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captainillogical · 4 years

Text

Home Ch.1

The domesticity of living with an alien who hasn't quite had the chance at a normal life.

Distant Lands sequel.

Spinel/Reader

collab with my lovely wife @firstofficertightpants

thanks for still reading my shit, love you all

You slam the fridge door, taking a swig out of the bottle of water in your hands that you had just grabbed from the top shelf. It’s hot as hell out this afternoon, and you’ve just finished grabbing the last of your stray belongings to move across town.

“-and you need to make sure to keep your phone on, I’ll be sending you calendar updates to your current schedule. Things have been moved around twice for next week, so expect your lesson times to change again.”

“I appreciate all this Pearl, but you’re acting like I’m moving farther than 5 miles and a single warp away.” You say to the gem lecturing you off a list she’s made on her phone.

“I just like to be sure.” Pearl narrows her eyes at you slightly. “I know you’re capable of handling things on your own, I just worry.”

“You fret like you’re my mom.” You retort with an eye roll, taking another sip of water. Garnet grins at that, leaning against the counter. It’s just the three of you here in the kitchen.

“Well, I have known you for quite a few of your formative years.” She huffs, cheeks tinting blue. “I remember when you first responded to that ad Greg put up, you walked in and-”

“Pearl, oh my god, please no.” You cut her off, capping your bottle, it crinkling slightly in your hands.

“I think she’s getting empty nest syndrome.” Garnet says with a small chuckle.

“Y/N, you are sure about this, right?” Pearl ignores Garnet’s comment. “I know that living on your own can be fairly difficult as is..”

“We talked about this extensively yesterday, Pearl.” You sigh, giving her a specific look. “I’ll be fine. I’ve been through hell already enough as is, this will be a walk in the park for me. Besides, I’ve got Spinel.”

“That’s kind of what I’m worried about.” She replies, levelling her gaze with yours.

You try not to sigh out loud at her again.

Okay, so. Really, it's been less than a week since you've solidly been back on Earth. You can't reasonably expect Pearl of all people to be one for quick adjustment. But you did spend a long time with her the day prior going over all her questions about the surface of Golgotha for an updated gem archive entry she's working on. You were kind of hoping it would calm most of her worries about this in general, but you feel like based on some of your responses it might've made her worry even more. Not to mention paired with that incident in the kitchen the other day with Amethyst..

Even if it was a little painful for you for multiple reasons; like having to re-live terrifying moments in detail - it wasn't as painful as the BARRAGE of questions she pummelled you with about the nature of your relationship with Spinel once she got you alone. Fucking mortifying, that was, when Pearl had the audacity to ask if you two had been like this prior to coming back to Earth. You tried keeping much of it to yourself as possible as you aren't super well-adjusted to everything yourself. Like jesus fucking christ, Amethyst and Garnet accepted your text message without much question, other than a thumbs up from her and a solid wall of emojis and expletives from the shorter gem. And maybe a couple roasts about it that you're not going to mention. But they had managed to accept it without embarrassing you much, why couldn't Pearl be less.. Pearl about it?

“What do you think is honestly going to happen?” You retort flatly.

“Well, I don’t have-” Pearl stops to spare a glance at Garnet, who barely even reacts.

“Future-vision is cheating.” She says, lips still forming a wry smile. “She will be fine as long as she remembers to make sure the oven is off.”

“You’re gonna make me paranoid..” You groan. “And see Pearl? I’ll be fine.”

“If you say so." She says like she's waiting to be proven right somehow. You know her enough to not be offended by it. "You didn't forget about your stuff in the bathroom, did you?"

"Nah, but it's not like I won't be back, y'know, in-case you maybe find my missing rubber ducky." You say, feeling your stomach rumble. "And while I do love you both, really, I've got to go get some food in me and finish the lesson plan for next week.."

"Fiiine, go! Clearly we're just here to nag you." Pearl says with a bit of a huff, slight pout on her face, but you can tell she's mainly doing it for the dramatics.

"Don't be like that." You hold back rolling your eyes at her, even if you really want to. You grab the bag with the rest of your things off the counter, shouldering it.

"Did you give me sitting in and watching your first class any more thought?" Garnet asks, resting her hands on her hips. You can't see her eyes, but you know if you could she'd be studying your face for an answer. "It might help with the nervousness you're feeling."

"Yeaaaaaaahhhh," You let out a breath a bit nervously, having given that exactly zero extra thought. "I'm still pretty sure that you'd just give me performance anxiety. Give me a few more days to think about it."

You say your goodbyes for now, toeing your shoes on and heading out the door down to the beach below.

Ugh. It's hot, and so is the sand.

You should think about finally replacing your old car. You know, the one that died last year that Peridot said was worth more in scrap metal? You miss that old junker. You'd have to save up a considerable amount of money you don't have, but, ugh, you'll think about this later.

The breeze makes your hair fly into your face, and you're annoyed the entire walk over to town. Your stomach growls again, and you decide on pizza for your afternoon lunch.

It's kind of a no-brainer when your feet lead you to Fish Stew Pizza, and your hand is already on the door handle and opening it when you subconsciously realize a small hangup, possibly, just as the door opens.

Kiki's inside and manning the counter, and she's the only one in the establishment at all currently. You let out a breath of relief.

"Weeeeeeelcome." She greets you without even looking up from her phone.

"Afternoon'." You say in greeting, feeling awkward preemptively. Kiki looks up immediately when she hears your voice, and her facial expression is completely surprised at yours at first before she quickly schools it to more of a casual, neutral one.

Ah. Lars came through.

You see.. after that first day back you utterly loathed the idea of explaining why you're now pink to literally everyone else, and Lars offered to send out a couple quick informative texts. What a fucking bro. You should probably help him out sometime just for the effort alone.

"Y/N, it's good to see you." Kiki says, trying not to be too obvious that she's giving you a glance-over.

"Thanks, you too." You hear coming out of your mouth, the air conditioning of this place cooling you off rapidly. God you even SOUND awkward. "It's pretty empty in here for the time of day, that's kind of odd."

"Yeahhh, but I'm not gonna complain about it. I'm covering Jenny's shift right now and I'll take the slowness if it means I can just be on my phone.." She's staring at the scar on your face, and you feel.. weirdly self conscious about it.

"Typical Jenny. You gotta stop going easy on her." You reply, leaning against the counter.

“Oh, I wasn’t going easy. She’s doing my chores this week because of this, so actually she’s the one getting the short stick out of this. I had nothing planned with my time off.” She sets her phone down, and oh my god, she will not stop staring.

“Will you just say what you’re thinking and get this over with?” You spit out, impatient. She reels back for literally only a split second before leaning forward eagerly and getting right into your space.

“Lars wasn’t fucking lying, huh. That place messed you UP.” She reaches over the counter to touch your hair, and if it were nearly anyone other than Kiki you’d punch them in the face. But she helped you deal with her sister back then, so. “I saw you maybe a week and a half ago, and now look at you! Pink like Lars and with a giant scar on your face to boot! What didn’t happen to you there?!”

“I er, didn’t get the face scar there, and it wasn’t the only one I gained.” You say with a grimace. Your stomach growls again. “How much exactly did he tell you?”

“What!? I mean he told me about you being kidnapped by a deranged gem and that you died, but that was about it!” She replies, expression bewildered.

You sigh. God. Okay. That’s not the worst thing he could’ve told people. But he’s not making this any easier for you anyway.

“Listen, can I order a small plain cheese pizza? And then I’ll enlighten you.”

“Yeah, you got it.” She grins, getting this spark in her eye while ringing you up and even giving you a hefty discount. It’s why she’s your favorite sister of the two.

You move to sit by the window table, setting your bag down on one of the other chairs and pulling out your lesson notes.

You don’t really feel super up to this right now, but you should probably go over a few things by yourself that Pearl gave you some pointers on. You’re nervous, like really nervous about teaching this class, if you’re honest with yourself. But you also think it will be fun, and interesting, even. You’re only giving two hour-long lessons a week for right now, as the others wanted to see how well you’d fair. Your first lesson is in just a few days. Also, the class currently has 43 gems signed up for it, and that’s quite a bit of a hefty crowd.

You were expecting an interest of maybe.. 4 gems total. This is a little unnerving. You only have the one flier posted up with the other new classes on that board, so you’re guessing word of mouth was how it spread.

You feel your phone buzz a couple times in your pocket, and you pull it out to see who it is. When you see who the messages are from, you can’t help but feel a smile break out on your face that you have a hard time suppressing. Oh, and whoops, you forgot to reply to her earlier messages while you were being lectured by Pearl.

[14:13] Spinel: uuuuugh i just want today to be OVER please

[14:13] Spinel: i think bismuth enjoys sending me to help peridot like some kind of sadist

[14:13] Spinel: its like she knows i dont want to hear about camp pining hearts for the third day in a row? i get peridot needs assistance but i haven’t even seen this show and now i have no need to ever physically watch it

[15:42] Spinel: you can’t ignore me in person Y/N

[15:42] Spinel: i haven’t seen you in two days and this is how you treat me?

[15:42] Spinel: like an afterthought?

[15:42] Spinel: hurtful

You roll your eyes to yourself, still grinning. You can feel affection coming through the words even if that isn’t what they’re saying. You’re also ecstatic at the concept of the others getting on with Spinel quickly enough to annoy her on purpose now. You miss her face, and feel a little silly about it, considering it hasn’t even been that long. It sucks, but at least she texts you fairly often. And as of today, well, you get to live with her.

[15:43] Y/N: Rest assured, I can ignore you in person.

[15:43] Y/N: Dramatic ass.

[15:43] Y/N: I’m going to be seeing you in like, an hour anyway. Chill.

“Why are you smiling like that?” You hear, jolting upright in your seat as Kiki sets down your personal pizza in front of you with a glass of water. It smells heavenly. “You never smile like that.”

“Uh,” You reply, caught off-guard, and set your phone down. “Was just replying to something funny Steven said.”

“Sure.” She says in a tone that screams ‘I don’t believe you whatsoever but okay’.

You reach out for a slice of pizza and take a bite, cheese almost dripping all over the lesson plans in front of you. Kiki moves the papers aside for safekeeping, and you mutter out a quick thanks.

“So,” She starts, resting her chin on her hand. “You gonna enlighten me, or what?”

You finish chewing your slice of pizza, and grab another. And then you indulge her questions. All of them.

She has a lot.

You leave out all the details of what happened between you and Spinel, you’re really not ready to have those kinds of conversations yet. Dealing with Steven giving you shit for it has been more than enough to want it from anyone else, and you haven’t even told Lars about it - even though you told him you would whenever you finally confessed to her.

Also.. uh. You won’t lie. Between the both of you being pretty fucking busy almost right off the bat, you haven’t exactly, er. Had the girlfriend conversation with Spinel yet. Other than that one night, people are always around you two. You know you gotta just talk to her about it to clarify, but shit, you’re stupidly anxious about it. Part of your brain is literally screaming at you about being stupid about it, because sure, you had the most nerve-wracking love confession of your life and you two boned and also she definitely said she felt the same way, but what if this is just real casual to her?

Oh my god, you over-think fucking everything. Get it together.

You think not seeing her for two days in-person might be driving you nuts, a little.

"Lars didn't really tell me anything about Spinel. He gave me the jist of it, but told me to ask you for everything else whenever you seemed okay with it." She lets out a long breath, and you watch her eyes focus on you. "Imagine what would've happened if you weren't there with him that day. Do you think she would've killed him?"

"I'm not entirely sure. Honestly? She definitely had the strength to, but it doesn't really matter to me now. She wouldn't harm a hair on anyone's head." You reply, trying to not mull over the Spinel you experienced when you first met.

"You seem to have full faith in her." She states, a small smile forming on her face. "You didn't treat any of the other gems that tried killing Steven with any kindness for at least a month. You're less forgiving than Pearl."

"I spent a month with her alone on a planet, Kiki. I had to learn how to work with her, and she saved my life." You retort.

"Yeah, only cause you put yourself in danger for her." She narrows her eyes at you. “And you’re moving in with her today?” Kiki asks, expression a bit suspicious, smile still on her face. This makes you uneasy.

“Yeah?” You reply, confused. “It’s not that weird, is it? I moved in with Steven fairly quickly.”

“Yeah, except that was a different type of situation, you were a guardian for him. And this is you we’re talking about here.” She levels you with a look. “I feel like I’m missing something you’re not telling me. Like a key part to all of this.”

“L-like what?” You shove another slice of pizza into your mouth to shut yourself up. Not fucking today, dammit. Not today.

“I dunno, there’s just something..” She trails off, her eyebrows drawn together on her forehead as if she’s got a thought within her grasp. She looks at your hand, grasping your phone, squinting her eyes. She then shakes her head. “Whatever, you’ll tell me eventually. It’s not as if you’re sleeping with her.”

You choke on the slice of pizza you’re currently chewing, and violently so.

Kiki’s eyes go wide, and you put a hand up as if you can stop whatever thoughts are racing through her head. Her jaw drops.

“Wait,” You manage to choke out, gasping for air and finding it very difficult. You can't tell if you can feel your face going red from the lack of air, or from this conversation.

“Y/N.” Is all she says, voice dripping incredulously. “Y/N!”

“Kiki, you have the wrong idea-”

“I cannot believe you.” She says, mouth still open. She’s got half a grin on her face like she’s just unearthed the most juicy gossip, and you are SO not here for this. "Wait until Jenny hears about this."

"Kiki!" You wail, and sputter out another cough. "Kiki you can't tell anyone!"

"Why not!?" She cackles. "And besides, I don't even know if she'd believe me anyway. Y/N of all people?!"

"Tell her, and I'll tell Sadie you had a crush on her for a year." You spit out in a panic.

"You wouldn't!" Kiki narrows her eyes at you, face of mock betrayal.

"I would. Watch me." You state, grabbing your phone off the table pointedly.

"Okay okay! Sheesh." She puts her hands up in surrender. "So you gonna tell me the dirty deets or what?"

"No, I don't kiss and tell." You scowl at her, but she doesn't seem put off by it at all.

"Knowing you, that doesn't surprise me." She grabs your glass of water, taking a sip of it. You're not even annoyed. "Guess you and Greg have something in common."

She laughs at her own joke, and you can't help putting your face in your hands and groaning loudly and dramatically. It only makes her laugh harder.

"Shut uuuup." You sigh, grabbing the glass of water from her and taking your own sip.

The two of you talk for awhile as she grills you about Spinel, and you share what you're comfortable with. Eventually, she gets a family of customers in that she has to attend to, and you busy yourself with what you had come here originally to do.

Time passes and you lose track a bit, until your phone vibrates on the table and shakes you out of your concentration.

It's a couple texts from Spinel.

[17:04] Spinel: it'll be a while until I'm free

[17:04] Spinel: there were some ISSUES apparently

You stare at your phone. You try not to be irritated at the situation.

It's not like you haven't seen her in a hot minute or anything. You weren't eager at all to be able to see her face or hear her voice. You sigh, and text her back.

[17:05] Y/N: It's fine.

You stare at your phone for a little bit, but she seems busy enough to not have the chance to respond quickly.

Fuck it, it's not like you have anything else to do. You're tired of the papers and notes in front of you. Might as well make your way over to little Homeworld and wait for Spinel to be free from Peridot's tiny demon hands.

You pack up, and make sure to say your goodbyes to Kiki, who yells at you to text her as you leave the shop.

It doesn’t take you that long to get to little homeworld, and thankfully you know where Peridot is usually working as of late.

You pass by the town center, and the glass in some of the taller buildings glare in the evening sun. There's quite a few gems around, working and building, many conversing with each other. There's a couple humans intermingled with them as well. The general atmosphere is pretty lovely here. You like it.

A Rose Quartz bumps into you on the sidewalk and your bag flies off your shoulder, spilling the contents onto the ground.

"Ah! I'm so sorry!" She spins around, arms out to make sure she didn't shove you off of the sidewalk as well. "I'm just so clumsy." She says, pushing her long pink hair over her shoulder and grabbing for your things on the ground before you can even think to scoop them up yourself.

"It's okay, I wasn't exactly paying attention either." You reply, grabbing the papers that flew out of your bag and onto the street. Thankfully, nothing's damaged. She hands you your stuff, and you place it back into your bag. "Thanks."

"It was mostly my fault anyway." She grins lazily, and you watch her eyes wander around the area of your face where you have that scar. "Hmm, I feel like I've seen your face around here before. You hang out with Steven?"

"You could say that." You smile back at her and shoulder your bag. She's got this way about her that makes you think she's analyzing you, but not out of judgement. "Why?"

"No reason! I'll see you around, cutie." She says with a sly grin and a wink, and you're standing there feeling completely taken aback. Your face heats up a little in embarrassment. That was.. okay. Whatever the hell that was.

You keep walking, mind wandering as you try to figure out what the hell that gem's deal was.

