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nightshade-minho · 4 years

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-Blue Book- (6)

Warnings: suggestiveness, future smut

Word Count: 2.4k

Chan knows what happiness is. He's felt it before in mild amounts- like the time when he was 7 and his dad bought him that toy truck he'd been wanting, or when he ate his favorite food.

As the years went by though, he found it harder and harder to feel even an ounce of that elusive emotion. It wasn't like he was a particularly sad person, either. He was just...existing.

Which is why he found you so intriguing. He watched as you rambled away between sips of your boba, accentuating your words with wild gestures. It was cute, how passionate you were about art and how happy you got when you talked about it. Chan loved making his music too-it was a welcome distraction from his hectic life. He never found himself feeling this level of enthusiasm, though.

"And yeah. That's why I think Bernini is objectively better than Michelangelo."

He smiled, nodding, though he hadn’t really paid attention to what you had been rambling about. God, he couldn't help but be fascinated by you.

This was bad. He couldn't lie to himself anymore- he was definitely starting to feel things for you that went beyond mere intrigue. It was easy to pretend he didn't like you when you weren't around...But when you were right in front of him, Chan found himself hating the way he wanted to spend more and more time with you.

Suddenly, the door to the cafe opened. You looked up when you heard the tinkling bells, a frown growing on your face as you watched Minho walk in with Miyoung right behind him.

You sat up immediately, glancing at your watch and shooting a quick, apologetic smile to Chan. “Uh, I just remembered I have somewhere to be, so-”

Too late. Minho smirked as he walked over to your table.

“Chan, thought you’d be here. Can we talk?”

Chan’s eyebrows knitted as he slowly looked away from you. “Okay, I guess.” He stood up, following Minho as the two boys walked out. You looked up at Miyoung, who offered you a shy, genuine smile before sitting in Chan’s spot.

“Hey, Y/n. How are you?”

“Hey. I’m good. You?” You said slowly, slightly cautious. Miyoung was one of those girls who hadn’t been particularly mean, but it wasn’t like she’d gone out of her way to befriend you either.

“I’m alright...” She smiled again, trailing off a little awkwardly.

Her smile seemed genuine enough, but would she have smiled at you the same if you weren’t with Chan? Probably not, You noted with slight bitterness, sighing under your breath.

“Do you want some?” You spoke up, gesturing to the untouched cheesecake in front of you, tilting your head.

She shook her head, the same smile fixed on her face. “Nah, I’m on a diet. Thanks, though.” She opened her mouth, looking like she wanted to say something else, closing it and fiddling with her fork.

Awkward silence.

“I...” Miyoung looked at the fork in front of her, avoiding eye contact. “Are you happy?”

“Hap...py?” You questioned, a little confused.

“With Chan. Are you happy?”

“Oh..well yeah, I guess.” You frowned. “Um...we’re not actually dating yet, you know that, right?”

“You’re not?” Her eyes widened a little. “Oh...the way he acts around you, I thought...” She shook her head, sitting up straighter. “Anyway, I’m sure he’ll make it official soon.”

“Hmm.” You stared at the girl, her expression a little sad as she looked up, staring out the window. You tilted your head, following her gaze to Minho and Chan, who seemed to be having a conversation.

You looked back at her. “Why’d you ask that question? Are you not happy with Minho?”

“Wha- no, I am! I just... ” She paused. “Forget it. Hey...you want to come with me to the mall later?”

You raised an eyebrow. A week ago you had no friends, and now some of the most popular people at school were lining up to spend time with you. Huh.

“Sure.”

***

“Why do you want to talk? What’s up?”

Minho rolled his eyes. “Nothing much, really.”

Chan frowned. “Why’d you take me out here, then? I’ve got to get back to Y/n-”

Minho narrowed his eyes, leaning against the wall. “Chill, dude. She’s with Miyoung. She’s not going to die if you leave her alone for a few seconds. Why do you care, anyway?”

“What are you talking about?”

Minho pressed his lips together, observing the uneasy expression on Chan’s face.

“...Whatever. Just know prom’s in a few weeks, and Miyoung’s whipped for me.” He smirked. “You better get that book fast~” He turned around, walking back towards the cafe door.

Chan watched him leave, fists clenching as he watched Minho go up to the table, greeting Miyoung and steadily ignoring you. He watched the slightly hurt expression on your face uncomfortably. He felt so much anger, all of it directed at Minho...and some of it at himself.

***

Miyoung quickly put a smile on her face as Minho entered, standing up as he slunk a hand around her waist.

“Hey, baby.” He smiled down at her. “Let’s go, my parents aren’t home~”

“Oh...actually, Minho, I kind of made plans with Y/n.” The boy frowned at that, glancing at you. He opened his mouth to protest, interrupted by her.

“Um, we were planning to go to the mall, but you can come too! And so can Chan.” She said, smiling sweetly up at him and running a finger up his chest. “Please? I’ll make it up to you later...” She winked.

“Fine.” He gritted his teeth, looking up as Chan entered, placing a hand on your shoulder.

“But we’re going in my car.”

***

Miyoung was a sweetheart, really. She just wasn’t the kind of girl you’d usually befriend- but someone was better than no one, right?

She ran her eyes over the jewelry on the shelves, humming under her breath. “Hm, I’m not sure which necklace would match my belt...what color is your prom dress?”

“Oh...I haven’t exactly bought one yet.”

She looked at you, her eyes widening in shock. “What? Prom is two weeks away!”

“Yeah, I know. I might just wear one of my mom’s old dresses.” You shrugged, looking at the brooch Miyoung was holding. “Ooh, that one’s nice.”

Miyoung shook her head incredulously, putting the brooch down and grabbing your wrist. “Come on. I’ll help you find a dress, just follow me.”

You groaned but let her pull you along, deciding to entertain her for the time being. After all, she was your only female friend in years, and you didn't want to lose this yet.

***

People passing by the two boys sitting at the table and sharing their fries would probably think they were friends. Two dudes, hanging out and enjoying a fun guy's night. If only they knew.

Minho slipped another fry into his mouth as he tilted his head. "So you're sure you're going to get the book within the next few days?"

"Um, yeah. I know she trusts me. We've gotten really close."

"Yeah...I can tell." Minho raised an eyebrow, swirling his next victim in the small tub of ketchup.

Chan frowned as he took in Minho's expression. "What's up with that tone?"

"Don't you think you're getting a little too close to Y/n? You could easily steal that book if you wanted to, you spend every day with her now and I'm sure she's left her bag unguarded around you." He smirked. "Part of me wonders if you actually want her around. If you're dragging this out on purpose."

Chan turned red, the implications of what Minho was saying making him swear internally. "Wh- what are you talking about? I only hang out with her cause you made that bet. Or I wouldn't have looked twice at her." He said firmly, almost like he was trying to convince himself.

Minho shrugged, devouring yet another fry as Chan's mind started racing, the familiar feeling of confusion rising up again.

***

"We shouldn't keep Chan and Minho waiting." You groaned, Miyoung choosing to ignore your pleas as she tossed yet another dress at you.

"Shh, they'll be fine. They're at the food court, and you know boys and their relationship with food of any kind. I assure you, they're not missing us. Now come on, I just know you'll look good in green." She smiled.

You sighed, tiredly clutching the dress as you went back into the changing room for the nth time. For the last half hour, you'd repeatedly tried on dresses to the point where you were ready to collapse from exhaustion. However, the excitement Miyoung was radiating made you want to please her...and it was kind of nice, the way she oohed and aahed each time you changed into a different dress. Was this what it's like to have a friend?

You stared at your reflection in the mirror once you managed to get the dress on, your eyes widening. Wow.

The silk was dark green, hugging your waist perfectly. The cut of the dress flattered your body like it was made for you. It was the perfect dress. You fell in love with it the more you turned around, assessing your reflection from every angle.

Slowly, biting your lip, you checked the price tag hanging off it. You sighed. Just as you thought.

You knew your mom would never be able to afford a dress this expensive. A sudden rush of guilt ran through you as you dropped the tag, running a hand through your hair as you moved to take the dress off.

For a minute, your hand paused on the zipper, your eyes travelling back to your reflection. For a moment, you let yourself imagine attending prom wearing this beautiful dress.

An image of you and Chan, slow dancing under the dimmed gym lights settled itself in your brain. You let a small, dreamy smile take over your face as you removed the dress. Even if you'd be wearing your mom's old floral dress, at least the Chan part of your fantasy would remain true.

***

You hadn't had this much fun in ages. So this was what it was like to hang out with friends. You wished you'd met Chan and Miyoung earlier.

The only problem? Minho. Your worst nightmare, in the form of a handsome high school boy with a devilish smirk and a weird, unprovoked hatred towards you. The fact that you were now left alone with him was probably the only downside to an otherwise wonderful day.

Miyoung had dashed into a shop, saying she'd be out in a second, and soon after Chan had dipped saying he had to go withdraw some money at the ATM. By pure, rotten luck, you somehow winded up sitting next to Minho on the mall bench as the two of you waited for your partners to come back.

You stared ahead of you, determined not to look at the boy sitting next to you. He'd always ignored you, treated you like you were the dirt on his shoe. You weren't going to give him the satisfaction of knowing you hated him as much as he hated you.

After a few minutes, Minho smirked, glancing over at you. "Why do you look so worried? Afraid your boyfriend's gone to cheat on you?" He asked, his tone dripping with fake sweetness.

You turned to look at him, glaring. God, this dude was so annoying.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?"

Minho's eyebrow raised slightly, as he hadn't really expected you to reply. His expression faltered for a moment before his usual sneer took over his face once more.

"There isn't anything wrong with me, darling." He said, looking up and eyeing a lady in a crop top. You followed his gaze and let out a snort.

"What an asshole."

"Excuse me?"

You turned to him, anger taking over your entire being again.

"Miyoung's a sweet girl. She deserves a lot better than a lying dickhead who can't even keep his eyes to himself." You scoffed. "You should stop using her like this."

Minho's mouth opened slightly, the slight shock giving way to amusement as he grinned.

"I'm using her?" He pouted. "Hm. I guess that is wrong...I should probably take lessons from your boyfriend, yeah? Since he's so perfect."

"What do you mean?" You narrowed your eyes, slight discomfort settling in you as the man shifted closer to you on the bench.

"Just saying." He shrugged. "Channie isn't who you think he is." Leaning in, you shuddered as you felt his lips graze your ear. "I'd watch my back if I were you, sweetheart~"

He quickly drew back as he noticed Miyoung emerge from the shop, expression neutral as he stood up to go over to his girlfriend.

What was he talking about?

***

"Hey, you okay? You seem...out of it." Chan said gently, glancing at you from the corner of his eyes as he drummed his fingers on the steering wheel.

"Oh? What- no, I'm fine." You nodded, carefully staring at your lap. Chan turned to look at you, frowning.

"You sure?"

"Uh huh." You said slowly, staring out the window as Chan drove you home. There was silence in the car, and Chan hated it. The atmosphere was thick with unspoken tension. He wanted to do something about it, but you looked so closed off and guarded ever since he got back from the ATM.

"You can...you can always talk to me, you know." He said gently, as he stopped the car in front of your house.

"I know." You mumbled, looking up at him. "I'm sorry. Thank you for today, it was fun. See you tomorrow?"

"I wake up at 5 am every day for you, now." He whined, glad your smile was back on your face. "You know, going to school that early should be a crime."

You giggled as you got out of his car, closing the door and going over to his side.

"Well then, arrest me, officer~"

Chan blushed slightly, gripping the wheel. "Bye, Y/n." He laughed, as you blew a kiss and turned to enter your house.

Chan let out a sigh under his breath. He realized slowly that for the entirety of the day, he hadn't felt all that much jealousy. He'd been too focused on you to even notice Minho's desperate attempts to induce envy in him. And after Minho's sly accusation, Chan didn't know what to believe. Could it be...

This was bad. This was really bad.

#chan angst #chan fluff #chan smut #minho angst #lee know angst #chan x reader #bang chan fluff #bang chan smut #bang chan angst #chris smut #chris fluff #chris angst #chris series

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sleepdeprivedheretic · 3 years

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Heart of the Wild (Ch.1)

Notes: Here I am, with my favorite tropes and high-key copying the plot to my other fic, Wild Heart. Oh well, I had fun chilling and plotting it with my friend, @mha-girl674 while listening to Celtic Woodland music :3 This story is basically a little self-indulgent “re-write”, but Wild Heart is still up and it’s own fic <3

Pairings: Taishiro x reader, a little bit of Kirideku, and Miro x Tamaki next chapter

Setting: Hybrid Au in medieval times? Ig? Like they have villages and stuff. Idk, imagination :3

Warnings: Self Indulgent Spicy Plot with consensual and self smut thrown in around here and there. Characters are over the age of twenty.

Trigger Warnings: Heats, terrible parents (of the reader), and fear of non-consent, but there is no no-consensual touching, just chasing from an unknown character.

Hot breaths panted into the chilly air from within your chest. You couldn’t feel anything, other than the white heat burn within your feet and legs from the blistering cold. You’ve been running for who knows how long, heart screaming within your chest at the thrill of finally being free, and what a stupid decision that this was.

It was in the middle of winter, and you’ve chosen now to escape. It was smart as well as stupid, for your parents, thinking that they had you metaphorically tied to a tight leash, would have never expect you to rush out into the cold dead of the winter night.

They were wrong, but you were suffering. There was no food, lest hardly any shelter or warmth. Your scrap of a tattered cloak, barely weathered the unforgiving wind and snow. Yet, trudging on was the best bet, it was the only bet.

At least the cool weather flushed down your heat, but not the scent. Being within a tundra had scared you; not only that there were more ferocious, bigger hybrids that could smell you out, but as well as it was so open. Nowhere to hide, plenty to run, and you’ve practically already exhausted yourself, your natural cycle to breed didn’t help matters, either, for it drained energy, as well.

Was this better than having your parents keep a constant watch over you? Planning to hand over you to who knows who, in exchange for some pretty fabrics and seeds? Granted that you’ve thought this through in what seemed to be a million times, but you didn’t know what laid outside of your little nomadic tribe.

Gritting teeth, leaning against a boulder, you gasped as pain shot through your leg. You were use to traveling with your tribe, carrying things for miles, but not running in constant fear into the vast unknown, perhaps miles away from any place that was safe.

A low whine had cut you out of your thoughts, your head swerving around as a musky scent had now reached you. A fox was staring at you intently, licking his bottom lip as his hands clenched the boulder just ten feet away. Your own rabbit ears folded back in fear, yet his scent had sent yours screaming. Of course, your stupid inner omega was processing the idea of settling down in the tundra raising fox kits, but you weren’t having it.

It was tempting to just lay down and rest, but not get bent over by the first stranger that you saw, especially one so wild looking and probably was more feral than your clansmen. You bolted. He gave a short yip of frustrated shock, and he chased.

This is what you had been fearing for your whole life. If it wasn’t in the back burner of your mind, it was the hungry looks that your clansmen shot your way, the way your parents were only interested in you as a future bargaining chip, and of course, the prospect of getting used by a stranger, and bearing unwanted kits.

It upset you, and undoubtedly made your resolve to choose your own mate, even greater, if you wanted one, at this point. You didn’t know where you were going, all you knew was that in your fear, the scent had gotten closer, giving the fact that the arctic fox was practically nipping at your heels. You yipped in surprise as pain shot through your foot, after suddenly tripping over a branch, the ground closed in as you squeezed your eyes shut, feeling the impact of the fall hit your arms and side as you tumbled a little ways.

It didn’t take you long to recuperate, as you scrambled backwards, fearing for the worst yet to come as your back had hit a solid trunk of a tree. Surprise had hit you, for the fox stopped dead in his tracks. Once a musky scent, was now flooded with dread as he stared onward behind you, and then back at you. As if making up his mind after a mental process, he growled in frustration as he let out one last angry yip, before running off.

Relief had wafted to you, slightly, but you were left with more questions than answers. The tree of all things against your back, and the way the fox had fled in fear, motivated you to turn around. It was a forest, to your utter surprise and shock. Running in a blind panic, you weren’t aware of your surroundings, just the pure fear mixed in with your inner omegas snapping demands to breed, had made you rushed and unfocused.

By the way the stretch of lush pines and firs, had the forest itself look so dark and intimidating. You had an inkling that the snow and cold, and possibly even sunlight, hadn’t reached within it’s mysterious depths, and it looked oddly inviting. You knew that the fox had fled for a reason, and that it was a stupid idea to even think of venturing inside, but you were out of options.

You didn’t want to freeze to death in the snow, after all. Steadying yourself up against the bare cedar you’ve bumped into, you took a step forward, wincing at the pain from your hurt ankle and sore legs. However, the lure of the possibility of safety, was more strong than your will to just lay down. Inching forward into the darkness, you let the trees within guide you. It was dark, at first, but of course, trees could only give only so much shade. Dim, was the more correct use of the word as you inched closer and deeper within the forest’s heart. Despite the atmosphere, the birds were singing to their heart’s content, as you could hear the sound of rushing water in the background somewhere.

You jumped a little as your foot brushed up against something soft. Green, you couldn’t help but stare in awe at the little patches of grass and clovers littered across it’s floor. It was cold, yes, but not as cold as it was outside the fortress of trees. In what had seemed eerie and intimidating at first, now had filled you with an odd sense of serenity and calmness. The area around it had an odd, yet highly welcomed earthy smell with a splash of something sweet in which had you relaxed and sated the crawling of your heat.

Why did the fox fear this place? It had seemed so safe. The hairs of the back of your neck had stood up as you stilled. It had took you longer to realize, that the forest’s unique scent, didn’t belong to the forest at all. Eyes widening in realization, your hands gripped the tree that you were leaning up against. Fate, so far, was kind to you, and although you didn’t want to push your luck, you were hopeless and out of options. Was it a bear? Even then, they usually didn’t let their scents be covered in trees like this. It was baffling, as well as a mystery to you, and you wanted to find out.

Yet, exhaustion had finally taken it’s toll onto your weary body as you could feel your remaining strength just physically drain from you. Tired, hungry, scared, and hurt through the array of emotions, your body had decided that you were going to rest, whether you liked it or not. As you collapsed onto the forest floor, a shout of surprise echoed as your world turned into black.

…………………

“-tch. Annoyin’ bunnies an’ their heats.” A huff of annoyance broke out into the silence. Once dark, life had filtered through your senses once again as the scent earlier, was the strongest here. Crackling of fire, warmth, and the scent had awakened you as you cracked open your eyelids.

A house, you couldn’t help but wonder in awe. The fireplace had created a warm atmosphere against the darkened room, lighting up a place of comfort and furs from non-hybrids. You yourself, were in a bed, bandages were wrapped around your hurt ankle and arms as warm blankets had covered you. What had caught your attention most in the lit room, was the tall figure of a man stirring something within a kettle, back turned against you. What had surprised you most definitely, were the orange and black appendages that were his ears and long, swishing tail.

A tiger? You had wondered. They were rare, here, and more rare if they were orange, those being in the east, not the north. Oddly enough, fear didn’t prickle you, but your heat, just stirring awake with you, had. If he wanted to hurt you, he would have, already, not literally save you from the cold and bandaged your wounds.

Not wanting to startle him, you rustled a bit, letting the bed creak a little to get his attention. An ear of his flicked as he then turned around, giving you the full view of your mysterious stranger. Curious amber eyes, soft blonde hair, he wasn’t big, but he wasn’t slim, having a hefty amount of a belly fat on him, due to the winter. Years of work had shown on his shoulders, creating muscle mass as well as around his arms and upper chest. Only what has been covering him, was a loose pair of pants. You had to furiously mentally beat your heat and thoughts down with a stick as he then spoke.

“Ya look like a mess.”

And there it was, the trickle of slick leaked out of you as your face burned with embarrassment and shame and you then covered your face with a downy pillow. A huff of surprised laughter at your expense made you peep out and give the best glare that you could manage, yet the stranger just gave you a grin.

“I must say, yer lil’ reaction’s a bit different from a lotta other beings bein’ near a tiger. Name’s Taishiro.” To your utmost surprise, he let out a please little purr as he then turned back to the kettle. You gave him your name.

“So, why is a lil’ thing like yerself doin’ out in the middle of here?” He pondered, as if he already knew the answer, but for conversation’s sake, you enlightened him, watching his tail swish with annoyance at your parents, and ears flickering with interest as you explored the forest.

“What about you?” You turned to ask. His back stiffened a little, as if caught with surprise at the notion.

“Came from the east, lookin’ for a new start in life away from my parents. I knew that a lotta others would fear me, but I didn’t know that they’d avoid a whole forest ‘cause of me,” He then took a wooden bowl and ladle, dipping the curved spoon into the bubbling stew as he continued.

“-granted, I made some friends, even adopted some younglin’s. Strangers just usually don’t come ‘round here.” He finished, pouring the delicious smelling broth into the bowl, tucking a wooden spoon in it as he turned around.

It was an odd atmosphere, and you were pretty sure that you weren’t dreaming, but for your sake, you went along with it.

“Are you lonely?” You asked bluntly. He froze, and then gave an indigenous huff as he set the bowl down at the table closest to you. Ears flattened and tail swishing, at first you thought that you made him angry, but he avoided your curious stare as he looked rather nervous.

“Ye’re pretty wordy for somebody who jus’ woke up. Ya must be starvin’, here. T’s not much, but I figured that ya might be hungry.” He changed the subject as he gestured towards the bowl. Telling him your gratitude, you gripped it, lifted a spoonful of the soup, and took a sip. To your surprise, the sweet taste of carrots had mixed in heavenly with the starchy potatoes, crisp lettuce, and the slight bitter bite of spinach.

“It’s delicious.” You admitted truthfully, not missing the way his ears picked up at the compliment.

“Thanks to the trees blockin’ the cold, ‘s not hard to grow yer own food. I might be a predator, but I can live without meat.” He rambled, There was so much to say, and many questions left unanswered, but you knew that you were on borrowed time, until your natural cycle would bite back with a vengeance, later. He must have known it, too.

“The worried look on yer face is a dead giveaway, Hon. I never housed somebody in heat, before, but don’tcha worry ‘bout it. Ya can stay here fer a while, seein’ that a hurt ankle might take longer to heal. I ‘ave some friends that I can stay with.” He rambled, but you looked at him with pure confusion.

“You’re giving up your home temporarily? For a stranger?” You asked, baffled. At this, his tail swished, as if a little shy.

“Temporarily. I don’t know what yer plans are in the future, but the forest doesn’t belong to me, ya can hang around an’ have yer own place, within the depths. I couldn’t just leave somebody there, sufferin’ and the brink of death, anyways.” He murmured lowly, but you could hear it clearly. Warmth that wasn’t heat, clouded into your chest at such kindness from the stranger. He was a stranger, yes, but you felt as if you could trust him fully, giving that his actions of helping you and not asking for anything in return, had screamed volumes.

“Thank you, for everything.” You blurted out, and the corner of his lip twitched upward at your honest gratitude.

“Not a problem, Sweetheart.”

…………………….

He knew the dangers of housing a slick, hot-blooded omega rabbit, of all beings, had included. What he didn’t expect, was the general bluntness and forwardness of the little thing. Not as timid or shy, but generally open and forward with emotions. Being in the early stages of heat, right now the bunny was coherent, but he knew that it would only last for so long before the true, ugly nature of one’s natural heat cycle, took over.

“So, here’s what’s gonna happen, Hon. I’m going to stay far away. It’s fer your safety. I might prowl around my area and scent everything, keepin’ unwanted guests, away, but I’m not gonna barge in on yer privacy or be too close to the house.” He told you, laying out a plan. You nodded, setting the empty bowl aside as you listened closely.

“-believe it or not, I know somebody who could bring ya rations an’ talk with ya after yer heat spells. He’s a dwarf rabbit, an’ already mated to somebody who I see as a son of mine. Since he’s an omega, like yerself, he should be more immune to yer smell. Green hair an’ freckles, can’t miss’im.” Taishiro explained, and you listened with interest, seeing that you weren’t truly alone in your being as well as dynamic.

“Sorry that we won’t talk, much, but I thought that I’d best introduce myself ‘fore ya wake up alone and scared.”

“I’m not scared.” You admitted, and he huffed.

“Now, ye’re not, but if ya woke up alone an’ in a stranger’s house, ya would be.” He argued, and you let him win, seeing that you were too caught up in emotions, and just wanted to process everything. Noticing your state, he gave out a chuckle.

“Alright, I’ll see ya later, when yer heat’s over. Ya kinda intrigue me, a lil’ bit, so I’m hopin’ that ya might stay, a lil’ while longer after yer heat.” As soon as he admitted it, his ears flattened with embarrassment as he huffed out a sigh, the apples of his cheeks reddening as he swiftly turned around, opening the door, closing it swiftly behind him.

You bit your bottom lip. For an apex predator who was lethal as well as dangerous, he was almost as soft as a kitten, and you hoped that, at the very least, the two of you could be friends.

………………

You were weak, you huffed, panting out hot air as one of your hands gripped the pillow, harshly. Usually, you didn’t have a face, or a body in your images as you tried your best to sate the flash of hot emptiness. It has always been nothing but hot and drowsy images of the blurred shapes of your pillow and furs in the past, leaving you unsatisfied and on the brink of frustrated tears.

This time, you had kindle to feed that ever demanding fire of yours, licking sharply at the heels of your feet as you were on the brink of the edge. Smooth muscle, soft fat, warm amber irises, and that twinge of a smile, had pinned your focus. You felt guilty, but you couldn’t help it, nor could you think clearly of anything nor anybody else.

He was so friendly and helpful to you, and here you were, ruining his bedding and furs with your slick, fingers deep within you, wrist hurting from the desperate climb, but no full relief avail. Your body couldn’t had waited, as soon as he left with that calming scent, a spike had hit you in where it had hurt, the empty ache shooting up in full demand.

Where was this man? Your inner omega screamed, but you harshly shushed it, focusing on the edge, and how to clean the sheets, afterwords. In your blurred state, you knew that you had hardly knew him, but already, he was so far the perfect embodiment of what most beings had wanted in a partner. You admitted freely, that you were no different.

Letting out a small squeak within the bitten pillow, harsh relief shot through you, as you clenched on your fingers desperately, your body trembling and tears pooling from the corners of your eyes at finally, finding a sudden rush of relief.

You huffed, calming down from your euphoric high as you palmed your face against the pillow in which smelled exactly like him. You were in too deep, you couldn’t help but think, a little guilty for desecrating the hospitality by literally cumming onto his blankets with him in your mind.

……………………….

#Taishiro Toyomitsu #Fatgum #Fatgum x reader #Abo #Hybrid beings #Bunny reader #Tiger Tai #High-key copying my other works but hey I love this trope #I put up warnings #Celtic music does wonders to the imagination #They're like in a frozen medieval land idk #Smut #More details in next chapter

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reinerispretty · 4 years

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rotations. bonus!AU (sokka x f!reader)

sokka and rotations y/n being star crossed lovers request!?!?! i saw how u answered that ask abt if zuko and suki both werent in the picture and... i am 👀

do you think you could do a rotations au where y/n ends up with sokka 🥺 the babysitting story killllllled me (i read rotations in an all nighter i LOVED IT 💕💕💕)

HI and thank you to those of you who requested this!! i want to preface that this is NOT canon in the rotations universe (if that’s a thing lmao), it’s just a fun what if that i am writing :) but this is not canon for my fanfic!! i just feel the need to reiterate that lmao

(Y/N) had been no stranger to nightmares throughout her life. Haunting images of ghosts and monsters plagued her occasionally but usually faded away with time. They would wake her in the middle of the night with a start and beating heart, but she would find her way back to sleep eventually.

When (Y/N) opened her eyes, she found her reality to be the nightmare. She turned over in bed and stared at the empty space, perfectly untouched. She shut her eyes tightly and lay there for a few minutes, trying her hardest to suppress the tears that threatened to spill onto her pillowcase.

The door to her bedroom creaked open and her daughter, Izumi, poked her head into the room. She was nine now, the same age that (Y/N) had been when she had met Zuko, and had a hard time comprehending what was going on.

(Y/N) sat up quickly, painting a smile on her face for her daughter. “Good morning, little petal,” She said, outstretching her arms. Izumi padded quickly to her bedside, lifting herself onto her bed and fitting into (Y/N’s) lap. Her head rested against her chest and she could feel her mother’s heartbeat.

“I dreamed about him again,” Izumi whispered quietly. (Y/N) gripped her daughter tightly, pressing her lips onto the crown of her dark head.

“What was he doing?” (Y/N) asked.

“He smiled at me,” Izumi said. “He said he missed us.” (Y/N) held in the sob that threatened to wrack her body. She wanted, no needed, to be strong for Izumi. (Y/N) was all she had left.

Izumi turned, sitting up to face her mother. “You can cry, Mommy. Daddy said it’s okay to cry.”

(Y/N) felt all of her resolve break. In an instant, it was Izumi holding her mother and (Y/N) sobbed into her daughter’s hair. She held Izumi so tight because she feared if she let go, she would fade away. Their daughter was the only piece of Zuko that she had left. She had his dark hair and amber eyes. Every facial expression she made was a near copy of her father’s. It made (Y/N) feel horrible to admit it, but sometimes she couldn’t look at her own daughter.

When (Y/N) had started to calm down, Izumi sat up. Her own tears streaked down her face. (Y/N) wiped them away with her thumbs and kissed both of her cheeks. Izumi did the same to her. “I miss him a lot,” Izumi said, her bottom lip wobbling. (Y/N) hugged her daughter once more.

“Me too,” She said. (Y/N) sniffled and wiped away more tears. “We have to get ready for today. The servants should have placed a white dress in your closet.”

“I don’t want to wear it,” Izumi sighed. (Y/N) gulped.

“I don’t either,” She said. “But it’s the best way to honor your father.” Izumi nodded and hopped off of the bed, walking out of the bedroom and returning to her room. Slowly, (Y/N) slid out of bed and moved over to the window. The sun still rose and the birds still sang in the trees. She wondered how life could continue when something so horrible had happened.

The servants helped her get ready that morning. They fastened her into her white dress and started braiding her hair until she had ordered them not to. Zuko had told her once that he liked it when it was down. “It’s wild like you,” He had said with a smile on his face. (Y/N) could feel the pain stab her in the heart whenever she thought of him.

Once dressed, she left the room and walked down the Hall of Fire Lords. At the very end was Zuko’s portrait. His eyes were kind, his lips painted with just a lilt of a smile to them. (Y/N) reached out and touched the fabric, holding her palm to it before continuing down the hallway.

When she reached the dining room, her friends were sat around the table, entertaining Izumi. She sat in Katara’s lap as Aang amazed her with his airbending. (Y/N) felt a genuine smile raise to her lips for the first time in days.

Sokka was the first one to notice her. He was at her side almost immediately, taking her hands in his. His blue eyes stared into her soul.

“Don’t hug me,” She whispered to him. “I might break down.” Sokka smiled sadly and walked her over to the dining table. Numbly, she sat at her regular seat, to the right of Zuko’s chair at the head of the table. She chewed the food that the servants had prepared for her, but she couldn’t taste it. She avoided to fruit tarts at all costs.

“How was your trip?” She asked, directing the question to all of her friends.

“Pretty good,” Toph said. She hadn’t even sat with her feet propped on the table like she normally would. (Y/N) sat her chopsticks down and wiped her mouth, turning to Izumi.

“Would you please feed the turtle ducks this morning? They must be wondering where we are.” Izumi pouted and opened her mouth to argue with her mother, but Aang grabbed her by the hand.

“I’ll go with you,” He said. (Y/N) flashed him a thankful smile as he led Izumi out of the room.

“You all don’t have to pretend like there’s nothing wrong,” (Y/N) assured her friends as she stared down at her plate. “I’m not fragile.”

“We know,” Katara assured her, resting a hand on hers. “This is...this is hard for all of us. But we want you to know that you don’t have to be strong right now.”

(Y/N) opened and clenched her fist around the sleeves of her dress. The feeling was the only thing grounding her to reality. She laughed bitterly. “I haven’t stopped crying for days,” She admitted. “Izumi wiped away my tears this morning. I haven’t been strong at all.”

“You have,” Sokka whispered. “You’re the strongest person I know.” She turned to look at him. It had barely been a year since he had lost Suki. It had been during a battle and she had died fighting. If anyone knew what she was going through, it would be Sokka.

“I don’t know if I can do it without him,” (Y/N) whispered, her eyes watering once more. She didn’t even know what ‘it’ was, but as far as she cared it could be everything. Zuko had been at her side since she was a child. Everything she had ever done, she had done with him.

“You don’t have to,” Toph reassured her. “You have us to help.”

The funeral was long. (Y/N) stood by Zuko’s coffin with her head raised regally, Izumi at her side. If she couldn’t stay strong behind closed doors, she would definitely stay strong for the people of the Fire Nation. She watched as the people in attendance weeped for the death of their Fire Lord. Barely any of them had known Zuko personally, but it warmed her heart the tiniest bit to think he could have positively impacted them in any way.

At the end of the funeral, (Y/N) kneeled to the ground. The Fire Sages crowned her Fire Lord until Izumi came of age. They placed the very same crown that Zuko had worn in her hair and she had to squeeze her hands together to prevent them from shaking.

Her friends stayed with her for a few days after the funeral, but one by one, eventually they were called away. Toph was the first to leave, having to run her earthbending academy. Aang left shortly after on an important Avatar mission. (Y/N) could tell that Katara missed him, so she assured her friend that she would be fine and that she should be with him.

“Take it from me,” (Y/N) said sadly. “You’ll want to spend every moment you can with him.”

The only one that remained was Sokka. He read to Izumi every night before she slept and kept her company while (Y/N) attended Fire Lord meetings. He ate every meal with them and while (Y/N) enjoyed his presence, she worried that he was neglecting his duties by being with them. She expressed this to him one night, after Izumi had gone to bed.

“I’m not missing anything the Water Tribe can’t handle by themselves,” He admitted. “I get the occasional messenger hawk, but I always reply back as quickly as possible.” He had grabbed her hand and given it a tight squeeze. “I’m not going to leave you anytime soon.”

