#you would not believe how much drawing prompts I have locked and loaded and I finally have the right show to use them all. prepare yourself

[puppyeared]

Some fucking guy (affectionate)

[avintagekiss24]

one cup sugar, one cup spice | a. barber

→ pairing: andy barber x black!reader

→ word count: 7074

→ warnings: age gap, corruption kink, innocent reader, daddy kink, pain kink, smut, sex, loss of virginity, vaginal fingering, hand job (male receiving)

→ author note: happy holidays my dudes! what i would do to have andy barber standing in my kitchen... anyway, reader is i n n o c e n t, but totally of age, and in college. as always, line breaks by @firefly-graphics​, gif by @evansensations​

There’s a light dust of white covering the green lawns and black asphalt of the street. You shiver as you follow your parents out towards their car, pulling your beanie down over your ears before you shove your hands into your navy blue Dartmouth hoodie.

“Honey,” your mom coos, turning back towards you as your dad loads the car, “Are you sure you don’t want to come with us? Your aunt has plenty of room.”

“I’m positive,” you laugh, “Aunt Sohpie and I don’t get along that great anyway.”

“Well, you could try a little harder.”

Your mouth drops open, eyes wide as you stare at her, “She called me a stuck up, yuppie bitch when I told her I wasn’t going to stop using deodorant.”

Your dad chuckles, prompting a swift slap to the shoulder from your mother before she turns back towards you, “Sophie is a free spirit. She doesn’t believe in putting chemicals in or on her body. One week of trying to get along won’t hurt you.”

“Oh, it’ll hurt,” you answer, pulling her into a hug, “Smelling her B.O. for a week would actually kill me.”

Your mother tuts, pulling back and slumping her shoulders a little as she squeezes your sides gently, “I don’t want to leave you here alone for Christmas.”

“Oh, stop badgering the girl. She’ll be fine,” your dad cuts in, kissing your forehead when he approaches, “She had a tough semester, she’s allowed some alone time. Be good, baby. I left a credit card on my desk for any emergencies.”

You smile warmly, “Thanks daddy.”

There’s a sound of a door opening, then closing, heavy footsteps against the old wood of the porch next door, “Oh, Andy,” your mom calls towards the neighbor, “You got a minute?”

Your face scrunches as you glance over at your father, who sighs heavy, “Don’t get mad, baby.”

“Why would I get mad?”

“She kinda, you know,” he shrugs, knocking his head back and forth, “Asked the neighbor to look in on you while we’re gone,” when your face drops, he throws up his hands, “I didn’t do it, she did.”

“Mom!” You hiss, flipping your eyes to the tall, dark haired man cutting across his front lawn, “I don’t need a babysitter! I’m twenty years old!”

“Hush,” she whispers, plastering a smile on her face as she wraps her arm around your waist, “Sorry to bother you, Andy.”

“Oh, no, no, no. It’s okay, I was just checking the mail.”

You’re angry and embarrassed as the tall, older man approaches, but a sudden heat blooms across your chilled brown skin. Pushing your glasses up your nose, you take a heavy breath, expelling it hard as you eye him. You’ve only really seen him in passing, throwing your hand up in a friendly wave as you jogged into your childhood home during a long weekend away from school. You only vaguely remember him moving in about a year or two before. Hell, you don’t even think the two of you have uttered anything more than just a neighborly ‘hey’, and now, thanks to your mother, he’s going to be keeping an eye on you.

Just wonderful.

She smiles proudly, “You remember our daughter, right?”

“I do,” he smiles slowly, an intense pair of blue-green eyes bouncing between yours, “We’ve run into each other a few times over the years. How you doin’ kiddo?”

He reaches out, extending a large palm and long fingers. You take it gently, smiling soft as you drop your eyes from his, nerves suddenly pooling in your stomach, “Um, good. Thanks for asking. How um,” you swallow, glancing back up at him, finding his eyes still centered on you, “How are you?”

He shrugs, but keeps your much smaller hand in his, “Can’t complain.”

“Listen, honey,” your mom starts, “I asked Mr. Barber to pop over and check on you every now and again while we’re gone.”

“Mother,” fake laughter filling the air, your face hot from being annoyed to all hell, “I’m not a child, and I’m sure Mr. Barber has better things to do with his time than to check on me constantly.”

“It’s no problem,” he shrugs again, those eyes of his now roaming, down your body, then up again, slowly, “I have the next couple of weeks off myself.”

“Congrats on the promotion, by the way.” Your father smiles, finally drawing Andy’s attention away from you. He nudges your side with his elbow, “Andy’s the new District Attorney.”

You keep your eyes on the tall Andy, sliding them the length of his body. He’s sturdy. Broad shoulders not so hidden underneath his zip up hoodie, clinging to thick biceps. Dark jeans accentuate long legs and a little waist. A perfect, full beard lines his strong jaw and chin. Two enormous hands are shoved into the pockets of his pants, so large that they don’t even fit right… You inhale deep, drawing your bottom lip into your mouth, sinking your teeth into the flesh as a tiny moan slips through.

Blue eyes snap to you again as it sounds. God. Your lips part, eyes widen as they stare back at him in embarrassment. He just smiles again, slow and seemingly knowing; his eyes falling down your frame again.

“We better go if we’re gonna miss traffic, hun.” Your dad’s voice suddenly breaks into your conscience, snapping you out of the small trance that Andy Barber has leveled over you, “Andy, thanks for watching over our baby while we’re gone.”

Andy winks at you, “I won’t hover, I promise. If you need anything, at any time, I’m right next door, okay? Better yet, let me give you my number.”

You nod quick, clearing your throat as you fumble around with your phone, pulling it out of your hoodie and handing it over to him, “Sure, yeah. Th-thank you, Mr. Barber.”

“Andy,” he corrects, reaching out and cupping your elbow gently, “Please.”

Another warmth spreads through you, emanating from the contact, making you giggle and smile nervously like a stupid girl before you get a hold of yourself and blink away. You all exchange another round of pleasantries, Andy wishing your parents a safe trip before he locks eyes with you again— biting his lip as he blinks and hands your phone back before turning away and heading towards his mailbox.

Almost frozen in place, you blink as you watch him move across his grass, forcefully swallowing. You really need to get out more.

One last hug from your mom and dad and you wave as they pull out of the driveway, your mom waving excitedly at you through the windshield. Rolling your eyes, but smiling wide, you return a wave before heading back inside, locking the door behind you before making a brisk b-line to the front door.

Andy’s still outside, pushing the green trash cans up against his garage as you peek out at him from behind the thin, white, door curtains. He throws open one of the lids before dipping his head, eyeing the mail in his hand as he flips through it slowly, tossing the junk into the open can. A pink blush piques on his cheeks and the tip of his nose, lips red with the chill. He looks up suddenly— out of nowhere— and cocks his head, letting another smile curl onto his lips when the two of you make eye contact again.

You gasp and jump back, instantly turning on your heel to run up the stairs towards your bedroom, “Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!”

The smell of fresh baked cookies fills the house as you pull a pan from the oven. You hum in satisfaction, a small smile on your face as you scoop the sugar cookies onto the cooling rack before pulling your mom’s Santa Claus mittens off your hands and tossing them to the counter. Last Christmas by Wham plays from the small bluetooth speaker in the corner of the kitchen, A Charlie Brown Christmas on mute playing from the ipad leaning against the utensil holder.

There’s a random crackling from the fire you started in the living room as you move around, a whir from the mixer as it beats the eggs, powdered sugar, vanilla extract, and corn syrup together. You dip your finger into the mixture, popping it into your mouth and groaning as the sweetness explodes on your tongue before you pull the beaters out, slipping your finger down the stainless steel to collect the icing still stuck to them.

A knock sounds from the front door, permeating through the rather quiet house. You lean to the side, blinking at the door as a shadow shifts through the windows on either side. Shoving the icing laden finger into your mouth, you jog towards the door, bare feet heavy against the wood floor.

“One second, one second,” you mumble, wiping your hands on your pale pink cotton shorts before you tug at your hoodie and unlock the door. A sharp inhale of cold air fills your chest when you pull open the door to find one Andy fucking Barber standing on the opposite side, “Oh,” is all you can manage.

“Hey,” he smiles, “It’s been a few days, just wanted to make sure you were okay.”

Being a biomedical engineering student, you can rattle off some of the most difficult, obscure words known to man with exactly zero problems. When it comes to social interaction with the hot, forty-something, lawyer next door? Your tongue is heavy, your brain… dumb.

His smile widens as you blink like a moron, his eyebrows climbing up his forehead as he waits for you to talk. Here’s the part where you speak, dumbass! “Um,” you stutter, “Sorry, I, uh, yeah, I’m okay. I’m good, sorry.”

“Smells good in here.”

Nodding, you bite your lip, your eyes everywhere but on his face— his stare just too much, “I’m making cookies.” you glance over your shoulder before you point, “Do you want to make some? I mean,” you slam your eyes closed, “Do you want to try some? Not, some, one, do you— do you want to try one? Or some… I guess… whatever.”

Idiot. You’re a bumbling, stumbling, idiot.

He chuckles, the rumble low and deep as he runs one of those big ass hands through his dark, soft looking hair, “That is the best offer I’ve had all day.”

He steps over the threshold, his fingers brushing over yours as he reaches to close the door. You snatch your hand from it quickly, wringing it within the other as you turn awkwardly and move towards the kitchen, swallowing hard, suddenly hyper aware of how bare your legs are.

“It’s Christmas Eve,” Andy starts from behind you, “I’m surprised to find you here and not out with some friends.”

You move behind the marble topped island in the center of the kitchen as Andy walks around the opposite side. His eyes are on you again, staring as you fumble with the spatula, your fingers going as dumb as your brain, dropping it with a loud clang. You don’t even know why— okay, you know why, but this is something deeper, something you haven’t experienced before.

“Oh,” you shrug, “No, I uh, I just kinda like to stay around the house.”

He nods slowly, “A homebody, huh? Me too.”

He makes you dizzy; his masculinity is intimidating. It fills up every little space in the room. His intelligence— worldly, experienced—  oozes from him. He looks like you could ask him anything, anything, and he’d have the right answer for you. He could teach you a thing or two, that’s for sure.

A shudder creeps through your body, heat blooming across your skin, having to shift on your feet as your stomach flutters while you focus on icing this stupid cookie. The physical space he takes up unnerves you too. That wide, towering frame looming over you. Deft, thick fingers tapping gently against the countertop as you stumble around, your hands shaky.

There’s a stickiness. A warm, little wet spot in the center of your panties as stupid thoughts run through your stupid brain. You’re being ridiculous. Like this grown man would be interested in an inexperienced, socially awkward, in bed by eight thirty, little girl. Get a grip.

You slather some icing over the warm cookie and cautiously hand it towards him, clearing your throat and forcing a smile. Wringing your hands again, you find a little courage to lift your eyes just as he pops the small cookie into his mouth, closing his eyes as he chews slowly, a grunt sounding from deep in his throat.

Every muscle in your body clenches at the sound. It’s gorgeous— and if there’s anything your body appreciates, it’s a gorgeous man with a gorgeous grunt.

“It’s okay?” You squeak, timid and small before you nervously clear your throat.

“Shit, girl,” he moans again, licking his lips as he extends his hand again, “I could eat every single one of these.”

Nervous fingers clutch another cookie, adding a dollop of icing before you hand it over to him, eyes drifting up his chest and to his face as he devours the second treat. Your curious eyes watch with a longing. Pretty, thick, dark eyelashes closing again, splashing across smooth, slightly reddened cheeks. A pink tongue darts out of a wet mouth to slip along an inviting— too inviting— bottom lip, and you zero in on it. Chest rising and falling a little harder as you blink, in your own little world as you imagine just how much experience those lips, that tongue has.

There’s a hint of blue suddenly, his eyes no longer closed, now set squarely on you as those sickenly perfect white teeth emerge with another sly smile.

Another wave of embarrassment pushes through your veins, but you can’t look away from him this time. Locked in a heated stare, mind racing, palms sweaty as you watch Andy dip his index finger into the bowl of icing, scooping the sugary mix onto the pad of his digit.

“You like watching me, huh?”

Your mouth parts to answer, but nothing comes out, mouth and throat suddenly dry. He laughs at you, standing there, dumb and nervous, unable to form a coherent sentence as he pushes the tip of his finger into his mouth, sucking the icing from it slowly.

He’s moving, that much your brain can comprehend. Moving around the island, sliding the bowl of icing right to the edge where he dips his finger again, curling it to collect another glob.

Shallow, shaky breaths escape the small part in your lips, your chest and stomach so tight you’re surprised you can breathe at all. As it is, you have to rest your palm against the marble island, just to keep from falling over.

A long arm slips around your waist, nudging you forward— closer— so close that when one of those shallow, little breaths pushes out, your chest, well, your tits, brush against his. You picked a fine day to go without a bra. He drops his free hand to your waist, pushing it underneath your oversized hoodie to feel your skin as he wraps those long fingers around your hip, giving it a squeeze before he cups your chin.

“You have a boyfriend back at that fancy ass school?” He asks, eyes hooded as he tilts your head upward.

A hum vibrates through your chest before there’s a quick shake of your head as he pushes the icing over your bottom lip, smearing the sugary mix along it. He keeps your chin anchored in his hand as he stares down at you through slits, his own mouth dropping open as he coaxes yours.

“No, a smart girl like you doesn’t have time for boys, does she?” He purrs, “You probably haven’t even been touched by a boy.”

A squeak chokes in your throat as he teases you, pushing that finger back and forth, the tip pushing ever so gently into your mouth. He chuckles again, real low, menacing almost as he knows he has you right where he wants you.

“Ya know,” he starts, thumbs stroking your chin and jaw, “This Christmas cookie frosting would taste a hundred times better on you than my finger.” He smiles again, tilting his head, “Can I see?”

You mewl, pitiful and small as emotion pools in your eyes. You’re overwhelmed— nervous and unsure, wanting to be perfect. Womanly— but surely falling flat.

“Oh, baby,” he laughs, sweeping his thumbs underneath your eyes to catch the hot streaks, “Awww, it’s okay.”

Andy pushes in close, his lips brushing yours as he nuzzles his nose into the crook of yours, a low sound thrumming in his throat. He presses his cheek against your face, the soft hair of his beard pushing along your skin, goosebumps popping up all over. Your bodies start to sway in a slow rhythm, side to side, his warm breath washing over you as he smiles.

He pulls away, eyes traveling your face, “You haven’t even been kissed before?” When you don’t answer, he closes his eyes, sucking his bottom lip into his mouth, “No? Oh, my sweet girl. That is just,” he groans, eyes twinkling with an emotion you don’t even understand, “You are so perfect— so good.”

His forehead comes to rest on yours, his hands still corralling your face, fingers sticky. His tongue darts out quick, licking at your lips, dragging up to the tip of your nose. You shudder, bleating as the rough velvet passes over your mouth.

Andy moans again, sucking the icing into his mouth and swallows slow, “Yum.”

You’re jittery— clammy, as labored breaths push out of your mouth, a murky fog clouding your brain. Shaky whirs tremble through your chest as you shift on your feet, your panties sticking to your now throbbing pussy. Andy closes the distance between your mouths again, his eyes hooded as he nips at you.

Your eyes flutter, closing instinctively— waiting for the claim. It doesn’t come, not right away, making your eyes pop open, a childish whine squeaking out. You even stomp your foot a little. Twenty years is a long enough wait.

“Kiss me,” you breathe, not wasting a second, “Please, Andy—”

The words are barely out of your mouth before he grabs your lips, inhaling deep. His tongue fucks into your mouth, slipping along the roof before massaging yours, sucking lightly. You go limp against him, trying to keep up with the fervent kiss, but soon just let him take full control.

Andy pushes his hips into yours, pressing his hard cock against you, forcing you to break the kiss, gasping deep. He rests his forehead on yours again, tittering as he bites his bottom lip, “Never felt that before, huh? Mmmm,” he groans again, “I bet you feel good. So tight and warm— umph, I’m probably not even going to be able to fit my cock all in.”

You shudder at the thought.

He brushes the tip of his nose against yours, “I gotta open you up a bit, don’t I? Hmm? This sweet little cunt needs to get used to being stuffed full.” He turns you in his hands, presses his burly chest into your back, his lips to your ear, “I want you to finish icing these cookies like a good girl, okay? You do as daddy says.”

You don’t move, you can’t really, as you try to comprehend what’s going on. It takes Andy pushing his crotch into your ass, grinding your hips against the island and literally grabbing your wrists, making your hands grab the butter knife and a cookie before your brain catches up. With shaky fingers, you push the knife through the icing and slather it on one of the small, round, golden brown cookies.

“Good girl,” he praises, pecking your cheek, nuzzling into the side of your face, “Daddy wants you to focus.”

He drags his warm palms up your forearms, stroking gently before they fall to your sides. They push up into your hoodie, fingertips glancing across sensitive, untouched skin. Small laughter vibrates through his chest as you jump and gasp, huffing and keening as he explores.

Little kisses are pressed to your temple and side of your face as his hands venture up your sides, curling around your rib cage until he’s grasping your bare tits in both hands, squeezing and kneading— hissing as he grinds his rigidly hard cock into your ass.

You freeze, body going stiff as nimble fingers play with your thick, piqued nipples. Warm lips nip at your neck as you push back into his hips, wiggling slowly, the thin cotton of your shorts not proving to be much of a barrier at all.

Andy reaches around, plucking the cookie out of your hand and pops it into his mouth just as his free hand skips down your stomach— right into your shorts. You jut your hips forward as his fingers plunge through your folds, massaging your clit slowly as he murmurs in your ear.

“That’s what I love about virgins. The slightest little touch gets you all worked up.” He pulls his hand from your shorts, holding it out for you to see your slick coating his fingers— a string connecting from his index finger to the middle. He brings his wet fingers to your lips, steel eyes peering at you as he waits, “Clean ‘em up.”

He slides his free hand back into your sweatshirt, pushing it up over your tits before he tweaks your left nipple, rolling it slow as he pushes the tips of his fingers into your mouth. Sweet, tiny little whines sound from you as you accept his long fingers into your mouth, starting to suck gently, the taste of your arousal exploding on your tongue.

“That’s right, just like that baby.” He reassures, slipping a hand back into your panties.

Your mouth goes slack around his fingers as he toys with you, rubbing your achy clit as your hips start to move with his rhythm. Resting your weight against his sturdy body, you moan loud, pushing out hard breaths, eyes slipping closed, head rolling on his shoulder as his wet fingers slip from your mouth back to your left nipple.

His fingers start to tease your slit, pushing gently, slowly, until… a sharp yelp fills the kitchen as two fingers stuff you full. Andy wraps his arm around your waist, holding you to him, cooing in your ear as he continues to push in, “You’re okay baby. I know, I know sweet girl, we’re almost there. Just a bit more.”

Tears sting your eyes as your face strains from the pressure and pain of being spread for the first time. Once his fingers have disappeared, the heel of his palm pressing against your folds and clit, he pulls your chin towards him and licks at your mouth, sucking air in between his teeth.

“I can’t wait to fuck this sweet pussy,” he kisses you quick and hard, sucking your bottom lip into his mouth before he releases you with a loud smack, “I love a virgin cunt. It’s been a while since I’ve had one.”

You squeak when his fingers start to move, slow, deep, a squelch sounding as his fingers push into your muscles. It hurts, but there’s a twinge of good, something inside of you being pleasured once you push past the pain. The sweet taste of pleasure doesn’t stop the tears from rolling down your cheeks as his fingers pick up a brisk pace.

Andy growls in your ear, the sound scratching at the back of his throat, kind of hollow and breathy as he grinds his cock into your ass, “You havent fucked yourself like this before? I didn’t think I’d hurt you this bad with just my fingers, baby.”

A hot, rough wetness slides along your cheek, his tongue, lapping at you. You grab onto his forearm, feeling his muscles tense and flex as he fingers your innocence, digging your nails into the thick Shetland wool sweater covering his torso. He pushes deep, suddenly, making you cry out again.

He grunts, snaking his hand up into your hoodie to take a firm hold of your tit. Resting his forehead to the back of your head, he quickens his fingers, his hot breath on the back of your neck, quick swipes of his tongue and lips against your hypersensitive skin— making the miniscule hairs on your body stand on end.

His palm presses against your clit with each shove of his fingers. Strapping, hard chest flattened to your back, loud, husky moans in your ear. His hips roll and push, writhe into yours as his fingers start to thrash. Teeth sink into your shoulder, his tongue sliding and sweeping.

“Andy—” you cry, whimpering like a child, “It hurts. I— I can’t,”

“Oh, sweetheart.” His fingers slow and then stop, pulling out of you to rub your clit, soothing the balmy flesh. He turns you around in his arms as you cry, lifting you right from your feet, “I’m sorry. Shh, shh, I’m sorry, baby.”

The instant warmth of his mammoth chest and arms soothe the tumultuous pangs of anxiety coursing through you. Nuzzling in, the softness of his beard helps ease your nerves as you wrap two jelly arms around his neck. Andy’s big hands push up and down your back as he murmurs sweet nothings. Stomach tight, heart fluttering, face hot and wet with tears— you’re properly overwhelmed and overstimulated, and Andy could just eat it all up.

“You are so pretty when you cry, you know that? You did so good, baby. You took my fingers so well.”

You huff, disappointed, pushing your face deeper into his neck, “I’m sorry.”

“Hey, don’t do that,” he whispers, “It’s okay to not be ready.” He sits you back on your feet, pulling and adjusting your sweatshirt back over your chest. He pecks your lips quick before cupping your face in his hands, “It’s gonna make our first time together so much better.”

He pushes in to kiss you again, but stops, just as his lips brush yours. You get up on your tiptoes, wanting to meet his mouth but he’s quick, pulling away and stealing another cookie as he takes a step back.

“Thanks for the cookies, sweetheart.”

And just like that, with a wink and a smile, he’s moving out of the kitchen, the front door slamming behind him.

It might as well be the middle of a Texas summer heatwave in your bedroom. Exasperated, you throw the covers away from your body, skin slick with sweat as you wipe at your forehead. You’ve been like this all day— hot and irritated, stomach and mind jumbled, unable to focus on much of anything but thoughts of depravity. Pissed off at yourself more than anything; that you couldn’t take it all.

You sit up in the dark room, a sliver of moonlight spilling in from behind the thin curtains over your window. Snow flakes float down from the sky, glimmering, basking in the soft, natural light of the moon. Thoughts of Andy return. Reddened, full lips on your face, his soft, velvety, pink tongue forging its own path in the uncharted territory that is your mouth. His hands, big and warm, pinching and grabbing, pushing in deep.

Every muscle in your body clenches; achy cunt squeezing around nothing.

A soft light illuminates from the nightstand, followed by a buzz, a random alert from your twitter. But then, oh but then— Andy’s words come floating back to you. Better yet, let me give you my number. The sleek iphone is in your hand within seconds, fingers sliding over the keyboard, shooting off a text.

You 1:15am

You up?

Andy B. 1:17am

What’s a smart girl like you doing up so late on Christmas Eve?

An influx of air fills your lungs as your heart leaps.

You 1:17am

I can’t sleep…

Andy B. 1:18am

Want me to help with that?

You won’t be getting much sleep tho…

You 1:18am

That’s what I’m hoping…

Andy B. 1:19am

LOL, okay smarty pants, come wait for Santa with me, front door’s open

You’re already halfway down the stairs by the time his invite slides across the screen. You shove your feet into your Ugg boots at the bottom of the staircase and grab your jacket from the coat rack, pushing into it as you throw open the front door. Crossing your arms over your chest, you jog down the steps of the porch and start for Andy’s, an instant chill rattling right down to your bones.

Footprints in the snow follow you as you cross the lawn, a light crunch sounding underneath your feet, adding to the whoosh of a breeze that rips through the sleepy street. Once you’re on Andy’s porch, you reach for the door, pushing through the threshold and closing it softly with a click.

The house is dark, and quiet, a tiny point of light coming from the kitchen and the random ticks of a clock somewhere deep. Your jacket hits the floor, ugg boots thump against the wall as you kick them off, hand slides along the banister as you climb the stairs slow. Wide eyes adjust to the dark as you pad slowly down the long hall, passing by one closed door, and then another until you reach one that’s slightly ajar. Light spills out of it, splashing over your bare toes as you step right up to it, fingertips pushing against the door.

You find Andy propped up against his headboard, chest bare, legs spread— hard, pink cock sticking out of his boxers, gripped tight in his hand. He flips his eyes to yours as he strokes himself slow, pushing his hips into it, groaning at the sight of you.

The air in your body— the room— is sucked right out as you lock eyes. With a blink, your greedy eyes are on the move, down his hair smattered chest and chiseled stomach, over the dark blue boxer briefs, down his meaty thighs and toned calves, right to his curled toes and back up again.

You have to bite your lip to keep quiet.

“I’ve been,” the words out of his mouth come to a halt being replaced by a low grunt as he squeezes his cock, precum dribbling out of his slit, “Shit sweetheart, I’ve been thinking about you all day. Haven’t been able to cum since you left me all worked up.”

You bleat softly, blinking wild and nervous as you watch his hand slide up and down, palm and fingers sweeping over his mushroom head to collect the droplets of his arousal to push it down his shaft.

“Well, come on. Come touch me.”

It’s a good thing your feet aren’t as stupid as your brain, or else you’d still be standing in place. Before you can get your mind to catch up, you're pulling yourself towards the edge of the bed, falling forward, catching yourself with your hands. Crawling between his legs, your tank top hangs low, Andy’s eyes peering down your cleavage before you sit on your knees— hands trembling.

He reaches for you, grabbing your wrist gently, pulling your hand towards his towering cock. Guiding you slow, he wraps your hand around him, his hips jerking soft at the warmth of your palm and pushes your hand down to his base, before dragging it up to the tip. He helps you for a few more strokes, twisting your hand around him, guiding your fingers up over his cock head and then back down, squeezing your hand to apply a gentle pressure.

“That’s right, baby—ah—” he hisses, jutting his hips up into your hand, “Shit.”

You continue to pump him after his hand falls away, relishing in the small noises that sound from him— sending your heart soaring. His hips pulse into your hand, eyes fluttering as more cum bubbles out, slipping and sliding over your fingers. Andy reaches for the lamp on the nightstand, turning it out, covering the room in darkness except for the moon.

He’s beautiful like this. Chest tight and shuddering with each breath, dark eyelashes splayed over fair skin, a chorus of sweet, small little whines and praise pouring from him. A soft pink blush unfurling over his broad chest, creeping up his neck.