You manage to spot Bismuth near a building with more scaffolding than anything else, and she's huddled with Peridot, Lapis, a couple quartz, and Spinel. You won't lie to yourself when your heart does a little summersault in your chest when you spot her magenta twintails.

They're talking loudly and animatedly about something you can't manage to hear from this distance, and you don't bother to get any closer. You duck into the entryway of a nearby building less than a hundred feet in distance from them just to linger for a moment.

One of the Quartz says something, and they all erupt into laughter, and your eyes are trained on no one but Spinel. There’s something about watching her like this that makes your heart swell, and you feel a bit ridiculous over it. You feel your phone buzz in your pocket, and you tear your eyes away to check it.

It's a message from Steven.

[17:37] Steven: can I ask you for a favor? It's not work related.

[17:37] Steven: Connie's parents invited me to dinner

[17:37] Steven: hELP

You stare at your phone, feeling your face break out into a grin. Someone tries to get into the shop you're standing in front of, so you side step to move out of the way momentarily.

[17:38] Y/N: Haha oh buddy.

You look up after sending the message just to make sure you're in no one's way, and you happen to see Spinel just as she's turning her head in your direction, aaaaaand she's spotted you.

Her face brightens up immediately.

She says something to the others, and most of them turn their faces to peer at you. Your face heats up, and one of them cracks some kind of joke that makes half the others howl in laughter as one of the Quartz slaps Spinel's back in jest.

What the fuck are they saying?!

She manages to disengage herself, waving a couple loud goodbyes as the others let her go. It sounds like they make another joke at her expense, they all laugh as she runs to catch up to where you're waiting for her.

She groans as she reaches you, bringing her gloved hand up to her forehead to shield her eyes from the sun.

"What the hell did you say to them?!" Is what comes out of your mouth instead of a greeting. You glare at the others, and you can’t tell if they can see your expressions, but they sure are howling with laughter.

"Well hello to you too," She replies, cheekily scratching the back of her head. “And I didn't say a word! They just.. kinda figured it out?” She says sheepishly, cheeks coloring a bit. “Guess I talk about 'ya a lot, eheheh..”

Oh my god, ugh. You think you're going to have a heart attack, probably. She's looking at you like she’s holding back a lot of affection. Probably for your sake?

One of them catcalls at the two of you, and you hear another whistling. You feel your eye twitching, but the smile doesn't leave your face.

"No, really, what'd you tell them?"

"That you're my girlfriend, you idiot, because they basically knew that already." She retorts with a roll of her eyes. She grabs your hand, and you feel your face heat up even more. "Let's get 'outta here already."

Well. That answers all your insecurities.

You look forward to the next upcoming days.

#spinel x reader #spinel #su #steven universe #spinel steven universe #home #my fic #thanks for the wait

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cryptid-bloodhound · 5 years

Text

The Pride of Life

Ao3

Words: 2.4k+

Characters: Bloodhound, Arthur, Bloodhound’s kid, Unnamed Security Guard

No Warnings, it’s just pure old fashioned FLUFF.

I said I was gonna write it and I did. Special shoutout to @ajays-lullaby for the term ‘ada’. That was a lifesaver.

Summary: They may often find peace in the bloodied valleys of battle but they’ve learned that the hunt is not the only place to find tranquility.

Or: Bloodhound has a kid and keeps forgetting that people don't usually show up to said kid's school in full battle gear.

---

Life in the Legends’ compound was always interesting just after the conclusion of a game. The contenders tended to their wounds, cleaned the blood from their suits and weapons, and chatted quietly amongst one another. Exhaustion weighed heavy on their shoulders as they waited for the ‘all clear’ from the higher-ups. Some liked to find the ever-present paparazzi and bask in the fleeting limelight before limping to their quarters. Others couldn’t wait to make a break for the city and revel in their victory - or drink to their sorrows.

In those tenuous moments between work and freedom laid a razor-thin tension. It lined their bodies, drawing them stiff as they dabbed their wounds. Friendly grins were always just the tightest bit strained at the very corners as they chatted with their friends. Jokes and laughs were traded as the phantom pains of bullets and blades shifted like a nightmare in the backs of their minds. No matter how close they are, it’s hard to look in the eyes of the person who put a gun to their head and pulled the trigger without thinking twice.

But the wondrous thing about Legends is that those moments of bitter pain and loss were so very fleeting. They were a rare sort, able to place those memories of death and torment to the wayside. To not take it personally. At the beginning of the day, they’re competitors and at the end they’re family. It was the sort of lifestyle that few could handle. Even rarer was the ability to be a Legend and have a life outside of the games. Between the fame and fear garnered for their feats that seemed to separate them from the rest of society and the strain of competing at all, it was nearly impossible. The veterans of the game, Legends who had truly been through the wringer, have learned to cope with those brief, insidious emotions and the struggle with the duality of their lives with stunning expertise. It would take far more than a bad game to truly bring them down.

Sitting by their self was a Legend who seemed just outside of the norm. As they meticulously wiped blood from their hunting knife and hatchet, they felt a sense of serenity only ever present after a game. The threat of death and pain at the hands of their friends never really bothered them. If they were to fall by another’s hands then that is simply the way it was meant to be. If they had to fell a friend in combat, then so be it. Bloodhound found peace in the carnage that combat brought with it. If one listened close enough, they could even hear the faint sound of a soft battle hymn hummed under their breath. Perched just to their left was their faithful companion, Arthur. The large raven busied himself with cleaning the game’s grime from his feathers and preening.

They took this brief reprieve as an opportunity to send a silent prayer up to the Gods. All they could hope for was that the day’s kills pleased the Allfather. Then, when their worship came to a close and their blades no longer ran a deep crimson, they rose from their seat. A few heads turned at the unexpected motion before that lull in conversation picked back up. It was not uncommon for the enigmatic hunter to disappear post-battle for hours or even days at a time. Still, as they neared the exit they gave a parting farewell. They could grant their brethren that much.

“Fara vel, I will return shortly.”

After a chorus of well wishes and waves, they departed the facility. Once upon a time, they would have made their way to where the wilderness called their name. Since they had a child, however, they found their priorities shifted. Instead of heading for the forest, they made their way deeper into the city to their kid’s school. Never would they have guessed something could rival their sense of wanderlust let alone beat it. But these moments with their young one proved them happily wrong.

As they approached the school, the astonished looks and whispers of other parents didn’t go unnoticed. It was something they’ve learned to live with. At first, before they truly grasped the scope of their fame thanks to the games, they were understandably shocked to see people wearing eerie replicas of their mask and nervous fans approach them for autographs. It was uncomfortable at first but as the years rolled on and victories mounted, they’ve adapted just as they always do.

So, the shocked stares and high whispers didn’t faze them. Though, perhaps it should have. If they had paid attention to what was being said and just where it was that people were looking, they would have picked up on the problem. Or, if they had made a mention to the other Legends where they were going, someone could have spoken up to stop them. But no, that was not how it was meant to be.

The problem for Bloodhound is simple. Their way of life - constant hunting and battle - is so utterly ingrained in them that traversing a city armed and armored was normal in their eyes. Just as one puts on a coat to leave the house, they don a mask and combat gear. It’s as natural as breathing to them. Approaching a grade school fresh from a blood bath just wasn’t something that rang alarms in their head. That’s why when they approached the doors and were stopped by a visibly uneasy security guard they just tilted their head in confusion.

“Uh, I’m- I’m gonna have to ask you to uh, to leave your weapons in your vehicle. They aren’t permitted on school grounds.”

It all suddenly made sense to the hunter. The horrified whispers, the beads of sweat dotting the guard and rolling down his face… They could hardly fault the others for being wary. After all, it is just the nature of prey to grow anxious in the presence of a predator - especially when that predator is baring its teeth and claws. This was not their prey, however, and so they gave a slight apologetic bow of the head.

“Ahh, my apologies. I was veiðr and forgot. One moment.”

Disarming was quick and easy since they carried scarce more than their varying blades when outside of the arena or away from a hunt. Still, there was a degree of amusement to be found in seeing the wide-eyed looks of the few parents approaching the school as they removed one large blade after another from their sheaths. They knew it wasn’t simply the weapons but the one who wielded them that upset the populace. At this point, Bloodhound would have thought they’d be used to it. After all, they could openly admit that this was far from the first time they forgot to leave their weapons behind.

As they neared the doors once more, a raven’s call caught their attention. Reflexively they lifted their arm for Arthur to perch upon it. Once more the guard blocked their way. Bloodhound frowned ever so slightly at the motion. They had relinquished their weaponry, was that not enough? This time, the man rubbed the back of his neck and looked for the world as if he wished he was anywhere but here.

“Your bird-’

“Artur comes with me.”

There was a firm note of finality in their voice. It was clear they would entertain no negotiations on this front. Arthur was their oldest and truest friend. Where they went, the raven went. That authoritative tone sent a jolt through the guard. Eyes widened and stance stiffened, he seemed at a loss for a moment. Then, he gave an unsteady grin and a nod that was just a bit too enthusiastic to be natural.

“Of course! That’s totally what I was gonna say. Nice ta have you back!”

The tightness behind his clenched grin and the minute tremor in his hands was all the evidence needed to know that was decidedly not what he was going to say. However, he seemed to have weighed his options and found that complying was the best way to go. Not wanting to cause the poor guard any more undue stress, Bloth gave another polite nod and made their way inside. As they passed the threshold, they could just make out the faint crackle of the guard’s radio as he spoke into it.

“What the fuck am I supposed to do? …...No, YOU tell them their bird isn’t allowed inside! ..….I am not telling Bloodhound that. I do not get paid enough for that! …...I like my life more than this job, dickhead. …...Hnng, fiiine but that’s it!”

They shook their head slightly in amusement. A faint, breathy laugh left their lips at the - in their opinion - entirely unnecessary commotion. This was rather routine for them by now. They took an empty spot in the open corridor and casually folded their arms as they waited for the children to be released. After losing his perch on Bloth’s arm, Arthur made the short journey to sit on their shoulder. Once more they ignored the blatant stares of the others around them.

It wasn’t but a moment after settling in their spot, stance wide and exuding that quiet pride they’re known for, that the guard made his return. This time, he tried to be as unassuming as possible as he stood back and to the right of the Legend. The forced casual display didn’t fool the hunter but they made no motion to acknowledge the man. He was simply doing his job and keeping an eye on the obvious threat. Bloodhound could certainly respect that. But, to their surprise, the guard coughed a little awkwardly and tapped their shoulder. They half-turned to give the still perturbed guard their attention.

“Uh, you...you got a little..somethin’ right there.”

He made a faint little gesture toward Bloth’s shoulder and, after shifting a bit, Bloodhound could see the ruddy stain he spoke of. It was initially hidden from their gaze due to the shoulder guard blocking it from their perspective. They hummed as they ran a finger over it and scraped the flaking substance off.

“I thought I had gotten all of the bloth off. You have my gratitude.“

At the confirmation of the substance, the guard looked just a tad paler and nodded a bit too quickly.

“Yep! No problem, any time!”

His voice was pitched an octave higher, belaying just how daunting this entire scenario is for him. After that, there was a lapse in conversation. It lulled into an uncomfortable sort of quiet - at least on the guard’s end. Bloodhound just went back to their casual stance, seeming entirely at ease despite the awkward tension filling the air. Arthur busied himself with staring almost menacingly at the guard from his perch.

It wasn’t much longer until the pitter-patter of hurried little feet caught their attention. Moments later, a bustle of kids rounded the corner and elated cries filled the air as they happily made their way to their loved ones. All it took was a cursory sweep to spot their own little one. With a head of wild curls and bright eyes, they came running to Bloth with wide open arms and a large, gap-toothed grin.

“Ada!”

A consuming, aching warmth spread from their heart throughout their body at the unabashed affection in their child’s voice. This was a brand of love they never fathomed they would have but they thank the Gods each day for it. Without hesitation, they dropped down low and opened their arms invitingly. Just before their child jumped into their waiting grasp, Arthur flew up and circled around the pair. It was an easy affair to lift the young one up and settle them on a hip as they hugged their parent. After planting a kiss on the cheek of Bloodhound’s mask, the smiling kid leaned back to look into the goggles.

“Hi! Did you win your game? Did you?”

The child had an accent much like Bloth’s but not quite to the same degree. It was there, in the curl of the syllables and pitch of the words. There was no denying where they picked up the rather unique manner of speech from. It didn’t matter how many games Bloodhound was in, their child always eagerly waited to hear about it. They gave another soft chuckle and a little nod.

“Indeed. The Allfather graced my and my brethren’s spirits.”

That earned them an excited clap and wiggle. They had to tighten their grip ever so slightly to keep their child from squirming right out of their grasp. A call from Arthur caught both of their attentions. The circling raven was getting impatient and needy. He was quite the little attention hog. Shifting their grip, Bloth held out their arm once more for the bird to land. Once he did, their kid immediately cooed and started petting the bird. If they didn’t know any better, they’d say Arthur was nuzzling into the affectionate strokes.

“Hello, Artur! Did you help ada in the games?”

As if he understood them, the bird squawked and ruffled up his feathers proudly. After taking just another selfish moment to watch their two loves, Bloodhound spoke up.

“Do you wish to visit the others?”

It was a silly question as their child adored the other Legends - and the Legends adored them right back. After more excited wiggling and affirmations, Bloth lowered the kid back to the ground and took their backpack from them. It was almost comically large on the young one and hilariously out of place against the pristine white and gold armor of the hunter. Still, they slung it over their shoulder opposite to their quiver and gently gripped their kid’s hand. Then, they made their way out of the school, completely unflustered by the gawking people around them. The guard from before still looked rather anxious but the smile on his face was much warmer and more genuine than before. They gave a polite nod as they left. On the way to the vehicle, their child rattled off one story after another with a little skip in their step. Contentment filled their chest in this domestic moment. They may often find peace in the bloodied valleys of battle but they’ve learned that the hunt is not the only place to find tranquility. Once more, they sent a silent prayer to the Gods, thanking them for their blessed fortune.

#Apex Legends #Bloodhound (Apex)#Blothhundr #Bloodhound's kid #My Writing #2k+#Bloth Jr?#idk what to tag them lmfao #I FINALLY GOT AROUND TO WRITING IT #its my first fic for this fandom #(and the first thing I've written in like 1 - 2 yrs shhh)

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scarlettlawyer · 5 years

Text

Part 10 of my reaction/commentary to the Phantoms & Mirages fanfic series by @renegadewangs

(Chasing Phantoms): Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

(Haunted Specters): Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6

(Vanquishing Mirages): Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9

So moving forward, as I continued to read on, there was a backdrop of salt, apathy & hurt overshadowing everything as established in the previous post. But I was still reading on because “might as well see what happens I guess”. Starting Vanquishing Mirages chapter 20, I was also nervous & intrigued. Nervous about how the narrative was going to go about this and what the result was going to be… So I read on kind of with bated breath.

And it just remains in that interesting stage for a little while, the uncertainty stage where I don’t really know where it’s gonna go, for those first few paragraphs, as I’m waiting and reading on to see how it turns out… and then it takes a downturn when the negative emotions just start POURING in tsunami style and everything just starts crashing down horribly. I go quickly from nervous/intrigued to kind of horrified as it strikes me just. How. Traumatic and overwhelming the entire experience would be for someone who has never really had to deal with emotions of much severity their entire life. I’m just oh no… oh no…….. oh nooooo….. I didn’t foresee this at all, so distracted by so many things up until this point, and yet it makes perfect sense. But it was a real punch huh. This was awful, what a disaster. This was not good… Which is basically what Simon says:

What a mess. What a complete, total and utter mess. […] Perhaps this was punishment for playing god. Perhaps they’d flown too close to the sun. Perhaps they were Frankenstein, responsible for giving birth to a failed creation.

Me:

[hides away in a corner because I think we broke him lads]

Vanquishing Mirages, Chapter 21

The Phantom blinked, shedding a few more tears as he did so. Perhaps he hadn’t quite processed Simon’s words. Perhaps he hadn’t quite processed the situation in general. He swallowed and sniffed, then tilted his head backwards.

Am I meant to be picturing this in anything less than stunningly beautiful and fluid animation? Because I am not picturing this in anything less than gorgeously rendered animation.

Whatever it was that’d held Bobby back from touching the Phantom before, it was gone now. He placed a hand atop the Phantom’s clenched fist, hoping it might soothe him. “Whoah, it’s okay. It’s fine.” “It’s not fine! How dare you claim that it’s fine?! YOU did this to me!”

AAAAAAND WE’RE BACK LADIESANDGENTLEMAN HELLO THERE NARRATIVE FRAMING OF HIM AS A CHILD: ACTIVATE

HELLO! this is exciting and new!

“Calm yourself.” “I can’t! I CAN’T!”

He really wouldn’t know how to or be able to!

