#yes i do but i don't only sleep with one of my sergeants i actually sleep with two of them; one having been dead for 4 years'

[natelia-aldelliz]

Guys imagine, Roach died, before the creation of 141, but Soap is able to see his ghost. He was originally following Ghost around, really annoyed that he was using his death as an excuse to not get close to anyone, but when he found out Soap could see him and talk to him he started following him around instead.

And they get really close, like two peas in a pod, except they have to be discreet about it because no one else can see or hear Roach, and they'd think Soap was crazy if they saw him talking to no one.

They use that for shenanigans too: Roach will go follow someone else and report back to Soap, Gaz is genuinely starting to believe Soap has superpowers or something. It's really useful on missions as well, and Soap managed to successfully rescue team members thanks to Roach being able to move through walls and everything.

(Roach is not the only ghost Soap is able to see btw, just the only one he's talking to.)

And then Roach is witnessing his past lover trying really hard to not fall in love with Soap, and Soap trying really hard to not do anything about the love he already feels, and he has to try and convince Soap that he is dead. During that conversation he finds out that something else that keeps Soap from doing something is that he feels very confused about everything because he also has feeling for Roach.

So now Roach has to try and convince him that even if he was still alive he wouldn't have a problem with that. He's known for a while that he was polyamorous, but he hadn't really dared talking to Ghost about that because he thinks he's jealous and possessive.

And Soap is like "oh yeah, you want me to go say to Ghost 'don't worry about your dead lover that I'm not supposed to know, he's actually polyamorous and also in love with me, I know because his ghost told me!' ??? I'm sure he's gonna take that well!"

But Roach is nothing if not resourceful and he manages to put Soap in situations where he's forced to interact with Ghost, and eventually they kiss and their relationship is beginning to be something. They're not really sure what.

And Roach is sad, because he has to watch the two men he loves being in love without him, yes, but at least they're both happy, and it makes him feel a bit better. And then during a mission Ghost almost dies.

Because he was alone and Soap and Gaz were together, Roach was following Ghost this time, ready to fly to Soap in an instant if there was any problems. But there was and he didn't have time, so he instinctively grabbed the gun being pointed towards Ghost's head and moved it as the person was shooting, saving Ghost's life, giving him enough time to shoot the enemy himself.

But even as the threat is eliminated, Ghost is still looking up from where he's on the ground, staring right through him, looking shocked. No, not right through him, he realises when he moves to the side and Ghost's eyes follow him. He also realises that he grabbed the gun. He's never grabbed anything before, in all his years of being a ghost.

Then suddenly Ghost's eyes move wildly around, and he figures he disappeared from his view. He can still go through the walls, but he's kept the ability to grab stuff when he wants. It gives him a ton of new possibilities, to fuck with people and, of course, to touch Soap.

"I wish you were actually alive," Soap whispers to him, holding his hands against his face as he's falling asleep.

"What the fuck," comes Ghost's voice the next morning, waking both of them up - wait, since when could Roach sleep?

Soap doesn't understand immediately, because he's always been able to see Roach. But Ghost is standing in the door, looking straight at dead past lover.

Turns out Soap is a necromancer and he had no idea, though the whole 'I can see dead people' should probably have told him sooner that he wasn't normal... The more he wishes Roach is alive, the more he actually is. And they all end up happy and together. And Gaz is very happy to have won the bet that Soap indeed has superpowers.

The day Roach says, in a wondering voice, "I... I think I'm hungry" is the day they understand that something is really happening and he's actually coming back to life.

(Also, Soap has no control at all on his abilities, he has no idea what does what and why, he knows nothing. No one knows.)

[fanficsforheartandsoul]

Happy Ending | Simon "Ghost" Riley x Fem!Reader

Note: This has been ghosting around in my head for some time now because of the song "Wallpaper" by Megan Cromwell. I noticed that whenever I don't have the pressure of a request in the back of my head for a story it's much easier to write. That's why I wrote this rather easily and quickly. I just wanted to post something again lol. So yeah, have some good ol' super dramatic angst. I'll be more active again hopefully.

Fandom: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II (2022)

Warnings: Angst, Heartbreak, Unrequited Love, Mentions of NSFW Stuff, Trauma, Reader has some Issues

Summary: Ghost wants a happy ending but not with you.

Word Count: ~2k

If you want to be tagged in my stories send me a pm with the fandom/character name! Or comment on the fic :)

Masterlist

Call sign: Vigil

"We can't do this anymore."

You had known from the start that sleeping with him was a bad idea.

Generally, people advise you against sleeping with a co-worker. Because it makes things complicated. Even more complicated when you're both in the military.

Because technically you’re not allowed to fuck, your actions could be clouded by emotions, potentially risking not only your but the lives of your fellow operators as well. But that little clause in your contract was printed in that tiny font, and so you decided to ignore it.

It didn’t stop you from getting involved with your lieutenant. You were never a big fan of rules after all. Your rank as a sergeant after so many years of service in the military said enough about that.

But at the start, you truly believed that a physical relationship with him wouldn't cause trouble to you or anyone else.

You thought you had it under control. At least in the beginning.

Yes, you had been attracted to him since your first meeting when you had signed your contract with Taskforce 141. Mysterious men were your thing, and he embodied such a man with his skull mask.

So yeah, you did allow yourself to daydream about him, and have some dirty thoughts every once in a while. It wasn’t like you were the only one.

You were attracted to him and you knew he was attracted to you. It was mutual and actually pretty obvious.

You could feel his searing gaze on you just a few days after you had joined the taskforce; the way his eyes trailed up and down your body. The looks he gave you were charged with want.

But attraction doesn't necessarily lead to a romantic relationship, right?

He was a good-looking man in your opinion; tall, rugged, buff, with muscles and fat in the right places, just the way you liked it.

His face couldn't be considered conveniently attractive yet that made it so much better for you. The arch in his brows, the dark eyebags, the scars on his cheeks, his cheekbones. He was your type. And his rough appearance fuelled the fire in your lower stomach and your imagination.

What was the harm in joining him in the sheets and having a bit of fun? It wasn't like you loved him.

That’s what you had asked yourself.

It was much better to get rid of your pent-up frustration with him instead of a toy or a rare one-night stand when you were off-duty.  And damn, was he good in bed.

Rough, fast-paced, keen to try out every possible position, and not shy of pleasing you. You could've expected it. He was a man who wasn't afraid to get down and dirty. Dirt, blood, sweat, and other fluids... It didn't matter.

Short summary: It was pure ecstasy every time.

You two had lots of fun together in lots of different positions and locations, and that was all it was. Just some fun.

No strings attached, as you both declared at the start. Just fuckbuddies.

"I'm not a relationship kind of guy, Y/N" he had told you after you had spent your first time together.

You had snorted because shit, you weren't either. Both of you were too broken and bruised by the baggage of your pasts. Your traumas would probably weigh you both down in the long run. So you were fine with the line he had drawn between you.

It was okay. No emotions, no obligations, no lovey-dovey shit, just a means to an end.

Just a meeting in your room after a mission, a phone call on your days off, then a quick meet-up in a hotel. Just pleasure. Not love.

Until it wasn't just that anymore.

You two had settled into a routine where he would join you in your room late every other night.

After you had pleasured each other enough, he would leave soon after, and somehow - with time, you began to miss the warmth next to you on your bed.

The feeling came slowly creeping, and it took you by surprise.

You never asked him to stay; you didn't dare cross the line. To ask for a bit more affection. But you wished.

That he held you just a bit closer during the act. That he remained next to you just for a few more minutes after it. That he kissed your scars, your lips. That he touched you as if you were something, someone precious to him. Someone important.

Sure, you liked it when he treated you like an unbreakable object when his grip left bruises on your body - in a way, they satisfied your need for more. They marked you as his. But just for once, you wanted to be treasured by him. To feel that you meant something more to him.

You didn't know when your feelings for him had turned into a fluttering mess in your chest. He wasn't just a means to an end anymore. You valued him. Not just as a soldier who had your back. Not just as a friend. But as a man, a partner. A man you wanted close to you. For the rest of your life. No matter how long that would be.

Because Simon had done something no one else had been able to do before.

He made you wish. For a future. A future with him.

He made you wish to be better, to be a little less broken. To pick up the pieces that had once made you whole. You wanted to be better. A better version of yourself. For him. To have a chance to be truly happy. To get that fairy tale life others dream about – you once had dreamed about when you were younger, your shoulders lighter.

His attention made you excel, it made you stronger, faster, harder. You were just better when he was around. A better soldier, a better woman, a happier person.

And you thought, no, believed that he understood that. That he helped you to be better. That you needed him. Not just in your bed, but by your side. As your other half.

You both were people of few words, so you thought that through your actions, your eagerness during missions, and your gentle touches during your time together, you conveyed all these feelings. That he got it, saw how you felt about him.

But you never spelled it out. Never said; I've come to love you.

Just let these feelings simmer under your heart, hoping that one day he'd get what you felt for him.

"We can't do this anymore, Vigil."

You'd love to say that it came as a surprise when he, one day, called you to meet up and told you these words.

But you knew subconsciously. Felt it. Long before he actually said the words, they were coming.

His calls had been less frequent, his visits rarer, and to your confusion, his eyes began to look different whenever you saw him. They looked clearer, and happier.

Only after you saw him at the party after your successful operation in Chicago did you understand. He did look happier.

But not because of you.

And only then did you realize that your brain had played a trick on you. You were so consumed by your feelings for him that you didn't realize how big the rift between you two had gotten.

He laughed.

Simon Riley laughed heartily for the first time since you knew him. Not just one of his usual chuckles that he reserved for your or Soap's jokes.

No, true deep laughter that came from deep within his chest.

And all because of a joke that the woman next to him had told him.

You didn't know her; you had never even seen her face before. She was a complete stranger to you, and yet Ghost rested a hand on her hip as if she belonged to him. As if she was his fucking girlfriend.

Soap looked at you, then who you were staring at.

"That's Ghost's new lass, I heard. Can't believe that guy found someone before us, eh? Surprised me too, I tell ya."

His words were like poison, and you tasted bile in your mouth. So much made sense to you now.

"Why not? I thought you liked it?! I enjoy it every time."

"That's not relevant anymore. I'm just telling you, Y/N. This thing is done. I won't come here anymore."

"But-"

"Let's just forget this happened, alright?"

"...."

"Okay."

You hadn't even been able to argue. Or tell him your feelings.

After all, you were the one who said you could never be in a relationship with him or fall in love with him. It was pathetic to get back on your words and admit it in front of him.

So you just shut your mouth and accepted his words for the time being.

A tiny voice in your head whispered that you could tell him your feelings later when he calmed down a bit. When he started to miss you.

You knew the whole situation with Hassan was getting to him and the others, so you cut him some slack. You thought he would change his mind. Believed it. Blindly.

But now, here you were. Looking like a fool. Feeling like one. Being one.

And the thing was, you couldn't even say anything to him.

He was the one who made you happy. Who made you want to be better. Less traumatized, more whole.

You could see in his eyes that she was that to him. Not you.

So, what right did you have to intervene?

You wanted him to be happy, after all.

How could you deny him that? You both had gone through so much.

She seemed to be the complete opposite of you. She basically glowed in the room, her smile radiant, and her aura was light as if the world had blessed her to never know hardship.

Her frame was soft, and her skin unblemished, untainted by the cruelty and darkness that existed in the world.

You couldn't help but compare yourself to her.

Your cracks, the marks of your trauma, made themselves known through various scars on your body. Your hands were rough, covered with old blisters; so unlike hers, and you were all jagged and sharp edges, while she looked so cute and bubbly.

You could see her appeal, and it hurt to think that way, but in another world, in different circumstances, you could see her as your potential friend. She just had the appearance and aura of someone who people gravitated toward. A soothing soul.

In that sense, you could understand Ghost. Why he searched her side. But you fucking hated it.

As lovely as she seemed, right now in this bar; you couldn't help but despise her.

She took him from you.

A voice whispered in your head. The ugliness of that thought made you want to throw up, because didn't it prove that you weren't completely right in the head?

Ghost wasn't your property. He had his own free will, and just because she appeared didn't mean she stole him away.

After all, he never belonged to you anyway.

This was probably why Ghost didn't chose you, you thought to yourself. Your ugly jealousy and possessiveness were rearing their heads.

I wouldn't choose myself either.

You felt like crying, but you couldn't even do that.

You hadn't cried for years now, and although the pain in your heart was worse than any of the bullet wounds you had received during your career, not a single tear welled up in your eyes.

You were truly broken. And the man who could fix you wasn't at your side. He would never be.

You looked at the two of them once more. An ugly thing clawed at your chest, begging to get out. Your vision turned red. You clenched your fists.

You had to get out of here. Now.

"You okay, Vigil?" Soap asked next to you, noticing that you seemed a bit off.

"Yeah. I just- think I didn't turn my stove off. I got to go."

You mumbled before you turned around and hurried to the exit of the bar. Soap tried to protest, but you were out the door before he could even finish his sentence:

"But you just arrived- Damn... off she goes."

He sighed and looked towards that woman and Ghost. They made eye contact. As if Simon was already looking at him. Or you.

[bingoboingobongo]

task force 141 + ice skating

Characters: Simon "Ghost" Riley, John "Soap" MacTavish, Kyle "Gaz" Garrick, John Price, Alejandro Vargas, Rodolfo "Rudy" Parra

Warnings: none

A/N: screaming crying throwing up i have my two hardest finals tmmrw halp

guys we've finally got the gang back together

alright so let's be real for a minute

the 141 is definitely not the kind of group to coordinate an ice skating date outside of work

i mean can you imagine like six grown behemoth men at an ice skating rink with like some rando child whizzing around while half of them struggle to even get on the ice

yeah right

so when they do ice skate i see it happening while they're on duty

it's winter (duh) and they're up north so it's extra cold

the base they're staying is right next to a giant lake, which has finally frozen over

gaz was the first to notice

he was eating some breakfast (cocoa puffs) and he looked out the window and saw the lake all icy

and he pointed it out to price who was drinking some coffee and reading the newspaper on the couch

price got up to go check it out too (and u bet he did that thigh slap grunt combo men do)

and gaz was right, the lake was completely solid

and i like to think that the 141 usually has breakfast together/hangs out in the commons in the morning

so price asks if everyone wants to go skating

ofc most of them are happy to say yes

ghost needs some convincing but he gets there eventually

for some reason that base had a bunch of skates

but it worked out so no one's complaining

and don't ask how they had the right sizes or why they would be there in the first place (it's through the power of i have to sleep soon and i can't come up with an explanation rn)

so everyone starts making their way outside to the lake

alright time for some super speedy individual headcanons

simon "ghost" riley:

sorry but ghost definitely does not know how to skate

that's one of the reasons he was so apprehensive to join

it's hard to look intimidating when ur falling on ur butt

and it's not like he has a wall to hold onto

this is also his first time ice skating because he never got to do it as a kid

so yeah going into it he was pretty nervous

he doesn't even have the best balance to start out

but he's a fast learner and he was able to get the hang of it pretty quickly

definitely fell over a few times

much to the delight of soap who got to gloat as he helped him up

and ghost definitely said something like "watch your tone sergeant im still your commanding officer" to try and defend himself

it was not very effective

but once he gets the hang of it he can actually skate surprisingly well

he doesn't skate very long though until he goes back inside

much to the disappointment of everyone else

definitely skates with his hands at his side or in his pockets tho

except one time he almost face planted bc he couldn't use his hands to catch himself

so now he's extra paranoid about skating with his hands in his pockets (as he should don't skate with your hands in your pockets, it's dangerous)

john "soap" mactavish:

surprisingly good at ice skating

skated around a lot when he was a kid

roller skating and ice skating

so it comes pretty natural to him

he hadn't done it in a while but skating sorta like riding a bike in that you never really forget once you know how

he can do the like crossovers and stuff but not any super fancy tricks

def knows how to skate backwards tho

likes to skate super fast and then just go around in loops

laughs at ghost whenever he falls but ways helps him back up

he also had to teach ghost how to even skate

ghost was not very happy about that arrangement

but only because soap kept joking that ghost looked like bambi

ghost got his revenge though when after soap laughed at ghost for falling, he immediately faceplanted

and it was like a comical faceplant

his legs almost went over his head and everything

soap had to go inside after that because he got a bloody nose

in the end it was fine though and he went out and kept skating

soap's definitely the kinda guy to build up speed and then coast on the momentum with his arms out to his side

it makes him feel cool what can i say

kyle "gaz" garrick:

alright so gaz is a pretty decent skater

he's gone a few times recently with his younger siblings

so he knows the very basics

he's definitely a little more timid about it though

especially after watching everyone else keep falling over

for what it's worth he never fell over once tho

but he was also super duper paranoid about falling through the ice

he had to help out price a little bit too at the beginning

he wasn't very good at it though so soap ended up taking over

definitely is a more mild skater

he's just down to coast and do whatever

he gets cold pretty easily too so he's usually rubbing his arms or his hands together while he skates

also is really really really bad at stopping

especially since there's no wall

so he just kept continuously skating like the entire time

and then he had to coast until his momentum ran out when he wanted to go inside

john price:

alright so price skated a little when he was younger imo

he went on a lot of roller skating and ice skating dates back when he was a young adult

but it's been a long time since then and so it was kinda hard for him to get back into it

so he had gaz and soap help him at the beginning

after a while though he got back into the rhythm

and he started to get more and more gutsy

and started to try little tricks that he was able to do before

skating backwards, turning a little, those fancy stops where they like skid on the ice

at one point he messed up and fell though

and like a true old man he hurt his back

and lord was it a struggle to get off the ice

he had to get gaz and soap to come help him up

when he went back inside ghost was drinking some tea and asked him why he was holding his back like that

for fear of sounding like an old man, price told ghost it was nothing

the next morning though his back was super stiff though

but nothing he's never experienced before

alejandro vargas:

bro man's is actually cracked at skating

like price he definitely went on ice skating dates back when he was a young adult

but unlike price alejandro has actual moves

like he can skate backwards, forwards, on one leg, he can do turns, jumps

it's actually insane

like nobody knows how he got this good and he refuses to tell anyone anything except that he just went on a lot of ice skating dates

because the truth is that one year he had a crush on this girl who was super into figure skating

so he spent like the entire year watching figure skating clips from the winter olympics and stuff and practicing and his local skating rink so he could impress her

she ended up moving away before he could show her though

but he still kept on practicing because at that point he had just sorta fallen in love with ice skating

so yeah when he pulled up on that lake he shocked everyone

alejandro spent a lot of time helping rudy too

and yes they did that thing where alejandro held rudy's hands and skated backwards while rudy got pulled forward

i mean it's a skating staple it has to happen

rodolfo "rudy" parra:

alright so like ghost rudy's never skated before

he didn't realize they had a skating rink and he's also not really a fan of the cold

like i said before he tends to run cold so he needs a lot of jackets when he goes skating

alejandro had to teach him bc rudy truly had no idea how to do it

unlike ghost he was not successful quickly so alejandro spent most of the time holding his hand and guiding him

he definitely fell down a lot of times

wanted to give up at one point but alejandro made him keep going

and it was worth it because pretty soon after that he started to get the hang of it

he actually really enjoys ice skating

what can i say it makes him feel like elsa

definitely jokingly did elsa's hand movements and pretended he was controlling the ice or something

he had to start off skating super duper slow though because he was really nervous about falling

but by the end he was able to speed up and live his ice queen dreams

[reds-skull]

BLOOD||HUNGER

[PREV PART] [AO3]

So remember how I didn't like how short the last chapter was? Well this one is almost as long as the longest chapter I've ever written (insane how when it goes smoothly and I don't feel like the words are fighting me, I actually write more!)

This chapter is called "Droops and Decays"

Page 11 of the “Blooede Starvatfōre-dēde”, parable 4:

And a knight, wearing the blind man’s colors, Brings his sword forth and calls, halt beast, Leave my brother to be, release him from your bloody maw. The blind man steps forth, hands raised, And he calls his brother-in-pain, lower your steel, This monster is unharming, it is calm, And it needs guidance, as the blind do. The knight asks, why would the blind lead the sinners? And the blind man answers, when all other paths are blocked, We can only move forth on ways seen only by the unseeing.

Ghost doesn’t sleep in the company of others. It is not because of the person in the room, his body and mind just genuinely, physically, can’t trust anyone anymore.

(He wonders if it were Price-)

So Ghost lets his eyes rest, while his mind turns and churns over the events of last night.

“I know ye would rather leave me to die, go scurry away to whatever hell ye crawled out of. But we both know ye can’t. Now, would you rather die alone…”

“…or fight together?”

Soap… no, John MacTavish. He has quite the bleeding heart, offering to work together with the man that pointed a gun to his head not an hour prior. He wonders who he was before being discharged, if fighting alongside him tonight was how it would’ve been to work with him.

(He wonders if he could trust him-)

The 141 will arrive to the wreckage they left any moment now. Instead of finding the Sergeant, they’ll come across the charred remains of the Hunter’s soldiers. Ghost knows they’re smart enough to figure out neither of them are dead, considering there are no tire tracks beyond the destruction.

(If he were to burn and die, would Price be able to tell his body from the rest-)

He wishes he could sleep. Would’ve been more useful than the shit that’s stirring around his brain right about now.

(Maybe talking to Soap could be more useful-)

The Sergeant wouldn’t want to talk to him. Not after what he’s done. 

(No better than the Hunter, no better than Roba-)

(But he wants to-)

Ghost doesn’t want things.

(That’s Simon’s job-)

Simon is dead.

(Simon can’t be dead when Ghost is still living-)

Soap shifts next to the window, and sighs. Ghost gets reminded of the way the Sergeant stirred in his sleep, his eyes scrunched up like he’s trying to close them in his dream. He took mercy on him then, kicked his shoulder lightly. Soap grasped at it like a lifeline, eyes snapping wide open to swivel around the room.

(Searching for ghosts-)

It was then he started wanting, Ghost reckons. Wanted to know what burrows into Soap’s mind, what crawls beneath his bed to sink its claws while he sleeps.

(Wants to see the beast himself-)

Fucking hell. Since when does Ghost care what other people bloody dream about?

In an attempt to stop all those buzzing thoughts, Ghost opens his eyes. Soap is still by the window, rifle in his hands, clicking lowly as he fidgets with it. He looks about as lost in his mind as Ghost was just a few moments ago.

(He wonders what Soap is thinking about-)

Ghost sits up, internally annoyed with his own stupid mind. Soap looks at him as he stretches his limbs slowly, taking stock of their condition.

“Yer leg’s faring better?” the Sergeant asks.

Surprisingly, it is. The muscles no longer shake, even if he has a general feeling of weakness across his body.

Ghost raises from the tarp, “affirmative. Ready to move?”. Soap jumps off the table, and opens the door. The fields outside are bright and calm, wheat stalks idly swaying in the soft breeze.

They return to the road, Soap still tapping at the metal body of the rifle. Eventually, he speaks up, “you think Price and Gaz reached the trucks already?”

Ghost spares him a glance, “certainly.”

The Scot slows his steps, “...maybe I should go back-”

“By the time you reach the trucks, the 141 would be gone.” It took them hours to get this far.

Soap sighs, dragging a hand over his hair, “fuckin’ hate that yer right.” He catches up to Ghost.

(He wants to know more-)

He doesn’t need to-

(He needs to know more-)

“How do you know Price?” Ghost instantly curses himself.

