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ddarker-dreams · 4 years

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Puppet. Yan Charles Grey x Reader [COMM]

The phrase “your life” feels more like an oxymoron than an accurate description.

Every task that you carry out -- from the moment the sun rises from the east, and sets in the west -- is not of your own autonomy. A marionettist pulls the strings from above, you but a mere puppet that concedes accordingly to its wishes.

You play the role of the perfect daughter, hours of tutoring and diligent planning from your parents ensuring your success. In your heart, there is little abhorrence for the distant yet prickly relationship you have with them. They mean no harm, you often have to remind yourself, when your thoughts gain a negative edge. It’s all for the greater good of the family.

Pressing the cold glass you plucked from the buffet table against your lips, your eyes take in the sight before you. Inhabitants from high social standing cluster together, speaking of benign matters or hoping to further their position in some way. It’s a familiar scene, despite the significance of the event.

The Queen, in all her normal benevolence, is hosting this ball in hopes of raising funds for a new orphanage in London. To turn down an invite to such an occurrence would be a kiss of death to your social standing. Your own family invested a hefty sum into the charity, a small hope of getting noticed you surmise. It’s a gamble, but nothing is gained without taking a few risks.

Your parents have an apparent agenda of their own tonight, centered around you. They’ve been introducing you to a variety of possible suitors, since you are now of the age to wed. Throughout the flood of faces you’ve met, none of them have seemed inclined to lead the conversation to taking your hand. The barrage of social interaction has sapped away at your strength, weariness settling in as the night progresses at a snail’s pace.

Being left to your own devices for what feels like the first time in hours, you lament the thought of when it’ll come to an end. Perhaps tonight simply isn’t your night? Your mother gave you a stern look when you spoke those words, critiquing every little nuance of your prior interactions. It isn’t your fault the men simply haven’t been interested in marriage, you did what was expected of you. That leaves no room for fault of your own.

One common string of actions you picked up on, was their hesitation in initially speaking to you. It could only have been your imagination, however, they spoke to you with rigidity. Polite, yes, but they seemed eager to leave your side. Almost as if they were hesitant to even speak with you in the first place, though any reason for this is beyond you.

How peculiar.

Your parents have left your side for a few minutes now, undoubtedly searching for another possible suitor to introduce you to. The string of bad luck isn’t enough to stop them from advancing their goals. Standing here for too long on your lonesome isn’t an option, the public eye judgmental and lips prone to entertain gossip. This night couldn’t come to a close any faster.

Adjusting your position, you consider the best course of action here. It’d be ideal to find a suitable person to speak to, but most of the people here are already in conversation with one another. Stopping a sigh that threatens to leave, you decide to get some fresh air. Distant laughter, chatter, and orchestral accompaniments go ignored as you walk to the doors of the balcony.

Guards open the door for you, allowing you to step outside. The moon is shining brightly above, illuminating the various plants interwoven with the wood railing. Corset constricting you harshly, the ability to breathe without trouble feels like a distant luxury. Being introduced to a possible husband one after the other doesn’t help, the interactions a whirlwind of stress.

“Not into events like this, huh? Not that I could blame you.” A male voice, light and whimsical, startles you from behind.

Placing a gloved hand to your chest in surprise, you look back to see a young man around your age. With long, snow white hair, playful blue eyes, and wearing a white tailcoat with a black buttoned up shirt underneath. He flashes you a lazy grin, before taking his place by your side.

Your breath hitches at the unexpected advance. Whoever this is either ignorant to social rules, or cares little of them. As he takes a place by your side, you consider making an excuse to go back in. A light breeze caresses your warming skin, a few strands of hair tickling your face.

��I wouldn’t phrase it like that,” you respond in earnest, unable to get a solid read on his aloof attitude. “Looking at the stars is a pleasant change of pace.”

In saying so, the pair of you look up towards the sky. It’s a rarity tonight, the usual smog not as apparent. His attention returns to you soon enough, mouth set in a straight line. He considers your input, crossing his arms.

“Hm… really? I’ve always found these events to be a drag.” he replies with a raised eyebrow, a hand pressed against his hip. You take note of the sheathed rapier, but think little else of it. The understanding the fashion choice of men has never been your strong suit.

“At first glance, perhaps. Legends behind the constellations are what I take the most interest in. Take those five stars there, for example,” you point a finger for extra emphasis. “That one is named Cassiopeia. In Greek mythology, Cassiopeia was punished by the gods for her vanity; forced to forever be imprinted in the sky.”

Biting your lip for a moment, you manage to collect yourself. When it came to topics you found compelling, rambling came naturally. If your mother were here she’d scold you, stern eyes saying more than words ever could.

“Seems over the top, if you ask me.” he concludes pointedly, pushing his lips to the side in thought. It almost comes as a relief that he isn’t irate with your passionate speaking, the window to criticize you for it now gone.

A light laugh leaves your lips, skin around your eyes tightening in amusement at his blunt assessment. “Yes, well, Greek gods were not known for their compassion.”

Mimicking your earlier action, he points to a cluster of stars in the sky with childlike enthusiasm. “And? What about this one?”

“Ah… I don’t believe that is a constellation. It has a similar appearance, however.” you speculate with a frown, silently hoping the answer isn’t too disappointing. His shoulders droop at your lackluster response, leading you to attempt and patch it over.

“You could always make a constellation of your own. I recall doing that as a child, it’s a fun game to play with yourself.” Memories come flooding back to you of your childhood, the nights you spent creating impossible yet fun scenarios to go along with the night sky.

Turning on his heels, he bends his face down ever so slightly to get a better look at you. Tilting his head to the side, an unidentifiable emotion flashes through his light sky blue eyes, before he returns to his former position. You feel your pulse quicken, concern over saying the wrong thing rearing its ugly head once again.

Instead of admonishing your thoughts, he encourages them. “Humor me. What story would you give this then?”

That isn’t what you were expecting. It’s an entertaining request, different from the dreary talk you’ve slugged through earlier. A topic that you’re well endowed in. Childlike wonder returns to you, flashes of memories from your youth returning.