His room was the guest room down the hall from hers. Sometimes, in the middle of the night, (Y/N) would wake up sobbing hysterically. She rarely dreamed but when she did, they were always of Zuko. She dreamt that he was laying next to her, or that he had disappeared in the palace, but she always found him again. He would take her into his arms, laughing happily, and always he would say, “Do you know how much I love you?”

That was the moment (Y/N) would wake up, her sobs wracking her throat and shaking her body. Tears would stream down her face faster than she could wipe them away. Sokka would then enter her room, half asleep, and hold her as she cried. She’d try to explain to him what had happened in her dream, but no words what come out. He never pressured her to answer. He would stroke her hair to soothe her and rub his fingers up and down her back. Eventually, she would fall asleep from pure exhaustion, and when she had woken up again, he would be gone.

Sokka spent months at the royal palace with (Y/N) and Izumi. He was definitely lying to (Y/N) when he had told her he wasn’t missing much from the Water Tribe, but there was no way he would leave her side. Even if he put his feelings for her aside, (Y/N) had been a constant in Sokka’s life when he had lost Suki. She had traveled to the Water Tribe in the dead of winter to offer her condolences from her family. The least he could do was remind her that she wasn’t completely alone in the world.

It hurt him, knowing she was hurting this much. She had loved Zuko with her whole heart, and Sokka had known that. That’s why he had broken up with her so many years ago. He had seen the longing glances they had given each other over the months she had joined their team. He hadn’t felt right in standing between what was meant to be. But while he hadn’t known then, Sokka certainly knew now that he loved (Y/N) with his entire being. He had for a long time and just hadn’t realized it. And he would take this secret with him to the grave.

(Y/N) stood on the balcony of her bedroom late in the night. The moon was full and cast a bright light down onto the turtle duck pond below her. Sometimes, (Y/N) found it was better for her not to sleep. She knew “better” wasn’t quite the truth, but she hadn’t had a dream about Zuko in a few nights and feared that it would happen tonight. And while she wanted to see her husband more than anything, she didn’t think she could handle waking up and realizing that he was no longer there.

She heard her door crack open and turned back to see who it was. Sokka entered her room, his eyes wide with curiosity. He smiled at her once he laid eyes on her. “Izumi’s asleep.”

“Thank you,” (Y/N) said. He joined her on the balcony. “I’m worried she’s going to start hating me for not reading to her more.”

“She could never hate you,” Sokka said. “You should hear the way she talks about you. ‘Mommy’s so strong. Did you know she’s the best firebender in the world?’“ (Y/N) laughed at Sokka’s Izumi impression. It was high pitched and sounded absolutely nothing like her daughter.

“Best firebender in the world is a stretch, I think. Aang definitely has me beat by a little bit.”

“Nah,” Sokka said, nudging her with his elbow. “You could definitely take him.”

(Y/N) chuckled, staring at her fingers as they wrapped around the railing of the balcony. “I haven’t cried at all this week,” She admitted to him. “I feel horrible.”

“Why?” Sokka asked.

“Because I feel like not crying means I’m forgetting about him,” She sighed, tilting her face up to look at the moon. “And I’m scared that I’ll forget about him.”

“You’ll never forget about Zuko,” Sokka said softly. “And I mean, it’s kind of hard to when his face is plastered all over the palace.”

(Y/N) laughed again and Sokka felt his stomach flutter with butterflies. She turned to look at him, her face softening. “I can’t thank you enough for everything you’ve done over these past few months.”

“What are friends for?” Sokka asked, but it hurt his own heart to say it. (Y/N) nodded, just the slightest bit of disappointment evident on her face.

“Sometimes it feels like he’s watching me,” (Y/N) said. “It’s like I turn around and I can almost see him there.”

“I’m sure he is watching you. You were the best part of his life.” (Y/N) blushed.

“He’s one of the best parts of mine.”

“He’d want you to try to be happy.” (Y/N) nodded.

“I know. It’s just hard. And I’m scared.”

“Scared?”

“I guess I’m scared to open up again.”

“Oh. I know that feeling.” (Y/N) frowned. She felt like she had said something so insensitive to Sokka. How could she forget about Yue? About Suki?

“They’d want you to be happy, too,” She assured him.

“I am happy,” He said with a big smile.

“Really? You’re happy cooped up in a palace with a widow and her daughter?”

“Honestly, I’ve been the happiest I’ve been in a long time. I love Izumi and I love you.” (Y/N’s) smile faltered at his words.

“We love you too.” Sokka shook his head.

“I love you, (Y/N), always will.”

“Sokka...”

“And I know you’re not ready and you don’t know if you’ll ever be ready. But that’s okay with me. I just enjoy being around you.”

(Y/N) grabbed his face between her hands and kissed him. Instinctively, his hands wrapped around her waist and pulled her close. When they pulled apart, both their eyes were wide with surprise. “I don’t know if that can mean anything,” She told Sokka. “I don’t know if I’m ready. I don’t-”

“It’s okay,” Sokka assured her. He pulled her close and hugged her. “You don’t have to know. I’ll be here regardless.”

---

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#the s in sokka stands for simp #sokka x reader #zuko x reader #aang x reader #katara #toph #aang #sokka #zuko #azula #iroh #momo #appa #writing #the last airbender #atla #fanfiction

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majormaxam · 4 years

Text

won’t you bring me an angel?

Part II

Pairing: Jasper Whitlock (Hale) x Reader

Summary: You find yourself to be a victim of Maria’s growing newborn army in Southern Texas. Maria finds your ability more than special, but a weapon. What she doesn’t expect is for you to be as defiant as others and to Maria’s dismay, you just happen to grow close with Major Jasper Whitlock.

Warnings: mentions of death

Word Count: 4K

Author’s Note: Please let me know if you would like to be tagged for the next update.

A young southern maiden was to be married after her eighteenth birthday and a mother at her twenty-first, but to your mother’s dismay you weren’t one of them. In fact, you were quite the opposite. You drove your mother mad with how you rebelled against those teachings. At the age of twelve you ripped a brand new dresses while climbing a grand oak tree outside your home, also scraping your knee in the process. Your mother’s anger could not be forgotten that day, nor could you shake the anger of the day you nearly fainted while wearing a corset for the first time. She acted as if a lady was made to have her ribs crushed and smile while doing so.

The Texas heat was enough to withstand, but added layers of fabric was enough to make even the strongest buckle. You adored the night sky beaming over the southern sky at night and you often wandered out into the fields of bluebonnets to admire its beauty. Much to your mother’s pleasing approval. She couldn’t stand it, especially when finding you wore a pure cotton nightgown while strolling into the night.

She even tried scaring you by mentioning the gruesome animal attacks occurring outside the families land, but it didn’t stop you. You found freedom in the Texas night.

The soft grass under your feet was enough temptation as the scent of fresh lavender filled the air with the cool evening breeze. It was enough to make you smile as you strayed from home to dance under the stars gleaming above. These were the moments you cherished the most and how could you not when such beauty could be adored?

It was a cool April night when you first felt the cold-blooded presence nearing the edge of the woods, but you didn’t near it. You didn’t fear much, however, the sight of red eyes watching you out of the dark shadows was enough to cause your stomach to turn. You raced back into your home without looking over your shoulder or pausing to catch a breath. The next night, you locked your window by the latch and covered them with curtains in hopes of whatever was outside stayed hidden.

When hearing of the animal attacks, you simply ignored them… not imagining they would ever occur close. Until now.

You waited a full week to finally gain courage to go back outside during nightfall, but this time you were careful to wander far. Instead, you rested under the familiar oak tree as the current of air flowing was enough to make you chill as the warmth of bluebonnets kept you warm. The fear of the unknown seemed to subside with nature as the whistle of tree branches above you kept distracted, until the erie presence lurked over the land.

The horses a few yards away began to neigh and take off running across the fields, causing you to sit up and catch them. However, your human eye couldn’t see what they were running from. Until the moonlight from above casted a figure of another standing over your shoulder. You were quick to turn around and take the other by surprise, but were shocked to find it wasn’t one, but three figures.

The three females stood side by side with matching crimson eyes burning into you as their whispers were too low to overhear. You wanted to scream, but the panic rising in your throat kept you from opening your mouth. Each one of them were unbelievably beautiful as the full moon exposed each flawless feature: from their alluring smile to their perfectly curled lips. Their presence alone felt deadly as they inched closer with smiles and smirks deceiving your fate. And the moment you tried to run a bone chilling touch sent you falling to the ground with a harsh shove before the brunette stood over you.

“Lottie says you possess quite an ability…” The turn of her head gestured towards the blonde haired female standing over her shoulder, her eyes breaking with your connection. Almost as if she was ashamed of her undoings. “I do hope she’s right.”

Within seconds pain coursed throughout your body as your screams were the only vivid memories to remind you of that night. Along with the two bite marks branded along your collarbone. It seemed like an eternity as you withered in pain, begging for it to subside and death to take its course. However, no bright lights greeted you when waking from the agony. Instead, you woke with the scent of hay and dust thick in the air and when rolling onto your side, you weren’t familiar with the surroundings as you picked your head up and observed where you were.

It was a tattered barn grounds you laid in with the moonlight shuddering in between the tainted wood holding it up. Thick dirt traveled into the air as if someone walked along the grounds moments ago, but no one stood close. You pushed yourself up out of the hay to stand, but a pair of familiar crimson eyes cause you to freeze. It struck fear in you as your body responded within seconds, jolting back from where she stood and a deep growl traveling into your chest.

It seemed to humour the female as she chuckled at your attempt in protection, but watched with an observing eye. “I see we have a fighter on our hands.” She spoke as if another person was present and with a stiff hand gesture, he came into view. “Do teach her what will happen if she becomes difficult… we cannot afford to lose her, yes?”

You dug your heels into the dirt crawling further from view in hopes of avoiding her eyes, along with another unseen to you. Yet, when the female stepped away with a smirk curled into her lips you felt the shake of your legs itching to attack her. Her presence was dominant but arrogant as she disappeared into night, causing you to search with quick eyes for answers… but a deep voice hidden in the darkened corners of the barn heard your thoughts.

“Do stay calm… Maria isn’t one to restrain from angered actions.” You followed the sound of his voice to the right as he appeared from the shadows. His matching red eyes meeting yours as the light mood shine from outside exposed his handsome features and well built body. It was hard to deny him of even a glance as you were tempted to look away, but caught yourself admiring instead. His presence sent a calming wave of emotions to settle the anger and confusion racing in your thoughts. “Do you know what you are?”

The closer he grew you found yourself sinking further into the hay with comfort seeping in and riding out fear. Your bottom lip quivered as his question urged you to ask further and end up begging for more. “Your eyes bring death, do they not?” You were surprised to watch him stop in place with the insult thrown out. “I… I’ve been told stories about your kind since I was a child and yet, I never believed them.” He tilted his head with an alluring factor convincing you to speak more. “I am one too now, am I not?”

He answered with a stiff nod and kept his stance a few yards away with his eyes catching the tears welling up. You hung your head low as his silence was enough to make you scream for life. His footsteps scurried into the dirt with intention, but you jerked your head up with anger filled eyes burning into him.

“Do not come any closer.” You found him pausing once more, even lifting his hands in surrender to show he was listening to the demand. It wasn’t until you spotted the Confederate Army patch on sewn into the faded white shirt her wore on his back. “You… you’re a solider?”

He shared a glance at his own clothing and slowly raised his head once more. “Major, ma’am… I was a major.” Her features softened once he explained further and her shoulders sunk with sadness at the sight of the patch he wore with pride.

“My brother is a colonel.” You felt the bitter laugh leave your lips as he intently locked in on the mention of a fellow man. “he’s in Galveston, headed back home in the next month.” His eyes spoke with sorrow as your mind raced with excitement at reuniting with your brother.

You felt a stir of emotions course in the pit of your stomach as it dramatically switched towards a controlling moment of silence. His eyes were reading you while the tilt of his head left you understanding what he was undoing. Your emotions… he was playing off your emotions. You didn’t know how or why you understood the look in his eyes or the reason behind them, but you weren’t afraid to say it either.

“… you’re controlling me.” His eyes narrowed in disbelief as you took him by surprise with the rather extensive observation, but before he could explain you continued. “You’re controlling how I feel, are you not?”

In that moment, his control ended as the intense warmth ran down your throat to enhance the reality of your life. You tried breathing to exhaust it, but it wasn’t even close to calming the rage filled pain. Within seconds you caught scent of a desired taste wafting in the air and before you knew it, your body responded by carrying you effortlessly towards the barn door.

However, the major beat you to the entrance and blocked you from leaving the sliding doors. The sudden growl once against left your throat as he dared to hold you back causing your jaw to clench.

“You can sense other’s gifts…” His words left you raising an eyebrow as the moon danced upon his blonde curls cascading over. “It seems Lottie wasn’t lying when she sensed you were unusual.” He said it as if it was an insult and immediately you wanted to react. “Do calm yourself, newborn. Maria doesn’t take to fighters in her army.”

“I have a name… Major.” You seemed to have angered him as well as you sensed him attempting to calm himself down, but instead you found yourself craving more anger in hopes of conflict. His eyes widened as you spent those six seconds yearning for a fight, but he soon stepped away with parted lips and befuddled eyes filled with rage. His top lip snarled and nose flared as anger flared into the crimson eyes staring back at you. “…”

“She can manipulate another’s power.” Her ice-filled tone broke both of your attentions as she appeared into view with an eager eye. “She used it against you, Jasper… did she not?” Maria seemed to receive an answer through silence as Jasper stepped away from you to return to Maria’s side.

You blinked as he left your view and stood at her side, eager to please with just a simple task as his emotions rushed through you with admiration for the woman. He was quite smitten by her. It sent a questionable envy her way as her red eyes continued to study you. Jasper. His name was Jasper. Her hand was quick to rest on his shoulder, leaning in to place a kiss on his ear and whisper sweet names.

“You will certainly be useful to me, love.” Maria voice was seducing the idea of life, but her eyes revealed the omissions of her lifetime. “You must feed in order to stay strong for me.” She angered you and she feed off it. “Don’t travel too far or there will be consequences.”

Her words were enough to get you to run from the barn doors and further into the night without looking back for her seal of approval. You didn’t want it. Your legs were carrying you farther than expected as the speed of your newly reformed body kept up with the deadened heart. It felt as if you were traveling at the speed of light and you weren’t slowing down, not for a single second.

You found yourself running into the wooded area surrounding you, but the time seemed to end with the scent of hunger causing you to travel north. It left your lip snarling and jaw quivering and within seconds, you followed the hunger.

The unfamiliar town nearby was silent through nighttime, but the open tavern filled with drunks left you glancing twice inside the faded window. The humans inside falling prey to your starvation and before you knew it, a drunken man has stumbled out the back doors and fallen into your hands. You didn’t waste a single moment before you sunk your teeth into flesh. The blood on your tongue was enough to awaken the death inside you and before you knew it, he dropped dead at your feet.

Footsteps followed close over your ear, but not too far from where you stood and without wiping the blood off your lips you turned your head. There he stood, his red eyes looking over you with the temptation seeming to fall over him as well.

“… why are you following me?” You managed to whisper as the tip of your tongue licked away the blood resting at the edge of your lip. “I believed I was allowed without a watcher.” You seemed to draw out the littlest smirk on his lips before he glanced at the human by your feet.

“I’ve seen too many newborns feast without thought, I’d rather not care for another mess.” Jasper was honest as you then seemed to mourn the death of the man at your feet. He could feel you mentally processing a life you had taken and it ran your emotions high. “It’s difficult to process.”

You didn’t like his response as he attempted to send a calm wave over you, but you quickly stepped back from the human and him. “Says the Major…” It was harsh, but you weren’t refraining from lashing out at this time. “I don’t need your failed attempts of control or looking over my shoulder, please leave.” His footsteps followed, but this time he began to walk beside you as you began to feel the cravings crawl back up your throat.

Hunger seemed to be feeding off your energy, but you didn’t want to give it anything in return. It was difficult to succumb to… knowing you were killing innocent humans in order to survive. How could this be your life? You awoke to crave the scent of blood and feasted. You woke with a gift that you couldn’t understand, nor control. You woke enchanted by the Major, but found him to be someone else’s instead.

Jasper felt the pain of her hunger withering his body and he struggled to withstand it. He could hear a pulse from a mile away and he craved her itch as well. He broke his eyes away from the sights ahead and gazed upon the newborn, he was quite taken by her beauty from the moment he found her ten nights ago. He’d fallen prey to hunting that night and when he’d roamed the land to find a human girl sitting along a clearing, his bite was found. However, he couldn’t give in that night.

He instead stood near the woods edge watching as she laid in the field of wild bluebonnets, listening to her count the stars from above before whispering lullabies. Jasper was taken by her as human, but even more spellbound as vampire. It only helped to see a fire in her belly and lawless eyes… which made him fear Maria’s doings in the future.

“You’re still in hunger.” His words caused you to shiver as you were attempting to deny it by digging your nails into the palm of your hand. But he was right. You were still craving more. “As a newborn the hunger is unruly, you must obtain control over it.”

You ignored him, continuing onto path less followed as you strolled further out of the unfamiliar town. However, the thumping grew heavier in your ears as the cravings of a pulse on your tongue began to take over once more. “I’m not doing that again.” You weren’t speaking to him, but yourself.

“It will only grow worse… the aches will spread.” He was attempting to give advice, but it came off as if he knew better than you. Ultimately, he did. “If you deny this hunger, you will not be able to fight and Maria will not be happy.”

You stopped in that moment as his words mentioned Maria and turning directly to him, you spoke. “I don’t wish to be anything to her, nor will I allow myself to be anything to her.” His eyes stayed on you, while his stoic attributes kept you begging for a reaction. “I had never seen her before, until she appeared on my father’s land…” You immediately began to think of your father and mother, who had been laid asleep inside the home. And the first thought was if she harmed them. “My parents.”

You’d taken off before allowing your emotions to settle or even the cravings to swallow, but you knew you were close to family land. The scent of the fresh lavender was the scent you followed and fought for and Jasper followed behind you. He attempted to stop you, three times but you didn’t listen. It was as if he was sparring you from torturing yourself any further.

The familiar sweet grass under your feet left you gasping for answers and as you passed the gates to travel further, it hit you. It was the scent of death. You could hardly bare it, nor believe it. Jasper wasn’t fighting at this point, he couldn’t defeat your strength as he tried pulling you from the porch. You made your way into the wide open door and the sight alone was enough to destroy you.

There laid your father and mother, side by side, dead.

A cry escaped your lips as you fell to your knees with your stomach shuttering at the sight burned into your mind. You wanted to look away, but how could you? The woman who gave you life, has lost hers… the woman who begged for grandchildren, now would never see one. Your father would never lay witness to his son returning home and your brother would return to a family deceased.

You cradled your abdomen as the pain of loss was too much to bare and the tears soaked your cheeks. You began to cry out for your mother and father… begging for them to wake and let this horror be unreal. It had to be, because creatures like them were not real. Creatures as you are now weren’t real.

Jasper fought her from the moment her parents were mentioned and when running after her, he tried grabbing her by the waist to draw her back. Her strength won and she’d made it back to her homeland, but he expected to have her fall witness to parents alive and well. Which is why he fought her once more as he didn’t want her hunger to cause havoc to her loved ones, but the stench of death was thick in the air and she sensed it too. Her hand slapped him away. It wasn’t until Jasper caught sight of the dead humans inside that it clicked, Maria had killed off her family.

Her screams filled his ears as the inconsolable pain coursed through his body and he experienced the unsettling truth. Jasper’s knees were close to buckling as she fell on the porch, begging and screaming for her ‘Mamma’ and ‘Pappa’ to get up… but she was stranded. His grimaced face glanced down at the soil under his boots as the scent of dry blood mixed in causing him to shutter. It seemed Maria didn’t want the girl returning home and if she did, she’d return to nothing.

He could hardly bare the pain she cried out and when he placed a hand on her shoulder, hoping to ease her of the pain… she didn’t fight him, nor use it against him. Jasper felt her body soften under his touch as the shaking from her sobs began to wither away. Soon, her cries turned silent and she sat still with her eyes burning into the body of her dead loved ones. Jasper wanted to say sorry for Maria’s cruel actions, but his loyalty to the woman was rejecting him to do so.

The numb wounds entering your body weren’t physical, but it felt as if a sharpened dagger was puncturing your dull lungs. It seemed Maria had not only taken your life, but the life of those you loved most. Silent anger was working its way into your body as the tears began to disappear and your stomach began to twist with despair.

“…” You pushed yourself off the porch with Jasper’s hand falling from your shoulder, leaving the emotions to settle in. It took everything out of you to step into the home and passing by your mother and father’s body, daring to look away as you stepped around them. It wasn’t long before you possessed the golden locket belonging to your mother.

Jasper watched the newborn step into them home using her speed to withstand her parents dead bodies to pass them, he soon followed. His eyes running along the home and feeling the sense of warmth families possessed, but he paused before the bedroom further into the home. He could tell it belonged to the newborn, her soft pink bedding bunched together and the leather journal resting on her nightstand. He glanced down the hall to hear her making her way throughout the home and stepped further into the home.

Jasper grasped the journal with a tight hand and began to flip through the pages, immediately finding her name printed in black ink. (Y/N)… it suited her, a prepossessing name for quite a girl. He slammed the journal shut as her footsteps grew closer and placed it back down on her nightstand. She appeared in the doorway of her bedroom with her eyes burning into him, questioning as to why he entered the home.

You ran your eyes along the bedroom as you stood in the doorway, allowing you to capture the last moments of your childhood before leaving. Jasper stood beside your bed with his eyes capturing the littlest details, along with the wildflowers growing at your windowsill. The locket hanging around your neck seemed to catch his attention at the sight of the gold.

“She took my life from me.” You whispered with hatred rolling from the back of your throat. His eyes burning into you with more questions to follow. “She had no right to take my family from theirs.” He seemed to silently agree as he picked his head up and forced a stiff nod.

It was difficult to withstand as you bitterly took one last glance and exited the home, not daring to look back at your parents. You could feel the tremble of your chest shaking as you left the family land, knowing you could never return home, nor fall to help your brother’s sudden loss. Your brother no held no family to retune home too, not anymore.

You stayed silent while returning home to the barn, Jasper close on your tail as the sun began to rise over the Texas land. However, the sight of Maria left you enraged. She stood by the barn doors with the two females at her side as newborns began to scatter inside, following the demand she called out for. You didn’t restrain yourself, once her eyes landed on you… it was done.

Within seconds of standing before her, you had your hand grasping her throat as your strength overpowered hers and the others attempting to rip you off. Her eyes wide as you tested her authority before all the others surrounding you. “You spilled my families blood for your own miserable pleasure.” Her eyes gleamed as the anger began to excite her. “You immoral witch.” The insult was easing off your lips as Jasper’s attempt to calm you down only caused the anger to rise. Her eyes darted over your shoulder, searching for help from Jasper as he stood only a few feet away.

The tension between you and Maria caught attention of every vampire standing near, their eyes glance at you with questions. Each surprised to find Maria not fighting back, not even Jasper fighting for her. Maria’s smirk curled into her lips and it only flared the anger in your belly, which was enough to get you to tighten the grip on her neck.

“We needed to feed, love. They just happened to be present.” Maria’s cold tone left you with a chill running down your spine as her soul left her emotionless eyes that stared you down. “Do not fret, it gets easier once you turn off your emotions.” Her fingers stroked your cheek as the sickened words left you frozen to her touch. “Do release me before I make you regret it.”

You didn’t. Jasper’s strong hands grabbed you by the hips and forced you away from Maria, but you fought him with a simple push causing him to stumble. It seemed you were stronger than him… at least for now. You narrowed your eyes as Maria’s nod of approval left you realising you possessed no allies, nor friends. The major wasn’t a friend… he was far too infatuated by Maria’s twisted ways.

You dispersed from Maria and Jasper by entering the barn and ignoring each pair of eyes that followed. This was a life you would certainly have to become accustomed to, but not one you wished to live prolonged. The stares from the surrounding vampires were causing the hairs on the back of your neck to stand up as their questions and whispers were in your ear. It seemed being a vampire gave you sharper hearing.

You had yet to understood the new creature you had become, but you knew one thing… you wanted nothing more than to destroy the person who created you. You carried your eyes across the barn to find Jasper watching you, his ability noting the taste for vengeance as you had your hands wrapped around Maria’s throat. He might’ve been kind in ways, but he certainly showed where his loyalties lied.

Jasper stepped away from Maria as (Y/N) stood alone from across the barn, her eyes burning into him as he grasped her anger and resentment flashing at him. He took his stance beside the newborn and raised an eyebrow. “Do you feel better?” His question was enough to heighten her anger again.

“You tell me.” You were quick to snap at his rhetorical questions before glancing at Maria, who watched from afar as the two familiar woman stood at her side. “I don’t want your help Major… do return to your post and keep far from me because I will not follow a word you say.”

Jasper was humoured by the frisky tone of hers, but caught Maria’s desperate glance as she overheard the newborn. Maria asked him to manipulate (Y/N) and he desired to do so for his sire, but she was unlike the others from the past and he couldn’t stomach his intentions. “… If defy Maria she will-“

“She has taken everything away from me at this point…” You held your chin high not daring to break your gaze off Maria, who seemed threatened by Jasper standing near you. “I might be unaware of why I was created, but I will fight tooth and nail to make sure I understand it to end her.” You watched his eyes break way from Maria and meet your own. “Rely the message to your Master, kiss her ring for me as well.”

Jasper’s gaze was burned into the newborn as she left him with the threatening words directed towards Maria. He knew she possessed a fiery spirit, but he never expected her to fight back without hesitation at knowing Maria’s strength over others. Hell, he’d fallen prey to it… but Maria made a mistake with this young one. He saw it the moment she found the lifeless bodies of her parents and Jasper truly feared the worst. If it came down to Maria making the final call on her, he didn’t know if he could resist her ways.

#twilight fanfiction #jasper hale x reader #jasper whitlock x reader #twilight #Jasper Hale #Jasper Whitlock #Major Whitlock #Major Jasper Whitlock #imagine twilight #twilight imagine #the twilight saga #new moon #breaking dawn #twilight angst

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nctinfo · 4 years

Text

[TRANS] Renjun, Jeno & Jaemin’s interview with Arena HOMME+ July 2020 issue!

RENJUN

Do you like the summer weather? I like the feeling of a refreshing drive under the bright sky while looking at the sea. I like summer evenings too. The feeling of the sun fading away and hiding.

Are you sensitive to heat? I am, but when I’m relaxed the heat feels more bearable.

Your face is lovely. Do you like your face? I wish people would love not only their assets but also their flaws. In that aspect I do like myself.

What’s your asset? My pupils are big. When talking to people you look them in the eyes, right? This is when I think I can relay my message better.

People say that Renjun is pure. Haha. I think everyone’s got something innocent about them, it’s just that we view it differently. I often have weird thoughts. I don’t know if it sounds ridiculous, but I think about things like why are people born, why people have children and raise them, why life exists. I think about the universe too, I also like documentaries about the animal world. I am curious and it’s not like anyone can just tell me the answers, right? It’s just fun to ask questions and let your imagination run free.

What have you been imagining lately? Before bed I imagine a place and come up with stories and characters. For example if I was a character in a movie like <Avatar> I imagine what kind of creatures would be there, if I would be able to fly and where I would fly to...

Are you a person who needs alone time? That’s right. I used to want company when I was lonely. But these days I think that alone time is good too. I don’t know what kind of person I was before, but now I think I have to focus on myself. I think I need to be firm with myself to take care of other people.

Why do you want to be firm with yourself? I came to such a big company like SM, there’s so many charming people. At first I always cared about other people’s eyes on me. How do others view me, what do they think of me, what should I do to look good in their eyes. But at one point I couldn’t keep up with others. I wanted to walk my own path only.

Do you have a soft side? Honestly yes. I cry easily and I get emotional a lot. Back in the day I wanted to showcase a strong image of me to hide the tenderness, but right now I’m just focusing on making my heart strong.

What is a strong heart? It’s something of my own. So that people can’t shake me up easily.

Are you soft looking but strong inside? It doesn’t matter whether it’s soft on the outside but tough on the inside, or tough both outside and inside. I don’t have to look strong or weak, I just have to be ‘me’. I like drawing, but whenever I drew something off I would stress over it. I use my brain a lot without even realising, unconsciously. So even when a drawing came out well I would still be stressing over it. Now I’m not restricting myself with only drawing well, I don’t erase anything, I just want to draw happily.

Do you know Renjun as a person now? I think I do a little, since I don’t care what others think and express what I want to express. But I also still don’t. Time and experience will solve it.

You said you didn’t do the MBTI test on purpose? To be honest I tried once. But I only want myself to know. I want to be seen as I am.

What did you dream of as a child? Becoming a star. Ever since I was little I wanted to become an idol. I enjoyed dancing and singing, it’s like I was shining.

Do you believe in destiny? I do.

Do you think Renjun coming to Korea was destiny? That’s right. It’s unbelievable to me. I applied for an audition but gave up because I didn’t hear anything back. So I was just eating and received a call and yelled on the spot. I was this happy haha. The next day straight away I bought the tickets to the audition place and participated in the global audition.

Why did you think you couldn’t make it? I’m the type to be prepared for the worst case scenario. So I’m very happy and thankful I made it this far.

How was adjusting to Korea? It wasn’t as hard as I thought. It was something I wanted.

What are fans to Renjun? I too like kpop and idols, so I know this feeling very well. I know how it feels to think of someone as a person who gives you strength, so I change my position. What would I be feeling if I were a fan? We’re giving strength to each other.

What kind of songs would you like to sing? Pretty fantasy songs like those from Disney movies. I want to sing a cover of the <Frozen> OST ‘For the First Time in Forever’.

That would suit Renjun well. What kind of person do you see as cool? Someone who knows who they are. Someone who is impressive even without talking, someone who doesn’t use perfume but still draws people in as if they smelled good. I want to become a person like this.

In that case is Renjun impressive? Hahaha. Although I like how I am now I need to become even better.

What is something Renjun dreams of now? Self approval. One day I would also like to spend my life travelling around the world and looking at the beauty of it.

JENO

What do you usually do in summer? Since debut we usually have a comeback in summer and promote. When I was little, my parents and I would always go to a valley. I like swimming. I even learned the butterfly stroke. I’m fairly good at it.

Your body is more solid than expected. I didn’t mean for it to become like this, but I really like sports. I like to make use of my body. I like going to the gym and because I love cycling I’ll occasionally ride to Han River or Yangpyeong. When I was little, I played table tennis and badminton pretty diligently. I usually remain motionless and use up all my energy at once. I’d rather put all my strength into it and then stay exhausted.

Are you competitive? Very. I think a lot about how to win anything. I feel uncomfortable when losing.

Are you goal-oriented? Having no goal makes you sluggish. I have to have a clear goal in order to systematically work hard towards achieving it. My current goal is showing how much I’ve matured for our next comeback. I monitor my seniors a lot. It’s great motivation. I want to become a person who is really good at one thing at least.

Who do you want to be most alike in fierceness? U-Know Yunho sunbaenim’s passion. It’d be hard to catch up, but I really want to be like him.

It’s surprising your name isn’t a stage name. Imperial “Je”(帝), hard work “No”(努). Do you like it? My maternal grandfather picked it. He named me that so I may receive strength from a higher position. I really like it. It’s not common. Haha. I feel the responsibility of living like my name.

Is your dream big? It’s more than high. It should be high. Since I was little, I liked to be praised and wanted to do things perfectly. Instead of praising myself, I always say, ‘No, you’re not there yet.’ I already receive enough compliments and support from our fans. I don’t even need to praise myself. You have to gain strength and train yourself with that support.

You have a tall nose and defined jaw. Do you like your face? I’m not dissatisfied. Hahaha. I’ve been liking my tear mole these days. I wasn’t really conscious of it before, but lately I’m glad that I have it. If I didn’t have that tear mole, I think I’d give off too strong of an impression. Doesn’t it look good? Haha.

I remember Jeno from the Angpang Milk ad. He was a child model that everyone would remember when mentioned at the time. Back then, I was scared and cried all the time. When I came on set there were so many strangers, and when I was in front of the camera, I cried because I couldn’t see my mom. Hahaha. It got better once I found out the staff people weren’t scary people.

What were you like off-camera? Rather than going out and playing with friends, I liked studying and reading books. I studied very hard in elementary school. Come to think of it, I seem to really like doing things by myself. I enjoyed reading a series of youth novels, conducting scientific experiments, putting puzzles together, or assembling Lego. A homebody to this day. Haha.

What’s the fun part of creating something? A sense of accomplishment. There’s pride and satisfaction in saying ‘I did it!’ I’m a person for whom a sense of accomplishment is of great importance. I also like this sense of accomplishment when I get to prepare and show a performance.

Did having an early social life help you with promotions? Not being opposed to making eye contact with the camera, also smiling/laughing well. I often hear that I look cold when I’m expressionless, but when we are together, I always laugh and everyone knows the real me. Hahaha.

On the contrary, what was regretful about acting since a very young age? Nothing. I got a good opportunity and experienced a lot. Nothing to regret.

You have a strange sense of stability for your age. I’m not very emotional by nature. I don’t cry much and I rarely have mood swings. With other members being so animated and having so much character it may seem like that. But I’m not as calm as I look. I’m just the type to not show when I get irritated or hurt, I talk quietly after a while. I just unwind on my own and don’t want to make things uncomfortable.

They say you’re an ‘FM’ person who goes by the rules. It’s good to be certain about anything. I try my best to perform my duties properly.

What do the other members think what kind of person Jeno is? A reliable one. When I address important matters within the team, I talk about them naturally. Rather than relying on them, it’s like I’m passing on difficult questions… hahaha.

What kind of person do you think is impressive? Someone who does what they want, someone with room for development. First of all if a person does what they want they are less likely to give up, more than anything a person like this is happy.

Is Jeno impressive? I’m trying my best. But I am doing what I want and because I’m receiving support from so many people I am happy for sure. If 10 means the best (in terms of happiness) then it’s a 10.