AND THEN AT THIS POINT IT JUST HIT ME

THIS MAKES PERFECT SENSE

HE ACTUALLY WOULD HAVE THE EMOTIONAL MATURITY OF A CHILD BECAUSE HE’S NEVER HAD THE OPPORTUNITY TO MATURE EMOTIONALLY, DUH, CAUSE HE LACKED EMOTIONS SO MUCH, THIS IS BRAND NEW TO HIM H

Narrative framing of him as a child during Haunted Specters REALLY paying off even more right now! We’ve already reaped so much from those seeds. But now! Oh boy!

“We would not honor such a request even if it were within our capabilities. Congratulations, Phantom. You are now free to tussle with emotions just like every other human.”

MY FEELINGS/REACTION TOWARDS THIS WHOLE SITUATION CHANGED SO FAST IT WAS LIKE:

“Oh noooo… this is so awful and terrible for him this is too much I can’t handle th… W-wait. Phphhw. Heh. Hah. HahahaHAHAHA MUAHAHA YEEEES ONE OF US ONE OF US DEEEEEEEAL WITH IT HAHAHA SUCKERRRRRRRR!”

The Phantom’s wide eyes followed Fulbright out the room. Apparently, his departure served to rile the man up even further. “Get back here! Bobby Fulbright! You get back here and end my suffering RIGHT NOW!”

This is just so good this is just so good hohoooh!

The Phantom sniffed and huffed. Flinched and scrunched his eyes shut, his breathing turning to more helpless sobs. Tears continued to run down the side of his face, disappearing into locks of hair just above his ears.

Hey yeah just saying it again. This is nothing but pure unadulterated animation mode for me. With REALLY GOOD animation. A really gorgeous 2D anime style.

Simon hesitated for a moment, then placed a careful hand atop the Phantom’s closed eyes. They felt soggy and unpleasant to touch. “Focus on the sound of my voice and nothing else. Focus on my voice and breathe.”

IT’S WEIRD CAUSE LIKE. I HAD VERY FRESH PHANTOMQUILL WOUNDS AT THIS POINT OF READING BUT. Right up until The Kiss prior to the surgery I had been very firmly in the parental-child dynamic mindset camp and thoroughly enjoying myself. It was the kiss and stuff that I found jarring at first BECAUSE of that before getting up and moving over to phantomquill mode, only for it to turn out to be fake phantomquill. You’d think it might actually be hard for me to go back to “Oh the phantom is a child and Bobby and Simon are his parents” after the phantomquill fiasco but in terms of mindset, it really wasn’t difficult because I’d only been in Phantomquill mode comparatively VERY briefly before it got destroyed. I was already thoroughly versed in the ways of the parent-child dynamic heh and had spent waaaay longer enjoying that lens. Being so used to it, it was easy enough to switch back over to it.

Do NOT get me wrong, I was still VERY upset over it, yet somehow I could still deeply enjoy the familial dynamic between Simon and the phantom in this moment.

So I basically was still grumbling angrily about phantomquill under my breath while somehow simultaneously excitedly going “OMG SUPPORTIVE DAD SIMON!!!”

Me: yeah. Yeah. You’re really just Piling On that family dynamic after that huge mess with the kiss and the baiting??? Just showing me blatantly to my face how wrong I was to ever read romance into anything? You have the gall to?

Also me: …I still love the parent-child dynamics from this series so FIIINE I do appreciate this scene. I appreciate it a lot, actually. HMPH

Talk about being of a conflicted mind. But there’ll be more mention of that to come.

…Oh, and yeah, I have still been referring to him as the phantom, haven’t I? Well that’s simple: it’s what the narrative is still calling him, so I continue to call him by that title until it is dropped by the narrative itself

Besiiides, for all intents and purposes, during this small gap of time until it changes, he is NOT quite Lex yet, because he has not yet accepted the name and nor has the narrative itself.

So we get this awesome little window which is just, he’s still “the phantom” if that’s the only title we have before “Lex” is accepted and taken on. Pure, unfiltered “Phantom” + Emotion and it’s sooo special. Which… yes… Phantom + Emotions = becomes Lex but… argh, it gets confusing very quickly for me. :P

The question seemed to startle the Phantom for some reason. … No, not the Phantom. It was Lex, now. That notion still felt foreign. Perhaps Alexander would be more suitable. More formal. Less personal.

I WAS SOOO THANKFUL FOR THIS ON FIRST READTHROUGH. I was thankful for how jarring Simon was finding it too (because in that respect he certainly wasn’t alone lol – I wasn’t alone). I was thankful that the narrative hadn’t immediately switched over to saying “Lex” after he woke up from surgery. Oh, and I’d even been thankful waaay back when his name being Alexander Luster Jr was first revealed that the narrative switch hadn’t been made then either. I mean, it wasn’t for OBVIOUS reasons but like… Technically that’s his name. So the narrative could have tried making an attempt at it and I was just glad he was still always “the Phantom” even when we knew what his name was when he was born. Cause he sure as hell didn’t accept the name back then.

But I was SUPER thankful for Simon deciding to call him “Alexander” too. It was kind of a real godsend BECAUSE LIKE. The name “Lex” was so heavily entrenched and still attached in my mind to that super mean bald dude that got killed off. It was a name that therefore felt “ugly” that had been attached to a man with an “ugly” personality. And whoever this man was that woke up from the surgery, it sure as HELL didn’t feel like his name. I was kinda like “buddy. If you want me to start calling this character “Lex” you’ve got another thing coming.” So having “Alexander” instead was a relief that helped A LOT at the time lol. It was sooo much easier to switch to. And Simon going for the more formal variant is such a Simon thing to do anyway. XD

Also???? Alexander… Alexander Luster… felt like such a pretty name actually???? BUT I MEAN. I am the first to admit that I am probably extremely biased on that front. And that I’d probably just. End up thinking just about any name applied to him was “pretty”. LOL.

But yeaaahhh although I kinda had a hard time with the “Lex” business at first, after a little bit of time it became easy to accept, as it usually goes with these things. Now I’ve got 0 problems with it. Lex is Lex!

“That makes you nothing more than an ungrateful child,” Simon grumbled, finally stepping away from the window to take his own seat.

Every time the narrative makes a DIRECT reference or draws a DIRECT parallel to him being a child it feels like it adds another 3 years to my lifespan.

“Ahahahah! I-I c-can’t! Hahahahah! Ahahahahah! Irony!~”

…

MEOWZY. YOU. YOU. DID THIS. YOU MADE THE CONSCIOUS DECISION TO PUT A TILDE THERE. H.

You did that. You did that on purpose. What did you doooooo. What’s HAPPENING

I can’t… I… just needed to point this out and take you to task over it. GOSH

The i-intent… the intent of this in the narrative

As if to say,

Look… Look at how… endearing

As if to say,

“Yes, you not only can, but SHOULD find this endearing”…………

Ohooooh it’s too much IT’S.

It’s death by tilde is what it is. You didn’t. Need to. You could have just left the words and such as it was. But you threw it in, intentionally showing off how we’re supposed to take this just in case there’s any mistake.

You’re under arrest.

Vanquishing Mirages, Chapter 22: Epilogue

Still, as he raised the headphones to his ear, he heard enough. It was indeed playing music- and what horrid music it was. “-When skies are grey. You’ll never know dear, how much I love you. Please don’t take my sunshine away.” “Where the devil did you get this?” he demanded, virtually throwing it into Alexander’s lap.

BRO THIS IS SO UNREAL.

The sheer image of the (former) phantom listening to music was so wild and then it jUST

Alexander’s fingers began to play with the headphones, twirling them around in his hands as he spoke. “You know, it’s funny. I’ve listened to music before, but it’s like I’ve never really heard it. …Does that make sense?”

OH MY GOOOOOSH. THIS REALISATION HIT ME LIKE A TRUCK. THIS HAD NOT OCCURRED TO ME… AT ALL! BUT IT’S SO…! :D HE CAN LISTEN TO AND ENJOY MUSIC NOW. Get immersed in it. That was the most fantastic realisation to me. No, you don’t understaaaand, you see, as a child, getting immersed in listening to music was so central to me that as a kid I’d come up with a bunch of story ideas involving things like other planets/alien creatures that would revolve their entire society around music, or alien creatures that have no concept of music and get introduced to it and subsequently immersed in it for the first time. This just hit so close to hoooome, oh my goodness, I hadn’t remembered or thought about those memories/story ideas that kid me had for maybe a good ten years, and this fic suddenly reminded me with the headphones business. It’s really not related to the fic to mention but I’d looong forgotten about all those scenarios I’d thought about and it was so cool to be reminded. :’D

BUT ANYWAY BACK TO THE FIC-

Me like three chapters ago: WAAAAH, NOTHING THIS SERIES COULD EVER DO COULD EVER MAKE ME HAPPY AGAIN!

Me reading this chapter not too long afterwards: HMMM OKAY I AM KIND OF VERY HAPPY RIGHT NOW.

Oh and it just occurred to me: my guess is the person who “overslept her own execution” was Cammy Meele!

And now, I’m gonna start talking about Lifting Spirits! But at least just for this post, I’m gonna change things up a little and not segment my comments chapter-wise or comment on little things, but rather talk about stuff pertaining to the earlier parts of the fic as a whole. This is necessary because my thoughts were an unbelievable mess and were so terribly bunched together – that is, thanks to reading through it relatively fast, I guess everything got kind of mixed together, so individual reactions to individual parts of it are a little less well-“defined” than was the case with the prior fics at the point of reading.

...I don't know if I could ever do Lifting Spirits justice. I CERTAINLY don't do it justice in this post. Believe me, I want nothing more than to just sit down and gush endlessly about it because that's what it warrants, but for the time being this post seems to be too busy trying to outline just how much my own disposition threatened to botch and ruin it for myself. XD

But it will get better in future review posts, I promise!

Yeah, my thoughts were a contradictory, convoluted, conflicting mess. There was SO much going on at once for me with regards to how I was responding to the text on first readthrough. It’s hard to know even where to begin. So let’s try and tackle some things in Lifting Spirits:

1 - The Transition from The Phantom to Lex

…It does such a number on my brain on multiple levels. XD. IT MESSES WITH ME SO MUCH, it’s a straightforward concept enough in theory but my brain overloads and threatens to shut down when I try to wrap my head around it. XD

I love the phantom, so my instinctive bias at first was to try and cling to the label of “the phantom” as long as I could until it’s finally surrendered.

So, I’ve said already that I was kinda nervous about how this transition was gonna be pulled off. There’s always SORT OF a risk involved when going ahead and giving the phantom an identity and making them no longer the phantom – it kind of wanders straight into the Original Character zone. This New Character who used to be the phantom, in such cases, does get a bit of a complimentary “boost” of my investment in them by virtue of having been the phantom, but beyond that, the new character in the phantom’s place must learn to pull their own weight in the story. They cannot purely rely on having been the phantom – they must develop on their own and give the audience due reason to be invested in the new character. And/or, they must still have some ties connecting them back to having been the phantom too, even with their new characterisation and personality.

So yeah, I had literally no reason to be even remotely nervous. Lex is fantastic. And can very VERY easily stand up in the narrative on his own accord. Not only that, but it’s just… genius… the extremity of his emotions is, ironically, the very thing that connects him back to having been the emotionless phantom…! Because it drives home repeatedly that he really has had NO experience with this level of feeling due to his past. It’s a total pendulum swing to the other end of the spectrum and I love it SO damn much.

Regardless of whether he’s Lex or the phantom, he’s still my favourite character.

1.1 – The phantom as Lex/the phantom becoming Lex

Man, this fic.

I swear to god.

I keep trying to type out my thoughts and it’s so hard to be coherent about it.

Lex is… “the (former) phantom”. So I’ll use this phrasing to really drive the point home. Because such a huge amount of what happens, of what’s going on… derives its impact from this very important fact. From the unbelievable contrast. The seeming absurdity of EVERYTHING given who he was.

The former phantom laughs at stupid jokes, gets given a stash of sweets and a Jokes & Riddles book thanks to Bobby, gets goofily absorbed in a phone game………… The list just goes on.

You are doing this. You are making me read all this stuff involving the former phantom with my own two eyes, I… I…… This flippin’ portrayal. Almost feels like it should be illegal xDDDD

1.1a - YOU ARE WHAT IS KNOWN AS AN ENABLER

I have been… a fan of the character known as the phantom for many years now… I started playing through the Ace Attorney games in December 2014, and played Dual Destinies in the first half of 2015. I’ve had years to jokingly talk about the phantom ironically in an “awwww just look at them, awwww how innocent/”cute”” way, obviously knowing damn well they’re not.

And I basically went into Chasing Phantoms with, on some level, an attitude of “haha you can TRY to make me hate the phantom, I know you will, but I won’t let you”

Big mistake, to head into this series stubbornly guarding a totally opposite area of phantom perception compared to what I SHOULD have been guarding against.

And then you just

Came along and took the character

And did this.

It was fine at first in like, Haunted Specters and then Vanquishing Mirages. It was a big joke that everyone was in on. It was a joke and it was funny and I was laughing along with it. Albeit. An evolving joke.

And then Lifting Spirits just

It jUST

All of a sudden I had to be like wait a minute. I was just like whoa, whoa. Hold up. You can’t – WAIT a minute. No WAIT

I walked into this trap with no defences prepared. I’d walked into this series going “I’d like to see you try and make me truly hate this man, but it won’t work, I’ll make sure it doesn’t work out of spite” and now all of a sudden this was all happening at once and I had to suddenly try and backpedal dramatically out of the trap and be like wait wait wait no this is, this is, he was?? A bad guy was he not? Wait what are we-

The scales were tipping too far for my liking – too far in a direction I was ALREADY biased and predisposed towards and I wanted to stop it but what defence did I haaave

It’s like the narrative was poking me and going “Hey. So. Your favourite character. He’s pretty great, right? Right?” and I’d shake my head and try my best to go, “No… No! He isn’t – this isn’t right! What! There has to be some kind of mistake! This is a thirty-seven year old man who has killed people WHAT IS GOING ON”

And this is also, at the same time, set against a backdrop of me still stubbornly trying to cling to a mindset of not wanting this man to be able to cheat death or the finality of execution.

So here’s the first of many contradictory feelings I was having at once:

“This man must be punished and therefore I can’t abide by such a lighthearted portrayal” vs “I love this man so much and every single moment of this lighthearted portrayal is GOLD and I love it sooo much”

2- The Phantom VS Lex

The portrayal of my favourite character was making me rather pleased, but it felt way too good to be true on three different fronts. Firstly, the amusing absurdity in and of itself made it hard to process this was Really Happening, the levels of it feeling “unreal” were so much and I was so stunned and I was sincerely struggling to process it at first. Secondly, it just felt so catered to me (LOL) and “too good to be true” that I felt like. Like. The narrative surely couldn’t be doing something so great. A similar kind of inability to believe this was “really happening” which had cropped up during Haunted Specters. And this was heavily fuelled by, THREE… My pesky little reactions to our old friend, Fake Phantomquill.

The hurt that I was feeling over the phantomquill unfortunately seeped into and tainted my perception of other parts of the story and caused me to get irrationally defensive in many respects at the time. See, as I’ve implied, part of what was so very appealing to me about Legit one-sided phantomquill coming to fruition just before the surgery is that it felt like the final step in taking the phantom further down from his pedestal and that much closer to “joining the ranks of humanity” just in time for surgery that would have “the phantom” cease to be altogether and allow him to make the full transformation. It wasn’t so much about phantomquill itself as it was about the notion of the phantom being attracted to someone and causing such a big, stupid mess as a result, of being a fundamentally flawed human being but flawed in a vulnerable-

who claimed to be made of nothing but pure logic only to, in his final moments as the phantom act in the most illogical-

It’s silly, I know. First of all, if anything, it can be kind of arophobic, depending on how it’s done, to use “attraction to another person” as a proof or demonstration of a character’s core humanity. It’s just… That’s what I’d tricked myself into thinking the set-up was for, I guess. So when the set-up got so thoroughly negated and didn’t come to fruition, it felt like it had intentionally done the opposite with a bait and switch, and that instead of showing that even the phantom can fall from his pedestal in his final moments before “the phantom” ceases to be, it then seemed the goal was to demonstrate with a great sense of finality that actually, he is despicable and will never be anything but despicable and that we never should have expected anything more up until the very end.

Except… it was silly of me to feel like this first of all seeing as the phantom had already demonstrated during the narrative plenty that he very much does have the capacity to care about other people in his own very odd way. He DID go through character development. Just because none of the feelings he demonstrated were based on attraction doesn’t diminish what he did demonstrate. The Fake Phantomquill Kiss in and of itself is proof of caring because he was ultimately trying to protect Bobby.

But at the time it was hard for me to see that through my hurt. It’s an irrational perspective to take but I wasn’t being rational because of that hurt, and I was distrusting as a result. So, strangely enough, the phantom “dying” as the “filthy criminal he is” after the little show he put on, and then becoming Lex and waking up from the surgery with all these emotions kinda felt to me almost like it was throwing “the phantom” and all the progress as a character he’d made under the bus – of all the potential he’d shown prior to surgical interference.

