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thelastspeecher · 4 years

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D&D AU - Elf Kid Adventures

Hhhh I wanted to post this a couple days ago but work was busy af this week and I didn’t have the time nor energy to finish it up until today. But here it is. Some upbeat cheerful cute stuff to go with the good mood many of us are in tonight. Have some adorable smol content in my D&D AU (where, for context, the McGuckets are elves and Stan is half-orc and half-elf), discover what Stan is short for in this AU, and join Stan as he realizes that he might be crushing on a member of his party. (Hint: Stan isn’t short for Stanley.)

Enjoy.

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The sudden burst of light that had accompanied the defeat of the necromancer faded. Stan rubbed his eyes, trying to get rid of the afterimages.

My hands feel…softer than usual. He opened his eyes to look at his hands. His jaw dropped. Shit. Before Lute or Angie could see him, Stan hurriedly ducked behind a nearby boulder and looked himself over. What’s the damage here? One thing was for sure. He was a lot smaller and skinnier than he had been a moment ago. Dread built in his gut.

A lock of red hair fell in front of his eyes.

“Oh, fuck,” he whispered. Spotting a puddle of water, Stan rushed over. “Gods, no!” The boy staring back at him wasn’t the rugged orcish man of mere minutes ago. “No,” Stan whined. His reflection was skinny and gap-toothed, with wide golden eyes and freckles of the same color spilling across his cheeks. Rambunctious red curls framed his cherubic face.

Stan continued to stare, distressed, at his reflection. As an adult, there were only three things to suggest one of his parents was an elf: his pale skin, his golden eyes, and his long, pointed ears. Normally, said ears were hidden by his hair, but now, they stuck out of his fiery locks. No matter how hard he looked, Stan couldn’t find a single remnant of his orcish heritage, not even his pride and joy – his tusks.

I’m probably around twelve, then. They started growing in when I was thirteen. Stan carefully probed around his mouth with his tongue, confirming that his tusks hadn’t come in. I forgot just how much I used to look like Mom. If Stan didn’t know any better, he’d say the boy staring at him was a full elf. Angie and Lute could probably tell, though. Since they’re actually full elves.

“Stan?”

Speaking of… Stan closed his eyes.

“Yeah?” he called back.

“Are ya okay?” The voice was higher than usual, but sounded like it was probably Angie.

“I’m fine. I’m just gonna stay here.”

“We have to regroup and figure out our next move,” Angie said, being annoyingly logical. Stan groaned.

“Fine, but don’t say anything, okay?” He took a deep breath, then emerged from behind the boulder. The second Angie and Lute laid eyes on him, their mouths dropped open in shock.

“Yer a ginger,” Lute said flatly. At least, Stan thought the boy who looked the equivalent of a six-year-old human was Lute. The mop of dark hair covering his eyes made it a bit difficult to know for sure. “Do ya dye yer hair or somethin’?”

“No, it got darker when I got older. I look more like my Pops now, but I used to look like my Mom.”

“I’ll say,” remarked the girl that was presumably Angie. She walked over and looked Stan up and down. “You look full sun elf.” Stan’s heart did a strange backflip.

“…Really?”

“Oh, yeah.”

“So, what exactly happened?” Stan asked, eager to change the topic away from his appearance. Angie sighed.

“I don’t rightly know. I took down the necromancer, reversin’ him stealin’ our life force. But I ain’t sure why it had this effect.”

“You don’t know why we wound up twelve, and Lute wound up six, then?” Stan asked. Lute turned red.

“I’m still technically older ‘n ya,” Lute protested, marching over. Angie put a hand on top of her brother’s head, quieting him.

“Yes, Stan, we are both the equivalent of twelve-year-old humans, while Lute has become the equivalent of…” Angie looked down at Lute. “Honestly, a bit younger than ya first guessed. Five years old, I think.” Lute’s jaw dropped. Stan snickered. “Lute was closer to the necromancer than we were. Maybe that was an influence?”

“Whatever happened, I’m just glad our clothes shrunk with us,” Lute muttered. He rubbed his eyes. “Oof, I’m tired.”

“You can ride on Daisy while we travel,” Angie suggested. She whistled, and her wolf marched over. “She’s big enough to support ya.”

“Sounds great,” Stan interjected. “But where are we traveling to?” Angie and Lute looked at each other.

“Ma ‘n Pa?” Lute suggested. Angie nodded slowly.

“I think they’re our best bet. They have centuries of experience in multiple fields of magic, after all.” Angie smiled. Stan’s heart did another backflip. “And we didn’t head too far from ‘em when we set up our station. So’s it won’t take too long to get there. If we don’t run into any problems, we should get there ‘fore nightfall.” Stan scoffed.

“We’re gonna run into problems. We’re fucking kids!” he said dismissively. Lute nodded.

“Fer once, I agree with Stan.”

-----

Lute snored softly from his perch atop Daisy. Angie looked ready to pass out as well. Stan didn’t feel much more awake himself. He dragged his feet down the path supposedly leading to the elf settlement near the McGucket farmstead.

So much for getting there before nightfall. If that hag hadn’t slowed us down… Stan yawned. During their trip to the settlement, they had stumbled across an old lady who promised to help them. Lute, younger and tired, had convinced Stan they could trust the woman. But they soon found out they couldn’t, and after an exhausting fight, they’d barely managed to escape.

“The sun’s startin’ to rise,” Angie mumbled. She rubbed her eyes. Sure enough, the forest around them was beginning to lighten as the sun peeked over the horizon. “We stayed up the whole night.”

“‘We’?” Stan scoffed. “You guys fell asleep at that lady’s house. I’m the only who hasn’t had a second of shuteye.” Suddenly, a man melted out of the woods. Stan took an instinctive step back.

“Children, what business do you have here?” the man asked in crisp Elvish. Angie stepped forward.

“Lenny-” she started. The man’s eyes widened. He walked over to Angie and crouched down. Much like Lute and Angie, he had copper skin. His dark hair was pulled into a ponytail, revealing his long, pointed ears.

“Banjoleanna McGucket?” Lenny asked, aghast. Angie nodded. “You look less than a century old!”

“Lute’s less than half of one,” Angie said, nodding at Lute sleeping on Daisy. Lenny looked over at Daisy. His eyes widened even further. In the dim light, they faintly glowed green. “We were cursed. All three of us.”

“Three?” Lenny’s gaze fell on Stan, who was still eyeing the strange wood elf warily. “Ah. I assume yer not s’pposed to be a child, either?” He had the same accent Angie and Lute did.

Must be a local thing. Stan nodded.

“I’d certainly hope so. No proper parent would let their young son wander the woods at night.” Lenny walked over to Stan and tilted his chin to look more closely at him. Stan allowed it to happen.

I’m too tired to bother protesting. Lenny raised an eyebrow.

“Hmm. We don’t often see sun elf nobility around here.”

“What do you-” Stan started.

“I’ve spent time with our mannered cousins. I know noble sun eyes when I see ‘em. What’s yer name?”

“Stanaximus,” Stan mumbled, giving his full, elvish name. Lenny picked Lute up off Daisy. Lute continued to sleep.

“Stanaximus, Banjoleanna, follow me to a place where you can rest. While ya sleep, I’ll contact the McGuckets.” Lenny walked away. Stan and Angie quickly followed. Angie nudged Stan.

“What?” Stan hissed.

“Why didn’t ya say you were half-orc?” she whispered.

“I don’t look like it. By the way, what kind of name is ‘Lenny’ for an elf?”

“It’s short fer Leandreas.” Angie frowned at Stan. “Yer really goin’ to keep yer orc parentage under wraps?”

“Yeah. At least, until we’re not surrounded by elves.”

-----

Stan’s eyes slowly drifted open. He wasn’t in the same room he’d fallen asleep in. Panicked, he sat bolt upright. He, Angie, and Lute had fallen asleep at the guardhouse Lenny brought them to. Now, though, he was in what was clearly a bedroom.

“Oh, perfect timing!” a voice chirped. Stan looked at the entryway to the room. A wood elf man stood there, beaming at Stan.

Judging by his nose and that he looks just like Lute, this must be Mr. McGucket. Stan swung his legs over the edge of the bed.

“Stanaximus, right?” Mr. McGucket asked.

“I, uh, I go by Stan.”

“Stan. Got it.” Mr. McGucket walked over and handed Stan a pile of folded clothing. “Go ahead and get changed, then meet us downstairs in the kitchen. The missus and I would like to look ya over so’s we can get started on reversin’ that curse.”

“Okay,” Stan mumbled. Mr. McGucket smiled at Stan again, then left, closing the door behind him.

A few minutes later, Stan traipsed downstairs. He was immediately greeted by the scent of something sweet baking. His stomach growled loudly.

When was the last time I ate? He followed the delicious smells to a cozy-looking kitchen. Angie sat at a table with her father and an elf woman she greatly resembled. That must be her mom. Lute was nowhere to be seen. At the sound of his footsteps, the McGucket parents looked up.

“Stan, come over here ‘n pop a squat,” Mr. McGucket said cheerfully. Stan hesitantly walked over to the table and took a seat next to Angie. Busy reading a book on curses, Angie didn’t look up. Mrs. McGucket looked at him with a studious gaze. “Well, Sally?”

“I’d say Lenny’s assessment was accurate,” Mrs. McGucket said. She lacked the accent of her husband and children, instead speaking Elvish in a manner that was similar to how Stan’s mom spoke it. “Young man, you look an awful lot like the sun elf nobility I spent a lot of time around before eloping with Mearl.”

“…You spent time with sun elf nobility?” Stan asked. Mrs. McGucket nodded. Before Stan could ask a follow-up question, his stomach rumbled again. Mr. McGucket’s hazel eyes twinkled.

“I’ll get ya somethin’ to eat, son,” Mr. McGucket said, getting up from his chair. “After you’ve gotten some food in yer belly, we can examine ya to get an idea of what kind of curse we’re dealin’ with.” Stan nodded. Mrs. McGucket raised an eyebrow.

“You’re a bit lacking in manners, Stanaximus,” she commented. “I’d expect someone of your station to know that you’re supposed to thank someone for a favor.”

“Oh, uh, I-” Stan rubbed the back of his neck.

Great, I’m already fucking up pretending to be full elf.

“Angie, were you and Lute poor influences on this young man?” Mrs. McGucket asked her daughter. Angie looked up from the book she was reading.

“What? No!”

“I don’t know if I believe that.”

“Ma!” Angie whined. Mr. McGucket placed a plate in front of Stan. Stan immediately recognized the food he’d been given. It was a bread made of polenta and honey, and a rare treat that his mom would make on special occasions. It had even been served the same way he remembered from his childhood, sliced and slathered with butter.

“Honey loaf,” Stan said quietly. Mrs. McGucket beamed.

“I thought you might enjoy a taste of home. Sun elf recipes can be difficult sometimes, but this is one that’s worth the hassle.”

“…Thank you,” Stan said. Mrs. McGucket’s smile broadened.

“Of course, hon.”

As Stan ate the honey loaf, he glanced at Angie next to him. She was still engrossed in her book, her silver eyes darting back and forth. The sunlight caught her hair, making its already golden hue look near metallic. Her green freckles were more numerous than they had been as an adult; he could see them trailing past the ends of her short sleeves, down her forearms. Eventually, Angie looked at him. Stan’s heart did a weird flip.

“Is there somethin’ wrong?” she asked.

“Huh?”

“Yer starin’ at me,” Angie pointed out.

“Oh, I was just, um, you- you have more freckles,” Stan said weakly. He could feel his cheeks burning, but wasn’t sure why. Angie rolled her eyes.

“So do you. By which I mean that you actually have freckles. Ya didn’t before.” Angie’s eyes lit up. She closed her book. “Oh! By the by, I mentioned that ya never got any lessons on magic as a kid, and my ma offered to help ya out!”

“I mean, the reason I never got lessons was ‘cause I’m no good at it,” Stan mumbled. Angie huffed.

“It could easily be the other way,” she said, punching his shoulder playfully. Stan grinned despite himself, his cheeks continuing to burn. He looked back at the McGucket parents. They were exchanging a knowing look.

What are they so smug about? Stan opened his mouth to ask why they were smirking, only for Mrs. McGucket to speak before he could.

“You know, Angie, you being a kidlet again, it reminds me of when you were this age before,” Mrs. McGucket said, stroking Angie’s hair. “When Max courted you, it was when you were in your sixties, right?”

“Yeah,” Angie confirmed. Stan’s heart began to race.

“Such a sweet boy.”

“Angie, you have a suitor?” Stan blurted out. Angie frowned at him.

“I was courted when I was in my sixties and clearly ain’t married now. What do you think?” she asked.

“Fine, I just- why didn’t you say anything about it?” Stan stammered.

“Because it was decades ago. Why are ya so upset about it?”

“I’m not upset,” Stan said. He looked to the McGucket parents for support. The knowing look was back. “I’m just-” Stan stopped his sentence abruptly, the blood draining from his face.

Heart jumping around, blushing, jealousy? Stan wiped his suddenly damp hands on his borrowed pants. Sweaty palms? Shit. Stupid kid body, stupid kid hormones!

“Just what?” Angie prompted.

“…Never mind,” Stan mumbled.

No, you don’t have a crush on Angie. You don’t! You-

“Yer such an oddball,” Angie said, chuckling. Her laughter sounded like bells. Butterflies fluttered in Stan’s stomach.

…You do. With a cheeky smile, Mr. McGucket took the empty plate from Stan. And her parents know.

“Stanaximus, have you ever courted before?” Mrs. McGucket asked idly. Stan swallowed.

This won’t end well.

#do I have further thoughts on what I could write for this scenario? yes #will I be able to write them up and post them as quickly as usual? hell no #it makes me a bit disappointed but work comes first :/#DnD AU #Stanley Pines #Angie McGucket #Lute McGucket #Pa McGucket #Ma McGucket #McGucket Family #ficlet #my writing #my stuff #speecher speaks

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mariofallenstar · 4 years

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Kamek’s Answer

Bowser Jr. had not been pleased when he’d been told Kamek was too busy to see him.

“Tell him he’s not busy anymore!” he’d barked. “This is urgent!”

Since his childhood, Bowser Jr. had more than doubled in height. The Koopa trembling before him was reminded vividly of the old king in his prime.

Still, his fear could not change his answer.

“I-I’m terrible s-sorry, Your Surliness, but Kamek gave us strict orders not to interrupt him for any reaso-”

He hadn’t even finished before Bowser Jr. rose to his feet with a snarl of irritation. The Koopa yelped and ducked into his shell, but the shell only bounced and clattered harmlessly against the floor as the infuriated king strode past him.

Junior knew there was only one line of work that would keep Kamek from seeing him, but he was determined not to let his old caretaker escape. The castle was as imposing and hollow as the pipes of an organ, and many of the souls living there heard the reverberating booms and crashes of their king’s progress down the twisting castle steps.

Junior burst through the doors to the basement lab, and squinted against the flickering solar flare he found there. The mass of incandescent orange and yellow lights flashed with a brilliance that tore through the eyes like butter and seared the tissue of the brain.

Silhouetted below this agonizing light show, a small cutout in black threatening to be drowned out by the dancing aurora behind it, was Kamek. The round, black goggles over his eyes held a double image of the dancing beam as he flicked his wand and gestured his hand in an arcane pattern of commanding loops. The magic circle on the ground turned steadily on the floor before him, each facet of the ring sending forth a magic chain to wrap tightly around the outraged light. The tightly-wound chains warped the shape of the light until it no longer even remotely resembled a star, just a rod of crumbled, warbling energy.

It was these chains, this circle, that kept the Havoc Star contained.

The Star, as always, emitted a high-pitched wailing that pierced through the eardrums like a dentist drill, but even so, Junior’s booming voice was able to cleave through the noise.

“Kamek! I need to speak with you!” he roared.

Kamek turned, indignant.

“Your Majesty, this is a very delicate operation!” he screeched at the top of his voice. “Wait outside!”

“NOW, KAMEK!”

Kamek frowned. Even over the earsplitting noise, he recognized that tone. He had heard it for decades from Junior’s father, and he had heard it for decades from Junior himself. Kamek feared Bowser Jr. no more or less than he had when his ward was smaller than himself, but he knew no amount of reason, wisdom, or basic fact could prevail over that tone. It was a commanding voice accustomed to shaping reality.

Kamek flicked his wand, and a bubble crisscrossed with geometric shapes enveloped the chained Havoc Star. The siren-like wailing was abruptly choked off and the flickering glare dampened by the slowly turning bubble.

Kamek lifted up his goggles with an unimpressed look and fished his glasses out of his robe. “I suppose if not blowing this castle sky-high is so unimportant to you, I can spare a few minutes,” he said dryly.

“Can the sass!” snapped Junior, “I need to ask you something.”

“Well, what is it?”

Junior stepped further into the room. The ceiling entered Kamek’s range of vision as he looked up to meet his gaze.

“Do you remember when I was a kid, I asked you if dad was a bad person?”

Behind his glasses, Kamek’s eyes narrowed. He had not been expecting this, but he wasn’t surprised, either.

“Yes, what of it?” he said.

Bowser Jr.’s voice was stern. “You never gave me an answer,” he said.

Kamek huffed. “As I recall, Your Majesty, I told you you would have to determine the answer for yourself.”

“Like I said, you never gave me an answer.”

Kamek snarled in irritation. “It wasn’t my place to judge your father’s actions.”

“I’m asking you to,” snapped Junior. “So answer.”

Kamek threw his arms out. “What, you can’t make up your own opinion? You need me to figure it out for you?

“Will you stop DANCING AROUND IT?” With a roar, Bowser Jr. slammed his fist into the lined shelves of glass bottles. Shards of sopping glass spun over the floor. Kamek felt a familiar cold shill race under his shell, and he shrank down.

“The entire world hates us, Kamek!” Junior thundered. “The entire world! They call us monsters! People are killing themselves to get rid of us! You don’t do that for things that are good! Do you?”

Kamek bristled. “Well, you seem to have made up your mind, so I don’t see the point of asking me.”

“The point is you lied to me!” Junior roared. “All the time I was a kid, you made me think we were doing something right!”

“When did we lie to you?” Kamek spat. “When? When we told you we hated Mario? That was the truth! When we told you we wanted the Mushroom Kingdom? That was the truth! What part of what we said was a lie?”

Junior faltered. He had been so full of righteous fury as he’d thundered down the steps, so sure that he had been wronged. He knew he had been deceived, but upon Kamek’s words, he inexplicably found himself put on the spot. He floundered, groping through his memory for anything definite, anything unmistakably duplicitous.

“He... He told me Peach was my mother,” was all he could manage.

Kamek snorted. “Even as a child, you didn’t believe that! Are you honestly telling me that little white lie is why you barged in here? You can’t fool me! This is about that girl, isn’t it?”

Bowser Jr. felt suddenly as though the front of his shell had been ripped open, exposing something raw and quivering underneath.

“She... She has nothing to do with this!” he yelled, and he couldn’t stop the shaking in his voice.

Kamek snorted again. “I wasn’t born yesterday, you know. I know exactly what’s going on here. You were content to sit on the throne your father won for years, and then all the sudden that girl appears and flashes you that arrogant smile and you want to throw it all away!”

“It isn’t like that!” Junior felt his cheeks burning with a heat that had nothing to do with the captive star or the embers popping in his own throat.

“Now who’s dancing around it?” Kamek knew there was a decent chance he would pay for these words later, but he had seen the troubling signs of interest in the young king, and he knew them all too well.

“Your father spent years running himself ragged for one woman! He hasn’t even glimpsed her face for years, and the thought of her still haunts him! Do you want that to happen to you? You think that girl will ever accept you, stand with you at an altar with a bouquet in her hand? Give me a break! It’s a fool’s errand! It always was! You can’t win her! Crush her, throw her away, and forget her! It’s for your own good!”

In his mind’s eye, Junior saw her. The girl with the wild, brown ponytail. The girl with the bold brows and flashing blue eyes underneath the brim of her pink cap. The girl who’d once said to him, “You are standing in between me and my throne.” Then she’d said, “I’ll be a better kind of ruler. That’s why I don’t want you to get hurt.”

And then, she had said: “You deserve to be free, too, Junior.”

“I... She’s not... We don’t...”

“Very well!” Kamek shrieked. “If she really means that much to you, then by all means, run away with her! Bend down on one knee, offer her a ring, leave all this, your castle, your subjects, your family, leave it all behind! Abandon your father and tear down the home he built for you! Everything else has abandoned your father, why shouldn’t you?”

Junior winced. He couldn’t help it. “I never said I was going anywhere!”

“Of course you’re not! Because you’re not an idiot!” Kamek thudded the bottom of his staff against the cavernous floor. “You ask me about right and wrong, good and bad? You’re not a little boy anymore. You should know by now that there is no distinction. Good and evil are just words to dress up ‘us’ and ‘them.’ Tell me, do you truly feel it’s ‘right’ or ‘good’ to turn against your family?”

Junior looked away. He thought of his aged father, ailing, bitter, consumed with obsession and rage. “Torch that little brat!” he’d roared. The “little brat” who fought so ferociously and, every once in a while, smiled at him so kindly.

It was true. He wasn’t a little boy anymore. It had been a long time since he’d thought of Peach as his “Mama.” It had been a long time since he’d thought of Mario as a “bad man.”