“Fuck baby,” breathless and strained, “You’re a fuckin’ pro already. My smart little girl.” You suck your bottom lip into your mouth but still can’t help the smile that tugs at the corners, “Oh, you like that?” Andy smiles lazily, “You like being my smart little girl?”

Hot lips are on yours before you can even form your mouth to answer. Flipped onto your back, strong hips digging into yours, his cock pushing against your covered clit and slit as he kisses you hard. It takes your breath away.

You’d always thought you’d be awkward, stiff and unknowing, once you finally reached this moment— nothing but teeth and elbows and knees in all the wrong places— but, there’s a natural instinct coming into play. You’re lost, but somehow intricately aware. Fingers creep up his biceps and curl around his shoulder blades, digging in as your hips push back into his. Mouth leans into the feverish kisses, tongue sliding with his.

Colossal hands push into your shorts, pushing them down before his feet knock them off the rest of the way. Your top is rucked up, up over your breasts, exposing more brown skin, two soft, jiggling mounds, two piqued nipples soon sucked into a warm, wet mouth. A long middle finger toys with your clit, rubbing circles before more fingers join, slipping through slick and skin as they play.

“Tell me,” hot, whispered words sting in your ear, “Tell me you like being my smart girl.”

Hips dig into yours once more, hard cock pushing against your sensitive nub, then pressing at your opening. You grab the back of his neck, moaning hard and loud as electricity bounces through your veins, “Andy—” you squeak, “I like—”

A sharp cry breaks through the words as Andy pushes hard, spearing you for the very first time. Pressure and pain courses through you, body going tight and stiff as he sinks deeper and deeper, large palms on your cheeks, forehead to yours, warm breaths and ragged, choked grunts washing over your face.

Hard kisses— one, two, three— on your lips as he holds your face, his eyes closed, mouth hanging as he sinks, sinks, sinks until you’ve taken him all. Your head is empty. Devoid of any real, coherent thoughts, unable to focus on any one thing; well, nothing other than the fullness.

“Tell me you like being my smart girl.” Andy rasps, sucking his bottom lip between his teeth, trying to keep himself together. He shifts, hips pulling away from yours, cock dragging out, “Come on baby, tell me you like it.”

Andy pushes his hips, pushes back into you, but real gentle and smooth, knowing you’re teetering— overwhelmed in more ways than one, a feeling that can turn south on a dime. So, he keeps his hands on your face, thumbs rubbing soft circles. He opens his eyes, giving you something to focus on as he moves gently— so, so gently. Keeping you present.

“Use those words, sweet girl. Talk to me.”

Water fills your eyes as you grip, nails biting into the meat of his sides as he fucks you slow and sweet. Heat burns through you, tiny sounds, choked sobs scratch at the back of your throat, but it’s good— feels so good. Your legs push up and around his waist, hands start to snake up his sinewy back, feeling the muscles flex and tighten as he makes you a woman— makes you his.

Safe. Warm. Cocooned between his heavy body and the light mattress. Hips rolling, pushing and pulling. Hot breath over hot skin. Quick, jumbled words, thick and ripe with a heady lust. You like being his smart girl. Gripping fingers, around your face, your wrists, your tits, hips, thighs, ankles— everywhere you could possibly imagine.

Andy flips you over suddenly, his back now pressed into the mattress as you lay on top of him. He positions you right where he wants you— sitting you up straight, positioning your hands against his brawny chest. He encases your waist with those massive hands, squeezing tight before the pads of his fingers drag along your thighs as you wiggle, getting used to the new position.

“Push up— that’s right, sweetheart,” he sighs softly as you follow his direction, “Now sit back down— slowly, baby, go slow.” His head falls back on the pillows as he exhales, a groan trembling through his chest, “God, yeah babe. Good girl. Up and down, up and down.”

Your fingers push through the tuft of soft, dark hair covering his chest as you ride him, lifting and sitting, rolling and bucking as you get a hang of it— catch a feel— your clit rubbing against his taut skin. You feel Andy trying to keep his composure, feel him trying to restrain himself, his hips. Watch his eyes flutter and close as his mouth goes slack again as he pushes up into you, meeting your increasingly greedy thrusts downward.

“I’m your smart girl,” you whisper, heart beating hard and fast in your chest as your confidence grows, “I’ve always wanted to be your smart girl.”

He jams up into you, much harder than anything you’ve felt so far.

A sharp yelp cracks into the silence and he grabs your wrists, runs his hands up your arms, before he cups your face, “Shhh, shhh, shhh, I’m sorry baby. I didn’t know it was gonna sound so sweet,” he laughs, “God, I fucking love hearing you say that.”

He drops a hand back to your chest, grabbing a handful of your tit, toying with your nipple, pinching and pulling. His other hand wraps around your hip again, helping to pull you forward, as he thrusts soft. You don’t move; you just let him fuck up into you, grab his hands and thread your fingers with his as you bounce.

Thrusts get faster; hips hurried, jabbing. Wet rasps fill the room, octaves soaring. You fall forward a little, unclasping his hands to catch yourself against his chest. Andy’s hands are back around your waist and hips as you fuck down onto him, chasing that little, dull ache in the pit of your stomach that grows with each push of his hips.

Andy has two full handfuls of your ass, growling loud, hips faltering— losing control as he forces you down on him. You take each hard thrust, tears spilling down your cheeks, pleasure and pain all wrapped up into one. Sweat and heat crawls along your skin, stomach goes tight, throat dries. You dig your fingers into his chest as your toes curl, whimpering and crying out, choking as the pressure builds.

You tighten— freeze quick, gasp hard as a white hot orgasm floods your veins, like a molten lava, oozing, spreading. Flattening yourself to Andy’s chest, you let him wrap his arms around your back and hold you tight as he fucks you through it. The meat of his thighs slapping against yours, your cunt sounding wet and filthy, squelching and convulsing as you come.

There’s another heat, quick and dense, filling you as Andy’s grunts grow deeper. His grip on your ass tightens as he spurts— your used cunt coaxing long, hot ribbons of white silk from his sensitive, red cock head. He falls out of you, dick wet and hard, pushing through your ass cheeks as his hips still churn out of habit and inherent instinct.

Hands are on your head, fingers wiping at your face and forehead, pushing hair away. You’re embarrassed— not sure why— and nuzzle into his neck, hiding your face as you tuck your hands into your chest protectively. Another laugh sounds from him, vibrates through you, as he kisses your forehead and rubs his bearded cheek against your face.

“You’re a sweet girl,” honeyed, his voice, smooth and sweet, slow drags of his hands up and down your back lulling you, calming you, suddenly nervous, “My sweet, smart little baby. You okay?” you nod, but it isn’t good enough, “Tell me.”

“I’m okay.” You sniffle, eyelashes clumped, cheeks wet, lips swollen and red.

You nuzzle into him more, taking a deep breath as you listen to his heartbeat. Another silence fills the room, Andy’s breaths soon turn deep, slow and rhythmic, his hands and fingers coming to a slow stop but still splayed out over your back. A quick press of your lips against his neck makes him shift, but doesn’t wake him. You press another on his chin before you settle down into him once more, watching as snow starts to fall again.

There’s a Christmas present sitting at the edge of the bed when you wake the next morning, your name scrawled out on the name tag. You tear into it, pulling out a small white box, the name LELO embossed over the top. Eyebrows firmly furrowed, you turn it over in your hand, mouth falling open as you read the description and eye the two twenty karat gold Ben Wa beads.

Andy appears in the doorway, a steaming cup in his hand, a smile on his face, “Merry Christmas. Santa came for you, huh?”

“Merry Christmas,” you glance away, “I don’t have anything for you.”

“That’s okay,” he shrugs, “I was a bit presumptuous after our little rendezvous in the kitchen— ordered those from Amazon yesterday.” He pads towards you, leaning down to kiss you quick before he hands you the hot mug, “Are you okay?”

A nervous giggle escapes through your lips, your head falling as you cover your mouth with your hand, “Mmhmm.”

Andy tips your head back upwards, pushing his index finger underneath your chin, smiling again before he kisses you all sweet and soft and slow, making you go all stupid and gooey again.

“What are these for?” You ask after he pulls away a few moments later.

His eyes twinkle in the sunlight as he winks, “Training. Now, lay back and spread your legs for daddy, little one.”

[travissimblr]

Sims 3 Performance Guide

Lately I have found the direction of The Sims 4 to be rather lackluster.  Let’s face it.  The game is boring.  Still looking for that “Sims Fix” I found myself going back to playing The Sims 3.  The Sims 3 can be tricky to get running correctly on modern computers so I figured I would share what I learned over the years.  I made this guide a few years ago for another forum so I’m always open to new suggestions/edits etc.  Some things may work well for others while some may not make a difference at all.  I have applied all of these fixes in my own game and I still experience lag so this is by no means a guide to completely eliminate the lag in the game but a guide to perhaps help your game run a little bit smoother.  All of these tips have been gathered from all over the internet and also some things I have picked up on my own over the years.  I own a legit copy of the Sims 3 and have never owned a pirated version so I can't say whether or not these settings will work with a pirated version of the game.  I also only have a PC so I don't know if any of these settings will effect the Mac version of the game.  If anything I hope this guide brings people back to The Sims 3 or allows people to give the game another chance.  The guide will be pretty extensive and I take no responsibility if you mess up your game  :P

Limit Game FPS - This one has been a godsend.  I was experiencing major lag especially in build/Buy mode.  My computer is way over spec for this game much like most computers today.  What would happen is that while in Build/Buy Mode my FPS would spike into the 200's!  During these spikes the game would almost be un-playable.

To fix this issue:

Download this file:  https://rd.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/34]https://rd.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/34

 I know it says it's for Skyrim but it will also work for The Sims 3.  After downloading it unzip the antilag.cfg and d3d9.dll into  X: > Program Files (x86) > Origin Games > The Sims 3 > Game > Bin if using Origin.   If you have the steam version of the game use :   X: > Program Files (x86) > Steam > steamapps > common > The Sims 3 > Game > Bin .  By default it is set to limit the game to 30FPS.  I have been using this and it works fine.  You can change it to 60FPS if you want by opening the antilag.cfg using notepad.  I haven't had a chance to test the game at 60FPS but its not like The Sims 3 is a First person shooter or anything so IMO its probably not necessary.  Run the game and your FPS should be capped at 30.  

Alternately you can try turning on Vsync in either Nvidia Control Panel or AMD Catalyst software however I wasn't able to get it working.  I'm using a Geforce 1080 and the latest Nvidia drivers.  When I turned it on in the control panel it did nothing in the game.

After installing this fix I no longer experience massive lag spikes while in Build/Buy Mode the whole game also seems to be running a little bit smoother as well.  Unfortunately there isn't much we can do about EA's terrible coding of the game so there will still be lag but this one has helped my game more then any of the other fixes as of yet.

**It also must be noted that FPS fix uses the same file as Reshade, d3d9.dll.  I haven’t tested if this works using the d3d9.dll file from Reshade but I can assume it probably doesn’t.  I do however believe there is a frame limiter built into reshade which should accomplish this same thing as this mod.

In Game Settings

1. Graphics

Resolution - You should always play at the native resolution for your monitor.  Most monitors today use a native resolution of 1680x1050 or 1920x1080.  If your game is struggling at this resolution you should always lower the graphics settings not the resolution.

Windowed? or Fullscreen? - This one is something that you will have to test.  Some people say that the game runs better for them in Fullscreen and some say it runs better in Windowed Mode.  My personal game runs better in Windowed Mode.

Object Hiding -  Enabling this can help to increase performance especially if you have a large house.  Essentially what this does is that the game renders every object on the lot you are in even if you aren't on that floor.  So if you are playing on the first floor the game is using resources to render the items on the second/third floor etc.

Reflection Quality - Setting it to Mirrors and Water will work well for most people but adjusting this lower can offer a slight performance increase.

Edge Smoothing - I personally have not noticed much of a difference in performance adjusting this setting but this is the Anti Aliasing settings for the game.  Try lowering it and see if it makes a difference in your game.

Visual Effects - According to the game "Controls the quality of particle effects on objects, Sims, and the town"   Medium would be the recommended setting for Visual effects.  It offers a happy medium between performance and visual quality.

Lighting and Shadows - Adjusts the shadow quality in the game.  I run this on high in my game as there isn't a noticeable difference in performance between medium and high settings.  Turning it to low will give a slight boost in performance but the shadows will be ugly.

Tree Detail - Keep this setting on high as there really is no difference in performance between settings.  All you end up with are some ugly trees and no real boost in performance.

Enable Animation Smoothing & Enable Advanced Rendering - Both of these items should always be checked.  Enable Animation smoothing makes no difference in performance and Turning off Enable Advanced Rendering can actually decrease performance.

Draw Distance - Keep this on high as it does not effect performance.

High Detailed Lots - With this turned up all the way I noticed a fair bit of stuttering in my game.  I have mine set to 4 lots but this is a setting that should be tested to see what works for you.

Texture Detail and Sim Detail - Most computers should be able to handle both of these settings maxed for a small boost in performance you can lower the texture detail to medium.  Sim Detail should always be set at Very High as lower this setting has only a very small boost in performance that probably wouldn't even be noticeable.

2. General Settings

Enable Shop Mode - This will disable the Sims 3 Shop from In-Game.  Turning this off can help with stuttering.

Enable Lessons - Turning this off can possibly help with performance.  I haven't noticed a difference but at this point we all know how to play The Sims.

Memories - Disabling Memories can offer a boost to performance and reduce in game stuttering.

**Alternately you can try using this mod if you don’t want to completely disable the memory system in The Sims 3

No (or fewer) automatic memories by velocitygrass on Mod The Sims

https://modthesims.info/d/446281

Enable Interactive Loading Screens - Turning this off has been said to reduce some in game stuttering.  Besides nobody wants to play that stupid game anyway.

3. Online

Keep Me Logged In & Enable Online Notifications - Turning off both of these settings will help game performance and reduce stuttering.

4. Advanced Demographics Options

Enable Story Progression - Turning this off will reduce stuttering in the game.  If you like this setting you can use the NRASS Story Progression explained further in this guide.

Advanced Settings

I will try to guide as best as I can with these but always MAKE BACKUPS of every file modified in this section.

In order to make this process easier be sure that "Hide extensions for known file types" is unchecked in the Windows Folder Options.  In Windows 10   Click on View > Options > Change folder and search options.  Switch to the view tab and under Files and Folders uncheck "Hide extensions for known file types"

Edit GraphicsRules.sgr - This setting will help the game run smoother and make for faster clothing changes.

1. Got to X:\Program Files (x86)\Origin Games\The Sims 3\Game\Bin

2. Copy the GraphicsRules.sgr file and back it up in either in a safe location or even in the same directory just name it GraphicsRules.sgr.orig.  Click yes when prompted with the rename.

3.  Now Open GraphicsRules.sgr with notepad (not the copied version)

4.  You will see four lines that look like this: seti cpuLevelUber 4

seti cpuLevelHigh 3

seti cpuLevelMedium 2

seti cpuLevelLow 1

5. Change the four lines to this: seti cpuLevelUber 4

seti cpuLevelHigh 3

seti cpuLevelMedium 3

seti cpuLevelLow 3

6. Save in Notepad and close Notepad.

Edit Sims3.ini - This is how you force the game to use more then 2GB of RAM.  I noticed a massive improvement in both CAS and Build/Buy mode with this.  Clothing,Objects etc load almost instantly when this is changed.  The Origin version of the game has already been patched to use 4GB of RAM  however adjusting this value to reflect your systems total ram amount if above 4GB can be beneficial.  If you currently have 4GB total of RAM and are using the Origin version of the game you can skip this step.  It’s questionable whether or not this makes a difference in the game as The Sims 3 is a 32 bit game that only uses 4GB to begin with but it seems to actually make a difference in my own game.

1. Go to X:\Program Files (x86)\Origin Games\The Sims 3\Game\Bin (same as GraphicsRules.sgr)

2. Backup the Sims3.ini in the same method as the GraphicsRules.sgr

3. Open Sims3.ini in Notepad

4. Under [ResourceSystem] you will see this:

MemoryUsageLimit = 20000000 (  10000000 for legacy/disc versions)

5.  Ignoring the zeros this is showing that the Sims 3 is only using 4GB of ram (2gb for Legacy/Disc versions of the game).  Depending on the amount of ram in your system you should change it to half of your total amount of ram. Examples:

8GB Total Ram  MemoryUsageLimit = 40000000

16GB Total Ram MemoryUsageLimit = 80000000

32GB Total Ram MemoryUsageLimit = 16000000

**Be Sure to only change the first number not any zeros.  For 32GB+ its the first 2 numbers.  Putting this too high could cause your system lock up or crash and possibly do damage**

Modding

First go here and follow the instructions on this page to set up your Mods folder: https://www.carls-sims-4-guide.com/forum/index.php?topic=9187.0

1.  Must Have Mods - Even if you don't plan on putting any CC in your game these Mod is highly recommended if not needed in order to keep the game running Smoothly.

NRAAS Master Controller - 

https://www.nraas.net/community/MasterController

This mod is a must have.  It fixes many of the errors in the game and helps immensely with game lag and stuttering.

Under Modules Download: (Not Required but useful)

MasterController Cheats - Adds "cheaty" functions to Master Controller.

MasterController Expanded Tatttoo - Expands the number of locations provided in Tattoo CAS

MasterController Progression - This mod adds progression related interactions to the "Master Controller" menu.   Addition to Story Progression (below)

MasterController Integration -  (Must have if you install a lot of sliders)  This mod replaces all the CAS interactions in the game with the one managed by MasterController, including the "Create-A-Sim" button in "Edit Town".

Now go to this Page and download these other “Must Have Mods” by NRAAS

https://www.nraas.net/community/Mods-List

Overwatch - (Important) Contains error correction and periodic game maintenance/clean up to reduce issues and improve game longevity.

Error Trap - (Important) Core-Mod that performs save-game corruption cleanup, while catching and reporting unhandled script errors.

Traffic- (Important) Controls autonomous vehicular traffic such as the Food/Ice Cream Trucks, and provides some minor vehicle routing settings.

Saver - (Important) Adds autosave function to the game.

Register -  (Important) Replaces the EA Role Manager with a custom version that corrects several bugs and allows for greater flexibility.

Other Useful Mods at NRAAS (Optional) Same page as above:

Story Progression - Basically a less buggy, less performance heavy replacement for the EA story progression in the game.  Be sure to tick off “Story Progression” in the In Game options as stated above.  (Install all the optional modules as well)

Decensor - We all know what this does

Dresser - Adds automated outfit control for inactive sims, adding accessories, and restricting CAS parts.

WooHooer - Alters the romance and woohoo interactions, provides greater flexibility and attraction scoring.

Retuner - Provides fine tuning of many settings in game like autonomous settings, pricing etc.  This one can seem daunting at first but there are plenty of Returner settings to be found out there and its really isn’t that difficult to change the settings in game albeit time consuming. 

Be sure to look over the other mods if you see something you like download it.  Any of these mods should be safe to add to your game with little to no performance impact.

After that extract the files you just downloaded into \Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3\Mods\Packages\Overrides If you don't have an Overrides folder create one.  The “Overrides Folder”  is essentially a priority folder.  Mods put into this folder will be loaded before any other package files you may add to the game.

In-Game NRASS Settings 

These are just some settings to change to improve game stability.  This is by far not comprehensive.  For Retuner settings I would suggest a Google search of other users settings or consulting the NRASS help section for explanations of how to use this mod.

Click on the Town Hall in Map View Under NRASS

Traffic

Ice Cream Truck - I hate that creepy Ice cream truck so I change everything to false and set Max Ice Cream Trucks to 0.  If you like having it around still change the Max Ice Cream Trucks to 1

Routing

Allow Performance Career Limos - False (Limos create a lot of lag in the game)

Allow Use of Cars During General Routing - True (if disabled your sims will only use cars when you tell them to)

Always Use Taxis for Inactives Lacking Vehicles - False (Townies will no longer use Taxis)

Register

Allow Immigration - False (Random Townies wont move into your town keeping the population down and helping to keep performance from decreasing as sims move in.

Animal Control - Change the settings below for a performance boost

Maximum Deer - 2

Maximum Raccoon - 2

Maximum Stray Cats - 3

Maximum Stray Dogs - 3

Maximum Unicorns - 0  (Sorry Wild Horses and Unicorns add a good deal of lag to the game)

Maximum Horses - 0

Custom Content (CC)

Much like any other Sims game moderation is key.  The more CC you download and put in you game the slower your game will perform.  I'm not going to go into detail about how to install CC in The Sims 3 in this guide.  These are just a few important tips to take into account when installing CC,

Try to install Sims3Pack files as much as you can.  Sims 3 automatically merges these files and this leads to better game stability.

Merge you package files. Girl Meets Pixels made a great guide here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIZ2LdoT-HY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIZ2LdoT-HY

Keep an eye on the size of your Sims 3 Folder in /Documents.  It may seem crazy to imagine but massive CC shopping sprees can lead to a massive folder to the tune of 30GB+.  Skins and Hairs are a killer.  These files are usually rather large sometimes in excess of 80 - 100mb.  My suggestion would be to find a default skin you like and just use that.  Don’t install any non default skins.  Also go easy on the hair.  You don’t need 20 different variations of the same ponytail in the game.  Clothing is usually fine but pay attention to the size of the CC.  That cute dress you found on Tumblr that’s 65mb more then likely has way too high of a poly count and will just lag and be slow to render in the game.  Sure it looks great in screenshots but it wont be practical in game.  I’m not sure of the exact cut-off for CC but eventually the folder gets too large for the game to handle and it will lead to issues like save corruption or in some cases not being able to save the game at all because the game has run out of memory.   Sadly if  this happens there is no fix for this and you will lose all of your progress and possibly your save file as well.

Advanced

World Fixes EA left many routing issues in a lot of their worlds that are known to cause lag and often times crashing as Sims bunch up in broken routing areas on the map.

All the World Fixes can be found on Ellacharmed's Wordpress page.  Follow the instructions very carefully and install the fixes for all the worlds you have installed in your game.

https://ellacharmed.wordpress.com

Other Useful Tips

Delete your cache!!  This one can't be stressed enough.  I delete mine before every game play and never have issues starting the game up.  A guide can be found here: http://simswiki.info/wiki.php?title=Game_Help:Sims_3_Delete_Cache_Files

Turn off Origin In Game - This will give a noticeable improvement.

Close all other programs running in the background.  

Turn on Game Mode or Silent Mode on your Antivirus

Useful Sims 3 Programs

s3pe http://www.simlogical.com/ContentUploadsRemote/uploads/189/

Sims 3 Dashboard Tool http://modthesims.info/download.php?t=387006]http://modthesims.info/download.php?t=387006

CC Magic http://modthesims.info/download.php?t=461888]http://modthesims.info/download.php?t=461888

Delphy's Sims 3 Pack Multi-Extractor http://modthesims.info/download.php?t=364038]http://modthesims.info/download.php?t=364038

Save Cleaner by Kuree http://www.simlogical.com/ContentUploadsRemote/uploads/1532/

[seriouslysnape]

Hi, love! Could I request something with Snape and a female reader? They dating but lately, Snape is busy with work and the reader doesn't want to disturb him or tell him she needs attention because she's quite shy and doesn't want to be a burden. But when she finally gathered the courage to tell him, he's quite surprised she missed his affection so much. Smut or just fluff whatever you feel like writing will be nice! Don't feel pressure to write it if you don't like that idea. Thank you and have a great day! (PS: I miss Alan Rickman so much T^T such an amazing actor! Ps2: Because of you I started to be a Lupin girl like whaaat he so sweet, I love how you are writing him!) 🖤💚

This is SO sweet. Like SO SWEET. And also, I was the same way! I didn’t start REALLY liking Lupin until I started reading Lupin stuff!

__

Time for You

Severus Snape x Fem. Reader

Warnings: Smut, Oral sex.

Word Count: 1,891

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to snap at you.”

__

Communication is always a crucial step in maintaining a healthy, successful relationship. You knew that making your needs, wants, concerns, etc. verbally known was very important.

You were bored. Plain and simple, you were completely stricken with absolutely nothing to do while Severus remained holed away in his office. You would think that a school instructor would take the summers off, but Severus had a plan to change his usual class curriculum, so he had been working around the clock to create a brand new Potions class.

He had been staying busy for the first few weeks of summer, working several hours a day in his home office. Severus was always very in the zone when he worked. He tuned mostly everything out, only taking a break when he couldn’t stay awake or needed to eat or use the restroom. It was a monotonous cycle that had made your home life boring, and had taken a toll on your summer vacation.

He didn’t realize that he had been rather distant, and that he hadn’t shown you much attention at all. It didn’t help that you were too timid to actually speak up and say anything to him. You had always had a hard time expressing your wants and needs to Severus. You never wanted to come off too clingy or too pushy. You hated to ever interrupt him while he worked, so for the most part, you had stayed quiet. You didn’t want to get on his nerves or upset him.

Although, you could probably count the times he’s actually been upset with you on one hand.

You were growing more and more needy for him with each passing day. You missed his touch, his voice, and his hands on you. You just wanted him to pay attention to you, just for a little while.

You paced outside of his office, trying to encourage yourself to go talk to him. He was your boyfriend after all, and effective communication was important. Severus always expressed to you how he wanted you to tell him if you needed something. He wanted you to be happy and content, but if there was something that was making you unhappy, you had to be the one to tell him.

You took a deep breath, building up the courage to go talk to him. If nothing else, maybe you could steal a quick make out session.

You slowly pushed the door open to reveal Severus scribbling away on some parchment at his desk. He had stacks of lesson plans for the upcoming school year and a list of new materials that students would need. He had been going hard at this for a while. You just wished he’d take a break. You peeked your head in.

“Severus?” You called out to him.

His head didn’t turn to you. His body language gave no indication that he had heard you at all. You fully entered the room, closing the door gently behind you. You approached him from behind, gingerly resting your hands on his shoulders. His entire frame relaxed at the feel of such a soothing touch. He sighed lightly.

“Hello, darling.” He greeted, pausing his writing for a moment.

You rubbed his shoulders, drawing soft groans from him.

“How’s it going in here?” You asked.

“Quite well actually. I’m happy with the progress I’ve made.” He replied.

You pressed a kiss to the top of his head, his black hair was soft on your lips. Your hands moved from his shoulders so you could run your fingers through his charcoal colored locks. You massaged at his scalp as he continued to work, talking to him sweetly.

“It’s a beautiful day outside. It’s warm and the sky is clear.” You pointed out to him.

His eyes shifted from his desk to the window. He hadn’t even taken a moment to look at the perfect summer weather. It had been an unusually pretty summer, and you hated that Severus was spending it cooped up in his dark office. The two of you should be having a picnic under your favorite oak tree, or even feeding ducks by the lake. He was missing out on such a flawless summer. That only prompted you further to get him away from his loads of work and actually enjoy his time off.

