#i’ve been working on this ship for months and goddammit I’ll make it work!!!

[persnrandm]

Me: I finally found the secret formula for the cutest Killer Sans platonic ship ever. It makes me cry at night knowing how amazing I am.

Me, showing my incomprehensible chicken scratches to Flopsy: LOOK AT MY MASTERPIECE!!!! It has hand holding! There’s even a cute life lesson and everything!

Flopsy looks at it for a solid 5 seconds, then looks away.

Me: SHE HAS APPROVED!! The sage says it must he done. Let the cuteness... begin.

#memes #writing memes #shipping memes #i’ve been working on this ship for months and goddammit I’ll make it work!!! #cat #flopsy is my cat

[harrygroves]

a simple favor -- chapter one

Billy’s laughing. Head back, banging his fist on the table, corners of his eyes wetting -- fucking cackling.

Steve waits. He expected this. He crosses his arms over his chest, and sags back in the booth they occupy.

Billy sucks in air between laughs. “You’ve --” Another sharp laugh. “-- you’ve got to be kidding me.”

“I’m not.” Steve replies crisply, his leg jiggling under the table.

They’re sitting at the back-end of a Dunkin’ Donuts, away from other customers, but Billy’s starting to cause a scene.

They’ve both got coffee and donuts in front of them. Untouched.

“P-please. Ask me again.” Billy says, words almost slurred because of the laughing.

Steve huffs. “Will you please be my fake boyfriend.” It’s a question, but Steve doesn’t pose it as one. He says it with defeat.

Billy starts howling again.

Eventually, eventually, Billy quiets down. “Oh my god, phew...I really needed that.” He’s grinning ear to ear. “Yeah. Um. Absolutely fucking not.”

Billy’s moving like he’s going to leave the booth but Steve stops him. “I figured you’d say no, so I came prepared.” He reaches into his backpack and removes a folded sheet of thick paper, pushing it across the counter.

Billy blinks slowly at Steve before leaning forward, elbows on the table. He unfolds it and sets his chin in his hands, eyes flicking over the offer.

For the rendered services of Billy Hargrove, Steve Harrinton is prepared to offer the total sum of five thousand dollars.

It’s more money than he’s ever had in his whole life. Billy looks up, faking nonchalance but it feels like there’s no more air in his lungs. “You pilfered one of your dad’s law documents?”

Steve shrugs, looking away, pretends to be interested in brushing lint off my sleeve. “It’s a basic contract. You can get them at Office Depot.”

Billy grabs his coffee cup and takes a long swig. After swallowing he asks, “You’re going to give me five thousand dollars? To be your boyfriend?”

“Fake.” Steve clarifies.

Billy rolls his eyes “Yes, okay, fake. For how long?”

Now that Billy’s asking questions, Steve feels a little less like dying. But only barely. “Maybe a month.”

Billy cocks his head. “Why?”

Steve’s face darkens. “Do you really need all the details?”

Billy likes when Steve’s annoyed. It feeds him in some sick, twisted way. “Pretty sure I do. This is a ridiculously steep favor.”

Steve’s quiet for a beat. “Because...my trust fund is going to kick-in next year, but my dad has the power to push it off another four years. He thinks I’m...unstable. About a year ago, he started threatening me with it, holding it over my head. He thinks I sleep around and do drugs.”

“Well do you?” Billy asks, interest piqued.

“You don't need to know everything, Hargrove.” Steve says evenly, keeping a neutral expression. Billy raises his eyebrows. “I lied to him. I told him I’ve been seeing someone. He keeps talking about how a relationship will set me on the right track so I figured, if that’s what it takes for him to give me the money -- fuck it.”

“...and this guy’s a lawyer?” Billy snorts.

Steve makes a ‘tsk’ noise, growing more annoyed as the conversation stretches on. “Look, I just need you to help convince them I’m in a healthy, functioning relationship.”

Billy’s lips are wiggling like he’s about to start laughing again. “Why me?”

Steve lets out a frustrated sigh. “Because you’re here. Everyone else is either shipped out to college or too gross for me to even fake it with.” Steve makes eye contact with Billy. “And I know you need the money.”

Billy’s grip on his coffee tightens a bit. He sneers. “You don't know shit, Harrington.”

Steve narrows his eyes. “I know enough. I know you want to get the fuck out of here. We both do. Seems like the means to an end.”

Billy looks out the window next to them, watching traffic go by. He’s quiet for so long that Steve almost says something, but Billy cuts him off. “I want ten thousand.”

Steve doesn’t miss a beat. “Fine.” He reaches out to take the contract, pulling out a pen and making the adjustment.

Billy’s glad Steve’s not looking at him because his eyes widen in disbelief. “Fine.” He repeats hollowly.

Steve pushes the contract back towards Billy. “But you have to sell this shit.” Steve’s tone is serious, almost threatening.

Billy grabs the pen on the table. “I will.” He signs his name, and it feels like he’s selling a bit of his soul.

Steve snatches the contract back when he’s done and folds it back up, tucking it in his backpack. “We need to talk terms.”

Billy snorts. “Obviously. Let’s get out of here. I want a smoke.”

They scarf down their donuts in quick bites before walking out into the cool breeze. The sun’s high and hot but the wind makes it bearable. Billy lights up a cigarette before they start walking side-by-side through town.

“So, like, we’re going to have to kiss.” Billy points out once he’s about halfway through his cigarette.

Steve clears his throat. “Yeah, well. We’re adults. I think we can handle it.”

“I’m going to have to, like, touch you and shit.”

“And I’ll try not to puke, I promise.” Steve snaps.

Billy grins around a mouthful of smoke. “Ya know, you’re being really bitchy for a guy needing a favor.”

“Oh please, you’re an asshole, Hargrove. It’s not like anything’s different between us.”

“Except for the whole making out part.” Billy points out, flicking his cigarette into the street.

“You’re really hung up on that.” Steve says.

“Well yeah. We don't like each other. It’s gonna be pretty fucking obvious when we try to peck at each other and look like we’re trying not to gag.”

Steve sighed, long and hard. “Goddammit.”

“Yeah, so maybe start being nice to your fake boyfriend. After all, he puts up with a lot of your shit.”

“A real saint, that guy.” Steve deadpans.

“I’ve never had any complaints.”

“Yeah, but I’m guessing that has less to do with performance and more to do with the amount of time you stick around after you get what you want.” Steve bites out.

Billy stops walking, pointing a finger at Steve. “You better knock this shit off, Harrington. I might have signed a contract but I’m not your fucking punching bag.”

Steve stops as well, turning to stand in front of Billy, a bitchy expression on his face. “Don't get this favor confused with likability, Hargrove. You’re getting paid for a job. You better own this shit. I’m serious. If I don't get paid, neither do you.”

Billy sucks in a deep breath, but deflates on the exhale. Steve’s not wrong. “Fine. Whatever. When does this whole deal start? I need to mentally prepare to be around your bitter ass for a whole thirty days.”

They continue walking. “I got an apartment near the edge of town. I’ll text you the address. Meet me there tomorrow so we can work through some of the details. We leave for my parent’s summer home at the end of the week.”

“Peachy. See ya later.” Billy says before diverting away from Steve.

About five feet apart, he turns and calls out to Steve, “How did you get my number?”

Steve stops, turns his head and says, “I have my ways, Hargrove. Tomorrow. Noon.”

“Noon?!” Billy repeats loudly, like it’s the most offensive time of the day.

Steve resumes walking away, an amused smile on his face.

to chapter two

#harringrove #my fic #something i've been toying with for some time #trying to figure out if its worth exploring #also #have you ever not written fic for like six months then you do it and you're like OH SHIT I REALLY SUCK AT THIS #where did all my talent go xD #fake dating

[zzmemes]

Other Space episode three sentence starters

“Ooh, I’m seeing a whole bunch of nothing here.”

“How is this the best visibility you can get?”

“We can’t just sit here in this crap cloud waiting to get attacked for the third time like a bunch of assholes.”

“[Name], stop being so white.”

“It’s time to let whatever’s out there know exactly who we are.”

“Why are you being such a B today?”

“But then again, why would you know how to work the ship’s computer? You’re only the captain.”

“Did you enjoy that version of me?”

“If this magnetic pulse isn’t external, where the hell is it coming from?”

“I thought I was hanging with a big dog magnetic man with big dog magnetic balls!”

“I thought I turned snark mode off.”

“You come back inside and you never ever pull that shit again.”

“What can I expect in the way of, mmm, badges, or… Massages?”

“You are a box of garbage.”

“Oooh, spicy! I think you and I are gonna be getting together.”

“Your breath is terrible, bitch.”

“Please go and make sure [Name]’s properly lubed.”

“Lube him with a smile.”

“This is gonna be delightful. I haven’t had a decent lubing in months.”

“I checked around and you’re right, there’s a ton of metal in the ship; it’s made out of it.”

“I am in charge of this project and no one is reconsidering anything, okay?”

“Me? No, I’m not trained to spacewalk.”

“I’m sorry, how rude of me.”

“I can’t believe [Name] thinks you’re such idiots.”

“Why start a fight with someone or something who has who knows what kind of weapons?”

“We’ve been infiltrated twice without difficulty.”

“Our minds have been exposed.”

“We’re in a very weak position.”

“I suggest we submit. Offer up our most private places. Every last one.

“Are you familiar with the primate custom of presenting?”

“Crikey, it’s so dark out here.”

“This is the darkest I’ve ever experienced, and I’ve owned several diamond mines.”

“Yay! Now we’re the dream team!”

“And… I’m stuck.”

“[Name] was being really gross and weird and got me all fired up.”

“People on the ship like me, right?”

“Ooga booga, I’m an alien!”

“Where’s your sense of humor?”

“By the way, this is [Name]. I’m standing behind you. Please don’t kick me into space.”

“She’s arguably not even a person.”

“I’m gonna need a verbal waiver confirming I was in no way responsible for this incident.”

“This is a very sensitive time and we need to be delicate about how we handle this.”

“Oh, I was thinking it rather than talking, sorry, it’s a bad habit.”

“I’m talking out loud now, in this room.”

“Listen up, you green-dick shitheads.”

“Your only solace will be knowing that eventually… Death will find you.”

“When people are in the bathroom, they’re not really gone.”

“Robots aren’t allowed bathroom access.”

“This is why we have waivers.”

“He lied about seeing boobs through a fence in sixth grade and he’s doing it again.”

“They’re here! If it puckers, lube it!”

“Put your pants back on!”

“Okay, quick update! There’s a planet forming around us, we have no visibility, no satt map, and we’re quickly becoming a planetary core.

“As it stands now, we’ll be dead within… Minutes.”

“We’re not that good, but, Goddammit, we’re good enough.”

“I know I shouldn’t, but I believe you, you Goddamn lying son-of-a-bitch!”

“Alright, in 9… 8…7… Shit, that’s too many numbers; just go, go, go!”

“Hey amigo, I’ll see you on the other side. I love you.”

“As someone who’s experienced a lot of loss myself, I just want you to know, umm… It never gets easier. Ever. At least yours wasn’t hot.”

“We happen to be pretty darn smart with science.”

“Together we are mighty, we are strong, we are united.”

“If we get back to Earth, I’m suing you.”

“I didn’t forget him, I thought you didn’t want him.”

#rp memes #sentence starters #Star Wars starters #Star Trek starters

[carinavet]

I need to rant for a bit about what it’s like keeping up with a huge freaking yard, both the good and the bad.

We’ll start with the bad: It never freaking ends. I’m SO frustrated right now because IT’S SUPPOSED TO BE WINTER but my yard is acting like it’s spring. My winter bush is in bloom, but so are the spring wildflowers. It makes no sense. It wasn’t supposed to be this way. I was supposed to be done with yard work for a few months.

When winter first started settling in, I watched for when the grass stopped growing and said, “Great! I’ll do one last cut, trim up all the edges, and be done!” Thing is, it takes me three days to weedeat along my fenceline because there’s just SO MUCH OF IT (and also my weedeater is a piece of shit and the battery dies on me). And that’s just the fenceline. I don’t do upkeep on the (also freakishly long) driveway or the area out back that’s paved with cement tiles because it’s just too annoying. I also don’t pull all the weeds that pop up between the cracks because it’s just TOO ANNOYING. (I’m about to literally go out there and salt the earth so that I never have to do it again.) So getting rid of all the overgrown edges and all the weeds at the end of the year is A Project. Especially since I ALSO have several gravel areas that aren’t supposed to let things grow but the weeds come through anyway.

It took WEEKS to get through all of that crap. And I wasn’t even picking up after myself: I just made piles and piles of grass clippings and weeds along the edges of my driveway, because I wasn’t about to pick up a mess I wasn’t finished making. And then after I finally thought I had finished, I realized I had totally forgotten one of the gravel areas.

And in the meantime, this false spring has made weeds start sprouting in areas I’d already cleared.

In addition to all that bullshit, I’ve got a landscaping project I’ve been working on a bit at a time: I’m extending the paved area so that I can build a fire pit. It took AGES to pull up the sod because my lawn is ridiculously thick and doing just one small row at a time kicked my ass. (I am aware that sod cutters exist, but I’m too broke to rent one.) And then I was left with what turned out to be 9 trash bags’ worth of sod. I was trying to get that done in time for my annual Christmas tree burning on January 6, but then my whole family got the plague and everything was interrupted. So I still need to go out there and level the ground, get rid of all the extra dirt, pave that spot, and get stones for the pit itself. And also put salt everywhere because fuck crack weeds.

Meantime, I’ve finished weeding that one gravel circle in the front of my house, and firmly decided that at some point I’m going to get rid of it entirely. The roots there were so stubborn it took 3 days. And now I’ve finally started picking up all the piles of grass clippings and the like. I’m about halfway through that and I’ve got like 7 more trash bags full, waiting for garbage day.

I’d also gone around and trimmed all my bushes and trees but not picked up the branches. so that all needs to be cleaned up, too.

And stuff keeps growing, so I’ll still have to go back over my whole yard one more time with both the lawnmower and the stupid goddamn weedeater. Which I’m waiting to do, both because all this crap is in my way and because I am only doing it ONCE, goddammit. And also because a lot of the wildflowers are in bloom, so I want to give the bugs time to take advantage of that. Tiny bit of good news, though: I got a leaf blower for Christmas so the driveway cleanup after will be easier.

But for the stuff that makes it worth it: I’ve planted 3 trees. I ordered about half of the dozen trees I want, but the rest won’t be shipped to me until spring. All the stuff I planted in spring (that survived >.>) is visibly bigger than it was when I planted it. Today, after I decided that I was done bagging crap for now, I sat in the shadow of my house next to a bush I’d planted, staring at how beautiful its leaves are, as well as the wildflowers that had popped up around it.

When I first moved into this house 2 years ago, the yard had a few good plants in it, but overall was so much more bare than I cared for. I’m working on slowly changing that. I’ve put a few vines along the fence, a few potted plants on the porch and hanging outside my shed, a bush out back in the corner, and now a few trees in the ground. It’s still very much a work in progress. I’ve barely even started on what I want to do. The sitting area out back is still empty and ugly. The only shade is waaaaaaaaay in the back where I’ve got the beginnings of a fruit orchard.

But it is in progress. It’s getting there. It’s growing.

And it’s mine.

[theodore-themilkman]

That's Not On The Script

In which you go a little off script.

Ships: JensenxPregnant!Reader

Reader Gender: Female

Reader Age: 25+

WARNINGS: mentions of premarital sex (is that even a warning?), the reader is pregnant, sandwich scenario is heavily based off of an incident that occurred when my cousin was pregnant, character reader plays is named Lora

-There Is No Road So Far So We're Jumping Right In-

"Goddammit Lora!" Jensen, or more Dean, said with obvious frustration is his voice. "I can't read minds! Just tell me what the problem is. You've been acting so different lately, hell if I didn't know any better I'd say you were possessed."

I glared at him fiercely, crossing my arms. "There isn't a problem Dean, you're just looking for things to criticize."

He laughed humorlessly. "If that's the case then I don't have to look very hard. You don't think I've noticed? You avoiding me? Running out of the room when I come in? Is it because you regret it, that night?"

My eyes had gone glossy as he spoke and for a moment I forgot we were only acting. Although it was easy to forget, after all Lora and Dean were in the same situation Jensen and I were in. In the last season, filmed about four months ago, Lora and Dean had hooked up on the show and the sexual tension that had occurred while filming got to the both Jensen and I and we slept together. Only, much like Dean and Lora, Jensen and I refused to bring it up. Except now, in the scene where Lora was supposed to admit that she had fallen in love with Dean except that isn't what came out of my mouth.

"I'm pregnant, okay?" It was quiet, I don't think anyone had expected me to say that. "And you're the father," I added in a whisper.

Jensen stared at me mouth open in shock. "But that night... we used protection." I don't know if he was continuing the scene or if he was speaking as Jensen, either way I continued.

"I know," I choked out, "but it must've torn or something and now -" a sob broke out, "-now there's this baby growing inside me and I can't bring myself to get rid of it."

Jensen stepped forward and wiped the tears rolling down my cheeks, then his hands went to my stomach. As he placed them there I was sure he could feel the small bump that was concealed by the baggy flannel I wore. "And I would never ask you to. We'll get through this, okay? You, me and," he looked to my stomach, "our baby."

"Cut!" Both our heads snapped to look at Robert and the rest of the crew, they all stood there staring at us.

"Wow," Robert told us walking closer to us. "That was unexpected but it works. When did you two discuss changing the scene."

I looked to my shoes. "We didn't."

"Wait you mean..." he trailed off looking between Jensen and I.

"Yeah, I really am pregnant."

-Line Break-

I smiled warmly, placing my hands on my swollen abdomen as I watched the boys answer another question in that funny way that only they could pull off.

"Y/N," I looked to the young blonde girl that had spoken and nodded indicating that she continue. "I was wondering is you could tell us how Jensen reacted when he found out about you know the whole pregnancy thing?"

I laughed, as did Jensen and the rest of the cast. "Well, I assume you've watched the latest episode?" She nodded. "That scene where Lora reveals the pregnancy to Dean is also when I revealed that I was pregnant."

Her mouth fell open. "So that was genuine, no lines or scripts or anything?"

I shook my head. "In the script Lora was supposed to admit that she had fallen for Dean but I kinda broke character and it slipped out."

"The best is that everyone else thought that we'd talked about it before shooting and Y/N had to explain that nope, she's actually pregnant."

"Jared punched Jensen," Misha added.

The blonde looked perplexed. "Why?"

"Y/N is my little sister and best friend or not no one can sleep with my baby sister and face no repercussions," Jared explained.

Misha started laughing remembering what had followed after Jared punched Jensen. The crowd and cast alike stared art him in curiosity. "Y/N's reaction to the punch," he said as if that would explain it. 

J2 both started laughing at the memory and I flushed, embarrassed at what I had done. The fan that had asked the original question glanced between all of us looking intrigued. "What happened?" 

"Do you want to tell them or should I?" Jensen asked me teasingly.

I flushed further and shook my head, unable to speak of the embarrassing moment aloud. "All right, I'll tell them," he laughed. "So I had just been given a good right hook in the face by sasquatch over there then Y/N burst into sobs and stormed off. Misha, Jared and I followed after her (albeit in a bit of pain on my part). We met her at the kitchen and she was making a sandwich but she was still heavily sobbing. Being the oh so clever older brother Jared stepped forward-"

"Something you didn't do," Jared said cutting off his co-star.

"Are you kidding? I'd rather take on a demon than approach a crying hormonal woman. What you do is ward them off with hot bubble baths and chocolate until they calm down and then admit that you're wrong about whatever they're upset about ," Jensen explained as if it were a science he had perfected. "Anyway, Jared stepped forward and the next thing you know there's a moose covered in tuna, mayo and bread in the middle of the kitchen. Y/N is screaming at Jared that he's her least favourite Supernatural character and that she wished his character would be cursed to turn into a moose for the rest of the show. Misha and I just stood there, the rest of the crew must've heard the commotion because they were there too. And after 20 minutes of angry Y/N she turns around and offers to make everyone sandwiches."

"Did you guys have her make the sandwiches?" A fan called out over the laughter.

"Are you kidding? She had just thrown bread and tuna mayo at Jared, we weren't going to risk saying no," Jensen quipped good naturedly. He then proceeded to put an arm around me and rest his hand atop my swollen belly. "No but seriously, despite all the hormonal rage fits and the crying when she couldn't get a scene right I couldn't ask for a better baby mommy. Which is why," he removed his arm from around me and slipped onto one knee, "I'd like to make this official. Y/N L/N, Lora Pierce, Chipmunk, would you do me the honour of becoming my wife."

My hand had gone over my mouth in shock by the end of his proposal and tears blurred my vision as I caught sight of the ring he held in his hand. 

"Y/N?" He asked worriedly after a beat of silence.

"Okie dokie," I squeaked out.

-Bonus-

Misha stood up and pointed at me as if accusing me of something. We all looked at him. "That was part of a Destiel fan fiction!"

Laughter broke out throughout the hall.