You debuted as a teen and now you are 20. Do you think you’ve grown a little? My appearance and skills have grown but my mindset is still that of a kid. Thoughts and personality are the same.

It’s like you’ve grown with the Dream members together without changing classes. Right. I can’t even imagine not having these friends. I’ve been seeing Jaemin for 7~8 years now though so I’m a little tired of him, hahaha. Kinda like even if we buy one thing, we buy it together. We have our own world.

What is Jeno dreaming of now? To become a cool person while being happy.

JAEMIN

What do you usually do in the summer? I like sports you can do in the water. Jet skiing or riding a yacht. I can already ride a yacht by myself. Even though the summer is better than a cold winter, my favorite season is autumn.

Pretty with round eyes and a bright smile. What's your favorite thing about your face? I like my eyes the most. The fans caught on some details I didn't even know about, so I became more fond of my eyes.

How did you get the nickname ‘Nana’? It's 'Nana' because my name is Na Jaemin. It's pretty and I like it. It's a nickname that's been used since I was a trainee.

When you look at Jaemin, he seems to be someone who likes people and is full of love for humanity. It's been like that since I was born. There's no need to dislike someone when you meet them for the first time. Hahaha. I think relationships between people and friends are the most important part of life.

How is your relationship with the members? It's very solid. Since we lived together for 7~8 years, it is safe to say that we are family. We know each other so well, and can speak our minds right away without fighting. I can talk about things with my members, I can't tell my mother because I don't want her to worry, and lean on them.

You seem to have a lot of natural aegyo, were you born with it? I'm an only child so I received lots of love. It's not something I do on command, but my body expresses the affection my mom has given me since I was young. I want to be someone who gives back the love I received from the fans. When you have received love, you can now give love.

Are you athletic? My mother made me exercise a lot when I was young. I learned sports like speed skating, inline skating, snowboarding, and it suited me well. Once I started, I did it all day without knowing the passing of time. These days, I usually ride a bicycle with Jeno. If you go to the Hangang you can ride about 30km at a time.

You seem to have endurance. It's in my personality to see it until the end. If what you want to do doesn't work out, keep going with the best of your abilities.

You seem very bright. The words keep pouring out. When I work I try my best to speak as much as possible, flaunt aegyo and show a bright image, but I don't speak much back at the dorm. I'm the type to pour out everything when I'm outside but will need to recharge when I'm home. My bed is my side battery. Hahaha. At home, I like to listen to songs alone, write or edit pictures.

You drink your coffee overly bitter and eat sweets overly sweet. That's right. It's a bit extreme. Hahaha. I do what I want to do! I dislike what I dislike. I'm that kind of type.

I heard you make Tangfuru for the members? Jisung and Chenle eat it especially well. These days I'm into T-bone steak and think about getting a sous vide machine. The kids like meat.

You look like someone who can take care of different things well I take care [of things/others/dreamies] really well. Hahaha. When they are hungry I will make something they want. When they say things like "Hyung, how to run the washing machine,' 'the boiler is not turned on,' 'the internet is not working,' I try to help as much as I can.

When you shot for <Arena> two years ago you were still a teenager, but now you're an adult. Do you think you've grown? I still have pictures of that time on my phone. Looking at the pictures that were taken today, it seems like I've grown up well. When I read the interview from 2 years ago again, I must've thought I was all grown up back then, hahaha. At 20 years old now, I think I'm still far from being grown up. I'm still young. There's still a lot to learn.

What was your dream when you were young? I never thought of becoming an idol. I was really shy back then. Originally my dream was to become a surgeon. When I was young I saw <Mysteries of the Human Body> and had such dreams. Haha. I wanted to save people!

You were cast while you were volunteering. Even after debuting, you continued to show support. I think I should give back to society as much as I have received. Since I was young my mom has told me "If you receive, you must know how to give back." It's normal for me, I used to donate in my name since I was really young.

What kind of person do you think is impressive? Someone who has more to offer on the inside than outside. Rather than being a flashy person I want to become someone solid with substance.

What are your interests these days? To be honest I’m slow with trends. I find out about things like half a year later than others. These days we talk with the members about what content to show our fans when we’re inactive [not promoting]. I want to post my own pictures and self-edited videos so I’m teaching myself how to do it. Lately, I’ve been wanting to learn how to use photo editing software properly, but it’s difficult to deal with.

Jaemin is known for taking good pictures. Hahaha. I uploaded pictures I took of the members yesterday and the fans liked it and told me my skills had improved. Since I'm getting praised I want to keep taking pictures and upload them.

It looks like you like to capture portraits more than landscapes. I love taking portraits. For example, trees always stand in a similar shape in the same place. But as for people, I can make them do whatever I want them to do and see various expressions continuously. I think that's much more attractive. It's fun to capture facial expressions, eyes, nose, and other features.

What kind of dreams do you have now? Dreams should be grand and certain. Always set high goals. My dream is to get many more of our fans who love us. And in order to do that I must work even harder. The pictorial we shot today has a distinct sexy feeling. So I hope you’ll enjoy it. Hahaha.

Translation: Alex, Myeon, Esmee @ FY! NCT (NCTINFO) | Source: Arena HOMME+ — Do not repost or take out without our permission!

#NCT #NCT Dream #renjun #jeno #jaemin #t:interview #t:trans #arena homme plus #arena home plus: july 2020

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edelwoodsouls · 3 years

Text

like real people do - ch.1 [fic]

It's nothing but screams of static and fire- And then Jon wakes up next to Georgie, in his Oxford dorm room. And then Martin wakes up alone in his flat. Shit.

[AKA Time Travel Fix-It]

Word Count: 3,595 | Also on Ao3 | Other Chapters: Not Yet

chapter one: sunrise

He's falling.

Through an endless age of darkness. Down, and down, the wind tearing past skin he no longer has, tugging at limbs he no longer feels. He is a shapeless form of web and tape and eyes, and yet he sees nothing, and hears nothing, and the world is nothing more than pain.

But he can feel a hand. Fingers digging into his skin, fingers he recognises, that he's held close for months, that he could recognise in darkness and fire and the end of everything.

He clings tightly to those fingers, to the feeling of them squeezing back, squeezing hard. Those fingers are alive.

As alive as anything can be, here.

They fall forever. Until time has no meaning and sense has no place, and he finds it so very hard to remember where he came from, where they're going, who they are.

And the sound begins to reform itself - because it's not that there is nothing to hear, but rather that there's far too much. A shrieking of static and reeling of tape, the echo of fire chewing hungrily at brick and sky.

Screams of countless voices, ending or in pain. Those have been an undercurrent to his every waking moment for months now, as constant as the beat of his heart in his chest used to be, before it stopped. But now they are everything, everywhere, and there is no sense of self to anchor to.

He is adrift in the suffering. He could exist here forever, in this waterfall of fear so pure it's painful, like cold air dragging across an exposed nerve. Electric. Alive.

And then, all of a sudden, the hand clutched in his vanishes. He panics, flailing out with his not-limbs, desperate to hold on to the one thing in this insanity that has some sort of meaning.

His fingers brush against nothing but tape, sharp and cold against his skin. He opens his mouth to call out, or to scream, and all he hears is static. He tries to cling to himself, and feels that self unravelling further.

And then, just when he thinks that he'll be lost to the chaos, when the fear rises so strong and bitter in his throat that he's sure he must be on fire-

Jon shoots up from the bed, panting.

He's drenched in sweat, his t-shirt clinging to him. The duvet is thick and stuffy against his skin, heavy against his body.

He has a body. He feels as if he's been nothing more than a thought, an idea, for years. All of a sudden, there is skin, and flesh, and fingers, and arms. There is a chest and a head and a heart-

His heart. Beating like a drum against his ribcage, pumping blood around his body, keeping him alive.

He's alive. His heart speeds up at the mere thought. He'd forgotten what his own heart felt like, what the relief of breathing was. Nothing more than a mechanical function, these past few months, he takes a moment to just... breathe. To let the oxygen flood his lungs and sink into his cells, as if blowing away cobwebs strung inside the unused passageways of this body.

He hasn't been alive, truly, since he first brushed against the End.

His chest feels tight with the weight of - everything. He feels the ache of his head, suddenly light and thankfully empty and closed. He feels the ghost of a knife between his ribs, cold steel sliding through flesh like butter, mixing his blood with the sticky, drying flakes of Elias'.

The loss of Martin's fingers, wrapped in his.

The pressure in his chest increases as he stares at his hands. Uncalloused, unburnt - there isn't a single pockmarked worm scar up his bare arms. His flesh is smooth, and clean, and- naked. It feels alien.

Something must be wrong. He's dead, or dreaming. He's in a dimension that's pure dream logic, or the fears have already begun their work and torn him away from the only thing that might stop him from joining them.

Maybe this is the centre of the eye. A final, peaceful vision to keep him occupied as his body spools into tape and his mind unwinds.

And Martin is... where?

He looks frantically around. The room is dim, but it's practically blinding bright to his eyes, adjusted as they are to the pitch of a collapsing world. He can make out clothes strewn over every surface and object. Books, left face down to keep them open, on the desk and the floor.

Something shifts beside him in the bed, and he jumps a mile high. Flinches away and rips the covers back, to reveal...

His newly restarted heart stutters.

"Jon?" Georgie's voice is soft and sleep-laden, and she rolls over in the bed to look up at him through a cloud of dark hair. "You okay?"

"I..." His throat fails him, closes up like a hand held fast against his skin, squeezing. He puts his own hands up to it, to feel it, to be certain his body is his - and finds it smooth. Unblemished by the scarring Daisy gave him.

He lets out a sob. Clings to his throat, as if he might be able to protect it, keep it safe.

He's never been safe, not once in his entire life.

Strong arms wrap around him from out of nowhere, and Jon flinches at the touch of skin on skin. But Georgie just curls tighter around him, pulls him close to her. Runs her fingers through his long hair, and its such a familiar gesture, such an old one, that for a moment he lets her do it. Sits in the quiet and the peace.

"Hey, hey," Georgie says quietly. "What's wrong?"

Jon tries to think of what words to say. To explain to her that she is nothing more than a figment of fear and dreaming. That any moment she will grow a hundred eyes or limbs, or melt away to wax, or grin in fractal patterns that ache his eyes to see.

It's the only explanation that makes sense. This is one of his few good memories, a final gift from the Eye before he disintegrates.

He is nothing more than a dream, too.

"Just a bad dream," he murmurs, unsure if he's reassuring himself or Georgie. He's longed for his world to end for a long time now, but he'd expected - half wanted - it to be crueler. Painful. He's been holding onto a vision of blood and fire. Of throwing his body in the path of something, saving someone, making all his wrongs right.

His decisions, finally given positive meaning.

He wasn't expecting the end to be this soft. Wasn't expecting it be the scent of Georgie's cheap laundry detergent, and a slow sunrise, and a warm embrace. The last few months - the last few years - have been a revolving door of ache and exhaustion.

This is nice.

Perhaps too nice.

It makes sense that the End would show him Georgie, though. That, at least, he understands. The girl who cannot fear. The woman who saw the End and, instead of flinching, managed to continue on.

Nothing to be afraid of, this vision says. You've done enough. You can rest.

Just let go.

But Jon has been afraid for too long to let it go just yet. He's been afraid, in one way or another, since he was eight years old. It's the electricity in his veins and the pump of his blood, the very thing that keeps him standing, keeps him going.

And he hasn't survived this long only to trust the first sign of kindness, or warmth.

"What's going on?" Jon whispers, expecting the question to disappear into the air like so many of his enquiries have before.

Georgie pulls away and looks him in the eye, still keeping her hands resting on his shoulders. He'd forgotten, how tactile Georgie used to be. How both of them, so starved of contact, had held each other constantly.

"What do you mean?" she asks, the softness beginning to bleed out of her voice. There's a hint of worry, so subtle he could almost believe it was genuine.

"Why am I here?"

Georgie's eyebrows knit into a frown. "Why wouldn't you be?" Her eyes search his face, the worry ebbing away faster now. "What did you dream about?"

He laughs, a bitter and broken sound. "Who says I'm not dreaming now?"

"You're starting to worry me, Jon."

"Am I? Can dreams feel worry?"

Georgie's frown resolves into a grim line of pursed lips. "What did you take? And how much?"

"I'm not high, Georgie," Jon scoffs. "You're just not real. A very convincing facsimile, I must admit, but I'm not an idiot."

She sighs, frustrated - already giving up on him. "Well, I'm going back to bed. Wake me up if you feel sick, or something. There's water on the bedside table."

And she burrows back under the blankets, faced away from him.

Jon frowns. This is not how dreams tend to behave. If this is a final act of kindness, it isn't very- kind. Surely the dream should continue to comfort him, or fade into something awful and twisting and logically insane.

He pokes Georgie experimentally, to see if she'll burst into a thousand worms or spiders or flies.

"What, Jon." She rolls back over, peering up at him from a blanket cocoon, unamused.

"You're..." he searches for words, "you're not going to..."

"To what, Jon?"

"Try to kill me? Burst into flames?"

"Why would I do any of that?" she asks, but her tone is edged with something sharp and wary, now.

"Because you're..." he shrugs helplessly. This is getting him nowhere. "Because that's what the fears do."

"The fears?"

A sudden thought strikes him. "The moment you die will feel exactly the same as this one."

Goergie flinches. No, that's too tame a word. She recoils, staggering out of the bed like Jon's just struck her with electricity. "What the fuck did you just say?"

"You told me that," he says, as his mind stumbles over itself to attempt to fit the pieces together. "Maybe a year ago, before everything went to hell. You told me about the End."

Goergie's voice is shaky when it comes. "I've never told anyone about that," she spits. Jon can see her inching towards the desk, the stack of dirty plates which is a staple to any university dorm room, and - more importantly - one of the knives among the pile.

"You did- or, you will- oh god, I think-"

It doesn't make any sense. It doesn't make any sense. When he'd promised Martin that maybe, possibly , there was a chance they'd both live- it wasn't exactly a lie, but he'd been pretty damn certain it wasn't true. Maybe for Martin, maybe he'd wake up in some other world to face the fears alone.

But Jon shouldn't have made it, too. Not with the knife buried in his ribs, not with fourteen fears pouring themselves down his throat and tearing him apart from the inside. He's been a dead man for months, and this should've been the closing chapter. A peaceful oblivion.

And maybe he should've felt bad for lying to Martin, for deciding to abandon him. But Martin would get to live on, maybe even prevent the fears from gaining a foothold in their new dimension. Maybe he could be that positive entity Jon always wished for, of love and hope and a hundred other silly things.

This, though. This is not a new dimension. This isn't possible, in any sense of the word - and Jon's had to expand that definition countless times in recent years.

But here he is, in a body that still needs a heartbeat and breath. Here's Georgie, hair loose around her head in an afro, instead of the tight cornrows she favoured later. Here they are, in their university apartment, before their relationship began to tear at the seams.

Georgie's hands close around the knife, and Jon flinches despite himself, a phantom pain in his side.

"Wait, Georgie," he holds his hands up in surrender, slipping out from the bed. "I need you to hear me out. I'm not- this is going to sound crazy, but I need you to listen. I think-" he takes a breath, "-I've travelled in time."

The words hang in the air, strung among the dust motes beginning to catch in the morning sun filtering through the curtains.

"Explain," Goergie says slowly, tapping the knife against her bare arm, apparently oblivious to the dregs of hot sauce or ketchup still stuck to the blade.

"I- wait, you're not going to tell me I'm crazy?"

"You just told me not to."

Jon blinks. He's so used to being dismissed, he's forgotten how pragmatic Georgie is. How she used to humour his long rambling with a soft smile and patience.

How he slowly, but surely, lost that privilege.

"Okay. Hang on, what year is it?"

"2008. March."

That makes sense. The university dorm - third year, when he and Georgie had pooled their resources and lived together, despite all advice to the contrary.

He takes a slow, steadying breath. "Before I woke up here, I was in 2018. Well, probably 2019, but it's not as if time made much sense anymore, and we weren't really counting the days- I mean, there weren't really days, because the sun wasn't exactly-"

"Jon," Geogie cuts him off with a raised eyebrow, and a vague wave of the knife in her hand.

"Right. Okay, so: monsters are real. You know that much, you've met them. And you told me about it, because I was on the run from them. Have been for all my life, I suppose."

He never really escaped Mr Spider, did he? He was never supposed to knock on the door, only witness it, as he would come to witness countless horrors.

"And then the world ended," Jon continues. He can fill in any gaps later, perhaps - they aren't the most important thing right now. "And you and I, and... some other people, we turned the world back. Or we were supposed to. I have to hope that you survived."

"And you?" Georgie asks. She's still clinging to the knife, but her hands are down by her side, unvigilant. If there's anyone who'd believe his stories, surely it would be Georgie. "How'd you end up here? Assuming you're telling the truth."

"We were making a portal to another dimension, to throw the monsters through."

Georgie lets out a sharp bark of a laugh, which cuts out quickly when she sees Jon's expression. "Oh. You're being serious?"

"Deadly, unfortunately. Things went... wrong. Martin and I... we ended up going through the portal too."

His hand flutters to his side, imagining blood slick on his fingers.

"So you've brought monsters with you," Georgie says. "Where are they then?"

"I don't... I don't know," he shrugs helpelessly. "I wasn't really expecting to survive the trip, if I'm being honest. I definitely wasn't expecting to wake up-" he waves his hands around their flat, "here."

He watches the emotions flitter across Georgie's face, as she attempts to settle on how she feels.

Something brushes against Jon's ankle, and he flinches back, expecting for a moment to see tendrils of darkness, or spider web. Instead he sees a small bundle of orange fuzz rubbing agaist him.

He bends down and scoops the Admiral up in his arms. He's barely more than a kitten, tiny and vibrating as he purrs and buries himself close to Jon's chest.

Something like calm, and certainty, settles inside Jon.

Georgie sighs loudly, watching the interaction with half-concealed fondness. She casts the knife aside on the desk with a clatter, opens a drawer and digs out a half empty bottle of shitty Tesco vodka.

"Tell me everything," she says, taking a swig and handing him the bottle.

"It's not even nine am."

"It's five pm somewhere," Georgie rolls her eyes and throws herself back onto the bed. "And I have a feeling we're going to need it."

[linebreak]

Martin wakes far more softly. A steady fade into being, like the sunrise beginning to wash across his floor. He blinks for a moment, trying to remember why the feeling of a mattress beneath him feels so wrong, why his body feels out of sorts with itself.

His memory cascades in too fast, in a flashing halo of green eyes and the scream of tape unravelling, and the weight of a blade in his hands. He rolls over to the side of the bed and is unceremoniously sick onto the floorboards.

He sits there, head held in shaking hands, for what could be hours, but is likely just seconds. Brings his hands in front of his eyes, expecting to see them slick with blood, or whatever fluid doesn't run through Jon's veins these days.

But there's nothing there.

He glances behind him, and is barely surprised to see no one lying beside him.

His feet remember the route to the bathroom, even if his mind hasn't caught up with his location, and he stumbles there quickly. Spins the tap open and scrubs at his fingers until the skin is raw and red and aching beneath the scalding water.

He still feels Jon's blood on him. Still smells smoke and flames.

Eventually, he looks in the mirror.

He hasn't seen his reflection in months, or however long it's been since the world ended, but he's certain he wasn't this clean. Certainly hadn't shaved in a while, for one, though it's hardly his clean-shaven face that makes him doubletake.

His hair is ginger. Martin runs a careful hand through his curls, testing them to be sure. They don't fall away in his hands, or turn into worms or psychedelic spirals; he feels the tug of his fingers catching and pulling at his scalp.

There isn't a single strand of white. He'd almost gotten used to the pale, bleached colour the Lonely had cast upon him, before the end of the world, but-

He isn't crying. He isn't. It's just hair.

His fingers grip the sink so hard he's sure something will break.

Logic. Calm. That’s what he needs right now. Obviously something has gone wrong, if he and Jon have been separated. Finding him is the first priority.

He refuses to consider the alternative.

But where has he ended up? He’d half expected to be scattered to the wind of a thousand dimensions, divided into tiny fragments of consciousness.

But this appears to be a singular universe. A reality of ideals, perhaps? Where Martin has his hair back, has a body that doesn’t yet ache or go hazy at the edges when he panics.

Except Jon isn’t here, so that can’t be true.

Martin emerges from the bathroom, still a little shaky, but with resolve, and it’s only now that he realises where he is. It’s been a long time since he was here, thank god - this apartment was hardly a good part of his life.

Freshly moved to London. Scrambling to find any sort of job that would take him, ultimately having them slip through his fingers. The walls are too close and the ceiling too low, the paint crumbling and the damp stains getting ever wider. It’s cold, with exorbitant heating bills and no double glazing, and now it makes a little more sense to him why he was wearing three jumpers in bed.

He was in this apartment when he applied to the Magnus Institute.

For a moment he stands in the doorway, frozen, as the realisation begins to connect dots in his head with absurd leaps of logic. It doesn’t make any sense at all for him to have ended up here, and yet- he can’t really deny the evidence of his own eyes.

So its 2009. 2008, at the earliest. The past.

Maybe this is an alternate world. Maybe the fears have no foothold here, and he has a chance to try again.

Would that be a good thing? Can he honestly say he enjoyed the life he had before the Institute? He hates Jonah Magnus with everything he has, hates what he and his colleagues were put through in those years.

But they were hardly worse than the endless grey of his earlier years. The Loneliness that lapped at his ankles long before he knew the name Magnus and that, if he’s honest, would have consumed him if the Eye hadn’t set its sights on him first.

And without the Archives, he never would’ve had Jon.

The world seems dangerously small and cold to Martin. The walls are leaning in to press against him, to put pressure on his lungs. If he thinks about this too quickly, too long, he might shatter into pieces and never move again.

He grips the doorway to steady himself, takes a deep and slow breath.

He needs to stay calm. He can panic later, when Jon is in his arms again, when they've figured out what's going on, when they march into Elias' office ten years too early and sink the knife where it truly belongs.

Maybe then he won't feel Jon's blood on his hands anymore.

Everything in time. Martin smiles through gritted teeth, as if to convince himself he's decided. Everything is fine, until proven otherwise.

He throws open the curtains to a fresh, sunlit morning, no eye in the sky or bruise-like clouds bearing down on him, and gets to work.

#the magnus archives #jonathan sims #martin blackwood #jonmartin #tma spoilers #fanfic #own work #morgan writes

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introvertguide · 3 years

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15 Badass Movies for a Fun Time at Home or with Friends

There is a buzz in the air as COVID-19 vaccines are rolling out and the hope of having a movie night with friends is again becoming a reality. Watching alone isn’t as fun because I want to talk to somebody about what I have just seen. A full theater does not agree with my introvert nature because somebody screaming or laughing or talking on their phone will ruin it for me. Watching with a fellow cinephile or two is perfect. But what to watch first? People have been stuck inside, so fantasy and alternative worlds have been overly popular. All I do is talk over zoom for a living. I think what I need most right now is a movie about realistic people with realistic skills that go into a situation and just wreck house. I need a badass movie. What is this “badass” movie you might say? Well, here are some basic criteria: 1) There must be a tough lead character who kicks butt while spouting one liners and doesn’t need superhuman powers (high levels of peak skill with speed, aim, or strength is OK if they are plausible in the real world), 2) most of the characters (good and bad) must be likable, admirable or at least memorable, 3) the lead must face and defeat overwhelming odds against them, and 4) extra points for memorable one liners. Also, I am only dealing with human protagonists (sorry Terminator), but slightly superhuman opposition is acceptable. This list is by no means exhaustive, it is just an example of some badass movies. So in no particular order:

1) Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

To start off the list, I want to mention the most well known American badass. Indiana Jones is a smart guy with a gun and a whip. He is rugged and punches guys in the face. He has weaknesses but works through them to get the job done. Harrison Ford was in his early 40s for this role and had this tough-as-nails and seen the world kind of feel while still being young enough to fight hand to hand. Any of the first three films featuring Indiana Jones would work here, but this is the original and it started the fun. Easy to watch. Easy to cheer for. Great movie. You can’t really go wrong with any age or group with this one.

2) 13 Assassins (2010)

This movie is extremely badass but not for everyone. This is one of the goriest films I have ever seen as 13 warriors kill off a couple of hundred soldiers and the evil leader that they guard. The movie was directed by Japanese extreme horror icon Takashi Miike if that means anything to you (hey made Audition and Ichi the Killer). The movie has gallons of blood, but also an amazing story of redemption and honor. There are tons of scenes of a single warrior taking on dozens of soldiers and managing to overcome. Not for everyone, but still very much a badass movie.

3) The Raid (2011)

This is an Indonesian action thriller with the word action in bold. The film is directed by Gareth Evans and stars Iko Uwais as part of a small police force that tries to take down an old building that houses a drug lord and his violent gang. It has a lot of what I like in badass movies: one-on-one fights between the lead and almost superhuman villains, long well-choreographed scenes, a banging soundtrack, ridiculous weapons, and ridiculous gore. The fight scenes in tight places and the use of the environment for weaponry is amazing and the sound design makes sure you can feel every punch. The lead character should have no chance, but he makes up for it with skill and being a pure badass. This movie is one of the few that I would describe as having non-stop action.

4) Jon Wick (2014)

When did Keanu Reeves become so cool? I grew up with him being part of the Bill and Ted duo. He decides to learn martial arts and play a god-like being in the Matrix movies and then becomes a one man wrecking crew? I guess he is a badass because he does it so well. Keanu plays a retired hitman who is wronged and decides to go back to work for vengeance. He just won’t stop coming and seems to constantly survive out of pure hatred alone. There are 3 films in the series and any one of them will impress. Pure fun too watch.

5) Casino Royale (2006)

When I was asking around, there were many people who thought that James Bond was the ultimate badass. I disagree in that many of the older films show Bond as overconfident with the assistance of many people. In fact, Q is more of a badass in many ways than James Bond. However, when the series was taken back to its roots with the last book that had not been made into a serious film and made darker, it reached badass levels. From the parkour chase to a poisoning to an extreme torture scene, this was not like any James Bond movie before it. Roger Craig plays a much colder lead who gives no quarter, much more like what the greatest secret agent would have to be. Heavy on violence but light on gore, this film is more for all audiences than other films on this list.

6) Desperado (1995)

What makes this movie is not all about Antonio Banderas and Selma Hayek. It is that every other character is memorable and badass as well. The street standoff with Bucho’s men versus El Mariachi, Quino, and Campo is iconic. El Mariachi murders everyone in a bar with precise skill. The rogue assassin Navajas with all the knives played by Danny Trejo. Nothing but extreme shoot outs and fight scenes with a ridiculous variety of guns and explosives. I think what makes this movie so amazing is that all these amazing assassins are incognito and, when they suddenly produce an arsenal out of nowhere, it is always a pleasant surprise. Quino and Campo are amazing when they bring their guitars.

7) Pulp Fiction (1994)

Truly the role that made Samuel L. Jackson into the ultimate badass. He and his partner Vincent are hitman that keep running into the worst situations. The thing about the film is that everybody is so cool. The characters are cool, the music is cool, the dialogue is cool, hell even the diner featured in the movie is cool. The movie only spans a couple of days (in completely separate segments shown out of order) but packs in 7 distinct situations that are all berserk. From the mind of Quentin Tarantino, this movie is dripping with the best characters traveling through the best story. Highly recommend.

8) Leon: The Professional (1994)

Also known simply as The Professional in the U.S., this film features the debut of Natalie Portman. It is directed by Luc Besson at his best period, right between La Femme Nakita and The Fifth Element. The lead is actually a quiet hitman who reluctantly takes a little 12-year-old girl on as an apprentice to become a paid assassin. Her parents were killed by a corrupt cop and she wants Leon to help her exact revenge. He is an absolute badass and somewhat of a caring surrogate father to the girl. Unlike a lot of the films on this list, the premise is not simply kicking butt in a bad situation. There is serious character growth. Apparently you can be a caring parent and a cold-blooded murderer...and that is badass.

9) Kill Bill (2003)

Being a badass is not exclusive to men and The Bride is a prime example of this. She survives a shot to the head, kills deadly assassins, slaughters a gang, and takes on a crazy school girl bodyguard. She is tougher then any lead I can think of and she has the bad attitude and sense of vengeance that makes for a badass. Combine this with the soundtrack and beautiful cinematography associated with director Quentin Tarantino and you have a beautifully violent movie in which the hits keep coming. Even on this list, the fight scene between the bride and Gogo Yubari is insane. Also note the nod to Bruce Lee with the bright yellow motorcycle suit. Beautifully badass film.

10) Aliens (1986)

In nature, there are few things more dangerous than a mother protecting their young. A mother will fight you to the death and make sure that, at the very least, you won’t be able to go after her kids. Now imagine an alien planet covered with hostile beings created in the mind of James Cameron and Stan Winston and you have a setting made to create a real badass. In the beginning, Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) is just desperate to survive and barely knows how to use a weapon. She meets a little survivor named Newt and then has a real reason to become aggressive. She and a group of marines fight through a station filled with super destructive xenomorph aliens made straight from nightmares to save this kid. The transformation is truly amazing and culminates in a mech suit versus a giant queen alien and it is extremely badass.

11) Army of Darkness (1992)

Far and away the funniest movie on this list, this is the third film stemming from Evil Dead and again stars Bruce Campbell taking on the deadites that were raised by reading from the Necronomicon. The opposition is the undead evil that faces the world which makes the violence very unrealistic. This was early work from Sam Raimi and features a variety of different shots done to the extreme. What really makes this film stand out is how Bruce Campbell is amazing at delivering a one liner. His classic quips have been used as fun Easter eggs in video games like Duke Nukem and World of Warcraft for decades. The quintessential horror comedy and a perfect example of a badass.

12) Die Hard (1988)

Apparently, I am a big fan of single characters that need to work their way through a building of villains using mostly intelligence and the element of surprise. Throw in some one liners and I am all for it. That is exactly what this is with Bruce Willis crawling barefoot around a 40 story building and fighting off a gang of villains. The movie also has Alan Rickman as the main bad guy and he is chewing the scenery. This is a great example of being a badass, but it is too bad that the follow up sequels were so poor. Definitely stick to the original and let the rest pass by.

13) The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly (1966)

An OG of the badass movie genre, this is some of the best of Sergio Leone and the spaghetti western. Instead of one badass, this movie has three different leads that are all amazing. You have the good, Clint Eastwood, who is an amazing shot and a heart of gold under a rough exterior. You have the bad, Lee Van Cleef, playing an conniving assassin that will kill anyone that he doesn’t have a use for. Finally, you have the ugly, Eli Wallach, as a desert rat that will do anything to survive. They all gain information about a gold stash and need to work together to get it, but this creates a vortex of cheating, undercutting, and straight up murder. Clint Eastwood is more of the classic badass with his cigar, hat, and poncho, It is an iconic look on an iconic character in an iconic movie. That is what I call badass.

14) Ong-Bak (2003)

This less of a badass movie and more houses some of the most amazingly badass fight scenes that can only be described as badass. This movie introduced the great Tony Jaa to the western world and showed the high flying nature of Thai boxing and Muay Thai in general. The main character is entered into a street fighting tournament and the moves include a flying double knee drop and a full splits kick. If the whole movie was the tournament, it would be the best movie that ever existed. The variety of opponents makes the fighting even better and the cinematography is top notch. Tony Jaa is truly badass in this film.

15) Dredd (2012)

Not the crappy version with Stallone, this movie is seriously badass. It features Karl Urban who is helmeted for the entire film (as Dredd would be) taking on a 200 story mega slum filled with residents that want to shoot him dead. There is a drug dealer high up in the building and she locks down the entire compound with instructions to kill Dredd, who only has his rookie partner to help. He takes on random resident mobs, groups of gang members, and even a trio of mini guns that have bullets that can rip through walls. He has a smart gun with a bunch of ammo that he uses judiciously to kill everybody. This movie was seriously underrated since it had not been that long since the garbage Judge Dredd came out in 1995. The 2012 is a far superior movie, being much more violent and dark instead of having Rob Schneider as the comedy relief (not badass).

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I know there will be a lot of opinions about what makes a badass film and what movies i didn’t add. Feel free to add your own movies or critique my choices. I will stand by my choices, however, and recommend any of these films for a night of cheers and badass action.

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queenxxxsupreme · 4 years

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Shelter

A/N: Needed some soft Yennefer because I love her.

Word Count: 1.9k

Warning: none :) this is pure fluff

Thunder rumbled in the clouds above the mountains that rested behind the witcher, the mage, the bard, and the source. Cirilla jumped at the clap of thunder. Yennefer, who rested on the same horse as her, offered a comforting hand to Ciri’s side. The young ashen haired girl was nearly falling asleep, struggling to keep her eyes open.

“I’m tired.” Ciri rubbed her eyes and leaned back into Yennefer, who gladly provided support.

“We are almost there.” She assured Ciri, kissing the top of her head.

“You said that an hour ago.” Jaskier muttered. His horse was just behind Yennefer and Ciri’s. Yennfer shot him a brief glare over her shoulder. Her violet eyes flickered back to Geralt. The witcher carried up the rear.

“We are nearly there.”

The White Wolf nodded once but said nothing.

“You’ve never actually told us where it is we are going.” Ciri said.

“Somewhere safe that we can rest.” Yennefer answered softly. “A trusted friend that can offer us shelter.”

“Huh. I didn’t think you had any friends.” Jaskier stated, nearly chuckling at himself.

Yennefer chose to ignore him.

The path began to grow more and more narrow. The trees provided a thick, dense canopy, hiding the forest floor from the dwindling light given by the evening sun. The darkness gave everyone an uneasy feeling. Geralt kept his eyes peeled and listened carefully to ever little sound, wanting to know if there was anything dangerous lurking in the woods.

As the forest came to an end, a little hilltop meadow came into view. At the base of the hill was a wooden gate attached to a fence. The fence disappeared in a thick bush on one side and traveled around the hill on the other side.

Using her magic, Yennefer pulled the gate open without getting off of her horse. Just as she was closing the gate behind Geralt, a dark brown donkey with white legs made itself known, braying and its ears pressed flat to its skull.

