momentarily calmed your nerves down, being there with him, but they were briskly replaced by a new feeling of dread when he moved your hands from around him and looked down at your bandaged hands.

“How’d this happen, Omega?” Roman asked, worry making his brows furrow. “Did you hurt yourself?”

He started to rub at where the skin of your palms would be as you answered him. “Yeah, I did. I was nervous my match and I didn’t notice my nails digging into my hands. Bayley bandaged me up well, so I should be fine.”

You and your own wolf felt bad for lying to him about them, but you didn’t need him going after Shane with a death wish in tow and getting fired because of it.

This is better, you assumed, seeing his eyes grow soft. It’s better for all of us.

“I’m just glad that you were able to pin Shane tonight,” You raised your hands to cup his face and he nuzzled himself into them, making you chuckle. “Lord knows he needs to be put in his place.”

Roman laughed as you said the last bit under your breath, squeezing your waist before lifting his hands to move yours from his face. “Speaking of Shane,” he questioned, looking down at you with concern in his warm brown eyes, “what was that wink all about during the match? Is there something you’re not telling me, baby girl?”

“What? No,” you scoffed, answering him quickly. “Shane’s just being his usual dickish self in order to get under your skin and make you mad. Nothing more.”

The quickness of your response made the Alpha quirk his brow for a second when he smelled hurt and shame wafting off of you but he brushed it off, agreeing with you. You rose onto your toes and planted a kiss to his cheek, saying, “Now, you wait for Drew here while I go and get our things ready, ok?”

You let go of him and began walking away, hearing him reply with a “yes ma’am” and pivoting on your heel to see him throw up a faux salute in your direction. His eyes lingered on you even as your figure grew smaller until you finally turned a corner.

Your heart wanted to fall out of your chest and flop around on the floor when he asked you about your hands, and even more so when he asked about Shane’s shitty excuse of a wink. But, you persisted, even though your wolf continued to berate you about the situation.

Lying will not make this better. Makes it worse for you and mates. You’ll see.

~~~~~

Since your tag match with Bayley against Bliss and Cross went over so well on SmackDown, you were told that you had to give a dual promo with the blonde Omega the next week on the red brand.

You arrived to the arena dressed in a casual black tank with some skinny jeans, your sweater tied around your waist. Since the skin on your hands was starting to heal and you didn’t want to encounter Shane again, you decided to take the longer route to the locker room instead, using as many of the hallways as you could. He was always lingering somewhere on both shows and was always eager to find you, and you weren’t taking any chances.

A few minutes had passed since you’d seen anyone and you let out a breath you didn’t even know you were holding in. Turning down another empty hall, you felt a presence trailing behind you as you walked, but you paid it no mind. Then, a rough hand grasped your shoulder and spun you around.

“Thought you could run away from me, little Omega?”

How in the absolute hell?!

Your eyes went wide when he spun you around and pinned your arms to your sides. Shane moved in closer and you had the incredible urge to just raise your head and scratch his face up with your teeth.

“H-How did you find me?”

His laughter bounced off the concrete walls, making your bones vibrate. “I told you last week that we’d finish our conversation later. And to me, ‘later’ means ‘right fucking now’.”

He laughed again at your lack of words, your mouth slightly agape and hyperventilating. You were smart in that you didn’t ball your hands up as to not puncture the skin of your palms again, but you were damn near close to.

You could feel his hands sliding up your bare arms and situate themselves at the base of your neck, his thumbs drawing figures along your collarbone. All you could see was his smug grin, complete with eyes that were filled with absolutely zero remorse for what he was doing.

“Why do you do this to m-me, Shane? What did I do to you?”

This caught his attention. “You haven’t done anything yet, but you will.”

Huh?

“Like I said numerous times before, you’ll need a real Alpha like myself to show you the ropes. You’ll need me to claim you and show you how to be a good-”

He talked to you as if you were an incompetent child, and his hold on you grew tighter with every word. You began to struggle and try to get yourself out and away from him, but to no avail.

This hurts.

“- obedient -”

Pain.

“- little Omega for me, (Y/n).”

Struggling became useless as your breathing became quicker and quicker with each passing second and you shut your eyes tight, feeling them shift along with your teeth. His words were reminiscent of those from your ex-lover, and you couldn’t help but see blood red all over at the sound of them.

All you could think of was how dirty your ex made you feel, putting you down constantly with his hurtful, disgusting actions and words, and he made you feel the exact same way that he had and you wanted him to. You had to physically hold yourself back from pouncing on him and dragging his face into the ground.

Get him now!

“Shane? Shane, where th’ fuck are ya? We’re on in thirty bloody minutes!”

Oh, thank the gods above.

Shane groaned and released you abruptly, causing you to stagger back. “Fucking hell, Drew.”

The large Scottish Alpha’s feet reverberated off the walls around you and he turned the corner closest to you two, looking around. He spotted you both and stomped over, clearly pissed off with Shane.

“What th’ hell, man?! Ya say you were gonna meet me here, an’ then you just rush out like a bat outta hell!”

Dressed in a simple white tee and jeans with a leather jacket on top, he curled his hands and growled, letting off more feral scents combined with his usual one. Through his frustration, he saw the glow of your shifting eyes and how much you were trembling, accompanied by the growing of your nails at your sides.

Eyes flickering between the two of you, he looked at the other Alpha and grimaced. “And what were ya doin’ all alone here with my mate, Shane? I thought I told ya she’s taken.”

The other man chuckled nervously as you cupped your neck, feeling the imprints from his fingers already beginning to bloom into small bruises.

“We weren’t doing anything, McIntyre. I just caught up with her and was just politely asking her a question about her new feud with Alexa. Isn’t that tight, (Y/n)?”

You nearly barfed at his piss poor attempt at being nice, but you decided to play along. “Yeah,” you murmured, willing your eyes to fade to their normal hue and your nails and teeth to shrink down. “We’re all good here.”

You feigned another laugh and quickly put your sweater on, zipping it up fully to keep your skin hidden. Drew looked as if he didn’t buy any of it but soon turned around, grabbing Shane by the collar and dragging him away.

“Woah, hey now, watch the shirt! This thing is worth more than your monthly salary!”

“Cut th’ shit,” the Scot grumbled, stomping away with him in tow. “We’re already running behind schedule and I don’t need t’ hear your daddy runnin’ his mouth at me again.”

And with that, the duo disappeared behind another wall, their voices fading into nothing while you stumbled back into the wall behind you, clutching your chest and feeling your heart race.

“Great,” you muttered, briskly walking in the opposite direction of them. “Hope the Glam Squad has enough concealer to cover these up.”

Your promo was one of the first segments of the night and you were finished with it relatively quickly, getting a fairly good reaction from the crowd when the other woman had come out to do her bit. You were glad everything went smoothly once you finished and when you finally got backstage, you started to make the journey back to get the remainder of your things and head back to the hotel.

You made it to the women’s locker room and shut the door, grabbing your sweater and bending down to stuff it into the bag you had Natalya bring for you. You got out your phone to text your mates and ask them when they were going to be finished when the door behind you creaked open, twin footfalls thudding on the floor. Their scent slowly filled the room surrounded you before you saw them and you relaxed your shoulders.

“Hey, are you guys finished for the night? I was gonna text you to see when you-”

You pivoted on your heel to face the two large Alphas with a grin on your face, Roman dressed in a long sleeved black tee and shorts and Drew in the outfit you saw him in earlier. They stared back at you intensely, Roman crossing his arms and Drew moving to go lock the door.

You shuddered under their intense glares, asking, “Is everything okay?”

Roman was the first one to speak, uncrossing his arms and walking over to you. He moved your bag and took your hand, sitting you down on the bench behind you as the Scot watched from the door.

“Me and Drew were talking earlier, and we feel like you’re hiding something from us, ‘mega.”

Oh, help me now.

“Me? Hiding something from you two?” you pondered, scoffing and chuckling anxiously. “Everything’s totally fine. Trust me.”

“And there it is again,” he shot back, “you’re doing that thing again. You’ve been acting skittish and dodging our questions for almost a month now. Why won’t you tell us what’s wrong?”

He was confused, and you could clearly see the hurt in his eyes when you looked into them. But you couldn’t bring yourself to tell them yet.

Do it.

“I mean, was it something that we said? Something we did?”

“N-No, of course not, Ro! You know you’d never do anything to hurt me! You both wouldn’t!”

You sighed and took your hands out of his, placing them on your head as your eyes fell to your lap. It took everything in you not to burst out into a fiery mix or rage and tears. “Look, I already told you guys before. It’s noth-”

A loud bang brought you back from your stupor and you yelped, jumping out of your skin and directing your attention to the door. Drew stood there with the side of his fist against the door, and there was a crack emulating from the impact.

“Enough of this, (Y/n). We’re your Alphas, your mates. You’re supposed t’ tell us when something’s up. Why’re ya hidin’ from us?” he whispered, his voice cracking near the end.

Drew didn’t really express his more sentimental emotions outright but when he did, it absolutely crushed you. You could see your mates hurting - feel them hurting - and they were slowly chipping away at your walls. The silence after he spoke was deafening and you knew that if a pin fell then, you would hear it.

Every second felt like a minute and every minute felt like an eternity until you opened your mouth again.

“I don’t want you both to think that I’m a bad Omega for not saying something sooner.”

Your soft voice prompted Drew to move away from the door and kneel down to your height, placing both of his hands on your thigh. “Leannan (sweetheart), nothing ya say right now will make us ever think that. You’re our mate, and ya should be able to tell us anything plaguin’ ya.”

“We love you, (Y/n), and we do care,” Roman added, moving his hand to cup your cheek. “You don’t have to tell us everything if it’s too much, but at least give us something.”

Tick.

The fuse was lit.

Boom.

With that permission, you didn’t notice how quickly your body shifted into attack mode and you hastily stood, knocking your bag over.

“It’s fucking Shane’s fucking fault!” you barked, baring your teeth and nails to no one. “He keeps on stalking me and harassing me and bothering me and saying how much fucking better he’d be as my mate!”

You moved from the bench and began to pace the room, huffing and blocking out all outside noises as you continued to rant. “That little rich shitbag thinks he can do all of this over and over again with no consequence, and he thinks that he can just grab me and toss me around like I’m some useless thing! It makes me feel sick and dirty and… argh!”

The two Alphas jumped when you kicked a nearby locker, putting a dent in the shape of your foot in it. “I want to claw his eyes and scratch his smug stupid face! I hate it when he says that he’s gonna ‘show me the ropes’ and fucking claim me as his own when he’s got a whole wife and pups!”

You paused to catch your breath but you couldn’t stop the tears that were burning your eyes from falling. Your back hit the wall and you slid to the floor, cradling your face in your hands.

“I just… what did I do to deserve any of this?”

Your mates rushed to your sides as you cried, Drew holding you to his chest as you let the tears flow. You could feel Drew's heart beat faster and faster and you could feel Roman's heavy breathing on your neck.

The Samoan stood up and looked at your wrecked form, growling. You could see his eyes dilated and flash gold for a second before he turned away from you and unlocked the door, almost ripping it from its hinges as he stormed out with murder on his mind.

“Shane! Where the fuck are you, you bastard?! I’m gonna tear you apart!”

Oh fuck, you though, untangling yourself from Drew and getting up as quickly as you could to follow him. You two scrambled outside to find the wild Alpha and spotted him barreling through anyone who dared to get in his way as he continued to shout.

“Everyone get the hell out of my way! Where’s Shane?! I’m gonna fucking kill him!”

You ran after him, shoving past poor stagehands and other Superstars to get to your angered mate. Reaching him, you took his wrist and spun him around, seeing his eyes blown out to a full gold. His chest heaved with every harsh breath, and you could see veins popping out of his neck from how hard he was clenching his teeth.

“You see? This is why I didn’t tell you in the first place! I didn’t want you to go on a murder-happy fucking rampage and lose your damn job!”

“She’s got a point,” Drew added, firmly grasping Ro’s other wrist. “You need to think!”

He was having none of it. “He hurt my mate, our mate, and that waste of space needs to pay! I’ll find him and rip out his eyes myself.”

It scared you how aggressive he was when he meant it, but you stood your ground. “You’re not the only one who wants to kill that bag of human scum, Roman, but we do have to be smart about this.”

“We can deal with him next week,” you sighed. “Just… just calm down, please.”

No! Now! Get him now!

Drew nodded, agreeing with you and helping you to pull the other man back in the opposite go get the rest of your things even though he continued to try and escape. You smiled to yourself, though, at the thought of the things you were going to do to Vince’s son in the near future.