-Cue End Music- 

#Destiel is mentioned #Spn #dean winchester #jensen ackles #jensen x reader #Supernatural #spn one shot #pregnant reader #supernatural x reader #jared padalecki #misha collins

[lilolilyr]

And ohhhh, anything you can tell us about any future projects? 👀

Sure! I'd love to :D

For TOG, I don't have many new WIPs, but I do have

- about 2 more chapters of the Andromaquynh University AU coming up soon(ish)... It's still a damn slow-burn, I swear if I end up only having the getting together in the last chapter, I'll write an epilogue for some established feels xD

- As far as I remember I ended up never posting the (smutty) Andronilynh fic with Quỳnh in lingerie? Was supposed to be a discord collab with a fanartist months ago, but I think by now I can assume they've abandoned the project xD (vague so I won't call them out lol), so... I'll just post the fic itself, I think it's finished already, just gotta dig out the draft

- Sth more for the Just You And Me series maybe? I do have a bunch of ideas but no concrete plans yet...

Then, I've got some Milippa fics coming up:

- a getting together ficlet (2k, T) I wrote in the middle of the night and after looking at it earlier today and then just closing the Word doc with a headache, I think I'll just post that without further edits lmao - edit- posted!

- I want to write a longer(ish, probably still just a ficlet of 1-2k) version of this photostory for ao3! I was thinking about whether to make it established or pre-relationship, then came up with an idea for a getting-together variant that I like, and now I've just seen @onaperduamedee's tags here, and I love that idea as well! But maybe as a separate ficlet some day (if you'd be okay with me writing that, Flo?), as I don't think it'd work out with the idea I already drafted now.

- The very very slowly growing fic (I have more or less abandoned the idea of turning it into a longfic, but maybe that means that I'll post it soon-ish now... Damn, I really love the idea but I just can't seem to bring myself to write much for it, why brain whyy) that's a follow-up to this post by @georgiov :)

- a mirror/mirror idea @forestcircle reminded me of earlier today :D

Thanks for the question! <3

Feel free to ask me more about these, or send me other asks/prompts for thirsty thursday!

I also have some vague ideas for projects in other fandoms (below the cut):

- Rly want to continue my 666words Good Omens series, but no actual wips started and they're all one-shots anyway

- a bering&wells artefact story that I thiink I posted the summary of on discord somewhere, but who knows whether I'll actually write it... guess it goes on the list of Might Write It If I Get A Reply to both remind me of the idea's existence and show that there's an interest for it

- Thinking about whether or not and if yes for which ship I should write the suburbs AU I posted about on my WIP blog @thelucyverse

- I'd love to finish my Heistwives Kinda Job series one day, but goddammit I know I probably won't anytime soon lol

- Thinking about whether or not and if yes when to start podficcing part 4 of Leo Inter Serpentes by @aeternumregina, a wonderful longfic series (and I've seen you've started posting the last part!!! Really need to catch up), problematics being a) time (podficcing is hella time extensive and I'm not sure I want to get tied down in weekly uploads again, but on the other hand a slower upload schedule would make it harder to remember the voices and all when reading), b) it's partly NSFW, which I'd censor for the audio, which again is Work, c) it's HP and... Well... I've been working on getting the overterf's name /out/ of my ao3 fandom top5 (the ones that are shown without clicking expand on the list) by getting my Star trek disco fic count to higher than HP, which it now nearly is, and I don't want to ruin that lmao, d) if I do start another long podfic, I'd actually love to podfic my own Andromaquynh fic In Your Stead? Because for once I have a story I wrote myself that I feel would be worth it... But like... I also really do want to continue Leo Inter Serpentes! But it's 7 monsterlong fics! And just...aaah! XD #strugglez

- Wanna write more lezbean smuttttt

#ask the blogger #answered #mine #mxsiriusblack #thirsty thursday #jul'21 #17.06.21 #fanfic ask #fic writer ask #wip ask #georgiov #onaperduamedee #aeternum-regina #andromaquynh #milippa #andronilynh #w13 #my w13 #my tog #my dsc #lilo writes

[dialux]

Oh man I just finished your Booker fic and it’s making me feel so many things, its so good!!! Also Booker having nightmares post-Quynh around the others after not having any for like a century? Oof

!!! That’s the good shit there, nonny! Top tier angst!! Sleep deprivation!!! All the things that make for the best stories!!!!

He startles awake, heart racing.

The details of the dream is already fading, but the after-effects are a fucking bitch and a half to manage: Booker’s wide awake, and jumpy enough to probably break the neck of the idiot that’s sneaking up behind him-

“It’s just me.”

“No just about it,” grumbles Booker, but his voice is thankfully low enough that the other three don’t wake. “Why’re you awake?”

“I don’t sleep well,” says Andy carelessly.

Booker swipes a hand over his eyes and gets up. Stumbles to the kitchen. He feels like such shit, and it’s almost beyond him not to dial into the shipping company and just… re-direct some of the downers to the shores of sunny Lima. Blitz out his locus coeruleus with enough norepinephrine that even his swift healing takes about four hours to fix it. Add another two hours of passing in and out of non-REM and Booker can claim to a proper six hours of sleep: it’s enough to survive. With the alcohol numbing him further, he can stretch that sleep out to eight hours on the really, really bad nights.

Absent the drugs, though, he needs other things to focus on. Their bodies can function on less sleep- the same way they can survive on less food- and Booker’s been experimenting with that for the past couple weeks.

It is not, as Joe’s told him multiple times, going well.

“Doesn’t mean you have to be the same.”

Booker pours out the coffee, mixes it with concentrate of yaupon holly, and then adds a shit-ton of sugar to the brew. Andy watches him with dark eyes, but he doesn’t offer it to her; the last thing they all need is a jumped-up six thousand year old warrior high on the strongest caffeine that Booker can, legally, get his hands on.

“What was the dream about?”

“Fuck if I know,” says Booker, and hisses out through his teeth as he drains half the cup. Christ but it tastes terrible, too bitter and too sweet in equal measure. Still, the trembling ache in his shoulders, tight about his ears, softens. “You know how it is. It’s not like I’ve got a paucity of nightmares. None of us do.”

“You’re the one waking up in the middle of the night.”

“And you’re the one not sleeping.”

“I’m used to it, though,” says Andy. 

Booker rolls his eyes. “Dream diaries don’t work. Talking about them doesn’t help. I have tried to literally rewire my brain and it isn’t happening. Turns out that being depressed and missing your family when you die makes it impossible for you to feel anything else.”

Andy rolls her eyes. “Just because you automatically accept the most depressing possible theory doesn’t mean that it’s the correct one, Book.”

“If I could go back in time,” Booker tells her, “I would seduce Nile’s mother and ensure that she remained heartbroken over the handsome French baker who disappeared into the clouds and therefore could not marry Nile’s father.”

“I assume there’s a point to that,” says Andy dryly.

“I liked you a hell of a lot better when you weren’t this fucking optimistic is the point,” says Booker. “And I know that it’s all Nile’s fucking influence. So.”

“So,” says Nile, grinning at him from the bedroom she’s just walked out of, “if I don’t exist, you’d be happier?”

“Your mother doesn’t know what she missed out on,” says Booker, and drains the rest of the brew.

…

A bridge of gold and laughter. A bridge as silver as his wife’s grey hair. A bridge, shining as a gun in broad daylight-

Booker wakes, gasping.

Coffee. Holly. Bitterness down his gullet. 

It’s not really new any longer, is it?

…

He takes a knife to the gut, and then sees another soldier sneaking up behind Andy. There’s no time; he’s still barely standing, much less able to voice a proper warning. Instead, Booker lets the intestines he’s clutching inside spill out in a dark, bloody slither. Stumbles. The soldier slips on the sudden viscera: Booker’s yanking his guts back into his own body, mouth open in a silent scream because it really, really hurts.

He wakes up, gasping.

…

He drowns, and drowns, and drowns.

He wakes up, gasping.

...

“Right,” says Nile. “You need help, Booker.”

“Fuck off,” says Booker. 

He’s on mile twenty-one of a marathon-esque circuit, and his body’s pretty much hitting the wall; he does not want to talk about his issues right now. Joe and Nicky have gotten tired enough of his grumpiness to escape to the city for the day, and Andy’s off on one of her personal missions that nobody knows any details about.

Booker hasn’t slept in about forty-one hours, and it’s not getting better.

It’s why he left the house and went on this run! It’s why he’s trying to drive his body into- well, not an early grave, but a grave nevertheless!

Booker regrets many things in life. Introducing Copley to Nile ranks high among them, especially after the little shit went and learned how to hack phones from a fucking CIA agent.

“I’m telling you this because you aren’t going to listen to anyone else,” says Nile. “And this seemed like a good time to make sure you listened. Look, Booker, there are things out there- therapists- courses, if you aren’t going to talk to anyone. You really, really-”

Booker rips out his headphones, takes the little molten sun that feels rather like something has ruptured in his chest, and pushes the energy into his legs. 

He sprints the rest of the way home. 

He’s pretty sure he’s ripped one of the muscles in his thighs with it, and the agony of that is enough for him to focus on something else apart from Nile. Who does not look impressed.

“You need help,” she says quietly, when he finally stops clutching at his own thigh and drops back into the mud and mulch of the garden.

Booker laughs. He laughs, and keeps on laughing, and only manages to stop by rolling over and suffocating himself in the roots of a fucking- plant. 

Probably a Cycus aculeata, which means that either Booker’s in the wrong hemisphere or Andy’s been introducing invasive species again because she misses her fucking girlfriend too much.

“Yeah,” he says, and sits up, already planning the lecture and the following plant-removal that he’ll have to do. Then he sees Nile’s face, and Booker pauses, reviewing what he’s just agreed to. “No,” he says. “I mean. Yes, I need help. That’s, like, the fucking- understatement of the century. Past two centuries. But. I’m not getting help from anyone else.”

Nile folds her arms over her chest. With the sun streaming right behind her, she looks like a goddess come to life: haloed, beautiful, the slightest bit unreal.

“That’s fine,” she says. “I’ll just ask Joe to become a therapist.”

“Sure,” snorts Booker. “And I’ll ask Andy to become a pacifist.”

Nile points a finger at him. “Don’t be mean.”

“Ask Nicky,” Booker advises her. “I mean, I don’t think you’ll get anywhere, but. You’re less likely to be laughed out of the room.” At her questioning look, he elaborates: “Idiot was a priest, back in the day. And, you know, all those people- well, priests were as close as you’d get to therapists before all of this psychology stuff came about.”

“Right,” says Nile warily. “So why do you think I’ll be laughed at? Nicky sounds like he’s good for the job.”

Booker stares at her. “What did the man do, the second he had a chance to leave?”

“Er. Leave?”

“He went on a fucking Crusade,” says Booker. “He killed people. He- well, you know, did the whole invader thing. Liked it, too. He only really stopped because he decided he liked Joe more, and Joe was, like, I’m not going to let you kill my people for fun anymore, and they worked out their excess energy by fucking in sand, because both of them are absolute idiots.”

Nile blinks at him. “So. Not a therapist.”

Booker grins at her, and knows it’s more of a baring of his teeth than anything comforting. “I guess your best bet is Andy, then.”

“I cannot believe I’m going to have to get a degree in fucking therapy because of you,” hisses Nile.

“I thank you for your sacrifice,” says Booker, and pats her on the shoulder gingerly.

He gets an armful of a furiously emotional Nile a moment later, hugging him so tight around the neck it feels like a throttling. Then she backs away, and goes into the house, leaving Booker in leaves and mulch and a burgeoning headache.

Fucking invasive species, he thinks, and wishes he’d never studied botany. Really. If he was just like Nicky and purposely uneducated in all the ecological implications, he could ignore it. But Booker had to go and study plants and try to synthesize his own compounds and get tangled up in ecology legislation in the 1980s, and so he knows, goddammit, and he’ll have to face Andy’s hangdog expression tonight when he serves up roasted cycad beside whatever Joe’s preparing for dinner.

Fuck my life, he thinks, but it isn’t half so sour as it might have been just a month earlier. Fuck my life, he thinks, and heads back into the house, whistling the whole goddamn way.

#i have so many feelings about this idiot and his idiocy #esp his belief that everyone else is the idiot in his family oml #the old guard #dialux answers questions #my writing #Anonymous

[benreillyscarletspider]

Other Space episode three starter sentences

Ooh, I’m seeing a whole bunch of nothing here.

How is this the best visibility you can get?

We can’t just sit here in this crap cloud waiting to get attacked for the third time like a bunch of assholes.

[Name], stop being so white.

It’s time to let whatever’s out there know exactly who we are.

Why are you being such a B today? 

But then again, why would you know how to work the ship’s computer? You’re only the captain.

Did you enjoy that version of me?

If this magnetic pulse isn’t external, where the hell is it coming from?

I thought I was hanging with a big dog magnetic man with big dog magnetic balls!

I thought I turned snark mode off.

You come back inside and you never ever pull that shit again.

What can I expect in the way of, mmm, badges, or... Massages?

You are a box of garbage.

Oooh, spicy! I think you and I are gonna be getting together.

Your breath is terrible, bitch.

Please go and make sure [Name]’s properly lubed.

Lube him with a smile.

This is gonna be delightful. I haven’t had a decent lubing in months.

I checked around and you’re right, there’s a ton of metal in the ship; it’s made out of it.

I am in charge of this project and no one is reconsidering anything, okay?

Me? No, I’m not trained to spacewalk.

I’m sorry, how rude of me.

I can’t believe [Name] thinks you’re such idiots.

Why start a fight with someone or something who has who knows what kind of weapons?

We’ve been infiltrated twice without difficulty.

Our minds have been exposed.

We’re in a very weak position.

I suggest we submit. Offer up our most private places. Every last one.

Are you familiar with the primate custom of presenting?

Crikey, it’s so dark out here.

This is the darkest I’ve ever experienced, and I’ve owned several diamond mines.

Yay! Now we’re the dream team!

And... I’m stuck.

[Name] was being really gross and weird and got me all fired up.

People on the ship like me, right?

Ooga booga, I’m an alien!

Where’s your sense of humor?

By the way, this is [Name]. I’m standing behind you. Please don’t kick me into space.

S/He’s arguably not even a person.

I’m gonna need a verbal waiver confirming I was in no way responsible for this incident.

This is a very sensitive time and we need to be delicate about how we handle this.

Oh, I was thinking it rather than talking, sorry, it’s a bad habit.

I’m talking out loud now, in this room.

Listen up, you green-dick shitheads.

Your only solace will be knowing that eventually... Death will find you.

When people are in the bathroom, they’re not really gone.

Robots aren’t allowed bathroom access.

This is why we have waivers.

He lied about seeing boobs through a fence in sixth grade and he’s doing it again.

They’re here! If it puckers, lube it!

Put your pants back on!

Okay, quick update! There’s a planet forming around us, we have no visibility, no satt map, and we’re quickly becoming a planetary core.

As it stands now, we’ll be dead within... Minutes.

We’re not that good, but, Goddammit, we’re good enough.

I know I shouldn’t, but I believe you, you Goddamn lying son-of-a-bitch!

Alright, in 9... 8...7... Shit, that’s too many numbers; just go, go, go!

Hey amigo, I’ll see you on the other side. I love you.

As someone who’s experienced a lot of loss myself, I just want you to know, umm... It never gets easier. Ever. At least yours wasn’t hot.

We happen to be pretty darn smart with science.

Together we are mighty, we are strong, we are united.

If we get back to Earth, I’m suing you.

I didn’t forget him, I thought you didn’t want him.

#memes #starters #starter sentences #okay to reblog

[mcfiddlestan]

Last 10 Fics Tag Meme

Rules: Post the first lines of your last ten fics read or written and then tag others to do the same.

No one tagged me, but I saw it in the tags of one of my ships and it looked fun.

1. Untitled WinterFrost Single Dad AU (Bucky/Loki)

The sound of his front door opening and closing pulled Loki from a deep sleep. So deep, it took him a moment to remember where he was and how he knew that was his front door. His eyes opened slowly once, twice, and then again, to nothing but the darkness of what he was sure was his bedroom. Then the pounding started. Incessantly, pulsing around his entire head. Damned migraines. Loki let out a low grain, thought fuck it, and buried his face deeper into his pillow. Moments later, the door to his bedroom pushed open.

“Time to rise, Sunshine.”

Loki grumbled at the familiar voice, and slowly, he turned his body, rolling onto his back. “Why are you always so chipper in the morning? Oh, for Norn’s sake!” He threw a pillow over his face as the curtains were pulled open and let the blinding daylight flood the room. “I’ve got a damn migraine!”

2. Untitled Stucky Modern AU (Steve/Bucky and a healthy side of Sam/Natasha)

Bucky, his mind drawing a blank, was idly strumming his guitar when he heard the hard slam coming from next door. He surmised his neighbor and best friend, Natasha, had returned from her date, and assumed she’d be over in a few minutes to tell him about it. But when he heard a couple more distant slams and one very heavy thump against their shared wall, his curiosity got the better of him. Setting aside his black Fender, and stepping carefully over a dozing Avalanche, his tuxedo cat, Bucky walked barefoot through his apartment, into the hall, and breezed right into Natasha’s apartment.

He didn’t see her, but Bucky heard Natasha swear sharply, followed by something rattling against the hardwood floor. Waiting, he slipped his hands into the pockets of his dark sweatpants. Bucky watched as the top of Natasha’s head, burgundy hair in a stylish messy bun, popped up as she’d bent to pick up what he suspected was the cap to the bottle of vodka in her hand. “Hey, babe.”

Natasha turned dark green eyes on him, a sour expression pinching her usually attractive features, and said nothing, only moving to pour herself a full tumbler glass of the clear liquor. Bucky watched her swallow down most of it then waited silently as she filled it up once again.

He moved to rest his elbows on her pub height dining table. “Bad date?”

“You think?”

3. A Boyfriend for Christmas (Bucky/Loki)

“I need your help.”

Loki stared at the man in his doorway for a good five seconds, his lips in a thin red line, and his perfectly groomed black brows arched in curiosity. The man — his neighbor, Loki knew — was good-looking, Loki thought as he took the time to look him over, lips turning up in a soft grin. “Good evening to you, too, 9B.” The man’s lashes fluttered as they did a quick change from widened panic to a more relaxed gaze. Norns, his eyes were an impossible blue. “I can’t promise to help, but try me,” Loki drawled, taking a casual stance, crossing his arms as he leaned against the door jamb.

“Okay. Believe me, I know how this is gonna sound, and I swear I’ll make it up to you — somehow — but…well…okay. Here goes…” Loki cocked a brow, amused. “I need you to be my boyfriend for one night.”

Surprised, and maybe even surprising his neighbor, too, Loki laughed, a tickled near-giggle, and straightened. “You need me to do what now?”

4. Welcome Home -- working title (Bucky/Loki)

Bucky woke with a start, shooting up in his bed, and opening his eyes to near darkness, but for the faint orange glow of the streetlamps outside his bedroom window. For a moment, he was still in the dream; back in the desert, embedded in dirt, surrounded by heat. And flanked by Steve. On his right. He rubbed at his eyes, harder than necessary, willing the image of his best friend smiling and laughing to fade away again. 

Two years had passed since it all happened. The first year was the hardest. Stuck in the hospital, healing, speaking to no one but nurses and doctors — and the occasional military personnel, looking for the gory details. The minute he was out, Bucky was hounded by government officials wanting him to attend various memorials in the good captain’s name. Wanting him to relive the worst day of his life — which is saying a lot for a kid from Brooklyn who wasn’t far from ground zero on September 11, 2001. Was it any wonder that Bucky chose to up and disappear and go into hiding once it all finally ended?

5. WinterFrost Tumblr PWP Prompt (Bucky/Loki)

Bucky barged into the loft apartment, a dark expression screwing up his face, and paused just as the door slammed closed. His eyes, hidden beneath the black face paint smeared around them, like a burglar’s mask, did a quick scan of the layout of the open space before him. He kicked off his muddy boots, leaving them near the door, knowing his ‘loftmate’ wouldn’t take kindly to him leaving a dirt track through the well-kept place. He made a quick mental note to take care of the boots first thing in the morning. His mouth in a deep pout, Bucky thought to himself that it was times like this when he returned from a mission exhausted and not in the mood for company, that he wondered why he ever decided to move in with Loki, resident God of Mischief.

6. Post-Civil War/Ragnarok Frostiron AU (Tony/Loki)

There was no doubt in Tony’s mind just exactly what -- or rather who -- brought that subtle shift in atmosphere into the lab. He’d been expecting it, at some point, if he was honest with himself. And while a small part of him felt relief, there was, always had been, that slightly narcissistic part of his personality that would resent not being at the top of a certain someone’s to-do list.

Tony felt the faint flutter of air sweep across the back of his neck first, which reminded him he really needed to get a haircut. His nose tickled at the sharp tang the wafting scent of ozone often left in its wake. Realization about what exactly was about to transpire had Tony’s stomach doing a bit of a flip; pride, though, forced him to remain with his back to where he felt someone else’s presence. For a fleeting moment, Tony wondered if he could handle this.