“Easy, Gus.” Yennefer put her hand up, ushering a wave of serenity to the animal.

Once Gus was calm, Yennefer continued up the path surrounded by undergrowth and bushes.

Around the little hill was a stone cottage. Lavender hydrangea bushes rested in the flower bed just outside of the house. Pink and purple bougainvilleas covered one side of the cottage and green ivy littered the roof.

You were underneath the tree near the house with a book in hand and a lamb across your lap. A calf rested next to you, resting its head on your thigh. When they heard Gus’s alarm, they lifted their heads up.

The lamb bleated and hurried to greet the uninvited guest. The calf was slower to get up but followed its friend. You remained under the tree, smoothing out your skirt as you looked at the group.

When you realized it was Yennefer, you were on your feet and running to her. The book that had once been in your hand was left in the grass. Excitement and happiness filled your veins at the sight of the mage.

You collided into her with such force that she nearly fell backwards. She had to step back to keep from falling to the ground. Your arms wrapped around her neck and your lips met hers. She tasted just as sweet and intoxicating as you remembered.

Her arms slipped around your waist, holding you close to her. She pulled away first, smiling at you. You couldn’t help getting lost in her violet gaze.

“I hope you don’t mind that I’ve brought a few guests.”

The mage’s words reminded you that the two of you weren’t alone. Your arms retracted from her and you stepped back to look at who all she had brought. You immediately recognized Geralt of Rivia, the White Wolf, from not only the ballads but also from what Yennefer told you. Cirilla was easy to recognize too with her ashen hair and bright blue eyes. That left the brunet man to be Jaskier, the bard.

“Where are my manners?” You laughed softly, brushing your hair behind your ears. “You look like you’ve been traveling for ages. I’ve got warm soup and extra beds. Let’s go put the horses in the stable around back.”

“How did you know I’d be coming with them?” Yennefer asked as she began to lead her horse with Ciri still on top of it.

“I didn’t.” You looked over to her. “I had enough ingredients so I made extra and I was going to take it into town to give to the beggars in town.”

Yennefer’s chest tightened at your words. You were a soul too pure for her. She was unworthy of your kindness and generosity.

She reached up to brush her fingers over your hair, smiling gently at you.

“Am I the only one who did not see that coming?” Jaskier whispered to Geralt. The witcher glanced at him but said nothing, following silently behind Yennefer.

***

Once the horses were in stables and had been given chunks of hay for the night, you ushered everyone into the house, making sure that they washed their hands at the well just outside of your home.

You went inside ahead of everyone else and began to slice a fresh loaf of bread just pulled from the stone oven.

“I’m terribly sorry. Yennefer is such a rude person.” Jaskier swatted his hand in Yennefer’s direction. “She didn’t properly introduce us. I’m Jaskier, this lovely lady is Ciri, and that’s Geralt.”

“I know who you all are.” You told Jaskier, moving to gather enough bowls for everyone. “Geralt is easy to tell because of the ballads - your ballads. And Yennefer has mentioned Cirilla quite a few times.”

“She’s never mentioned you.” Ciri frowned, brows drawing together.

You placed a bowl of hot soup down in front of her, offering her a gentle smile.

“Yen doesn’t tell anyone about me.” You glanced over to the mage who stood at the end of the table, refusing to sit. You winked at her, letting her know you were just messing with her. “She prefers to keep me a secret.”

“If you tell the world of the fortune you managed to stumble upon, then everyone will rush to steal it from you.” She said, tapping her fingertips against the table.

You could sense something was wrong with her. Something bothered her. She was tense.

You finished dipping out bowls for the two men and wiped your hands on your skirt, your eyes finding Yennefer.

“Don’t mind us.” You told the three at the table, giving them little smiles. “We just have to step outside for a moment. Do help yourself to bread and more soup. There’s plenty to go around.”

You moved past Yennefer, hooking your hand around her arm and tugging her outside. The door to the cottage closed behind her.

“What’s wrong?” You asked her, brows drawing together as you tilted your head to the side a little.

She said nothing at first, violet eyes flickered over the path in front of your home.

“I didn’t want to bring them here.” She admitted quietly, her eyes searching your face but never meeting your eyes. “I would’ve much rather teleported them here, but I’m exhausted and tired and it’s-it’s been such a long day-,”

“Hey.” You cut her off, placing your hand on her arm. “It’s okay that you’ve brought them here. You all needed somewhere to stay, somewhere safe. I’m glad you’ve come home.”

You embraced her in a warm hug, one much gentler than your previous one.

“I just don’t like to risk your safety.”

“I don’t mind providing somewhere for them to go.” You pulled your head back so that you could look into her eyes. “They’re your family. Wherever you are welcomed, so are they.”

Yennefer brought her hand up to trace your jaw with her fingertips.

“What did I ever do to deserve you?”

“You deserve everything.” You pressed a chaste kiss to her lips. “Now come. You need to eat something.”

***

You had just finished giving Ciri enough blankets for the night. She’d be staying on an extra bed in the floor of your room. Jaskier and Geralt would be sleeping in the main room by the fireplace. You had enough blankets for them but the hearth would surely aid in keeping them warm.

Jaskier was sitting on a stool by the fire, quietly playing a song and messing with lyrics. Yennefer was in with Ciri, talking quietly to the young girl.

Geralt sat alone at the kitchen table, staring at his hands.

You moved to sit across from him. He looked up at you and sat straighter. You smiled a little at him.

“I just…. I know how you and Yennefer met.” You told him, keeping your voice low so that only he could hear. “And I want to thank you for saving her.”

“What has she told you?” His voice was deep and gravelly. He didn’t speak much throughout the evening.

“Everything.” You admitted. You turned your head to look down the hallway that your room was down. “Of her destiny…. Of yours…. And of Cirilla’s.”

You did your best not to feel upset about it. You knew the wish Geralt made wasn’t in Yennefer’s control. Her fate was stuck to his forever, sealed after the first time they met. Cirilla’s fate was intertwined with theirs being that she was Geralt’s child surprise. Yennefer thought of her as her own daughter and it warmed your heart to see your mage act to gentle and sweet with her.

“Thank you for saving her.” You looked to Geralt, meeting his gaze. “If there is anything ever that you need, you can come to me. I’m a stranger to your world, to Yennefer’s world, sure. But I can offer a warm bed and fresh food. Somewhere safe should you ever need it.”

Geralt nodded once, a silent thank you to your words.

“Please enlighten me, Y/N.” Jaskier quit playing his lute as he spoke. “How did such a sweet woman like you end up with a hellbeast like Yennefer of Vengerberg?”

Your eyes flickered over to the mage as she closed the door to your room behind herself.

“My mother is an herbalist from Vizima. Yennefer came to her shop in search of an herb. I took one look at her and decided that I wanted her.” You smiled gently.

She held your gaze but said nothing.

“Of course, she didn’t pay any attention to me at first.” You leaned back, motioning for her to sit next to you. She hesitated before doing so. You placed your hand on her knee, offering her comfort. “But eventually, I managed to catch her attention.”

“When you nearly set yourself on fire.” Yennefer sighed.

“It was an accident though.”

***

After a few hours, you and Yennefer retired to your room. You clambered into the bed, settling beneath fine furs and quilts. Yennefer only settled for the best of everything.

“Will you let me braid your hair?” You asked her as she began to get into the bed. She nodded softly and went around to your side of the bed. She climbed up to rest between your legs.

Minutes passed as the two of you enjoyed the peace and quiet. Your fingers were delicate with her thick dark hair.

“Thank you.” She murmured softly, glancing over her shoulder so she could steal a look at you. “For welcoming them the way you did.”

“No need to thank me, love.” You kissed her forehead. “You are all I need as a thanks. Now turn around so I don’t make this crooked.”

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#yennefer #yennefer x reader #yennefer of vengerberg #yennefer of vengerberg x reader #the witcher #the witcher netflix #mage #yennefer fluff #yennefer oneshot #yennefer fic

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ronoken · 3 years

Text

Captain Cowgirl Rides Again

So...

I had an idea this week. And I ran with it. And I may have devoted more time to this than I should have, but this is what two days of frantic writing without any prereading or combing through looks like.

For readers of my work, you’ll be able to peg when this takes place pretty quickly.

Also... I’m open to changing the title. Maybe something with the words What To Do at the start...

Enjoy. Also, let me know what you think.

***

In the far future…

Caline M. Bourgeois, age 10, frantically ran down a fourth-floor hallway in the Grand Pairs hotel. She breezed passed a frozen housekeeper and scooted around a stuffy old man in a hat that was stuck mid-step before she skidded to a stop in front of a door at the end of the hall.

“Okay,” Caline said to herself as she huffed from exhaustion. She put her hands on her knees to catch her breath. She was dressed for the Fall, wearing jeans, sneakers, and a fluffy green sweater. Her sandy blonde hair was hanging loose to her shoulders.

Steel blue eyes looked to the room number on the door, 409. She reached into the pocket in her skirt and took out a key ring. With slightly trembling hands, she flipped through her keys as her mother’s voice echoed in her head.

‘Remember,’ her mother had warned her. Caline remembered the conversation vividly. ‘This key is only to be used in the event of an emergency. I’m serious, Callie-bear. You never, ever use this unless you have no other option.’

Caline swallowed down her nerves as she held up an unassuming silver key.

“Am I gonna get in trouble for this, Ziggs?” Caline asked, nervously.

Ziggy, the black and white goat kwami, floated out of her pocket to stare at the key with her. “Whelp, I reckon things can’t get any worse right now. If I were you, I’d go for it.”

“…And you don’t think she’ll be mad?” Caline asked.

Ziggy chuckled. “Yer mom used to use time travel to hook up with her boyfriend. Kiddo, she ain’t got a freakin’ leg to stand on in this instance. You go for it.”

Caline blushed and nodded. “Right then.” She slid the key into the lock. It was the only door in the entire hotel that didn’t have a keycard pad, instead offering a keyhole that none of the cleaning staff had any access to. Most of them thought it was used for money laundering or drug running, or that it was possibly haunted. Regardless, no one had access.

There was a good reason for that.

“Here we go,” Caline said as she opened the door and stepped forward into a white, glowing rectangle.

Behind her. The door swung shut with a click.

***

Caline blinked.

She was back in the hall.

“Huh,” she said as she looked around. “This doesn’t feel any different.”

Ziggy looked around and shrugged. “Maybe yer gramma don’t like to redecorate. Why don’t we head outside and get a move on? Can’t hurt anythin’.”

Caline frowned at the lazy kwami. “You know we have to be careful. We don’t…” She leaned in and whispered. “We don’t want to mess up the timeline.”

Ziggy shrugged. “Callie, you could march through that there door with a flame thrower and not do half the damage yer ma’s done. Trust me.”

Caline snickered, but only a little. After all, she was there on official hero business. And official heroes did not snicker.

It was true, her best friend Daisy had said so. Granted, she had been transformed into Lord Death Tiger at the time, and they had been playing Pirate Queens, but still.

“Focus, Ziggy. We need help, and mom always said that if I needed help, then this is where I’d find it.”

Ziggy looked around. “It looks like a hotel hallway,” he said.

“Well, like, not here-here. You know what mom meant. Come on,” Caline said as she headed to the stairwell. She’d played here enough to know the quickest way to the service entrance out back. And from there…

A few minutes later, Caline stood outside on the service dock and steadied herself. “Okay,” she said. “I can do this. I can totally do this.”

“Hey now,” Ziggy said. He put a hoof on her arm and looked up at her. “Don’t get all bent outta shape. Just focus, take some deep breaths, and believe in yourself. Y’all got this, partner.”

Caline looked down at him. “And I won’t get in trouble for using you?”

“Well, didja get in trouble when ya tried me out at home?”

Caline shook her head. “But that was the only time we ever transformed. And that was in my bedroom.” She looked up at the buildings around her. “This is real.”

“Hey now,” Ziggy said, his voice soft. “Y’all been getting’ ready fer this since you were seven years old. I’ve been watchin’ over you, squirt, so I know. Yer every bit a member o’ yer family, and I am plumb honored to be assigned to another Caline.”

“For real?” Caline asked.

“You know it, partner.”

“But what if I mess up?” Caline asked. “Or, or what if something happens! What should I do, Ziggy?”

“Well,” Ziggy said as he rubbed his chin. “If something happens, you should handle it. Just remember all the times we played pretend. You’ll know what to do.”

“Well, okay, yeah. But what?”

Ziggy looked her in the eye. “The right thing, of course. Yer a hero, girlie. An’ today’s the day you discover it.”

“Really?” Caline asked.

“Really,” Ziggy said. “Like I said, y’all got this.”

“Yeah,” Caline said. She wiped her nose with the back of her sleeve and looked at the buildings around her again. “I got this.”

***

To her credit, Caline only crashed into a building once.

She was rotating between screaming in terror as she flew through the air with every launch of her Shepherd’s Staff and cringing as she effortlessly touched down on the rooftops of Paris. It took her roughly ten minutes to get her bearings, what with the combination of leaping and falling, and the pure adrenaline coursing through her veins, but she eventually got the hang of things. At last somewhat confident in her new abilities, she checked the GPS on her staff and turned towards her destination.

The Dupain-Cheng Bakery.

She landed right at the front door and quickly retracted her staff. Around her, people stopped and stared. With a nervous laugh, Caline tipped her hat at them and headed inside.

You read that right.

Her plan was simple. Talk to/meet her great grandparents, casually ask if their daughter was around, deftly avoid any hero-related questions, and then beg for help.

It was only after she wandered through the front door that she realized how difficult that would be while still transformed, but hey, cut her some slack. It’s her first day.

Caline froze, wide-eyed as she realized her goof. She was about to come up with some frantic excuse/backstory as to why a hero was in the bakery, but then she realized she didn’t need to.

In front of her were who she assumed were her grandparents, however they were currently ensnared in a sea of vines. The bakery looked like it had been taken over by an angry rainforest, and in the middle of it stood a green-skinned man in overalls and a straw hat. He was surrounded by vines that pulsed lazily with his movements, and he was yelling at the helpless couple.

“Foolish bakers!” The green man screamed. “I am Gar-Doom! If you don’t have any quality veggie-based treats for me, I’ve got a veggie-based doom for you!”

The man, whom Caline assumed was her great grandpa Tom, frantically mumbled something and tried to point to a display case, but he was too covered in vines to really do much. Also, his mouth was a bit covered with foliage.

Caline quickly turned around and left the bakery as fast as she could. She bolted around the corner and slumped against a brick wall to hyperventilate.

“That’s an akuma!” She gasped. “Oh my God, that’s an actual akuma!” She was shaking so bad she started crying. “I’m not ready for this! I don’t know what to do! I don’t know what to do!”

The front doors of the bakery burst open as Gar-Doom was carried outside by a squirming mass of gigantic green vines. All around, people were running and screaming as the akuma flipped a car over and started laughing maniacally.

“Yes, YES! Run, you foolish meat bags! Flee in fear from Gar-Doom!”

Caline watched, petrified. The akuma looked so big. He was right there, loud and violent and very real, and…

“I shouldn’t even be here,” Caline whimpered. “I want my mom. This isn’t right! I just…”

A steel pole shot down and slammed into Gar-Doom’s back, knocking the akuma to the ground.

“Forgive me for saying so, but I find it hard to believe you had a bad dining experience at that particular bakery,” a light-hearted voice called out.

Caline watched, wide-eyed, as a sleek black superhero descended in front of the screaming and writhing monster.

“Oh holy cow. That’s… That’s Chat Noir! The first one! Oh wow.” Caline was transfixed by the sight before her. She had heard stories about her grandpa, sat through endless debates between him and her Aunt Emmy about who wore it better, and of course she’d met Plagg before, but to actually see the legendary superhero in his prime?

Chat Noir retracted his staff and gave it a twirl. “It looks like someone needs a pruning.”

Chat Noir dodged a vine that swiped at his head. A second later, a yoyo cut through the air and sliced through the offending growth like a knife through butter.

“Let’s trim the gardening jokes back a bit, kitty. We’ve got work to do.”

If Caline was star-struck before, now she was positively reeling. Ladybug gracefully landed right next to her black-clad partner. She was smirking at the akuma and casually twirling her yoyo like it was a Tuesday at the park.

“Oh holy cow, she’s so confident!” Caline murmured. “Oh man.” Caline stared in amazement. “My grandparents were badass.”

Off to the side, safely tucked behind a parked car, Alya was busy recording the action and narrating on her phone.

“If you’re just joining us, a new akumatized villain has decided to attack the lunch hour crowd. This time, he’s targeted the Dupain-Cheng bakery! Renown for their macaroons and quality service, it’s anybody’s guess what caused this customer to flip. But that’s okay, as Paris’s heroes are on the scene!” Alya looked up from her phone at Ladybug for a moment, her eyes shining.

“So cool,” the reporter murmured.

And of course she’d seen Ladybug dozens, if not hundreds of times. And yes she’s a hero herself, but there’s just something magical about seeing your idol out and about and kicking ass. So, forgive her if she was taking a sideline approach for the afternoon.

Also, Alya couldn’t film and fight at the same time, so there was that.

And there was the other thing.

Honestly, once Nino figures out what she’s up to, he’s gonna flip his lid and probably hover near her for, like, a week. I mean, seriously? Who charges toward a giant tentacle monster to get some footage when they’re nine weeks pregna…

Oh snap. Getting ahead of myself. Sorry, not supposed to blab yet, but don’t worry. They’ll tell everyone at the barbecue this weekend.

Ladybug gave Gar-Doom a quick once over before nodding. “Right. I’m guessing the akuma is in his lunch sack.”

Chat Noir blinked and looked to his partner. “Seriously? You figured that out in five seconds. That’s… Wow.”

“It’s one of the many reasons you love me,” Ladybug shrugged and rolled out of the way as a vine slammed into the street where she had been standing. “He just burst out of a bakery. I’m guessing he didn’t like his order.”

Chat swatted a vine away and frowned. “Who wouldn’t like something from there? That’s the best bakery in town!”

Ladybug blushed as she dodged. “I think you’re biased.”

“So what if I am?” Chat bantered back. “The owner’s daughter is cute.”

Ladybug backflipped away from a series of vine spikes that peppered the road where she’d been standing. “Careful there. I hear she’s married.”

“If they’re so great, then where are the veggie snacks?” Gar-Doom hollered. “I mean, come on! It’s not that hard to offer a variety!”

Ladybug threw her yoyo at the demonic gardener. “It’s a bakery, you moron! Everything in there is vegetarian!” She yelled at him.

“They serve buttercream!” Gar-Doom shrieked. “I’m vegan!”

Ladybug groaned. “Then ask for the veggie brownies or the vegan macaroons! Mr. Dupain always makes a batch! They’re right freaking there!”

“I wanted strawberry!” Gar-Doom whined. “All he’s got today is chocolate!”

“Oh, for God’s sake,” Ladybug took aim and cracked Gar-Doom in the face with her yoyo. “Well, too bad!” She snapped.

Both heroes advanced on the crumpled akuma as he rubbed his face.

“Huh,” Chat Noir said with a smile. “This one was pretty easy.”

“I know, right?” Ladybug said as she reached for the bag at Gar-Doom’s side. “I don’t even think I broke a sweat. Say, are you free for the day?”

“I just got done early with work,” Chat said, smiling. “Where’s…?”

“With their Aunts,” Ladybug replied. “I needed the day to get some work done. Also, Cammy wanted a playdate with the girls, and since you were out goofing off…”

“Hey now,” Chat said, mock hurt in his voice. “I was out putting food on the table!”

“Really? Because last I checked, you were doing a charity shoot,” Ladybug reminded him. “To advertise for the local food pantry? For free? Remember?”

Chat blushed and rubbed the back of his head. “Oh yeah. Um, sorry?”

Ladybug rolled her eyes. “Don’t sweat it, kitty. It was really sweet of you. Now, let’s…”

Gar-doom suddenly blew a yellow cloud of pollen in both heroes faces.

“Ha!” The villain snickered. “Seriously? I can’t believe I was able to lure you in that easily! Enjoy my neurotoxin pollen, chumps!”

“LB?” Chat asked, his voice bordering on panic. “I, um, I can’t move!”

“Ne… Neither can I!” Ladybug said. She tried, but her body was completely locked up. They were both frozen on the spot.

“Don’t worry about it,” Gar-Doom said through a toothy grin. “Once I have your miraculous, you can get back to being the weak, worthless, squirming bags of meat you were when you got here. Of course, you won’t have your powers anymore…”

Caline blanched as she saw what was happening.

“NonononoNO! They’re not supposed to lose! They… They’re gonna…” Her eyes went wide. “They’re frozen.”

‘It’s happening again,’ she thought.

She was shaking with fear. Her mind raced with images of her family, her friends, all of Paris frozen in place. The horror on their faces, the look of panic. The look on her mother’s face…

Almost without thinking, she grabbed the retracted staff at her belt and gave it a squeeze.

“No.”

She suddenly felt calm, as if a cold bucket of water had just washed away her shakes. She could practically feel her heartbeat in her ears.

“This isn’t happening again.”

Caline took a deep breath.

‘The right thing, of course. Yer a hero, girlie. An’ today’s the day you discover it.’

Caline felt Ziggy’s words wash over her. She clenched her fists and felt strong. She suddenly felt confident. More confident than she had ever felt in her life.

“This is just like when we’d play in my room,” she said, her voice even. “I can do this.”

She looked to the monster attacking her family.

“No one hurts my grandparents.”

Gar-Doom was reaching for Ladybug’s ears and leering at the shiny red jewelry. Ladybug could only watch in a cold panic as she begged him to stop.

“Not happening,” Gar-Doom muttered. “I can’t believe it was this easy! I…”

A pole rocketed through the air and slammed into the akuma’s face.

Ladybug, still frozen, watched as the villain was launched off his feet and sent hurtling into the Dupain-Cheng’s glass storefront. The windowpanes shattered in an explosion of glittering shards as the akuma actually bounced off a cake display and crumpled on the tile floor beyond.

“What?” Ladybug asked, confused.

Chat Noir tried to shrug. “It wasn’t me,” he called out.

Gar-Doom scrambled to his feet and wearily stumbled out through the broken storefront. “Who did that? WHO DARES STRIKE GAR-DOOM?”

A breeze blew down the street. A plastic bag lazily tumbled by.

“That’d be me.”

Alya, shocked at this surprising turn of events, swung around to film the newest arrival. Standing in the middle of the street was a young girl, not even Ladybug’s height. She was sporting a pair of patterned leather boots, a white skintight suit, a lopsided belt, a black and white splotched vest, and atop her head, covering a pair of small horns, was a black and white Cattleman hat. Her bright, emerald eyes were slitted vertically, and her blonde hair moved with the breeze. Her thumbs were resting in her belt, and she had a piece of what looked like long grass in her mouth.

Upon closer inspection, it was a plastic straw.

‘Presentation matters!’ Her Aunt Alix’s words echoed in her head.

“Yer gonna stop harassin’ these heroes, Mister,” the young girl said. Her voice was shaking, which didn’t help her forced drawl. “If ya don’t, I reckon I’m gonna have ta get rough. I reckon.”

“Who the Hell are you?” the akumatized menace sneered.

The hero spit out the straw and reached for the staff at her hip. She extended it and gave it a twirl. The sun glinted off the steel rod as she slammed it into the pavement in front of her.

“I’m Captain Cowgirl.”

Alya nearly dropped her phone. “Oh, my God! A new cow themed hero has joined the battle!”

***

At that moment across town, Caline Bourgeois (senior) spit out her iced coffee as she watched the livestream footage on her phone.

“CHLOÉ!” She cried out.

“I’m busy babysitting,” the blonde replied from the next room.

“Someone new has Ziggy!”

Chloé was at her side in an instant. She was holding a squirming one year old in her arms as a little girl of no more than five years old drifted into the room behind her, a Ladybug figurine in her hands. Following right behind her was a slightly taller girl with light red hair and blue eyes. A Queen Bee figurine was in her hands. The two had been playing heroes vs dinosaurs. The heroes were winning.

“Huh,” Chloé said as she looked at the phone in her mom’s hands. She then looked to the baby she was holding. “Well, that doesn’t look like you, does it?”

She looked back at the livestream. “Can you turn it up?”

Caline fumbled for the volume.

“…A new hero has appeared, and she’s… Yes! She just called herself Captain Cowgirl! The Captain appears to…”

Caline tried to listen to the rest of Alya’s broadcast, but she couldn’t hear anything over Chloé’s hysterical laughter.

***

Gar-Doom stared down the diminutive hero in front of him. Grinning, he let out a low chuckle. “You’re just a kid. Why don’t you run home to mommy and daddy before I go and do something permanent?”

Caline turned her head towards the frozen heroes and nodded slightly. “You mess with them,” she turned to glare at the akuma. “Ya answer to me, varmint.”

Side note. Caline had no clue what the heck a varmint was, but she’d heard Ziggy say the phrase enough during playtime that she felt confident she was using it correctly.

“Is that so?” Gar-Doom asked. A mass of green tentacles started to swirl around him as he was lifted off the street. Caline had to look up to keep eye contact. “Well, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, flesh bag, but if you don’t clear out of here right now, Hawkmoth is going to get three miraculous today.”

Caline felt herself start to shake from nerves, but she swallowed back her fear.

“Hawkmoth isn’t getting anything but a punch in the kisser if she, erm, he bothers to show his yellow face around here,” Caline snapped. “Now, ya’d better hand over that there pouch on your belt before I have to get rough with ya!”

“Man, she’s really leaning into the cowgirl thing,” Chat Noir, still frozen, said from the sidelines.

“It’s like seeing Ziggy as a human,” Ladybug agreed. “Hey, I think I can wiggle my fingers. Chat! The toxin is wearing off!”

“I know,” Chat said, grinning. “I can move my hand. I’ve been trying to flex and get my body to loosen up, and I think I can get to my staff.”

“Who would have thought all that flexing in front of the bathroom mirror would have paid off?” Ladybug quipped.

“It’s not my fault I’m so pleasant to look at,” Chat replied with a wink.

“Foolish child!” Gar-Doom said as he brought his arms up. Around him was a virtual forest of vines, all protruding from his back like the tentacles of some nightmarish octopus. “I gave you a chance to run, but you’re apparently too stupid to save your own hide! You think you can stop me? I am the gardening menace of Paris! I just took down the two mightiest heroes in town! I’m twice your size and have giant tentacles! And what do you have? A pretty staff and some dress up clothes? You think I’m scared of some little kid playing cowgirl?”

Caline lifted her staff slightly as she looked down at the street beneath her. She remembered a trick she’d seen her mother try once and how unbelievably cool it had been.

‘Please work,’ she prayed.

“It’s Captain Cowgirl, you overgrown weed!” Caline yelled back. “And my staff can be pretty if I want it to be!”

With that, she slammed her staff down as hard as she could on the manhole cover at her feet.

“What?” Gar-Doom asked as the world went into slow motion.

The manhole cover flipped up like a coin from the impact. Caline spun with lightning speed and brought her staff around like a baseball bat. She cracked the manhole cover with all her might and sent if flying at the surprised akuma with the force of a cruise missile.

Thankfully, akumatizations provide superhuman strength and durability, otherwise young Caline would have accidentally performed her first decapitation. The manhole cover hit Gar-Doom in the face and sent him crashing through the brick façade of the bakery behind him, vines and all.

Caline stared, slack-jawed at the hole she’d made.

“Did I just do that?” She mumbled.

She nearly jumped when she felt a hand on her shoulder. She looked up to see Ladybug standing beside her, smiling.

“You sure did, partner. Mind if we take it from here?”

Caline gave her head a small shake, her eyes the size of dinner plates. “You can do things,” she said.

“That I can,” Ladybug said as Chat Noir jumped through the hole. A moment later, he emerged with a bag in his hand.

“Hay, LB? You might wanna do the cure thing quick. This guy is looking a little, um, bad.”

He tossed the bag down to Ladybug, who ripped it apart. A quick swipe of her yoyo at the purple butterfly that emerged and one swarm later, and things were as good as new.

“So cool,” Caline muttered as the two older, taller heroes stood in front of her. She blinked as they extended their fists to her.

“Really?” Caline asked. She was nearly hopping up and down.

“Sure,” Ladybug said, smiling. “You totally saved our butts back there, newcomer.”

“You sure did,” Chat Noir said with a grin. “That was some fine shootin’, partner.”

Caline grinned and put her fist out with theirs.

“Pound it!”

***

Ten minutes later, the three heroes sat on the balcony of the Dupain-Cheng bakery, each with a complementary sweet and drink. Ladybug and Chat Noir had been hugged quite excessively by the owners, and then Caline felt the full force of the baker’s gratitude as they took turns complimenting her on her outfit and thanking her for freeing them.

“You were wonderful out there, dear,” Sabine said as she hugged Ladybug. “Are you okay? Did anyone get hurt?”

“We’re fine,” Ladybug said through a smile. She hugged Sabine back. “I’m just glad you two are okay.”

“You did great out there, son.” Tom was hugging Chat Noir and patting him on the back. “I’m so proud of you.”

“I, um, I really didn’t do that much,” Chat Noir said. He was blushing and hugging the gigantic man back.

“And who is this little hero?” Sabine asked. She turned to Caline and bent down to get a better look at her. Caline retreated a little to Ladybug’s side. “You really saved the day, didn’t you?”

Caline slipped her hand into Ladybug’s. Surprised, the red and black hero took it and gave her a gentle squeeze. “She’s new, apparently. This cowgirl just showed up out of the blue and got to work.”

Sabine stared at her for several seconds. “These silly magic masks always mess up the eyes, you know that? I’m sure she doesn’t have goat eyes in real life.” She glanced up at Ladybug. “Who’s her mother?”

Ladybug shrugged. “I honestly have never seen this one before.”

Tom leaned over to get a good look at her. “Well, she’s got our jaw, son.”

And such pretty blonde hair!” Sabine offered. She glanced up at Marinette and mouthed, “Camille?”

Ladybug shrugged. “We were, um, we’re going to head up to the roof to debrief, if, um, that’s okay with you?”

“Of course!” Sabine said. “Here, take these with you!” She frantically handed Ladybug a bag of sweets.

“And some drinks!” Tom offered. He handed Chat Noir two steaming cups. “What would you like, Miss Cowgirl? Apple juice? Grape?”

Ladybug cleared her throat. “It’s Captain Cowgirl, actually.”

The small hand she was holding gave her a squeeze as if to say thank you.

“I like apple,” the tiny hero said in a small voice.

“Here you go, then. One apple juice,” Tom said, smiling. He pulled a juice box out of a cooler from behind the counter and handed it to Caline.

“Thank you very much,” Caline said. “It’s, um, it’s really nice to meet you both.”

Sabine and Tom smiled at her. “Well,” Sabine said as Tom put an arm around her. “It was lovely to meet you, too. Thank you for saving my favorite heroes.”

Caline stared at the two of them for a moment. “You’re both so nice. This, um, thank you. This was, I wasn’t expecting you to… Thank you. This is really great.”

“Hey,” Ladybug said in a soft voice. “You wanna come up to the roof with us? Maybe see what snacks they put in that bag before Chat Noir eats them all?”

They glanced over at Chat Noir, who had already taken a pastry from the counter and shoved it in his mouth. “What?” He mumbled through the food. “I don’t eat enough.”

“You eat as many as you want, dear,” Sabine said. “You need to put some meat on you.”

“That’s not meat,” Ladybug said. “But you’re right, he could stand to gain a pound or two.”

“Mmmffmm.” Chat responded as he continued to chew.

***

“So,” Ladybug said as she took a bite from a cheese danish. She was sitting in her favorite pink and white patio chair and sipping a mocha. She’d insisted on leaving them behind when she moved out, as she still loved stopping by the balcony on patrols. “Forgive me for saying so, but you don’t look like the last person I gave Ziggy to. Is she okay?”

Caline blushed and took a bite of her dessert. She had picked a huge cherry danish and was devouring it with gusto. “Uh, yeah. She’s got another one, now. This is so good! Like, I’d heard stories, but… This is incredible!” She took another bite and looked to Ladybug. “This is so much better than mom makes! She never uses this much sugar. Thank you for this. And, um, yeah. Thank you.”

The two older heroes watched Caline with a look that the younger hero couldn’t quite place. It was somewhere between amusement, curiosity, pride, and love. It was something she was admittedly used to from these two.

“Captain Cowgirl, was it?” Chat Noir asked.

Caline nodded. “Yep.” She sipped her juice box.

Ladybug smiled at her. “You were really brave out there today. You handled yourself like a hero.”

Caline blushed and smiled. “Thanks. That, um, that was my first time, actually.”

Ladybug’s eyebrows went up at that. “Seriously? Well, you did a bang-up job. Our first time was a complete disaster.”

“It wasn’t that bad,” Chat started. He saw the look on Ladybug’s face and deflated a bit. ‘Okay, yeah. It was pretty bad.”

“You’re first time, you say?” Ladybug asked, a smile playing on her lips. “You’re not from around here, are you?”

Caline shook her head no. She didn’t like to lie, and she honestly thought secret identities were kind of dumb. Especially when it came to family.

“No, ma’am. I’m from, um, later.”

“Thought so,” Chat said. He and Ladybug looked to each other and smiled. Chat crossed his arms and said, “So, how did you get Ziggy, Camille?”

Caline nearly choked on her danish. She coughed for a second and then said, “Camille? Excuse me?”

Chat nodded. “It’s okay. You’re not the first time traveler to pop up with Ziggy.”

“Oh,” Caline said as she put two and two together. “Oh! You think… No, I’m not… Aunt Camille doesn’t use Ziggy, she has Barkk.”

Ladybug looked the younger hero over again. “Wait. Aunt Camille?”

Caline nodded and wiped her hands on her tights.

Ladybug got up and approached Caline. She knelt down to look the tiny hero in the eyes.

“You know who we are, don’t you?” Ladybug asked.

Caline nodded again and bit her lip. “I, um, yes?” She looked from Ladybug to Chat Noir. “Is that okay?”

Ladybug thought about what Caline had said. “You weren’t expecting to get into a fight, were you?”