There was just so much emphasis in the narrative on separating “the phantom” from “Lex” which was fair enough, but it felt to my irrational wounded self like “the phantom” was suddenly being characterised as “Pure Evil” in order to further the ends to which Lex could then be set up as “good”, when we’d previously spent around 2 fics delving into how, while the phantom is very much a villain and none of his crimes can be negated, there is more to him, and he’s, at the very least, not Evil 24/7. Almost like “the phantom” and “Lex” were being pitted against each other which I realise is stupid because c’mon, how can Lex as a character throw the phantom under the bus when Lex was the phantom? When he is merely another huge step – leap – in the character’s evolution? The transformation into Lex can’t negate any of the character development HE made prior to that point, prior to the surgery.

Another important thing to note, which I am extremely grateful to the narrative for, is that Bobby cared about the phantom not only before the surgery, but before the bone sliver was even discovered in the first place. And Simon had also been slipping back then, although he was not nearly as far-gone as Bobby was. But such a thing really helps acknowledge the phantom as a character… and does help reiterate that he wasn’t completely worthless and/or “not worthy of anything” prior to becoming Lex.

I did come to realise that I was, in fact, just needlessly worrying over pure semantics and that there was no point in doing such a thing. Regardless of how one might construe it, this man, Lex, was the same person in the sense that he has all the same memories. There is still a continuity of existence. The "death" of the phantom was only the death of the label itself, the mindset, but the man who had carried the title had still lived on. It allowed, helped that man to shed the worst of what had been part of him before and opened up so much for him.

It's just, the notion of a character actively striving to be good and overcoming themselves vs a sudden fix that gets externally applied, and it felt like any previous striving, however miniscule, threatened to be rendered obsolete by it.

But this was a misplaced notion of mine if there ever was one because not only does it not override previous character development, but the previous character development was necessary for not only making the surgery and its outcome possible, but also a crucial part of the character's arc that can't be overlooked narratively speaking. It is not Lex that characters like Bobby and Athena abruptly start believing in. They'd already believed in him before he was Lex, and they are who campaign for the surgery in the first place. And it is the phantom himself to give the final push and the go-ahead to make it happen through his consent, a vital component to it being made possible. It wasn't erasure, it was never about erasure. It was about continuity and expanding and developing on what was already there. (And I know as well as anyone that the extent of the outcome, and this progress wouldn't have been possible without some form of external interference. It was necessary.)

Whenever I did manage to reconcile it, it was just about the best thing in the world haha.

So yeah, most of this was basically me outlining my distortion of the text and then debunking myself…

I swear my opinions/thoughts/feelings had just about splintered in a million different directions mostly thanks to the shadow cast by my stupid phantomquill pain. XD. My mindset almost threatened to regress to harbouring that foolish unfounded sense that the author didn’t truly care about “the phantom”, and only cared about the person who woke up after that surgery instead. Which is nonsense because Haunted Specters & Vanquishing Mirages clearly indicate otherwise. Why bother spending two entire fics focusing on the phantom so much if the author didn’t care about the phantom? If they wanted to just do away with the phantom and replace him with someone new that they did care about, there were way shorter ways to go about it. I mean, I knew that it was the dumbest concern and that it was incorrect to even consider at this point, but that didn’t stop me from foolishly wasting time on it. It was so hard to believe & trust the story was so attuned to me after being “betrayed” that I semi-adopted/saw the more “hurtful” interpretation as the more “realistic” one.

But reading Lifting Spirits over again so far only reiterates what I realise was the case back then: I only had myself to blame, I was the one vastly exaggerating the perceived distinctions that were being made between Lex and the phantom in the text not only because of my own latent concerns but because of how personally mindboggling I was finding it.

And all the while, I’m SIMULTANEOUSLY borderline scolding the text for how seemingly soft it’s being on the (former) phantom and thinking that the author’s phantom bias is showing. Talk about doublethink!

I had been thinking this entire series that I was perfectly safe to “gush” over this man, because at least the author knew what was what, at least the author still had her senses about her and wouldn’t let it go too astray or let it get out of hand. IF THE AUTHOR IS TREATING HIM LIKE THIS AND I’M TREATING HIM LIKE THIS… THEN WHO’S DRIVING THE PLANE?!

And keep in mind too that I read through Lifting Spirits… Rather quickly. So I’ve got all of these tangled thoughts I’m trying to process at once meanwhile I’m just breezing through the chapters, not really giving myself any real chance to sort through my thoughts and untangle the messes that had formed.

I was somehow managing to feel overwhelmingly thrilled and yet hurt by the narrative at the same time. AAAAALLL the contradictory thoughts and feelings. Contrarian mode was on, it seemed, as I tried to juggle so many opinionated stances and arguments at once that cancelled each other out:

“The phantom was a human being too, with his own issues and he ALSO had (limited) feelings DON’T IGNORE THIS” vs “how dare you portray someone who used to be the phantom, a remorseless killer unworthy of a second thought, in such an endearing manner” vs “ohhhh I love this endearing portrayal so much it’s pure SUSTENANCE to me it’s so entertaining & amazing & makes me so happy” vs stubborn attempts to still cling to “make sure that execution goes ahead, this man still isn’t allowed to escape death” with a slight backdrop of that phantomquill salt-fueled apathy & denial. I was somehow now on the defensive and trying to argue that the phantom hadn’t been 100% despicable and yet also trying to retain the stance that the man in his place still needed to die because the phantom had been 100% despicable. YEP. Walking contradiction. Absolutely wild.

Oh also I just loved Lex in his own right too on top of all this, not just because he used to be the phantom. But because he’s LEX.

It’s all very confusing, I hope I didn’t confuse you too much. XD

Oh, also:

When it came to me feeling that the phantom – or rather, the person who used to be him – was being portrayed too lightly by the narrative given his history – Chasing Phantoms renders completely obsolete any possible argument about the series “skewering one’s perception of the phantom too far off-base”. It renders completely obsolete any possibility that the author was not “aware” of the true depths of his despicableness when going for this angle.

Chasing Phantoms’ existence, to me, makes Lifting Spirits all the more awesome, and strengthens its power. “The Phantom that Lex used to be was ruthless and terrible and awful and caused so much damage and destruction” is not just an offhand acknowledgement that gets referenced back to – it was portrayed firsthand in the first fic, in the series itself. It’s like it goes out of its way to drive home that undeniable fact that the phantom REALLY sucks, and yet Lifting Spirits exists anyway, even with FULL acknowledgement of that. I love that sooo much. It just straight up embraces it and doesn’t try to hide a damn thing. This was who he used to be. This is who he is now. That’s just how it is.

As already established, Chasing Phantoms felt like another universe when I read Lifting Spirits – way before then, even. It was SO hard for me to remember that, he was in fact, actually portrayed in a negative light. It’s actually really great to me that the series didn’t start with Haunted Specters – it did not seek to make the phantom sympathetic or whatnot from the start. He gets to clown around as the villain he truly is for an entire fic before any transition over to protagonist even begins to take place. The story doesn’t briefly go “yeah so we all know the phantom is bad and all obviously but…” and moves straight on, it spends a LONG time elaborating on HOW bad the phantom is back at the very start before proceeding on to anything else.

By the way, I’m aware it would be stupid to make arguments about “not knowing the full extent of how sucky the phantom is” purely on the basis of it not being demonstrated firsthand if that was the case, because like, everyone already knows, so we don’t need to be shown. But I’m merely pointing out how cool I find it that this series does demonstrate it firsthand anyway, because it just further crushes such potential arguments.

If Chasing Phantoms did not exist it would be almost easy to trick oneself into thinking that the full extent of the phantom’s villainy was not truly being acknowledged by the story, given Lex’s portrayal by the narrative (despite him being a “new person”, the fact remains that he was the phantom.) The Phantom is – was - very much a villain, and we know very clearly that the current portrayal of that man who used to be him doesn’t minimise that.

There was another big thing I wanted to talk about connected to much I’ve discussed in this post, but I’ll have to leave it for the next one! I had to cut sooo much from this I’m sorry, I actually did have a bunch of small comments from the beginning of Lifting Spirits. Well, until the next post, which will also get to the middle of the fic too. ^_^

#long post #if this is all over the place it was because my thoughts were all over the place sdjsdnkjsdkj #ghhhh

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serceleste · 6 years

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baby’s first convention

So last Sunday I went to my first convention! It was super last minute, I’d thought about going but then got overwhelmed with RL and mostly forgot about it. But then the work friends who were going were working with me Saturday and were all, we wish you were going too, and I was all, I wish I was too, so before you know it I’d bought a ticket lol. It was at Navy Pier and the weather was great, cool but sunny, so all the walking around was nice.

I looked into who the guests were Saturday night so I could be prepared, I brought some of my comics to get signed. \o/ I knew I wanted to meet Tim Seeley, whose Nightwing was the first Nightwing I met, and Ashley Witter, whose Doctor Aphra cover art I adore. Sadly my absoulte fave Aphra cover is the Aphra/Hera one that was still sitting on my desk at work, lol, so I “settled” for this amazing Aphra/Sana one.

I was super nervous because I’m an awkward shy dork, we were standing huddled in front of Tim Seeley’s booth for long enough for one of my friends to be like, ‘I’ll ask him for you!’ But then I worked up the nerve to approach him, and he apologized and was like, ‘I thought you guys were trying to see Chris Evans’, lol, because the photo/autograph area was set up behind the booths. I was like, no, I’m just shy and awkward, so he shook my hand and said ‘hi, I’m Tim’, and he was super nice, and I think he was genuinely flattered when I told him he was my intro to Nightwing.

It was only 5 bucks so I bought a trade for Tim Seeley to sign too. He and Ashley Witter were both doing sketches but sadly I was too broke for anything as cool as that. (Though now I know for the future I need to calm myself down and spend less on comics so I can buy some art; this time I just bought art for my friend who couldn’t come. And it was printed on a bottle opener so useful! LOL.)

And I bought some other stuff, my friend and I picked out good Winter Soldier ones and then decided between us who got what, lol, as you can see I made out with my ship, and then I found a Poe variant I didn’t have! I bought another 5 buck trade as well, I didn’t take a pic, and then the Rebellion and Empire pins from this really amazing cosplay booth, they had lightsabers and Cap’s shield and so much awesome stuff. (Later I saw a girl who’d had Chris Evans sign her high quality Cap shield and I died of jealousy.)

There was so much amazing cosplay and I was a little bummed I hadn’t pulled out my Black Widow costume to wear, but it’s also hard to go to the bathroom in, ha. I just wore my semi-cosplay Scarlet Witch jacket. We took pics with the 501st Legion and I got to hold a blaster, and I took one pretending to open the TARDIS door too. :D

The day we went there was a panel with Tom Hiddleston and Elizabeth Olsen so we got to see that! We got to move up into the empty VIP area so our seats were pretty good. They were so lovely, really invested in their characters and just fun to listen to, I took some video and some pics, I posted a couple of them on Sunday. Highlights included Elizabeth having the revelation that Loki wasn’t just a comic, and Tom getting asked by a small child whether Loki was really dead, and Elizabeth (and Tom, a bit) talking about anxiety, which really meant a lot to me. Also Tom’s butt is fiiine in person, fyi. I wish I’d gotten a better angle but this will have to do, haha.

We got lost on our way to Navy Pier and had to call a Lyft and then we accidentally ended up in a scary tunnel on our walk back to the train station in the evening, lol, and I coveted so many things I couldn’t buy, and didn’t get a glimpse of Chris Evans or anyone else, and was too poor for photo ops, but all in all it was an amazing time, I had so much fun, I loved being surrounded by comics and nerddom, and now I have a better idea of how these things go so I won’t be quite so oblivious when Star Wars Celebration rolls around! (None of the three of us had been to a con before so we were periodically sad our con veteran friend couldn’t come and help us navigate!) Would con again. <3

#me #convention #tom hiddleston #elizabeth olsen #tim seeley #ashley witter #comics

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leonthecardboardunicorn · 6 years

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Returning Chapters 13-15

Chapters 1-3: https://leonthecardboardunicorn.tumblr.com/post/174329168412/returning-chapters-1-3

Chapters 4-6: https://leonthecardboardunicorn.tumblr.com/post/174493023762/returning-chapters-4-6

Chapter 7-9: https://leonthecardboardunicorn.tumblr.com/post/174940023232/returning-chapter-7-9

Chapter 10-12: https://leonthecardboardunicorn.tumblr.com/post/175989770022/returning-chapters-10-12

And this is the last bit, folks! Thanks for sticking with me!

Chapter Thirteen: Choices Made

“Liz! Elaine!”

I'm sure that we must have made quite a sight, coming out of all the rain and soaking wet but still grinning. Alfonse rushed up to us, throwing his arms around us, and the other two weren't far behind.

“We were so worried, it's been hours, where have you been?”

“It's a long story,” Elaine said sheepishly, and I shook my head. “There was.. this thing?” I noticed that Klaus took off his cloak, wrapping it around her shoulders, pulling her close as soon as Al let go.

“There will be time to recap it all later,” I said; I wondered if we should have this discussion inside? “Suffice to say, the fake Taffy won't be bothering us any longer.” They stared at us with wide eyes, and we burst into little giggles. How were we going to tell this story? “But.. before that, there's something that we need to talk to you about.”

“Yeah, there's something that I wanted to talk to you about too, Elaine,” Al said. “I realized something, when you two didn't come back. My brothers helped me realize something.”

“How about we say it at the same time then?” she asked, and he nodded. They counted to three, and then..

“I don't want to marry you.”

They both stepped back, and then Elaine broke out into a smile. “I'm sorry, Alfonse, but marriage is just not what I want right now. I want to learn to become a great wizardess. Though, I'm curious, what is it that you realized?”

“-T-that you're not the one that I wanted to marry.”

“We'll have some explaining to do when we get inside, won't we?” Elias said with a sigh. But I had a feeling, whatever was coming up, we could face it.

A few hours after I was thoroughly dry and had sufficiently explained the Taffy story, Alfonse came to me. “Klaus and Elias have invited us out for dinner tonight,” he explained. “There's another banquet planned, but since that one's for my engagement, I'd rather not go.” He was smiling even as he talked of his broken engagement, so I presumed that was a good sign.

“Sure, I'd love to go!”

I have to admit, I was a little bit nervous when they started ordering drinks. The last time I'd seen Al get drunk, he'd confessed he was a Goldstein. But, come to think of it, I don't know if I had ever seen Klaus get drunk. Or Elias.

“Well, I propose a toast!” Alfonse said, raising his glass. “To not getting forced into marriage!” We raised our glasses, and they happily downed theirs.

“Now, Liz, can you finally tell the story of what happened earlier?” I nodded, and I began the story of finding the creature, of the confrontation in the rain. And they listened in wonder and drank.. and drank. I decided to put my own drinks aside, just in case I needed to carry someone home.

When I finished my tale, Alfonse laughed. “Wow, Liz, you're amazing! You defeated Taffy and saved Elaine all by yourself, and all I got was a stern talk by my brothers!”

“Yooou were acting like a jerk, Liz was acting like a hero,” Klaus said. I was trying not to laugh, but Klaus was definitely slurring his words. He was trying not to lean in against the table.

“I seem to recall someone practically grovelling in apology,” Elias reminded Klaus. He was sitting upright, a twinkle in his eyes as he sipped from his drink. “You were on your knees and everything. You should've been there, Liz.”

“Shaddup!” Klaus hissed. “I said I was sorry, didn't I? Why'd you go and say that? Would you like me to tell Liz about the time that you set the classroom on fire-”

“You're thinking of Zeus,” Elias reminded, shaking his head. “Liz was there, remember?” I looked over at Al, who was watching his brothers and laughing, clapping. I wondered if I should stop them, but it was also kinda amusing to watch.

“Nah, Zeus was too busy protecting his precious prince,” Klaus said, batting at the air, knocking over a few glasses. “Whoops. Do I pay for that?” Elias just shook his head, resting his face in his hands. “I'm sure it'll be fiiine.”

“If you pass out, I'm not carrying you home,” Elias said at last.

“How are you staying so calm?” Klaus asked Elias accusingly. “You've drunken more than me!”

Elias looked over at me, and I decided not to answer. If I told Klaus that Elias and Yukiya had regularly drank together, I'd have a very angry Goldstein on my hands. “Some of us,” he said smoothly, “can actually handle our alcohol.”

“Have you been practicing?” Klaus asked. “You're the baby of the family, you shouldn't be drinking!” Elias rolled his eyes. “If Luca made you, I'll get the ministry on him!”

Al burst out into drunken giggles at his brothers, and I came back to my senses, turning my attention back to him.