Soap raises an eyebrow, “how do ye know him?”

“I’m not telling you shit, Sergeant.”

Soap crosses his arms, “then I’m not tellin’ ye shit either.”

Fuckin’- how did he get stuck with such a childish, impudent, little bastard.

“Everyone knows Captain Price.” Ghost almost growls, bluffing through his teeth. Soap’s eyes light up like he caught him with his pants down.

“Aye”, Soap smirks, “everyone in the British Army knows the Captain. But not everyone knows how he looks.”

He leans in closer to Ghost, “no, ye had to be in a high rank fer that. Said ye were SAS, Lieutenant? I’m thinking ye weren’t lying after all.”

Bloody wanker. He’s not fucking stupid.

Soap leans away again, finally answering his question, “well, I didn’t know Price too personally. Was on a few missions along his squad. Tried to recruit me before I got… discharged.”

Ghost narrows his eyes. So that’s the game he wants to play. Give me a bone, I’ll give you something to chew on. As much as he wants to be annoyed, he supposes that’s fair.

(Now that he’s been given a hand, he wants the whole arm-)

“Why did they discharge you?”

Soap’s smile falters, “disobeyed direct orders one too many times. Killed an HVT they needed alive.” his blue eyes dim, “sliced his neck and choked the blood outta him.”

Ghost frowns, “how important was the fucker that they booted you out?”

Soap stops walking, Ghost turning around to face him.

“Ever heard of Vladimir Makarov?”

Ghost blinks, “you’re not-”

“I am.” Soap’s face twists, in grief or in anger, Ghost can’t tell, “I’m the one that killed Makarov.”

They stare at each other, Ghost mind whirling. If Soap is the one that… 

Everyone knew what Makarov was planning. The power vacuum he left was huge, leaving Konni Group to disintegrate. Leaving people like the Hunter, to attempt to take his place in the twisted international power game.

“Ye can tell me Ah’m feckin’ daft, I’ve heard it all.” Soap starts walking, his frame more taut than usual.

Daft? “You eliminated the biggest nuclear threat since the Cold War.”

Soap laughs bitterly, “yer talking like Ah’m a fucking hero.”

“None of us are heroes, MacTavish.” Not with the amount of blood on their hands.

Yet, men like Soap… Ghost can’t say he’s evil. He’s too… compassionate for that.

Soap looks ahead, eyes fogging over with memories, “...said that to Price once. He told me…” He refocuses on Ghost, “...forget it.”

(What did Price say-)

“What did he say?”

Soap huffs, a sad smile on his face. “He told me about his previous Lieutenant. How he was a man of many sins.”

Ghost’s heart stops beating.

Soap continues regardless, “but he said Lieutenant Riley was his most caring soldier. Would always fight as hard as he can to bring everyone back home.” he turns to Ghost, whose breath caught at the Lieutenant’s name, “for those he saved, the Lieutenant was a hero. At least, that’s how Price saw it…”

“Ah wanted to be like him, back then.”

Ghost barely managed to whisper the words out, “and now?”

John smiles, “now Ah want to be better.”

His eyes shine so brightly, Ghost thinks at the back of his mind. His body is still as a statue, ceasing to exist in the now, sinking into the dark waters of the past.

(Yet Simon feels more alive than he’s been for years)

Ghost continues to scan the horizon, as the city comes into view. It becomes clearer and clearer what causing the sounds echoing through the lonely fields.

Someone is fighting against the Hunter’s soldiers. And they’re vastly outnumbered.

“What should our next move be?” Soap crouches next to him, overlooking the battle.

Well, Ghost’s goal is to find a high ranking soldier, bring the intel on the antidote out of them (gently or violently depending on how cooperative the tosser will be), and find it. He’s working with limited time - who knows when his body will lose the fight against the poison and simply give up.

Soap however… Ghost still doesn’t understand why he’s here. All he knows is that the Sergeant seems to hate the Hunter’s soldiers about as much as he does.

He supposes it’s good enough for him.

“Need to capture a soldier.” Ghost murmurs, combing for stragglers.

Soap does the same, “shouldn’t we help whoever’s fighting ‘em?”

“Don’t think they’re gonna hold up for much longer…”

The Hunter’s soldiers swirl like a swarm around one house, flashes of rifle muzzles coming from opposite windows. The fighters are cornered. It’s only a matter of time before they get overwhelmed-

Soap Jumps over the wall they were hiding behind, and starts running at full speed towards the fight.

“Sergeant!” Ghost shouts after him, “where in the bloody hell do you think you’re going?!”

Soap doesn’t spare him a single glance, swinging his stolen rifle to aim at a few soldiers, “Price and Gaz are in that building! I cannae let them die!”

Ghost’s eyes widen. He looks over to the house again. The Hunter’s soldiers are closing in…

(Price would never leave him-)

(The Lieutenant was a hero-)

(You saved them, Simon. Why?-)

(No man left behind, except when the man is Simon Riley-)

(I can’t leave them to die!-)

Ghost heaves a breath, pulling out his pistol and taking point next to the Sergeant. Soap finally looks at him, face contorted in confusion.

“If we want to do this, we need to make the soldiers split up.” Ghost says, already calculating how many hostiles they’ll need to take down, “we don’t have much to work with, but they don’t know that.”

Soap nods, “divide and conquer, eh? Sounds good.” He scans the left of the house, “I’ll take that side, circle around that building and get into a higher position.”

“Copy, I’ll take right.” that side has more winding alleys, where Ghost can pick soldiers off one by one with his knives.

“Understood. What if ye-” Soap cuts himself off, and Ghost watches how he chews on his own lip.

“What is it, Soap?”

The Sergeant’s brows furrow, “nothin’, uh… good luck.”

Ghost doesn’t answer, Soap already leaving for his path.

(Simon asks himself, if it means Soap cares whether he lives or dies-)

He needs to focus. They don’t have the night to cover them anymore, pale blue skies leaving no shadows for men like him to melt into. Ghost takes a long way around the nearby buildings, until he finds a little group of soldiers.

He unsheathes a knife, long and serrated edge gleaming under the sun. In a flash, he yanks one soldier back, burying the knife in his throat, twisting and pulling it out. The man is dead before he hits the floor.

His squad mates only realize something is wrong when they turn to talk to him, finding the soldier in a growing puddle of bright red blood. Ghost is already changing angles, quickly walking around another soldier to pull them back and grant him the same fate.

Panic spreads through them, more and more joining the search for Ghost.

More and more victims for his ruthless blade.

When the number of hostiles dwindles, Ghost circles back to the house Price and Gaz were holed up in. He watches them from afar clearing the surroundings, before opening the front door and stepping out.

He can’t see Soap anywhere. Something pinches at his chest, and a wave of concern wrecks through him.

It makes sense, that he wouldn’t return to Ghost. He did technically kidnap him… surely he was waiting for a right moment to buck it.

Hopefully, he met up with Price. The Captain will insure his safety, in that Ghost doesn’t doubt.

(He’s dead, he left you, he’s captured, gone, lost, your fault, your fault-)

Ghost hears footsteps behind him, and in a blink grabs a rifle from his latest victim and points it at the source.

“Relax, jus’ me Ghost.” Soap raises his arms, mildly annoyed.

Ghost instantly lowers the gun, “why didn’t you leave?”

The Sergeant looks around, inspecting the carnage Ghost left behind, “for one, when I say we’re fighting together, I fuckin’ mean it.” he mutters the rest, “unlike someone ‘ere…”

Soap steps forward, and Ghost can see how his hands are absolutely covered in blood, “and… I’m still not done.”

“What do you mean?” Ghost asks, stare climbing up Soap’s bloodied forearms.

Soap’s voice lowers, “you’re after the Hunter, right? I want him dead.” If Ghost was a lesser man, he would tremble at Soap’s tone, “What they’re doing to this city, killing and destroying everything in their path, it needs to stop. And Ah know the only way to do tha’ is to take them out.”

Ghost wants to tell him he’s stupid, for sticking his nose in business that’s not his, for endangering himself like this, that it’s not his job, that he should turn his back. Injustice will always exist, and in the long run, this city won’t matter.

(But Simon’s heart beats faster, his eyes shine bright, and he wants to see Soap succeed)

(he wants to make sure he succeeds)

Soap snaps him out of his reverie, “ye said ye needed to capture a soldier?”

“Affirm. We need intel on the Hunter’s location.”

The Sergeant’s grin is sharp when he replies, “could always build a little trap from ‘em…”

Ghost huffs, his mouth stretching into an unfamiliar smile, “nobody would fall for that shite, Sergeant.”

Soap sputters, “ye did!”

“Yes, because I was broken.” Ghost starts walking out, knowing they won’t find any living soldiers on this side, “your needlessly complicated contraptions will be a waste of time to build. We just need to find one distracted wanker, grab him and tie ‘im up.”

Soap walks beside him, “good thing there’s plenty of feckers out here.” he grumbles sarcastically.

Ghost hears the quiet sound of someone sneaking in the alley in front of them, and it takes a great effort to suppress the urge to shoot when the person rounds the corner.

“Stop right there!”

Gaz stands in front of them, gun pointed at Ghost. He glares at him, jaw clenched.

“Gaz!” Soap calls, hands raised to calm him, “just wait-”

“John, come here. Don’t let him grab you again.” Gaz orders. Soap, to Ghost’s surprise, keeps his feet planted beside him.

(Simon, in his heart, knew the Sergeant would keep his word)

“No. Stop aiming at ‘im, and listen to me.”

Gaz’s rifle doesn’t stray from Ghost’s head, “John-”

“Kyle.” Soap snarls, “fuckin’ listen to me for a second mate!”

The SAS operator pauses, slowly lowering his guard, “what the fuck is going on?”

“Ah know it’s crazy-” Soap starts.

Gaz cuts him off, “it ought to be if you’re protecting the bloody Ghost!”

Soap continues, “But I need to stick with him fer now.”

Ghost watches Gaz’s eyes flicker between them, “if he’s threatening you brother-”

“He’s not doing shit to me, Gaz.” Soap growls, “I… I need to kill the Hunter. And Ghost is my only way to do that.”

Gaz’s brows furrow in sadness, “John… Didn’t your therapist tell you to stop chasing this- this adrenaline?”

Ghost wants to laugh. Soap isn’t doing it for the thrill, that much is pretty fucking obvious at this point. No, the Sergeant’s goal is far more noble than that. He considers pulling out a knife again, maybe make a show of threatening Soap to get Gaz off his back, but…

(Simon doesn’t think he can see the light shatter in Soap’s eyes as he’s being betrayed again-)

What Ghost forgot is, Soap and Gaz are friends, and the Sergeant is an honorable man.

“Ah can’t jus’ go back to Scotland and pretend this never happened! I have to stop it, Gaz.” He steps closer to the man, “please…”

Gaz shakes his head minutely, “if you die-”

“I’ll die a soldier, a fighter. For a good cause, trying to protect innocent people.” He stands in front of Gaz, “what better way is there to go?”

Gaz’s eyes soften, his grip on the rifle drops completely, “...I don’t want you to die.” he almost whispers.

Soap pulls him into a hug, holding onto his friend tightly, “I died the moment they discharged me. Here, I feel more alive than I have the past year.”

“You- why didn’t you tell me?”

Soap lets him go, still holding his shoulders, “what is there to tell?” he asks in a sad tone.

They’re quiet for a moment, before Gaz sighs, looking up at Ghost.

“If you hurt him, I’ll chase you to the end of the fuckin’ earth, and make you regret ever picking up a gun.” he barks at Ghost.

Ghost, for his part, doesn’t answer. His word will not be trusted either way.

(But Simon knows, he won’t be able to hurt Soap anymore-)

Gaz turns to talk to Soap again, “I don’t know if I’ll be able to bail you out after this, mate…”

Soap hums, “I understand. What about Price? Will ye be alright?”

“Don’t worry” Gaz smiles sadly, “I never saw you.”

As if on time, Gaz’s radio crackles, “Lieutenant, have you seen anything?”

Ghost’s heart jumps, as if the Captain is talking to him.

(As if things are still as they used to be-)

The Lieutenant presses the comms, “negative, whoever it was disappeared.”

“Copy, circle back to the house, we’ll keep looking.”

“Rog, out here.” Gaz clicks off his radio, and nods at Soap. “Good luck. Don’t you dare fuckin’ lose, Soap.”

The Sergeant smirks, “wouldn’t dream of it, Lieutenant.” he shoves Gaz playfully.

The Lieutenant laughs, “fuck off, Sergeant.” Gaz’s eyes shine suspiciously, and suddenly he drags Soap into another hug.

They exchange a few words Ghost can’t make out, and Gaz retreats, leaving to find his Captain. Soap continues to watch him until he turns a corner and vanishes from sight.

The Sergeant sighs, muttering to himself, “hope I don’t fuckin’ regret this…”

Ghost is sure he will.

(Simon hopes against hope he won’t)

[astranite]

CH2 of Where was he? Pancakes.

Behold, a second chapter!! Thanks for everyones lovely comments and encouragement! I did not quite mean to stay up until midnight finishing this, but ADHD and I'm excited about this!! Enjoy!!!

@idontknowreallywhy yes im going to sleep now.

@edutainer2022 The rest of this, as you've already seen the first little bit!

Tumblr part 1 :)

---

Instead of pulling away from his brothers and getting to work like drill sergeant at the back of his mind nagged that he should be doing, Scott sunk into the group hug. Just a while longer. He needed this.

"What do I do now? I don’t know what to do now," he asked, or rather mumbled into John's t-shirt where he'd smushed his face. 

There. He'd admitted it even to himself. And his brothers. 

His voice was small where he'd meant it to come out as a demand or at least a question, not a pitiful cry for help.

Gordon gripped him tighter and so did Alan, and Scott was already leaning into Virgil's enveloping embrace at his side and John's fingers were still in his hair. 

He didn't actually know what to do with the mess he'd made of the kitchen or the unfinished pancake batter. The useless bowl of ingredients couldn't even be put back in their respective packets because he'd mixed them together because he hadn't thought further ahead than throwing them in. They were wasted. 

The idea of sifting apart flour and sugar and the baking powder that was possibly in there until it was like nothing had ever happened buzzed in his brain. Every solution he could come up with to undo it all was summarily discarded as they were impractical, impossible or simply ridiculous. Life didn't work like that. You didn’t get a do over on your mistakes, and even if anyone could it certainly wouldn’t be him getting the chance. 

But he didn't want to give up. What Scott wanted was to eat pancakes with his brothers, to get to laugh together without the pressing weight of the entire world on his shoulders.

Alright, at this point he would definitely prefer to jump out of One without a jetpack than face the kitchen, or y'know go cry in the shower. He had such great coping mechanisms. 

Just it was easier to think in the middle of a crisis. The present moment swallowed up all the mistakes of the past as the only thing that mattered in the universe was the next several seconds in the now. Doubt didn't have time to eat him alive; there wasn't time for vegetables to go mouldy in the bottom of the fridge. 

Maybe he'd dissolve into a puddle of suspicious goop too. Ugh, then someone would have to scrub the floor, which he'd be responsible for doing given it would be his fault if he liquified into hypothetical ooze. 

Gordon interrupted his thoughts, sing-songing out his name, "Scott, Scotty, Scooter, what can we do to help?" 

If he knew how they could help, that'd solve a lot of problems. 

Scott shrugged. Caring too much left him in the same place on the outside as caring too little. 

His brain steamrollered over Gordon's clarification of whether Scott wanted suggestions for what they could do.

The batter needed to be finished except that needed the eggs and other whatever it was that they didn't have, the fridge stuff needed to be dealt with by putting it in a place that wasn't the fridge, but those containers would have to be cleaned—

When A plus B equals C, you've still got to work out what bloody A is to find C.

"None of you deserve to have to clean up my messes," Scott burst out, "I should be able to do this on my own if I can just get my act together."

I don't need help. I've totally got this, I'm fine. I'm so completely fine, not that any of you would believe me if I said that. Not that he was doing a particularly good job of lying to himself right now either.

He was barely managing not to yell. 

His mind ran at lightning speed even as he knew he was missing out on the looks the others were throwing each other over his head.

He kept going, "I'd been meaning to do this for you guys, you know, as a nice breakfast we could enjoy on our day off..." Scott's voice jammed in his throat.

His brothers were here supporting him, but he still couldn't fix any of these problems because he was the cause of them.

"Scott." Virgil was as always his rock, there for him when Scott couldn't figure out which was was up. "You. Are. Allowed. To. Ask. For. And. Accept. Our. Help."

With how awful he was at remembering that no matter how many times everyone told him, he should let them permanent marker it onto his forehead and be done with it.

"We all need help with stuff. It doesn't make you incapable," Gordon said.

Scott never begrudged fetching Gordon heat packs when his back was bad so he didn't have to get up or rubbing at the sore muscles after missions or assisting with the physio exercises Gordon still had to do.

Alan butted in, “I mean I don’t like chores, ‘cause who does, but Scott, that’s totally unfair if you have to do everything!”

"Sprout, it's alright, I don't do everything," Scott reassured automatically.

Alan gave him a look of utter teenage incredulity. "Yeah, but you try to."

John’s arms tightened around him as he rested his chin on Scott’s head and said simply, "We help each other, on missions and at home. That’s who we are.”

Scott could hear the smile in John’s voice as added, “So, how about breakfast?”

He took a deep breath, filling up his lungs before letting it out, allowing his brothers’ presences steady him. “Breakfast.”

"They're Scott-special pancakes but that doesn't mean we can't all help," Gordon ruled firmly.

"We'd all rather that than you having to do it all on your own." John hesitated then added, "Scott, you remember when we used to cook with Mum and Dad? Sunday mornings, all of us crammed in the kitchen in our pyjamas, covered in flour, everyone helping out?"

Of course he remembered. It had hurt too much to think about for years and the ache of loss was still there, but now he had a chance to make new memories with his brothers right beside him. His small smile matched John's.

"It makes them more special, not less," Virgil said, "Because we get to spend the time together."

"Yeah Scotty, we want to hang out with you," Alan finished, and that was that.

The group hug transformed into a mission planning huddle, though John and Gordon remained propping Scott up on either side. 

Gordon was bouncing on his toes in anticipation, the fins on his clownfish towel flapping. "Okay. Where were we? Oh yeah, suggestions for us helping if you want us to give suggestions, because I don't want to stomp on what you're doing and take away your control over it 'cause that's really not actually helpful. But I do know how hard the 'thinking up what people should be doing' is when your brain is—" Gordon waved a hand about to complete the sentence. "So, yup."

Scott pressed his shoulder to Gordon's in silent appreciation of his thoughtfulness in the face of Scott's overwhelm. That's what he was, overwhelmed. 

"Having some ideas would help. Please."

"We'll clean up the kitchen together. We've all had a part in leaving stuff in the fridge too long," Virgil said calmly, like there wasn't any shame in it. Scott filed that away in the back of his mind for later consideration.

"Alan can take One to Aotearoa and get the eggs and blueberries. He needs the practice flight hours anyway," John put forward.

Alan’s face lit up as he immediately shook off Virgil's arm around his shoulders to jump to the ready. “Can I? Scott. Scott, please? I promise I won’t scratch her, I’ll be as careful as I am with Three, in fact I’ll be carefuller! Wait is that even a word? So can I?”

"Nope. Not quite a word," John chipped in affectionately when Alan had to take a breath.

"Alright, alright." Scott held his hands up. "But you'd better bring her back in one piece or you won't be getting any pancakes," he joked. Mostly. As long as One didn't end up wedged in the swimming pool...

One last moment was spent in the huddle with his brother as Alan darted back for a goodbye hug, no matter how short the flight would be. 

Putting their hands out in the centre in a stack, grinning at each other, they yelled in unison, “Tracies are go!!!”

Alan ran towards Scott's launch chute entrance, tossing over his shoulder, "Don't let Gordon eat them all before I get back!"

Gordon's indignant, "Hey!" was lost as the painting swung around, taking Alan with it.

"He does know that we need the eggs to make the pancakes which he is getting, right?" John asked as an aside.

"Eh, he'll work it out." Scott was looking after where Alan had gone wondering when their undeniably littlest brother had grown up so much. That applied regardless of continued brotherly taunting ‘cause wasn’t like he, John or Virgil had ever grown out of it.

Finally, the rest of them returned to the kitchen. Scott steeled himself as he stepped over the imaginary threshold separating it in the open plan design from the lounge.

The containers of spoilt food were sitting out on the bench where he'd left them, condensation dripping from the outsides in the subtropical heat. Unfinished pancake batter loomed from its bowl. Where would he even start? The multiple frying pans he'd need to cook such a big batch with were languishing in the bottom of the sink too.

Gordon set his hands on his hips, in a stand off against the mess. "Okey dokey. Scott, would you rather do dishes, begin emptying out the containers or make coffee so the Virge doesn't keel over? We'll split up the rest between us."

Scott found himself wandering over to the coffee station before he answered. It was the easiest, most straight forward task right now.

He bit his lips guiltily. "Can I?"

Virgil was already standing beside the sink, putting on an apron. He waved a pink rubber washing up glove at Scott in a 'go ahead' gesture, idly chewing on the corner of his flannel shirt collar.

That was about as much as he'd normally get out of Virgil before coffee, excluding missions and brotherly crises as this morning.

Scott inspected the array of coffee types set out in the cupboard next to the overly complicated, super fancy coffee machine Virgil insisted they have. It had more knobs and dials than Thunderbird Two's console he swore and that was already far too many, but Scott couldn't deny it made the best coffee.

None of that mattered though because above the machine was a laminated sheet of paper covered in Virgil's blocky handwriting outlining exactly the steps he had to follow in the order he had to do them, the same as a pre-flight checklist. Scott relaxed. Like a math problem, if he took it bit by bit he'd eventually end up at the right answer.

He'd make a cup for himself too. Not that it would wake him up, thanks ADHD, but he enjoyed the taste and it might do something for his focus.

Virgil's favourite coffee brand came in an electric green package with its name written in an indecipherable font most expected on a death metal album cover. Though at the strength Virgil drank it, it was pretty fitting. Scott had tried a sip once. Only once, as drinking undiluted tar was not his cup of, well, coffee. But Virgil loved the stuff.

Scott made the coffee and got out their biggest mug with the silly, absolutely tiny in proportion Thunderbird Two perched on the handle for his brother.

After passing Virgil his coffee, his brother turned it this way and that then grinned up at Scott. "Did you draw Two in the middle of the froth for me?"

Scott fetched his own coffee, before standing next to Virgil to squint into his mug. A lighter blob of foam floated in the centre. Those bits on the side could be the stubby wings. Though maybe Virgil was kidding, but he might not be so if he saw the Flying Turtle, the Great Green Bathtub, Thunderblob Two, who was Scott to protest artistic genius?

"Happy accident?" Scott told him as Virgil rolled his eyes and nudged his side.

Gordon stood on tip toe to look too. "It's not green. I mean, I could make it green!"

Virgil hunched protectively over his coffee. Do not get between Gordon and food dye was wisdom learned early.

"I think it looks more like Four," John deadpanned to significant outrage.

Scott cackled as Gordon attempted to mess up John's hair in revenge, both of them laughing at each other.

The coffee was warm going down as he took the moment to lean on Virgil as they both quietly sipped theirs, watching the others' antics.

His own mug had a comic of a Boeing aircraft crashing then bouncing down a runway, captioned 'boing.' Scott had giggled when he saw it in amongst the other mugs in the cupboard as he always did since Gordon and Alan had gifted it to him on his birthday, and decided he needed that today.