“Oh, it sure is,” He announced; “You should get out of the house for a bit. Take a walk through the park, yes?” He suggested.

You took a breath.

“I want you to come with me, love.” You requested, pulling his hair carefully behind his ears.

A sigh resonated from his chest. He’d love nothing more than to break away from his desk that he had shackled himself to and soak up the outside freshness with you, but he had convinced himself that he simply had too much to do.

“I need to work. I’ll never be ready by September if I fail to keep working.” He said, still writing with his favorite quill that you had given him as a birthday gift.

He didn’t seem to notice that you were hinting at something. Over the years, he had learned how to gauge your behaviors and your moods to notice when you wanted something, but he still encouraged you to tell him yourself. Now though, he was so occupied that he didn’t notice at all. You felt a twinge of annoyance that he wasn’t taking you more seriously, which is what caused you to blurt out rather sternly.

“Severus, please.” You begged.

Your breath caught in your throat the moment the words left your mouth and Severus’ quill stopped scratching. You had surely gotten his attention, because you were never one to snarl at him like that. He set his quill down completely, turning in his chair to look back at you. You were stunned still, surprised at yourself for having such an involuntary reaction.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to snap at you.” You apologized, giving in to the urge to leave him to keep working.

You went to walk away, feeling as though you had totally crossed a line. This was always the sort of thing you tried to avoid; getting upset and possibly causing an argument. You weren’t the best when it came to confrontation, so you tried your best to maneuver around it. Before you could make any real progress to leave the room, a hand caught your wrist.

“Wait. Don’t go,” He pleaded, standing from his desk; “What’s the matter, [Y/N]?”

He knew now that you were trying to tell him something, but he wanted to see if he could get you to tell him without him having to figure it out himself. He saw the way your eyes shifted to your feet. He didn’t want you to shut down on him when he knew you wanted something.

“Please, tell me.” He added, bringing your head back so you’d look at him.

You bit your lip hesitantly. You didn’t want to seem like you were nagging him or overly pushy. But that didn’t make the fact that you were craving for his affection any less true.

“I miss you.” You finally confessed.

Severus’ expression softened even more than it was already. He could hear the desperation and longing in your voice. You were feeling neglected, and he felt guilty for not making you feel appreciated. He did appreciate you in all aspects. He adored you and he loved you. It wasn’t fair that you were feeling this way.

He was rather astonished that you had missed him enough to speak up in such a way. That’s how he knew that you were really missing him.

“Oh, my dear. Why didn’t you say anything sooner?” He questioned, caressing your smooth cheek,

You gave a simple shrug.

“I didn’t want to bother you.” You explained.

“You never bother me. I always want you to feel comfortable talking to me.” He invigorated.

You nodded into his hand, an internal cheer of victory playing in your head when he lowered his head to kiss you. His lips caught yours in a sensual way, making up for all the lost kisses from the last several weeks. You were stealing kisses from him left and right, making his heart flutter with desire. Before you knew it, you were greedily making out and he had swept you away through the house to your bedroom.

You fell onto your back onto the mattress as he continued to kiss you deeply and roughly. The noises flowing from your chest were nothing less than eager and craving. You reached for his belt, the clinking noise of it releasing was enough to get you totally excited. He pushed your hand away, a ravishing chuckle rumbling from his chest as he briefly stopped kissing you.

“This is all about you, darling.” He growled.

His lips detached from your skin, his body shimmying downwards, his face just inches away from your heated sex. He draped your legs over his shoulders as his tongue wasted no time licking a heavy stripe and your hearty whimper filled the room. He sucked and kissed as one of your hands was steady on his head to prohibit him from going too far, while the other was pressed against the headboard behind your. It felt like electricity was crackling all through your body as he mercilessly pleasured your.

“Oh, fuck...you’ve got quite the mouth, Professor.” You tried to laugh, but it came out as another moan.

Obviously this wasn't the first time you had ever been in this situation with him. But it still surprised you every time.

His chuckle vibrated against you, his voice muffled slightly;

“You better believe it.”

He knew your body backwards and forwards, which is why he put his arm over your waist to keep you from squirming too much. He smirked as he felt your muscles contract against his hold. It was a damn hot sight to see. His face buried between your legs, his tongue and lips working wonders on the woman he adored so much. Normally, he’d hold off on letting you cum. He’d slow his movements to tantalize you and make you beg. But you deserved what you wanted after these weeks.

“Severus, please...” You said feeling your legs begin to shake as his movements didn’t slow.

“I’ve got you, baby.” He spoke.

Your head fell back onto the pillow as a flash of white covered your vision. Your legs tightened on his shoulders as you crashed over your high. He continued to suck your and work you through it. He licked and swallowed your cum and lapped up your release. His name fell from your lips once more as you felt yourself settling back to normal. He grinned once your breathing attempted to slow, he returned to your side. You supposed that you owed him now, but that’d come later. He kissed you less harshly than before, you could taste yourself on his tongue.

“I love you.” You breathed out, sucking on his neck.

“I love you too.” He returned.

He hummed as you left a few hickeys on his neck. His lips finding yours soon after. He was making it a goal to stay as close to you as possible for the rest of the summer.

Potions class could definitely wait.

[allthingsarmin]

Hello, can i please request an armin x reader but it’s a modern au where armin is a nerd and the reader is popular, feel free to ignore if you don’t like the idea :)

Thank you for your request, anon! I really hope you like it, and I can always rewrite it if it’s not the way you imagined. Also, sorry it is a little long - I think I got carried away with this prompt haha.

The beginning might be a little angsty, but the ending is cute ^_^

GN!Reader

Warnings: one cuss word, mentions of self-doubt, kissing

Word Count: 2,346

-------------------------

Things change - sometimes for the better - like how Armin finally cut his bob-length hair and now has a handsome undercut that suits his jawline and like how you are finally growing taller since it seemed like forever that Armin was the taller one.

Things change - sometimes for the worse - like how you and Armin used to be so close in grade school, but now in college, your relationship is made up of awkward smiles in the hallways, small waves when passing each other in the library, and unfinished conversations on SnapChat.

Things fade - relationships come to an end, people move on, and that’s just life. Look at you now, from a quiet person to a popular student known for your humorous remarks, angelic facial features, a delightful sense of style, and your beautifully color-coded notes. You capture hearts with your smile, and you never fail to make anyone laugh with your stupidly funny puns and nonsense. To put it simply, Armin is a bit different - well, you could say nerdy. Quiet, polite, and has as much passion for the world as he does intelligence. Always heavily invested in school and studying as you could almost always find his nose in between the pages of a book or study guide. Poor Armin - not known for his sweet personality or his above average intelligence. Definitely not known for his sense of style but always comes to class dressed in a rather dashing blazer and keeps a couple Kleenex tissues in his left pocket. Armin barely has any friends, - if any - but he always makes sure to hold the door open for strangers, smile at teachers when entering the classroom, and send you a “Happy Birthday!” text every year.

Some things don’t fade - like Armin’s feelings for you even after you two grew apart and he was forced to watch you from the sidelines. How could he not be so deeply in love with you? When you two were close, you coddled up with each other and read books about the ocean, learning about sharks and so naively believing in the theory of Atlantis. You stayed over at each other’s houses and studied together as well as comforted each other if one of you didn’t do as well as you expected on a test. You used to braid his long blond locks as he told you stories about his grandfather. During the summers, you would use chalk to draw a picture of you two on the blistering sidewalks outside his house, and he would give you handmade bookmarks as a present. Even though you two have grown apart, he is still in love with you, watching you laugh from far away. The way your eyes squint out of happiness and the sound of your hearty laughter makes his body heat up and his cheeks rosy. The way you sometimes send him “Good luck!” texts for when there’s a big test in a class you both are taking makes him smile with teary eyes since it seems that you have in fact not forgotten about him and his intense anxiety when it comes to test-taking. The way you ran up to Armin and gripped his arm when you unexpectedly saw him in the campus coffee shop that one time sent a euphoric tingle throughout his body that made him forget how to breathe properly. How could he not love you when you were always there for him, when you remembered every personal detail he told you during late-night childhood sleepovers, when you tried your best to make him love himself? Armin wants so badly to tell you how important you are to him, how he wants to protect you from everything bad in the world, how he wants to wrap his arms around you and listen to your heartbeat… you are just so hard to reach. He is a nerd, a loser, and you are so popular, surrounded by endless amounts of friends… he’s sure your contacts are completely full and DMs flooding with people who are interested in you and are a lot better than him. What was the point in even trying?

Luckily for Armin, you feel the same way. To be honest with yourself, your stupid jokes, loud laughter, and wide smiles were really just a cover-up for how deeply sad you are. No matter how many friends you have or instant messages you receive from strangers online, you feel incredibly alone because none of them are him. Popularity doesn't matter to you anymore - you just miss your best friend so terribly. You missed walking on the beach together, splashing each other with the salty waves, making study-flashcards together, and being able to touch his beautiful blond hair whenever you wanted. Armin’s birthday is coming up, and you want to make your move and do something big for him that would let him know how special he is to you. This time, it wouldn’t involve loads of friends or a loud party with that overly social and fake personality of yours.

You text Armin: “Hey Armin! We haven’t talked in awhile, but your birthday is this Saturday, and I would like to meet up with you. Are you free to go to the beach on Saturday? I want to give you a present, and I just want to catch up with you. I miss my friend!”

Armin read the text with relief. Even if he couldn’t have you the way he wanted, he still wanted more than anything to reconnect with his old friend. “It’s good to hear from you, y/n! I have no plans for Saturday, so of course we can meet up… around 7pm if that’s okay. I want to watch the sunset! And I miss you too…”

Saturday:

It is November, which means it’s cold. At the beach in November? Even colder, so you make sure to dress warmly.

It is 6:59pm, and you trudge through the moist sand, the harsh wind bearing itself against your face making the tip of your nose turn a bright pink as you grip your hoodie close to your body. In the distance, you see Armin sitting on the sand, shoes off and wearing a dark green sweatshirt with a black beanie. Sitting next to him was his backpack - of course he was the type to bring his school work with him while you always brought your violently vibrating phone with you everywhere.

You release a tired breath as you sit next to him in the sand, setting the bag of presents down beside you and keeping your cold hands in your hoodie pocket. A big smile is on your face as you ask him: “Aren’t you cold, Armin? Why don’t you have your shoes on?!” Armin laughs as he turns his face toward you. At this point, you can see how red his cheeks really are, and this is really the first time you’ve noticed how handsome he actually is. The softness of his blond eyelashes beautifully contrast with the sharpness of his jawline. His smile is soft, and his deep blue eyes pierce into yours. “Hahaha, I don’t know. I just haven’t been to the beach in a long time…” he trails off. “It’s ‘cuz you’re so popular now that you don’t have time to hang out with me,” he states in a playfully butt-hurt tone though you can sense that he is indeed a little upset about it. The waves hitting the shore fill the awkward silence between you two. “I know,” you softly say, “but I think about you all the time. I miss you, and I hope we can be close friends again,” you confess. Armin feels his heart flutter when you say that you miss him. He wants to tell you he loves you and wants to reassure you that he’d always be there for you, but instead he pats you on the back. “It’s okay! I was just joking,” he awkwardly laughs. “Of course we are friends, and I hope we can be even closer too.”

He glances to your side. “What’s in the bag?” he inquires. “Oh!” you exclaim, seemingly as if you forgot about it. You rush to give him the bag and shove it into his arms. “It’s just some stuff I got you for your birthday.”

He rummages through it, going through the endless amount of tissue paper on the top. He pulls out a light blue sweater first.

“It’s almost winter, so I figured I’d give you something warm. I think this color…” you pause and hesitantly reach up to adjust his beautiful blond bangs, “... would look good on you.”

You both make eye contact for a second and quickly look away from each other. “Haha, it’s beautiful, y/n. Thank you!” You are just about to say ‘no problem’ before he is quickly taking off his green sweatshirt and replacing it with the light blue one, his very toned abs peeking through the plain white t-shirt he had on underneath the sweatshirt. You feel your cheeks grow warm and instantly look away. Armin notices and chuckles to himself. He would honestly never mind if you wanted to look at them or even touch them.

“Now, onto the second one,” you say, trying to change the subject. Armin pulls out two matching, homemade bracelets that feature a seashell on both of them. He looks at them silently and intently.

“I made matching bracelets!” you say proudly. “They’re like friendship bracelets, so we both have to wear them all the time! You aren’t allowed to take it off!” you joke.

“They’re so pretty, y/n,” he whispers as he stares at the shells, a sparkle in his eyes. He immediately puts it on and gently takes your wrist to put yours on.

“There,” he says contently, carefully placing your wrist in your lap.

You two sit silently next to each other, shoulders brushing against one another and watching the waves as the sun casts a dull orange and purple glow across the sky. The sounds of waves crashing against the shore and the squawking birds in the sky cancel out the noises of Armin softly crying.

Once you notice, you quickly snap your head around. “Armin, are you okay?” you ask, extremely worried.

“Thank you for the presents, y/n,” he sniffles. “You have always done stuff like this for me,” Armin continues as he gets flashbacks of you two running across the beach and gawking at beautiful seashells, telling jokes to each other in grade school when it was supposed to be reading time, and making funny drawings of each other. “I’ve never told you thank you - for being there for me and comforting me all those times, and just letting me be myself. It’s been such a long time since we’ve done anything together. I miss making you laugh, and I miss going to the library with you and asking you about your day.”

At this point, you feel like crying too because you feel the exact same. You spent so much of your life wanting to fit in, and you finally became popular but at what cost? You nearly forgot about the most important person to you, the one person that actually cares about you.

“I love you,” Armin suddenly blurts out, a tear running down his face. “I want to be yours, and I want you to be mine,” he says so quietly that it’s borderline pathetic. You swear your heart stopped when he said that. You feel a burning sensation all along your body as you forget about the cold air hitting your face, and you feel your breathing stop. The uncertainty you felt that kept you awake every night about whether Armin thought of you the same, all the self-doubt, all the guilt about leaving your friend behind, had been erased in an instant.

The silence between you two is unbearably awkward, and with confidence you seemingly pull out of nowhere, you throw yourself onto Armin’s lips, your arms enclosing his broad shoulders, and both of you falling sideways into the wet sand. Armin, at first shocked, passionately kisses back and links onto your soft lips. The tips of your noses are cold, but you both eventually succumb to each other's warmth. You both pull away to catch some breath. Armin gently wraps his arms around your waist and pulls you closer to him as you bury your head in the crook of his neck. Even after all this time, he still smells the same - vanilla and cedarwood. “I love you too,” you softly say. Noticing that you both are practically wallowing in the sand by now, you apologize. “Also, sorry I ruined your new sweatshirt. There’s sand all over it,” you laugh.

“Oh, it’s okay,” he reassures, shyly placing a kiss on your forehead. “Want to watch the sunset with me?” You nod your head enthusiastically, a smile you couldn’t help leave your lips.

“Oh, fuck,” you quitely exclaim.

“What’s wrong?” Armin asks in a concerned tone.

“I forgot I have an essay due at 11:59 tonight.”

Armin busts out laughing - a sound you wouldn’t mind hearing for the rest of your life even though he’s laughing at your poor planning.

“When the sun finally sets, we can go back to my dorm, and I can help you with it if that’s alright with you,” he politely offers.

“Sure!” you happily reply.

You both sit up and face the horizon. The sun was almost gone, and the sky was a heavenly pink color while the sea began to look indigo. Your hands were linked with Armin’s, and for the first time in a long time, you felt warm despite the air getting cooler.

Getting ready to go to Armin’s dorm, he grabs his backpack and his dark green sweatshirt. You get up and check your phone, not at all caring that you have nearly fifty missed text messages and missed calls asking why you didn’t come to the weekly campus party.

You finally have all that you need.

-----------------------

I really hoped you liked it! Requests are open ~ I have another request that will be posted soon.

[troquantary]

Didyme, Part 2: Something, Something, Plato's Allegory of the Cave

Continuing from here, and we’re doing sub-parts for this bit. I’m genuinely surprised I had this much to say. (And fun fact, I almost lost the entire goddamn post, but fortunately I was copy-pasting into Word just in case. Not today, Satan.)

2.1. What Canon Tells Us

Didyme’s murder by Aro (and with Caius’ apparent assistance, either during or afterwards), is only mentioned on the page in Life and Death, the 10th Anniversary gender-swapped version of Twilight. Edythe/Edward mentions it briefly when discussing the painting of the leaders Carine/Carlisle brought back from Volterra, but it’s just background information with little narrative weight. I bring it up just to highlight Caius’ involvement and knowledge -- I’ll get back to that.

Now, here’s the “canon” backstory we have to work with. Per the illustrated guide, Didyme was Aro’s younger sister, and he turned her at some point after meeting Marcus, Caius, and Athenadora. Interestingly, the Guide doesn’t say anything about Aro returning to Didyme out of brotherly love; apparently he just wanted to see if she would have a powerful gift like his, only to be underwhelmed (”disappointed,” according to his Guide entry) by her actual ability -- she made people happy just by being around them. Then she and Marcus fell in love, sharing “the strongest romantic bond of any of the Volturi” (from Marcus’ Guide entry), and this prompted a suddenly very single Aro to seek out his own mate, Sulpicia. The Guide says Didyme “distracted” Marcus from Aro’s goals, and that the pair eventually made plans to split off on their own, leading Aro to murder Didyme so he could hold onto Marcus and his valuable gift. Although nothing written so far suggests that Aro even liked his sister, the Guide does state that Aro “truly loved her” and that his grief upon killing Didyme was genuine.

Apparently Caius’ role in all is was something Meyer thought up later, because none of the leaders’ Guide entries mention him being in on it. (You can’t see me, but I’m staring pointedly at Part One.)

2.2. Fuck Canon, Actually

(This just seemed like the funniest place for a cut. Continued below~)

I’ll be honest with you, person who’s persistent/unfortunate enough to still be here: very little about this murder scenario makes sense to me. I’m going to start with the “disappointing” nature of Didyme’s gift and that it was supposedly much less useful to Aro than Marcus’, because that’s just...stupid, frankly, and there’s no way Aro would have missed the inherent utility of Didyme’s gift. I don’t even have to read into anything to get this idea -- the Guide itself shows us how useful it is! It says right there in Marcus’ entry that Aro went off to turn Didyme, and returned with his sister, “along with the first members of the guard -- vampires who were drawn to Didyme’s aura of happiness.” That is a direct quote.

Just -- I practically shrieked when I read that. You’re telling me that Didyme’s gift was the stated reason their coven got its first subordinates, and I’m supposed to believe that Aro thought that was disappointing? Fuck off! Fuck off!! Even if Didyme’s happiness aura isn’t as powerful as Corin’s opium haze, well, Aro doesn’t have Corin yet, does he? He has every reason in the world to want to keep Didyme around, drawing other vampires to his cause -- even if most of those vampires aren’t gifted or skilled enough to join the guard, it’s still good PR.

At this early stage in the Volturi’s rise to power, it isn’t a good time to lose Didyme -- or any of his inner coven, really. Yet Aro apparently considered her disposable enough that he killed her. I can’t square this with what we know about Aro: that he’s still coherent despite holding god-knows how many people’s lives in his head; that he’s very intelligent; that he’s cunning, charming, and persuasive. Aro, once he learned they were thinking about leaving, would have tried to talk to Didyme and Marcus and done everything in his power to convince them to stay just a bit longer, until the Volturi’s position was more secure. And maybe he did; the timeline of all this is hazy, but nothing in the Guide suggests that Aro jumped straight to duplicity and murder. Clearly, though, whatever negotiations or arguments he presented failed. So what does their desire to leave the Volturi at this critical stage say about Didyme, or Marcus for that matter?

2.3. What It Says About Didyme and Marcus (Mostly Headcanon)

Brace yourself, because we’re into full headcanon territory now. To follow me, please refer to @therealvinelle ‘s meta about the larger mission of the Volturi and why they’re necessary, because I’m starting from the perspective that the Volturi are ultimately a force working in vampires’ and humans’ favor. While Meyer and the Guide would have you believe that Aro’s just power-hungry, actually looking at the impact of the Volturi and the benefits of enforcing secrecy shows that his broader vision isn’t just world domination, but establishing a world in which vampires and humans can both thrive and endure. There’s no way the rest of the inner coven was unaware of this goal; we know Aro talks a lot, so he’s certainly talked his coven’s ears off about this.

Now, we know very little about Marcus and what he was like before he was all dead inside. Based on what would be a logical balance of personalities, with Aro as lead decision-maker and Caius as ruthless enforcer, it seems likely that Marcus was originally the voice of reason and/or mercy. I also think Marcus would have had a strong sense of duty. The Guide says that Aro was the first friend Marcus had as a vampire, and I believe that Marcus cared about him very much and was committed to the Volturi. I think he would have been genuinely conflicted about leaving, especially considering the stabler, safer world the Volturi have been striving to build, and which they haven’t yet secured. Again, it’s a very bad time for any of the leadership to split off -- but in the end, Marcus and Didyme are going to do it anyway.

What for, though? Why leave? @theoriginalcarnivorousmuffin has an interesting take on that question here: that Didyme saw that she and Marcus would be locked into the Volturi life and a thankless existence for eternity and tried to opt out while she still could. I like it a lot, it’s a great post and that scenario makes sense, but the tone of it feels...too forgiving. Maybe that’s because I’m evil. But the way I see it, given the magnitude of the Volturi’s mission, and its (at best) very tenuous grip on power at the time Marcus and Didyme plan to leave (they haven’t even defeated the Romanians yet), jeopardizing the entire operation so that they can pursue their romance unburdened strikes me as...well, fundamentally selfish on some level, so much that I find myself side-eyeing Didyme and Marcus for it. Although to be clear, it’s not the desire to live their own lives apart from the Volturi that I find selfish, just the timing of their departure.

Honestly, I’d like not to vilify another female character if I don’t have to. Given everything I’ve just said, I see Didyme in much the same way as I see Bella: not a bad person, but someone with definite selfish tendencies. At best, she’s likely short-sighted or naive if she doesn’t see how leaving the Volturi at this stage is fucking them over in a big way. However, I hesitate to read into the happiness aura as a straightforward indication of Didyme’s fundamental goodness; I think she probably was kind, charming, and delightful to be around, hence the nature of her gift -- but that capacity for selfishness is still there. (I’m certain Meyer wants us to take her gift as proof of Didyme’s goodness, to reinforce how evil Aro is for killing her...but I think I’ve made my disdain for what Meyer wants me to think pretty clear.)

2.4. MURDER MOST FOUL

I am not saying it was justifiable or okay for Aro to murder his sister. I’m really not. It’s actually better, from a character standpoint, that it isn’t okay -- that Aro has to carry this with him for the rest of his life while Marcus sits in the throne next to him, reduced to a husk, so that in effect Aro has lost them both after all. It’s got that Greek tragedy element @theoriginalcarnivorousmuffin​ mentioned in her post. (Even better from that standpoint, the Guide implies that Aro found Chelsea relatively soon after killing Didyme, which compounds the tragedy.) I mean, it’s terrible, and it hurts me because I love Aro, but it’s compelling stuff.

What I am saying is, I can see how their insistence on leaving might have deeply hurt and offended him. And that brings me to my issue with the calculated murder scenario the Guide gives us -- I still think Didyme’s gift is too valuable for Aro to throw away by killing her in cold...venom (or whatever), even as the price for keeping Marcus in the fold. Plus, there’s the fact that Aro does love Didyme, and I imagine her gift makes it very difficult for people to think of harming her...when they’re calm, anyway.

Yeah, the only way I can really see the murder happening is if Aro killed Didyme in the heat of an argument about her leaving, possibly even by accident -- except you can’t accidentally kill a vampire, can you? It’s a very deliberate process wherein you have to dismember them and burn every piece, which also means it probably takes long enough that any irrational, overwhelming rage would wear off before you were done. But now that you’ve started....

I mean, at that point it would certainly be awkward to put your half-rubble sister back together, and Aro would be in a whole other load of shit even if he did. It’s possible, given what we’re told, that Aro could have lashed out and yanked Didyme’s head off before snapping out of it, only to realize that his sole option now is to finish the job. If he doesn’t kill Didyme now, she and Marcus won’t just leave, they’ll be sworn enemies of Aro from then on. And thanks to Didyme’s gift being the draw for a lot of the guard, and the inherently bad look of a leader who would brutally attack his own sister, a chunk of the guard would probably leave with them, destroying Aro’s plans. No, the only way to salvage it is to follow through.

Then Aro has to call in Caius for help with the cover-up, because it wasn’t actually planned and it’s just pure luck that no one walked in on the murder as it was happening.

And maybe Aro learns a hard lesson about learning to let people walk away, leaving the possibility open that they could be drawn in again. Because if Aro had just waited, he would have found Chelsea, and with her gift he could have had Marcus and Didyme back again.

Assuming everything didn’t fall apart as soon as they left, of course. But that’s a whole other what-if scenario.

[lemonpeter]

Helping Hand pt 2

I decided to write for week 4 of @starkerfestivals Darker Starker event (I’m sorry I missed week 3, might go back and do one for it). I chose the prompt Noncon. And made it a continuation of this. I hope everyone enjoys 🖤

Warnings: noncon, aphrodisiac, brief violent thoughts, nff, very dark

————

Peter stared at Tony, heart pounding. “Mr. Stark,” his voice shook. “Let me go.”

His lips still tingled from the sudden kiss. It felt like things he’d always wanted. But it was wrong. He didn’t want it like this.

“Can’t. Room is locked down now, we’re not going anywhere. I have to let the effects of this get out of my system.” His tongue darted out to wet his dry lips as he focused on the young man. “And it won’t happen without some help, kid. Cmon, can’t you do this for me?”

That hit a sore spot. Peter was always worried that he was in debt to Tony. He had to pay him back for all that he’d done for him. But Tony always assured him that that wasn’t the case. There was nothing owed.

Until now.

Tony was in pain. He was desperate. And there wasn’t anyone else to help him.

Peter told himself that he wanted it. He wanted to help Tony and he wanted to be close to him.

But if he wanted it, why did it make him feel so sick?

Tony sat down on the couch again, hand moving to stroke himself quickly. He needed the friction to take the edge off, but it just wasn’t enough. It wasn’t hardly enough.

His hips fucked up into his own hand, ignoring how dry it was. He didn’t even care, he just wanted to try and feel the slightest bit of relief.

In his haze, he almost missed the words that Peter whispered.

“I’ll help, Mr. Stark,” he said ever so quietly.