Recalling everything that had happened since he last saw his visitor -- the mess with Ultron, the devastating truth about his parents’ deaths, the ends of friendships he actually mourned, the airport, Rhodey, the kid, the Accords -- all of it was a rollercoaster ride for which Tony had never signed up. But this...this one had hurt. The worst part was having to hide the hurt, the heartbreak, because no one knew. No one; not Pepper, not Happy. Not even Rhodey. Nobody knew the blow it was to the one they called Iron Man. How could they? No one knew that Iron Man had fallen in love with the God of Mischief.

7. Untitled Royals AU (Tony/Loki, with a splash of Bucky/Loki)

“Do you enjoy embarrassing me like this?”

Odin, King of Asgard, aimed a dark look across the conference table at Loki, the younger of his two sons, his anger and frustration growing by the second. The air of arrogance and disinterest emanating from Loki, raven-haired and more handsome than was good for him at an aggravating twenty-four years old, was making Odin curl his weathered hands into tight fists on top of the table. Loki looked at him, a questionable flash of surprise crossing his pale, chiseled features, his mostly-green eyes all but twinkling at him, mocking and laughing. 

“Of course I don’t.”

He was no fool; not Odin Borson. His expression darkened further, as he waited for the next words to come from Prince Loki’s mouth. 

“It’s not that I don’t enjoy embarrassing you. It’s more that it’s…a perk.” He smirked at Odin, like the brat he was, and Odin’s response was interjected by the Queen’s subtle astonishment. 

“Loki.” His eyes moved to her, and her disapproving look, and the smirk vanished. 

Odin slammed the newspaper that he’d been keeping in his lap to the glossy top of the long mahogany table. The headlines of Loki’s chaotic week in the States screamed about alcohol, fast cars, and the general recklessness of a perceived overly-spoiled son of royalty. “This is not a joke, Loki.”

8. Take A Bow (Tony/Loki)

Loki rushed through the narrow hallway, coughing to clear his throat of the makeshift fog that had filled the stage for the final moments of the play. By the time he reached the haven of his dressing room, his necktie was undone and his shirt was half unbuttoned. The hurried shouts and stomps of people working backstage were blissfully drowned out as Darcy, his new young assistant, quickly closed the door behind him.

“Great show tonight, Boss,” Darcy chirped as she took the discarded tie Loki handed over and waited to take his costume jacket and vest. Loki chuckled a thank you as she turned away from him. He urged her several times already to just call him by his name, but she insisted on calling him Boss, like he was a gangster in the 1930s. Darcy returned with a glass of water and Loki smiled his thanks before taking a long drink.

9. The House Guest (genderswapped FrostIron, fem!Toni/fem!Loki)

Loki sat in the front seat of a beat-up red convertible and stared blankly ahead. A mixture of hurt and anger had her brow furrowing, her lips pressed tightly together, and her chin, goddammit, was trembling. As Fandral droned on, giving his pathetic explanation, Loki did her best to focus on the other sounds around her — the birds chirping in the late summer morning; a neighbor’s dog barking in the distance; someone’s car alarm down the street malfunctioning — and fought to keep her eyes, fixated now on the white garage door in front of the car, from filling with tears.

Bullshit. She was hearing noting but utter bullshit. Her high school days behind her, Loki had spent the summer constructing plans for the next few months that didn’t involve going to her father’s alma mater in New York and spending the next four years of her life behind more piles of books. She had no interest in swapping high school jocks for frat boys. What she’d had were plans to go on a road trip across the States — and beyond — with Fandral, making love and making music.

But, apparently, Fandral had other plans. And the shitty reasons he was giving for not staying with Loki weren’t helping her understand any better.

10. WinterIron Bodyguard AU (Bucky/Tony)

“Founder and CEO of Stark International and Columbia professor wife critically injured in car accident.”

“Howard Stark, 69, runs car off-road in upstate New York.”

“Socialite couple Howard and Maria Stark injured in car accident. Condition, for both, critical.”

Tony watched the words all but screaming at him from the two flat-screen televisions mounted side-by-side on his bedroom wall, frozen in the spot where he stood by his bed. The words the news anchors spoke, giving details of the accident, were nothing but white noise in his ears. He’d gone numb. He processed nothing. Except that his parents had been in a horrific car accident — a shot of what was left of father’s silver Cadillac made Tony’s knees give out and he dropped to the foot of his bed.

How could anyone survive that? he thought to himself.

----

Tagging @teadrinkingwolfgirl @incredifishface @maeve-curry-writes @stephrc79 and literally anyone else who wants to/feels like doing it (tagged peeps, don’t feel obligated!)

#frostiron #winterfrost #samtasha #stucky #winteriron #fic meme #my fics #mostly WIPs #i have a lot to work on #writer's problems

[sarahegerton96]

My Saviour-Taron Egerton

This is something Ive been working of for close to 3 weeks, final work count is 11′500 words approx, hope yous enjoy it :)

Y/N:

“Goddammit all to hell! Y/N!”

My boss’s voice rang out through the office, and out of the corner of my eye I saw several people wince at the tone. I kept my face blank even though I wanted to do the same thing, dreading going into his office. I took a silent, deep breath as I pushed away from my desk and walked into Mr. Walker’s office.

“Yes, Mr. Walker?” I kept my voice neutral, knowing it was the safest route. My eyes widened as I took in the scene on his desk, knowing this was bad. Oh, so very bad.

Spilled coffee covered the posters spread out on his desk, posters that he needed for a presentation he’d been working on for months for a huge client.

Of course, when I say he’d been working on them, I meant the team he bullied around. He’d been bragging about this client since the moment they were assigned to him, telling anyone who cared to listen- and many who didn’t- that this one was sure to land him a promotion and an office upstairs. So naturally, he had other people do the work for him.

Chester Walker was what I liked to call a brilliant idiot. He couldn’t do any actual work with any intelligence, but he somehow figured out a way to keep climbing up the ladder. Either he knew exactly how to blame the right people when things went wrong, or his daddy placed money in the grubby hands of the higher ups. Probably a little bit of both.

“I need you to get down to the third level and have them print another copy of this presentation. Run, yell, do what you fucking have to in order to get this to me on time.” He was already trying to clean the mess up off his desk, not looking at me once.

“B-but, sir, it’s going to take at least 20 minutes for those to print again. The meeting is in less than five!”

He looked up from his desk, his thin hair falling over his sweaty face as he glared at me. “Well then you should’ve been down there fifteen minutes ago! Just get your ass down there and bring them up to the meeting when they’re done.”

I snapped my mouth shut, fuming silently as I rushed away to do his bidding. There was no point in arguing that there was no fucking way I could’ve had them reprinted for him on time when he literally just ruined them. He’d only yell some more, wasting both our time. And there was no way I could just tell him to go to hell- I needed this job, as much as I hated it.

I burst into the printing room, and my eyes locked onto one of my best friends. Samantha saw me, and the look on her face must have clued her in to how desperate I was.

“What do you need, girl?”

“Chester just spilled coffee all over his presentation for the meeting that starts in,” I glanced at the clock on the wall, “thirty seconds.”

“Shit,” she muttered. Placing her hands around her mouth, she yelled out to the three other workers down there. “Everyone, drop what you’re doing. Start reprinting Chester’s stupid posters. My girl needs ‘em!”

I relaxed just a bit as she turned back to me with a grim smile, the other workers clacking away on their keyboards to find the project she was talking about. Everyone in the building knew who Chester was. He made sure of that.

“With everyone printing different pages, we can cut the time in half. Sorry I can’t do more than that, sugar.”

“It’s alright Sammy. That’s better than nothing."She sighed and turned to her own computer, pulling up the project in the database history and calling out which pages she wanted everyone printing. I paced back and forth along the carpet, watching the clock tick by second by grueling second.

Eleven minutes later, I was pounding up the stairs towards the ninth floor where the meeting was. I knew it was a risk going into the meeting sweaty and out of breath, but I was desperate to get there as fast as possible. Thank god I wasn’t completely out of shape, or they would’ve found me dead in the stairwell after three of the seven flights I had to climb.

I shoved open the last door, gasping and panting but glad no one in the meeting could see me from here. I leaned against the door, closed my eyes and took a few deep breaths to calm down before walking at a clipped pace to the meeting room. I knocked on the door sharply and waited for Chester to invite me in- as I knew he preferred.

I kept my breathing as steady as possible while I walked to the front of the room where Chester held court. I could feel everyone’s eyes on me, burning into my skirt and blouse that I hoped to god didn’t show how sweaty I was.

"Took you long enough, Y/N. I apologize again gentleman. I’m sure you all know how hard it is to find good help.”

Tittering laughter filled the room at Chester’s words as I stiffly shoved the posters at him.“Careful girl, you already ruined the first set.” Chester’s snide words made my back stiffen and I opened my mouth to contradict him. He raised an eyebrow at me, shooting a glance towards the rest of the table and my mouth snapped right back shut. If I mouthed off to him in front of these people, I was for sure going to lose my job.

“Sorry,” I grit out. I knew had to get out of there before I exploded. I spun on my heels as Chester began his presentation, his nasally voice grating on my every nerve as I mentally eviscerated him.

TARON :

I watched in fascinated rapture as the woman stomped out of the room, steam nearly blowing out her ears. She kept her head high, her hazel eyes flashing fire. Her strawberry blonde ponytail swung quickly, the tips of her hair brushing the small of her back. She was a tiny thing, probably 5'2" without the wicked heels she was wearing if I had to take a guess, and slender with just enough curves to fill my hands.

And fuck, did I want those curves in my hands.

“Mr. Egerton ?”

I jerked my head back to the other side of the table where the piece of shit my company had been dealing with over the last few months was standing.

I merely stared at him, not saying a word. It didn’t take long for him to drop his eyes, and satisfaction filled me. He coughed awkwardly, then continued with his presentation. I tuned him out as my mind drifted back to the woman.

Y/N. I scrunched my nose, thinking that the name didn’t really fit her. It sounded too… delicate. And even though she was a small thing, she had steel in those bones of hers. No, she wasn’t anything like a flimsy piece of lace.

A man a couple seats down to my right was speaking now, and I finally tuned into the conversation.

“As you can see by the charts up on the board, we project that sales would go up by at least 15% with in the next year after implementing said changes.”

“Only 15%?” My voice rang out in the room, and everyone turned to me. “By my math, if all the changes that I expect to be put in to place go well, there should be a 27% increase and that’s just within the first eight months.”

Chester’s face went bright red and he glared at the other man. “Did you input all of the data I gave you David?”

“Y-yes sir, I know I did.” He started flipping though the pages of a folder in front of him, his face pale as he frantically searched for the info.

“Obviously you didn’t.” Chester’s sneer was nasty, and my blood boiled even hotter at the way he was acting. I ran a goddamn tight ship, but I always treated my employees with respect. This was only fire on the flames of the annoyance I’d had with him since the beginning, plus the way I’d nearly jumped out of my chair and strangled him with the way he’d talked to Y/N.

“Enough,” I said harshly as I stood. “I’ve heard plenty. David, come with me.” I turned and walked out of the room without a backward glance, knowing that everyone on my team would automatically follow; as would David. My reputation as a ruthless business man was slightly exaggerated but it wasn’t inaccurate, and I used that infamy to my advantage when I had to.“David.” In the next second the man was hurrying to walk beside me, his mouth opening, probably to make another apology. I interrupted him before he could even begin. “Where is Y/N?”

“Who?” I glanced to him to see him confused, and I realized I referred to her by my own nickname for her.“Y/N.”

“Oh. Um, this way.” He motioned to the left toward the elevators. “She’s three floors below, where Mr. Walker’s office is.”

“What’s her role here?”

“She’s his… assistant.” He pushed the elevator call button.

I turned to my associates. “Gary, Emily, Reid. Go ahead on to the office, I’ll be there shortly.” They all looked at me with a little bit of curiosity, knowing this wasn’t my usual m.o.

“You got it boss,” Gary finally responded. I rolled my eyes at him, ignoring his chuckle as I turned back to David, all of us stepping into the elevator.

“Now why did you hesitate when you said she was his assistant?"David swallowed hard, but kept eye contact. A kernel of respect for him grew, knowing that not everyone was able to do that when I was in a mood.

"Well, that’s what she is. He calls her his 'glorified secretary’ though.” The distaste was obvious in his voice and stamped all over his face. My respect for him grew a few more notches.

“Hmm. Can I see the file?” He handed it over to me without hesitation, and I shuffled through the papers. I found and email to David from Chester, notes about the data for today’s projections. I immediately noticed several important factors were missing, and I quickly figured out that those numbers would have affected the data and given us exactly what was presented to me today.

It was obvious that Chester had failed to pass on all the information I’d needed for David to correctly prepare the presentation. It wouldn’t surprise me to find that Chester had barely done any of the work for this, only wanting to take the credit when all was said and done. I made a noise of disgust in my throat, closing the file and handing it back to David.“Sir?” David was looking at me warily, and I was sure all my rage and frustration was showing on my face. The elevator stopped, pinging to let us know we were on the floor we needed.“Take me to Y/N.”

Y/N:

I slammed another desk drawer shut, taking my anger out on the poor thing. Everyone had been avoiding me for the last half hour. Wisely. I was in no mood to deal with anyone else’s bullshit today. In fact, I was just getting ready to leave early. I didn’t care if Chester got mad at me for it, there was no way I was staying here to help him after he lied and threw me under the bus in front of everyone earlier.

I took my note to Chester to his office, grumbling out loud to myself the whole way. It was a bad habit of mine, but one I hadn’t been able to get rid of.“He’s so freakin’ stupid. I don’t know why he even wants this job, when he doesn’t know anything. I mean, that’s just got to be so stressful. Well I guess if you’re smart it would be, but he’s dumb enough to think that everything is perfectly fine when everyone just wants to wring his fat neck.”

I was just saying the last part as I stomped out of his office, freezing when I noticed David standing awkwardly at my desk with a stranger. David gave me a tight smile, but I barely saw it as I took in the other man.

Standing almost a foot above my own height, he was lean but I could see even through the tailored cut of his expensive suit that he was fit, and probably still packed with muscle. He had a confident and intense aura about him, and my mouth went dry at the look in his eyes as he perused my body from my heeled feet to the tie in my hair holding my ponytail.

His eyes were so dark they looked black, and he already had a five o'clock shadow covering his jaw and cheeks, the black stubble that matched his hair calling to me. My fingers twitched, wanting to reach out and feel the prickles against my skin.

“Y/N, I presume?”

Holy shit. A full body shiver went through me at that voice, deep and gruff with the hint of a British accent. I swallowed hard and nodded, taking a few more hesitant steps towards the mystery man.

“Y/N, this is Mr. Taron Egerton .”

A lightbulb went off in my head at David’s introduction of the stranger, and I stiffened. This was the head of the company for the presentation Chester had been in charge of, and if he was here at my desk, and only after half an hour, that meant the meeting hadn’t gone well. And since Chester had blamed the lack of visual aids on me, I assumed Mr. Egerton was here to berate me for it. I had no choice but to save my ass.

“Mr. Egerton ,” I started as I stepped toward him and held out my hand in greeting. “I would like to apologize for the Y/N in today’s presentation. I hope that my mistake didn’t deter you from working with us.”

He let me finish my apology before taking my hand, and when our palms touched sparks shot through me. I was grateful I hadn’t been speaking at the time, because the effect he had on me would’ve been obvious when I tripped over my words.“No apologies necessary, love”

My eyebrows shot up in confusion at his words, “My name is Y/N."“I know I don’t like it that much”

I felt my face flush, embarrassment and a little disappointment filling me at the blunt words. Turning to my desk and sitting, I replied, “Then feel free to leave.”

I shook my mouse to wake up my screens, focusing on them even though I could feel him staring at me. It was probably irrational of me to be sad he didn’t like my name, since I didn’t either, but I couldn’t help it.

“David, wait for me down the hall.” Mr. Egerton ’s voice brooked no argument, and I watched out of the corner of my eye as David immediately did as he was told. I snorted a tiny bit under my breath at his obedience; I wouldn’t be so easy to order around.

Mr. Egerton walked around to my side of the desk, spinning the chair so that I was facing him. He bent down to get closer, his words low but commanding.

“You’re going to have lunch with me. I can already tell you want to fight me, but I wouldn’t suggest it. I have no problem putting you over my shoulder and spanking that ass if you do."His words made me bristle and warm all at once, the mental image of his threat enticing me and pissing me off at once. I could feel the tip of my nose turning red like it did when I was holding back my anger.

Pushing against the floor, I rolled the chair back and out of his hands so I could stand, grabbing my purse angrily.

"I’m going to go with you so that you don’t cause a scene, but don’t think for one second that I want this,” I grit out so only he could hear. This office was open and full of gossips, although fairly harmless ones.

He let out a low laugh, and the hairs on my neck raised in appreciation of the sound. Traitor body, I thought to myself as I stormed past Mr. Egerton towards the elevator doors. I punched the button and waited, listening to him and David talk behind me.

“Although your charts were wrong, they were not incorrect David. You weren’t given the information you needed, so your data was off by no fault of your own. Give me your email address and I will send you the correct information. I expect to see the updated charts in two days.”

“Yes, sir.” David sounded a tad confused, reflecting my own thoughts. Why would the owner of a giant corporation want to deal with someone lower on the totem pole? Usually men of Mr. Egerton ’s status thought they were better than all that, preferring to deal with the higher ups.The elevator doors opened and he followed me in, leaving me trapped with him in a big metal box. His scent enveloped me, and I took a slow deep breath to really appreciate it. It was something smoky with a hint of freshly cut wood, and I only wanted to get closer, imprint it in my mind forever.

Shaking my head to get myself together, I turned to the man who’d somehow managed to discombobulate me without even trying. “What am I doing here, Mr. Egerton ?”

“Please, call me Taron .” I made a non-committal noise, and his mouth twitched, a ghost of a smile appearing for a moment. He moved closer to me, backing me into a corner and placing his hands on either side of me, caging me in.

My mid was telling me to push him away, but my body had different ideas. My pulse quickened, beating hard in my veins as his dark eyes captured my own light ones.

“I can see you want to fight me Y/N, and I like that. But I have an offer you can’t refuse."I paused for a moment, then burst out laughing. "You’re really going to use that on me right now?”

He chuckled and stepped away from me, breaking the tension. “I know, it’s cliché, but I couldn’t help myself.”

With that one sentence, I learned something about Taron . He was intense, but a bit of a goof underneath that. I wasn’t sure why that made me instantly more comfortable with him, but it did. I finally relaxed, but crossed my arms over my chest and raised an eyebrow at him, still expecting an answer to my previous question. His eyes flicked down to my cleavage, now more pronounced by my crossed arms. A sliver of satisfaction filled me at the heat that flared up in his eyes before he snuffed it out and got to business.

“I want you to come work for me.” His tone brooked no argument, but that wasn’t the kind of person I was. I didn’t follow commands like a dog, and I wasn’t going to start with him no matter how delicious he looked and smelled.“No.”

TARON :

I stared down at Y/N, hiding my shock at her answer. I was trying to avoid looking at her tits again, because I wanted her to know I was serious about this. I didn’t want her here with that shit head Chester. I wanted her in my space, around me. All the fucking time. It was a little disconcerting how suddenly this need for her had consumed me, but fuck if I was going to try to fight it.

“Why not?”

“Because I don’t take orders from anyone.”

“Oh really? You mean like Chester?” I knew it was a dick move, but I wanted to get my point across. “You would rather stay here and take the blame for all his mistakes? Let him walk all over you?”

“And what’s the alternative here? You want me to come work for you, where I’ll probably end up spread out on your desk or under it, sucking your cock while you try to have a conference call? I’m not an idiot, and I don’t want my life to end up like some trashy romance book!”

My dick throbbed painfully at the images she painted for me, and though I was guilty of wanting just that, I wasn’t the kind of man to expect that.I crowded her against the wall again, ignoring the ping of the elevator saying we’d reached our floor. I spoke in a low voice, so she was the only one that could hear me if other people were around.

“Although I’d love to have those pretty lips surrounding my cock, that’s not what I meant. I see your drive, your passion, and it would thrive in my office instead of being stifled here in this one.” I stepped back and turned to leave the elevator, ignoring the looks of the couple of people standing outside watching. “Let me know if you change your mind, Y/N.”

That woman was so goddamn stubborn. It’d been nearly a month since my visit to the office, and she had avoided speaking or seeing me at all costs. My takeover of the company was almost complete, although only two other people knew that it was happening. I hadn’t said anything to Y/N, but after I bought that company out I was going to promote her.

I didn’t want her to think I was doing it because I wanted her under me. And I didn’t want her to think I was using that to get her to like me. Not after all the gifts I’d tried sending her that she’d sent back in the same day. Every time I’d gotten the gift back, I’d grinned and chuckled, storing it away for later. She was going to accept the gifts someday, whether she knew it or not.