He held up for Virgil to inspect, along with John and Gordon glued together in their tackle hug. 

Laughing, he read the text out loud, complete with sound effects.  

Several hilarious minutes followed of them all repeating the sounds between them, bouncing around, echoing and playing off each other. Scott grinned so hard his cheeks ached. He needed this. 

Maybe it was the placebo effect or the time spent freely messing around with his brothers, but with the coffee in him Scott was starting to feel a little better about the world and possibly himself too. 

Better enough that he could face approaching the counter of suspicious containers to help Gordon.

Gordon was currently inspecting them with equal parts fascination and repulsion. He poked at the box Scott had found wedged at the very back of the fridge. 

"Do you reckon that's last month's meatloaf? Or maybe it was the stew. I think it's got its own ecosystem!"

Nope, nope, nope. It looked like it was about to crawl away. "Do not open that, Gords!"

Virgil and John gathered behind him, peering over his shoulders. Scott could tell without seeing exactly which utterly icked out face John made.

Come on, Scotty, he told himself, you've dealt with grosser things on rescues. And in raising very little brothers; he certainly did not miss some stuff. 

"We can sacrifice one container, right?" he said. Right? You had to know when to call it in the hopeless cases.

Unanimous noises of agreement were rapidly made. The container was summarily carried over to the bin with caution equivalent of handling radioactive waste. Scott wouldn't be surprised if it set off a geiger counter.

The punnet of blueberries he'd meant for the pancakes joined it. They were well beyond salvage. 

Scott tugged a hand through his hair, trying his best not to let the guilty regret swallow him up. The frustration surged, as even though they'd finally cleaned out the fridge and dealt with the stuff, he hadn't been able to prevent the waste happening in the first place.

He chewed on the inside of his cheek as he and Gordon wiped out the shelves so they could put back all the non-archaeological bottles of lurking sauces that he'd also taken out to get at the other stuff. The patch of mystery sticky substance probably didn't require as much scrubbing force as he was putting into it.

...it wasn't a mystery. It was the strawberry smoothie leftover from a morning Gordon had made too much that Scott had spilt while getting it out midnight to fuel his deadline induced frenzy of report writing. That had been only after he'd realised the reason he felt so shaky and sick was that he'd forgotten to eat all day despite several heavy, exhausting rescues.

After wiping up the last of it, he tossed the cloth into soapy sink with a splash. Immediately he was apologising for startling Virgil as the cloth flew past him as he did the dishes. 

There went Scott and another stupidly impulsive action. No one even had to tell him off for the gaping hole to open up in his chest. He stood in middle of the room, feet rooted to the floor, frozen as he resisted the urge to storm off to One's hanger or some other darker, damper crevice to curl up and probably sob about such a dumb mistake, so he wasn't abandoning his brothers.

Gordon's much smaller hand slipped into his own. 

"Do you wanna take a break, Scotty?"

Silently, honestly, Scott nodded. 

He followed Gordon's lead as he tugged Scott over to the patch of clear floor in the lounge by the full length windows.

Then, because this was Gordon, he just lay down on the ground with an exclamation of, "Floor time!"

Scott got down next to him and flopped onto his back staring upwards. At least attempting to work out where Gordon's offbeat schemes were going was a distraction from his thoughts tearing him apart. 

Virgil and John were still working away in the kitchen. The guilt gnawed. Scott screwed his eyes shut then rubbed the heels of his hands over them, hard enough to see spots before he opened them again as he really shouldn’t do that. He wound his fingers through the hem of his shirt, fidgeting.

Blue sky stretched above them, framed by the edge of the roof. Beyond the glass, sun shone through the cloudless expanse. Scott let himself relax into the floorboards.

"See, it's all good if you need some time out. We're proud of you, big bro." Gordon edged closer to press their shoulders and sides together.

"Thanks," Scott whispered.

He fixed his gaze back on the sky outside, on the wide, open, beautiful sky.

 "How did you know this would help?"

The fish nudged him. "Sometimes a change in perspective is what you need, getting in the ant's eye view if you will. You're too tall, the air gets thin up there."

"Like you'd get the heights, fish sticks," Scott joked.

Gordon's impression of mock offence, complete with hand clutching at his chest and shocked gasp, was ruined by his giggles.

For a moment he grew serious again, amber eyes taking Scott in. "And like literally it’s also a break so the rest of you can catch up with your brain. I get when there's so much going on up there anything extra tips you overboard."

Slowly, the world felt less like it was about to end as he briefly met Gordon eyes then turned to the blue above.

Scott bumped their heads together. "Thanks, again for everything."

"No problem, I'm always happy to help my bros."

It was impossible to miss the emphasis that this very much included Scott, despite him being the eldest.

Lying on the floor with Gordon in a pool of sunlight streaming in cut through the frantic spiralling he had been nose diving into again. 

Scott calculated the windspeed outside from the movement of the small branches at the tops of the pōhutukawa trees he could see upside-down at the corner of his vision. Little bits of leaves and debris, a constant pain to clean up on their heavily vegetated island danced across the concrete patio outside. 

"You reckon it's blowing about twenty, twenty-two kays per hour out there, Gords?" he said.

Gordon levered himself up and leant towards him to get a better look over to the ocean. "Yeah, thereabouts. Twelve knots."

They heard Virgil's hum from the kitchen before he chipped in, "Closer to twenty-four or so kays, I'd say."

"Bets all in?" The mirth in John's voice was obvious as he pulled up a holo, though Scott didn't doubt he had his own number in mind. "Our weather system puts Tracy Island local windspeed at twenty-two—"

Scott pumped a fist in the air.

"—Point nine kilometres per hour." 

Gordon cheered. "AKA twelve point four knots, boom!"

Scott rolled his eyes and high-fived Gordon in celebration.

With several more breaths of watching the sky, he sat up, stretching his arms above his head.

"Ready to go, Scooter?"

Scott stood before giving Gordon a hand up from the ground. "Yeah, I am." 

Coming back to the kitchen, the first thing Scott did was fall into Virgil's offered hug before he, Virgil Gordon and John gathered in a circle to work out what was next. When John got too wobbly on his feet to keep standing, he hopped up on the counter, sorting through the papers that had been stuck under the fridge magnets as Scott handed them to him. Categorised piles formed from the sticky note and post card debris heap before his eyes.

Alan's holo popped up on the com. "Hey everyone!"

Scott jumped at the sudden noise before grinning at his little brother. 

"I swear I was listening but what am I supposed to be getting, again?" Alan said, twisting one of his hoodie strings up before tucking the end into his mouth to chew on.

"It's alright Alan. Get a dozen eggs, actually make that two dozen if we want to have any for breakfast another day. The blueberries, a couple of packets. Bananas, while you're at it. Maybe more maple syrup, I don't know if we're out," Scott listed as he wandered over to the pantry to check. "More cornflakes!" he yelled back.

Scott returned to the kitchen proper to stick his head in the fridge to find out about their milk situation. He turned back to his brothers after determining they were probably two days from running out.

Alan on the holo glanced up from inspecting the bottle of caramel sauce that had materialised in his hand. "Uhh guys, I kinda missed everything after how many eggs?"

Scott winced. He should've noticed Alan was distracted by the overstimulating hell of a supermarket, and that as ADHDer number three he probably wasn't going to remember all the points on Scott's rambling list, hell, Scott didn't ever remember half of them and he was the one who'd just said them. He hadn't thought—

"Scott, I've got it." John waved his phone in the air before resuming tap-tapping out Scott's dictation. "Allie, I'll send you the list once I'm done.

"Awesome, 'kay thanks! Hey, can I get ice cream, it's half off?"

"Get the one with the marshmallows and the little fish!" Gordon exclaimed as he shoved his way into view. 

Alan hung up before Scott managed to get a word in edgeways. The fish of Gordon's favourite flavour were made of chocolate, not actual fish as Scott had feared the first time he'd tried it.

Alan would have the written list to refer back to, it was all alright. Scott didn't need to worry. Even if Alan had spent a while wandering the shops as One must've gotten there fast, his littlest brother had been more sensible than Scott had been in the past in calling them up for clarification. Or in the present.

It hadn't been the first time and it definitely wasn't the last, but Scott remembered getting sent out to the local shops to get bread as a teen and how he'd made sure to get everything from John's bagels, to the type of cereal Virgil liked and all the other stuff to go on sandwiches for school lunches, except he'd forgotten the bread and Dad had just sighed disappointedly, going back to his way more important work. Scott had barely managed to put everything away before bursting into tears, hiding in the kitchen by ducking below the cupboard level so no one would see at a glance. Damn, he hoped he was doing better than that with Alan.

"Thanks for the save, John," he murmured, approached to lean against the counter next to John.

Typing one-handedly, John reached out to squeeze Scott's hand with his other.

Instead of throwing himself back into the fray with frustrating emotions ready to boil over like he usually would, or joining in with whatever the fish and the tank were getting up to that involved overly loud whispering near the pantry, Scott boosted himself up to sit on the bench with John, carefully avoiding all the papers. With a quiet question so as not to surprise his brother as he was focusing, Scott ended up leaning his head on John's shoulder for a bit to rest. John leant into him too. 

A change of perspective did help. Scott was doing okay. Not perfect, but well enough, no matter how hard that was to admit that when he spent too many nights up worrying about all the things he should've somehow done better. As well, some part deep inside him nudged that maybe, possibly he also deserved the kindness he gave everyone else but never himself. 

Gordon spotted him taking the moment out and they shared a smile. Gordon being Gordon also gave him an enthusiastic thumbs up. See? Scott told himself, Progress.

Shortly, Alan's holo popped up again, back in Thunderbird One.

"Groceries are stowed, enroute to Tracy Island now!" Alan chirped.

"FAB," sounded off from all of them.

Everyone was now listening out for the sound of One. Several stomachs growled.

Soon, soon they'd finally have pancakes.

The minutes passed in suspense. Scott put the organised papers back on the fridge, filed them over at the desk or chucked them in the recycling as John directed.

They discovered the fishtank plan in the form of the opened bag of chocolate bits being squabbled over.

"Can we make some choc chip ones too?" Virgil was practically vibrating with excitement. 

Gordon unrepentantly stole a chocolate chip. "What he said," Gordon campaigned, despite Scott knowing that Gordon actually preferred the blueberry and banana pancakes as his top pick.

Finally rockets arrived with a roar, as the pool slid open and One disappeared into it.

Then the elevator dinged and Alan triumphantly stumbled out carrying far too many bags for one person. 

"Good work!" Scott cheered, as he and Virgil rushed to help.

"Thanks, Scotty!" Alan lit up. "Also I'm starving."

"Well we'll soon fix that problem!"

Scott took the eggs and cracked them one by one into the bowl of dry ingredients for his pancake batter. Just to show off, he did it one-handedly. The blueberries were washed and he added them in, popping a couple in his mouth too for good measure. Someone needed to taste test, it was tradition, all the way back to the ranch and small hands trying to sneak around Mum before she bopped them playfully with the sticky wooden spoon. The berries were the perfect ripeness, sweet with that tiny edge of tartness cutting through right.

"The baking powder," Scott began, "I don't—I've got no idea if its in there or not."

The pancakes wouldn't rise it he had forgotten,  they'd fall flat as unfortunate, failed pancakes. But in reverse, if he had put it in and added more—he'd made that mistake before. The resulting puffy ooze resembled a science experiment more than an edible food.

"I found the box of baking powder open on the bench, if that helps," Virgil gave him.

"Yeah, it was right next to the bowl. Looks like it had just been sat down." Gordon confirmed.

Alan's eyebrows were crumpled into an incredibly serious expression as he contemplated. "I think you probably did put it in, Scotty."

There was no guarantee. But he could take the leap, having faith in his brothers and the best guesses they all had.

"Okay, alright. The batter is done then!" he said, putting as much enthusiasm into his voice as he could muster.

Virgil shooed Alan out to set the table , following with plates so there wouldn't so many cooks in the kitchen with the potential to bump the hot stove.

Gordon set the several pans to heat, guarding over them as he added butter, melting and bubbling.

Scott lingered, beating the last lumps out of the mix with the whisk. He bumped John's dangling legs out of the way of the drawers so he could dig out a ladle. 

"Worse case scenario, we will make another batch. We have enough ingredients," John said quietly, just to him as the others danced about preparing things to eat the pancakes with, Gordon pretending he wasn't listening to them also.

Scott could always trust John to think through all the possibilities on missions, even, especially the hard ones. It was more reassuring to know that they had a plan if stuff all went to hell, than pretend it simply wouldn't. Biting experience had taught him better than that. 

This though was just making pancakes for his brothers, not saving the world from high stakes catastrophe. His brothers, who no matter how badly he messed up would always love him. 

Scott ladled batter out into the pans, flipping the pancakes over once they grew bubbly and cooked at the edges.

Even when the first one fell apart and turned out rather burnt on one side as he attempted to salvage it after flipping too soon, they all tore it to pieces and ate it anyway as a snack before the proper ones.

The next turned out golden brown, speckled with the blueberries.

Scott grinned happily, joy bubbling up inside his chest.

He made sure to make some blueberry and choc chip ones, and blueberry and banana ones, separating out the mixture. Then some all of the above ones too for good measure.

Virgil and Alan were singing along to a boppy pop song Scott would probably find stuck in his head later. Gordon twirled around the kitchen, dancing along with his wonderfully ridiculous clownfish towel swirling. John kept him company, nodding his head with the beat before he joined in the singing, swinging his legs slightly out of time, carefree. Scott flipped the pancakes, tossing them recklessly high in the air, waving the spatula and moving his whole body with the music, wiggling his hips and bouncing on his toes in excitement. 

Scott ate pancakes with his brothers, closer to noon than to breakfast time but everyone swore this lot were the best they'd had. They laughed together and the weight of the world pressing on Scott's shoulders didn't feel so heavy.

[wonderinglostsoul]

Criminal Mind FanFiction Chapter 6

Pairing: Aaron Hotchner x Fem!Reader

Synopsis: You are an FBI agent with a past and you were about to enter the BAU.

Trigger warning: BAU stuff like killing, snipping, violence, suicide

Master List:

Sleep still comes to you after an hour. You were only awaken because there is someone knocking on the door. You were too sleepy to open it so you just let that person knock. Until you heard the door opened and Penelope squeaking. Your eyes suddenly opened wide and you almost fell out of bed.

At the living room, Aaron was still sleeping at the sofa. He was also tired so he did not notice that he was asleep the whole night. He was just awaken by the knock on the door. He was supposed to ignore it but it gets annoying so he answered it. He stands up, pulling the whole sheet covering his whole body. When he opened the door, Penelope was on the other end and upon seeing his boss covered all in sheet, she squeaked in surprise because she thought that Hotch was naked underneath. His hair in a messy out of bed style and one eye still closed. You went out of the bed room in messy hair as well. Penelope look at you both back and forth. She was frozen on her spot. You sigh, facepalming yourself because you know exactly what she was thinking.

"Hotch, can you please let go of the sheet." You told him. He glance at you, confused but still follow your instruction. Penelope was so surprised she gasped and then covered her eyes. She peaked through her fingers and saw that Hotch was fully dressed. JJ arrived and talked with Penelope

"I think I saw Hotch's car at the driveway, is he.... Oh!" She said upon seeing Hotch at the door. Hotch just sighed at the sight of his 2 agents. Then his phone rings. It was the mother of Jack's classmate asking him if what time he will pick him up. He said he is on his way.

"I need to pick up Jack." He told JJ and Penelope. He turnaround and gather his things and say goodbye to you.

"Sorry, I need to pick up Jack. You get well soon. See you in the office." He said, in a hurry to get out. All you can manage is to wave at him.

JJ just smiled and went pass Penelope. She hugged you and ask how are you. You told her you feel much better. Penelope went inside and close the door.

"l don't know what's more preflexing, seeing your boss totally naked or the thought you see your boss totally naked." Penelope said. You also don't want to think about it and try to erase it in your head.

"Maybe his brother is a better sight." JJ suggested.

"He has a brother?"You asked. Trying to get the coffee mug at the cup board. JJ saw this so she immediately helped you. She asked you to sit. You cannot say no to JJ. She has this commanding presence and the only thing you can do is to obey.

"Yes, and he is gorgeous." Penelope said.

"The only thing that they have in common is the back." JJ winked at you and you understand. All of three of you giggle.

"Hotch is also handsome" You said.

"You really was hit on the head." Penelope teases you.

"I mean when he is not acting like an drill sergeant. Especially when he smiles." You told them.

"He never smiles." JJ said as a matter of factly. Then both of the girls look at you, their eyes narrowed.

"You liked him." JJ accused you.

"I did not!" You said, your pitch one octave higher.

"Oh my god! You do!" Penelope chimed in.

"No! Thats not true! He is the boss." you said defensively. You can see that they were not convince.

"I have to warn you, as a friend" JJ said. "Aaron has a very complicated past. His wife died, killed by a serial killer that was investigated by him. He never say it but we know that he still blames himself about what happened. Before that they got divorce because he choose his work over his family." JJ holds your hand and continue "You have to really think about this because in the end you might be the one being hurt."

"Thank you, both of you. I really do appreciate your concern but I am not really keen on having a relationship right now. I just appreciate Hotch, actually everyone for being so kind to me. I am a newbie with minimal experience and you all helped me. And Hotch, he is hands on with regards to the training and I am happy that he is my boss." You said. Suddenly JJ's phone rang. It was Hotch there was an urgent case and he asked JJ and penelope to come. Before he end the call, he asked JJ to tell you not to come and rest. All of you obliged. JJ and Penelope says their good bye and left in a hurry. You were left alone in your house thinking about what JJ has said. You feel sorry for Hotch. He does not deserver that kind of pain. Maybe thats the reason why his eyes was so sad the first day you met him. And you also feel sorry for his son, Jack. He was too young to loose a mother.

You pick up the mugs in the table and wash them. Then you change your clothes and went to the shooting range. Since your dominant side was injured you need to practice your other hand to shoot.

[qs63]

I'm actually curious about more than one of them, so I'll ask and you can choose one, or share a snippet or each, your choicr

1. Barril's because I've read the ch1 and I'm intrigued

2. Roy de-aged

3. Rebecca's fic

4. Marianne's gift

Thank you for asking! I'm more than happy to provide an answer for each of them. x)

Barril's

So yes, this is now called "Voices of the court" (named after a Hiroyuki Sawano song "Voices of the chord") and the first chapter was posted earlier this week. This is the same continuity as "The King's Counselor" and it's set almost a year after that fic. I don't want to give out too many plot details yet, but it is a bumpy ride for Roy and Riza. Here's a little excerpt from chapter 2:

Riza rolled the sleeves of her jacket and walked into the small kitchen. She occupied herself washing the dishes and throwing away some of Roy's spoiled food while she waited for him to finish showering. She was just putting some glasses inside the cabinets when Roy's larger hands pressed against hers, effectively stopping her from moving.

"You don't have to do that."

"You told me to make myself at home."

She couldn't see his face from that angle, but she could practically feel him glaring at the back of her head. He'd never liked when she cleaned after him. Not when he'd been her father's apprentice, and not now that they were sleeping together. He allowed it more at work, and even then that had taken her years of reminding him that taking care of him was part of her job.

She expected him to shush her away and take over the cleaning like he usually did. Instead, she was surprised by the weight of his chest against her back, and by the feel of his lips against the scar on her neck.

Roy de-aged

This is a very silly fic that started because of THIS tomochingus art and a conversation with Scienceoftheidiot. It's about Fuhrer Roy getting de-aged into academy Roy, and discovering all the wonderful and horrible things his future has for him.

The door suddenly opened, and a beautiful blonde lady entered the room. She looked at him and frowned. "What's the meaning of this, Havoc? Where is my hu–"

Roy squinted hard at her. There was something utterly familiar about her appearance. She looked just like… "Riza?"

Her breath hitched. She blinked and turned back to him with an increasingly fearful expression. "Roy?"

Wow.

What the hell.

Was that really little Riza Hawkeye?

Rebecca's fic

This one —also referred as the Hayate fic — is about Rebecca finding out Riza is sleeping with Roy thanks to Hayate. It's fun but also very angsty. This is almost complete and probably what I'm posting next.

"You're telling me that, all these years, you have been pinning after this dumbass and you hadn't jumped him?"

"It's complicated."

"Oh, I'm sure it is. Starting with the fact that you could get Court Martialed for it. But seriously, how stubborn can you be?" Rebecca sighed. "At least tell me you're getting a transfer request."

"No," Riza said immediately. For some reason she looked scared. "I can't. I– My duty comes first."

"Then what? You'll be the Mustang's dirty little secret until one of you retires? You can't seriously be okay with that, Riza. You deserve better than that."

Marianne's gift

I have posted about this one before. The code name is snow. This is about one of the East-Briggs training exercises going wrong and Riza getting injured. Roy is out of his mind with worry, and Lieutenant Ross is done with it all.

"I see an arm!" Sergeant Grey yelled. Roy was immediately running after him.

Please, let it be her.

He prayed with no small amount of guilt. He should be equally worried about all his men, but he'd never quite mastered how not to separate her from the rest. He needed her to be alright. He wasn't sure what he would do if she wasn't. She was his tether to sanity. The only thing keeping him from wandering off the right path.

Roy took a deep breath, and put his fear back inside the box at the bottom of his soul. He had no time for it right now. He had a role to play.

current list of wips for ask

[doodling-doodle]

The Last Mission

(The Slice Of Paradice AU)

Kyle’s last mission before being discharged

—

Price and Graves happily sat on the bed in their hotel room, eating their breakfast and watching TV before they had to go back to the base. They just needed to get away for a day. Besides, Graves had a minor concussion to fully recover from still. But they would head back and he’d stick Graves on desk duty… and sleeping duty.

They got in the car, and Graves closed his eyes for a few minutes before Gabe called Price.

“Place your bet, who burned down the base?” Graves mumbled.

He chuckled before picking up.

“Hey, Colt. What’s up?”

“Cap… we gotta problem…”

“What happened?”

“It’s Gaz, he’s… He was taken hostage.”

He just froze for a second, and Graves opened his eyes.

“We need to get back.”

He nodded, “Gabe, we’re already on our way. We’ll be there soon. How long has it been? Where’s Alex?”

“He’s here. We all are. It was… yesterday. On the mission. It’s been twenty-four hours, almost exactly.”

"And you're just now calling me?!" 

"We didn't know what to do! We figured it would be okay and we'd find him by now."

He groaned, "Gabe, we're almost there, sit tight, keep Alex in check."

"Yes, sir. See you soon."

They eventually got back, and ran to Matt's office, where they saw Gabe and Matt trying to find something, anything leading to him. Alex was holding one of Kyle's knives, crying and looking down at it.

"Alex?"

"Don't ask me if I'm alright, you know the answer."

"Graves, I need your permission to view the plane's camera and your men's body cam footage." Gabe said, standing.

"Granted. Come on, let's go to my office."

They went, Price stayed in Matt's office with Alex, trying to calm him down. Alex was pacing, waiting for them to return.

They did not expect what they heard on the body cams. A faint voice was picked up in the distance.

"Bird 1-1 to Gold Eagle actual, we have the Sergeant, moving to exfil."

Not only that, but the video from the planes and choppers showed him being loaded into a van, then a chopper, and taken away.

Gabe looked at Matt, who looked pissed, and ready to fight.

