#I have watched them jump out that stupid airplane so many time | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

dausy · 5 months

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Happy New Year! I wanted to do like a comprehensive "stuff I did in 2023" but I have a terrible memory and goodreads says I only read 4 books which is completely incorrect so I don't know what I've read.

I have oddly enough done a quite a bit of things this year.

I've been here in Texas now for a year and at my current job for a year. I can tell you my spanish has improved tremendously without having any sort of scale or way to gauge to it. Still absolutely not fluent, just better than I was before we moved here. I've found my absolute favorite local coffee shop that is not a starbucks. It has great food and great coffee. I've been to many other local cafes in other states and their coffee always tasted like dirtwater and starbucks or mcdonalds has always been better (sad right?). We discovered Chilaquiles, which I have never heard of before until we moved here. Honestly we havent been to that many mexican restaurants and primarily focused on brunch spots. I also havent been out to eat since my husband left on his overseas rotation.

now that its the new year this is a new one that I've learned. Rosca de Reyes. I have never heard of it before. I've seen and had king cake around mardi gras time (which is nasty). But never Rosca de Reyes. So thats new to me.

We took several trips this year. We started our year off at Knotts Berry Farm and Downtown Disney. We visited my husbands side of the family a lot because now we're so close (8 hour drive and all). So we saw them for Easter. My SIL had her 21st birthday so we visited Las Vegas. This was right before they opened that giant globe and I did not see it..in the distance..its turned-off-ness. I completely missed it and never saw it. They were starting to gate everything off too for the car racing thing they were doing. She got to jump out of an airplane and I was not down to watching that. Cant do it. Makes me want to vomit. But she survived and said it was the greatest experience ever.

We then went back to the Los Angeles area around June/July to visit the beach and the Mario land in Universal Studios. I'd never been to US in California before only Florida. So that was an interesting experience too. I think mario was cool but unless it grows more, its not really worth it. The jurassic park ride for sure was more superior than the one in Orlando and the park tour was interesting surprisingly.

ran into a few celebrities on accident. Visited Little Tokyo which was a highlight to me.

and ofcourse I drove to my in-laws for thanksgiving and then went back just a couple weeks ago for Disneyland and another day at knotts.

I know I missed out on a lot of local experiences just because I didn't want to go on my own. I know there were a few bands in town I would have wanted to see but yeah..by myself no. We did go see a youtuber/comedian at the local theater and that was really neat. Their theater here is nice.

goodreads is screwed up and is telling me I read 4 books but thats inaccurate. If I could manually I did around 21 but I've returned quite a few books so I'm not sure the grand total.

I think the best book I read all year was Godkiller by Hannah Kaner. I enjoyed that a lot. I think a sequel comes out in march and I plan to read it too.

Hurricane Wars was a lot of stupid fun, not because I think it was well written, but because I get a kick out of fandom fanartists/fanfic authors doing something professional. I'm like "you go girl" and I don't even know these people. I didn't particularly think the original reylo fanfic was great. But I appreciate the success a fandom can bring people.

The worst book was IronFlame but I appreciate the hype. I like fandoms. I like the enthusiasm of fandoms and how much fun they make things. I want to join in on the fun too. I did not enjoy Fourth Wing. I thought it was terribly written. If it was a fanfic I would have hit the backbutton so fast on it (and thats how I judge my books, on the "back-button" scale). But they made the hype for IronFlame look so fun. It was even worse than Fourth Wing. I don't understand what others were reading but I can't judge because I bought it due to FOMO. I do not plan to read the third book.

Little surprise success too. I stuffed my kindle and discovered AG Caggiano and read the first book of Villains and Virtues and I really liked it. I have such a hard reading not-fanfic. The writing styles for fanfic and original books are just so different and I have a hard time getting into original novels but I really enjoy these silly characters. Never heard of this book series or author before. But I finished the first book within a couple days and I'm half thru the second. Its like a silly disney movie. Bit more pg13 but I enjoyed it.

I did have some fails. I made it through half of HarryPotter 2 and Im about 50 pages from finishing Court of Thornes and Roses by SJM in SPANISH. My goal was to finish these books in SPANISH. I honestly got a little distracted by a Tangled spanish fanfic. But reading in Spanish is very humbling and difficult. I have to be able to clear my mind to get through it. Some days I can zoom through a page, other days I don't understand a single word. So I didn't quite finish anything.

Trying to think of games I finished this year. I finished God of War Ragnarok at the beginning of the year. I mean, good game but the wow factor kinda stuck with the first remake. Nothing really stood out to me that I ever need to play it ever again.

I upgraded my switchlite to a switch OLED which almost killed me because there was nothing wrong with my switchlite but I wanted to play TOTK on the big tv. TOTK was fine too but I found myself getting bored of it. Again, I think the major wow factor was with the first one, BOTW. In TOTK, it felt like I was clearing the same map all over again but then they added the underground and sky which then just made my map-clearing OCD give intense anxiety re completionism. I have to stop and flip every rock over and I was getting tired.

I also played Harvestella which I did not enjoy. I played Octopath Traveler 1 which was not bad, I heard 2 was great and I plan to play it eventually. I also played Xenoblade 1 which was not bad either. I'm playing Xenoblade 2 now and I'm struggling a bit to get enthused about it. Everybody says X3 is amazing but I felt bad for skipping 2 to get to 3. So I'm going to suck it up.

The real winner this year for me has been Disney Dreamlight Valley. It was officially released in December but Ive been playing the "beta" for well over a year now. I got pretty heavy into it with some of the large updates this year. I have more hours in it than TOTK. With all its issues and peoples complaints, its a perfect game for me. Its disney. I got simba and rapunzel. I can decorate my island in disney. I can casually play while audiobooking. Its relaxing.

What else did we do this year? hosted 4th of July. Hosted a buddy to stay at our house for a bit while he was here on assignment.

I hired a dog walker by myself. Had a dental procedure I had been dreaming about but the anxiety of asking about it was scary and it was fine.

I went outdoor rock climbing for the first time ever and never need to do that again. I did go to 2 different indoor rock gyms. Got embarrassed at both places and havent gone back. I have fallen off the wagon really badly with going to the gym here. I just can't find a place where I feel comfortable.

I also got really invested in my backyard landscaping because this place sucks for my dog.

I think some of my stomach issues have improved tremendously this year. Stomachs still not great but I havent felt the urge to go to the doctor about it due to the anxiety which is an improvement.

Seen a bunch of movies this year too. Dungeons and Dragons, Mario, Oppenheimer, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles....Wish sucked really bad...I still havent seen barbie or the new hunger games and I really wanted to.

mainly I focused on youtube videos. I got sent some cool stuff by companies. I feel like I didnt draw quite as much but youtube kept me really busy. I've learned a lot about video editing and public speaking though neither are my strengths. I do enjoy the art community on youtube as a whole. Its a lot less stressful than the rest of art social media in a different way. Portfolio social medias or places like twitter theres an urge to create constantly. Youtube I can merely talk about art and it counts as something creative. So it kind of takes a load off. Also, ofcourse with art companies sending out merch, theres a decent reward system too. I talk about art, don't need to necessarily complete anything and then get free stuff. So, so far, for me, its been worth it. Especially given my tiny following. You don't need 1mil followers to obtain a reward. So to me, its a pleasant experience. I do worry about my account growing bigger and me not being able to maintain it. Its easier to accept rude comments when its just your art. When its you on the screen, its a bit more personal.

otherwise, I have no plans for 2024 other than the same stuff. I would like to make a vegetable garden but I wont because by the end of this year we will be planning another move. The end of 2024 is going to be a massive life change and stressful doozy. My husband will be retiring and we don't know what we want to be or where we want to live when we grow up. I'm telling myself it'll be socially acceptable to quit my job in about 6 months to prep for this life change but thats not really true. We need all the money we can get lmao.

#illustration #sketchbook #watercolors #realmedia #mixedmedia #artblog #animalart #traditionalart #sketch #drawing #gamergirl #videogames #2023 retrospective #2023review #artistblog #milspo #militaryspouse

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shurisneakers · 3 years

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shut in [14]

Summary: When your high profile mission goes terribly wrong, you’re forced to hide in a safehouse with a man you’ve never met before. With seemingly nowhere else to go, you’re forced to work together to figure out who is trying to have you assassinated before it’s too late. (Sam Wilson x Reader, Hitman AU)

Warnings: anxiety, violence, guns, death, ptsd, swearing, abuse

Word count: 6.3k

A/N: last chapter you guys :’’’’) im too emo about a fanfic i s2g. there’s an epilogue but this is the official last chapter.

i really appreciate feedback so if you would like to, please consider dropping me an ask or comment ly guys!

Previous Part || Shut In Masterlist

You had only heard of the warehouse before, never actually seen it.

Its reputation preceded it. It was only mentioned in passing as a place for the worst of the worst.

It was murky and smelled like rust, concrete and rotting corpses. You had no doubt a few of them would be littering the place. A few tube lights shone over you graciously like a spotlight, barely illuminating the area.

The room you were in was utterly silent. The only exception were noises outside the door; loud shouts and clanging of metal. You assumed it to be people in the other rooms. Your assessment on how tight the ropes were coiled around you earned a few grunts and odd squeaks, but nothing major.

You were bound to a chair, of course, with knots you had used before on others. It felt like a convoluted form of irony. It was firmly nailed to the ground to prevent you from using it against captors. You were gagged; pretty well, by the look of it.

A noise from beside you threw you off track. A quick look to your left and you found Sam in a similar predicament. He shook his head slightly, implying that it was useless to find an opening. At least he was alive and breathing.

“Are you done?” A voice came from behind you, echoing within the four walls. “I really want to get going and you’re taking too long.”

You knew who it was. It was impossible for you to mistake it at this point.

“Don’t mind the noise outside. We’re just torturing a bunch of people to death.”

You roll your eyes out of sheer instinct. The footsteps slowly moved towards the front of the room, heavy and deliberate. The expensive material of his suit shone under the light as he edged in front of you. Only he’d wear Armani to a murder.

The dramatic fuck clearly rehearsed it.

“Hey Buttercup,” Ransone smiled, distinctly proud of himself. Your bite on the bundle of cloth haphazardly shoved in your mouth tightened. “Been waitin’ on you for a while now. Wilson’s no good company.”

You sneak a glance at Sam’s side profile and he looks relatively untouched. There were a few cuts on his face that you could make out under the harsh light but that was it.

“You can’t get out of those, if you're wondering.” He gestured to your current set up. “I told you, Sam. I save my warehouse for special guests. All your fun tools are gone. Took ‘em when you were brought in.”

As your eyes adjusted to the lighting, you faintly make out the presence of two men in the corners of the room, stiff as cardboard. His security.

“Oh! Except this.” He brandished the paper airplane you had brought with you in the utility belt. He’d use anything to potentially get a rise out of you.

“Gettin’ sentimental now, are we?” He tested the tip of the plane with his finger.

You prayed he wouldn’t destroy it. It had more value than he was willing to bet on.

“You must be asking yourselves why you ended up here,” Ransone mused, looking at the plane from all angles. “No need to worry, I’ll tell you.”

You didn't expect anything less from him. Everything about this felt cinematic; the inconvenient lighting, the men standing in the corner. This man oozed drama over efficiency.

“When I was just starting out, people warned me. Told me I wasn’t going to get anywhere, that we’d always stay in the same position because that’s how it’s been for all these years.” He tested the plane, holding onto the body sturdily.

“There were too many big names already. We were one of them, of course. My father did a good job of giving us a solid foundation.” He pulled his wrist back like he was going to launch it, only to never actually do it. He carried it through the air, simulating its flight pattern.

“You remember my father, don’t you? The guy who cut off someone’s finger because they didn’t finish the job.” Ransone really only had one story to tell about his father and he worked it to death. Other than a few handful of times, his father never bothered about his presence much from what you heard. He favoured the ones who were brutal and Ransone- well, he was a glorified theatre kid.

“Of course you do. He was an incredible man.” He laughed crisply. “But he had no real ambition. No drive. I told him we could have been at the top, the ones parents warn their kids about. He didn’t listen to me. He never really paid attention.”

His tone got wistful in the end, eyes distant like he was living the scene out in his head.

“So obviously when he died, I had the chance to really make a difference. Really set us apart. Ten Rings and Hydra had their own niche; they had some ties with the military and the government and whatnot. Crazy motherfuckers, all of them.” He shook his dead in distaste. “But Serpentine- that was closer to home. Same market as us.”

You wondered how long he would take to get to the point. The only distraction you had were the noises that continued outside. An odd gunshot here and there really pulled your attention away from the story.

“Serpentine with their stupid code names. They really thought they were all that.” He sounded embarrassingly like a bitchy teenager. “Who do they think they were fooling with the Norse Gods thing, huh? Naming your leader Odin, his wife Frigga.”

“I fucking hated them,” he spat, face twisting into anger. “Told them to watch out, that I’d end their legacy. They laughed in my face.”

He spun around, a wicked gleam in his eyes as he pointed to Sam, “That’s where you come in.”

Sam looked thoroughly irritated with the show that was going on in front of him. If he wasn’t gagged you had no doubt he’d have a few comments to pass. Ones that would get the both of you killed.

“I told you to kill their leader. One job. You fucked that up.” Sam recalling the story of his first mission flashed in your memory. “Let that old nutjob into your head and allowed him to escape. We didn’t know where he was for years.”

“I let it go because I thought Serpentine was done for. Radio silence after Odin disappeared. And they were, until a few years ago when I get news that they have a new leader. Odin’s son, the new heir.” He waved around his hands, mocking the last part of his sentence. “Word on the street was that he wanted to kill whoever murdered his mother in front of his eyes.”

“I thought that was hilarious. You know why?” He laughed humourlessly. “Because that was you. You were the one who killed his mother. You remember that? Your big mission?”

“You killed my mom,” he jeered, unmoving.

“I’m sorry. I had to.” Your voice was quiet. Your hand clutched at the hood of the car to keep your balance. “But I don’t want to hurt you. Go.”

“He wasn’t supposed to be there. No one had even heard of him. His brother’s too soft to take on anything like this. He’s some farmer in England now. But he was supposed to be Odin’s only son. Yet somehow, the only person who could have known this other son existed and actually seen him… was you.”

“Turns out he’s like you. A secret adoption. No record of him anywhere.” You didn’t blink, not once taking your eyes off him in case he decided to go wild. “He should have died that day. You were supposed to kill them.”

Only Ransone would justify killing a kid because it fit his agenda. It wasn’t like he hadn’t done it before, and though he tried very hard to shove his ideology onto you, you never complied.

“Goes by Loki now, another stupid codename. Trained by his father who this idiot let go of.” He gestured to Sam callously, “and mad about the murder of his mother that you committed. Serpentine came back pretty quickly after he took control.”

A particularly loud sound of metal slamming would have made you jump had you not been tied down. Ransone swung around in anger, loudly cursing at them for ruining his train of thought. He muttered some more curses under his breath before plastering a fake smile on his face and continuing.

“I’ll admit, he’s a sneaky one. But they grew faster than any other cartel. They somehow knew all our connections, all our targets, our key players. It wasn’t possible,” he shook his head low as he paced up and down slowly. You knew where this was headed. “Unless we had someone giving them information from the inside.”

He stops to look at you.

“I would have forgiven you, Y/N, I really would. You know how I am about second chances.” He looked at you, eyebrows upturned with regretful eyes. “But then you had to go and spy on me for two years.”

You could see Sam turn to you from the corner of your eye, assessing your reaction. You didn't extend the same courtesy to him. You didn’t have any reaction.

“We found out very late, of course. I taught you well,” he chided, his inescapable narcissism making an appearance once more. “But then we had to figure out why. Why you’d betray me and everything I’ve done for you.”

“I still can’t figure that out.” You wanted to scream at him, everything he had taken away from you, everything he forced you to be. “I treated you the best out of everyone I had. You had the best training, the best resources. You wouldn’t have made it anywhere if I didn’t drag you out of that shithole orphanage.”

You had heard of blissfully ignorant, but he was well beyond that at this point.

“Didn’t take too long to connect the dots. What, with Wilson’s great act of charity and your lack of better judgement, both of you managed to fuck up enough to screw me over years later.”

“I initially was only going to have you killed, Buttercup,” he admitted nonchalantly, like your life had no value. “But then we found out that Sam’s been lying to me for a long time too. Been hidin’ his friend a few states away.”

“It was meant to be,” he cooed. “Such a similar past. You could have met each other before, you know? Pierce wouldn’t be the first time you were at the same house on the same day.”

You couldn’t help but wonder what it would have been like if you had known Sam earlier. Would you have been friends or would you have been forced to kill each other in his sick ‘survival of the fittest’ game?

“It felt poetic to have you both die together, you know? On a mission gone wrong. A full circle.” God, he spent too long planning something elaborate when he could have just put a bullet in your head and ended you the day he found out. Fucking weirdo.

“Made sure I sent you to the same place at the same time. Pierce was dead long before you came, the poor fuck. But then again, collateral damage. No mercy.” He shrugged. “Had everyone at the ready. You should have died that night.”

“But like everything you do,” his voice suddenly rose like a child throwing a tantrum, “you fucked that up for me too. Escaped with his stupid fucking car.”

“None of those useless agents could find you. How could they?” The beauty was that Ransone must have spent too long looking when you were basically right there, just miles away. “You didn’t go to one of our locations and Serpentine hides their safehouses well.”

You still remembered the relief when the door accepted your fingerprint.

It was a long shot but you didn't have anywhere else to go. You weren’t even sure that this house existed.

Another loud crash arrived from the outside with noises that sounded like more gunshots, making Ransone jump this time. Just how many people were being tortured here?

“Keep the volume down, you stupid fucking imbeciles!” he screeched, pounding at the metal door. The decibel reduced, but still continued on.

He dragged his palm across his face in exasperation, talking under his breath to himself. He shook his head before turning back to you.

"Oh, by the way, don't think about escaping. Got every last one of my best agents out here after that stunt you pulled at Pierce’s house,” he says offhandedly.

He takes a second to regroup, get back into character.

“So we released your pictures to the public. Can’t go very far if people are looking for you constantly. It was the only way we could get you to stay in one place.” Ransone raised his shoulders casually. “We had every lowlife out there waiting for one of you to show up.”

“We eventually had someone report Wilson in a town a while away from Pierce. I was making my way there but then you sent me your location on your own. Had men outside your house that night.” He paused, peering at the plane in his hand.

He finally let it go, watching as it barely went any distance before nose diving to the ground. Your eyes trailed after it, hoping he wouldn’t crush it with his foot.

“This is the worst fucking paper plane I’ve ever seen. The balance is completely off.” He stared at it in wonder, picking it up again and shoving it back into his pocket. You let out a breath you didn’t realise you were holding. “Anyway one of them heard you talkin’ about how you’re leaving the next day so we just got ready at the door.”

“Et voila.” He grinned, spreading his arms. “Here we are. Brilliant, wasn’t it?”

Unnecessarily long, but you weren’t going to complain.

“Oh, I forgot you can’t talk.” His mouth quirked downwards into a ‘whoops’.

He took a long pause right in front of you before his hand reached out to cradle your face. “I wouldn’t let those idiots kill you, Buttercup. You deserved better than that.”

He stared unnervingly into your eyes, looking for a hint of anything, any sort of remorse. He wasn’t going to find any. You wished he saw nothing but hatred.

“It’s why I had to kill you myself.” He sighed when you pulled your face away the best you could from his palm in disgust. “But I’ll do you a solid. I’ll give you a chance to beg for forgiveness. Maybe if you’re good enough I’ll let you go.”

You knew he was lying. He had no intention of doing that. He only wanted you to grovel in submission, plead for your life for a fucking power trip.

He ripped off the tape that was over your mouth, making you flinch at the burn. He pulled out the cloth faster than you could spit it out at him.

“Go ahead,” Ransone said smugly. His ego would outlive all of you.

“Him first.” Your mouth was dry and your lips felt chapped. You had clearly been knocked out for a while by then. You had no idea how far away you were from the original location.

“What?” His smile dropped to a frown rather quickly.

“Him first.” You mentioned towards Sam with your head.

“That’s cute.” He laughed, stopping when you didn’t join in. “Oh, you’re serious.”

“I’m not saying shit till he does too.” You were bemused, monotonous. You just wanted to get this over as quickly as possible.

“Fine,” he huffed when your expression didn’t change. “It’d be fun to watch him beg anyway.”

You hear the rip of the tape from his face, the scrunch of the material before he balled it up and threw it on the floor.

Sam shook his head furiously, forcing Ransone to take a step back swiftly before he hit him.

“Right.” Ransone clapped his hands together. “Let’s get star-”

He was interjected by another loud bang followed by a series of gunshots. Another victim massacred. He groaned in frustration, stamping his feet at the constant interruption. The universe was determined to not let him finish his monologue in peace, and for that, you thanked her.

You looked at Sam, nodding slightly. He gave you a small smile in return, calming the nerves you were beginning to feel.

“Where were we?” Ransone did not look happy; a vein was dangerously visible on his forehead. Now would not be the best time to do anything that angered him. “Yes, go ahead. Beg.”

“Ransone,” Sam began, exhaling lightly. “We knew.”

The smile on Ransone’s face faltered. “What did you say?”

“He said we knew,” you cut in. “You melodramatic fuck.”

Ransone’s grin faded abruptly and it was by far the most satisfying experience you had ever experienced.

“Yeah, we figured it out ourselves a while ago.” Sam had the slightest smirk on his face. “Y/N did, actually.”