“What?” Tony sat up more, not stopping his hand.

“I said I’ll help,” Peter repeated, slightly louder. He was trembling, but tried to hide it. Maybe if he helped it would go faster and he’d be able to leave. Sort things out.

A sick grin pulled at Tony’s lips. “I knew you’d come around, come on.” He stood up again, cock bobbing obscenely with the movement. “I can’t wait to see that pretty hole dripping-“

Peter’s cheeks burned. “No!” He said quickly. Then he backtracked. “I just- I didn’t want to go all the way. But I can use my mouth to help. You wanted that, right?”

Tony watched him, fighting against rolling his eyes. Sure, he’d mentioned the mouth before. But he knew it wouldn’t be enough.

He wished he wasn’t having the thoughts he was having. He wished he didn’t feel like he did. He didn’t want to hurt Peter.

But the pollen did more than just make him painfully horny. It messed with his mind, making him desperate and willing to do whatever it took to feel relief.

He’d just have to beg for forgiveness later.

“Yeah, I wanted that. That’ll be...fine.” The older man shook his head, still jerking himself off. “Just hurry up, I’m tired of fucking my own hand.”

The vulgar words made Peter’s cheeks burn, but he slowly nodded as he moved to his knees.

Tony didn’t even wait, pressing the tip to Peter’s lips impatiently as soon as he was settled on his knees.

Peter was startled, but gently licked over the head anyways. He wanted to try and take it slow, let himself ease into it all.

But he should have known that things weren’t going to go any way but how Tony wanted them.

As soon as his lips were parted to lick, Tony’s cock was pushing past his tongue. He didn’t care how fast it was, he just desperately craved relief.

Peter, startled, tried to push back and pull away. But Tony gripped his hair and forced him down again. Soon, the cock was hitting the back of Peter’s throat and making him gag, his nose forced against Tony’s skin.

Tears stung behind his eyes as he realized he’d made a mistake. He didn’t want to be doing any of it. But it was too late. He was stuck.

Tony, on the other hand, was enjoying every bit of it. Peter’s mouth was tight and wet and warm- so much better than just his own hand. He quickly started fucking into the younger man’s throat, ignoring the tears that began streaming down Peter’s face from the force. And his discomfort.

He moaned at every gag and choke, just forcing his cock deeper. He loved the way that it made Peter’s throat that much tighter around him, so he wanted to keep it going.

His hands were tight in the young man’s hair, using it to guide and pull him as he pleased. And Peter didn’t fight, not after the first time. He seemed to have given up.

Which was perfectly fine with Tony.

He was nearly at his end as it was, balls drawing up close to his body as he got closer to his release again. It didn’t take too long, since he was so sensitive. At least it got him a bit of relief fairly quickly.

When he knew he was about there, he pulled out of Peter’s mouth only slightly. Not completely, only enough so that the younger man would be able to taste as he came.

And the realization moment was clear on Peter’s face.

But he didn’t have any time to react before Tony was releasing, spilling his load into the younger man’s mouth with a low moan.

His hips kept twitching forward, working for the friction to help him ride out the orgasm.

When he was finally done, he pulled his slowly softening cock out of Peter’s mouth and looked at him. “Thank you.”

Peter spit out the mouthful of cum he had, doing his best not to swallow any. He gagged again, coughing and trying to get it all out of his mouth. He didn’t respond to Tony, trembling as he stayed sitting on the floor.

Tony frowned as he watched, eyebrows knit together. “I wanted you to swallow that,” he told him, obviously annoyed.

Peter looked up at him, breathing hard. He looked like a wreck. His eyes were red, tears and drool wetting his face, his lips were swollen. And he knew that if he talked his voice would be rough from the fucking his throat got.

For a moment, just a moment, he imagined killing Tony. Just to make him pay for what he’d done. In his surge of anger, he probably could have done it.

But the anger faded quickly and he was left with guilt about the thought. He could never do such a thing. After all, Tony hadn’t meant it. It was just the influence of the awful pollen he’d gotten into his system.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered, wiping his eyes. As expected, his voice was hoarse. It hurt to even get those two words out.

Tony watched him with narrowed eyes. With that expression, Peter almost would have believed that the man could read his mind. That he’d seen what he had thought about doing. “Oh, you will be.”

[wordynerdygurl]

The Guy

Author’s Note:  Hello my lovelies!  I have to say, I love writing requests and taking part in Challenges.  It helps me sharpen my skills!  But, with the insane way the world is right now, I offered to participate in one... then lost the details.  So, with my sincere appreciation for @lancsnerd​ ,who kindly sent me a reminder about my missing “assignment”, I present the following! Summary/ Prompt:  A quote of “He’s the guy” and my boy, Loki Pairing:  Female Reader x Loki Warnings:  Swearing, Implied Smut, Fluff, Soft Loki

“Are you gonna tell me what I want to know?  Or… do we have to do this the hard way?”  Gravel filled and low, the Winter Soldier had you pinned against the rough brick wall, his metal arm holding your wrists together.

“Ooph!  Bucky!  Get off!”  “Make me, princess!”  

Kicking your legs free, you swung around Bucky, locking him in a bear hug from behind.  Squeezing him with your thighs, your forearms wrapped around his strong neck, “Tap out, Buck!” Wheezing, staggering back, Bucky tried spinning you around but even his metal arm was unable to grab you, “Never!” Applying more pressure to his windpipe, you grunted, “Give me the win!” “No way”, you felt his hard hand grip your thigh, breaking your hold.  Suddenly you were untethered, above your feet was the ceiling of the gym, and then there was no breath in your lungs.  Bucky had managed to flip you over and slam you down onto the waiting mat with reverberating force.  Gasping loudly, you curved up to meet Bucky’s waiting hand, “You alright, doll?”

Shaking your head, sitting up, “That was a dirty trick, Barnes.  I had you and you know it.” “Yea… but you still haven’t answered my question, so I couldn’t let you win.”  Pulling you to your feet easily, Bucky threw his arms around you, his warm hug an easy way to make sure there would be no lasting damage from your sparring session. “Why do you want to know so bad?”  Lowering yourself to the workout bench, forearms resting on your knees, you kept a close watch on your sparring partner. Tossing you a towel, Bucky grabbed both of your water bottles, sitting down on the mat in front of you.  Wiping the sweat away from your forehead, slugging down the cool water, you kicked at the super soldier sitting criss cross applesauce.  Leaning back, resting his weight on his arms stretched behind him, “Because...  I worry about you.  I want to make sure you’re safe… and I want to believe this guy is good enough for you.” Considering his words, you snapped your bottle shut, nodding, “I get it, Bucky.  I really do.  I’m just… not ready to talk about it.” Sensing your hesitation, Bucky patted your knee, “Just know that I’m here when you are ready.  And if he fucks up, I’ll kill him.” Laughing, you stood up with a groan, “Thanks, I’ll keep that in mind!” At dinner that night, Steve knocked into your shoulder, “Hey kiddo.”

“Hey Stevie!  How are you?” “It’s spaghetti night, what more does a guy need?”  It was an easy exchange, making you chuckle as he loaded a plate high with pasta and sauce before settling himself into the chair next to you. Unfolding a napkin to lay over his trousers, “Bucky told me you’ve met someone?” Flicking your eyes to the Winter Soldier, who all of the sudden was very interested in something Tony was saying, you munched on your garlic bread.  Swallowing thickly and patting your mouth clean, you turned to Steve, “Oh, he did huh?” “Yes… but he says you won’t give up this guy’s name?”  Concern was present on your friend’s face.  While you appreciated Steve's sentiment, it wasn't necessary, not entirely.  You knew what you were doing and you didn't want to be talked out of it, even by your well intentioned friends.

"I don't know why everyone cares so much.  He's a guy… I'm a girl… it's traditional and boring."

Swirling a fork through his saucy plate, lifting those dutiful blue eyes to yours, "So why the secrecy?"

Chewing, thoughtful, you considered Steve's question.  It was valid.  You were quick to acknowledge that, answering, "Um… because we're still in that love bubble.  Ya know?"

Chiming in, Bucky curious now, "Love bubble?  I don't know what that is… what does that mean?  Love bubble?"

"It's that time in a new relationship when… um… it's like…" words failing, you desperately tried to give structure to your argument.

Interrupted by Loki, sulking at the end of the long table, "She doesn't want to share her paramore.  Greedily, she wants to keep the pair in a love bubble.  Separate and safe from any interference.  Unpopped, if you will."

"Is that true? You don't want us to bug you?"  Bucky's eyes widened at the thought.

Shrugging, you dug around for another meatball, "Kinda… Look, it's not that I don't love you, Buck.  Or that I don't trust you, Steve.  It's just… all of you can be a lot to deal with.  And-" looking at the faces of each of your Avenger friends, "-my… guy… I really, really like him.  I don't want to scare him away."

Admitting it out loud, that was taking a lot of your courage but you were being completely honest.  This guy, he was just about perfect and you didn't want to blow that by bringing him around your overprotective people so soon.  Natasha, the group's mama bear, smiled.  "Seems reasonable to me.  Give her some time, fellas… if he's half as great as she says, we'll like him well enough."

Steve, smiling a little in your direction, "I don't know who he is… but it seems like he makes you happy!"

Bucky, over protective, kept hounding you, "When will I get to meet him?"

"Soon, Buck.  I promise." 

"I wonder who it is… this man you care about so much that you're protecting him from us, your dearest friends!"  It was Loki, musing from afar that made the observation, his sharp eyes on you.

"I told you-" It was Tony’s turn to interrupt, loudly calling, “FRIDAY?”

“Yes, Mr. Stark?” “Start a pool.  Five dollar buy in, guesses on who this guy is… whoever has the winning answer gets the kitty!” “Tony!  Not cool!  And, not necessary!  You guys don’t really need to do this!”  But your protests went unheard as chatter erupted and a round of bills were flung on the table. Steve, murmuring to Bucky across the table, “What was that guy at the coffee shop?  Cameron?  Carson?” Snapping his fingers, Bucky answered, “Carlton!”

“He’s my guess, Tony.”  “Shit, Steve.  That’s not fair… but, ok.  Ok, my guess is Matt.  That guy from the pizza place who kept bringing extra chicken fingers for you!  You’d never admit to a date with him!”  Bucky, smug and pleased, sat back content with his detective work.

“Natasha?  Thoughts?”  Tony was typing away, his interface with FRIDAY recording all the back and forth, compiling the list of possible boyfriend candidates. Tapping her lip, Nat watched you, “Hmm… Is it Warren?  The kid from China Star who rode the Kawasaki and always wanted to take you for a ride?”

Clint leaned over you, grabbing a breadstick as he threw down a ten, “I want to put Charles, from the IT department on the list… and Juan, the recycling rep.  Both of those guys follow you around like puppies and I could see you taking pity on at least one of them!” “Nope.  No way!  She went out with Charles once already.  He was the guy who ate her french fries at dinner.  Big No-No!”  “Rhodes, how do you remember that shit?  Fine, not Charles then.  What about Frankie?  The dude from the diner?”  Clint asked the assembled team, looking for someone to back him up.

Mortified, hiding behind your hands, you grimaced.  The list, it kept growing, and you could feel icy eyes of judgement lighting you up from across the room.  You knew you’d have to answer questions later.

Jane, having joined Thor at the table, was getting caught up on your situation.  Conspiring with her Norse God of a boyfriend, she chuckled, slapping a bill on the table with the announcement, “Our money is on Loki.”

Silence overtook the room.  Everybody stared at the small, brunette scientist, evaluating if her suggestion was real or a joke.  A guffaw broke out of you and quickly gathered steam, propelling you directly into a hiccup filled giggle fit.  In a flash everyone joined in, the idea of you and Loki being together was at once so hilarious and unbelievable. It was also diverting enough that the talk of your love life died completely.  Grateful and satisfied, you finished dinner without any other questions, even offering to do the dishes.  While you were scraping remnants into the compost bucket, you felt the room’s temperature drop, noticing that Loki had slid into the room, "Love bubble is it?"

Dropping the plates into the sink, plunging your hands into the soapy water, his strong ones glide over your shoulders, "Yes.  I'm really enjoying our little bubble of love."

“Me too.”  Pressing a small kiss to the curve of your neck, Loki pulled your body close, hugging you tightly from behind.  As Loki was nearly a foot taller than you, it was nothing to tip your head up, his welcome mouth finding yours for a soft kiss.  Curving your back, your bottom rubbed against his pelvis, his desire already rising. “Although, they had a lot of suggestions, my innocent little kitten.  Should I be worried?” Shaking your head, “No.  None of those… meatballs compare with you, Loki.” “Good.  That makes me glad… and I’m pleased to know how coveted you are, my pet.”  Roving hands took the liberty of sliding under the hem of your shirt, fingertips just grazing over your bra covered breasts.

Sighing into Loki’s loving touch, “Not that you were much help!"

"What can I say?  I like seeing you squirm"  his lethal voice purred, warm against your ear.

Pirouetting in his arms, your damp hand brushing back a strand of dark curls, "Jane almost gave us away.” A small smile, almost sad, pulled down Loki’s lips, “Is the idea of you loving me so hilarious?”

“Not to me.”

His head dipped, lowering those pink lips to your own, almost colliding… when laughter, drawing near, broke your moment of connection. Effectively ending your private chat, Thor stomped confidently into the room unaware of the way Loki jumped back as if scalded, or the way your hands trembled at the possibility of discovery.  “Brother!  I need to speak with you!” Flicking his desire filled eyes to yours, Loki smirked, “Of course… to what do I owe the honor?” “I have asked Jane to be my bride!” “Brother!  It’s about time Jane made an honest man out of you!”  Loki, more than a little surprised but genuinely pleased for his sibling, hugged Thor close.  “YAY!  That’s so exciting!  Have you guys picked a date yet?”  Wiping your hands dry, leaning against the sink, you were happy to hear all of Thor's big news. Shaking his blonde head excitedly, “We shall be wed in three months time… and I was hoping that Loki would play for our special day?” 

Loki, blushing a deep rosy pink, “Thor… It’s been years.” 

“So?  What of that, God of Mischief?  You always find a way”, wagging a finger at his dark hued brother, Thor’s teasing grin was sweet. Piling on excuses, trying to gently defer his brother’s marital request, Loki added, “I don’t think I have a suitable instrument.”

That was enough for your mouth to hang open, “Wait… you want Loki to perform?  Like play music?  At your wedding?”  “Of course!  He’s the best chamber musician in Asgard.  Possibly the entire Nine Realms.”  Pride filled Thor’s words at Loki’s accomplishments, something you found impossibly charming, even if you couldn’t quite believe what he said was true.  

“Thor, really… I don't think-" Clapping a broad hand onto his younger brother's shoulder, Thor’s tone changed, “Music from home, Loki. It would mean so much, especially since… Mother and Father-”  

Loki held up a hand, stopping Thor from going further into emotional sincerity, unable to bear the rawness in his brother’s words.  Closing his eyes, agreeing, “Fine.  Ok, I’ll… I’ll do it!’  Loki could sense your watchful eyes on him, curious and questioning, as he gave into his older brother.    

With his easy smile spreading, Thor’s joy pushed the cloud of sadness away, “Our special day will be filled with music!  And flowers!  Jane has a whole… Pinterest board?  I don’t know what that is but she’s filled it with ideas-” spinning around to grab you off your feet, Thor continued, “And you’ll be invited too!  All of the team must come, not just my wayward brother!” Getting swept up in Thor’s passionate excitement, you laughed, offering up more congratulations and promises of attending.  As your toes touched the floor, Thor pulled Loki away, “Jane says you will take Darcy as a date for the ceremony.” Tilting his head, Loki shrugged shyly, speaking loud enough for you to hear, “Uh… actually, I already have a date.” Gripping Loki in a rib smashing hug, Thor squeezed his little brother tightly, “That is marvelous news!  Jane will be so pleased!  So, who’s the lucky girl?” Smiling, you watched them go, happy to see the pair so connected.  You didn’t need to hear Loki’s answer.  You knew who he’d be taking to Thor’s wedding.

That night, as you were toweling dry your cropped hair, a pop of green light signaled the arrival of your secret boyfriend.  He was positively electric, grabbing you by the terry robe covered hips, and kissing you swiftly.  Loki's hands rubbed over the soft fabric on your back until they cradled your smiling face, "Hmm… you smell so clean that it makes me think dirty thoughts."

Giggling, you rose up on your toes, curling your hands into his tangle of dark hair.  You bent his waiting mouth to your own, savoring the sensation of shared breath, as your tongue flicked over Loki's lips, “Dirtier than that?” Nodding, his heated look hungry, “Oh yes.” "How dirty are we talking?", you teased, resting your cheek against Loki's chest.  His rich laugh, rumbling through his core, joined your own.  Pressing his forehead to yours, Loki sighed sweetly, "I missed you…"

"I just saw you at dinner!"

"But it's been too long.  I… I need more."

Turning to hang up your towel, over your shoulder, "More what, my prince?"

"More of you."  Having gained on you while your back was turned, Loki was behind you now, wrapping his long arms around your waist.

Squealing, delighted, "LOKI!  Someone will hear!"

Dropping you quickly on the mattress, Loki shimmied up beside you, toying with the open collar on your robe, "So?"

"So… they'll find you here."

Thoughtfully, Loki’s proud look captured your own, "Maybe I don't care.  Not anymore… Maybe I don't want to keep you and me… us, a secret."

Swallowing hard, your gaze trapped by Loki's earnest expression, "Really?  You're ready to pop the love bubble?"

His fingertips brushed over the thin skin between your breasts, "Yes?  I… I think so.  Are you?"

Biting on your bottom lip, scrutinizing his handsome face, "Loki, I…"

Freezing, his hand stalled, and Loki sat back on his heels.  Looking out your window, shoulders slumping in resignation, "You don't want to tell anyone.  You are ashamed to be with me."

Swiftly sitting up, cupping his face with your hands, crooning, "No, no, no, no, no, no!"

Shrugging away from your touch, "You don't care for me, not like you claim to, if you won't declare your feelings for all to hear."

"Loki!  That's not it at all."  

Letting you tug him closer, Loki's tear filled eyes still refused to meet your own, "Loki… I… I love you.  And… I just don't want to share you.  Not yet, anyway.  That is-" putting your arms around his neck until you were nose to nose with the red-rimmed eyes of an emotional Odinson, "-my only reason for keeping our romance quiet."

Whispering, Loki was too shocked to shake you off, "You… love me?"  His voice wavered, as if the idea of being loved by you had never been a real possibility, as if something impossible was occurring right here and now.

On your knees, sighing, you started pressing tiny kisses along those sharp as knives cheekbones, "Yes.  I am crazy in love with you, Loki Odinson."

Loki had held you tightly before; in the night when terrific dreams haunted his sleep, in the night when he claimed your body for his own.  But this embrace, after telling the dark Prince the truth in your heart, had no equal.  

Still taller than you, even though you were both kneeling, Loki's right arm wove around your waist forcing your hips flush with his own.  His left supported your back, his hand cradling the nape of your neck, helping him kiss you soundly.  It was conquering.  

You were his.  Body and soul.  What's more?  He was yours.

Coming up for air, panting from the work of loving you, "My dove, my dearest one… I love you too."

Shucking your robe was easy and Loki savored the lavender soap scented skin he exposed.  If a spot of you wasn’t kissed, it was licked. If not licked, nipped.  If not nipped, it was caressed.  And Loki was very thorough. When you mewled, weak from forced pleasure, “Loki… please.  Make love to me.” he was eager to comply. “Look at me, darling girl.”  Puffing out your pleasure filled breath, skin dewy with perspiration, you met Loki’s eyes with your own.  Resting his hand over your heart, he lifted your own, letting you feel the pattern of his pulse.  “It beats for you and for you alone.” In the afterglow, laying in Loki’s arms, you stifled another giggle.  Groggy from exertion, Loki opened one eye, “What’s so funny?” “You never told me you play a musical instrument.” “You never asked.”

“Are you any good?”

“You’ll find out when you accompany me to Thor’s wedding.” --- With his heavy cello, Loki took a seat on the edge of the dance floor, taking just a moment to get settled.  A beautifully strange combination of concentration and relaxation mingled over the features you loved so dearly.  Fiddling with strings, taking a moment to tune the instrument, you admired his long, talented fingers as they took their place on the frets. The din of conversation was silenced when the first low note of Loki’s song echoed through the ballroom.  Everyone paused, entranced at the melody weaving its way through the throng of well wishers.  Many were surprised, but not you, not entirely. You knew how long Loki had been preparing for this moment.  It wasn’t all about making Thor’s day special, although, that was surely part of it.  No, he planned to seduce every single person with sound.  Giving all of the attendees a taste of what being loved by Loki was like, he hoped The Avengers would see that he was worthy of you in all ways. Mesmerized, the bow danced over the strings, each note perfectly played.  It wasn’t hard to picture those shapely digits dancing over your skin in the dark of night.  Sending a shiver up your back, you sipped at your champagne, unwilling to take your eyes off of Loki. “I didn’t know he was so talented.”  Bucky, stiff in his tuxedo, sidled up to you with Steve in tow. “Me either.  Look at those fingers fly!” “Guys… hush.”  Shooting a silencing glare their way, you let the music transport you, swaying just a bit at the soothing sound. Too soon, in your opinion, the last lingering note of Loki’s song filled the hall.  Rising swiftly, Loki bowed at the applause, then turned to the happy couple.  Thor hugged his brother close, while Loki kissed Jane’s hand with a gentlemanly air.  Conversations started again, quiet at first, then gaining strength as Loki strode across the room.  Snagging a glass of champagne from a passing tray, his eyes trained on you, Loki accepted accolades as he moved ever closer.  Another server took his empty glass as Loki finally made his way to you.

Scooping you up, Loki spun you slowly in a circle, your gown snapping behind you in an emerald wave of chiffon and lace.  “Loki!  Come on, put me down!” “As my lady commands”, when your mouth passed close enough to his own, Loki kissed you as if you had never kissed before.  You pushed your hands through his dark locks, a hand on each side of his face, “You were amazing, babe.  Just amazing!”

“You really think so?” “Absolutely!”  His arm settled on your waist, keeping you tight to his side, as you were handed another glass of bubbly.

Bucky, leaning against Steve, wore a look of wide eyed shock, “Um.  Loki… what the fuck are you doing?"

"Agent Barnes, do I really need to explain?"

Mouth dropping open, Bucky gaped, "He’s the guy?  Really?  You’re telling me Loki is the guy?” “She’s not telling us, Buck… she’s showing us.”

“But Stevie…?  Loki?  You?  You’re the guy who makes her happy?  The one who she’s been covering for?” Pressing a chaste kiss to your forehead, just a touch guilty, “I am.  And, I’m madly in love with her.” “I’m happy Bucky.  Stevie… really.  Loki is… he’s my everything.  I love him, too.”  

As your secret was outed, the group formed a circle around you and Loki.  Questions were shouted, congratulations extolled, Loki was clapped on the back more than once.  Natasha gave you a wink and the "ok", which was really all the approval you needed. 

“So, who won the pool then?”, Clint couldn’t help asking. “Me… and Thor”, the bride stepped right up to Tony with her hand out ready to take the prize money. “No fair!  He’s your brother in law now.  He probably told you!”  Rhodey chimed in, unsatisfied with the final results. Defending her methods, Jane spun in her wedding dress, “No way!  I used my powers of scientific deduction.  I knew she was head over heels for Loki the night we announced our engagement.” Wondering, you looked at Jane, “You did?  How?  I mean, I didn't tell anyone.  We didn't tell anyone ” “You didn't have to!  You two wouldn’t look at each other.  Dead give away.”  Counting her cash, Jane smiled at you. “That may be true, but I promise you this, Odinson… break her heart and I’ll kill you.”  Bucky shook Loki’s hand good naturedly, if a little too long, stopping only when Steve pulled him away. Gazing down at you, adoration evident in his face, Loki husked, “Not to worry, Agent Barnes.  She has my heart you see... and I plan to be her guy as long as she’ll have me.”

Tagging my Minxes:  @lancsnerd​ @vodka-and-some-sass​ @just-random-obsessions​ @brokenthelovely​ @lots-of-loki​ @thefallenbibliophilequote​ @sammy-jo1977​ @queenofmischief​ @iamverity​ @iluvsumbucky​ @unadulteratedwizardlove​ @wolfsmom1​ @procrastinatinglikeabitch​ @mizfit2​ @shxdowofdarkness​ @nonsensicalobsessions​ @ahintofkiwistrawberry​ @jessiejunebug​ @rorybutnotgilmore​ @crystalizedcaramel​ @lokislittlecorner​ @scrumptious-finicky-illusion​ @capcapcapsicle​ @jamielea81​ @caffiend-queen​ @thenatalie @otakumultimuse-hiddlewhore​ @is-it-madness​ @jenjen8675309​ @alexakeyloveloki​ @poetic-fiasco​ 

[arloelilly]

There You Are

Prompt: Y/n and Turtle were separated for several years for reasons they couldn't help. They finally find each other and have a heartfelt reunion.

Warning(s): Reader being injured, mutated, and held against her will.

So I've had this idea brewing in my head for a little while and wanted to write it out so thank you @redfoxgaming41 for requesting this one! And holy crap this is the longest I've written in a while.

The story

During the battle with Kraang, you had been injured badly and had to be airlifted to Mayo Clinic - Rochester, Minnesota to receive proper care. It was a long and grueling trip but you were transported safely and immediately taken into a prepped room. Many doctors were on your case, making sure you received the best care available. However, throughout the weeks of taking care of you, they noticed how quick a recovery you were making which astounded them.

The astonishment had been short-lived after a while as the doctors noticed, not only were you healing quickly but your appearance was changing as well. It first started with the texture of your skin becoming rougher and...scaley? Then the pigment of your skin began to turn a/an s/c color. Your back became hardened and formed what the doctors described to be a shell-like appearance. Growing fearful, they contacted someone to examine you.

Your eyes fluttered open as you stirred from your induced coma, your vision slowly clearing from the blurriness that glazed your eyes. Your brows furrowed in confusion. Where were you? The last thing you remember was being moved into a helicopter before you passed out. "She's awake, Ma'am." A feminine voice broke through the silence of the room. Then, through your blurred vision, you could see someone walk up to the bed you were in. You shook your head to shake the blurriness away and see who was standing next to you. "Where am I?" You asked, eyes trailing up as your blurred vision finally cleared.