~~~~~

For the next week, your two mates didn’t leave your side for a second, with Roman escorting you out to the ring for your match on SmackDown the next night and Drew acting as your personal bodyguard when the cameras weren’t rolling. They wouldn’t let anyone get near you, growling and baring their teeth at anyone who wasn’t a personal friend who dared to get in your personal space.

Monday came far too soon and the three of you arrived to the arena, game faces on as you waltzed in like your own little pack. They each had an arm around your waist with a hand in each of your back pockets, leering at everyone while you grinned.

Roman and Drew were already planned to have another in-ring bout prior to Extreme Rules, but they wanted to have you out for the main event as support. You already knew that Shane was going to be there, going ringside to cheer the Scotsman on and berate his opponent.

You all had your roles, you all had your positions. Now, it was just time to put it all into play.

As their match was the one to close out the night, you had to deal with hearing Shane’s long introduction when him and Drew went through the curtain. You watched them travel to the ring and you saw the Scottish Alpha’s hand twitch, eager to get his large hands on the man next to him.

Shane continued to rant before you and Roman cut him off, trekking down to the ring to meet him. He swiftly ducked under the ropes as Ro approached him but he smiled at you when he saw you, instantly making you sick to your stomach.

Gripping his elbow, you whispered, “You know what to do, right?”

“Of course I do, baby girl,” he replied, brushing you off. “I got this.”

He smirked at you, climbing up the steps and under the ropes. The bell rang and the match began with the two men locking into each other in the middle of the squared circle, Drew quickly getting Roman into a headlock and bringing him down to one knee.

He managed to shove the larger man off of him and into the ropes to throw his forearm into his clavicle and drop him down with a thud. Roman roared as a “Let’s go, Roman!” chant erupted from the crowds. You applauded him and Shane sneered, creeping closer to the ropes like a rat to freshly tossed food.

The match went on for several minutes, each filled with blows delivered and taken by both Superstars. Drew took a harsh Driveby from Ro on the edge of the ring and you were almost certain that he had been knocked out, had it been for the groan he made when he reached up to rub at his head.

It quickly turned to the Samoan being on the receiving end of most of the blows when Drew landed a nasty Glasgow Kiss to his skull, dropping him like a fly. He dragged the fallen wrestler to the middle of the ring, standing above him menacingly.

“Pin him! What are you doing, man? Just pin him already and get it over with!”

Shane’s loud voice could be heard above all else and you prayed that Roman would get up and walk it off like it was nothing. Instead, Drew chuckled and ducked out of the ring, walking around it to come face to face with the McMahon. As the older Alpha continued to go on and on, your mate threw the fastest right hook you’ve ever seen, making Shane plummet to the floor like a stone in water.

You looked around at the shocked faces of the commentators as well as various members of the WWE Universe, but you didn’t expect the roaring cheer that one move got.

He kneeled down to his level and proceeded to pumble the man further, driving fist after fist and hit after hit into him. You were full-on belly laughing at that point, noting how comical it was to see the once high and mighty Shane McMahon who had cornered you numerous times be put in a similar, vulnerable position.

It was beautiful.

Hearing the newfound commotion, Roman arose from his spot on the ring floor akin to the Undertaker and the crowd went wild once more. He got up and ran to the ropes behind him, bouncing back from them and diving over the set in front of him, Drew moving so he wouldn’t get hit.

Shane’s head struck the ramp below and began bleeding as his face and body grew battered and bruised. The two men towered above him and rained down blows and kicks galore, and you wished you had a phone with you to record the magic happening. They then hooked an arm under one of his and hoisted him up from the ground, looking at you gleefully.

It was your time to shine, your chance to get your licks in.

“Go on, leannan!” Drew shouted, a wide, wicked smile plastered on his face. “Show this ugly bastard what’s for!”

Roman laughed alongside him. “Show ‘im your spitfire, Omega! Make him pay for what he did to you!”

Make him pay.

You roared, baring your sharpened teeth and charged at the silver-haired man, landing a solid dropkick to the middle of his chest. He fell with an “oof” and laid there like a limp ragdoll, but you weren’t going to let that deter you from having your own fun.

“If you ever-”

Punch.

“-ever-”

Another punch.

“-ever-”

One more for good measure.

“-think about touching me or talking useless crap about my mates again, I will fucking. End. You!”

With every word let out, you let out led to another hit to his body, your feet flying everywhere they could reach. After a solid five minutes of you three tossing him around and beating him to a pulp, you landed a fine tuned pointed-toe kick to his crotch. He crumbled to the ground, clutching his body as you and your mates looked on victoriously.

You could barely hear yourself think over the commotion going on around you, but you didn’t care. You got your payback. You all did and if he tries some shit like that again, you’ll be bound to pay him back again by a ten-fold.

You raced up the ramp to meet your lovers at the head, raising their arms to signal your win against Shane’s bullshit. You felt a weight being lifted off of your chest and you felt relieved for the first time in over a month.