Caline shook her head no.

“But you came to the bakery looking for us?”

Caline nodded. “For you.”

Ladybug put a hand on the small hero’s shoulder. “What happened, sweetie?”

It had been a very big, very stressful day, and there was something about having your grandmother look you in the eye and speak in a kind voice that had an almost magical quality to it. Caline dropped her transformation and started to cry. She threw herself into Ladybug’s arms.

“Hey now, it’s okay,” Ladybug said, slightly surprised. The girl in her arms was shaking like a leaf.

Chat Noir knelt beside them and put a gentle hand on the young girl’s back. “You’re safe, love,” he said. “Whatever is the matter, we’ll help put it right. We promise.”

“They… They’re all frozen! All of them!” Caline blubbered. “Mom, dad, all, all the heroes… Everyone in Pa, Paris! I was, I was the only one who wa, who wasn’t…”

“Shhh,” Ladybug said. “Spots off.”

There was a warm flash of light, and Caline pulled back to look into the concerned, wide eyes of her grandmother. But it was wrong. Her face wasn’t wrinkled, and her hair was a rich, navy blue… She looked so young, but her smile was the same, and she smelled the same, and she was warm, and for a moment, Caline felt like she was home.

Caline let out a small, surprised laugh through her hiccupped tears. “Oh, wow. You, you look so pretty, Gramma.”

Marinette froze.

“Oh, my God,” Chat nearly whispered. “Claws in.”

Caline looked over at the young man kneeling beside her. “You both look so good!” She looked at Adrien for a second. “You don’t have your beard, Grandpa. This is so weird. I… I’m so sorry! I really didn’t know what else to do, but… But I was told if there was an emergency to come here, and, and I know I’m not supposed to use the door, but there wasn’t anyone left and…” She wiped her eyes. “Am I in trouble?”

Marinette pulled the young girl into a hug. “Of course you’re not, sweetheart.” She looked to Adrien, who was doing his best not to panic. He was also rubbing at his chin.

“Hey,” Marinette said as she pulled back to look Caline in the eyes. “Do you know the rules about time travel?”

Caline shook her head. “Only that I’m not supposed to do it, or Aunt Alix gets really mad.”

Marinette snickered. “Well, one of the big ones is to not reveal too much about the future, okay? I need you to tell us what happened, but when you do, try not to spill to much future stuff. Don’t tell us anything other than what we need to know. Can you do that for us?”

Caline nodded. “I can do that. Um, so, uh, I was playing in my room, and there was an akuma alert, and mom and dad said they’d be right back. I was watching the fight on my phone, and then there was this huge flash of light, and everyone froze.” Caline shuddered. “Everyone. Like, the whole city.”

Adrien frowned. “How come you didn’t get frozen?”

“Mom and dad said my room has magic shields that protect it from akumas and magic and stuff,” Caline said. “They said it was just built like that.”

“Don’t tell anymore than that,” Marinette said. “Okay, so you were in a shelter of some kind. That was clever thinking on your parents’ part to make your bedroom so safe.”

“It was mom’s bedroom,” Caline offered.

Marinette looked to Adrien. “Wanna tell me something about the apartment?”

Adrien shrugged. “Look, Chloé did a ton of stuff when we moved in. Maybe she shielded it?”

Marinette turned to Caline. “Sweetie, do you remember anything about the akuma they were facing? Anything that might help figure out what happened?”

Caline nodded. “He called himself Stopwatch. I think when mom broke this clock thing on his chest, it, um, exploded? And that caused, um, everything. I think.”

Marinette glanced to Ziggy, who was floating beside Caline. “Anything you want to add, Ziggy?”

“Mistress,” Ziggy said with a mid-air bow. “Might I say you are lookin’ plumb lovely.”

“Thank you,” Marinette sighed. “Ziggy, the akuma?”

Ziggy nodded. “Right. So, from what I could see on the magic talky glass, he was all defeated and such, but then he said somethin’ ta honk off yer daughter, and she landed a good hit right on his chest and from what I could gather, that’s when things went south.”

Caline looked to Marinette, her face a picture of worry. “Can you help?”

Marinette bit her lip as she thought. “I think so. Had… Was I… Huh. Was Ladybug there?”

Caline blinked. “Well, um, yeah. I just said… Yeah, she was there.”

“Had she thrown her lucky charm?”

Caline nodded. “I think so. I something on the live feed. I think it was a pair of scissors?”

Marinette allowed herself a small smile. “Right. How did you get here, sweetie?”

“The door at the hotel.” Caline leaned in. She cupped her hand to the side of her mouth and whispered, “the secret one.”

Marinette looked to Adrien. “Do you know anything about a secret door?”

Adrien shrugged. “Chloé never mentioned anything to me about one.”

“Huh,” Marinette said. “Would you mind showing me the door?”

Caline nodded. “I can do that.”

***

When they arrived at the Grand Paris, they were met with a flurry of questions. Caline Jr. was stunned as she looked around at everyone, and everyone in turn kept eyeing her.

It didn’t help that all three of them were transformed.

“Can I play with your staff?” Emmy asked, wide-eyed.

“How come you’re a cowboy?” Camille asked.

“She’s a cowgirl,” Emmy said.

“Wanna see my room?” Camille asked. “We’ve got dinosaurs.”

“You are so adorable!” Sabrina gushed. She had taken off work early to come up and mee the new hero.

“Ziggy, huh?” Chloé asked, smirking. She handed a fussy baby Gina to Chat Noir. “Here you go. This one needs changing.”

Chat frowned. “Ugh. You’re right.” He held his daughter on his hip. “Girls, give the Captain a little space, would you? She just got here.”

“Hey, kiddo.” Caline (senior) knelt in front of the shy hero. “You really leaned into the role, didn’t you?”

Captain Cowgirl looked at the redheaded woman with wide eyes. “Are you Ms. Bourgeois?”

Caline smiled. “That I am. Pleased to meet you, Captain.”

Caline junior swallowed. “I, um, Ziggy told me about you and how cool you were. I, um, I made this from the stories he told.” She looked to the older redhead. “Is that okay?”

Caline smiled and felt herself tearing up. “I think it’s perfect, sweetheart. You wear the suit well. Do… Am I allowed to ask if I know you?”

Caline junior shuffled her feet. “We, um, I…”

Caline, while not the instant connect-the-dots master Marinette was, had been exposed to enough awkward time travel nonsense that she was starting to put things together. “Are we, um, are we related?”

“Caline,” Ladybug said. “You shouldn’t ask that.”

Caline senior sighed. “Fine, fine.” She looked to the small hero again and thought about it, but didn’t say anything more.

Chloé leaned towards Ladybug and whispered, “I take back everything I ever said about Ziggy. This is comedy gold.” She spoke up. “Can I get a shot of the two of you? I’d like to have a picture of both Captains.”

Caline senior shot her daughter a withering look before sighing and dropping to one knee. “Come here, partner,” Caline said as she patted her leg.

Caline junior looked to Ladybug, who smiled and nodded. “If you want to, it’s fine.”

Caline junior shuffled over and sat on the older woman’s knee as Chloé took out her phone and snapped a quick picture. “Perfect,” the blonde said, still smirking.

“So,” Ladybug said in her business voice. “We actually came by for work reasons. The Captain here needed my help with something and said the hotel had a, um, secret door?”

Caline junior nodded.

“What secret door?” Chloé asked, confused.

“NOPE,” A voice yelled from behind them. The group jumped and turned to see the adult Bunnyx standing there. She had a frown on her face and her arms were crossed. Marinette noted that her hair had some gray in it, and her mask looked like it was covering some lines.

“I was wondering when you’d show up,” Ladybug said.

“It took me a bit, what with the timeline turning itself inside out,” Bunnyx said with a chuff. She glanced down at Caline junior. “Captain. Care to tell me what you’re doing here?”

The small hero shuffled back to Marinette’s side. “I didn’t know what else to do.”

“She really came through for us today,” Ladybug said. “And from the sound of it, something big happened where she came from. Where were you?”

Bunnyx let out a small sigh. “Trying to fix things, but then someone did a hopscotch back in time and I’ve been trying to track her instead of cleaning up what happened.”

“I’m sorry,” Caline junior said. “I didn’t mean to do anything bad.”

Bunnyx rolled her eyes and messed up the young girl’s hair. “I get it. You’re not in trouble, kiddo. I just wish you’d waited, like, five more minutes.”

“So, is everything fixed?” Ladybug asked. “Can she go home?”

Bunnyx looked to Ladybug. “What, back in her time? Hell no. That era is stuck.” She eyed Ladybug. “We need a Ladybug to fix things.”

Ladybug smiled. “Well then, I think you’re in luck.”

“Can I come?” Chat Noir asked.

Bunnyx answered before Ladybug could. “You need to get your kids home before five.”

“Why before five?” Chat Noir asked.

“Because, um, I’m coming by with an offer to babysit so you two can go out to dinner?”

“You are?” Ladybug asked, confused.

“You are?” Chat Noir asked, a small smile growing on his face.

“Yep,” Bunnyx said with a nod. “One sec.” She slid out her pocket watch and opened it. The group watched as she frantically typed something on a holoscreen.”

“Yep!” Bunnyx said as she quickly closed the watch. “This time’s me will be there by five, so, um, go freshen up. Please. Now.”

Chat Noir sighed and nodded. “I get it. Come one, you two. Let’s get you home.” He looked to Chloé. “Were they good?”

Chloé nodded. “They were fine. They’re always fine.”

Chat Noir glanced at Chloé’s very round belly. “You good?”

“I’m here,” Chloé said. “Another two weeks, and I can lay down again.”

Bunnyx snorted.

“What?” Chloé asked. The annoyance in her voice was clear.

“Try three and a half,” Bunnyx said.

“WHAT?” Chloé snapped. A grinning Sabrina took her hand as Chloé fumed. “He’s going to be late? That’s…”

“Ridiculous,” Bunnyx finished. “Come on, you two.” She looked to the two waiting heroes as she opened a portal. “We’ve got a city to save.”

***

When the three heroes arrived in the future, Ladybug was a bit unsettled. Everything was quiet. More than that, it was still.

She shuddered. “This is slightly familiar.”

“Sorry,” Bunnyx said. “It’s why I didn’t want Adrien to come. I figured you’d associate this with the whole Chat Blanc thing. I didn’t think you’d be comfortable with, well…”

Ladybug put her hand on Bunnyx’s shoulder. “Thanks, Alix. I appreciate it.”

They walked a short distance to the Louvre, Caline’s hand firmly planted in Ladybug’s. When they got there, all three heroes took a moment to register the sight in front of them.

The heroes of Paris were stuck, some of them in midair, and all were pointed towards what looked like a green and purple man. He was tired up in a thin, black cord that was being held by what looked like Ladybug, who was stuck, mid-punch, with her fist shattering what looked like a giant clock on the colorful man’s chest.

Marinette drifted past the heroes that were present. Some of them looked extremely familiar, while others were brand new to her. She did her best to block them out, as the less she knew about it, the better. Instead, she focused on Ladybug.

Marinette put her hand to the young woman’s cheek. This ladybug’s uniform was inverted from hers, black with red spots. Also, she was wearing a red jacket, complete with metal shoulder clasps.

Marinette looked into a set of familiar green eyes that were peeking through a mask that was slightly covered by a mop of short, brown hair.

“Can you help her?” Caline asked. “Can you help my mom?”

Marinette leaned forward and kissed the frozen, angry-looking young woman on the forehead. “I’m going to, sweetie. I promise.” She looked down and saw a pair of scissors on the woman’s hip.

“I’m guessing you understood the charm?” Bunnyx asked.

Ladybug nodded. “Sewing scissors. I figured.” She looked to Bunnyx. “I was supposed to get a visitor today, wasn’t I?”

“Not saying one way or the other,” Bunnyx replied.

Ladybug just smirked as she threw the scissors into the air. A massive wave of Ladybugs washed over the city, and suddenly, everything was moving again.

The groups faltered, a flurry of “what just happened?” “Did we just die?” And “Don’t do that!” screams all echoed around the courtyard.

Gina blinked as she stood in front of a restored security guard. “Um, did… Did I just cure you?”

“MOM!”

Gina, still surprised, barely caught the black and white blur that was her daughter as she was nearly tackled. “I thought I’d never see you again!” Caline sobbed.

“Ca, er, um, hey. What are you talking about?” Gina asked, bewildered. She piked up her daughter and hugged her. “What do you mean you…”

Gina glanced past the group for one second as a white light caught her eye. It was only for a moment, but she saw a familiar red and black hero smile and wave at her just before disappearing into a white portal.

“Was that…?” Gina half-whispered as Caline hugged her tighter. She glanced at her little girl. “What did you do today, sweetie?”

Caline looked to her mother and smiled. “I got to meet a whole bunch of people, and I saw Gramma and Grandpa, and, and I had my first fight. And I won! And… And I used the key. I’m sorry.”

Gina smiled and kissed her daughter on the forehead. “Well, if what I think happened just happened, you’ve got nothing to apologize about.”

Beside them, a yellow and black bee-themed hero stepped up and gave them a hug. “What’s this little one doing out here?”

“I think,” Gina said as she glanced to where the portal had been. “She just saved Paris. And us.”

“Well now,” Yellowjacket said, smiling. “What do we call you, Miss hero?”

Caline looked at her parents and smiled. “Y’all can call me Captain Cowgirl.” She tipped her hat.

André sputtered and buried his face in his wife’s shoulder. Gina started elbowing him while doing her best not to bust up. “Stop it. Stop it! You’re gonna make me drop her!”

“We, um, we need to call Gramma Chloé tonight,” André said. “Better yet, let’s swing by and visit. This is just perfect.”

“You’re terrible,” Gina scolded him. “And I agree.”

Caline laughed and hugged her parents as they did their best not to break down in laughter.

***

That night, after dinner, a visit to the Grand Paris, and so, so many pictures, Caline nestled in her bed as her parents kissed her goodnight and quietly shut the door to her room.

“Hey Ziggy,” Caline whispered.

“Ma’am,” Ziggy said from his small pillow.

“Thanks for today,” Caline said.

“Aw, shucks. I didn’t do anything. Y’all were the one who took out that varmint. I just provided the wardrobe.”

“You told me I could do it,” Caline said.

“Yeah, well, you did do it,” Ziggy said. “I ain’t never had a holder as young as you are, but I’ll tell you what; I ain’t never had one as brave as you, either. It took real courage to make that call and go back in time, and it took even more to face down that dumb ole’ plant guy. Yer every bit yer parent’s kid, and every bit yer namesake in courage.”

Caline smiled at that. “Thanks Ziggy.” She scooted to the small goat creature and smiled. “You did good.”

Ziggy started to tear up. “I… I did?” In a small voice, he asked. “Y’all think I’m good?”

“You’re the best kwami in the whole wide world,” Caline said. She leaned forward and kissed him on the forehead.

Ziggy blushed and made a small circle with his foot in the sheets. “Aw, shucks, ma’am.” He choked a bit on his words. T’weren’t nothin’.”

Caline settled in, her eyes on Ziggy. “Hey, can you tell me a story about her?”

“Shucks,” Ziggy said. “Which one do you want ta hear?”

“You pick,” Caline said as she yawned.

Ziggy leaned back and rubbed his chin. “Okay then. Well, there was this one time? A huge apartment buildin’ had caught fire. Anyway, yer Gramma Chloé had already charged over, but ole’ Caline, she just knew that yer Gramma needed help. So, she goes ta get me from restroom dungeon, and then like lightnin’ she charged right over and into the fire.”

Ziggy glanced over at Caline, who was already asleep. Smiling, he leaned back against his pillow and stared up at the ceiling.

“Anyway, ole’ Caline bursts in like a tornado and gets straight ta work. She just scooped up that Gramma o’ yours and this little gal that was hidin’, and like a comet, she just burst outta the building right as it was comin’ down. She plumb saved both their lives that night, as she was set ta do. On a count of her bein’ a hero.”

Ziggy glanced over and heard soft snores coming from his charge. He floated over and made sure her covers were pulled up to her chin.

“She was a right fine hero, just like you.” He floated up and kissed her on the forehead. He then glanced to the careworn reading chair beside Caline’s bedside.

For a moment he paused. He then smiled at the seemingly empty space.

“Sweet dreams, Miss Caline.” Ziggy said in the quiet darkness of the room. “You rest easy. I’ll keep watch.” He settled against Caline. “I promise. I’ll keep her safe.”

While the future is never set, Ziggy knew that come what may, he would do his very best for the young girl sleeping beside him. He knew there was nothing he wouldn’t do to keep her safe, and that he would never stop working to earn her trust.

She was his holder, and she had said he was good. She said he was the best.

And coming from Captain Cowgirl, that meant the world.

#fanfiction #captain cowgirl #miraculous ladybug #mamabug

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ideasthatbuildcities · 4 years

Text

Why Are You Doing This to Me? - Inuvember Day 2

Hello everyone! I’m here to bring you Chapter 2 of my Inuvember fic “It’s Time Already”.

Like I said, I’m going to use the Inuvember prompts and write a whole story inspired by several prompts. The idea of this story is that you can read each chapter as a One-Shot for each prompt or you can read the whole story throughout Inuvember!

This is going to be a very angsty fic with a happy ending, I promise you. So please, bear with me.

Summary: After the final battle with Naraku, the well closes and never opens again, leaving Inuyasha and Kagome 500 years apart. Inuyasha decides he will wait for her, but he knows his friends can’t do that. How do you cope with losing the love of your life and think that you would never see them again? How do you cope with not being able to say goodbye to your best friend? Only time will tell. [InuKag] [MirSan]

You can read chapter 2 below, in FF.net or in AO3.

“Why Are You Doing This to Me?” - Kagome.

“Inuyasha, Inuyasha!” Kagome screamed after she saw him disappear in the well. She could feel her heart pumping loudly against her ribcage. He couldn’t be gone. This couldn’t be it. She climbed down the stairs of the well, sitting at the bottom. “Please, please, Inuyasha I know you are there,” Kagome whispered as she started digging with her bare hands, as if she could dig through time and space, just to see him again. “Please, please, I need to see him again,” she begged once more. To whom? She didn’t know. It was getting hard for her to see, the tears in her eyes making her vision blurry.

“Kagome, you need to rest, I’m sure the well will open tomorrow,” her mother said as she grabbed her by her arms, trying to comfort her and making her stand up. That simple action startled Kagome, when did her mother climb all the way down to the well?

“Momma, he’s gone,” Kagome said, looking up to her mother. Everyone was gone, not just Inuyasha; Sango, Miroku, Shippo, Kaede… all of them were gone. They were all… dead. Realization hit Kagome like a ton of bricks and she started to cry, clinging to her mother as if she were her lifeline.

“Kagome, you need to sleep, everything will be better tomorrow, I assure you,” Momma Higurashi replied, kissing Kagome on the top of the head.

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Kagome stood up in front of the well. The day before had been a failure, she tried to jump into the well and nearly broke every single bone in her body. That day she decided she would take a different approach.

She put both hands on the well and tried to feel that spiritual power that used to come from the wood. That power that was within the well… She felt nothing. The well was a simple well and no longer had any sort of spiritual power. That was why it wasn’t working anymore. Its power was gone, she was back in her time as if everything was back where it should be. Except… she wasn't where she belonged. She belonged right next to Inuyasha, right by his side.

“Please, I need to see him again,” Kagome cried once more, sorrow filling every inch of her body. “Please,” she begged again.

From that day forwards, Kagome would visit the well every single day, trying to sense any sort of spiritual power coming from it. And every single day, she would leave with a lump in her throat and with a little bit less of hope of ever seeing Inuyasha again.

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“Where am I?” Kagome wondered, she was standing in a beautiful meadow, surrounded by trees. Kagome took a deep breath, the air felt so pure. Hope building up inside of her, she looked around. It couldn’t be real, could it? Was she back at the Feudal Era? Her heart was about to burst from happiness as she started to run, looking for everyone. “Inuyasha!” Kagome screamed his name, looking for him. He should be hearing her, right? Kagome kept running, and calling everyone’s names, “Sango, Miroku, Shippo!”. Suddenly, the whole force of her body sent her falling down. She must have tripped on something, her knees hurting from the fall. Why did she fall? Kagome looked around and saw a bump on the earth. Horror building up inside of her, she paid more attention to her surroundings.

Kagome was facing four graves. Covering her mouth as if that would muffle her screams, she read the names on the graves: “Inuyasha”, “Sango”, “Miroku” and “Shippo”. It couldn’t be. Were they… dead? Feeling sick to her stomach, Kagome started to cry.

They are dead, they are never coming back, you are never coming back. They all died and you weren’t there for them.

Kagome woke up in the middle of the night, completely covered in sweat. Slowly coming back to her senses she started to remember her dream. Everything had felt so real and it was so painful to her. She didn’t know how long it would take for this wound to heal or if it would ever heal at all. She was exhausted. Every night she would dream something different, that she was with Inuyasha, that she was pregnant with Inuyasha’s baby, that she saw her friends get married and have babies, that she played and took care of Miroku and Sango’s children, that she had a little girl with Inuyasha and they were happy together…

Every night was a constant reminder of everything she had lost. The dreams were worse than the nightmares. Monsters and death she could bear, dreams where she was happy and then waking up alone, having nothing? Those were the ones that gutted her.

Feeling miserable, Kagome grabbed a sweater and headed to the Goshinboku. That tree was guilty of everything, it was guilty of making her time-travel, it was where they first met, she was connected to them through that fucking tree that was laughing at her.

“How could you do this to me?” Kagome spoke up to the tree. Why was now the time to stop working? Her mission had ended but her relationship with Inuyasha and her life were just starting. Since the Shikon Jewel was destroyed then there was no use for her anymore? What about her feelings? Tears were running down her face as she looked up to the Goshinboku.

She was tired of this, but she wouldn’t stop trying.

“I miss him everyday, I miss everybody, please, let me go back,” Kagome begged once again, sinking into her knees. “I want to go back, please, take me back, take me to him. Take me to Inuyasha.” The mention of his name, saying his name out loud made her sob even harder. She was so tired. Every day that passed by made her time in the Feudal Era seem like a dream. Everything was so distant, so different, everything seemed so far away…

She felt the tree top move and her hopes came back full force. Had that worked? Kagome couldn’t believe it, maybe after all these years the well had reopened? She ran as fast as she could to the well, stood in front of it and placed both hands on the rim of it.

Nothing. She felt nothing. No sacred power, no burst of energy… nothing. It was the same broken well that has been for the past two years.

That night, Kagome made up her mind. Everything had been a cruel twist of fate and she needed to let go of the idea of ever seeing her friends again, of ever seeing him again. She would stop waiting for the well to reopen. She needed to move on with her life. Her life, that life was in the past and was no longer part of her. She would do everything in her power to get closure.

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Kagome was excited for the first time in what felt like ages. She had found a text that dated all the way back from the Feudal Era and she could feel how her heart raced. It was a very old book, so old that the pages could be destroyed by merely looking at them. She started to read, to search through the pages.

This book was written by an old monk and Kagome felt her heart skip a beat when she realized she had seen that handwriting before. It was Miroku’s handwriting! It was different somehow, shakier than it used to be. Then it dawned on her, he must have written this when he was Kaede’s age. The tears started to build up in the corner of her eye and she could feel how her body started to tremble; she fought the tears as she tried to keep reading. The mention of a kitsune friend, the mention of a warrior: his love and mother of five children.

Kagome couldn’t stop the laughter that came out of her mouth. Miroku and Sango had five children together! They were there and they were very real. They actually existed and apparently they lived their well deserved happily ever after. The joy led to sadness, as she realized those kids were practically her nephews and nieces and she never got to be aunt Kagome to them. She never got to hold Sango’s hand and help her through her labor. She wasn’t there to cry tears of joy when Sango found out she was pregnant and-.

Kagome needed to close her eyes for a second and get a hold of the table because everything started to spin really fast. She needed to remind herself why she was there. She needed closure. Of course life moved on for them, of course they got to live the life they deserved. Knowing she wasn’t there for them was too painful to bear, but she needed to feel that pain. She needed to know what happened to her friends.

Once everything stopped spinning, her eyes went back to the last sentence she was reading, she wanted to devour every single word Miroku wrote. Her heat stopped when she read his name.

“Inuyasha…” Kagome murmured, as if he was a deep secret that no one could even hear his name. She leaned back on her chair, moving away from the book as if the book burnt her. Did he find love? Did he die on the battlefield? Did he have a family? She took a deep breath and leaned slowly towards the book. The mention of Inuyasha was brief: He took good care of Kaede’s village, he took good care of Miroku’s and Sango’s kids and their grandchildren. Kagome knew it was extremely selfish to be relieved that Inuyasha didn’t find love, at least during Sango and Miroku’s time. She felt glad that it was, at least, as hard to find love again for him as it was for her.

Towards the very end of the book Miroku wrote, she spotted her name and she couldn’t stop the smile that formed in her face because she could swear she remembered all those times that she explained to Miroku that her name was written using hiragana only, and not kanji.

And I’ve written all of this because I want to share my story with the world, but specially, I want to share my story with my dear friend Kagome. She’s no longer with us but I know this book will find the way to reach her hands and she will read this.

Kagome:

We lived our lives fully, but we missed you deeply. We know you miss us all, but rest assured we were happy. Don’t lose hope, because we know you’ll be happy too.

And with that sentence, the book came to an end. Kagome felt like time had stopped and she wasn’t able to move. The only thing she could feel were her tears that were freely falling from her face. Had she just read some words Miroku wrote to her five hundred years ago?

She never thought she would know what happened to them, less alone read a message from five hundred years ago. But there they were, words written specially to her and Miroku knew she would look for them.

That night, Kagome dreamt of Miroku, Sango, their children, Shippo and Inuyasha. It wasn’t unusual of her to dream of them; what was unusual is that she didn’t wake up covered in sweat or crying. When she woke up, she felt happy. She felt as if she was able to say goodbye to her friends.

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Kagome looked at the miko garment on top of what used to be her bed. She looked around, as if wanting to remember, wanting to keep her past alive, wanting to keep him alive. Her heart plummeted when she saw her window, waiting for his red haori or his silver mane to show up, as he used to do five years ago.

She gulped down a sob and decided she was there to help her family and that’s all. She would be the miko her family shrine needed, only for this festival. Her grandfather recently passed away and the family needed someone to carry around the shrine duties for today. After all, she used to be a miko in training.

Kagome quietly changed her clothes and looked into her reflection in the mirror, looking how much she resembled Kikyo now that she was older. It seemed like a door was opened because she couldn’t fight the tears this time, the grief coming crashing down on her like a waterfall. Everything was too painful, she was looking at the life she could have had with Inuyasha. She remembered her friends, her journey, her grief. She remembered everything as if it were yesterday. She was back at the bottom of the well, begging for it to open again. All she could do was sit down in her bed and cry, mourning everything she had lost those four years ago.

“Kagome are you okay?” her mother asked, sitting down right next to her and holding her. “Do you feel sick? What happened?”

“I’m okay momma, it’s just… looking in the mirror was a bad idea.” Kagome answered back, trying to calm herself down. Even though she had closure and she thought the wound had already closed, some days were harder than others.

Her mother was always there to pick her up when the weight of the past was too much, when she woke up in the middle of the night after having nightmares, when she felt a lump in her throat after seeing Sota eating ramen...

“Kagome, if it’s too much we can find another wa-”

“No, momma, I’m okay. I will be. I need a minute,” Kagome cut her mother in. She closed her eyes and tried to focus exclusively on her breathing. She breathed in like she had learned to do all those years ago. Inhale, two, three, four, five. Exhale, seven, eight, nine, ten. Inhale, two, three, four, five. Exhale, six, seven, eight, nine, ten.

Eventually her breathing technique calmed her down and she was able to stop crying. She was doing this to help her family and to keep the memory of her grandfather alive. She needed to be the miko that she used to be.

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“This is the Goshinboku,” Kagome said to a couple of visitors. They were supposed to be the last ones to enter the shrine since the shrine was about to close.

“Why is this tree so special?” the girl asked, looking at her with her round eyes.

“This tree transcends time. Legend has it that a girl met a boy under this tree five hundred years ago and they fell in love only to be separated again. This tree being the only hope for them to be reunited again,” Kagome replied with a polite smile, one that never reached her eyes.

“Oh...” the girl simply replied, unconsciously leaning closer to her boyfriend.

Kagome knew the girl wanted to hear a fairy tale about lovers reuniting, but she couldn’t bring herself to tell that story. That story felt wrong because it wasn’t real. She was still waiting for Inuyasha and the tree refused to help them.

She said goodbye to the visitors and looked up to the tree once more, taking a deep breath and wishing to be reunited with Inuyasha again. It was five years ago, when she turned fifteen, that she met him. Now, the only birthday gift she only cared about was being reunited with Inuyasha again.

She looked at her watch and saw that she needed to hurry if she wanted to meet with her friends at the bar today. Since she was the last one to turn twenty in her group, the girls wanted to take her out to a bar so she could legally taste alcohol for the first time. Kagome shook her head while remembering all those times she tasted sake in the Feudal Era, when she was staying the night at a palace thanks to Miroku’s shenanigans. If only her friends knew how much she used to drink when she was fifteen years old.

In the corner of her eye, Kagome saw a dark haired man getting closer to the Well House and she wanted to scream in frustration. She was so tired that the idea of dealing with tourists that barely understood Japanese made her want to scream. Couldn’t the man read the signs that said “No visitors allowed in this area”? She just wanted to change clothes and try to go back to being Kagome.

“Excuse me, sir. This place is not allowed for visitors,” she said while getting closer to the man.

“I think I’m allowed to be here, Kagome,” he simply replied.

When the man turned around to face her, the wind was knocked out of her lungs. Suddenly, the only thing Kagome was able to hear was the beating of her heart, beating so loudly that it was almost painful. The only thing she could see were a pair of golden eyes. She covered her mouth with her hand, shock written all over her face.

Did he call me Kagome? How does he know my name?

The man that was standing in front of her was an older, more human, version of Inuyasha. Was this a reincarnation of Inuyasha? Was this actually Inuyasha? It couldn’t be. If this man was Inuyasha, where were his ears? What happened to his silver mane? But how did this man know her name? He had to be Inuyasha. She tried to fight them, but the tears were already building up in the corner of her eyes.

Inuyasha was dead, wasn’t he? He stayed in the past, she stayed in the present. That’s what she told herself over and over again every night when she woke up from a painful dream.

Maybe this person was a descendant of Inuyasha? There was no way that this man in front of her could be Inuyasha, her Inuyasha. But again, how did he know her name?

A swift breeze danced between them and she could hear the rustle of the leaves of the Goshinboku, as if they were whispering something. She remembered Miroku’s words, the ones she read over a year ago.

Don’t lose hope, because we know you’ll be happy too.

Could it be? Was that Miroku’s way of telling her that she will be reunited with Inuyasha?

Afraid of breaking the illusion, she did the only think she could think of: she whispered his name.

“Inuyasha.”

“It was time already,” he simply replied with a smile.

In that moment, Kagome knew. The man in front of her was Inuyasha, he was her Inuyasha. She didn’t know how, she didn’t care. The only thing that mattered was that Inuyasha was alive, and that they were finally reunited.

Kagome did the only thing she could do: she ran into his arms and she hugged him the same way she did when she dreamt of being reunited with Inuyasha. The only thing that changed is that he hugged her back and when Kagome opened her eyes, he was still there.

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Aaaaand cut!

This was Kagome’s chapter. Tomorrow will be Sango’s chapter so yes, we are not getting the InuKag reunion we all want yet. But I say we give Sango a chance, she has a story to tell!

I honestly hope you like this chapter, I can assure you it broke my heart several times but I wanted to make sure to do Kagome’s pain justice.

Like I mentioned, this chapter is not heavily edited as my other works, so sorry if there are any typos.

Tagging:

@witchygirl99 @fantastiqueparfait @doginabirdcage @inuvember @hinezumi @meggz0rz @heyy-ahriii @cammysansstuff

Let me know if you want on/off the tag list!

#Inuvember #Inuyasha fanfiction #Inuyasha #fanfiction #fanfic #InuKag #Kagome Higurashi #Kagome #Sango #Miroku #MirSan #canon divergence #angst fanfiction #LiaSango writes #InuKag fanfiction

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glenngaylord · 3 years

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Glenn Gaylord’s Capsules From The Bunker – Summer 2021 Lockdown Style

Like many of you, I’ve lost all concept of space and time during this lockdown era. I’d watch movie after movie, but somehow forget to write about them. I’d consume films for sustenance, but then I’d move on to the next task of cleaning a room, doing a crossword puzzle, or staring at my dog for hours on end. Thank goodness I have a few friends to have breakfast with every now and then, or else I’d have assumed I had been transported to a cabin in Montana. “Am I a film critic or a hermit?” I’d ask myself daily…that is, if I even understand what days are anymore. All of this is to say that I have a lot of catching up to do now that we’ve taken a baby step or two towards returning to some sense of normalcy. Wait a minute. What’s that? Highly transmissible variants? Back into the cave I go. While I still can, I’ve managed to blurt out a few capsule reviews of some films worth mentioning.

In Between Gays – Film Review: Summer Of 85 ★★★★

Prolific French filmmaker, François Ozon, has made a career out of finding dark crevices in the most unexpected of places. Here, with Summer Of 85, he tweaks this New Wave era gay romance just enough to upend our expectations. In pure Talented Mr. Ripley meets Call Me By Your Name meets Luca fashion, Ozon spins what could have been that sun-dappled, seaside summer that changed everything into a love that perhaps never was, zeroing in instead on a young man’s obsession for something unobtainable. Beautifully shot and acted, Ozon takes the story to more provocative places than you’d initially expect while still maintaining the boppy fizz of a great Cure song. Despite the mish mash of tones, the film has a pulse all of its own. It’ll make you swoon, pull the rug out from under you, and then make you wonder how he managed to quietly get a little twisted.

Summer Of 85 currently in select theaters, see official website for details. Released on DVD and BluRay August 17th.