I had noticed though that in the last basket I’d sent, she’d taken out a caramel chocolate bar. I’d smirked, loving that she’d given a tiny piece of herself away even if she didn’t know it. I was desperate to know her, to get inside her head and figure out what made her tick.

Of course she was beautiful; that was obvious. But with every spurned gift I only yearned more to know her. And today, I was going to make sure I got exactly what I wanted.

Today was the meeting for all the staff, to tell them about the takeover and introduce to them their new owner and overall boss- me. I knew exactly what changes I was going to be making, and I knew some people weren’t going to be happy about it but I didn’t give a fuck.

“We’re here, Sir.” My driver’s words brought me out of my head, and I nodded crisply. I didn’t wait for him to open my door, reaching for the handle and letting myself out. I headed into the building, glancing at my watch to make sure I would walk in at the precise time. I got in the elevator, doing my best not to think about the fact that last time I was here I had Y/N in here with me.

I stepped off onto the 5th floor, making my way to the meeting room. I heard the voice of the previous owner of the company, Pete, just finishing letting them know he’d sold his company. Stepping through the door, I caught his eye and he motioned towards me.

“I’d like to introduce you to the new owner, Taron Egerton .” Polite clapping followed his words, but I barely heard it. I’d caught Y/N’s eye, and the heat in the air between us was high, her gaze shooting daggers at me. Something I would deal with later, especially seeing as how I was about to flip her world upside down.

“Thank you Pete. I hope your retirement is as enjoyable as you’ve been planning.” He chuckled at my words and shook my hand, waving to the people gathered in the office.

“Good luck with this one!” He chortled and waddled his 72-year old body out of the building. The room went quiet, and I stood looking at everyone until I heard the chime of the elevator in the distance signal his final departure.

“Okay everyone. As you’re aware, I just bought this company. I am a demanding boss, but I am fair. I may ask a lot, but nothing I’m not willing to give in return. If you’re a hardworking employee, then you have nothing to worry about.”

I saw a few surprised glances, and I let the ensuing whispers die down before I began to talk again. I caught Y/N’s eye while everyone was semi-distracted, giving her a small smile and a quick wink that only made her glare harder. I swallowed the chuckle with a cough, catching the room’s attention once again.

“Chester?” The heavyset man stood, a smug smile on his face that I was about to wipe off.“Yes, Taron ?”

I held back the snort at his presumption of using my first name. “You’re fired."Gasps rang out through the room, and Chester’s face went white. I glanced at the crowd, noticing a fair amount of them looked pleased with the new development, even though they tried to hide it. Chester began to splutter, and I cut him off.

"You don’t do any of your own work. You blame other people for your faults. You’ve been stealing from the office and those under you, and I don’t tolerate dishonesty or thieves. Get your shit and go.”

His face turned red, but he wisely held back whatever words he wanted to say. He turned and stomped out of the room, all of us watching as he went. He stepped out of the room, and I turned back to the others with a pleasant smile.“Now that that’s out of the way, let’s move on.”

Y/N:

Holy shit.

I wanted to clap, laugh, and cheer for this new development. My anger with Taron had temporarily abated, my happiness at his firing of Chester overshadowing everything else.“Y/N.” Taron ’s voice was sure, his gaze pinned on me as I froze in my seat. Oh shit, was I next?I stood on shaky feet, clasping my hands together to hide my nerves as I stared him down defiantly despite the pounding of my heart.

“You will be replacing Chester. If there’s anyone not on the team that you need or would like to move around, come to me and I will take care of it. I would also like to speak to you about your new responsibilities after this meeting is over.” He nodded, signalling that I could sit back down.I fell back into my chair, still processing what the hell had just happened. I tuned out the rest of the meeting while my brain tried to decide what Taron ’s motivation for this was. There were people here who had been there longer, in the actual field of work, that would have been better able to take over than a secretary.

Was this all his way of finally getting me to work for him? Anger rose anew at the thought, his manipulation and secrecy pissing me off. He couldn’t have bothered to tell me he was taking over? I ignored the voice in my head that said I’d been ignoring him so even if he had tried tot ell me I probably wouldn’t have listened.

I sat there fuming for the next 20 minutes, every possible reason for all of this getting worse and worse in my brain. Taron finally dismissed everyone and then motioned for me to follow him. I did so silently, waiting until we were alone to have the conversation that was bubbling inside. He didn’t initiate conversation, the ride in the elevator up to his office a couple floors above silent and vibrating with tension.

He let me in his office first, shutting the door behind me. As soon as I heard the click that signalled we were now private, I let loose.

“What’s the point of this? Are you doing all of this just to get back at me for ignoring you? Are you going to blackmail me with my new job, take it away if I don’t fuck you?”

His face had been impassive at first, but at my last words his eyes darkened and his expression turned thunderous. My words died at that look, my nipples perking against my will as he grabbed me and pressed me against the door, his face coming close to mine.

“I’m only going to say this once, so listen closely Y/N. I promoted you because I know you have the ability to get the job done, and fairly. I know it’s where you want to be. I know that everyone you talk to loves you, and that you will make a fuck of a lot better boss than Chester ever was."His words floored me. "How… how do you know that? About me, I mean?”

His eyes roamed over my face, the intensity bringing a blush to my cheeks. “David is a well of information once he gets started.”

I mentally cursed David, and then myself for giving him tidbits about me when I knew he was a worse gossip than old ladies in a small town.

“One last thing Y/N, and then we’ll get to business.” He leaned even closer, his face tilting so that he could talk directly into my ear. “When I fuck you, it will be because you’re begging for my cock in that tight, sweet little pussy of yours and not because of any goddamn job.”

He pushed away from me and turned, leaving me breathless and wet at his words, my ear still burning from the touch of his hot breath. I watched his saunter over to the chair of his new office before he sat, regarding me with a raised eyebrow.

“Well? Are you ready to get to work?”

I sprayed my new office with the can of air freshener I’d bought last night for the 50th time, trying to get rid of Chester’s scent that had seemed to permeate every corner. I finished the round of freshener, then fell into the brand new chair that had showed up this morning before I got in.

I hadn’t questioned it, only relieved that I wouldn’t have to sit in the same chair as Chester. The idea of that gave me the creeps. I was still getting used to the idea of being in charge of a whole team, but I couldn’t deny the excitement this new challenge brought me. It was where I’d wanted to be all along, and I was so incredibly grateful for all the support the people on my team were already showing me with this being my first official day on the job.

I’d stayed late to make sure that I had everything in order, and pretty much everyone else in the building had already left. I packed up my bag and headed out the door, taking the elevator down to the parking garage. I was mentally running through everything I had to finish tonight before delving even deeper tomorrow, which was probably why I didn’t hear the man shuffling up behind me while I tried to unlock my car door.

A hand grabbed my hair and slammed my forehead into the driver’s side window, pain blasting through my head and making me cry out. The hand tightened in my hair and I dropped everything in my hands to reach up and try to stop it from causing me more pain. I yelped loudly as tears gathered in my eyes while my head was yanked back, the rest of my body pressed against my car by the body of the man behind me,

“You little bitch. You fucked him so he would fire me, didn’t you? And then I bet you took his cock down your throat so you could have my job. Did you spill the beans about my skimming from the company too?”

The nasty voice took a minute to register through the pain, but when it did, I was even more horrified than before.

“Chester?”

His hand yanked on my hair again, and I couldn’t stop the tears from escaping my eyes at that point.

“Fucking whore. Do you realize what you’ve done?”

“What are you talking about? I didn’t do anything!”

“Shut up! You’ve ruined everything!” Chester’s voice was high and reedy, panic obvious. I had no idea what kind of trouble he’d gotten himself into, but it sounded like he was scared shitless. It was hard to feel bad for him at the moment though. I just had to figure out how to get out of this situation.

“Chester, just tell me what you need, I can help.”

“I can help,” He sneered in my ear, his breath wafting over my face and making me gag. “How much do you think your boyfriend will pay to get his slut back?”

I was so confused. “What boyfriend?”

He jerked my head around to face him, and I was horrified to see his face covered in bruises, his left eye completely swollen shut and the right bloodshot and full of anger. I glanced down and saw that the hand that wasn’t tangled in my hair was covered in a makeshift splint, his fingers purple and twisted unnaturally.

“Taron Egerton , the man you fucked to get my job.”

“I haven’t fucked him!” It was true, but by the maniacal laugh he let out, he wasn’t going to believe it.

“Yeah right. I’ve always known you’d do whatever it took to get that job. And it looks like you succeeded.”

I opened my mouth to respond, but he let go of my hair to slap me across the face before I could say anything more. I fell to the ground and curled up in a ball instantly to protect myself from what I was sure to be the beginning of a terrible beating.

I heard a loud thud and crunch and flinched before I realized the sound wasn’t coming from me. I heard some more grunts and odd sounds, and I lifted my head warily to see what was going on. My eyes widened in shock when I saw Chester on his back on the ground with a giant man towering over him, punching his face furiously. At this point, I couldn’t recognize Chester’s face through all the purple and red, blood flowing like crazy.

In the second after I took all that in, my saviour’s voice rang out through the empty parking garage.

“Don’t ever fucking touch her again!” With one more brutal punch, the man turned and faced me, chest heaving and fire in his eyes.

“Taron ,” I whispered out, stunned. He stared at me, his eyes raking over the wound on my forehead and cheek, my skin throbbing when his eyes landed on them. His jaw clenched and he took out his phone, pressing a button and putting it to his ear as he turned to kick Chester in the side a few times.

“E” He paused. “Yeah, the parking garage. Thanks.”

He hung up and turned back to me, holding out a hand.

I stared at it, taking in the blood and swollen knuckles before looking up to his face again. He looked at his own hand, realizing why I hesitated. He swore and then pulled out a cloth from his pants pocket, not even wincing as he cleaned off as much blood as possible. He shoved the cloth in his pocket and then held his hand out again.

“Come on Y/N, let me help you.”

His voice was soft, almost like he was asking me to trust him. And I did, despite the level of violence I’d just seen from him. It was highly possible that Chester was dead, but I couldn’t find it in me to care. If Taron hadn’t shown up, I could be the one laying there on the ground, covered in my own blood.I took his hand, careful of his wounds, and let him help me up. I bent down to grab my dropped purse and keys. I looked back up to Taron , a calm I wasn’t really feeling in my voice as I spoke.“Thank you. See you tomorrow then?” I turned back to my car, my hand shaking so violently I couldn’t get the key into the hole.

“Fuck Y/N,” he growled and swept me up in his arms. I started to protest, but he hushed me with one word. “Stop.”

I automatically settled in his arms, meeting his gaze with questions in my own.“I’m taking you home with me. I need to make sure you’re okay, and you’re in no condition to drive. Please, just let me do this for you. You can go back to hating me tomorrow.”

I shut my mouth, just nodding as I realized I really didn’t want to be alone. I found a weird comfort in his arms that I hadn’t felt in years, if ever. I let him put me in his car just a couple rows over that I hadn’t noticed before and buckle me in, wondering what was going to happen now.

TARON :

We drove in silence to my place, my anger still a burning hot thing inside me while she probably didn’t even realize she was shivering next to me. Thank fuck I’d worked late tonight and drove myself, or else who knows what would have happened to Y/N. The thought of that bastard Chester hurting her made me clench my hands on the wheel. the temptation to turn around and kill that fucker almost too much.

One look over at Y/N though, and I knew I was where I needed to be. I’d already called E, the mystery man on my staff who handled the ugly things like this, and Chester would be given to the very men who’d gotten to him before I did.

Yeah, I knew all about Chester’s gambling problem. He’d been stealing from the company for years to pay his debts, and he’d made a big bet the night before I’d fired him that he had no way to cover now. I would never have imagined that he’d take it out on Y/N though, or I would have made sure he never got near her.

I was feeling the guilt for not protecting her, but it was something I would have to deal with.I pulled into my driveway minutes later, punching in the code to my front gate before driving through and letting it shut behind me. I pulled up to the front door, knowing that someone would move my car where it needed to be eventually. I had Y/N to take care of right now, so the car could wait.

Going around to the passenger side door, I opened it and saw she hadn’t even unbuckled herself. I did it for her and pulled her into my arms again, loving how perfect it felt to have her there. She wrapped her arms around my shoulders and snuggled into my chest, and I nearly stumbled at the warmth that shot through me.

I clutched her tighter to me and made it into my house and up the stairs to the master suite in record time. I walked straight into the bathroom and set her down on the toilet seat. I turned the shower on, testing the temperature before I pulled back.

“Y/N?” She didn’t move, still shivering. “Y/N, I need you to look at me.”

Her head slowly moved up, her eyes glassy but meeting mine.

“Hold it together for another few minutes so you can get warmed up. If I leave, will you be okay?”

“Yes,” she whispered and lowered her head again. I stared at her for a few seconds, warring with myself. I didn’t want to push her too hard, but I didn’t want her going into shock either.

“Alright. I’ll just be right outside the door so if you need me, just shout.”

“Okay.” Another small whisper, but she was responding.

I hesitated, but walked out the door and shut it softly behind me. I listened with my ear to the door, and I let out a sigh of relief when I heard movement and the sound of clothes hitting the tile. The sound of the water changed a minute later, and I knew she’d made it in.

I began to pace the carpet, fuming about the events of the night. My right hand throbbed with the memory of punching that asshole in the face, and I didn’t regret the bruises already forming.A sudden weird sound had me pausing, and I strained to listen. When I heard a second choked-back sob echo in the bathroom, I was opening the door and striding in there without even thinking about it. I pushed the shower door open and saw Y/N huddled up on the floor, arms around her knees as she sobbed as quietly as possible.

I knelt down, not caring about the water ruining my expensive suit, and took her in my arms. She wrapped her arms around my neck and buried her face in my shoulder, her body shaking with her tears as she let it all out.

“Shh, baby, I’ve got you. You’re safe.” I repeated those words over and over, holding her tight to me and petting her hair. I was practically vibrating with the need to go and kill Chester, but knowing that Y/N needed me here more kept my ass plastered to the bottom of the tub.

The water had started to cool by the time Y/N lifted her head from my shoulder, her hazel eyes now a muddy colour but no less beautiful for the torment in them. She sniffled and reached up to rub her eyes, clearing them a bit as she finally focused on me. She looked down at herself and I saw a blush rise on her cheeks when she realized she was naked, in my arms, while I was fully dressed and now soaking wet.

Despite the unholy temptation to glance down and take in her body for myself, I kept my eyes focused on hers. I needed her to trust me right now more than I needed to see her bare skin, and I wanted her to know that.

“Come on Y/N, let’s get you out of her and into something warm.” I kept my voice soft and reassuring, and I waited for her nod of assent before clasping her against my chest as I stood.She let out an adorable little squeak when I lifted her, and automatically wrapped her legs and arms tight around me. I held back a groan at the feeling of having her pressing against me. I needed to focus on getting her what she needed, not what my body wanted. Desperately.

I leaned over to shut the water off and stepped out, not caring about the water dripping from us as I headed back into my room. I reached behind my door and pulled my robe off the hook, awkwardly placing it around Y/N’s shoulders while I held her.

“You’re going to have to let go of me,” I said in a gently teasing voice.

She hesitated, then loosened her grip on my body. She slid down, and I bit my tongue as she rubbed against my dick that was unmistakably hard. Just because I knew I wasn’t going to be doing anything with her tonight, it didn’t mean my dick knew that. We both ignored him however, and I wrapped her up in my robe while I pretended not to notice her body.I brought her over to a chair and had her sit down. “Stay there, I’ll be right back.”

I hurried into my closet and stripped off the ruined clothing, leaving it on the floor to deal with later. I quickly changed into some sweats and t-shirt and made my way back out to Y/N.

Stepping out of my closet, my eyes locked with Y/N’s in the mirror I’d sat her in front of. Her face was still slightly red from her crying, but her eyes seemed to hold more cognizance than before which I was immensely grateful for.

I held her gaze as I moved toward her, letting the silence between us hang there, the tension in the air there but set to the side. I stepped up behind her and lifted my hands, cautiously placing them on her shoulders. When she didn’t flinch or back away from me, I knew she was going to be okay.

“I want to take care of you tonight. Will you let me do that?”

Her eyes widened slightly, and she nodded haltingly.

“I want you to be sure. I swear I won’t do anything that makes you uncomfortable, but I also want to make you feel good.”

A small, strangled sound escaped her and I suddenly realized how my words sounded. My cock jumped beneath my sweats, and I mentally berated it. I moved my hands from her shoulders to her neck, pausing when I felt her quick heartbeat. Pushing away the sudden desire to clasp a hand around her neck and make her tilt back for my kiss, I moved my hands higher into her hair, beginning to massage her scalp.

Her eyes closed and a blissful moan fell out from between her parted lips. I bit my tongue again, and I knew it wouldn’t be the last time tonight. Ignoring the blood rushing from my brain, I continued to massage her head, waiting until she’d practically melted into the chair to take my hands away.

Her eyes popped open when my hands left her, and I smiled at her. “I’m going to get you something to sleep in.”

She nodded and settled back into the chair. I could feel her eyes on me as I walked back to my closet, finding a pair of shorts with a tie and one of my t-shirts for her. After handing them to her and telling her she could go change in the bathroom, I set about making sure that my bed had clean sheets for her. I was just placing the comforter on top when she came out of the bathroom, prompting me to look up at her.

My mouth went dry as I took in the sight of her wearing my old high school mascot shirt- and nothing else. She was holding the shorts in her hand, and gave me a little shrug.

“They weren’t really staying on.” She set them on a nearby chair, and then wrung her hands together as she waited for me to respond.

My dumb ass was still stuck on taking her in. Her long, strawberry hair spilling around her slim shoulders in waves. Her eyes large and cautious. Her braless tits peaking underneath the thin cotton, calling to me. She finally cleared her throat, and I stood up straight from the bed."Right. Uh, well, you can have the bed. I’m going to go out to the couch.”

I started hurrying out of the room, but her grasp on my arm halted me as I walked past her.“Please,” she said in a broken voice that had me turning to face her. “Don’t leave me alone."I shut my eyes and took a deep, steadying breath. "If that’s what you need, then-”

My words were halted by her hand tightening on my arm and pulling me towards the bed. I’ll take that as a yes.

She climbed into my bed like she’d done it a hundred times before and buried herself underneath the blankets. She looked so cosy, so content, that my heart beat hard in my chest imagining what it’d be like to have her in my bed past tonight. In my life.

Shaking those thoughts from my head, I slid in next to her and kept as much distance between us as possible. Not because I didn’t want to curl up behind her and encase her in my arms, but because I knew she’d gone through something traumatic tonight and I wasn’t willing to make her feel like I was pressuring her into anything. even though she’d been the one to ask me to stay, it didn’t mean anything more than that she didn’t want to be alone.

I heard her shift in bed , and I could feel her staring at me. Risking a glance, I saw her on her side facing me, a soft look in her eyes.

“Thank you, T. For saving me tonight, and for everything after. I don’t know what would have happened if you hadn’t been there.”

I swallowed hard as red began to take over my vision. “I’m glad I was there too, Y/N. But no need to thank me.”

With that, I looked away from her, waiting until she turned onto her other side. I listened to her breathing, noticing when it deepened and slowed indicating she’d fallen asleep. Only then did I turn on my side to face her, studying the hidden lines of her body, the unique scent of her that enveloped me as I lay there, thanking whatever gods existed that I was there at the right time tonight. It was those prayers I fell asleep to hours later, my eyes never once leaving the woman in my bed.

Y/N:

I jerked awake, my heart pounding while I stared at the ceiling as the dregs of the dream I was having faded away in the early morning light coming through the window.Wait, that wasn’t right. I had blackout curtains, so what-

I whipped my head to the side as memories flooded my brain, and my heart softened and sped up all at once to see Taron sleeping next to me, noticing our legs tangled together and his hand laying on the bed between us, lightly gripping the ends of my hair.

The dream I’d been having came back to memory and I felt my cheeks heat up at the realization that I’d been having a sex dream about Taron . It was no wonder, when I’d been suffering for weeks to battle my desire for him, and then being surrounded by his scent and presence all night after he’d literally saved my life? Yeah, there was no fighting that now.

My clit pulsed when a vision of T slowly fucking into me from above while my legs were held up by his broad shoulders, and a light moan left me. I was wearing nothing but T’s shirt, and even that was tantalizing. My nipples had been hard since I woke up, and I could feel how wet my pussy was from the dream.

I shifted unconsciously, and I bit my lip as a wicked idea ran though my mind. He seemed to be sleeping deeply enough, maybe if I touched myself just a little to ease the ache, he wouldn’t know?

I kept my head turned towards him so I could watch for any signs he was waking up, and my right hand slid down beneath the blankets to touch my wet pussy. I couldn’t help the small gasp as my fingertips brushed my clit, sending lightning through me.

I paused, waiting for T to wake up, but he didn’t move a muscle. Happy to see that, I continued to slowly rub my clit with two fingers. I studied the lines of his face, the chiselled jaw of his that called for me to kiss it, to feel the stubble growing there rough against my soft lips. Just looking at him and remembering the way his hands had felt on me last night, massaging my head already had me dripping wet. I shuddered as my fingers began to speed up and my eyes closed in pleasure.