"Matt, don't."

"He should be in a fucking casket." He stormed out of the room, probably to the armory.

“Let’s grab the others. Now.” Graves said, standing with Gabe.

They got back, and Alex looked scared, angry, and sad.

“Tell me you have something, Colt.”

“It… it’s Shepheard. He’s got Kyle.”

They went silent. But Alex looked even more pissed.

“He’s dead meat.”

“Yes, he is.” Graves added.

“Phil, no, you’ve barely started to recover.” Price said, standing from his chair.

“Don’t care. He’s my son just as much as he is yours. Keller, let’s go.” He pressed a button on his radio, “Shadow 1-1 to 2-3, I need all birds that are currently in the air to search the area around the last mission. Safehouses, strongholds, and any buildings are to be searched, how copy?”

“Solid, commander.”

They went to the armory, and Price groaned as he followed, calling to Gabe over comms. “Colt, be ready, Alex, Graves, and I are on our way to the armory and they are pissed.”

“Roger that. Fuck, Matt, where the hell did you go?”

No reply.

They all just got in a chopper when Gabe got there. They didn’t know where they were going yet. Just that they had to get in the air, and be ready. 

Gabe kept trying to reach Matt, but his comms were off.

It took twelve hours for them to finally get something.

“Shadow 2-3 to 1-1, we have the Sargeant's location, sending it to you now.”

He pulled out his tablet, and almost instantly recognized it.

“It's the old safehouse in Al Mazrah. I know exactly where it is.”

“Good. Let’s get there.” 

They had never seen Alex so angry.

They got there nearly twelve hours later. It had been two days since Kyle was taken.

Then, Matt came back over comms.

“Gabe, it’s Halo. I found Kyle. He’s on the top floor. Shepherd’s in the room.”

They landed, and Alex saw red.

“What’s he doing?!” He yelled, getting out of the chopper to see the building.

“Looks like Kyle’s pretty injured.”

“Sheperd?”

“Looks like there’s blood on him.”

They all saw red.

“We’re going in.” Price said with so much venom it could kill.

They stormed the building, no stealth whatsoever.

Shepherd tried to run, but Halo made that short lived, shooting him in the knee. And slowly walking towards him.

Alex almost followed, but saw his precious Kyle tied up in a chair, scared to death.

He made quick work of unting him, and held him tight. There was so much blood.

“I’m here, baby. I’m here.”

“Al…”

“It’s okay.”

“I-I… I can’t see…”

“You’ve been blindfolded for a while. It’s gonna be alright.” He quickly picked Kyle up, and started to head to the medics. 

But he saw Shepherds sorry face while Matt was beating him to death. He looked over.

“You want a hit or not?”

“I want it.” He was going to gently rest Kyle against a wall, but Gabe went up to him. “I’ll get him to medical.”

He hesitentaly gave him to Gabe while he rushed out of the building.

He looked over. And pulled out his knife.

Matt looked at him, hands dripping with blood, “Try not to kill him. Could have intel. Plans and whatnot.”

“Fuck that, he’ll never talk.”

“Alex-”

“No. He doesn’t deserve the rest of his miserable life.” He took out his pistol, aiming at Shepherd’s head.

“Alex. What if we kill him. Plans to kill us are put into action, and we can't fight back. We take him, they don't have anything.”

He blinked, still looking down at Shepherd’s bloodied face.

“Fuck…” He put the gun down.

“I’m sorry, Kyle…” He whispered. 

“I’m not doing shit with him, you take care of it.” He walked out, and rushed down to where Kyle was with the medics, and he knelt down to hold his hand.

“I’m here, darlin. I’m sorry we took so long.” He softly whispered.

“A-alex… I can’t m-move…”

“It’ll be okay…”

He looked over as Matt and Graves took Shepherd in handcuffs.

“You’ll be okay.”

Shepherd spat out blood as he was taken to the heli. He chuckled lowly.

“Oh, can it.” Graves said, rolling his eyes. “You got caught and you’ll pay for your crimes.”

“So will you.” He somehow managed to grab Matt’s pistol, and a shot ran out as it went through his stomach. Gabe turned and watched him fall to the ground as Graves pulled the gun from his hands and punching him, knocking him out and then knelt down as Gabe ran over.

“Matt!”

He groaned as Graves rolled him onto his back and put pressure on the wound.

“That’s our evac!” Price yelled, looking up at the chopper.

“We gotta move! Now!”

Gabe picked up Matt, and Alex picked up Kyle. and they ran to the heli.

“The fuck?! Why are you bothering with me, Garrick needs more help!” Matt yelled as the medics as they got his gear off. The amor plates did the job, but he was bleeding badly.

“Matt, you got shot, just let them work.” Gabe said, worriedly.

“Fine, just… Make sure the kid lives.”

They finally got back to the base, and both Americans nearly had to be pulled off and away from their Brits, but Alex let go first, and Gabe followed.

“Shepherd will burn for this.” Alex said.

“Yeah, no shit…”

They just went to the med bay to wait for them to get out of surgery.

Matt was first, and since it wasn’t a horrible injury, didn’t have to stay in the hospital, so he came out with a nurse. He was shaking slightly, and looked at little pale.

“He needs to have a lot of bed rest, and won’t be cleared for duty for at least a month.”

Gabe nodded, and stood, holding the smaller Brit tight, giving him a light kiss to the forehead.

“Come on, let’s get you laid down.” He took him back to their room, and got him in bed.

“I take it Kyle’s in surgery still?”

“Yeah… I need to go check on Alex, I’ll be back. Just relax.” He went back to the med bay.

Alex was sobbing his eyes out.

“You alright?” Gabe asked, sitting next to him.

“No… I… He’s been in surgery for too long… it only took two days to find him, what did Shepherd do to him in two days?!”

“He broke him. That’s for sure.”

“Gee, thanks for the encouragement.”

“Sorry…”

“I was looking for a ring… I wanted to propose to him.”

He had. Admittedly, he wasn’t urgently looking for a ring, but he was looking. And now, this happened.

“You will… We’ll get married after you two.”

He chuckled a little, but a nurse came back.

They stood, and Alex asked, “Is Kyle okay?”

The nurse hesitated.

“He… He’ll recover. He’s stable… But, the injuries he has…” She took a breath, “A broken hip, two broken ribs, gunshot wounds, shocks… And a broken femur… to put it bluntly, he’ll never be able to serve in the field again. The captain has already been informed. He’ll have a medical discharge. The process has already been started.”

Without another word, Alex walked away, going to find Price. Finally, he heard a voice.

“Alex! Is Kyle-”

He turned, and looked Price in the eye. And very calmly, said two words.

“I’m retiring.”

He blinked in shocked, “Wh-...” He sighed softly. “If thats what you want to do, I won’t stop you.”

“Good.” He walked back to the med bay.

Gabe was gone. He didn’t even wait for a nurse, just went to find Kyle’s room.

He was wide awake, sobbing in his bed.

He shoved the door open, and went up to him.

“Baby.” He hugged him tight, letting him sob into his shirt. “I’m so sorry. We took too long.”

“I’m being discharged… My life is gone.”

“You’ll be okay.”

“You… you still… l-love me, right?”

“Of course I do. That’s why I’m coming with you. Together or not at all, remember?”

He smiled a little, but sighed, “You don’t need to give up your life for me…”

“I will, though. We’ll figure something out.”

“... Can we stay in America? It might be better… You know, you already have physical therapy equipment at your house.”

“That’s what I was going to suggest. I’ll start trying to get you a Visa, and we’ll go from there.”

He nodded, and Alex pressed a gentle kiss to his lips.

“We’ll get through this.”

One month later…

He was let out from the hospital, though, all the braces he had… one covering part of his ribs, one covering his hips, and going down to his femur. He'd be bed bound for a while. Right now, he couldn't even use crutches. He was in a wheelchair. He felt horrible. Not just because of what was happening to him, but Alex was the one to help him. He'd need to be there all the time. But it seemed like he was happy to help.

He had a little send off from the whole task force, plus Matt and Gabe, Farah, and all the Shadows. They all promised that they’d come by to visit. All of them. And they went to Virginia, where Alex’s family was waiting for them.

Thankfully, Alex’s brother, Matt, (“Fuck, this is gonna be confusing” Kyle thought) had a comfy van, so he was okay for the car ride back to the house and for Alex to carry him to the bed.

They didn’t stay long. Matt just helped Alex get the old equipment out of the basement before they all left, though they left some food for them in the house.

“Okay… So, what now?” Alex asked, sitting on the bed next Kyle.

“I’m a little hungry. Did we get left with food?”

“We did. I’m not exactly in the mood to cook, though… Frozen pizza and garlic dip?”

“Yeah… I’d like that.”

He stood after giving Kyle a light kiss on the forehead.

He sat in silence for a few minutes before grabbing his phone and earbuds to listen to music.

Then Alex texted him. 

“RomComs never prepare you for how much you talk with your partner over text when your just in the other room.”

He chuckled. "Truly. You could just… y'know, walk in here while the oven is heating and we could actually talk.”

“Hahaha

No.”

“Okie dokie. Well, in the meantime, what’s the plan?”

“I mean, money is probably one of the bigger issues. And we’re both legally disabled. But, lucky for us, Anne’s thinking about opening her own tattoo shop, so I could get a job there.”

He blinked a few times. “You can tattoo?”

“Yep. I got a license a long time ago. Haven’t done anything with it, but I can legally tattoo.”

“Good because I’ve wanted matching tattoos for a LONG time.”

“We can talk more about that later, the pizza is baking."

He chuckled, “So, thats a job for you lined up. What about me?”

“Well, I’m not working until your at LEAST able to walk. But you could try to sell your artwork?”

“Not a bad idea. I would like to get better at digital art, but i could try to get physical copies, too.”

“Yeah! Okay, we have jobs laid out now. And dinner!”

He smiled, and Alex walked in soon after with the food.

“Thanks, love.” He said with a smile, taking the plate offered to him.

“No problem.” He sat next to him in bed, and it looked like they were thinking the same thing.

“This is life now…”

Kyle wasn’t sure how much he enjoyed it yet.

But Alex…

It felt like he wanted this all along. He wanted a calm, domestic life with Kyle. To not worry if the next day would be the one that they’d never see each other again. No gunfire. No screaming. No explosions. Just them, in a cozy Virginia home. Peaceful. But, Kyle wasn't ready to hear that. And he wouldn't force it.

One month later…

Things were going well. But, at some point, Kyle was in constant pain. His legs just had this shooting pain. He would be crying for hours, curled up in bed, and nothing was helping.

Alex was so worried. He was trying to relax and loosen the muscles, but nothing worked.

“Kyle…” He said softly, trying to help him calm down.

He was shaking from the pain.

“Come on. I’m going to try and sit you up, okay? I need to try and get food in you.”

He nodded.

Alex slowly and carefully rolled his torso, going on his back, which wasn’t horrible. But he slowly started to roll his leg over.

He screamed.

Alex stopped immediately. But was panicking, and he said the first thing he thought of.

“We’re going to the hospital.”

He packed a small bag of clothes in case they were there for a few nights, got it in his car, then got Kyle, and went to the hospital.

Before he knew it, Kyle was knocked out, loaded with morphine.

“Do you know what happened?” A nurse asked.

He shook his head.

“Has he had any injuries in the past few months?”

He nodded, “Broken hip and femur.”

He nodded. “I say we do an x-ray. And we see what’s healing.”

He sighed, and nodded.

He pressed a gentle kiss to Kyle’s forehead before they took him to get scans. He waited in the lobby for hours.

“Mister Keller?” He snapped his head up, and stood.

“We did x-rays, and…” He handed him the picture.

“He’s hip is not healing right. At all.”

“Then what do we do?”

“The best option is breaking the bone, putting a different brace on it, and hoping that it heals right this time.”

He nodded, but sighed.

He didn’t have to watch them do it, but he sat at Kyle’s side, waiting for him to wake up.

It took five more hours.

“Al…?”

He looked down, cradling Kyle’s face. 

“What… what happened? I only remember you screaming for help.”

Oh yeah. He did do that. He blacked out for a few minutes, but he was panicking, so he ran in with Kyle in his arms, and he was begging for help.

“Your hip was healing wrong. They had to break it again.”

“So we’re back at square one.”

He sighed, looking at the tears in Kyle’s eyes.

“Kyle. I would have rathered this over us not knowing and you not being able to walk anyway.”

“I-I just… I’m still trying to process that… my job is gone…”

“I know. But we’ll get through this. You’ll be able to walk again. That’s what matters to me right now. Getting you on your feet.”

He nodded, but sighed.

“It’ll be okay, baby. We just need to get you on your feet.”

He nodded, and yawned.

“Go back to sleep, hun. We should be out of here in the morning.”

He quickly fell back asleep.

Price texted Alex.

“How is he doing? Still in the hospital?”

“Yeah. his hip was healing wrong, so they broke it again.”

“Fuck, really?”

“Yeah. We’re hopefully going to get out of here in the morning, so I’ll get him some type of comfort food.”

“Okay… Keep me updated.”

“Will do. I’m going to sleep.”

The next day…

They just go home. Alex got Kyle in bed, and got him his food. Before snuggling with him.

Things would get better… eventually.

As long as they were alive, and together. They could get through anything...

And Alex still needed to find that damn ring.

----

Gabe and Matt are @angstkings OCs. I have permission to use them.

[writexwithxme]

It's Complicated - Chapter 1

(Hank Voight x Desiree Miller)

Desiree was moving back to Chicago after giving birth to her son and hiding the pregnancy from nearly everyone. Except her own father of course. He could always tell when something was off. She'd explained the situation to him and he understood. She was young and she was the one child that always learned from her mistakes.

"Look baby girl, that man got a right to know he's got a son out here in these streets. You do what you gotta do to find him and let him know. I still love you and support you shawty. You're my baby girl. And that's my grandson. I'll make sure you're straight until you handle your business. When you find this guy bring him by and let me size him up."

"Daddy he's a police officer. He works for the city of Chicago. He's old school. This is an older guy. He's probably in his 50s. I was drunk and partying. But I had a real connection with that guy. We talked all the way up until it was time for me to leave for the summer. We did fool around and I'm sure that he's the father. He was my first and my only." Desiree says quietly.

"Go find him and make things right Des. Handle your business." Percy says giving her a hug and kissing her forehead. "I love you and be careful. You need anything don't hesitate to call on me."

"I will daddy. Thank you." Desiree says getting the last of her things into the truck and heading to start this new and unpredictable life with her son.

Arriving in Chicago, Desiree headed to the precinct where she remembered the guy said he worked at. She approached the desk with the sleeping boy in her arms and asked for him. "Hi, I'm looking for Sergeant Henry Voight?"

Trudy glances at the woman and tells her to take a seat in the empty office across the hall. She closes the door and goes upstairs. "Hank, someone's downstairs asking for you. Black female, probably in her 30s with a little boy."

"Thanks Trudy." Hank says heading downstairs. Trudy points him towards the office and he makes his way over. "I'm Sergeant Voight, you were looking for me?"

Desiree turns towards that familiar voice and she feels those butterflies in her stomach that he had always made her get. "Henry..."

"Holy shit...no way. Des?" He says stepping closer and getting a good look at her.

"Henry, it's good to see you again. I didn't think I would see you again."

"Des, I'm glad to see you. Who's this little guy?"

Desiree looks up at him with a shy look. "He's the reason why I came back here to find you. His name's Mason. He's um...he's our son." She says looking down at her feet.

"Our son?" Hank questions, closing the door behind him. "I had no idea you had gotten pregnant. You never reached out to me."

"I'm sorry Henry. Things got really complicated and I got scared. I hid it from my own family. But my father figured it out and he's been helping me. He pushed me to come and make things right. You have a right to know him. I found out I was pregnant when I got back from that summer I spent here with you when I was staying with my girlfriends in town. You were my first and my only. I never slept with anyone else. I had actually considered coming back here to be with you but so much time had passed and then I had Mason to take care of."

"He's really my son." Hank looks down at the infant curled up in her lap.

"Yes. I'm willing to do paternity testing if you need to know for sure. But I have no reason to lie. I fell in love with you that summer and it was the best time I've ever had." Desiree says.

"Are you back in town fo a while?" Hank asks. "I've got a case I'm working but here's what I can do. I want you to get settled in over at my place. You remember where it's at?"

"Yes I remember." Desiree says.

"Take this key and let yourself in. Have the movers put all your stuff in the garage and I'll help you get settled in when I'm off work. Okay. We'll talk more then." Hank says.

Desiree looked overwhelmed and scared out of her mind. Hank approaches her and hugs her. She missed that warm hug from him.

"Don't worry. Everything is going to be alright. We'll figure this out. You're not alone. Well make this right. I want to get to know this little guy more." Hank kisses her cheek. "I'm glad you came back. I've missed you."

Desiree smiles a little and takes the key from him. "I guess we'll see you when you get home." She nods and let's him get back to work.

[starwarstbbfan]

THE BAD BATCH: THE RUNAWAY

Chapter 55 - A Distant Echo

Hunter was on his way back to the Marauder after the debriefing when he passed Skywalker and Rex, seeming to be in a heated discussion when the latter flagged the Sergeant down. His antisocialness kicked in and Hunter had half a mind to pretend he didn't see the reg, but that wasn't reasonable, so he sucked it up, forcing a tiny smile on his face as he joined the pair.

"I was going to ask that your squad stick around for the rescue mission." Rex said hopefully, having been impressed with Clone Force 99's work and now feeling they'd be imperative to the rescue of Echo, whom he wholeheartedly believed was alive.

"Word is the Council isn't completely behind this mission." Hunter commented and Rex huffed but remained hopeful.

"I admit the idea that Echo is still alive is a long shot." The captain admitted, doing his best to keep his eagerness under check over the fact that one of his most beloved brothers might actually be alive! "I'm sure the Council will approve the mission." Rex said with certainty shortly after, though Hunter could hear just the slightest doubt in his tone, and the Sergeant felt a little bad for the reg Captain.

"Just remember the primary goal is to learn how the Separatists are predicting our strategy, whether it's Echo behind it or not." Skywalker reminded Rex, and the reg pursed his lips but nodded in understanding.

"Well, if you want my opinion, it sounds like a trap," Hunter admitted before letting a tiny smirk grace his features as he added playfully,"- but me and the boys will tag along anyway, if only to say, "I told you so.""

"Just make sure you're ready if we get the go-ahead from General Kenobi." Anakin told the Sergeant, who nodded.

"If you're certain he'll approve the mission, why wait?" Rex asked, some of his impatience slipping through his calm facade, "Let's get going." Rex looked ready to burst, yet the General cleared his throat, making the captain look at him questionably.

"First, we have that thing to do." Skywalker said vaguely, and Rex now looked more confused, as did Hunter, who raised an eyebrow at the General.

"Uh, what "thing?"" The reg repeated, not following.

" You know..." Anakin's eyes flitted towards the barracks then back at Rex. Realization dawned on the reg's features, then he coughed awkwardly.

"We don't have time for-for that, sir." Rex tried saying, and Anakin turned to face him fully and stare him down with his arms crossed.

"Yes, we do." The General insisted stubbornly. Hunter could sense an argument was imminent and decided now was a good time to escape.

"Well, I'll just let you two sort this out." He stated, taking a step back while pointing his thumb behind him, "I'll be waiting on the ship with the rest of the team." Looks like Calli is gonna get what she wants.

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When Tech commed Calli and told her they'd be joining General Skywalker and Rex on the rescue mission, Calli had to suppress a shout of triumph, lest she draw attention to herself from the regs. She'd wandered around a bit after her and Hunter's disagreement, and found herself by the barracks, being partially hidden from passersby as she sat against some barrels adjacent to the reg's sleeping quarters.

Despite doing her best to occupy her mind on other things, Calli's mind kept going back to Hunter and their disagreement, then by default the cause of it: Jace. She kept telling herself that their relationship was strictly platonic, and they had absolutely no romantic feelings whatsoever. She'd nor Jace had ever brought up what happened on Naboo - er almost at least and Calli preferred it never be spoken of. She thought it was for the better and that it wouldn't cause any problems. But now that they were in each other's presence in person again, the event was at the forefront of her mind, especially after her and Hunter's argument.

I don't care what Hunter said, I don't like Jace like that!

Just before Calli could get into an argument with herself - no she didn't have multiple personalities regardless of what Crosshair said (he liked to joke that she did) - she heard the voice of Obi-Wan Kenobi and it made her shift so she could peer over the barrels, finding him standing in front of Rex who was guarding the barracks it seemed. The captain looked extremely nervous for some reason.

"Rex, where's Anakin? I need to speak to him about this mission." To Calli, Rex looked like a mynock caught in headlights - and she didn't know why. You could definitely say her interest was piqued as she chose to eavesdrop on the conversation. Even though they were a distance away, Calli could hear them clear as a bell.

"Well, General, he's, um..." The words died on the captain's tongue, and Obi-Wan raised his eyebrow at him and gestured to the building behind Rex.

"Well, he's inside your barracks, isn't he?"

"Yes, sir." Rex confirmed, being very hesitant to reveal this but he couldn't bring himself to lie to his superior. Obi-Wan could feel the anxiety radiating off of Rex yet was more suspicious than worried.

"What's going on here?" Call it intuition by the force or because Obi-Wan knew his former padawan so well, but he knew Anakin was up to something and had dragged his poor Captain into the middle of it.

"Oh. Nothing, sir. I was just waiting for the General... uh, General." Rex tried saying, yet his reassurance didn't sound very... well... reassuring - if anything it just made Obi-Wan more suspicious, and Calli more curious.

"You'll have to do better than that, Captain." Calli watched with mirth as the pair went back and forth like this for the next couple minutes. Obi-Wan would press for information and Rex would stutter out a vague answer, doing his best to not betray his general by revealing what he was doing inside the barracks. Obi-Wan, beyond exasperated now, asked the question that Calli had also been thinking throughout this whole ordeal.

"Then what is Anakin doing in there?" Obi-Wan questioned, beyond exasperated at this point with the conversation that has been going in circles.

"Ah, he's spot-checking my gear, sir." Obi-Wan's arms crossed as he gave Rex a look of skepticism.

"Really? Without you?" Rex began massaging the back of his neck anxiously, visibly sweating at this point.

"W-Well..." Suddenly the door behind him swooshed open, revealing Anakin and Rex breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing his General who appeared at just the right time, saving him from further questioning.

"Here you go, Rex." Anakin said cheerfully, tossing the captain's helmet to him as he walked past the pair, pausing to briefly wave his pointer finger at Rex, "And try not to break it again." Calli had to admit she was disappointed that Skywalker showed up, enjoying watching the show. Fortunately, Kenobi didn't seem to be willing to let his padawan go so easily.

"Anakin. About this mission, the Council thinks..."

"That it's a good idea?" Anakin interrupted cheerfully before nodding, "I agree. Let's get moving, Rex." Obi-wan shook his head as they walked past him.

"No, wait. That's not...".

"No time." Anakin interrupted again with a shrug, and even Calli had to admit he was being a bit rude. It was obvious Obi-Wan was frustrated at Anakin's behavior and it prompted him to say what he did next.

"I hope you at least told Padmé I said hello." This made Anakin stop in his tracks and the look he gave Obi-wan was enough to send a chill down anyone's spine - and it did for Calli. Kenobi knew about Anakin and Padme? Calli was still having some trouble processing the fact that a respected Jedi General was married to a Senator and yet Kenobi seemed to be less shocked by it than she. In fact, he didn't seem surprised at all.