“It wasn't just me,” I told him gently. “Elaine was there too, and she also fought off the creat-”

“Uugh, Elaaine,” Al groaned.“Everyone keeps telling me how great Elaine is, how lucky I'd be to marry her, but I don't wanna marry her!”

“Hey, you would be lucky to have Elaine!” Klaus snarled, jabbing a finger at Al. “If I had a chance to marry her, I would!”

“As if that wasn't obvious,” Elias said, rolling his eyes.

“Klaauus, I would rather marry Liz!” Al said brightly, and I nearly choked as I heard his words. “Elaine's pretty, but I love Liz!”

Did Al really say that? “I beg your pardon?”

“He said he's in love with you!” Klaus said loudly, and I'm sure my face was bright red. I knew that I loved him, and.. they told me that he loved me, but to suddenly hear it-

Oh god, he was climbing on top of the table. “Al, what are you doing?” I asked, and Elias pulled Klaus back so he didn't fall into him. I scrambled to my feet, and I wasn't sure if I should pull him down or-

“I don't want to marry Elaine!” Al shouted to the entire bar. All eyes were on him. “I WANT TO MARRY LIZ HART!”

“Alfonse!” I said, and my voice came out as a squeak. Were all eyes on me now? “Al-”

Al got down off the table, and he was laughing now, and I even heard Klaus burst into laughter. “Fiiinallly, he said it!” Elias was just shaking his head.

“What do you say, Liz?” Al asked, and I took one look at him and I knew the answer.

“Al, I love you too,” I said, and I heard cheers from the rest of the bar. I'm sure my face was bright red, but Al pulled me into a hug.

“I'm so happy for you,” Klaus said, and he was smiling, and even Elias was smiling. “My brother and Liz, what a perfect pair.”

The next morning, I went to check on Al. As he sat up, I offered him a glass of water. He looked up at me with bleary eyes. “Feeling any better?” I asked gently.

“I feel like I got hit by a train,” he murmured, taking my glass of water and drinking. “What happened last night?”

“We went out to a restaurant, and you and your brothers got drunk,” I said plainly. “I thought that you were bad when you got drunk, but Klaus was a sight to see. Who knew that he could gossip so much?” I giggled at the memory. Klaus had asserted his ideas on what was going on with Zeus and Lucious, as well as a theory or two about how to break Caesar's curse. “He even tried to tell me that the fake Taffy was actually the headmaster!” Al just shook his head.

“Where does he get these ideas?” he asked with a sigh.

I couldn't resist poking a bit of fun at him. “Of course, you were pretty cute too~” He went bright red, sputtering. “You got on top of a table and confessed your love to me in front of everyone.”

“Oh gooood,” he cried, burying his face in his hands. “Please tell me Klaus and Elias didn't see that. They'd never let me live it down.”

“Yes, they did. Well, they saw it, Klaus was probably too drunk to remember that though.” Al let out a muffled groan, but I reached over and tilted his chin up so he'd meet my eyes. “It's all right though, because they also saw me tell you that I loved you as well.”

“You did?” he asked, eyes shining, and I nodded. “C-could I hear it again? I don't doubt you, I just.. I just need to hear it.”

I smiled at him. Now that I knew, it seemed so easy. How could I have ever thought that it would turn out any different? “I love you, Alfonse,” I said plainly, and he burst out into a big grin.

“I love you too.”

Chapter Fourteen: Resolution

It had only been a day since Al and I had confessed our love for each other, and it still seemed like a dream. The three brothers were sitting together in Al's room, and Al had his arms wrapped around me, my head on his shoulder. It felt like a dream, but there were still some things that we had to figure out, and that's why we were here.

“Father isn't going to be happy that I broke off the engagement,” Al said at last. “And, if he knew it was for you, Liz, his favor would quickly turn against you.”

“If he tries to break the two of you up,” Klaus assured us, “he'll have to answer to the two of us. I've let him hurt my brothers for far too long, and I will not stand aside any longer.” Al was quiet, disbelieving. Beside him, Elias nodded.

“You have my support as well. We've come too far to lose you again.”

“B-but marrying Elaine was the condition for coming back into the Goldstein family-”

“Then forget the Goldsteins.” Of all the people in the world, I least expected to hear that from Klaus. “I once told you that the only way that you could fix things was by coming back to the family. But now I see the consequences of that action; you nearly lost yourself in trying, and I don't want to see that happen again.” Klaus raised his chin as he faced his brother. “If that it what means to be a Goldstein, then it's best to leave it all behind.”

Al was quiet for a long moment, and then he looked up, determined, facing his brothers. “The Goldstein name doesn't matter to me, not anymore, but you do. If I go, will you come with me?”

Trouble came that very same night. There was supposed to be a big dinner that night, with a bunch of noble families. But, as you can imagine, it didn't quite go according to plan. As I was coming in from fetching something, I saw Walter storming up to Al. I moved to stand in front of him.

“Miss Hart, please step out of the way, I need to speak to my son,” he said; his tone was cool, but I could tell that he was broiling with rage.

“Anything that you can say to him,” I answered, “you can say to me.”

“I was going to ask my son,” he spat, “while Lady Enlan has just informed me that he has broken off his engagement?” I could see Al was about to shrink back in fear, so I reached out and took his hand, letting him know I was here. And Walter's gaze shifted to our hands, and his expression turned dark. “I see,” he snarled. “All that progress we made, and you throw it all away for this.. girl?”

“I could not in good conscience be the son you wanted me to be,” he said proudly. “You wanted me to marry Elaine, but Liz has my heart.”

Walter's face was starting to turn red. “I gave you a chance to be a Goldstein again, and you ruined it, you ungrateful child. Get out of my house; you will never see your brothers again-”

“And what makes you think we would want to be Goldsteins after all the crap you pulled?” Right on cue, Elias and Klaus came out of the dining hall, and they were not alone. I gave my best smile as I saw my friends with them.

“Honey, what's going on here?” Winona asked as she slipped to Walter's side. Al's grip on my hand tightened when he saw his mother, but he didn't say anything. Walter's gaze turned to me, but I did not flinch. I had faced that creature, I could face a Goldstein.

“How dare you,” he snarled; I doubt he saw the others here, trying to assess the situation. “I let you into my house, treat you as a guest, and this is how you repay me? You seduce my eldest, and you steal all of my sons from me?”

“Seduce?” I heard from the others, and then Zeus burst into laughter. “No way, you two actually got together!” I glanced over, and I noticed the others were smiling.

“How wonderful!” Lucious cheered, and Caesar nodded.

“Well, I believe it's time we take our leave,” Al said coolly, and his brothers nodded. Hand in hand, we started walking to the door-

And Walter screamed after us, “Where do you think you're going? You're nobody without the Goldstein name-”

“Sounds good enough for me,” Klaus said coolly, never looking back. “Maybe now I can finally become a professor.”

“Hey,” Zeus jogged up to us, “if you need a place to stay, there's more than enough room at my castle for you guys for the summer. I'm sure my parents would be happy to hear about what it's actually like to be a Goldstein.”

“I'm sure the Baroque family would as well,” Caesar said with a wink.

“Klaus, Elias, you take one step out of that door, and you'll regret it-” I looked, and Walter had his wand out. I was about to draw out my own wand, but someone else reacted first.

“I wouldn't do that if I were you,” Lucious said, and his necklace was starting to glow. “You hurt them, and I'll turn you into a pig!” Walter went bone pale and dropped his wand. Lucious nodded. “Good. Now, we'll be on our way~”

And, with that, we left the Goldstein manor, and we never looked back.

Chapter Fifteen: Harts

It had been a few days since we had arrived in Zeus's castle, and we were settling in quite nicely. After the initial excitement had died down, all of us were settling down to tea in Al's room. It felt like it had been forever since we had all been together like this.

“So, now that you've gotten used to the place, what do you think?” Zeus said with a big grin.

“Not bad. Not what I expected from someone like you, Zeus,” Klaus said. “Although the tour was a bit extensive.”

“I'll say!” Lucious piped up. “You made this place seem more extensive than the Labyrinth.”

“I wanted to make sure it was nice for everyone to stay here,” he said, still grinning. “After all, who knows if our guests might want to invite someone over themselves?”

“Yeah, I think Klaus would be very excited to invite Elaine over,” Elias said with a smirk.

“As long as Elias doesn't invite Luca over to have drinking parties,” Klaus snapped back.

“So, Al, how's unpacking coming?” Caesar asked. “Were you able to bring much from the estate?”

“I wasn't able to take as much as I would like, but I was able to find a few things. Actually, that reminds me!” Al's eyes lit up, and he reached over to one of the boxes and pulled out a book. “I found these while I was going through my boxes, and I thought everyone might want to see them.”

One look at the photos, and I could scarcely contain my laughter. “Are those baby photos of Klaus?” I must've said it a bit too loudly, because all eyes were on us. And, certainly, Klaus heard it, bolting to his feet.

“Oh, I'm sure that we would all love to see those!” Caesar said as we crowded around his book. Zeus and Hiro nearly ran over, and I admit I was craning my neck to see. It was strange to see how proud Klaus had been so innocent as a baby.

Klaus bolted to his feet. “Alfonse!” he bellowed. “Don't you dare-” Elias nearly fell out of his chair laughing at his brother.

“See, wasn't he the cutest little baby?” Alfonse cooed, showing off each of the pictures, oblivious to their laughter. “He was such a messy eater when he was little~”

I looked up at Klaus, who was starting to turn bright red. “Alfonse, you're..” Al looked up, tilted his head, and just gave him a smile, flipping to another picture. Suddenly, Klaus leapt forward, trying to snatch the book from his hands, but Alfonse didn't even look up from the book as he sidestepped him, cooing over the next photo. As a result, Klaus fell to the floor. I may have laughed a little.

“Oh, Klaus, are you all right?” Al asked, reaching down to help him to his feet. “Oh, you've got something on your face-”

I may have laughed a little.

After a long time, Alfonse agreed to put the baby photos away, and the others retired to bed, so it was just me and Al up. Now I could give him his gift.

“I know that you weren't able to take much from the manor, but I wanted to save something of your memories.” I sat down in front of him, pulling out the item. I had managed to take a few flowers from Al's garden, preserving them in a flower pot. His eyes lit up as he saw them.

“Thank you, Liz,” he said. “That means a lot.” I giggled, placing my head on his shoulder. Now the weariness was starting to catch up to me.. He smiled at me, running his hands through my hair. “If you're sleepy,” he said gently, “you should go to bed.”

“It's not often that we get moments like this anymore though, is it?” I asked. I was tired, but it was nice to be with him. I never thought it would be like this. “W-we almost didn't get to be like this. I almost lost you to the Goldsteins.”

“I know, but I'm never going back,” he assured me. “None of us ever have to go back again. There's nothing left for us there.”

“Now you get to be whoever you want to be,” I said.

“Speaking of which, there's something that I wanted to ask you.” I turned to look at him. “I was talking with Klaus and Elias about our last name. Since we can't be Goldsteins anymore,” his face was turning red, “we wondered if it would be all right if we took your last name?”

I tilted my head. “The brothers Hart, eh?” In all honesty, the idea was nice. I didn't see any reason why not. “I wouldn't mind. After everything, I feel closer to you all than ever.”

“That's one good thing that came out of all of this then,” he agreed. “After all this time, we're a family again. Funny how that happens, isn't it?”

And to think it all started with freeing a prince from his prison. Who would've thought we'd find our freedom along the way?

#wizardess heart fanfiction #alfonse goldstein #alfonse fanfic

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madison-ward · 3 years

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Stay

Fall Semester Sophomore Year of College

After Gabe and Maddie kissed that night, they didn’t do it again. Instead they played a back and forth game of temptation to try and see who would give in first, sending each other risqué snapchats and texts but never going too far. Maddie was close to crossing that line but didn’t know what it really meant for them. When Gabe has a game at UMass, Maddie goes to meet up with him before the game, and she waits for him outside of the hotel.

Gabe flies up to Massachusetts for a game against UMass. He plans to meet up with Maddie while he’s there, wondering if anything will come about since they’ve been technically flirting through snapchat and Instagram. As soon as they settle in, he heads down outside and spots Maddie, “Hey.”

Maddie grins and she skips up to him, wrapping her arms around his neck, “Hi!”

Gabe smiles widely and instinctively wraps his arms around her, “Who you gonna cheer for tonight?”

She laughs, “You.”

Gabe laughs softly, “Really?”

Maddie pulls back slightly and grins up at him, “Well, outwardly my school but on the inside, you.”

He grins, “Technically it’s not your school, so you can totally cheer for us.”

She laughs softly, “I guess! There’s gonna be a huge party tonight after the game, you and the team have to come.”

Gabe laughs, “Us, go to a UMass party? Depending on how the game goes, actually, no matter what, that would be a total shit show.”

Maddie laughs, “UMass Amherst Greek life party. Technically not the school you played.”

He hums and smiles at her, “I’ll go only if we win.”

She grins, “But I’ll be there no matter so you should be there no matter what.”

Gabe laughs, “I’ll do my best.”

Maddie pouts a little, “Fiiine. How much time do we have?”

He grins, “We’ve got plenty.”

She smiles, “Wanna eat?”

He nods his head, “Always.”

Maddie grins, “Perfect. I’ll take you to my favorite spot then”

He grins at her, “Ooh, you have a favorite spot.”

She laughs, “Yes, I think you’ll like it. We have a whole visit to make up for!” She brings him over to her car.

He bites his lip a little and then smiles and gets in her car.

Maddie gets in and starts to drive him to Judie’s, “and you’ll love the burgers.”

He smiles at her, “You know me so well.”

She giggles, “Of course. I can’t believe how tan you are.”

Gabe grins, “I don’t even feel like I’m tan until I see everyone up here losing theirs,” he chuckles.

Maddie laughs and moves her arm beside his, “And I’m still outside a lot!”

He looks at her arm and laughs, “I go running every morning.”

She bites her lip as she pictures him running, “Me too.”

“I go shirtless,” he smirks. “Gotta cover up here, it’s getting chilly.”

She swallows thickly and glances at him. “I get plenty hot running to keep me warm. I just wear those pants, you know the ones that led us into the woods.”

He looks at her and smirks a little, “Oh yeah?”

Maddie nods her head and grins, “Mhm.”

Gabe thinks about it for a moment and then grins, “Hm.”

She giggles, “We can run together tomorrow.”

“After getting drunk tonight? Sure,” he laughs.

Maddie grins, “Then don’t get too drunk.”

Gabe looks at her, “But I’m gonna need to celebrate.”

Her brows raise, “We can’t celebrate without you getting too drunk?”

He laughs, “We can. I’m just kidding around. I’m not gonna get hammered. Got a flight tomorrow.”

She bites her lip, “I wish you didn’t have to leave so soon.”

He nods his head, “Me too. But that’s how these weekends are.”

Maddie shrugs and nods. She parks the car at the restaurant and smiles, “We’re here.” She gets out of the car.

He gets out and puts his hands in his pockets.

Maddie leads him inside and gets them a table for two before sitting with him.

He sits with her and smiles, “What’s your favorite thing?”

She grins, “the shrimp scampi popover.”

“That sounds really good,” he grins.

She grins, “it is. I’ll let you have some.”

“Should I get a popover, they seem to be the staple here?” Gabe smiles at her.

Maddie drops her jaw, “Gabriel James not getting a burger?!”

He laughs, “I can’t go to a restaurant and not get what they’re famous for!”

She laughs, “then definitely get a popover!”

“Okay,” he grins at her.

Maddie smiles widely at him.

He smiles, “Which one should I try?”

She smiles, “I think you’d like the beef tip one.”

“Perfect,” he grins and puts the menu down.

Maddie grins at him and the waiter comes over and she orders for herself.

He orders his food and then grins at her.

She smiles widely at him.

Gabe licks his lips a little and smiles at her.

Maddie bites her lip as she watches him lick his lips and she fantasizes about him for a moment.

He grins and raises his eyebrows, “What are you thinking about?”

She blushes deeply and shakes her head, “Just you.”

He arches a brow and smiles, “Me?”

Maddie nods her head and licks her lips a little.

He swallows thickly and grins crookedly, “What about me?”

She bites her lip, “nothing I can say in public.”

He looks at her for a moment and rubs his palms over his jeans, “Oh, that’s how it’s gonna be?” He chuckles.

Maddie smirks a little, “I mean, I’ll tell you if you really want me to but I don’t want to make anything too hard for you.” She kinks her brows.

Gabe smirks and leans forward a little, opening his mouth and then closing it as he leans back in his seat and nods.

She makes a small noise and crosses her legs.

He grins as he watches her, “You good?”

Maddie hums softly and her foot brushes his, “Debating on whether or not I need to disappear into the ladies room for a few.”

He swallows thickly as he looks at her and smirks, “Hm, by yourself?”

She arches a brow and smirks, “Is that an offer?”

He bites his lip, “I.. It would be.. but it can’t be.”

Maddie nods her head, “Then yeah, by myself.”