“I can’t think of anything.” you confess with a sheepish frown. “I fear my interpretations would leave much to be desired, anyhow. The original stories are too timeless to compete with.”

Before he can offer a rebuttal, the sound of doors opening hurriedly behind you gains your attention. Your mother, eyes darting around before landing on your form, strides over to you with practiced ease. She freezes her movements when she looks over at your eccentric conversation partner, gulping at the sight.

“Earl Grey, I take it you have met my daughter?” she guardedly inquires, showcasing a tight lipped smile.

His title and name registers instantly, and you instantly feel an ocean of regret collapsing over you. Not only did you lose yourself in conversation with someone, it happened to be such an important individual? He could have you socially ostracized if he felt inclined to do so, being a guard of the Queen herself.

In a desire to save face, you mirror your mother’s stoic visage; praying she didn’t catch anything you said earlier. You gulp as he holds off on a response, her eyes narrowing briefly at you in the silence.

His own relaxed demeanor doesn’t change in the slightest at the new company, finally breaking the tense silence. “Indeed I have. We were having an exciting conversation.”

She shoots you a look that makes your blood go cold, fingers twitching by your side. The carriage ride home will be a harrowing event. You can already picture the chastising comments she’ll make at your expense, critiquing you from head to toe.

“Ah, I’m pleased to hear she was good company for you then. Please forgive her for any slips of the tongue, she’s always been an imaginative child.” she offers a timed laugh, one that you know well. Another sign of how you’ve surely upset her with your antics.

Your mother doesn’t need to say anything else, you more than capable of reading in between the lines of her strained gaze. She’s smoothed over any possible grievances to the best of her abilities, and wants you to dismiss yourself.

Earl Grey has kept his attention on you, paying little mind to her. You silently inhale, praying that your face doesn’t waver at your next words. Face burning in defiance of your wishes, you excuse yourself.

“It’s been a pleasure, Earl Grey. I thank you kindly for your time.”

---

When your father called you to his study this afternoon, you knew it would be grim news.

The past month has been a tense one, misfortunes piling up one after the other. It all started when one of his companies main investors pulled for no understandable reason, not even offering an explanation.

Matters only grew worse as rumors of scandal plagued him from an anonymous source, further discrediting the company's name. The staff of your house whispers that perhaps he’s been cursed by a malevolent spirit. While you initially scoffed at such an unfounded notion, you can’t help but begin to wonder if it holds some truth.

Weariness was apparent in his gaze, skin tight to the bone and dark circles underneath his eyes. Money is running out, he told you with a shameful sigh. There will be lifestyle changes in the near future, such as cutting a significant amount of staff at the estate; and even having to lay off employees under his company.

He wanted so desperately to shield you from this frightful information, but the times are growing dire. It’s frustrating -- how all of this could happen from out of seemingly nowhere -- leaving you at the mercy of the law. There must be something you can do, but what?

It’s the question that has led you to the gardens outside. Birds chirp contentedly, leaves rustling about in the wind. Nature always brings with it a taste of sweet solace, but today, even it fails to mitigate your anxiety. Negotiations for any possible engagements have also led nowhere, to make matters worse.

‘I could offer to sell some of my wardrobe… would that even do anything, though? It’s surely couldn’t hurt.’

Delicately wrapping your fingers around the teacup handle, you take a sip. Could it be you were not a desirable enough wife? With all the problems your family has had of late, suitors must be too cautious to approach you. As unfair as it may be, it frustrates you further.

“I was told I’d find you out here.”

Whipping your head around, you’re met with a sight that brings back pleasant memories. Earl Grey walks from behind a hedge, inviting himself into your presence without any hesitation. There’s a light spring to his step, like something had put him in a good mood.

This melts away instantly when he sees your downcast gaze, frowning deeply at the pitiful sight.

“Earl Grey,” you greet with a strained smile. “If you’re looking for my father, I can show you his study.”

Grey waves off your offer with disinterest, plopping himself down next to you. “There’s no need, I just finished speaking with him.”

You cross your legs at the information, muscles taut and frown deepening further. The investigation into possible racketeering brings a sense of shame, knowing in the depths of your heart your father would never do that. He’s been a lawful man his entire life, instilling in you good morals and reverence of the law.

It would be impolite to ask for the state of the investigation from Grey, who was assigned to look into the rumors by the Queen. It is still a tempting prospect, but you bite your tongue nonetheless.

‘How embarrassing… The Earl has only ever seen me in compromising situations such as this.’

“I wanted to speak to you before I left,” Grey explains, leaning closer to your person. “Not as an interrogation or anything relating to the recent allegations. I’ve been curious about you.”

Even at his insistence that this is off the record, it does little to help you. In the short time you’ve spoken to him, you’ve found his laid back personality to be off putting. Grey speaks whatever comes to his mind without caring how others might interpret it. This foreign confidence must come as a right to those in high power.

“About... me?” you repeat back for further clarification, blinking rapidly and tilting your head.

“We didn’t get to talk as much as I wanted to,” he explains, finding amusement in your wide eyes. Maintaining eye contact never felt so difficult. “And I just so happened to be here. It’s worth taking advantage of.”

Shifting in your seat, you respond. “I’m all yours then.”

He picks up on your poorly hidden discomfort with a frown, resting his chin on his hand.

“Don’t feel the need to be so tense around me,” he chastises, thin eyebrows furrowing together with displeasure. “I liked how you were before more. So open and honest! It’s a breath of fresh air, really. Everyone can be so stiff and boring... it drives me mad.”

“You must be worried about the ongoing investigation. It’ll be fine, really. There’s been no hard evidence found -- only rumors -- which is a different kind of damaging. But in the eyes of the law, it’s ultimately useless.

He winks, causing your face to flush. “Just a little secret between us.”

You feel yourself eased by his spontaneously serious words, the affirmation much needed. Offering him a natural smile, you express your heartfelt appreciation.

“Hearing you say that makes all the difference,” you fumble over your words, incapable of hiding the well of emotion within any longer. Putting a gloved hand to your mouth, you continue. “You’ve offered me such kindness.”