Before Calli could ponder this any further, her comm went off and she didn't even have to look at it to know it was one of her brothers and such began making her way back to the Havoc Marauder.

○●○●○●○●○●○●○●○●○

Usually when the Bad Batch worked with other people, it tended to get awkward - if the recent mission with Cody, Rex, Jesse, and Kix was any indication. But now that they'd gotten to know Rex, it was easier for the usually closed off and tight knit group to relax and actually put an effort into getting along with him. Plus, they'd met Skywalker on Taris (that mission seemed like a lifetime ago), so again, it made things easier.

Everyone except Tech, who was piloting the ship, hung out in the main hold, taking advantage of the five hours they'd be in hyperspace to relax before they landed on Skako Minor. Wrecker took the time to work his arm muscles by using the single power droid owned by Clone Force 99 as a weight - affectionately called 'Gonky' by the siblings. Sometimes he'd even have Calli sit on top of Gonky to add more weight, and with his enhanced strength it still might as well have been a leaf. This time however Calli refused when he asked, choosing to instead occupy herself by watching holovids on her datapad, situating herself as far away from Hunter as possible, still very much upset with him and doing everything in her power to make sure he knew that, as the second they reached the mission site she'd have to pretend everything was ok. When he tried talking to her once, she simply hmphed and gave him the cold shoulder, thus making things even more tense.

You know the saying that parents say? 'If you're going to act like a child, then I'm going to treat you like a child? Well, Calli was doing a reversal of that. If he's gonna treat me like a child, then I'm going to simply act like one. Calli was too upset to even care about the fact that her behavior might make the Sergeant look bad and embarrass him. In fact, Calli took her pettiness one step further, and pulled some strings last minute to have Jace join them on the mission, knowing it would bug Hunter.

~Earlier~

After witnessing the little altercation with Skywalker, Rex, and Obi-Wan, Calli suddenly thought of a way to get under Hunter's skin and chased after the Jedi and clone, as they were a few yards ahead of her and both were heading to the same destination. With some clever manipulation on the girl's part, she convinced the General that it would be a good idea to bring Jace along.

"We need all the help we can get and Jace works well with our squad. With him and a great Jedi like yourself, plus our squad and the Captain, those Seppies won't stand a chance." She said, appealing to Skywalker's vanity and it surprisingly worked, the General telling her to go get Jace and hurry back so they could leave. Calli had noticed that Skywalker's heart rate sped up and he seemed nervous when she chased them down, and it made Calli want to assure him that she'd keep his secret which might not actually be that big of a secret if General Kenobi and Rex knew (who else for that matter knew then?) but she chickened out.

Imagine Jace's surprise when he answered the door and saw Calli standing there, thinking she had left already. Calli didn't give him a chance to voice his shock though and grinned widely up at him, immediately putting butterflies in his stomach.

"Pack your bags, we're going on a field trip!" Calli exclaimed with enthusiasm that he'd never seen before (he of course didn't know exactly why she was so cheerful).

"Wha-?" Calli didn't give him time to process her declaration and walked past him into the smallish quarters, doing a quick scan with her eyes. It was nothing special. Two beds on opposite sides of the room with little nightstands next to each and a small lamp on both. Jace's lightsabers were resting next to it and Calli promptly went over and plucked them from the nightstand, half turning to toss them at Jace before picking up the satchel sitting on his bed next to his pillow, figuring it would have important things in there for him to bring. Calli threw that at Jace as well, and he barely had time to catch it before his cloak that had been neatly folded at the foot of the bed was also hurled his way, unfolding in midair and landing on his head, temporarily engulfing him in darkness. Again, Calli doesn't wait for him to get a word in, wrapping her non-robotic hand around one of his wrists and tugging him along, though she was quick to switch to the other when her real hand felt like it had burst into flames where it had made contact with Jace's skin, even though she'd been wearing gloves.

Jace at first willingly let Calli lead him, until it finally registered what she had said and done. He was quick to dig his heels into the ground and force the pair to stop. Calli looked back at him with faux innocence, like she wasn't aware of what was wrong.

"Ok, I need an explanation please." He said and Calli sighed like the young Jedi had asked her to do something strenuous but complied.

"You're coming with us on the mission." She explained simply, yet that answer didn't satisfy Jace, who shook his head while still looking confused.

"Master Windu didn't inform me of this." Calli shifted her weight from one foot to the other, debating whether or not to take the easy way out and lie. Despite being told that Jedi can't read minds, Calli still found herself skeptical about the fact and that prompted her to spill her guts.

"Well... He technically doesn't know yet," She revealed with a sigh, "- but Skyguy said he'd let him know... once we're in hyperspace."

"What's with all the suddenness and rush?" Jace couldn't help but ask, and when Calli didn't offer an answer his eyes narrowed in suspicion, "What's going on, Cal?"

"Nothing's going on." Calli insisted to which Jace gave her a deadpanned look, "Ok, look, would you rather sit around here bored and waiting for some action or come with me and help us take down clankers and whatever else stands in our path? I mean, we make a pretty good team." Jace had hesitated still, but when she said that last sentence, he found himself unable to deny her request to join, despite the nagging feeling at the back of his mind that there was more to this than just going to extinguish boredom. He had been dealing with boredom since they'd arrived, his Master was busy half the time so they couldn't train - well he could by himself but again that tended to get boring -and the normal daily list of tasks he had to complete each day had become tedious rather quickly as well. Slicing droids with his lightsabers actually sounded FUN. Calli was really rubbing off on him and he wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

Jace chose to believe that his boredom is the reason he agreed to come along, and not because of Calli's statement that they made a good team.

~Present~

A part of Jace wishes he had stayed behind when he witnessed the tension between Calli and Hunter and the former's harsh treatment of her brother. He tried asking Calli what the problem was, but she didn't give him any details other than they had a disagreement about something. It's not like Calli could tell him what they were arguing about after all, since it involved the young Jedi. Although Jace couldn't help but notice a certain Sergeant's dirty look when he boarded the ship.

It remained relatively silent for a majority of the trip, but eventually Rex broke it.

"So, how many missions has your team been on, Sergeant?" He asked in an attempt to find out more about how the squad operated. The recent mission with the ragtag group of clones and watching how they worked made Rex curious to learn more about the team. Anakin looked up from Crosshair's fire puncher which he had been admiring to hear the enhanced clone's answer. Hunter chuckled, turning away from the computer screen to look at the captain.

"Honestly, sir, I've lost count." He admitted, waving his hand lazily, "All the action sort of blurs together."

"97." Callista piped in without looking up from her data pad, making everyone look at her briefly but she didn't provide any further detail. Of course, this included the missions they'd done before Calli joined the team, and she knew how many from the wall in their barracks on Kamino where Wrecker made sure to add tallies every time they traveled back there. Plus, Calli kept count of the missions since she joined by putting tallies on her shoulder pads. She has completed 23 missions so far.

"I know you work with Cody sometimes, but who do you guys' report to?" Rex questioned soon after.

"Hmm good question. Can't say I've got an answer." Hunter said, and Rex made a hmph sound, not satisfied with these answers but he didn't press any further. He didn't have a chance to anyways. Everyone was almost knocked off their feet when the Havoc Marauder suddenly lurched to one side. Tech's voice came through the intercom.

"We've reached Skako Minor, but it looks like it'll be a rough landing! Scar I could use your assistance at the moment!" Calli didn't need to be told twice, shoving her data pad into the nearest person's hands (Jace) and running to the cockpit. She took the co-pilot's seat and the pair worked in perfect sync, bringing their ship into Skako Minor's stormy atmosphere (it reminded Calli of Kamino if she was being honest, save for there was no rain, just thick orange clouds that lit up with each crack of lightning followed by a deafening roar of thunder that made everyone's ears ring (more so with Calli and Hunter) and the ship shudder. Even then, Calli didn't let it stumble her ability to copilot the Marauder and in no time, they landed on the surface with zero trouble.

Everyone piled into the cockpit while Tech and Calli powered down the ship.

"Rex, what do we know about this place?" Anakin asked the Captain.

"On this part of Skako, there's a race of locals, the Poletecs." Rex answered promptly, then adding with a small frown, "All we know is they're very primitive."

""Primitive" is being kind. My intel says the Poletecs worship flying reptiles." Tech inputted, having done research on the five hour flight here, not surprising to his squad. Calli had joined him a while, wanting to be prepared, more so than usual and despite her telling herself it wasn't because of Jace- of course it was because of him! She didn't want to mess up, the last mission they went on together still fresh in her mind.

Suddenly the room is engulfed in darkness when something landed on the front of the ship, causing everyone to jolt in fright as it - it being an animal with large talons, gigantic wings and a very ugly face - let out a vehement roar at the group who could only look at the animal with equal parts shock and slight fear.. Its claws dug into the viewport, and when the talons scratched the glass it resulted in an ear splitting shriek that made Calli's already sensitive ears hurt even more, plus the noise caused a chill to crawl down her spine and set her teeth on edge.

Just as soon as the animal appeared, it flew off, and Calli could just barely make out another figure riding atop it.

"What the heck was that?!" Wrecker exclaimed, leaning over the control panel to try and see if he could spot the creature again. Tech and Calli of course were the only ones with the answer. They weren't sure of the exact name of the species, as their sources of information didn't provide one.

"It's one of those reptiles." Tech said simply just as more sounds of the reptile crawling atop the ship could be heard. Two seconds later it began jumping up and down and shaking the ship, no doubt attempting to open it somehow.

"I want that thing off my ship." Hunter declared and he didn't have to say anything else, his siblings all jumping up and running into the lounge area where the rest of their gear had been left. Instead of her backpack, Calli strapped on the jetpack, something telling her she might need it if they were dealing with flying reptiles.

The two Jedi and Rex had followed the Bad Batch through the ship and looked at all the clones like they were crazy - and they were.

"Hold on! Hold on! Don't just run out there!" Rex told the group, yet his objections fell on deaf ears as the boys and Calli headed for the off ramp, the latter being the only one to reply, stopping at the threshold of the door leading to the exit to give Rex her signature crazy smirk.

"Oh Rexy, haven't you learned already that we don't let danger come to us? We go to it." With that said, Calli slipped on her helmet and continued the journey outside. The captain - and his companions - could only look at her retreating form with bafflement.

"Hey! Get off of there!" Calli heard Wrecker shout at the creature and its rider as she exited the ship and joined her brothers with the two Jedi and Rex closely behind. While Skywalker and Jace ignited their lightsabers Calli took out one of her DC-17's, and fired a couple warning shots at the reptile, hoping it would spook and fly off, yet it didn't.

"Hey, calm down!" Skywalker ordered after Calli had shot at the reptile, yet none of the Bad Batchers lowered their weapons, "We need to talk to them." Now that they were face to face with the beast, they also got a better look at its rider. Calli didn't know what the thin, lanky humanoid with vermillion colored skin, two beady eyes and a long narrow face that rivaled Crosshair's.

"Why?" Hunter questioned, this being one of the few times he preferred to shoot first and ask questions later. After all, the Havoc Marauder was more than just a ship, it was their home - their sanctuary from judging eyes. He wasn't about to let some animal tear it apart, and his siblings shared that same sentiment.

"The General's right." Rex said, backing him up. Just before an argument could ensue, two more of those reptiles with riders emerged from the haze, heading directly towards the group, Rex being the nearest to them.

"Look out, Rex!" Skywalker shouted, though it seemed pointless since he ended up pushing the clone out of the way before he could be snatched up. The two creatures circled back around, creating a distraction so the group no longer paid attention to the one on the ship, which had consequences. Taking the opportunity, the leader had his reptile jump off the ship and they made a beeline for the group, specifically the two with lightsabers. It succeeded in getting a hold of Skywalker, but just before Jace was also captured, Calli shoved him out of the way and large talons wrapped around her small figure and she was plucked off the ground so fast that it made her stomach lurch and if she hadn't grabbed onto her helmet, it might have flown off.

"Calli!" Jace and Hunter shouted at the same time, then looking at each other, the latter glaring at Jace even though it couldn't be seen underneath the helmet, and then looking away with a childish 'hmph'.

Tech, not the least bit panicked, flipped down his visor and used the thermal scanner to pick up the heat signatures of his sister, Skywalker, and the reptiles.

"I have a thermal reading." He informed, turning to face his brothers and looking knowingly at Crosshair, "Point-two-five east, elevation 175." To anyone who wasn't part of the Bad Batch, (i.e., Rex and Jace) this would have been pointless information, after all they can't chase the flying reptiles on foot!

"What are we going to do?" Jace asks in a panic, and Crosshair nudges him aside while walking over to Tech's side.

"Relax. I'll handle this." He told the teen coolly as he takes the blaster barrel off his fire puncher and replaces it with the grappling hook attachment, proceeding to lay the gun on Tech's shoulder, using it to steady his weapon as he flipped down the rangefinder on his helmet to pick up the heat signatures. Soon a grappling hook is fired and flies through the air, and Crosshair smirks triumphantly when the device attaches itself to the reptile's leg connected to the foot currently carrying Calli in its grasp. Before the ascension cable runs out, Crosshair hands the other end containing a hook to Hunter, and the Sergeant hooks it to his belt.

"What are you doing?" Rex demanded, though he had a pretty good idea and all he could think was that Hunter was insane!

"Going for a ride." Hunter replied in a smooth voice, his hands leaving his belt and grasping the cable just in time as he's lifted from his spot on the ground, leaving behind a baffled Rex and Jace, who could only watch with jaws dropped as the Sergeant disappeared into the orange haze.

○●○●○●○●○●○●○●○

Up with the reptile, Calli saw the hook embedded itself in the reptile's leg and she could care less if it hurt him. Before now Calli had never had a problem with motion sickness but as they climbed higher and higher and the claw holding her hostage jerked her body this way and that, Calli's last meal threatened to make a reappearance, which wouldn't be ideal with her helmet still being on.

She struggled against the claws restraining her, trying desperately to reach for her knife or second blaster (the first one had been dropped when she'd been grabbed). Calli only managed to wrench her right arm free, but her entire person was outfitted with weapons. She hit the vambrace against her helmet to press the button that activated the flame projector, aiming it so the flames licked the reptile's leg.

The attack had the desired effect and the reptile let out a roar of pain. Calli is suddenly in a free fall as the flying creature released her from its grasp, and she could hear both Anakin and Hunter call out to her as she rapidly descended for the ground.

As she fell Calli maneuvered herself, so her body was right side up and just before she slammed into the rocky floor, she activated the jet pack that dramatically slowed her descent. Her boots just barely touched the ground and then she pushed off at full speed, making a steady incline back towards the reptile and her squad mate who was still dangling on the grappling hook. The fire had made the creature fly more erratically, which wasn't good for Hunter as he began swinging uncontrollably, just barely avoiding the steep, jagged rock formations as he fired a few blasts at the reptile, which only succeeded in making it more agitated.

Calli flew as close to Hunter as possible while also dodging the large rocks, being ready to catch him when he fell, which the Sergeant eventually did, as the reptile's erratic flying made the grappling hook become loose then fall off all together. Before Hunter could even press his fingers to the side of his helmet to comm Calli, whom he'd seen catching up to them, Calli had already swooped in and grabbed him by his backpack before he fell to his death.

"Woah! Don't drop me!" Hunter shouted, being slightly fearful that Calli might do just that since she was mad at him. After smiling to herself because of this, Calli assured him she wouldn't, and they continued following their assailants that still had the General in its grasp.

Eventually they reached a small village, and instead of making themselves known Calli stopped just before they entered the settlement, instead going over to one of the rock formations that gave them a bird's eye view of the area and where they wouldn't be spotted.

Calli stopped roughly twenty feet over the rock and without warning let Hunter go and he hit the stone in an inglorious heap, not having the time to maneuver himself to where he could do a barrel roll and wound up on his feet with his dignity intact. So, he laid splayed out on his stomach while Calli elegantly landed on her own two feet next to the Sergeant who lifted the upper half of his body to glare daggers at his sister through his visor.

"I thought you said you wouldn't drop me!" He hissed and Calli hummed thoughtfully.

"Did I? I can't remember." She replied, and Hunter grumbled under his breath before comming the others, telling Tech to follow his comm signal. Not two minutes later the Havoc Marauder appeared and landed next to the rock formation Hunter and Calli were on, and the rest of the Bad Batch plus Rex and Jace climbed up, joining the pair as they looked down at the village.

Rex flipped his rangefinder down and found Anakin still wedged underneath the animal's claws. "That creature still has a hold of the General." He told everyone and Calli gave Rex a deadpanned look from beneath her visor.

"Way to point out the obvious." Calli thought, or at least she meant to only think this, but apparently, she said it out loud because she now had six pairs of eyes looking at her. Calli could only shrug in response. Thankfully Rex drew everyone's attention back to him when he spoke.

"We're going in - but remember what the General said. No casualties, disarm only."

"We're on it, Captain." Hunter assured before pointing to the two strongest members of the team then to the round boulder that was nearby, "Wrecker, Crosshair, rockslide!" He ordered and the pair nodded, heading over to the decent sized rock. Everyone else slid down the rock as the boulder was pushed by Wrecker from its spot and sent rolling into the village while Calli chose to jump off the edge and using her jetpack to fly around, making sure that no one was really hurt by the boulder, which included picking up a couple of the aliens out of its path before they became pancakes.

Apparently, her efforts weren't appreciated by one of the sentients she saved, because one of them punched her helmet with the arm Calli wasn't holding and she shouted in surprise while also accidentally releasing her hold on the pair of them - thankfully they weren't that high up in the air, so the drop wasn't fatal. Once Calli gained her bearings and steadied her flying, she glared down at the one who'd punched her while crossing her arms.

"Rude! I just saved your life and that's how you repay me?!" She yelled down at him, even though it was likely her protests wouldn't be understood by the alien species. Instead of getting an "I'm sorry" or "oops my bad", Calli had arrows shot at her. She avoided the first wave of arrows and while they reloaded, she pulled out a blaster and shot the crude wooden weapons from the aliens before they could attempt to fire another round of arrows. While they fled away in fear Calli also left and went to join the others who'd succeeded in freeing the General and were now being yelled at by what Calli assumed was the leader of the village. Calli landed beside Wrecker, who alongside everyone else had blasters aimed at the Chief who raised his hands in surrender before saying something in a language that none of them understood.

"Tech, translate what he said." Hunter ordered his brother, who stepped closer while tapping something on his wrist gauntlet before flipping down his visor. Words appeared in both red and blue, the former being the words spoken by the alien and its translation into basic.

"He says he does not want our war on his planet." Tech explained, the words disappearing so he could look at the General while finishing, "That is why he took our leader."

"We didn't bring the war here. It was Wat Tambor and the Separatists." Anakin said and Tech didn't need to be told to translate this to the Chief, and he did. The way Tech spoke the language sounded average at best, and besides the word, "Separatists", though it was spoken with a heavy accent, Calli didn't understand a thing. The Chief looked at the clone with his head tilted, most likely surprised that a human was speaking to him in their unique dialect. Once Tech finished, Rex stepped forward and gave Tech more sentences to translate, taking the opportunity that the villagers were calm and willing to listen to them.

"Tell him we apologize for what's happened. But tell him the enemy is holding one of our men prisoners in Purkoll. As soon as we rescue him, we'll leave his planet, for good." More blue words appeared on the left side of Tech's visor, and soon after a full translation was provided, and he spoke again to the Chief. He had a harder time talking this time around, tripping over a couple words and at one point he sounded like he was choking, yet he pulled through. The Chief was even more intrigued and took two large steps with his long, gangly legs, putting him right in front of Tech, who's voice drifted off as the Chief peered down at him, specifically the visor with wonderment, getting into the clone's personal space bubble. Tech remained stock still so as not to spook the sentient, allowing him to examine his helmet.

A few tense and uncomfortable seconds went by before the Chief stepped back, then turned to face the villagers that surrounded the clones and Jedi, and he said something to them. Calli stiffened when they all began talking and her hand itched for her blaster yet waited for Tech to translate.

"The Chief says he will provide us with scouts and lead us to Tambor's city. From there, we're on our own." He informed, and everyone turned to General Skywalker to see what he'd say to this offer.

"Any help is better than no help." He said with a shrug.

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Like the Chief promised, he sent a couple scouts with the group and they led them up to a cliff, and beyond that you could see the outline of multiple towers, which one of the scouts pointed to while saying something that again no one but Tech could understand. The General nodded to the scout anyways and they left.

"Took you guys long enough," Calli commented from her perch on the top of part of the rock that stuck out from the cliff and roughly fifty feet above the others. She'd flown up ahead on her jetpack as opposed to climbing up like the others and had been waiting for twenty minutes for the others.

Her brothers simply rolled their eyes while Skywalker ignored her and looked towards the city with determination.

"Hope nobody's scared of heights." He said and one by one Hunter, Crosshair, then Calli all turned their heads to Wrecker, knowing that the gentle giant had trouble with high altitudes yet keeping their mouths shut. Wrecker puffed his chest out haughtily.

"Well, I'm not scared of nothing." He claimed, though when he looked at the edge of the cliff, his confidence waned the slightest, "I jus' - When I'm up real high, I got a problem with gravity." His teammates, minus Tech who was tapping away on his datapad, held back snickers and Crosshair would have verbally teased him if their genius brother hadn't interjected with bad news.

"Speaking of problems, I am no longer picking up Echo's signal."

"I - I don't understand. You said it was coming from this city." Rex said, sounding extremely agitated and Calli felt bad for the Captain.

"I can only speculate, but it is possible there's a latency issue with the frequency caused by all these," Tech waved a hand towards the sky, "-atmospheric disturbances."

"Or maybe they sent the signal to lure us into a trap. And maybe your friend's actually dead." Everyone looked at Hunter, who crossed his arms, "Well, I can't be the only one thinking of that." He spoke. The other male members of the Bad Batch seemed to agree with the Sergeant, and Calli couldn't believe it.

"Look, every mission could be a trap." Rex retorted heatedly while jabbing a finger at Hunter, and Calli could hear his heart rate increase as he grew more and more upset at the doubt of his companions, "This one is no different. I'm telling you - that signal is being sent by Echo himself! He's alive!"

"I think you're letting your personal feelings get in the way because you left him for dead at the Citadel." Crosshair said in his usual cynical way and Calli said his name as a warning for him to shut up, as his words would only make things worse.

"I had no choice. You hear me?" Crosshair just shrugged, remaining calm while Rex was basically ready to explode.

"Oh, I don't blame you. I would've left him for dead too." Crosshair remarked casually, and he turned away from the captain, but not before throwing another cruel remark over his shoulder, "Besides, he's just another reg." This comment was what made Rex snap. He lunged forwards and when Crosshair turned back around, he was met with Rex's fist. The captain unleashed all his fury on the sniper into that punch, but it wasn't enough, and while Crosshair stumbled back Rex didn't give him a second to collect himself, landing another blow that made Crosshair fall backwards and hit the ground.

Even though Calli had been the closest to Crosshair, she made no move to defend him, because his words not only hurt Rex, but her as well as it brought up some memories

"Hey!" It was Wrecker who stepped in, picking up Rex by the scruff of his neck and yanking him away from his brother before he could land any more punches. "Why don't you pick on someone not your size?" the bug clone said tauntingly while dropping the captain on his feet not-so-nicely. But Rex was not intimidated by Wrecker's size, and stepped up to him, glowering at the enhanced clone underneath his visor.