Karma really is a beautiful thing, isn’t it?

~~~~~

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razieltwelve · 5 years

Text

Armoury (Final Rose)

Ruby was in paradise. After weeks of begging, pleading, and simply grabbing onto the professor’s leg and refusing to let go, she was finally in the laboratory’s armoury.

“I think I’m in heaven.” Ruby tried not to drool. There were so many guns in here and so many different kinds of ammunition.

Vanille grinned. “Do you want to try some of this stuff out?”

“…” Ruby dropped to one knee. “Marry me.”

“I’m way too old for that, and I’m already married.” Vanille chuckled. “But I appreciate the sentiment.”

X X X

“That is the GDAMR-17.” Vanille waited for Ruby to pick up the massive rifle. “We haven’t actually used it in the field yet, but it’s passed all of the safety testing, so you can give it a try.”

“What does GDAMR-17 mean?” Ruby hefted the weapon. It was slightly larger than Crescent Rose in its rifle form.

“Gravity Dust Augmented Mega Rifle Model 17. Basically, it uses gravity dust to dramatically reduce the apparent weight of the projectile, allowing it to achieve muzzle velocities far beyond those of other rifles. Those speeds allow it to use more… exotic ammunition.”

“Like what?” Ruby swallowed thickly. The rifle was a thing of beauty: sleek, refined, and so deadly.

“Here.” Vanille handed her a single round of ammunition. It was even larger than the anti materiel rifle rounds she’d seen in the past. “This is an impact triggered round made out of a substance so secret I’d have to kill you if I told you. Basically, when it strikes a target at sufficient speed, it undergoes a reaction that increases its hardness by several orders of magnitude for a short period of time before it spontaneously evaporates in a massively exothermic reaction.”

“…” Ruby accepted the ammunition with a trembling hand. “So… you’re telling me that this thing will go right through heavy armour before evaporating and basically disintegrating whatever is nearby?”

“Pretty much.” Vanille pointed to the other side of the testing range. “We developed it to target ancient and colossal Grimm. Since we don’t have any of those here today, how about you fire it at that wall there? It’s about ten feet of solid concrete with three armour plates made out of inch thick steel evenly spaced within.”

“And this thing is going to punch through that?” Ruby was practically drooling.

“Yep. Fire away.”

Ruby loaded the weapon and carefully took aim. Once she was certain of her footing, she fired. The kick of the weapon was actually smaller than she’d expected, but the effects were not. There was a sound like thunder before an explosion ripped through the back of the wall.

“Let’s take a look, shall we?” Vanille skipped toward the wall. “Come on.”

Ruby gaped. The projectile had pierced through around seven or eight feet of the wall before evaporating - a process that had resulted in an explosion that had carved a massive hole right through to the other side and sent bits of melting concrete flying dozens of feet.

“Can I keep this?” Ruby murmured, clutching the rifle to her chest. “And how much would it cost to buy a thousand of those rounds?”

“Ruby… those are experimental rounds. A single one costs about as much money as most people earn in a week.”

“…” Ruby took a deep breath. “Can I borrow some money?”

Vanille laughed. “Heh. I like your attitude. Come on. We have a few other things to try.”

X X X

“Is this a railgun?” Ruby asked.

“Yep. That is a prototype railgun sniper rifle capable of firing a six inch projectile at roughly fifteen times the speed of sound.”

Ruby bit her lip. This gun already sounded so cool. She had been planning on begging Vanille to let her borrow the GDAMR-17 for a mission, but maybe she could borrow them both?

“We call it the RGR-9, which stands for Railgun Rifle Model 9. One of the principle design challenges we’ve faced is what to do with the vast amounts of heat generated. I can’t tell you exactly how we solved it, but we did. However, to maintain a reasonable rate of fire, it uses a rotary barrel system. Care to give it a try?”

Ruby nodded eagerly. “Oh, yes, please.”

Vanille got on her scroll and a target appeared on a hillside several miles away. “See that?”

Ruby nodded again.

“One of the cool things about the RGR-9 is that it can be linked to a drone to help it aim. See that screen?” Vanille pointed to the small screen attached to the weapon. “That is connected to a drone that is connected to the laser sight on the weapon. Due to the speed of the projectile, you can mostly ignore any drop due to gravity or wind although the sight does correct for those anyway with the drone’s help.”

“I see.” Ruby grinned. “So when the crosshairs on the screen match the target…”

“You fire.”

“Cool.”

A split-second later, Ruby fired. The target exploded an instant later. The screen shifted to show the devastation the projectile had wrought.

“What do you think?”

“Can you somehow get this to transform into a scythe?” Ruby asked. “You know… just in case.”

“Not yet. Maybe you can work out how to do it when the technology is better.”

X X X

Yang raised one eyebrow as Ruby practically floated through the door. “Where have you been all day? I went looking for you, but Diana said you were doing something with the professor.”

“I went to heaven,” Ruby said.

“Right…” Yang patted Ruby on the head. “Do you mind explaining a bit more?”

“The professor let me see the armoury. Then we went to a testing range. And we shot stuff. Lots of stuff. All the stuff. And I really, really want to do it again.” Ruby grabbed Yang and shook her around. “Do you know they have a railgun rifle, Yang? And they have this other thing that can turn tanks into puddles of molten metal, and, and, and…” Ruby trailed off. “I think I want to join the lab as a minion. Maybe the professor will let me keep testing stuff if I join.”

“Okay.” Yang patted Ruby on the head again. “I think you should probably lie down and get some rest. You always get way too excited after shooting stuff.”

X X X

Author’s Notes

Vanille’s armoury has all the stuff. Seriously, though, there is even more stuff hidden away that Ruby doesn’t know about. If she knew about Vanille’s prototype long-range plasma rifle, she’d have stolen it already… and that’s not even thinking about the prototype singularity rounds the lab has been working on…

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#final rose #fanfiction #oerba dia vanille #ruby rose #yang xiao long

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lets-talk-appella · 5 years

Text

i’m nobody’s but yours

Chapter 10/25 - Chloe

Summary: Beca is straight as an arrow. 100%, totally, completely straight. Except for one problem that 100%, totally, completely changes everything: Chloe Beale.

Title borrowed from Calum Scott’s “If Our Love Is Wrong.”

Word Count: 5k

Rating: M (for dark themes, homophobia, masturbation, and eventual smut in later chapters)

AO3, FFN, and below.

Chloe comes to awareness leisurely, stretching her limbs and inhaling slowly through her nose. She doesn’t open her eyes yet, preferring to bask in the joy of having nowhere to be on a Friday morning now that she’s graduated and has enough in her savings to not have to work the summer away.

She rolls to her side, movements languid. As usual, her first fully-formed thought of the day is of Beca. And as usual, she imagines how it would feel to wake up like this with Beca in her bed with her. That brown hair sleep-tousled, blue eyes hooded and unfocused from sleep, soft, warm skin pressed against Chloe’s where their bodies lie wrapped in one another. She thinks about how easy it would be to kiss Beca in that moment, how simple it would be to tangle their limbs and wake each other up properly, in a way that involves gasps and broken breaths and fingers dipping below the sheets...

No. She can’t think like this.

Chloe’s eyes open, shutting down her imagination.

Even now that Beca is officially not straight – which she’d called Aubrey to squeal over almost as soon she’d been able the day Beca had come out – it still feels inappropriate to think of her like this – naked, in bed – when they’re not dating.

And yet.

Chloe can’t help but wonder if today will be the day.

It has been sixteen days since Beca came out as something other than straight. Today will make seventeen. It’s not like Chloe’s some sort of stalker who keeps track of these things; the only reason she knows that is because for every single one of those days, she has been trying to muster the courage to make the first move and ask Beca on a date.

There’s an impatient monster living in her chest threatening to blurt out, “Date me!” or anything similar. It requires all of Chloe’s willpower to restrain it.

She wishes more than anything she could ask Beca on a date. It’s something she’s been envisioning doing since she first saw Beca in that red tank and gray top at the Activities Fair. Yet, even now that she knows Beca would potentially be interested in dating women, she can’t ask her. It’s too soon, it seems. After knowing Beca for as long as she has, Chloe understands that Beca needs time to process change.

And this seems like a big change.

It had never really occurred to Chloe that Beca might struggle with the realization that she’s not straight. To Chloe, it’s just something that is. It’s not something to be scared of, and it’s certainly not something to ever be ashamed of, but still Beca doesn’t seem totally comfortable with herself yet.

Chloe can see it in the way Beca blushes when Amy elbows her in the ribs whenever an attractive actress comes on screen. She sees it in how Beca has asked pretty much all of the Bellas if “it’s okay” that she likes girls (it’s almost insulting that Beca would ever think it wouldn’t be okay). Chloe even saw it in the way Beca seemed awkward and nervous when, a few days after the Treble party, Jesse had come to visit for the last time before moving to LA.

It’s hard to watch, and even harder to fully understand.

What Chloe does understand perfectly well, though, is that it’s not her place to push. So, she’s forcing herself to wait until Beca’s ready and comfortable. Then she’ll ask her out. Maybe.