Truffle In Mind – Film Review: Pig ★★★★

Writer-director Michael Sarnoski makes an auspicious feature debut with the story of a man searching for his stolen truffle-hunting pig. Caked in dirt, blood and looking not so much like a homeless man but as a person who died inside a thousand times over, Nicholas Cage gives one of his best performances ever as a man who seeks the truth at all costs. He asks his only connection to the outside world, Amir, played wonderfully by Alex Wolff, to drive him through Portland’s dark underbelly to retrieve his pet companion.

Although the film takes us to a rather unbelievable “Fight Club” moment, it generally holds its mood with credibility. It’s a great calling card, not only for Sarnoski, but also for his talented cinematographer Patrick Scola, who brings a painterly quality to every single image. The film finds beauty in a bite of food, a breath of air, or simply the compassion between two main characters who have seemingly little in common. It’s a shame the trailer elicits laughs when Cage utters lines like, “Who has my pig?” Clearly they want to sell the actor’s neo-gonzo persona, but Cage brings so much depth and seriousness to this project, only raising his voice once. He deserves the highest praise for committing to such an oddly touching, gorgeously quiet story. At risk of sounding Dad-jokey, the only thing that hogs the scenery is his porcine friend.

Pig is in theaters now.

All Is Lost – Film Review: Old ★★

In 1999, M. Night Shyamalan made a great film, The Sixth Sense, and has been chasing that dragon ever since, often to diminishing returns. His films, however, often do well because he has great concepts, a keen eye for visuals and timing, yet things always seem to turn clunky and inane real fast. With Old, he continues down that path by giving us something compelling—a group of people on a beach who age quickly—and ruining it with dialogue seemingly written by an algorithm and rendered unintelligible much of the time, while the terrific cast seem to have no idea how to make Shyamalan’s words sound any better than a high school play. A couple of sequences did make me sit up and take notice, and he uses compositions and offscreen space well, but overall, Old plays like a stretched-out episode of Lost, and like that cool but overstuffed series, you’re not gonna get very good explanations as to what transpires. Sure, the big twist works well enough on some level, but it doesn’t save you from the discomfort of watching good actors flatline in more ways than one.

Old is currently in theaters nationally.

Hi Fidel-ity – Film Review: Revolution Rent ★★★1/2

Shot in 2014, Andy Señor Jr., who played Angel on Broadway along with a host of other credits, staged the classic musical Rent in Havana during a thaw in our relations with the Communist regime. He did so against the wishes of his Cuban family, who suffered under Castro and insisted his production would merely serve as a propaganda tool for the government. He plows ahead instead, capturing the months long process in a rather artless home movie style. The aesthetics don’t carry any weight here when you have such a compelling subject matter. Witnessing his actors struggling with their performances while also living in harsh conditions adds new layers to the late Jonathan Larson’s story of squatters in the age of AIDS.

With a limited talent pool, one of whom doesn’t feel comfortable with the gay subject matter and another who lives with HIV himself, Señor finds new connections to Larson’s material as well as an affection for his heritage. What we may have taken for granted here in the US in terms of sexuality and gender expression feels like a whole new experience when seen through a Cuban lens. Señor speaks out against the Castros with quick sequences showing moments of oppression, thus preventing this film from perpetuating the lies of its government. Instead, he gifts the people of this poor, struggling country with a real sense of community and its first burst of musical theater in ages. Sure he’s a privileged westerner who dangles hope in front of people only to return to his cushy life, but he does so with heart and good intentions. You end up loving and rooting for his cast in this moving, sweet documentary.

Revolution Rent is currently streaming on HBO Max.

Do The Hustlers – Film Review: Zola ★★★★

Call me wary when I went to see a movie based on a viral twitter thread and directed by Janicza Brava, whose Sundance Award-winning short, Gregory Go Boom, proved to be not only tone deaf but downright offensive towards people with disabilities. Her new film, Zola, excels however, in ways her prior work has not. Taylour Paige, a standout in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, plays the title character, a stripper who meets Stefani (Riley Keough) one night and is convinced to travel with her down to Florida where they can make a lot of money dancing all weekend. Things, however, do not go as planned, with Zola’s story escalating from one insane twist after another. Paige and Keough are outstanding, as are Nicholas Braun and Colman Domingo as their traveling companions. Jason Mitchell, so great in Straight Outta Compton and Mudbound, brings a wild, dangerous energy, something he shares with the film itself. It comes across as The Florida Project meets Hustlers, but with its own surreal, unexpected tone. I laughed out loud often, especially with Paige’s loopy reactions to her surroundings and the giddy, zippy energy on display. Zola chews you up, twerks on your face, and spits you out, exhausted yet anxious to see whatever this talented group of people will do next.

Zola is currently playing in select theaters and available on demand.

Banned On The Run – Film Review: There Is No Evil ★★★★

It’s impossible to review There Is No Evil without giving away its central premise, so I will avoid as much description as possible. Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof has crafted a four-part anthology of sorts around an agonizing moral issue important to people worldwide. At the end of the first part, a stunning cut to an unforgettable visual reveals everything and allows you to watch the rest with informed eyes. Rasoulof seamlessly excels at different genres, from family drama, to action escape, to romance, weaving a tale of such depth and sorrow for its talented cast of characters.

The making of it proves as interesting at the film itself. Banned by the regime from producing feature films for two years and prohibited from traveling outside of Iran, Rasoulof, like any crafty filmmaker, came up with an ingenious plan. He slipped under the radar by calling these four short films, mostly shot in small towns far outside the reach of Tehran, and then had the final product smuggled out of the country. A filmmaker with such talent not only at telling stories, but the with ability to will his vision into existence against all odds, deserves the world’s attention.

There Is No Evil is available on DVD, BluRay and VOD now.

In Space No One Can Hear You Think – Film Review: F9: The Fast Saga ★★★

Considered review-proof, the Fast and the Furious franchise has ruled the box office for the past 20 years, so my calling its latest entry, F9: The Fast Saga, monumentally dumb will have zero influence on anyone’s decision to see it. We all know it’s big and stupid, as do the filmmakers. These films, deliver said stupid with such gusto, that you simply surrender and have a great time nonetheless. Nothing, however, prepared me, for this series to go all Moonraker, sending a car to a place no car has ever gone before. You’ll know it when you see it and probably say, “That’s ludicrous!” and also say, “That’s Ludacris!”

F9: The Fast Saga is currently playing on every screen on Earth and in select theaters throughout the universe.

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chestnut-b · 4 years

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Himawari Chapter 8

Beneath a masked smirk, the letter found a comfortable home in his breast pocket.

Note to self. Iruka is truly a man of extremes. A Hashira offers him a souvenir, and he asks for Orochimaru’s head or nothing at all.

Chapter 8 of a Demon Slayer AU

In the blink of an eye, summer had passed.

Iruka looked out into the vast forest as the winds of autumn blew past. The colours were already well in the midst of changing; green giving way to golds and reds. The lush soundscape of summer was no more, instead, the winds carried crisp, dry notes that only served to accent the chill that settled in his bones.

He sat now in what was a certain Hashira’s preferred napping spot, high above the school grounds. It had been a few months since the man had left, but now, in the teacher’s lap, a tired hound was napping, warm and content.

Iruka gazed at the slip of paper in his hand. He had to keep a good grip on it, lest a sudden gust of wind carried it off. Admittedly, he’d gone over its contents five times by now, but surely, he thought, one more time couldn’t hurt.

Iruka-sensei,

At the time of writing this, I’m still alive, isn’t that nice?

If you are too, then I’m glad it wasn’t a wasted trip for Bisuke.

You’ve spoiled him, and he’s pickier about his treats now, but I guess that’s fine.

Not much excitement where I am I’m afraid, and not much good tea either.

If you’d like a souvenir, you need only ask, though Guruko can’t carry very much. Please be reasonable, sensei.

It was signed off with a gracefully brushed henohenomoheji.

Iruka’s other hand rested in Bisuke’s fur. He stroked it absentmindedly, sighing.

“Bisuke, what do you think I should ask for?”

The hound in question merely whined, and nestled his head deeper under the sleeve of his haori. With a chuckle, Iruka carefully folded the paper back up, his fingers running over each fold and crease, before tucking it into his breast pocket. He let his palm linger on his chest.

It’d gotten just a bit warmer.

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“Sakura? What’s the matter?”

The next morning, Iruka had seen Bisuke off, well fed and rested. He was in the middle of making his afternoon rounds when his ears picked up the sounds of soft crying. The school had been set up in an abandoned shrine compound, and he’d found her behind the aged offering box, below the large twisted ropes and bells.

“I-Iruka-sensei.” She lifted her head, her cheeks red and tear stained.

He crouched before her and placed a hand on her head.

“I’m here. What’s wrong? Are you feeling unwell?”

Fresh tears welled up in her eyes. “I miss my parents.” She cried.

Iruka looked at his surroundings.

That’s right...her parents were shrine keepers.

Iruka hadn’t met them, but he knew they’d sheltered many slayers over the years, more than a few who were only alive today thanks to their intervention. The Harunos had been talented herbalists, and he’d come across their books on numerous occasions in Sarutobi’s library.

“I’m scared, sensei. I know we’re supposed to fight, but when I think about demons, all I can think about is running away.” She admitted, clutching her knees closer.

Iruka’s chest tightened. The child had only been here for half a year.

“Sakura, it’s only natural to feel that way. We’re human.” With the edge of his sleeve, he started to dry her cheeks. “Until you’re able to take care of yourself, we’re all here to protect you.” He’d say it as many times as he needed to.

“But the selections-“

“If you don’t want to take them, you don’t have to.” That was really the only saving grace in all this, he thought somberly. “If you want to follow in your parents’ footsteps, there are other ways to do it, Sakura. You don’t have to fight.”

“R-Really?” The relief in her eyes was apparent.

Iruka smiled gently, nodding. Getting up slowly, he offered her his hand.

“We’re teaching you to fight so you can protect yourself. Even if you don’t join the corp, there will always be a place for you.” He explained. Taking her small hand in his, he helped her to her feet.

Truth be told, it was something he always wished he could say to Naruto, but even he wasn’t sure those words would hold up under the weight of his destiny. Sakura at least, he didn’t have to worry for. If the Senju wouldn’t take her in, Sarutobi would. He’d see to it himself if it came down to it.

Hand in hand, they started to walk back into the compound. The rest of the children were playing catch, and their laughter echoed through the pavilion. By now, picking out Naruto’s voice amidst the chaos was second nature to Iruka.

Feeling a little more at ease, Sakura tugged gently on his hand, prompting him to face her.

“But sensei, fighting with swords, it’s a little fun.” She smiled sheepishly.

Iruka laughed and winked at the girl.

“Isn’t it? Sakura, don’t lose out to the boys. If they get out of hand when I’m not around, you’ll have to knock some sense into them for me.”

The smile widened into a returning grin.

“Ok!”

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Months he’d spent ranging and searching, only to reach another dead end.

I should be used to this by now. How many years has it been?

Kakashi stepped back to lean against a tree, his hands resting on the hilt of the blade propped before him. The moon, previously obscured by a sea of clouds before the battle, finally revealed itself, casting a soft light on the surrounding area.

It was a scene of pure carnage.

A small rural village had been wiped out by a single demon. The bodies left uneaten were strewn about, marred beyond recognition. The women and children had been taken first.

They were always taken first.

If he’d arrived just two days earlier, he could have saved these people.

Stop it, Kakashi. If you carry on like this, you’ll-

Shut up, Gai.

The Hashira sheathed his blade. He’d found a spot upwind, away from the stench of blood and decay. Taking a seat at the base of the tree, he brought his fingers to his lips, and soon a sharp whistle cut through the dead silence of the night. It wasn’t long before a crow descended, landing on his arm. With its usual beady stare, it waited for instructions.

“Call for the kakushi.”

The support members from the nearest outpost would need to deal with the aftermath. He couldn’t afford to be held up by the local authority. After all, the demon slayers didn’t have any kind of recognition from the governing powers.

The crow crooned softly before taking off into the sky. With a tired, hooded gaze, Kakashi watched as its dark silhouette melted into the night.

You aren’t too fond of them, are you?

An amused voice echoed in his head.

Exhausted, Kakashi didn’t resist the inviting pull of the recollection.

The teacher had watched him send off another report one late afternoon. He sat under the shade of the large tree that stood between their rooms. Unlike the cold glow of the moon, the light that fell was a warm gold, dappled. Bisuke had taken a liking to being curled up in Iruka’s lap, a habit he’d apparently picked up from Guruko, and the youth had been engrossed in a book that was decidedly not Icha-Icha.

It was true, he admitted. Kakashi wasn’t overly attached to his assigned crow messenger. That was why he had his hounds. Traveling on a plane of existence humans had no access to, they were only marginally slower than the birds. Impending tragedies, proclamations of death and loss. Any time a crow cried, it could be sending a slayer to his last battle.

No, unlike some of his comrades, he couldn’t find a reason to be fond of his messenger, exactly.

He walked up beside the teacher and leaned against the trunk of the tree.

“When was the last time a crow brought you good news then?” He’d challenged.

Iruka put down his book and closed his eyes with a considering look. His lips slowly turned into a smile, the kind that broadcasted thoughts of unabashed wickedness. Propping his chin with his hand, he looked up to Kakashi with a gleam in his eyes.

“Hmm. Obviously, when it told me you’d be coming here!”

Kakashi’s visible eye twitched incredulously.

Iruka tried to keep a straight face, but quickly ended up turning his head away, bringing a hand to his mouth in a sorry attempt to stifle his laughter.

“Oi, don’t laugh so hard at your own joke.” he’d sighed, exasperated.

It only served to have the opposite effect. Bisuke, awoken by the shaking, looked up, blinking at Kakashi blearily.

After a few more awkward moments, the laughter finally settled.

“But you know, in hindsight, it’s not a joke. I really do mean it” Iruka sighed with a soft expression.

Kakashi didn’t know what to say to that. He supposed he felt pleased by the admission, weirdly enough. He’d been sent to do a job, and while he’d dreaded it at first, being away from where he was most useful, he couldn’t say it was a complete waste of time. Iruka had proven to be a patient teacher in the art of fuda seals. It was also undeniably interesting to watch him at work; the paper coming to life with scriptures composed of inky, stylised crows.

Regrettably, the techniques used for the bounded field required a deep knowledge and understanding of the terrain, far beyond what he had time for. While he couldn’t hope to achieve the same level of expertise by a long shot, he’d been taught a few tricks, and he always appreciated the opportunity to pick Iruka’s brain.

“You don’t have a crow of your own?”

Iruka shook his head. “You know I don’t get sent out on missions. Even the sword I use now belonged to my father.”

Another curiosity.

“Well, I can only say you’re not missing much. They’re supposed to be for official use only.” He’d said ‘supposedly’, remembering at the back of his mind, the numerous occasions Gai sent his just to annoy him.

Loud and brash, just like its owner. It even had a bowl cut to match.

Iruka leaned his head back against the tree. A group of starlings had soared by after emerging from the surrounding forest, their cries echoing in the evening sky.

He looked up at them wistfully, an expression that reminded him painfully of Tenzou. He’d often done the same.

“You may be right about that. I’d probably just grow to become envious of it.” He chuckled.

Kakashi watched the last of the birds disappear.

“Envious of their freedom?”

“Hmm...You think they’re free just because they can fly, Kakashi-san?”

Ever the casual philosopher, he’d come to know Iruka’s fondness for throwing him questions like these.

Kakashi thought of his own situation. Unlike the other Hashira who watched over their own territories, after Tenzou’s death, he’d been granted leave to move as he pleased, to retire from his post, if he so wished to. He could go anywhere he wanted.

But no, he didn’t think of it as freedom in any sense of the word.

“I suppose even a bird needs a place to rest its wings.” He said after some consideration.

After a long pause, Iruka bowed his head, eyeing the sleeping hound in his lap. Then he whispered, with a voice that spoke of wishes, of places far beyond his reach.

“Maybe true freedom…means having a place to return to.”

“Maybe.”

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

The approaching human presence pulled him from his rest. The moon still hung in the sky. It hadn’t been long.

Dressed in the uniform blacks, face obscured by a headdress, a corp member stood at attention before him. He looked just a bit nervous.

“Kakushi, reporting for duty, Hashira-sama! Do you require any medical attention?”

Kakashi shook his head, and took to his feet.

“Carry on with your duties. They need to be given proper burials. I’m heading off. I don’t sense any other demons, but stay alert.”

“Understood! May you see victory on the battlefield, Hatake-dono.” He bowed. He passed a satchel of fresh supplies to Kakashi before joining the rest of his comrades.

A thoroughly unpleasant job, but someone has to do it.

An hour later he found himself enjoying the hospitality of an elderly pair of bamboo cutters who had spotted and hailed him from the road. Sitting around a small fire, they offered him a bowl of hearty stew and to his surprise, a small cup of sake. He’d refused at first, but the couple had insisted.

“A small token for those who risk their lives protecting us.” The lady said, pressing the cup into his hands. The man with her explained that they too, had once been saved by a slayer on the road.

The Hashira didn’t have the heart to tell them they’d very nearly avoided a death trap not too far away. He would stay with them tonight, at least.

After the couple had retired for the evening, Kakashi stationed himself in the trees above. He would have fallen asleep too, had he not sensed Bisuke’s presence nearby. It had been nearly a week since he’d been sent off to the Forest of Death.

The hound materialised before him, and after receiving a grateful scratch, turned around to allow Kakashi to retrieve his quarry.

The first, a letter in a familiar, careful script.

Kakashi-san,

It is good to hear that you are alive. I do hope it remains so.

My thanks for sending Bisuke, the children enjoy his company, but not nearly as much as I do. Working for you, he deserves every bit of spoiling he gets.

As for a souvenir, I would have requested for Orochimaru’s head, but you did ask me to be reasonable. Instead, should you find yourself visiting headquarters again, I would ask that you find time for a detour. A selfish request, I know, but it would be appreciated. Naruto was just a bit disappointed that he didn’t see you leave with his own two eyes.

Having heard of your unfortunate circumstances, I’ve sent a small consolation. Should it run out, you’re more than welcome to send one of the hounds. I hope it brings you some comfort in your time of need.

Lastly, while you’re out there, why not take the opportunity to pick up some better quality reading material? Jiraiya-sama sends his regards, but also asks me to tell you he’s disappointed that you didn’t listen to him. Whatever that means.

Stay safe, and may fortune go with you.

Iruka

It was only too easy to hear his voice narrating it.

He chuckled as he read it one more time.

Note to self. Iruka is truly a man of extremes. A Hashira offers him a souvenir, and he asks for Orochimaru’s head or nothing at all.

Beneath a masked smirk, the letter found a comfortable home in his breast pocket.

Accompanying it was a small pouch holding a small container. He didn’t have to look to figure out its contents, but he did so anyway. The earthy fragrance of tea; a precious portion of Iruka’s personal stash.

It brought to mind quiet afternoons in amicable company, the warmth of a hearth, and shared, amused laughter.

“Bisuke, don’t go gloating about this to the rest. They’re going to get jealous.”

The hound grinned before disappearing in a puff of smoke.

Alone, Kakashi looked up at the moon.

It seemed to glow a little warmer now.

One more thing to add to my list of duties, he sighed.

He’d have to find something good enough to send back for the tea.

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

End of Chapter 8

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Author’s notes:

Woo, can’t believe we’re already at Chapter 8! What started out as a joke drawing has exploded into a completely, unexpectedly long fic with over 14 illustrations planned so far. I’ve never written anything longer than 2k words the past 15 years or so, so this has been a real brain stretcher. Thank you all for your kudos and comments so far, I always enjoy reading them! (They certainly encourage me to keep this on a regular schedule!)

Sometimes I also forget that not everyone is familiar with Demon Slayer, but I hope it’s been easy enough to follow along! Even if you aren’t, I don’t think you’re missing too much since I’ve made changes to certain parts of it. : )

Terminology and Fun facts:

Kakushi - ‘Hidden’ brigade (sounds very similar to Kakashi huh). They do all the clean up work following a battle. Typically staffed by non-combatants.

Fuda (Seals) - Protective charms that were, in real life, distributed by Shinto and Buddhist priests. The inspiration for Iruka’s is directly taken from the Kumano Hongu Taisha Shinto shrine in Japan. Googling “crow ofuda” will give you a good idea of what it looks like.

Again, thank you for following along so far! I’m having a lot fun writing and drawing for this : ) (at least, before I crank the pain factor up to 11).

See you in the next chapter!

#kakairu #iruka #kakashi #umino iruka #iruka umino #iruka sensei

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wherevermyway · 4 years

Text

step out! do what you want (chapter seven)

pairings: reader/bang chan, reader/han jisung side pairings:  established changbin/minho, reader/bang chan/han jisung, possible bang chan/han jisung rating: explicit | 18+ warnings: graphic descriptions of violence, near-death experiences, discussion of death, drug usage to cope with emotions, profanity, discussion of pregnancy, drug dealer!au, organized crime!au. also: FEELINGS. word count: about 5,480 also can be found on my AO3 here! chapter/series navigation

chapter seven: before it breaks in half and then we bend it back again

recommended tracks: I’ll be your reason by illenium, in your arms by illenium, everything I wanted by billie eilish, when I was older by billie eilish, back to u by slander and william black, hope world by j-hope, slow dancing in the dark by joji, everything in its right place by radiohead, moon by krrum. playlist can be found here!

note: dunno about y’all but i'm still really upset over chapter six, so i’m sorry if you are too :’) there’s a lot of feelings regarding the death that I’m trying to wrap up in this chapter. couldn’t really make traditional Korean rites work the way they’re generally presented, so if the inaccuracy bothers you, I’m sorry! also I was a little baked writing some of these parts so if it’s too existential, my bad lol.

disclaimer: any reference to persons in this work of fiction are purely coincidental. the characters referenced from Stray Kids are interpretations loosely based on their personalities in the group and do not represent the real people behind the personas. if this, or any of the content included in the warnings above make you uncomfortable, please stop reading now.

side note: for the love of minho’s cats, don’t mix party drugs or drugs with alcohol.

There was one time, when you were seven years old, your mother had taken you down to Fukuoka to visit your grandparents. You were close to the harbour, slipping out of her vision for just a moment when the waves pulled up on the coast and sucked you in. The warmth that took over your body as you fell out of consciousness was welcoming, like receiving the deepest hug of your life. It had taken over you, from the tips of your toes and dissipating with a tingle in your forehead.

When you were pulled from the water, brought back from the entrance of purgatory, however, you felt miserable. You could have sworn you felt the oxygen enter every cell in your body, coming back from death. Everything ached and burned, abruptly springing back to life.

Your eyes ripped open, staring into the clouds above you. White flower petals were gusting along with the wind. The burning you felt in your chest and your arms was familiar to the time you experienced as a child: jarring, making you start to panic. It felt as though lava was coursing through your veins.

“- is too elevated, I can’t -“ a familiar voice travels around your head. You know the voice, but you can’t place exactly who it is. “- sats are - “ the voice cuts out as you notice someone stab your wrist with a branding iron, hot fluid burning its way up your arm. The voice says your name, it echoing around in the space between your ears for a minute. “ - alright, but it’s going to -“

The darkness envelopes you in an instant, drawing you back to the empty space in your head, where you’re not sure consciousness really exists. “You don’t want to be here,” a familiar voice whispers from in front of you. You’re unable to picture the shape that’s clouding your vision, still lost in trying to place the voice.

“Trust me,” the voice says again. You’re about to open your mouth to say something, but you find it impossible to get your muscles to move. “You don’t want to be here. Go back.”

You can’t help but think why you’re here, how you’re here. “I need you to trust me,” the voice says again, getting further and further away from you. “It’s not your time yet.”

Your eyes tear open again, and you’re now in a sterile, white room, the sound of machines humming and trilling in the background. Two weights pull you down on either side of you: Jisung and Christopher, each holding one of your hands, resting at your sides.

You make a pointed effort to shift your shoulders, muscles adjusting for what feels like the first time in ages. A deep, throaty groan comes up from your lungs as you shift, and it startles Jisung awake.

“Oh my god,” he sleepily breathes out, shaking his head as he grabs your face, “Bunny, you’re back, oh my god!” Christopher starts to shift, and Jisung slaps his shoulder a couple of times. “Chan, wake up! She’s back!”

Christopher wastes no time shaking himself awake, grabbing your shoulders and pulling you into him.

“Ow, ow, ow,” you grumble, unable to really express the burning sensation taking over your body. “Hurts, that hurts.”

“I’m sorry,” Christopher gasps, releasing you from his grip. He stares at you with a look of disbelief and exhaustion painted over his face. “You’re finally back.”

“What are you talking about?” You shake your head, somehow pulling your arm out of invisible cement and gripping your hair. “What happened? Where am I?” Christopher and Jisung look at each other, Jisung making an effort to bite his lip and look back down to the bed.

“It’s been a month, baby.” Christopher interlaces his fingers in yours, reaching his free hand up to your face. “You’ve been out for a month and we had no idea if you were even going to come back.”

It had been a week exactly since Changbin took a bullet for you. Minho spent a lot of time on the couch, staring out the window and clearly contemplating life. He looked like he lost a couple of kilograms in just a few days, his cheeks sunken in and his face an ashy grey. Felix came over a few times to try and get him to take care of himself, hooking him up to IV fluids every other day.

Minho would end up yelling at him every time he was hooked up to the IV. “I just want you to put me out and leave me alone,” he said, tossing a fistful of plastic packaging at his junior. “I’m tired of fucking dealing with this. Just keep me out until the funeral, alright?”

Felix would sigh under his breath, eventually pushing a couple vials of liquid into Minho’s IV, causing him to collapse within himself in seconds. “I can’t keep doing this to him, hyung.” Felix looked up at Christopher, his eyes clearly drained of energy and emotion. “It’s not ethical, for one, but it’s mostly not fair to Lee-hyung. He’s got to address this at some point. You know that.”

Christopher leans up against the wall, sighing heavily. “I know,” he whispered, “I’m thankful for all of the work you’ve been doing with him, though, Felix. You’re an asset to us.”

Felix dips his head in appreciation, but clearly still has something on his mind. “Hyung,” he presses, but Christopher waves his hand in the air.

“I know,” he says, walking to Felix and leaning down in front of him. “You’re absolutely correct. I need him at his best before I can figure out what to do with the family. It’s out of respect to Changbin; Minho knew the organization best after him, just because of his proximity. Once I can get that information from him, I’ll know how to handle this. All of this.”

Jisung shifts uncomfortably on the couch next to you, biting his lip. “Do you know what we’re doing with Hyunjin?”

Christopher opens his mouth to speak, but he interrupts himself before he says anything. Felix chimes in for him, however, “Seungmin has been handling him during the day. We got the location of a couple Triad hotspots in Seoul and Busan, but he didn’t know as much as we had hoped. He’s been really broken up over Seo-hyung, so he’s not talking much.”

Christopher rolls his eyes, scoffing. “I can’t believe the nerve of this bastard.” Felix nods, peeling off the nitrile gloves from his hands.

“I’ve got the propofol, I just need you to give the word,” the bleach-blond man says under his breath. You’re not sure if he’s serious, but the look that Christopher gives Felix as he says that makes your blood run cold.

“You’re too eager,” he simply says. “Hyunjin may have royally fucked up, but he’s still a brother. We decide what to do together.”

Jisung throws his hands up in the air, falling into the back of the couch and sighing in frustration. “We have two days, right? That’s when it’s happening?” Christopher nods his head, turning to look at Minho.

“Yeah. Minho said he wanted it on a Saturday, so that’s when it’s going to happen.” Christopher stands up, moving to cover Minho with a blanket and helps adjust him to a more comfortable position. “He’s been trying to get a hold of Changbin’s family all week, but no dice. Once we joined the family, he tried to distance himself as much as possible. He hasn’t even spoken with his sister in three years.”

Christopher sits down on the couch at Minho’s feet, right in front of Felix. “I wish he didn’t have to go through this. I know he’s been having a hard time with the family since the Shanghai incident, ready to leave everything behind just so he and Changbin could have lived a quiet life somewhere else.” Christopher lets out a soft scoff, then rubs Minho’s leg.

“He got really mad at me not long before I met you,” he says, looking at you with a half-smile, “Changbin was scolding me, telling me I was wasting my time in the family, that I needed to find someone like Minho so I had a reason to leave. We were at my apartment, laying on the floor in the studio and smoking a joint, recording some instrumentals that came to us. Then he just drops that on me, saying I should leave. We were too old to get any real benefit from the group anymore.

“He was upset, telling me that Minho wanted to settle down with him, but they were too deep into the family to really explore it as a real option.” Christopher continues to rub Minho’s leg, the younger man shifting in his sleep beneath him. “Changbin never let himself express emotions - especially not love - in front of anyone but me. He even had a hard time with me. I remember him telling me that he had fallen for Minho right after the Shanghai incident. He was pacing in my apartment for a good hour, working up the courage to tell me.

“I remember he panicked. He was pulling the hair out of his head, starting to tear up when he told me. ‘I’m in love with this guy,’ he said, ‘and I know it’s inappropriate and I know I shouldn’t, he took a fuckin’ bullet for me.’” Christopher smiles a bit, bringing his hand up to Minho’s face, brushing his hair to the side. “Changbin would keep panicking, telling me he was overthinking everything and he was convinced that there was no way Minho would even like him like that. But then, he started noticing. Minho would say things during recovery. He’d look at him for a moment too long, he’d touch him for a split second longer than he intended.”

Christopher smiles a bit wider. “Then it happened. Changbin had gotten Minho to walk a hundred metres. Minho collapsed in his arms, so excited over his achievement. He was so excited and happy, he didn’t care that he had fallen, because Changbin was there to help him. And Changbin just did it - he kissed Minho. Kissed him quite a bit, is what he told me.

“I remember he was so upset, because everything felt so right. But he got Minho back up to his bed and left him, too ashamed to show his face around him again.” Christopher runs his hand through his hair, still staring at the man below him with a smile. “Minho called me while Changbin was at my apartment, panicking - he always has really good timing. Changbin pretended like he wasn’t there, wasn’t watching my every movement and reaction as Minho talked in my ear.

“Minho was annoyed, but not surprised, ‘Changbin just does this,’ he told me. ‘Freaks out, then hides, and gets all embarrassed over how embarrassed he is. Bet he’s redder than a beet and freaking out over this.’ And he was right, Changbin was curled up on the couch, hands in his hair, face a real deep shade of red.

“He told me to tell Changbin to stop freaking out, that he had a feeling he was there and was pretending to blend into the background. He’d be waiting for him as long as it took, that he wasn’t mad.”

Jisung makes an effort to hide him rubbing his eyes, but you manage to see him out of the corner of your eye. You pull him into your chest and grip him tightly. “I was mad,” Minho sleepily grumbles, shifting from underneath Christopher. “I really was, though. Mad he kept it all in. Mad he didn’t trust me. Mad he kissed me and left. Mad he was going to shove his feelings under the rug again. Wasn’t fair to himself.”

“H-hey,” Christopher says, a look of discomfort passing over his face, “how long have you been listening?”

“Long enough,” Minho rubs his eyes, sighing, and adjusting himself to stare up at the ceiling. “I knew some shit like this was going to happen eventually. Bin was always stubborn when it came to you guys, saying you annoyed the shit out of him more than his actual family. Hell,” he scoffs, turning his head to look at Christopher, “you were his family, as far as he was concerned. I was always worried I was gonna lose him to you, that he had some deep-seated, secret crush on you.”

Christopher’s face shifts, probably understanding why Minho would feel that way. “He always said you weren’t his type and he wasn’t your type. That you kissed once when you got really drunk in high school together and it was weird and awkward. You’d swore to never talk about it again, but you loved him anyways. Always supported him.”

“Yeah,” Christopher says with a laugh as he rubs his eyes. “Changbin was always the best friend I never knew I needed. He never judged me or nagged me about dumb shit I did. He would say ‘just stay positive, it’ll work out eventually.’ And he was right, every single time. Man,” he reached out to Minho, grabbing his kneecap, “he loved the hell out of you, though.”

Minho scoffs, rolling his eyes, “Oh, I know. He always tried to act tough in front of you guys, especially when I was around, but when it was just the two of us?”

“He was totally different, wasn’t he?” Christopher says with a smirk.

“Yeah,” Minho nods, closing his eyes. “Night and day. It’d be just the two of us and he’d do the cutest shit. We’d curl up on the couch and watch old romantic comedies. He always made himself seem a lot tougher than he was, but he was always the little spoon when we’d cuddle up to each other. Always fell asleep with his head on my chest. Wouldn’t let me go to bed if he thought I was mad at him, because he always said it was important to never go to bed angry. He’d take up the whole bed and huff and puff until I reassured him I wasn’t mad at him.”

Christopher suddenly pulls Minho into his chest, holding him tightly for a couple of moments. It takes a minute, but you notice them both crying quietly against each other. Felix gets up, throwing his gloves into the kitchen rubbish before leaning over the sink. Jisung makes a pointed effort not to look at you as he digs his face into your chest, wrapping his arms around your ribcage.

The guys have a moment to themselves, letting them grieve however they felt the need to. It felt like the energy in the room was different. You finally understood just how close everyone really was to each other, that they really did view themselves as family, that it wasn’t just an empty title. Changbin was the one that brought them all together in one way or another, and now he was gone. Someone would have to fill those shoes eventually, but that wasn’t important right now.

Minho deeply inhales, lifting his head up dramatically, and looking at Felix. “Lix,” he says, motioning for him to come closer, “I’ve been horrible to you all week.”

“Yeah,” Felix sniffs, nodding his head as he walks to the couch, kneeling down in front his senior, “you’ve been pretty terrible, but I don’t blame you, hyung.”

“No,” Minho grumbles, grabbing his junior with a firm grip and pulling him into his chest, “it’s not okay. I’m really sorry for treating you so terribly when you’ve been taking good care of me. We’re lucky to have you. Changbin knew what he was doing when he picked you.”

Felix scoffs, then makes an affirmative nod. “Changbin was always good at letting me feel needed in the group. He told me a couple weeks ago that he was glad I joined up with everyone, that we needed someone smart and dedicated.”