"You'll be a whole lot smaller when I'm through with you." Rex threatened coolly, shifting his fury from Crosshair to the one who'd stopped his attack. The two Jedi could sense an array of intense emotions radiating off the captain, while Calli didn't need the force to be able to tell that Rex was in great distress over the possibility of his former comrade actually being dead. It made her feel even more sorrow for him, and angrier at her brothers for adding to his torment by expressing doubt.

"That's enough!" Anakin barked, thankfully putting an end to the fight before it got any uglier, though in all honesty Calli herself was considering giving Crosshair, Wrecker, and Hunter each a punch herself. "Sergeant, take your men and scout the area for a tower entrance. Jace, go with them. I want to talk to my Captain alone." Hunter nodded and motioned for his squad to follow him with Jace bringing up the rear.

As they slowly made their way down the rock, Crosshair took off his helmet and clicked his tongue in annoyance when he saw the scratches on the visor from Rex's punches, the armor plate protecting the top of his hand leaving marks on the transparisteel.

"Can you believe that reg? Getting so worked up over nothing." Calli, who'd been walking behind Hunter towards the front, stopped in her tracks and faced Crosshair, her hands balling into fists. She spoke in a low, clipped tone, just barely keeping her cool as she was still seething from his earlier comments and the urge to punch him was still there.

"You call being hopeful over someone he cares about being alive and getting upset when someone says cruel things about the friend nothing?" Without his helmet on, Calli could see Crosshair when his eyes rolled.

"Don't tell me you actually care about this whole rescue mission." By now everyone else had stopped, Wrecker, Tech and Jace being behind them and having to, so they didn't run into the pair, while it took Hunter a few seconds to realize his squad had stopped. He rejoined the group and asked what the problem was, but Calli and Crosshair tuned him out. Calli took off her own helmet so her scowl could be seen as she responded.

"And if I do, why is that a bad thing?" Crosshair scoffed, only further adding to Calli's frustration.

"Please, he's one of a million regs."

"And?"

"And he's nothing special and isn't worth all this fuss. The Republic couldn't care less about one lost reg so why should we?" Calli could only stare at Crosshair in disbelief. And then the others began sharing their opinions, Tech being the first, looking up from his datapad briefly.

"While I don't quite agree with Crosshair's rather harsh sentiments, I also feel the need to point out that it's likely this reg is dead and like Hunter said before, this could all be a trap." Calli shook her head, refusing to accept it, but Tech wasn't finished, "And if he is alive, who's to say we can trust him?"

"I agree with Tech. The reg could be working for the Seppies." Wrecker added, voicing the other obvious reason since no one else was going to. Calli could only chuckle wryly while shaking her head.

"I can't believe what I'm hearing. If you all feel this way, then why even bother coming on this mission?"

"Because we were ordered to, and we always complete our missions." Tech said matter-of-factly, like it should have been obvious.

"And you would have given us hell if we didn't." Hunter 'muttered' under his breath, though Calli heard him just fine.

"Well excuse me for caring more about people than just about missions. I can't believe how cold and unfeeling you're all being. I expect this from Crosshair," Crosshair looked downright offended by this statement, "- but the rest of you? I'm-I'm embarrassed to even be related to you right now!" Crosshair made a noise of exasperation.

"Why does this even matter so much to you?" He asked, not understanding why Calli cared so much about this reg they didn't even know.

"Because it's just hitting me, with the way you're acting about Echo, that you probably didn't want to come rescue me when I was captured by the Separatists. In fact, if the Senator hadn't been with me, you probably wouldn't have come at all!" Calli knew she was right when Crosshair looked away and there was a slightly guilty look in his eyes that she caught before he hid his face from her view. Tech and Hunter looked uncomfortable as well, while Wrecker spoke up.

"That's not true Scar," Wrecker exclaimed, trying to diffuse the argument and reassure her, "- the rest of us wanted to come rescue you! Crosshair got outvoted."

"Oh, how touching!" Calli retorted, and Wrecker deflated a little at this, not liking it when Calli was angry at him, but Calli was too fired up to feel bad. She turned back to Crosshair and jabbed a finger at him, "You wanna know why I'm so bent on saving Echo? Because when I was locked up in a cell, all alone and being tortured, I didn't think that anyone was going to come get me." Calli's expression softened a little as she said the next part, "But you guys did. I've never expressed how much that meant to me." It was weird to talk about it, Calli admitted to herself. Even more weird to think about how much time has passed and how much has changed. Several emotions welled up inside her at bringing that time up. She felt tears appear in her eyes and wasn't sure if they were tears of frustration or just from being emotional as she relived the experiences and what she felt when the boys came to her rescue. Calli shook her head and forced herself to calm down before saying one final thing. "And yeah, maybe this whole thing is a wild bantha chase, but if it'll help give Rex some closure then it's worth it and I don't care what you guys think or feel about it."

The boys just stood there in silence, unsure of what to say or do. Calli didn't want them to anyways, and Jace seemed to pick up on this and suggested they get moving. They all reluctantly agreed, but the awkwardness between the boys and Calli was undeniable.

○●○●○●○●○●○●○●○

Eventually the Bad Batch plus Jace followed Echo's signal which had started transmitting again and it led them to the bottom of what appeared to be a tower of sorts. It was hard to tell how big or how tall the building was with the sandstorm that never seemed to end.

Calli stood off to the side and contacted the General per Hunter's order to tell them their coordinates, then leaned against the metal wall, keeping an eye out for the pair. Just as Tech connected his data pad to the control panel and began having it to allow them entrance, Anakin and Rex rejoined the group.

"We're in business, General. Tech regained Echo's signal." Hunter informed the general and he pointed to the building, "It's coming from this tower." Skywalker nodded, turning to the goggled clone. "How's it going, Tech?" Tech didn't respond, being focused on his datapad. A few seconds went by, then the doors finally opened, and Tech stood up.

"Sorry it took so long." He apologized, and Anakin and Jace were surprised at this, as it only took Tech less than a minute to hack which is a shorter time than most can achieve. Hunter told Crosshair to go check out the interior. The sniper creeped in while holding his rifle up, ready to shoot if necessary. When he made it all the way in with no trouble, he lowered the rifle.

"Yeah, it's a lift." Calli couldn't hold back a scoff as she pushed herself off the wall and headed for the inside along with the others.

"Well, we already knew that." She said in a snippy tone, to which Crosshair glowered but remained silent as everyone piled into the lift. Except for Wrecker, who stopped at the threshold when it hit him what they were about to do.

"Wait, wait, wait. A lift?" He said before taking a step back and straining his neck as he looked up at the tall building, suddenly feeling queasy to his stomach, "How-How far up are we going?" Despite being angry at her brothers, Calli felt bad for Wrecker.

"Don't worry, Wrecker." Hunter simpered, "I'll hold your hand." Wrecker huffed and nudged his brother's arm playfully.

"Hey! Cut it out, Sarge. Just give me some droids to crush." Wrecker said as he stepped into the lift. Now it was already a tight fit with seven people inside, and four of them were in bulky armor which made it more uncomfortable. Still, they at least had some moving room. But once Wrecker was inside, everyone else was forced to squish together to make his bulky figure fit in the tiny space.

The doors closed and the lift began heading upwards. It was a quiet, awkward ride as everyone was uncomfortable with their close proximity to one another. Calli was smushed between Jace on her right, Tech on her left, and Crosshair was behind her, forced to be in a corner.

Crosshair didn't like having Calli's jetpack pushing against him and crowding him. He let out a frustrated growl when the lift jerked, and the force made Calli stumble backwards and further push him into the corner.

"Quit crowding me!" He hissed over Calli's shoulder.

"Oh, I'm sorry, why don't I move?" Calli offered with obvious sarcasm, not bothering to even look back at her squadmate.

"Ha ha." Crosshair retorted dryly, "The smallest of us should be in the corner!" He then declared. Calli's head turned sharply at him, her anger flaring.

"Make one more crack about my size and I swear I'll take out my knife and cut off your -"

"Knock it off, the both of you!" Hunter barked sternly, effectively shutting them up before either could say anything that would embarrass the rest of them. When those two were angry at each other, they could say things that would make even a sith lord blush.

Skywalker backed Hunter up by focusing the attention back on the present task. "Remember, this is a stealth mission. No blasting, no blowing things up. Nobody knows we're here."

"Yeah yeah, we get it, General Buzzkill." Calli remarked without thinking, and when Skywalker looked at her with an annoyed expression, she could feel Crosshair facepalm behind her, and then tried to back track, "Er, I-I mean sir, yes sir...uh...General?"

"Nice save." Crosshair remarked, thus furthering Calli's embarrassment. She was saved however when the lift doors opened, and they were met by multiple D-1 Series droids that turned to face them.

"Intruders!" One of the droids said in a monotone voice, and all the droids began aiming their built-in blasters at the group that had yet to react, "Attack!"

Wrecker didn't think twice to act, letting out a battle cry as he barreled out of the lift towards the droids as they began firing, grabbing one of the offenders and flinging it to the other end of the room where it took out two others in its crash landing behind some containers.

"So much for stealth." Calli said dryly as Wrecker grabbed another droid, swinging it around to hit multiple other droids, sending them flinging off the landing pad they'd stumbled upon, then proceeding to dump that droid and shoot multiple rounds into the head, when really only one shot was needed. Despite her comment, when the other Bad Batchers ran out to help their brother, Calli didn't hesitate to follow, save for stopping to turn to Jace and pointing to one of his lightsabers.

"Hey, are you going to be using that?" She asked, wanting to use it since she didn't have her electrostaff and Skywalker had said to be stealthy and in ways a lightsaber was quieter than a blaster. Calli's question though was more rhetorical, as she grabbed one of them anyways. She at least had enough manners to thank Jace before bolting out into the open, igniting the blade just in time to swipe it in front of her and cut off the heads of two droids that had attempted to attack her. Calli grinned as she watched the heads and bodies clatter onto the floor, sparks flying from them and the metal melting where the blade made contact.

Heh, I really like this thing.

While Calli wasn't whooping and hollering like Wrecker as he fought droids, she was definitely getting an adrenaline rush from using the lightsaber instead of a boring blaster to take down droids left and right. Jace could only watch alongside Anakin and Rex as Calli swung the lightsaber to take out three more unfortunate victims before barrel rolling to another to avoid being shot before striking right in the center of its chest plate.

"Uh... Is she allowed to do that, sir?" Rex asked the General, yet Anakin didn't really have an answer. He was mildly impressed by how Calli (or he only knew her as Scar) utilized the weapon, not showing any hesitation at all. Most people were weary around lightsabers, heck in the beginning he'd been nervous to use it, being raised to use a blaster. While Calli's form was bad - horrendous even - she still managed to effectively take down numerous droids without barely breaking a sweat.

Wrecker had just finished blasting holes in the final droid and let out an almost maniacal laugh while pumping his fists.

"YEAH! WHOO!!" Calli let the blade retreat back into the hilt and looked at Wrecker along with the others, though she could understand as she felt a similar high. Wrecker laughed again, quieter and more sheepish this time, massaging the back of his neck, "Uh sorry. I just got excited."

"I've still got a lock on Echo's signal." Tech announced to break the awkward silence that followed as Wrecker finally calmed down.

"All right, men. Let's hunt some droids." Hunter said and this got Wrecker all excited again.

"Now you're talking! Yeah!"

Everyone headed for the doors that would lead them further into the building. Jace fell into step next to Calli on her left and held his hand out expectantly. With a nervous chuckle she gave the lightsaber back.

"Heh, sorry. Guess I got a little carried away." She admitted while wringing her hands. Thankfully Jace wasn't annoyed.

"No harm done - except to the droids." Calli visibly relaxed, yet Jace couldn't help but make a comment about how Calli fought with the lightsaber, "Your form was terrible, though." Calli made a noise of surprise, then punched his shoulder playfully, temporarily forgetting about her enhanced strength and that Wrecker was the only one who could handle her punches, even the "playful" ones could cause serious damage. Jace let out a pained grunt as his shoulder exploded in pain and went to grip his shoulder while Calli's eyes bugged out when she realized what she'd done.

"Holy kriff, I'm- I'm so sorry!!" Calli whisper-shouted so the others wouldn't hear her as she freaked out over the possibility that Jace's shoulder might either be broken or at the very least dislocated. Is injuring your Commander who's also a Jedi illegal? Great, I'm going to jail!

"It's fine." Jace assured her through gritted teeth as the pain became more of a dull throb. He rotated his shoulder a few times to show that no permanent damage was done. Calli went from being mortified to embarrassed and chose to increase her speed to go join the adults just as Skywalker suggested they split up, as apparently Tech had lost Echo's signal and now, they had no way of knowing where he was.

"Okay, we're splitting up. Search every door. If someone finds Echo, contact the others. We go in together, just in case there's trouble." Everyone nodded before heading in different directions. Hunter, Tech, Wrecker, and Rex headed left while the rest went right.

They ran down the curved hallway that had multiple doors spaced out on the right side while the left had a half wall, the top being a window that looked out to the rest of the city. Skywalker took the first door they came across; Crosshair did the next while Calli and Jace continued jogging until they reached another door and Calli said she'd take this one. Jace nodded and told her to be careful before running off.

After punching the control panel that opened the door, Calli took out one of her blasters and held it with both hands in front of her as she began creeping into the section of the chamber this door opened up to. It appeared to be a room full of generators and machinery that powered the building, separated into sections that created a sort of maze. There was minimal lighting, and Calli quickly slipped off her helmet and clipped it to her belt, opting to rely on her enhanced senses to detect any droids that would try and sneak up on her in the darkness. At every junction she stopped and listened, and when nothing jumped out and fired, she would move forward.

Eventually her ears picked up the sound of creaking metal from above and two seconds later a droid dropped to the floor in front of the girl.

"Drop your weapon-" Calli shot the droid through the head before it could say anything else. Then a sound came from behind and Calli was quick to unsheath her vibro blade and without turning jabbed it into the droid that crept up behind her in an attempted sneak attack, twisting the blade to ensure it did maximum damage. Just then another dropped down near the first droid and this one began shooting without any hesitation. One of the blasts just barely grazed Calli's ear and she pulled the second droid that still had the vibroblade embedded in its chest in front before kicking it forward with her boot to slam into the shooting droid, and they collided and fell into a heap on the ground.

Calli quickly made her way over to the heap and wrenched the vibroblade from the second droid in order to stab the third one before it could regain its bearings, only she didn't stop after one. She repeated the action, unleashing all the pent-up anger this mission has brought upon her. Everything that she's kept bottled up just came crashing down on her and this time she couldn't just push it away. As the blade pierced the metal body of the droid over and over, flashes of everything that was wrong in her life right now came to mind.

STAB. Her frustration with how her team didn't care about a reg being potentially held captive and even worse saying cruel things about him.

STAB. She was angry at the fact she was angry over something that on a broader scale of things maybe wasn't something to be so worked up about. But this had been building up for a while, to where now Calli took offense to even the smallest offense.

STAB. One of the built-up frustrations was how Hunter kept making passive aggressive comments about her relationship with Jace, as did Crosshair.

Thinking about Jace brought on a whole new set of intense emotions and Calli's stabs became more aggressive and with less time in between each one. The fact that Hunter didn't trust her or believe her when she said there was nothing going on between them. That he kept giving her a hard time about it and just not letting it go just infuriated Calli. She was glad at least that Hunter didn't know about the kiss she and Jace almost shared back on Naboo. It was hard enough that Jace tried to bring it up the first few times they corresponded. Calli would immediately brush it off and promptly change the subject, wanting to simply forget about it and move on. Eventually Jace seemed to get the hint and stopped, Calli was relieved that they could continue being friends and not worry about ruining it with some itty-bitty romantic feelings that tried to get in the way.

Calli's temper flared again thinking about that last part. She tried to deny it, both to herself and everyone else; she didn't like Jace in that way. But, deep down, Calli knew the bitter truth and she hated it with a passion. Most people wouldn't be so bothered over the fact that they like someone, but Calli was. She didn't know how it happened, one moment they were barely acquaintances, then that vacation on Naboo happened and suddenly these weird fuzzy, bubbly feelings emerged and Calli wanted nothing more than to turn them off!

Calli wasn't sure how many times the blade pierced the upper metal body of the droid, all she knew was that by the time she finally stopped her breathing had become heavy, her jaw was clenched, teeth were gritted and all she wanted to do was scream at the top of her lungs. She didn't feel better in the slightest, and that added to her frustration.

Before Calli could wallow in her despair any further, she got a comm call from Jace, saying that Tech regained Echo's signal and gave her the location to meet them at. After quickly wiping her eyes that had become misty without her noticing, Calli went to free her vibroblade, only for the handle and blade to separate and the latter was left embedded in the droid. Her lips formed a pitiful little pout,

Aw man, this was my favorite knife. Can't one thing go right today?

Not able to part with her beloved weapon, Calli pulled the blade out before making her way to where the others were. Turns out she arrived just in time too, as a bunch of droids were closing in on them. Calli immediately sprang into action, throwing the blade in her right hand at a nearby droid, sparks flying as it went down. She then chucked the handle at another, and with her enhanced strength the force was enough to knock the head off the droid and render that one useless also.

Now Calli had the attention of a few other droids and those she swiftly took down with her DC-17's while the rest were taken out by the others. There was a brief period for everyone to catch their breath and Calli got a better look of where they were at. The door where Echo supposedly was beyond that was in an arched alcove like thing adjacent to the hall and at the back of it were large double doors. Calli became hopeful that they'd find Echo, after all these doors were locked while the others weren't and that's only necessary when you're guarding something, in this case a prisoner of war.

More blaster shots forced everyone to hide behind each end of the alcove where there was a small wall that would shield them.

"Tech, open that door for Rex!" Anakin shouted over the blaster fire.

"Yes, sir!" Tech responded before hurrying over to the circular control panel next to the doors and getting to work. Calli followed to provide cover while he worked, Rex joining her a second later. Calli had seen Hunter say something to him beforehand, and wished she'd been able to hear because her curiosity was burning. She did however get an order to go with the pair once the doors were opened and Calli didn't protest, wanting to see first-hand if this whole mission had been worth it or not.

The doors led them to a small room with another set of doors at the end of it, and past that was a large circular room. Rex and Calli walked ahead of Tech with their blasters raised, taking slow, careful steps down a ramp, the rest of the metal floor having wires and lights intertwined, and with the large gaps in the metal they would likely get stuck.

The ramp ended and they stood before a large chamber of sorts, and even with all her armor on Calli could feel the coldness radiating from it.

"I don't like the look of this." Rex stated unsurely, and Calli found herself nodding in agreement while Tech got to work on the circular console in front of the chamber to try and get it open. Calli holstered her weapons and a heavy weight settled on her chest as she gazed upon the machinery that began making hissing noises and emitting clouds of smoke as Tech began the unlocking sequence, and from the way he swiftly typed in commands and pushed a series of buttons and levers, you'd think he had dealt with this type of technology before.

"I'm definitely picking up a life-form in there." Tech informed while he worked and that spark of hope was back, "It seems to be a stasis chamber. I think I can get it open. Calli, pull those two levers down slowly when I tell you to." Calli went to where Tech pointed and grasped the two levers, looking at Tech expectantly while her heart pounded at what might lay beyond the frosted doors of the chamber.

After pressing a couple more buttons he gave her a nod and Calli had to take a deep breath before gently pulling the levers downwards and she heard more whirring of machinery and from her peripherals to the left she saw the doors to the chamber swing open and a wave of frigid air made a chill go down her spine, only for it to happen again when a body fell out of the chamber. Even though Calli had her suspicions about what was inside the machine, nothing could prepare her for seeing a sickly pale, lifeless form to fall out of there, only it only made it about a foot out as it was attached to several hoses that prevented it from fully dropping to the floor, and somehow the fact it hung out like that made it even more terrifying. Calli let out a yelp and jumped back in fright, accidently bumping into Tech though truth be told she was tempted to grab onto his arm like a small child for comfort after that heart-skipping scare that probably took a couple years off her life.

Rex's horrified expression was hidden beneath his helmet, which he was thankful for. "Echo." There was sorrow in Rex's tone as he took in his vod's state. His skin color was no longer a warm tan color like the rest of the clones', and his entire lower body was now made up of cybernetic components, along with the lower half of his right hand, which was now replaced with a scomp link like most droids possessed. Echo's eyes were open, yet unfocused, and moved as if he was reading something.

The sadness was temporarily pushed aside, and Rex jumped onto the console to grab his vod and free him from the chamber. "Tech. We gotta get him out of here. Figure out how to unplug him from this mess." Rex gently wrapped his arms around Echo's waist and took off one of the hoses but found that the others wouldn't budge, they did however have some length, so Rex was able to pull Echo the rest of the way out of the chamber and place Echo on the ground with his back against the console.

Once Echo was settled, Rex took off his helmet so he could look at Echo more closely, and the despair and shock was clear as day on his features.

"What have they done to you?" Calli, having recovered from her mini freak out, crouched down on the other side of Echo and began spouting off her observations, not realizing that Rex wasn't really looking for an answer at this time.

"It looks like his lower torso, legs, and right arm were replaced with cybernetic implants and these tubes and stuff were probably there to keep him alive while in the stasis chamber-" Calli finally glanced at Rex and saw the "what the heck" look Rex was giving her and pressed her lips together briefly in embarrassment, "Oh, that was a rhetorical question wasn't it?"

Their attention was brought back to Echo when he began stirring and some of the cloudiness left his eyes. He jumped, then began speaking, his voice hoarse from not being used for who knows how long.

"We-We have to get to the shuttle to escape the Citadel." He mumbled out, then his face became panicked, and he held his human hand up, "No! I'll go first." Calli deduced he must be reliving his final moments before being knocked out or whatever. Rex said his name in an attempt to get his attention, but Echo continued to talk as if the rest of them weren't there. "No! No. No."

"Echo, it's Rex." The captain said, a little louder this time, "I'm here." He assured. Echo said 'no' one more time before slumping back against the console. He remained silent for a moment, and Calli saw his eyes clear up entirely and he became aware of his surroundings, specifically the ARC Trooper kneeling in front of him.

"Rex?" He said weakly, "You, you came back for me?" It was as if Calli was looking into a mirror, flashes of her saying almost the exact same thing to the Bad Batch. She couldn't describe the feeling it gave her as she watched the two brothers interact.

Rex nodded sadly, with regret in his eyes. "Yes." He said in a soft voice, "Yes, I did." It took Echo a second to process this, still being very much out of it. Eventually more questions spilled from his mouth.

"What... What happened?" he asked, his eyes glancing around at the unfamiliar surroundings, "Where am I?" Rex reached out and gently grasped Echo's human hand in his own, ignoring that it felt like an ice cube.

"It's okay, Echo. You're safe now." Rex assured in a soothing tone, and he placed his free hand on Echo's shoulder. "Just sit tight, trooper. You're going home."

○●○●○●○●○●○●○●○

AHHHHHH, I'M SO HAPPY THAT ECHO'S FINALLY HERE!! I'M SO EXCITED TO WRITE THE INTERACTIONS BETWEEN HIM AND CALLI!! THEY'RE GONNA BE CYBORG SIBLINGS!!!

I hope you liked this chapter!!

~B.C.

[mariandjarin]

Eleni Skirata Diary Part 1

My story

(Eleni Skirata picture created by Canva AI)

Being me, it is funny.