He leans forward and rests his arms on the table, “You wouldn’t.”

She mimics his position and smirks, whispering, “Wanna bet?”

He looks into her eyes for a moment, “Maddie..”

Her brows raise and her expression falters a little as she gets nervous she went too far, “yeah?”

He grins a little, “Why are you teasing me?”

Maddie grins, “You started it.”

He drops his jaw and laughs, “When?”

Maddie blushes and laughs, “you licked your lips.”

Gabe raises his brows and smirks, “That’s all it took?”

She smirks, “Well it made me think about other lips you’ve licked so yeah.”

He leans back and moves his hands through his hair as he groans and then chuckles.

Maddie leans back and blushes as she laughs.

He looks into her eyes as he grins and shakes his head.

She giggles and bites her lip.

The food gets dropped off and he smiles, “Wow!”

Maddie grins, “Yesss!”

He grins, “This looks really good. Definitely the second most tempting thing at the table,” he taps his foot against hers.

Her cheeks heat up and she smiles shyly at him before teasing, “Yeah, you’re right. My popover does look better than yours.”

Gabe smirks and nods his head, “That’s okay, you’re gonna let me have a taste, right?”

Maddie blushes harder and nods her head with a smirk, “You’re the only one I’d let.”

He looks at her and licks a his lips a little as he grins and starts to eat.

She whimpers softly and starts to eat too.

He smirks to himself and shakes his head.

Maddie moans with delight as she eats.

He watches her and grins, "Stop it."

Her brows raise, “What’s wrong?”

Gabe laughs softly, "You know what you're doing."

Maddie grins innocently, “I’m just enjoying my meal.”

He grins and nods his head, "You sure are."

She laughs and holds a bite of her food to his lips.

He eats the bite of food and hums.

Maddie grins, “What do you think?”

"That's really good," he grins.

She smiles widely, “I think so too.”

He looks at her and grins and holds a bite of his food up to her lips.

Maddie grins and leans forward to eat the bite.

He feeds it to her and smiles.

She grins at him, “That’s good too.”

He grins as he eats.

Maddie smiles and hums, “you ever watch our videos?”

He raises his brows at the question and hums lightly before shaking his head.

She looks at him, “you ever think about me like that?”

“It’s kinda hard not to when you’re posting bikini videos on your story,” he chuckles.

Maddie bites her lip and smirks.

“And sending me snapchats wearing just a towel,” he arches a brow.

She grins a little, “your post-game and look at my tan line snapchats aren’t exactly making me think holy thoughts either.”

He smirks, “I’m not sorry.”

Maddie smirks at him, “Neither am I. I’m not sorry for what I did after I saw them either.”

Gabe slowly takes a bite of food and grins.

She taps his foot with hers and slowly takes a bite of her food.

He looks down at his food and smiles a little.

Maddie fights a grin and keeps eating.

He eats his food and grins.

She looks at him and smiles, “Wanna get ice cream after this?”

He grins at her, “Sure.”

Maddie smiles widely at his smile, “Perfect.” She takes her last bite and waves the waitress down for the check.

He takes out his wallet.

She shakes her head, “I got it.” She puts down cash with the check.

“Oh, thanks,” he smiles.

Maddie nods and smiles, “you’re welcome. Ice cream’s right by campus so we can get our cones and walk around campus. It’s so pretty right now.”

He nods his head, “Sounds good.”

She grins and gets up.

He gets up and goes out to her car with her.

Maddie smiles and gets into the car.

He gets in and glances at her.

She looks at him and smiles, “what is it?”

Gabe shakes his head a little and smiles, "Nothing, just thinking."

Maddie smiles and starts to drive, “about what?”

"You," he smiles.

She grins, “What about me?”

He chuckles softly, "Nothing.."

Maddie laughs, “Tell me!”

He looks at her and laughs softly, "How horny you are and what I wish I could do about it."

Her fingers tighten around the steering wheel and she swallows thickly, her hips shifting slightly, “What do you wish you could do about it?”

“Things that.. I don’t think I should say,” he looks at her.

Maddie looks at him, “the anticipation is gonna kill me.”

Gabe smiles a little, “I feel like we are walking on a thin line.”

She hums softly, “I’ll back off.”

“Me too,” he nods.

Maddie bites her lip as she grins.

Gabe looks out the window and smiles a little.

She parks at the ice cream place and gets out of the car.

He gets out and goes inside with her.

Maddie grins at him, “get whatever you want.”

“What’s good?” He grins at her.

She smiles widely, “Their hard ice cream is good but you can customize your soft serve. Right now they have pumpkin.”

He scrunches his face and laughs, "i'll pass on the pumpkin."

Maddie playfully sticks her tongue out. “You can do chocolate mint twist, you can do cherry and vanilla, raspberry and chocolate, lemon. I get pumpkin with pie crust crumbles.”

"Of course you do," he smiles. "Raspberry and chocolate sounds pretty good."

She hip bumps him and orders their cones.

He grins and takes out his wallet and pays.

Maddie smiles, “I was gonna get it.”

He shakes his head and grins, “You got lunch.”

She laughs, “fine.”

Gabe smiles and then hands her ice cream to her and takes his.

Maddie smiles, “thank you.”

"You're welcome," he grins.

She grins widely and takes a lick of her ice cream cone.

He starts to lick his ice cream and smiles at her.

Maddie smirks as she watches him and licks at her ice cream. “Hold my ice cream? It’s just a quick drive.”

“Sure,” he holds his hand out.

She gives him her ice cream and then goes to get back into her car with him.

He takes her cone and gets in the car.

Maddie smiles widely at him and starts to drive them to campus.

He licks his ice cream as she drives.

She parks after a quick drive and she grins, “ready?”

He nods his head, “Yeah.”

She gets out of the car and opens the door for him.

He gets out and hands her her ice cream.

Maddie grins and takes it, “Thank you.” She looks away from him and takes a long, slow lick of her ice cream.

He watches her and bites his lip a little.

She looks at him and grins, “Walk with me.”

He nods and walks with her as he eats his ice cream.

Maddie grins at him and she leads him along the walkway. “It’s not the pretty budding of spring but the leaves are starting to change colors so it’s still pretty.”

He looks around as he thinks about the last time he was on campus with her and his stomach turns.

She licks her ice cream and smiles at him, “do you like your ice cream?”

He nods a little, "It's really good."

Maddie grins at him, “good.” She reaches over and squeezes his hand quickly before letting go.

Gabe smiles at her and nods slightly before eating his ice cream, "How's your second semester been?"

She smiles, “good. Way better than fall semester last year.”

"Good, I'm happy for you," he nods.

Maddie smiles at him, “thank you. How about you?”

Gabe grins and looks at her, "It's a blast."

Her brows raise and she smiles, “Yeah?”

He nods his head, "Yeah. I'm starting QB for a D1 school, we're undefeated so far this season, and my grades are actually pretty good."

Maddie smiles, “Sounds like a perfect semester for you.”

He eats his ice cream and nods slightly, "Almost."

She glances at him and eats her ice cream.

He looks at her and smiles.

Maddie smiles and dabs some of her ice cream onto his nose.

He laughs and looks cross eyed at his nose.

She giggles as she watches him and she flicks her tongue against his nose to get it off.

He smirks at her, “Thanks.”

Maddie grins, “you’re welcome.” She licks her ice cream, “When do I have to get you to the stadium?”

“Well I don’t have my things, so you’ll need to bring me back to the hotel,” he checks the time. “Probably 30 minutes.”

Maddie nods her head, “Okay, we’ll finish the walk and I’ll drive you.”

He smiles, “Thanks.”

She nods and smiles, “you’re welcome.”

He grins and finishes eating.

Maddie finishes her ice cream cone.

He looks down at her hand and thinks about holding it, brushing his hand lightly against hers.

She gets chills and links his pinky with hers.

He bites his lip and smiles to himself.

Maddie smiles and swings their hands and she points out new buildings to him that she didn’t get to show him the first time around before they get back to her car.

He smiles as they get to the car, “Thanks for the tour.”

She grins, “you’re welcome.” She gets into the car with him.

He gets in and looks at her, “This was good.”

Maddie nods and smiles, “I think so too.” She starts to drive back to his hotel.

He nods his head and grins

She smiles at him, “What time do you go tomorrow?”

“We’re leaving for the airport at 11,” he nods.

Maddie smiles, “I’m taking you to breakfast after our run then.”

He grins at her, “Sounds like a plan.”

She grins widely at him, “I have the perfect spot.”

“Yeah?” He grins and raises his brows.

Maddie nods and smiles, “Yesss, they have amazing chicken and waffles.”

“Perfect,” Gabe smiles at her.

She parks in the parking lot outside of the hotel and she grins. “Put a good outfit in your bag. I’ll see you after the game.”

He chuckles and gets out, “See you after.”

Maddie gets out too and goes around to him, kissing his cheek, “Good luck out there.”

He raises his eyebrows and grins sheepishly, “Thank you.”

She squeezes his hand and grins. “Text me!” She gets back in her car and waves goodbye to him.

“I will,” he waves to her before going into the hotel.

Maddie goes back to the house to get ready for the game.

He goes to get ready for the game and rides over to the stadium with his team.

Maddie is in the stands with her sorority sisters and she waits eagerly for Gabe to come out and they all tease her.

Gabe leads his team out as they get introduced by the announcer and they mostly get boo’d since they don’t have home field advantage.

She cheers for Gabe and people around her glare at her, so her sisters tell them to fuck off.

Gabe starts warming up, trying not to get nervous that Maddie is in the stands. He heads onto the field for the coin toss and the game starts.

Maddie watches anxiously.

The other team kicks off and Gabe’s team catches it and runs the ball to the end zone, immediately putting a touch down on the board.

She grins as she watches, cheering for them anyways.

Gabe heads onto the field for the first snap and calls out the play. he gets the ball and runs the play.

Maddie watches him and bites her lip.

He gets the ball closer to the end zone before getting tackled.

She gasps as she watches him get tackled, covering her mouth with her hand.

He gets up with no problem and they run the next play, getting another touchdown.

Maddie lets out a breath of relief and watches.

They play until half time, still in the lead as he heads into the locker room.

She texts him, you’re doing great out there! I missed being able to admire America’s ass in those pants

He sees her text and smirks, be honest, that’s the real reason you watch me play

Maddie giggles and replies,

He shakes his head and grins to himself. Half time ends and he goes back out onto the field.

She cheers for him as she watches him come out.

Gabe plays even better the second half of the game, running the ball for the winning touchdown. His team huddles around hin as they all cheer.

Maddie gets up and cheers loudly for him.

He celebrates with his team as they head into the locker room and he texts Maddie, meet outside the locker room?

She grins as she gets his text, already headed there

He showers and changes into the nicer clothes he brought and then gets his bag and heads out to meet Maddie.

Maddie is waiting for Gabe outside of the locker room, her sisters waiting by the door and inviting his teammates to the party as they leave. When she sees Gabe, she grins and goes over to him, “you played one hell of a game, Gabe James.”

Gabe smiles as soon as he sees Maddie, missing the feeling of her seeing her right after a game, "Better not say that too loud or you might get shunned," he laughs.

She giggles, “Oh it’s too late. They were all glaring at me and booing me when I was cheering for you.” She wraps her arms around his neck in a hug and smiles, “you cleaned up nicely.”

He hugs her tightly and squeezes her as he chuckles, "Thanks."

Maddie giggles and squeezes him just as tight, “you’re welcome. We just have to go to the house so I can change and we can head over.”

He pulls back and nods a little, “Sure.”

She grins and links her arm through his and brings him to her car, “the girls are inviting your teammates.”

He laughs softly, “They’ll party anywhere.”

Maddie grins, “Perfect. I don’t want you to get overwhelmed by strangers.”

He nods a little, “Thanks.”

She smiles and gets into her car with him, “How do you feel?”

He laughs, “A little sore, but undefeated!”

Maddie giggles and squeezes his shoulder gently, “That tackle had me worried for a second.”

He smiles and raises his brows, “Which one?”

She smiles, “all of them, but mostly the big one when the game first started.”

Gabe gives her a small look and grins, “I always get tackled. But I was okay.”

Maddie pouts, “It was a big one! I’m allowed to get worried.”

He smiles at her, "You don't have to worry."

She smiles, “I always worry.” She parks the car at the sorority house and gets out.

He leaves his bag in her car and gets out, swallowing thickly as he remembers the last time he was here, “I’ll wait outside.”

Maddie bites her lip, “Please come in?”

Gabe looks at her and hesitates, “Okay.”

She holds her hand out to him.

He bites his lip and takes her hand.

Maddie brings him inside and up to her new room, since her and Becca switched.

He raises his brows as he follows her to her new room and he looks around.

She smiles at him, “It’s the same bathroom, though. Becca just offered to switch with me when we got back.”

He nods his head a little, “That was nice of her.”

Maddie smiles and goes into her closet.

He looks around as he waits for her.

She gets a dress and goes into her bathroom to change and fix up her hair and makeup.

Gabe leans against her desk as he looks at his phone, responding to his friends texts congratulating him on the win.

Maddie comes out after a couple of minutes and smiles, “Ready?”

He looks up from his phone and noticeably checks her out as he grins, "Ready."

She blushes and smiles shyly, “Alright. It’s just a couple houses down.”

He nods a little, "Okay."

Maddie smiles and links their arms and leads him out.

Gabe walks with her, "I hope my teammates don't start shit."

She laughs, “I’m sure it��ll be okay.”

"Sometimes rival parties end alright, sometimes they don't," he chuckles.

Maddie grins, “Well we’ll step in if we have to.”

He looks at her and grins.

She smiles and leads him through the line of people waiting outside and brings him inside, nodding at the guys at the door to the house and she smiles at Gabe, “what do you want to drink?”

"Beer is fine," he nods.

She lets go of his arm and leads him into the kitchen, grabbing him a beer.

Gabe follows her into the kitchen and grins, "Thanks."

Maddie nods and smiles, “you’re welcome.” She makes herself a drink.

He sips his beer and looks around.

Maddie smiles and lifts her drink up, “to you playing a great game.”

Gabe smiles at her, “Thanks, Maddie.” He taps his cup to hers.

She grins and sips her drink.

He sips his drink and then grins, “Alright, let’s party.”

Maddie giggles and some of his teammates come over to him, Cheering.

Gabe laughs and cheers with them and then introduces them to Maddie. The guys exchange looks and one of them grins, “We’ve heard so much about you, Maddie.”

Her brows raise and she laughs, “Good things I hope.”

He nods his head, “Oh, very good things.” Gabe hits him and laughs a little, “Dude, shut up.”

Maddie grins, “Like what?”

He laughs softly and ignores Gabe, “You know, just how he always looks forward to hearing from you.” Gabe laughs a little and hits him again, “I’m gonna kick your ass if you don’t shut up.”

She arches a brow and looks at Gabe, “I’m surprised you still talk about me.”

He shoves his friend as he laughs and they enter their own conversations. Gabe looks at her, “I don’t talk about you. I mean sometimes, but not really,” he shrugs nonchalantly.

Maddie smirks at him, “If you say so.”

Gabe laughs softly and leans down to whisper in her ear, “I do look forward to the sexy snaps though.”

She gets chills from his whisper and she grins, “I bet.”

He smirks and pulls back and sips his beer.

Maddie smiles and shifts to sit on the counter and a few of her sisters come over and grin, “Oh, hey hot Gabe.”

Gabe recognizes them from her birthday and he nods slightly as a greeting, “Hey.”

She grins, “They want you to introduce them to your teammates.”

He raises his brows and nods then looks at his friends, “Boys.” He nods towards the sorority sisters. “Ladies, this is Alex, Mac, John, Chester, and Tyler. Don’t be fooled by their charming looks, they’re quality assholes,” he teases them.

Maddie giggles, “This is Emma, Ally, Steph, Franki, and Laura. They’re bitches but they’re hot. Talk amongst yourselves.” The girls immediately go to chat up the guys.

Gabe chuckles and looks at Maddie, biting his lip.

She grins at him and sips her drink.

He drinks his beer and then steps closer to her, moving his hand to gently rub her leg.

Maddie watches his hand and gets goosebumps from his touch, “Gabe..”

He lets out a soft breath and drops his hand, “I know.” He quickly finishes his beer. “I’m gonna grab another.”

She bites her lip and nods a little, “I’m gonna go to the bathroom.”

Gabe nods his head and moves so she can hop off the counter and he gets another beer.

Maddie gets down and she watches him before leaving the kitchen and going to stand in line for the bathroom. Callum is at the party and sees Maddie. He decides to follow her and when she’s in line, he moves behind her slides his hands to her waist. Maddie instantly goes rigid, knowing immediately it’s not Gabe and who it is. “Get your hands off of me,” she hisses. Callum chuckles, “C’mon Madison, we never got to finish what we started last time I saw you..” Maddie moves away from him and turns around, slapping him hard across the face, “Don’t you ever fucking touch me again!” Callum shoves her backwards, “Bitch!”