But his father was still his father. And his father was alone.

A low, rumbling snarl poured out between Junior’s teeth as he abruptly turned to pound back up the stairs. Kamek blew out the huge breath he had been holding in and flipped his goggles back into place.

Doubt was a new thing. His father had never wrestled with doubt. Kamek was too old, too set in his ways to change course. He hoped he had convinced Lord Junior the same, but he was not fool enough to believe it. He knew better than anyone of the obstinacy of the young.

Junior, for his part, found himself stopping partway up the third staircase. He knew he couldn’t abandon his father. But forget her? He might as well try to detach his own arm. Every time he saw her face or heard her voice, he would think of the sad look in her eyes when he’d...when he’d offered her the kingdom.

“We could rule together! It doesn’t have to be like this! I’ll take care of you, Stella!”

Did Kamek know about that? Did he know that he had already tried the “idiotic” thing Kamek had railed against? Perhaps, by turning him down, she had proven herself to be less idiotic than him.

“That won’t work, Junior. Don’t you see that?”

He could never kill her. But if she had made up her mind to fight, then he would just have to beat her. He would thrash her so painfully, so completely, that she would retreat and never return. It was her only chance.

For a moment, he imagined a scene from a different world. Mario was alive. Junior was still a kid. The stands surrounding the tennis court were filled with cheers and banners. And Princess Peach, still lovely with her golden hair that tumbled below her waist, pulled forth a squinting, brown-haired toddler as she smiled down at him patiently.

“Junior,” she would have said, “this is my daughter, Stella. I hope you two can play nice, at least for today.”

Junior shook his head and pulled himself further up the stairs. That had never happened. Don’t torture yourself. You know the way things have to be.

For the remainder of the day and all through the night, the castle was quiet.

#fan fic #fan fiction #kamek's answer #bowser jr #kamek #princess peach #stella #oc #shipping #angst #fallen star au

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mrs-han · 4 years

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Water Runs Dry - Part One

~~~

For my beautiful @jafndaegur ♥️♥️♥️

This is totally different from what I had originally planned, but!! I really hope you like it!!

Happy Belated Birthday, my darling!!

~~~

“Aahh!!!!”

Sarah’s shriek resounded through the penthouse. A sound that would have otherwise deafened you, you were far too preoccupied with him, the man gripping your arm with one hand and steading your chin with the other.

“Wh - what, what are you...!!” Sarah stammered her voice but a faraway mirage.

You pulled away enough to create some space between your body and his. “... Ju - Jumin...?!”

“Shh...” His placid hush followed by a more established squeeze on your chin silenced you... captivated you. “You’re blushing.”

“... We - well, of course, I’m blushing, y - you’re k-k - kissing me...”

“You’d better close your eyes,” Jumin hummed, his lips barely brushing against yours. “Focus on your senses.”

“Jumin...”

Your emotions began to pound as his lips reconnected with yours. A small buzz - a voltaic shock caused your head to jerk back, but he refused to release you. In that very moment, you two were the only ones who existed. But as he opened his eyes and looked toward Sarah, a sinking sensation in your stomach took hold.

“Ugh... I’m going to tell Ms. Choi!” Sarah stamped her foot and drew her phone from her purse.

“Yes,” Jumin sighed. “Having an audience for our first kiss takes off the tension.” His eyes fell back over you and a slow, steady smirk ran over his lips. He spoke gingerly to you, completely different from the curt tone he had given Sarah. “Your lips are so warm and soft. And... I think I smell a bit of the pancake?” He beamed. “You’re cute, MC.”

“How...! I’ve never been so insulted!” Sarah roared, her voice moving further away from where you and Jumin stood.

“God... finally she’s leaving,” Jumin huffed, his hold on you relaxing.

The door to the penthouse slammed roughly, making you jolt in place. Jumin caressed your arm and moved his thumb over your cheek, stroking delicately... but you felt no comfort. No sense of solace. The warmth and vibrancy of the kiss had dissipated, leaving you with more questions than whimsical ideas of what the future held for you and Han Jumin.

He could sense the tension emitting from you. A small blush crept over his cheekbones as he said, “I’ve wanted to do that from the first moment I saw you.” He took steps toward you - bold and confident about what he had done.

But the pounding sensation in your heart faded... and once curled fingers and toes from the sheer passion of the kiss unfurled as a heat of a different kind overcame your senses. Your cheeks and ears burned with embarrassment, even anger. Your brows furrowed and your arms wrapped firmly around your midsection.

Jumin stopped.

“What... what was that all about?”

Confusion flashed through his expressions, which upset you further.

“How disconnected are you...?” You rasped, barely able to get your words out.

Jumin’s eyes widened. “MC?”

“You really don’t see what you did?” Your voice crackled back to life, a flash of rage rising to the surface and flowing from your tongue. “You kissed me just to get rid of her.”

He blinked. “MC... I’m sorry if that was so sudden. I wanted you to be comfortable here... perhaps I’ve bothered you.”

“Bothered me,” you whispered, running your hands through your hair. “That wasn’t real, was it?”

“What... of course it was,” Jumin frowned. “The kiss was very real. As I said, I’ve wanted to do that from the first moment I saw you -”

“You used me to get her out of here,” you blurted, pointing towards the door. “And it worked. She’s gone. But I’m still here dealing with the repercussions of your... your agenda!”

Jumin’s gaze dimmed. His lips formed a grim, straight line. “MC, I didn’t mean to cause you any pain. Can you believe that, at least?”

Your body began to tremble. “Your cat is missing, by the way. Was kissing me a way for you to distract yourself from that too?”

“This has nothing to do with that,” Jumin replied, his voice louder and more imposing. “My emotions have caused me to act in a way I normally wouldn’t. I was impetuous and thoughtless, this I will admit. I should have been more considerate of your emotions. But MC, my feelings for you are real, solid and sincere. I realize that the longer Elizabeth the Third is away that you are indeed different from not only her but the other women I’ve met in my life -”

“Oh my god,” you laughed bitterly. “So now you’re comparing me to your cat.”

“Listen to me,” Jumin’s voice dropped and his hands immediately went to fiddling with his sleeves. “You aren’t listening to me.”

“I think I hear what you’re saying loud and clear,” you spat sharply.

“You aren’t,” He whispered, vulnerability dripping from his speech. “I’ve never known what it truly felt like to have that one person. That one special person who can truly understand me... who I can touch and kiss and understand what I’m saying. Seeing you right in front of my eyes... I feel like I’ve finally gotten what I’ve always wanted.”

His eyes - those alluring orbs that resembled the foams of the ocean but plunged you in just as deep as the waters themselves - bore into yours.

“I want you,” Jumin hummed, confident enough to take a step toward you. “And I want you to want me too.”

Your hands fell to your side. “I admit... your words are very pretty...”

“They’re honest. They’re real,” he said as he grabbed your hand and pressed your knuckles against his lips. “I mean everything that I say. Answer me now. Do you believe I intentionally meant to cause you any pain?

“No,” You began. “But I do think you had a plan... one that didn’t dare to consider what I might think or what I might do... and you pushed through in fulfilling it.”

“MC -”

“That was my first kiss.” A pained smile flashed over your lips. “Maybe it was wrong of me to fantasize it to begin with but... never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined it being done with a hidden motive attached to it.”

“MC, please -”

You pulled your hand away. “I need to get out of here... ah... right, I didn’t bring anything.”

“What, wait. No.” His wing-tipped shoes struck the floors frantically as he rushed to block the door. “MC, don’t leave.”

“Please move, Jumin.”

“Don’t go. Don’t leave me alone.”

“Jumin.”

“Please.”

A brisk shove of your shoulder caused him to step off to the side. He tried to reach out for you, an action taken in vain as you quickly skirted away from him and to the door.

“MC!” Jumin shouted.

“Ma’am?” The chief bodyguard called after you. “Ma’am, where are you going -”

“Stop her, now!” Jumin boomed.

You dashed to the staircase, yanking your phone from your back pocket. If anyone could help you... or at least give you some sense of comfort... it was Zen.

You urgently punched his image through the RFA chatroom.

“MC!!” Jumin hollered, his voice ringing through the stairwell.

“Leave me alone!!” You barked back, nearly stumbling over yourself.

“MC? MC, are you there?”

“Zen?” You gasped.

“Where are you? Did something happen?”

“Can you pick me up?” You sniffed, wiping at your nose. “It’s urgent.”

“I’m on my way.” Frantic rustling from his end only heightened your sense of awareness. “Are you still at Jumin’s penthouse?!”

“I am,” your voice trembled. “Please hurry.”

“I’ll be right there. Hold on, okay?”

You silently thanked him for his swiftness. He was the first to ask questions, and no doubt he would have some. But in urgent matters... especially matters that involved your safety... he was fast on his feet.

You looked back, just to make sure Jumin wasn’t following you. As you did, you yelped as another stumble caused your ankle to roll over the weight of your body. You landed on your hands and knees, fully aware of the sprain on both your ankle and maybe even a wrist.

“Shit,” you hissed, grabbing onto the railing and pulling yourself up. The lobby wasn’t far, and that mentality gave you the strength to limp down another long flight of stairs.

Music mixed with heavy perfume welcomed you as soon as you opened the door to the foyer of the building. Excited chatter as shoppers hustled and bustled through the apparel outlet C&R had graciously bestowed gave you ample opportunity to sneak through the entrance undetected by the bodyguards who knew your face.

A motorcycle engine revved furiously, startling you as you limped outside. You could recognize him immediately despite your only evidence of his existence from his chatroom selfies; his silver ponytail whipping smoothly through the wind, his lean yet athletic physique...

“MC?!” Zen panted, haphazardly jumping off his bike, snatching his helmet from his head and nearly sprinting over to you. “MC, are you... why are you limping?”

And his eyes... crimson and full. Full of worry, passionate for you cause, and a friendliness that couldn’t be contested.

“I’ll explain everything later,” you tried to smile while wiping the tears coursing down your eyes. “For now, can we go?”

“I’ve got you,” Zen reassured, curling his arm under your legs and lifting you into a bridal-position. “You can lean on me if you need to, don’t be afraid to rest your head on my back okay?”

“Thank you Zen,” you whimpered.

He placed you on the passenger seat and secured his helmet over your head. “Okay,” he assured calmly, settling into the seat in front of you.

“Wait, Zen, your helmet -”

“Ah-ah. You expect me to let a lady ride without any protection?” He smiled. “Trust me. I’ll get you away from here safe and sound.”

“Thank... thank you,” you sighed, hesitantly hugging his waist. “Thank you so much... and it’s nice to meet you by the way, I’m MC...”

A soft chortle escaped him. “Nice to finally meet you, MC. I’m ZEN, the KNIGHT who has NOBLY COME TO YOUR RESCUE!”

The theatrics in his tone allowed you to burst out laughing... for a short while. Jumin burst through the doors of the building, his bodyguards in tow.

“MC!!” Jumin’s voice thundered.

“We’re going!!” Zen whooped, revving his engine and speeding ahead.

“Wah!!” You yelped, your head crashing against Zen’s back.

“Hang on!!” Zen shouted, weaving through lanes of traffic.

“Zen, oh my god!!” You gasped, adrenaline spiking through your body.

“By the way!!” Zen turned his head slightly. “Do you know where Rika’s apartment is?!”

“No!!” You answered.

Silence.

“We- well!! ... Uhhh!!” Zen stammered. “If...!! If it’s okay with you, you can stay with me until we figure something out!!”

“And if we don’t?!”

“We... well!! We can always talk to Seven!! Besides!! Any place is better than Jumin’s, right?!”

A settled feeling coursed throughout as you silently agreed.

#mystic messenger #jumin han #mein schatz #hyun ryu #So I know I said I was gonna give you two seperate stories #But imma mesh them owo #Talking to you ALWAYS gives me inspiration!!#Happy Belated Birthday my baby boo!! ♥️♥️♥️#Also like #I’m still learning how to write Zen’s character so I’m sorry if some parts are like #EH?

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staticscreenwriting · 5 years

Text

Love was just a word - Billy Hargrove

Synopsis: Billy wants to start fresh after Highschool. But that means facing the past and that’s scary. Also abandoned pools are romantic.

A/N: This is my entry for @hotstuffhargrove‘s Summer Writing Challenge. I had the prompts "want a ride" and "is that your idea of flirting". This is over 8k words so, it’s long be warned. Also I’m gonna read through and edit this tomorrow morning I’m so close to falling asleep (forgive me small mistakes please). Feedback, as always, is appreciated.

[additional note: I am German. Sometimes I get the tense wrong or make mistakes. I am useless when it comes to punctuation. Go easy on me, please.]

I thought that love was just a word They sang about in songs I heard It took your kisses to reveal That I was wrong, and love is real

The california sun burns down on his skin with familiar warmth as Billy leans against the outside wall of a tall brick building. There’s vines covering the front and a big white sign proudly displaying the name of the institution, “ Daisy Fields nursing home”.

His hands feel clammy as he takes yet another drag of what’s probably his 3rd cigarette in the matter of half an hour. Every time he feels like taking a step forward and entering the building, his heart speeds up and it feels like his legs are made of solid concrete. If Neil could see him now, it would just confirm all the taunts he’s been throwing at Billy for years.

There’s people walking in and out of the big red doors. Most of them are smiling. He wishes so deeply that this is what things are like for him. That walking inside will end up in him smiling the way those people do. That facing the life he’s left behind means being welcomed home with open arms and friendly words. He’s afraid that is not how things are gonna be.

“ Hey,“ a voice speaks up from besides him as he blows the cigarette smoke into the open air. “ Can I help you ? “

There’s a girl who seems to be around his age. Her hair is pulled back into a messy ponytail and her eyes look exhausted but there’s a certain softness to the way she looks at him that makes Billy feel conflicted. People don’t look at him with soft eyes. They haven’t for a long time. It’s either rage or admiration or lust. There’s no inbetween. Those are the emotions he’s familiar with. The emotions he knows how to deal with.

“ Hello ? “ it’s when she speaks up again and raises an eyebrow in question, that he realizes she’s still waiting for an answer. But really, what can he say. Can she help? Not really.

“ No I uh — no. “

“ You sure ? Are you here to visit someone ? I can see if they’re ready to welcome a visitor. I work he—”

“ I said no!”

He doesn’t mean for it to come out like this. Mean and snippy and loud. It’s just too much right now. Coming back to California and facing the life he has left behind. All of it is crashing down on him all at the same time and it’s — it’s a lot.

“ Oh, okay. Well in case you change your mind... “ she trails off. Billy wonders if she doesn’t know how to end the sentence or if he’s supposed to guess how it ends.

“ If you change your mind and decide not to be such a fucking pussy and finally face the consequences of all the stupid decisions you’ve ever made, just come inside”.

Yeah that sounds about right.

He finishes the cigarette before getting into the car and speeding off. Back to Chase’s flat. The one that’s too small for even one person, let alone two. Billy sleeps on a two-seater couch he suspects is from sometime between the early stone age and 1950. It squeaks every time he as much as takes a deep breath. There’s springs painfully pressing into his back and he has to sleep in a fetus position so his legs don’t hang off of the couch from the knee down.

But really, beggars can’t be choosers now can they ? Chase doesn’t have to let him stay at his place and yet he does anyway. Sure they’ve been best friends since as long as Billy can remember, but that was never the friendship they had and it still isn’t the friendship they have. Things with Chase are easy. It’s all the fun and loyalty that the best friendships come with only there’s no expectations. No pressure to be someone you’re not. Neither Chase nor Billy had expected the other to get in contact during Billy’s stint in Indiana and yet they both knew that if things go real bad they could count on the other to be there. Chase is a good friend, Billy thinks, maybe the best. But he’s a god awful roommate and those are the fact.

Billy Hargrove is a lot of things but he’s not messy. Never was. Even as a child, being clean and tidy was something that had been drilled into his head like a fucking commandment. Neil hates messes. Physical ones and emotional ones. In the Hargrove household you learn to either put your stuff away or never see it again because Neil has gotten rid of it. In the Hargrove household you really learn to cherish the things that are exclusively yours and you learn to take the utmost care of them.

When Billy arrives back at the flat, he finds it empty. What else has he expected really ? Chase works full time at the gas station. It’s an exhausting shop and he has to work a lot of night shifts but it pays well enough and he has first hand access to all kids of booze. He’s also mentioned that a lot of chicks hit up the station on their way to the bar, to pregame or some shit like that. Billy has yet to test that statement on its actual truth.

As his eyes move around the room, glancing at what is his life right now, Billy starts to wonder if this is really living. Maybe it’s just existing. All his belongings are stuffed into two grey duffle bags. He’s lodging on his friends couch eating his friend’s food and acting as a silent side character in his friend’s life.

He’s got no job, no perspective and not idea where to go from here. This is not the life he wants to live. But changing means facing all the shit that’s gone wrong and Billy isn’t sure if he’s quite ready to do that.

- OOO -

It’s 3 days later that he finds himself in the same position, leaning against the same building, smoking a cigarette and wiping his clammy hands on his jeans.

He watches as an older lady talks to a family. Her family, probably. They are smiling and laughing and the little girl that is with them, cuddles close to the older woman. Love is radiating from every corner as he looks at them. They all look so all consumingly happy. He thinks that maybe things here aren’t so bad. Maybe they’re good. Maybe they’re happy. That should ease his conscience a little, right ? Right ? Only it doesn’t. Not even a little bit.

“ Billy ? “

It the same girl from the other day, only this time her hair is down and she’s carrying a guitar case.

“ What ? “

“ That’s your name, right ? “ she asks, eyebrows raised.

“ Yeah. How to hell do you know that. “

She smiles at him and when usually is would make him angry, Billy can’t help but let her smile sooth him a little. It’s so soft and full of something Billy can’t put a finger too. It’s like she’s smiling because she means it not because she feels like it’s expected of her.

“ William Collins is one of our residents. He has a picture of you in his room. I thought you looked familiar the other day and I finally remembered. I mean sure, you’re like 8 in that picture and you’ve grown quite a bit since then — “ Billy almost can’t suppress the smirk trying to spread on his lips as she says that and glances towards his arms “ — but your eyes. Those are still the same. “

Billy loves his eyes. They’re the one thing about him that most resembles his mother. The only other thing he really ever loved in his life.

“ Is that your idea of flirting ? Cause it’s not working, sorry “

She laughs at that and Billy reconsiders his last words there for a moment. Maybe it is working. Her laugh is phenomenal, he thinks.

“ No. No I — that would be a tad unprofessional. So, am I correct ? “

She is. He knows what picture she’s talking about. It’s one that had been sitting on his grandparents’ mantelpiece when he was younger. It’s of him and their dog Charlie. He’s smiling at the camera. Smiling at his mother who’s behind the camera. That day, was one of the good ones. A day when things had gotten too bad at home and mom had packed him into the car and had driven them to his grandparents’ house. He was happy there because mom was happy there and because there were people there who loved him. Who wanted him around. Sometimes he wishes his mom had been smart enough to leave Neil behind. That she would’ve ignored her soft heart that still held even an ounce of love for her husband. That she and Billy had just stayed with Grandma and Grandpa. Maybe then things would’ve been different. Maybe things would be different now. Alas they aren’t. They’re as shit as they are.

“ Why do you even care “

It’s a knee-jerk reaction. One he displays every time someone asks too much, wants to know too much. It’s just easier this way. In the end, no one really cares anyway. People are just nosy assholes.

“ Well clearly you care too. Otherwise you wouldn’t be here, huh ? I just thought maybe you’d like to come in, see William. He’s doing well so — “

“ Look, you don’t know anything, okay ? So how about you don’t try to mendle in my family life, yeah ? Fucking ridiculous. “

Hearing that his Granddad is doing well, make him feel a little better about everything. Doesn’t mean it gets easier though. The weight still feels heavy on his shoulders. Like he’s Atlas and the guilt of his past is the world on his back.

“ I was just trying to be nice. I think he’d like to see you, that’s all I wanted to say. Have a nice day, Billy ! “

Her words are laced with an underlying fury and a very obvious disdain for the way he’s been talking to her. Billy thinks he liked the soft looks better. The smiles too. Then again, it’s his own fault really. People have their breaking points and they have every right to be pissed off at his attitude towards them. God he wishes he wasn’t such a fuck-up.

He can just hear Neil’s cruel laugh in the back of his mind. The constant scoffs at Billy. He wishes there was a way to make them shut up. To quiet his mind. Ways that don’t turn him into a horrible person. Like the alcohol did to Neil.

His eyes follow the girl as she hurries inside the building. One of these days he’s gonna muster up to courage to do the same. To face it all. Not today though. Not on a day that make him so painfully aware of all that is going wrong in his life.

Billy thought that once he was free of his father’s radical tyranny, life would be easier. He truly believed that as soon as he was back in California, back home, things would just work themselves out. Spoiler alert : They don’t. And maybe that’s the typical teenage angst talking but he feels so desperately lost. And maybe all teens do but most of them have someone to turn to. All Billy has is a father that detests him and a Grandfather he can’t bear to look in the eyes.

- OOO -

There’s moans coming from the bedroom when Billy enters the apartment. Apparently Chase had a point when he said his job at the gas station was great for picking up girls.