“Y/N,” I imagined him saying into my ear. My free hand moved under the shirt I was wearing, pushing it up my stomach so I could squeeze my breast like I imagined he would.I could practically hear him moan in my head, and my fingers moved faster on my clit as my hips lightly thrust into the air.

“Y/N,” Taron said again in my head. I shivered at the sound, how real it was. Something tugged my hair, and the sharp tingles it sent across my scalp hand me moaning. Man, if I’d known accidentally laying on my own hair would have that affect, I’d have tried that a lot sooner!“Y/N, stop.”

My eyes popped open and I froze, little pieces putting themselves together. Exactly how real his voice had sounded. The pulling on my hair. It had actually been him the whole time, awake.I stared up at the ceiling, to embarrassed to look over at him. Fuck, could this get any worse? I still had one hand buried in my pussy and the other gripping my tit, but I couldn’t seem to move.“Look at me Y/N.” He waited patiently for me to gather up the courage. When I did, it was to see him with eyes dilated and full of desire. His body was tight with tension, and one quick glance down had me noticing the giant tent in his sweats.

“I… I don’t know what came over me, I’m sorry.” The words fell from me, breaths shaky and stuttered.

“I don’t really think you are. I think you’re sorry I caught you rubbing your pussy in my bed, but I doubt you’re sorry you did it. Are you?”

His eyes blazed at me with need and a challenge. Would I pretend like I didn’t know what he meant, and let this be the end of it? Or…

“No. I’m not sorry.” My heart sped up even more, and I knew he could see the pulse beating in my neck. “I’m only sorry I’m the one doing it, and not you.”

It took a split second for my words to register, but when they did, his reaction was more than I could have hoped for.

A low growl reverberated in the air around me, and in just a couple seconds he was kneeling between my spread legs, everything bared to his sight as he pushed my arms above my head and into the soft bed.

“It’s been fucking torture,” he groaned while he leaned down and nibbled on my neck. “To see you walking around in those fucking pencils skirts and those damn high heels. To need and want you so badly, and not being able to touch you. But now that you’re in my bed willingly, offering up this pretty as fuck pussy to me? Now, I’m going to get my fill.”

He paused to pull back and study my face, looking for any sign I wasn’t on board.“I need you,” I whispered. It was all he needed to hear. Dropping his forehead onto mine, he stayed there for a second, giving me one last chance to back away. I wrapped my legs around his hips and pulled my body up to meet his, rubbing myself against him through his pants.That seemed to be the last straw. His mouth was on mine before I could take another breath, and I moaned loudly when his tongue came out to tangle with mine. He groaned in response, and sooner than I would have wanted he pulled away.

“Now tell me my sweet little Y/N,” he murmured as he sat back on his heels, inspecting me. “What was it that had you stroking that pussy this morning?”

I bit my lip, embarrassment flooding me again. I really didn’t want to tell him I’d dreamt about him, but I wasn’t sure he would believe a lie if I tried to tell one. His hands moved to grip my thighs, squeezing them before bringing his hands closer together, his thumbs stopping when they met the crease between my leg and pussy lips. He stroked the sensitive skin there, telling me wordlessly that he would continue if I answered him.

I swallowed. “I was dreaming about you, and, ohh…” I broke off when his fingers moved closer, stroking my wet lips. Such a light touch, and so powerful.

“Don’t stop baby, tell me about the dream.”

I fisted the sheets next to my hips and pressed up towards him as I continued in a strained and panting voice. “I dreamed that after you climbed into bed with me last night you didn’t stop yourself from pulling me closer. That you, um, rubbed your cock on my ass while you played with me.”

“Mmm, sounds like a good dream,” he said in raspy tones.

“Yeah… this is better.”

“I haven’t even really touched your pussy yet,” he teased.“Please,” I begged, looking down my body at him. “Please touch my pussy.”

“Since you asked so nicely…”

I watched hungrily, heart beating wildly in my chest, as he leaned forward and took one long lick through my folds. I moaned, my head falling back onto the pillow while I trembled beneath his hands and tongue.

I was no inexperienced woman, but I had never felt anything like this. I had never been so close to coming from just a few swipes of a man’s tongue. His tongue rasped through my folds over and over, dragging me closer and closer to orgasm until my hands were buried in his hair and my hips were grinding up into his face.

“Please, oh please please let me come.” Words fell out of my mouth and echoed around us in his room. His hands grasped my thighs tightly a second before he took my throbbing clit in his mouth and sucked, flicking his tongue across the surface and making me burst into a million pieces.

“Taron! Fuck!” My whole body was shaking, jerking under him as he held me down, humming against me in obvious pleasure at my reaction.

I was just barely starting to come down when T pushed himself up and over me, his eyes fully dilated and my juices still glistening on his face.

“You have no fucking idea how long I’ve been wanting to do that. And Y/N, it was even better than I dreamed.”

I flushed under his praise, a shy smile tilting my lips up. “I think I know what you mean.”

I reached up and wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled him down to me, kissing him and tasting myself on his lips. He groaned into my mouth, tilting our heads so that he could kiss me deeper, harder, ratcheting my desire for him right back up.

I pulled away first to look at him. Even though he’d gone down on me and kissed me like he was just seconds away from fucking me within an inch of my life, he still held his hips away from mine. Hell, he was still wearing clothes! The orgasm he’d given me with my mouth had only temporarily satisfied me; I wanted to feel him pumping in and out of me, our skin slick with perspiration as we barrelled towards the edge together.

I moved my hands down his body and grabbed his firm ass, pulling him down tight against me so I could rub against him. The moment our hips met and I shifted underneath him, and strangled sound wrestled itself from T’s throat and his hips thrust hard into mine. A loud cry left me, part surprise and part pleasure at the absolute wildness of the movement.

“Wait, Y/N, I can’t.” He started to pull away, and I wrapped myself like a koala to stop him. I waited until he opened his eyes and looked at me before speaking.“Why not?”

TARON:

Goddammit. Every second she spent wrapped around me was weakening my resolve. She stared up at me with her molten eyes, pleading for me not to go.

“I don’t want to take advantage of you. After last night…” I trailed off, the familiar anger with Chester burning in my chest. I squeezed my eyes shut, breathing through my nose to calm down.A soft hand pressed against my cheek, and the calm I’d been looking for settled over me like a blanket. I opened my eyes to look at Y/N, and saw her eyes full of some emotion I was afraid to name.

“While I appreciate your thoughtfulness,” she began, “I’m not looking for you to be gentle right now. I’m not going to break. Nothing happened to me; you were there to save me. And I need you, T. Remind me what it feels like to be alive.”

I hesitated for just a second, and she saw that. A wicked gleam replaced the soft emotions that were there before, and when she spoke again her words came out on a throaty purr that was impossible for me to resist.

“Come on Taron. Don’t you want to know what it feels like inside my tight, wet pussy? I bet you can slide in all the way on your first try, even though you’re so fucking big.” She moved one hand down and slipped underneath my pyjama pants, finding me bare and hard, throbbing and leaking with need for her.

I couldn’t help the thrust my hips gave into her soft hand, her grip just the right strength to have me leaking more precum than before.

She purred, and continued to talk while she used her heels to push my pants down, baring my cock in her hand to the both of us. The sight was so fucking erotic that I nearly lost it, but it was her next words that made me snap.

“Mmm, imagine all this cum leaking from my pussy baby. Don’t you want to see that? I’m on birth control, so you can come in me if you want.”

“Jesus Christ,” I grit out as she rubbed her thumb across the head of my cock and gathered my cum to taste it. My mind blanked, only one thought going through my mind. “You want me to fuck you Y/N? Fine.”

I yanked her shirt the rest of the way off and flipped her over onto her stomach, tying her arms behind her back before she could say a word of protest. I ran my fingers down from her shoulders the fabric of the shirt, then over the skin of her ass to her thighs, taking the touch away from her right before I smacked the right side of her ass. She let out a yelp and jumped a little, but calmed when I rubbed my hand over the pink mark.

“That’s what you get for pushing me, you naughty girl. You couldn’t leave well enough alone, and now you’re about to get more than what you bargained for.”

I paused for a second, then leaned down and murmured carefully in her ear, “If this isn’t okay, just let me know.”

She let out a shaky laugh. “Please, don’t stop. I love it.”

I grinned and sat back up. I spanked her other cheek a little harder than the first time, and the sound she let out had my cum leaking onto her skin where I straddled her thighs. I leaned back just a little and used my hands to spread her lips apart as much as I could with my legs keeping her tight together, and my mouth watered at the sight of how wet she was, the insides of her thighs shimmering with her arousal. I slid a finger down and ran it across her, then pressed forward into her tight hole just enough to tease her.

“You weren’t kidding, you’re fucking soaked baby. This cunt is going to feel so good wrapped around my cock.”

“Please!” She wriggled under my hands, trying to entice me to push more than just a finger inside her.

“All in good time, Y/N. Let me play a little with this naughty pussy of yours first.”

A whimper left her and her hands clenched in restraint. God, just seeing her back tense and her skin ripple with goose bumps as I lightly thrust my one finger in and out of her had me growling. I was going to tease her a little longer, but I had overestimated my self restraint.

I wrapped one hand around her bound forearms and pressed down, telling her silently to be still. Slipping my now soaked finger from her pussy, I brought it up through the crease of her ass, swirling the tip across her puckered asshole. My eyes widened when all she did was melt under me, a loud moan filling the moment of quiet. My finger paused there, pressing just a tiny bit as I tested her reaction.

“Um, oh my god, just… shit.” Y/N’s words were jumbled, and if her brain was as scrambled as mine was at this little revelation then I could understand.

“Y/N… do you like having your asshole played with? And don’t lie to me,” I said in a mocking voice as I pressed my finger against her again and relished the way her hips automatically pressed back towards me.

“Yes,” she mumbled into the blankets. I could barely understand her, but since I already knew what the answer was, it wasn’t difficult to decipher.

A low, excited laugh left me. “Oh baby, we’re going to have so much fun together.” I pulled my finger away and loved the way she let out a disappointed sound. Pressing slightly harder against he back, I cam up to my knees and took my cock in hand, pressing the already wet and dripping tip against the spot my finger had just left.

She jerked against me in surprise, and I let another laugh escape me as I pulled away.“Don’t worry, I’m not going there yet. Although I have to say, the way you pressed back against me like you wanted my cock in your ass first, is very tempting.” I moved my tip down to her cunt and notched it against her, pausing for a second while I steadied myself.

“Taron, stop teasing me and just fuck me please!”

How could I deny her when she begged so pretty? With one thrust, I went balls deep just like she’d mention earlier, her pussy immediately pulsing around me as she screamed my name out. It took everything I had in me not to come with her, the fact that with just one thrust of my cock in her had her breaking apart nearly too fucking good to resist going with her.

I managed though, and after a few deep breaths I had enough control to start pulling out of her. Little moaned and whimpers left her as my cock rubbed against her sensitive walls, her body still shaking from the orgasm she was having.

“Shit Y/N, I don’t know how long I’m going to last.”

“Doesn’t matter. S-s-sooo good,” she moaned out as I started to really fuck her, her ass bouncing into my hips and adding one more layer to the moment.

I was panting, my skin burning hot as a film of sweat gathered on my skin, sheer willpower and need for her to come again before I did driving my hips hard and fast against her.

I used my free hand to spank her ass rapid-fire, feeling how she clenched tighter around me with every smack. I continued to fuck her as I took my thumb and ran it back and forth across where we were joined, making both of us moan. Once my thumb was completely coated in both our juices, I brought it back up to her ass and played with her forbidden spot.

“Oh Jesus fuck,” she gasped loudly and threw her head back, her spine arching in pure pleasure as I pressed my thumb inside her. I felt her begin to ripple around my cock again, and my eyes widened while I slammed my hips harder into her, going so fucking deep I swear my cock touched her cervix.

“Shit, are you going to come again from my thumb in your ass?”

“Yes,” she cried out. “Fuck me so deep with your cock in my pussy and your thumb in my ass. I’m gonna come!”

I pulled up on her bound arms so her chest was lifted off the bed as I drove my thumb all the way in, my cock pistoning in and out of her gushing cunt.

Less than a second later, she was coming all over me, and I couldn’t resist the call that time. I yelled out along with her, coming so hard inside her that I couldn’t even breathe. My cum glazed her walls and spilled out around us as I continued to thrust in and out of her, dragging our orgasms out as much as possible.

I wanted the feeling to go on forever, but eventually we started to come down. We both collapsed onto the bed, and I began to untie her arms, rubbing them to make sure the circulation was going through and she wasn’t injured in any way.

Once I determined she was good, I turned her over and cuddled her into my side. She happily curled into me, humming with happiness with a big smile and eyes closed. We were still panting from exertion, but I’d never felt so replete and satisfied. I hadn’t expected Y/N, but I was sure as hell glad for her.

I knew I was going to keep her around; it was just a matter of convincing her to stick with me. Looking down at Y/N in the soft sunlight of the early morning, watching her as she began to fall asleep in my arms, I knew this was only the beginning for us.

@primaba11erina​

#smut #taron egerton smut #taron x reader #taron imagine #taron egerton

[mamabearcat]

All Fired Up - Part 5

Sorry, I’ve been sitting on this chapter for a couple of days. And the next one probably won’t be done for a while - I’m gonna be busy with IRL stuff for the next couple of weeks. And I have my other NaLu and InuKag chapter fics that I’m working on too! I really do like to make my life difficult!

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4

Prefer to read it on fanfiction.net? Here ya go! All Fired Up

“I’m thinkin’ of asking Lucy to move in.”

 Gray nearly dropped the rolled fire hose that he and Natsu were carrying back to the truck after running through drills earlier with the new recruits.

 Natsu looked up when his partner didn’t answer, taking in his widened eyes. “What?”

 “Uh, Natsu, haven’t you only known her for, like, a week?”

 Natsu growled in answer, tempted to drop his hose and punch his so-called best friend in the shoulder. “Goddammit Gray, not like that! As friends, you dick!” He grunted, lifting the heavy rolled hose and putting it back in the truck. “They’ll be discharging her from the burns unit in a few days, and she’s got nowhere to stay.” He pulled his gloves off and stowed them in the back pocket of his navy uniform pants. “Besides, it’s not like it’ll be just the two of us. Wendy’s there. And now that Gajeel’s moved out we have a spare room. Although”, he made a gagging face, “I’ll have to disinfect it or somethin’ before she moves in there.”

 Gray’s eyebrows rose further in surprise. “She doesn’t have any relatives or friends here in Magnolia that she can stay with?” He placed the hose he’d been carrying back and pulled down the shutter door on the side of the fire truck, after double checking all the hoses were stowed securely.

 Natsu shook his head. “She doesn’t have any family. And she just moved here.”

 “Man, that sucks”, empathised Gray.

 “Yeah. I just thought that seeing our house isn’t that far from the hospital, it would make things easier for her. Her doctor said she’ll have to go back to outpatients to get her bandages changed for the next week or so once she’s discharged.” Natsu tucked the key to the engine safely into his pocket. “Besides, I’ll feel better knowing where she’s stayin’ until they catch that arsonist.”

 “Well, she definitely seems to be easy to get on with.” Gray had met Lucy a few days ago, when he and Natsu had dropped in for a quick visit before their shift at the firehouse started. “She seems very happy.” His eyebrow quirked up when Natsu made a face. “What, she’s not happy? She smiled the whole time I was visiting!”

 Natsu huffed out a deep breath. “Gray, remember back in high school, when I used to fly off the handle and get in fights all the time? After Igneel died I mean. When I was a major dumbass.”

 “What, you’re not a dumbass anymore? Could a fooled me”, grinned Gray. He chuckled at the glowering look on Natsu’s face, then dropped his smile with a sigh. “Yeah, I remember.”

 Natsu looked out across the empty field behind the firehouse to the docks and ships visible in the distance. “I think Lucy’s smiles are like that. Her dad only died six months ago.”

 “You think she’s depressed?”

 “I’m sure of it. I wanna help her Gray. If she’ll let me.”

 Gray’s smile returned. “You really like this girl, don’t you?” Natsu’s gaze didn’t shift from looking out to the docklands and he didn’t answer, but to Gray’s mind, he didn’t need to. The rising blush heating the back of Natsu’s neck told Gray more than any words he might say.

  Lucy spluttered, waving her hands in front of her. “Wendy, Natsu, no! I couldn’t possibly intrude like that!”

 Wendy flicked her long blue plait over her shoulder, pulling her chair closer to the edge of Lucy’s hospital bed. “Seriously Lucy, you’d be doing us a favour. The house feels so empty when Natsu’s on a 24-hour shift at the fire house now that Gajeel’s moved out. Not that he ever said too much. You’ve met him, you know what a great conversationalist he is.” Natsu sniggered in the background at Wendy’s comment.

 Lucy smiled. Gajeel was one of the policemen that had been assigned to keep an eye on her after Erza’s first visit, and she’d been surprised to learn that he was Natsu and Wendy’s cousin. He’d looked a little intimidating, but she’d done her best to get to know him, trying to engage him in conversation when he was on duty. She had only managed to get a few grunts and noncommittal shrugs out of him, and he’d spent most of his time slouched near the doorway. His partner Levy was much easier to talk to.

 She’d been under 24-hour watch since she’d made a second formal statement to Erza and her partner Jellal about her run in with the arsonist. Two other police, Officers Jet and Droy, were assigned during the evening shift. Erza now even had a possible suspect, but they still hadn’t been able to catch him. There hadn’t been any more fires after the one at Lucy’s apartment, but Erza was confident that he would strike again.

 The fact that the arsonist was still at large, and that Erza had decided she still needed a police guard did make Lucy feel a little uneasy about leaving the hospital. It was one of Natsu’s main arguments for having her move in with him and Wendy.

 Natsu parked himself on the end of the bed near Lucy’s feet. “C’mon Luce. It’ll be fun! Where else are you gonna be able to find a place to stay with Plue until you decide what to do with your apartment? It’s not that far from the hospital, so you’ll be able to come back here easily for your appointments and stuff.”

 Lucy looked at him uncertainly. “But you could rent out that room and get money for it.”

 Natsu snorted. “Why would me an’ Wend want some stranger livin’ in our house when we could have you Lucy?”

 Lucy sighed at him. “Natsu, we only met a week ago. I am some stranger.”

 “Pfft. Are not. I know all the important stuff about you Lucy.”

 Lucy raised a quizzical eyebrow.

 Natsu grinned and started to tick items off on his fingers. “I know you don’t snore when you sleep. I know you’re gainfully employed, because I was here when that guy Jason dropped in to visit you, and he said you could work freelance until you were up to going back full time. I know you like Jackie Chan movies. I know you love spicy food.” He wiggled his fingers at her. “Perfect housemate material as far as I’m concerned.” Lucy still had a worried look on her face and he sighed, dropping his hands into his lap and shrugged. “Lucy, if you really don’t like stayin’ with us after a week, I’ll help you find somethin’ else. Scout’s honour.”

 Lucy tried to stop the grin that wanted to spread across her face. “Natsu, were you ever a scout?”

 “Nuh uh. But it sounds more trustworthy if I say it that way, don’tcha think?”

 Wendy added her voice to Natsu’s. “I’ll help too, if you change your mind. But, please, come try staying with us Lucy. It’ll be so nice to have another female in the house, after being the only girl living with slobby, smelly boys all this time.”

 “Oi!” growled Natsu, raising his eyebrows. “Don’t lump me in with that metal freak Gajeel!”

 Lucy giggled at the mock outrage on his face, and the cheesy grin he tossed her way at the sound of her laugh. She couldn’t help feeling happier when she was around him. Something about him made her feel more like herself than she had in a long time.

 “Okay, you’ve convinced me.” Their matching cheers made her heart feel warm, and for the first time, she was feeling excited about leaving the cocoon of safety that her hospital room had become.

  “You got everything Lucy?” asked Natsu, hovering in the doorway to her hospital room.

 Lucy looked down at the shopping bags in her hands. “Yup, all set.”

 She’d given her clothing sizes to Wendy, who’d gone shopping for some basic underwear and a couple of outfits until she could go shopping herself. The tubigrip dressings on her arms and legs felt weird under her loose cotton t-shirt and pants, and the burns on the top of her feet limited her footwear choices to flip flops, but it wasn’t like she was trying to win any fashion awards at the moment.

 “Okay, hand ‘em over Luce”, said Natsu, gesturing to the shopping bags. “Let’s get this show on the road.”

 They walked down the hallway to the lift, Lucy waving goodbye to various nurses as they saw them. She paused in front of the lift for a moment, taking a deep breath, before stepping in. The bustle in the hospital lobby as the lift door opened on the ground floor surprised Lucy for a moment – it felt strange seeing so many different people after staying in one room for nearly a week.