Gabe drinks his beer and then leaves the kitchen and wanders around the house. He hears a bunch of people gasp and looks over in the direction it came from just as Callum shoves Maddie. Rage surges through him as he storms over to Callum and grabs him by the shirt, pushing him against the wall and holding him there, “What the fuck are you doing touching her like that?!”

Maddie had been shoved back against a few people who were decent enough to catch her. She watches with wide eyes as Gabe pins Callum. Callum smirks, “What? She’s a tease, she loves it.” Maddie’s fists clench at her sides and she stands a bit behind Gabe, “I never loved it, and I especially didn’t love it when you tried to rape me!”

Gabe clenches his jaw as he hears Maddie and he realizes who he’s looking at, “Are you fucking serious?” He pulls him off the wall and punches him before tackling him to the floor.

Maddie gasps and Callum tries to fight back but Gabe has the upper hand. “Gabe!”

Everyone circles around them and Gabe punches Callum angrily. His teammates rush in and quickly pull him off of Callum, but he tries to fight through them.

When Gabe is pulled back is when Callum gets a hit in, but he’s immediately pulled back by other guys at the party. Madison lets out a sob, “Gabe, please!”

Gabe glares at Callum, “If you ever touch her or another girl again, if you even look at her again, I’ll break your dirty fucking hands, you piece of shit!” His teammates try to calm him down and lead him outside.

The other guys throw Callum out of the party the other way and Madison’s sorority sisters rush over to ask her about it and she sobs, “He tried to rape me the night you all told me to take him home. Happy?” She shakes her head and rushes out after Gabe, going over to him and moving her hands to his cheeks.

Gabe catches his breath as he tries to calm down just as Maddie comes out and he leans into her touch a little and then moves his hands to lightly touch her arms, “Are you alright?”

She nods her head and presses her forehead to his, “Take me home?”

He looks into her eyes for a moment and fights a frown before nodding.

Maddie pulls back and wipes at her face before holding his hand and quickly walking back to the sorority house with him.

He walks silently and looks down at the hand he punched with and stretches out his fingers a few times to make sure he can move them.

Once they’re inside she brings him to the kitchen and gets ice pack and she wraps it before taking Gabe’s hand and gently pressing it to his knuckles. “Are you alright?” She whispers.

He watches her and nods slightly, “I’m fine.”

Maddie nods her head she swallows thickly as she looks at him for a long moment. She moves her hand to the back of his neck and pulls him in, kissing him hard on the mouth.

Gabe looks into her eyes just the same and then raises his eyebrows in surprise, but not hesitating to returns the kiss, moving his hands to her waist.

Her arms go around his neck and she kisses him passionately, pressing herself as close to him as possible.

He deepens the kiss as he kisses her passionately and holds her her tightly.

Maddie starts to grab at his shirt and pull it up his body but stops, remembering they’re in the kitchen and she starts to walk with him to the stairs, keeping her lips moving against his.

He walks towards the stairs with her as he kisses her harder.

She breaks the kiss once they reach the stairs and she brings him up to her room.

He follows her into her room and closes the door before picking her up and pressing her against it, his lips immediately back on hers.

Maddie gasps and whimpers, locking her legs right around his waist as she kisses him eagerly.

He kisses her deeply and presses his body to hers.

She tilts her head into the kiss and starts to bunch his shirt up his body.

Gabe sets her down and pulls back to take off his shirt and pulls her dress up.

She lifts her arms up so he can peel her dress off of her.

He lifts her dress off of her and then kisses her deeply again and walks her towards her bed.

Maddie returns the deep kiss and quickly undoes his bottoms. Once they reach her bed she pushes them down his legs.

He kicks off his shoes and pants before lifting her onto her bed and shifting on top of her.

She looks up into his eyes and slides her hands along his body before tugging his boxers down.

He gets chills from her touch and moves his hand to stop hers, “Are you sure?”

Maddie nods her head she looks up at him, “I need you, Gabe..”

He nods then kicks his boxers off and tugs her panties down as he looks into her eyes.

She wraps her fingers around his length and starts to stroke him, leaning up to kiss him heatedly again.

He whimpers as he returns the heated kiss and moves his hand to part her legs, starting to rub her center.

Maddie gasps and moans into the kiss, parting his lips with hers as she pumps her hand.

He moves his fingers against her clit and kisses her harder.

She whines against his lips and her hips roll into his touch.

Gabe moans softly into the kiss and keeps moving his fingers against her.

Maddie breaks the kiss as she moans and she strokes him harder.

He kisses down her neck heatedly and rubs her faster.

She moans louder and tilts her head to the side, “Fuck.. please..”

Gabe shifts and pushes into her slowly as he moans, taking her hand and locking their fingers together.

Her jaw slacks as she moans, her fingers squeezes his hand.

He presses his forehead to hers as he moves his hips slow at first.

Her walls adjust to his size and she whines, bringing her legs tight around his waist.

He moans softly as he pumps his hips and looks into her eyes.

Maddie moans and squeezes his hand, “Harder..”

Gabe starts to thrust his hips harder and drops his head to her shoulder as he moves.

She moans louder and moves her freehand to grip his hair.

He grunts and starts to move faster, squeezing her hand tighter.

“Gabriel,” she moans loudly and rolls her hips into his to meet his thrusts.

Gabe molds his body to hers and thrusts harder into her.

She cries out and tugs at his hair.

He kisses her neck heatedly and moans against her skin, moving his hips passionately into hers.

Maddie rolls her hips to meet his thrusts and she moans into his ear.

He presses his chest to hers and lifts his head to look into her eyes as he moves.

She moans his name and keeps moving her hips into his.

Gabe groans and starts to move his hips more eagerly into hers.

Her body tenses up and she cries out, tugging hard at his hair.

His abdomen tightens as he moves his hips harder and faster.

Maddie cries out his name as she climaxes, her walls clenching tight around him as she releases.

Gabe thrusts into her hard as he reaches his climax and lets out a series of groans.

She whimpers loudly and her body trembles slightly.

He slows his hips as they ride out their orgasms and he catches his breath.

Maddie whines and tilts her head back, panting softly.

He rests his forehead on her shoulder before pressing open mouth kisses to her neck.

She whimpers and combs her fingers through his hair.

Gabe hums softly and kisses his way to her lips.

Maddie returns the kiss and holds him close to her.

He keeps his body pressed to hers as he kisses her lovingly.

She slides her hands along his back as they kiss.

Gabe hums softly and slowly pulls back, touching his nose to hers.

Maddie smiles at him and strokes his cheek.

He grins at her lovingly.

She blushes from the way he’s smiling at her and she whispers, “Stay..”

Gabe shakes his head a little as he smiles, “I wasn’t planning on leaving.”

Maddie smiles, “No, stay longer.. tomorrow..”

He raises his brows a little, "I wish I could.."

She bites her lip, “Okay..”

"I have to leave with the team," he frowns.

Maddie chews on the inside of her cheek and nods.

He looks at her for a moment and then slowly pulls out, "You're mad.."

She whimpers and shakes her head, “I’m not mad.”

"What are you feeling?" He moves onto his side next to her, wrapping his arm around her.

Maddie snuggles into him, “I just wish you could stay longer.”

"Me too," he nods and presses his nose to her head.

She frowns and nuzzles her face into his neck.

He kisses her head softly.

Maddie slides her hands along his back.

Gabe breathes in her scent and closes his eyes, "I missed you."

She smiles, “I missed you..”

He rubs her back gently.

Maddie bites her lip and pulls back, rubbing her forehead.

He looks at her and raises his eyebrows, “What is it?”

She lets out a soft breath, “You’re leaving.”

He frowns and then looks at the time, “Not for another 11 hours.”

Maddie frowns, “Gabe..”

“What?” He bites his lip.

She sighs softly, “We just slept together and you’re leaving in the morning.��

Gabe leans up on his elbow, “I know, but.. you knew I was leaving. And it’s kinda out of my hands. I told you, I’d stay if I could.”

Tears prick at her eyes and she looks away from him.

He frowns as he looks at her, “Maddie..”

She covers her eyes with her hands and tries not to cry.

Gabe watches her and gently moves his hand to rub her arm, “Hey.. talk to me, please..”

Maddie frowns and wipes her eyes, “I don’t know how to do this again.”

He looks at her sadly, “Do what? Be with me or..?”

She shrugs her shoulders, “I don’t know.. cause I really.. I needed this and I loved it.”

He takes her hand into his, “I loved it, too..”

Maddie looks at him, “And I wanna keep doing this.”

Gabe looks at her hopefully, “Like.. get back together?”

She bites her lip, “Can we just be us without putting any labels on it?”

He furrows his eyebrows slightly, “What do you mean?”

Maddie looks at him and frowns, “I can’t be a long distance girlfriend.”

Gabe bites his lip as he looks at her, “So what do you want to be, if not my girlfriend?”

She looks at him, “Your Maddie.”

He sighs softly, “How can you be my Maddie if you’re not my girlfriend?”

Maddie frowns, “It’s not like we were seeing other people anyways..”

He raises his brows a little, “I just don’t.. I don’t get it. We’ll act like a couple, but?”

She looks at him, “But we don’t have to deal with the pressures of being a couple. We don’t have to feel horrible when the other person is busy and we can’t FaceTime, and we don’t have to sit around and wait for each other or play phone tag.”

Gabe sighs softly and lays on his back, looking up at the ceiling, “Then what will we do?”

Maddie looks at him, “What we have been doing but with more phone calls.”

He looks at her, “Like?”

Her brows raise, “What do you mean?”

“What have we been doing? I’m trying to figure out what you want, but you’re being vague,” he raises his brows slightly.

Maddie raises her brows, “I wanna be us and text and call and snapchat and kiss and have sex but I don’t want to call it a relationship.”

He fights a frown as his heart sinks and he looks at her, studying her features, “Are you sure?”

She nods her head, “please… I don’t want it to be all or nothing.”

Gabe bites his lip and looks down and then nods a little, “If that’s what you want.”

Maddie bites her lip, “Kiss me..”

He shifts onto his side and moves his hand to her cheek before kissing her softly.

She returns the kiss and moves her hand to his cheek.

He slides his hand down her body as he presses his chest to hers and deepens the kiss.

Maddie whimpers and kisses him just as deeply, curving herself to him.

Gabe rubs her leg as he kisses her slowly.

She slides her hand along his back and follows his lead in the kiss.

He kisses her harder and slides his hand along her waist.

She whimpers into the kiss and hooks her leg around him.

He moves his lips desperately with hers and rolls onto his back, pulling her on top of him.

Maddie straddles him and kisses him just as desperately, pressing her body to his.

Gabe moves his hands up and down her back, his hands settling on her butt as he pulls her hips to his.

She whimpers and grinds her center her center against his length.

He groans against her lips and squeezes her butt.

Maddie breaks the kiss as she moans and she looks into his eyes, “God, I missed you..” She kisses him heatedly and rocks her hips harder.

Gabe smirks a little a he looks up at her and then returns the heated kiss, pulling her closer.

She whines and grinds herself harder against him before breaking the kiss again, “you can just sleep on the plane right?”

He moans and nods his head, “Definitely.”

Maddie grins, “good, cause we have a lot time we gotta make up for.” She sits up and sets his tip at her entrance.

Gabe whimpers and rubs her waist as he watches her.

She moans as she lowers herself onto his length.

He groans softly and holds her hips.

Maddie whines and rocks her hips slow and hard.

He grunts and slides his hands to her chest.

She moans and moves her thumb to trace his lips.

He massages her breasts and moves his hips up into hers.

Maddie whines and moves her hips harder, “Tell me how much you missed my pussy..”

He groans, “Fuck, I missed your pussy so much..”

She moans and rocks her hips, “did you fantasize about me, Gabriel?”

He whimpers and nods his head, “All the time..”

Maddie whines and rocks her hips harder, “Stroke your big cock thinking about me?”

Gabe feels her up as he groans, “Fuck.. Yes..”

She moans and moves faster, “Gabriel..”

He moves his hands back to her hips and pushes his hips up into hers, “You feel so good..”

Maddie whines and rests her hands on his chest, “Fuck..”

He thrusts up into her harder and faster as he moans.

She lets out a long cry and stops moving her hips.

Gabe grips her hips tightly and bends his knees as he thrusts up into her roughly.

Maddie lets out a series of loud moans and she moves her hands to grip the pillow, “Fuuuck!” Her body tenses up.

He moans as his abdomen tightens and he moves harder.

She cries out his name as she climaxes hard and releases.

He pushes up into her as he reaches his climax and groans.

Maddie whines and drops her head into the crook of his neck.

He slows his hips and holds her tightly as he catches his breath

She pants heavily and her hips shake.

Gabe rubs her back slowly and kisses her head.

Maddie whines and presses kisses his neck.

He tilts his head back a little.

She lifts her head up and speaks breathlessly, “Wow..”

Gabe grins as he catches his breath, “Wow..”

She giggles and nudges his nose with hers.

He laughs breathlessly and raises his brows, “Another round?”

Maddie grins and nods, “Yes, please..”

“I’m not even gonna tease you about being insatiable, because I am, too,” he chuckles.

She giggles, “Is it bad if I really wanna do the shower fantasy?”

He raises his brows a little, “Oh..”

Her smile falls immediately, “Never mind.”

"No, no, I just.. I wasn't expecting that," he bites his lip.

Maddie raises her brows, “if you don’t wanna do it then we can wait.”

He nods a little, "Then.. I want to wait.."

She nods slightly, “Okay. Sorry..”

He looks at her before he swiftly rolls them over and presses his hips to hers.

Maddie gasps and whines, “I thought I turned you off..”

He chuckles, "I told you, I'm insatiable." He kisses her deeply.

She giggles and then returns the deep kiss.

He presses his body to hers as he kisses her harder.

Maddie whines and rolls her hips up into his.

He grinds his hips into hers as they kiss.

She moans and kisses him harder.

He hums against her lips and rolls his hips to meet hers.

Maddie whines against his lips,

He breaks the kiss and moves his hips harder.

She moans loudly and looks up at him, “What am I allowed to call you?”

He raises his brows as he speaks breathlessly, "Whatever you want."

She whines and rolls her hips into his, “just like that, daddy..”

He groans as he thrusts into her faster, "Fuck.."

Maddie cries out and lifts her head up to watch their hips meet and she whines breathlessly, “I missed you, I missed you inside me so much..”

Gabe moans as their hips meet, "You feel so good.."

She tilts her head back and moans loudly.

He kisses along her neck heatedly as he pumps his hips.

Maddie whines and grips his shoulders, “Yes..”

Gabe moans and pushes her knees up as he thrusts deeper.

She gasps and moans loudly, “Ahh, Fuuck..”

His abdomen tightens as he moves his hips eagerly.

Her body tenses up and she moans loudly, “Yes, daddy..”

Gabe thrusts into her hard as he reaches his climax, letting out groans.

Maddie whines loudly as she climaxes and releases.

He whimpers and thrusts a few more times.

She whimpers and shifts her ankles onto his shoulders.

Gabe catches his breath and then kisses her calf.

Maddie grins a little and she pants softly before speaking breathlessly, “Do you need a break?”

He nods his head and grins, “Yeah.”

She giggles and holds her arms out for him.

He chuckles and puts her legs down before laying in her arms.

Maddie grins and lightly traces his face with her fingertips.

He looks into her eyes as he thinks about everything.

She looks into his eyes and her fingertips over his nose.

Gabe smiles a little and then looks away.

Her brows raise, “Gabe?”

He slowly moves off of her and kisses her shoulder, “You can’t look at me like that.”

She looks at him confusedly, “What do you mean?”

He shakes his head and wraps his arms around her, “Never mind.”

Maddie raises her brows, “No, tell me..”

“It’s nothing,” he smiles a little.

She frowns, “Please just tell me.”

“I guess I’m just trying to figure out how to make this work,” he bites his lip. “Because I look at you and I feel everything..”

Maddie frowns slightly, “and I don’t? I basically told you I wanted to have anal and it’s because I want to feel you everywhere.”

He sighs softly and looks down, “But you don’t want strings attached. And I don’t want to feel everything if I can’t have all of you.”

Her brows furrow, “It’s not like I want anyone or anything else.”

He nods a little, “Okay..”

Maddie shakes her head and looks away from him.

He bites his lip and frowns.

She sighs softly, “that is not fair. I am giving you all that I can offer.”

He swallows thickly and nods a little, “Okay, I know. I shouldn’t have said anything.”

Maddie looks at him, “I wish it were enough for you.”

He nods slightly, "Me too."

She purses her lips and gets up to put clothes on.

He frowns and then gets up and gets dressed.

Maddie looks at him and goes to say something and then changes her mind, shaking her head.

He looks at her, “Do you want me to leave?”

She frowns, “I want to tell you yes so bad.”