Billy tries to ignore it for a while but really the place is the size of a matchbox and it’s hard to focus on anything else. A look inside the fridge tells him that in favor of entertaining the girl in his bedroom, Chase has ditched on doing a grocery run.

That settles it for Billy. He grabs his keyes and jacket and rushes back through the door and out into the night, looking for a place to eat. A place of peace and quiet.

- OOO -

Billy walks out of the 7/11 and onto the parking lot. The ground is still wet from the rain that has swept over the town earlier today. The neon lights reflecting in the puddles create a ocean of reds and pinks and bright greens. And if it wasn’t such a mundane thing, Billy would almost thing it looks pretty.

Just as he is about to fumble his car keys from the pocket of his denim jacket, a voice from beside him speaks up.

“ Hey stranger. “

Billy lifts his head and glances towards the car parked two spots from his. There on the hood sits the girl from the nursing home. The one with the soft eyes. The one that talks to much. He hair isn’t pulled into a ponytail this time and she’s wearing a big grey sweater of some sports team. It’s quite that change from what Billy assumes is her usual uniform.

There’s a few boxes of food placed on her lap and it would be a lie to say that the thought of greasy fast food doesn’t make Billy’s mouth water. All he could manage to buy with the few dollars he has saved is a box of graham crackers and a bag of off brand nacho chips.

“ You know at this point I start wondering if you’re maybe stalking me “ Billy exclaims and walks towards her car. It’s a black Mercury Comet. It’s gorgeous.

“ You come to my workplace. So really who’s doing the stalking “ she laughs and takes a sip from the plastic cup clutched in her hand.

Billy only scoffs “ nice car “.

“ Thanks. She’s a gift from my dad. Ya know, it makes up for the emotional abandonment he put me through. “

Billy almost chokes on his spit at those words.

“ Your car ain’t bad either. Sooo, is that your dinner ? “ she asks and glances towards the bag of chips in Billy’s hand.

“ What about it ? “

“ That’s not very nutritious “

“ And onion rings are ? “ there’s a smirk pulling at the edge of his lips. It’s involuntarily but it’s there.

“ No but they’re really delicious “ the girl replies before holding the box out towards Billy “ and I got a little too much food so it’s your lucky night I guess. Care to join my feast ? “

For a moment he wants to say no, but what’s the alternative ? Eat chips and crackers alone in his car or go home and listen to Chase bang some random girl ?

Maybe sharing fast food on the hood of a car with some girl he just met isn’t the worst way to spend his friday night.

“ What’s your name ? “ he asks as he scoots onto the hood next to her and grabs a few fries from the box.

“ (Y/N) “

“ I’m — “

“ Billy, I know. “

“ Yeah you do. I forgot “

“ So what brings you to a 7/11 parking lot in the middle of the night on a friday ? Didn’t expect to have company tonight “

“ You do this regularly ? “ Billy laughs and munches away on another onion ring.

“ Oh whatever. “

“ I’m staying with a friend and he’s got a girl over so — “

“ Yikes, awkward “

“ Yeah. What about you ? “

(Y/N) takes another loud sip from the plastic cup “ My roommate and her boyfriend are having some epic meltdown. They have those about twice a week. Then they usually end up either crying or fucking and I’m not particularly thrilled on being around when either of that happens. “

“ Yikes. “

“ Uh-huh. “

For a moment silence settles upon them, the only thing to be heard is the buzzing sound of the neon lights. Then (Y/N) speaks up again.

“ Can I ask about the hair ? “

“ Absolutely not ! We’re not doing that. “ Bill grumbles in return.

“ Doing what ? “

“ Backstory. I don’t do that kinda stuff. “

“ Oh I’m sorry, “ (Y/N) scoffs and raises her hands in mock defence “ didn’t know you were playing the whole silent and mysterious kinda role. “

“ I don’t. Just isn’t any of your business. “

“ That’s fair “ she agrees and shakes the plastic cup only to discover it empty. Her lips are pulled into a slight pout. It’s hardly there before it’s gone but Billy just about catches a glimpse of it.

“ Guess that’s my cue to get my ass home, huh ? “ (Y/N) jokes and rattles the empty cup once again.

“ You think your friends are done ? “ Billy asks, raising a brow in question.

“ God I hope so. What about yours ? “

“ Knowing Chase, yeah. “

And it’s when they both chuckle at his words, that Bill feels something unfamiliar settling in his chest. It feels warm and comfortable and even though it’s only faint, it’s there. Joy.

They wish each other a good night and it’s not just empty words like when he says it to Neil and Susan after dinner, it’s a true statement. He hopes she has a good night, if simply for the fact that she made him feel less alone in the last few hours she’s sure deserving of it.

When he’s just about to get into his car, (Y/N)’s voice calls out to Billy once more.

“ You know, I think he would really like to see you. Maybe — maybe come inside next time and say hello. “

He doesn’t answer. Just nods. Maybe. Yeah maybe next time he will.

- OOO -

He doesn’t. But in his defence, there’s a pretty valid reason for it. At least he likes to tell himself that. He’s got a job now, one he absolutely hates but one that makes it possible for him to eat actual proper food for dinner and rent a tiny apartment at the edge of town. Is it nice there ? No. But is it better than sleeping on a couch that is too small for him ? Absolutely.

After leaving Hawkins, Billy never thought he’d ever be a lifeguard again but here he is, doing exactly the thing he said he wouldn’t at the public swimming pool. And it’s not even an outdoors pool as he had hoped. It’s inside and it’s mostly visited by old people and groups of mothers trying to teach their toddlers how to swim. Billy hates it but it seems to be the only job people are willing to give him. The only one people are willing to trust him with. He can’t blame them either. It’s not like he’s got this great resume of talents and job experience to wow them with. And really, and job is better than being dependant on Chase for everything.

It’s 3 weeks later now and he’s still feeling the invisible force holding his legs down and keeping him from entering the building. It’s ridiculous really, deep inside he knows that none of what happened was his fault, that he was just a kid. And yet it does nothing to ease his conscience.

“ You’re back again. Thought I scared you off with my bad jokes and fast food obsession “

There’s a smile on (Y/N)’s face as she exits the building and comes to a stop next to Billy. She looks tired, he wonders if it’s the job or the late night trips to 7/11.

“ Don’t flatter yourself. I’m not scared of anything “

What a load of bullshit. Billy is scared of pretty a lot of things he’s just become very good at pretending that nothing ever bothers him. He knows it’s bullshit though and by the looks of it and the little smirk playing on her lips (Y/N) knows too.

“ You gonna come inside today ? “ she asks, voice laced with hope and excitement. He hates disappointing her but he just can’t do it. There’s so many voices in his head telling him to just get it over with. But there’s one that’s louder than all the others and it’s pulling at his arms, holding down his feet. Not allowing him to step any closer to the door. That one is pure and unfiltered fear and he hates it more than anything.

Billy Hargrove is afraid of a lot of things and mostly fear itself.

“ Nah. Brought you something though “

“ Me ? “ (Y/N) exclaims, pointing at herself in disbelieve.

Billy scoff around his cigarette and holds a paper bag out to her “ It’s not much, don’t make a big deal out of it. “

“ Oh it’s a big deal. “

“ It’s not. Just — fucking take it. “

Grabbing the bag from his hand, (Y/N) walks towards the little picnic bench and pulls out two grilled cheese sandwiches and a can of coke.

“ You brought me food ? Aw, that’s so nice. This is a big deal, no boy has ever brought me food before. “

“ I said it’s not — “

“ Yeah yeah whatever you say. “

As she’s sitting down and munching away on one of the sandwiches, Billy can feel his cheeks warm up. It’s not in the same way they do when girls whisper dirty things into his ear. It’s a different feeling. One that he is not entire sure about. People don’t usually think he’s nice. No one ever called him that before. Hot ? Yeah. Charming ? Sure. But nice ? Nah.

And Billy always thought nice wasn’t as much of a compliment as it was a soft letdown. “You’re nice, but- “ .

There seems to be no “but” following (Y/N)’s words. “Nice” sounds so genuine coming from her. “Nice” sounds like the best thing anyone could be, when she says it.

“ What, you just gonna stand there and watch me eat ? Sit down, dude “

Her words are accompanied by her sliding the other sandwich over to him and nodding towards the bench across from hers. “ You brought two sandwiches for a reason. Sit down. Eat with me. Please “

Her eyes hold something that Billy hasn’t seen in so long. It’s a certain warmth. A care that runs deeply. He doesn’t know why she cares about him nor what he did to deserve it but when life grants you a good thing, you don’t fucking ask any questions. You take it.

And so he takes the seat she offered and starts chewing away on the sandwich.

“ You from here ? “ he murmures between bites.

“ Huh ? “

“ I said are you from here ? “

“ Oh I thought we weren’t doing this. Backstory an all. What made you change your mind “.

He can see she’s challenging him. The softness of her eyes is overshadowed by a glint of mischief and her lips are pulled into a teasing smirk. If this was pre-Hawkins Billy, he would’ve taken none of it. Girl like that mean work. Girls who challenge you are exhausting. Girls like that didn’t interest him in a way that he wasn’t willing to put in any effort for a small dose of bliss that comes with a blowjob or a quicky in the back of his car.

But this was a new life right ? One where he got a job not to impress people but to secure a future. To make money and to get stuff done. To maybe, one day, have a life that he can be proud of. And maybe a future that’s fit for a girl like (Y/N). That challenges him and keeps him on his toes. One worth putting in effort.

“ Guess I changed my mind “

“ Oh we’re playing like that now. Alright, okay. Yeah I’m from California. Not here but further north. Came down south for a boy. Regret the boy but not the move. Now I work as a receptionist at a nursing home. I wanted to be a nurse but couldn’t afford nursing school. So this is the next best thing. I get to hang out with the people who live here and sometimes I play guitar for them. It’s all good. “

With the warmth in her voice and the softness in her eyes, Billy can imagine she’d make a wonderful nurse. Hell she’s only met him like four times and already shows more care towards him than his father and Susan ever did. It’s quite sad to think about it that way.

“ What about you ? “

“ California born and raised. Then my dad and his wife thought it was a good idea to move to the literal buthole of america. Fucking Hawkins Indiana. “

“ Seems like you loved it there “ (Y/N) jokes before opening the can of coke and taking a sip.

“ Oh it was great. Everything you ever want in life ? It’s there. Horny housewives. Loud teenagers. People who get in your business constantly. Everything! Oh it was — incredible! “

(Y/N) nods and for a moment it almost feels like she understand. He knows she doesn’t. No one ever really can understand what the move meant to him but she’s listening and that’s a hell of a lot more than anyone’s done before.

“ Sounds delightful. Soooo, can I ask about the hair ?” she says and looks up at him through her eyelashes, seeming almost shy.

Billy feels weirdly self conscious. He’s heard his fair share of comments about the mullet. And if he’s being completely honest, he knows it looks kinda ridiculous sometimes when the perm is fresh and the curls still bouncy. But it’s the complete opposite of what his dad deems a respectable haircut. It’s so far off from the straight buzzcut Neil wants him to wear. And pissing Neil off is reason enough for Billy to cherish the mullet. But through the years he’s grown to love his hair and how it makes him — kinda special. It’s his thing just like the Camaro is and the necklace and the leather jacket. It’s part of what make him well — him.

And the girls go crazy for it too so that’s an added bonus.

“ What is it about my hair ? “

“ I don’t know, I just think it’s cool. Really contrasts your sad eyes. “

Sad eyes ? Billy doesn’t have sad eyes, does he ? Surely not because Billy isn’t sad. He’s angry and grumpy and perpetually pissed off. But he’s not sad. Sad people are vulnerable and that’s the last thing Billy would ever allow himself to be.

“ I’m not sad ! “

“ You sure ? Cause you look mighty sad. “

“ I said I’m not sad. Drop it. “

“ Alright. Alright. Sorry. Just — your hair looks really cool. I like it. “

And once again, his cheeks feel slightly warmer at that.

“ Hey I got a job “ he doesn’t know for sure why he says it. It’s not like he’s proud of the job he’s doing. All he does is make sure no one’s running on the wet floor and the old folks don’t drown on his watch. That’s about it. And he’s only earning minimum wage, barely enough to afford the apartment and food. So he surely can’t impress her with money either. Maybe he just wants someone to be proud of him for once. Even if it’s this random girls he’s been infatuated with since he first saw her. Maybe especially when it’s this girl.

“ Yeah ? That’s great. What are you doing ? “

It’s then, that he regrets ever mentioning it.

“ I uh— I’m a lifeguard at the indoor swimming pool “ he’s sure his voice tells her exactly how much he enjoys that job, not at all.

But to his surprise, she doesn’t laugh at him. Doesn’t ridicule him for his choice of work. She just smiles and that means the world to Billy.

“ That’s cool. Saving people from drowning huh ? “

“ I mostly tell kids not to run. “

“ Well you’re keeping them from getting hurt. Good for you. Didn’t even know we have a public swimming pool. I should check it out sometime. “

And by the way she smiles he can tell she means it.

- OOO -

In the following months their little lunch dates become somewhat of a habit. Billy shows up at her work at least twice a week with sandwiches or burgers and sometimes he even brings milkshakes. And though neither of them will admit it, it’s secretly the highlight to both their weeks.

Billy still doesn’t come inside. Still doesn’t visit his grandpa. Guilt still feels too heavy on his shoulders to even consider that. But seeing (Y/N) for their lunch dates, makes that weight feel almost light for the short amount of time they’re spending together. She’s always genuinely glad to see him. She’s all smiles and soft eyes and Billy doesn’t remember a time when someone actually wanted him around in that way. That someone was happy to spend time with him. It feels good and it makes the guilt disappear for a while.

Fall turns into winter when Billy decides to shake up their little routine. The air is colder and Christmas is fast approaching. Though it’s still California and cold, Billy thinks, is relative. The California winters have nothing on Indiana. That place almost made his balls freeze off.

Billy doesn’t come around for lunch that day. Instead, (Y/N) is surprised to discover him leaning against her car as she gets out of work. It’s a late shift and she’s exhausted but seeing Billy waiting for her feels weirdly domestic. It’s a nice feeling. One she hasn’t felt in a while.

“ Want a ride ? “ he asks, signature Billy grin pulling at the corner of his lips.

“ Nooo, you’re leaning against my ride. “

“ Ah come on, play along. “

“ Alright sure. Where to ? “

“ It’s a surprise “

“ A surprise ? “ (Y/N) responds, her forehead wrinkling as she pulls a face of confusion. “ Are you taking me on a date ? “

Is he ? He wonders that himself. He likes this girl, there’s no denying that. Thing is, he’s been on many dates and none of them came from a friendship. None of them were with girls that made his heart feels warm and fuzzy and light. So what is this exactly ? He doesn’t know. All he knows is that it feels good. That it feels right.

“ Just stop asking questions and let me surprise you, alright ? “

When she smiles, Billy can’t keep himself from hoping this is a date. Because her smile, as he said before, is phenomenal.

- OOO -

“ Nooo way! Are we even allowed to be here ? “ (Y/N)’s eyes are wide with disbelieve as she enters the big hall of the public swimming pool. The place is glowing in a blue hue as the pool lies still before them. A perpetual smell of chlorine seeps through her clothes as she walks closer towards the water.

“ I work here I am contractually obligated to be here even. “

“ But not at night when it’s supposed to be closed, you’re not. “

“ Ah come on now, take a walk on the wild side. Thought you girls are into that kinda stuff ? “

“ Breaking and entering ? “

“ Bad boys. Also I have a key so technically — “

He trails off as he pulls his shirt over his head.

“ What are you doing ? “

“ Well I’m not gonna swim in my jeans and shirt. And you shouldn’t either. You didn’t bring a change of clothes “.

The way her eyes wander up and down his body as he slips out of his clothes leaving him only in his boxers, doesn’t get lost on Billy. Billy is familiar with that reaction. He knows he’s good looking and he’s surely got the ego to match. But seeing that he has this effect on (Y/N) makes him feel like a million bucks.

“ I’d love to let you ogle me some more but I’m here to swim “ Billy exclaims.

“ I’m not ogling —” but before (Y/N) can finish her sentence, Billy cannonballs into the pool, creating a huge splash.

When he comes up again, his curls cling to his face and (Y/N) thinks he looks a little like a wet cocker spaniel. She also thinks he looks absolutely adorable.

“ Come on in ! You scared or what ? “ Billy hollers out towards her.

“ Scared ? Please. “

Billy knows she likes this. The challenge. The teasing. It comes so easy with her. Billy wonders if this is what was missing from his life for so long. Someone that feels easy to be around. Where he doesn’t have to walk on eggshells. Where he doesn’t have to uphold a certain image. Where he can be — well himself. The version of himself he wants to be.

“ Turn around “ (Y/N) calls out to him, slipping off her jacket in the process.

“ What ? “

“ I don’t come prepared so please spare me the embarrassment of having to show you my ugly non-matching underwear “

Billy tries hard to keep the images at bay that those words stir up in his mind. He’s sure she looks perfect whatever underwear she’s wearing, matching or not. But he can’t let himself think about that now because he’s only in his boxers and there’s no way to properly hide a boner and now THAT would be fucking embarrassing.

“ Alright, look. I’m turning around. Just hurry up! “

There’s a rustling of clothes as Billy stands with his back towards (Y/N) and before he can react a splash of water washes over him.

(Y/N) shakes her wet hair as she comes back up to the surface and Billy thinks she’s never looked better. Her hair is a wet mess clinging tightly to her skin and she’s got mascara running down her cheeks but god, that smile. That smile could light up an entire town, he’s sure.

“ You look like a poodle. Your curls are so cute “ she says and softly tugs on on a strand of Billy’s hair.

“ A poodle huh ? That’s just what every guys wants to hear when on a date. “

“ So this is a date ? “ (Y/N) asks again, a spark of curiosity in her eyes.

“ Do you want it to be ? “ he says it in a way that sounds so casual. Like it doesn’t make his heart beat faster. Like it’s no big deal. It is a big deal though. It’s a huge deal.

“ I do, “ he swears his heart beat out of his chest at those words. “ I just wish there was music. “

“ You want music ? “ Billy chimes up.

“ Can you do that ? “

He only answers her by throwing her a wink before hopping out of the pool and walking towards the little lifeguard office. It’s mostly used to store the first aid kit and the lost and found box but it also holds the intercom system and the radio that has horrible reception and really only works for one or two stations. Billy only hopes that the gods or whatever higher powers people chose to believe in are on his side tonight and that the radio is gonna play some good stuff.

A static sound fills the room as Billy presses the button of the intercom. He sets it so the it stays on without having to press the button the entire time and clears his throat once before speaking into the little microphone. “ Ladies and Gentlemen, as requested by our special guest miss (Y/N), please enjoy tonight’s musical entertainment, provided to you by— “ he pauses and turns the radio towards the microphone, “ Billy Idol. Eh, could be worse “.

Billy Idol’s “Eyes without a face” echoes through the halls of the pool. (Y/N) can’t help but feel like she’s stuck in a scene from her very own romance movie. Sure, maybe splashing around in a closed public swimming pool isn’t everyone’s dream date but to her it seems perfect.

It’s her and Billy and things don’t have to be perfect. They don’t have to be everyone else’s perception of romantic. She thinks it’s very charming. It feels a little magical even. And in the end that’s all that really matters, isn’t it ?

Her thoughts are interrupted as Billy jumps back into the pool, creating yet another huge splash.

And before either of them can really process what’s happening, they’re caught in the bliss of the moment, splashing and jumping and pushing each other into the water. It’s like for a moment nothing else matters. It’s light and easy and fun. They’re allowed to be the teenagers they are. For a night they get to forget about work and money and all the other shit weighing so heavy on their hearts and just — be. Just be silly teenagers playing around in a pool. Unbothered. Free.

Billy tries to remember the last time he got to feel like this. It’s been a while.

He wants to stay in this moment forever. Capture it in a freeze frame and never leave. Because the walls of this pool hold only laughter right now, and it’s all he ever wants to hear. All he ever wants to feel.

Billy’s chest is heaving from exhaustion. Exhaustion caused by fun. By laughter. As he leans against the side of the pool, (Y/N) surfaces right before him. There’s a shine in her eyes and he wonders if he’s the one who put it there. He hopes he is.

She’s so close now, nose almost touching his and it sends a flutter right to his stomach. Really, it’s silly. He shouldn’t be this nervous. He’s been with a lot of girls, has done a lot of things. Why does this feel so different ? Maybe because this isn’t a mean to shut up the voices. To take his mind off of all the shit going on around him. This one feels different because it is. Because it means more. Because it means so much more.

“ Hi “ she whispers, water droplets pearling down her face. She reminds him of a mermaid then, like she jumped right out of that movie Splash. Not that he’s seen much of it or can remember the plot very well, but he does remember Daryl Hannah alright. He thinks (Y/N) looks even more beautiful.

“ Hey. “

From then on, it’s heavy breathing and speeding hearts and hesitant soft touches. And then his hands find the way into her wet hair and onto her cheek and her lips brush against his. It’s merely a whisper of a touch but it’s sending little electric shocks straight through his heart and all throughout Billy’s body.