Grey perks up at your gratitude, leaning in closer. “I’m only being honest. I’ve seen the worst humanity has had to offer, but your father is nothing of the sort. And neither are you.”

Guilt over your previous assessment of the Earl sprouts like a weed within your mind. You thought little of him at first, believing him nothing more than a soul too lighthearted for their own good. But here he is, offering you comfort in one of the darkest seasons in your life despite having nothing to gain from it. If anything, it could be a risk to his own character to associate with you.

Yet he’s here nonetheless.

“There actually is another reason I wanted to speak to you,” he interrupts your thoughts with an excited hum. “Seeing as your father is almost entirely cleared of suspicion, we had discussed arrangements relating to you. I asked for your hand, and he enthusiastically accepted. Wonderful, right?”

“W-wait, what?” you sputter in utter disbelief, uncertain of whether or not you’re dreaming. Is Grey being honest with you, or is this a practical joke in the works? Men from lesser standing than him looked over you as a possible wife, what does he stand to gain from this arrangement?

He seems happy enough to repeat himself. “We’re engaged. There are some little details that still need to be ironed out, but, other than that...”

You never were expecting to receive news of an engagement like this, your thoughts incoherent. It’ll do little for your image to so clearly reflect your inner feelings, prompting you to gain any semblance of control of your outward reactions.

This is a good thing, after all, perplexing as it is. With his connections and influence, no one would dare question your father’s integrity again. Doing so would be questioning the Queen’s own bodyguards, an extension of herself in many ways.

Grey looks at you expectantly, unusually silent while giving you a moment to process. From his upbeat, almost sing song tone, you get the feeling he wants this engagement himself.

“So don’t worry about those things anymore. I’ll be taking care of you from now on, after all,” he hums, looking down at you. Lithe fingers grab hold of a strand of your hair, playing with it. He’s close -- closer than a man has ever been to you -- warm breath hitting your face. “My only request is that you be yourself around me. That’s what drew me to you, and all I care for.”

Giving you a moment of respite, he tucks your hair back into place. Grey takes in the sight of you. Afternoon sun shining upon your face, highlighting your flushed cheeks, and soft lips. Smiling with contentment, he leans back into his chair, closing his eyes.

“Do that for me, and we’ll have no problems. A win-win situation.”

#charles grey #black butler #yandere black butler #yandere black butler x reader #charles grey x reader #yandere charles grey x reader #kuroshitsuji #yandere kuroshitsuji #yandere #yandere x reader #my stuff #commissions

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feralrunaway · 3 years

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A New Day

CHAPTER 5

Summary: Captain Syverson finishes his latest tour and returns to his hometown only to find that things have changed since he’s been gone.

Pairing: Captain Syverson x OFC Olivia Harper

Warnings: Cursing, Slight mentions of alcohol, more mystery shenanigans

Word count: 1,092

Chapters: 1 , 2, 3, 4

**I’m sorry this took me so long to update! I hope you’re all still enjoying this. I don’t own anything related to the SandCastle movie or its characters. However, this is my original writing and I do not give permission for use of the idea or reposting without credit.**

Sy woke up with his body absolutely screaming of thirst. His throat was dry, his muscles ached, his heart was pounding. He peeled himself from the bed, went to his bathroom and stuck his head under the faucet and gulped.

Jesus, He thought, wiping his forearm across his dripping beard. He felt like he’d gone on an absolute bender the night before, but he hadn’t had a single drink. Squeezing his blue eyes shut, he tried to remember the events of the previous evening. Everything was blurry and fuzzy in his mind.

He made his way downstairs to the kitchen and downed two more glasses of water before making himself a plate of eggs and toast. He pulled out his phone, flipping through some social media, but immediately got bored. He very much appreciated in-person interaction. He liked to be able to see faces, hear voices. He didn’t want to see pictures on someone’s page about their escapades, rather hear about them over beers and poker. He sighed, remembering Jim telling him the only bar in town had closed down. It could be a good day for a road trip to the next town north of here to get some supplies anyway. He would pick up a couple six packs while he was there. Fleetingly, he wondered if there was something that he was supposed to remember, but it passed. He shrugged. No matter, it would come to him.

Feeling much better after some food and water, his previous physical distress forgotten, he went upstairs for a shower.

__________

“Jonah, my office please.”

“Of course, Sir.”

Blake’s stare bored through Jonah’s own as he sat across from his desk.

“I’m aware your brother has not sought work yet, I was hoping to bring him on board.”

“I believe he is still receiving leave pay from the military, Sir. It may be a few months yet before he’s looking for anything.”

“I see. And he’s no longer staying at your house?”

“No, Sir. He was quick to find a place of his own.”

“This won’t do. Invite him to dinner at your house. Make sure he has plenty to drink. Get him to come with you to church on Sunday. Ensure he makes it. We encourage community togetherness here, and surely you would like your brother to be a part of this community, no?”

“Of course, Sir. I will invite him right away.”

“Good. Dismissed.”

Blake pushed a button on his phone.

“Sir,” Michael’s voice came over the speaker.

“Monitor and ensure the levels at the Syverson house are appropriate. This is our only closed system so far, and I want to make sure it is beneficial for our newcomer. If this is successful, we will move on to phase 2.”

“Yes, Sir.”

_______________

“SYYYYY!” Manuel intoned, holding his arms out wide. “I can’t believe they let our stupid asses out on leave at the same time!”

“I wonder what the hell they were thinkin’,” Sy grinned at his buddy and clasped his shoulders in a hug.

Halfway through his drive, he’d received a text from his friend, letting him know he’d been placed on a similar leave and had just gotten settled in the last few days. They’d known each other since a tour in Jordan, parting ways only once they had both received a promotion. Manny was from Dallas, so Sy had ventured the extra hour in his direction for his errands instead.

“Heard tell Dante was back too. Between the three of us, they’re gonna be sore for leadership out there, huh?” Manny asked with a laugh.

“Probably be damned pleased they’re rid of us,” Sy grinned, “Got tired of their boys goin’ broke on poker bets. Musta decided to make us the state of Texas’ problem for a while.”

“Well shit. Let’s call him up and start doing our new duty, yeah?”