“Fuck,” you cursed.

You could feel his muscle shift as he looked at you.

“What’s wrong?”

You opened your mouth but shut it again. How do you explain it to him without sounding utterly ridiculous?

“I need to tell you something and I need you to hear me out before saying anything,” you pulled away from him, shuddering at the sudden cold that enveloped you.

“I’m listening.”

“I think it’s Ransone. He’s been trying to kill us.”

“Why?” He didn’t sound judgemental, hardly even fazed, like it was a completely plausible suggestion. You couldn’t express how glad you were.

“The guy you didn't kill, if he’s the old head of Serpentine, then... I know his son.” Your mouth was dry as your mind raced to piece it together. “He’s the one I didn’t kill.”

“What?” Sam’s eyebrows furrowed, and you could see him trying to figure out the connection. “How are you so sure?”

You closed your eyes, letting out a deep exhale. “I’m going to need you to not react to what I’m going to tell you.”

“Okay...” he trailed off.

“I’ve been working with him for two years. Passing information on to him about Ransone.”

“Wait so that means-”

“I’m the spy. And I think Ransone figured it out. He wants to kill me.”

“You knew,” Ransone stated. He looked like he was in a daze.

Sam looked at you once before nodding. “If you would shut up and let someone else talk for once, we would have told you a while ago.”

“It helped that you confirmed details about Pierce’s death without us having to tell you.” The last conversation you had with him replayed in your head verbatim. “There’s no way you would have known he was dead before we got there unless we told you. Or you did it.”

“We knew you had agents outside the house. Kinda expected that when we gave you the address,” you shrugged the best you could, “Sam’s security cameras got all of them.”

“Made sure that one fuck behind the tree could hear us planning outside,” Sam added. “He wasn’t very stealthy, by the way.”

“Have you decided on a day?”

You nod, looking straight ahead into the darkness. “Tomorrow.”

“You sure? Our timing has to be right.”

“Yeah.” Your voice is coarse. “I’ll have to tell him.”

He nodded, leaning his elbows on his knees. He was too tall for the stairs, almost like he was crouching instead of sitting.

His voice dropped to a whisper like it’s a secret only meant for you.

“You knew you were going to be ambushed.”

“No shit.” You nodded.

The loud bangs continued outside the door but you paid no heed to it. The closer it got, the more your stomach jumped, hoping that more people you pissed off didn’t storm in. You had quite a list anyway.

“You knew they were coming,” Ransone appeared like he had gears turning in his own head, trying to add everything up on his own. “Then why didn’t you run?”

“Well, we kinda needed all of you in one place.”

“Huh?” He blinked, not listening to all the commotion that was going on around him. If he didn’t, he was choosing to focus on this instead.

“We had to take out all of you at once,” you disclosed, fidgeting with the rope to see if it would give. “Kinda knew you were waiting to kill us yourself when we gave you the location and nothing happened immediately. You’re too much of a sissy to kill us without backup so we wanted you in one place with the rest of them.”

You tilted your head towards the two men standing in the corner.

“You knew all this while and lied,” Ransone jeered, face twisting into something rather indiscernible; a nice mix of shame and rage.

“Not like we had another choice, man.” You just knew Sam was rolling his eyes. “You think I would voluntarily listen to you monologue like an idiot?”

“You did gag us,” you added, trying to buy as much time as you could. “That’s on you.”

The ropes were still tight as could be and the chair wouldn’t budge. Even your feet were too tightly tied together to do anything. It was what you expected, but that wasn’t going to stop you.

“Shut up!” Ranone’s face was hideously red.

“You rehearsed it, didn’t you?” Sam called out, taunt in his tone. “With the lighting and shit.”

“He doesn’t have to. He does one a week to some poor fuck who has to listen.”

You couldn’t believe the both of you were teaming up to bully a man who literally held the fate of your lives in his hands. It was something you never imagined yourself doing.

“How do people take you seriously?” Sam laughed. More than yours, his remarks seemed to be ticking Ransone off.

Ransone let out a guttural cry, knuckles so white you were afraid they were going to break. He whips around, stomping over to pull the gun from the hand of one of his bodyguards.

“Easy there, DeNiro, that’s not a stage prop.” Sam chided.

The concrete in front of him suddenly cracks loudly. He looked up, slightly taken aback.

“Next time it’ll be your fucking face,” Ransone snarled, waving the gun around like a maniac. You send a cautionary glance to Sam, telling him to back off. Ransone was volatile. He would act without thinking.

“Why did you kill everyone I was friends with, Vincent?” you asked slowly, trying to divert his mind.

He turned to you, a crazed look in his eyes.

“Why did you take everyone from me?” The more you asked, the more it became about genuine curiosity rather than a distraction from shooting Sam in the head.

“Take everyone from- none of them were going to last anyway!” He throws his hands up in the air angrily. “I was saving you from yourself. From the eventual pain.”

His face was desperate, and you for a second forced yourself to think from his perspective. He looked like he truly believed in what he was saying, like he genuinely thought he was supporting you. Like he cared. The thought that maybe he truly wanted to help you was the only way you could comfort yourself for so many years.

“If you were in pain, you wouldn’t perform. I was only pushing you to your full potential,” he continued, a wild smile on his face mixed with eyes rimmed red like he was ready to cry.

Your stomach sank, even though you hated it. It wasn’t about you, it was about what he could get from you.

There was silence. Even the noises outside seemed to have stopped, all waiting for your next move.

“You’re a sick, conniving fuck,” your words waver, and you hope it hits him as hard as it can, “And I can’t wait till you’re dead.”

His face morphed from one of helplessness to slow fury once more. Manipulative prick.

“Do I have to remind you that you’re the one tied up?” He wipes at his nose, voice returning to normal. “The only reason you’re alive right now is because I need to know why you let yourself be captured so willingly.”

Your incessant need to know everything stemmed from him and the paranoia he induced in you from when you were a kid. Everything you thought was wrong about you came from him.

“We told you, you overdramatic fuck.” Sam drew the attention away from you thankfully. You took a deep breath, stabilizing yourself.

“What, that you needed the team in one place to take us out?” Ransone asked, to no one’s answer. “You and what army?”

“Well, the one who’s been here for a while now,” you pipe up.

No one says anything. Pin drop silence reigns free.

“You said he’d be here,” Sam hissed at you. “How much longer do we keep this going?”

“He said he would,” you argued back, feeling the heat creep into your cheeks.

“What the fuck are you both talking about?” Ransone asked, but you continued to ignore him.

“What are we going to do if he-”

The door violently exploded off its hinges, sending debris flying everywhere. You clenched your eyes shut and ducked your head to avoid getting smacked in the face with rubble

The dust hadn’t even cleared before multiple rounds were fired. You flinched when your ringing ears hurt more at the sound of gunshots.

You struggle against your ropes, trying to get to Sam. They only get tighter until suddenly your arms break free. Your neck and legs soon follow as you shrug off the ropes that were cleanly sliced off.

Your ears were still getting used to the chaos when you notice someone humming behind you. It took a second to register that it was a fucking Britney Spears song.

“What took you so long?” You coughed, waving the air in front of you to clear it as you stumbled towards Sam.

“I wanted to make an entrance,” Loki said dismissively, following you. “I think I may have overshot it by a few seconds.”

You fell to your knees in front of Sam, quickly moving to untie the familiar knots. He lifted his head to look at you, a thin layer of dust covering his face.

“Are you okay?” you asked in concern, simultaneously untying as fast as you could. It was one you had used many times before; a complicated knot that guaranteed you wouldn’t have been able to make it out of the bondage.

“I think my leg’s asleep but other than that I’m good.”

You give him a small smile, thankful that he wasn’t hurt enough to lose his dry sense of humour. Your hand involuntarily reached up to brush some dust off his cheekbone. The intensity with which he looked at you had you swallowing thickly.

You snapped out of it quickly, working on freeing his legs as Loki took a step behind his chair to cut the rest of him loose.

“This him?” Sam mentioned to Loki, massaging his wrist to return some feeling into it.

“You can just ask me, you know,” Loki commented, but clearly not taking any offence.

“I’m sorry about your family, man.”

You didn’t expect Sam to say that, and from the looks of it, neither did Loki. He stopped for a moment, before continuing to cut the last rope.

“You let my father go,” he said, sawing the last part off, “and although I personally think you should have killed the miserable old bastard, he made it clear that he owed you one.”

The both of you stood up. You glanced around the room, noting how both of Ransone’s bodyguards were on the floor, bullet holes riddling their body.

He himself was beside them, lying facefront on the ground. Armani suit be damned.

“How many more are outside?” Sam asked, tearing your attention away from the bodies on the floor.

“All taken care of.” Loki put the knife back into its sheath on his thigh. “We made quite a commotion. I’m surprised he didn’t do anything.”

“He’s a little dense,” Sam remarked. Most of the noises you heard earlier weren’t just other victims being tortured, although you knew that it was still a large fraction of it.

“Should we go?” you asked, doing a quick sweep of the room. You found nothing moving among the pile of rubble.

“Unless you got anything else left to do.” Loki gestured to the large hole in the wall where the door was.

“I think we’re done.”

He simply nodded, spinning on his heel to walk out the room when someone yelled from behind you.

You all halted what you were doing, slowly turning to look at where the noise was coming from.

“Don’t take another step,” Ransone warned, a gun pointed straight at you, barely able to stand straight. He looked worse than you’d ever seen him. His suit was torn and he had a few streaks of blood down his face. His hair was tousled and unkempt, rougher than it had ever been before. “Or I swear I’ll-”

“Oh, shut up,” Loki interjected, firing a shot into Ransone’s stomach before anyone could even react. He returned the gun to its holster that you didn’t even notice was there on his waist. “He talks too much.”

Ransone staggered back until he hit the wall, knees buckling beneath his weight as he slid to the ground. The gun he pried off his bodyguards lay where he was standing previously.

You ignored Sam’s uneasy questions as you took a step forward.

You picked the gun up, cautiously making your way to Ransone. You crouched next to his body. He looked at you before looking down. You followed his line of sight, watching as he lifted his hands. They were covered in blood.

“How’d he know where to find you?” Ransone’s voice was more subdued than you’d ever heard him.

You reached over, slipping your fingers into his jacket pocket and pulled out the paper airplane that was flattened due to the impact.

“Hey, you can put a message in it. Maybe one of those button trackers, a microphone. The possibilities are endless.” He laughed, folding another one out of the limited supply of paper he had left.

You unfolded it, letting a small object, not bigger than a button, fall into your palm. He stared at it before realisation dawned on him.

“I knew you’d take all my weapons, but you wouldn’t get rid of this,” you disclosed, folding the paper plane back to what it was and gently putting it into your pocket. It was still salvageable. “Not if you could use it to hurt me.”

You watched him take a shaky breath, flinching when more blood rushed out of him.

“You can still help me, Y/N. We can get out of here together,” he rasped. “Think about everything we’ve been through. We can work it out. I love you.”

You involuntarily let out a strangled cry at the last part. It was nothing but a last ditch attempt to persuade you, pull you back in.

“Look- look at me. Buttercup,” he croaked when you wouldn’t oblige. “I love you. I’m your home.”

You finally look at him. Look right into his eyes, red rimmed and fading. You look for it, the adoration he spoke of. The care he promised. Anything to make sense of why he would tear you apart time and time again. The love he had for you.

You find nothing. Gray eyes look back at you blankly, desperately, in pain.

“You never were,” you whisper, standing up abruptly.

You raised your arm, pointing the gun at him. He sputtered out more half baked apologies, unaware of anything that was coming out of his own mouth.

You clench your eyes shut, pulling the trigger. He lets out a cry when the bullet lodges in his shoulder.

You take a step back, letting the scene imprint itself in your brain of him powerless on the ground at your will. If you followed what he preached, you’d have ended his life right there. No mercy.

But you weren’t him. And you didn’t ever want to be.

“I need to do something too,” you heard Sam say. You can feel him near you, brushing against you for a moment as he gently reached for the gun you held. You gave it to him, feeling him squeeze your hand in reassurance.

Ransone looked at Sam as he stood beside you. He fired a single shot into his leg, clearly hitting bone. You hear the same wail from before, mixed with sputtering as blood leaked from his mouth.

“That was from Riley. He says fuck you.” Sam let his hand fall again. “All yours, man.”

“You already know what this is for,” Loki said simply.

You chose not to look away as he shot the last round right into his forehead. Ransone’s head slumped over. Dead, glassy eyes stared beyond you.

None of you say anything. Just stare at the lifeless body in front of you.

“It’s really over, huh?” Sam’s voice is quiet, like he's having trouble processing what just happened.

You don’t answer. Only take a step towards him, and intertwine your fingers with his, continuing to stare at the corpse of your lifelong abuser.

____

The sun was beating down on you. You didn’t expect it to be evening when you stepped out of the warehouse.

“Where are we?” you asked, shielding your eyes from the sudden brightness that left you squinting.

“Middle of nowhere, I’d say.” Loki stares with disdain at the old building that looked worse for wear. “Would it kill the man to have a bit of taste?”

That reminded you. “Thanks for the house. And… sorry we showed up uninvited.”

“You didn’t do too much damage to it, I hope.”

You looked at him guiltily, mind flashing to the many bullet holes that decorated the back wall. “I’ll pay for the repairs.”

“Forget it. It’s of no use since everyone knows it exists now.” He dismissed with a wave of his hand. “So, Y/N. I guess that concludes our deal?”

“I guess it does.” You nodded,

Sam wraps his arms around your shoulder and you lean into him with a sigh, allowing the comfort his touch brought to seep into you.

“How’d you guys make a deal anyway?” he inquired. You closed your eyes, chest rising and falling steadily.

“Well, I was going to kill you at first,” Loki explained offhandedly, gesturing to you. “But then-”

He trailed off.

You remember, clear as day, when Loki confronted you in the early hours of the morning outside the park you went on runs. He had a gun pulled on you before you could fathom what was going on, before you could even realise who he was.

“But then?” Sam prodded.

“Did he make it?”

“He did,” you divulged the information you had found out a while ago. It was a messy confrontation to say the least but you got out unscathed.

“Saw something that I recognised,” he said dryly, eyeing you up and down. “We were both pulled into something we didn’t have a say in. Stuck, you could say. I just thought that it was a win-win situation if we worked together to kill that idiot back there.”

“So you agreed to spy on him,” Sam concluded. “You got revenge. What was your incentive?”

You look at Loki who just smiled at you. You return one half heartedly.

“I’d say freedom is a pretty big reward, wouldn’t you?” And it was. You couldn’t even begin to explain the weight that would be lifted off your shoulders. “I can’t guarantee you’ll have a perfectly normal life. Might have to change your identity, move around a bit.”

“Everyone’s looking for us as wanted criminals,” Sam voiced everything you were forgetting about in the surge of emotions rushing through you.

“I got some connections,” Loki said dismissively. You peered at him from under Sam's arm. “I can have it traced back to a dead mobster in a warehouse, no problem. If they think it’s a gang war there’s no way they’ll try to get too involved. Consider it a gift from my father.”

Sam nodded, relaxing slightly now that most things were taken care of.

“That’s sorted then.” Loki examined the barren land that surrounded you. “You’re going to need a ride back to civilization, aren’t you?��

“If that’s possible.”

“I’ll have someone drop you off. You got any place to go? At least to stay low for a while.”

You didn’t have anyone. The only one you had was the man beside you. Nothing was settling in at the moment, and you realised that it would be a long road until it did. But you had a shot. A real shot at something even resembling recovery.

Sam and you looked at each other before he turned back to Loki and nodded.

“New Orleans.”

Next part

here’s my ko-fi if you’d like to support my writing <3

here’s a list of references/foreshadowing to the end all throughout the series!

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adezahnae · 3 years

Text

While We’re on a Little Trip (Part 4)

A/N: HELLO! I FINALLY FINISHED!! I hope it’s okay💕🥺

Warnings: Angst, cursing, child abuse, phone masturbation, jaehyun snaps, etc...

Tagged People: @ahgasearmyfan @whoreforshuaaa @avada-kedavra-bitch-187 @janedukiesworld @staynctzen127

Your POV

We were now at the restaurant and his daughter was playing with the toys she bought with her. Jaehyun tried to continue to talk to me but I couldn’t find the words to answer him. I was too struck in shock that I didn’t even have an appetite anymore. I looked over at the little girl and seen the similarities between her and Jae. She had his eyes, his smile, even his dimples. I smiled in the direction of the girl who was talking to him.

The waiter brought our food and smiled at Jaehyun. “Is there anything else sir?” She asked a little too flirtatious for me. I shot her a look and she quickly bowed. “Enjoy your food.” She said rushing off. I picked up my fork and cut into my pancakes. I heard him cut up the pancakes for his daughter while he talked and smiled with her. “That’s a big piece!” She said laughing. “Is it? Hmm? You want to eat that piece first?” He asked. “Uh huh!” She said opening her mouth. He fed her the piece and wiped her face off. She giggled and took the napkin, coping him. He laughed and took the napkin from her, feeding her again.

I giggled and ate my food. She then turned to me. “Hi!” She said. I smiled. “Hi!” I replied waving at her. “What’s your name?” She asked. “Y/N. What about your name?” I asked giggling. “My name is Lia! It’s short for Milia.” She exclaimed. I smiled and pinched her cheeks. “You have one pretty name..” I said. “Uh huh! My daddy named me.” She said pointing to him. “He did?” I asked looking at him now. “Mhm. He named me Milia Jung!” She exclaimed.

“That’s beautiful..” I said. She smiled and tapped his hand. “Daddy, pancakes?” She asked pointing to them. “Okay, open wide Lia.” He said. He did the little airplane thing and placed it in her mouth. She giggled and made grabby hands towards him. He took her out of her high chair and placed her in his lap. “Where did you meet Y/n?” She asked. “I met her at school.” He told her as he wiped her face off. “You liked her?” She asked. I continued to eat, avoiding eye contact with him. “I love her..” he said. “More than my mommy?” She asked a little sad. “Yes baby. More than mommy..” He said sighing.

“But mommy said that you said that you were gonna marry her and dump Y/n and that we would all live together.” She said eating eggs off of his plate with her hands. I seen out of the corner of his eye that he was angry. “Mommy said what?” He asked in low voice that scared Milia. I turned around. “Okay..Milia. Do you want me to hold you?” I asked. She smiled and made grabby hands towards me. I quickly picked her up and put her in my lap. “I’ll be back.” He said getting up from the table. “Where is daddy going?” She asked. “Uhh...to the bathroom!” I said. She nodded and began to eat some more.

Jaehyun’s POV

I walked to the bathrooms and called Alexa. I tapped my foot in impatience and waited. She answered the phone. “Mm..Jaeee!” I heard her moan. “What the fuck did you tell Lia?” I asked. “What?” She asked still moaning. “You told my daughter that I was gonna leave Y/N for your ass?!” I exclaimed. “Mhmmm..she needs to know that Y/n is not yours. I am..” she whispered.

She began to moan louder and louder. “I will never leave Y/n for you. I don’t want you anymore. We are over, damn it!” I said. “Growl at me Jae...” she mumbled. I rolled my eyes and hung up on her. I came back to the table to see another person I didn’t want to...Mia...

Your POV

As I was playing with Lia, I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned around to see that it was my mom. “Miss me Y/n?” She asked. “Mia get your pregnant self away from me before I make you have miscarriage.” I said. “Oh shut up! You only act tough for Jaehyun.” She rolled her eyes. “Okay well you can go. You’re so irritating.” I said. “Who is this woman, Y/n?” Lia asked. Mia gasped. “Lia? Babygirl, it’s me!! I’m g-“ “Mia!” I heard Jaehyun call. I turned in his direction and smiled. “Hey baby..” She said. “Excuse me?” I said getting up with Lia in my arms. Everyone in the restaurant had stop their movements and watched us. “For the last time, Mia we are DIVORCED!” Jaehyun yelled.

“I don’t care!! You are still mine! You know you shouldn’t be messing around some young whore like Y/n.” “Mia, I’ve told you many times to watch your fucking mouth.” Jaehyun said walking up on Mia. I stopped him. “Jae. Quit it.” I said. “You should have stopped messing with young girls when you stopped messing with Alexa!” Mia exclaimed. “But no...you’re still in your same damn ways. Screwing bitches like Y/n and then getting them pregnant. I know that my girls are gifted with my pussy but you shouldn’t screw them all the time and then dump them with a child to take of!” Mia exclaimed.

Girls?? What does she mean? There’s another one? Jaehyun breathed out and ran his fingers through his hair. He’s pissed. “Okay bitch, you get your ass out of my fucking sight before I raise hell and shut this damn restaurant down.” He snapped. “Daddy!” Lia cried. “I told you Jae! I’m not done yet!” She said. “Get out of here. Now.” I said. She huffed and left the restaurant. “The fuck you all looking at?! Mind your damn business!” He exclaimed. He walked out of the restaurant. “Sorry everyone!” I apologized.

I grabbed my things and Lias and left the restaurant after him. We got in the car and it was dead silent. He had his head in his hand and bounced his leg up and down. “Daddy? Are you mad at me?” Lia asked. He couldn’t answer. I picked her up and put her in my lap. “No..Daddy isn’t angry with you. He couldn’t if he tried. Let’s watch a cartoon huh?” I said to her. She nodded and I pulled out my phone, going to YouTube and watching kid shows. She grabbed my phone and giggled as she watched.