Standing beside you was a black-haired woman. Her ebony skin glowed in the white lights of the room as she gave you a soft smile. "You're in the recovery room. You had a long trip, Y/n." Her voice was just a soft as her smile and brought a sense of calmness to you until something caught your attention out of the corner of your eye. You glance down at your hand, your eyes widen with shock as you lifted them and sat up. "W-w-what-what is-what happened to me?" Your voice was almost frantic as you looked over your body. The heart monitor beeped quickly as you began panting. "Now, calm down Y/n! Just calm down." The woman and her assistant pushed you down into the bed so you wouldn't do anything drastic.

"We're not exactly sure what has happened to you but we're running some blood tests to find out why." She said in hopes of calming you down. Then she cleared her throat and straightened herself. "I apologize, I haven't introduced myself. I'm Dr.Blood," She gestured to herself as she said this, "And this is my assistant, nurse Robin." Dr.Blood then gestured to a woman who looked down at you with a friendly smile. You looked from Robin and back at the doctor. "Doctor.....Blood?" You questioned. Blood chuckled at your quizzical look. "I know, it's an odd last name, but yes." She gave you a sweet smile before taking a deep breath. "You seem lively and healthy enough to move about. Robin could please go get her something to eat and drink?" Dr.Blood requested. "Yes, Ma'am." Giving you one last smile, Robing turned on her heels and left the room, leaving you and Dr.Blood alone.

"I'm aware that I'm in recovery but where am I exactly?" You asked looking away from the doors to Dr.Blood. Blood seemed to swallow hard before taking another deep breath. "Unfortunately, I can't disclose that information to you. When you were examined at the hospital you were immediately transported here in secrecy." She explained. "You mean no one knows where I am?" You gave her a stern look as you sat up. "As far as anyone knows, you are still in Rochester, Minnesota." Her voice was calm as she gave you this information. "You have no right keeping me here! You will let me go!" Jabbing a finger in her direction, you glared at her. "That isn't my call to make, Y/n. I'm sorry, my job is only to make sure you're healthy." Her eyes were apologetic as she gave you a sad look.

Six Years Later

You sat in your bed with your sketchbook, drawing yourself in your mirror before sighing as boredom crawled its way up your body. Leaning into your half-circle of a bed, your finger now tapping the scribbled page. Your eyes glance over at your digital clock with a hint of nervousness in them. It was almost time for another painful examination. Throughout the years you've been living here, you and Dr.Blood had grown close. She did all in her power to make sure you were comfortable not only during your examinations but in your life here. She was one of the nicer people you've met here, other than Robin, someone who didn't treat you like an abomination. And when someone stepped out of line or over a boundary towards you, she was a force to be reckoned with. She wasn't only like this with you, though, she cared for all of the patients in this facility even if they weren't her's to care for.

On days you were going through a depression, Dr.Blood would try to make time to come see you or even send Robin to give you company. Both Robin and Blood felt bad, knowing you most likely would never get out of here and back home to the ones you cared about. The thought affected Robin so much she had to take time off to breathe and recollect. What no one, not even you for that matter, knew that the two of them had a plan. A plan to get you out of the facility and back into society. They knew you couldn't just join the world again. You still had to be kept in secret, but anywhere would be better than rotting away in this facility.

"Knock, knock!" Robin's chirpy voice sang as she walked into your room. "Hey, Robin." A soft smile made its way onto your face while you stood from your bed to follow her. "Things are going to be a little different today so I just need you to not freak out and just follow me." Her voice was professional as it usually always was when she wasn't on break or spending time with you. "Alright." You reply with a raised brow, your smile never dimming. You then left your room, right behind Robin; however, something seemed a little off about her today. Her pace was a lot quicker and she walked a bit more straight. You were still able to keep up with her as you glanced at the room you were always lead to for your examinations.

A sense of anxiety began to fill your chest when Robin led you into an unfamiliar part of the facility. There was no one else to be seen, no patients, no doctors or nurses. Even the smell was different from the chemical smells that lingered in the wing you stayed in. "Hey, Robin...where are we going?" You asked with uncertainty. "Sh." She hushed you quickly. As you two walked in silence a familiar smell entered your nose. It was an all too familiar smell and it was stronger with your heightened senses. The outside world was close. Just then Dr.Blood rounded a corner. She looked to be in a hurry as she took long strides towards the two of you. "The boat is ready and so is the cargo plane. We need to hurry, though, c'mon!" Her voice was frantic but determined. Her hand found its way onto your shell and Robin's back, ushering you two along at a faster pace. "W-what's going on?" Confusion coated your voice while you looked down at her. "I'll explain later. Right now we need to get you onto that boat. I've already bribed the officers and the sailors." She said as you guys walked through heavy plated doors to be met with a loaded dock and the roaring of an ocean as waves crashed against the shoreline.

"C'mon, in here Y/n!" Robin called to you, and the two women moved you into a large cargo crate. "At least tell me where I'm going!" You call out to them. "Here! It's a list of places we are going to make sure you aren't found! Hopefully, it will give you some peace until I can explain later!" Blood hollered over the sudden rain and thunder. She tucked her hair behind her ear as the heavy wind blew. Robin and Blood then closed the doors to the crate and locked it but not after Robin gave you a flashlight so you could see. Silence filled the metal box, the sounds of heavy winds, pouring rain, and roaring thunder all muffed by the cold metal walls.

A sigh escapes your lips when you turn the light on. You back up into a corner and sit down as you looked over the list of states Dr.Blood wrote out in her neat handwriting. Ten states were listed but only one stood out to you, New York. Excitement fluttered in your chest but you knew it was going to be a while before you got there, seeing as it was the last state listed. You knew it was going to be stressful but you couldn't help the small smile that tugged at your lips.

Eleven Months Later

"Well, today's the day Y/n! You're finally going home!" Dr.Blood said as she patted the steering wheel with her hands. A big smile was plastered on her face as she talked to you over the phone. "I can't believe we did it!" Robin bounced in her seat excitedly and looked at Dr.Blood. A laugh escaped your lip as you sat in the horse trailer. "I'm excited too but I'm not celebrating until we get there." You chuckle, looking down at the phone in your hand. A sigh then escapes your mouth as the thought of how the turtles and April would react when they see you. How would you even go about showing yourself to them anyway? It's been almost seven years, would they even remember you? A pang of sorrow hit you at the thought of them forgetting about you, especially t/n. Over the time you two knew each other you grew feelings for him.

"What's up, Y/n?" Dr.Blood's voice asked through the speaker. "Oh, uh...it's nothing. I'm just worried about how they'd react is all...or if they even remember me." You replied. When you were traveling everywhere, you became comfortable enough to tell Dr.Blood and Robin about the others and that most of the police force knew as well and were on their side. You knew what you were from the moment you woke up at the facility but it still puzzled you. "Six years is a long time but that was such a big event that happened, I don't think they could ever forget you," Robin said, "If anything, I'd imagine them more likely to take you in." She added. Her words gave you a little hope, bringing a soft smile to your lips.

The rest of the car ride was quiet. When you made it to the airport, you were transferred to a cargo box. It was a bit snugger but not uncomfortable. You sat in the dark with your eyes closed, feelings of excitement and nervousness taking turns occupying your mind. Dr.Blood had informed the chief of police, Rebecca Vincent about you and that you were being transferred to New York. Vincent along with other officers were going to meet you all at the airport to make sure everything went smoothly.

It was a little bumpy getting off but you made it safely. "This is her?" Vincent asked as she looked the metal box up and down. "Yes, is everyone ready?" You heard Dr.Blood reply. "Alright, let's get a move on people!" Vincent called out as the door to the crate opened making you gulp as light began to fill the box. "Okay, Y/n, c'mon," Robin said grabbing your hand and leading you to a large police van. You hurriedly jumped inside and took a seat as the doors behind you closed. The medics inside the van checked you out to make sure you were in good health. "Okay, sweetie just look at me." A female said as she checked your eyes.

Thirty Minutes in

"Alright, well you seem to be in good health." The male gave you a small smile and took a seat adjacent to you. "Thanks. How long until we get to our destination?" You ask. Suddenly, a loud thud came from the top of the van causing your head to dart up. "What was that?" You asked. "The heroes of New York." The female medic stated with a side smile. "They got here quick." The guy mumbled glancing up at the ceiling then back at you. "Well, I'm sure Chef Vincent would have informed them about her arrival." The female replied, taking a seat beside you.

One Hour Later

"How much longer?" You huffed, now pacing to get your blood flowing. "Not much longer, about another five minutes. Chef wanted to make sure absolutely no one would see you." Addy, the female medic, replied, drawing another sigh from you. You sat down again, resting your cheek in your palm.

With Dr.Blood

"For the last time, she's being escorted to a secluded spot chef Vincent set out. Y/n is safe, no one knows about her besides the escort team." Dr.Blood repeated for the fifth time tonight after Raph questioned her about your situation again. "And Leo. He just hopped on the van now." Donnie pipped up after reviewing his tracker. "Where they at?" Raph asked walking over to Donnie to look at the tracker. "Dr.Blood, Vincent called. She said we should head out now." Robin informed after she strode into the room. "Alright boys, let's go!" Raph said with a growing smiling.

They all headed out, Robin and Blood took a car, and the guys followed Donnie as they hopped along the buildings in Leo's direction.

With You

You lifted your head, excitement slowly building as the van came to a slow stop. Standing up, you were ready to jump out and finally reunite with your friends. "Hold on there. We gotta wait for the other units to secure the perimeter before we let you out." The male medic, Rick said as he placed a hand on your shoulder. "Why? I'm ready." You argued glancing at him and the metal doors. "We know you are. When we get the orders we'll let you out." Addy said as Rick opened one of the doors and hopped out.

A low rumble came from you as you grew impatient. Your reptilian growl took you by surprise for a moment since you were still getting used to the new sounds you can make. Another hour had passed and the order still hasn't been given. Just as you were about to say something, a voice came over Addy's walkie. It was difficult for you to make out but Addy's smile gave you hope. "You ready?" She asked, her smile growing. "I've been ready!" You reply almost desperately. She walked over to one of the doors and opened it, hopping down before Rick opened the other door.

The cool soft feeling of dirt met your feet as you hopped out of the van. You took a few steps forward spinning a bit as you look around for your friends. "W-where are they?" You asked. You seen officers everywhere but no sign of your friends. "They're around, probably trying to find you. Just stay here and someone will lead them over here." Rick said, crossing his arms and leaning against the van. "Y/n?" You turn quickly hearing April's familiar voice. "April!" Relief and happiness fill you when your gaze lands on your friend. You both embrace each other. "Wow, when they said you changed a lot...they really meant it." She said before pulling away and looking you up and down.

"Y-yeah, I still don't know how it happened." You say, rubbing the back of your neck. "Where are the guys?" You look around again. "I believe they're talking with Vincent at the moment. She's probably filling them in on the situation. Dr.Blood was pretty vague when she explained it." April said, following your gaze. "Casey and Vern?" You look at her. "With the guys." She replied. You sigh again while shifting your weight. "How have you been. I hope nothing...besides this has happened." April asked, gesturing toward your mutant turtle body. "It's a long story." You say in a tired voice.

Just then you caught a glimpse of the brothers. They were still talking with chief Vincent, unaware that you were only a few meters away. "There they are!" You say. Anxiety seemed to creep up your spine as your hands began to tremble. April wrapped her arm around yours in an attempt to calm you down. You shared a smile with her before looking back up.

Leo

I kept myself composed as I listened to chef Vincent speak but on the inside, I just wanted to see her. For the past six years, I wondered if I'd ever see her again, and then yesterday, out of the blue, some doctor calls claiming to have Y/n in her care. I was skeptical at first but now, with all these officers around, it feels more real than ever. "To put it simply, Y/n has been turned into a mutant." Vincent's words snap me out of my thoughts immediately. "Come again?" Donnie asked. I could hear the puzzlement in his voice. My brothers and I all glance at each other before looking back at Vincent. "And the doctor couldn't have told us that when we were at the station?" Raph growled, his voice having a hint of anger.

"Relax Raph, at least she's alive and well bro." Mikey pipped in trying to calm our brother down. "Um, if you don't mind me asking chief, what kind of mutant?" Donnie asked as he adjusted his glasses. "A turtle....like you guys." We all look over to see the short brunette, Robin, from the station. "Where's Dr.Blood." Raph huffed as he shifted his weight. "Unfortunately, Dr.Blood had to go incognito much more early than we hoped. I'll have to do the same when this is all over and done with. The facility Y/n was kept in found our trail just a few minutes ago. It'll take them a while to find out that she's in New York so we have a team creating a fake trail from New York to many other locations."

"A facility? What else did that doctor forget to leave out." Robin gulped at Raph's rising temper. "Raph, that's enough. We'll worry about that later." I said, getting a grunt from him. "Where's Y/n now?" I look to Vincent as I ask. "Follow me. She's over here." Vincent said walking off to her left. We followed behind but it didn't take long before we slowed to a stop upon seeing Y/n. She was talking with April. "Y/n?" I asked. Her attention was pulled towards us as soon as she heard me. "Guys." Her voice was soft and a bit shaky. Even in the dim light, I could see the tears welling up in her eyes. "Y/n!" Mikey cried out excitedly as he ran towards her. He caught her in a bear hug, picking her up and spinning her around.

"I thought I'd never see you guys again!" My heart broke slightly hearing her cry into Mikey's shoulder. Donnie wasted no more time in joining the hug. Raph seemed hesitant at first but followed Donnie's lead as he hugged Y/n and our two little brothers. After a few seconds, I walked over, a smile on my face as I joined the group hug. We stayed like that for a moment before separating. I watched as Y/n wiped the tears from her face before looking over my brothers. Mikey had his signature grin, Donnie was also wiping tears from his eyes and Raph was doing all he could not to cry.

"Sooo, what now?" Mikey asked looking over at me. Before I could answer, we heard Vincent speak up. "Well, the sun will be coming up soon. I suggest you all head back to the sewers." I nod in agreement. "C'mon guys, let's go," I tell them, taking the lead.

Back at the Lair

When we entered I called out to Sensei to let him know we were back. It didn't take him long to emerge. I looked behind me to see Raph helping Y/n down then looked down as Sensai walked past me and towards Y/n. He looked at her for a moment before wrapping his arms around her and pulling her into a firm embrace. "It is nice to finally have you back my dear!" A hint of strain could be heard in his shaky voice after she hugged him. "It's good to be back, Spinter." She replied. Sensai then pulled away with a soft look in his eyes. "You must be exhausted. It would be best if we all got some rest."

After Y/n got settled into her new room I knocked on her open door. She turned her head towards me before giving me a soft smile. "Can I come in?" I ask, returning the smiling. "Yeah." She nodded. As I walked in, I was sure to close the door behind me. I walked over to her. As I did, the feelings deep inside of me were quickly rising like a roaring flame. I couldn't control them any longer. "What is i-" I cut her off, my hands cupping her cheeks as I push my lips to hers. My hands slipped behind her head as she returned the kiss.

"You have no idea how hard it's been. When you didn't come back and we went to Minnesota to look for you but when Donnie could no longer trace you...I thought you were gone. I thought I'd never get to see you again. The thought of me never have gotten to say goodbye almost killed me." I could feel the tears stinging my eyes, making me close them while my brows furrowed. "I felt the same way. So many doctors and nurses told me I would never get to leave. That I was going to be stuck there for the rest of my life." I opened my eyes, her thumbs brushing my tears away. "I will never let that happen to you again...I promise." My voice was firm now.

"I believe you." Her arms wrapped around my neck as she closed her eyes and gently nuzzled her nose to mine before I bumped my forehead to hers.

Raph

I paced back and forth as I grew tired of waiting to see her. Why did they have to put them through all this just to reunite with their friend? It made no sense to him and frankly pissed him off. "To put it simply, she's a mutant." I stopped in my tracks at Vincent's words. I glanced at my brothers sharing the same puzzled look. "Come again?" Donnie asked while messing with his glasses. "And the doctor couldn't have told us that when we were at the station?" I almost bark as a deep rumble emitted from my chest.

"Relax Raph, at least she's alive and well bro." I gave Mikey a glance as he bumped his elbow to mine. "Um, if you don't mind me asking chief, what kind of mutant?" Donnie asked as he adjusted his glasses. "A turtle....like you guys." We all look over to see the short brunette, Robin, from the station. "Where's Dr.Blood." I huffed, shifting my weight. "Unfortunately, Dr.Blood had to go incognito much more early than we hoped. I'll have to do the same when this is all over and done with. The facility Y/n was kept in found our trail just a few minutes ago. It'll take them a while to find out that she's in New York so we have a team creating a fake trail from New York to many other locations."

"A facility? What else did that doctor forget to leave out." I could see Robin tense at my harsh tone but I didn't care, my blood was beginning to boil at the thought of Y/n possibly being experimented on. "Raph, that's enough. We'll worry about that later." Leo said. I let out a grunt and roll my eyes. "Where's Y/n now?" We look to Vincent as Leo asked. "Follow me. She's over here." Vincent said walking off to her left. We followed behind but it didn't take long before we slowed to a stop upon seeing Y/n. She was talking with April. "Y/n?" Leo said. I watch as her attention was pulled towards us as soon as she heard him. "Guys." Her voice was soft and a bit shaky. I could see the tears welling up in her eyes and her lip quiver. "Y/n!" Mikey cried out excitedly as he ran towards her. He caught her in a bear hug, picking her up and spinning her around.

My heart was breaking, seeing her and hearing her voice. "I thought I'd never see you guys again!" She cried into Mikey's shoulder. Donnie followed Mikey joining the hug. I hesitated but the feeling of wanting to comfort her was too much. I allowed my emotions to control my movements and joined my little brothers. Leo eventually joined in too. We stayed like that for a moment before separating. I watched as Y/n wiped the tears from her face.

"Sooo, what now?" Mikey asked looking over at Leo. "Well, the sun will be coming up soon. I suggest you all head back to the sewers." Vincent suggested. "C'mon guys, let's go," Leo said before we all headed for the nearest manhole.

Back at the Lair

I helped Y/n down as Leo called for Sensai. When I looked up toward Leo, Sensai was already walking past him until he stopped in front of Y/n. He looked at her for a moment before wrapping his arms around her and pulling her into a hug. "It is nice to finally have you back my dear!" I could hear the relief and sadness in his voice as he held her. "It's good to be back, Spinter." She replied. Sensai then pulled away with a soft look in his eyes. "You must be exhausted. It would be best if we all got some rest."

I took Y/n to the guest room we prepared and helped her get settled in. As I was about to take my leave something stopped me. A part of me pulling me back to her. I look over my shoulder, seeing her stroke the soft fabric of her blanket while one of her arms hugged herself. I swallowed the lump in my throat and turn towards her. "Y/n?" I question as I walked up to her. She turned around to look at me, her e/c eyes locking with my emerald ones. I took a deep breath before letting out a heavy sigh.

"We....I really missed ya." My hand finds her's as I look down at the floor. "I had no clue on what happened to ya. I knew you was hurt but not having-to-be-airlifted-to-a-different-state hurt. Ya know, I thought after a month you'd come back but when you didn't we went lookin for ya. I thought something bad happened to ya when you weren't there and Donnie couldn't find a single trace of ya." I swallowed hard, trying to hold back the tears that stung my eyes. Feeling Y/n's hand on my cheek, I look back up. "I never thought I would get out of that facility and see you guys again. I just wanted to shrink away into nothing so when I realized Robin and Dr.Blood were getting me out I was ecstatic. I was afraid you all would have forgotten about me after almost seven years."

"Well, no one is ever goin to hurt ya again. Not while I'm breathin!" I state, pulling her closer to me. Our foreheads met, "Plus..." I say, inching closer, "I love ya." My voice was just above a whisper. I didn't care if she felt the same way or not. I needed to let her know how I felt. My hands slid up to cup her cheeks, my thumbs gently wiping her tears away. A breathless laugh came from her as she looked up at me. "I love you too, Raph." She choked out, more tears streaming down her face. I then pulled her into me, closing the gap between us until our lips met. I couldn't help the tears that soaked my mask and stained my cheeks. She's all I care about.

Donnie

"Come again?" I asked when chief Vincent said Y/n was a mutant. So many thoughts ran through my mind, everyone else's voice being drowned out. "Um, if you don't mind me asking chief, what kind of mutant?" I asked, adjusting my glasses a bit. "A turtle....like you guys." We all look over to see Robin walking up. "Where's Dr.Blood." I look over at Raph who was becoming huffy. "Unfortunately, Dr.Blood had to go incognito much more early than we hoped. I'll have to do the same when this is all over and done with. The facility Y/n was kept in found our trail just a few minutes ago. It'll take them a while to find out that she's in New York so we have a team creating a fake trail from New York to many other locations."

Again, my mind raced. 'She was kept at a facility? I'll have to ask about that later. If anyone was going to make sure Y/n stays safe, it's me.' I thought to myself. "Raph, that's enough. We'll worry about that later." Leo said, pulling me from my thoughts. "Where's Y/n now?" Leo asked. "Follow me. She's over here." Vincent said walking off to her left. We followed behind but it didn't take long before we slowed to a stop upon seeing Y/n. She and April seemed to be having a conversation until Leo spoke up. "Y/n?" He asked. I watch as her attention was pulled towards us as soon as she heard him. "Guys." Her voice was soft and a bit shaky. I could see the tears welling up in her eyes as she took a breath. "Y/n!" Mikey cried out excitedly as he ran towards her. He caught her in a bear hug, picking her up and spinning her around.

I couldn't contain my excitement either as I wasn't far behind Mikey. We both hugged her tightly as Raph and then Leo joined the hug. Everything seemed to drown out when we separated. All the sounds becoming muffled as my attention focused on her. "C'mon guys, let's go," Leo said. I shook my head as I followed my brothers and Y/n to a nearby manhole where we disappeared into the shadows.

Back at the Lair

Time seemed to fly by, everyone but me was asleep. I got in contact with Robin who was happy to fill me in on everything. I went straight to work, creating a system that would make an endless trail of places Y/n could possibly be. I also took it upon myself to erase whatever digital records the facility had on her which seemed to be most of the information about her. I sighed, feeling relieved that Y/n would be safe. My fingers lightly tapped on the arms of my chair. I turned in my seat to look in the direction of Y/n's room and perked up a bit when I noticed her light still on. I stood and walked over.

"Still awake I see." I lightly smile at her as I walk towards her. "Oh, yeah. I guess I'm just not as tired as I thought I was." She said, her e/c eyes look at me. "Well, rest a sure, darling, you no longer have to worry about the facility finding you. I took the liberty of making sure of that." I inform while I took a seat on the floor next to her. 'Wait.....did I just call her darling?' I mentally slap myself for it but keep cool but the look she gave me says she caught it. "Ehm, s-so uh....It's been a long and interesting night." I say rubbing the back of my neck while my cheeks heat up. "Yeah." She giggled at me. "It has." She added before leaning into me. Instinctively, my arm wraps around her. Her head rested on my shoulder as she sighs.

"Listen, Y/n. I think this is a better time than never to tell you," I sigh and lean forward, my forearms resting on my thighs as I slouch, "I....really like you." I turn my head to the side to look at her. "You do?" She tilted her head before a small smile found its way onto her face. "If it's too much right now the-" "No, it's not because I like you too, Donnie." She cut me off, placing a gentle hand on my bicep. A smile spread across my face before I leaned closer to her. "Then...I hope you don't mind me doing this." I whisper before planting a tender kiss on her lips. I feel her hands wrap around my neck as she returned the gesture of affection.

I found myself pulling her into my lap, the kiss turning more passionate. We separated, looking into each other's eyes. "I won't let anyone harm you ever again. I promise, Y/n."

Mikey

"Relax Raph, at least she's alive and well bro." I nudge trying to keep the mood light. Sure she was kidnapped but at least she's back now. "Um, if you don't mind me asking chief, what kind of mutant?" Donnie asked as he adjusted his glasses. "A turtle....like you guys." We all look over to see that cute nurse, Robin, from the station. "Where's Dr.Blood," Raph said while he shifted from one foot to the other. "Unfortunately, Dr.Blood had to go incognito much more early than we hoped. I'll have to do the same when this is all over and done with. The facility Y/n was kept in found our trail just a few minutes ago. It'll take them a while to find out that she's in New York so we have a team creating a fake trail from New York to many other locations."

"A facility? What else did that doctor forget to leave out." I looked back at Raph who seemed about ready to lose his temper. "Raph, that's enough. We'll worry about that later." Leo said. Raph let out a grunt and rolled his eyes at our older brother. "Where's Y/n now?" We look to Vincent as Leo asked. "Follow me. She's over here." Vincent said walking off to her left. We followed behind but it didn't take long before we slowed to a stop upon seeing Y/n. The excitement when I saw her practically boiled over. "Y/n?" Leo said. I watch as her attention was pulled towards us as soon as she heard him. "Guys." Her voice was soft and a bit shaky. I could see the tears welling up in her eyes and her lip quiver. "Y/n!" I cried out excitedly and ran towards her. I couldn't bear seeing her so emotional. I wrapped my arms around her tightly, picked her up, and spun her around.

"I thought I'd never see you guys again!" She cried as she returned the tight hug. My brothers soon joined the hug. We stayed like that for a moment before separating. I watched as Y/n wiped the tears from her face. "Sooo, what now?" I asked looking over my shoulder at Leo while I held Y/n gently. "Well, the sun will be coming up soon. I suggest you all head back to the sewers." Vincent suggested. I looked at chef Vincent before looking back at Leo. "C'mon guys, let's go," Leo said before we all headed back home.

Back at the Lair

After Raph went to bed after helping Y/n get settled in, I happily strode into in to wish her goodnight. "Hey, Y/n!" I chirp and catch her gaze. When our eyes locked, I suddenly felt sheepish. "U-um, I just want to uh...wish you goodnight. We got a lot of catching up to do tomorrow!" I say, trying to keep up my happy-go-lucky tune, bumping her arm with mine. "Thanks, Mikey but are you okay?" She asked tilting her head at me. "Y-yeah, of course I am! Why wouldn't I be?" I reply. 'Crap she's good.' I think to myself. "Because you aren't usually this nervous." The sound of her giggles filled the room and made my heart flutter. "Is there something both-" I couldn't help it anymore. My arm slipped around her waist as I pulled her into a deep kiss. "I really like you, okay? That's what's bothering me." I admit when we separate.

A smile replaced the shock on her now soft face. "I really like you too, Mikey. I always have." Her silky voice flooded my ears, my nervousness dissipating at her words. I was probably grinning like an idiot but I didn't care. She's all that matters to me at this moment. "Goodnight, Mikey." She said, planting a gentle kiss on my cheek. "Goodnight, Y/n," I reply before leaving her room. I closed her door on my way out and walked over to Raph's and my shared room. "Yes, yes, yes!" I fist pumped and whisper shouted as to not wake Raph up. I then flop onto my bed a dumb smile on my face. "I can't wait for tomorrow."