Within a couple hours the three of them ended up around Manny’s kitchen table, already a few bets and a couple beers in.

Dante folded his cards down with a sigh. “I keep gettin’ shit hands like this, you boys are gonna take me for all I’m worth before sundown,” he said, standing up and headed to the fridge for another beer. “Yo Sy, you want one?”

Sy shook his head. “Not for me, thanks. I still gotta drive back. I stocked up on the good stuff, so I’ll have another once I get back. Damn church dried out the county so I had to make a trip up y’all’s way to get some.”

“Bet you’re pissed you did now,” grinned Manny, laying down a flush.

Sy laughed, pushing his chips toward his friend. “Just cause I’ve had to stare at your ugly mug this whole time.”

Dante returned to the table. “So by what you’ve been telling us, you’ve got a shit town, with no beer, no water, and a bunch of zealots that you don’t wanna be around. Why the hell’d you go back?”

“Fuck if I know man. Really wasn’t sure where else to go at first. Probably woulda ended up here instead if I’d known you two were comin’ back too. Now that I’m back though…”

“HA! There’s a girl isn’t there?! Found you a hometown cutie that missed your fuzzy face, huh?” Dante cawed, mimicking kissy faces at Sy.

Sy laughed with him, but memories of the previous night were starting to become less blurry the more he remembered Liv’s face.

“Nah, it’s not like that man. A girl, yeah, an old friend, but she’s in a bad way.” The memories were still vague, but he started feeling uneasy the more he recalled. “Somethin’ ain’t right with the whole damn town, man. Buncha suits running a business no one seems to wanna talk about. Everyone’s too fuckin’ cheery or too quiet, like a town full of little worker bees. Shit gives me the creeps.”

“Spooky,” Dante said.

“I’m serious man. Somethin’ ain’t right.”

As he spoke, a realization dawned on him.

“Listen, boys, I gotta go. It was nice catchin’ up with you,” he said as he tossed his cards on the table.

“Don’t be a stranger, Sy. Hit us up again soon.”

“Will do, Manny.”

Sy quickly made his way out of Manny’s apartment, pulling out his phone as he walked.

He dialed the one person he could think of that could help, glancing at the two unopened bottles of water in his passenger seat as the phone rang.

“Tilson.”

“General Tilson, ma’am, it’s Captain Syverson. We need to talk.”

“About damn time, Syverson.”

Tags: @dancingwendigo @pterodactylterrace @indigosaurus @purplelove75 @omgkatinka @sugarpenchant @its--fandom--darling

*I didn’t tag everyone since this story was out before most people requested to be on my tags. If you’re on my general tag list and want to be added just let me know!*

#captain syverson #a new day #captain syverson x ofc

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zootopiathingz · 3 years

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Thanksgiving in Quarantine

(A/N: more Pixar AU!! no there's not really a plot I just wanted to write something for thanksgiving. Also friendly reminder I've never cooked a day in my life so Imma just be vague on those details)

"Alright Pixars, listen up!" Mike called to get everyone's attention. After their conversations died down, he stepped forward towards the front of the room so all eyes would be on him. As the group leader, it was his job to host the monthly meetings and inform them of recent events or decisions made by him or their creator, Luxo Sr.

Once he was sure they were listening, he proceeded to explain, "So as you all know, even though we aren't affected by Covid, we still have to stay in quarantine for the sake of others. So that means that this year, we won't be spending Thanksgiving with the Disneys—"

"YES!!" Everyone cheered ecstatically, some standing up to pump their fists or high-five each other.

Mike was taken aback by their joyous reaction. Not just because it was a response to what he said, but he couldn't remember the last time all of them were that excited about anything. "—like we usually do.." He finished.

"Oh don't act like you're not relieved about it, Mike." McQueen said, "You hate the Disneys just as much as we do."

"Excuse me, but we do not 'hate' here." He said, "We just strongly dislike. Anyway, I'm not that relieved like you guys are. I was actually looking forward to our tradition."

"Well, I'm just glad we won't have to be greeted by them singing 'Be Our Guest' for the millionth fucking time." Woody scoffed, earning some murmurs of agreement from the rest.

Their relationship with the Disneys was complicated, to say the least. Luxo Sr. started the alliance with Mickey Mouse himself several years ago, and thus they joined the Disney family. But the Pixars were never given a say in the deal, and while they did admire the Disneys and were grateful for the success they brought them, that didn't mean they were tolerable to be around. The Pixars didn't hate them (despite constantly joking that they did), they just despised their arrogance and their random outbursts of songs every ten minutes.

"Wait so if we're not going to the Disneys, we're gonna have Thanksgiving at our house?" Marlin asked, "You do realize we haven't done that in like, 14 years? And obviously the family's grown since then."

Mike nodded, "I understand that, but if we're able to somehow survive Halloween, Easter, Christmas, and New Years on our own, then how hard can Thanksgiving be?"

"Your optimism is appreciated." EVE said, "But from past experience, this feels like yet another disaster waiting to happen."

"Yeah, I mean, who's even gonna cook dinner?" Remy asked.

"You are." Mike shrugged.

The rat man widened his eyes, "Say what now?"

Remy was a great cook, and honestly he was the only one who actually knew how to use an oven. But cooking an entire Thanksgiving meal for the whole group was asking a bit much.

"I can't cook that much in one day by myself!"

"You won't, some of us will help you. Right, guys?" Mike asked. But he got no responses, instead everyone just awkwardly looked away.

Remy sighed, "Come on, guys. Do you really want to eat burnt turkey for Thanksgiving? Imelda?"

She put her hands up in defense, "Don't look at me. I don't know how to make white people food."

"Okay, relax. We'll have WALL-E help you." Mike said, gesturing to the robot man—who gave an enthusiastic wave.

But this offer didn't make Remy feel any better. Out of all the Pixars Mike could've suggested, it just had to be WALL-E. "Seriously?" He asked, "You know he burns toast, right?"

"He'll be fine." Mike waved a dismissive hand. "..probably. Okay, does anyone else want to help with Thanksgiving dinner?"