And then he pulls her as close as he can manage and kisses her just like he’s been wanting to kiss her since they hung out at the parking lot and he realized just how wonderful she really was, all bright eyes and big smiles and all.

And then — then she pulls away. The shine in her eyes is gone and is replaced by a look of utter uncertainty and hesitance.

“ You alright ? “ he asks, hands still cradling her face.

“ I like you “

Those words send another shock to his heart. He can feel the smile tugging at the corner of his lips but something about the way she says it makes him hold back.

“ I like you too. “

“ No, you don’t understand. I like you. I — I love spending time with you. You make me smile and laugh and my heart feels all gooey when you’re around but — “

There’s always a but isn’t there.

“ But ? “

“ But I feel like I don’t know you at all. I understand that you have a hard time talking about certain things and I am trying to be patient but how can I let myself fall for you when I don’t know who you are. Like — who you really are. There’s clearly things in your past that make you sad and that weigh down on you. Those things shape you in a way, they make out part of who you are and I feel like you’re purposely keeping those things from me. But how can I know you if I never get the full picture ? I want this so badly, Billy. I’m just afraid that you’ll always be a riddle to me in one way or another. “

No one’s ever asked that of him, really. There’s been girls that had this weird idea of being some kind of savior. They wanted to fix whatever they deemed broken about him and thought that their adoration could in any way lessen his greive. Though they never outright asked him about any of it. They got their gossip from whatever nosy bitch dug deep enough to figure it all out and spread it through the high school hallways. But no one’s ever asked. Until (Y/N).

And it makes all the difference.

“ My mom is dead and my dad is an abusive asshole. That’s the beginning and the end of my personality. And it turns me into a mean person. An angry one and I — I don’t want to be that person. I come with a lot of baggage and I am sorry if that’s too much but I want to be with you too. You’re the first person in a long time to actually give a shit and I am fucking ecstatic that you do. Because you’re hot and beautiful and a little weird and I’m so into that. Look I want to tell you everything but I don’t even understand half the things myself. I’ll try though. I’ll fucking try my best. If that’s good enough “.

“ That’s all I’m asking. “

He’s never been good enough. It’s a strange feeling to be told that this time he is. A good feeling. And really, he’s unsure of how to handle this. How to react.

So he reacts in a way he knows very well.

With a kiss. And another. And another.

And when he pulls away to take a breath, foreheads still touching, she takes his face in between her hands. They’re soft and gentle and it’s a complete contrast to the harsh slaps against his face that he is so painfully used to.

“ Sad boy, you’re making me fall so deeply in love with you.”

If only he could put into words how much that means to him.

If only he could articulate how much she means to him.

- OOO -

The world shift a little after that night. Billy still comes around for lunch dates but he also brings her around his flat and they spend a lot of time just lounging on his tiny couch, sharing kisses and watching Cheers.

Billy soaks it up like a sponge. The love and affection she showers him with is so foreign to him but it feels too good to deny himself to relish in it.

It’s a few weeks later, Christmas lights cover the little bushes in front of the retirement home, as Billy sits on the bench as usual, taking long drag from his cigarette.

(Y/N) mentioned once, how much she enjoys the christmas time and kept gushing about the twinkling lights that Billy’s neighbours have strung up in their front yard. Billy thinks he might have to drop by a store and get some for his place. She’s over there a lot and he’s sure it will make her smile. Her smile is worth all the hassle.

He watches an older couple sit by the little gazebo in front of the building. The man is softly holding onto the lady’s hand, keeping them warm in the chilly winter air. Up until this point, Billy hasn’t really given any thought to what his life might by like in the future. When he’s old and gray. It never really mattered. Now that he watches the couple, he hopes that his future resembles this someday. And he hopes it’s (Y/N) hands he gets to hold, wrinkles and all.

(Y/N) rests a soft hand on Billy’s shoulder. She’s always gentle with him, something he’s infinitely grateful for.

“ Hey Babe, I — “ his words get stuck in his throat as he turns around to face his girlfriend. Her eyebrows are furrowed and there’s a unsure smile on her face but that’s not what makes him stop. It’s the old man standing beside her. The one he hasn’t seen in so long. He looks exactly like Billy remembers him. The same gentle smile. The same wrinkles around his eyes. The same grey hair.

The same eyes. His eyes. His mom’s eyes.

“ Billy “

There’s no resentment in his grandpa’s voice. Nothing but kindness. Billy can’t take this. He doesn’t deserve this. This is not how he wanted this to go either. To be pushed into this situation. He was supposed to live life on his terms.

His hands are shaking as familiar rage curses through his body. (Y/N) knew he wasn’t ready. She had no right. It’s in the way he looks at her when he gets up. The way all the warmth has escaped from his eyes and is replaced by an icy glare. It’s in the way he walks past her not sparing her a single look back over his shoulder. Pure and utter disappointment.

He stalks past the gazebo and across the parking lot before coming to a halt next to his car. Maybe he was too quick to trust. It all was too good to be true anyway. Right ? Because good things don’t happen to Billy Hargrove. They never do. They never did.

Awkwardly he fumbles for another cigarette, pulling on out and dropping the rest of the box in the process.

“ Fuck.” a curse leaves his lips as hot tears are threatening to fall. He’s used to people letting him down but this one hurts more. He honest to god believed her words, believed that she would let him go at his own pace. Even if that means never entering the building.

The lighter won’t fucking work and it all comes together in an emotional meltdown washing over him like tidal wave.

(Y/N)’s feet create a crunching noise as she hurries across the gravel and toward Billy’s car. For a second he thinks about leaving. Just driving off and forgetting this ever happened. She ever happened. But he knows that is bullshit. She means too much to him. He fucking loves her and that is both his redemption and what seems like his ruin.

“ Billy I’m — “

“ You had no right ! ”

(Y/N), for the first time, sees the version of him she’s only ever heard about before. The one that is entirely made of anger and rage. It scares her a little and Billy almost feels bad. Almost.

“ I’m sorry ! I just thought — “

“ Well you thought wrong ! I told you. I told you (Y/N) “ he has to bite his lower lip to keep the tears from falling. “Boys don’t cry, Billy ! “ Neil’s voice ghosts through his head. You can’t show vulnerability. It makes you weak.

(Y/N) however, doesn’t care about any of that. He tears are freely rolling down her cheeks and Billy really wants to reach out and wipe them away. Though he can’t bring himself to do it. There’s a storm of emotions raging inside him and he has no idea where he stands in that moment.

“ I didn’t meant to betray your trust, Billy. I promise you that. I just thought that maybe you needed a little push. He talks so much about you. Billy he loves you so much. I love you so much ”.

There’s a confession there of great gravity. He hears it loud and clear though in that moment it gets overshadowed by everything else that’s going on.

“ I don’t want him to see the person I am right now, (Y/N). Mean and bitter and sad. It’s bad enough I never came around to visit after grandma died and he was sent here. I am a horrible person and I don’t want that to be the image he has of me. I — “ he takes a big breath. “ I can’t go there and look at him and see my mother’s eyes and see how disappointed he’ll be when he realizes what I turned into. He’s the only one who loved her as much as I did and I can’t live knowing I disappointed him. That I disappointed my mom”.

That’s when his self restraint breaks. The floodgates open and big tears pearl down his cheek. Sobs escape him and he’s only glad Neil can’t see him like this. Weak and vulnerable and —

(Y/N) wraps her arms so tightly around his middle that it knocks the wind out of him for a second. She’s warm and soft and (Y/N). She smells like fresh cotton and spearmint chewing gum. Like home.

Weak and vulnerable and in love.

“ Billy. You might think you’re that person. You might feel like it, but trust me when I say that you are so much more. You are not just anger and sadness. You are incredibly sweet to me. You are attentive and gentle and funny. My god you are so funny. You are smart, even if you don’t like to admit it. He’s not gonna be disappointed in you. He understands, Billy. You lost your mom when you were so young. He understands, trust me. And he loves you. So much. I love you. So much. Let yourself be loved. You deserve it !”

When he kisses her then, it feels like no kiss has ever felt before. She loves him. She loves him. No expectations and no conditions. Holy shit, she loves him.

“ I love you (Y/N) “. He really really does.

- OOO -

Billy is so nervous he could throw up on the spot. Though that would indeed make a horrible impression so he tries not to let it get to him too badly.

His grandfather gets up from the bench when he sees Billy approaching again. Before Billy can say anything, he’s wrapped in a warm hug. It’s so familiar. It feels like home.

My god, he missed this so bad.

“ Look at you kid, all grown up. No wonder miss (Y/N) has taken a liking to you. Except for that strange haircut maybe. “

Billy looks over his shoulder and catches (Y/N)’s glance before throwing her a wink,

“ Well she’s pretty spectacular too. “

“ She is yeah. So tell me what I missed, kid. It’s been a while.“

And so he does. Everything. The good, the bad, all of it. It’s hard and it’s emotional but once it’s out there, it feels like the guilt is finally take from him. The weight on his chest feels like it’s only half as heavy as before.

Then his grandpa smiles and pulls him into another hug and whispers the words that Billy wanted to hear for so long “ Your mom would be so proud of you. “

He hopes it’s true. That his grandpa knows what he’s talking about. That maybe his mom is smiling down at him from wherever she is.

But there’s another woman in his life now. One that comes with warm smiles and soft touches and laughter and eyes so bright they could light up an entire town.

And that girl is not his past. She’s no baggage. No sob story. No shadow of perpetual grief hovering above him.

She’s his present. He hopes she’ll be his future.

Because she’s everything. And he’s enough.

#hotstuffhargrove #billy hargrove imagine #billy hargrove fanfiction #billy hargrove fanfic #stranger things imagines #stranger things imagine #stranger things fanfic #stranger things fanfiction

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mcuamerica · 5 years

Text

Always On My Mind (ii)

“Little things I should have said and done I just never took the time You were always on my mind” - Willie Nelson

Summary: History between two performers can be complicated when they have to be lovers in a new movie that could take both their careers to another level.

Pairings: Actor!Tom x Actress!Reader; Tom Holland x Fem!Reader

Warnings: ANGST, some fluff, mentions of violence/harm, anxiety; italics are lines in the movie (disclaimer: This is an AU where Tom is an actor. I do not own Tom or any of the people mentioned in this fanfic; I am just using his name/face/characteristics for this fanfic. This is not how Tom acts and I do not know him, so, therefore, I do not know if he would do any of this. Any characters that resemble people IRL are completely coincidental.)

Words: 2969

(gif credit here)

prologue - one

It was hard, to say the least. Not only did you love acting, but you loved acting with Tom. That part, having to act with him, having to be in love with him, that was hard. It wasn’t seeing his muscles contort as you two went through fight choreo, it wasn’t hearing his soft voice every single day, it wasn’t even the steamy love scene that you both had to rehearse for two hours to get just right (which in reality was ridiculous because the two of you used to have plenty of steamy exchanges and definitely knew how to make it intimate). It wasn’t any of that, it was pretending that you loved him. In hindsight, it was his character. But it was Tom’s face, it was still him. You couldn’t get over the fact that you had to spend every day with someone you loved, while telling yourself and everyone around you that you did not, in fact, love him.

Currently, you were both on a break. It was the last rehearsal before you starting shooting, and it seemed they saved the hardest for the last. There was a huge fight scene where Sebastian and Delilah got in a brawl with the mob leaders when they found out there were two cops in the room. Both characters acted like they had no clue, but one of the leaders had proof that Delilah was one of the cops. Jon and the fight choreographer had both of you going hard. Tom seemed to breeze through the choreo at first, but at the end of it, you could tell he was struggling. You, on the other hand, were struggling from the beginning. You had done fighting scene’s before, but this was different. It was intricate and tight. You had to make every duck and every punch or you would go down. Even though you never actually made contact with the punch, and neither did the others around you, it could still hurt if you got it wrong.

“You’re doing good (Y/N),” Tom said after he took a sip out of his water bottle. “It’s hard, but it’s a good workout, right?” He joked. You replied with a grin on your face, shaking your head.

“I don’t know what gave you that thought, because I’m out of breath. And out of energy,” You muttered, taking another swig of water. You must’ve looked like a mess. You had your hair up in a ponytail to keep it out of your face, yet half of the strands had fallen out. You could feel the red in your face from the number of times you fell on the floor and got back up again. Even with the towel to dry off the sweat, you still felt like you needed a shower.

Yet, with the amount of exercise and strength that was used, Tom still looked amazing. His hair wasn’t styled today, reminding you of how it used to look. It was curly and uncontrolled, but it still seemed perfect to you. He was barely sweating, and when he got close, you continued to smell his cologne from the beginning of the day to now.

“That means it’s working.” He said, pointing at you for a second before looking over to the stunt doubles who were running the fight sequence. “You think we can get there?” He asked, looking over to you.

“Well, yeah.” You said nonchalantly, shrugging your shoulders. “I’m sure we can do that just as perfect as the professionals.” You joked, leaning back in your chair. “Just you know, after another month of practice.”

Tom and you both burst into laughter. You almost got the sequence, just needed it to be quicker. Both of you knew it would be good, but it was nice to joke about it. The fight would never be as good as the stunt doubles, they were the ones that actually took punches when filming, who fell from the tall buildings if it was too dangerous. Aside from not actually making physical contact, you both were doing well with the choreo.

“My God, we would be off the movie if we couldn’t get it done by then,” Tom said in between laughs. You nodded in agreement and wiped your eyes. “I think we both need to rest, this isn’t even that funny.” He pointed out.

Your laughter died down with a nod of the head. “Yeah, you’re probably right.” You said and stretched, taking another drink from your bottle. “It doesn’t help that we stayed up all last night watching the Marvel movies.”

“Hey, you fell asleep during Thor.” He scolded, causing you to narrow your eyes in sarcasm.

“It was 3 in the morning and we got up at 6 yesterday!” You argued and he nodded, giving you a little smirk. You rolled your eyes jokingly and got up. “Alright smart guy, I’m going to go learn my choreo, because I actually got sleep last night.” You teased and nudged his shoulder before you walked over to your stunt double.

***

You had gone over the sequence many times with your double and Jon finally asked Tom and you to do it with the other leads. You had nailed all of the hits and dodges until you tripped over a flap, stumbling against a few actors until you got to Tom. He caught you right before you had the chance to fall down. “T-Thanks.” You muttered as Tom pulled you up.

“Well, I got my Spidey reflexes you know.” He teased and looked at you. “Seriously though, are you okay?” He asked.

You nodded and sighed, standing up on your own. You looked around and felt your face blush when you saw everyone staring at you. “Sorry,” You said, rubbing the back of your neck. “Tripped.. over the flap..” You muttered and pointed to it.

Jon told you that it was fine then asked everyone to reset. You let out a breath and did a few jumps to loosen you up again. You nodded when the actor across from you asked if you were ready, and you started the fight again.

The fight went perfectly this time, you ended up on the ground, on purpose this time.

“Say your lines, if you’ve got them memorized,” Jon called out.

You held onto your stomach, where the wound was going to be and looked up to Tom.

“You don’t... need to... do this... Seb..”

“I can’t- I can’t lose you De, I can’t.”

“The mission... is more...”

“Don’t, don’t... Don’t say that. You aren’t more important than a mission. Come on De, stay awake for me. The ambulance is on the way.”

“Go... go get them. Please.”

“Alright, alright that’s good. Put more emotion into it when we do it. But you’ll have time to prepare for it.” Jon said, walking over to us. Tom hummed and helped you off the ground.

“I didn’t have time to listen to my cry playlist.” He joked, causing you to laugh.

“Oh that cry playlist, the best playlist of yours I think.” You teased and nudged him as you grabbed your water bottle again. You couldn’t try and be serious about the scene, or him catching you. It would just lead to more feelings and you did not need those feelings now. Not when you were going to start filming after the weekend.

Tom gave you the same laugh and smirk as before, going over to get his things once Jon announced that was all to be done today. “Oh, and (Y/N)? Good luck on the press you’ve got this weekend.” Jon bid you as you were walking out. You thanked him and went over to the car. You were doing a two-day press tour, if it could even be called that, to promote the new movie you had filmed about a year ago. You were just doing a few talk shows, prerecording them so they would come out this week. Then on Thursday, you would fly out to LA to see the premiere as they filmed the few scenes you weren’t in for this movie.

“You’re doing press this weekend?” Tom asked, jogging out after you. Turning around, you rose your eyebrows at the question.

“Yeah, Hover is premiering on Thursday night in LA, I’ve gotta do some press for it. In my contract.” You said and narrowed your eyes. “I thought you knew that, didn’t I mention it?” You asked, tilting your head to the side.

He shrugged, shaking his head. “No, I don’t think you did. But it’s fine. I just wanted to hang out a little more before filming, you know, for the characters.” Tom said, even though he really just wanted to spend more time with you.

“Well.. uh... I guess you could tag along to watch the press. If you really wanted to. I’m just filming a few things for YouTube channels and then the New York late-night shows anyway.” You suggested. Having Tom with you during press for another movie wasn’t the best idea, but of course, you didn’t realize that until later.

“Oh, I don’t want to intrude or take over. We can hang out when you get back to the hotel.” He said, stepping back nervously. He knew how you were insecure about being in his shadow, and he didn’t want to take the spotlight from you while you were promoting your own movie.

“Tom it’s fine. Anyone asks we’re just going to tell them that it’s for the movie we’re working on.” You told him, shrugging as you got in the car to head back to the hotel. “Are you coming or not?” You asked and rose your eyebrows.

“Oh-Oh yeah.” He said and hopped in the car, sliding into the seat next to you. “I bet we can get through The Winter Soldier tonight if you’ll stay up.” Tom teased, trying to get rid of the tension between you two.

You glanced over to him, knowing that you needed to rest tonight or press tomorrow would be torture. Instead of saying that, you gave in and said, “Yeah, I can do it... all day.” You joked, nudging his arm.

***

Press was going well. Tom had come with you to shoot the WIRED Autocomplete Interview, standing on the side and watching as you answered the questions. Luckily, Tom wasn’t in any of them. Even though you were dating when neither of you were big actors, you still were in the public eye more than most. You were afraid that it would surface, but by some miracle, it hadn’t yet. After the WIRED interview, you did a BuzzFeed quiz at the same studio, then shot some interviews with a couple of reporters. Tom was there the entire time, even though you told him he could’ve left. You really didn’t want to be promoting a movie in the middle of filming another one, because separately the two were tiring enough. They weren’t any better together. But Tom insisted on staying. He knew that it could be dreadful without having any friends nearby during the press junkets. Archer was there with you, but it still wasn’t the same. Archer had to be, Tom chose to be there. Him being there kept you awake and entertained during the repetitive interviews.

After the Sunday interviews were over, Tom and you went out to get something to eat. You both had been cooped up in the hotel and the studio and wanted something other than takeout or fast food. So, in turn, you went to a small restaurant just a couple blocks from the hotel.

“I forgot what it was like to go out, we’ve been bingeing Netflix for the entire month,” Tom said after both of you ordered what you wanted to eat. “Nice to be out though, especially since not many people know we’re filming. We got a little privacy.”

“Yeah, I’m sure that’s good for you. Big movie star can’t go anywhere without being spotted.” You teased with a sly grin on your face. “But after all of that press, I’m ready to go back to the hotel and not answer another question for a month.” You said dramatically.

“Well, I’ve got one more question for you before you go do that,” Tom said, leaning forward on the table. You narrowed your eyes, taking a sip of your water, waiting for him to go on. “How do you like being a big movie star?” He teased. You rolled your eyes, giving him an unimpressed look. “Seriously, you were great in those interviews. And they weren’t basic questions like a lot of them can be.” He said.

“I’m glad you thought that because I felt like I said the same answer over and over.” You said, burying your head in your hands. “Besides with that one reporter... What was his name? Kevin! I loved his questions.” You perked your head up, your mood increasing slowly.

“Oh, right! He’s always been into every interview I’ve had with him. Nice to see him again.” Tom said, agreeing with you at his in-depth questions. You talked about a few more interviews as you ate the food the waiter brought.

“Well, we should probably get going. We’ve got the first day of filming tomorrow.” Tom said, signing for the check. You told him that you could split it, but like the gentleman he was, he didn’t even let you take a look at the check. Or ask the waiter.

“Might as well walk to the hotel, it’s only three blocks.” You said, Tom getting up from the table with you.

As you two walked to the hotel together, you talked more about the movie and your schedules. It had gotten cold outside and you only had on a tank top. “I love New York, but the rain it gets out of nowhere is ridiculous.” You said when a few drops of water fell from the sky.

“It’s only two blocks away.” A couple seconds after that statement left Tom’s lips, it started to pour. “Okay, maybe we just take cover.” He muttered and grabbed your hand out of habit, pulling you towards an awning where you would both stay dry.

“Just what we needed.” You said, rubbing your arms. “I just had to say we could walk.”

“I liked it,” Tom muttered, looking at you with soft, tender eyes. “We get to spend more time together.” He said honestly. Your eyes widened slightly at his words, almost responding until he started talking again. “Listen, (Y/N), I know we said we would keep our feelings onset and at rehearsals, but I can’t do that. It’s not working for me. You... The day you left my parent’s house was terrible for me. Ever since then it has been hard to spend the days without you, without being near you. I- I realized that I don’t like that feeling, I can’t stand being away from you. Not after this month and not after-”

You kissed him, passionate but soft. You couldn’t help it, he was rambling about how he needed to be around you. He was saying the exact same thing that you’ve been thinking throughout the last month. You felt Tom kiss you back with the same, if not more, amount of affection. “Me too.” You muttered on his lips.