The funniest part of my life is when unexpected situations appear on it.

One of them was falling into a portal and being kidnapped by Jango Fett.

Yes, Boba's father. (Well Boba is his copy actually)

Anyways that bounty hunter kidnapped me and brought me with Count Dooku, and at the end I finished with Kal'buir.

Nothing of that was part of my plans, but it happened in that way.

So, according to Count Dooku, I am special for the things I know about Kamino, the Kaminoans, and Darth Sidious' plans, but I am just a human being.  

What is a mystery to me is that Count Dooku said, "Let her train with the Republic Commandos. Let her become one of them. If some of the Cuy´val Dar ask you why a woman like her is here, tell them she is a special part of the project that cannot be revealed to them or anybody else".

So Jango followed Count Dooku's instructions, and I started training with the Republic Commandos.

I tried to discover the secret that surrounded my person and made me so special to be capture by a Sith Lord, but I didn´t found nothing. (Well not in my republic commando training).

Being a woman surrounded by men like them is difficult because you are the only woman in the training room (without considering Kaminoan women).

My squad was just one of many that trained with Kal'buir, but he helped me a lot during the hard training routines.

I didn't have the condition to be a warrior; I used to work making clinical analyses of blood, urine, and many other substances to give the results to the doctors so they could make the diagnosis of the patients. I didn't used to like my work, but I could say it is easier than Republic Commando training.

Being a woman has its priorities. One of them is that I have my own room. My own space to decorate and sleep or take a nap when I am able to do that. Also, I have my own bathroom.

The only thing I miss a lot is my piano. I used to play a lot of piano, and composing piano songs was my favorite hobby. It's still my favorite hobby, but I haven't played the piano for a long time. 

Also, I like singing. I don't have an Adele voice, but I love singing Mando'a songs, humming the tone of them, or any other song. 

Writing stories is another of my pastimes. So as you can see, I am writing mine.

Anyways, being in Kamino has been different from my home world, where the sun was there most of the time and it looked and felt like a desert. 

The big difference here is that there is nothing more than the training room, storms, and big and violent ocean waves.

(Well handsome supersoldiers are included too).

I used to avoid dates because being the only woman here makes you more interesting to those men, but after a while, I decided to give it a try.

Even when I knew it was risky.

My first date was with a guy called Niner. He is stoic and a gentleman, but which one of these soldiers is not a gentleman?

Ok, I was talking about Niner.

We had our time together. Meeting each other. Sharing pastimes, and yes, I know you want to know if there were some kisses. There were, but most of them were short, and they finished as soon as they started.

It is not allowed to date between comrades, but there is a moment in which you get bored and can't deny your nature. For Niner, well, he didn't know how to take that.

Everything ended two months later. Everyone was ready to ask for the second date, but I didn't want a second date. Niner stole my heart. If he wasn't ready. I decided to wait.

And it was okay until I met Sev from Delta Squad.

There were many stories about Delta Squad. 

Those Republic Commandos were trained by Walon Vau, the mando who has a strill with many privileges, but most of them disturb the inner peace of those around him.  

Well, Sev wasn´t the break rules guy, but we hid our relationship too well until Sergeant Vau discovered us.

That wasn't good. He gave Sev a fight that I won't ever forget. Sev and I were planning to get married, so you can imagine how well our relationship was, but after Vau discovered us, I was reassigned to be a rat lab from the Kaminoanis.

I still have my own room, but I can't go to see any of the boys, or they could be in trouble because of me, and by trouble I mean being killed. 

So, I can't see Kal´buir or the Nulls. I can't even answer their messages. It is like I am in a kind of prison prepared just for me.   

I miss all of them so much. 

Sev is still giving me gifts with love notes in secret. They just appear in my room. Maybe Lord Mirdalan is helping him. (Ok, that would be weird, but please, that strill is smart. All of them are smart). 

Even when this time I have had only for myself has been difficult, I have discovered that I can use the force, and I am very good at it!

Maybe that is what Kamionans, Count Dooku, and Dark Sidious were waiting for when I could use the force, but how? As their sith apprentice?   

I am not interested in those guys, but they could say something like, "We are going to kill your family if you don't do that."

In that case, I will need to use Plan B: Find me and make me do it if you can.

Where would I escape?, I don´t know yet, maybe I could go to the Jedi temple and train in their ways, but that could be difficult for the Jedi because I will involve them in my trouble.

Anyway, today I received a letter with an assigment. It says I am going to be part of...

Clone Force 99?!

Ok, I wasn't expecting that, but to tell you the truth, Darth Sidious and his plans always have a purpose.

Those clones are different to the other groups.

Let´s see what we can learn from each other and I will try to discover what is my part in Darth Sidious plans. (Without killing my new squad).

[wbwoqlqxoxxms]

Yishun Revengers Episode 1 "Time to commit Yishun"

"Staff, no offense, but older people, die faster!"

-sergeant to staff

"They say that Yishun is the heart of all...uh...interesting, events, to happen, in Singapore...ehehe...AHEM. Despite this, many Singaporeans still choose to stay in Yishun, seemingly disregarding all the risks of *gets pounced on by cat* OW I SWEAR TO GOD YISHUN IS CURSED! ANYWAY. AS I WAS SAYING. Yishun is-*gets pounced on by 4728928228 cats at once* ALRIGHT THAT'S IT I'M NOT COMING BACK TO YISHUN ANYMORE THIS PLACE IS BEYOND HOPE, NOT EVEN THE PRESIDENT CAN SAVE THIS CURSED LAND" *reporter removes his headphones and walks away*

"EY WAIT WAIT WAIT PLEASE DON'T GO YOU'RE THE ONLY REPORTER WILLING TO DO THIS PLEASE DON'T GO STEVEN CHIA" Assistant...whatever the assisant of the documentary people are called remarked.

"AND FOR THE LAST TIME, I'M NOT STEVEN CHIA, MY NAME IS STEFEN HUA!" Steven Chia-er, I mean, Stefen Hua said very angrily.

And then he took a deep breath to calm down like the chers always say to do except it works like -1 out of 10 of the times.

So after he's all calmed down and relaxed and able to think things through rationally, he announced, "Hey you know what, Yishun may be cursed, but so too is my wallet by the end of this month if I don't get my salary and my allowance to spend on hentai...AHEM. LET'S GET TO INTERVIEWING THESE PEOPLE."

So Stefen Hua and the assistant I'm too lazy to name went around in the void deck interviewing people on why they stay at Yishun. First they approached this weird looking auntie everyone is sure is a pontianak in disguise, and asked her, "Greetings, lady, would you mind answering a few of our questions?"

"Yeah yeah yeah whatever," Was her answer, so it's technically a yes.

"Alright, lady, so, despite knowing all the dangers of Yishun, why do you still choose to stay here?" He posed the question as the assistant positioned the camera.

"Well...what dangers?" She asked back in return.

"Dangers of the curses of Yishun, you know, pontianak, ghost, random cat moaning sounds at 3am when you're trying to sleep?"

"Ah, pontianak ah? Aiya, that ok, I am also pontianak anyway," She reply before vanishing into air and pontianak form.

Stefen Hua threw up his script paper in exasperation. "Yep, Yishun is cursed."

*takes another deep breath*

"Oook, how about we go ask that boy there? Surely he's not a pontianak..." He gestured to the assistant girl, then they tried to approach this boy more nicely.

"Hello there, boy, we're making a documentary on Yishun, care to answer a few questions? He asked in the same tone as the child pedo who keeps trying to stalk and kidnap the ginger ang moh exchange student kid.

Then the boy turned his head to face them, looking up from gaming, and said his profound words, "Simi?"

"I'll take that as a yes. So, why do you want to stay in Yishun even though it's so dangerous?"

The boy just got back to gaming, and then after a while of waiting, he just said, "Don't know, don't care, don't wanna know, don't wanna care, L+skill issue+ratio,"

At this point Stefen Hua was visibly frustrated. "At least it's not a pontianak this time..."

"Well, let's go ask those people playing chess there, idk what they're doing, I don't care, I just want to get this done to leave this cursed place already," He sighed.

They approached the group of people engaged in their chess game as carefully as they could.

"Uh, hi, would you mind answering a few of our questions-" Stefen Hua spoke but was then rudely interrupted by a random guy in black, "Whatever lah, don't care lah,"

On second look, he's one of the people actually playing chess, playing with that weird guy in something that looks like a suit but is not actually a suit?

"So, uh, since you know Yishun is dangerous, why do you still want to stay here-" Stefen Hua had continued to talk, before being interrupted again, but for the reasons he wanted.

At this point everyone was staring at him. The two people playing chess, the other four normal-looking people, and then there's the 3 weird furries with rabbit ears and yellow overcoats (this is Yishun, normal one), and the record-breakingly short guy with plain-looking clothes but actual horns sprouting out of his head, all staring at him.

Then finally the man in black spoke, "You want to know why we stay in Yishun, right? Well, I'm afraid that's a long story now..."

[imdoingwhateverisnext]

Preparing myself, as the Nest Becomes More Empty....

I am guilty of coddling my kids too much at times. I realize now that it was something that helped me, not them. In a divided household, I knew they lived with a drill sergeant half of the time. I felt I needed to offset the balance and allow them to be "kids". Which meant I always had a messy house unless I did most of the cleaning.

Somehow in between my full time job, part time job, graduate school program, and 3 kids, I got by without child support. I was afraid to ask for support, and I figured I could support them on my own anyway. I lost a lot of sleep over the years. I probably lost a lot of years as well. Maintaining a home as the only adult is challenging; between the housework, cooking, bills, shopping, laundry, mom's taxi service, sports practices, homework, check-ups, dental, orthodontics, maintaining personal hygiene (yes theirs but also mine). I don't know how I even did it for as long as I did. It was like I was in robot mode with little time for introspection, I had too much to do.

My son is a senior and will be leaving home soon. My oldest son left a couple of years ago. When he did, I spent almost a week in full melt-down mode. I warned everyone ahead of time, I could feel it coming. Please stay away. I am not going to be normal or okay. Landon was my reason for continuing to exist. He was my reason for anything adult-like or responsible I had ever done. He moved out and I went full psycho mode. I warned my youngest kids to stay away for a few days. It was for the best.

Then, he moved back in after a couple of months. By the time he came back, I was already used to him being gone. It felt different. I thought, 'I just got used to you not being here'. He stayed a couple of months and then left for good. He is married now. Yesterday I realized his girlfriend now shares his last name, and is now his wife. It has been 4 months. One might think the realization should have dawned on me before now. I don't always do things in the proper order.

My 'babies' are grown and stretching their wings. When my son moved out the second time, I had no meltdowns. I am getting better, but I am terrified of losing my last two babies. I have to find something that is for me, and gives me reason to look forward to my empty nest. I would love to be able to help my kids pack and be excited for their futures as well as my own.

If I am being honest, it seems that coddling my kids made me feel important. If they needed me to cook, clean, help with homework, and be on call for medical questions, I would remain relevant (or so I thought). Now that much of the hard work of raising my kids is over, I have tried to "find myself" again. Rediscover my likes, my dislikes, and try to figure out what would actually be good for ME. I forgot about my own needs for so long, couldn't even remember what I liked. It is a process that has been frightening, painful, exciting, and fun.

As the time for Jack to leave home looms over my head and the calendar days fly past, my excitement and dread grow exponentially together. I don't like the dread at all. Fear of lack of purpose, death on the horizon, loneliness, and an overall lack of a solid plan for the future are all hanging like a black cloud over me.

I had to start preparing. There are no other realistic options. I know they will not flourish as adults if I "over-help" them and try to keep them with me forever. If I keep doing things for them, things that they should be doing for themselves, I am robbing them of their independence. I am not allowing them to grow up because I want them to stay my 'babies' forever, and I want to stay relevant in their lives. It is actually very selfish. I don't like this part of my personality/ mind. This is not helpful, and the probable outcome (needy adults who can not do anything for themselves) does not look like a future I want for my kids.

So, I have decided that I am going to be a 'lazy' mom (my mom guilt makes me refer to it as such). I have to let them cook, clean, wash their clothes until they no longer need me. They aren't going to love it at first, and I will be tempted to cave in, but I must get them ready for a future in which they are strong, well adjusted, and at least somewhat disciplined. I have to teach more, and do less chores. That doesn't sound too bad really. I should have started this years ago.

[zoeykallus]

Crosshair – My Beloved Enemy 5 – Rebel Darling

Crosshair x Female!Reader (FF)

Warning: SMUT 18+ /Minors DNI/ NSFW

SMUT 18+/ Orgasm Denial/ Dom-Sub/Dom Crosshair/ Cunnilingus/ Vaginal Fingering/ PiV Sex/ Slight Praise Kink/ Overstimulation/ Multiple Orgasm/ Dubious Consent/ Bondage _____ Author's Comment: Damn, this chapter took me longer than expected. I actually had some free time the last two days and I was just writing this thing for what feels like 48 hours. I wanted to get the Crosshair Smut scene just right, Crosshair style if you will. I wrote it, erased it, wrote it again and erased it... and then wrote it again saldkjbfhskjfdk. I'm still not content with what I did. It feels different from what I usually do, but Crosshair is different too, right? Well, at the end I've gotten carried away at the smut scene so, there is a lot of it in this one. Have fun! _____

What Happened Before:

Part 1 - Crash Landing

Part 2 - Hot And Cold

Part 3 - Hello Kitten

Part 4 - Look Who’s Back

Part 5 - Rebel Darling

Your shuttle was simple, it had no weapons but was a pure personnel transport shuttle, you had a real sleeping area with a bed and not just a bunk. You had your own refresher and even a small kitchen.

A little nervously you showed Crosshair around. You knew you were alone with him now, sooner or later you would get close, you felt it tingling under your skin. It was exciting but also a little intimidating.

You thought about Tech's reaction for a moment, and you felt a little sorry for him. But he had his chance, your night together had been almost six months ago and since then he had either avoided you or treated you purely as a friend. He hadn't responded to your advances, now he had to live with the consequences. You didn't want to wait forever for him and if you were honest you felt much more attracted to Crosshair anyway, even if you didn't think you would see him again until recently.

When you had shown him everything, you finally sat on your bed at some point. Crosshair had already taken off parts of his armor to make himself more comfortable.

"The bed smells like you" he said and smelled unabashedly at your pillow "Smells like your perfume and your shampoo".

A little unsure you looked at him "Sorry. I can make the bed fresh if you want"

He laughed, "No, no, I like it, it smells good"

"Are you going to stay with us now?" you asked quietly.

Crosshair looked up from your pillow to you.

"For now, yeah. Depends on if the boys can get used to me again. As you know, we didn't exactly part peacefully."

You nodded slowly and said, "I'm sure Wrecker will be happy. Echo won't be a real problem either."

He smiled knowingly, "But Tech will probably be on the fence. Did you see his face earlier? He's jealous as hell."

You shrugged and said, "Yeah, maybe so. But he doesn't really have a right to be jealous or to choose who I spend my time with, that ship has sailed".

Hunter looked up when he heard Tech coming back from the cockpit. He stopped next to Hunter's bunk. The sergeant sensed his brother's unease all too clearly.

"You want to talk about it now, after all?" asked Hunter quietly.

Tech snorted, "Why do we just take him right back. He's almost killed us all several times. It is not really sure at all if that was because of the chip. How can you trust him again right away?"

Hunter sighed and sat up in his bunk.

"Tech, I know you're right and we have to be careful. Right now, though, you're only so hostile towards him because you have feelings for Y/N"

Tech nervously stepped from one foot to the other and said, "In part, yes, that may be, but that still doesn't change the facts. We don't know if we can really trust him"

Hunter nodded slowly and said quietly, "I know. Rest assured, I will remain vigilant about Crosshair."

After a pause he asked, "Why didn't you ever tell her, it's been almost half a year since your night together and she kept trying to talk to you. As sorry as I am that you are so upset now because she is in her shuttle with Corsshair- it's your own fault."

Tech sat down on his own bunk across from Hunter and slumped his shoulders.

"I know. It was a wonderful night and I had never felt so alive and happy before."

Hunter looked at him questioningly, "Then all the more reason I don't understand how you handled the situation"

Tech lowered his eyes and stared at his hands resting on his thighs.

"I was... overwhelmed. What I felt was not logical and could not be logically explained, it was so intense that it.... scared me. I just wanted to be with her to spend my time with her, I thought about her day and night, I still do. But when, out of sheer cowardice, I suggested we keep it a professional relationship and she agreed to it, something inside me broke and I just wanted to escape."

Hunter looked at his brother with concern and compassion.

"You should have asked her. She was probably just as scared as you are, that's probably why she agreed. I'm very certain she was very fond of you."

Tech snorted, "Now she's very fond of Crosshair. Crosshair of all people."

You were already naked, just like Crosshair, it had happened so fast, the clothes had fallen off within seconds. He had just looked at you, with that glint in his golden brown eyes, then he had literally thrown himself at you and you had let him, completely overwhelmed by his commanding presence.

The Sniper was half over you, kissing you fierily, and your heart was beating so fast that you were almost dizzy. His bare skin against yours was incredibly warm, the muscles beneath, firm and wonderful. Crosshair was deft, with his fingers and his lips.

Out of the corner of his eye, he seemed to have spotted something on your nightstand, a silk scarf of yours. He reached for the long piece of fabric and smiled mischievously.

"Hmm, how convenient."

The next moment he grabbed your arms, pushed them up over your head, wrapped the scarf tightly around your wrists several times, and finally tied them to the headboard of the bed. You had wanted to say something, maybe even protest, but your voice caught in your throat.

He finally looked at you with a smirk of satisfaction.

"Normally people agree on a safeword for something like this, but I don't think we need one".

Looking at him questioningly, you finally found your voice again and asked quietly, "Safeword?"

"Yes. Never heard of it?"

You shook your head.

"It's a word you agree on, when one of the people involved disagrees with something, they say the safeword and the other one stops"

You blinked nervously, your heart still beating so wildly in your chest.

Crosshair saw the uncertain expression on your face.

"You're not scared, are you?"

"No," you said a little meekly.

Testingly you moved your hands, the soft fabric was gentle on your wrists, but you definitely couldn't free yourself on your own.

Your gaze shot back to him as one of his hands moved up over your belly, slid over your breasts and stopped just above your thumping heart.

He smiled.

"Your little heart is beating wildly, Kitten. You don't have to be afraid of me.Just let yourself go, I'll make you feel good, just forget about everything else for a while," he spoke softly to you, in his deep voice.

Crosshair climbed over you, his hardening length pressed against your skin, his hands traveling up your sides to your breasts, kneading them, gently feeling the hardened buds.

A soft moan came over your lips, half swallowed by Crosshair when his lips were suddenly on yours. His kiss was demanding, urgent, dominant, you melted away under him. He broke free of the kiss and moved his lips over your chin, further down to your neck. The touch made you shiver.

"Are you afraid?" he asked quietly.

You shook your head and replied, almost whispering: „I want this... you so much, that the thought of this is already making me... shaky.“

A smirk appeared on Crosshair's lips. The answer pleased him.

Covering your collarbone with gentle kisses, he murmured, "Good girl."

He slid a little lower and his mouth wandered to the mounds of your breasts, kissing them teasingly, his lips wandering to your buds that had already erected in anticipation. When his lips closed around one of the nipples and a hand closed around the other breast, a sweet whimper came out of your mouth. He suckled at the sensitive flesh while his hand gently kneaded your other boob. He switched back and forth between your breasts, listening to the aroused sounds he elicited from you.

"Such a good girl, making such wonderful noises for me," he spoke with satisfaction, his lips wandering over your belly, further down. The further down he wandered, the faster your heart seemed to beat.

Finally his shoulders were between your thighs and his face hovered close over your pussy. You could feel his hot breath on your wet folds and felt your juices gathering.

His gaze wandered over your wet glistening womanhood and he smiled like a hungry predator.

Crosshair's hands slid gently over the insides of your thighs and he looked up at you mischievously.

"I'm curious how you taste," he cooed.

His words made you shiver again.

The fingers of his right hand moved further inward toward your pubic area. Teasingly, gently, testingly, his fingers slid through your folds. An excited sigh escaped you.

"Look at you, so wet, all because of me. I like that, Kitten."

Heat rose to your face and your ears grew hot at his words. It was exciting but you also felt a thrilling shame rising inside you. You were completely naked, he saw all of you and he liked it, an incredibly uplifting feeling.

"I will make you squirm under me and beg for my cock," he promised you in a husked voice.

His words were exciting, but also made you a little nervous. You hadn't had much experience yet and what you had done with Tech had been completely different, mainly because of the alcohol influence and because Tech was a completely different guy.

You winced under his touch as Crosshair quite suddenly flattened his tongue and licked up your pussy in one broad stroke, lingering on your pearl and making your legs tremble. He repeated the motion, taking in your taste, your intoxicating scent, everything about you that he could take in, he did - desperate for every part of this ravishing thing that was you. When he repeated the slow lick a third time, his hands gently squeezed your thighs and before you knew it, Crosshair was plunging in, licking and sucking on your clit like a starved man.

You yelped, partly from surprise, partly from pleasure, automatically your hands squirmed in their bonds, but you couldn't free them.

Your hips tilted unconsciously towards him, triggered by the pleasure you were receiving. His stubble burned a little on your sensitive skin, but somehow that only increased your arousal. The way you kept frictioning against his face, along with the perfect little whimpers and moans you let out, made Crosshiar harden quickly, his shaft swelling with desire and growing impatient. As he continued to take care of you, his hips began to grind into the mattress, needing some form of contact. Crosshair was furious with himself, normally he was in much better control, but now he felt so incredibly needy, you made him feel needy.

Your breath hitched when you saw what he was doing. The fact that he was getting hard and needy just by licking you, was flattering and exciting.

A squeek escaped your lips as he unexpectetly shoved a finger into your wet, heated entrance.

"Kitten you're pretty tight," he murmured against your pearl and the vibration almost sent you over the edge.

He raised his head and stopped for a moment, looking at you. You looked down your body at him with a pleading look.

"Please... don't stop, I'm so close," it came over your lips.

He grinned teasingly.

"I know, I felt your pussy getting tighter".

"Please, Crosshair...:"

He laughed, "I told you I'd make you beg me, didn't I".

You huffed, trying to free yourself from your restraint.

"Now now, don't do that! Be a good girl, tell me what you want, ask me for it and I'll give you what you want."

He grabbed your thighs with both hands and held them apart, holding you spread out like a buffet in front of him. Again and again he sucked your pearl, twitched his tongue through your folds, teasing, making you twitch and squirm. Brought you again and again to the edge only to let you hang and grin at you.

„Crosshair Please!“

"Please what, my sweet, little Kitten?" he asked with an amused undertone.

You could feel the heat on your face as you said, "Please let me cum."

Crosshair looked at you with a smirk.

"How do you want me to make you cum? A special wish?"

Your entire abdomen seemed to be pulsing, the tingling under your skin was almost unbearable and the throbbing of your aching pearl, craved relief so much that you almost snapped at him as you said, "I don't care just do it, please!"

He laughed: "My goodness, are you going to show your claws again? That' s all right, your paws are tied up anyway," he teased you.

He was close to going crazy himself only he could hide it much better. His hard, throbbing cock had been leaking pre cum onto the sheet beneath him for a while.

"Crosshair, I'm about to go nuts here! Please!"