Once again there was nothing but silence and awkward glances. Remy looked around with a pleading face, trying to get anyone to agree, but no such luck. Well, until Atta got tired of the lack of responses and and decided it was best to take one for the team. "Alright fine. I'll help you." She said to Remy.

"Thank Luxo." He sighed with relief, "You are a saint, Atta."

She shrugged, "I try."

"Then it's settled." Mike said, "Thanksgiving will be hosted by Remy, Atta, and WALL-E. Let's pray they don't screw it up."

The three gave him a cold look, while the others nodded in agreement.

—

Thursday came sooner than they realized, and unfortunately due to the pandemic, buying groceries was a pain in the ass and getting what they needed for dinner took longer than they would've hoped. Luckily they were able to have it all in their kitchen and (hopefully) would have enough time to make it. And even though they were spending the holiday by themselves, the Pixars still got dressed up and decorated for the occasion.

Since the kids would be joining them at the table as well, that meant having to cook for even more people. Remy, WALL-E, and Atta were hard at work in the kitchen making gravy, deviled eggs, sweet potato casserole, pumpkin pie, mashed potatoes, etc. And of course, turkey. At first it didn't seem like cooking was going to be so bad. They got an early start before most of the Pixars even woke up. If all went well, they would have dinner done by the afternoon.

"Okay guys, we've got a full house of hungry Pixars so we gotta get this done quick." Remy reminded them, "Atta, you're on pie detail, and you're gonna help me with the turkey. WALL-E, you focus on the casserole, eggs, and making sure Atta stays away from the marshmallows."

Atta slowly looked over at him while he pointed at her, "Yeah, I see you."

She narrowed her eyes at him before slowly reaching her hand toward the bag of marshmallows. He scolded her as she popped another one into her mouth, smirking at him and holding back a laugh. But then the two quickly moved on, since they couldn't waste much time on banter and jokes.

"I don't see how the Disneys do this every year." WALL-E commented, taking a bite of bread.

"Well, they don't actually make it. They have a whole cooking staff that serves them every meal. Which is kinda why they invite us in the first place." Atta explained to him, helping Remy baste the turkey.

Remy scoffed, "And yet there's only one chef in this house. Man, I'd love it if I could get more help around here. Hopefully the new Pixars will know how to cook."

"That's what you say every time." Atta chuckled.

"Maybe if I keep saying it, it'll happen." He shrugged.

After a few minutes, the turkey was ready to cook. They placed it in the oven and set the correct amount of degrees and time. Now all they had to do was wait and finish the rest of the meal.

Violet walked into the kitchen, inhaling the strong scent of half-cooked food. "Mmm, smells great in here." She commented, opening the fridge to grab a water bottle. "So how's slaving away for the others going?"

"We're not 'slaving away', Violet." Remy rolled his eyes. Although now that he said it out loud, it kinda seemed like they were, considering not a single other Pixar was offering to help. Instead they were all hanging out around the house doing who knows what. "Regardless, we're doing just fine."

"You wanna help us?" Atta asked with a mouthful of marshmallows—which earned a scowl from Remy.

Violet sighed, shutting the fridge. "I'd love to, but Joy's taking me out shopping for Christmas presents.

"But stores aren't even open today." WALL-E said.

"That's what I told her." The teen shrugged her shoulders, "But she insisted on taking me and a couple others. I honestly think they're just trying to get out of the house so they have an excuse not to help out."

The three exchanged an annoyed glance. While they expected that sort of behavior from their friends, it was still irritating to know they didn't care enough to even stay home for Thanksgiving. But then again, ditching her friends when they need her didn't sound like something Joy would do.

Before they could question it, they heard Violet's name being called from the other room, signaling her to walk away. "Well, good luck with dinner, guys." She said.

"Okay, have fun today." Atta said to her right before she left. The three then gave each other the same confused expression, all thinking the same thing. But it was a short-lived moment, as they quickly got back to work.

"Alright, making conversation is nice and all, but we can't spend much time having social interactions." Remy reminded them, "From now on, no more distractions, okay? Focus is key."

He turned around, seeing a certain someone once again stuffing three marshmallows in her mouth. "Atta!"

"Leave me alone!" She retorted.

—

Several hours passed since the three started cooking, and they were getting close to being finished. It was hard keeping the kids out of the kitchen to stop them from sneaking bites of the food, since they always did that even when eating at the Disneys' place. But in a display of irony, Remy always shooed them away or chased them out with a broom.

A little after noon the meal was finally ready to be gorged. Everyone had a little bit of everything on their plate and had to pull up a few chairs and small tables so they could all sit together in one spot (one of the tables was actually just an old nightstand). Usually when eating meals, the Pixars would just sit in different areas around the house since the table wasn't big enough for all of them to sit at. But since this was Thanksgiving, they wanted to be together.

"Alright everyone, before we eat, we should go around and say what we're thankful for." Woody said, "And I'll start if that makes it easier."

"It would." They all agreed.

They all joined hands as Woody began, "Well, I'm thankful for all of you. You're not just my friends or people I'm forced to live with, you're my family. Which is kinda the same thing but has better meaning. I'm also thankful for our success, and I'm thankful we're doing this here and not at Disney hell."

A few of them laughed and nodded, although they never thought they'd hear the words "Disney" and "hell" in the same sentence.

"I'll go next." Sulley said, "Let's see, I'm thankful for the food on my plate, and the hard-working people who made it for me."

Remy, Atta, and WALL-E smiled at him.

"And I'm thankful to have the privilege to celebrate this holiday with the people I love."

"Awww!!" They cooed.

Barley leaned towards Sadness to whisper, "Wait, are we supposed to say meaningful shit like that every time?" The girl merely shrugged in response.

Once everyone had a turn saying what they were thankful for, they were finally able to dig in. The turkey was even better than they were used to. The whole meal tasted far better than what they would've received at the Disneys' Thanksgiving. Except the sweet potato casserole appeared to be missing quite a few marshmallows.

"I'm so glad it's Thanksgiving." Joy said, a little out-of-the blue.

"Why's that, Joy?" Bob asked her curiously.