I thought about her clothes and everything and I seen that she didn’t have anything with her. “Excuse me driver? Can you take me to a clothing store?” I asked. He nodded. I turned to Jaehyun and seen him in the same state. “I’m buying Lia some clothes for the trip of course.” I said. He breathed out and handed me his wallet. I took it. “Thanks.” I said.

We finally made it to the store and I went straight to the baby clothes. I looked at the outfits and smiled. “Which one would you like?” I asked holding her and showing her. “Umm...this one!!” She said. I picked up the pink outfit and she grabbed a purple dress. “Ooh! I like this one! It matches one of my dresses I have with me.” I said. She giggled. “What about this...green one?” I asked. She scrunched nose up and pushed it away. “Green icky..” she said. I smiled.

“Yeah, Daddy doesn’t like that green neither.” I said. She’s like Jaehyun so much. “Okay, do you like the white one?” I asked. She gasped and grabbed the dress. “I love white!” She said hugging it. Aww, Jae likes that color too. We chose three more outfits and we went to the shoes. I picked her out three pairs of sandals and some pink shoes to wear. I went to the front and grabbed some diapers and more baby products.

We made it back to the car and Jaehyun was now on his phone. I gave him back his wallet and put Lia in her seatbelt. “Daddy look at my clothes!! Are they pretty?!” She asked waving the bags in his face he smiled and took the bags. “They are so pretty..just like you.” He said pinching her cheeks. She giggled and pulled out the pink dress. “Can I wear this one?” She asked. He nodded. “Sure, do you want me to put it on you now?” He asked her taking it. She nodded and held her arms up. I took her out of her seatbelt and he stood her up carefully.

He undid her shorts but she quickly pushed his hands away. “No..” she mumbled. He frowned. “What do you mean no? Let daddy undress you..” He said pulling her little shorts down. After he did, she shrieked and jumped into my lap. “What’s wrong baby?” I asked her. Jaehyun was reaching for her again until he stopped his movements. “Lia...what’s on your legs?” He asked her. I looked down to see that there were burn marks and bruises on her tiny thighs.

I gasped. “Take her shirt off.” Jaehyun said to me. I made quick of her shirt and seen purple bruises on her back. I gasped. “Jaehyun, these are beating marks and cigarette burns!” I said. Lia began to cry. “Mommy angry with me!” She said. “Baby...who did this to you?” He asked. “Mommy angry with me!” She cried again. He picked her up and sat her in his lap. “Tell Daddy who touched you.” He said. “Mommy and her friends...” she mumbled. “What friends?” “Mike and Larry...” She mumbled playing with her fingers.

“THIS BITCH!” He yelled. “STOP THE FUCKING CAR!” He yelled to the driver. “Where does mommy stay?” He asked her. “Ho..twel? Hot..uhh..Ho..yellow?” She mumbled trying to pronounce it. “A Hotel? Okay..” He mumbled. He began to dress her and he had a certain look in his eyes. “Jae..don’t do nothing stupid.” I said. He gave me a look that I knew he was too far out of reach at this point. There’s no stopping him. “Take me to the house we’re staying at please.” Jaehyun said.

We made there and he got out the car. He came back after a few minutes he had came back with black skinny jeans, a black shirt with a black cap and some black shoes on. I know that outfit...I know it well. “Take me to the hotel she’s staying at and take Y/n and Milia around Hawaii afterwards.” He said from the front seat. He turned around and looked at me. “Could you cover her up a little more?” He asked referring to her bruises. I nodded.

We made it to the hotel and by this time, Lia was asleep. I saw Jae pull something from the glove department. As I looked closer, it was gun. I widened my eyes as he cocked it back. “Jaehyun. I said don’t do anything stupid!” I whispered yelled. He turned to me instantly. “No one touches my fucking daughter.” He growled. “But shooting?! That’s not gonna solve anything but get you in trouble or in jail, or worse, prison!!” I exclaimed. “Look when you have your own child you will do anything and I mean anything to get revenge on the ones who touched the most precious thing in your life.” He said.

I shed a tear. “Jae..please.” I begged trying to change his mind. He leaned back and kissed me and kissed Lia on her forehead. “Take them around Hawaii.” He said as he got out of the car. “JAE!” I called. He opened the door to the hotel and walked to the counter. The car then pulled off and I started to think the worst scenarios.

#jaehyun ff #jaehyun x reader #jaehyun smut #jaehyun fluff #jaehyun nct #jaehyun #nct ff #nct x reader #nct smut #nct #nct 127 ff #nct 127 x reader #nct 127 smut #nct 127

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tomtenadia · 3 years

Text

A Little Braver - Chapter 12

Here we go. As promised i did not keep you waiting too long and chapter 12 has finally landed by gentle concession of Whitethorn airlines.

Be ready for angst, fluff and our Rowan in full fuss mode. I swear the man invented fussing. Also, our Iceman this time loses it. Even Fenrys is shocked by how much.

EDIt: forgot to say ATC is Air Traffic Control.

-----------

Rowan had finished his class and went back to his office. He had given those spoiled brats a very intense training and he had taught them how a real pilot flew and was quite satisfied of his level of evilness.

He sat at his desk, grabbed his phone and noticed a text from Aelin and a smile tugged at his lips.

Not even two hours back. Crash at the airport. I guess those civilian pilots are as bad as you claim.

He laughed to start with but then terror took him. He switched on the computer and tried to find some news about Orynth. He found a newspaper and read the breaking news. There was a video taken by probably some reporters on an helicopter and he almost fell sick at the images. The article mentioned two aircrafts but he could see only one. He had a bad feeling of what could have happened. The crew zoomed in and he spotted Aelin’s engines but he could not tell apart who was on the ground. Then he saw it. The collapse. A cloud of dust and fire lifted in the sky and he hoped that none of the guys were inside.

His heart raced and pure undiluted terror as he never felt, spread through him.

Once inside Aedion had to navigate through debris and remains of the collapsed structure. The dust raised by the collapse had somehow reduced the fire and he could see around him.

“Aelin,” he called out. He walked and walked and he knew he was getting further and further from the entrance.

“Aelin… answer me, damn it.” He shouted over the silence. A few electric cables flew over him and he ducked just in time to avoid electrocution.

Then he heard it. Her PASS alarm. The one that activated when it did not sense motion for a certain amount of time. He hated that sound because it meant that one of them was in danger.

Eventually he saw her body and flames too close for comfort.

“Chief, lieutenant. I have her. Have EMTs on standby.” he shouted over the radio.

“Lieutenant, Chief, we have two water lines coming in now.”

He ran to her and fell to his knees working to clear the debris from on top of her and once free he rolled her over and noticed she was not breathing and not wearing her mask which lay abandoned at her side. His finger went to her neck and found a pulse albeit weak “She is not breathing, I need the medical team inside. Now.” He shouted over the radio with panic thick in his voice.

He gave her a few rescue breaths “please… please… don’t do this to me. Please, Aelin.”

He put his mask on her face, trying to pass some oxygen to her.

Voices broke the silence but he was too busy helping Aelin to bother to look who it was.

In a moment the rest of the team had followed inside and they were putting off the remaining fire around them, allowing the medical team to do their jobs safely.

Lysandra was on her knees in an instant. Elide was at his side and Dorian was towering over them he was the one who had taken the two women inside.

“She is not breathing and her pulse is weak.” Said Aedion, his voice cracking “Help her, please.”

Lysandra did some checks with experienced efficiency.

“I need to intubate her, Aedion remove the mask when I tell you so.”

Lysandra got ready with all her gear “now.”

With the skills of someone who had done it a million times she intubated Aelin very quickly and Elide started to press the balloon to send air in her lungs and oxygen to her body. Lysandra did a quick check and noticed her right arm bore some bad burn marks. She wrapped the wound as best as she could with temporary bandages.

“Dorian, pass me the backboard.”

Within minutes Aelin was loaded on the board and carried outside. The remaining team stopped, staring at their captain unconscious.

Rowan was following the livestream of the accident when he noticed Dorian’s holding a board with someone on and on the other side a tall blonde man: Aedion. He looked a bit better and his heart sank. His eyes recognised the body on the gurney. Her blonde hair, her long braid.

All of a sudden he forgot how to breath. He just stood there watching as the gurney that carried her was lifted into the ambulance. Aedion jumped in as well and he saw Lysandra and Elide climb in the ambulance and drive away with crazy speed and sirens wailing.

He stood slowly, as in a daze, grabbed his stuff and left. He went home, packed all his belongings and drove back to the base. As quickly as possible he filed a flight plan and not long after he was in the air. He would explain everything to the school commandant but he had to go. He had to be with her.

The flight back to Orynth seemed to last forever. He swore loudly when on approach to Orynth he was told that the airspace above the city was closed. He was furious, the airbase was so far away from the airport that it was stupid.

“Orynth main, Typhoon FF9762, I am requesting clearance for landing at the airbase, not at your stupid airport. So you let me land this plane or when I ran low on fuel I will land in the middle of the motorway and then you can deal with that.”

A moment later he got clearance for landing and when his landing gear touched down on the runaway he quickly taxied inside the hangar.

When he opened the canopy, Lorcan was there waiting for him “don’t. I don’t fucking care about the school or anything else right now.” He grabbed his bag and quickly told his engineer to perform his post flight checks. It was totally against the rules but he had no time to lose.

“Elide texted me. They took her to Orynth general. It was the closest one. She says it’s bad.”

Rowan ran out of the hangar and to his car not even bothering to change out of his jump suit, threw his stuff in the back seat and drove like a madman to the hospital. Once inside the A&E he spotted some familiar faces. Her squad was all there, waiting for an update. Rowan stopped. Then his gaze crossed Aedion’s. The man walked to him and Rowan was sure he had been crying.

“How is she? Where is she?” His voice was shaky.

“We don’t know. They took her in urgently. When I found her, she was not breathing and her oxygen tank was dead. She was unconscious when we brought her in, and with some horrible burns on her right arm.”

Rowan sat down heavily on a chair, his hands shaking visibly. They had just found each other. He could not lose her.

“I thought you were in Doranelle.” Aedion’s voice was flat and his eyes fixed on the doors where they had taken Aelin.

“Aelin sent me a text saying you guys had a call at the airport.” His hand ran nervously through his short hair “then I checked the news and there was a livestream of the accident. And I saw it. All. And when I saw you and Dorian carrying her out… I left everything and flew here with my jet. Bloody ATC almost prevented me from landing.”

“This is always the worst part.” Said Aedion sitting beside Rowan “the waiting.”

The whole group remained in silence and Rowan did the same until a doctor went to them and Aedion stood, followed by Dorian.

“I have an update on the captain. Her condition is critical. She suffered serious internal injuries from the collapse and they are being treated now. Her right arm has some severe burns and again they are now being treated to avoid infection. Her oxygen levels are still below the normal parameters. During surgery she has coded twice, but we got her back. As soon as the team is done with her we will move her to the ICU. We need to keep her under strict control. She could still develop acute respiratory syndrome. She will stay intubated and heavily sedated.” Then the doctor turned to Aedion “I will let you know when you can see her.” And with that he walked away.

“Everyone, return to the station. We are still on duty.” Aedion ordered his men. They gave him a hug and asked to keep them posted. He knew that it had been very hard for them to obey him. They all wanted to be there for her but slowly they filed out leaving him alone with Rowan.

Dorian patted his shoulder “I will stay with them at the station.” And he left with the rest of the squad.

“The scene at the airport seemed terrifying.”

“It was,” said Aedion in a flat tone “the small plane got reduced to smithereens. How the fuck that happened?”

Rowan sighed, he had an idea “possibly a mistake by ATC. They probably directed the smaller aircraft on the wrong runaway and the big plane landed and just crashed on it, then lost control, probably lost its landing gear and just slammed into the hangar bay.”

“How do you know?”

“Watching the live of the news. You could see that the bigger aircraft was on a landing trajectory from its heading. Also, it was on the runaway that Orynth airport uses for landing. The smaller craft was totally in the wrong runaway.”

“Well, it was a mess.”

“Did you manage to save anyone?”

Aedion nodded “all the people in the big aircraft. As soon as we arrived Aelin told us to keep an eye on the wings for fuel. The aircraft exploded but not before we managed to evacuate the passengers. Manon and Asterin saved two of the civilians by hiding in the cockpit.” He sighed “Aelin saved four.”

Rowan chuckled “she took two of my books one on flight theory and the one on airplanes in general.”

“That is why she knew about fuel being in the wings.”

Rowan nodded with pride “Aelin and I… we are working on things. On us. I…” he lowered his head “I care about her… a lot.”

Aedion leaned back on the chair and removed his fire jacket, remaining in his t-shirt “she can be difficult and believe me there is no one but me who knows just how much. I grew up with her. She is my cousin after all, but I always loved her like a sister. But Aelin has the bad habit of saying what she thinks and we had so many fights because of that. She can be a brat, but together with Lys they are the two most important women in my life.”

Rowan smiled briefly at Aedion’s description of Aelin. It was perfect.

“I proposed to Lys.” Confessed the blonde man.

Rowan slapped him hard on the shoulder “that is an incredible news. Congratulation, man.”

“I thought it was time. Lys and I have been together for three years and I love her.”

Rowan was about to add something when they saw the doctor approach them.

“Aedion, you can see her now.” The man stood and gestured to Rowan to follow him.

“Family only.” Said the doctor when he noticed Rowan stand.

“He is coming as well, Sorscha. And if anyone has any problems, they can take it up with me.”

The woman lifted her hands in yielding gesture “She is on the sixth floor in the ICU, room 46.”

“Thank you.”

“Are you all this friendly with doctors?”

“We visit hospitals a lot.” He added sadly.

Aedion walked to the stairs and Rowan chuckled “not you too…”

“What?”

“What’s with you guys and lifts?”

Aedion laughed “you posh boy can take the metal trap. I am walking.”

Rowan huffed and followed Aedion up the stairs. He was not letting an army guy beat him. He had pride.

Rowan pushed to keep up with Aedion and by the time they reached the sixth floor his legs were killing him, the man in front of him had kept a brutal pace, probably on purpose.

In silence they reached the room and Rowan pulled aside “you go in first, you are family.”

Aedion nodded and Rowan sat down on the chairs outside the room. Thing was… he needed time. He was scared of what he would see on the other side of the door. He was terrified. She was the one with the scary job. He was the one who knew how to fly away from danger and avoid being shot out of the sky. She, on the other hand, she would willingly face a fire to save people. Getting involved with her meant going through the hell he was living now. He fought it for as long as he could. But somehow along the way he had fallen for her pretty badly. He closed his eyes and leaned his head against the wall.

Much later on he felt a hand on his shoulder “you can go in now.”

Rowan turned his head to the door and his heart sank. Then he stood and mustered all the courage he had to open the door and step in.

The room was silent apart from the steady beeping sounds of the machines monitoring her heartbeat and the hush sound of the ventilator pumping air in her lungs. He froze and closed the door behind him. He stared at her immobile body. With all the cables and tubes and machinery, she seemed so small in the hospital bed.

He finally took a step closer and sat down on the chair beside her.

“Hi,” his voice broken as he felt tears streak down his cheek. Gently he brushed the tip of the fingers on her right hand and noticed the heavy bandaging on the whole arm.

“You scared the shit out of me.” He whispered, his head leaning on the bed near her hand “A part of me wants to bolt because I am not sure I can take it. But the other side tells me not to. Tells me that the recklessness, you fierceness and bravery are why I am so damn crazy about you.” He stood and paced back and forth “the idea of losing you paralyses me with fear.” He took a step backward with fear gripping his heart “I can’t do this. I am so sorry. I just can’t.”

He ran out of the door but Aedion blocked him “that was quick.”

“I can’t…”

Aedion’s face morphed into pure rage and grabbed Rowan’s jump suit by the collar “oh yes you can. I told you before, posh boy. You break her heart and I break you.”

Rowan collapsed exhausted on the chair and took his head in his hands “I can’t… I can’t go through that hell a second time.”

“What to you mean?” Asked the blonde man.

Rowan looked up and met Aedion’s eyes. So much like Aelin’s. They could have easily been twins.

“The pain…” he paused “I can’t deal with that pain again. Losing Aelin would break me definitely. And at the same time I can’t leave her for the same reason. I need her in my life. She might be infuriating but at the same time I am mad about her.”

“Then you have your answer.” Said Aedion flatly.

Rowan stood and Aedion placed his body in front of him.

“I am not bolting. I need to go home, shower, clear my head and I will be back.”

“You bolt, and I will find you.”

Rowan raised his hands and walked away in silence.

He got home, dumped his bag near the bed and shed his clothes on his way to the bathroom. Opened the water and dove under the jet, the water hot to the point of being painful. He stood there. Eyes closed and head bowed. Realising that the water would not be able to wash away the shame of him almost walking out on her like a coward. Again. He was not as brave as he thought. When it came to his feelings he was a disaster. But there was deep terror in him, to a level that he never experienced not even with a missile trained on him. He had almost lost her and at the thought he struggled to breath for a moment. He leaned against the wall and allowed the tears to flow, he allowed himself to cry and let his fears go for a moment. He could not believe that in a matter of few months she had become so important that the thought of losing her would break him this much. He breathed deeply and tried to regain some focus.

Quickly, he washed himself and then walked out with a towel around his waist and padded to the bed to grab his phone. He called the commandant of the school in Doranelle and explained him what happened, why he had to leave all of a sudden and most of all why he was not going back. The man was not happy and he was going to catch hell from Lorcan as well but he did not care. He had given up too much of his life to the force. Now it was his turn to be selfish and put his life before duty.

As expected Lorcan called him not long after and he was now on his way to see his CO in nothing but jeans, a polo shirt and a black leather jacket and a pair of sunglasses. If he had to piss off Lorcan better do it properly.

He knocked once in front of his door and the grumpy tone of the man of the other side told him to enter. He saluted lazily and definitely did not miss Lorcan’s stare of disapproval at him appearing in front of his CO in civilian clothes.

“You seem to have misplaced your uniform.”

“No sir, definitely at home in my wardrobe.”

Lorcan growled his disapproval “I got an interesting call from the commandant of the school in Doranelle. He says that you resigned your post. That you have no intention of going back.”

“That is correct,” and Rowan sat down although Lorcan did not give him permission to do so.

Lorcan threw a folder on his desk “and I got a complaint from ATC saying that you breached airspace lockdown last night and threatened to land on a motorway if they didn’t let you land.”

“That was bullshit on their part. The airbase is on the opposite side of the city compared to the airport. There was no risk for me to get anywhere close to the airport. They were aware of my flight plan and my heading. It was total bullshit.”

“Well, now I have to deal with an irate traffic control supervisor and an outraged commandant at a school with which we have been cooperating for years.”

Rowan shrugged in challenge “not my problem.”

“No Whitethorn, you are the fucking problem.”

“Then suspend me, like I give a fuck.” Rowan leaned back in the chair and stared outside ignoring Lorcan’s tantrum.

“You broke aviation rules with that stunt of yours last night and before that you put your personal life before duty.”

Rowan bolted on his feet “I am so fucking tired of sacrificing my life for duty. I did it so much that when my wife died I was on the other side of the continent and I was given a couple of days of leave to go to her funeral and then was ordered to haul ass back to my post as if nothing happened and like the good obedient soldier I was, I even thanked you all for giving me two days to mourn.” He shouted, not caring if he was being disrespectful to a superior “I gave the airforce twelve years of my life, no questions asked. And all of a sudden I am not sure if I want to keep doing it.”

“Is she really worth it? Is that woman really worth giving up on your career?”

Rowan moved dangerously close and leaned on the desk with his hands “she is worth more that you cold-hearted bastard can ever imagine.”

Lorcan stood “get your arse out of my office, captain Whitethorn. You are suspended for a month.”

“Good.” Said Rowan and walked out slamming the door not bothering saluting Lorcan or add anything.

On his way out he met his squadron “what are you doing back in Orynth?” Asked Gavriel surprised.

“Getting my arse suspended for a month apparently.”

“What the fuck?” Fenrys stared at him in disbelief. That was something that he would do. He could not believe that Lorcan had just suspended Rowan. The man was a stickler for protocol and rules to a fault.

“Broke aviation rules last night by landing during an airspace lockdown. Ticked off ATC big time. And before that I left my post in Doranelle without telling anything to anyone.”

“Who are you and what have you done with Iceman?” Asked Connall.

“Aelin.” Was his answer “she was at the disaster at the airport last night. She is in bad condition. I had to come back.” He sighed “then Lorcan gave me a dressing down for putting a woman before duty and I might have pissed him off to historical levels. I would stay clear of him today.”

“And he suspended you.”

“Yes,” confirmed Rowan and the rest of the team almost noticed relief in his eyes.

“But you are coming back, right?” Rowan noticed sadness in Gavriel’s eyes. The two had been friends for a long time. And although he could not care less about Lorcan, he felt as if he was betraying his team mates.

“I don’t know… I might.” He said not convinced “A month away might do me well. I am not sure right now.”

“How’s Aelin?” Vaughan had the guts to ask the question no one could voice.

Rowan’s hands fisted “she is in bad shape. Intubated and sedated. When Aedion found her she was not breathing. She has bad burn on her right arm and plenty of other injuries. She was buried under the collapse of the hangar after she tried to save some people trapped inside.”

“Damn, the woman is badass.” Fenrys patted Rowan’s shoulder “when you go to the hospital, tell her that we are rooting for her too.”

He covered the young man’s hand with his “will do.” Then he straightened “now I better go, before Lorcan comes through and punishes all of you just for speaking with me.”