You slowly pulled away, looking up at him as you released your hands from his neck. Your head turned as a flash went off from the corner of your vision. “Oh my god,” you muttered and turned around, seeing a person with a camera standing on the other side of the street. You stepped away from Tom and started walking, not caring that it was raining.

“(Y/N), (Y/N)!” Tom called after you, glancing around and chasing after you. “We can’t just kiss and you run away from me.” He said with a small whine in his tone.

“Yes, I can Tom because there was a paparazzi taking a picture of us. And if I’m seen with you like that everyone is going to forget about the movie I’m in that’s coming out next week and focus on the fact that we just kissed in public, while filming a romantic movie together. No one is going to see how good these two movies are because they are just going to be focusing on that one picture and I can’t deal with that anxiety and that shadow.” You ramble, reaching the hotel a lot quicker than you thought you would.

Tom grabbed your hand and turned you around, forcing you to look at it. “You know that’s not true. Something like this happened with Zendaya and I and the Spider-Man movie still did great. You should know that no matter what, people are still going to see you as an incredible actress.” He tried to reassure you but you didn’t hear any of it. It was an irrational fear, being afraid of Tom’s shadow. You were a great actress, and you knew that in every single moment except this one. The time Tom reveals his feelings, the time you kiss for the first time in a long time, just happened to be the one time that an idiot with a camera takes a picture. And for that specific reason, you freaked out. You couldn’t calm down, not even when Tom gave you the concerned puppy look that you loved. It gave you more anxiety, looking at him, knowing that you wouldn’t be able to be with him because of your panic.

You didn’t even respond to Tom, you just walked into the hotel and went to the elevator, closing the door so Tom couldn’t come in. You stood in the elevator, soaking wet, and your mind trying to process everything that just happened.

#tom holland #tom holland au #tom holland x reader #actor!tom x actress!reader #tom holland x fem!reader #always on my mind

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muthaz-rapapa · 5 years

Text

StarPre: Zodiac Forms

Now that I’ve got the good quality official art, c’mon, did anyone seriously think I would not ramble about the zodiac forms in another long post? :P lol

Crap, I should be studying my Japanese since I’m traveling to Tokyo next week (GONNA GO VISIT THE PRECURE STORE, WOOOOT~!) but I want to get this post out first cuz I know I won’t have time or internet access to do it later.

So let’s do this!

Taurus form – BRAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIIDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDSSSSSSSSSS

This one I like best out of Star’s two forms (but Pisces is awesome too!) for that reason but I also love how they changed her short tutu-style skirt into an asymmetric, flowing one. And that cow pattern is to die for~! <3

The butterfly earrings and horns are a very nice touch as well! *chef’s kiss*

Pisces form – I can’t explain why or how Hikaru pulls off the mermaid look so well…but she just does, okay?

Maybe it’s the twintails.

Anyways, super cute! Adding a touch of blue and deep magenta to the overall light pink theme really makes her look more tropical.

Then there are the sea accessories and ugh! Sometimes when I look at this, I’m reminded of Mermaid Melody except the way Star is designed here looks a lot more fun.

Before I get into this, I just want to say that we can now celebrate Lala’s bubble shorts blooming into space dresses! Aaaaaahhh~ <D

Leo form – Y’know when I saw Lala go “RAWR!” in the movie trailer, I was like “This is it, if this is the last thing I see, I’ll be happy I lived”, hahaha!

Lion imagery is just so cool, y’know? (as Gelato can testify)

The wild hair, the crown.

Yeap. This pretty much confirms it. Lala is Space Queen. ;D

Cancer form – I’m simultaneously gushing over her crab hair, how much I love this shade of yellow green and giggling mad that she resembles a jellyfish more than a crustacean. xDD

*sigh* Really, I think Lala’s forms turned out the best. They faithfully captured the aesthetics of the Star Princesses while retaining Milky’s original design and without making it overly gaudy, too.

Lala, you are perfect! <3

Libra form – Normally, I would say that’s too crazy for even crazy magical girl hair but then I remember Felice’s Alexandrite form and how extra that was in all its Mother Nature floral glory…

…and I just shut my trap.

Still, it seems like Libra form had the least effort put into it.

I mean, yea, they moved some colors around (more like seeped the orange into the ombre of Soleil’s hair) and extended the reaches of her dress but it’s practically the same thing save for Libra’s hairdo…which looks more like a wig she put on that anything.

That’s just it. The dual cornucopia there catches your attention right away on how…fake it looks that it’s as if the rest don’t matter as much. Which is sad cuz the Libra Star Princess is perhaps one of the best Star Princesses based on what little personality we did get from each of them. And I just wanted to see something more creative for her form, that’s all. :(

Maybe it’ll look better in motion? We’ll just have to see if that happens in the movie. As of right now, this still picture isn’t really helping my impression of it.

Scorpio form – Much better. Absolutely adore the slimmer cut and my, does Elena look downright gorgeous with a ponytail! <D

I’m always reading about how “full of passion” Scorpios are and while I don’t let those descriptions get in the way of appreciating their characters, have to admit that “passion” was the first word that came to my mind when I saw Soleil in this form.

She literally looks like a goddess of sunsets. Beautiful.

Capricorn form – Still not sure if I’m the type of person who favors something just because I so happen to share a quality or trait with that one certain aspect of a character…

And I freely admit that the Capricorn form is not the best of bunch (though it’s definitely not the worst)…

…but it looks unarguably lovely regardless and I love it with all my heart because me is a Capricorn, after all~ <3

The tiny hearts themselves may be a bit much but it’s part of Capricorn Star Princess’s design so honestly, I have zero problem with it. They’re adorable~

Then I kinda squealed because Selene traded her umbrella/lamp shade skirt for a fancy bed canopy! LOL xDD

But most of all, it’s simply wonderful to see Madoka with wavy hair (AGAIN WITH THE HAIR!). Ooooo, gotta love that transition from light purple to fuchsia! X3

Like I said before, they made the Cures’ respective color schemes and the Star Princesses’ color schemes quite compatible. But that’s a given since they’re within close range of each other anyway.

Sagittarius form – Ok, I may have said Lala’s forms looked the best but I believe the Sagittarius form alone can blow everyone else’s out of the sky.

I mean, look at her! Isn’t she friggin’ STUNNING?!

The long side pony tail (*SCREAMS*), the mature vibe the long gown gives off and most of all, MADOKA HOLDING AN ACTUAL BOW AND ARROW AND LOOKING LIKE A WARRIOR MAIDEN DESCENDING FROM THE HEAVENS TO PURGE THE EVIL FROM THIS WRETCH WORLD!!

HAAAAAA……I dunno why I get so emotional over form changes, I just do.

Alright, first things first. This is not the place for me to spill my grievances about Cosmos in general so rest assured, I won’t do that. But I am allowed to say one thing.

Toei. I don’t understand your incomplete logic.

Cure Cosmos is a rainbow Cure. You either give her all twelve differently colored forms or you give her none at all.

Seriously, it makes no sense that she gets four zodiac forms, leaving the other girls with only two when we could have had:

1) the original starters with three zodiac forms each

2) Cosmos with either twelve (because SHE’S THE CURE OF EFFIN’ RAINBOWS!!) or one exceptionally glorified rainbow super form (with seven cat tails because RAINBOWS!!)

This is less about midseason Cure privilege (which Cosmos has heaps of) or the fact that they won’t be able to fit so many forms in an hour long special (it’s movie budget so piss off!) and more about not doing your math right to get the best, maximum output! xP

*sigh* Ok, petty raging done (for now). Moving along…

Aries form – As some of you may know, I’m not a fan of Cosmos’ rainbow skirt but I find I can easily overlook that (along with the cat ears, the flat top hat décor, the weird braids and the dorito clips) to appreciate the full picture.

And the Aries form may just be my most favorite out of Cosmos’ forms. Since Aries is the ram constellation, the white wool trim looks appropriate, especially against the crimson of her outfit. Frankly, I think Cosmos looks better in this red design than her normal blue-rainbow Cure form.

Then there’s the poofy (kyaa~!) hair that just acts so well as a backdrop to the ram horns.

Mm, yes, definitely my favorite. *nod nod*

Gemini form – Again, where the fuck were you when Met Gala was happening this year?!

Like, this would not only fit right in with the camp theme but could’ve won best dressed that night!

The only thing I’d consider getting rid of is the rainbow but then it’d probably look less campy so maybe not.

Anyways, I was the least fond of this form when I first saw it but the more I look at it, the more I’m learning to like it…??

The red cape (and cherry earrings) provides a sharp contrast to all the green going on, too.

Virgo form – Azure blue complements light pink and white in a very angelic sort of way. Pretty~

Cosmos’ hair also looks delightfully charming when it’s curled and has a flower decoration in it.

…That’s all I have to say, really.

Oh no, wait.

It’s extremely odd to me that Cosmos gets two zodiac forms that correspond to other Cures’ birthday signs and she doesn’t even get the form of her own birthday sign.

Hikaru’s is Aries and Elena’s is Virgo. Look who got those forms.

Yuni’s sign is Libra. That form went to Soleil instead.

…WHAT IS UP WITH THAT?! >:/

Aquarius form – Is it just me or do the rainbow pleats actually work here?

We’re dealing with water and the droplet beads attached to the ends really reminds me of the rain so that’s probably why.

Cosmos’ hair also looks mega good in waves, too.

And the stars~! Exquisite!