"So I can finally get in the Christmas spirit without people telling me to 'wait until Thanksgiving'." She rolled her eyes.

Out of all of them, Joy was definitely the Christmas fanatic, so much that all other holidays around the end of the year were irrelevant to her. The Pixars didn't mind it, though. They loved Christmas, and they were glad she was always the one to go all out on decorations so they didn't have to.

"Can't argue with that." Jessie said, stuffing a piece of pie in her mouth. "But sadly it's not gonna be the same this year."

"No kidding." Merida scoffed. "If people had just done what they were told back in March, this wouldn't have happened."

McQueen raised a brow, "Dude, we had a whole ass celebration for the Swearing-In in March—"

"That was before quarantine, shut up." She was quick to defend.

"When's quarantine gonna be over?" Dash asked, "I'm tired of staying inside all day."

Mike sighed, as he dreaded this topic every time it came up in conversation. But as the leader, he had to be the voice of reason. "Look guys, I know it's tough, okay? We can't even die from Covid but we're being forced to stay at home, and I know it's frustrating. Heck, there's probably not even gonna be a Swearing-In ceremony for 'Soul'."

"There's not??" Dory asked with a frown.

"If things stay this way, then no." He said, even though it hurt to admit. Swearing-Ins were a big deal for the Pixars. It was what made them apart of the family. "But there's nothing we've been through that we've faced alone, right? We've always had each other, and we always will."

Even though they were still sad about the situation, and even if what he said was a little cheesy, they knew he was right. They were the Pixars for crying out loud, they could handle any challenge as long as they stuck together.

Mike raised his glass, signaling everyone else to do the same. "I propose a toast. To our Pixar family."

"To our family!" They cheered, sipping their drinks afterward.

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grifalinas · 3 years

Text

Batter Up (working title) (Chapter 5)

-/-

Flint took Radley with him to help bring back lunch, and while they waited for their orders, he finally calmed down enough to actually talk.

“You knew about Deacon, didn’t you,” he asked.

“I knew he was lying about his age,” Radley said. “He was at school with me, he graduated last summer. He used to give me a hard time.”

“That why you were fighting?”

Radley nodded, a little embarrassed. “It felt like a chance to finally get my own back, so I thought I’d try needling him a bit. I wasn’t expecting him to swing on me.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “I wasn’t kidding, you know, I take responsibility for us fighting.”

“Yeah, well.” Flint gave him a sour look. “I don’t like him lying about being able to bake. That’s what I need him for.”

“Not really.” Radley gestured vaguely at himself. “You taught me all your recipes since I was a toddler, I could make them blindfolded, and by the time school lets back in you’ll be able to hire someone else. Demand probably won’t be super high after the first week we’re open, and if it is, you’ll be able to afford more employees anyway.”

“All the more reason to fire him, then.” He huffed a stray lock of hair out of his eyes, then huffed again and slipped a sequined scrunchy from his wrist to pull it all back with a grumble. “What do I need him for when I’ve got you?”

“He can run the front and be an extra set of hands, since Mr. Bassington can’t do any heavy lifting and won’t let Eddie. Actually I feel like Deacon will really thrive if you put him doing heavy lifting.”

“I have you to do my heavy lifting.”

“I’m still a minor. I’m pretty sure those liabilities apply to me, too, and Mr. Bassington just looked the other way. But he’s not going to for very long.”

Flint leaned back in his chair with a groan. “What in the world has Raphael gotten me into? That man is way too controlling.”

“He’s doing his job.”

Flint let out a frustrated little growl. “Changed your tune, have you?”

“He makes a better second impression. Things have gone way smoother with him organizing everything. And he puts his money where his mouth is when it comes to protecting his employees. He isn’t just worried about legal issues, he really does try to protect the people under him.”

There was a long silence, and Radley added, a little hesitantly, “You looked like you were about to start swinging on Deacon earlier.”

“I wanted to,” Flint admitted. “I like to think I wouldn’t have…” He shook his head. “But there’s no way for Sam to have known one way or another.”

There was another long silence, Flint mulling over the Deacon situation while Radley scrolled social media in an idle sort of way. Finally Flint sighed and slumped, a little defeated.

“Guess I owe the kid an apology,” he said. “And Sammy, too…”

-/-

Samuel felt it might help cool Flint’s temper a little if the kitchen was cleaned up by the time he got back, so he set Deacon and Eddie to do that while he went back to supervising the work crew and getting everything else done.

While Radley and Deacon appeared to have declared each other public enemy number one, Deacon seemed to have no such animosity for Eddie, though the two had interacted little thus far. Eddie seemed intent on making up for this discrepancy now that they were working on a task together, though.

“-and Mr. Bassington says he’s going to introduce me to Rosie and we’re going to be best friends so I’m trying to decide what things I like that he didn’t mention her liking that I should try to introduce her to and I’m thinking of seeing if she listens to Angel DJ on the radio because that’s my favorite radio show and if she gets into music through Angel DJ then we can get into music on the same path instead of both of us discovering stuff, not that that isn’t fun but it’s really fun to find stuff together, me and Radley used to get into stuff through Angel DJ together all the time but then he stopped really caring much about getting into music except as something fun to play while you do other stuff and I like music as something that exists in its own right and should be experienced by itself too and Radley doesn’t like looking up stuff about the artists like how what I do so he’s not fun but I bet maybe I hope that Rosie will be into music like how what I’m into music so we can be into music together.”

Deacon gave her a second to make sure that was actually the end of the sentence and poked his head out of the oven he was cleaning to ask, “What’s Angel DJ?”

“It’s a radio show! Angel is just some guy, he broadcasts from his apartment and he isn’t tied to any specific radio station so he can just play whatever he likes, so he just plays stuff he’s into. He’s been on a bit of an eighties rock kick lately, and he’s playing a lot of Queen stuff so I’ve been really getting into them, I was watching videos of their performances on the internet and they’re SO cool.”

Deacon laughed. “No arguments there. I learned to play on Queen songs.”