“Keep in touch, please,” added Gavriel.

Rowan winked and left and once he finally stepped outside of the perimeter of the airbase his soul felt lighter.

He reached the hospital not long after and found her room empty, her team was probably at work and he was glad he could have some time with her.

“Hi menace,” Rowan sat down and brushed a kiss on her forehead “are you enjoying your nap?” His finger gently flicked her nose and he sat back down “I got suspended for a month… I guess I broke a few rules to be with you.” His finger brushed hers emerging from the heavy bandage “and I epically ticked off a few people, but it was so worth it.” He squeezed her fingers “you are totally worth it.” He then stood and started walking around the room making adjustments. He fixed the blinds so there was some sun in the room, he tucked her properly in bed, almost afraid she could be cold. He fixed the flowers on her nightstand and made sure they had water. And finally he sat down on her bed and slowly undid her braid, brushed her hair and braided it again.

“I am sorry I left this morning, I… was overwhelmed.” He sat back down on the chair “I am not leaving. Not unless you want me to.” He grabbed her hand again but then he heard the door open and he sat straight.

“Hi,” said Lysandra and Elide in unison.

“We just dropped off some patients and we came in to see her.”

Rowan stood and with his hand he offered his spot to the two women.

“I thought you were away.” Said Lysandra, walking close to her friend and depositing a gentle kiss on her forehead.

“I was, and then I saw the disaster and I flew back and got myself suspended for it, but I don’t care.”

Lysandra was about to comment but he stopped her “I had to be here for her. I have no regrets.” His head then turned to Elide “you might want to stay clear of Lorcan for a few days. I ticked him off big time and the man might be a bit furious at the time.”

“Oh, okay,” the woman said timidly.

“I am sure that one of your smile will fix the mood of that poor old bastard.” Lysandra’s comment made him laugh.

“She just went in…” Lysandra’s voice was now a whisper and she sniffled turning her back from the other two occupants “she always does this type of crazy thing. Dorian was furious.”

A memory appeared in Rowan’s mind and his words were out before he could stop them “are they involved?”

He heard the woman chuckle “No. Dorian is in love with her and that is no secret. He was her captain when she was at west. But she always saw him as nothing but a friend. Also he is the chief and she a captain, so nothing can happen. They are really good friends, but no, nothing ever happened.”

A selfish part of him relaxed.

Lysandra’s radio went off and she groaned “come on Elide, back to work.”

Rowan waved them goodbye and went back to his chair.

***

Ten days had passed and the season had slowly turned and spring was now in full force.

Rowan was standing at the hospital window, looking outside towards the Staghorn mountains. The tops had officially lost their snow. He inhaled the fresh air and closed the window again. That room had become his new home in the past ten days. He had left only to go home and get changed and washed, but apart from that he had kept a tight vigil on her. They guys at the station had to work and he had been more than happy to keep her company. He was out of a job for the time being, anyway. He turned around and walked to the bed. Nothing had changed. She was still intubated and still unconscious. The doctor had raised concerns with regards to the damage her lungs had suffered and a neurologist had confirmed that her responses were within normal parameters and that they were expecting her to wake up soon. In the last few days they had noticed an increased cerebral activity which according to the doctors was a good sign. He sat down again beside her and went back to the book he had been reading to her. As a joke between the two of them he had started reading flight manuals, or any of any of his books about flying. He had read her other books as well and all the possible articles about their amazing rescue at the airport. Rowan had spent so much time at the hospital that all the nurses knew him and helped him every time he had a request for them to make her more comfortable. He had brought more comfortable pillows, had decorated the wall of her room with all the cards she got from the different fire stations and from west, together with the ones of the four people she save in the hangar. With his mobile he had played classical music for her and a few times he had played an opera as well and joked that they finally got that date after all. His past ten days had been dedicated to nothing else but her. He was humming away a tune from the last opera he had played, while tucking her bed sheets properly when he brushed her hand and felt it move. It was a subtle movement but he felt it. Rowan kept humming and this time the motion was much clearer.

“Aelin…” her middle finger lifted by a fraction and Rowan laughed.

“Are you giving me the middle finger even when you sleep? You are such a brat.” He leaned forward and kissed her forehead “Can you hear me?” He whispered near her ear.

His gaze returned to her hand and this time he noticed her clearly trying to bend her fingers.

Rowan sat down beside her and stroked her cheek once more “Aelin… it’s me.”

A tiny flutter of her eyelashes had his heart race madly in his chest. And when her blue eyes finally set on him he gave her a big smile “it was abut time, there was no need to get into a fire and almost get yourself killed if you needed a nap.”

Aelin groaned and he noticed the middle finger in her left hand rise sightly. Rowan roared in laughter. Then she lifted the same hand and went for the tube in her mouth.

“Hold on, you are still intubated. Let me go and call the doctor.” He disappeared outside of the room and came back with her doctor a moment later. He extubated her and the procedure looked very unpleasant. Aelin coughed heavily but the doctor reassured him it was normal and then left the two alone.

Rowan grabbed a glass of water on the nightstand and helped her. He lifted her a bit and pressed the glass against her lips “drink a little.”

She drank eagerly and then collapsed back on the pillow exhausted. Rowan sat at her left side and brushed her head gently with his hand “are you in pain?”

With a small movement she shook her head. Rowan looked at the bags with liquids hanging behind her and noticed they still had plenty of stuff in them. She was hooked on painkillers and antibiotics and had a feeding tube down her nose.

“You… here.” She managed with difficulty. Although she was breathing on her own the doctor had warned him that some issues might take longer to heal. The smoke and the fuel fumes had battered her lungs pretty badly and that it was why after extubation, the doctor had placed small oxygen tubes in her nose.

“That I am.” he took her hand in his “after your text complaining about civilian pilots I had a look at the news and they were showing the inferno at the airport.” He stopped, he would never forget that horrible scene “when I saw Dorian and Aedion carrying you out I realised I could not stay there any longer. Long story short, I broke a few rules, pissed off a few people and got suspended, but I am where I am meant to be.”

“Suspended?”

Rowan nodded solemnly “Turns out that even if he has a girlfriend, Lorcan is still a cold-hearted bastard. I have no regrets.”

Aelin sighed and her breath came out ragged “squad.”

“They are all fine and they miss you. Aedion has been playing captain and he hates it and Dorian has been helping a lot as well. They are on shift now but they came and visit a lot.”

She was about to say something else but a brutal cough hit her and she was left exhausted and wheezing and he pulled her to him. It destroyed him seeing her like that.

He shifted the pillows behind her and allowed Aelin to be in a semi sit position, hoping that would make breathing much easier than lying down. He sat beside her, pulled an arm around her shoulder and dragged her closer to him “Aedion proposed to Lys.”

“Know.”

“There is no pleasing you, young lady. I assume Lys has told you.”

Aelin smiled at him and nodded.

His phone buzzed in his pocket and when he removed it he realised it was Lorcan. The man had tried to phone him all morning but he had refused every single call.

Rowan sighed heavily and Aelin looked up at him with a worried expression.

“I almost resigned.” His forehead touching hers “then I didn’t because of duty and all that shit. When they carried you out I lost it. Nothing else mattered but being here for you. Screw rules and regulations.”

She turned her head and deposited a kiss on his lips “thank you for being here.” She managed with great difficulty.

***

With spring in full swing, Orynth was covered in colours from flowers all around the city. The air smelled sweet and warm.

Aelin inhaled the fresh air and after almost a month in the hospital she felt alive again. Rowan lifted her in his arms and slowly carried her to her house. Her legs were still shaky and she was still weak. Her recovery was taking longer than expected. The doctors had put her through a respiratory therapy, but at times she still felt short of breath. Rowan dropped her off on the sofa and went to get their stuff. He had made a deal with her and he would stay with her until she was better. He still had four days before his suspension was over. He had been at her side since she woke up and the nurses had told her that even when she was still unconscious, Rowan had barely left her side.

Her mind went back to when he told her he could be very caring for the people he loved and he had showed her that over and over again.

“Here we go.” He dumped all the bags in the living room and then went to the bedroom and Aelin had a feeling he was preparing so that it was up to his standards.

“The bed is ready, your highness.”

He fussed. He fussed a lot but she realised she had started to love that side of him.

“Does it meet your standards, captain?”

He grinned “I don’t think is grandiose enough.”

“I will make sure I’ll upgrade my living standards to accommodate a posh boy like yourself. I doubt an army guy will fuss. Aedion never did.”

“They have no standards to begin with.”

Aelin threw a pillow at him but Rowan ducked in time and an instant later she was in the air and he dumped her on the bed with little ceremony.

He leaned forward and kissed her “now get changed,” he ordered and threw her her bed clothes.

“Yes, sir. At your orders sir,” she mocked him with a funny salute.

He shook his head “you civilians really have no respect for rank.”

She stood on her knees in bed and shed the top she was wearing and removed her bra as well, remaining bare.

He was busy emptying her bag that when he turned and saw her semi naked he almost tripped on the dropped top.

“My girls here feel lonely,” she palmed her breasts in a very sensual way

Rowan ignored her and passed her the pyjama top “It seems like you are doing a good job at keeping them busy.”

She slapped him with her t-shirt and got dressed again “I’d better get covered again, I don’t want to traumatise you.” She was about to add something else but a fit of coughing stopped her. Rowan was at her side in a moment and held her, knowing that it would usually leave her spent. The fits had become less frequent as she improved but the occasional one was enough to leave her breathless and this one seemed to be one of those. She grabbed his arm and squeezed it “hurts,”Aelin complained fisting her hand in his chest while concentrating on breathing. Rowan grabbed the inhaler she had been prescribed to use during an attack. She did as she had been shown by the doctors and then melted in his arms.

“Lie down.”

“Open…” she started but the coughing resumed and her hand fisted in the bed sheets this time. She grabbed the inhaler and breathed its medicines again, feeling air rushing back in her lungs. Eventually she collapsed in bed exhausted “Window…” she finally finished.

Rowan moved with speed and did as told. Aelin loved the spring air and even at the hospital she often asked him for the window to be open. It made her feel as if she could breath.

He moved her to the centre of the bed and covered with the blankets “do you feel like eating something?”

“No,” she said weakly and he knew she was not well. In the short time he had known her, Aelin had never refused a meal “Sleep,” his hand brushed her hair and she was asleep within minutes.

Once he was positive she was asleep he walked out and gently closed the door and went to the kitchen to make a phone call. Lorcan had been pestering him almost every day but Rowan had ignored him.

“The dutiful captain finally decides to phone back, or should I call you nurse Whitethorn now?”

Rowan growled and almost closed the call again, then decided to count till ten and listen what he had to say.

“Say your piece Salvaterre and let me go.”

“I want you to march back through these doors in four days.”

Rowan pinched the bridge of his nose. How could he leave her alone?

“A please from time to time doesn’t hurt.”

“Whitethorn, I don’t give a fuck if your firefighter woman made you a well mannered soldier. I am your superior and if I give you an order I expect you to answer with yes, sir. Another peep from you and you get your arse written up for insubordination and you can kiss your career goodbye.”

Rowan had to punch something, but a loud noise could wake up Aelin and he wanted to avoid that. So he just hung up the phone without giving Lorcan a reply then he grabbed a pillow and screamed into it. Once he was done he grabbed his laptop from his bag and set in motion his next plan.

TAGS:

@rowaelinismyotp

@jlinez

@swankii-art-teacher

@courtofjurdan

@whimsicallyreading

@tillyrubes10

#rowaelin #rowan x aelin #rowan whitethorn #aelin galythinius #aedion x lysandra #fanfic #Throne of Glass series

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lovemeleo · 3 years

Text

Me without You (Pt. 3)

As promised, I finally have Part 3 of Me without You! Yes, there will be at least one more part.

Nuny and the SW world belong to the lovely @lumosinlove.

If you haven’t read it yet, here’s Part 1 Part 2 and you can read my entire Nuny series here on ao3.

cw: coming out and unsupportive parents

“They.. They what?” Jackson asked, though he had definitely heard him. It was more in disbelief.

Zhenya sniffled, a rustling coming through the phone as he wiped at his face, “We had dinner t-tonight. Just three of us and I’m tell them about us. And-” His voice broke off again, the sound muffled.

Running a hand through his hair anxiously, Jackson paced outside the zoo restaurant, “Hey, Zhenya, baby. Take a deep breath for me.” He heard a shaky inhale in reply before continuing, “There you go, you’re doing so good.”

The other man’s sobs slowly calmed down, his breathing a bit shaky before he went on, “Papa got so angry, never heard him yell like that. Say so many bad things, terrible. Mama tried to calm him but he just keep going, told me to leave a-and never come back.” Zhenya rasped out, his voice scratchy through the phone.

“Where are you right now, Z?” Jackson asked, his chest aching as he tried to stay calm. He needed to be supportive, Zhenya didn’t need him freaking out as well.

Zhenya let out a shaky breath, Jackson could tell he was running his hand through his hair. It was tell they both shared when they were anxious. “At hotel nearby. Don’t know where else to go. Could go to family but they ask questions, and I don’t want to answer.”

“Do you want me there? I’ll come. I’ll get on the next flight, babe.” Jackson asked, already itching to start searching flights.

“Can’t ask you to do that, котенок. So far, too expensive.”

Zhenya could barely get out his sentence before Jackson cut him off, “No, that’s not what I asked, Zhenya. Do you want me there?” He repeated.

There was a pause at the other end of the line before Zhenya let out a breath, “Da. Please. Want you here, котенок.”

Jackson was already walking back to the restaurant, “Okay, I’ll be there. I’m gonna go home, pack my bag and then I’ll head to the airport, okay?”

“Alright. Okay, send me flight info. I pick you up,” Zhenya paused. “Jackson?”

Jackson stopped, his eyebrows furrowing, “Yeah babe?”

“I love you. Love you so much.”

A small flurry of butterflies appeared in Jackson’s stomach, as they always did when Zhenya said that to him, “I love you too, always.”

What sounded like a small sigh of relief came from the other end of the phone, “Always. See you soon.” Zhenya whispered before the line clicked off.

Jackson let out a shaky breath before heading back into the restaurant to quickly fill Brady in on what was happening. The other man’s face gradually fell as he listened, his eyebrows furrowed.

“Fuck, that’s horrible,” Brady said, his face filled with worry.

Olivia tugged at his shirt, her other hand pointing at him accusingly, “Bad word. I’ma tell mumma you swore!”

Letting out a sigh, Brady kissed the top of her head, “Sorry, munchkin. I’ll put a dollar in the jar when I get home.” He replied before turning back to Jackson. “Want me to drive you to the airport?”

“Nah, man, you’ve still gotta take the kids to see Liv’s penguins. Just gonna take a Lyft home and go pack. I’ll keep you updated though.” Jackson said. After getting a ride called, he quickly said his goodbyes before heading to the front of the zoo where the car waited.

The entire ride his heart felt like it was going to pound out of his chest. He knew there was a possibility of this happening, a very large possibility. But how do you prepare for something like that? For your boyfriend’s parents to just throw him out while he’s thousands of miles away from you? You don’t. You can’t.

As the car got closer to their house, Jackson quickly started searching for flights, looking for the fastest flight that was coming up. He had to go to a different airport than the first time he went to Russia, as Zhenya was in Magnitogorsk and not Moscow. He was able to find one that was leaving in an hour and a half and decided Fuck it. Not even bothering to look at the price, he bought it and sent the information to Zhenya. When they pulled up in front of their place, he jumped out of the car, yelling his thanks as he ran into the house.

Less than two hours later, Jackson was on his way to Russia. His feet tapped anxiously under his seat as he watched the clouds go by. Ten more hours. All he wanted was to already have Zhenya with him, to hold him close and protect him from the bullshit of the world. Jackson knew how nervous his boyfriend was for this trip, and obviously it was for good reason… Nine hours and 59 minutes.

Leaning back in his seat, Jackson’s eyes began to droop. The adrenaline began to wear off as he finally was able to settle down. This was the second time he had made an abrupt trip to Russia, but at least Zhenya knew he was coming this time. Throwing his headphones in, he decided to try and get some sleep. He’d be landing there in the morning anyways.

After ten hours of dozing on and off, eating not totally terrible airplane food and annoying his seatmates with his tapping feet, Jackson finally landed. He had never wanted to be off an airplane as much as he did right now, knowing that Zhenya was waiting for him.

Quickly grabbing his carry-on, Jackson made his way off the plane. All he wanted to do was sprint towards the front door and jump into Zhenya’s arms, but he couldn’t. Not yet. Not here. He’d have to wait till they were back at the hotel… or at least in his car.

Even in Russia, Zhenya was one of the tallest people around. He stood next to his car, hood pulled up over overly-ruffled hair. Jackson quickly walked over, dragging his bags back behind him before stopping in front of Zhenya. The taller man’s eyes were red-rimmed, it didn’t look like he had slept at all.

“Hi Zhenya..” Jackson murmured softly, his hands itching to reach out and pull his boyfriend close, protecting him from all the bad things.

A small smile, tired but a smile nonetheless, appeared on Zhenya’s face, “Hi котенок.” He whispered before taking one of his bags. “We switch up this time. Now baby Canadian come rescue me.”

“I’ll always come to rescue you, Zhenya.” Jackson said as they both put his bags in the trunk before getting in the car. He had never been so happy for Zhenya’s tinted windows as he reached across the center console, pulling the other man in for a kiss.

Zhenya rested his forehead on Jackson’s as they pulled away, letting out a shaky breath, “Thank you.. Thank you for coming.”

Nodding, Jackson intertwined their fingers, “Always.”

The ride was quiet as they made their way to the hotel. It wasn’t long, Zhenya pulled into a parking garage by the hotel less than 10 minutes later before they quickly made their way up to his room.

As soon as the door was closed, Zhenya was in his arms, his face pressed into Jackson’s shoulders. He held on as if he was afraid Jackson would disappear if he let go.

Jackson wrapped his arms around his boyfriend’s waist, holding Zhenya tight as he felt the shaking in his shoulders, “I’ve got you, babe. It’s going to be alright,” He murmured. “Why don’t we lay down, Zhenya? Yeah? You need to get some sleep.”

Letting himself be pulled to the bed, Zhenya waited till Jackson laid down before sprawling on top of him. He let his head rest over the other man’s chest, eyes closed as he listened to the steady beat of his boyfriend’s heart. Laying here with Jackson, Zhenya knew everything would be okay, even if it didn’t feel like it right now.

“Do you wanna talk about it, baby?” Jackson softly asked, his fingers running gently through Zhenya’s hair.

The Russian man let out a breath, his grip tightening on Jackson’s shirt, “I-I..I know it’s bad to go in with hopes up. But I hoped. I hoped it would be okay. But not good idea. Stupid..” He whispered, his voice breaking.

Jackson gently pulled Zhenya up to face him, his fingers tracing carefully over the other man’s jaw, “Baby, no. It’s not stupid to hope that your parents will support you. That’s the exact opposite of stupid. They’re your parents, and you look up to them and you love them and all you want is their love and support in return. And to have that yanked away from you in one conversation, it’s horrible.. It’s the worst. And I’m sorry they hurt you the way that they did.”

As the tears began falling again, Zhenya pressed his face into Jackson’s chest, unable to hold back the sobs any longer, “P-Papa say it’s wrong, we’re wrong. B-but I know that’s not true. I know we’re right.”

“We are right, baby. We are. There’s nothing wrong with our love and if your papa doesn’t see that, that’s his problem.” Jackson whispered, pressing a kiss to the top of his head. He held him close as he cried, knowing he needed to get it out.

The tears began to slow as Zhenya fell asleep, his entire body curled up so he could cuddle close to Jackson’s side. It was obvious he hadn’t slept since he left his parent’s house yesterday.

Careful to not wake his boyfriend, Jackson grabbed his bag from where he set it next to the bed. He didn’t want to leave the other man’s side so after plugging in his phone and texting Brady, he curled up with him again, his arm going around his waist.

Just as he was about to doze off, a soft knock came from the hotel door. Jackson sat up carefully, trying not to jostle his boyfriend as he made his way to the door. Expecting a worker from the hotel, his eyes widened when he opened the door.

“Mrs. Kuznetsov..”

#nuny #jackson nadeau #evgeni kuznetsov #lumosinlove #sweaterweather #me without you #fic update #coming out #kuny #nado #zhenya #lumosinlove sweater weather #sweater weather #soft hockey boys

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opaldraws · 3 years

Text

Dandelion

Billy never thought that he would become a dad. Besides believing that it wouldn’t be possible for a person like him, he also was scared shitless. He’d seen first hand what happens when the wrong kind of person became a parent, he knew how screwed up things could get. He had this huge fear that he would ruin a kid’s life. And even though Steve had assured him countless times that Billy would be a fantastic dad if they were to have a kid, he also accepted that Billy wasn’t ready for fatherhood and he may never be. So Steve never pushed the idea.

Then Max had a baby.

Out of the pair, no one expected Billy would be the one hit with baby fever.

Max was only able to get three weeks of leave from her work, so Billy volunteered to help out with little Julien. Julien was precious: He slept for long hours and rarely cried, he loved playing peek-a-boo and was easily entertained by crinkly paper, and when he got especially fussy, all Billy had to do was put him in his swing and Julien would knock right out.

Billy would come home from Max and Lucas’ and gush to Steve about whatever him and Julien got up to that day. It was usually the same sort of stuff, babies don’t really do that much, but Steve would listen fondly to Billy’s report while they cooked dinner together. Eventually Max found a sitter and changed her work hours, so Billy didn’t spend as much time with the runt.