Someone knocks on Chloe’s bedroom door, startling her from her thoughts.

“It’s open,” she calls, throat a little raspy from sleep.

The door clicks open and Chloe lifts her head from her pillow to see Jessica peeking in. “Chloe? It’s on, and it looks like they might announce it today,” she says, excitement in her voice.

Chloe takes a moment to process, her brain still fuzzy. When it hits, though, excitement kindles in her chest and she bolts upright in bed, her sheets falling down around her waist.

“Oh, God, sorry!” Jessica cringes, pulls back, and slams the door.

“What? Why?” Chloe asks loudly, alarmed by her exit.

“I – you’re – I didn’t know!” Jessica’s panicked voice sounds from the other side of the door. “Sorry!”

Chloe stares at the door, totally confused. That’s when cool air hits her skin and she remembers. Face warming, she winces and yanks the sheets back up to her chin, even though Jessica’s already gone from the room.

“Uh, sorry!” she calls out. “I forgot!”

“You forgot you sleep naked?” Jessica asks, incredulous.

“Yep!” Chloe replies honestly. “I do it all the time, so. Slips my mind.”

“I wish I could slip that from my mind,” Jessica mutters.

Chloe grins and teases, “You like it.”

“With the amount of boob I’ve seen in this house, honestly…” Jessica trails off, then clears her throat. “So. Anyway. It looks like they’re announcing today. Any minute now.”

“Oh yeah!” Chloe replies, rocketing out of bed to get dressed frantically. “I thought they were going to wait until Monday?”

“Well, now it looks like today.”

Chloe moves rapidly, impatiently throwing her hair up into a messy bun. Excitement courses through her veins, tinged with nerves. If it happens… if it’s passed…

She crosses her room in a few quick strides and throws the door wide, startling Jessica waiting outside.

“That was quick,” she says, looking impressed.

Chloe grins. “Big day.”

Jessica half-shrugs. “Maybe.”

By the way she says it, Chloe can tell she’s trying not to get her hopes up. Just in case.

“One way to find out,” Chloe replies bracingly, and together they make their way down the stairs.

The other Bellas are gathered and spread around the sitting room, all watching the livestream of the decision being broadcasted from Ashley’s (or maybe Jessica’s) laptop. Cynthia Rose sits slightly off to the side on a phone call – likely to her girlfriend – with Amy sitting next to her, for once not teasing but rubbing a hand up her back soothingly. Beyond them, Beca sits off to the side in her own corner, but still watching the screen. Flo and Emily sprawl on the floor, Flo’s head resting on Emily’s stomach.

When they enter the room, Jessica moves to the couch and joins Ashley, Stacie, and Lilly (who is flicking a lighter on and off as a nervous tick). Chloe wants to join Beca in her lonely-looking corner, but knows that she wants space. She instead sits on the floor with Emily and Flo.

“Did I miss it?” she asks, suddenly tense. Seeing them all gathered together and hearing Cynthia Rose murmur to her fiancée on the phone has made everything very real.

“Not yet,” Emily replies, her eyes never leaving the screen. “But it should be any second now. I think they said at 10.”

Chloe glances at the time on the laptop: 9:57am. On the livestream, the camera focuses on the crowds in front of the Supreme Court Building, from which Pride and Equality flags wave. The newscast banner on the bottom of the screen displays, “Supreme Court Decision on Marriage Equality Pending,” in bold, blocky letters.

Chloe’s stomach flutters with nervous anticipation. She supposes it won’t change anything if it doesn’t pass; things will stay as they are now. But if it does pass, it opens new doors for her and for countless others.

The tension in the Bella house is palpable, as if the very structure of the house is holding its breath right along with its occupants. It’s completely silent in the sitting room apart from the voices of the newscasters on the livestream; even Cynthia Rose and her fiancée on the phone wait in silence.

For a terrifyingly perfect instant, Chloe allows herself to imagine a future with Beca in which they could become legally married in any state across the country. She shoves the thought aside almost as soon as it forms, though; It’s dangerous to think like that with so many variables outside of her control.

“It’s starting,” Flo’s terse tone jolts Chloe’s stomach.

The Bellas draw a collective breath as the votes pop up on screen.

“The first is marriage,” Chloe hears herself say shakily.

“It’s down to Kennedy’s opinion,” Cynthia Rose whispers, but whether to the room at large or to her fiancée on the phone, it’s unclear.

The next second is perhaps the longest of Chloe’s life.

Then, something on the screen shifts and the Bellas are exploding around her in a flurry of cheers, laughter, and excited yells, and Chloe doesn’t – can’t – comprehend what’s happening even as she reads over and over the lines scrolling across the screen.

BREAKING: Fourteenth Amendment requires a state to license a marriage between two people of the same sex, and to recognize a marriage between two people of the same sex when a marriage was lawfully licensed and performed out of state.

It doesn’t make sense, those words don’t mean anything, so why is everyone celebrating? And then Stacie, Flo, and Emily are tackling her in a massive hug and yelling at her in excitement and meaning and sound return gradually until Chloe finally, finally understands.

They won. Marriage equality passed across the country.

And now Chloe’s yelling and screaming too, incomprehensible syllables falling from her lips and she doesn’t even realize she’s crying until Stacie pulls a tissue out of nowhere and shoves it into her hand with a watery smile of her own.

Around her, the Bellas are in chaos. Flo, Emily, and Stacie are still in a heap on the floor; on the couch, Ashley, Jessica, and Amy pass around a bottle of rum, taking swigs directly from it; Lilly has the flame on her lighter going full blast while she stares into it with a terrifyingly large smile; Cynthia Rose cries openly and yells into her phone, “We’re legal now, baby. We don’t have to go to Maine to get married! Our relationship is legal! Your grandma can come to the wedding.”; and in the corner, Beca sits alone and quiet, her eyes wide and stunned as she takes in the scene in front of her.

As Chloe watches, Beca blinks rapidly and looks up toward the ceiling, her chin trembling and jaw clenching. Chloe winces in sympathy; she counts to 30 silently to give Beca time, then extracts herself from Stacie, Emily, and Flo. She stands slowly, taking the time to stretch out her limbs, and makes her way over to Beca.

Thankfully, Beca doesn’t turn away as she approaches. She stares in the direction of the laptop, glancing up at Chloe and smiling a little in greeting, but Chloe can still tell she’s fighting to hold herself together.

“Pretty cool, huh?” Chloe asks, settling down next to Beca without touching her, though she desperately wants to reach out.

“Yeah,” Beca clears her throat. “It’s… awesome.”

Chloe waits for her to say more, but she doesn’t. It’s clear, though, that Beca wants to talk; she’s tapping her fingers in the way she always does when she’s trying to connect the words in her mind. Chloe watches her hands move, almost as if she’s mixing together her thoughts as she would music.

“Did you see it was pretty close?” Beca mutters after a moment.

It takes Chloe a moment, before she realizes Beca’s referring to the vote passing 5 to 4.

Speaking slowly, Chloe says, “Yeah, but we won.”

“Yeah,” nods Beca with a shrug. “I guess.” Then she exhales, shaking her head. “It’s just… I don’t know, Chlo. There are still people out there who’d – they’d stop others from being happy because of their own, stupid reasons.”

“Bec…” Chloe trails off, not knowing what to say.

“Sheila,” Beca continues, her hands clenching into fists in her lap, “is one of those people. The step-monster,” she clarifies when Chloe doesn’t say anything.

“Yeah, I know who you mean,” Chloe reminds her, “but I didn’t know she was... like that. I’m sorry,” she says, and she means it. She can’t imagine what that must feel like.

Beca shrugs in acknowledgment but doesn’t reply.

Chloe draws her lower lip between her teeth; she’s burning to ask if Beca’s come out Sheila or her dad, but she knows Beca will tell her if and when she wants to.

Instead, she sighs and says, “Listen. Those people who – they don’t like us, oh well. Forget those people. They’re angry, and full of hate, and…” Chloe has to cut herself off so she doesn’t start ranting. That wouldn’t help Beca. After a moment, she continues, “They’re the ones who are wrong, not us. And the fact that we won today… that says something. Yeah?” she asks.

After a second, Beca nods, looking the tiniest bit happier. “Yeah,” she says. Then, “Thanks.”

“Anytime,” Chloe answers. “And… any thing. You know that.”

Beca smiles at that, then her expression shifts to something Chloe can’t quite identify. Her eyebrows draw together and she takes a deep breath, her eyes darting around the room. For some reason, it makes Chloe’s heart pound in her ears and she suddenly feels nervous for whatever Beca has to say. Beca opens her mouth, eyes huge and scared.

“Chloe? Would –”

“Hey!” Amy’s loud voice cuts over her. “Champ’s has a special for the announcement! They just tweeted,” declares Amy, gesturing to her phone.

Chloe doesn’t bother to wonder why of all of them, Amy’s the one to follow the nearest gay bar on Twitter.

“Ooh, haven’t been there in ages!” Stacie says.

Amy grins at her. “Well, first three drinks are free starting at, uh, noon, so...”

“Wow, noon?” says Flo instantly. “Count me in.”

“Same!” Chloe replies excitedly.

“Me too,” Cynthia Rose adds, putting her phone away and wiping her eyes.

Stacie, Ashley, and Jessica look at each other and shrug. “Might as well,” Stacie speaks for all three of them.

“Twist my arm, I’ll go,” Amy says to no one in particular. “Though I’m not gonna be meeting any sexy men…”

“There’s free booze,” Emily reminds her, looking envious, and Chloe remembers that she’s not old enough to get into the bars yet.