“You play?” She lit up. “What do you play?! I don’t play anything, I kinda wouldn’t mind learning but I can’t even pick anything because I hear a song and I think ‘boy it’d be fun to play that I bet’ but there’s so many different parts that go into it that I just end up getting bogged down. What do you play? Guitar? Drums? Keys?”

“Uh… well I main bass, but I can do electric…” He rocked back on his heels to tick off on his fingers. “...Mother made me learn piano and violin so I can do keys and violin, and I was percussion ensemble in high school so most basic percussion, though I’m not great at drums, and I sing.”

Eddie stared at him with stars in her eyes and squeaked out, “That’s so cool~”

He opened his mouth to say he wouldn’t mind playing for her sometime, if she was into that, and was interrupted by the return of Flint and Radley. He clammed up, returning to the oven without a word, leaving Eddie to go help get the food unpacked and call the crew in. He listened to her chattering about how Deacon could play and liked Queen and wasn’t that SO cool?, and stilled to listen to their response.

“You don’t think it’s cool that I like Queen,” Radley said.

“That’s because you just like listening to them. Deacon learned to play on Queen songs.”

“You play?” Flint asked, when Deacon finally emerged from the oven to join them for lunch.

“He mains bass!” Eddie chirped before Deacon could answer.

“I like music,” he said. “It’s a good distraction.” There was a beat, and, seeing the opening, he added, “Sometimes I play with the house band next door, when one of their permanent musicians can’t make it. You should come hear me play sometime.”

Eddie lit up again. “Oh, can we? Can we, Uncle Flint? Please? Can’t we? Please can we?”

“We’ll… see,” he said, a little uncomfortable. “I think taking you kids into a bar is one of those things your old man would kick my ass for.”

Eddie deflated like a three month old birthday balloon. “I’m never going to be old enough to do anything fun.”

“And once you are you’re going to be carded for years,” Flint agreed, reaching over to ruffle her hair. “Sorry, kiddo, that’s just how it is.”

This got a huff, and she batted his hands away before turning to pout at her lunch.

“Sorry,” Deacon said, shuffling a little. “I wasn’t thinking about the age thing, I guess…”

-/-

After lunch, once everyone had gotten back to work, Flint decided to talk to Samuel first. His partner was guiding two of their contractors through putting up the menu boards; Flint took hold of his arm to get his attention, and startled back when Samuel jerked his arm back as if Flint’s touch had burned him.

“Sorry-” they both attempted at the same time, and Flint shook his head before jerking his head toward the office. “Can we talk?”

Samuel paused, and looked to the contractors, but they seemed to have the menu boards under control so he nodded and the two headed back to the office.

“I’m sorry,” Samuel began, before Flint could say anything. “I’m- sensitive to touch sometimes.”

Flint waved that away as unimportant. “I wanted to talk to you about earlier. I owe you an apology, and a thank you.”

“I don’t think I’m the one you owe an apology to.”

“I know. The kid’ll get one in a little while, I just want to get my thoughts in order before I talk to him.”

He sat down in his chair, and Samuel followed suit with a nod of approval. “Smart call.”

“Yeah, turns out I got a couple of braincells kicking around in here.” He cracked a lopsided smirk and then shook his head. “Anyway. I also wanted to thank you. I can’t say for sure that I wasn’t going to swing on the kid, even if I’d like to think I wouldn’t, but I can say for sure if I had you would have stopped me. I appreciate that.”

Samuel opened his mouth to say something, then shut it and shrugged. “We have a responsibility to protect the people we employ, and that includes from each other. I take that seriously.”

“Not a lot of people do.” He leaned his chair back with a sigh. “I wonder if that’s why Raphael sent you to me? She knows I got a temper. I’m a little impulsive, too. And I don’t always think things through…”

“To protect your employees from you? I doubt that. She seemed very invested in your success, and I don’t think she would be if she thought you were the sort to abuse your employees.”

“Not so much that, just someone to curb my impulses when they might have collateral damage.”

“Ah, right. That makes more sense.”

Flint watched him for another quiet moment, taking a few seconds to enjoy his rigid, perfectly controlled posture that did nothing to diminish the amount of him there was- here was a man who had never been taught to take up less space, though paradoxically his presence seemed to invite others into the space he was already occupying. Flint was struck with a bizarre desire to press into his side, enjoy his warmth while they shared… something, anything, it didn’t matter.

He shook the thought away.

“So if she sent you to keep me in line, what did she mean for you to get out of it? Think maybe she wants me to loosen you up?”

“Given she’s applied the words ‘tightly wound’ to me more than a few times in our friendship, I wouldn’t be surprised.”

“You ever think Raph secretly wants to produce a sitcom? That’d explain all the odd couple situations she’s always setting up.”

Samuel chuckled softly at that, and Flint suddenly felt as if he’d been shot through the throat.

He must be staring, because Samuel was giving him a confused look. “Everything okay?”

“Wh-? Oh, yeah. Fine. Just didn’t know you were capable of laughing, that’s all.”

“Maybe if you didn’t run off every time your niece starts talking…”

Flint let out a startled bark of laughter at that. “Yeah? Try living with her, pal. I need a break sometimes, you know. Your girl a chatterbox too?”

“No, she’s very quiet. You’d hardly know she was there half the time.”

“When are you bringing her around? Eddie’s not going to stop pestering yout about it until you do.”

Another of those laughs that made Flint feel like curling his toes up. “To be honest, I’m hoping I can get some of the anticipation to wear off. Rosie is so wonderful but Eddie’s hopes are so high.”

“You’ll never do that. Eddie doesn’t curb her enthusiasm, she just gets more tightly wound up until she finally experiences the thing she’s excited about. We took her to an amusement park to see this singer she was into once and she got so excited she threw up. Keep putting it off and you’re just perpetuating the problem.”

“Hmm.” Samuel seemed a little put out by that, and stroked his beard thoughtfully. “I suppose I could have Theresa drop her off tomorrow? I’m sure she’ll be interested in seeing what we’ve got going on here anyway. She’s very nosy, though she’ll never admit that.”

Flint grinned. “Sounds like a plan!”