A few years passed and Billy mentioned having kids of their own. Steve and him were in bed, the light on the nightstand casting enough light for Billy to read but not too much that Steve couldn’t doze off.

“Steve.” Billy ruffled Steve’s hair gently, letting his hand wander down to rub his back. Steve blinked over at him sleepily, his eyes a little unfocused without his glasses.

“What’s wrong?” He asked, frowning.

“No, nothing’s wrong. I just… I’ve been thinking lately, maybe we could look into adoption?” Billy wrung his hands together nervously. When Steve didn’t answer immediately, Billy interjected, “Only if you want to, of course! Fuck, nevermind. It’s stupid, I shouldn’t have even brought it up.”

Billy picked his book up, not able to look back at his partner. Steve hadn’t seen him this nervous since Billy had asked him to marry him. This conversation caught Steve off guard- and not only because he was half asleep. They’d talked about kids before when they were freshly married (technically unofficially, but whatever), Billy said he didn’t think he’d ever want to go down that path. And now, Billy was bringing it up.

“Babe, it’s not stupid.” Steve said seriously. “I want to do that with you.”

...

Adoption for two gay men in 2000 wasn’t easy. They were basically at the bottom of the ‘list’ of candidates and they’d been through multiple near adoptions that eventually fell through in just the past two years. Steve was beginning to lose hope, but Billy stayed determined. He called the adoption agency every week and he stopped by in person once a month. Steve told him he was probably bothering the agency, he said that they had their application and when the right kid came along, everything would work out. Billy’s perspective wasn’t quite as rose-colored as Steve’s: He realized that the agency didn’t want a same-sex couple adopting a baby. They may not outright say it, but he could tell. Billy wanted to show them that they were just as serious as any other couple.

In November of 2001, they got the call from the agency. The weekend before they brought their daughter home, Billy and Steve prepared the second bedroom for their new addition. Steve excitedly put up a fresh coat of paint while Billy struggled through assembling furniture for the bedroom. When they finished, they stood side by side in the doorway, misty eyed and excited for their daughter’s homecoming.

“We’re going to be parents.” Steve sighed, he let his head fall to Billy’s shoulder.

“Fuck, I’m so scared.” Billy admitted. He took a deep breath and tried to ease the panic creeping in. Steve gently wrapped his arms around him, pulling Billy in to hold him. Billy sagged into the hug.

“I am too, but I know it’s gonna be okay.” Steve said.

“How could you know that though?” Billy asked fearfully. So many things could go wrong, what if this was a mistake? Steve tightened his arms around Billy and leaned them against the doorframe.

“Because I know you. I’ve seen you grow into the man you are today and I know you’re going to be an amazing dad.”

...

Billy knew that for every developmental milestone that Abby passed, he should be excited. Don’t get him wrong, he was beyond happy to see his daughter growing and becoming a little person… but he also got sad? Abby was growing up so fast, one day she was crawling around on the carpet and the next she was racing around the apartment wreaking havoc. It felt like only a few days ago she drooled and needed to be spoon fed, now she was talking in barely formed sentences. Sometimes Billy would just curl up next to Steve in bed at night and have to cry about how big Abby was getting. Steve would rub his back, comforting his partner as best as he could. These breakdowns started happening more frequently as Abby’s 2nd birthday got nearer and nearer. Billy was aware that he was being dramatic, but his little girl was growing up way too fast. He felt like he was going to blink and then she’d be gone, old enough not to need her dads anymore.

“Billy, stop worrying about the future, Abby’s barely two! You have got to just live for today.” Max scolded him during one of Abby’s and Julien’s playdates after he had opened up to her. It was a sunny June day and Julien was happily keeping Abby occupied on a blanket in Lucas and Max’s yard. Lucas had been called out of town for a work emergency and Steve had gotten stuck covering a late shift. The step-siblings watched the kids from the porch, periodically bringing out new toys and snacks.

“Yeah, that’s what Steve keeps telling me. That’s what everyone keeps telling me, shitbird.” Billy huffed, rolling his eyes. “I can’t help it!”

“Listen to me, I felt the same way. Every time I had to go into work, every time I left Julien with you or Lucas, or the babysitter, I was so afraid that I was missing out on his childhood. Even when I was with him, all I could think about was how I could never get this moment back. But it’s useless to think that way! I realized that I couldn’t stop time from passing so I needed to enjoy it while it lasted!” Max insisted. She grabbed his hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze. Billy squeezed back. Even though Max was younger than him, he appreciated the wisdom she occasionally provided. He was happy that their days of fighting and heated arguing were left behind at the house on Cherry Lane.

Billy looked out at the yard, he watched the way Abby would giggle when Julien ran circles around her with his toy airplane. She made grabby hands at him and squealed, “My turn!” Julien passed the toy plane to her and she zoomed it around. Max gave his shoulder a hard pat and announced that she was going to get food ready. Billy walked over to the rainbow blanket and sat down beside the duo.

“Daddy attack!” Abby jumped up, discarding the airplane to wrap her arms around his shoulders and climb onto his back. He held onto her chubby little legs and she laughed into his ear. He tried not to dwell on the future, let himself enjoy the moment. “Down.” Abby instructed him and he helped her back to the ground. She plucked a nearby dandelion from the ground and held it to Billy triumphantly. “Present for you.”

“Thank you baby, I love it.” He smiled at her, taking the dandelion. She beamed at him, clearly happy that her gift was well received. He tucked the yellow flower into the breast pocket of his shirt. Julien came bounding up to them excitedly, hiding something behind his back.

“I have a present for you too, Uncle Billy!” Julien grinned and offered him a wiggling pink worm clasped between his fingers. Billy chuckled and took the worm and Julien bounded off - probably to find more worms.

Abby went back to playing with the airplane and some of Julien’s matchbox cars. She pretended that Billy’s arm was the road and rolled the cars over it, back and forth. Every so often, she would show Billy a new car, telling him which color it was or if she liked it or not. Steve had been working on colors with her a lot recently, and Abby had gotten into the habit of pointing out the colors of things frequently. It was really adorable and she always looked proud when she got the color right. And when Billy would catch those intrusive thoughts about the future, he gave it his all not to dwell on them and instead focus on Abby rolling her car over his arm. Max rejoined them with a big plate of fruit and sandwiches to share for an early dinner, calling Julien over to eat.

Before Billy knew it, a few hours had passed and the sun was beginning to set. He helped Max bring all the toys back in the house and the kids savored the last few minutes of light while they cleaned up. Billy caught a glimpse of the clock on his trip inside; It was nearing 7pm and Steve would be arriving soon to pick them up. Billy and Max tried to coax the kids inside with the promise of a movie, but Julien had other ideas.

“Five more minutes? Please? Momma, I wanna see the fireflies!” Julien tugged at Max’s pant legs, giving her his best puppy dog eyes. “I promise I’ll be good for bedtime!” For a five year old, Julien was quite the negotiator. Of course Max caved which meant that Abby also got to chase the growing number of fireflies blinking around the yard. Billy couldn’t help but grin watching the cousins running around- and periodically jumping up- to try and catch the glowing bugs. After struggling to jump high enough to reach any of the fireflies, Abby pouted at Billy.

“Hold me?” She asked and how could Billy say no? He lifted her up in the air and she swung her little hands around, attempting to catch at least one bug. Billy could tell that she was getting frustrated when each time she came back fruitless. Abby got distracted by Julien showing Max all of the bugs he had captured, a faint green-ish yellow glow coming from his closed fists. “Daddy! Want one.” Abby’s chin wobbled - one of her tell tale signs that a meltdown was coming.

“Okay honey, I’ll get you one.” He smiled and moved her so that she was propped on his hip. They walked slowly around the yard together and Billy caught one for her. He helped her get it in her hand and her eyes widened. “Now you’ve got to be real careful, you don’t want to squish it right?” Abby shook her head no, wanting to keep her new friend forever. Billy watched the way she would peek into her fist to catch a glimpse of the small bug, finding it sweet how gentle she treated it. She kissed the top of her hand and said “I love you” to the tiny insect hidden within. Billy was so transfixed with her that he didn’t notice Steve’s arrival; It startled him when a hand met the small of his back. Abby lit up even more once she saw Steve.

“Papa look! Bug!” She opened up her hand to show Steve the bug, but the firefly took the opportunity to make its escape and flew off into the night sky before Abby could close her hand. She gasped and tried to reach for it in a futile attempt. Here comes the meltdown... or so Billy thought.

“Oh Abby, it was such a beautiful firefly! Looked like it was a really good flyer too huh?” Steve smiled and Abby only pouted a little. “Now it’s going to go home and tell all of its friends about you. And we gotta go home too sweetheart, it’s getting pretty late. Let’s say bye to Julien and Aunt Max, okay?” Steve was great at de-escalating a situation, he always knew exactly the right thing to say to stop Abby’s tears. Billy put Abby back down on her feet so that she could go over to Max and Julian to say goodbye. Steve turned to Billy and gave him a quick peck on the lips before taking his hand and walking them over to the trio waiting for them.

“Seems like you were able to get out of your head today, I’m glad.” Max said to Billy during their hug.

Once their farewells were said and done and they were all loaded up into Steve’s car, the small family made the short drive back home. Steve’s hand rested over Billy’s atop his thigh, periodically giving it a light, reassuring squeeze.

Back home, Steve carried a sleepy Abby in from the car and straight to her bed (he hated for her to miss brushing her teeth, but made an exception because of the long day she had had). While Steve helped Abby get settled in, Billy headed into their bedroom. He picked one of the heavier hardcover books off the bookshelf and pulled the dandelion out of his pocket. He tucked the wilting flower between the pages, saving it so that he could remember the day. Steve came into the bedroom as he was reshelving the book, he walked straight to Billy and wrapped his arms around him.

“Had a good day?” Steve asked. Billy twisted in his grip, turning to face Steve. They shared a few slow kisses, with no intention to escalate, only to be in each other’s space after being apart for the day. Billy pulled back, hands still holding onto Steve’s waist securely.

“Yeah, it was really good.” He smiled. Sure Abby was growing up, but they had so many years ahead of them, so many warm summer days just like this one. Although Billy didn’t expect he could completely quell his anxieties about the future, he was ready to start enjoying the moments as they happened.

#harringrove #steve harrington #billy hargrove #dads!harringrove #my fic

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kyotarou · 4 years

Text

practicality

Inspired by @iwaixiumi-main on Tumblr! (using your quirk for the first time headcanons)

characters: katsuki bakugou

plot: you’ve only used your quirk in front of your friends for fun little tricks, but never at its full potential. your classmates witness this for the first time when katuski bakugou hits a nerve.

warnings: swearing, angst, dedgration (not sexual), kind of a fluffy ending

word count: 1.5k+

a/n: i apologize for making kirishima the secondary love interest that gets thrown away at the end for the second time 💀💀 i promise i’ll write smt just for him 😩

Your Quirk: You have the ability to control any water around you. When under your control, the water can become as strong as iron (you determine the strength). The downside: the more you use, the heavier it feels—use too much and you could injure yourself from the weight (possibly even crushing yourself).

Your classmates had seen your Quirk in action many times before, mainly for fun, but never during combat. You knew water wasn’t accessible in every situation, so you stuck with fist to fist action. After exam season, it surprised you to find your name on the list of students with top scores, especially on the combat portion since you barely used your Quirk. Nevertheless, a large weight was lifted from your shoulders.

Denki and Kirishima invited all of Class 1-A to the beach to celebrate. You brought your bag inside one of the stalls, taking your sweet time to change. It was the weekend, after all, no need to rush. Worn out from exams, you planned on using the day to relax, unlike your classmates who buzzed with energy. Your plan was foiled when Kirishima caught you tiptoeing out the changing stall, hoping no one would spot you.

“Hey hey hey, (Y/N)!” Kirishima slung his arm around your shoulders. “You ready to hit the waves with us? Maybe you can finally show us your Quirk!”

You shook your head with a small laugh. “Come on, Kiri, you’ve seen it before.”

Kirishima led you towards the shore. “Yeah, yeah, but I wanna see how manly it can be!”

You pushed him off with another laugh which turned into a scream when he shoved you into the water. “Oh, you are not getting away with that!”

As Kirishima tried to run, tendrils of water wrapped around his ankles, keeping him grounded. He tried using his Quirk to escape, but you were stronger. You and Kiri spent the next few minutes stuck in a splash battle, which gained the attention of the others. Though you wanted good old-fashioned fun without your Quirk, the rest of the class encouraged you to show your best tricks, and their jubilant faces made it hard to refuse. You sent waves crashing at their feet to see who could run away the fastest, played volleyball with a bubble of water with Uraraka, and even swam out to the deeper parts of the beach with Kiri who was starstruck when you created air bubbles around your heads, letting you safely view the fish that swam by.

On the shore, Bakugou watched with steam coming out his ears. He gritted his teeth as you and Kirishima sat beside him at the picnic table, Kiri’s arm wrapped around your shivering body as the sun began to set. Jealousy nipped at his skin like harsh bug bites.

Why should I give a fuck? Not like I’m into them or anything.

But he knew damn well he wanted it to be his arms around you and the one to brush the wet hair out of your face instead of stupid Kiri. He glared at you and the red-haired boy, him feeding you a piece of sushi like a baby.

“Brrr, the airplane’s coming, open wide!”

“Dammit, Kiri! Just give it to me already.”

You twirled your finger and a stream of water flew into Kiri’s nose. Bakugou rolled his eyes as you doubled over in laughter, chin resting in his palm.

“Tch, couldn’t use your Quirk for something useful?”

You shrugged. “I’d say this is pretty useful.” You stuffed a piece of sushi from Kiri’s plate into your mouth as he wiped the snot from his face.

“You’re an idiot. Just cause you can do cool shit with it doesn’t make you the shit.”

You gave Bakugou an awkward smile, who kept his eyes glued to the table. The rest of the class went quiet. His taunts were usually followed by a scoff or chuckle, but his voice was sharp and cold.

“Never said I was. Not my fault everyone thinks it’s cool, right guys?” Your classmates chimed in agreement.

Bakugou snorted. “So why didn’t you use it during exams? Why don’t you use it for something better than shitty party tricks? Don’t you want to be a hero? How can you do that when you’re too afraid to use it against a real opponent?”

“I-I’m not afraid!” Your cheeks burned with the anger bubbling in your stomach. “It’s just not practical!”

“Not practical, my ass. Admit it, dumbass, you bribed your way up the class rankings, didn’t you?”

Kiri looked between the two of you nervously. “H-Hey man, I think that’s enough. Let’s all calm down and have some fun, alright?”

“Shut up, Kiri! This isn’t about you!” Bakugou snarled. What the hell was he saying? Even if he refused to acknowledge his feelings, you were his crush—he let his mouth talk without thinking and there was no going back. He was letting his explosive attitude get the best of him and part of him felt relieved to blow off some steam.

The table shook as you shot out of your seat, your clenched fists shaking at your sides and furious tears streaming down your face.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?”

The class murmured as ocean water climbed slowly up the sand, dangerously close to where they set up the barbecue. “You know I studied so hard for those exams. Don’t you remember all those nights I spent awake in the middle of the night? Shitty party tricks, is that all I am to you?”

The water rose like a cape above your shoulders, casting a dark shadow over your wrathful face. Your arms trembled under the weight, but the adrenaline ignored the pain. Kiri scurried from the table, leaving Bakugou to stare at the ominous wave blocking the last of the sun’s golden rays from view. It truly did look like an iron wall, so close to crashing down and crushing him underneath. Bakugou set off an explosion as the wave stopped inches from his neck in the shape of a spear, the tip sharp enough to slice his skin.

“Is this practical enough for you?” you sobbed. You sank to your knees and covered your tear stricken face. The water retreated to the ocean, leaving everyone untouched, except the poor table, now charred from Bakugou’s hand. Sniffling, you snatched your bag from the sand and excused yourself before slamming the door of the changing stall. After getting dressed, you declined Uraraka and Deku’s offer to accompany you to Heights Alliance. With the mood now sour, Class-1A packed and cleaned the area before heading home in tense silence.

Bakugou couldn’t sleep that night. He stared at the ceiling with a frown, hands clasped together on his stomach. He cared about you so much, but he let his stupid jealousy consume him. Now, you would probably be angry with him for the rest of your life, and Bakugou couldn’t live with that. Seeing you walk away with your head down and wiping your tears shattered his heart. You were the one for him and he fucked it up like he always did.

He jumped from his bed with a pounding heart. He slipped on his shoes, which were on the wrong feet, and left his dorm.

What the hell am I doing?

Bakugou pounded on your door. He couldn’t care less if the whole building woke up—he had to see you. He was never one to share his feelings, but with you in mind at that moment, there was nothing more he wanted to do. Bakugou pounded on your door again, tempted to blow it down if you didn’t wake up. To his surprise, you answered with a scowl and puffy eyes.

“What the fuck do you want?”

You swore your ribs almost caved in when his strong, muscular arms wrapped around your body fervently. Bakugou kept his hand on your head as he nuzzled his nose into your hair, inhaling your sweet, comforting scent.

“I’m sorry…” he murmured. His grip tightened when you tried to push him off.

“Is that all you have to say?” you hissed. Your voice shook at the foreign feeling of his warmth, making you wonder if it was someone else disguised as him.

“No, it’s not.” Bakugou cupped your face with both hands, heart beating a mile a minute as he stared into your eyes. “I like you id- (Y/N). I’ve always liked you, and I’m sorry.”

You were paralyzed. Bakugou’s calloused thumb brushed a stray tear you didn’t even know had fallen from your face. Your mouth hung open in disbelief.

He… likes me?

His words from earlier rushed back into your head. You tried to shake off his grasp. “What a great fucking way to show that.”

“I know, I know. I didn’t mean any of it, you have to believe me. I was just… I was jealous, okay? I was fucking jealous of you and Kiri getting all buddy-buddy, and I said shit I shouldn’t have said.” Your eyes widened as he placed a tentative kiss between your brows. “You’re more than a party trick; you’re everything to me. And I can’t live with the idea of you hating me, cause I like you too much to handle that. Hell, I might even love you.”

Your lip quivered at the sudden rush of emotions. You clung to the front of his shirt and pressed his face against his shoulder. “Do you really mean that?”

“Hell yeah, I do. I-”

You cut him off with a gentle kiss to the lips. “I like you, too, Katsuki. But what you said…”

“You don’t have to forgive me right now. But you’re my world, my little teddy bear, and I just want to hold you. Is that too much to ask?”

You shook your head. “It’s never too much to ask.”

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bxllafanficc · 3 years

Text

¡Skate/sing your hearts out! (Yuri Plisetsky x reader)

(part one)

part two part three part four part five. Find the rest on; Masterlist

Summary: After last year's cancellation of Figure Skating Grand Prix, Yuri Plisetsky finds himself unable to bring out his inner skater after a year of doing nothing but enjoy life like a regular teenager. That's when you enter the picture; We Are Voice Grand Awards's currently hottest competitive vocalist come first place two years in a row. Just like the other competitors of Grand Prix, it turns out that Victor and Yuuri faces the same issue. With an arrangement between Victor and Yakov, they agree to travel to Japan and hire you as a mutual coach for Yuri and Yuuri to help bring back the emotion into their performances like before, maybe even more intense than ever. Yuri however, who's never experienced issues with his coaches before, for some reason finds this one particularly difficult to coexist along with in their (reasonably) odd partnership. Warnings: none

*Yuri's POV*

"Remind me once again why we're going to Japan? It's clear you'd never take us there just because you miss Victor and I know by experience that it's not because of his apprentice."

First class flight like usual. The view out the airplane window of the sparkling city at nighttime below them would stun anybody but at this point, Yuri has traveled so many times it's only become regular sights and the lights of the streets are only plain colored spots in a dark void to him these days. One thing he will never feel comfortable with though is staying in the same seat for hours on end until the airplane arrives at its destination. His legs are itching from wanting to move around. He'll just have to jog it off back on the ground like every other trip in the past.

"You'll be spending some time with Yuuri Katsuki and Victor the following weeks to gain your fighting spirit back. You need to get back in touch with your emotions, remember?" Yakov slightly turned his posture towards the Russian skater beside him, folding his newspaper in half and putting it in his lap.

He only nodded with a slight hum. He could see Yakov's reasoning, some parts of it at least. He HAD been lacking in emotional performance ever since the new year began and it was time to get back into the mindset of winning yet another Grand Prix gold medal like last year. No, not last year. Last year's competition was cancelled after a minor pandemic spread through Russia and the nearby regions. In fear of the virus spreading, all competitions cancelled and larger crowded areas were forbidden to take place. Therefore Yuri's only been able to practice by himself and keeping himself fit for a possible competition next year. But a year of doing nothing can really change your spirit and afraid to admitting it to his coach, he's been missing several opportunities to hit the rink and stayed home watching anime or scrolled through social media instead.

But one thing he doesn't get is how Victor and Yuuri are gonna make him get his mindset in the right track again. He already won his first gold medal at his senior debut and he doubt that the Japanese skater will be in any better condition than Yuri's currently in right now. Pig-man must've been in a much worse state considering his boo Victor had to stay in Russia during the pandemic, unable to keep an eye on Yuuri's routines.

"Besides, there's a little surprise waiting for you where you'll be staying with the two of them. It better work out fine or else I'm out of ideas."

That caught his attention to say the least.