On another note, again she always comes as a strange package because if cats in general hate water, then pairing Cosmos up with Aquarius is the biggest mismatch of them all, them both having a blue theme be damned. xD;

~~~~~

*SIGH* Finished!

…Or not. One last thing. There’s always one last thing.

It’s just a real shame that these forms are exclusive to the movie. I mean, I know we all have our opinions on whether or not Form Changes are actually useful in the tv series (I don’t care, I just like looking at them and that’s reason enough for me)…

But the stock footage was severely underwhelming for StarPre so having these in the show may have done some good to alleviate that feeling.

Also, the Zodiac forms have a much closer relation to the space motif than the Twinkle forms do. Seriously, the most noticeable things about the Twinkle forms are the tiaras and it’s weird because we already have the Star Princesses. So WHY do we need to put tiaras on the Cures? They’re not aiming to become princesses themselves, they’re channeling the powers of the stars (aka the Zodiac princesses!) so they should take on appearance respective of the star signs!

Again, I really don’t understand Toei logic.

……AND ONE MORE THING! OMGODD

Is there anyone out there who tried to draw what the first four Cures would look like in the forms that went to Cosmos? And if there is, may I see them? Please, pretty pretty please please please?!?!?

#i can't art so i'm desperate #alrighty after sunday's ep post i'm off #will post about the Precure store later if I manage to find the time #wahaha if i'm lucky and/or not jetlagged i might even get to watch Precure Sunday morning in my hotel room #we'll see #star twinkle precure #cure star #cure milky #cure soleil #cure selene #cure cosmos #star princesses

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spideystarlight · 5 years

Text

Red // Prologue

Pairing: Peter Parker x reader

Summary: Y/N is an assassin who was trained and raised in the Red Room. When a mission went sideways, you were unwillingly rescued by the Avengers who want to get rid of your assassin nature and join them. Luckily, you had a familiar face to turn to, Nat. On the other hand, a certain awkward spider boy had begun creeping into your heart and unlocking something you didn’t think you were capable of feeling anymore. Love.

Parts: Prologue | Chapter One | Chapter Two | Chapter Three | Chapter Four

Warnings: Murder

Word Count: 1295

Requests: Open for Avengers, Loki, Bucky Barnes and Peter Parker. Click here to request!

A/N: My first post! I’m excited to continue this, I can’t wait for the reader's character development. Let me know if you like it, my inbox is always open.

Vitaly Sokolov. Thirty-one. Born in Riga, Latvia to Andris and Inga Sokolov. Subject is a known associate to enemies in past and has been rumoured to.

Subject has important information regarding missing weapons. Retrieve this information. Once retrieved, eliminate subject in any way you please.

You sighed. Boring. And messy. But should be easy.

Photos filtered through your fingers; surveillance cameras, private investigator’s images taken without knowledge, formal photos from whatever terrorist organization the subject was affiliated with, all with a man bearing satisfying resemblance to the one sitting at the table in front of you.

The subject was a greasy, unattractive man with dirty hair and even dirtier skin.

He was leaning back in the chair and tapping a grimy finger on the chair arm, which was the limited movement he could manage with being tied to the chair arm by dangerously armed handcuffs.

They were a new development. Handcuffs with inbuilt explosives triggered by a button on a bracelet that resided on your wrist. Just in case he tried to escape or something.

Not that you'd kill him that way; again, messy.

But it was useful as a precaution and a warning. You didn't think you would need them. This man seemed too easy and, at most, mildly arrogant.

"Hey, mīļais! You there?”

His words made an irritating echo in the warehouse. You were in a small room upstairs, but the sound still made its way through the closed door.

The warehouse had two layers: the bottom, a layer used mainly for mining but had been long since abandoned, and an upper level, with a walkway attached to the walls and metal railing, with one room.

You flipped the file shut and let it rest on the chipped stool next to you, your eyes drifting up to the ceiling.

It was an achingly boring mission but it had to be done to proceed onto bigger things.

So with soundless steps, you loomed out of the shadows and into the spotlight of the illuminated interrogation desk. The subject looked up at you and grinned lazily.

"I missed you, mīļais," he cooed, flicking his hair out of his eyes. Your lips curled downwards.

Gross. The Latvian pet name was infuriating but your face remained stoic, like you were taught.

"You have something I need, Vitaly," you said coolly. The man jutted his chin out and licked his lips. His eyes ghosted over your body in the black catsuit you were made to wear, and it took everything in you not to gag.

Or slit his throat.

"And what would that be, medus?"

"Information." You stood unusually still, so much it appeared unsettling.

"On what? I’m just a low ranking pārstāvis. I know nothing. If you really want something worth hearing, I suggest capturing somebody more...” He struggled to find the English word. “...useful,” he concluded indolently.

“I beg to differ,” you said, examining your fingernails, “I need you, Vitaly.” He quirked a bushy left eyebrow, looking nervous.

“I swear, I don’t know anything. What would anyone tell me?” He tried to reason.

"Funny you might ask," you replied smoothly, pulling out a recording device, whilst not breaking eye contact.

"Because you know exactly what,” you finished. You clicked a button on the device and then another, playing a small excerpt of a conversation spoken in Latvian.

“... taken by Auglis on Friday. Most likely stored in one of the bases.”

“He’s gotten pretty far in this time. Hope the boss thinks it’s good, I need this promotion.”

“Trust me, you’re gonna get it. These weapons are new age technology, we’ve seen nothing like it. Boss might cry.”

“Auglis leave any clues?”

“No, he’s too good. The old lady isn’t gonna know a thing.”

The audio trailed off into muffled snickers, so you clicked it off and stashed it back into your catsuit. You returned your eyes to the subject, who was shifting uneasily in his seat.

“Tu runā latviski,” he said tensely, his finger tapping becoming more frantic.

“I speak many languages,” you said dangerously, “But I don’t have time to display my talents for you. Where are the weapons, Vitaly.” His lips curled downwards in a sneer.

“You’re young, medus. They takin’ in infants now?” He jeered. You looked slackly at him, then leaned down and retrieved a switchblade from your boot, flicking it open lazily.

“Where are the weapons. I won’t ask again.” You trailed your finger tantalizingly across the sharp blade, a cruel smile playing on your lips. The man opened his mouth, then closed it again.

“You couldn’t be too old. What are you? Fifteen? Sixteen?” He asked, deflecting your question. You smile fell and you rounded the table to look at him closely.

“Old enough to know you’re stalling,” you growled, holding his collar and glaring at him, “So who’re you stalling for, Vitaly?” He shrugged nonchalantly, staring back at you.

“Can’t be cops, you’re a common criminal,” you thought aloud, narrowing your eyes. The man leaned as far forward as he could.

“I called the good guys,” he grunted, grinning and revealing his chipped set of teeth, “If I die, at least you’ll get what you deserve.”

You groaned in irritation and with a swift move, pulled his head back by his hair and pressed the switchblade to his neck. His adam's apple bobbed up and down as he swallowed nervously.

“I’m giving you one last chance to tell me. If you don’t, I’ll find out anyway. Even if I have to get my hands dirty.” You threatened calmly.

“You ain’t gonna kill me, mīļais,” he said.

“Awfully confident for someone with a knife at their throat,” you mused, applying pressure to his neck with the blade. A bead of blood appeared.

“You’re just a kid,” he jeered, “There’s no way you’ll kill a man. You don’t scare me, medus.“

“On the contrary,” you said coolly, “I’d say I’m rather dangerous. Raging hormones, and such.”

With that, you drew the blade across his throat. His head lolled back and his body relaxed in the chair.

You grimaced at the steady stream of blood coming from the thin line at his throat.

“Messy,” you muttered, flicking the crimson off your fingers and quickly cleaning your knife.

Though, the mess was currently the least of your problems. The creak of a door opening downstairs alerted you that somebody had arrived.

Your head snapped up and you swore colourfully under your breath; this was supposed to be an easy mission.

You stowed your switchblade back in your boot then swiftly moved to the stool that stood awkwardly, holding your possessions. Which wasn’t much - a couple of weapons, and the mission file.

You could hear hushed voices from below you and you muttered more Russian profanities. There wasn’t time to stash the file, and you weren’t going to bring it into a fight with you.

You pulled out a matchbox from your suit and set fire to the papers and photographs, then looked for weapons.

You opted for a glittering dagger - one of your favourites - and fastened a black mask around your face so only your eyes were visible.

You tightened your ponytail, made sure the file was smouldering, opened the door and surveyed the situation.

You were met with men on either side of the railing, approaching you fast. One was dark-haired and had a metal arm, and the other blonde with a gleaming shield.

You gave a groan and shook your head, realising who they were.

The good guys.

The Avengers.

#peter parker fanfiction #peter parker x you #peter parker x reader #avengers fanfiction #peter parker #avengers #spiderman fanfiction #spiderman x you #spiderman x reader #peter parker imagine #peter parker oneshot

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drrockbell · 5 years

Text

I’m Back + New Fanfic!

Hello! I am back from my hiatus and I wanted to create something special for all of my friends and EdWin shippers to thank them for their support, especially @kittykatz009, who stuck with me through it all.

I really needed to take some time off of tumblr and clear my mind from problematic events that transpired and I apologize for logging off abruptly for so long. I decided that leaving something I love because of some toxicity of a few individuals I don’t even know is pointless and I will always be better than any lie a stranger makes up because it was entertaining to them.

That said, I am still happy I took some time off, because even if nothing is happening, it is healthy to stay away from social media and just focus on yourself for a while and I encourage everyone to do that for themselves if they ever feel flooded by it.

Now, I would want to say that I consider this to be my first real ‘fanfic’ because even though I have written some work in the past, I actually wrote them for my Creative Writing courses and then I based my characters off of FMA and just changed the names.

I didn’t do this for a grade or anything, it was all on my own, so I am happy to say that this is my first fan-fiction.

I have had this concept in my mind for years now and I have never seen many writers indulge in it that much, so I’m excited to write this.

Once again, thank you all so much for your love and support and I want all of you to know how much I appreciate you all. You couldn’t possibly no how much that means to me

______________________________________________________________

Attraction

Rating: T

Pairings: EdWin

______________________________________________________________

Edward watched as Alphonse pushed his hair around, angling his head in different positions to get a better view of himself in the mirror.

Edward was lying on his bed, arms folded behind his head with an unamused expression on his face. Alphonse was about to set off on a weekend trip with that Xingese Princess and he had spent the last two hours picking out his outfit and fixing his hair, growing more and more irritated when a strand from his bangs kept falling out of place.

“You know she will still glomp all over you no matter how neat your hair looks, right?”

“Hey, I’ve just gotten my hair back and I intend to give it as much care as I can,” Alphonse replied, glancing at Edward with a small smirk on his face.

“Heh, well you’ll start losing it if you keep spraying it with that alcoholic mess,” Edward said, now sitting up, feet flat on the floor with a snarky grin.

Alphonse ignored him, standing up, giving himself one last look in the mirror and walked to the closet to grab his coat.

Edward’s eyes followed him, sighing, “I really don’t see why you’re all decked out. How much did that fancy suit cost you anyway? And that cologne is so stro- are you wearing lip-gloss?!”

Alphonse slapped a hand over his mouth.

“It’s just chapstick! And… I like the little bit of color it gives me, alright?”

“Oh okay,” Edward teased, laying back on the bed. “Just wanna make sure that lip locking with Mei is perfect, right?”

Alphonse’s face grew beet red at that statement.

“W-well, just because you don’t care about your appearance doesn’t mean I don’t have to!” Alphonse exclaimed.

“Hey! I make sure I am clean and well kept! And that’s all anybody needs. Who the Hell cares about your clothes and hair styles? Attractiveness doesn’t even exist. It’s all in peoples’ heads, made up by a society who wanted to profit from others’ own insecurities,” Edward said.

Now it was Alphonse’s turn to tease him. “Oh, don’t tell me you don’t think Winry is pretty. I see the way you look at her.”

Edward nearly fell over at that remark and suddenly shot up. “No! I don’t- I never- just shut up! Don’t you have a train to catch?”

“Come on Ed. You say that physical attractiveness is completely made up, and that’s fair, but you can’t honestly expect me to believe you never think about her. You’re way too obvious about it.” Alphonse replied back, now being serious.

Edward had a huge, childlike frown plastered on his blushing face, but refused to say anything.

Alphonse checked his watched, then walked to his own bed to gather his suitcase.

“Well I should be going now. You two kitties have fun!” And with that Alphonse stepped out the room and Edward could hear each of his steps down the stairs and him walking out the front door, leaving him and Winry alone for the entire weekend.

Edward was still sitting on the bed, unmoving. He couldn’t keep his brother’s words out of his head. He wasn’t lying when he said that physical attractiveness was made up. He had meant that.

He just couldn’t understand why certain nose shapes, hair colors, and body types were preferred. Sure, he had spent his entire life insecure about his height, he thought with a grimace, but that had nothing to do with wanting to look a certain a way; he just wanted to be taken seriously and be as strong as he could be. The same thing applied to his sense of style. He never once expected it to attract anyone to him, he just thought red, black, and skulls were badass and reflected his own personality and temperament.

Watching his brother spend an ungodly amount of time worrying about the curve of his bangs drove him crazy. It was just hair! As long as it was clean and neat, did it really matter how ‘done up’ it was?

Edward got up and walked to the vanity mirror Alphonse had previously sat at and took a seat and for the first time in so long, he just stared at himself, taking in every detail of his face.

He thought about the color of his eyes; some kind of golden and amber combination. Was this feature considered attractive to others? The only people he knew who had this same iris was his late father and younger brother. He had heard time and time again that rare looks were adored by people.

His hair was like his eyes, almost exactly the same hue. He liked his hair long, but never did anything special with it and always chose to keep it out of the way in a braid or ponytail. He reached behind his head to undo the tie and let it fall around his shoulders. It had been a while since he had it cut. He would do it himself, by just gathering all of it in his hand and getting rid of what he didn’t want in one quick cut with his scissors. It was usually a bit… choppy, but he kept it up all the time anyway, so did that really matter?

He had to admit that Winry was far better at cutting it than he was. She’d give him layers and did something called, ‘point cutting,’ he believed it was. At least then, her hair cuts made him comfortable enough to leave it down so no one would see the choppy mess that he’d make.

Edward stared back into the mirror, noticing more and more how much he resembled his father.

His nose was longer and it stuck out a lot more and his chin and jaw was becoming squarer.

Was this appearance considered attractive? Mustang used to go on about male handsomeness and how important it was to appear manly. Edward didn’t know what was worse; hearing those monologues from the Colonel or suffering Major Armstrongs’ poetic nonsense about the same thing.

He shuddered at those memories from Central. Those times were definitely more torturous and frightening than any homunculus he had ever encountered.

No woman was really into the stuff that those two were spouting about, right?

His thoughts went back to Winry and the words his brother had left him with.

Edward had admitted to himself a year after they had returned home that there was no way he saw his mechanic as just a friend. He had suffered many sleepless nights, teasings from his brother, and anxiety every time he brushed past Winry to ignore the creeping realization any longer.

He couldn’t admit it out loud, but he had been screaming in his mind about it for so long, and he knew in just a few weeks, he and Alphonse would set off on two separate adventures once again. It felt like he was running out of time and it was killing him.

He buried his face in his hands and ran them through his hair, frustrated with the world. He knew he needed to say something soon.

Looking back up to see his exhausted expression, he thought about himself and his childhood friend.

Edward knew he didn’t care what anyone thought about his appearance; whether they found him attractive or not. As far as he was concerned, his body was serving each of their respective functions properly and he had a clean bill of health. His scars, missing leg, hair, nose, whatever, was not of anyone’s concern if they ever decided to ‘validate’ his physical attractiveness.

Still… he couldn’t help but think what Winry thought of him in regards to his appearance. Did she care about his eye shape or body type? Did she... like it? The only thing he knew for sure about her, was that she liked men taller than her and he would thank Truth every day that he finally achieved that goal.

His childhood friend was so hard to read at times. She wasn’t afraid to show her concern or love for himself and his brother, but if she ever had any feelings beyond friendship for him, then she was damn good at not showing it. Or maybe he was just too stupid to notice that. Edward chuckled at that thought. He could recite the Periodic Table, name all the solubility rules, and name every compound increasing in acidity, but he would never be able to read any thought that crossed her mind by just looking in her eyes.

Her eyes…

They were blue. Some kind of mixture between the color of the sky and the berries they would pick outside. They contrasted from her sandy blonde hair that would glow when the sun hit every individual strand.

That’s what she reminded him of. Spring and Summer. The bright yellow sun in the blue sky.

He may never know what she thought of his appearance, but God, he had memorized every color, scar, curve, blemish, and callous that made up his mechanic.

The older he got, the more aware he became of her physically.

There was something satisfying about the gentle slope of her nose, the curve of her cheeks, and the length of her eyelashes. The top of her head reached his collarbone, and this fact made him feel much more… protective of her. He had always been overbearing in regards to her safety, but since the Promised Day, he became much more aware of her fragility compared to him. She had muscular arms and strong, calloused hands due to her work, but that would never stop him from treating her like glass. He could never imagine doing anything to mare her smooth, ivory skin.

He took a breath in and closed his eyes as he thought of her more feminine features. Her heavy chest and thick hips and thighs had done more than just keep him up at night, agonizing over her body.

He had never once thought of or gave any second glance to other women when it came to this thing. He wasn’t stupid. He was very much aware of the differences between the male and female anatomy and what he was apparently supposed to be attracted to, but he felt nothing when it came to them.

Even as an eighteen year old man, he still never looked at women, no matter what clothing they wore or what their body type was. The longer this went on, the more he realized that he only ever had any kind of physical attraction to Winry.

It frustrated him a bit, that he didn’t understand this kind of thing as well as his younger brother, because he felt like he could never truly know what Winry would want or what he could do to appeal to her, as stupid as that sounded.

He didn’t know if she saw him as attractive, if she didn’t even care, or if she, to his horror, thought he was ugly.

The only thing he knew for sure, was how much he noticed her, how much he thought of her, and how he knew that there was no possible way that his feelings were only of friendship.

He was truly afraid of what would happen to them once he departed for his trip. It would only be for a few months and then he’d be home for good, but that didn’t stop his paranoia. Edward knew for a fact that if someone like himself had these thoughts for Winry, then there would definitely be men who noticed her too, and probably held much less innocent thoughts.

That thought alone mortified him, because he couldn’t stand the idea of losing the one thing he never even had to someone else, all because he couldn’t express himself the way he wanted to.

His thoughts were interrupted when he heard Winry open the basement door and make her way to the kitchen, opening and shutting cabinets.

He looked out the window and was shocked to see the sun setting.

Edward slowly got up from the vanity chair to make his way to the kitchen to help her with dinner where he stopped at the doorway and gave one last look into the mirror to see his solemn expression, before shutting the door.

#edxwin #edwin #edward elric #Winry Rockbell #fma #fmab #fanfic

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bald-tales · 5 years

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Witness Protection at the Bears Den - part 8 and 9

Dan was now studying a case file marked: 359. The client, one Bret Williamson, witness for the District Attorney in the successful prosecution of Carl Gandifino, a high ranking mobster in a world-wide Drug syndicate. Bret had been a drop-out from college and sought his riches by working for Carlo. He poised as a college student in order to infiltrate the college campuses, peddling his drugs. After being picked up by the police, they told him his only chance to escape a lengthy jail term was to tell them everything. Of course he knew his life was in danger – however he was promised money and complete re-location. Dan was sitting at his desk at work, a company called; New Beginnings. He was having such a great day because it looked like he was going to head up the company’s’ witness protection program. His former boss, Jerrod O’Leary, had terminated his employment, effective immediately! Both he and his Barber mate, Ken had seen to it that the new Jerrod, now known as Jerry Hawk, write a resignation letter the night before. After Jerry’s transformation into punk biker, by Ken’s talented hands, he had no desire to return to his former life. Now the company heads were unimpressed the ‘kid’ had left so quickly and mysteriously. They asked Dan to organise an investigation so as not to compromise there security. Dan couldn’t believe how easy it was to get rid of his boss, and with him now heading the investigation into Jerrod’s resignation, it was going to be even simpler to delete all information on Jerrod O’Leary. Dan already had an idea to link the recent security breach where a customer’s new identity had been discovered, and latter – Kidnapped –to Jerrod. Dan picked up the photo of Bret. A good-looking kid, well not a kid -he was 28, but he could pass for a 17 year-old. His hair was blonde and tied into a ponytail. He was clean shaven and seemed to be rather scrawny, like he needed a good feed. He probably was a user himself, Dan thought. Well he’d soon meet him in the flesh, the NCF (National Crime Force) were dropping him off in a hour or so. Dan wasn’t going to waste anytime with ensuring Bret’s safety. He had arranged to take him straight to Ken’s Barbershop straight away – Ken was preparing for them! It was important that Bret’s new identity begin as soon as possible. MEANWHILE AT KEN”S BARBERSHOP Ken had closed his shop for the afternoon in order to prepare for his new client, Dan was bringing round. He had been given no specific information about this guy – Dan thought it safer if Ken knew as little about him as possible. “How yer getting on with the new hired help?” asked Ken when he saw his partner, Bart, enter the back door of the shop. Ken was referring to Jerry, the new improved Biker version of Jerrod, Dan’s ex-boss. They’d put him to work in their bar next door, ‘The Bears Den’, seeing he was staying with them in their upstairs apartment. He was popular with the customers alright, and at the end of a long hard day – he certainly was very eager to let Ken and Bart take turns fucking him – he just seemed to be so eager to satisfy. Ken realised that his programming techniques were better than he could have imagined. First with Luke who became Lucas, and now Jerrod. This could indeed become a very lucrative business given time, he thought to himself. Already he had some patrons asking about Lucas and whether he was for sale. Ken hadn’t thought about that originally, he was just having plain fun turning these Jocks into big macho Bears. “Well his not the hardest worker behind the bar – he spends more time chatting up the customers or touching up his Mohawk”, Bart replied. “So what have you got planned for the new arrival?” “Well I’ll know what to do when I see what he looks like, but according to Dan he thinks I should just keep doing what I’m doing already. Normally his company uses plastic surgeons to alter the witness appearance, but he thinks there are still risks in that. Once they have the new identity their finding it hard and often slip up, contacting friends or family from their previous lives. Dan said over the last 6 months they’ve lost 2 clients to hit men.” “Wow!” Bart exclaimed,” So their safer in your hands of course.” “Let’s hope so, “answered Ken. He hadn’t really thought about the dangers involved, but he knew this part of town was the last place anyone would come looking for a white middle class jock. Suddenly, a knock at the front door startled both of them. “That’ll be the new client Bart, would you like to show him in,” asked Ken. After the pleasantries were exchanged, Bret, Dan and Ken sat down on the waiting area chairs while Bart returned to the bar to check on Luke. Ken noticed that even though Bret was thin he certainly was a looker. He certainly looked a lot younger than his 28 years. Dan hadn’t told his client what they had in store for him – only that his Barber friend was a genius a creating whole new looks. Bret seemed pretty relaxed , obviously unaware of the changes he would undergo. “Okay then Bret, into the chair and let’s see what I can do”, said Ken with a distinct cheerfulness in his voice, “I don’t want anything freaky, like shaving my head,” returned Bret, nodding at Dan’s and Ken’s hairless scalps. Ken responded, “Trust me Bret, we have to make sure nobody finds you, and when I’m finished with you even your own mother wont recognise you.” For the first time since entering the shop, Bret looked worried. As Ken fastened the cape around Bret’s neck, he asked Dan to take a seat and enjoy the show. Soon the sound of vibrating clippers filled the room. As Ken drew them towards Bret’s hairline, Dan could feel his cock growing. Then the hungry teeth of the clippers made direct contact with Bret’s hairline – stripping the guy of his longish bangs. “Hey!” Bret shouted, “What gives, I told you I didn’t want the same look as you Bozo’s have.” Annoyed at this interruption and the Bozo reference, Ken switched off the clippers. Bret continued his ranting, “I’ve got very use to my long blonde locks and I’m only going to let you trim the ends or maybe dye it.” Bret didn’t see what Ken was doing behind him, but Ken touched a switch and two wrist clamps