 Natsu strode purposefully out through the double doors at the hospital entrance and off towards the carpark. Lucy tried to keep up, but soon she was out of breath and had to stop, leaning forward with her hands braced on her thighs. The occupational therapist at the hospital had said she’d probably get out of breath for a little while as her lungs healed, but she hadn’t realised it would occur this easily. Natsu hadn’t even been walking that fast.

 Natsu turned as he noticed she was no longer following him, and realised what was wrong straight away, as he took in her panting breaths and slightly pale face. “Shit Lucy, you should a said somethin’ if I was goin’ too fast. Do you need me to take you back?” He hovered next to her anxiously.

 Lucy shook her head and stood up. “I’m good… just need to… catch my breath.” Natsu smiled, although his expression was still a little perturbed.

 “No worries, Lucy. We’ll just stay here and admire the scenery, until you’re ready to move again.”

 “Natsu… we’re in a… carpark”, Lucy giggled in between deep breaths.

 “Well, it’s a pretty nice carpark, as carparks go. I’ve seen worse.” He watched her carefully until her breathing became more even, then put both shopping bags in one hand, extending his elbow out in front of her. “Are you ready to proceed to your chariot now milady?”

 “Why thank you kind sir.” Lucy wrapped her fingers around Natsu’s bicep, and they headed on through the carpark at a much gentler pace, stopping in front of a beat up fire-engine red Datsun 510. “Wait, this is your car?”

 “Yup”, said Natsu, opening the passenger side door for Lucy and tapping the roof of the car affectionately. “She may be a little old now, but she still purrs like a kitten. Dad’s hobby was rebuilding old cars – I helped him do this one when I was in high school.”

 Lucy rubbed her hand over the black leather seats as she looked for the seatbelt. “Doesn’t he like doing that anymore? Rebuilding cars I mean?”

 Natsu dropped into the driver’s seat and slammed the car door. He paused for a moment and then gave her a half smile. “My Dad died when I was 15, not long after we’d finished working on this car actually.” Reacting to the distressed expression on Lucy’s face, he reached out his hand and placed it gently over hers. “Please don’t say you’re sorry Lucy. I like talkin’ about my old man. He was a great dad, and I like thinkin’ about him.”

 Lucy’s gaze dropped to her lap. “I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to do that.”

 Natsu squeezed her hand. “If you ever do want to talk, you know I’ll be happy to listen, okay?” Lucy nodded, her eyes still lowered, and Natsu gently let go of her hand, starting up the engine.

 “Okay Lucy, I got big plans for your first night as a house mate. We’ll get you settled in, and when Wendy gets home from her shift, we’re gonna order spicy takeaway, have a three-way Mario Kart battle, and follow it up by watching Project A. Sound good?”

 Lucy took in a deep breath. The grin on Natsu’s face was infectious, and the smile she returned was genuine, if a trifle watery. “Better than good Natsu. That sounds perfect.”

Chapter 6

#nalu #nalu fanfiction #firefighter AU #Bearpluscat fanfics #natsu x lucy #omg they were roommates #almost

[caroline18mars]

A Man On Fire - Chapter 46

“Just one more..I can't resist it, that is the best french toast I've ever had”, she got up to put the last one on her plate “do you want half?” she glared at him, hoping he would say no, but he was too engrossed with his phone to notice anything. Hmmm, what was so important on there? “ok, you absolutely sure? Because I'm not gonna ask you again” she glared again, still no reaction, fine then, all mine, she cut into the toast and chewed with much delight, ok this was not really fun, she just wanted to have a little conversation. Slowly she slid off her chair, stuck her toast between her teeth to crawl up her scaffolding and touched the tear in the canvas, she could probably mend it, did she want to though? Awful subject..and..nothing, she missed painting. She stood there eating her toast as she made her mind up, completely lost in her thoughts she shoved the last piece in her mouth, time to get your brushes, girl. “Uhmpff' turning around, she bumped into Jared's hard chest who had snuck up behind her, “where is that piece of french toast?” he grinned, “gone, I asked you twice” she stepped out of his grip and jumped down again only to crawl back up again with a few cans of paint and some brushes. “Your phone was way more important than french toast” she dramatically rolled her eyes as she walked past him “what was so important on there anyway, lemme guess..” she put a brush on her chin pretending to think hard, in reality she knew already and it would have been a lie to deny her stomach wasn't in knots. There was that familiar sigh she knew all too well, this was it, their time together was up, “I don't want to..it's important you know that” he started and she finished “when are you leaving?” she didn't have the heart to turn around and show him her upset, so she just kept pushing some paint around on her palette, she wasn't ready for the blow. “Tonight”, fuck! Ok, act cool and unaffected, “oh” was all that came out and slowly she lathered up a brush but just when she wanted to put it on the canvas, he grabbed her wrist, “come with me, please”. He felt her go all tense, please come with me, I can't leave you here, I won't survive, this is our relationship, this is us, “I can't..I've got stuff to do here..don't come complaining now, it's all your fault, it was your decision to make me instafamous by putting my stuff out there” she tried to joke, but inside her heart was breaking, “Not funny, De Robiano, come on, I'm not gonna beg, don't make me go back there without you, we sorted things out, right?”, she put her brush down and took a deep breath before facing him “yes we did, but that out there..that's your dream, I want to pursue mine now..”. Jared's heart was hammering in his chest, he knew her and he knew that this conversation was futile but he needed to try, against all odds, “we'll get your canvases shipped..”, again she cut him off immediately “stop it Jared, you know that is impossible, you can't go shipping out canvases like these and let them travel, it'll cost a fortune and the risk of damage or loss is just too high”. Goddamn, why did she have to be so honest all the time? “Harper..babe..please” so much for not begging, “long-distance relationships work for others, don’t they?” her heart ached, but this was her time, her moment, “NO THEY DON’T!” he suddenly lashed out, trembling with anger that he was losing the game. “You’re being unreasonable, Jared, just listen to me, will you?” she grabbed his arm but he yanked it away, “NO, I WON’T! what is there to listen to? Your mind is already made up!” he pushed past her so aggressively she almost lost her balance on his way out the door that shut behind him with an almighty bang.

Ok, enough with the sulking, she had sat here for an hour, staring at the canvas with a brush in her hand, she got up and threw the brush down, where should she start looking? It was a big city, and maybe he wasn’t even around anymore..his bag was still there..duh, as if he needed that bag, he was filthy rich. Here went absolutely nothing, but she just had to try and ran out the door and down the stairs where the cold wind outside had her zipping up her leather jacket, ok, now what? Where do I start to look for that one guy in a city of 10 million people?. The coffeeshop around the corner? Nope..something drew her towards the park, why? they didn’t have a special place there..the wind made her eyes tear, or at least that’s what she told herself, her heart was aching, a heavy lump blocked her airways..keep walking, Harper, if you don’t find him, maybe you can clear your head..he’s gone, I’m never gonna find him. Big drops of rain started to fall and within seconds the park was practically deserted, ok, fantastic, perfect, I just love my fucking life..after half an hour and completely drenched she admitted defeat and started heading back. The rain relentlessly kept beating but when she crossed the street, she was too lost in her thoughts to look where she was going and a car flashed by, missing her by an inch. Jared watched it happen, he had sat here inside the bakery he knew she loved so much, just to feel a little closer to her, he just couldn’t accept that this was it, that this was the end. Seeing her almost get run over, had the hairs on the back of his neck stand up, almost kicking over his little table in front of the window, he shot up from his seat and ran out, “babe! Coco” she heard her name being called as she stumbled onto the pavement. She was completely drenched but the way the hope shone from her eyes had his heart in the biggest meltdown he’d ever experienced, “come here’” he wrapped his big arms around her and helped her out of that driving rain and into the bakery. “What happened? what were you doing out there in the rain?” he pulled back a chair and made her sit down, “I was looking for you..I thought you had left” she stammered, pushing the soaked hair out of her face. “I just needed to cool down a bit, I would never leave you without a word..like you did a couple of days ago..” awwtchhh that hurt, the truth always did, “I’m sorry” she couldn’t even speak without her teeth clapping. “It’s ok, I really didn’t mean to sound like a prick, guess I just can’t handle going back to Europe again without you” up until now he still had hope she would change her mind, but the second he looked into her eyes, his hope was obliterated, “you still don’t want to come along, do you?” subconsciously he was still crossing all of his fingers. Slowly she shook her head “I’m sorry, Jay..I can’t bring myself to going back there..guess I still need to digest some things..and not just that..I really need to paint, I feel like there’s a new door finally being opened for me and I gotta take that chance”. All he could do was sigh deeply “goddammit woman..I really don’t want to be all long distance with you”  and shake his head, “ok, so what now? this is it? We’re done?” she sat up all nervous. “No, no of course not, we’re not done..” he grabbed her cold, wet hand and kissed it “not if you don’t want us to be done..I guess I have no other choice than to make this a long distance thing..hopefully not for too long?” meet me in the middle here, come on. He let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding when she shook her head “as soon as I can, I’ll join you, promise”, finally a grin curled around his lips “good, you’ve got one month and then I want to see you again..now come on, let’s get you out of these wet clothes, I’ll personally make sure you’ll get warm again, very, very quickly, and after I’m done with you, maybe we’ll have some time to have a romantic dinner before I leave tonight” he plucked a kiss from her lips as he gently pulled her up and quickly paid his bill, there was no time to waste, no time to waste to fuck her for the last time in a very long time, and no time to waste to just be with her, around her for as long as physically possible.

”Why are you punishing me like this?” his hand lazily drew lines over her shoulder and down her back, did he ever have orgasms this intense in the past?  It sure felt like he had been living in the desert until he met her, “punish you?” her head shot up and she gave him this hilarious, you-fucked-every-ounce-of-intelligence-out-of-me kind of look. “Trade me for your art..how can you possibly live without me?” he mockingly sighed, “do you know what they say about men with a huge ego?” she put her chin on his chest with a deadpan expression on her face, “I haven’t got a clue” he giggled in anticipation of her answer. Harper raised her hand and just when he thought she was gonna flip him off, she wagged her pinky at him “tiny dicks, that’s what they say” she tried to suppress her laughter, “I do not..” he sat up in mock shock “have a tiny dick”. Oh no, no tickling, I’ll take it back, just no tickling, she tried to dodge his grabby hands “no, please no, no, no” her giggles turned into a hiccupping laughter as she unsuccesfully tried to squirm away from his touch, “take it back” he sat on top of her, threatening to attack her sides. “Nope! No way” she shook her head, “Fine, have it your way, I’ll just have to prove it to you then” he was hard as a rock again, “Yay!” she squealed in delight as he attacked her neck and flipped her over, oh I could do this over and over, and over again, just fuck me and change your mind, stay here with me.

All too soon their time was up and they found themselves standing on a cold, windy tarmac with the deafening noise of jet engines warming up, blasting in their ears “ok, you take care of yourself” she didn’t know what to say, it was simply unbearable to say goodbye all of a sudden so she pushed herself against him. “I will, just promise me it won’t take a month before I see you again” he whispered, he held her so tight, she could actually feel his heart beating out of control, “I’ll do my best” she fought to keep the tears at bay again, this man was going to be the death of her, what had she done? Why couldn’t she just go with him?. From the corner of his eye, he could see the nervosity of the flight attendant on the top of the stairs, constantly looking at her watch, they were going to miss their slot for take-off “I love you so very much, you remember that, ok? and promise me we’ll pick up where we left off from sending all those crazy e-mails to each other?” he pulled back a little to cup her chin, so she could look into his eyes, was she crying?. “Promise! I love you too” she breathed, “ok..I guess this is goodbye then” he kissed her one last time and then slowly pulled back “see you somewhere in Europe”. Be brave, Coco, don’t let your insecurity and hurt show, remember you did this to yourself, this is your choice, you’re gonna choose ‘you’ for a change. He reluctantly let go of her, her touch imprinted on his skin, “see you there” she gave him a nod and a faint wave as he hopped on up the stairs to the jetplane. One last turn, a kiss that was blown and caught and…he was gone, the door closed behind him with a dull thump, the roar of the engines became almost unbearable as the tiny plane slowly pulled out of its’ spot and hobbled towards the runway. Jared put his head against the window, his eyes closed as the jet seared to the sky, that was the weirdest, shortest, yet most heartbreaking goodbye he had ever said, why did he have the feeling that he wasn’t gonna see her again? In his lap his phone automatically connected to the wifi and lit up like a Christmas tree, sliding it open one of Shannon’s many messages greeted him ‘good to know you’re on your way back, guess who’s decided to join us?’ he frowned, oh god don’t tell me his brother’s addict fuckbuddy decided to show up again?! But then he saw the picture in the next message and his heart skipped a couple of beats..wow..oh just..waw, she was back? She was actually back? Seeing the twinkle in those mischievous eyes of hers.. it had been what? A year?  God, he had missed her.

#jared leto #jaredleto #jared leto fanfic #jared leto fanfiction #fanfic #fic #30 seconds to mars fanfiction #30 Seconds To Mars #a man on fire #chapter 46 #Harper and Jared #Harper Coco #caroline18mars

[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 190: Standing Tall

Previously on BnHA: Endeavor died! But it’s okay because then he got better! In the meantime, the High Definition Noumu managed to destroy a whole lot of the city, to the point where it reminded a lot of people of the Kamino attack three months prior. There was a lot of meta about why Endeavor couldn’t quit. Part of it is because the world still needs a Symbol, and he’s what they’ve got right now. But as Hawks and Fuyumi also observed, Endeavor is also just really bad at giving up. As Hawks observed, back during All Might’s heyday, Endeavor was the only one who even attempted to try and surpass him, despite knowing he had no chance. And that’s exactly the kind of bullheaded tenacity that allowed this crazy fire man to force himself back up, use his flames to propel himself, and chase after the Noumu while the world (and his son, who’s watching in the U.A. common room with his classmates and Aizawa) looked on. Then Hawks finally showed up to help out, and lent Endeavor some of his feathers to aid him in his speed and movement. And with that little boost, Endeavor launched one final flaming fist attack. Hopefully it’ll be enough.

Today on BnHA: Endeavor punches the High Flying Noumu with his flame fist and tries to burn it from the inside out. Somehow it still doesn’t work. Everyone watching is like “AHHH” and Shouto is like “DAD D:” and Hawks is like “dude you burned all my feathers, I can’t help you out anymore.” But Endeavor is all “it’s okay we good” and he grabs the Noumu and blasts way up into the sky where he can unleash his full power without having to worry about hurting anyone in the vicinity. And then he unleashes another Prominence Burn attack, but this time with Plus Ultra. Everyone is like “holy shit” and it’s fucking tense as hell, and then a moment later Endeavor comes plummeting down from the sky still on fire and goes splat on some random car. And then he stands up and does the All Might victory pose. Goddamn. So everyone is all “YESSSSS”, and Hawks goes to help him because he’s still barely fucking conscious, and for just a moment it looks like everything’s going to be all right. And then Dabi shows up. And is all “hey there Endeavor. it sure is nice to quote-unquote ‘meet’ you, lol.” Oh fucking snap.

(As always, all comments not marked with an ETA are my unspoiled reactions from my first readthrough of this chapter. I’ve read up through chapter 209 now, so any ETAs will reflect that.)

lol

for a solid moment there I read this as “the beginning of Horikoshi Kouhei” and I was like oh no my man you did not just pull a goddamn Steven King and insert yourself into your own fucking manga

so here’s the full dramatic first page

poor Hawks, caught in the crossfire

oh for fuck’s sake, now we’re moving on to page 2 and Endeavor’s fist is still rushing toward this fucking Noumu. just die already please

okay it looks like it is indeed dying

this is actually pretty anticlimactic after all of that. but okay

aaaaaand it’s still regenerating. even though Endeavor has his fucking hand inside of its skull and is burning it from the inside out

shit you guys

so they are being burned up, then. not good, not fucking good at all

Endeavor is shouting Hawks’s name!

and now he’s addressing the Noumu

idk what’s going on, he’s just describing the Noumu in his mind I guess. saying shit we already know. “modified human, manufactured one, holder of multiple quirks, obsessed with the pursuit of strength”

like, what is the point of this

oh I see, it’s simply to be as dramatic as possible so as to build up to this moment

Shouto. that’s very sweet. but. he can’t hear you, honey

he doesn’t actually address him as “dad” very often though does he? in fact, I don’t recall him ever directly addressing him by “name” at all. in the handful of face to face conversations that they’ve had with each other, he’s avoided using any sort of title and has been really brusque. and whenever he talks about him, he simply refers to him as “my father” (I forget which word it is he’s using in Japanese, but it’s something fairly casual and borderline disrespectful, I’m sure)

(ETA: so he normally uses the word “oyaji” (which does mean “father” but has more of an “old man” connotation though) when addressing Endeavor, and apparently that’s the word he uses in this scene too. so there was actually no change there. I’d be annoyed at the translation being a bit misleading, but I guess “old man! I’m watching” wouldn’t have quite the same emotional impact, so that’s fair.)

anyway, so yeah, that makes this outburst even more meaningful than it initially appears to be

Hawks says his feathers are all burnt up now so he won’t be able to help any more

but Endeavor says it’s enough

and he’s flying up higher, somehow. not sure if that’s the remainder of Hawks’s wings boosting him or if he’s just using his fire again somehow. that still makes no fucking sense but okay

he’s trying to put some distance between them and the people and buildings below so as to not cause any further damage

okay here we go. one more time

odd that he would hate that motto given how obsessed he is with strength. maybe it just never clicked with him. or maybe he resented it because no amount of “plus ultra” was ever enough for him to catch up with All Might

but at any rate, this is certain some plus ultra shit right here

looooooool Horikoshi you sneaky little shit

SO THIS SHIT IS REALLY ALL BUT CONFIRMED THEN, HUH

damn it just what exactly is the story behind this. I want to know already

so now Endeavor is plummeting from the sky presumably unconscious and still very much on fire

and the guy with the air gun hands says he’ll catch him. and he’s shooting his hands out toward him

and his buddy with the chopped up floating limbs is helping too. gross

eeesh

I winced

and now there are more reaction shots, with Fuyumi’s hands over her mouth, the people from the newscopter looking on in shock, and Shouto still standing there with that same frozen “oh shit” expression as before

can anyone give this poor kid a hug or even a hand on his shoulder or fucking something already. jesus. Aizawa you’re right fucking there. what happened to all of your dad instincts

Hawks is running over now

ahhhhh yes here we go!

I expected there would be a slower, more dramatic build up to this, but he just like bounced back to his feet and fucking did it right away lol

well whatever. he earned it. he earned this

all right, Enji. I’ll admit it, you are making some great strides here. none of this is gonna get me to actually forgive you, mind. but I have done quite a bit of essaying on redemption at this point, and I gotta say, you meet those criteria. you are learning and trying to be better and actually succeeding. it doesn’t undo any of the shitty things you did, but that’s up to those characters whether they’re okay with moving past it or not. in the meantime you seem to be doing what you can to make up for it now, and while it would have been preferable for you to have learned this lesson some 25 years earlier... better late than never

and now everyone is cheering!

goddammit, they really needed this. a victory like this. something to help restore their faith

All Might’s sitting and looks kind of blown away. like his hair is literally blown away. did someone turn the fan on in this room or

ohhhhh my god

oh my heart. whoa there. I wasn’t ready for this

is he praying?? is this a thank you? or is this just relief and he just kind of slumped for a second and just happened to clasp his hands like that for lack of knowing what else to do

either way it’s giving me a lot of feels

although even now they’re all just standing around him hovering like they want to comfort him, but they’re afraid or there’s some invisible force field there or something. JUST PAT HIM ON THE DAMN BACK ALREADY. jesus he was so tense. that was so intense can you please give him some support please and thank you guys

by the way they seriously need to turn up the heat in the dorms it looks like. holdover thought from the previous chapters that I forgot to remark on because I was binging the rest of this arc. but they’re all bundled up quite a lot for being indoors

awwwwww

what is this. I thought I was supposed to come out of this arc shipping Dabi/Hawks?? I have yet to understand that? but Endeavor/Hawks (or more like Hawks/Endeavor) is certainly coming off very strong

(ETA: to be clear I don’t ship this romantically, because Endeavor is old enough to be his dad. which is kind of the point, actually. Endeavor fucked up with all four of his actual kids, but now with Hawks he has miraculously been granted the chance to make a new start with someone who’s disconnected from all of that. basically this is the first bond Endeavor has ever formed that isn’t fucking toxic, and I think it’s important for him on his path to making amends in whatever ways he can. this is a chance for him to actually try and be a good father to someone, and better late than never. 

because Hawks is also someone who has relatively few close connections with people, because he keeps all his true feelings bottled up for self-preservation reasons, and keeps people at a distance by being casual and aloof with everyone (though in a friendly way). and yet for whatever reason, he’s gone and adopted Endeavor. maybe it’s just that he sees Endeavor as the best hope the world’s got right now, and so mentoring him to be less of an ass gets him closer to his goal of one day not having to do this job anymore. or maybe something about Endeavor’s asshole nature makes Hawks feel more at ease being open with him, because he doesn’t need to worry about making Endeavor worry, because Endeavor will just keep on not giving a shit no matter what, so that’s nice. except that Endeavor does perhaps give the tiniest of shits, shockingly. and I think that’s something that came as a surprise to them both and caught them both off guard.

anyways. so somehow this relationship between a hot pile of garbage and a character who was only introduced six chapters ago became one of my favorites in the series in a staggeringly short amount of time. sometimes life is strange like that.)