“Yeah,” Minho laughs, “that time that you were training Sungie, though, that was great.”

Jisung perks his head up, pulling one of the throw pillows out from behind you, tossing it over at Minho. “Hyung!” He shouts, his face puffing up in frustration as he whines, “Why are you always so mean to me?”

Minho laughs, playfully tossing the pillow back at him. “You’re always comedic relief. If you don’t like it, stop doing silly shit.”

Saturday morning came faster than you anticipated. The day was supposed to be simple, just a celebration of life at Cheonggyecheon with you and all of the members of the family. It was to be low-key and subtle. Minho said he wanted it to seem as nonchalant as possible, that people walking by wouldn’t really pinpoint it as a funeral. “Changbin hated unwanted attention,” he said.

Minho kept a portrait of Changbin in the breast pocket of his jacket, only pulling it out for a brief moment when he was recounting Changbin’s life, keeping it only in his line of sight. Flowers were blooming all around the stream site, petals occasionally being lifted by the wind, dancing around your small group, decorating you all in white.

Everything was going as expected. You all looked normal, making sure not to stick out in any way, but you should have known that having a gathering in downtown Seoul was a stupid plan. When bullets started flying from the bridge across from you, you weren’t surprised. When you got shot a few times, you still weren’t surprised.

“Oh,” you remember saying as you collapsed into the ground. “Interesting.”

The pain was only there for a moment as you were pulled away from the brink of death by Felix, then it dissipated quickly when everything turned to black. That voice from earlier was talking to you again, but you couldn’t understand what it was saying.

“Who are you?” You had asked the voice that spoke to you. It was familiar enough for you to pinpoint it as someone you knew, but you couldn’t remember who exactly it was. “Why am I here? Why are you here?” You had said to the nothingness, not actually expecting a response.

“You know who I am,” the voice responded, “and I know that you don’t belong here. That’s what matters.”

“Why?”

“It’s just not your time,” the voice pressed, getting further away from you. “Tell them I’m sorry, I couldn’t hold on. It just wasn’t in the cards, I guess.”

“Tell who? What are you talking about?” Your voice sounded frail, weaker somehow. “I’ve been here before, haven’t I?”

“Yeah,” the voice calmly reassures you, “this happens when you’re at death’s door. You got shot a couple times. Felix was working on you, bringing you back. But you can’t seem to make up your mind, if you want to stay or if you want to go.” The voice scoffs, sighing in annoyance. “Make up your fuckin’ mind already, would you? Be glad you got the option.”

“What?” The voice was starting to make more sense, but somehow still drifting further off into space. Was that who you thought it was? What the hell was his name?

“Go back. Christopher and Jisung need you. Hell,” he scoffs again, “Minho could use you, too. He likes something about you. Told me you’d be good friends eventually. I can see it now, of course. But you need to go back. Get out of here.”

“Wait a minute,” you say, trying to reach your hand out into the darkness, but nothing happens. “I know you. I remember you.”

“Yeah, you do, but you’re running out of time. Get out of here. Seriously, stop coming back here before I kill you myself.”

The voice dissipates, and you gasp loudly, opening your eyes. You’re in a bright white room, the trilling and beeping of machines replacing the voice that was in your head. Christopher and Jisung are on either side of you, staring at you in shock. That’s when it hits you: you have been here before. You talked with the voice before, too.

“Oh my god,” Jisung gasps, tears falling from his eyes as he grabs your legs. “You need to stop doing this. I can’t handle you doing this anymore.”

Christopher sighs heavily, staring at the monitors behind you with determination before he grabs your face and stares directly in your eyes. “Please stop doing that,” he says, his eyes starting to water. “You keep dying on us and I can’t handle it, either.”

“What?” You blink your eyes rapidly, your body growing heavy as you come to. “What are you talking about?”

Christopher takes in a deep breath, and Jisung crawls up next to you on your hospital bed. “Sung,” he presses and grabs Jisung’s wrist, “let her rest comfortably.”

“No,” he says with a slight quiver to his voice as he starts sobbing and chattering uncontrollably, “I can’t handle any more of this. Changbin-hyung’s gone, we almost lost her, you’ve been shot enough already, and we almost lost Minho and Seungmin. I’m not going to sit idly by and watch. I can’t lose anyone else. I just can’t. So, I’m sorry if I’m not handling this the way you want me to.”

Christopher sighs, then reaches his hand out to stroke Jisung’s hair. “Fine, Sungie, that’s fine. Just don’t cause problems, alright?”

“So,” you say, enjoying Jisung’s warmth as you clear your throat, “what happened?”

You had woken up briefly before, a couple weeks ago. It was a month after you had gotten shot at the funeral site. Christopher had explained it before, but you started to decline within a few hours of waking up, slipping in and out of consciousness. There was a point where you were comatose and intubated. He mentioned there was a point where you were bleeding, but it all blurred together.

There were a handful of doctors and nurses that came in to check on you, taking care of you as you needed. Felix came in at one point, concerned about some of the things he had seen on your labs, mentioning that he needed to talk to you about the next time you were conscious - if you regained consciousness, that was. He was acting as a neutral proxy for your healthcare, since there was no one that could legally speak for you.

Jisung made an offhanded comment that Christopher had yelled at Felix for the way he was handling your care, but Felix was trying to be as ethically consistent as possible. His first priority was to do no harm, and then comforting the family would come second. Neither Felix nor Christopher were trying to be cold about it on purpose. Christopher had been on edge since you slipped from consciousness the last time, and was unfairly taking it out on the first person he could.

“It made me realize,” he said, pulling his chair up closer to you, as he grabbed your hand, rubbing it on his face. “I love you. I really, honestly do.”

Jisung lifts his head off of your shoulder, turning to look at you with wide eyes. “You what?” He turned back to Christopher, cocking his head in disbelief. “Did I just hear you say that correctly?”

“Yeah,” Christopher says, softly, as the tears threatening to spill earlier finally fall from his eyes. “I love you, alright? Losing Changbin, then almost losing you made me realize it. I thought I felt it the day we lost Changbin, but I really, truly realized it when we almost lost you.” Christopher rolls his eyes up to Jisung, sighing deeply as he closes his eyes. “I guess I love you, too, in some weird way. Maybe not in the exact same way, but, you know, that’s not what matters. You’re important to me. We can figure it out as we go, right?”

Jisung kind of short-circuits for a minute, his head cocking to one side, then to the other side. He sputters incoherently a few times as words try to come to him, but don’t quite make it to fruition.

“I’m glad,” Christopher starts to speak again, “that we worked out the way we did. I remember thinking it was a really stupid idea when you brought it up, that Jisung wouldn’t be able to handle it, that he would panic or something.” Jisung glares at Christopher, about to quip something in response, but he’s cut off as Christopher continues.

“Hell, I should have been worried I couldn’t handle it. You two work so well together,” he says, looking at you and smiling, “and being able to be a part of this, to be a part of what you have, is just what I needed. Changbin always told me I was too hasty and protective in relationships, that I would need someone who could handle that but still challenge me.”

He flits his eyes to Jisung, grabbing one of his hands, bringing both of your hands together. “I was really horrible to you at the beginning, wasn’t I? Treated you as if you were some threat to a piece of property I felt entitled to, which is completely inappropriate. I shouldn’t have acted that way to either of you. I’m honestly so sorry that I acted the way that I did. Can you forgive me?”

Jisung scoffs, “Yeah, you were pretty rude. But I knew that about you, I mean, I put it aside when we started with this relationship, didn’t I?” Christopher nods his head, kind of humming to himself as he gets distracted by a thought. “I forgive you, though,” Jisung continues, a serious tone to his voice. “I know you were just being you, hyung.”

Christopher is about to make a comment, but the door to your hospital room opens. Felix walks in, his face perking up as he sees you completely conscious. “Well,” he says with a laugh, “look who took long enough and finally woke up.” Christopher turns his head over his shoulder, looking at Felix as he walks in.

“How are you feeling?” Felix continues, walking up to look at your monitors, pulling the paper feed from your EKG. “You’ve been circling the drain for the past couple weeks. I’m surprised you pulled through.”

“Yeah,” you say with a cough, adjusting the way you were seated, “I feel pretty terrible, I won’t lie. I feel like I’ve been a science experiment: poked, prodded, experimented on.”

Felix nods, looking at you, before turning his shoulder to the men behind you. “I need to talk with you about something. Alone, preferably.”

“Come on,” Jisung whines, grabbing you a little tighter, “she just came back. What happens if she slips out of consciousness again?”

“It’ll only take a moment,” the bleach-blond man reassures Jisung, turning to look at Christopher. “I promise.”

Christopher sits up, clearly displeased with the situation. He takes a second, then stands. “Come on, Sung,” he says, offering a hand to his junior. “It’s only fair. If you were in the same situation, I’m sure you’d want to be afforded the same respect.”

Jisung pouts, but does get up. “Fine,” he says, taking Christopher’s hand and standing up off of the bed. “But only for a bit, alright? She just came back to us.”

Felix bows his head slightly as the men leave the room. “I don’t want to alarm you,” he says, crouching down to be at eye level with you. He grabs your hands to comfort you. “But something on your labs concerned me when you first got here. I had the nurses pull some more blood to confirm, but,” he trails off, looking away from you.

“What?”

“When you were first admitted, you had detectable levels of hCG in your blood.” It took you a second, but the realization hit you and it hit you hard. The way Felix phrased his sentence so carefully made you worry.

“Had?” You press, sitting up a little and grabbing Felix’s hand a little tighter. “Does that mean…?”

“I’m sorry,” he says, looking up at you and grabbing your hands a bit tighter. “I had the nurses run your labs again just to make sure because you started bleeding profusely after you lost consciousness the second time. It didn’t make sense, not at first. I’ve been able to keep it hidden from Christopher and Jisung, but I knew I couldn’t keep it from you when you finally woke up.” He says your name softly, giving you a weak smile as he grips your hand. “I’m so sorry to come to you with this so soon after you came back.”

The two of you sat there in silence, staring at the thin blanket covering you. It seemed like it was an eternity as the realization that you were pregnant, and then suddenly weren’t washed over you. You hadn’t noticed you were crying until Felix wiped your face up with a tissue. He apologized again, just as Christopher and Jisung walked into the room.

“Sorry,” Jisung says in his usual chipper voice, “I was impatient and… what happened? Oh my god, are you okay? Bunny?” He hastily makes his way right back to your side, grabbing your face.

“What happened?” Christopher says coming up to your side, right next to Felix. “What’s the matter?”

“Do you want me to tell them?” Felix calmly asks you, rubbing his thumb on your hand. “I can tell them for you, or we can just ignore it for now.”

Christopher clearly doesn’t like that response. He grips Felix by the collar of his shirt, pulling him to his feet. “What happened?” Felix bites his lip, looking at you over his shoulder. “You’re talking to me, now, Lee.”

“It’s not your decision, hyung,” he says, squinting as he knows he’s only fuelling the fire. “I’m sorry, but you need to respect that and-“

“It’s nothing,” you say, the words falling from your lips before you can even really register it. “I mean, it’s not nothing, it was something, and now it’s nothing.”

“What are you talking about?” Christopher releases his grip on Felix’s collar, looking at you with concern. “What do you mean it was something and now it’s nothing? Why are you crying?”

You look at Jisung, then to Christopher, and sigh. You close your eyes in defeat and tilt your head down, trying to shrink yourself to make this all seem so much smaller, insignificant. If you treated it that way, it would hurt less, right?

“I was pregnant.” The words just slip out, quiet and concise. They have a taste of sterility and have a foreign texture as they leave your lips. “And now I’m not. That’s all. Something, now it’s nothing.”

“Oh my god,” Jisung says, collapsing at the side of your bed. Christopher’s face falls in disbelief, and he says something in English, something you can’t pick up, and he grabs your face, forcing you to look him in the eyes.

“What?” Is all you can hear him say before you slip from consciousness, sinking into his arms. You expect to hear Changbin’s voice again, but it doesn’t greet you this time. You’re only greeted with the black void and nothingness.

#step out do what you want #wherevermyway #stray kids fics #skz fics #bang chan x reader #han jisung x reader #chan x jisung x reader #bang chan x han jisung x reader #seo changbin x lee minho #changbin x minho #i can't stop writing emotional shit oops #i really recommend the playlist this time for max feels

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mangobilorian · 4 years

Text

Falling | (mature) ii

Pairing: Captain Rex x Reader

Genre: Fluff

Words: 12,179

read first chapter

The jungle is sentient. Now, there’s no scientific proof that the jungle is actually alive, but it does seem to be out to get you. In fact, the land of Theatis 06 has thrown everything ungodly at you and the captain the second you woke up.

Firstly, the normally heavy rains of the jungle evolved into a full-on heavenly flood about an hour into your hike. Captain Rex had simply huffed in frustration and pushed forward. He, of course, expressed concern over you, but it was just water, so it was tolerable. Right? It was just water despite being thick and sticky and wet .

You had muttered your complaints for hours. You normally weren’t the type to be so bratty but the rain kept pouring like it had a vendetta against you. As the complaints kept pouring out your mouth, the captain—who was probably fed up from hearing you— offered to take a break.

“I’m fine, captain. Thank you for your concern.”

“You’ve been cursing a storm since we left the cave. Besides, it’s just water.” You glared at the back of his helmet.

“You’re in full armor. I’m in,” you flicked the bottom of your dress up, “a loose dress and a skin-tight under layer. You don’t get to say, ‘it’s just rain.’” But the captain merely laughed and offered a hand to help you over a slippery rock.

“The armor offers protection, but I still feel wet. And hot.” You scoffed.

“We both know your armor is temperature controlled. You can’t fool me.” He chuckled at your mock outrage and gripped your waist.

“What are you-”

“I’m helping you, princess. Now stay still.” He picked you up and hauled you over a deep crevice. If the captain hadn’t noticed, you would have fallen in. You continued walking, but the captain didn’t let go of your waist. Thankfully, your wet hair hid the warmth in your cheeks.

The rain lightened up a couple hours later, and you had cheered in relief. Finally, some reprieve from the weather. Except the jungle decided to throw a jungle cat in the mix. Not only did you and the captain have to run for your lives, you also lost the supply bag along with the rations. So the pair of you were soaking wet and out of food. Perfect.

“I’m so sorry, captain. I didn’t know what else to do but-”

“Throw our only supply bag at the cat?” He shook his head, almost in disappointment. You frowned

“It was on top of you! I couldn’t have pushed it off.”

“Even if you could,” he huffed, “I wouldn’t have allowed you any closer to the cat.”

“You wouldn’t have allowed me?” The captain turned, and you could tell—even with the bucket covering his head—that he looked exhausted. Maybe annoyed.

“My job is to protect you, princess.”

“Even if it means risking your life?” The arm around your waist tightened to the point of squeezing.

“Yes. If it has to come to that.”

“Well, I don’t allow you to do that.”

“Oh, now you’re the one making orders.” All at once, the tension popped like a balloon, and you laughed together. The captain had a nice laugh. It was full and warm and sorely needed in your time of bad luck.

After the rain and the cat, you had braced yourself for the next obstacle. The captain urged you to remain optimistic, but you knew—everyone knew— that bad luck came in three. So you were understandably on edge for the duration of your hike. Every snap of a twig, every chirp in the trees; you were tense, cautious, and slow . You knew you were being slow to the point where it probably frustrated the captain. But with your caution, you discovered something.

Looking up at the sky, not believing the sight. You rub at your face, hands already reaching out to stop the man next to you. “Do you see that?” You point a shaky finger over the treetops. Captain Rex halts his steps and follows your hand.

“Looks like smoke. Which means….”

“Civilization.” You grin at him and start to run. You ignore the captain’s protests behind you, too concentrated on not tripping on the jungle roots. Except, a wet rock causes you to slip, hands waving in front of your face, bracing for impact. But you don’t fall. Instead, the captain has both arms wrapped around your torso. His body wraps around yours, and he sets you back on your feet. Maker, why did the air suddenly get hotter?

“Be careful. I told you not to run. We’ll get there eventually.” He mutters, letting go of you. You mumble a thank you and resign to walking alongside the captain in silence.

“Are all your brothers blond too?” You blurted. The question had been eating at you for a while, and there was no better time to ask.

“I-what? No, not everyone is blond.”

“So you’re born with it?” He shakes his head. “Then you’re a bottle blond?” The captain coughs in mock offense. You give him your most innocent, puppy-like eyes.

“N-no. I mean, yeah. I-I bleach it.” He shoves a stray tree branch aside with enough force that it seems like the branch personally hurt him. “Besides, what does it matter?”

“It doesn’t.” The smoke ahead continues to rise as you hike closer. Enough time passes that it seems like the conversation is over, but… you keep thinking about it. About the captain. “I take it back. It matters because you look good, and if your brothers had the same hair, they’d probably look just as handsome too.” You waltz ahead—face as warm as the jungle around you— not bothering to wait for the captain who had stopped in his tracks.

Thankfully, you see the edge of the village up ahead.

“Looks like we’ve arrived.” The black smoke rises steadily, and tall wooden fences block the houses in a circle. There’s an empty space, which you assume is the entrance, in the middle. The captain follows behind you.

As you enter, you can already sense the type of settlement it is. The houses are primitive, with no signs of droids or technology. Children play around in an open area of the village. They laugh, sounds of pure, bright joy. To the side, some mothers wash clothes in basins while others hang them on racks. A group of younger women, probably closer to your age, are rolling some sort of material. It looks like tarp or some other waterproof cover. Various fires are lit around the village, pots of water boiling atop. They look… happy. Untouched.

Before you can fully step inside, one of the children looks at you and points. Soon enough, all the kids are curious and excited, rushing over to investigate. They’re probably amazed at the captain’s armor because they gather around him first. However, one of the mothers stops them just as they reach you.

Her voice is scolding and heavy with caution. “Who are you?” She scowls, laying a protective hand on the little girl closest to you.

The captain starts to answer, but you grip his elbow in warning. As diplomatic as he can be, he’s still a soldier first. Talking was your area of expertise. “We’re simple travelers. Our ship crashed in the forest, and we lost everything. Could you point us to the capital?” You arrange your face into one of helplessness. Eyes downturned, lips curved downwards. The woman is about to respond when an elderly lady steps in.

Her face is lined with wrinkles, spots, and other obvious signs of a life in an unforgiving environment. But her smile and the light in her eyes speak of joy in tough times. Of living rather than surviving. She reaches out to grasp your hands in both of hers, the leathery warmth already soothing your nerves.

“Welcome to our village, young travelers. I am Xi, but you can call me grandma. Now, how can we help a young couple like you?” The captain opens his mouth in protest, but you tighten your hold on his elbow. He winces.

You let out a demure smile. “My husband and I would appreciate a place to stay and some food. We don’t have money, but we can pay in labor.” Xi nods at your response and motions the two of you to follow her. The mother next to Xi relaxes a bit, but her gaze never leaves you. The children merely stare in awe.

As Xi walks through the village, you take the opportunity to observe the place. Large buckets line the perimeter of the area, and various fire pits contain small blazes. More of that tarp-like material covers the walkways between houses, but the young women take them down and roll them out. Xi leads you closer to the center of the settlement, and you eye the large fire pit complete with seating.

She motions towards a house, the smallest one actually, and enters. The two of you follow right behind her. The house is quaint, a small fireplace in one corner and crates for storage.

“This is the guest hut. Not many travelers come by but enough do to warrant this. The path leading from the back of the village heads straight to the capital.” She waves her hand at a raised section of the floor. “It’s not a real bed, but it’s the best we have. Why don’t you look for some blankets, dear?”

You preoccupy yourself with rifling through the crates for blankets, maybe pillows. You don’t register the conversation between the captain and Xi, but they’re both laughing. When you finally gather the materials and prepare them on the bed, you turn to find Xi rubbing a gentle hand on the captain’s back.

“Ahh, I see, my son. Very unfortunate.” You jerk your head towards her, confused as to what they’re talking about. “Regardless, I hope you enjoy your stay. Dinner will be soon, and you’re welcome to help in preparations. The sun is about to set too, so change out of your wet clothes and into some dry ones. It gets chilly at night. ” Xi smiles at the captain then at you—face full of cheeriness and something like hope— and leaves.

Meanwhile, the captain goes through the crates himself. “The capital is about half a day’s journey on foot. Here,” he tosses some clothes over his shoulder.

You grasp the soft material. The fabric is light and made to cool the wearer in the stifling jungle humidity. You strip off your damp dress and start to unzip your black under layer. The tight suit feels like second skin and not in a good way.

A choked apology causes you to look up at the captain. A beautiful blush creeps over his tanned cheeks and down his neck. You wonder if he blushes in more places too. His eyes avert to the side, and he coughs pointedly. With a start, you realize that you were stripping in front of the captain. Maker, I’m a hot mess , you sigh internally. It was one thing to be naked next to any man, but next a captain of the GAR who’s functioning as your bodyguard while you’re also disguised as a couple? That’s another level of embarrassment.

“I-I’m sorry, captain.” You turn around, facing the walls instead of the blushing captain.

“Please. Just Rex here. Since the villagers think we’re married.” The nervousness in his voice is palpable and only serves to make you scream. At least you know he’s just as scared as you were. Stars, how can someone so hot be so shy .

“Then you should call me by my name as well.” Just as he opens his mouth to protest, you hold a hand up. “No excuses.” You finish shrugging out of your clothes and ease into the provided dress. You turn to face him and give a little twirl, finishing in a curtsy. The captain—Rex—chuckles, causing your cheeks to warm.

He whispers something, but you don’t quite catch it. He had already shucked off his armor and unzipped his blacks, turning around to change into some new, dry clothes. You know you shouldn’t, but you watch anyway. The hard muscles of his back contract and loosen as he moves around. There aren’t many scars there, just bruises. Big ones too. The purple and blue blots were probably from the crash. He must have absorbed most of the impact since he had sheltered you in his arms. Nonetheless, he looks broad and wide and strong . You force your eyes to not wander below his waist and promptly look away.

Once Rex puts on the loose shirt and matching pants, he arranges his blue-stained armor into a neat pile, setting aside the twin blasters to be cleaned later. Outside, sounds of excitement and joy flicker around the village as well as increased cheers. “Seems like the men came back from their hunt.”

“Hunt?” You’re about to peek out the door when Rex replies.

“Each day, the men of the village venture out and hunt down game. Mostly the jungle cats, but also wild birds, feral dogs… stuff like that. Grandma told me about it.”

“Grandma? You already call her that?” You accuse with a smile. Rex rubs the back of his neck, his cheeks coloring to a delightful pink.

He shrugs in feigned nonchalance. “Well, she’s been really nice to us, and she did say to call her grandma.”

“Does she remind you of your own grandma?” you say, not realizing your words. However, the shock, the embarrassment on his face makes you think back to what you said. Shit. You just asked a clone— someone who was made in a vat, someone who was never actually born through traditional means— if they were reminded of their own grandma. How callous could you be? Before you could apologize, Rex stops you.

“It’s fine. It was a slip of the tongue and-” you shake your head, effectively silencing him.

Your hands clench in anger. Not at Rex—never at him—but at yourself. “No. I’m so sorry, Rex. I know this might not seem like a big deal to you, but it is to me. It may be a slip of the tongue, but I shouldn’t have been ignorant or lax enough to even think that.I might be exaggerating this, but…I’ve only ever heard stories of clones. Or of Kamino. You were the first clone I’ve ever met, and I don’t know what I was expecting but it certainly wasn’t you. Yes, you have the same face as your brothers, the same build, the same voice, but you’re not the same person a-and you’re special , Rex. I shouldn’t have reminded you about your situation o-or diminished the obvious joy you got from experiencing what it’s like to have a grandma a-and-”

Somehow, in the midst of your apology, Rex closed the gap between you and gently pressed a finger to your lips. There’s a ghost of a smile on his face.

“I know. Little gods, I know , princess. While some people might see clones as sub-human, I’ve been blessed to serve under Jedis like Skywalker, Kenobi, Padawan Tano, and more who have treated me like a regular person. I know that I am more than a number. It just amazes me that you, having spent two days maximum with a clone, already see me as an equal while many people on Coruscant don’t.” The look in his eyes is sincere, his hand on your shoulder a firm reminder that this is all real. That he wasn’t angry or disappointed. In fact, he seems to be… grateful. An idea that only makes your eyes start to water.

As your eyes well up, out of inner frustration making way for release or just general emotional relief, you surge and bury your head into Rex’s chest. He’s caught off balance but quickly recovers and wraps his arms around you. He pats your back, albeit awkwardly, and the two of you simply wallow in the aftermath of your heartfelt (definitely dramatic) encounter. The embrace… feels good. Hugs always feel good, and it's a shame you’re not allowed to hug often back at the palace. Of course, the strong captain you’re sharing the hug with certainly makes the experience more enjoyable.

Alas, all good things must come to an end. The captain slowly releases you from his hold, the loss of warmth making you pout. “We should go help out with dinner.” You nod in agreement, and Rex reaches a thumb out to catch a stray tear before he could stop himself. But he pauses right as he does it, the impropriety of the action catching up to him. His job was to protect you, not give you hugs and dry your tears. Instead of a scolding, however, you give a small smile as the captain stutters out an apology before stepping further away from you and leaving the house. Well. You can’t say that you don’t enjoy seeing Rex flustered. Because you do. Stars above, he looks possibly gorgeous when he blushes.

But the fluttering in your own heart is another story. The erratic beats in your chest, the sweaty palms, the warm cheeks. This was not good. Attraction was one thing but being attached was another. You laugh at yourself, the humorless breath grounding you in reality.

Too many things just happened, and you don’t have the brain capacity to think properly. Not wanting to dwell on it, you gather your wits and leave the house to help the rest of the village.

*****

The jungle air runs colder at night, but the large bonfire provides enough heat for the whole village. You sit on a hard stone bench, eating a chunk of wild bird, Rex to your right. He talks to a group of men and children alike, and they marvel at his war stories.. All around, families gather around the fire, eating and enjoying another night. The tarp-like material lays rolled up by the houses, allowing for distant stars to shine through the gaps between the trees.

The skeptical mother from earlier, Kwi, approaches you with a cup and hands it over. The brown liquid warms your hand. “Enjoying yourself?” You nod, sipping contents. It stings your throat, and you can’t hide your wince. Kwi laughs, swigging her own drink, finishing it in one gulp. “Burns, right?”

“Yes. Quite… strong.” You contemplate taking another sip, but decide against it. Alcohol and you were not a good combination. “Kwi?” She hums in response. “Do you enjoy life here? Despite being away from the capital or from technology?”

She stays silent for a moment, thinking. Her daughter climbs up her lap and settles into her mother’s chest, sleepy eyes fluttering at you before closing. “Yes. We are very happy here. We hear stories of other planets and technology we can’t even imagine. But we’ve also heard of the war, and it’s reached us already. If there was a choice,” she sighed, “we wouldn’t be a part of it. Especially since there are little ones,” she says. “When will you and your husband have children?”

The idea of you and Rex having children is… absurd. Since you’ve only known the man for so little time, the thought never crossed your mind. But Kwi was still staring, patiently waiting for an answer, gently rubbing her daughter’s sleepy head. “We’re still young. But maybe soon.” You turn, facing your supposed husband.

The firelight makes his face glow. The harsh lines of war reduced to softer curves. Under the moon, the young soldier looks like any other man.

“It’s beautiful to see that you still love each other.”

“Pardon?”

“In your eyes. You can’t deny those feelings. My husband… he died some time ago. He looked at me the same way you look at your husband.” Her face sagged into sadness, and she clutched her daughter closer. You reach out a hand to settle on her arm, gentle and soothing.

“I’m sorry for your loss.” You’ve never lost anyone dear to you but the thought of losing a husband—especially when you had children— is unbearable. You saw Kwi as a strong person the second you entered the village, but news of her loss only made her stronger in your eyes. A true survivor.

Kwi sniffs in response, as if dismissing her sadness, and her face eases into nonchalance. “It’s alright. He fought bravely against those droids. Because of his sacrifice, our village was saved.”

“Droids?” Your surprise seems to amuse and confuse her.

Still patting her daughter’s back, she turns to allow more of the fire to warm her child. “Yes. The large ships birthed many droids, and they marched to the capital, destroying everything in their way. The jungle healed itself, but many lives were lost.” Words struggle to escape your mouth. The Separatists were already here? Why did no one tell the Jedi or the Republic or even you ?

Kwi lays a reassuring hand on your shoulder. “You can stay here, you know. We understand that you want to go to the capital, but it’s too dangerous. Whatever you have to do there, it won’t end well.” She’s right. One princess and clone captain won’t stand a chance against a droid-occupied capital city.

But you have a duty. Not just to your own people, but to the villagers as well. To all those who suffered from Separatist rule. “Thank you, Kwi. We’d be happy to stay, but there are important things to do in the capital.” You smile, a genuine, warm curve. Beside you, the captain rubs your back, and you lean into the touch. He turns to give you a tiny nod before continuing his conversation.

Suddenly, Xi stands in the center of the area, as close to the fire pit as she can get. She holds a cup in her hand and raises it high above her head. “To the young couple!” The rest of the villagers lift up their drinks, cheering. Sleepy children rouse from their rest but don’t fully wake. “May your marriage prosper.” Xi shoots you a grin, full of mischief, and she winks as if she knows that you and Rex were faking it all. She brings her cup to her mouth and—alongside the rest of the villagers— downs the alcohol in one go.

You and Rex glance at each other, and it’s too dark for him to see your warm cheeks. He clinks his cup against yours and takes a swig, so you do the same. The burn still hurts, but you don’t mind the warm feeling in your stomach.

*****

Rex’s breath sends tingles down the base of your neck. You’re both under the light blankets provided in the guest house, not touching. “My favorite brother? That’s hard to decide, really. I have too many. If I had to pick… Cody is a bastard, but we’re deployed together often, so I see him a lot. Fives is a contender, but his favorite is Echo. Maybe Wolffe? Eh. They’re all my vod . I have to love them.”

You turn around, tucking a hand under the pillow. The fireplace is the only thing illuminating the room, the shadows running across Rex’s face. “Since you’re all different people, you might have opposing views then. How do you blindly trust if the only thing you know is that they’re your brothers?” His face shifts, brows scrunching.

Quietly, so quietly you almost don’t catch it, “I was betrayed once. By someone I respected. His name was Slick. I like to think the second he became a traitor, he stopped being my— our —brother.” You hum in response and reach out to his face.

You trace his cheek, and he flinches at the contact but doesn’t stop you. You continue down the harsh line of his jaw, the hard muscles in his neck. “What’s your favorite planet in the galaxy?”

He doesn’t say anything for a while, opting to relax under your gentle touch instead. “I don’t know. No one’s ever asked me. I have a love-hate relationship with Kamino because I was born there, but it was not a good childhood—not a childhood at all. Coruscant is alright. It means I’m on leave, but the people… are not always nice. And the other planets I visit are usually not for leisure. So I don’t really know what my favorite planet is.”

You scoff. “Impossible. We all have favorite planets, Rex. Some day, I’ll take you to my home world and show you the waterfalls, the canyons, especially the hanging gardens. And we can go swimming in the lakes or climb up the trees. Maybe visit the rainforests.”

He laughs. “I’m not sure I want to visit another rainforest after I get out of here.”

“Good point,” you grin. Rex looks so pretty when he smiles. Or when he does anything really. But another thought pushes at the back of your head. “How will we leave this place? Separatists control the capital already. I was too late; my mission failed before it even started. What am I even doing here? A princess in a jungle… what will my people think of me?”

Rex sobers up, his laugh completely gone. “You know that you’re more than a princess, right? Look, you told me earlier about how special I was, but you seem to forget that you’re special too. That you’re a person first. And yes, our situation is pretty ridiculous, but it’s reality.” He reaches out, tentatively, and oh so gently rubs small circles your shoulder.

You sigh and contemplate snuggling closer to the captain. But that would be too much, right? Crossing the boundary, passing the line of decorum? As much as you want to, even under the guise of seeking warmth, snuggling next to Rex would be inappropriate. “Princess… we’ll get out of this together. The mission is not done. Once we head to the capital, we’ll find a way to transmit a message to General Skywalker. After the 501st arrive and clear the area, you can go and make treaties with the ruling members of Theatis 06, and well… the mission will be over, and you no longer need me.” But what if I need you for longer? The traitorous thought echoes in your mind, but you shove it down. As far down as you possibly can.

“Sounds like a plan,” you smile, eyelids feeling heavier than before. “Guess I’m lucky I got a captain like you in my escort. Seems like someone knew the Seppies were already here…” your words taper off, slowed and slurred.

The air around you is chilly, and the blanket offers some protection. Yet, Rex’s body heat is simply too tempting. Too comforting and way too inviting to resist. Not even thinking about it, you curl towards his chest, the top of your head pressed against his neck. You hear him huff in surprise, and you have enough sense to pull back. But the captain wraps an arm around your waist, bringing you even closer.

“Sleep,” he whispers.

*****

The sun hangs uncovered for once, shining on the villagers gathering at the far end of the settlement. Kwi stands at the forefront, her daughter clinging to her legs. They wave enthusiastically, and you reciprocate.

Xi grips your shoulders. “Be safe, child. Do what you must. And,” she leans in to whisper, “make sure you tell him how you feel.”

You pull back, shocked, but she grins wolfishly. “I’ve seen enough fake couples in my lifetime, dear. But what you and that man have is real.” She winks, letting go to give Rex a hug as well.

You’ll miss the village. Very much. The people, the comfort, the normalcy . It’s a simple, domestic life. One that you’ll never get to experience as royalty. Rex lays a small hand on your elbow, signalling that it’s time to go. You say your final farewells and head out, heart heavy.

“Looks like there won’t be as much rain today, so our journey will be quicker.” You nod, only half listening. Your excitement at re-entering the jungle was non-existent, and it showed. Rex tugs at your arm, urging you to move faster.

Since there is little to no rain, the jungle becomes brighter. More alive. The colors look more vibrant than ever. Even the animals were louder.

“The hanging gardens back home look like the jungle without rain.” Rex turns, his helmet facing you.

“So it was wild and dangerous?” You chuckle, shaking your head.