[megaeratheefury]

hello omg that r/crown prompt was so soft and well-written i just... if it's not too much trouble, would you consider writing one for x/crown but with the prompt, "you can call me whenever you want... even if you don't have a reason to." 👀

thank you for such an inspiring prompt, anon! i literally created my X romancing crown just so i could read the route and fill this prompt. 🥰

i hope y’all enjoy crown navid, who is my love letter to @ataleofcrowns’ X 🥺💌

ps. i have an atoc sideblog now! askbox is open for r/crown and x/crown prompts over at @sorcererrezan 💛

—

Navid finds out about Xelef’s return to the city via a messenger from the Crescent Blades. Apparently the Pale Sword himself saw it fit to give advance notice, though whether it is because he is the Crown or because he is Navid is still elusively up for interpretation.

Typical Xelef. 

Navid conceals having to swallow the piece of his heart that jumped up his throat at Xelef’s impending return. He doesn’t reveal any additional curiosities about how far away the Blades are or how long they plan on staying to the mercenary, maintaining instead a welcoming though busy countenance. Internally he runs over his schedule over the next few weeks to calculate his free time while he calls for a servant to show the messenger to one of the rooms in the guest quarters. 

The more rational and less giddy part of him tries to temper his eagerness—where he and Xelef stand with each other is as opaque as it is exciting. ‘You are both but distractions,’ it reminds. Not for their duties necessarily, but for their idiosyncratic inner turmoil. There’s something about Xelef—whether its his acute sensitivity, his devil may care attitude, or his unflagging self-assuredness—that makes it easier for him to escape the gaping maw of trauma he’s left unprocessed and memories his mind has already saw fit to protect him from.

Navid has never faced a distraction quite like Xelef, after all. 

And perhaps, he considers when the sellsword greets him with an unabashed grin and an embrace that lingers a few days later, Xelef has never faced a distraction quite like him either.

—

“So General Delal has finally scrubbed off the decade old rust on the Imperial Army, has she?” Xelef’s words are as light as the breeze that dances around them. They’re in a sitting area nestled in the corner of an upper floor with high ceilings, enclosed by open windows more than walls. It’s the Crown’s favorite with its bright light and how it only takes one step into his imagination to feel like he’s sitting in the sky. 

Navid drinks from his cup of tea—perfectly brewed and sweetened, he’d have to compliment Siham on his attention to detail later—before responding. Xelef always speaks with hidden context. Navid reasons that it could be because the man himself processes so much information outside of just what’s spoken whenever he interacts with others. The practice of figuring out what Xelef really means in any situation is a more efficient lesson in navigating politics than a week of interacting with the nobles. He guesses that in this situation it is equally likely that Xelef is inquiring about the strength of his security as he is looking for something with which to needle the general.

He has to remind himself not to project motives or objectives onto Xelef just because of his own expectations and hopes. But it’s hard not to, when for all intents and purposes, Xelef seems to have returned to see him. He offered up the veil of having business in the city and giving the Blades a break, but Navid has gotten even better at reading people since they last saw each other. 

You have to pay attention to what Xelef does, he’s learning. And take what he says with a grain of salt. As it stands, the sellsword has managed to squeeze himself into every bit of free time that Navid has had luxury for since his arrival earlier this week: be it testing his combat training, joining him for a meal, or inviting him to the Red Lantern and then personally escorting him back to his quarters. For safety, they both reason, considering how the last time went. But there’s an almost palpable tension that only grows whenever they’re alone together, and Navid somehow intuitively knows that they’re approaching the edge of something they may not be able to dismiss after the fact.

He’s never backed down from an adventure though.

Navid settles his cup in its saucer before replying, a touch of genuine pride coating his words, “Yes, she’s seen to it personally.”

He meets Xelef’s eyes, can feel a smirk dancing on his lips as he continues, “Why? Planning on invading me soon?”

Xelef’s gaze heats up in the face of the suggestion Navid doesn’t bother to conceal, lingering on the expanse of his chest and arms that the diagonal drape of his tunic leaves exposed. 

“I could try,” Xelef leans closer, drawing Navid into his orbit until he can almost feel the air behind his words. This tucked away into the palace, behind an army and the full strength of the guards, Xelef’s attention isn’t split by trying to foresee an attack. The full weight of his focus builds up a thrill that pounds through Navid’s entire being. He can feel his pulse in his palms just as clearly as he can see the green of Xelef’s eyes shift from lighter to darker.

“How successful do you think I’d be? In your infallible opinion as the Crown.” 

“As it stands?” Navid pretends to weigh the question, using the pause as an excuse to let his own eyes do some appreciating. He doesn’t flatter himself by believing that Xelef dressed just for him today, but the way the fabric parts across his broad chest when he props an elbow on the table is too effective to not be intentional.

Spirits but does he look irresistible. And he knows it, too. Navid can’t hide the sentiment from him—not that he wants to, anyway. Xelef tries his damnedest to rile him up every time they see each other and Navid would be doing them both a disservice if he didn’t make Xelef face the consequences of his own boldness.

“Near impossible,” Navid answers like fate herself gave him the authority. “But maybe if you had an agent on the inside…”

“And do I? Have an agent on the inside?”

Navid hums to consider. “You could.”

His inherent evasiveness prevents him from leaving the cover of their loaded metaphor. There is a line that he has learned not to cross when dancing around with Xelef. He refuses to be the sentimental fool that blindly steps too close.

—That’s what Navid tells himself at least, when Xelef is not within two breaths of him and watching him intently, like he’s pulling him apart and putting the pieces back together in his head. It’s much harder to resist testing him when he’s right there. 

But to his delight, Xelef huffs out a satisfied chuckle before breaking into a wide smile.

“Sounds like I have my way in then.”

Navid grants him an indulgent look. “Let’s see what you do with it, chief.” 

This time he lets out a full-fledged laugh and Navid joins him in it, reveling in how fun it is to be around Xelef. This is how he’d like for them to remember each other when they’re apart.

Xelef regards him for a beat when their amusement tapers off, likely having sensed the emotions that thought inspired as it passed through him. Navid quietly holds his breath. It’s not exactly comfortable, how easily Xelef can pierce through his walls, but if it’s out there then he’s not going to hide from it. 

“You know,” Xelef begins, looking away for a second before locking gazes again and resting a calloused palm on the back of his hand. “You can call me whenever you want. Even if you don’t have reason to.”

That… isn’t what Navid expected. There’s an almost tentative seriousness to the mercenary’s words and demeanor. The warmth that he’s learning to associate with Xelef radiates from their hands, powering the quickening beat of his heart.

Navid swallows, though he doesn’t look away. Xelef’s skin shines from his stare. “Even if I’m just thinking of you?”

“I don’t think there are enough birds for that in the whole Empire, my dark-haired beauty.”

And just like that, Xelef settles back into his easy demeanor, self-satisfied grin and all. But now Navid knows better, can discern the seed of… something behind the mysteries of Xelef’s eyes. Something that could be more than just a distraction.

[that-damn-girl]

(5) Bucky and The Bed

Completed

Chapter 4

Bucky and The Bed Masterlist 

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x (cis)fem!reader

Words:  3700+

Summery: You and Bucky are stranded in the middle of a snowy nowhere when there is an 'electronic blackout' during your mission. With no back ups or any way to contact your team, you take refuge from the worsening weather in the only cabin you find  in miles. Not to mention, with no power, Bucky has become your personal heater and there's only one bed.

Chapter type: Fluff.

Chapter/Triger warning: None that I can think of except for ‘highly self-indulgent’.

A/N: This is in submission to the lovely @sweater-daddiesdumbdork​ ‘s Any-Fucking-Fandom Fic Challenge. Check it out! My prompt is below.

Calloused fingertips ran slowly through your hair, absent-mindedly drawing varied patterns with gentle prolonged strokes. Eyes closed, you basked in the alleviating motion. The faint pressure of his tips combing through your scalp lulled you into a deep state of relaxation. Not that you'd been stressed before, but you welcomed the calming drift with open arms.

Head perched on Bucky's lap, you laid comfortably along the width of the bed on your back. The headboard of the bed supported Bucky's back as his legs were stretched, ankles crossed.

Flesh hand racking through your locks, his metal one was encompassed in the heat of your hold. It felt cool to touch, much cooler than the rest of him, but it had a certain aura of warmth. Languidly, you traced the smooth plates making up his palm and fingers and the back of his hand, committing every cranny, every nook to memory.

Your tips climbed up and down the dips of his knuckles, rounding the impeccably curved tips now and then. They seemed crafted as well as the natural human ones. With the whole of his metal arm being that way, you didn't know why you were so amazed by the uncanny resemblance.

Sweeping over the sleek black and gold plates over and over again, mapping the blend of contours and arcs, you said, "Never did I ever think I'd be tired of being uselessly free."

From studying the simple joints of wood panels on the ceiling, Bucky's eyes drifted down to you when you spoke, trailing over your delicate features and then again. Just because. He never thought he'd ever get tired of admiring your beauty anyways.

Eyelids shut, you looked content and yet dejected as your head rested on his lap. He knew you felt bored, hence the look of dejection maybe. He only hoped his presence was the cause of the slight contentment you felt.

It had been a couple of days since Bucky was able to contact Sam; three since they took refuge in this small cabin. There really was nothing to do except for eat, sleep, and repeat.

Chuckling, Bucky said, "It kinda reminds me of the time in Wakanda."

Opening your eyes and slightly craning your neck, you glanced at him. Though he looked at you, his eyes held a faraway gaze, as if having found a distant memory and reminiscing in it. Closing your eyes, you settled in more comfortably. You loved hearing stories about his experience in the astounding African country.

"Tell me about it."

Though you couldn't see him, you knew he wore a bright smile as he remembered the days. You interlaced your fingers with his metal fingers as his flesh ones occasionally twirled a few locks of your hair.

This was new, the touching at every moment, only for more to be followed in the next. Bucky Barnes was a reserved man. He did want a soft and comforting touch, but there weren't many people to give him that.

Steve, yes. Sam, sometimes. It wasn't as if he was open to letting others touch him either. He sought out the familiarity in the amiable contact, the assurance of no ill content behind it.

The past decade had taught him to believe a touch only meant one thing. Pain.

You had been with him as long as Sam had, but he was only able to open up to you in the recent few years. He had become comfortable with you. Didn't have any qualms about feeling your skin on him.

But there was always a limit. There was always a limit to how much he'd let someone in.

In the past few days, however,  you and him seemed to literally keep in touch at all times of the day. Asleep or awake. It happened involuntarily, really. As if your hearts made decisions of their own, claiming what they desired.

Bucky had noticed that and so did you, but neither dared to comment on it. Afraid of making the other more conscious. Of losing the closeness it had brought along. Of losing the joy it brought to your hearts with just a touch.

Bucky tried to convince himself that it was because you needed it, the warmth the super soldier serum provided him. But what was the explanation of the warmth you gave him, without any enhancements?

You needed him, but he was no longer able to deny that he needed the feel of your touch much more desperately. He needed it every second of the day since he'd had a taste of it. A taste of what it felt like to be around you at all times. A taste of heaven which you brought to him.

From every fortunate moment he woke up with you in his arms to sleep in the same way, he'd cherished it deeply. He loved cuddling with you and being cozy. Whether you cooked, or ate, or just were together, you'd always found a way to touch each other.

Your touch had become familiar to him in such a soothing way; he'd been accustomed to it so well, he didn't even want to imagine how being without it would feel like once you'd return.

But he didn't want to burden the pleasant moment by worrying about the future. Choosing to savour it as long as he could, he clutched your hand protectively in his as your fingers linked. Warmth spread across his metal arm and it tickled as the heat made its way through his heart.

Sighing contentedly, he began, "After Shuri was able to get the effect of the words out of me, I was free to live outside the palace and with the crowd. I'd go to therapy daily at first, but the frequency decreased eventually.

"My only purpose there was to recover, to relax, so I didn't really have anything productive to do. The children would play with me and braid my hair, but there's only so much of that which could be done.

"I felt so useless there, I begged T'Challa to give me some work." He paused, laughing before he continued, "I remember the look Okoye gave me. She thought I was a dumb old bitch. Wanting to work when free time was gifted to me on a gold platter."

Bucky looked down at you when you chuckled. A beautiful smile graced your face, lightening up the glow already there. His pride swelled up a little, knowing and liking the fact that he could make you smile.

Beaming widely, he added, "I did the work they already had machines for. Loading and unloading. Carrying things from one place to the other. Just helping anyway I could, even if they didn't require it." He sighed, "Maybe I really was a dumb old bitch."

Chuckling again, you tried to imagine as you said, "Ah, city boy turned farm boy. What a sight it would have been."

"Picture oily, greasy hair, and mud ridden clothes. That's how it was like." He said.

Opening your eyes, you cheekily grinned at him, "I bet you still looked damn good, Bucky."

Feeling colour rising to his cheeks, he was sure he would've stuttered had he spoken anything. You saved him from that, "I've always wondered if the serum prevented you from being ticklish."

"Why?" The word wasn't even out of his mouth when your fingers teased the sides of his torso. The furrow of his brows instantly morphed into a merry stance as he snickered.

"Stop," He wheezed when you sat up and tickled him with all your might. Hands roamed over all the tickle inducing spots you could reach.

"Y/N, wait," His eyes crinkled as he laughed. Seeing him squirm under you, you giggled along with him, enjoying the elated mirth on his face.

Pleading requests reached your ears between huffs of gleeful laughter. His hands tried to reach yours, swiftly shifted out of his reach. Not for long though.

Soon the tables were turned. His hands caught up to you. When he started tickling your spots, you tried to shrunk into a ball.

"Bucky!" You cried, eyes closing as you laughed joyfully.

"Nuh uh, doll, you brought this on yourself." Snickering along, Bucky said mischievously as his hands lightly stroked your sides and under your chin.

You wiggled under him, but he didn't let you escape. His fingers danced along your body. You shrieked with mirthful laughter when he reached a particular spot.

Your arms thrashed about as you tried to stop him. Bucky caged your hand in his when they hit his chest. Laughing still, he placed them by your head bent over you.

Giggling softly, you slowly opened your eyes as you calmed down from the high. You saw Bucky holding you down, a light chuckle playing on his lips. Suddenly you realised how really close he was.

Long dark locks framed his features as he leaned over you. His scruff had grown in the few days you were here. You decided you quite liked the look on him.

You wondered if he was open to the idea of growing his beard again. Bearded Bucky was a spectacular look after all.

Delight was clear in his expression as his blue eyes stared into your own. Upon such close inspection, you realised there was a bit of greyish touch to his eyes. Almost as if they could be called ocean grey.

How many before you had realised it? Or if it was your mind making you see things because it was clouded with the fact of your close proximity?

Bucky's lips were plump and pink. They seemed much more bright and colourful against his pale skin in the extreme cold. Did his lips look this rosy before?

Bucky saw your eyes drifting across his face as a realization struck them. Your smile faded slowly but the dazzle in your made up for it as they took in every feature. When your eyes dropped to his lips, they stayed there for a while.

He couldn't help but glance down at your lips. Slightly parted, they looked so soft. He wondered how sweet they tasted. Overcome by an urge to kiss you deeply and find out for himself, he looked at your eyes and back down at your lips.

It was only then that he realised how close he'd gotten to you. His breath hitched at that moment. He became nervous all of a sudden.

Yes, you two had been close ever since this fiasco started, but never like this. This was new to the both of you.

Something must have given him away, because he felt you stiffen under him. You too had realised close proximity.

He was worried you'd pull away. Not that you could with bed beneath you, but you could always turn your head sideways. You didn't. Instead, your lips only parted a little more.

Only inches apart, he could feel everytime you exhaled. His heart raced with the possibilities of every outcome if he leaned down just a little more. How it could turn out, just like he'd dreamed about it. How he could finally have you as his.

And then the negative outcomes swarmed his brain. What if he was reading all the signs wrong? Granted he was an expert in body language, yet he wasn't a mind reader.

If he did close the gap but you didn't want it to happen, he could lose a good friend to awkwardness. There were also days to be cut until either of you would separate from each other.

The tension would be unbearable if you rejected his advances. He couldn't let that happen. He couldn't let any of that happen at all.

Bucky Barnes was a fucking coward and so were you.

Reluctantly, he pulled back. You didn't want him to, but you didn't stop him either. Freeing your hands, he sat on his knees beside you. Leaning on the heel of your palms, you sat up too.

Bucky couldn't meet your eyes as he looked down at his lap. You were much the same beside him.

The tension was so thick you swore it could be cut with a knife. Bucky didn't want to make things awkward, but it had already gotten so.

After spending a pleasant time together, you didn't want anything to become a thorn between the two of you. Without thinking, you quickly spoke, "Let's dance."

Bucky furrowed his brows, confusion overtaking his expression, "You wanna dance?"

"Yeah, let's." You shrugged, "It's not like we got anything better to do."

Bucky opened his mouth but closed it when nothing came to his mind. If you were trying to steer the two of you away from the unwanted tension, you were definitely succeeding. There was just one problem though. "I don't remember how to dance."

"It's okay. It's not like I'm Micheal Jackson either." Bucky was glad the reference wasn't lost on him. The spider kid was doing a good job updating him with all the highlights of the past century he'd missed.

Getting off the bed, you extended an arm towards him. Figuring just rolling with your idea would be easier than acknowledging the moment earlier, he followed you suit.

As he stepped in front of your form, you were unsure where to place your hands. Keeping some distance, you kept arms on his shoulder and linked your fingers behind his head. He brought his hands to your sides, holding you loosely.

You were close but not like before. He seemed to be fine with it and so were you.

You started with shifting your weight on either of your legs, proceeding to sway your body gradually from side to side and moving about in the small space of the room. He directed his body along with yours, going at it with the pace you set.

"There is no music, you know." He remarked.

You pretend to give it thought, "I would be all poetic and say the birds are chirping and that's music enough, but the thing is there are no birds around. Or any living things for that matter."

Bucky scrunched up his nose, "Sounds a little creepy, doesn't it?"

You nodded, "Yeah. Why don't you sing?"

"Uh, no. I don't want your ears to bleed." He chuckled.

You tilted your head, "Come on, you can't be that bad."

"Well, I am that bad. Deal with it." He said

You rolled your eyes comically at him, "Fine."

He raised a brow, "Why don't you sing?"

Not wanting to disclose your singing abilities to him, or rather the lack of it, you said, "Oh, just shut up and dance with me."

Snickering, he replied, "As you say, Ma'am."

Bringing your hands down to his side, you encircled them around his waist and placed your head on his shoulder. Swaying softly to the beat of your own heart, you enjoyed the rhythm already set.

It wasn't really dancing per se, but it sure was relaxing. His warmth seeped into you through the embrace and. You relished in the feel of it. His heartbeat was clear under your ears, lulling you into a tranquil state.

Bucky liked the weight of your head on his shoulders. The way your hands were clasped behind his back. He felt whole in a way he couldn't really describe. Resting his cheek on your head, his hands tightened their hold around you.

The quiet around you was comforting instead of unnerving like you had anticipated. You didn't complain.

You spent a long time swaying in each other's arms. It felt good, being held like this in Bucky's warm embrace. You enjoyed the moment as long as you could.

Slowly, in a voice so low he thought he might have missed, you said, "I miss Sam, you know."

Bucky felt a pang of jealousy hit him. Not that he had anything against Sam. In all honesty, he missed their banters and the constant quipping at each other. He missed his friend too, but a sense of insecurity followed as well. Would you have preferred Sam over him to be here with you?

Oblivious to his inner turmoil, you continued, "Ever since we were active paramilitary, it was I, him and Riley, together everywhere. When Riley..."

You trailed off. Memories of the wonderful times with your late friend surfaced up. A lump formed in your throat at the onslaught of pictures flashing before your eyes of Riley pummelling to his death.

Closing your eyes, you took a deep breath and tried to calm down. You bit your lower lip to prevent it from trembling. Years later, the guilt of not being able to save him still lingered.

Who else would know better than Bucky how it felt losing your best friend? The constant guilt which ate you up when you thought it was your doing. The rethinking of every decision made which led you to lose them. The never ending 'What if's.

He had fallen down that rabbit hole too many times, and you were always there to pick him up. He wasn't about to back out when his turn came.

Feeling a warm hand pet your head softly, you looked up at Bucky. He didn't say anything, but he smiled sweetly, encouraging you to continue.

"It was hard to deal with it, but we coped up together. Sam and I, we got closer than ever. He became like the brother I never had."

Bucky knew it wasn't the time, but he sighed in relief. It was all brotherly and sisterly and platonic love between you and him. Before he could celebrate though, you proceeded.

"Sam and I were inseparable after that, you know. Imagine my surprise when the one time I don't go on a morning run with him and he meets Captain fucking America."

You laughed at the memory of how mad you'd been at yourself for oversleeping that particular day. Sam had had to do quite some work to cheer you up.

"After the both of us became Avengers, we usually went on missions together. If we weren't on the same missions, or when I was on one while he was at home, the work to be done didn't let my mind wander. Even after he took the mantle, it was the same between us."

You sighed, "It just feels weird, spending all of my free time being away from him."

Glancing up at him, you kept your chin on his chest. Displaying a cheeky grin, you said, "But I am glad I have you here, Bucky. I like spending time with you, getting to know you better."

Bucky felt his heart soar within his chest. He couldn't contain the joy he felt at hearing that. Smiling widely, he tightened his arms around your waist, "I like spending time with you too, Y/N."

Placing your head on his chest once again, you said, "I think I'm gonna miss this when we get back. All these moments. This closeness we've had." You added for good measure, "You were the best cuddle pillow I've ever had, after all."

Bucky chuckled softly, his chest reverberating as he did. Perhaps the intimacy you'd developed was only because of the circumstances you were put in, but he didn't want to lose it. Only if as friends, the two of you had grown much more closer than before.

Just like you, he feared that when you'd be back to your normal lives, this connection would be lost. He didn't want to squander all the progress he had made with you.

But he also didn't want to fritter away the time he had with you right then only to worry about what would or could happen. He promised himself to appreciate and cherish any moment he had the chance to spend with you.

Softly, he said, "Don't worry about it, doll. We got enough time for that later. All we have is now."

"All we have is now." You repeated, snuggling closer to him, luxuriating in the feel of his arms around you and savouring the warmth of his embrace in the cold.

The bliss didn't last long though. There was a petty itch in your eyes, promoting you to bring your hands up to rub your lids.

Bucky pulled back when he felt the movement against him, "Hey, what happened?"

Face half covered with your palm as you tried to get rid of the itch, you said, "Something got into my eyes maybe."

"Don't rub your eyes. You're only going to worsen it." He tried to pull your hand away from your face.

Whatever it was, it irritated and burned the sensitive tissue of your eyes. You had to forcefully will yourself to let Bucky drag your hand away.

Leaning into you, he cupped your face in his hands and puckered his lips to softly blow on your eyes. Hot puffs of air hit you as he tried his best to relieve the itch. Keeping your eyes open was hard, but soon the unwanted particle was driven out.

"Better?" He asked.

"Yeah, thanks." You muttered.

You realised a little too late the close proximity between you too. It was that moment again , rekindling the fire which wasn't really put off before.

Your breaths slowed and your heart thumped loudly in your ears. Bucky could feel the erratic beats of your heart against him. He heard you gulp as you stared intently into his eyes which looked hungry yet gentle.

Your pupils dilated as your gaze fell down to his lips, lingering there before coming back to his eyes. Pushing your tongue out, you tentatively licked your lips teasingly slow.

Your lips glistened as Bucky glanced at them. They looked soft and delicious, and Bucky had never wanted to taste anything as bad as them.

He had stopped himself from doing exactly that for a reason before, but with his brain clouded with thoughts about you and your lips, he couldn't remember why. It was as if his mind had stopped working, which he didn't doubt it had.

Bouts of confidence hit him in that moment, overhauling his senses and preventing him from thinking about anything else. Would it really be wrong to have your lips on his, to taste the sweetness of you? It was all he'd desperately wanted to do since a long time but never dared to.

Throwing all caution to the wind, he finally leaned down...

The divider is made by @writeyourmindaway​

Chapter 6

I think you all know ensues next. 😏 

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Thank you for reading!

[phoenotopia]

2020 July Update

Things have gone slowly... again.

The good news is that the game is now submitted to the console "authority" and it's entirely off my hands. Once it gets through the console "checking" process, it can get a release date and we can sprint towards release. Until then, it'd be at least a month's wait or more until I hear anything. Understandably, their checking process is impacted by Corona, so wait times are increased.

On my end, I was also slow to submit the game. I submitted it late late June, since I ended up spending 7 weeks fixing bugs (and not 2-3 weeks like I estimated in the last blog post). There were just SO many bugs - now squished, thankfully. Since this is a blog post, I'll talk about what kind of bugs I've been fixing.

The other thing that slowed down the submission process was simply due to unfamiliarity with how these submissions proceed. There were pages and pages of stuff to read, guidelines to follow, and legalese to wade through. It really made me wish I had a publisher to guide me through the process. But I was able to clear it with a couple days work. I had an impression that the submission process went like A->B->C->D, with no room for concurrency. Turns out I could have done steps B & C at the same time and sped things up by 2 weeks... So that's that. I'm taking that as a lesson for next time.

The Console Revealed

What is this console that I talk about so stealthily? So that this blog update isn't completely unexciting, I'll reveal which console I've been working on until now. Drumroll please!

It's Switch!

We actually got the Switch dev kit in late 2017. From my understanding, around this time in the USA, the Switch kit was quite hard to get for indies as it was just starting out and high in demand. So I was surprised that my application got approved. I didn't know it then, but the game would still need a few more years of development...

Tweaking performance and fixing bugs

Here you can see my "expert" playtest setup. Since the Switch is more powerful while docked, I needed to playtest it in handheld mode, so I could catch and profile any problem areas where the framerate was unsteady. The most common thing that caused framerate drops were areas that went overboard with lighting. For these areas, I'd tweak or swap out the lights with alternatives that looked similar while also being less computationally intensive. Maintaining 60 FPS is a must!

An old camera (Nikon D3100) trained at the screen recorded my playthrough and would let me rewind to any moment a bug occurred. It could only record in 10 minute chunks, so I'd have to repeatedly repress the record button. On the plus side, because it's so old the movie file sizes were small and convenient.