LMAO

I USED THE OTHER ARM. SO IT’S NOT THE SAME. SHUT UP

(ETA: also would you fucking look at this fucking fanboy knowing which arm it’s actually supposed to be and still bothering to be all “HMPH!” about it. how does it feel to be a 45-year-old chuuni, Endeavor)

damn he is harsh on himself

jesus christ Horikoshi. I keep thinking this, but it really is like a textbook study of how to redeem a character. he ticked off every single box. give them everything they wanted only for them to realize it wasn’t what they wanted at all. make them remorseful for their past actions. make them strive forward with new purpose. make them suffer but refuse to give in. give them an eyepatch. (ETA: dammit.) give them new relationships that aren’t tied to all of the horrible shit they did in their past, so we can see them interact with someone without that for once and get a glimpse of who they could have been and maybe just maybe still could be with a lot of hard work

like, I know when I’m being manipulated, but damned if it isn’t a masterful fucking job

anyways. Hawks says that he still did a good job and this will definitely be huge

and he says that first off “we have to do something about your injuries” and lol, duhhhhh though

SJSLDFKLSKHGK

YOU HOLD UP!!!! DON’T TELL ME WHAT TO DO! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE

I FEEL LIKE I SUMMONED HIM LMAO

okay Dabi. meet Hawks? unless you already know him? I don’t know, actually and I’m very curious as to what’s going on here

because it now occurs to me that my earlier suspicion of Hawks still could be right on the money and it’s possible that he was even working with Dabi. because idk but people ship this something fierce so there must be some connection, either past or future. and that attack was no fucking coincidence, and it certainly was no coincidence either that it ended up doing exactly what Hawks wanted it to do

but anyways. I’m getting ahead of myself now and I’m sure we’ll find out more about this shortly!

and look at Dabi greeting his old man like he’s never met him before, too. you think you’re so fucking smooth, huh

(ETA: so the “I guess” part here is actually very significant. I’ll just let Viz’s translator Caleb Cook explain:

basically, your two options are (1) Dabi is a fire-user whose true identity is still being deliberately withheld and whose physical appearance (hairstyle, eye color, approximate age) just happens to match up near-perfectly with the missing Todoroki sibling who was coincidentally mentioned in this same arc for the very first time, and who has apparently met Endeavor before, but in spite of this he somehow is not Todoroki Touya; or (2) Dabi is Todoroki Touya.

I don’t know about you guys, but I know where I stand with this one lol.)

shit. what an ending. what a fucking arc this is turning out to be

#bnha #boku no hero academia #endeavor #hawks #todoroki shouto #dabi #bnha spoilers #mha spoilers #makeste reads bnha #just how long has endeavor been planning that victory pose #waiting for the perfect moment to finally unleash it #but make absolutely sure you don't use the same hand as all might though! #this way it's still wholly original #as expected from the same man who was all 'goddamn I hate u.a. and their stupid motto' #and then proceeded to name his most powerful attack after it

[immalittlepandybear]

Am I?

Soooooo, I’m actually posting some angst, OhmToonz angst. This story was inspired by the song FRIENDS by Anne-Marie and Marshmello and the ever beautiful writer @crimsonbluemoon

So, babe don’t read this!

Ring Ring Ring Ring!

Luke blindly reached over to his alarm clock and unplugged it. When the ringing continued, he opened his eyes and saw that it was his phone. Someone was calling him.

Luke sat up and answered the call, not even caring to look at the caller I.D. He already knew who it was, Ryan. Ry was the only one with his number.

“Yes, Ry?”

“Open up. I forgot my key.”

“Ugh. Fine.”

*click*

Luke dragged his sore body out of bed and down the stairs to their front door, him and Ryan are college roommates, but probably not for long. Ryan has gotten his degree and is in the process of moving to Chicago. He shipped everything of his there, now he just needs to get on the plane tomorrow.

Luke opened the door to a drenched Ryan.

“God Ry! You’re gonna freeze! Or get hit by lightning!” Luke scolded as Ryan rushed inside and grabbed his bunny blanket to cuddle up in. Luke decided to go and make the poor man some hot cocoa. He is lucky if he doesn’t get hypothermia.

Once Luke made the hot cocoa for Ryan, he grabbed the container and the mug and took it over to Ryan.

“Don’t forget this thing when you go. It’s just gonna rot in the cupboard if you’re not drinking it.”

“I still can’t believe you don’t like hot chocolate. You’re an alien I swear. Everyone *loves* hot chocolate.” Ryan grumbled as he nonchalantly grabbed the container and set it to the side. He had a more important problem right now anyway. He was finally going to confess his feelings for Luke.

“Umm, Luke? Can I tell you something?”

“Yeah, sure.” Luke has a feeling he knows what it is, but Ryan needs to get it off his chest. Ryan will need to move on because Luke is straight. And he has no plans on changing his sexuality anytime soon.

“I-I like you…Like, love you.” Ryan can’t believe he just did that! He finally said it! After all this time! He hid his face in his blanket and waited for Luke’s response, face as red as a tomato.

…

After a moment of silence, Ryan looked up in confusion. “Luke?”

“I know.” Luke walked away, back to the kitchen and stayed there.

“Wha-

“I *know* you like me, more than just a friend. You told me when you were drunk a couple of months ago. That’s why I got a girlfriend and ignored that next week. That’s why I brought chicks home every weekend after she broke up with me. I’ve been trying to prove to you.” Luke paced up and down the kitchen while Ryan just watched, bewildered.

“You knew? And you didn’t say anything? Why not? And to prove what?”

“TO PROVE THAT I’M STRAIGHT! AND THAT I CAN’T AND WON’T EVER LOOK AT YOU LIKE THAT! I tried to let you down gently! But this is ridiculous! You can’t take a hint, can you? I thought I made it obvious for you! DO I HAVE TO SPELL IT OUT!!?? WE. ARE. FRIENDS.” Luke stormed away and into his bedroom. “I’m going back to bed! I can’t believe you woke me up at two in the morning for this shit!”

Ryan didn’t know where it went wrong! He knew he should’ve just kept his stupid mouth shut. Why does he have to be so stupid?

Crying, Ryan grabbed his last suitcases and headed to the airport, there was no way he was going to spend the night there and face Luke in the morning. In his haste and crying state, Ryan forgot his bunny blanket and his hot cocoa container.

~~~*~~~

Luke heard the door slam and sighed. He knew that what he said was harsh. But he has been trying to subtly tell Ryan for a whole month! His girlfriend even found out that Ryan loved Luke and she broke up with him because of it. Ugh, now he feels horrible for what he said. He was just tired of it. He was really harsh though, Ryan didn’t do anything *wrong* so, he decided to apologize.

“I’ll apologize tomorrow, I’m dead tired right now.”  Luke decided that calling him will be best. He will call Ryan before his 6 a.m. flight to Chicago. He set his alarm and tried to sleep.

*Tried* but failed.

Luke ended up laying there for the rest of the night, questioning everything. His stupid mind suddenly recalled his days in high school when he had a questionable drunk night and woke up in someone else’s bed. All that would have been fine and the normal for Luke except, it was a guy’s bed. A dude named Craig. Luke remembers waking up to him naked, with his clothes tossed everywhere and Craig mumbling in his sleep how much his ass hurt and ‘Why did he have to be so big?’ Luke also remembers rushing to put his clothes on and leaving that apartment as fast as he could to get away from whatever the hell happened that night.

With the battle going on in his head, Luke knew he wouldn’t be getting any sleep tonight. Maybe I can wake up Ryan and we can finally finish ou--, oh wait, Ryan isn’t here to play monopoly with him anymore. He isn’t here to throw the dice at Luke when he knows Luke is being a gloating asshole. He won’t be here anymore to try and make Luke drink hot cocoa anymore, always waving it under his nose to try and get him to drink it. He won’t be here to stumble around and break things in the morning. Or to silently rage when they play Mario Cart together. He won’t be here to get excited over going to Starbucks together, or to enjoy Luke’s cooking.

Luke brought a smile to his face as he remembers all the little weird noises Ryan would make when he was happy, or excited. He specifically remembers when Ryan actually beat Luke and got MVP in Rainbow Six Siege, Ryan jumped all over the couch yelling in excitement as Luke watched on in amusement until Ryan tumbled off and hit his head against the wall. “Worth it!” was what he said amidst the groans of pain and mumbles of cursing. But all of that can’t happen anymore because he fucked up. He fucked up reaaaaaal bad. He can’t imagine his life without him. God, why is Luke sooo stupid! Why did he have to yell at Ryan! The poor man opened up to him about his feelings and all Luke did was yell.

“Goddammit! Why did you have to do that Luke? All because you are fucking insecure and confused.” Luke punched the couch and flopped down on it.

“Fucking shit!” He cried out when his knee hit something metallic. He angrily got up and yanked a blanket off the couch to look. It was…the hot cocoa powder? Why would Ryan leave this? He loves this stuff. Luke also realized that the blanket still in his hands was Ryan’s. The bunny one. Why would Ryan leave this? It’s his favorite. He and Luke went to an animal sanctuary and they were selling blankets of the animals that they saved. Ryan ended up begging Luke to get him the gray bunny blanket, after a while, Luke agreed. But what he didn’t find out until later is that Ryan, the sneaky bastard, already bought Luke a fox one and he wanted them to match. Luke unknowingly pulled the blanket around him and took a deep breath. Hmm, smells of chocolate and coffee. He stopped himself. What was he doing? Smelling his blanket? What the fuck is wrong with him? He’s acting…like a…lovesick…person. But Luke’s straight? Right?  No. He doesn’t know what he is, but he sure isn’t straight, not anymore.

“I gotta call Ry!”

Luke flew off the couch and to his bedroom, where his phone was still plugged in. He didn’t even look at the time as he quickly scrolled through his contacts and called Ryan. Oh, how he hoped he would have come to his realization sooner.

~~~*~~~

Brock looked around the room with tired eyes. Right now, he and his team are stationed at the local police station to somehow make sense of this chaotic mess. An airplane was struck by lighting and the instruments stopped working, including the autopilot system. No one really knows what happened, and most of the bodies are scorched beyond recognition, so his team was tasked with trying to match I.D.s up with bodies and contacting their families.

*Ring Ring!*

“Whose ever it is, shut it off. We are busy right now.”

*Ring Ring!*

“I said--!” I turned around to the boys looking around and putting their phones down. They all looked confused until Agent Jon Dennis spoke up.

“I think it’s coming from the evidence box.” At that, everyone searched through the boxes with baited breath. They all hate this part. A loved one calling up to check if a person was ok and then finding out that they’re in fact dead.

“I found it!” Jon held up the phone which was still ringing.

“Answer it and put it on speaker phone,” I said as he answered it. We immediately heard a male voice.

“Oh, thank god I was able to get to you before you left for Chicago. I’m sorry about what I said! Please come home! I love you and I can’t believe I didn’t say it before and that I waited until the complete last moment to tell you that. And I feel like such an ass about earlier and I understand if you are still angry with me, but please come home. I’m so so sorry for what I said…Ryan? Are you there?” I looked around the room and saw that Brian had tears running down his cheeks, Marcel wasn’t moving, and Mini had a hand over his mouth and was silently sobbing as they all realized that this man had no idea.

No idea that the man he loved, Ryan, wasn’t coming back home, and that one fight had seemed to lead Ryan to get on that flight, only to die in a storm moments later.

“This is Agent Brock of the FBI. It’s very unfortunate to tell you this, but Mr. Wrecker died in a plane crash this morning around 6:45.” Even Brock had tears running out of his eyes at this point. They have told so many people today that their loved ones are dead. That they will never be coming back home to them. This last one seemed to break them completely as they heard the poor man fall apart at hearing the news and then hang up.

“Nonononononoo! That can’t be true! I just talked to him a couple of hours ago! Oh no! He died hating me! He…he…died”

#ohmtoonz #angst #bbs #im crying rn #i cried while writing this #ohmwrecker #cartoonz #luke patterson #ryan wrecker

[sol1056]

hrm, I have several asks that all imply a similar premise in their questions, so I’m answering that particular part of those asks, all in one, here. 

and the premise is that I hated S6; but truthfully,I’d be reluctant to say that. Instead, I’d say I found its flaws even more glaring thanks to contrast with parts that I did like, but that what goes in the ‘good’ or ‘bad’ columns depends on the hat I’m wearing when I’m asked. 

See, if I were to break out the various levels in which I consume any story, in any media, it’d be something like this: as a writer, as a student of visual media, as an anthropologist, as a technologist, as a philosopher... and that’s not counting the various other things I love that -- if reflected well in a story -- will make me happy: engineering, mechanics, architecture, intercultural communications.

behind the cut: an example in how those parts of my brain react, and a quick rundown of the real issue of the season: failure to be inspired evenly across the character spectrum. 

Take a scene like the one where the castle is hijacked. I don’t know for sure, since @ptw30​ is too kind to smack the shit out of me, but I had to have sounded like a chaotic jumble in reactions when Pidge realizes there’s a virus, tries to barricade it in, discovers it’s got a counter-attack tailored to defeat her defenses, and then must use her stored shutdown systems as final defense. 

writer brain: okay, the series of events is kinda cliched but it’s handled solidly, moving at a good clip, aaaand yep there’s the backlash, aaaaand yep, the final pivot, dialogue is jargon-heavy which reduces tension slightly but that emotional reaction beat at the end, good job there

visual brain: not bad, kinda predictable angle, oh, that’s a nice shot, good grief hate that cliche, glasses do not go full reflective like that, ohh that’s a different angle, lovely contrast with the character’s words, not earth-shattering but solid composition

technology brain: FKN STOP IT THAT IS NOT HOW IT WORKS NO OMFG JUST STOP WTF OF COURSE THERE’S DEFENSES WTF WERE YOU BORN YESTERDAY FKN FIND THE VULNERABILITY NO THAT’S NOT HOW THIS WORKS THAT’S NOT HOW ANY OF THIS WORKS NO WONDER PPL NEVER GET WHAT WE DO GADAMMMIT ANKERLNSDFOIXCVUDX OMFG

mechanics brain: uhm, does this castle have no isolated systems? did no one in all this time ever look at the castle and say, gee, all of this is connected by a single computer system and boy maybe we should, like, isolate this shit, where are my physical real-world levers and a big red button that will physically break connections in a case like this wtf

architecture brain: my HOUSE has a shut-off valve so I can turn off all water to outside spigots when there’s a chance of freezing, without putting interior water pipes at risk, what genius built this castle and never thought to do the same for all their crucial and vulnerable systems?

philosophy brain: is this meant to shut the castle down, or an act intended to make the castle explode, how to draw a clear conclusion as to the moral reaction to such an act, ramping up danger gives impression that purpose is simply shut-down, as opposed to going for the jugular by taking out life-support vs turning castle into bomb, (technology brain interrupts to say FKN CASCADE FAILURE DAMMIT) and reaction is good but lacking something (writer brain pops in to say but emotional beat! we have emotional beat!) bc still not enough to leap from here to seeing friend as enemy, where is the ethical decision point to justify murder in self-defense

...you can see there’s a lot going on in any one scene, in my brain. 

But that also means I can analyze anything -- from an entire story down to a single dialogue exchange or image -- from one perspective and find it satisfying. And there’s no real contradiction imo to turn around and in the very next analysis put on a different hat and be frothing at the mouth over all the failures and numerous flaws. 

No work is perfect, just as no audience is a monolith and neither are any of the individual members of that audience. Every single one of us has experiences across many areas and will bring all of them to bear on our enjoyment of a story. Up to and including sometimes willfully shutting down parts when they get too noisy -- like the way I have to grit my teeth through stories showing tech stuff because visual media pretty much never gets it right. 

Here’s the bottom line, though, and the one thing that will overrule every other complaint (not neutralize those complaints, mind you, only backburner them in comparison): 

do I give a damn about the characters?

As long as the answer is yes, I’ll be riveted, regardless of the goings-on. And that’s where S6 was a fascinating object lesson in how my reactions to some characters have changed, thanks to events in S3/S4/S5. 

I honestly skipped every scene with Coran fixing the castle. I don’t hate him; I just didn’t find him half as compelling as the other plot threads. 

I tuned out roughly half of what Pidge had to say, because her descent into amorality (and the lack of ever being called on it) has turned her from one of my favorites into one who doesn’t deserve my time. 

I only gave Allura half my attention, b/c her deus ex machina in S5 is too OP and that takes away a huge amount of risk. She’s a walking powerhouse now which means a lot less at stake, and what could’ve been a truly dramatic moment (Lance’s near-death) had no drama for me b/c of course Allura can make it all better. (Plus the compressed pacing in that episode meant the story ran roughshod over that reaction beat.)

I skipped Lance’s scenes once I figured out they’d amount to him pining away (but not actually doing anything about it) -- once again, everyone else is working hard and Lance is wrapped up in himself, and I’m tired of it. Get over it, act on it, move on, I don’t care, just shut up. 

I paid attention to Lotor until he went over the edge. I’ve heard enough descent-into-madness speeches from fictional sociopaths, and he didn’t even present a good enough motivation to make his actions riveting. 

Uh, did Hunk have anything to say? Other than doing engineering stuff in the first episode... frankly, a chunk of which I skipped ‘cause I’d seen that four-minute teaser. Too long, enough I had no interest in sitting through it again. 

If Keith, Krolia, or Shiro was on the screen, I was on it. If it was the clone, though, I kinda half-listened. I wanted that one storyline resolved already, so I could decide whether to stop caring for any of these three, too. 

I paid attention to the generals... until Axca revealed she’d been working with Lotor all along, and then I realized the story had been lying to me. I do not forgive that. When Zethrid and Ezor shrugged over previous betrayals (Narti) and agreed to work with Lotor, I stopped paying attention to them, too. I’m here for characters, not plot devices. 

Also, Romelle was left-field unforeshadowed swerve exposition fairy with an accent almost as annoying as no-name-father’s attempt at, uh, idk what that accent was (but goddammit it hurt to listen to, so I just muted him when I saw his mouth move). Maybe we’ll get lucky and they’ll drop Romelle off at the nearest mall so she can go buy herself a reason to be in the story. 

And lastly, wtf was that about the castle’s destruction, whhhhyyyyy did we get a larger reaction space for AN EMPTY SHIP than we did for, oh, say, LOSING THE CLONE who’d been part of the team for how many months? wtf was that. 

If you look up at my list of reactions to the castle-virus point, you’ll notice that there aren’t any mentions of personal stakes or characters. At no point was I thinking, oh no will everyone be okay (or even oh no not the poor castle) -- because any remaining connection with the core cast was tenuous by that point, at best. I had minimal to no emotional reaction to Pidge’s final emotional beat, because I’ve lost all respect for her as a character, so I don’t care anymore whether she cares or not. 

Which means that there will be things -- depending on the hat -- that I either have found, or may be shown (via other peoples’ analyses, usually) are worth my time and/or have a reason to be there and/or make me reconsider. But without that connection to the characters, at least half the story is just going to go by at arms-length for me, now, and that’s a lot harder to come back from, all things being equal. 

#voltron legendary defender #vld spoilers #meta #analysis is my chocolate cake #come for the sugar stay for the salt #vld #voltron

[inexchangeforyoursoul]

Luffy, son.... you are not supposed to serve tea this hot to people… (I wanted that to be its separate chapter, but it turned out to be waaay too short for that, and thus, a waste of ch numbers. Art incoming, too; because of that, this will be another “tumblr exclusive (for a while)” part.)

As I’m rather happy with this thing and it’s a halfway Law-centric chapter, I shall put it in the main tags. (this is a dumb LawXOC thing; this one seems to beee.... roughly 4500 words, attagirl)

This was the part that was fun to write even while unmotivated. I think y'all understand why. Now, for the less pleasant things, out of which I'm missing the next two or three chapters entirely… ho, boy. Now, this will be power writing. (Also thanks to anyone who might be here who might have written any of the anon messages I got to keep me going past this particular chapter???)

Ps.: do not ever sterilize your whole entire house if you have a kid. They are meant to catch things so their immune systems get stronger… and have work to do. Because if they don't, they get bored, and a bored immune system will look for shit to defend against anyway; this is how your kid gets allergies ranging from 10 pollens through animals to fucking SUNSHINE. They are meant to be sick a lot in the first couple of years, deal with it. And fucking vaccinate them, too.

31. We need to talk

8 o'clock; there's noone opening the door gently, nor is there anyone near-falling down the stairs. All is perfectly still.

Law drums on the desk with his fingers and sighs; he kind of saw this coming. Doesn't make convincing himself to go out and fetch the girl any easier, however. He's about as unwilling to seek her out as it is the other way round.