His expression softened, his eyes darkened with desire as he asked you, "What exactly do you want? Tell me? If you say it, you'll get it."

"Fuck me! I need your cock...:"

His eyes got even darker and wider, he immediately crawled over you, pushing himself between your spread legs and lined his cock up at the entrance of your swollen, throbbing pussy.

"Yes, yes, please..." you breathed.

Crosshair smiled very pleased with your reaction. His tip touched your folds, parting them as he slowly advanced and plunged into your cleft. He was big and girthy, veiny. You had only caught a glimpse, but you felt him all the more clearly instead. It was quite a stretch.

He eased in, slowly, giving you time to adapt even if it was hard for him to hold back. When Crosshair was finally completely sunken into you, he paused, breathing in a controlled manner, looking at you. His lips kissed your chin, along your jaw to your ear, and finally whispered, "Oh my little, kitten, you feel amazing."

His words tingled under your skin.

"Such a good girl, taking me all in," he cooed and gently kissed your earlobe.

Your thighs trembled as you closed your legs around him and pressed against him, trying to show him that you were ready. He lifted your pelvis and pulled a pillow over to slide it under your bottom, slightly elevating you so he could get deeper inside you.

A whimper came from your throat, the feeling of him filling you completely was overwhelming.

Crosshair finally began to move inside you.

You whimpered under him and bucked your hips, desperate, wanting, with a soft cry of his name, Crosshair smiled down at you, confident and knowingly as his hips dragged backwards. The slow pull of his cock against your sensitive entrance had you whining below him as your hips chased after his, only to loudly cry out when his hips snapped forward again, startling you.

He repeated these slow drags and quick thrusts for several times until you were writhing beneath him, slurring drunken from arousel and pleading for more, much more. Little did you know that he would give you more than you asked for.

Crosshair teased you until a cry of, “Cross, Please! I beg you!”, left your lips and he finally caved, pretty desperate to give you what you wanted anyways.

Your words had him growling out your name deeply, like an animal, as his hips sped up to a steady rhythm, the sounds of him dicking you down filling the air. His grip on your waist tightened slightly as his cock pounded away and you were shocked by the fast pace he had set. Unexpected yet not unwelcome.

Quite involuntarily, your hand wanted to slip down your body to caress your pearl, but you could only struggle against the restraints with a groan.

"Let me do it," he said, as if he knew instinctively.

His hand slid down your tummy to find your clit, rubbing in tight circles that had you crying out loudly and breathlessly for more. Your hips bucked in time with his thrusts as his cock moved inside you over and over. You were so close to tipping over the edge and your eyes met his as you simpered out, “Crosshair, please I’m so close. I need you Crosshair....”

„Oh I know Kitten, I can feel, see and hear it and it's the most beautiful thing in the galaxy“, he said hoarsly.

Shifting his weight his pace slowed as his free arm slid under your body to grasp at the back of your neck and he leaned down, his chest pressing into yours as his lips caught yours in a searing kiss, making you taste yourself on his lips and tounge.

His adjusted position allowed him to press even deeper into your tight slit, brushing up against that sweet spot inside you, hitting it again and again, on each thrust. He swallowed down your cries as you tipped over the edge, your womanhood spasming and clenching around his length, his fingers at your pearl working you through the orgasm.

You wiggled below him, pressing the two of you together impossibly close, you whined into his mouth as his fingers continued toying with your clit, prolonging your pleasure. Muttering a protest against Crosshairs lips at the overstimulation your were silenced by him pulling back just enough to whisper, “It’s alright kitten, i got you. You can give me one more, I know you can do it, my good girl, my sweet little kitten.”

His words sent a heavy aftershock through your body and your walls fluttered much to Crosshairs delight as he let out a deep moan. His slow, sensual pace continued and your pussy squeezed constantly around his length as the stimulation on your little bundle of nerves got to be too much.

„Crosshair“, you moaned hoarsely „I can... I can't... too much...“

„Yes, yes you can“, he cooed „Such a good girl, be a nice little kitten, cum for me again“

Your hands clenched, struggeling against the restraints, as you attempted to smother your noises as they grew in both frequency and volume the closer you got to your second high, carried by his words.

As Crosshair slammed into you particularly hard, you couldn’t hold back the blissed out noise that slipped over your lips and your eyes rolled back into your head. Crosshair repeated the motion causing the same reaction as you lost yourself in pleasure, feeling like losing your mind.

“You like that? Want me to give it to you like this until you cum for me my rebel darling?” He questioned, continuing the same motion and increasing his speed without waiting for a response.

The word rebel had you confused for a fraction of a moment, but you couldn't focus on anything but the feeling of him inside you.

Though it was just as well since you were fairly incapable of responding to him as your eyes glazed over, feeling close to your second release. The hand that had been on your neck, placed itself over your mouth. You blinked in surprise, distracted for a moment, staring into his face.

"Listen carefully, Kitten, can you hear how wet you are for me?" he asked you, breathing heavily.

Yes indeed you could. Now that he was silent, preventing you from making sounds of pleasure, you could hear it abundantly clear, the sound of his wild thrusts in your slick pussy. His words, aswell as the obscene wet noise, spread heat in your face and ears.

As if determined to wreck you with pleasure, Crosshairs fingers sped up against your clit, rubbing furiously and causing your whole body to tighten - spiraling higher and higher until it was all too much and your body went limp. You felt a rush of liquid as you gushed around his thick cock and the obscene squelching noise that filled your bedroom as the clone fucked you through your orgasm caused an embarrassed moan to escape you, muffled by his hand.

At the feeling of your weak, swollen pussy, clenching around his cock, Crosshair thrust a few more times, until he stilled deep within you as he reached his own peak. His cum shot out in ribbons, filling you up more than you thought possible.

@twinkofthedink

@tazmbc1

@kristinainspace

@ladykatakuri @inthemoshpitt

@whore4rex

@rexandechosandwich

[hiy-breadcheeks]

Setting you free.

PART 3 (Final)

pairing: bucky barnes x gn!reader

a/n: im gonna tell you the reasons excuses why this took so long: SCHOOL (procrastination, mostly)

One Two

warnings: mentions of trauma, literally just one swear word, science and psychological inaccuracies lmfao, horrible humor by the author, angst, fluff????

2022 © hiy-breadcheeks– don't copy, repost, or translate.

After months of therapy, his therapist, along with the scientist the government ordered to work with him, deemed Bucky ready to finally break free from HYDRA's Winter Soldier, and you're ready to help him every step of the way.

Finally Free

"I think you should be there..." King T'Challa broke the silence between you as you stared on a window, looking at Wakanda's beautiful nature. You were hoping to atleast find something peaceful outside because your insides were nothing but chaos and panic.

When you and Bucky arrived in Wakanda one week ago, Shuri immediately put him under her equipments to re-program his brain. The re-programming was successful but Bucky's trauma remained, causing him to turn back into Winter Soldier–albeit not as violent as he used to be–in the first to fourth time Ayo tried his trigger words on him. He doesn't attack first but he will attack when you get a certain distance from him and it used to take long hours before he's back to himself again, but after the re-programming, it shortened to one to two hours now. Even though he was the Winter Soldier, it still hurt to look at him at those times. It hurt seeing that even the brainwashed assassin was too tired to fight after all those years.

You knew Bucky was also emotionally, physically, and mentally tired at this point but he chose to keep going. He wants him out of his system and he'll do anything–suffer through anything to finally escape his past life and start a new one... with you.

You let out a long sigh, wondering when everything will end. "You know..." King T'Challa started again, looking at you. "We all noticed how much your presence helped him yesterday." you looked up, "No... he still turned–"

"Yes, he did. But he did not attack anymore, did he? He needs you, Kai." He whispered.

"As corny as it sounds, my brother is right, Kai." both of you turned towards the door when Shuri's voice rang through the room. "It seems like love is the answer after all." She chucked before turning to her brother. "He is ready."

The king turned to you and smiled. "Let's go?" you looked at him hesitantly before nodding, following both royals to a room where you were sure Bucky was in.

You stepped inside the room, your eyes immediately landing on Bucky who was sat on a chair. He was fiddling with the hem of his shirt, his vibranium arm still missing only looking up when he felt your hand on his shoulder. "Baby, hi..." he smiled. You examined his face. The bags under his eyes were darker than they used to be. His blue eyes were dull and sad. "Did you sleep last night?" you whispered, caressing his cheeks.

He shook his head. "No... nightmares."

"Sergeant Barnes, are you ready?" Ayo said. Bucky took a deep breath and nodded before turning to you once more. He held your hands and spoke "Go stand beside them, love."

You smiled, his actions were far from his words. It was almost like he didn't actually want you to leave because he squeezed your hand tighter.

"No," you walked in front of him and sat on your legs, holding his hand on top of his thighs. "I'm not leaving you."

"No. I-I'm... He hurts people when they're near him. I don't want you to get hurt, Kai."

You shook your head. "You won't. Today, everything will end, okay? Your nightmares, your pain–everything. You will not hurt a single person in this room, Bubba."

"But–" you stopped him by squeezing his hand before turning to Ayo. "Start."

"Longing..."

"Rusted..."

You smiled up at him, the first words didn't seem to affect him anymore.

"Seventeen..."

You felt his hand shake, squeezing yours tighter. Keep it together, Buck... you thought.

"Daybreak..."

His eyes that never left yours slammed close. He was shaking more and more. You took his hand and kissed the back of it gently.

"Furnace..."

His jaw tightened, hair flying in his face when he shook his head. "It's... not gonna work... fuck"

"Nine..."

"Baby, it will. You have to keep him out. It's your body, not his." you said comfortingly, wiping the single tear that started to fall from his shut eyes.

"Benign..."

Slowly, he opened his eyes. His teary ones meeting yours. Inside, he was having a battle with the Soldier. Fighting for his own body and mind.

"Homecoming..."

"You're doing so well, Buck. It's almost over... hold on, yeah?" he said nothing but nodded, not taking his eyes off of you.

"One..."

Inside, the soldier grew weaker and weaker. Why can't he fight Bucky when he was obviously stronger than him?

One more... you thought.

"Freight Car..."

He was glad. The Soldier was glad. His decades long battle was finally over. Bucky finally won.

Silence filled the room, everyone was watching Bucky, scared that he was the Winter Soldier once again. You and him never lost eye contact. You knew he won.

You smiled and stood up, his eyes followed you, making him look up to not leave your eyes. Gently, you pulled him up, making him stand and tower over you.

It was your turn to look up at him with teary eyes. "You're free." you whispered. Shock, relief, and happiness washed over his face all at the same time. "I'm free..." he repeated. "He's gone... I-"

You stood on your toes to give him a long kiss, pulling away when you heard footsteps behind you.

"Congratulations, Sergeant Barnes." Ayo said, a smile etched on her face. "Thank you for helping me, Ayo."

"Oh wait! I forgot something on my lab, be right back!!" Shuri exclaimed, leaving the room in a hurry.

The King just shook his head, used to his sister's attitude. With a smile, he walked towards you and Bucky. You stood in Bucky's right side, never letting go of his hand as both of you faced the King.

"Congratulations, White Wolf." You and Bucky exchanged looks.

"W-White Wolf?" Bucky whispered. "Yes. You will be known in Wakanda by that name if..." King T'Challa paused, looking and you, then Bucky. "Well, if you'd like to stay in Wakanda for a year?"

"A... year?" you cut in. King T'Challa looked at you. "I-I mean... of course we'd like to, it would be an honor but...why?"

"Well, after what he'd been through," he said, gesturing at your lover. "I think both of you deserve the peace and quiet, even if it's only a year." you nodded in agreement. "Yeah, I think it would do him good if he had peace after everything that's happened..."

"But you will be with me, right?" he asked, you nodded. "Yeah. I'm not leaving you. Ever."

Bucky faced the King and bowed. "Thank you so, so much for all the help you've given me, and now, for letting me–us stay in your home for a long time, Your Majesty."

King T'Challa waved his hands, "Ah, it is fine. I'm glad I was able to help a friend."

The three of you looked at the door when it opened, Shuri entered, followed by two guards who were carrying a container. "Come!" Shuri called out excitedly, you chuckled at her almost childish excitement before walking to the table where the container was placed. "Open it!"

Bucky looked at you before opening the container, revealing a black and gold vibranium arm. "It looks good." King T'Challa said, "I just think his old one looked boring and I'm sure no one wants to see that anymore so... I made him a new one!" Shuri exclaimed excitedly.

"Thank you. This means a lot. Really."

"Brother, move over. I'm gonna put it on him." The princess said, shoving her brother to the side and started fixing Bucky's arm.

After adjusting it, Bucky faced you. "So? What do you think?" he smiled. You intertwined your hand to his new one and looked up at him. "It suits you, baby. You look beautiful." smiling, he took a step closer to you.

"You're beautiful. You suit me." he smirked before kissing you. "I love you."

The End.

@fangirl125reader @raspberryyuuki

[idy-ll-ique]

okay, grandpa

pairing: bucky barnes x parker!f!reader

genre: fluff

warnings: none

requested: nope

word count: ~2k

summary: "i'm not like a brother to you, y/n, anything but!" "anything but, huh? oh okay, grandpa"

author's note: hiya peeps! just a note- peter is around 16/17 in this fic but y/n is mid to late '20s. enjoy!

masterlist

---

“Have you met her before?”

“Who, May Parker?”

“Who else would I be talking about, dum-dum?” Bucky rolled his eyes. Steve ran a hand through his hair, shrugging. “No, actually, never before. I’ve known the spider-boy for years now but I’ve never been invited over, plus he is very protective about his family for some reason,” he sighed and Bucky nodded thoughtfully.

A few seconds later, they arrived on the floor where Peter’s apartment was and rang the bell. Peter was the one who opened the door, giving both super-soldiers an excited smile. “Mr Rogers, Mr Barnes, thank you so much for coming over and helping me, come in.” Steve and Bucky walked in, looking around the apartment. That’s when Bucky’s eyes landed on the woman sitting on the couch, working on a laptop.

“And this must be your aunt May. She looks very young…” Peter laughed as the woman looked away from the laptop, giving Bucky an amused smile. “His aunt May is not home at the moment, I’m Y/N Parker. May’s daughter,” she snorted and Bucky went red with embarrassment as Steve snickered.

“Are you visiting or something, Y/N? Because this guy here has never mentioned you before, and he talks about his aunt all the time,” Steve chuckled, pointing his thumb in Peter’s direction. “Peter! Come on, not even once?!” Y/N pouted. This time it was Peter’s turn to blush. “I just didn’t want anything to happen to you, with me being Spider-Man and everything…”

“I understand. What’s the special occasion?” she grinned. “Oh! They’re here to help me with a school project. I have to interview a war veteran and I thought who better than James Barnes and Steve Rogers, the ones who have fought in World War 2-” Y/N looked up from where she had begun typing again.

“I actually don’t give a shit, Pete, take the hint.”

Peter rolled his eyes at his sister as both Steve and Bucky tried to hold their laughter in. “You big meanie,” Peter muttered as he led the two men to his room. Y/N laughed after him, “Just doing what sisters do, Petey-baby.”

“Y/N!”

---

“Peter! Time for snacks!” Y/N watched as Peter, Steve and Bucky walked out of Peter’s room, sitting at the dining table where May had placed a plate of cut-up fruits. “Oh! Well if it isn’t Captain America and Sergeant Barnes! I didn’t know you guys were here,” May smiled when she saw them. “Mrs Parker, hello! We came over to help Peter with a project,” Steve smiled back.

“That is very kind of you two, look Y/N. And you’re supposed to be his sister,” May jokingly chided Y/N and she groaned. “Ma, he had to interview war veterans, the only war I’ve ever fought is the one with sleep to finish my stupid fucking thesis,” she grumbled and Bucky turned to her, intrigued.

“Thesis? Are you getting a PhD in something?” Y/N turned to him. “Yeah, a PhD in biotech. Can I look at your arm?” she questioned excitedly and Bucky felt a fluttery feeling in his abdomen. “Uh, sure,” he mumbled, holding his arm up for her to look at. “Ooh, it uses Vibranium, right? From Wakanda? Do you know the ruler of Wakanda?”

Bucky smiled softly at the series of questions. “Yes, yes and yes. He and I are good friends, his little sister made the arm for me,” he answered patiently and the smile that lifted Y/N’s face was worth it. She was super gorgeous (well, considering her mother…). “Whoa, that’s so cool! Your shield is also made of Vibranium, isn’t it, Cap?” Steve laughed. “It is.”

"Wow…" Y/N let go of Bucky's arm and sat back down, picking up a slice of apple. "So what are your plans after graduation, Y/N?" Steve questioned. "I don't know, I'd have to get an internship somewhere most probably," she sighed. "Hey Steve, Banner has a PhD in biotech, doesn't he?" Bucky blurted out and Steve turned to him.

"He has 7 PhDs, one of them could be biotech," Steve agreed. "We can talk to him, you know, get you an internship with Banner. That would be a fantastic look on your résumé, don't you—" Bucky froze as Y/N leapt up and enveloped him in her arms. "You are so amazing," she whispered into his shoulder as he awkwardly patted her back, smiling.

May and Peter only smiled at each other.

---

"Welcome to the Compound, Ms Parker!" Tony Stark greeted Y/N enthusiastically, "How was the graduation? Congratulations on your thesis, by the way, it was a very fun read, well done!" Y/N's cheeks heated up as a big smile took over her face. Being Peter's sister certainly had its perks. "It means a lot, Mr Stark, coming from you, thank you," she whispered.

"Come on, I'll take you to Bruce's lab." As the two walked towards the lab, they happened to bump into Bucky and Steve who were on the way to the gym. "Oh— Y/N, wasn't expecting to see you here so early, how are you? Congratulations! I haven't read your thesis yet, but I'll be sure to do it in the next week," Steve smiled widely upon seeing her.

Bucky, meanwhile… malfunctioned. He nearly tripped over his own feet but steadied himself, starting to sweat as he cleared his throat and offered her a small, awkward smile. "Thank you so much, Cap! Hi Bucky!" This time, he did trip over his feet and Y/N covered her mouth with her hands as Bucky quickly caught himself, earning suspicious glances from Steve and Tony.

"U-Uh, yeah, congrats," he mumbled. The two parties after that went on their way and Steve turned to Bucky. "What the hell, you never fumble like that, what happened?" Bucky went red and rubbed the back of his neck, trying to get a sentence out but instead, he just stammered incoherently. Steve smirked. "You like her! Oh my— Bucky, that is so sweet," he laughed.

Bucky sighed and rolled his eyes. "Yeah yeah, I like Parker's sister. Have you seen her, though? And she's intelligent. She's perfect," he muttered and Steve swung his arm over Bucky's shoulder. "And you're stupid, that makes a perfect couple!" He chortled loudly when Bucky shoved his hand off, storming towards the gym. "Come on Buck, I was kidding! Sorry!"

Turns out, Bruce Banner did have a PhD in biotechnology. And he was happy to take Y/N under his wing since Tony was also mentoring Peter. Her first day of the internship was today. 2 months had passed since Steve and Bucky went to Peter's house and by now, all the Avengers knew her well. She'd become friends with everyone.

Well, she did hope she could break her friendship with one of them… Bucky. She wanted to be more than friends with him. Ever since she'd seen him, she had fallen for his charm. He was handsome, witty, funny, and strong… Hopefully, the internship would allow her to form a better friendship with the Avengers like Peter had.

In the gym, as Bucky trained, he too thought of Y/N. What could he do, how could he confess? He had no plan, and some part of him knew with certainty that Y/N wouldn't say yes so easily.

"A good romance starts with a good friendship," he heard and snapped out of his thoughts, turning to Steve. "What did you just say?" Steve smiled softly at his friend. "Befriend her first, that will increase the chances of her saying yes to you when you finally ask her out," he shrugged and Bucky blinked.

"I guess you're right."

"What are you guys talking about?" Both men turned to see Peter walking in with a duffle bag. Bucky blushed again as Steve shook his head. "Nothing at all."

---

"Hey, Parker."

Y/N blinked and turned away from the coffee machine when she heard Bucky. "What now?" she sighed and Bucky leaned against the counter, smirking. "What, can't I just check up on a good friend?" he asked and Y/N glanced at him. "Good friend? Since when Metallica?" Bucky rolled his eyes at her. "Stop hanging out with Stark so much."

"Kinda hard to do that, you know with Bruce and Peter and everything," she sassed. A few months had now passed since Bucky and Y/N met and frankly… sometimes, Y/N got tired of his shit. It was like his sole purpose in life was to annoy the hell out of her.

She understood that all he was doing was trying to be funny, but his words actually cut sometimes. So she tried to stay away from him as often as she could, even though she liked looking at him and hearing him talk. That never did stop him, though. “Yeah, yeah. How’s the internship going?” She smiled at the mention of the internship.

“Fantastic. I’m learning a lot, and Bruce is a very good mentor,” Y/N told him. “That’s nice. You done using that machine?” Bucky nodded his head towards the coffee machine, even though she was clearly still using it. “Honestly you’re like Peter sometimes, can’t you see I’m still using the machine?” she laughed. Bucky blushed slightly but he wasn’t gonna let Y/N one-up him.

“Are you saying I’m like your brother, Y/N? After all this flirting, oh my God,” he smirked and Y/N flushed, because hearing him say himself that he was flirting with her all along was much, much better than her imagining things. But like Bucky, she was stubborn. “Flirting, really, Barnes? I didn’t even notice, since you act like an annoying older brother all the time. Is that what flirting is like these days? Odd.”

“Oh come on, Parker, I’m not like a brother to you, anything but!” Bucky whined as Y/N picked up her cup of coffee, moving away from the machine. Bucky and Y/N switched places. “Anything but, huh? Oh, okay, grandpa.” Bucky couldn’t take it anymore. Forgetting his coffee, he instead turned to her with a growl, cornering her into the kitchen counter.

“Don’t play with me, Parker, you know damn well what’s been going on between us,” he hissed and she audibly gulped, looking up into his electric eyes. He was right; she knew damn well he’d been flirting with her since day 1, but it was just that her low self-esteem refused to believe it. “What do you want?” she whispered.

He leaned close to her, their faces inches apart. “You. I want you. I have wanted you since the day we met. A date with me, say yes,” he begged in a whisper and Y/N moved her coffee mug to one hand, cupping his face with the other hand. “Yes, Bucky, I’d love nothing more.” Bucky wasted no time in pressing his lips to hers, his hands hungrily roaming her body until they rested on her waist, pulling her body impossibly close to his.

Y/N, lost in the wonderful kiss, managed to keep her coffee mug at a safe distance just as Bucky lifted her up, forcing her to wrap her legs around his waist. She could feel him getting hard under her and so she deepened the kiss, making Bucky groan. “Sweetheart, do you really want to, right now?” he asked with a strained voice.

“I’d love nothing more,” she repeated in a raspy voice and Bucky was about to take her to his room when they suddenly heard a scream coming from near the door of the communal area. Both of them turned to see Peter standing there covering his eyes, while Steve, Tony and Bruce simply smirked at them.

“Lookie lookie, what do we have here?”

“Shut the fuck up, Stark.”

“Y/N! What are you doing?!”

“I’m not a child anymore, Peter! And I like Bucky very much!”

“Aw, doll, that’s so sweet…”

“Don’t flatter yourself, Barnes.”

“But you just-”

“Is anyone gonna drink this coffee?”

---

a/n: thanks for reading, leave a like if you liked it!