“I can show you a dead body instead,” Lilly suggests to Emily in a whisper.

“Legacy, that was actually a good point coming from your dumb mouth,” Amy says approvingly, ignoring Lilly.

Chloe looks sideways at Beca, who stares at the floor with something like annoyance. Briefly, Chloe considers asking her what she’d wanted to say earlier, but the moment passed.

“Bec?” Chloe prompts instead. “Wanna come to Champ’s?”

Beca blinks and looks up at her. “I… it’s a gay bar?” she asks, a little uncertain.

Chloe nods in a way she hopes is reassuring.

“Just gay men or...?”

“Usually both,” Chloe replies quietly, sensing Beca’s discomfort.

Beca shifts in her seat, her eyes flicking over to where Cynthia Rose and Stacie are already planning their outfits. “Is it okay if I’ve never been there?”

“Totes,” Chloe promises. Usually, she, Stacie, and Cynthia Rose are the only ones who go to Champ’s. The others prefer to stay home and party or go to other bars. “You’re not the only one who’s never been before.”

“Oh, uh,” Beca hesitates, before making up her mind. “Yeah. Let’s do it. Free drinks right?” she says more loudly, getting the others’ attention.

“Woo!” Flo cheers. “Plus, you never know, Beca,” she adds with a wink. “You might meet some foxy lady.”

Chloe’s stomach flips.

Beca turns a little pink but doesn’t protest the statement. “Uh, we’ll see.”

“Eat some pineapple first!” Stacie calls out. “It’ll make you, uh, taste good, if you know what I mean.”

Chloe wants to strangle her for saying that. Um. No. That’s… no.

“Just don’t bring any girls back to our room,” Amy says, looking disturbed. “I don’t want your lesbian activity all over my stuff.”

Beca wrinkles her nose and says something in return, but Chloe can’t quite make it out over the buzzing in her ears. The image of Beca and some stranger getting together is… nauseating.

Chloe can feel Stacie’s and Cynthia Rose’s eyes on her but she refuses to look at them. It’ll only confirm what they already know.

Maybe taking Beca to a gay bar isn’t a good idea after all.

*******************

Chloe’s drunk. She hadn’t meant to drink as much as she had – she’s got a little bit of a cold and isn’t sure how cold medicine and alcohol mix – but she’s had at least six, maybe seven shots in the past hour.

It’s not her fault; both Stacie and the guy she just met keep buying her them. And she keeps drinking them.

The night wasn’t supposed to happen like this. It was supposed to be just her, Stacie, and Beca out for a girl’s night. They’re the last three Bellas in town for the Friday before Spring Break, and Chloe had been beyond excited to hit the bars.

And then they ran into Jesse, which was apparently a surprise, as Beca thought he’d already gone out of town for break. Before Chloe can spit out a comment about how great their communication is after nearly two years of dating, Stacie’s ordered her a shot of Fireball.

Beca and Jesse step aside, into the corner of the bar to have what looks like a serious discussion. Chloe knows they haven’t been doing very well lately, and she watches them argue with no small amount of satisfaction. She finds herself hoping the floor where Jesse stands is sticky.

“I think I know what that’s about,” Stacie muses out loud, nodding to Beca and Jesse.

Chloe glances at her, and Stacie elaborates, “She told me the sex isn’t very good, so she hasn’t been offering much.”

There’s a weird pounding in Chloe’s ears.

For an instant, she’s angry at both Jesse and Stacie; Jesse for not treating Beca like she deserves, and Stacie for being privy to that information, but then the moment passes and Chloe’s back to being just disgusted with Jesse in general. She doesn’t want to hear anything else about how Beca’s being subjected to bad sex while she’s with him. She doesn’t want to think about Beca having sex with Jesse at all.

Chloe reaches for the shot of Fireball that Stacie bought for her and downs it. Stacie smiles at her sympathetically and buys another.

Chloe drinks the second one as she stands there, watching Beca and her useless boyfriend talk. A moment later, though, she wonders if she’s misread the situation because suddenly Jesse’s lips are on Beca’s and Chloe has to look away, her stomach churning.

With a solemn grimace, Stacie buys her two more shots, tequila this time. Chloe downs them instantly, ignoring both the proffered lime and the worried expression on Stacie’s face.

The night turns into a blur, and she’s suddenly dancing in the middle of the bar’s overcrowded dance floor, Stacie nearby. “Dancing” may be a loose term; Chloe’s swaying and twisting her hips sensually, arms raised into the air as she grinds – not drops, grinds – low. She’s giving it her everything, doing as best as she can to forget Beca and Jesse dancing only feet away. Jesse’s standing behind Beca, arms wrapped around her waist to hold her hips close to his.

Out of nowhere, a strange body fits itself behind Chloe’s, pressing into her ass, and she can instantly tell it’s a male. She glances once at Stacie, getting an uncertain nod in return; the boy must be passably attractive. With a quick breath of air, Chloe rolls her hips backward with purpose, feeling his immediate approval.

Chloe never does this. Never. She’s left bars for something like this before. But tonight, with Jesse grinding into Beca, sharing kisses with her that pierce Chloe’s heart like a knife, Chloe pushes herself further into the stranger behind her.

His hands wander without shame over her body, starting at her hips and roaming up over her stomach, almost to her breasts, then down to her thighs before repeating the cycle. The fourth time he does it, he does reach her breasts, cupping them roughly.

Stacie steps forward at the exact moment Chloe turns around, breaking the guy’s hold on her.

“Hey, don’t!” she shouts over the music, supported by Stacie’s, “Back off, moron!”

The guy – a tall blonde about their age – drops his hands but doesn’t move away.

“I thought you were into it,” he slurs back, eyes unfocused, and Chloe can already tell he won’t remember any of this tomorrow.

Automatically, Chloe risks a look toward Beca. Her breath catches in her throat; Beca’s still dancing with Jesse, turned around now with her arms around his neck. She hasn’t even noticed the guy all over Chloe.

It sends a new wave of vengefulness coursing through Chloe’s veins. She gives Stacie a significant look, then grabs the random boy’s hand and drags him off the dance floor to the bar, purposely knocking into Jesse as they go. She only hears Beca’s confused, “Chloe?” before she walks faster, stranger in tow and Stacie on their heels. They reach the bar in seconds.

“Buy me a drink first,” she says to the blonde guy over the ringing in her ears. “Or maybe two.”

His entire face lights up at the prospect; he looks at Stacie questioningly, but she shakes her head with a frown, so he asks the bartender for four tequila shots.

By the time the shots arrive, Beca and Jesse are stood there awkwardly, having followed from the dance floor. Jesse looks confused and annoyed, and keeps trying to talk to Beca, but Beca’s attention is all on Chloe; Chloe can feel her eyes focused on the back of her head.

Good, she thinks savagely as she reaches for the first shot. She downs it as the boy drinks his own, then immediately goes for her second. He’s slower to react but matches her. As soon as he plops his empty glass on the bar, she reaches forward, grabs the back of his neck, and pulls him into a sloppy, alcohol-infused kiss that makes her stomach want to revolt.

She deepens the kiss, imagining it’s Beca, imagining everything she would do to make Beca feel good, knowing she’s a better kisser than Jesse will ever be, telling herself it’s Beca while she’s tasting tequila on this stranger’s lips. She doesn’t feel a single thing.

She hopes to God that Beca’s seeing this.

*******************

Taking Beca to a gay bar was the worst idea Chloe has ever had.

Well. Okay. Maybe deciding on the gold tracksuits for the Convention Performance was the worst idea she’s ever had. But taking her best friend (who she has much more than a little crush on) to a gay bar filled with single women looking for other single women is definitely high on the list of “Chloe’s Beale’s Worst Ideas.”

“You’re being dramatic,” Stacie yells to her over the deafening throb of ABBA’s “Dancing Queen.” “Stop staring at her and have some fun!”

“I’m having fun!” Chloe insists at the top of her voice, tearing her eyes away from where Beca stands at the bar chatting up some blonde. Her second blonde in the fifteen minutes they’ve been at Champ’s.

Chloe would be impressed if she wasn’t too busy trying not to scream. Somehow, with Jesse out of the way, she’d failed to consider that Beca might start dating anyone else. It hadn’t seemed like a possibility.

The blonde laughs at something Beca says and Beca grins shyly in response, taking a sip from her drink. Chloe doesn’t even realize she’s glaring until Stacie snaps her fingers in front of her face.

“Hey,” Stacie says. “You’re gonna give yourself an aneurysm.”

“Sorry,” Chloe sighs. “It’s just – I didn’t expect that. And did you really have to make that pineapple comment earlier?”

Stacie cringes, looking apologetic. “I didn’t think before I said it,” she says, then glances over at Beca and the blonde disapprovingly. “And, yeah, well. Let’s find the others.”

Everyone else had made a beeline for the dance floor as soon as they’d gotten their first free drink from the bar. Chloe had wanted to wait for Beca, and Stacie had stood by her side. However, as time goes on, it seems like Beca won’t be leaving the bar anytime soon.

Chloe shakes her head frantically. “I’m not leaving her. It’s her first time,” she insists.

Stacie rolls her eyes but doesn’t comment even though they both know that’s not the only reason Chloe doesn’t want to let Beca out of her sight. She stands on her tiptoes and scans the bar; after a moment, she waves at someone, and Chloe knows she must be flagging down Amy, Cynthia Rose, Flo, Jessica, and Ashley on the dance floor.

Once she’s done, she turns to Chloe and shouts, “Let’s take a picture!”