The number one bug that I tracked and fixed in the past two months was what I dub the "Gear Ring De-equip" bug. The Gear Ring functions as customizable shortcut keys for the player to map items and tools (see an old video demonstration HERE). Through regular use of the inventory, somehow the equipped items on the Gear Ring would be de-equipped. It was an elusive bug since the de-equip event would happen very quietly and you would only suspect something had gone wrong much later. By then, the trail had gone cold and you weren't sure if a de-equip had actually occurred or if the player had simply de-equipped the item themselves. Two other playtesters noted that something left the Gear Ring in their playthrough, but I dismissed them. "Are you sure you didn't just de-equip it yourself?" It was a bug that bred mistrust and discord. I didn't truly believe it until it happened to me...

Luckily, with the camera setup, I was finally able to track it. In the literal 67th video, I caught a live instance of the bug occurring. After which, it was all too easy to recreate the exact same inventory and gear ring setup and replicate it.

(With this exact item layout, combine the 2nd item with the 14th item... and viola! Gear Ring de-equip!)

After fixing this bug, I then proceeded to fix it 5 more times. Every time I fixed it, it would later reappear through a different mechanism. 

Why do bugs like this happen? Underneath, there are two lists of items. Tools on the right and items on the left. Items can occur multiple times because they're consumable. Both lists start counting their indexes with the value 0. However, both items and tools co-exist on the gear ring. So to uniquely identify an entry you need both the item ID and the data index. Failure to check both data types resulted in bugs like the Gear Ring de-equip. Now throw in a bunch of item operations that can confuse the system. You can split items, combine items, swap items, or discard items. The more freedom you allow, the more ways there are for the system to trip up.

If you didn't get all that, that's alright. It was needlessly complicated. Imagine doing more and better and with less code and less bugs! Such a thing is possible if you start with the right design. I'm definitely taking notes here on how to design inventory systems for next time. In the meanwhile, I'm very confident I've squished all inventory related bugs.

Other bugs squashed and features implemented in the past 2 months include the end game arts not unlocking properly, collection percentages climbing beyond 100, stray doors floating in the sky, low HP sfx blaring when loading different files, balance tweaks on bosses, a max HP display when the menu is open - too many to count really! It was only after I fixed them all that I was confident enough to move forward with submitting the game. I apologize for the delay this will cause!

PC version back in progress

You may recall in the March 2020 update I talk about how in pursuing the Switch version, I unwittingly ruined the PC version. Well, since the game is "done" now and I'm waiting for it to go through the checking process, I've started working to reclaim the PC version.

And there is some good news to report. The PC version can compile again! Of course, it will need to have some work done, since it was late 2017 when I last had a functioning PC build. 

The opening menu is broken, the underlying save file system needs to be updated, and the controls... oh Lord, the controls. Controls were probably the #1 factor in pushing me to pursue a console version first. There are just so many controller options. Even just the usual suspects are numerous: Xbox, Nintendo, Sony, Logitech, Hori, 8Bitdo, Steam...

One of the number one complaints received regarding the flash game (which was keyboard primarily) was that I didn't allow controller rebinding to start. It was then that I learned of the vast array of different keyboard types.

(Ever heard of an Azerty keyboard?)

I shan't make the same mistake twice! One of the things I'll definitely tackle is the Right/Left face button feud when it comes to which should one should be 'confirm' and which one is 'cancel'. I want to allow the player to choose which is their "YES" and "NO" preference and allow that to overlap other actions like Attack or Jump.

Even after control bindings are taken care of, some things just won't translate well. The right control stick is currently used to access the gear ring and for fishing. Keyboards have no right stick. Aiming the crossbow with a full 360 degrees of range is done with the left control stick - if keyboard only, would the crossbow simply be locked to the 8 cardinal directions? What about those tutorial prompts with button graphics (e.g. "Press 'B' to Jump"). If using the playstation controller, it'd need to be the CROSS symbol. How many button graphics are we gonna load into the text module? What if the player, mid-playthrough, decides to swap out controllers? Indeed, there are many issues to tackle where controls are concerned...

Perhaps I'm overthinking it because even some AAA games get this wrong (Dark Souls has 'B' as 'Yes' on Switch, and it's not remappable, which I find quite annoying). I've seen games on consoles where the controls wouldn't mention the console's controller at all but instead mention a mouse and keyboard. Or, if you remapped the controls, the tutorial prompts still showed the old control bindings, making for a confusing experience. I definitely want to do the controls justice, so this will take some time.

Phoenotopia DISCORD Channels

Ryan and Firana have been running a Phoenotopia discord since late 2017, which I promoted on this blog once. It's been a couple years and it turns out that the old discord link I promoted expired. It's long overdue, but their channel could use another shoutout. Here's their channel : https://discord.gg/cnjrYST

Also, Khalid recently reached out to me about creating a Phoenotopia discord as well. I see no reason why we can't have 2 or more discords, so he has created that one with my blessing as well. You can find his discord here : https://discord.gg/cfnsCwy

I personally don't use Discords, since I'm very busy and there's too much new tech to keep up with. I hear there's a Tik Tok now? Should I create a Tik Tok for Phoenotopia? Hmmm...

Anyway, if you'd like to chat with other people who are similarly enthused for Phoenotopia, do check them out!

Fan Arts

We have five new fanart submissions this time around from regulars and new alike.

Cody G. returns with this pair of sketches of Gail. One seeks to answer the question, "how is Gail so strong?" Cody's answer is that under her sleeves she's actually really buff! This might be the most ripped rendition of Gail yet. Also, in the right drawing, the letter 'E' kinda melds with her bat, making it look like a keyblade!

What if Gale was a Shrek character? A new artist, Samu Kajin, from tumblr answers that question with a rendition of Gail sporting ogre style antennae. Samu Kajin says she can be called "Gaek" or "Shrale". I like the poncho!

Shafiyahh returns with a pretty portrait of Gail. Unlike their previous digital pieces, this one was made with color pencils! I like how her hair blends pink and purple colors together, and this pattern is also present in the eyes. Reminds me of a certain character. And the eyes are so sparkly despite using color pencils! Major props!

Negativus Core also returns with this relevant image of Gail, masked and running, presumably from Corona. It gave me quite a chuckle! I like the angle and tilt of this run pose because you can see the sole of her foot - that's how you know she's at full sprint! A skillful blur localized to her left foot show's just the right amount of motion. Gotta love the robot's expression too!

A rare 3D art has emerged. Dany Q crafted this adorable figure of Gail that is as cute as a button! I like how well it translates the pixel character over to 3D, capturing the 3 stitches on her shirt and even catching her stray strand of hair. It kinda reminds me of a Wallace and Gromit character, so I can picture it moving and animating in that unique claymation style.

Next Time

I'm ~80% confident we can clear the Switch console checking process and drop the trailer with a release date before the next blog post. But once again, if things go slowly, you'll hear from us in 2 months...

[crushedbyhyperbole]

In His Lap

A/N: Written for @the-ss-horniest-book-club​​ Drunk Drabble prompt by anon:

I am so sorry that I don’t seem to be able to grasp the concept of a drabble.  I literally started writing and ended up with 1.3k  oopsy!

There will probably be a smutty follow-on from this but this one is more soft and fluffy.  Link to follow-on smut piece at the bottom.

Warnings: plus size reader, mentions of a break-up, theme park ride related adrenaline, hints of horniness and mutual attraction, Bucky is the proactive type ;)

Alternate Universe; a new theme park you’d been itching to go to with your boyfriend Rob had opened a few months ago.  Themed around space, physics and quantum mechanics, it was right up your street. In fact, you just about had a nerdgasm when you managed to get tickets, one for you, Rob and your two best friends (Zara and Rachel).  You had booked the weekend off work, Rob planned to drive and you were going to stay in a hotel nearby to get best use out of your weekend passes.  And even when Rachel dropped out, you were beyond excited!

Only, You and Rob weren’t together now and you and Zara weren’t friends anymore, and yes the two cases were related.  Cheating scum and back-stabbing snakes belonged together, you thought bitterly. But that hadn’t stopped you from going and you were determined to enjoy this trip even if you were alone, after all, Alternate Universe was on your bucket list.

  You spent the whole morning following your carefully constructed plan of how to get around as many rides as possible and you’d had an amazing time despite feeling a little self-conscious squeezing into the seats on some of the rides and not collecting many memorabilia photo’s because, well, it was just you.  You visited rides called Quarks, Entropy, The Black Hole, Terminal Velocity, Newton’s Cradle and were queuing for The Photon.

The warnings for this ride were off the charts, more strict than normal on account of the fact that the carriages of this rollercoaster freely orbited the track on a circular rail. You were both nervous and excited.

You swallowed dryly when you reached the front of the queue and you were told that you could only ride in pairs.  Everyone around you were in even numbers and a call was put out for any solo riders to step forward.  Your palms grew sweaty and your heart raced.  Already embarrassed by the attention you were drawing, you hoped people weren’t looking at you thinking you were too large for this ride.

Finally there was a murmur, someone from the back was being escorted through the throngs of people to the front, a tall man in dark jeans and a red Henley, with long-ish hair and shoulders broad enough to make even you look petite.  You did a double-take – he was stunning with sharp blue eyes and a strong jaw covered in soft-looking stubble.

The seat was a cushioned bench where riders would sit with their feet on either side, one in the back and one in front.

“You wanna take the front? I’m a bit,” you gestured to your plumpness, “round.”

“I’ll take the back.” The man’s eyes twinkled as he stepped in ahead of you and, once seated, offered his hand to help you inside.  “I’d hate to squash you.”  His breath puffed against your ear sending a tingle down your spine.

“I’ll try to sit forward.” You reassured him, worried you’d break his ribs if you put too much weight on him.

When the safety bars were pushed into place you were slammed back against his chest with a squeal and he laughed.

“Sorry.”  You whimpered.

“Hey,” he squeezed your shoulder gently, “just relax.  I’m good back here.  You just enjoy yourself.”

You didn’t know what to say so you nodded and tried not to lean on him too much while you waited for the other carriages to be loaded.

“I’m Bucky, by the way,” he said softly.

“Y/n.”  You glance over your shoulder to see his lips pull up at one side in a devastatingly cute smile.  Your mouth went dry and you tried to control your breathing.  You did not just instantly develop a crush on a complete stranger.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you.”  He reached to shake your hand. “So, if you don’t mind me asking, what’s a sweet lady like you doing here all on her own?”  You didn’t mind as much as you thought you would, so you told him your story, earning a curse from him and a promise of broken legs for your ex.

 The mechanical lock on the bars pushed the padded brace harder against your chest, squashing you back further against the solid wall of man behind you.  You groaned at the feel of his thighs on either side of your hips and his body heat penetrating through your t-shirt.

You squeaked when the ride kicked in, the ratchet picking up the contact and pulling your carriage forward with a jolt.

“You ok there, sweetheart?” Bucky seemed genuinely concerned.

You nodded silently, not trusting your voice right then.  When the carriage reached the top the carriage would be in free motion, it would swing upside down and all sorts as it followed the tracks at high speed. You began to shake, adrenaline flooding your system.

“Hey,” Bucky soothed, resting a hand on your shoulder to lean you back the few inches that remained between you, “I got you, just relax, ok?”

You did as he asked and laid back against him, not worrying about crushing him, enjoying the feel of him at your back.  You might have sighed when the carriage neared the top of the incline, the view was spectacular.

“So beautiful.”  You sighed.

“Tell me about it,” he chuckled, “and the view ain’t half bad either.”

For a split second you forgot where you were, the perilous drop in front of you loomed and as the feeling of free-fall kicked in you gasped and tried to back up.

The sound of Bucky’s moan was lost under the gasps and giggles you made as the ride whipped you around and spun you upside down.  Bucky’s hands were on your hips encouraging you to lean with him to spin the carriage upside down at every opportunity.  Your shrieks and laughter spurring him on.

Three minutes and fifty seconds of pure joy and excitement later the carriage air-braked, sending you forward into the restraints but Bucky held himself back so as not to crush you.

“That was so much fun! I really wanna do that again!” You laughed, looking back over your shoulder to see a strange look on his face.  You worried maybe you’d hurt him.  “Sorry if I hurt you.”

“You didn’t hurt me, sweetheart,” Bucky said, giving your hip a squeeze, “but I’m feelin’ some kind of way and I’m tryin’ to be a gentleman about it.”  He shifted his hips away from your lower back slightly.

Your mouth flapped awkwardly and you didn’t know what to say.

The bars suddenly released themselves and you jumped to your feet trying not to meet his gaze, which was intently fixed on you.  You had one foot out of the carriage when he reached for your hand.

“Before you go and I never see you again, I gotto ask,” Bucky locked eyes with you and your heart jumped a mile, “I know we just met but I’d really like it if you’d have lunch with me.”

“Why would you want…?”

“Sweetheart,” he stood and offered you his elbow in a gentlemanly gesture that was so far removed from what you were used to that you couldn’t help but accept.  “Trust me when I say that I want to, ok?”

“Ok,” you agreed with a firm nod, “but I have my day all mapped out, and for lunch I was gonna go to Schrodinger’s cat café.”  You bit your lip nervously as if it was some cringy thing he’d never agree to.

“Deal,” Bucky’s grin faded to hunger as he watched your mouth, “you’re really somethin’ else, you know that right?”

You simpered as he led you away.

“I can’t believe you literally fell right into my lap.”

Follow -on smutty drabble:  Ride of Your Life >>>

[higuchimon]

[fanfic] Just These Two

Yubel’s hands caressed through Johan’s soft teal-green hair, lips tracing over his for a few moments before moving to brush against his cheek. Johan’s hands swayed, grasping onto air, and he didn’t think that he could have spoken if he’d even wanted to.

That happened a great deal when Yubel and Juudai got to work on him. He was used to it, after nearly two hundred years. In point o fact, he rather liked being in such throes of passion that he couldn’t even speak. There were times and places for conversation.

Right now wasn’t one of those times. Right now, he craved what Yubel offered with a burning that thrummed inside of his very bones.

It wasn’t often that it was just the two of them. Juudai trusted his two consorts above all else but there were times when being the King of the Fae demanded certain duties, and right now, that meant going to someone who might become an ally and not bringing his consorts along. His trip involved business, not pleasure. So he’d called on two of his allies to accompany him.

When he got home, Juudai promised them both, then they would make up for all the time that they missed. Johan believed that. It wasn’t the first time something like this happened.

What it meant now was that it was he and Yubel here, and Yubel savored every inch of him. Johan dragged in a deep breath, trembling, hardly able to stay up on his feet. Yubel’s arms slipped around him in support, bracing against the tapestried wall behind them.

“Are you all right?” Yubel murmured, all three eyes glimmering with amusement. “You look a little – unsettled.”

That was one way to describe it. He swallowed, straining for words. “I-I’m fine.” He was; more than fine in fact. He’d spent the morning wandering the woods surrounding the palace, rejoicing in hours and hours of time with his beloved Gem Beasts. And now he came inside to a splendid lunch and Yubel clearly having plans on how to spend this afternoon.

Plans that he really had no objection whatsoever to.

“Good.” Yubel’s tongue flicked over his ear and Johan groaned. Ever since they’d married, he’d found himself far more sensitive to whatever it was they did to him. It certainly made for several fascinating nights – and mornings – and afternoons.

Yubel laughed a low and throaty laugh, one hand releasing him to trail down his front. Johan made a noise that had no description at all, just a groan of pure want and need and desire. Yubel regarded him thoughtfully.

“Do you want to do this?” Yubel asked, drawing enough of Johan’s attention so he wasn’t a helpless mess – at least for a few seconds.

He didn’t even have to think about his reply. He leaned forward, stretched up as high as he could, sliding his arm around so his hand rested on the back of Yubel’s beck. Carefully he tugged them down and pressed his lips against Yubel’s, kissing with every ounce of passion that he could conjure up.

It was the closest thing to a ‘yes’ he really wanted to say right now. He said it with his lips and with his hands, with his heart and his soul, and he knew Yubel would feel it even if he didn’t say it with his voice.

Yubel returned the kiss, wings folding around to caress against him, enclosing him into a warm, safe cocoon. Johan leaned in,, breathing more deeply, until Yubel gently nudged him. At first he wasn’t sure what they wanted, then it clicked.

Johan stepped carefully backwards, still concentrating more on kissing Yubel than anything else. Yubel’s hands remained on his shoulders, so even as his feet stumbled a little and one hip cracked against one of the low tables in the bedchamber, he didn’t actually fall.

If it had been anyone else, he might well have. No one else he knew had the kind of balance or grace that both Juudai and Yubel did. Their lips still sealed together, Yubel guarding his steps as they swayed from one side to the other, Yubel carefully nudged him with twitched of their wings and tiny pushes against his feet, until he could feel the bed against the back of his knees.

Johan folded down onto it, his heart racing. Without the need to protect him from falling, Yubel now loomed over him, great wings spread. He reached up to trace one hand down the edge of their wings. Yubel drew in a very deep breath, eyes blown wide with desire, and Johan smiled, doing it again.

Then Yubel returned it, in their own way, the long talons of one hand popping the lacing on his shirt. Johan had to laugh.

“I would ask you to buy me a new one,” he whispered, somewhat surprised that he managed a coherent sentence. Yubel’s claws slipped over his silk shirt, neatly shredding it.

“I’ll have a dozen delivered tomorrow,” Yubel promised. He didn’t doubt that. It would hardly be the most expensive item that either Juudai or Yubel provided him since he’d joined them. They gave him whatever he wanted and whatever they wanted him to have. Everything he wore now, everything he owned now came from them.

Johan opened his mouth to say something else but Yubel cut him off with a kiss more passionate and deeper than the one before that. His shirt soon wasn’t the only item of clothing that Yubel rendered utterly unusable. He thought that wasn’t quite fair. Yubel didn’t have any actual clothes to remove.

Then Yubel touched him and Johan stopped thinking about what was fair or unfair altogether. In fact, all thoughts vanished, replaced only by a raging need that he wanted sated at all costs. Yubel clearly knew what he felt and took their time taking care of him, stoking the flames of desire as high as Johan could stand them, while he made nothing but whimpering, needy noises.

Much later – much much later – he curled up against Yubel, soaked in sweat and the most pleasantly exhausted that he’d been all day.

“Juudai will ask how we spent our time without him,” Yubel reminded him, lips quirking faintly. Johan managed a chuckle.

“So what are we going to tell him?”

Yubel played with his hair, their talons parting his sweat-streaked locks. “What do you say to giving him a demonstration once he gets back?”

Johan considered what they’d just done and considered showing it all to Juudai. There wasn’t anything unequal about their relationship, but more often than not, Juudai called the shots whenever they were intimate with one another. For the two of them to turn that on him – a soft laugh bubbled up from his very depths.

“I like that,” he agreed, getting himself more comfortable in Yubel’s embrace. “Do you think he will?”

“Definitely. Juudai enjoys being surprised – if it’s done right.” Yubel promised him. For several minus that they were quiet, and Johan started to consider just going to sleep. Sunlight still spilled across the garden outside of the window but they’d put in a great deal of efforts and a quick nap would do wonders for his energy levels.

Then Yubel’s talons brushed over his forehead. “I can think of a few other things he might like. Care for a few examples?”

Johan wondered exactly what they had in mind. Yubel waited just long enough for him to agree, and no sooner had he nodded than Yubel started to show him.

By the time they were done this time, the sun now cast shadows over the garden, and Johan could just barely keep his eyes open. Yubel’s voice purred warmly in his ear, humming a pleasant, relaxing melody that sank into his bones.

He would have liked to fall asleep to that but he dragged his eyes open one more time.

“Dinner,” he reminded Yubel. “We need dinner.” He pushed himself to his feet, sparing a glance for the shredded fabric that had been his clothes several hours earlier. Yubel, of course, didn’t look even remotely repentant. He didn’t think they’d ever been repentant about anything in their lives. Certainly not in the last two centuries.

But now Yubel rose to their clawed feet as ell. “You’re right,” they agreed. He knew that Yubel seldom ate physical food, mostly because of Juudai’s existence. It was some strange interweaving of their magics, one that he didn’t share, but found fascinating. But he also didn’t miss that flicker of amusement. “Juudai’s going to bring home some treats for us. Where he’s going – that realm has several talented cooks in it. They’ll load him down with edible gifts when he’s ready to come back to us.”

Johan wished more than ever that they could have gone with him. But perhaps another day – and while the two of them were there, then he and Yubel would enjoy one another’s company, in every way that they possibly could.

The End

Notes: I also wrote this for two prompts on tumblr: kisses exchanged as they move around, hitting the edge of tables or nearly tripping over things on the floor before making it to the sofa or bed & one person stopping a kiss to ask "Do you want to do this?" only to have the other person answer with a deeper, more passionate kiss.

[you-guys--are-losers]

Hey I know this is a difficult one, but could you write one where MJ cheats on Pete? The resolution is completely up to you

//Um, are you kidding??? Thank you SO much for sending in this prompt, I love angst! Stay safe and healthy, darling, and I hope you enjoy! 

Stretched Too Thin

Summary: How much weight can a spider’s silk bear? 

Characters: Peter Parker x Michelle Jones

Wordcount: 2,603

Warnings: HEAVY Angst, Cheating, Hurt

“We never kissed.” 

Peter never thought that his life would bring him here: to the center of the apartment he just bought with MJ, standing in the middle of all of the piled boxes and the orange glow from the streetlamps outside the window. A feeling of emptiness sinks in his chest, and it’s more painful than any injury he has ever sustained while running around with the world on his shoulders. 

At least when he is hurt while fighting, there is blood welling from the wound or the throbbing of a bruise: something to remind him he is still alive. As Peter stands here now, he feels like he is floating, tangled in webbing and bobbing above the ground. He can’t move, can’t breathe, can’t think as the hollow numbness in his chest spreads to flood him with nothingness from head to toe. 

It feels cold. 

“We never even met more than three times, and we didn’t… Do anything. We just talked.” 

Peter is looking anywhere but his girlfriend, who is standing two feet away but somehow feels much farther. He knows what he will see if their eyes meet: he will see her face in all of its constancy. He will see dark eyes locked on his own, searching. He will see a carefully composed mask, separating emotions from the truth that is on her lips. 

It is the face he has always loved for its honesty, that has now been forever changed by that same lust for truth. 

“When?” 

He doesn’t remember planning on saying the word, but when it tears from his throat it is husky and constricted, more like a cough than a word. 

The answer meets the air quickly, like a bullet from a loaded pistol. Peter has dodged plenty of those, but he knows that these will land and leave scars forever. 

“Two weeks ago. While you… While you were in Cairo.” 

Another threat, another battle. The perfect place to hunt a Scorpion, and another victory to wear on his chest for his effort. But is it worth it, compared to what he has lost for his time? 

He does not ask anything else, but MJ is speaking anyway. The words are heavy but swift as they leave her lips, each another blow. 

“It was the DA in the Kleinfield case.” 

Peter does not move, blinking blankly as he registers the name of MJ’s latest client. The dusty floorboards of the apartment squeak beneath his feet as he shifts his weight from one foot to the other. He remembers the night they first moved in, sweeping the broken glass and carpet fibers from the wood and putting a blanket over boxes as a tablecloth for their Chinese takeout. He remembers falling asleep in MJ’s arms on their frameless mattress, the sheets slipping off the corners and the chill not quite reaching them so long as they were tangled together. 

He’s cold now. 

“It was a case that I… That I didn’t believe in. They come sometimes, and as a Public Defender you can’t turn them down.” 

“I thought you weren’t supposed to talk about this stuff. Attorney-client privilege.” 

“This is more important than my work, Peter.” 

“Or it’s just getting easier and easier for you to betray people’s trust.” 

There is quiet between them now, and it is not the contemplative, easy silence that he and MJ have perfected to a tee. He knows he’s struck a nerve, and something in Peter pangs with guilt. He never wanted to cause her pain… He remembers looking upon her the first time they kissed, at the worry that had creased her brow at the blood weeping from his cuts, and swearing to himself that he would do his best never to put that expression on her face again. 

Maybe he wasn’t the one who needed to worry. 

“We talked after the case.” There is something tight in her voice now. It reminds Peter of a clenched fist. She is not going to swing with it if she can help it; she will stay calm. The rational one. Always careful, planning her next step. 

Then how the hell did this happen? 

“He… His arguments were clean, honest. He didn’t use cheap emotional appeals or play dirty. I fought my hardest because it’s my job, and he respected that, but he also saved me from having to go home knowing I’d let a guilty woman walk.” 

“So we met for coffee.” 

Peter draws in a sharp breath, turning his back on her. There is a stabbing pain in the back of his throat as he listens, his own hands balling so tightly that his nails jab into his palms. If he’s not careful, his super-strength might cause him to draw blood. Maybe he doesn’t have to be careful. Maybe he can give up control over this one thing; after all, she wasn’t careful. God knows he should be allowed a slip-up. 

“He invited me, and we went to a cafe. We sat, drank coffee. Talked. About work first, then writing, then a few other things. I only went one more time after that, and that was it.” 

“And did he ask you to come again?” 

Peter’s voice is quiet, composed again. The words are terse. MJ draws in a breath, and then she speaks again in a tone matching his. 

“Yes. I said no the couple times he texted after, and then he stopped messaging. Nothing happened, Peter. I’m not proud of it, but it didn’t mean anything.” 

“I’ve known you a long time,” Peter breathes, turning back. Her feet are clad in the Spider-Man slippers that May bought her as a joke last Christmas, and Peter doesn’t look anywhere else. However, the tension she holds in her body extends all the way down to her toes.

“I’ve never known you to say anything you don’t mean.” 

A beat. 

“You have every right to be angry.” 

“Thanks for reading me my rights. Good to know the law is on my side even if you aren’t.” 

For the first time, the tension she is holding creeps to her voice. “I’m sorry. It was a mistake, Peter. I know it’s my fault, I know that sorry won’t make it better. But… I am.” 

“I thought it didn’t mean anything, so what do you have to be sorry for.” 

“Peter.” 

His eyes finally snap up to hers, and it is just as he predicted. They bore into him, deep and dark and piercing. He can see the tangle of hurt and frustration that gleams within them, and her brow is furrowed the same way it is when she is looking over documents for her work, trying to figure out how to make them say what she wants to. 

Well, he won’t. It’s not rational, the pain and sadness that bubble up in him like magma from a split in the earth, but he can’t seem to force them down. Maybe it’s the exhaustion; maybe it’s the weeks spent in the blistering heat pursuing leads to stop a man who hurt thousands. Maybe it’s the lack of sleep or the hunger that is currently gnawing at his stomach. But he can’t keep it all in anymore, not after months of being called away to fight the next big, bad guy. 

He can’t keep it in, not even for her anymore. 

“Why the hell did you tell me?” 

His voice breaks as he looks at her, and he feels a painful stinging in his eyes that throbs in time with the lump in his throat like an accompaniment. 