"Well if it's supposed to save me from the deep end then why be so secretive and hushy with it? Spill the news, Yakov."

The old man only grunted and picked up his newspaper once again and hid his face behind it. Well now he really wanted to know what it was. Clearly he would have to make some effort. Soon the article about a Russian charity event taking place this weekend got replaced with a clenched fist going straight through the back of the paper. Yuri expected some kind of reaction but Yakov only sighed and leaned back in his seat without even a flinch.

"It's no surprise if I tell you. I promised Victor to keep it a secret."

"Tell me."

"No."

Yuri groaned and folded his arms with a sour glare. The display in the ceiling told the traveler's that it was 10 minutes until landing so he gave up his attempts and let his eyes rest for a while. At least he would find out tomorrow, he assumed. It was 2am and he would be staying at a hotel close to the airport since it was too late to make rest of the trip in one day.

Yuri was out with the speed of a lightning bolt the second the plane doors opened. He sped past everyone before him and he didn't stop when he finally got outside. His feet carried him to run circles around the plane meanwhile he was waiting for Yakov to get out the normal way. It's a silly habit of his and he knows he looks stupid doing it but his coach has given him strict orders to not run away at one random direction like used to do at first. It would take like half an hour for him to be found once he took off, but only if he got lost.

"Yuri! Get over here!"

Well, there's his cue to get ready and head to the hotel. Finally he's able to get some sleep before he's forced to wake up early at dawn to head to Hot Springs and meet the two most annoying people in Japan.

...

He didn't even have time to eat breakfast. He overslept and got rushed to the cab with an angry Yakov behind him, newspaper folded tightly in his fist. The trip through the beautiful Japan would've been pleasant if Yuri hadn't dozed off every 10 seconds. He didn't get much sleep after all. He spent at least three hours thinking about the special surprise and raiding the free mini bar before he finally got to rest. At 8am he was woken up with banging on the door and now, at 10am, he was standing at the entrance of Hot Springs waiting for Yuuri's mom to announce their arrival. She hurried away somewhere with her usual bubbly happy self that Yuri had no idea how a person could be so... not moody all day long.

The place was as crowded with customers as last time and the two Russians were told to step inside to the more private parts of the building where the family lived along with Victor at the moment.

"Victor! How come my brand new lotion is used? You smelled a suspicious amount of peaches and wild berries at breakfast and there's no point denying it!" A fairly soft and modulated voice was heard from somewhere to the left where the private shower stalls were located. A couple seconds later a giggly Victor and Yuuri came through the direction of the living room and greeted Yuri with happy cheers. The slender white haired Russian caught Yakov in a bear hug, much to the old man's surprise. Yuuri extended his hand towards Yuri but Yuri didn't give any effort in taking it.

"Food. I'm starving."

Yuuri dropped his hand with a light blush but Victor pouted and let go of his former coach. Strong and clingy arms were suddenly wrapped around his chest and he couldn't breathe.

"So unpolite... Yuriooo we've missed you! Haven't you missed us?"

Yuri thrashed like a fish caught in a net and tried to hit the arms of the bastard trapping him. Yuuri joined in, only to get a kick in the hip. His stomach growled angrily and the endless void in his body didn't lighten up the experience a bit.

"Let go you old man! You too piglet!"

"I hoped you'd say it out loud but I know that deep down you've been missing us, Yuriii." Victor went to whisper in his ear with pouty lips but was swatted away by a backhand in his face. That finally caused him to let go and Yuri jumped out of reach for the two males.

"Hm... Or not." The expression he got from Victor was sad and pouty and the man earned a hand on his shoulder, put there by Yuuri. Yuri could only sigh and shake his head.

"Victor! Did you steal my shampoo too?! I will- Oh? What now?" Yuri turned around abruptly by the unfamiliar yet familiar voice behind him. His eyes widened.

The girl was standing to the left of the hall, seemingly coming from the shower. A curious hand rested against the wall beside her and her face was covered in a grey clay face mask, a toothbrush lazily hanging from the corner of her lips. Her (h/c) eyes glistened with mild shock along with her mouth hanging slightly open.

"You are early... Victor, you told me they would arrive at 1pm1!" She pointed a strict finger at the tall man who scratched the back of his head with a hesitant laugh. Her eyes narrowed and she grabbed her toothbrush. Because even if she was standing unprepared in front of two strangers, she would at least not forget to brush her teeth in the process, as you do.

Yuri might've considered it normal if it wasn't for that she was almost naked. Two towels were the only fabric hiding her, one wrapped around her dripping figure and the other tied up in her hair.

"Yeah, about that! I kind of mixed up the time of their arrival and your meeting with the press, that's, by the way now when I think of it, not actually cancelled but later today. Silly of me to forget, right?"

She eyed him as though her bullshit meter was ticking in the red zone and let out a huff. Yuri had to advert his gaze when it suddenly felt intruding to eye her the way he did. He also turned away because a light tint of pink was creeping up his cheeks.

"Right. Thanks for the early update. I appreciate it, really. I'll be with you again in 30 minutes. Don't wait up for me." And with that, she was gone. The silence of the men maintained for a few moments until Yuuri coughed with an awkward smile, his red cheeks still visible even after the girl had disappeared. 'It's a little weird to blush at your almost naked sister' he thought.

"So food, right? Mom is preparing pork cutlet bowls for you, Yurio, since she remembered how much you liked them last time-" He didn't have to say it twice. Yuri was off to the dining area before the man even finished saying 'pork cutlet bowl'.

#yuri plisetsky #yuri plisetsky x reader #yuriart #yuri katsuki #yuri on ice #victor nikirofov #anime fanfic #animelove #fanfiction

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starr-fall-knight-rise · 4 years

Text

Humans are Space Orcs, “Reunited.”

Just tying up some loose ends, also see the post I made right before this about a stupid story that happened to me while writing this. It is kind of funny :)

The day was hot, very hot, and the sun beat down on fort harmony with merciless intent. Over the tarmac, the sweltering heat caused little mirrages, as puddles of water to appear and then vanish down the runway.

The heat was oppressive enough that no birds sang, and even the roaring of the engines had been dulled by a day that none of the en were willing to venture out of the air cooled airplane hangers.

Only one figure remained outside staring up at the blue sky and the oppressive sun beaming down upon her.

Waffles limped over the hot pavement, the tarmac burning the delicate pads of her feet, but if she stopped walking it would only hurt even more.

Her tail drooped towards the ground,

It was so hot.

She made it across the tarmac and down to the little shaded area where someone had set up a discarded cardboard box and a bowl of water.

Her feet continued to ache, and she licked at them with her long, pink, tongue though that only brought momentary relief from the burns.

Across the tarmac two men watched her form the open hanger door. It wasn’t that they hadn’t tried to get her to come inside, they had, it was just that she wouldn't, and no amount of cajoling or bribing her had worked. THey felt bad of course, but there was nothing much else they could do.

One of the men felt bad enough to brave the heat and bring over a bag of ice which he pressed onto her paws for a time before having to return to his work.

Waffles laid her head down and closed her eyes ears drooping.

So hot

Overhead an engine sounded. It was a familiar noise by now,and only one of her eyes cracked open to watch the shuttle descend from the sky and come to land on the scouring earth. She closed her eyes again, listening to the distant sounds as the shuttle doors open, and human voices swelled up around her.

It was then that she was hit with the smell.

IThe heat washed over her face and straight up into her nose with a smell she had been waiting for for months now.

She shot to her feet ears up nose lifted.

Her tail began to wag

And despite the heat of the burning tarmac, she raced across the open space yipping and barking and whining for all she was worth

***

Adam stepped out of the shuttle into a sheer wall of heat. It was like being punched in the face by the sun. The borrowed flight suit he now wore was immediately sweltering and he fanned himself with one hand already beginning to pant.

Behind him Sunny and the other stepped down onto the tarmac.

Sunny Immediately yelped and sprung back into the shuttle

Adam couldn’t help but laugh, but that was when a high pitched whining noise reached his ears. A whining barking, yipping noise that immediately had him turning towards the sound eyes wide.

It started out as a small shape barely distinguishable from the sand and grass to the side of the tarmac, and then, as it raced towards him it coalesced into a furry bullet.

“Watffles!” He shouted, taking a few steps down from the ramp as she raced up, and leaped into the air.

He caught her mid arc staggering back a few steps as she attacked his face was the kind of love that could only be bestowed by man's best friend. She whined and whimpered and her tail wagged and her body wriggled so hard he had a tough time holding onto her.

“Hey pretty girl!”

Wavvles whimpered and barked some more licking his face and the side of his head repeatedly to the point where his hair was damp.

He laughed and held her to his chest, her tail thudding against his side and back.

She didn’t seem very inclined to get down, and the Tarmac was so hot he worried about her paws burning. So instead he held her like a large baby in his arms, and once she was finally done licking his face, she rested her head against his neck and chest nuzzling every now and against at his chin just to remind him she was there.

Not that he could forget an 80 lb German Shepherd.

Behind him the others were laughing and awing.

Ramirez had videoed the whole thing, and continued to video as they made their way across the tarmac and too one of the hangers. Waffles didn’t seem to have any intention of getting down.

Finally they stepped into the hanger, and reluctantly he set her back on the floor, though she insisted on sitting on his feet every time he came to a stop.

Across the room there was a clamouring of voices, and A group of at least five people came charging across the room.

His family hugged him so hard, he thought he was going to crack a rib, and he laughed right along with them as they stammered out nar incoherent sentences.

Eventually his mother pulled back wiping her eyes on hand resting on his cheek the other on his shoulder, “Boy, you need a shave.”

He smiled, “Yeah, can't say there are many razors in a wormhole.”

“I knew it, I knew it. Our baby brother is invincible.” David announced, slapping him on the back so hard he nearly stumbled forward.

Waffles looked up at him her tial thudding against the floor, her tongue lolling form her mouth

“Where were you!”

“Not sure if I am allowed to say just yet, but i'll tell you when I know what I am allowed to say. Let's just start by saying that it wasn’t pleasant, but it’s a great story, ad it involves miraculous escape planned and executed by yours truly in a fantastic manor.”

HIs mother sighed, “At least you came back wit hall your body parts in tact this time.”

She turned her head to look down and smiled, “Dr. Krill we are so glad you made it back too. We were devastated to hear that you had gone missing as well.”

The doctors saved a polite hand, “No matter.”

She gave him a very light hug anyway, careful to avoid crushing him or something, which he seemed to enjoy despite himself.

Thomas crossed his arms, “Hey, is anyone gonna thank me for bringing him back in one piece?”

Martha sighed and grabbed him up in a hug, “Thank you for bringing yourself home in one piece.” She pulled back, “ How was the war.”

HE grinned, “It was awesome, we mounted a revolution.”

She shook her head, “I can’t take you anywhere because you're either discovering extraterrestrial life or overthrowing corrupt governments.”

Thomas grinned, “Plus I think this has finally made me realize what I want to do with my life.”

Adam smiled as he watched his brother, this was arguably the happiest he had ever seen thomas: who was known for his sullen nature and moodiness. Life hadn’t been easy on him, and he had jumped and bounced from one thing to another in between relapses.

“Oh, and what is that?”

He motioned back to where the rest of the group was standing, “Well I was talking to Ramirez and Maverick and I…. I think joining the marines would be good for me.” He got a slap on the back from their father, who seemed more than pleased with the idea.

Martha assigned, “Of course I should have seen that coming.” She smile, “I am proud of you. Just try not to overthrown anymore empires while you’re at it.”

He grinned, “No promises.

Adam got hugged a few more times after that seeing as no one was really willing to believe that he was alive.

Even the men he didn’t know from around base stopped by to shake his hand and tell him how glad they were that he was back.

The UNSC sorely missed him.

At some point Krill insisted on doctoring him, and dragged him back into the medical bay where he did all he docterly things, blood pressure temperature pulse. Sunny stood in the corner with both sets of arms crossed over her chest.

He might have asked her to wait in the hall, but he had a feeling that that request wouldn’t go down so well, so he let it go.

Krill examined the three large gashes on his chest and where they had healed over into large, livid puckered red scars.

“Hmm, I could probably fix this. WIth a consultation from a plastic surgeon.” He muttered

Adam waved him off, ‘It’s alright Krill, I think they look kind of badass, sort of a tarzan king of the jungle sort of vibe.”

Krill glowered at him, “Well one of these days you are just going to have to pick ONE vibe, because space cyborg pirate Tarzan is getting to be a bit of a mouthful.”

Adam laughed.

Sunny harumphed glowering angrily at the new scars.

Krill turned to look down at the ones on his upper forearms, which hadn’t scarred up yet, but where still in the process of being scabbed over, “And what are these.”

“Er…. I had to get the attention of the keepers, and that was the only way to do it without them heightening security on me.”

Sunny’s fists clenched even further.

Krill flipped over his hand, which was still raw and red, “Let me guess”

Adam shrugged sheepishly, “Well you know how it is.”

He turned his head to look at Sunny and quickly looked away as her stare bored a hole in his forehead.

At the end of the medical bay, the door slid open and a soldier stepped inside hurrying over to offer him a set of ACUs and a pair of boots, “These should fit sir, the brass will be here in half and hour, and will meet with you in the war room… I… mean the conference room !A.” He turned on his heels and walked out, big boots clomping on the tile as he went.

Adam changed quickly and managed to hunt down a razor in enough time to get a quick shave in before meeting with his superiors. He didn’t understand why other men wanted a beard so much, it was really nothing to be happy about, and it made his face itch. Felt so much better when the thing was finally gone and he was free.

Sunny was a little miffed when she had to wait out in the hall as he and waffles stepped into the conference room, which he could immediately see why they called the warm room. It was less like a conference room and more like mission control. The room was large, lined on all sides with massive monitors which cast pale blue light down onto the large, elongated table with its holographic touch screen.

As soon as he walked in an entire room of officers stood from their seats.

“Commander!”

“Its good to see you, son.”

“We thought you were dead.”

“Earth is going to be happy to hear you’re alive.” He smiled and greeted the others with a firm handshake despite how tired he was, “It takes more than a wormhole to take a human out.” He said taking the seat offered to him near the head of the table.

Admiral Kelly had broken from her usual serious demeanor into a smile, “We are glad to have you back, Commandr. A lot has happened since you left.”

“Can I get a quick summary?”

“Well we learned that the balck hole, or I suppose wormhole now that we know, was created in part by the burg working with the voiceless kree. The voiceless have long been in conflict with the voiced and allied with the burg to turn our ire against the voiced. However, they pose no significant threat without burg technology and so we focused mostly on the burg. Your ship was of course, in pieces, but nearly all you crew survived as they were picked up by other ships in the near vicinity. You were pronounced MIA as was Dr. Krill. ONly three on your ship didn’t make it, and one of our ships was permanently crippled with over 50 casualties and 100 additional injuries.”

HE grimaced, but held back on the guilt for a moment.

“After that battle, the GA came to council, and war was declared on the burg. We sent in the GA armada and over 1000 shock troopers on to the face of the planet. While there a small team comprised mostly of your old crew discovered that the burg king was being imprisoned in a cavern below the throne room and allied with him to replace the queen with a successor.”

He had heard that part of the story , but it didn’t cease to amaze him.”

“Beyond that it was actually quite simple.”

“And my ship?”

“We will get to that in a moment, commander, but now its your turn.”

He nodded and sighed hand to his head, “Where to begin. Of course you know I initiated the shatter protocol when it seemed there was no possible escape for my crew. I stayed behind to initiate assuming, like you, it was a black hole. However, when I didn’t die and was shot out to some unknown location, it appeared as if it was a wormhole instead. I managed to crashland the command deck on the planet below, which was habitable. It was an alien world, but seemed rather…. Jurassic…. In nature. I managed to salvage the emergency kits from under one of the crew seats and survived for a week or two on the beach well fed and warm, however,while I was out in an attempt to boost a radio signal, I ran into some sort of alien creature which attacked me. The wounds I received were pretty bad, but I managed to kill it. I was losing blood fast and probably wouldnt have survived if the Omnidroids-”

“Wait, I’m sorry, the WHAT!”

“Sorry, sir, The omnidroids are what I nicknamed them because they look like something form an old movie. Think large ball with five big stumpy legs and a tiny head on toop.”

They nodded and he continued.

“Anyway, I ran into a group of them, and they helped with my sounds. I couldn’t understand them, and I am pretty sure their speech is in a much lower register because it was like listening to whales talk. Anyway, they brought me aboard one of their ships, and kept me there for a day or two. When we landed I was let out into an enclosure of some sort, turned out to be some kind of alien zoo.”

They stared at him.

He stared back.

“Your kidding?”

“No time for joking, commander.”

He shook his head, “I am not joking. I am serious, the enclosure that I was in had perfect temperature plenty of water and lots of food, but I could see other alien creatures outside the window and above me, just looking at me. Drones came in every now and again to feed me or clean the pen.”

They staired in silent awe.

“Anyway, from there I concluded it was likely they didn’t know I was sentient, so I determined that escape was possible if I let them think that. I started trying to figure out if I was being watched, and their response time if i was. Once tht was done I picked an appropriate time to escape, and used the iron eye armor I still had one from meeting with the Kree and pried open the bars before setting all of the other creatures loose. I found Dr. Krill on my way out, and we hijacked a shuttle.”

“How did you know how to get back?”

He shook his head, “I didn’t. But that was when the space dragon showed up.”

They stared at him again.

He held up his hands, “ I swear I am not making any of this up. That is exactly what happened It created some sort of wormhole and I ended up in the middle of a burg battle in space.”

“So there is an entire alien society separate from the one we already have.”

“It seems so?”

“And the shuttle?”

“It was handed over to GA scientists for examination and potentially reverse engineering.”

They nodded.

He waited for them to say anything else before.

“So…. my crew is safe but my ship?”

They shook their heads, “Is gone,” THey held up a hand to cut him off, “However it was actually a stroke of good fortune as we have been building new ships for the fleet over the past few years, and one of them was close to completion. So, using the scraps leftover from your ship we were able to finish the job.” They leaned forward, “Commander, despite any issues we have had with your commanding in the past, we have determined that to judge you by the standards of the old military was a faux pax on our part. Space is new, and requires something from men that it hasn’t required before.”

He waited to see where this was going.

“The new armada will be nearly five times the size of the old. The captains as they are now will be promoted to fleet commanders and will be over their own unit of ships. The ship that the harbinger was recycled to make, is twice as big as your old ship with room for over 1000 crew members. It has the latest in alien and human technology and is the most advanced space vessel humanity has ever seen.”

It was an important reminder at this point not to pee himself out of excitement, so he kept his face stony, though he wanted nothing more than to jump around like a little girl squealing.

“However, since the captains would be promoted to fleet commander, that means that you will have to be promoted against as well.”

He paused.

“I… but I haven't been commander for all that long.”

“The UNSC fleet is growing at a rapid rate, and to keep up with it, we are going to have to adapt rapidly as well.”

“So, commander, do you accept?”

He paused and looked down at his hands, “I’m not moving to a desk job, sir.”

“No, no you won't. But you will be commanding a larger ship and thousands more people. Do you think you can handle that? He paused again looking down at his hands thoughtfully.

“Yes, I think I can.”

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orangepanic · 3 years

Note

Extremely curious, how did you start shipping Irosami?

Well.

I’d say there are two halves to it. First, I hate love triangles. Pretty much all of them, across all of space and time. It’s awkward and embarrassing and somebody always gets hurt. So like many people I hated the season one love triangle. Then at the end of Turning the Tides Iroh shows up and I think I actually shouted at the screen, “There you go Asami, there’s your firebender!” I was so happy for her, happy the stupid relationship drama would end, and happy there was a way to resolve it that didn’t turn out with Asami being predictably evil or dying. Then Iroh turns out to be legit awesome and I’m even more into it. Stand-up guy who gets shit done. Mako and Korra can be happy because they are obviously attracted to each other, and Asami can bang this super hot dude on his ship like she deserves. FIN.

So then I watched season two and I keep waiting for this to happen. I’m not actually a big shipping person so it was more of a low-key background, yeah OK it’s obvious but like still waiting for it, right? And waiting. And waiting.

Finally Korra goes to see Iroh and I’m like all right, this is it. Time to bring in the big guns. He’s joining the team and it’s gonna be awesome. I thought someone like Iroh might bring a nice balance to Team Avatar, someone who is a bit more mature but not stuffy like Tenzin or cautious like Mako. I was honestly looking forward to having him join as a character. And of course, banging Asami on his boat like she deserves.

And then he fucking stands down.

You’re telling me Mr.-I’m-gonna-jump-on-the-backs-of-all-of-those-airplanes-and-set-them-on-fire-while-I’m-standing-on-them is just like, “Yeah Raiko, I disagree with you but an order is an order, hey Korra why don’t you talk to my mom?”

Fuck. This. Noise. I was so angry for his character.

And I’ve been rewriting LOK ever since. 😁

#irosami #thanks for the ask!

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animnerd · 3 years

Text

In honor of the 79th anniversary of Pearl Harbor. I wrote a story!

Brief History: on the morning of December 7th 1941 in Honolulu Hawaii. Japan airplanes flew over Pearl Harbor surprising and attacking America and sending them into war. The result of this attack it killed 2,403 soliders, destroyed/damaged 19 navy ships, and 8 battle ships.

"Famous Kiss"

Steve and reader:

Fluff with sadness

Warning: definitely need tissues

Synopsis "Steve got back from WW2 in NY. When he heard the news of the war being over he was so excited he had to kiss someone which just happens to be you.