It’s barely 1:00pm, and yet, with the free drink special starting at noon, the bar is packed with people. The place is so crowded that Chloe barely has the room to extract her phone from her jeans to take a selfie with Stacie. She smiles at Aubrey’s congratulatory text about Supreme Court decision, then pulls Stacie in with an arm around her shoulder and snaps the selfie.

When she lowers her phone, her stomach twists; the blonde next to Beca has been replaced by yet another girl. This one has red hair.

Chloe is shocked; even for a Friday, the girls seem to be more outgoing than usual. Some nights, Chloe will go to Champ’s in her best outfits, and not a single girl will talk to her, and yet, in the span of only a few minutes Beca has had three different ones. Chloe tries to chalk it up to the free booze and the good news for marriage equality.

The fact that Beca looks absolutely stunning in boots, skinny jeans, and a dark red top that gives clear view of her cleavage might also have something to do with it.

The red-haired girl now talking to Beca leans forward, very much into Beca’s space. Chloe expects Beca to pull back, and she does, but only slightly. Then, instead of walking away, Beca reaches to touch the girl’s shoulder and laughs at something she’s said.

Chloe’s jaw just about hits the floor. She has half a mind to go over there and demand that Beca get a different drink – clearly the strange girl had put something in hers – when an arm throws itself over her shoulders.

“Whew!” Amy says, following her gaze. “Looks like Shorty’s gonna get some tonight.”

“Absolutely not,” Chloe says, icily. “She’s not ready to get some of anything. She’s still getting comfortable with herself.”

Amy stares at her, eyebrows raised. “Um, I don’t know about that. Looks more like she’s getting comfortable with that chick.”

Some sort of snarl tears itself free from Chloe’s throat and Amy reclaims her arm, looking terrified. Forcing herself to turn away from the nauseating image of Beca with The Red Slut, Chloe pivots on the spot and urges her body into her usual grinding, hip rolling dance. If Beca can meet some new people, then so can she.

Her bravado lasts approximately fifteen seconds. Chloe catches a very pretty Asian-looking girl eyeing her hopefully from the edge of the dance floor. Ordinarily, Chloe would have smiled back, maybe even winked at the girl. The second the thought occurs, though, Chloe realizes she doesn’t really want to do that.

So, to ease the awkwardness, she puts her arm around Stacie’s waist and tugs her close, smiling gently at the girl at the dance floor. Her eyes widen in understanding and she nods politely. Chloe watches as her eyes roam over the crowded bar to land… directly on Beca.

Of course.

Chloe’s stomach sours and she drops her arm from Stacie’s waist. She can’t stop herself from glancing over to Beca as well, just in time to see the red-haired girl reach forward to slip a piece of paper into Beca’s shirt, tucking it under her bra strap. She starts to lean in, as if to kiss Beca.

Chloe has to look away, a hot pain searing through her chest. She doesn’t see if Beca allows the girl to kiss her.

“Chloe? You good?” Flo asks, frowning.

Before Chloe can answer, though, Beca appears out of nowhere, looking slightly ruffled. Chloe pointedly ignores the scrap of paper she can see poking from her shirt.

Beca’s mouth moves, but Chloe can’t hear it over the bar’s remix of George Michael’s “Freedom ‘90.”

“What?” she asks, leaning her ear closer to Beca’s mouth. She struggles to ignore how hot Beca’s breath feels on her neck.

“This is a lot,” Beca shouts into her ear. “Can we please leave?”

Relief crashes over Chloe; she’d wanted to leave almost as soon as they’d arrived.

She doesn’t bother replying verbally because of the music. Instead, she just nods, grabs Beca’s hand (trying and failing to ignore the typical zing that comes with touching Beca), and leads her toward the exit. She makes eye contact with Stacie as they push past, and Stacie nods in understanding – she and Beca will have privacy for a few minutes until Stacie manages to round up the others.

As Chloe moves to the exit, Beca in tow, she locks eyes with one of the blondes who’d tried chatting up Beca earlier; the girl sends her a nasty glare when she sees Beca’s hand in hers, and Chloe returns the glare with a petty smile. It’s immature, and what’s happening between her and Beca isn’t what the blonde thinks, but it sure feels good to let her think that way.

They finally break free of the crowd and push their way outside, blinking in the midday light. Chloe pulls Beca around to the side of the building, where it’s quieter and they’ll have space from the line waiting for entry out front. As soon as they’re out, Chloe drops Beca’s hand and takes a half-step away, giving her room to breathe after the crush of people in the bar.

Beca sighs and leans her back against the brick building, closing her eyes and tilting her head up.

“You okay?” Chloe asks after a moment.

Beca inhales deeply, then nods and opens her eyes. “Yeah, just… it was kind of a lot.”

“You mentioned,” Chloe smiles tentatively.

Beca grins back. A second later, though, she frowns and looks down at her chest; she reaches inside her shirt and plucks the paper from under her bra strap. She stares at it wordlessly for a minute before crumpling it and tossing it into the wastebasket at the corner of the building.

Chloe takes that as a good sign. She partly wants to ask if Beca kissed that girl, but it’s really none of her business.

Beca looks down at the ground, covered in litter despite the presence of the wastebasket. She shuffles her feet, and Chloe can again detect that same nervous energy she’d been emitting earlier, back in the Bella house.

And when Beca looks up at her, more scared than Chloe’s ever seen her, she already knows what she’s going to ask half a heartbeat before the words leave her lips.

“Chloe? Will you go out with me, please?”

#bechloe #bechloe fic #my writing #beca mitchell #chloe beale #the rest of the bellas are in this one too #pitch perfect fanfic #i'm nobody's but yours #chapter ten #ends on a bit of a cliffhanger #sort of

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isolavirtuosa · 4 years

Text

Starting Over (For Real?) 37-38

[fanfiction] NaruSasu

Read the previous parts here.

- 37 -

I was sober when Naruto came over that night, and I regretted it.

“Hey,” he said, all soft and hopeful and exhausted.

“Hey,” I said, letting him in.

“Sorry it’s so late,” he said, following me to the living room.

It wasn’t like I’d been anxiously waiting for him all night. I’d been reading some scrolls we’d found in Water about summoning jutsu with my full attention, certainly not reading the same pages over and over because I kept spacing out wondering where the fuck he was. “It’s fine,” I said.

“We’re trying to decide what to do with Sakura and Karin’s research,” he explained. “No one can agree on anything.”

“Typical ninja hierarchy bullshit,” I said.

“Yep.”

We looked at each other.

“So…” Naruto said. He didn’t say anything else.

“So?” I asked when the silence stretched on for too long.

Naruto gave me a rueful smile. “Why can’t this just be easy? I missed you like crazy and I love you. You said you missed me, too. So let’s… not miss each other anymore?”

I didn’t really know how to respond. He was proposing we no longer miss each other, but what did that even mean? That I should stay in Suna? That we destroy all ties between us and never see one another again so we wouldn’t miss each other?

“Sasuke,” he said, looking anxious. “Do you not feel the same way?”

“I don’t know how you feel,” I said, feeling exasperated. “And maybe I don’t know exactly how I feel, either.”

“Oh,” he said, eyes dropping. He had his hand in his pocket and seemed to be clutching something, running his fingers over it anxiously.

Why couldn’t we ever communicate clearly with each other? I decided to take a note from Sai, and quietly asserted, “I want us to still be boyfriends.”

His eyes flicked up to mine hopefully. “I want that, too.”

“Okay,” I said.

“Okay,” he agreed. “But… I want more.”

My stomach clenched. I didn’t know what kind of clench it was. I wanted nothing more than for him to explain exactly what he meant, while simultaneously not wanting to hear anything that he was about to say next.

“I’ve just had a lot of time to think about this, and I feel like you’re definitely going to say no, but I’m going to say it anyway,” he said, standing up and walking around the table.

I looked up at him towering over me. “Why do you need to be standing there to say it?”

He finally took his hand out of his pocket, holding it out to me.

I stared at it.

“Sas’, just let me do this,” he said.

I didn’t take his hand, but I stood up on my own.

He continued to hold his hand out to me.

I glared at him as I finally placed my hand in his.

He was sweating. “Sasuke, I love you.”

I didn’t say anything. I never said anything. I never said it back. I really hoped he wasn’t waiting for me to say it back.

“I love you, and I want to spend my life with you.”

“Oh,” I said, which was a stupid response, but the sincerity in his voice and the nervousness ratcheting through his body were starting to set me on edge.

“And I hope you want to spend the rest of your life with me, too,” he said, reaching into his pocket. Then he paused, looking confused, and suddenly seemed to realize that he didn’t have a hand to pull out whatever was in his pocket.

I felt myself smiling as I let go of his hand.

He flashed me an embarrassed look, then dug into his pocket with his good hand.

Oh, god, what was in his pocket? The tension was suddenly back.

He pulled out the first hokage’s necklace that he always wore.

I looked at it.

“This can control a tailed beast or even it’s jinchuuriki,” he said quietly. “Baa-chan gave it to me, and it’s the most precious thing I own. I want you to have it.”

I looked at him.

“I want you to marry me,” he said, looking determined.

I couldn’t control the crazy expression that must have crossed my face. “Marry?!”

“Marry,” he said solemnly.

“We’re nineteen fucking years old, Naruto,” I said incredulously.

“It doesn’t have to be right away,” he said quietly. “I just… I know what I want in life. It’s not going to change whether I be nineteen or ninety. I want to marry you and I want to be with you for the rest of my life.”