MJ blinks, and for the first time Peter sees some indication that she is rattled. She makes her living anticipating questions, anticipating responses. He knows what it looks like when she is on the receiving end of an inquiry she isn’t prepared for. 

It doesn’t happen often. 

“It’s the truth.” 

The words are a reflex for her, spoken as if they are the most obvious thing in the world. Maybe they are, to her. A draft breezes through the house, probably something that snuck through the window frames. Peter is already colder than he has ever been, but the little breath of wind ruffles the few curls that have escaped MJ’s messy bun, the ones that are lit orange by the phosphorous lamps. Goosebumps rise on her arms beneath her ratty, Columbia University t-shirt. 

The urge to offer her his jacket is overwhelming, but Peter manages to resist it as the silence stretches on. 

“So you didn’t tell me because you thought you owed it to me,” he murmurs, his voice starting soft. As he continues speaking, it rises slightly in pitch, and though he is not yelling, he cannot keep the pain from his voice. 

“You didn’t tell me because it’s the next step to rebuilding, to moving on. You told me to make yourself feel better.” 

“Peter, you know how I feel about-” 

“About truth? Yeah, I do. You worship it.” 

“Don’t interrupt me.” 

MJ’s eyes have narrowed slightly, and Peter knows this look. It is the same one that crosses her face when a witness is being evasive on cross-exam. 

“I screwed up, Peter. I hurt you, and that’s something I… It’s not what I ever wanted. You can be angry. But don’t speak over me.” 

“So that’s where you draw the line?” 

“What?”

“That’s the boundary you can’t cross? You can have an– an emotional affair with someone, you can text and talk on the phone and meet up with someone behind my back, but the moment I cut you off, that’s where your tolerance runs out?” 

MJ steps towards him, and there is anger in her eyes now. It is desperate, wild, defensive. It doesn’t look that far from sorrow, really. But Peter can tell that she’s clinging at it with the same claws she uses to grasp for truth for those who deserve it, to drag the truth, bloody and bruised, out of the cracks and caves it hides in and into the light. 

“That’s not a valid argument, Peter, and you know it. Those two things aren’t comparable. It’s a fallacy of logic.” 

“That’s your problem with what I’m saying?” 

He takes a step closer, too, and his voice rises to pure, broken desperation as his shoulders slump. 

“I can tell you I’m hurt and frustrated and-and you’re concerned with the validity of my argument’s premises?” 

“No. I can tell you’re overwhelmed and lashing out, and I’m trying to focus you on where that hurt really comes from.” Her voice is collected, but only just; her eyes are pleading, but she has not let down the wall she had up the moment he walked in the room. 

“I’m not one of your witnesses, MJ!” 

The statement bursts from him, and for some odd reason Peter almost feels like laughing as he brings his hands up between him, clutching with clawed fingers at the air as if he is trying to grip onto nothing. 

“You can’t set me up in front of you to extract what you want me to say!” 

“I’m not trying to do that, Peter! You’re not a witness, I’m not– you’re so much more than my work to me, Peter. I love you.” 

“If I’m more than your work, then how did this happen?” 

“I was alone, Peter!” 

The words burst from her lips, and they’re the first thing Peter can tell she really did not mean to say. In an instant, his face clears of emotion. Everything just feels heavy, as if the effort of even maintaining an expression is too much. 

“I didn’t mean to say that.” 

“No, keep going.” His words are monotone, robotic.

A pause, in which the only sound is the rattling of the thin glass windowpanes and the whining of the house’s old, weary bones. 

“I… I missed you, Peter.” 

“I was gone for three weeks.” 

“Please let me talk.” 

Peter purses his lips, eyes not leaving her face. There is something pleading in it now, something that twists his heart like a dagger to the chest.

“I… I know it was only three weeks. But I just-” MJ’s face tenses, and her lips shrug downwards as she swallows, trying to find the words. 

“I missed you before that. You’re so selfless, Peter, and I’ve always struggled with the fact that I’m… I’m never going to be able to match how good you are.” 

Peter feels the stinging in his eyes intensify. His face is cold, unfeeling. 

“Always helping, always putting your life on the line. Morocco, Berlin, Egypt, Italy, you just– You change the world every day. And when you come back, I can see the ghost of the parts you give away to those people.” 

Marble. He is marble. 

“And I help people, I’m not trying to diminish that. But it isn’t–it’s not black-and-white, it’s not… It’s not simple. I don’t get to leave the people I helped, knowing I made their life better.” 

Tears spark in her eyes, and she does not bother to address them as one slips free. Her face does not change. “I get to be told that… That I’m helping the villains. The ones who did it, and who are trying to get away with it. For all the good people I help, there are the ones who are guilty, and I’m-I’m good, Peter. I’m good at what I do.” 

“Good for you.” 

“Please.” 

The streetlamps turn the tears the color of liquid gold, orange and glowing in the dim light. 

“I couldn’t look myself in the eye in the mirror. I couldn’t look at all of the things that… That were here, reminding me of high school and college and the person who wanted to make the world a better place, not turn cheaters and liars and oppressors back into it.” 

“So I told Harry about it. I told him, and I… I let things go farther than they should. I did it. I did it, because I couldn’t look into the eyes of the man I love and tell him that– that for every bad guy he’s put away, there’s one I’ve released.” 

Her voice breaks, and Peter finds himself taking a step closer. He wants to wrap his arms around her, let her bury her face in the crook of his neck so that her curls tickle his cheek. He wants to watch one of the Planet Earth documentaries that they watch after a bad day, to eat cannoli from their favorite bakery tangled up in the quilt May gave them for their five-year anniversary. 

He wants to look into those eyes, through which hope pierces the tears, and to tell her that everything is okay. 

But he’s tired… So tired. The kind of tired that life inspires and nothing but time can erase. 

And even then, there’s still a smudge on the paper. 

Peter stares into her eyes for one moment, the broken feeling in his chest only growing like a fault line to his heart. He catches his breath, and then he is turning, shrugging back on the shoes that he had slipped off by the door. 

“I’m going to May’s for the night.” 

“Peter.” 

“I understand, Michelle.” 

“I know you do.” Her voice breaks then, and she doesn’t move. It is quiet for another moment longer. “But I was hoping…” She doesn’t finish the sentence. 

“I know,” he breathes, his hand lingering on the knob. He tries to swallow the pulsing lump in his throat, and the words that follow catch after the unsuccessful attempt. 

“I was, too.” 

Taglist: @eniemeanie @inlovewithtoomanythings @booksarelife-stuff @AlexanderThyGreat @flawless-tlc @heynowitsafangirl @but-saving-what-we-love @haurasha @friendly-spoodermin @lundya366 @nicolewithasoul @1am9root @spiderkaren

[msjr0119]

Kinky Cards

This is my submission for ‘Kinky Cards 2020’ as hosted by the amazing @speedyoperarascalparty . My prompt was chosen by @kacie-0156

22.Celebrity Crush. Your partner chooses a celebrity (real or fictional) and you must dress up like him/her for a day. For extra kinkyness try to feel into the character

Using my pairings from my new series ‘We Belong’. (Bastien x Olivia, Drake x Evie, Liam x Riley, Maxwell x Hana)

Warnings: Smut, Swearing

Writers

@darley1101 @boneandfur @debramcg1106 @lilyofchoices @blackcatkita @annekebbphotography @burnsoslow @jessiembruno @emichelle @bobasheebaby @xxrainbow-princessxx @hopefulmoonobject @drakeandcamilleofvaltoria @ao719 @brightpinkpeppercorn @sirbeepsalot @choicesbyjade @kaitycole @choicesarehard @drakewalkerwhipped @thehonorarybeaumont @zaffrenotes @drakewalkerfantasy @god-save-the-keen @fluffy-marshmallow-heart @innerpostmentality @emceesynonymroll @chappela @janezillow @katedrakeohd @argylemnwrites @leelee10898 @candy72008 @client-327​ @ladynonsense​ @blackcoffee85​ @dcbbw​ @blackwidow2721 @breaumonts @mind-reader1 @choiceslife @texaskitten30 @callmetippytumbles @tornbetween2loves @thecordoniandiaries @fromthedeskofpaisleybleakmore @queen-of-effing-everything @domesticatedantelope  @drxkewalker @jovialyouthmusic @walkerismychoice @walkerswhiskeygirl

*****

Everyone had gathered at Ramsford for a catch up. Riley had given birth to the crown Princess a few weeks ago- Uncle Leo was looking after her as they had decided that they needed a bit of time away from Mommy and Daddy duties with their friends. As well as time away from their duties.

Maxwell had always insisted with gatherings such as these to play crazy drinking games- however, as the Queen was breastfeeding Liam ruled out any drinking - being the protective husband. After playing cards against humanity for hours, after a few offensive cards- the group decided to call it a night.

“Guys, so when I was drunk years ago- this random girl gave me these cards known as ‘Kinky cards’... myself and Hana have used them every so often- don’t ask. But why don’t you guys have a go? I’ll give a random one to each couple. I’m looking forward to hearing what you get up to...” Maxwell being the fun Lord, had hoped that his friends would enjoy it- having a quick peek at the cards he had ‘randomly’ selected he sniggered to himself.

****

Since Olivia had officially began dating Bastien, during gatherings such as these he would combine work as well as spend time with her. Liam didn’t mind, as long as he was alert at all times incase of any unexpected emergency. Olivia, Bastien, Liam and Riley returned to the palace- going their separate ways, the Duchess and guard entered Olivia’s room. Throwing the card on the side, Olivia wasn’t interested in joining in with the game- she liked to keep her sex life private compared to her friends such as Drake and Evie who showed their love for each other overtly.

“What does the card say?” Bastien asked her, intrigued as to why she wouldn’t show him what it consisted of.

“Bast, it’s a load of crap. Maxwell and his dumb ideas for fun.” Rolling her eyes, she wasn’t ready for a debate. Bastien eyed her body up and down, his eyes pleading with her to tell him. Noticing this, she easily gave in. “It says ‘Celebrity Crush. Your partner chooses a celebrity (real or fictional) and you must dress up like him/her for a day. For extra kinkyness try to feel into the character.’ Happy now?”

“Yes. Liv, you know I’m off duty tomorrow until the ball- so those twenty four hours can begin now.” Smirking at her, she provided her infamous scowl towards her lover.

“Hell no!”

“Come on babe, I bet everyone else is doing their cards- we can’t let the team down.” Bastien replied in a seductive way as he removed his jacket and shirt in one swift motion. She couldn’t resist fondling with his cock, wanting to feel his hardness- that she could see through his jeans.

“Liv, the card....” Frustrated that she was clearly ignoring the task that they had been given- he pushed her away, hoping that this distance would tease her until she responded.

“For fuck sake. Who’s your crush then?”

“You know at the Halloween party, when you dressed up as Catwomen? That became my fictional character crush.”

“You have to be fucking kidding me. Do you know how warm that costume gets?”

“Well I think your ice cold heart will even the heat out then.” Reaching up, he pulled each Bobby pin out of her hair, causing her red locks to cascade down. Olivia’s arms came around to encircle his neck. Standing on her tiptoes, slowly she closed her eyes, and placed a light kiss on his lips- hoping that this distraction would prevent him for elaborating on his need about wanting to complete the task. Breaking the kiss, their eyes locked - there was silence.

“Close your eyes again, Liv. I’ll be back in a moment.” Doing as he commanded, he slowly put one arm around her back as he snuck behind her. “Open your eyes, and put it on.” Scrutinising the room, she wondered where he had hidden the outfit as he had only provided her with the mask. Putting it on, she believed that she could get away with just wearing this- having sex with him may knock all of the fantasy out of his mind, he may just accept partially completing the kinky card- she thought. A happy smile broke out on his face as he looked at her wearing the mask, as his hands worked at stripping her out of her clothes- never breaking eye contact. Bastien brushed the straps off of both her shoulders. As he lowered the dress further, the lacy underwear that she was wearing immediately turned him on. As the dress reached her hips, he gently kissed her bare lower back. From there, he simply pulled the dress away, discarding it on the floor. She maintained her position as he moved to snuggle up behind her, sliding his arms under her arms and then wrapping his arms around her, under her breasts. His firmness pressed against the fabric of his boxers, and rested between the upper halves of her buttocks. From nowhere his hands were instantly on her, taking in her body as he always did. Feeling his fingers keenly fondling her breasts and freeing them from her bra, her chest was now fully exposed. Turning her around, in a matter of urgency his mouth was suddenly hard upon hers. Consuming her with desire, he kissed her intently then began to slowly and passionately toy with her lips and mouth. His lips moved down her body and plunged his mouth over her nipples, sucking them making her body tremble. His tongue swiftly moved straight towards her already moistened pussy lips. Throwing her head back, her body was sensing the pleasure and pulsing the stimulus throughout her body.

“Bast....” she moaned, unable to hold in the orgasm. Pushing him away, she immediately dropped to her knees- holding onto his thighs, she was enjoying the view of his massive hard cock. Feeling his arousal in her mouth as she began to work his cock and draw his pleasure from him. Taking his length in and out, she knew he wouldn’t be able to hold back much longer. Stroking his length with her soft hands, she heard him groan quietly. Licking and sucking just the end of him at first, she increased her speed. Grinning as he removed himself out of her mouth, she licked her way down to his testicles- taking them into her mouth, sucking hard. Quickly lifting her up, she wrapped her legs around him as he laid her on to the bed.

Laying with her legs spread open, she was eagerly awaiting for him to arouse her. Rolling her on to her side, he spooned her as his teasing fingers and thumb rubbed her clit. Pumping deep into her, hard and firm filling her pussy with all he had.

“Get on all fours Liv.” Turning around to face him, her face provided a slight bit of disgust and disappointment.

“All fours? You know how I like to take a bit of control in our sex life- I want you on top of me!”

“You’re a cat for twenty four hours. Doggy style or in this case pussy style.”

“Can’t we just lie, saying we’ve done the card? This is ridiculous...”

“Why Duchess Olivia, you’re not one to be so easily defeated..”

“Just fucking do it then...” She crawled up on to her hands and knees, lowering her head to the pillow and encouraging him to take her from behind. Feeling the tip of his cock pressed against her asshole, she shook her head as he grabbed her buttocks. “Don’t you dare push that in where I think you’re wanting to.” Bastien smirked, they had never done anal before. He had mentioned it plenty of times previously, but respected her wishes. He certainly didn't want to annoy her, and he had a feeling that if he accused her of instigating this type of sexual activity she wouldn't do it again- or she could potentially end their relationship. Rubbing her clit in a tantalising rhythm- he heard her let a slight moan escape from her lips.

“So wet for me already, Liv...”

“Always are, my love... don’t stop!” Having this encouragement, he rubbed for a few seconds longer before inserting one finger- pumping it in and out. Olivia’s moans increased louder and louder with every movement he made. Adding another finger, his speed increased feeling her juices pour onto him. Removing his fingers, made her whimper- she wasn’t sure if she could stay in that position for much longer as her legs felt like jelly.

“Bast, just get on with the main thing... I want to feel you...” Raising her arse further towards the air, Bastien positioned himself at her entrance- rubbing his tip against her already wet folds.

“You ready, your grace?” He whispered in her ear, feeling his hot breath linger sent a shudder down her back.

“Please...” she barely whimpered. Kissing her bare skin, he slowly entered her- making sure that he was fully inside, allowing for her walls to accept his length. Slowly thrusting in and out, he soon increased the speed- slamming right in to her. The thrusts became rough, with Bastien shifting ever so slightly- hearing Olivia moan his name over and over as if she stuck on loop, made him feel pleased that he was pleasuring her. Feeling a knot form in her stomach, she had lost count of how many times she had released- hitting her g-spot she was done for.

“Fuck Bast... I’m about to.... again.....” Feeling herself clench around his cock, he smirked as he rode her through her orgasm. His cock twitched inside of her, she suddenly heard him groan- knowing that he was climaxing, as she was for the final time. Riding out their highs for as long as possible, he eventually slid out of her. Laying next to her, he pulled her close towards him- running his fingers through her hair, then caressed her cheek. “I love you.”

“I love you too... but Bast... can I take this mask off? It’s not good for my skin...”

“I won’t tell Lord Beaumont... take it off my love.” Smirking, she knew she had provided him with a bit of his fantasy, in the back of her mind she had hoped that this would be enough.

******

The day after, Olivia was determined to completely ignore the fact that she had to dress up in character- laying a few of her many red dresses on the bed, she was undecided as to which one to choose.

“Duchess Olivia, I believe that you already have your outfit. These can go back into your wardrobe.” Rolling her eyes back, she could throttle him in an instant with his persistence regarding completing the kinky card challenge.

“I can’t show up as Catwoman, it is a ball to celebrate the birth of the Crown Princess.”

“I’m sure that King Liam and Queen Riley wouldn’t mind...besides it all part of the game.”

“I will show my face in this costume, then leave. How many hours have I got left?”

“Technically six.” Bastien purred, as he spanked her. “I’ll see you down there Duchess Olivia. Don’t distract me too much.”

Duchess Olivia Nevrakis Of Lythikos

Olivia stroped into the ballroom, providing all the guests with dagger eyes- she never used to let what people thought of her get under her skin. But for some reason, she was feeling humiliated and frustrated that she couldn’t keep to her intentions of quitting the game whilst she was ahead.

“Hey Liv, damn girl! My best friend is one sexy lady.” Attempting to hold in her laughter, Evie was shocked that Olivia would turn up to an important event such as this not wearing read.

“Shut it, Evie!”

“I assume this is part of your kinky card?”

“Unfortunately you assume correct. What card did you and Drake get?”

“Now that would be telling... I’m just going to grab Riley and Hana- we will be back soon.” I bet whatever they had was nothing quite as ridiculous as this. The three women whispered and laughed before leaving the ballroom.

“Meow!” Bastien made his way over towards her, grabbing her arse discreetly.

“Do you want to become single Bastien?”

“No, your grace.. but I do believe we could sneak away for a bit. Glen can keep an eye on everything with the other guards... Riley used to do it with Liam and Drake all the time, even though they didn’t realise that I was watching them like a hawk.”

“Liam’s study- five minutes. You owe me for this.”

*****

Arriving in Liam’s study, she cleared his desk for obstructions- hoping that her photographic memory would remember the exact location of each item- or hoping that Liam wouldn’t realise. Removing the bobby pins from her hair, her red loose curls flowed effortlessly down her back.

Hearing the door open, she immediately sat on the edge on the desk in a seductive position with her legs crossed.

“I am catwoman, hear me roar.” Bastiens eyes widened, feeling his trousers instantly tighten. Retrieving the perfume out of her bag, she stood up and sprayed it all around him- providing her with a perplexed expression, she smirked knowing he was clueless as to why she did this.

“I’m marking my territory, dur. You’re mine Bast. All mine. Female cats usually mark their territory using scent glands. For now I’ll spray my Chanel over you.... but soon I’ll be rubbing a personal ‘scent’ onto your hard cock...”

Smirking, he noticed her get into her role as a cat- even if it had taken a while. Rubbing her nose against him, then her cheek against his- she then returned to Liam’s desk. Stealing his bottle of scotch, she drank from it before placing it in her bag.

“What are you doing? He’s going to know.”

“Catwoman is a highly skilled burglar... he’s a king. He won’t notice. Do you know what else Catwoman is good at?” Shaking his head, he knew he would have to replace it before Liam realised. “She’s good at martial arts, self defence. As am I. So if you tell him, I’ll knock you out...” Bastien gulped, he knew that she wasn’t threatening him- it would become a reality. After all, he had taught all of them extra self defence techniques as teenagers, so he knew how feisty she could get even back then.

“So... are you coming here or what Bast?” Without hesitation, he took only a few strides towards her. Unzipping the outfit, she soon slipped out of it as she removed herself from the desk- grateful as she was sweating cobs, not knowing if it was due to the material or the humiliation for wearing it. "Unzip or remove your pants, now" she demanded before facing him. Sliding out of her underwear, he followed suit. She glanced down before meeting his gaze. "Oh, Bastien…" Her eyes sparkled with excitement as she eyed his manhood spring out once his boxers were removed.

Sliding his hand between her sex before slipping his finger inside of her, Olivia was immediately soaking- unable to contain herself. Stopping his movements, he removed his finger out from her, before pulling her flush to him. Her head fell back as she arched her body, feeling Bastien kiss his way down from her lips, to her breasts. Yanking at his hair, he groaned loudly and continued to roam her bare skin with his hands. Unable to prevent himself from touching her smooth delicate skin. Both eyes were full of lust and desire. Olivia pushed him away from her, creating a slight bit of distance.

“Liv?” Bastien questioned as she lift one leg up and rest it on his shoulder.

“Catwoman is also flexible, a good gymnast... do you think you could fuck me hard like this?”

“Your grace, I most certainly can...”

Olivia managed to stay balanced on one leg, keeping it straight- allowing Bastien to take control. “You ready?” He asked making sure that she was comfortable. Bending his knees slightly, he forced his cock straight into her, they didn’t have time for foreplay due to this position. As well as the fact that they had disappeared from the Crown Princesses ball. He began to thrust gently inside and out- his eyes never leaving hers. Holding onto her lower back, he pulled her closer towards him with every thrust. Pumping his penis deep inside of her- every so often he would pull out and rub his cock against her clitoris. Loving the feel of her skin against his, he began to kiss her hungrily, urgently as their bodies continued to crash against each other. He had lost himself once again, every moment he wasn’t with her, he starved for her. Craved her. The scent of her perfume always lingered around him. The taste of her tongue against his also lingered throughout his mind. The whimpering moans she made whenever they had sex, made him get through his work day knowing he would be returning to her once he had ‘clocked off’. Their combined breaths filled the room, as they both enjoyed the pleasure. Both ready to climax one final time.

“I think we better return... we’ve been longer than I said we would.”

“It was worth it though? You’re not always going to be head guard Bast, live a little. Before that ticker of yours explodes...”

“Are you calling me old?” Raising his eyebrows, he knew she was only joking about his age. She didn’t care about the age gap. If anyone had an issue regarding their relationship she would tell them straight out to mind their own business.

“Yes. But I love you. Zip me back up.” Winking at him, he kissed her on the forehead.

“I love you too Duchess.”

*****

Returning to the ballroom, both feeling slightly flustered- Olivia was suddenly more annoyed with the night than she was when she was announced in. The three women noticed their friend scowling, biting their lips they knew their mischievous plan would irritate her.

“What the actual fuck? You’re all wearing my colour! Red is my colour!” Causing more attention to herself, Olivia hoped that the next few hours would come around quickly.

“As Queen I believe I am allowed to wear whatever colour I want - Duchess Olivia.”

“You and I were like twins growing up Liv- Elivia. Besides Drake likes me in red. Would you really want to hurt him, after all your cunning plans to get us together?”

“You’re not wearing red tonight, so we all believed that for one night only we could ‘steal’ your colour.” Hana giggled, knowing if it was just her she wouldn’t dare cross the line.

An hour went by, and the ball was soon drawing to a close- Olivia was thankful for this. Everywhere she turned, echoes of laughter and whispering filled the room- wishing now that she had kept her relationship with Bastien still hidden from the nobles, as she did the few years before Evie returned.

“Never have i ever slept with Bastien.” Olivia scowled at her intoxicated friend, refusing to take a drink. Drake bit his lip attempting not to laugh, during her first day back in Cordonia she had let slip to him that his father figure and worse enemy were in a relationship.

“Go on Liv, take a shot.”

“Evie you told him?”

“Yup. Like you’ve just confessed to everyone else.”

Bastien pulled Olivia to the side, as the guests were leaving- knowing that he was in the doghouse for persuading her to complete the challenge- even though the sex had been beyond brilliant.

“Are you ready to leave?”

“Damn fucking right I am. My newborn niece cried when I held her. Everyone’s talking about me. I hate you and Maxwell.”

“I’ll make it up to you- again.” Shaking her head, she stormed up to her room. Two hours to go. Fuck this. Removing her mask, and outfit, she was tempted to throw it in the bin- the reminder of it would haunt her for the rest of her life. She had even considered just avoiding fancy dress in the future and sticking to normality- red outfits.

Bastien pined her up against the wall, not giving her the opportunity to react. No matter how angry she was towards him, she couldn’t resist him.

“If you want sex Mr Lykel, you have to do something for me...”

“What’s that?” He whispered, as his hands roamed her body and he kissed her neck in an urgent manner.

“You have to.......”

*****

After the council meeting the day after the ball, Maxwell asked how everyone’s kinky cards went- not being able to speak to each couple in full detail. The friends all agreed that they enjoyed doing it, all agreeing to do another card at the next gathering. Making a beeline towards the Scarlet Duchess, he knew that she was the least impressed.

“Duchess Olivia, I didn’t recognise you without all that Lycra.” Maxwell impersonated a cat, purring at her as well creating claws with his fingers.

“Shut it Beaumont before I claw you to death!”

“Ouch Liv! Live a little will ya? I’d have loved to see what would have happened if Bastien had to dress up instead...”

“Maybe you will one day, now leave me alone...”

“Yes ma’am...” Maxwell had always been slightly intimated by the Duchess, so decided it was for the best to leave her- after all they did make a laughing stock out of her.

Liam, Leo and Riley were all pulled into a corner by unknown people, the King scrutinised the room wondering where his guard was in case this was an emergency. Retrieving his phone, he sent a quick ‘SOS’ text to Bastien- noticing that he wasn’t with Olivia, he had no idea why his guard had gone awol.

“Sir? What’s up?” Everyone heard Bastien’s voice shout as the doors swung open but couldn’t see him- seeing a man in a cape run towards them, everyone’s eyes widened.

“Bast?” Liam and Leo said in unison both shocked, before both bursting out in an hysterical outburst of laughter.

“Holy shit! It’s Bat-sein, Na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, BATMAN!” Leo fell to the floor in hysterics. Bastien took a deep breath, biting his lip- he attempted to remain professional as he turned to face the King and Queen.

“Your Majesties, do you need me?”

“Erm, I was just wondering who these people are. Where’s Robin? Is the Penguin about to make an appearance too? Or maybe the Riddler? The Joker? Mr Freeze? Harley Quinn?” Leo stood up, still unable to catch his breath. High five, he said to his younger brother- before they both eventually painted a stoic expression on their faces.

“These people Sir, are the civilians that are for the proposal that was mentioned in the meeting. No danger, don’t worry. And no your Majesty- those fictional characters are not going to make an appearance- not that I’m aware of anyway.” Olivia walked over, smirking along with Maxwell. “Paybacks a bitch! Beaumont, next time make sure we get a better Kinky card- something that doesn’t involve fancy dress or something that isn’t twenty four hours long. Enjoy your twenty four hours Bastien. Life’s a bitch. Now so am I.”