“Not really. Gardeners tended to it. My people value order and consistency, but we prefer our gardens to be more natural. More… wild, like you said. Full of animals too. The birds, the fish—it was a mini ecosystem.”

“I’d love to see it. One day.” He looks down at the compass given to him by the villagers. “Good. We’re heading in the right direction.”

“Rex?” He hums. “Would you be a Jedi? If you could?” He quiets for a second.

“No. I wouldn’t.” He looks at you and continues on. “It’s a hard life for a Jedi. They can’t be attached, and there’s so much responsibility that comes with their power. And the Jedi I know are also pretty karking stupid,” he laughs.

“Tell me about them. Your Jedi.”

“Well… they’re not my jetii.” You send a pointed look, and he sighs. “Fine. They’re mine because I have to take care of their sorry asses. One time, Skywalker gave me little warning before he and Tano hoisted me into the air. He and Ahsoka landed and barely had enough sense to lighten my fall using the Force. And don’t get me started on his improvisations. Ahsoka is a different matter entirely.” He pauses to help you over a tree root. “She is terrifyingly good at being a Jedi, but she’s also a teenager. So sometimes she’s sulking in a corner for one second and challenging shinies to a fun spar the next. Doesn’t help that she’s usually the only girl on the entire ship and a Togruta—a naturally born hunter.”

You can’t help but laugh. “She’s very confident in what she does,” you say, thinking back to your first, and only, encounter with the girl. “She has the potential to do many great things.”

“I know. But she’s a Jedi by default, and like I said earlier, jetii are too reckless for their own good. They always give commanding officers heart attacks.’’ He brushes some stray branches to the side, hand firmly pressed on your lower back. You’re not going to complain. “I know Cody gets frustrated with General Kenobi for leaving his lightsaber, getting captured, or hell, even flirting with Ventress. But at least Cody’s an actual commander. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to be a commander, but Skywalker gives me the same work as Cody even though I never signed up for it.”

“But you like working with them?” Rex tenses for a second.

“Yes. I do. I don’t believe in miracles, but what the Jedi do… have you ever seen a Jedi in action?” You shake your head. “Well it’s amazing. Disregarding those laser swords, they can move stuff with the Force. They can put suggestions in people’s heads. They can jump off buildings without a scratch. It’s like all the stories young clone cadets are told. We all thought it was spacer’s tales, and many clones don’t serve under a Jedi General. They’re the closest thing to magic, and I believe in them. Really do. Come on,” he nudged you forward just a little bit.

You and the captain walk for hours when you start to notice the droids. You don’t know how you didn’t see them before, but droid parts litter the forest floor. The jungle seems to have already claimed the debris, but the dead droid heads send an ominous pang to your chest. There were so many . Definitely enough to wipe out a village.

Rex whistles when you two pass a particular dense area of dead battle droids. “A whole lotta dead clankers.”

“Clankers?”

“Just slang for Seppie droids. We also call them tinnies.”

“Ah, I see.” As more of the droid graveyard reveals itself, the jungle also clears up. No doubt because of the large traffic that warred previously, but also because you were entering the edges of the jungle. Moving towards civilization.

“How about you?” Rex asks. The question throws you off guard, and you almost stagger from the suddenness. But the captain steadies you.

“I beg your pardon?” He takes his hand off your lower back, slowing his pace. The path becomes narrower, the sides sloping down into the jungle floor. Up ahead, you see distant wisps of smoke.

“You ask me all the questions so… it’s my turn. What are the best and worst parts of your culture?” You grip the side of a tree, tightening your hold enough so you can position yourself over a precarious rock.

“As a princess, I’m supposed to be proper, right? So no touching, which includes hugs in public. Even with family members. Also no speaking out of turn, and no criticizing the government or royal family.”

“So as a princess, you can’t even talk bad about yourself?” You sigh.

“Yeah. Ridiculous, right? And I have to wear such heavy clothes, makeup, and jewelry. It sounds vain but that is some of the worst parts in the life of a princess.” It had been a relief to take off your weighted garments when you were in that cave. Rex had asked if you intended to wear them again or carry the clothes with you, especially the jewelry. However, you wanted to leave the clothes behind. Unbeknownst to your captain, you had lugged the jewelry then proceeded to gift it to the villagers.

“I think the best part is the festivals. We have big ones every year full of dancing, music, and entertainment. There are intricate fireworks displays and coordinated performances. It’s hard to explain the feeling of being in such a celebration.” As the path widens again, Rex moves to walk next to you.

“Your planet reminds me of Naboo.” You raise an eyebrow.

“You go to Naboo often?”

You can’t see his face, but you could tell he was grinning. “No, but our General is quite close with Senator Amidala.”

“Ah, so clones also participate in gossip then.” Rex laughs alongside you.

“Well, no clone is exempt, but I admit that high ranking officers gossip. Not that I-”

“It’s alright, Rex. It’s fun to gossip. Senator Amidala and I are good friends. In fact, I take vacations on Naboo every few years.”

“Oh really? Do you- wait.” He steps in front of you and holds an arm out, barring your waist. Rex lets out a curse and pushes you both down, ducking behind a nearby tree. Just as you're hidden from view, you hear a buzz. You peek around the tree to see a flying droid, its red light spinning in circles, scanning for something. Rex holds a finger to his lips.

Once the buzz is gone, Rex stands up, surveying the area for any more disturbances. “We’re getting close.” Despite the area being clear, he still remains cautious. “Since you’ve been to this planet before, what should I expect when we are near the capital?”

You rise, knees already stiff from your crouch. “There’s some farmland, but not much. My guess is that our path leads straight to the city gates.”

“Any idea on how to get in?”

“Pretend we’re married and seeking refuge?” He shakes his head.

“I’m in full armor. And we didn’t bring the spare clothes.”

“What if we… stole some?” Rex turns his bucket to you and could tell that he’s giving you a blank look.

“Sorry, princess, but the last thing I expected you to suggest was theft .” You snort.

“Come on. We need to get in somehow.” He marches forward instead of answering. “Hey! You could always leave your armor in a safe place, and we can return to it after this is all over.” You’re met with his visor. He was probably giving you a what the fuck look, and you’d laugh if you could see his face.

“There’s only the two of us. In a Seppie capital. This armor is the only thing that’s protecting me. And armor is important for clones,” he mumbles. “I can’t just leave it with no guarantee I’ll get it back.” Oh. It made sense. The first thing you noticed about Rex was his armor. Armor was part of what makes him Rex. The jaig eyes, the welded pieces, the kama.

“I didn’t mean to imply that you-” He sighs.

“It’s ok, princess. Look, we’ll find some way into the city. Maybe weaknesses in the walls or secret passages.” You wrack your brain, trying to remember entrances, maybe hidden routes. You could sneak underneath a cart or find a tunnel... wait.

“There are canals that lead into the city. We could probably sneak in that way. Possibly end up near or in the palace itself.”

“Sounds perfect. Have you ever been in the canals?” You wince.

“Twice. I was curious the first time and opened a grate that led to the sewer system. The second time, I had to escape assassins sent to kill the ruling family of Theatis 06. I was collateral damage. Apparently, I had wandered so far into the system for a long time, that my private guards found me passed out from exhaustion.” You laugh at the memory, but Rex stills.

“You were almost killed in the crossfire of an assassination attempt?”

“Yes.” He shakes his head, probably still processing. People liked to assume that as a princess, you were sheltered from hardship. Except royalty came with its own set of problems. Like assassinations.

Up ahead, the jungle opens up to a large field surrounding the tall city walls. Rex stops you, scanning the immediate area before crouching behind a tree.

“Well. There’s the capital. And,” he takes out some binoculars—which you didn’t even know he had—scanning the wall, “that looks like a canal entrance.” He hands the device over, and you peer into it, spotting the metal cover.

“Seems like it.” He pockets the binoculars and begins skirting around the trees, toeing the line of the forest. The capital was built like one big circle, so the walls were one big circle as well. If you were to follow the treeline, you’d eventually get to the straightest possible path to the grate. The only thing separating the two of you from the city walls, however, were merchants, villagers, and droids all milling about. The people wait in a line to enter the city, and the droids are… well, being droids. Thankfully, the large field is not farmland but tall grasses. Tall enough to crawl through without being spotted.

When you finally have the sewer entrance directly ahead of you, Rex stops, signalling you to crouch down. He hands you one blaster.

“Just in case,” he says before kneeling down by the edges of the tall grass. He lays flat in an army crawl and motions for you to follow. You do the same, the itchy grass concealing you and your captain.

Of course, Rex crawled with ease. The pattern of elbow-knee-elbow-knee seems drilled into him. His feet move right in front of your head, but he goes at a pace you can’t possibly follow. Probably because you weren’t trained in army crawling. The distance from the edge of the jungle to the canal grate wasn’t astronomical, but it was enough for your arms and back to ache anyway.

“How much farther, Rex,” you whisper tiredly.

“Just a little bit, princess. Come on, it’s easy.”

“I’m not a soldier like you,” you say, rolling your eyes even though he can’t see you.

Rex snorts. “No, you’re not. But if you managed to escape an assassination attempt, then I’m sure you can crawl just a little further.” You open your mouth to retort, but Rex shushes you.

“Up ahead. You remember what to do?”

“Yes, captain.” Rex stops his crawl, and you roll sideways and move up so you’re next to each other. The grate is a few feet away, but there are no grasses to use as cover. You glance around to see that there were enough people to catch you, but it doesn’t seem like they’re going to be looking in your direction anyway.

You pull your body up from the ground, head still bowed to stay below the grasses. Once in a crouching position, you steady yourself. Rex stays silent, but he does pat your calf and hands you a multitool—which, again, you didn’t even know he had. He holds up a hand, and lowers his fingers for each second passed. Three...two...one…

You jump up from your stance and dash forward, not bothering to waste time looking around. Once you reach the grate, you take out the multitool and begin unscrewing the grate open, praying that the multitool had the size you needed. The screws are rusty, but the tool worked.

Voices come from your left, and you mentally curse. They might not have spotted you, yet—the curved wall could hide you for a little bit— but they were definitely approaching. With a speed you didn’t know you had, you manage to open the grate. You crawl inside, hand immediately going to cover your nose from the stench. At the last second, you remember to place the grate back, holding it closed just as a pair of people walk past. Thank the Maker.

After a few seconds of silence, you slide the grate off and give a thumbs up at the grass. You set the cover on the ground outside and inch deeper into the canal. With a burst, Rex comes out of hiding—full white and blue armor shining under the sun— and sprints to the entrance, all but diving into the canal. Once inside, he immediately turns to place the grate back on.

“Should we seal it back? So no one knows how we got in?”

“No,” Rex mutters, “we’ll prop it. Besides, this might be our only way out if things get ugly.” Once Rex leans the grate against the opening, you both continue your journey into the tunnel.

The tunnel isn’t big enough to stand in nor is it small enough to warrant crawling. Instead, you had to settle for a weird crouch-like walk. Rex, with his taller height, seems to be suffering more than you.

“This is where you managed to fall asleep in exhaustion?”

“To be fair, I was running on adrenaline and fear.”

“Those are the usual ingredients for many insane things. I would know.” You both chuckle quietly, the sound tinny and distorted in the tunnel.

“Care to tell me more about said insane things?” He launches into his stories as the two of you forge deeper into the city. At this point, you don’t even know where you are, but it doesn’t really matter. Listening to Rex talk about anything—whether it be his experiences or the weather or even battle tactics— was distracting enough, with or without the helmet.

Eventually, you stop, knowing for a fact that the two of you are well within the city. You also wanted to give the captain some mercy. He’s young but no one is exempt from the back pain that comes with awkward positioning.

With the help of the multitool, you open the grate from inside and push it up and onto the sidewalk. You peek up through the opening to glance around then crouch down again.

“It seems to be a residential street. Not too many people and no droids, but we should still be careful.”

“Are we close enough to a building?” You poke your head up again.

“Yeah. There’s a house close to us that doesn’t have its lights on. We can try to break in and find a way to contact your Jedi.” Rex grunts in agreement and you stand up to full height. Your whole head and upper chest are out of the canal, but the rest of your body remains.

You try hauling yourself with your arms alone, but they’re still sore from your earlier crawl. “Here,” Rex mutters as he grabs your thighs, pushing up. Flustered, you manage to get your whole body onto the street. An old man glances your way but remains unbothered.

By the time you reach the door of the house, Rex had already pulled himself out of the canal and closed the grate. You try—and fail—to lockpick the door, so Rex takes the multitool from you and does it himself. Slightly embarrassed, you keep an eye out for your surroundings instead. No one seems to mind that the two of you were about trespass. In fact, everyone seemed reserved. Quiet. Even fearful. What neither of you notice is the flying probe droid hovering above a building down the street.

As soon as Rex unlocks the door, he ushers the two of you in. You’re met with a simple living room and a small kitchen. Lining the walls are holos of two Twi’lek females in various places—around the city, in a park, even in the jungle. They seem happy, wrapped in each other’s arms. You glance at Rex, who’s searching the unit for a transmitter. Maybe, one day—no, you shouldn’t entertain those thoughts, but-

“Found a transmitter. And two comm links.” Thank the Maker. He tosses you one, and you attach it to your arm. “Let’s see if I can connect to Skywalker’s channel.” He mashes the button, and you hover next to him. You’re met with sounds of static.

“General Skywalker? It’s me, Captain Rex with the princess. General?” Rex shakes the device around. “Kriff, I think the Seppies scrambled all transmissions. I don’t know-”

“Rex?” The unmistakable voice of Ahsoka Tano filters out from the transmitter. “Where are you? We’ll converge on your location.” In the background, you can hear her talking to others, probably Skywalker and the rest of Rex’s men.

“Oh Rex, old boy. Please tell me that you and the princess are safe.” Skywalker says, relief evident.

“We’ve managed. We’ll try to stay hidden for now. Were you able to get our coordinates from the transmission?”

“Yes we did. Stay put and don’t do anything stupid. That’s an order, Rex. We’ll be there shortly.” In your periphery, you spot a dark shape move across the window. And another joins the first. And another…

“Rex…” you whisper.

“General, you know I never make stupid decisions, right?” Skywalker just laughs, but your chest tightens in panic.

“Rex!” His helmet snaps to you and follows your gaze to the window.

“Fuck.”

He hauls you over to the stairs just as a blaster shot breaks the window of the house. You’re both up the second floor and already running down the hallway in search of an escape route as a wave of droids march into the living room.

You push a door open and find a bedroom. “How are we-”

Rex pulls his blaster out and fires at the window on the far side of the room. “Come on.” He grabs your arm and pulls you to his side. He uses his other hand to pull out some device, aims it at the roof of the neighboring building, and a hook attached to a line shoots out. You whimper at the distance, but Rex simply says, “Trust me.”

He jumps out the window, you tucked against him, your hands desperately clinging to his body. The line reels in, and you almost make it to the other side before blaster shots aim your way. You shriek, almost letting go of Rex, but you land on the roof in time.

The captain pulls the transmitter out, but a droid shoots it out his hand. Cursing, he drops the ruined device and withdraws his blaster, wiping out the two droids by the opposite window and the three on the street below.

“Do you want your second blaster back?” He shakes his head.

“You might need it. You should also have this,” he pulls a round object from his belt. A bomb. At your expression, he says, “Just in case. We have a chance to get out of here yet.” He grabs your hand and pulls you alongside him, running across the roof.

“On three, I’ll throw you across.” He positions his hands around you.

“Wait! Can’t you use the same hook thing-” But he’s already counting down, and before you could finish your protest, you’re flung off.

Your arms and legs scramble midair, and you land on the next building with a resounding thud. The pain erupts through your joints, but you don’t have the time to complain because Rex also leaps across, almost sprawling on top of you.

He, however, has more sense to get back up and start shooting at the incoming droids. You heave yourself to your feet, blaster in hand.

“Ever used a blaster?”

“I know how to shoot, but never practiced on moving targets.” He chuckles.

“Well, there’s no time like the present to learn.” The blaster is heavy and cold in your hands. With a huff, you aim at a droid marching towards you. The first shot misses. And so does the second. But your third hits it in the chest, and you have to stop yourself from grinning.

As you take aim at another droid, Rex finishes off the one you had previously shot at.

“Need to aim for the head, princess.” You stick your tongue out.

“I tried my best,” you pout. In the time between your bickering, Rex had cleared the roof of droids, but the unmistakable sound of marching signalled even more.

“Karking hells, did they send a whole battalion of clankers?” Rex sighs and rubs the front of his helmet, right where the blue jaig eyes were. “Well, princess. We need a better plan than run and shoot if we have to face more of these droids.”

“We could hide?”

“Seems a little-” Rex ducks from a blaster bolt then turns to shoot the offending droid, “late to hide.”

“What about-” a loud boom echoes around you, debris and smoke creating a cloud. Distantly, you hear a fuzzy scream. You see Rex reach for you through the smoke, a white and blue hand struggling to grab you. But the world under your feet rushes up to meet you, and you stagger. It’s then that you realize the screaming is coming from you.

Rex’s helmet fades away as you hurtle backwards, and you explode in pain, everything going dark.

*****

Sounds of blaster fire shake you awake. With a jolt, you sit up, only to find a piece of debris blocking your feet. You manage to pry it off, grunting and cursing the whole time. Being a princess certainly didn’t train you for this situation.

Sounds of static come from your arm. The comm.

“Princess? Are you alright? Please tell me you’re okay.”

“I’m fine.” You’re met with a sigh of relief.

“Finally. I’ve been comming, but you haven’t responded. Where are you?”

You rub your cheek and look around. You’re in some alley separating two houses. Garbage bins line the walls and more pieces of debris lay scattered. A few feet away from you is the blaster. You must have dropped it in the explosion…

“I don’t know. What happened?” He huffs.

“A droid must have thrown a bomb on the roof, breaking a piece of it off and taking you with it. I was going to jump down and find you, but the-” he pauses, heaving, “there were too many droids, and I didn’t want them to follow you.” Another pause, another sigh. He sounded tired—the fatigue of running and shooting and worrying probably wore him down. “I’m glad you’re safe.”

“Me too,” you whisper back. Maybe you should tell him now. Tell him that you’re scared and hurt and that you need him. Because you need Rex as much as you want him. It’s wrong, and it would only end in heartbreak but- “Rex, I have something to say.”

“Yes, princess?”

“I think I-”

But your time for confession ends when a probe droid hovers at the end of the alley. Shit. You jump up on your aching legs and reach for the blaster. Your hands shake but manage to hit the droid, hoping to destroy it so it doesn’t alert the others of your presence. Unfortunately, the hit doesn’t stop it from flying off.

Limping to the mouth of the alley, you peek around a wall. Down the street, a battalion of battle droids marches over. The sounds of blaster fire come from your left, and you look up to see Rex jumping from roof to roof annihilating the droids.

His back is turned, and he won’t be able to see the marching formation. If they were to aim at him… he would be defenseless. Sandwiched on two sides.

You grip the blaster. And take aim.

One after another, the first wave of droids fall. For every shot you miss, another blaster bolt manages to pierce through a droid’s head. Your arms are aching from holding the weapon up for too long, and your knees threaten to buckle.

The second wave sees you and starts to take aim. You have enough strength left to dodge them. You dart behind a garbage bin and follow up with your own fire. Once again, they begin to drop. Your shots are sloppy, but you might actually have a chance to destroy them all. Victory is on the tip of your tongue, and you-

Distracted, you don’t notice a bolt hit you. The pain is sharp, biting, and searing . You clutch your side just as another bolt knocks the blaster out of your hand. You crouch low, too hurt, your mind too frayed to think properly.

The only thing you can do is hide, wincing at every bolt that hits the garbage bin. Each step the droids take closer to you, the sooner your end will come. The thought is grim, but at least… if you were to die, it would be in trying to help Rex.

The pain in your side begins to numb, and it evens out the fuzziness in your brain. The sharp edge of the agony, the ache—you peek around the garbage bin briefly and see the grate you and Rex had used just a few minutes prior. Only it felt like years ago.

The droids walk closer, but they don’t take aim at you. No, they shoot upwards . At the roof.

With a cry, you leap out and into the street, making a run for the grate. The droids don’t notice, too preoccupied with shooting your captain. You palm the bomb Rex had given you earlier and turn on your comm.

“Rex? I’m going to bomb the droids.” Muffled grunts come through. You don’t bother looking up, instead working to open the grate with one hand.

“What? It’s too dangerous, you won’t be able to run away in time. Princess, don’t-” The grate is heavy, but you manage to push it off.

“No, Rex. I have to do this. There are way too many droids down here, and they’re all aiming at you. You don’t stand a chance.” Something wet slides down your face and into your eye. You blink it out and watch as it falls on the rusty grate below you. Blood.

“I’m a soldier!” He yells. From your position, you can hear him even without the comm. “I have a duty to protect you, and you have the duty to stay alive. For your people. Don’t do it, princess. For me,” he pleads. You nudge the grate to the side, legs already slipping in. Liquid drips down your cheek, and you wipe it, expecting red. But it comes away clear

“Rex,” you choke out, “it’s too late. I have to do this for you.” You turn off the comm and throw the bomb into the approaching droids. They make confused noises and stop shooting for a second. You take one look at the captain on the roof, still firing. A loud shout of your name reaches your ears, and you whisper a prayer that this all works- Just as you pull the grate over the hole, a large tremor quakes through the ground.

The impact is enough to send you sprawling, an even more concentrated pain covering your body like a blanket. You hear a crack and everything goes fuzzy.

*****

Rex feels numb. The bomb that goes off wipes out the most of the battalion and the fronts of many houses. He finishes off the remaining droids easily just as a fleet from the 501st hover overhead, his vod jumping out to land on the carnage. Commander Tano follows right behind, and she steps on the roof where Rex stands.

“Anakin’s taking over the palace. We’ll drive off these Separatists in no time.” She punches his shoulder lightly. “Rex?” He just shakes his head. “What’s wrong? Where’s the princess?” He can’t stop the choked sob that escapes him.

Maker, he’s so angry . At you for being reckless, at himself for being too incompetent to save the person he cared—no, the person he was assigned to protect. If he told you to wait ten more seconds, the 501st would have landed and wiped out the droids. If he had been next you, you would have cleared them out together. If he had- if he had found you first then maybe-

Ahsoka tugs off his helmet and staggers backwards as Rex buries his face into her shoulder. A voice in his head scolds himself at the impropriety, but he doesn’t listen.

“Oh, Rex,” Ahsoka whispers, patting his back. He tries. He tries so hard to stop, but the sobs keep coming. He’s a soldier—he’s accustomed to death; he’s seen many beloved brothers die in his arms, heard the screams of civilians he couldn’t save— but you… you shouldn’t have died. It wasn’t your time. And it was his fault.

“Echo, scan the area for any civilians. Kix, check up on Rex.” Ahsoka orders. Before she tugs away, she holds Rex’s face in her palms. “Stay strong, captain.” She presses her forehead against his and heads off to deal with the aftermath.

“Come here. What did you do to yourself, vod ?” Kix mutters, sounding disappointed. It’s only when Kix starts to treat his immediate wounds that Rex begins to feel them. The sting on his forehead, his cheeks, even his hands feel better than the ache in his chest.

“Where is the princess, captain? She’s kinda a big part of this mission.” Kix’s methodical hands are rough but not as callous as Rex’s or even Hardcase’s. Like the princess. Well, her hands were nowhere near as rough, but they were soft and elegant in the same way Kix’s are. Maker, she was soft in many places, but she wasnt fragile. There were hard edges to her, physically and mentally. She had the iron resolve to help others, even if they weren’t her own people. Even if they were some random clone- Rex shakes himself out of his daze to find Kix waiting for an answer.

“Don’t know. She threw that bomb and then… well, she was injured, so-” Rex knows he’s mumbling and he should speak clearer, but if he talks louder then his fears might be confirmed.

“You don’t think she made it. Kriff, I’m sorry. We’ll have to tell her handmaidens and private guards. They’re already up at the palace with the general.” He shouldn’t get angry at his own brother, but the lack of sympathy in his voice—well, Kix did sound sympathetic but it was the same tone used for every other dead person, not someone special like the princess— made Rex grit his teeth.

Before he could reply, Echo’s shocked yell of “Captain!” followed by Ahsoka’s “Rex, you better get down here!” already forced Kix to haul Rex up.

“Are you good to walk?” Rex nods. Most of his injuries were easy to deal with anyway. Kix guides Rex down from the roof and into the unit below. They’re met with a quivering family of five talking to one of the 501st. They must have been terrified to hear the shootout he had upstairs. If you were here, you would have comforted them. Maybe played with the children-

As he exits the house, he finds you laid out on a stretcher next to the sewer grate. Immediately, Kix leaves his side to examine you and- kriff, you look so lifeless. And broken. That was not the princess he knew and lo- cared for. The blood on your face trickles in steady rivulets. Your singed dress is enough evidence that you got shot at least once.

He’s about to turn away—knowing that he can’t look or else he’ll break down again—until Kix speaks.

“She’s still alive, captain.” Well yeah no one could have survived that- wait, what? You were still alive? Already, he’s pushing aside the brothers in his way to stand next to you. He grips your hand, and it’s warm. It’s warm and soft and you’re still alive .

The grief that had been eating at his chest collapses, leaving a gaping hole in its absence. In its place, a surmounting wave of joy and warmth and relief washes through him.

“She might have gotten a concussion from the impact of the explosion. The blaster bolt didn’t hit anything serious, so that’s good. Some big bruises, probably torn muscles, quite a lot of scratches. Other than that, she’s fine.” Ahsoka, already by his side, places a hand on his shoulder.

“The princess is a strong one, Rex. A survivor. She’ll make it.” He’s forced to let go of your hand as Kix wheels you away. For now, he has to go back to being Rex the Captain and do his duty at the palace alongside his general. And later, when everything is dealt with and the Separatists are driven out, he’ll allow himself to visit you. Just one visit to say goodbye then the both of you will go your own ways. You’ll still be a princess and he’ll continue to be a soldier.

*****

The world comes back in small pieces. First, you feel the dull ache in your muscles and the dryness in your throat. Then the quiet sounds of med droids working and occasional distant chatter. The room is on the colder side, but not enough to warrant a blanket. You twitch your fingers and move your toes, relieved to find that everything seems to work. You wrack your brain to think of how you could possibly have ended up here. The last thing you remember was the droids, the bomb in your hand, the explosion-

You gasp and sit upright, eyes opening. The room is blurry around you, but you adjust and— Rex is standing off to the side. He rushes over, urging you to lay back down. Only it’s not Rex. Where Rex had blond, this man had a worded tattoo curling around his skull, his hair buzzed into patterns.

“Relax, princess. I’m Kix: medic of the 501st. I’m in charge of your care.” Oh. You try to speak but your throat is too dry. Kix hands you a glass of water, which you gulp greedily.

“Thank you, Kix. How- where is the Captain?” The medic gives you a strange look before replying.

“He’s still in a briefing with General Skywalker and Commander Tano. They’ll be done soon. Do you want me to send him over, princess?” It would be nice to see him, but… what if he was too busy? He probably had a lot of things to do, and his mission to protect you was over.

“I-it’s alright.” Kix sends you another face. “N-not that I don’t want to see him or anything. Just that I don’t want to be a bother, you know-” The medic holds a hand up.

“I get it. After the meeting, he’ll be free for a while, so expect him to come. I’m sure he would love to see you.”

“What do you m-mean by that-” The medic gives you a blank stare.

“Your handmaidens and private guards are waiting outside. Should I let them in?” Miffed at his redirection, you nod, and the medic steps away to open the door. One by one, your entourage filters in, concern coming through in droves.

None of them move to give you a hug or any touches. Instead, they assemble themselves in a semicircle around the bed.

“Princess, we were so worried about you.”

“We’re glad to see you safe, your highness.”

“How are your injuries, princess?”

“Princess, what happened to your clothes and jewelry?” Their voices are hushed and sincere, but the onslaught only gives you a headache. Kix notices your discomfort and motions for the handmaidens to step back.

“I’m alright, girls. No major injuries I think.” The handmaidens turn to Kix for confirmation, and he sighs.

“We dealt with her bigger issues first. With enough rest, she’ll recover to perfect health.” Satisfied, the girls look back to you.

“As for my clothing,” you contemplate lying, but what good would that do? “I couldn’t wear my clothes and jewelry in the jungle because of the heat. So I left the clothes behind and gifted the jewelry to a friendly village.” You’re met with scandalized looks, and the handmaidens glance at each other.

“Girls, the rules change in emergencies. If I had stuck to protocol, I would probably be dead.” The mention of your demise sobers them up, and they relax from their hovering position. “But I am tired and need to rest as Kix said.” The girls nod in unison and say their goodbyes, followed by the guards.

Once you and the medic are alone, you finally slump from the regal position you had forced yourself to maintain.

“Are they always so… smothering?” You try to laugh, but the ache in your side pinches hard enough for you to stop.

“It’s their job to worry over me. Like how you probably worry for your brothers.” Kix turns to you, surprised.

“Yeah. I do worry for my brothers because they’re idiots and get themselves hurt.” He sighs and pulls a chair next to your bed. “I love my brothers more than anything. This might not be my place to ask, but… what are your intentions with my captain?”

“I… I don’t know.” He raises an eyebrow. “I never wished for harm to come to Re- the captain. I feel guilty that he was placed in the sole position to protect me, but I know that’s not my fault. It was a difficult journey, but-”

“Sorry to interrupt, but that’s not what I asked. What do you want to do with my vod ? Because I saw the way he acted when he thought you died. And I saw how he acted when he realized you lived.” He looks at you accusingly.

“What?” You hold your breath.

“Princess… we’re used to seeing people die. It’s part of the job description. But Rex broke down crying when he thought you died. He never does that. And it’s not like you’re best friends. You met three days ago. So tell me, princess, what do you want to do with my brother?” Kix continues staring. His eyes are identical to Rex’s, but also different. Kix— like all his brothers—holds himself differently from everyone else.

You don’t really know how to answer his question. Well you do, but you know you shouldn’t tell him the truth because it will only open a can of worms. But something in Kix's face, in his determination, forces you to speak.

“I think I’m in love with your brother.” You breathe out. Kix, to his credit, doesn’t bat an eye at your confession. Instead, he grins.

“I knew it. He could definitely use a girlfriend. Not sure how he’d be able to see you often because you are a princess and he’s busy enough as a captain but-”

“You aren’t mad?” Your head is light and fuzzy, and the world seems to both crash and freeze around you, but Kix has the audacity to joke around?

“Relax, princess. As long as you’re not leading my brother on or anything, I fully support it. Look, Rex has had to deal with a lot of shit. Having you in his life would do wonders for his health. And emotional state. I say this as a medic who’s-”

“Licensed to help with mental issues?” You say, smiling.

“Well, no, I never got trained for that, but it doesn’t matter.” He chuckles. A knock comes from the door, and he goes to open it.

On the other side, Rex stands, hands folded behind his back. Jaig eyes facing you.

“I’ll leave the two of you alone.” Kix sends you a small smile and claps his brother on the back before exiting. Rex steps forward, closing the door behind him.

The silence stifles the air, and you struggle to speak.

“I got you some flowers.” Rex pulls his hands from his back to reveal a small bouquet. It’s cute in a messy, childish way. “I picked some random flowers from the palace gardens. Sorry if they aren’t-”

You tug him forward, burying your face into his hard chest plate. Startled, the captain lays the flowers on the chair Kix had vacated.

“I love it.” You reach up, hands on either side of his helmet. After a gentle nod, you tug it off and set it aside. Bandages cover Rex’s face, and bruises decorate his cheeks. A split runs down his lips. Your finger brushes the wound before you realize that you’re moving. You both tense when you make contact, and you retract your finger.

“Rex, I want you to know that I-”

“This is the last time we should-”

You both stare at each other. He clears his throat. “You should go first.”

“No, you go.”

“Princess-”

“Why did you say ‘last time’? What’s that supposed to mean,” you whisper.

“This,” he gestures between the two of you, “can’t continue. I’m a captain, you’re a princess. This won’t end well for either of us, and it’s probably illegal. It would be easier to part ways.” He doesn’t look at you.

“Is that what you want? To never see each other again?” Your chest tightens.

“We have responsibilities. It’s a hard decision, but it must be done.”

“No, I won’t do it,” you choke out. “You know what wasn’t a hard decision? Throwing that bomb to kill off the droids before they reached you. That was easy to decide because I care for you.”

“That was a stupid decision, and you know it. If I had contacted Skywalker sooner or found you faster, you wouldn’t have gotten shot. I thought you died,” he says, voice cracking.

“It’s not your fault. I probably should have waited, but I didn’t have a choice. And besides, I’m alive, right?” He pulls away, face scrunching up.

“But what if you died, huh? What would happen to your people? To your family? To me? Kriffing hell, princess, I don’t know what I would have done if you really had passed on. How can I function as a soldier if I can’t cope with the grief of losing you?” He turns away, but you notice a stray tear slide down his face.

You brush it off without hesitation. “I understand that you’re worried about me. But I don’t want what-ifs to end what we have. Would you let hypothetical scenarios rule your life?”

Rex sighs. “The Jedi were right about attachments. About how they could destroy people.” He turns to you and gently takes your face in his hands. “But I’m not a Jedi.” And he leans in.

His lips are rough and chapped but deliciously soft. He slots perfectly against you, his breath equal parts inviting and destabilizing. You tighten your arms around him, body curling towards his. The space in your chest fills with something warm and heavy and full. His lips move slowly, taking the time to savor you. It’s a drawn out kiss, clumsy and awkward, but intoxicating nonetheless. Even the clinking of your teeth doesn’t stop either of you. But Rex pulls away quicker than you’d like, and you pout.

“Don’t be sad. There’s more where that came from.” You share matching grins.

“So does that mean you’re going to try?” His lips brush over yours, his warm breath mixing with your own.

He whispers your name with an air of reverence and says, “Yeah. We’ll make this work.” And he tugs you closer, capturing your lips once again.

#captain rex #captain rex x reader #captain rex x you #clone wars #star wars fanfiction #diplomacy #a princess and her captain

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