He raises his brows in surprise, “Oh. Wow. I think you just did..”

Maddie sighs, “No, I didn’t. Because I don’t want you to. That’s what’s so annoying. You say shit to me and I still don’t want you to leave me.”

He blinks a few times, "What shit did I say, Maddie?"

Her brows furrow, “That what I have to offer isn’t enough for you. What you think I feel and want when you have no idea.”

Gabe shakes his head as he looks at her, "You said it wasn't enough, Maddie. I told you I wanted more in July. I told you that. You know how I feel, but I love you so much that I'm willing to do whatever you need me to for you to forgive me and trust me. If that means our relationship is just physical, then fine, I'll do that for you, even though it hurts because I love you, Maddie."

Maddie furrows her eyebrows, “You agreed when I said I wish it was enough for you.” She shakes her head, “Just physical? You think that what happened tonight was just physical all because I don’t want to be your girlfriend? God you don’t get it, you say you’re willing to do whatever but you don’t act like it. You make me feel like shit for not being ready. I am giving you all that I can, all that I am physically and emotionally able because I am in love with the man who destroyed me from the inside out when he left the first time and I don’t know how many different ways I can ask you to be patient with me and for you to graciously accept what I can give without getting upset about what I’m not.”

He looks at her for a moment and frowns, “I am being patient.”

Tears fill her eyes, “then can you give me a break. Because I’m not having sex with you just cause, if I wanted to just fuck you then I would’ve months ago.”

He clenches his jaw a little as he realizes he should have kept his mouth shut and nods his head, “Okay, I’m sorry..”

Maddie nods her head and whispers, “I look at you like that because I feel everything too..”

He nods a little and hesitantly steps closer to her.

She moves to him and brings her hands to his cheeks.

He leans into her touch and wraps his arms around her.

Maddie leans her forehead to his and whispers, “this isn’t just physical.”

“Okay,” he whispers back.

She looks at him, “you know I can’t do that with you. Remember how neurotic I was when we started dating?”

He half smiles, “You weren’t neurotic.”

Maddie laughs, “Yes I was.”

“Stop, you weren’t,” he chuckles.

She giggles, “I was. Now kiss me.”

He smiles and kisses her softly.

Maddie returns the kiss and holds him close to her.

He rubs her back gently.

She slowly deepens the kiss.

He hums against her lips.

Maddie breaks the kiss and pulls his shirt back off.

He starts to undress her and kisses her again.

She whimpers and kisses him harder.

He deepens the kiss quickly.

Maddie kisses him just as deeply and curves herself to him.

He kisses her harder and hums.

She breaks the kiss after a moment and whispers, “Where do you want me?”

“Against the door,” he smirks.

Maddie blushes and grins, "Picked up or facing away?"

He grins, "We can do both."

She blushes harder and grins before whispering, "You do realize my mirror's on my door, right?"

He arches a brow, “I haven’t had much time to notice. I guess I’ll be taking you from behind.”

Maddie smiles shyly, "Only, if you still want to.."

“I do,” he grins.

She blushes and kisses him.

He returns the kiss deeply and walks her towards her door.

Maddie walks with him as she kisses him passionately.

He kisses her just as passionately and rubs her waist.

She curves herself to him and tilts her head into the kiss.

He tugs her bottoms down.

Maddie kicks her panties off of her feet and she grips his back.

He breaks the kiss and turns her around

She gasps and whimpers.

He pushes his bottoms down and pulls her hips back.

She reaches back and strokes his length slow and hard, "is your cock still all mine?"

He nods his head and rubs her center, “All yours.”

Maddie whines and gently squeezes his length, “I missed feeling you react to me..”

He groans softly, “You’re so wet..”

She whimpers and watches his face in the mirror, “do you know how wet you made me on the boat this summer?” She moves her hand harder.

He whimpers, “I did?”

Maddie nods her head and squeezes his length, “I almost put the towel over us..”

He arches a brow and smirks, "When?"

She looks at him and whimpers, “When you were rubbing my leg..”

He rubs her center harder.

She moans loudly and tilts her head back, “Watching you.. shirtless.. when you were swimming around with me.. I wanted you so bad..”

He moves his fingers against her clit, “I couldn’t stop thinking about fucking you in your little bikini..”

Maddie whines and her hips writhe as she strokes him again, “I fingered myself so hard in the shower the next morning.. moaning your name..”

He groans and moves his hand off her and turns her around.

She whines, “Gabriel..”

He pulls her hips back and thrusts into her.

Maddie cries out and tilts her head back.

He grips her hips and thrusts hard and slow.

She moans his name and pushes her hips back into his.

He slides his hand up her waist and pumps his hips harder.

She gasps and whines, “Holy fuuuck..”

Gabe moans and heatedly kisses along her neck.

Maddie whines and pushes her hips back into his.

He thrusts his hips harder

She cries out and watches him in the mirror.

He groans as their hips meet.

Maddie moans louder, “Gabriel..”

Gabe slides his hands along her back, “Fuck..”

She whines and watches him, “you fuck me so good..”

“You’re so wet,” he moans.

Maddie whines and pushes her hips back into his, “you make me so wet..”

He grunts and thrusts harder

She moans louder and leans her head back against his shoulder.

Gabe moves his hand between her legs and rubs her clit.

Maddie cries out and squirts against him.

He groans as he feels her, “Fuck..”

She whines loudly and watches him, “Daddy..”

He moves his hips faster, “That was so hot..”

Madison moans louder and her hips shake, “Gabe!”

His muscles tighten as he groans her name.

Her body tenses up and she moans loudly, “I’m cumming!”

Gabe groans into her ear as he reaches his climax and thrusts into her hard.

Maddie cries out his name as she climaxes and releases again, her body shaking.

He moans as he slows his hips.

She whines and leans back into him.

He kisses her neck.

Maddie pants softly and moves her hand to the back of his head, “Wow..”

He smirks and rubs her waist, "Hi.."

She giggles, "Hiii."

He laughs softly and kisses her neck again.

Maddie grins and tilts her head to the side.

He rubs her waist and pulls out of her.

She whines loudly and pouts.

"Sorry," he kisses her jaw.

Maddie turns around and wraps her arms around his neck, "What are things you're okay doing now and things you wanna wait for?"

He raises his brows, “Besides what we already talked about?”

She nods her head and touches her forehead to his.

“Everything else, I guess,” he nods.

Maddie bites her lip, "Is it just the fantasy or?"

“It’s what the fantasy involves,” he says softly.

She looks into his eyes, “you don’t wanna be with me like that?” She asks in a whisper.

"I do. When we're one hundred percent together," he looks at her.

She bites her lip and nods slightly.

He looks down a little.

Her brows raise, “What?”

"I didn't say anything?" He furrows his brows.

Maddie bites her lip, “you’re looking down so I wanted to know what you’re thinking.”

"Nothing," he shrugs a little.

She nods a little, “Okay.. you’re sure there’s nothing else off limits?”

"Not that I can think of?" He raises his brows, "Is there anything you're curious about?"

She shrugs, “I just don’t wanna cross a line or turn you off.”

"You won't," he shakes his head.

Maddie bites her lip and runs her fingers through his hair and pouts, “Does this mean nooo butt stuff at all?”

"I don't know.." He shrugs slightly.

She nudges her nose against his, “Cause I had ordered a plug for valentine’s day to surprise you with on FaceTime but it didn’t come til my birthday so I never got to use it.”

He arches a brow a little, "Maddie.."

Maddie bites her lip, “I thought you said I wouldn’t cross a line or turn you off?”

He furrows his brows, "You haven't."

She nudges her nose against his, “Then what is it?”

"You're too irresistible," he sighs and looks into her eyes.

Maddie grins at him and looks into his eyes lovingly.

He picks her up and carries her to her bed.

She smiles widely and brings her legs tight around him, heatedly kissing his neck.

He makes a small noise and lays down with her.

Maddie sucks on his skin as she holds onto him.

He presses his body to hers.

She whimpers and kisses down to between his collarbones.

He raises his brows and grins.

Maddie rolls him onto his back and kisses down his chest.

He watches her and whimpers

She shifts and places heated, open mouth kisses down his stomach.

He moves his hand through her hair.

Maddie looks up at him and kisses the cut lines of his hips slowly.

Gabe makes a small noise as he watches her.

She places soft kisses along his length.

He whimpers softly.

Maddie whines and licks him up and down slowly.

He groans as he watches her.

She moans and teases his tip with her tongue.

Gabe lightly tugs on her hair.

Maddie whimpers and keeps her eyes on his face as she wraps her lips around the head of him and gently sucks on him there.

He groans as he watches her, "Fuck.."

She hums and slowly bobs her head.

Gabe moans softly and tugs on her hair.

Maddie whimpers and sucks her cheeks in.

"Maddie.." He groans softly as he watches her.

She bobs her head faster and moans against him.

His abdomen tightens as he groans.

Maddie brings her lips down to his base and sucks on him hard.

He moans as he reaches his climax and his hips jerk.

She moans against him as she swallows his load.

Gabe groans softly as he watches her.

Maddie pulls back and whimpers.

He smirks a little, "Damn.."

She grins and kisses his tip, “Did you miss my mouth, baby?”

He nods his head and whimpers, "Yes.."

Maddie slowly licks along his length, “How much?”

Gabe makes a small noise, “I thought about it every night.”

She smirks a little, "More than my pussy?" She teases his tip with her tongue.

He chuckles and hums, “No.”

Maddie grins and kisses his pubic bone and then his abdomen, "I missed your laugh."

He grins a little, “Come here.”

She grins widely and moves up his body to be face to face with him.

He wraps his arms around her and grins, “Hi.”

Maddie giggles, "Hi." She strokes his hair.

He kisses her softly.

She grins and returns the kiss.

He deepens the kiss softly.

Maddie hums and kisses him just as deeply.

He hums against her lips.

She smiles into the kiss and moves her hand through his hair.

He rubs her back gently

Maddie breaks the kiss and grins at him.

"So.. you bought a plug?" He smirks.

She blushes and nods her head with a smirk, “I did.. wanna see it?”

He nods his head and smirks.

Maddie grins shyly and moves off of him, and she goes into her nightstand and takes out the box and hands it to him.

He looks at it and then looks at her and smirks.

She bites her lip and blushes as she takes the box from him and she opens it, taking out the plug and the lube and placing them on the bed. “Please?” She asks with a shy smile before getting on her hands and knees in front of him.

He moves onto his knees and nods his head a little, “Okay.” He puts lube on his fingers and slowly rubs her hole.

Maddie whimpers and turns her head to look back at him, "Baby.."

He moves his fingers slowly against her.

Her jaw slacks as she whines, gripping her bedding, "Gabriel.."

He rubs her harder before withdrawing his hand and putting lube on the plug

Maddie watches him and then arches her back and reaches back to spread her cheeks.

He pushes the plug into her slowly.

Her jaw slacks and she whimpers loudly.

He bites his lip a little, “Is that okay?”

Maddie nods her head and moans.

He kisses her back and grins.

She whimpers and gets onto her forearms and perks her butt up at him, "Do you like it?"

He smirks and nods, “Yes..”

Maddie grins and wiggles her butt.

He spanks her and grins.

She gasps and whimpers loudly, her hips rocking forward and then back to his hand.

He smirks and spanks her again.

Maddie moans and her hips jolt before she rocks her hips back, “Daddy..”

He moves his hand to rub her center.

She moans and reaches back to stroke his length, “Do you want me like this or do you want me to ride you reverse cowgirl?”

He hums, “You can ride me.”

Maddie grins and she turns around and kneels up, wrapping her arms around his neck. She looks into his eyes lovingly for a moment and then kisses him deeply.

He returns the kiss slowly.

She smiles and kisses him harder, sliding her hands all along his back.

He kisses her deeply and hums.

She moves her hands down to his butt and gently squeezes it as she kisses him harder.

He makes a small noise and then shifts to lay back.

Maddie straddles him and kisses him harder, moving her hand to his cheek.

He kisses her heatedly and wraps his arms around her.

She tilts her head into the kiss and presses her hips to his, whimpering against his lips.

He makes a small noise and kisses her harder.

Maddie kisses him just as hard and rocks her hips into his again.

Gabe moves his hands to her butt and spanks her.

She breaks the kiss as she cries out.

He groans softly as he watches her.

She grinds her center against his length with a moan.

He groans and slides his hands along her waist.

Maddie whines and moves her hips harder, looking into his eyes.

“Maddie..” He groans softly.

She whimpers and kisses him before turning around, straddling him again and setting his tip at her entrance.

He watches her and bites his lip.

Maddie lowers herself back onto him and moans his name.

He groans softly and grips her hips.

She moans and rocks her hips back into his.

Gabe grunts and watches her.

She whines and looks back at him as she pushes her hips into his, “Fuck.. you’re so big..”

He groans, “You feel so good..”

Maddie moans and rocks her hips harder, looking back at him over her shoulder.

Gabe moans her name and rubs her waist.

She moans louder as she hears him and she picks up her pace, “Gabriel..”

He groans as their hips meet.

Maddie whines, “Does it feel good with the plug, baby?”

He nods and whimpers, “So tight..”

She moans and shifts to lay her back against his chest.

He groans and thrusts up into her.

Maddie cries out and pulls her knees up, tilting her head back to moan into his ear.

He wraps his arms around her and groans breathlessly.

"Baby," she moans and reaches her arm around his head to tangle her fingers into his hair.

Gabe moans into her ear as he thrusts harder and faster.

Maddie cries out and tugs on his hair as she releases against him.

"Fuck.." He grunts and moves his hand to her center and rubs her clit eagerly.

She lets out a louder, longer cry as she squirts again harder, her body shaking.

Gabe groans and thrusts up into her faster as his abdomen tightens.

Her body tenses up and she moans, “Fuck yes.. Gabriel.. I’m cumming..” She climaxes and releases again, her walls clenching tight around him.

He moans breathlessly as he reaches his climax and his hips jerk, "Fuuck.."

Her body trembles more as she rides out her orgasm, her fingers gripping tight on his hair as she lets out a string of moans.

He whimpers softly and closes his eyes, "Fuck.."

She pants heavily and her body relaxes.

He wraps his arms around her and rubs her abdomen.

Maddie grins a little at his touch and moves her hand to his cheek before turning her head to look at him, speaking breathlessly, "Insatiable.."

Gabe laughs breathlessly, "You are."

She giggles, “you too tonight.”

"Give me a break, I haven't had sex in months and you've been teasing me nonstop," he chuckles.

Maddie smirks, “I’m not complaining. And you loved the teasing.”

"Because I missed you," he says softly.

She smiles a little and touches her nose to his temple before whispering, “I missed you so much..”

He smiles a little and moves his hands gently along her skin.

Maddie smiles and gets goosebumps from his touch, “Gabriel..”

He bites his lip a little and slowly drops his hand.

She frowns and looks at him, “Where did you go?”

"I'm still here," he raises his brows.

Maddie shakes her head, “No you’re not.” She whimpers as she moves her hips off of his and she turns around to lay on him properly.

He lets out a soft breath and looks at her, “Then where am I?”

She fights a frown and looks into his eyes, “Somewhere I can’t reach you..”

He looks at her and frowns, “I’m right here, Maddie..”

Maddie strokes his cheek softly and leans up to kiss him softly.

He gently returns the kiss.

She pulls back after a moment and then pecks his lips, “I’m gonna go take out my plug. Do you want anything?”

He shakes his head a little, “No, I’m all set.”

Maddie kisses him once more before getting out of bed and going to the bathroom.

He gets up and puts his boxers on then gets back in her bed.

She comes back out and puts on a shirt of his she kept and her underwear before climbing back into bed.

He smiles at her and wraps his arm around her.

Maddie grins and wraps her leg around him as she snuggles into his chest, “So what do your teammates know about me?”

He raises his brows a little, "Hm ?"

She laughs, “they said they heard so much about me, so what did you tell them?”

“They just know you were my girlfriend,” he shrugs a little.

Maddie smirks a little, “then why were they smirking at me?”

“Because they were teasing me,” he laughs softly.

She smiles, “so they don’t know any raunchy details?”

Gabe looks at her, “They know how I feel about you.”

Maddie touches her nose to his cheek before moving and kissing him sweetly.

He returns the kiss softly.

She lets her lips linger before pulling back and looking into his eyes lovingly.

He looks at her for a moment and then closes his eyes.

Maddie stares at him for a moment longer and she leans in, gently kissing his closed eyelids before shifting to lay her head against his chest.

He holds her a little tighter.

She snuggles into him and smiles to herself.

He lets out a soft breath as he gets tired.

Maddie rubs his side, "Goodnight, Gabe.."

"Goodnight, Maddie," he whispers.

She lightly presses her lips to his chest.

He rubs her back gently as he dozes to sleep.

Maddie waits for his breathing to let her know he's fallen asleep and whispers, "I love you.." Before letting herself fall asleep too.

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