On a bright sunny day in 1945 in New York City. There were many people some were going about their day. While others were soldiers on leave or already left the war. They were enjoying their freedoms outside of the war. Most of the men would not be caught dead in the bar. Most if the men would live it up. Some of the men would be crazy in the town but in the base they would be on their best behavior.

There was one young man who was not out partying like his fellow comrades he was found in they heart of town but he was drinking in one of the local bars. He was worried about his fellow men back in Europe. Especially his friend Bucky. He was one is of the luckiest to be the first group of men to be shipped out of the war but he fought it. He wanted to still be In the war. Helping out win the war right by Bucky's side. But no the higher ups wanted him back in the states enjoying. So here he is drinking his worries away. He was the only one at the bar besides the employees of course. He was about to take a drink when the door slammed open he quickly tuned to se a newspaper boy at the door holding the latest newspaper with the headline “Germany Surrender” and “V-E Day” he couldn’t believe it. He got off the stool walked to the boy “may I have a one please.” “Of course sir five cents please.” He extended his hand out to Steve. He fished out a nickel giving it to the boy. Which he gladly took and handed him the paper. He re read and re read the headline. He couldn’t believe the war was over and more importantly he would see his best friend very soon. He shouted for joy and hugged the boy and ran out of the Bar after paying first.

He ran in the middle of the street. The cars honked at him he apologized and ran to the other side of the road. He looked around excited that the war ended and people were going up and down the road while others are shouting and jumping up and down. While others are kissing the closest girl they could find. At first Steve was in aha of everything around him. Maybe having to do with the drink but he was happy to that the war ended. He didn’t not have a special girl to call his own and it’s been like that since the war started that he has felt a women's touch. So he looks around and walks to the heart of the city Time Square. He was being pushed and shoved around by all the excited celebrating people. He didn’t mind he was focused on enjoying the news.

He walked around and watched everyone celebrating the news. He bumped into someone who stumbled backwards Steve caught them by their arm and lifted them. “I’m so sorry I bumped into you are you ok? He heard a giggled. “I am fine no harm done.” He looks up to the see the most beautiful women he has ever seen. It may be the drinking talking but he thinks he is in love. He blushed and rubbed the back of his head. “I’m sorry again.” As he looks at her. She just waved it off. “No worries.” “Can I get you dinner sometime for make up for my stupidity?” She was shocked that he was being so forward. But she smirked and nodes her head while blushing and playing with her hair. “You may.” He whooped and hollowered which makes her laugh. He gives her the information. Before walking off he leans in and kisses her right in front of her friends who were shocked. But you did not care you were not the lady of today you were the lady of the future. You didn’t care if a complete stranger just kissed you in broad daylight. You leaned more into him enjoying the kiss more. Imagining your friends shocked faces.

Steve deepened the kiss even a little tongue action.

He licked his tongue over her lips as if to ask permission. She just gigled and opened her mouth he went right for her tongue which they played for a while. Once they came up for air. He leaned in and kissed her check. “I will see you soon doll.” Which she sighed and was about to leave when she was surprised to fell a hard slap to her ass check. She turns to see Steve giving her a snarky look. But little did the both know at the time that a photographer took their photo of the kiss.

As a older lady looked at the photo being surrounded by trees in a forest sitting on a bench. She smiles down at the photo whipping a stay tear from her eye. She looks up at the sky. “I miss you Steve. I wish you were here with me.” “I am back baby doll.” She quickly turned around almost fell of the bench. She cried and ran tripping her cane. She ran towards him with outstretched hands.

She almost got to him but fell on the ground. She hid her face crying while her body shakes. Steve runs to her falls on the ground tears in his eyes. He lifts her chine so he can look up at him. She grins with tears falling on her face. “Is it really you Steve?” As she cups his check. He looks older too. He leans into her touch. “Yes it’s me baby doll.” He leans down and kisses her.

@saiyanprincessswanie

@gotnofucks

@babyyhoneyydarling

@ballyhoobarnes

@winteralpine

@sweater-daddiesdumbdork

#history fic #ww2 #steve rogers #steve and reader #famous kiss #sadness #fluff #romantic #women strong!#funny #new york #end of ww2

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hookahmancer · 3 years

Text

Coldsteel: Hot and Cold Part 3

Sonic, Tails, Amy, and Knuckles are playing Mario Party as Amy gets salty saying everyone is targeting her because she's a girl. Sonic is winning and mutters "it's not cause you're A girl, it's cause you're low hanging fruit."

"What are you calling me ugly? Like I'm some rotted apple?"

A familiar crass voice says behind her "he's saying your weak"

Everyone looks and it's Shadow with his arms crossed exacerbated at their activities. Sonic jumps "What are YOU doing here Shadow? You come to fight?!"

"Unlike you, I don't waste my time with low skilled welps. You wouldn't be ready for a REAL danger with all this leisure activity."

Knuckles tells him to chill out and that he should play. Maybe pick Boo the ghost since he's all dark and brooding.

"I just came here to warn you about Coldsteel. He's up to something, I just don't know what." Sonic sits back down and grabs his controller.

"Oh is that all? That guy is even less of a threat than Eggmud..."

Tails interjects while playing still that Coldsteel is a cunning and ruthless guy, and his heart of gold only makes him more of a threat because he has passion and a motive behind his actions making him a superior villain. Sonic just mutters "are you still on that fanboy crap?"

Knuckles coughs and waves his hand. "Shadow put out that minty cigar or whatever you're smoking! It reaks! Shadow?"

Shadow isn't there and the smoke gets thicker where no-one can see what's in front of them. A hedgehog like figure emerges and grabs Amy who screams as the others realize they can't move or speak.

Unbeknownst to the others, her captor is Coldsteel. Who in her paralyzed state he ties to a chair.

"Nothing person-el kiddo. The paralysis should wear off soon... I just didn't want those losers getting in my way."

"What's this all about Coldsteel? Sonic is gonna destroy you when he finds me! Even a DNA test wouldn't be able to recognize you!"

"Oh wow it's already wearing off, that was fast..."

"That's right. I'm A strong, independent woman with an even stronger immune system!"

"Well, this ain't A controlled substance girly... I'll keep ya paralyzed as long as I have too to get what I want."

Amy blushes but pretends to oppose

"Wha...what?! Are you going to have your way with me?! But I'm Sonic's girl! I will scream until your ears bleed as you...ravage me like some sorta primitive Neanderthal!"

"...what?"

"I know a petite, sophisticated, WAY OUT OF YOUR LEAGUE girl like me must be irresistible to your savage instincts but when Sonic finds out you won't be going to normal bad guy jail. You'll be going to hardcore bad guy jail where like, subreddit mods go!"

"Nothing person-el kid, but no. I'm just gonna keep you here until the Stockholm syndrome kicks in."

"Oh...so I'm not good enough for you is that it?! You think I'm ugly too?! Well look at you, Barney the dinosaur looking ass mother fucker!"

Coldsteel has an annoyed bored look on his face and inhales his vape, breathing it over Amy's face to paralyze her again.

Meanwhile when the others come too Sonic goes running around looking for Amy before Knuckles and Tails can even say anything. Knuckles and Tails get in Tail's airplane to scout the skies for Sonic and see the blue blur heading toward Dr. Eggman's lair who is bossing around his robots to adjust this giant golden statue of him while he drinks lemonade and says "no no, over there! Stupid robots..." Sonic tackles Eggman and starts wailing on Eggman.

"Where is she?!" "What are you blathering about hedgehog?!" Sonic continues to pummel Eggman as Tails and Knuckles yell at Sonic to stop from afar. As Tails lands, Knuckles jumps out and pulls Sonic off of a crying and battered Eggman.

"Stop going Christian Bale on him Sonic, we know this had to be Coldsteel's doing!"

"Don't you think I know that?! But Eggturd here is the one pulling the strings!"

A tear of pain rolls down Eggman's swollen black eye as he turns to his side whimpering and pees himself.

"I somehow doubt that..."

As this goes on. Coldsteel is just sitting there glaring at Amy. Amy can talk again and snide remarks "you know... Kidnapping is a pretty serious crime! Those real super villains are just gonna love your Lilac color tone!"

"Well good thing you're not a kid huh?"

"I...you call everyone a...SONIIIIICCCCC"

He gets up furiously "What do you see in that dumb ass anyway?! I'm way cooler than he is!"

"Is that what this is about? Jealously?" "Kinda"

"People like Sonic because he's a kind, caring hedgehog who shows mercy even to those who don't deserve it."

Sonic is punching Eggman again "I know you did it! I know you did it!" Tails crying like the Simpson's meme "stop STOP! HE'S ALREADY DEAD!!!"

"He's also smart. He's like a Sherlock Holmes who can get to the bottom of an unsolvable mystery and have the answers to everything!"

Sonic puts down Eggman and says "Shadow!" Knuckles just mutters "Why would Shadow have warned us about Coldsteel if it was him?"

"And most of all he is selfless! He puts others before his own well being, especially his friends!"

Sonic shrugs and says "Enh, I never liked Amy much anyway..."

Amy glares into Coldsteel's eyes

"YOU are a petty little man who bullies everyone to get your way! You have no friends, and you suck as a villain! You're like..."

"What? Like Eggman?"

"Like Kevin..."

Dramatic music plays and lightning strikes. And Amy whispers

"Nothing person-el kid..." Coldsteel slaps her hard enough where she falls over still tied to the chair.

"Harder daddy!"

"What the fuck is wrong with this girl?"

The heroes are back home playing Mario Party without Amy and Tails sighs.

"It's not the same without Amy..." Sonic bored too responds

"You're right Tails. We need that fourth player... Your thumbs still work right Egghead?"

Sonic poking Eggman's nose with the controller while Eggman is in a full body cast muffling "I hate that hedgehog..."

Coldsteel sets Amy back up and she's still sassing

"Why do you even like me?!"

"I'm asking myself the same question..."

"You don't even know my name!"

"Yeah I do! It's, uhh..."

"You don't even know my name..."

"Sure I do! It's... Daisy?"

"No."

"Annie. Little Annie!" Coldsteel starts singing it's a hard knock life.

"I hate you."

The protagonists still playing and they just lay Eggman's controller on his chest, Knuckles says "maybe we should try harder to find Amy..."

Sonic tapping ferociously "She's fine..."

Coldsteel is in a scary clown mask revving up a chainsaw to her face "LOVE ME YA STUPID CUNT!"

"Learn my name ya stupid garbage person!"

Tails eating some chips "Amy could be in real danger..."

They're boxing and Amy knocks Coldsteel down in one blow reinacting Mohammad Ali's fight "WHAT'S MY NAME?!"

Knuckles goes to take a sip of soda, but stops before it reaches his lips when Shadow says "are you guys just gonna sit around and let this happen?"

Amy is singing Karaoke of Eminem "HI my name is, huh? My name is, who? My name is dikki dikki..." She puts the Mic up to Coldsteel's mouth

"Uhh... Tammy?" She pokes him in the eye with the Mic.

Shadow scolding these bunch of lollygaggers "Coldsteel is doing God knows what to your friend and you guys are just sitting around playing video games!"

Eggman is screaming under his bandages struggling and Shadow strips the mouth part so he can talk. "You fools do not have the faintest idea how serious this whole situation is! What those two are doing together is worse than any evil scheme I could come up with!"

Knuckles snorts "What? Some kind of fetish fanfic?"

"Worse echidna. CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT..."

"Arby. Omg your parents named you Arby's?! I love Arby's! We should get Arby's!"

Amy hits him in the face with her hammer.

"Oh my GOD how can you obsess over me when you won't even learn my name?! You're insufferable! How could anyone stand someone who is an obsessed little worm in a completely one-sided infatuation and tics all the cringe tropes of a gendered stereotype?! I...oh...oh no. I'm everything I hate..."

"Arby's? But the twisty fries..."

"NO NOT ARBY'S YOU MOUTH BREATHER."

Coldsteel's hiding place rumbles as Eggman's grounder robot drills from the bottom and Eggman, Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles jump out.

"Oh cool. Grindr! I remember you from the old animated..."

Eggman yells "Its grounder!"

The grounder robot says "naw naw, he's right... My date is just a block from here. Seeya boss." Grounder digs back down.

Sonic goes up to Amy "it's ok now Amy...you're safe."

"Don't touch me!" "What's gotten into you?!"

Eggman mutters "Coldsteel probably..." Tails, Knuckle, and Coldsteel do the black guys rap battle meme

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TFdvfrWS7XQ

"What's gotten into me?! I have wasted too many nights pining over an ungrateful, selfish, egotistical toxic masculine man whom barely even notices I exist!"

"Why are we here again? Oh hey Amy..."

Coldsteel walks up and puts his arm around Amy sneering at Sonic

"Heh...nothing person-el kid!"

"And YOU... You are a reminder of why self care and confidence are so important! Did you honestly think if you just kept me here long enough I'd fall in love with you? You still don't know my name! You're like those dudes who send money to egirls but tell your friends you have a girlfriend!"

Eggman yells BETAAAA in the back like Jesse Lee

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VRq4I1a1iVw

"I'm done with all hedgehogs. I don't wanna see any of you ever again. ESPECIALLY you Sonic!"

Amy just walks out. And Sonic says "geez what a bitch"

Coldsteel remarks "I hate to see her go, but I love to watch her leave..." Knuckles and and Eggman fist bump Coldsteel.

Everyone just decides to go home and Tails walking by Sonic

"So wait...does this mean Coldsteel never had any feelings for me?"

Eggman walks pass Tails "BETAAAA"

#sonicthehodgeheg #fanfic #sonic fan character

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gothgirlmahi · 4 years

Text

All That’s Best (Prologue)

Dark!Steve x Reader

New Dark!Steve series I’ve been working on. Mostly planned out so there should be a few new chapters soon especially since I’m cooped up in the house.

Masterlist

Summary: Steve saves you from a HYDRA base, but who’s going to save you from him? Warnings: Noncon, violence, Steve is crazy and will get crazier.

“Exterior is clear. I think some of them probably went underground,” Tony voice came in through the earpiece.

“Working on the inside. Nat, you find anything?” Steve asked.0

“Nope,” she said, “I think someone might have tipped them off that we were coming.”

“Or they saw Iron Man coming for the base and scattered like roaches,” Sam said. He wasn’t wrong. The Avengers hadn’t taken the most stealthy approach in this mission, but there wasn’t much reason to. They knew the base didn’t have that many people in it and anywhere they could run from this vantage point would get them caught. Even the underground tunnels had to lead somewhere nearby so every escape route was practically a dead end.

Steve crept through the corridor silently, watching for any potential threats. Even with silent footfalls, the halls echoed and creaked of their own accord. As he turned a corner, he noticed a doorway up ahead, with a bit of light emanating from it. Getting closer he saw a handprint of fresh blood staining the wall.

He hurried his gait and peaked through the door, stopping at what he saw. A woman, tied to a chair, covered in blood. Your head popped up when you heard him enter the room.

“Help,” you begged silently. Your head sported a bloody wound, oozing steadily through your hair and down your neck. Your body was covered with other signs of struggle, ripped clothes and fast forming bruises.

“I found someone,” Steve said into the mic, “give me a minute.”

He approached you carefully.

“Are you okay?” he asked and felt stupid. Of course you weren’t okay. You were going to bleed to death if he didn’t get you out of there.

“They did this to me. I was just...I don’t know what’s going on. Please help me.” Steve ran to untie you and you nearly collapsed in his arms. The metallic smell of your blood hit the air and it smeared against his suit as he held you. Steve grabbed you firmly but gently and headed towards to quinjet.

“Injured civilian. Bringing her out now. She needs immediate medical attention.”

“Why was she there?” Tony asked.

“Maybe I’ll ask her when she’s not about to pass out.”

“Fair enough.”

“The place is empty,” Nat said. Steve could hear her on the other end of the hallway he was running through. That must mean they had cleared the whole base.

Steve looked down and sighed. You were quickly losing consciousness as he sprinted to the plane. When he was in, Banner looked you over and asked Steve to set you down.

Clint and Natasha ran in next, followed soon by Sam and Wanda.

“You guys head back, Rhodey and I are gonna stay and make sure everybody’s gone,” Tony said.

Natasha jumped in the pilot’s seat and began to fly.

Steve looked at you and frowned. You looked so pitiful, barely conscious and so confused about what was going on. Your head wound was horrendous and he had to wonder what exactly you were hit with. Banner inspected the wound for a bit and started applying pressure.

“I don’t think she’s gonna die, but the sooner we get back the better.”

“ETA fifteen minutes.”

They had been staying at a temporary location while they staked out the HYDRA base. There was medical personnel on site and people that could help you. Banner had given you something to stabilize your condition and it sent you right to sleep. Steve sighed, looking at you. It was a shame that someone like you was treated like that.

You were too...perfect. Everything about you, the curve of your lips, the melodic tones of your voice even as you cried for help. Like an angel. He didn’t have time to think on it too long as they were quickly approaching their landing point. As soon as they hit the ground, he would have you seen to in the med bay. Then he could see about getting you home to wherever you were from.

You were in the hospital for a few days. Recovering. The team was still trying to wrap up any loose ends which kept them near the base and near the hospital you were in. Steve came to visit you everyday, bringing flowers or candy or any other thing you mentioned. He found out that you lived in New York. You were supposed to be released soon so he told you not to waste an airplane ticket when you could catch a ride back with the team.

Talking to you made him only hate HYDRA more. They were really the scum of the earth. They had taken you, a young woman with no family and no one to take care of her. No one to look for her when she went missing. Someone who wouldn’t be missed. Your parents had died when you were a teenager which left you mostly fending for yourself. Then HYDRA struck.

Now that you were out of the hospital and back in New York, Steve was conflicted. He couldn’t just let you go home alone. It wouldn’t be right. The streets were too dangerous and you were possibly injured or even traumatized from your experience. He would make sure you got home safe and check in later. Follow you and watch until you got securely in your apartment. Just so you had someone on the planet actually checking on you.It was his job to protect people and make them feel safe. And you had been so grateful when you woke up in the hospital. You thanked him at least eight times and cried and hugged him. Your hugs were warm, loving, welcoming to him. He wouldn’t mind another one. He wouldn’t mind a lot of things coming from you.

It didn’t help that you were so pretty. More than just easy on the eyes. Gorgeous really. Like a personally commissioned sculpture, the ideal of beauty. Aphrodite in human form.Steve had become infatuated with you and he knew it wasn’t to a normal degree. He started following you more often until it became an everyday thing. There wasn’t any woman who ever managed to hold his interest like this, not even Peggy. Maybe it was the dependence you had on him. He had fended off a few unsavory encounters you had never been wiser to. Stayed in the shadows to protect you. Peggy had never needed him in that way. She was always well enough to see to her own safety but the idea of you needing him set him off in a mission to protect you. Because he loved you.

He had been following you for weeks now. Watching as you went to work, came home, went about your routine. You were his obsession. Thoughts of you filled his waking and sleeping mind. But there was a problem. He knew he couldn’t be there all the time. Couldn’t protect you 24/7. Even though he saw himself as your personal hero, he was still Captain America and had to attend to his business. What would he do when the team needed him? He was starting to consider his options.

It was a shame really. And your apartment wasn’t exactly the pinnacle of safety. Once he watched a man sneak in the key card locked door behind one of your careless neighbors. He hadn’t heard of anything bad happening after the incident but the act filled him with dread. What if he hadn’t been there to watch? What if that man had ill intentions for you? His poor, helpless sweetheart. You had already been made a victim once and he didn’t want to see it happen again. Things had to change.

He asked you out on a whim although he was sure you’d say yes. When he wasn’t secretly following you, he did call you to catch up occasionally. You were always so eager to talk to him, to tell him about your day and to listen to him detail his own. When he called you, you sounded excited. His plans were to take you to a new gallery that had opened up and go from there. Both of you could appreciate good art so he knew it would be a perfect date. Maybe dinner and a movie after. God, he wanted to give you everything.

The date came and went without a hitch. You both enjoyed the gallery and talked about it at length as he drove you to the movies. cracking jokes and having a good time along the way. You saw some generic action flick but Steve wasn’t so interested in that. He was interested in you. Interested in your smile, interested in that tight black dress you were wearing, the swell of your breasts, and whatever was awaiting him between your gorgeous thighs...

...No.

He could wait.

He would wait. He had to.

Dinner went similarly, talking about the movie and the art you saw. You were so animated when you talked, it was absolutely enthralling. The way you described things, the jokes you told, Steve was sure you couldn’t get anymore perfect. And he was sure he was in love with you.

And that was when he knew exactly what he had to do.

..............

Masterlist // Chapter One

#steve rogers x reader #dark!steve rogers #dark!steve x reader #dark!steve rogers x reader #dark fic #steve rogers x you #marvel x reader #dark marvel #dark steve x reader

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pine-siskin-agere · 3 years

Note

For the agere prompt list thing, 4. Samirah and Magnus are out on a adventure, when she accidentally regresses. How does Magnus react?

I just really like Sam and I think she deserves to be an agere.

Prompt by @agerefandom

4. Character A and B are travelling: it’s stressful enough that Character A regresses accidentally

I took some liberty with this prompt, I horribly misread this ask somehow and thought it said “hanging out” I can probably do you another one with them out on an adventure but for now,,, Doing schoolwork in Magnus’ room will have to count as one.