A good ten minutes later, he drags himself out of his room and up to the surface; it's relatively silent for a Saturday morning, but a lot of these idiots have been out partying, so whatever. He wouldn't be surprised if half of his crew was still out snoring on a bank or alley.

It's all the more scary when a masked rando pops up right beside him at the railing of the Thousand Sunny with a cheerful ‘yo, Kat’ as he starts checking on her whereabouts.

It's Luffy with one of those fucking… things. Looks like a cheap imitation, too. Seriously… if he didn't know it was one of these idiots, he would have gotten a heart attack. He's still way too jumpy in this body, goddamn.

“Strawhat-ya, honestly... does Kat-ya make a face like this all day?” he asks, with mild annoyance, pointing at his scowling self. “Also… take that thing off.” It's kind of creeping him out, now that he's taken a good look at it up close.

“Ah, right, it’s you, Torao… and nope, it's pretty rare,” Luffy nods, then plucks the mask off his head. “Found it between these big warehouses! Pretty cool, huh?”

“I'm not surprised it was ditched… Anyway, if even you can tell that much, then why do you keep mixing us up?” It's been like… no, not ‘like,’ it HAS been a week, for fuck's sake.

“Well, hugger you is definitely not you you, but otherwise... both Kat and Torao are worried, sad or angry most of the time, so it's hard to tell them apart, to be honest,” he states wondering as he drops the prop on deck with relative care and puts his hands on the back of his head to lounge at the railing. “Like today. And, whenever they are really tired, it feels like the prickly needle thing you get when your leg falls asleep. Everyone else tends to be more like... slow waves, when you stand in water.” He stretches one leg out and flaps the sandal to his soles.

“Huh?” What? Being talked about in third person is also weird, but… excuse him?

“The feel you two give off is pretty similar is all. Though I guess Kat is also more tense overall, at least she used to be. And she has a lot of weird jokes. That I usually don’t get,” he squints. Whenever the others find something she said funny and he doesn't get it, he feels left out, really.

“No, I mean… what would she be pissed off at?” And sad. And tense… He won't even try comprehending that other stuff. Anyhow, she can be the very literal definition of a nervous system at times, that's for sure. The very first thing he knew about her was that she was either really nonchalant about something, or about to have a panic attack, after all. And not exactly in the situations that matched those reactions... she shrugged off a date with the Reaper, but was really anxious when Nami dragged her off to get her cuts and bruises treated by Chopper on board of the Sunny two minutes later. But... halt, stop. It just registered… what does rubber boy mean by him being similar to her?

Luffy shrugs. “Dunno and don't really care. It's not even directed at anything, though... which is the weird thing about it.” He hops up on the railing to sit, then crosses his arms.

Law sighs… his observation haki will never be on this level. And the way Luffy formulates it is akin to an 8-year-old giving descriptions of a dream, which doesn't help, either. Reading faces and gestures can only get you so far, doesn't it.

Scowling a bit, Luffy eventually comes to a conclusion. “Maybe she just hates herself.”

The surgeon is a little taken aback by that; going by what this dunce just said, it makes sense, but... “Why would she...?” he mumbles mostly to himself, also crossing his arms. Going by whatever he could gather from Shachi and the rumors from her time in the dining hall, it did cross his mind that she might have some self esteem issues, that’s why he decided to be better safe than sorry and basically walk on eggshells when dealing with her. How she acts in general can support the idea, too, when considering some traits from another point of view…

“You are the one hanging out with her all the time, so why do you ask me?” Luffy pouts. The expression turns into a thoughtful one soon, then turns into mild worry.  “… do you hate yourself, Torao?”

In the blink of an eye, he and his body (that’s worryingly cold in the first place) both realize that it’s like twelve degrees Celsius at best outside, and that not taking a sweater over a thin undergarment and breezy, medium sleeved shirt was a Mistake™. “You're… overthinking it,” he responds while waving dismissively.

“Really? That's a relief!” the other captain sighs and puts a smile back on.

“... yeah.” Perhaps it all boils down to her having a similar way to handle her emotions? She did keep being in pain a secret, which is something he does, so that's one thing they have in common. But goddammit, Strawhat… don't just say things like this all of a sudden.

He peeks then up towards the garden, where rhythmic little thuds have been disturbing the silence for the past minute. They really ought to talk.

Right now.

This is much easier to do once Nami appears from the direction Kat could be, as the navigator won’t let her captain go alone and get himself lost again in town when latter declares his intention to go back, even despite his excuses of being able to see the Sunny from the church tower when it’s not dark. Having gotten rid of Luffy surprisingly quick this way, Law stops on the stairs as soon as he’s high enough to look around. He peeks towards where he suspects her being, and indeed, the noise that started somewhere down the line was caused by a dazed Kat. He weighs his options for a moment; on one hand, taking some time off is a reasonable way to handle this. On the other… if he leaves this up to the girl, she may never show her face again, which is no viable route for him to take. He’ll definitely have to take initiative.

Noticing the light steps closing in on her, Kat stops drumming her heels against the ship.

Law sighs. “Look…. I know I’m making you uncomfortable right now, but I really kind of need my body back as soon as possible.” … maybe not the best start, but he got the point across.

After a short pause, Kat bonks her head into the wooden pillar in front of her with considerable power, and takes a long, sharp breath.

Law watches in perturbed bafflement. Um… maybe… it was a bad start, after all.

“I’ll manage,” she sighs, straightening herself at once. “It’s hard to ignore, and cuts my productivity in half, but… is, what it is. I’ve kind of made peace with telling my boss as-is, too, so that won’t be bothering me.” She pauses the fast rant for a moment to cut the speed, and stares into the waves licking away at the side of the ship. She had enough time to think about this somewhat objectively during her short-ish wake around midnight and later in the morning. “And you… shouldn’t have to worry about it, either. Once you're all gone for good, it will fade away soon. Knowing myself, I might not even be able to remember your name in a few months, anyway,” she shrugs all limp. “I’m no good with names, so… it would be nothing new.” It’s a famous and super simple name that’s not hard to catch, so she likely will. Maybe even his surname, since it’s a funny one. No promises, though.

… twisting knives much? Sheesh, he never suspected her of being capable of such… savagery. And he thought Luffy was being blunt today… Generally, he likes both of their honesty quite a lot, but Kat saying that he’ll be deleted from mind as soon as he’ll be out of sight is… a bit too much. And frankly, it hurts like a bitch. If he was in any way unsure about how he felt about her until this, well... there are no doubts about it now. He better keeps all of this to himself, though.

After all... it really is for the best. Technically, good news, even. And he also gets her; it’s the pragmatic thing to do. Having any kind of amiable relationship with a pirate is not exactly easy. There's no sure way to reach them, and sending messages to someone endangers that person. Hell, they all could die the day after setting sail for all he knows. A part of him has an even deeper understanding of what she means… it's not about worrying about anyone getting killed, quite the contrary. She's sheltering herself from getting hurt, by simply staying indifferent. He handles strangers the same way, and did the same for the longest time while with the Family: laughing whenever he felt like it... helping if he wanted to, or if he had to... generally enjoying the company, but not building any meaningful relationships. The question is, though... how did she get there, to this mindset? Few normal people do that. It could be just the way she’s always been, but considering how much she strives to please people around her, and how sensitive she seems to be to other’s moods in the first place…

Who hurt her?

Getting no response and feeling his eyes on her back is getting to her fast; Kat puts her head back against the pole and continues. “... Sorry, that sounds... really mean... but I suck at keeping in touch anyway. People just... come and go?” She shrugs, then starts to swing her legs again, until her heels hit the ship and she stops with limbs still flailing about. “I have no idea what my kinda-friends from high school or college are up to, either. Even when I think about fun times and miss someone… I never sit down and write a letter or go visit. I don’t get any further than grabbing a pen, but… what even are the chances they still live where they used to, huh?” She puts on a bitter smile that fades away fast. “Am I... a bad person? For that?” Her voice is unstable and hoarse at this point. She takes a shaky breath, followed by a gulp.

“... no, you're not.” Not being able to keep up with people is okay. Being stuck in a cage of her own making is, though. He takes a moment of consideration, then joins her at the railing.

Kat stares down to where her hands should be through the white pillar as Law plops down, then speaks up after a short pause while holding back a sniffle. ”The other week, I was wondering... why none of them tried to hit me up, either. Ever. I guess I'm just... that insignificant...” The sniff escapes and she also needs to wipe off a tear.

“…” He didn’t plan on joining a therapy session, nor doing anything else past talking, but a good old shoulder pat is definitely warranted here, so that’s what he does. Realizing that the cold hand made her shiver is too little, too late, so he just rolls with it. “Now, now… you know like a dozen of infamous people as of last Tuesday, so that automatically makes you count for something.” Her self esteem really seems to be in a bad shape. There's definitely some asses that ought to be kicked on these islands, because this is definitely not normal behavior.

Cannot help but crack a smile at that. “If you say so.” She rubs her eyes. “Sorry, I went off tangent again.”

“As did I the other day… and? Got it out of your system?” Seems like she’s bouncing back at least.

“Kinda,” she breathes after a pause.

“Just kinda?”

“…” She rests her temples against the railing again, even though it’s starting to hurt, bump she just made notwithstanding. “Every now and then, I keep thinking… how there would be someone in my place to do all the things I do.” Her eyebrows furrow. “If not now, then later. I’m just another pebble in the sea, and it feels… suffocating.”

“… I see.” Oh, boy… this actually sounds like more zero filter stuff, but without drugs to make it weird. Which is iffy, since he’s far from being a psychologist. Well, is what it is… take notes, analyze, and most importantly, watch your fucking mouth.

“Like, I know it’s the same for important people, inventing and doing actual, impactful stuff. Because, there’s little difference in the grand scheme of things, is there? It just doesn’t matter whether something happens today or in a hundred years. Everyone is replaceable. As is everything else. What I wanna say, is… wanting attention… at all… makes me feel selfish. Even when it probably shouldn’t.” Feeling the hand on her shoulder makes it tingle… she’d move, if not for knowing that he would lift it off again.

“… Um…”  Okay… he might have stepped into this one hard. Aside from blinking wildly, because this has suddenly nosedived into deep waters… he needs a second here. The spaced-out girl he got to know in the past two weeks thinks about this shit regularly? She did seem less bubbly and way less excitable than she actually is at first glance, but… holy shit. She actually is pretty good at brooding herself. If he wasn’t so dumbfounded, he’d be impressed. “… wow, I… never considered the possibility that you could be a nihilist.” A very sentimental nihilist. That’s certainly what he takes from this. The conclusion is kind of enlightening.

She remains silent for a second, then squints. “... all I crave is death.”

Law lets out an exasperated sigh, then slaps her on the back of the head resulting in another light bonk. “Don’t you think for a second that I cannot tell the difference between you being serious and on the brink of grinning like an idiot,” he tells her off with the other hand on his hip. She may be trying to keep a poker face up, but none can do if she’s gonna use that overly dramatic delivery anyway. This woman, he swears to god.

And, as soon as the jig is up, there it is: the smile.

She reaches up to scratch the head area that stings a little after getting smacked. “Heh… sorry, had to break that gloomy mood.” Though, no lie, she does like talking about heavy stuff like that. If Law did not seem to be bothered by it, she probably would have continued.

“By willingly pissing me off?” Was that really necessary?

“Well… it worked, didn’t it?”

“Touche,” he breathes, crossing his arms. “But don’t make a habit out of it, if you know what’s good for you.” If she has actually figured out how to dig down to his berserk buttons, she’s playing with fucking fire, and he wouldn’t be surprised if she found enjoyment the activity. “I can fix myself up as soon as I get my body back, and rearranging your internal organs or face with, or without my powers, is not beneath me.”

She nods, humming. “I didn’t doubt for a second that you’d make a feisty kuja, alright. Will not overdo the gremlin act.”

“… good.”

After a silent pause, Kat stops rubbing her head. “… say, Law?”

He lets out a questioning hum.

“Are you in pain… because you were sick?”

“…” Is there a point to tell her anything if it’s so obvious in the first place? Oh well, she's asking, so… “Yeah. There are a few intergrowths I cannot really do anything with. Removing the lead deposits left my body aching at random, the bigger they were, the worse it is… you’ve probably noticed, but some areas like the left side of my torso and the right jaw are the main culprits. Those spots tend to act out a little even when everything else is fine. And I have additional god awful headaches when it’s too hot or cold outside and I don’t hidrate proper. These are honestly the worst aspects of it, no lie.”

“Act out like... Saturday evening?” When she first noted how something was a little off? It’s the only common experience they have…

He thinks for a moment. “Yeah, like that. The odd tissue that seems cancerous during a checkup, I can get rid of... but the fucking pain just won’t go away. Unless I kill off the receptors altogether, but that strikes me as an exceptionally stupid idea.” Even if it sounds really tempting at times. Maybe if he did it to his internal organs only…

“Wait…” Kat takes the first look at him today, and looks very much taken aback at that;  “did you say cancer?” As soon as he looks back, she averts her eyes again. Seeing him, save looking him in the eye, is just… not something she can handle at the moment.

He blinks at the reaction, but keeps his eyes on her for a second. “Heard me right. Don’t shit yourself, I can deal with it.” Looking back in front of him, he adds, “I’m also legally infertile, but that’s the least of my problems.” He’s unlikely to get old, too, but honestly… there’s only so many times you can cheat your expiration date.

“Oh,” she says a second later. And sounds quite disappointed at that.

“... don't you ‘oh’ me. You can have all the kids you want for all I care.” As long as her plans involve someone else, that is. … aw fuck, brain, don't you have anything else to comment on?

“Oh, no, no, no, it's just…” She gives the sideburns a scratching; “This is going to sound so stupid… but you seem like… the dad type?”

Law laughs out at the ludicrous idea. “Me? Seriously?” Geez, that’s so… out of the blue. Even more so than the being married line. Never even seen him with a kid around, has she? They just tend to shit their pants right away. He needs to put a hand on his temples to process this a bit… and to make sure there’s no headache caused by stupid on the way. “God… the hell makes you think that?”

“Well, for starters… someone like Luffy would drop his toddler into the ocean by accident, which you would… not.” As simple as that. From what little she’s heard about Garp’s parenting… even if Law happened to be on the strict side, there is, like, no competition here, honestly.

A millisecond of consideration ends up in a concerned, solemn nod on Law’s part. He wouldn’t want Strawhat oversee children in general, or at the very least, not leave them with him all alone. He out-dads him in any technicality regarding safety and common sense, so that’s a score.

“You still could be fun around, though,” Kat continues leaning back; “Like… you would totally do something like sticking them to the ceiling as punishment for being bad,” she muses with a little relaxed smile, pulling up some average family scenarios. “but, unless you are obviously angry with them, they would love it instead. You could experiment with pretty much everything from floating to chopping them up, but all would backfire spectacularly as they think of it as just another game.”

“... can’t argue with that,” the notes, raising a brow. “Little hellraisers be like that.” Punishing a kid that's acting out, well… Best bet would be the basic ‘send them into a corner’ situation instead of getting creative, huh?

“You’d also be the go-to solution for homework… despite not being helpful at all.” Definitely trolling the shit out of anyone who’s trying to use him for an easy pass… yes, yes. Would come through when needed, too, she knows that much firsthand.

“Correct,” Law nods with a smug grin. He absolutely would be the most useless genius around. It would drive them crazy and he would be enjoying the hell out of it. If they legitimately did not understand something, though… that’s actually negotiable.

Having seen enough of his self-assured smile from the corner of her eye, she addresses him directly. “... get off your high horse, Law. You might be a little shit, but you’d also be out-bawling anyone at any milestone your kiddos reach whatsoever,” she states with an amused look.

“Absolutely not,” comes the indignant reply; “Do I look like the sentimental type to you?”

She takes a long, thoughtful look at his general direction. “Look… I might not be able to guarantee it, but as far as I’m concerned, you would transform into the worst mess of a doting ‘pappa’ there ever was as soon as you’d be holding your firstborn.” First day of school and graduations would be just as bad, if not worse… god save everyone if he’s around for a wedding. Him sobbing in a tux while trying to operate a visual transponder is not a mental image she’ll forget any time soon. In fact, she’s going to treasure the hell out of it. Even if she’s more used to him looking like her, so it takes some extra imagination points to see him in his own body.

Her chuckle earns a very unamused face. “I won’t even begin to try and imagine what you just thought of, but really? Really really?”

“Ve-really,” she states while booping his nose, then gets her hand pushed off to the side. “Honestly… you’re saying it’s very unlikely in the first place, right?” She ponders, scratching her head while sitting upright again. “You can’t tell me that you wouldn’t be all over a baby? Beating whatever low odds?”

“...” She’s probably not wrong on that one. Up to eight, maybe ten per cent aren’t a lot...

“And let’s not even get started on the naming process… You have at least…” her fingers straighten one by one; feather guy, little girl, baby’s grandparents, and who knows, who else? “four, if not a dozen they’d have to pry from your cold, dead hands before settling for anything else!” He based his entire image on one of these people, for fuck’s sake. First boy would definitely get that name, whatever it may be.

… not to mention the chances of a healthy child…

“And… little ones are always sick or some shit, right? You’d go into doctor overdrive. Give them checkups like every fucking week, and be staring from over the bathroom door to make sure they wash their teeth, and… dude, I’d fucking hate to be your kid, oh my god!” At least it takes him like point five seconds to sterilize the entire house instead of scrubbing everything all day like a manic housewife, but holy shit…

“Kat…“

“I have no idea how you’d handle feeding them in any capacity, though… you run, like, exclusively on a handful of veggies, rice, potatoes… and chicken… and fish. And, you suck at cooking.” And the occasional drink. Would he be willing and able to make legit sandwiches…? He has no qualms touching the bread, made those French toasts, so that’s a start. This kind of presupposes him being allowed in the kitchen like a single dad, but still, she can’t help wondering how he would tackle that humongous elephant in the room if the need arises.

“Kat-ya, stop.”

The edge in the word startles her enough to delete the train of thought altogether. “Uh… um…” Did she say something wrong again? Did she hurt him? Or insult him? Is… is he angry…?

He sighs, staring into the darkness underneath the waves. “I suppose… you are right,” he says a few seconds later, his head also meeting the railing. “I am… the dad type.”

She stares down at her now interlocked hands; the images she found so amusing before…  look sickly and pale all of a sudden. A quick reality check has sucked all life out of them. Managed to fuck his day up again, huh?

“Dreaming… is dangerous,” Law concludes. The last time he did something like that… came with just another harsh wake-up call.

“… sorry. Didn’t mean to upset you.” Again.

“Eh, I’ll get over it.” However… he’s once again reminded of the fact that he’d been living to fulfill a singular goal for over a decade, and ever since he’s pretty much reached it, he’s been feeling… well, rather lost, to be honest. Stretch goals, like going against Kaido are a sufficient distraction at best. Sometimes he hears a little voice in the back of his head breaking through regardless before muffling it, talking about being tired of this life… bringing up the clinic of his own he's always wanted… having a home to return to.

Peace.

He knows better than to hope for any of that.

A single finger tapping his arm makes him realize that his eyes and nose cavity are burning up. This is followed by her barely audible, little mouse voice; “... Law?”

He takes a shaky breath and rubs his temples, sneaking in a finger to wipe away the half-ripe tear from the corner of an eye. “I’m fine, I’m…” he comes to a halt upon looking at her; “oh my god, are you crying?”

“... a little,” Kat squeaks after swallowing once.

Law snorts all of a sudden, then breaks out in painful laughter. The tears are also coming, but fuck it, because... while he’s hurting, this… also feels kinda good. Actually, it feels great. Talking about all of this… is great. She’s a better psychologist than he could ever aspire to be. Cafe girl… you are too fucking nice for your own good. Sincerely, fuck you.

As soon as the surprise wears off, Kat joins in, too.

After a solid minute or two, Law flops on the grass with hands covering his face. “... both of us… are kinda fucked up, huh?” he ponders out loud after the last couple of laughs. It’s kind of a dumb question; who even is not fucked in the head from all the people that he knows? He should have known that she was no different, even if the causes are still a mystery. No wonder the two of them can hit it off.

“I guess so,” Kat sniffs, rubbing her entire face that must be as red as it feels.

Sliding his freezing hands lower, Law stares skyward at the thickening clouds for a while. Laughing and crying are both exhausting… not to mention doing both at once. It feels like floating in a weird dream. Peaceful, even. Every weight has slid on his back, which is neatly supported by this nice ship made of pure sunshine, leaving him to breathe freely for the time being. He would say a ‘thank you,’ but it gets stuck somewhere in his throat.

He must be in really fucking deep, huh. Not that he minds, though… it feels really nice, after all. A little too much to be true, yes. But for now… he doesn’t want to worry about his short future. Instead, right here, right now... he just wants to enjoy this moment.  As much as he can. As long as he can. To the fullest.

#opfanfic #opfic #one piece fanfiction #Trafalgar Law #Kate writes #KMKY