appeared from under the chair arms and locked in place around Bret’s wrists. “Fuck man! What gives, you can’t do this to me….” And before Bret could react any further, Ken was strapping Bret’s feet to the chair, while he tossed another leather strap to Dan. “Would you mind old friend?” “Be a pleasure,” replied Dan “You fat fuck, you can’t do this – I’ll call my lawy……….ahhhh!” cried Bret as Dan slapped him hard across the face. “Now’s the time to start resembling some of your family, Bret.” Said Ken sounding almost sinister. “Listen you weasel. You’re lucky to have Ken. Without his help, you would fall back into the hands of the mob. No lawyer is going to help you now, we’re all you got if you want to stay alive,” spat Dan as he grabbed Bret by the shirt collar. “Yeah,” said Ken as he took something from a drawer. “We’re your new family now.” And before Bret could say anything Ken shoved a rubber ball gag into his mouth – so big there was no need to fasten it. This gave Ken the freedom to work on the kid’s head. Fear had replaced the arrogance. Bret knew these guy’s meant business – he hadn’t really thought the changes he would undergo would be too drastic. Just a haircut, a new name and a different city. Part 9 Dan was surprised how different their new boy was looking already. Ken had been working solidly for the past hour whilst Bret, still strapped to the Barber’s Chair, just stared at the mirror in front of him – eyes red from all the tears he’d shed. He couldn’t believe what was happening to him and he was powerless to stop these maniacs! His hair was almost history, just a light covering of stubble and because he was blonde, his head seemed shaved clean. The Barber working on him, had already applied some thick green goop to his face, he didn’t know what it was but it certainly tingled after a short time. The biggest thing that had frightened Brett was when he was hooked up to some IV bag on a stand. The Barber had inserted a needle in his forearm, and the bag had already emptied it’s contents and they replaced it with a new bag. Nothing made sense to Brett; why were these guys doing to him? Were they going to turn him into a fag like them? Shit! That’s shaving cream his using as the warmth of the lather brought him out of his tangled thoughts. Ken had started removing Bret’s remaining hair. The straight razor, with some resistance at first, began to remove the remaining stubble. As more and more pink skin showed through the thick lather, the razor found less and less drag. Ken continued to run the razor over and over Bret’s head, ensuring no stubble remained. When satisfied with the smoothness, which he checked by running his tongue over the denuded scalp, he took a jar from the counter and applied this heavy white cream to the top of Bret’s newly shaved head, rubbing it in. He was careful to only apply it only where he didn’t want any hair to grow again. Bret could feel a slight tightening of his scalp then it started to sting. “I think an mpb will make you look years older, especially with that baby-face”, smiled Ken in the mirror at Bret. He noticed tears welling up in Bret’s eyes, along with a muffled whimper. Dan couldn’t believe how different the college dropout looked with his long blonde hair gone. Because of the colour of his hair, his shaved head didn’t have a hint of shadow anywhere. “I think a low dip in the back is the best style for you Bret,” Ken said as he continued to apply the depilatory cream to the back of Bret’s head. Bret was horrified to hear he’d never have his long, flowing hair anymore. Why were these fuckers doing this to him? This wasn’t in the deal he’d made with the Feds. If only he’d known, it would have been easier to face his former Bosses’ goons. “So this stuff really stops any hair growth?” Dan asked Ken? “A recent invention on my part,” replied Ken, “I’m hoping to market it.” “Maybe you can line me up with some of that stuff,” Dan smiled running a hand over the three day stubble that was on his head. “Sure thing but you have to be shaved smooth first as it only works by acting on the hair root, the less hair in the way, the better exposed the root ball. In fact, why don’t we do you now? It’ll give us some time for Bret’s initial changes to take place.” Replied Ken, motioning Dan to the neighbouring Barbers Chair. “Now your sure you want this?” asked Ken as he started up his lather machine. “Positive, you know I get lazy with shaving my head.” “Okay, one cue ball for life coming up,” and with that Ken began to lather up the stubble on Dan’s head. Bret couldn’t believe any of what he was seeing. He was starting to feel strange – was it the drugs they were putting into him? Ken started to shave his friend’s scalp for the last time. He took long, deliberate strokes with the straight razor, finally saying, “your gonna miss this aren’t you Dan?” “Yeah! It feels great, but this way I always have a smooth head, with not even a hint of shadow. So now I’ll always wake up with no stubble.” Smiled Dan. After Ken had re-lathered Dan’s head, he carefully shaved against the grain, and as each stroke removed more and more white foam, smooth, clean skin glowed under the bright shop lights. After Ken wiped the scalp dry, he then took the thick paste and spread it all over Dan’s bald pate. “While we’re waiting for the cream to set, why don’t I tighten up that goat and tache of yours,” said Ken not waiting for a reply as he started to lather Dan’s face. Dan was enjoying himself and trusted Ken with all his grooming. It was Ken who had designed his present look. Ken finished the tightening up of Dan’s goatee, trimming his moustache and blending the edges. Next he went back to the hair removal paste on Dan’s scalp; taking a damp towel, he carefully wiped away all the paste. “Now your scalp will feel a little raw for a while- I’ll apply some aloe lotion now and that should help.” Ken said. When he’d finished rubbing the aloe on Dan’s head he held a mirror up so Dan could see the sides and back. “Smooth as!” smiled Dan as he took a hand and felt the new permanent smoothness of his head. “Well, we’d better get back to our client” stated Ken, “I’m sure his been ‘basting’ long enough.” Bret had been watching all this still secured to his chair with leather restraints and ball gag still in his mouth. He didn’t want to be here, he certainly didn’t want to look like these guy’s, but already they were turning him into a ‘ baldy’ like them. Ken and Dan stood beside Bret looking at their captive client. Dan spoke first, “I can’t believe it Ken…I mean it’s only been a short time, and look at his face. That’s a pretty decent beard growth already.” “It’s working better than expected, but then I did increase the stimulants in the Hair Growth formulae. When combined with the growth steroids we’re pumping into him, it’s working overtime,” Ken replied. “And speaking of the steroids we need to replace that bag.” Dan went to retrieve another IV bag, containing a mixture of potent steroids, hormones and chemicals all designed to alter Bret’s body shape as quickly as possible. The quicker the whole transformation process happened, the less chance of anyone finding Bret or indeed the Barbershop and Bar. Dan was well aware they hadn’t caught the culprit at work who’d been leaking information about certain clients. He needed to still be cautious, even here in this part of town. Dan had every reason to be worried – at that very moment in the ‘Bears Den’, Bart had a guy he’d never seen before, enter the still quiet bar.

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iheartarrow · 7 years

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Random Arrow thoughts

Ok, I'm freaking out a little bit... Someone, pinch me... IS THIS REAL?! This episode of Arrow came straight out of fanfiction. It is too good to be true... yet it is... true... I am overwhelmed and befuddled and feel like a lost puppy right now. Because in this season (especially in 6x03 and6x04), Arrow is apparently, granting wishes and many fantasies of mine have become canon. No one has ever preparedme for this, this is why I'm freaking out, cuz what's next?!...

I know that the other shoe is gonna drop soon enough, and this bliss cannot last forever, that's just the way TVland works, and also, it's Arrow, our heroes can never be absolutely happy for too long, there has to be conflict to further the story along. And the formula is simple - the happier it is in the beginning, the worse it's gonna be later (before it gets better again). So I do know I have to prepare myself for the shit that's about to hit Olicity in a few episodes, probably after the crossover.

Anyhow, going back to 6x04, here are some of my thoughts during this episode..

- It should have been named "Let's get it on..." instead, LOL. How many times did they try to have desert and were interrupted?! Blue balls won't look good on Oliver, Arrow, have mercy!

- The episode opened with a "date", or more like a hookup, BS style. I gotta say, I liked the wig. Blonde Laurel looks like a bitch, brunette Laurel looks wickedly nefarious. I liked that, but why did she need a wig at all, this puzzled me? Or does she think, she looks more attractive to men with dark hair?! What was the purpose of that wig? Not to be recognized?! Well, then she kills people left and right with blond hair, so that's not it, right?!... Oh, I get it... KC wore the wig for the element of surprise, so the fanboys would guess her by her back and pee their pants happy that their beloved BS is back (or should I say, KC is back, cuz their fascination with her, that I will never understand, has become like a cult following). Anyways, this is done for one purpose alone. BS always likes to make a scene with her entrance (yes, she's a bit of an attention whore, didn't you know?!), this time they figured a wig will do the job for her as a "surprise" element. Whatever...

Arrow is already being redundant with BS, considering she's not even close to being the main villain, has no agency of her own and is just another mercenary for hire. As the guys from Slander Ent. pointed out, she's a glorified lackey. Arrow hyped KC's return to Arrow as a villain, so much, but the pay off doesn't match the hype so far. BS's storyline resembles that of LL already. Either give her some interesting storyline, or get rid of her like you did with Laurel. I liked BS at first, but the more I watch her (and as often as I watch her), the more she starts to suck, because there's no moving forward with her story, she becomes a stale character, just like LL had become, before they had to kill her off. Though, in this episode she didn't suck that much, and her fighting improved (though it was Katie's double who gets the credit, the fight scenes were so darkened out, so you cannot tell the double and the actual actor apart, but it was still too obvious Arrow, you cannot fool me). I feel like I have to make my peace with BS the way she is and not expect her to progress. She's here as an eye candy for the fanboys, a consolation prize anyways. But as she still is a small part of Arrow's overall story, I would expect the show to have learnt their mistakes with Laurel (and KC) from the first time around, and not repeat them with BS.

- Oliver and Felicity's date... I think now I know why Felicity calls BS "evil Laurel", because of her timing. Girl, couldn't you murder that poor sap some other time? William picked out the tie and wanted to go to dinner with Felicity, too... Awww, that's so adorable. And yep, the mini-Oliver totally has a crush on his father's girl. I love the relationship Arrow is building between the three of them! Oliver remembering that it's been three years since they had their first date... Squeee!!! "Don't jinx it!" LOL.

You know, I like that Oliver is still a bit nervous on their date. It's a good kind of nervous. He talks about not having been ready for their relationship then, not like he is now. This tells me that he knows, and knew back then too, that this is it, Felicity is "it" - the love of his life. So yeah, he is nervous in a "anticipating something wonderful in your life"-kind of way. Plus, that gorgeous woman is in front of him being all adorable and super sexy. But the status of their relationship is still unconfirmed. He looks at her for answer when the lady asks if they are back together. And Felicity got "the hint", called herself the mayor's girlfriend. It's for us to hear and for the Olicity haters. They are back together, so stop asking the stupid question, m'kay?! Get over it! There's also calmness to Oliver that I love. He's matured, more grounded. I cannot believe how much he's grown as a person. Adrian Chase was one heck of a therapist, LOL.

That nice lady was us, for sure. While she was fangirling over Olicity, I thought it would be funny if the news came out that Mayor Handsome and Miss Felicity Smoak are back together, with a poll attached to it, vote yes or no. LOL Star City ships Olicity. Also, why isn't there a man patting Oliver's shoulder and whispering "Good job on getting your girl back, son!"?!

- Oliver understanding how it was for Felicity when he had to bail on her and was "dangling maybies"... Now you know Oliver. It sucked! And I think he felt kind of alone and bored and useless, while his woman was neck deep in Arrow business and he just had to let her go, do her stuff. I think that is what got to Oliver the most - not being able to be a part of the thing that brought them together in the first place. That's how they met, how they've gotten closer and fell in love - because of Arrow business. And Oliver not only renounced that part of himself, he also renounced the part that allowed them to connect and was the major part of their relationship, it's basis. In S4 we saw how Felicity was struggling to live a "normal" life without Arrow business. She missed that part of her life, that's why they returned to Star City and stayed. Now it's Oliver's turn to be sidelined. He liked living in Ivy Town (on the surface), but after last year's crossover, Oliver realized that his life could be happy without being the Green Arrow, but it will never be full. This season he had to give up the hood again. Except now it's not because he wanted to, it was a sacrifice for the sake of his son. 6x04 showed how much Oliver actually misses being the GA, the action and being usefull, already!

Now, putting a mask on and chasing Felicity in the club, or helping Slade-cockblocker-Wilson... how is it different than being an active member of the team?! I don't get the logic of this. If you're out, you're out, Oliver. No exceptions. He could as well get killed on the mission with Slade, then little William will be the one saying "told you so!". Agrhhh...

- Those kisses... I love those smooches. Felicity, please kiss Oliver more like that! It's super adorable!

- I don't trust Alena. At all. Even after she was shot and was all cozy and friendly with Felicity, I still don't trust the girl. Look, she is responsible for an Argus agent being horribly murdered. And her reaction to that death was telling not nice things about the kind of person she is... Plus, she represents Felicity's past life, a rather dark past. I don't want a constant reminder of that on the show, in small doses Alena is ok, but not as a permanent fixture. Plus, this whole "breaking internet" thing was a set up by Cayden James, so it's obvious that either he gave Alena that shiner and told her to get Felicity involved, or he knew that if Alena smells trouble, she'd go to Felicity for help. And either way, she's a pawn in his game. I feel like if Alena isn't working for Cayden, and she actually is clean, she's still a redundant character, because she doesn't bring to the show any new skill or ability that isn't already an atribute of another character. So why keep her then?! "I thought you wanted to change the world, and look where you ended up..." I loved this burn! Why did Felicity apologize for telling the truth?! Also, this line reminded me of when paralyzed Felicity was hallucinating Goth Felicity. Goth Felicity said the exact same thing to her "you wanted to change the world, look where it got you..." This Alena character reminds me of that Goth Felicity, but not in a good way. I really hope she won't drag Felicity back to old hacktivist habits.

- Why doesn't KC wear her hair up in a ponytail more?! It actually looked nice, certainly nicer than her usual hair down over one shoulder. She calls herself "Dinah", so why does the team insist on calling her "evil Laurel"?! Call her evil Dinah then, she's here as a counterpart of the new BC anyhow, not of dead Laurel. This show has too many Dinahs with same abilities, it's ridiculous, Arrow!

- Felicity spent more than half of the episode in that gorgeous red dress. She looked so out of place in it in that club, and I loved it. It was very funny.

- Felicity should have asked for a backup while going to the club. Or at least telling her team where she's at. It was irresponsible. And later at Helix, almost got herself and Alena killed. Granted, she couldn't have known that it would be so dangerous, but still, she's going after someone who plans on killing hundreds of millions of ppl, gotta think smarter, girl. I get why she would feel guilty. Not only she let out Cayden James, but after Havenrock, if CJ manages to kill so many people, she would feel that it's on her, too.

- I loved Oliver's pep talk. Last episode it was with Diggle, now with Felicity. They both helped Oliver to become the GA. And all that effort is now for nothing, eh Oliver?! Where the hell did Felicity get the idea that Oliver was doing it all by himself?! He never did, well... he tried, but he never succeeded. He was killing ppl, until you and John set him straight (and Tommy's death, too), he was a crappy brother most of the time, super crappy CEO, failed as a boyfriend and a fiance, etc... So let's not pretend that Oliver wasn't a screw up just cuz he got his act together this season, okay Arrow?!

- Helix Dynamics... Nope, not liking it. I got an immediate recall of Fringe's Massive Dynamics,tbh. Plus the name Helix is rooted in Felicity's old life. Also, the name sounds rather ominous, like Kord Industries, where they make all kinds of dangerous stuff that bad guys later steal. I hope Felicity will rename the company, it doesn't roll off the tongue right.

- Michael freaking Emerson is amazing!!! I certainly got an evil Finch vibe from Cayden James. God, he's a cold motherfucker. I do not believe that he "changed" because of Argus keeping him locked in a shipping container. Argus locked him up for a reason, I wanna know what that reason is. He must have done something very very bad to earn such treatment. Lyla isn't Amanda Waller. I would love for papa Smoak to come back and have a hack off paired with Felicity vs CJ. It would be awesome. Also, I had an idea that Felicity will probably go to jail for hacking the vault's firewall (and probably, other crimes too), and Noah might take the fall and go to jail instead of her. It's the only way I see to redeem an absentee father like Noah.

Or Felicity will have to hide and lead a reclusive life until she figures out a way to clear her name with the FBI. Or she's gonna be recruited by the FBI. Either way, it would be interesting storyline and I wonder how it will affect her relationship with Oliver. I have a feeling Arrow might do something similar to what Smallville did with Chloe's character - her leaving the team and just disappearing. Felicity might be forced to do the same. And it won't be Arrow breaking Olicity up, just separating them for a while. Cuz it's Arrow and they can't let Olicity be happy on the background all the time...

If we are correct, then Olicity is gonna get married in the LOT crossover episode. If so, then won't marital privilege kick in then?! Oliver cannot testify against his wife, nor she against him...

- I really hate it when a side character is pointing out an obvious thing that all the fans have figured out long ago, yet the main character haven't got a clue about... I'm talking about Alena pointing out that Felicity should use her chip as an idea for helping people and get her company started. We've been cultivating this idea for 1.5 years, come on, Felicity...

- WTF is Arclight?! Damien's dome was called an Arc, right?! Maybe CJ was working for DD back then when the Arc was being built, and that's why Argus locked him up?! "Arclight" does sound like a cult thing, LOL. And Darkh's zombie population did look like cult followers...

- Loved all the grunting while Oliver dropped on the couch with hands full of Felicity!!! And the ass grabbing, and her hand sliding to his front... This new time slot is paying off bit by bit. Slade cockblocking them was not cool, Arrow!

- Did anyone else have a thought that Diggle's drugs might be provided by Cayden as well? He set up a trap for Felicity in today's episode, Diggle will probably become addicted to that drug, and will be off the team as well. Could be, Cayden will be picking all the team members one by one?

- The only thing, missing from this episode, was the repeat of the glorious line "It feels really good having you inside me...". It was such a right episode with a perfectly set up circumstances to bring that line back. Arrow, how could you miss this opportunity to remind us of such perfect comedic Olicity moment?

- Loved Oliver on the comms. He looked absolutely out of place behind Felicity's computers, but that was the point, and I loved it. The learning curve and the funny Oliver, loved every second of that scene.

This was a very good, solid episode. The reversal worked perfectly. One of my favorites of all Arrow episodes!! This season is gonna be so AWESOME!!!

@almondblossomme @hope-for-olicity @tdgal1 @taurusclh @geneshaven @eilowyn1 @felicitys @nalla-madness @coal000

#olicity #arrow 6x04 #random arrow thoughts #oliver queen #Felicity Smoak

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anangelicday-mrwolf · 4 years

Text

Wolfsbane : Noblesse Fanfic (post-ending)

(previous chapter)

Chapter 12 – Repaying Debt

“Are you an agent of Union?”

“I was.”

Takio walked away after drawing blanket over Yuigi’s body. Meanwhile, Yuigi’s eyes were plastered on his ponytail.

“You sound like you know me, but I don’t know you. Based on what you said, I probably don’t remember you. Who are you? Identify yourself.”

“Takio, an ex-agent of DA-5.”

Yuigi’s back stiffened for a second. The title was familiar, but she never imagined she would ever hear it again.

“DA-5...?”

“Yes. It’s the one you’re thinking of.”

Takio offered her a cup brimming with crystal-clear water, but Yuigi did not even consider taking it. She was busy rolling her eyes with miniscule control.

The DA-5 was a team created by Dr. Aris, an executive researcher originally under the 12th Elder, the commander of the Cerberus. So in a way, DA-5 was categorized in the same power pool as the Cerberus. So Yuigi would not have been so wary of Takio, if it were not for the fact that things have changed as of now.

“I heard you were dead. No, the 12th Elder and the rest of the Cerberus heard that all agents of DA-5 were destroyed. But how come I’m looking at you?”

“...It’s a long story. And I don’t think this is the right opportunity.”

“If you don’t tell me how come you’re alive, there’s no reason for me to trust you or take that from you.”

Takio could guess what was going through Yuigi’s mind. She was pointing out the fact that there is no reason she would not know that he was alive, unless he turned his back on the Union and hid his status on purpose.

There was another option, of course – he faked his death due to a highly classified mission. In fact, Union’s history is marred with an infinity of classified missions, some of which immensely contributed to Union’s development and growth, proven by the archived records.

Yet, the problem is that termination of DA-5, Takio included, was directly reported to an elder and his lesser executive agents. Even if an agent is on a highly classified mission, the personnel directly in charge of the agent or the one who issued such a mission is bound to be informed that the agent has faked death. Since the 12th Elder and the Cerberus never heard that Takio was actually alive, the chance that he is on a top secret mission is close to zero.

Which means it would not be strange for Takio to see Yuigi raging at him with fists ready to crush his skull. Partially to prevent that from happening, Takio decided to tell her the truth, albeit a bit soon.

If this were a normal situation, he would be basically telling her she has lost her job. However, the impact will be bigger than simply losing a job. And since Yuigi was in the top tier of all modified humans of Union, the impact on her would be equivalent to getting shot by a gun, whispered Takio in his head.

“There’s no need to be so guarded, Miss Yuigi. Or rather, now there’s no reason for you to be guarded against me.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“The Union is now virtually history, Miss Yuigi.”

Takio chose to just pull the trigger, as he determined it would be better to cut straight to the point. As expected, he could see an invisible shockwave blasting through Yuigi from head to toe. He could even hear a ‘bang’ just by watching her twitch.

“Bullshit.”

“It’s true.”

“Like hell it is. The Union has been reigning as the gigantic hand above everyone’s head with this planet in its grasp. And you’re telling me that giant hand is no more? I’m not buying... Kgh! I’m not buying it... Until I see for my... Ugh!!”

Yuigi attempted to lift herself, but she fell defeated to the pain as if her legs were being wrenched off her torso.

“Please do not move. I could not provide proper treatment for you ever since I took you from the lab, so you are in no condition to...”

“I may have lost my healing power because of Yuri. I may have gone through hell thanks to Crombell’s experiments. And I may have been frozen all this time. Still, it takes less than half a minute for me to throw you into a dumpster. The only reason I’m letting you talk to me is because you saved me, and you’re about to reach the limit of my patience.”

“I will stop you by force if I have to. And one more thing – you can’t beat me anymore. I’m not the one I used to be.”

Bam!

Yuigi slapped Takio’s hand, targeting the cup he was still holding out. The motion was considerably fast, something not to be seen from a lab rat kept in a freezer after a series of experiments carried out while she was breathing.

The ancestral elders of the Union would burst out of their graves to laugh their rotten guts out if they heard what you just said, Yuigi muttered to herself. She was a member of the Cerberus, and he was an agent of the DA-5. However, she was in no mood or shape to correct him or show him that his words are invalid.

Which is why she opted to separate the cup from Takio’s hand a little violently. Her plan was to demonstrate that Bill Shankly is right – form is temporary, class is permanent – with a blow that he would not have foreseen even if he did not put his guards down.

Unfortunately for Yuigi, her plan did not do the trick at all.

‘What the...?’

A feathery breeze brushed her skin when she withdrew her arm, and the moment she raised her head to find out why, she saw Takio extending a cup of water towards her, as if nothing happened.

“Forgive me, but I cannot let you leave this place.”

To her disbelief, the cup was the very one she just struck, teeming with water.

‘Impossible...!’

Yuigi caught that there was a tiny wave inside the cup and quickly scanned the purple-haired man. She realized her speculation is veracious upon noticing that several locks of his hair exhibited a sign of air current running through.

‘Did he just scoop up all that liquid as I merely a took a breath?’

Yuigi could feel her spine immediately stupefied, for she could not detect his movement at all. Even with the fact that her body is a disaster put into account, the most she could pull off was deducing from the flow of air what happened after it had happened. To top it off, it literally happened right in her nose.

‘Even I can’t move that elusively and nimbly. Not even with my battle suit on. And with neither my healing power nor my battle suit, there’s no way I can take down this guy.’

Hence Yuigi concluded it is better and best to endure the humiliation and wait until her body recovers to a useful level.

“You should first hydrate yourself.”

Sighing inwardly, grateful that she did not blindly pick a fight with him, Yuigi succumbed by taking the cup.

“...By the way, how do you know that the Union has fallen?”

“...I took part in triumphing over Union.”

Yuigi stopped in the middle of her slow drinking. But it did not take long until she resumed drinking, apparently having predicted such a reply from him.

“So why would a nemesis of the Union save me? Am I your hostage?”

“Not at all. I wouldn’t have brought you to my teammate’s safehouse if I ever intended to make you a hostage.”

Safehouse?

That was when Yuigi finally studied her surroundings.

She was currently seated on a cot placed at the corner of the room, so well-furnished it was no different from a bed. Nearby she spotted a refrigerator, kitchenette equipment, mid-sized table, and chairs. On the other side of the wall was a set of medical equipment, resembling a downsized imitation of Union’s lab facility. She could even find a small space isolated by a door, which she surmised was a toilet or a shower room.