Don’t think about the timeline to much please. I skimmed through book one a little bit to collect some notes on their personalities, I didn’t want to accidentally mess with canon (it’s been awhile since I’ve read MC) so this is probably somewhere in the middle of book ones

I did my best with the editing but it has never been my strong suit, if you see something wrong let me know.

Words: 1,224

Warnings: Involuntary regression, Magnus and Sam get into an argument, Sam is stressed by school, ask to tag.

:readmore:

Magnus stretched out his legs, digging his fingers into the warm grass beneath him. Looking straight up he watches the branches above him sway in whatever breeze he wasn’t feeling.

Sam’s bag was open next to him. He could hear her muttering beside him as she read whatever assignment her teachers tormented her with this week.

After a while she let out a deep sigh and flopped on the grass next to Magnus.

“Your room’s nice, warm.”

“Thanks. I had nothing to do with it.”

He watched the corners of Sam’s eyes crinkle with that mischievous grin of hers. She stretched her arms out above her head,

“How’s the being dead thing going for you?”

Magnus drew back the urge to sigh, he never took Sam as the awkward small talk type.

“Well, everyone here hates me.” he sighed, “How’s the whole being alive thing?”

“Life’s. . . good.”

That nearly made Manus sit up from his warm grass bed. He had been stressed enough times in life to spot a mask. He’d told the same lie so many times that to hear its thrown back at him might as well have been jumping on a table and yelling

‘Hey! Look here, everything is absolutely not good!’

One look at Sam’s face and he noticed her defined eye bags and the thick pile of work next to her. He could hardly remember the last time he held a proper textbook. Being homeless kind of put everything in his life on pause. He wondered if the adults in Sam’s life were like his mother when it came to that sort of thing

‘Keep it up and you’ll be in harvard!’

Dammit Magnus, stop thinking about her. He cleared his throat. The sound was rather obnoxious if Sam’s flinch was a tell.

“Yeah, I don’t think that’s true.” He tried to keep his tone light, sometimes people could act out when they felt vulnerable. He‘d seen it happen in shelters.

“So you do have a brain in there! Good job Magnus, you made an observation.” Her voice held the same condescending tone that seemed common in their conversations.

“Damn, alright.”

Sam’s brief smile fell away,

“No . . . no I’m sorry it’s . . . It’s been a rough few weeks, more and more warriors are dying and. . . sometimes it sucks to see people die you know? It’s getting harder to hide everything from my grandparents. I’m so behind on all my assignments, my grades are starting to suffer I just . . . It’s a lot.”

Magnus took everything to the best of his ability, was that it? He expected more.

He pondered over his response, how do you even respond to that? Crappy advice? Awkward comfort? He swallowed.

“Wow Chase, if you didn’t care you could have just said something.”

Her entire demeanour seemed to shift. She no longer had that mischievous comedian type grin. The type that made her look moments away from breaking into cackles at a moments notice. Instead, her fingers twitched with irritation and her face had a similar look to when they first met. When she slammed him into a wall and yelled at him. The face you’d expect from Loki’s daughter.

“No. . . No Sam that’s not what I-“

“Whatever Magnus, forget it, you wouldn’t understand.” Her words were like clay, solid but the smallest tap could make them break.

“Oh, I wouldn’t understand? I’m *dead* Sam. I know what stress feels like.” Magnus knew better than to argue with Same when she got upset but his words felt uncontrollable.

“Exactly Magnus! You’re dead you don’t get to talk about the feelings of the living anymore. that‘s not your life anymore. that‘s not your stress. You don’t know what my life is like.”

Magnus wanted to scream, wanted to shout back

‘I was homeless and my mom was murdered and my entire future went down the drain when I died when I was sixteen years old! But sure, you have it hard.’ Any words he had got caught in his throat. His anger vanished when he noticed the tears in Sam’s eyes and the trembling in her shoulders.

Just because he’s had a hard time didn’t mean he could make others have a harder time. He felt like screaming at himself for even thinking that way.

“Sam . . . I’m sorry” All he got in return was a loud sob as Sam clutched her bag to her chest.

He reached out a hand and rested it on her shoulder. Sam smacked his hand away, before throwing herself into his arms. Which would have likely hurt more if it weren’t for his enhanced einherji strength.

As gently as he could he stroked his hand down her back as she sobbed loudly into his shirt. The damp fabric clutched in her fists,

“It’s not fair! It’s not fair! You shouldn’t have to die every day, I shouldn’t see everyone die everyday! School shouldn’t be so dumb! Stupid! Stupid! I hate the gods! I hate them!”

Magnus let out a deep breath. He didn’t know much about the afterlife but he knew you shouldn’t go around saying those things about the gods. Any of them. Even if it was true. He pulled her into a hug, tight enough to apply some pressure. Normally he’d be more careful about holding Same like that. But normally she don’t throw herself into his arms, so there was that.

“I’m sorry Sam . . . It’s not fair, to anyone”

It felt good to say those words, they must have sounded good to Sam because she relaxed a bit.

She unhooked her hands from Magnus’s shirt, opting to shove her fingers into her mouth instead. It reminded Magnus of the way children would put anything within reach in their mouths.

He carefully pulled her hand away,

“Hey, that’s dirty. You got anything better? Chewing gum?”

She readjusted her hijab and moved her arm in the direction of her bag, which she had thrown to the side at some point. Magnus reached for it and opened it. digging through the pockets he found a medium sized blue wooden box crudely decorated with dollar store glitter. Same immediately snached it from his hands. She pulled out what looked to be a large green pacifier, she put it in her mouth without even checking to see it clean. Magnus pulled out a small sketchbook and a pack of crayons from the box. Sam clumsily got off his lap and grabbed for the items. Magnus handed them to her with some hesitation.

If he was being fully honest this was pretty weird, not necessarily bad weird, but weird. He supposed everything about his death was weird so far, what was one teenaged valkrie who liked to suck on pacifiers and slam him into walls?

He wasn’t sure how long they stayed there, Sam never ended up finishing those assignments. Magnus spent a while watching her excitedly Scribble airplanes with crayons. She became fond of shoving those drawings in his face while he did his best to act like it was the most divine creation he had seen. It wasn’t the worst way to spend an afternoon.

Eventually Sam stopped and got up, tucking everything back into her bag. As she walked to the door she turned to look at him.

“If you tell a sole about this you’re dead, Chase.”

Magnus nodded, then, she left.

#fandom agere #Magnus chase agere #age regression #sfw agere #age regression fics #Magnus chase #fantasy agere #agere aesthetic

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gabriel-agreste-has-no-rights · 4 years

Link

Rating: G

Chapter Summary: Adrien and Ladybug skate together. Chloe and Kagami play damage control.

Word Count: 2,809 | Chapter 3/4

XXX

“XY!” Chloé shoved partygoers aside as she stormed up to the DJ table.

“Huh?” Her former-favorite musician looked at her like she was crazy. He was crazy! ...And he couldn’t hear her through those stupid clunky headphones.

She yanked them off of his ears.

“Hey! What gives, Cholera?”

“It’s Chloé. Seriously, we’ve met five times! How hard is it to remember my name?” If she had to call Jean Claude by his real name, the least everyone else could do was give her the same respect.

“Chloé, Coleslaw, whatever. Why are you yelling?”

Chloé pinched the bridge of her nose. XY was probably just too stupid to remember. Just like he was too stupid to follow basic instructions.

“You posted a picture to Instagram!”

“Yeah?” XY grinned and dug his pinkie in his ear. Ugh. His ears had to be clogged if he could stand being so close to the blasting music. “Pretty cute, huh? Lu’s a really good skater.”

It had been a pretty cute photo of Luka lifting XY above his head, while XY spread his arms wide like an airplane. Frankly, it was shocking that Luka’s skinny noodle arms could lift his boyfriend. But none of that was the point.

“No one is supposed to post photos until after the party.” It shouldn’t have even been possible. XY’s phone must have been some fancy model that could get past Max’s data block. “You’re going to bring Adrien’s bodyguard right to us!”

“Pshaw, it’s no big deal. They’ll be too busy looking at me to even notice he’s here.”

Chloé smacked her forehead. She did not get paid enough for this.

“Is something wrong?” Luka asked, approaching Chloé and XY with two slices of passionfruit cake.

“Yes, there is! Your utterly ridiculous boyfriend is going to get Adrien’s party busted!”

Luka sighed at XY. “Baby, we talked about this.”

XY’s bottom lip jutted out. “But… it was just one teeny-tiny little picture…”

“Just listen to Chloé and take it down. You can post it again when the party’s over.”

Finally, someone was taking her seriously!

“Awwww, fine.” XY pulled out his phone and deleted the post. “Happy now, Clooney?”

She huffed, but turned her back before she could say anything she’d regret.

“Excellent work, Chloé.”

She jumped. Kagami was standing right there. How did she always show up like some kind of ninja?

“We will still need to engage our failsafes.” Kagami began typing on her phone. Chloé stood on her tip-toes, looking over her shoulder. She was posting… some selfies with Adrien in a blue wig?

“Hey, I thought no one was supposed to post pictures.” Chloé frowned.

“These will lead Nathalie and Adrien’s bodyguard off our trail. I’ll adjust the lighting to make them appear as if they were taken just now.” She added filters, and the background grew dark. “Now they will believe Adrien is at the juice shop with me.”

“Not bad.” Chloé smirked. “You know, for someone who never lies, you’re awfully good at fooling people.”

“Only when necessary. Adrien’s happiness tonight is my number one priority.”

Kagami’s gaze shifted down to the rink, where Adrien and Ladybug were skating hand-in-hand.

“You’ve done a good job,” Chloé said quietly, leaning against the railing. Over her shoulder she watched Adrien and Ladybug weave figure eights. Even over XY’s blaring music, she could hear their laughter. Two years ago that would have made her jealous.

But it was good to see her oldest friend and her biggest hero make each other happy, even if it was only for one night.

“Come on.” Kagami smiled at her. “No more slacking. Time to learn how to skate.”

Chloé faked annoyance. “Oh, alright. If you insist.”

XXX

Adrien glided like he was in a dream. The soft pressure of Ladybug’s hand in his was the only thing anchoring him to the ground, and even that felt too good to be real.

But she was real. She was here. She cared about Adrien enough to come to his birthday party.

“You didn’t hit your head too hard, did you?” Ladybug giggled.

Oh. He must have been staring at her stupidly again. That was how he’d tripped over Marc and crashed the first time.

“I’m fine. It helps that the ground is a built-in ice pack.”

She laughed again. She never laughed at Chat Noir’s jokes this much. Maybe she was just trying not to hurt his feelings on his birthday, but he’d take it.

“Look at that.” She bumped his shoulder with hers. “Looks like Queen Bee could use an ice power-up.”

He laughed as he saw Chloé wobble onto the rink, Kagami steadying her with both hands. He was glad they were both getting along, or at least trying to. Having so many of his friends in one place was the best birthday gift of all.

“I bet she’d love that.” He wished he could use his ice powers too. It would make it easier to avoid slipping and embarrassing himself again.

Not that she’d laughed at him, really. That would be weird to get used to—not that he should get used to it. As soon as he was suited up again, they’d be back to bantering and making fun of each other like normal.

But for now, he savored the feeling of her eyes on his, of the way her brow softened beneath her mask every time he smiled.

(He was smiling a lot.)

“Hey, Adrien! You gonna kiss her yet?”

Adrien’s face caught fire at Kim’s shout. Kim didn’t just say that.

Please tell me he didn’t just say that.

His eyes darted to Ladybug’s. She’d dropped his hand, and her mouth was stammering wordlessly.

He couldn’t blame her. His brain wouldn’t send a coherent thought to his mouth, either.

Kim turned around and started skating backwards. “I’ve got a bet with Alix. She thinks you don’t have the guts, but I believe in you. Don’t let me down, man!”

He promptly crashed into Nino and Alya, and all three of them wiped out. Normally, Adrien would’ve rushed to help his friends up. But right now, he wanted nothing more to melt through the ice.

“Please just—ignore him,” he said quickly, falling back and clinging to the handrail. “I don’t know where he got the idea that—I mean, not that I wouldn’t—er—I’m going to shut up now.”

She laughed hysterically, eyes darting back and forth. Was she already looking for a way to escape?

Gah, and everything had been going so well too! He could almost believe that Ladybug… that she… what, liked him? Just because she was nice to him and laughed at his jokes and held his hand…

“You know,” she said quietly, “I wouldn’t, um, mind if you…”

His heart sped up. It could’ve done backflips in the pauses between her words.

“If I…?” He asked, trying not to sound too eager. She could’ve been about to say anything, after all.

Like maybe she wouldn’t mind if he left her alone forever. Maybe she wouldn’t mind if he faceplanted on the ice like Kim did. Maybe she wouldn’t mind if he locked himself in a tower, never to see the light of day until a fearless ogre came to save him.

She leaned in closer. Her eyes sparkled as bright as the frosty tips of her tiara.

“If you… got me a slice of cake!”

He blinked, pulling back. “O-of course! Um, did you want me to bring it back here, or…?”

“Uh, yeah, sure!” She said. “Er, on second thought, there’s no tables on the rink, haha, and I’ll probably trip even with my powers if I try to eat down here…”

“There’s tables closer to the entrance,” he suggested, still startled by Ladybug’s sudden shift. The smile on her face looked strained.

“S-sounds great!”

Unfortunately, getting out of the rink meant skating past Kim again. He’d finally made it to his feet with Nino and Alya’s help. Alix sped past, blowing a raspberry at him.

“Just don’t make eye contact and we might be fine,” he said under his breath.

...Or not.

“Yo, Ladybug! How’s my little monkey dude doing?”

Ladybug groaned. “That’s my luck.”

“I thought Chat Noir was supposed to be the one with bad luck?” Adrien joked right before Kim got close enough to sling an arm around Ladybug’s shoulder.

“Hey, King Monkey.” She grimaced. “Xuppu’s doing fine. But, um, Adrien and I were just about to get some cake, so…”

“Aww, come on! I bet my boy Adrien tastes better than some kind of fruitcake. Who even thought of putting fruit and cake together? Gross.” Kim stuck out his tongue.

Plagg was shaking with laughter inside of Adrien’s borrowed hoodie. Couldn’t the kwami Just Cataclysm him and put him out of his misery?

“It’s passionfruit cake,” he corrected on principle. “And Marinette made it, so it’s going to be amazing.”

For some reason, Ladybug’s face only got more red at that. “Right, amazing! Definitely better than kissing Adrien, ha! Ha ha ha…”

Ouch. Now that hurt worse than a Cataclysm.

Kim winced in sympathy before patting Adrien’s shoulder. “Sorry, buddy. I tried.”

“Please stop trying,” he whined.

He and Ladybug finally escaped Kim. Adrien glanced over his shoulder, and saw Nino flashing him a comforting grin. Alya had dropped her head in her hands.

Me too, Alya. Me too.

XXX

“Lesson’s over,” Chloé said while pulling her phone from her pocket. She didn’t slip, even without holding onto the handrail. Despite her attitude, she was implementing Kagami’s lessons well.

“The student doesn’t decide the length of the lesson.” She crossed her arms.

“She does when she has bad news.” Chloé scowled. “Max just texted. That tracker you and Nino put on the Gorilla's car? It’s going off.”

She held up her screen, which showed a map of the streets near their location. A red skull icon flashed towards the ice rink. Not good. Adrien hadn’t even gotten the chance to eat his cake yet.

“We’ll have to deploy the contingency plan.”

“I thought you already—”

“The other contingency plan.”

Kagami grabbed Chloé’s hand and skated towards the exit.

It was time to find Wayhem.

XXX

Marinette’s pulse pounded in her ears. Adrien was still holding her hand, even after Kim had come along and… well, been Kim. But she could take it. She was cool. She was confident. She knew Adrien had a crush on her!

And yet she was still too much of a coward to kiss him.

What if Nino and Kagami were wrong? Granted, Nino knew Adrien better than anyone, and Kagami had probably never been wrong in her life.

But still.

“I hope you like passionfruit.” Adrien rubbed the back of his neck before cutting her a slice of the three-tiered cake. It had taken her two days to fine-tune the recipe, not including the full afternoon she’d spent adding details with icing. It was a pale shade of pinky-orange, dotted around the edges with rosettes of spring green. Just like his eyes.

“Don’t worry, I love it!” she said. It was a bit of an exaggeration, but she had gained a taste for it after eating one passionfruit macaron a week for the past two years. “You’re lucky Chat Noir isn’t here. He’d finish off this whole cake as soon as your back was turned.”

Adrien laughed. “He’s got good taste, then.”

It was too bad Marinette didn’t know Chat Noir’s birthday. Passionfruit was his favorite favor, too; she could reuse the recipe.

They took their cake and some plastic forks and settled down at a table. She sat across from him, but the table was small enough for her knees to bump his underneath. She’d dismissed her ice transformation, so she didn’t have to worry about stabbing his feet with her blades.

“Wow,” Adrien said through his first bite. “I knew this cake was going to be good, but this is—I’ve never tasted anything like it!”

“Really?” She grinned. If he was saying that to Ladybug, then he wasn’t just saying it to be nice. He really liked her cake!

“Really. I shouldn’t be so surprised, though. Marinette’s amazing at everything. She’s designed album covers for Jagged Stone, and won the student Ultimate Mecha Strike Tournament, and even impressed my father.” He sighed wistfully. “It’s too bad she couldn’t make it. I really wanted to thank her.”

Her heart fluttered like a butterfly on steroids.

“I—I’m sure she wanted to be here too,” she said. Should she find a way to sneak off and detransform? Would Adrien have been happier if she’d come as herself? “And I’m sure, if she were here… she’d want to thank you. For being such a good friend.”

He stared at her with soft eyes. A bit of icing still clung to his bottom lip. She tore her gaze away.

You heard what he told Kim. He doesn’t want to kiss you!

Wait. That was what she told Kim. After she’d panicked and blabbered something stupid by reflex. Why had she said that? She did want to kiss Adrien! Now he was going to think that she hated him and probably hate the birthday present she’d brought and—

“Ladybug?” Adrien’s voice finally snapped her out of her spiral. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

“Huh? Why wouldn’t I be?” She grinned too wide.

He glanced down at her plate. Her fork was stabbed into the thin styrofoam. That wasn’t the only thing she’d stabbed, apparently.

“You, um. Spaced out and carved a broken heart into your cake. Unless it’s supposed to be an upside-down spade…?”

She hurriedly shoved forkfuls of cake into her mouth. Ugh, she was a mess without Alya here to help her keep cool. How would Alya feel about getting her miraculous back for the sole purpose of wingmanning?

It probably wouldn’t work. There wasn’t an illusion strong enough to cover up Marinette’s spazzing.

She swallowed her cake. “I’m sorry, Adrien. I just got distracted for a second. What were you saying?”

“I was just talking about Marinette… you two are friends, right?”

“Friends? What—what makes you say that?” She blinked.

“She helped you fight the Evillustrator and Kwamibuster. I guess I just assumed, but—”

“Wait.” Marinette dropped the fork back to her plate. For once, her mind whirled for a reason other than proximity to Adrien. “You—how do you know Marinette helped with Kwamibuster?”

Had Chat Noir gone around blabbing about Multimouse to everyone? No, there’d never been a trace of her on the Ladyblog. And Chat wouldn’t reveal heroes’ identities like that, even if she’d already told him that “Multimouse” couldn’t hold a miraculous again.

“Um… because, she… told me?” Adrien shrugged. A tentative smile graced his lips.

Her brow creased. “No, she didn’t.”

This didn’t make any sense. How did Adrien really know, and why would he lie about it?

Unless—?

Before she could follow that train of thought, Chloé’s hands slammed down on their table.

“Sorry to interrupt, but you two need to go. We’ve got company.”

“What?” Marinette blinked. “Is there an akuma? I’ll—”

She shook her head. “Worse. Kagami’s backups failed. Nathalie’s here.”

“What?” Adrien stood, nearly kicking Marinette’s shin in his haste to get up. “I have to stop her before she tries to have Nino arrested again!”

Marinette grimaced. Yeah, Adrien’s sixteenth birthday party hadn’t exactly worked out. But she wasn’t about to let this one get ruined, too.

“No way, Adrikins.” Chloé blocked his path. “Kagami’s handling her. She told me to make sure you get out before you’re grounded for life.”

“But—!”

“Ladybug, I know you’re smart.” Chloé turned to her before he could protest. “Take him out the window before he pulls one of his little self-sacrificing stunts again.”

Self-sacrificing. That would be like Adrien.

(It would also be like a certain partner of hers, who also liked passionfruit, knew about Multimouse, and had a crush on Ladybug.)

“I can’t just leave you—!”

Marinette stood and wrapped an arm tightly around his waist. He cut off, blushing at their proximity.

“You heard Queen Bee.” She winked at Chloé, who smiled. “Let’s trust your friends. And trust me, too. I’ve got a surprise for you.”

He looked down into her eyes, then hesitated as if about to ask something.

“Whatever, just take your surprise out there!” Chloé pushed them away from the tables.

“Right. Hold onto me,” Marinette told Adrien before grabbing her yo-yo.

“You don’t need to tell me twice,” he mumbled into her hair, his arms firm around her shoulders.

This is fine, she told herself while trying not to melt into an ecstatic puddle. Then she cast out her yo-yo and swung through the distant window.

She and Adrien had a lot to talk about.

#mirauclous ladybug #fic tag #chloe bourgeois #chloe #luka #xy #luxy #kagami tsurugi #kagami #ladrien #kim #hopefully thats enough tags for you to decide if you want to read it or not lol #tali writes #what an ice surprise

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