“That’s… crazy…” I decided, desperately wanting a way out of this conversation.

“Is it?” he asked. “I mean, I guess if you don’t love me the way that I love you, then…” he trailed off, starting to look wrecked.

I did that to him. I destroyed his self-confidence and I made him feel worthless. And that was exactly why this was so fucking crazy. “I don’t deserve your love,” I said flatly.

“Well, you have it anyway,” he said with a shrug. “Do you not want it?”

I closed my eyes for a moment, not sure what to say or what to do. Did I actually want this? Maybe…

“If you…” he started, then stopped, running his fingers anxiously through his hair. “Did I ruin everything?”

I opened my eyes, shaking my head. “No.”

He clutched the necklace in his hand. “I need you. I need you in my life. Everything’s wrong when you’re not here. So I want to make a commitment to you. Do you really think that you don’t… deserve it?”

We had to talk about our feelings. If I didn’t do it now, I was going to push him away permanently. “I think you’re too good for me,” I said quietly, taking the necklace out of his hand. I sat on the couch and looked at it, running my fingers over the green stone.

“That’s-” he started to say.

I looked at him.

He sat down next to me.

“I don’t have anything to offer you,” I said. “I’m mean. I’ll always be mean. I’ll say hurtful things to you when I should be telling you how perfect you are. I can’t help it. I can’t open myself up like you do. I just can’t. And you’re always going to be hurt because of that.”

“It does hurt,” he agreed. “But most of the time I can see through it. I can hear what you’re really saying. And then it doesn’t hurt at all.”

“I hate how I treat you,” I said, struggling to make my voice come out above a whisper. “And I don’t want to talk about this, I want us to just keep ignoring it, because I hear it now, I hear myself saying it out loud, and it’s so fucking crazy that you want to be with me and you want to marry me when I treat you the way I do.”

“Hey,” he said, his hand going to my cheek. He bumped his forehead to mine, holding it there. “You are mean sometimes. I told you, it does hurt. But I’m not a complete masochist for you, you know. The good always outweighs the bad. You are kinder and more loving than you’ll ever let yourself admit. I’m not holding onto you, waiting for you to change. I do wish you could be more straightforward and less on the defensive all the time. And I do think you can learn to be a little more… I dunno, open. Honest. But I don’t want you to change who you are. My love isn’t contingent on you becoming a different person. Do you get what I’m saying? I love you for you. I’ll take it all, even the sharp edges.”

“You shouldn’t have to settle,” I whispered.

“I’m not settling,” he said fiercely.

“I might not ever have sex with you,” I blurted out.

He scrunched up his nose at that. “We have sex all the time.”

“You know what I mean!” I snapped, giving in to being a little angry so I didn’t have to be so weak and vulnerable anymore. I pulled my face away from his.

“Look, we have to talk about our sex life, sure,” he said. “But the only thing I’m worried about is that you push yourself to do things that you don’t like just because you think you have to do them for me. I’m fine with whatever you’re comfortable with. I don’t need more, okay?”

“Yes, you do,” I said. “You’re settling again. You’re giving up a normal, healthy sex life to be with m-”

“Sasuke, you’re being dumb,” he complained.

“Excuse me?”

“What is normal? What is healthy? Is it healthy to be married to woman and having sex with her while you’re in love with another man? Maybe my hormonal teenaged body has given you the wrong impression, but I’ve never been more sexually satisfied than when I’m with you. You don’t need a vagina, okay, or whatever crazy shit you’re thinking. I don’t need to penetrate you to have sex with you, and you don’t have to penetrate me if that’s not what you’re into. You don’t have to get undressed. I won’t touch you anywhere you don’t want me to. That’s not me making a sacrifice or giving something up. That’s what adults with normal, healthy sex lives do. They do what’s comfortable for both of them. They do what’s enjoyable for both of them. Just tell me your boundaries, and I’ll tell you mine.”

“…you make it sound so simple.”

“Well, I know it’s not going to be because you can’t ever be honest and open about anything that puts you in a vulnerable position. But I think that you want this relationship to work, so I think you’re going to try. And I’m going to try and be patient, and be clear to you about what I want, which is why I am telling you that I intend to marry you.”

I looked at the necklace again. “This doesn’t suit me at all.”

“Sasuke.”

“I want it to work,” I said, forcing myself to speak in a normal, steady voice. “I want it to work because I…” I swallowed. “…you know,” I concluded when I couldn’t get the words out. “I do. But I want to make your life better the way you make my life better. And you’re saying all the right things, but in the end, I know you’re giving up things to be with me.”

“Sasuke.”

“I don’t want kids.”

He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I know.”

“You won’t ever have children if you’re with me.”

He closed his eyes at that.

“I’m not taking that away from you,” I said firmly.

A tear slid down one of his cheeks.

“It was taken away from me the second I woke up from the Infinite Tsukuyomi,” he said, opening his eyes and looking at me determinedly.

“I’m not worth it,” I said in a last-ditch effort.

“You’re worth everything to me.”

“It’s not even legal for two men to get married.”

“The world is in ruins,” he said with a hopeful shrug.

“You’re making a mistake.”

“Stop trying to push me away.”

“It’s all I know how to do.”

“Stop.”

“You said you weren’t waiting for me to change.”

“You don’t want to push me away.”

“How do you know?”

“I told you, I can hear what you’re really saying.”

We looked at each other.

“Wear the necklace?” he asked quietly.

“I’m not marrying you.”

“Wear it anyway?”

I ran the stone between my fingers over and over. Then I raised it slowly to my neck.

Naruto waited, actually holding his breath.

I put it on. “This doesn’t mean anything.”

He swallowed.

What was I doing? “It’s a mistake,” I said, reaching for the clasp again to undo it.

“Sasuke!” he yelped, looking at me desperately.

“I just want you to be happy,” I said helplessly. My fingers dropped away.

“I am, baby, I’m so happy,” he whispered, staring at the necklace.

“Not an infant,” I corrected him.

“I know, love, I know, I just… I love you. I love you so much.”

I swallowed, fingering the necklace. “I…” I said.

He leaned in to kiss me.

I stopped him, covering his mouth with my hand. “…love…”

His eyes widened.

I swallowed again. “…you.”

I felt the way he inhaled sharply, then he was pushing my hand away and covering my mouth with his.

It was chaste, just lips pressing together over and over, but anytime either of us retreated the other was following, pressing them together again.

This was idiotic. We were teenagers. We wanted different things out of life. We were not getting married. And yet here we were, newly ‘engaged’, and I was pulling away and whispering into his ear, “Let’s go to my room.”

Naruto looked at me uncertainly.

I stood up and led the way.

He followed.

We sat on the bed next to each other, neither of us looking at the other.

“Tell me what you want,” he said quietly.

“I just… want to be close…” I said just as quietly.

“You have to tell me when to stop,” he said.

“I know.”

“And when you want more.”

I breathed out more harshly than I intended. “I know,” I said.

“I’ll tell you, too.”

“Then tell me what you want.”

“I want to kiss you.”

I kissed him.

He smiled into my mouth.

It was easy to get him to open up for me.

He gasped, arms wrapping around me.

I made him breathless, then tugged his shirt towards me.

He looked at me.

I had to use my words. “You on top,” I told him.

He blinked, but nodded, easing me down on my back and covering my body with his.

I hated to admit how much I liked the weight of him on top me. But it felt good, and we were kissing again, and maybe everything was right in the world now. I could do this. I could use my words and tell him what I wanted, and it was fine.

Naruto’s dick was poking ridiculously into my thigh.

I looked at him.

He blushed.

“Tell me what to do,” I said, staring at him.

He looked nervous. “You don’t have to do anything…”

I glared at him.

“Shit, yeah, fine, I get it,” he said. “I just… you can say no.”

“I will keep that in mind,” I said, waiting.

“Fuck, I don’t know,” he breathed. “I want to rub against you, I want you to touch me, I…”

I waited.

“Can I take off my pants?” he asked nervously.

“You can take off your pants,” I told him.

“Okay,” he said, sitting up and doing so. He had on very ridiculous-looking boxers covered in different kinds of ramen.

I smiled.

He came back in to kiss me. “Can I jerk off?” he panted into my mouth.

“Yeah,” I whispered back. “Can I help?”

He groaned. “Yes, please.”

I ended up backed against the headboard half-sitting, Naruto straddling me while he touched himself. I wrapped my hand around his, squeezing.

His kisses got sloppy.

I took control, forcing his slobbery tongue back into his mouth and rubbing it with mine, watching him pant and moan helplessly. He had an incredibly dumb look on his face, and I enjoyed every second of it.

He ended up making a mess over both of us, which I didn’t enjoy quite as much, but taking in his sheepish, satisfied expression, I decided I would put up with it.

“We need to buy condoms,” I said, kissing the top of his head as he nuzzled into my neck.

“I will go and buy them immediately,” he murmured drowsily.

“Tomorrow would be fine.”

“Mm, but what if I want to come again tonight?”

“You are a desperately horny teenager,” I informed him.

“Mm,” he agreed.

“Then you better come in my mouth,” I said.

His eyes opened wide at that. “Holy shit, Sasuke, you are the dirtiest person I have ever met.”

“Am I?” I asked. “You have literally trained with the most famous perverts in the world.”