‘Just who could be the owner of this safehouse? It can actually be on a par with Union’s safehouses.’

While she was scrutinizing her environment, Takio was rummaging through the fridge.

“I bet your stomach is far from settled, but you should eat something. I’ve prepared a meal beforehand. As you eat, I’ll answer your questions regarding Union to the best of my abilities.”

“...Then hurry up. I have tons of things to ask.”

*****

Cerberus : entirely gone.

12th Elder : killed.

All elders of Union : vanquished.

Crombell, Dr. Aris, and Yuri : deceased.

Union : presently slumping down the aisle of downfall.

Takio knew that he needs to provide more details than such 5 lines. For example, the 3rd Elder as of now is an ally-slash-person-of-interest for Frankenstein, and Lunark defected from Union long time ago. Yet if he were to do that, there was no telling if and how Yuigi would retaliate to his team and his allies.

He did not forget that strictly speaking, Yuigi was his enemy.

“...So Aris fell by your hands. And you helped with Yuri’s death. And with Crombell’s annihilation.”

“...Precisely.”

“So is it safe for me to assume one of the pedals that accelerated Union’s demolition-slash-extinction belongs to you?”

Takio kept his mouth shut, and he needed not to say more.

“Do you despise me for it?”

It took less than a second for Takio to regret saying that. What kind of person would not blame the one who rid her of her job?

‘Though in this case, she’s closer to a defeated soldier or a citizen of a perished empire than an unemployed. Since she was one of the top agents of Union, she must have been extremely loyal to the Union, almost treating it as a religion.’

Takio therefore kept his silence, expecting Yuigi to bombard him with every curse available in human language.

“...Maybe. Maybe not.”

He was met with a reply not listed on his catalog of possible responses from her, and he tilted his head, a rare gesture from him.

“But I don’t understand. I learned about DA-5’s eradication prior to Cerberus and 12th Elder’s arrival to this country. Which means you had betrayed Union a long time ago. Why would you show me hospitality after all this time?”

“...I am replaying my debt.”

“A debt...?”

Takio bided his time, hoping she would remember. However, he could witness creases piling up upon Yuigi’s forehead and decided it would be wise for him to drop his expectation and get on with refreshing her memories.

“I first saw you in an unknown facility of Union, before I was given the title of DA-5.”

(next chapter)

First of all, sorry for those of you who were waiting for my version of the past between Takio and Yuigi. I originally included that part in this chapter, but the texts got too long, so I had to cut the chapter in the middle. Which means, yes - the next chapter WILL BE about Takio and Yuigi’s past. Hope you will stay tuned!

#fanfic #korean webcomic #korean webtoon #noblesse #frankenstein #lunark #frankensteinxlunark #wolfsbane

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modernart2012 · 7 years

Text

It’s a Dog’s World

@sumigakure Halloween Event 2017

Prompt 7: People turning into their costumes

Word Count: 1137

Rating: T (for safety)

On AO3

“Somehow this is all your fault Bastard, believe it,” Naruto pronounces; his voice and height suddenly deeper and taller.

Sasuke harrumphs, but doesn’t deny it. Mostly, he looks a little grey-green but also like he’s ignoring how grey-green he is for want of trying to wrangle waist-length hair into something not so ... problematic. The bottle of sake he’d downed in the interim of the party starting and present wasn’t helping his coordination.

Kakashi whines in lieu of actual words, and returns of nosing over the pages of his Icha Icha unconcerned with his sudden change of species. And his lack of anything vaguely resembling human hands.

“Sakura!” Naruto yells as he sticks his head into the next room.

A suspiciously pink-haired, large-busted woman in the Hokage’s haori glares at him over a sake bottle. “No. Whatever it is no. I am totally and completely going to take advantage of Shishou’s tolerance level while I have it, then when I’m good and drunk I’m going to hold these boobs while I have them. There is nothing you can say or do that will deter me from my chosen path.” She aggressively downs the bottle, then rifles through the cooler she’s appropriated for another. The coffee table is littered with several other empty bottles. Naruto decides it’s better to let sleeping lion-tiger-bears lie and slinks away.

Only, he’s not used to walking in geta, okay? Any and all accidents that happen while walking in geta are to be ignored. Up to and including him smacking into the doorframe, knocking over and subsequently shattering Ino’s great-great-great-great-grandmother’s antique vase from before the Clan Wars, and tripping over Kakashi’s body and taking Sasuke’s very pointy elbow to the nose. Even if Sai took it down for posterity, it never happened.

“I wish I had my Sharingan so I could have recorded that, Idiot.”

“Shut up, Bastard!” Naruto grumbles at Sasuke where they’re both on the floor, puddles of flesh suits that are foreign and hard to maneuver. “At least you’re still about the same size and mass.”

“Naruto. I can’t go pee because I’m afraid of what I’ll find.” Never mind, Sasuke wins. But it’s also his fault for refusing to go as their summons for the costume party - how were their Sensei any better? - because they’re a team and should have a team theme, believe it! At least Kakashi had gone along with it until someone remembered he was the student of Yondaime-sama and so just coming as Hokage didn’t count.

Kakashi barks and pants at them happily... at least Naruto thinks it’s happily, he doesn’t know much about dogs and Kiba and Akamaru are currently out of Konoha on a mission otherwise Naruto would ask. “D’ya think he needs to go?” He squints at their sensei around the end of currently-his long white ponytail falling into his eyes.

Sasuke snaps his fingers twice at Kakashi, “Oi, Hokage-sama. Do you need to go to the restroom? One bark yes, two barks no.”

Kakashi sighs, looks at them pityingly, gets up from his puddle of Hokage robe and sits on his two students.

“Is that a yes or a no?” Naruto would like to point out that Kakashi is heavier than he looks right now, and is currently crushing his ribs. He doesn’t even bother to sit still either; his large fluffy tail keeps hitting Naruto in the face. Sasuke, the bastard, just glares.

Hinata, or probably Hinata, since Hinata was wearing the princess outfit when the whole ... thing happened, comes over, a samurai - probably TenTen, since Neji had gone off script and come down with the flu before Ino’s party - holding up the end of her haori. “Naruto? Sasuke? Are you alright?”

“Ahh, Hinata! We’re fine! Oi, Bastard! Tell Hinata we’re fine.”

If looks could get any more poisonous, Naruto would be dead. “Hnnssss.”

Kakashi whines and pushes a paw into Sasuke’s cheek, as if reprimanding, but the effect is ruined when he starts jiggling Sasuke’s face like it's jello.

“Ehhhhh? Is that -???”

“It’s Hokage-sama. As a dog, like his summons.” And now Sasuke remembers how to use his words. Was this a sign the therapy with Yamanaka-sensei was working? Naruto squinted at his face in consideration, only to get his own faceful of paw.

Kakashi looks like he’s just had the best realization to ever grace his life. Naruto didn’t even know dogs could look that happy, and he’s suddenly afraid. Kakashi is the size of a small pony, had Naruto mentioned that? Because Kakashi is the size of a small pony. And all of that is now poised on four legs, one of which is in his gut and the other on his face. The other two are on Sasuke, which is fine and fair. Up until Kakashi takes off like a man - dog wolf canine whatever - possessed. The whole house shakes, though that might just be Naruto feeling the zero to sixty acceleration.

Sakura is moved enough to get up though, supported by Ino as ... actually Naruto has no idea what Ino is. They stop to hoist both he and Sasuke upright, so it doesn’t matter. What does matter is the massive explosion outside.

They hurriedly and drunkenly stumble outside, a mess of uncoordinated limbs that cast shame upon their status as Jounin of Konoha. Man, thankfully no one’s staging an invasion right now or -

Or. His thoughts screech to a halt. “Holy Toads of Mount Myoboku.”

“Hnnsssss.”

“Goddammit, did someone put absinthe in the shots again?” Ah, Sakura, if only she knew how many questions she had just raised. He exchanges a Glance with Sasuke and they both resolve not to ask. Some things were better that way.

There’s the distinct sound of Pakkun, “Boss, did you get turned into a dog.” A bark. “And you summoned us why.” Silence. “Okay boss.”

Kakashi barks and then bounds to the front of the massive pack, wearing one of his distinctive henohenomoji vests but decorated with the kanji for fire. The pack contains not just his usual summons, but a number of strange and large ones that look nothing like normal ninken and more wild. He looks pleased, in the way that Team Seven has come to know means nothing good. Pakkun clears his throat delicately, “Boss would like to announce that this is a mock invasion and you have until dawn to foil our rampage of destruction and mayhem.” He looks at the proud Kakashi doing the dog equivalent of his squinty-eyed smile of false innocence, then continues. “Please don’t break anything or you’ll regret it. Time starts now.” The pack rushes in multiple directions at once eliciting screams in the night, while people are still struggling to rid themselves of costume parts or even properly function in costume.

“Bastard, this is definitely all your fault, believe it.”

#sumigakure halloween event 2017 #prompt 7: people turning into their costumes #dogs #art writes

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thirstyfortom · 7 years

Text

Prologue

I LOVE, L-O-V-E this so much! It’s so complicated and I have no idea what I’m doing next with this, but I love it! So here it is… maybe the intro is a little boring, but I think I finally did something interesting with V, I feel like I never do him justice…

So hope you like this as much as I do!

You sigh, anticipating all the work you gonna have putting these records in order and removing the dust. All of this may sound dreadful or boring, but you honestly like being here by yourself. No, not by yourself, you have Aretha Franklin, Bernadete Peters, Freddie Mercury and so many more amazing people’s company. All of them have so much to tell you and you definitely have all the time to listen.

Working at your uncle’s records store started as a summer job, you didn’t want to spend the school break with your father, so you used this as an excuse. Yes, you needed the job to buy… tickets for a BTS concert, yes, that’s what you told your father. You just didn’t tell him that the concert happened and you didn’t go.

Not that you don’t like your father, but he’s been acting weird the past few years. He’s becoming overprotective and surly. He says it’s because you’re young, innocent and tend to try seeing the best in everyone. But you know, and he probably does too, that he’s like this because you’re starting to resemble your mother too much. He let her go, he couldn’t risk letting you go too.

And he’s not, you tell yourself, this is about enjoying freedom. People tend to think freedom has to do with wide landscapes in the mountains or in the beach, but sometimes, freedom has to do with being behind a old store’s balcony that smell like mold and listening to dusty vinyl records or CDs. That’s what freedom means to you.

You always liked music, and music runs in this family’s veins. Your mother used to be a singer at a jazz band, maybe she still is? You don’t see her for… 3, 4 years? You’re not mad at her, she’s finally enjoying her freedom after that long and stressful process of divorce. Your uncle, owner of this store, was a one hit wonder in the 80s, one of many that popped up with some cheesy rock ballad that, once it enters your mind, doesn’t leave and you keep humming the song until it pisses yourself off.

And then there’s you, the only child of this frustrated jazz singer and a lawyer, the girl who joined the musical theatre club in her new school and watched as it was closed due to some budget cut. You miss that club, some people, and all those songs. Showtunes are amazing! They are so powerful and vibrant! Patti Lupone, Liza Minelli, Barbra Streisand… so many different talents representing a whole genre! A Chorus Line, Rent, Chicago… yeah, Chicago is dope!

You were listening to “Mr. Cellophane” and singing along when this tall guy with blue hair and sunglasses walked in. You didn’t notice him, as you had your back to the door, singing, replacing “mister” for “miss” in the lyrics and just… living the song, while you piled those records in a higher shelf.

Then you heard this clearing throat sound and turned to see the blue haired guy, smiling at you, with his hands on his pockets. Shit!

“H-Hi!” you stuttered, jumping from the stool and giving little taps on your pants, trying to get rid of the dust in your hands. “Can I help you?”

“Yes. I’m looking for a record.”

“Well, we have plenty of them!” he chuckled, oh, his smile is… dreamy…

“Yes, I should be more specific. I’m looking for Patti Smith?”

“Horses?”

“Close. Radio Ethiopia.”

“You’re in luck! Last copy!” you told as you reached for the record in the shelf next to the door, behind him. “And this is one of those albums my uncle puts a symbolic price on, so pay as much as you want or can pay.” Judging from his clothes and glasses, how much he could pay wouldn’t be a problem…

“Seriously?”

“Yeah, my uncle says you can’t put a price on true art, so…”

“So if I want to take this for free?”

“You can, but it would be pretty douchy.” Shit! Your uncle already scolded you for talking back to customers like this. Stupid!

“I agree.” And there’s that smile again. Shit! What is this sudden heat in your cheeks? “So I hope this is enough for true art?” you widen your eyes, this is… more than enough, it’s… too much, actually.

“Oh, uhm… you don’t need to…”

“I can pay as much as I want or can pay, right? I can and I want to pay this.” His tone is playful, but you can notice he’s a little annoyed, shouldn’t have called him a douchy…

“Well, okay…” you take the money reluctantly. “Anything else?”

“Do you have Cher?”

“Pre or post-actress carrer?”

“Post.”

“Second shelf in your right, third row. No, fourth row, actually.” You reorganized Cher in the summer.

He flipped through the records, and you headed back to the balcony, taking a chance to admire his features. How old could he be? 19, maybe 20? He looked like those wealth kids who decide to abandon his family business to go into a self-discovering journey to some place with rivers and waterfalls.

“I’ll take these two too. I guess your uncle doesn’t consider these true art.”

“He likes Cher as in Sonny & Cher.” He nods, looking really interested in this total random fact about your uncle.

“Are you from here? I never saw you around.” Oh, talking about being random…

“I moved in a couple of months. You?” you… don’t really like talking about yourself.

“Born and raised here. But I’m leaving for college next month.” Okay, no self-discovering journey, then.

“Cool. What will you study?”

“Fotography.” Yes, that suits this little character you just made up for him in your mind. “You?”

“I’m…not going to college.” Not now, and probably never. Your father can’t afford this. “ I mean, I need to survive high school first.”

“Sophomore?”

“Freshman.”

“Well, I’ll be a freshman too pretty soon.” Cocky bastard. “Where do you go to?”

“Daykey High School” his smile widens. So… beautiful…

“Have you ever heard about Jihyun Kim?”

“No…?” some of his friends?

“Oh, people usually know him as V.” oh… yeah, it rings a bell.

“He used to play bass on that band, what’s the name? Uhm… Mysterious…”

“Mystic Messenger.”

“Yeah! Fucking weird name!” you scoff and he chuckles.

“Well, V named it.”

“V was probably high on something.” You notice he gets a little surprised at your response.

“You bet.” He takes his glasses off, and you feel this shiver rolling down your spine, his eyes are… mesmerizing… you could look at his eyes forever…but forever doesn’t last long as this blonde girl storms inside the store.

“Honey, did you forget to meet me at the dress store?”

“Sorry, honey. I just found this record store and thought I could find something. Look at this, Patti Smith! And I was almost for free!” LIAR!

“Ugh, sweetie, you need to stop reliving the dead.”

“Patti Smith is alive.” You say, immediately regretting for letting her notice you were paying attention to their conversation.

“Yeah… whatever. Can we go? The dust here is closing my throat, we don’t need another problem like that, do we?”

Oh, you actually know her, she’s a senior at your school! Yes, you remember seeing her during the senior meet freshman gathering on your first day. She’s… even more beautiful dressed this casually and with her hair free of the ponytail she usually has. Oh, and she sings in that weird band, Mystic Messenger or whatever. Or she used to… didn’t she leave because she’s being hired as a backing vocal for Taylor Swift? That’s the rumor on why she left… so what is she doing here?

“Okay, my sun. Let’s grab a lunch and I’ll take you home so you can get your meds.” My sun? You can’t hold back a scoff, looking at the money, then you raise your head and find both of them looking at you. Shit!

“Yeah, the mold… is making my throat close too.” You cough, and it’s actually pretty convincing… isn’t it? Judging from her face, it’s not.

“Come ooonnn!” she whines.

“Yes, get the car started, my flower. I’ll be there in a minute.” She walks away, stomping. Maybe she knows being called a flower it’s kinda ridiculous?

“Well, it was nice to meet you. Oh, and I agree with your uncle, you can’t put a price on true art, so I was wondering if you would lend your voice for free?” What?

You look puzzled as he takes a crumpled paper out of his wallet and hands to you. Oh, you recognize it! It’s a poster, it was hanging everywhere in the hallways. Yes, that band is looking for a new lead singer. What is he saying? Oh… he listened to you singing! Shit! You held back all of your embarrassment, but now you couldn’t hide it anymore…

“They’re holding auditions until Friday.” What? Does he really think you will audition for this? Why would you even do that?

“V, I swear to God if you don’t come right now…” the girl shows up again. Wait… V? Oh… FUCK!

“Just think about it. You have an amazing voice, you can really show your talent there. Oh, and if you want to get high sometimes, I heard their former bass player throws great parties.” He winks at you, you would be blushing if you weren’t completely dead.

You closed the door at night and went home, the crumpled paper in your jacket pocket. That’s what happens when you try to flirt, right? First, the guy already has a girlfriend. Second, you called him a pot-head in his face. So… stupid!

But you can’t stop thinking about what he said… he said your voice was amazing… no! He said it was true art! Like Patti Smith! TRUE ART! Well… to be honest, you know you sing well, otherwise you wouldn’t have been accepted in the musical theater club, which was closed a little after you joined… no, but it wasn’t your fault… they cut the program so the soccer team could have a bus for the state championship or… you don’t really remember the excuse the principal gave.

Truth is, you miss singing, you miss the stage. You’re generally very introvert, but when you’re up on a stage… you feel like you could drink from the audience’s attention all over you. Yes… you enjoy that rush! And you could do anything to feel it again.

And, though you could never admit this clearly, showing up at some V’s party didn’t seem like a bad idea…

But first, you need to face an audition!

Chapter One →

#mystic messenger #mystic messenger au #mystic messenger fic #high school au #mystic messenger v #jihyun kim

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sabraeal · 7 years

Note

You know the picture where Suzu's wearing Obi's clothes? Could you write Suzu trying to be cool? Thank you for writing!

Yuzuri has been working for nearly five whole minutes, and the door resembles a pincushion more than a lock.

“Hurry up,” Suzu hisses, leaning his chin on her shoulder. Her hair smells like orchids, just like it always does, and that plus the three – or was it five? – pints tonight makes his knees a little weak. “Are you sure you know what you’re doing?”

She flicks her ponytail like she’s trying to get rid of a particularly nettlesome fly. “Yes! Obi showed me himself a year ago. After you told him that story about how I got locked in the stockroom with Kenichi for half a night.” Her gaze cuts to him, hazy with alcohol but still blazing. “Why did you tell him that anyway? That happened ages ago. You know he gets.”

“Are you really complaining that he taught you how to pick locks?” he asks into the soft skin of her neck. This is probably too close, far too close, but she isn’t stopping him, so.

She shivers.

“N-no,” she snaps, petulant. “But he did his whole worried bodyguard thing. Kept cracking jokes and then would get all serious; now you don’t have to worry about your habit of getting into tight spots, Yuzuri –” she drops her voice and octave, suddenly grave – “but I’ll always come if you call for me.”

“It’s nice.” Her cheeks flush. “But it makes me feel like he’s – I don’t know, my father.”

He hums, breath huffing over her neck. She drops a hair pin.

“Do you mind?” she asks crossly. “I’m trying to work here.”

“Fine.” He stumbles a little further down the hallway, letting Yuzuri cuss at the lock in peace – he wonders if Obi will notice that someone tried to pick it in his absence. Probably.

Shirayuki’s room is next to his, as always, and Suzu stares at it for a long moment. Didn’t they have an argument just last week, something about how Shirayuki never takes her own safety seriously –?

He reaches down, turning the knob, and oh –

Oh yeah, Obi would probably be pissed about this.

Shirayuki’s room is dark, the lamps out and curtains drawn – makes sense, since she’s working the late shift in the pharmacy tonight – but still air holds some of her scent.

“You could get robbed,” he tells the empty room, horrified on Obi’s behalf. Shirayuki’s too, but – she’s the one who left it like this.

He sees another door to his right, and -- it can’t possibly be this easy, it’s got to be some sort of prank, Obi’s going to be waiting for him –

“Oh wow.” His gaze sweeps out to find Obi’s much more spartan room empty. “Really?”

How does he even lecture her on security when he leaves their adjoining door unlocked? I mean –

He glances at the knob. It only locks one way. It’s not Obi who has control over whether its open or not.

Oh. Oh. Suzu grimaces. Sometimes life just isn’t fair.

The door bursts open behind him, Yuzuri spilling into the room with a yelp. She stares up at him from the floor with a grin.

“I did it!” she tells him. A moment later her brow furrows. “Wait, how are you in here?”

“Shirayuki’s room.” He gestures to the adjoining door. “It was unlocked.”

Yuzuri’s eyebrows tilt up in mild surprise. “She leaves the door between them unlocked?”

He shrugs. It’s more surprising that she leaves her other door unlocked, but all right. He knows where Yuzuri’s priorities lie.

She rolls up to her feet, peering through the door. “Huh, and still nothing’s happened?”

He doesn’t know how to explain to her that Obi can’t just make it happen; he can’t just make Shirayuki fall in love with him, he can’t just invite himself into her room and kiss her until she’ll never let him leave.

Instead he says, “We should get started, or else Obi’s going to catch us.”

Yuzuri grimaces. “Yeah, okay, good point.”

“Do you think we’re going about this wrong?” Suzu asks some time later, flipping through stacks of correspondence. “I mean, can’t we just ask him what he’d like for his birthday?”

Yuzuri stares at him like she scraped him off her show. “That would ruin the surprise.”

“We could ask Shirayuki, though.”

“Please.” She rolls her eyes. “Like she could keep a secret from Obi.”

Suzu considers it. “Yeah, alright,” he agrees. “That’s fair.”

“How come Obi has the coolest clothes?” Suzu complains, rifling through the cedar chest at the end of his bed. “I mean, he has half the wardrobe I do, but he always looks all – er –”

“Handsome?” Yuzuri supplies. “It’s because he’s with all the lords, I bet. He’s fashionable. I’m still not sure if you can see all your colors.”

Suzu glares at her over one of Obi’s black shirts, the fabric filmy against his hands. “If I made as much dill as Obi, I could probably look pretty dashing.”

She snorts. “You couldn’t look dashing if you wore his clothes.”

It’s a failing of his; he can resist every challenge except the ones Yuzuri offers him. It’ll get him in trouble one day, but –

“Oh?” Obi’s fur jacket sits on a chair – he’s wearing his guard uniform now, on shift – and he pulls it up over his head, letting it settle over his torso. It’s not baggy on him, but – his shoulders aren’t as broad as Obi’s, his chest not quite as full. Though he’s built a little more solid than Obi by nature, Obi’s body is one of use, and Suzu’s is one of…sufferance.

Still, not bad.

“Not as goofy as I thought it would be,” Yuzuri allows, parking herself on the edge of Obi’s bed. “But you’re still not quite Obi’s league.”

“He can pick me up,” Suzu agrees with a forlorn nod. He brushes a hand over the fur. “This feels a little bare, I have to say.”

“You’re missing the cape.”

“Oh, right.” He digs through the chest, pulling out one of the thick capes, tossing it over one shoulder. “Oh, hey, I think I’ve figured out why he wears those straps all the time.”

Yuzuri grins, making a sweeping gesture with her arm. “Please, share with the class, Master Suzu.”

He fidgets with the edge, trying to get it to sit just so, how Obi always does. “It’s impossible to keep this on right otherwise.”

She cackles, rolling back on the bed. “You know, I think he only wears those because Shirayuki told him it looks dashing once.”

“Oh, yeah.” Suzu pulls out a scarf, dropping it around his neck. “That’s definitely the reason.”

He pulls up the scarf over his mouth and strikes as mysterious a poise as he can, arms crossed and slanting a look from the corner of his eyes. “I have aliases and many secrets.”

“Wait, wait!” Yuzuri leans across the bed,reaching an arm into the chest, and yanks out another cape. She drapes it over her head just like Shirayuki does in the market.

“Oh Obi!” she shrills, an entire octave up from her normal voice. “Could you please come stand unreasonably close to me for a simple task?”

“Oh, why, Miss.” Suzu drops his voice into a growl, approaching the bed until he brushes Yuzuri’s knees. He does not think about how his stomach jumps at being this close. “I would consider it my duty to stand a friendly distance away from you while we talk.”

“Oh, Obi,” Her hands come up to lay on his chest. His heart pounds so hard against his ribs she must feel it; if she does, she gives no sign. “If you don’t breathe right on my face and stare at me like I’m a cream-stuffed pastry, I’ll have to assume I’ve upset you.”

“Of course, Miss.” He lays his hands over hers. Any time now, she’ll push him away, he knows she will. She just must be…caught up in the joke. “It is completely friendly, the way you must put your hands on me while we stand here talking about what to have for dinner. But realize, I’ll have to be angry at myself later for thinking about kissing you, because nothing about this situation says kiss me.”

She bats her eyelashes coyly, fingers curling in his coat as she leans back. He’s not sure what she’s doing, doing this with him but – well, it’s not like he’s going to complain she wants him this close. “Oh, of course not. I am far too sweet to think about you – ugh, it’s hard to get realism without the straps, Suzu –”

He snorts, following her over until his hands rest above her head on the mattress. “I’ll try to ask him to leave them behind the next time, I’m sure he’ll understand.”

“Please,” she giggles, her breath ghosting over his lips. He suppresses a shiver, poorly “Anyway, Obi, I think you really need to explain what you’re doing tomorrow right in my ear, otherwise I might not hear it.”

“Right, Miss.” He nods, so serious. “I’ll have to do it do my lips brush your ear, otherwise –”

Yuzuri’s gaze slides right over his shoulder, eyes going wide as they fix on something just behind him. “Suzu –”

“Miss, please,” he giggles, leaning closer to her. He’ll never have as good a chance as this again. “Everyone knows secrets have to be passed mouth-to-mouth –”

A hand lands on his shoulder, heavy. Strange, both of Yuzuri’s are accounted for –

“Nice cape,” Obi says.

#anonymous #suzuri #obiyuki #my fic #100 days of obiyuki (and more)#ans #not sure this is what you wanted anon #but lbr #suzu would absolutely mimic obi #and yuzuri is probably just waiting for the day where she can whip out her shirayuki impression

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