“Yeah, but they weren’t telling me to come in their mouths, holy shit,” he said.

“So you don’t want to come in my mouth?”

Naruto groaned and hid his face in my shoulder. “What kind of idiot wouldn’t want to come in your mouth?”

“It’s settled then.”

He laughed softly. “I love you. Everything about you. Nothing to do with coming in your mouth. I really, really love you. Let’s grow old together.”

“Can you stop talking like a forty-year-old man?” I requested.

“Probably not.”

I sighed. “Fine. Are you going to stay over tonight?”

“That’s an option?” he asked, perking up.

“Yeah.”

So I went to sleep that night with Naruto curled against my side and his necklace around my neck.

- 38 -

“The fuck are you wearing?” Karin asked with a snort.

“Clothes,” I said flatly.

“Oh, Sasuke, sweetie, don’t even try and play it off like you’re not wearing your boyfriend’s family heirloom,” she said, shaking her head.

“It’s not really your style,” Sai commented.

“Could you two focus on something besides my fashion choices?” I asked incredulously. “And where the hell is Sakura?”

“Probably still visiting the old lady,” Karin said with a shrug.

“Well, maybe she could be on time for a meeting that is mostly about the research you and her are doing,” I said irritably, shifting my weight from one foot to the other as we waited outside of the acting kazekage’s door.

“I’m sure she’ll regret being late for the day that Sasuke showed up in Naruto’s clothes,” Karin said with a snort.

“It’s an accessory, not clothes,” I growled. I thought about taking it off. But I didn’t.

“Hey.”

We all turned around to see Shikamaru approaching us from down the hall.

“Hello, friend Shikamaru,” Sai said, giving him a friendly wave.

“We just got word from some Lightning ninjas that Juugo was seen there right after the Infinite Tsukuyomi was released,” Shikamaru explained. “There were two others with him, a male and a female with no description. Kankurou said that you had put high priority on any sightings of your team, so…” he trailed off.

“They’re sure it was Juugo?” Karin asked, chewing on one of her nails. “And that was almost a year ago…”

“Just passing along the information,” Shikamaru said with a shrug.

“Can you get me in touch with the source of the information?” I asked.

“Yeah, they’re passing through here and should be around for a couple more days,” he said.

“I guess the wind is blowing us to Kumo,” Sai commented.

Sakura finally got her ass to the meeting and we went in to talk to Temari.

Naruto wasn’t there. I didn’t see him until almost midnight, knocking on my door quietly while looking shifty.

“Hey, you’re awake,” he said, his eyes lighting up when I opened the door.

“Barely,” I said.

He looked at me. “Can I come in?”

“Sure,” I said with a shrug.

He was still looking at me.

“Do I have something on my face?” I asked.

“No, you have something on your neck,” he said, his grin widening.

“Shut up and get in here,” I said, dragging him in.

He looked at me, grinning happily with flushed cheeks, two cup noodles tucked under his arm.

This was the man I was probably spending the rest of my life with. “What are those for?” I asked, gesturing at the noodles.

“I didn’t eat yet,” he said sheepishly. “Can I borrow some hot water?”

“Are you going to return it?”

“Can I have some hot water?”

“There’s a kettle in the drawer under the stove.”

“Thanks, love,” he hummed, moving to the kitchen. He shuffled around, getting the water in the kettle and turning the stove on. Then he let out an exasperated-sounding sigh. “Hey, you’ve had this plant for like a day and you’re already killing it.”

I came into the kitchen, watching as he filled up a cup of water and brought it over to the plant that was now sitting in the windowsill.

“You have to water it every day,” he said.

“Who waters plants every day?”

“I do,” he said.

“And what do you do when you’re out on missions?”

“I get someone to do it for me.”

“Then water my plant for me,” I said.

“You’re standing right there! You’re not on a mission!”

“Well, having it here is dumb anyway.”

Naruto looked absolutely miffed.

“What’s the point of me staying in this apartment if I’m leaving soon anyway?” I said with a shrug.

“The point is to have somewhere to come back to!” Naruto said fiercely. He stood over the plant now, carefully watering it.

“Yes, but why don’t I just move my things to your place?” I said. I was completely nonchalant.

Naruto turned around very slowly to face me. “My… place…?”

I shrugged. “The plant gets watered and everyone is happy.”

“A-a-are you casually moving in with me?!” Naruto sputtered.

“I’m just saying that there’s no point of me having my own place and my own plant to water when I’ll be coming and going,” I said.

“We should move right now,” Naruto said, nodding his head vigorously like I’d asked him some yes or no question.

“Your ramen,” I said, nodding my head towards the kettle.

“We can make it downstairs,” he said, moving to pick up the kettle.

“I’ll move my things tomorrow,” I said. “Stay here tonight.”

He started nodding his head like a crazy person again. “Yeah, yes, very good idea, yes, uh-huh.”

“Did I break you?” I asked, rolling my eyes.

“Um, you’re wearing my wedding proposal and suggesting we move in together, so yes, you broke me,” Naruto agreed.

“This looks ridiculous on me,” I said, touching the necklace.

“It looks hot on you,” Naruto countered.

I raised an eyebrow at that.

He blushed. “Fine, everything looks hot on you. But, um… I’d kind of like… something of yours… to wear…?”

I looked at him. “I have some old arm warmers.”

Naruto pouted.

The kettle started whistling.

He turned off the stove and poured the water into the cups before covering them up again.

“You could wear my old forehead protector that you keep under your pillow like a creep,” I suggested.

His blush got even redder. “I… but that’s… so you see…”

I had a flash of inspiration, coming up to him and pushing his shirt up.

“Hey there, uh, oh, are we gonna… um…”

I ran my fingers over the seal on his stomach.

His muscles trembled under my touch.

I looked down at him, amused. “You should get a tattoo.”

“Oh,” he said swallowing. My hand was still on his abs, and it was clearly making him nervous.

It felt good.

“What kind of tattoo…?” he finally asked.

“An Uchiha seal,” I said, letting his shirt fall back down.

Naruto looked at me, biting his lip. “Like a fan?”

“Yes,” I said.

“Where would I get it?”

“Where do you want it?”

“Mm, I dunno,” he said. “I never thought about getting a tattoo before. Maybe here?” he said, touching his heart.

“Lame,” I said. “You should get it somewhere where everyone can see it, like this monstrosity,” I concluded, gesturing to the necklace.

“Well if I dressed like you then everyone could see it,” he said, reaching out and pulling the open v of my shirt closed.

I rolled my eyes. “You like how I dress,” I said, pulling his hand away and letting my shirt fall open again.

“Mmm, well, yes,” he agreed, staring at my pectorals. “Looks good on you.”

Our hands were still touching.

Naruto blinked slowly, then shook his head. “Stop flirting with me, I gotta eat.”

“Who’s flirting?” I asked, taking my hand back. “I’m going to bed.”

“Already?” he asked, picking up one of his ramens and slurping it down. “I didn’t take a bath. Can I use your tub?”

“Sure,” I said, emptying the water out of the kettle and turning it upside down to dry.

Naruto slurped down his second ramen, then washed his chopsticks and set them in the drying rack.

I absently wondered when he’d gotten so well-trained. I caught him by the belt loop and pulled him in, giving him a kiss of appreciation.

His whole face lit up. “I’ll be quick, okay?”

“Okay,” I said, heading to bed with every intention of falling right asleep. I heard Naruto start up the shower and I let myself drift into an almost-sleep. I was faintly aware of him leaving the bathroom and coming into the bedroom. He shuffled around for a few moments before climbing into bed and spooning up behind me.

It’s how we’d slept the night before, and I felt my entire body relax into sleep.

Naruto was still passed out when I woke up, his arm a weight over my waist.

I wasn’t really sure how we’d gotten to this point. I’d been sure he was going to end things, and now we were exchanging dowries and moving in together.

“Naruto,” I said.

He didn’t budge.

“Naruto,” I repeated more loudly.

“Hm?” he hummed into my neck.

“Do something about your penis.”

He grumbled a little, pulling his hips back. “Is it bothering you?”

“Oh, no, I love being woken up by being stabbed in the back.”

“How can you be so sassy so early in the morning?”

“Move.”

Naruto grumbled some more, rolling on his other side with his back to me.

I rolled over as well, spooning him.

“Oh!” he said, sounding surprised and delighted. “Okay. I like this.”

“Be quiet,” I said, nuzzling my face into his neck and trying to rest a little more before we had to get up.

Naruto actually listened to me, covering the arm I’d draped over his chest with his own and snuggling back into me.

We stayed like that for a while.

“I heard you might go to Lightning to look for Juugo,” he finally said, absently stroking my arm.

“Sai and I are thinking of going in about a week,” I said.

“That’s soon,” Naruto breathed out.

“Yeah,” I said.

“What about Karin and Sakura?”

“They’re going to stay here and continue experimenting with the chakra fruit.”

“So you need more people for your team?” Naruto asked.

“I think just Sai and I will be sufficient.”

“Are you sure?”

“…yes…?”

Naruto sighed.

“Are you trying to offer to come with us?” I asked, ignoring the little hopeful flutter in my chest.

“Obviously.”

“I thought you wanted to stay in Suna.”

“I’m getting kinda antsy doing all this political crap,” he said. “It’s starting to remind me of my dream world.”

I nudged the back of his neck with my nose. “We could use someone to carry our bags and do our laundry.”

“You’re an asshole,” he informed me, but I could feel his smile.

“Come with us,” I said, feeling safe enough to step out on the ledge and ask.

“I want to.”

“Okay.”

#narusasu #isola starting over

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