-/-

Unfortunately, after his chat with Samuel, Flint had to bite the bullet and talk to Deacon. He didn’t want to. He was still furious with the kid, still wouldn’t really mind just tossing him out and letting him be someone else’s problem.

But whatever he felt about Deacon’s choices, he had behaved far worse, and if he wanted to be the sort of man his kids could look up to, he had to be the sort of man that owned up when he misstepped. So he told Samuel to send the kid in, and took a seat behind his desk and tried not to look like he was sulking too hard over having to apologize.

Deacon slouched in like a spooked animal, like he fully expected Flint to start yelling at him again and, oof, that was fair. Suddenly apologizing felt a lot more doable and a lot more important.

“Siddown, kid, I’m not gonna bite you,” Flint said, waving vaguely at the second desk chair that Samuel usually occupied. “I just wanna talk. And I owe you an apology. I shouldn’t have blown up like that.”

Deacon shrugged, like that didn’t factor to him, and said, in a rushed sort of way, “I’m not sorry about lying. Everyone lies on their resume and they even advise that.”

“They also advise learning how to fake the thing you’re saying you can do,” Flint said. “But that wasn’t really the issue, and you and I both know it.”

An uncomfortable silence descended. Deacon shifted a little in his seat, and said, “It’s cause of the help comment, isn’t it?”

Flint nodded. “I got my recipes from my ma,” he said. “She was an amazing cook, and an even better baker. She taught me and my si- brother coming up, but I was the one who really took to it.” He was silent for a long moment, thinking back to those days with his mother, explaining how every aspect of the recipe worked with every other aspect of the recipe, how to know if the process was working and how to figure out what was missing when it was.

Then he shook his head, dispelling the memory, and went on.

“Ma was a personal chef, she cooked for a lot of wealthy families. Made sure they always had a hot meal waiting without any effort on their part. You know how much thanks she got for it?”

Deacon was shrinking in his chair now, the full realization of what he’d implied hitting him. “‘M sorry,” he mumbled. “I didn’t mean…”

Flint gave him a few more seconds of discomfort before saying, “You should be. That’s the kinda toxic shit you gotta start unlearning now you’re on your own. There’s people out there without a tenth of what you’ve been handed that are worth ten times that, and you’re gonna be surrounded by them now. But. That don’t mean I gotta treat you like that. You’ll never learn like that.”

He leaned back in his chair, waiting in case Deacon had anything to put in, but the kid just stayed staring at the floor. Flint wondered what was going through his head, what he was thinking. If he was taking in what Flint was getting at, or just writing him off as some angry chef’s boy.

“As for your future here… I’ve handed you over to Sammy. Not just because you pissed me off, but also that. I don’t trust my temper enough to be directly in charge of you. But you still answer to both of us. I’m still your boss; Sam is just your direct supervisor.”

Deacon nodded, still staring down at the floor. Flint squinted at him, wondering where all of his fight had gone.

Hmm.

“Hey, kid. Why’d your old man cut you off? What was the decision you made that offended him?”

And, oh, there it was. Deacon bristled up like a rooster with a temper and said, “I don’t think that’s any of your business.”

“There it is. Knew you were in there somewhere. All right, go on, get back to work. Go on.”

He shooed him away; Deacon slouched out in a hurry, before Flint could start Talking To Him again.

-/-

#made the chapter longer and i think that helped the rushed feeling a lot #for the second draft i'll expand the first four chapters a bit to make them feel less rushed #this is way better #please don't reblog this! simply commenting will suffice!#batter up (working title)

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alitaimagines · 4 years

Text

“I’ve always been told, one day I’ll find someone who changes my mind but when they come along, I won’t think twice cause I already good thing with me, yeah I got everything I dreamed.”

note: still looking for more MHA and Haikyuu!! character suggestions!! this is a bit long but I had fun with it so that’s why. if you want another anime with this scenario, dead ass lemme know, I’ll do it.

them seeing you with someone else after your break up:

Sakusa Kiyoomi: you end up with Bokuto

the reason why you probably ended up with Bokuto was because of Sakusa’s germaphobic tendencies.

with Sakusa not really being into going out much, the options of where to go out on dates was v. limited. you would offer to just go to a park and walk around, somewhere in the park that didn’t have a lot of people in the park but he didn’t like the idea and shot it down.

it got to the point where you got tired of him constantly shooting down your date ideas and you were tired of having to bend over backwards for him and just broke it off.

was Sakusa hurt? probably. but you tried to let him down smoothly and even tried to remain friends but he didn’t like that and cut complete contact with you.

a few years passed when you ran into someone at a bakery. he had black and silver hair and the brightest personality you had ever seen. some stuff and things happened and you got his name and number.

Bokuto had told you that he played professional volleyball and your mind immediately thought of Sakusa. you didn’t pay much attention to it so when Bokuto begged you to attend one of his games, he gave you a spare jersey and front row tickets.

the professional volleyball scene was something someone had to experience at least once in their life. the crowd, the players, everything was turned up to eleven and it had been one of the funnest nights you had in a while.

you had waved at Bokuto a few times but Sakusa hadn’t seen the interactions. it wasn’t until after the game when you met up with Bokuto when Sakusa realized everything.

“hey Sakusa, how are you?” you asked him as Bakuto gave you a look,��“you know him?” the owl eyed boy asked, “yeah, we dated in high school and bit in college but I guess you can see what happened,” you mentioned.

Sakusa remained silent as Bokuto waved off the small jealousy, “it’s nice to see you again,” was all Sakusa said before heading to go take a shower.

being that Sakusa and Bokuto had their social media accounts, he would see what went on that night and the photos he posted with you. videos of the two of you at a club with a few other players were on Bokuto’s Insta story but he couldn’t say anything. it had been years since the two of you broke up and it wasn’t his place.

did it sting? yeah but what was it to him. he just had to deal that his teammate was now dating someone he once loved and that was that on that.

Haiba Lev: you end up with Kenma

oh, your break up with Lev probably had to do with his modeling career. your schedules didn’t add up and the two of you hardly seen each other. it was a lack of time and it was a mutual break up.

Lev was hurt that you were no longer with him but he understood that his career didn’t make time for you. he was upset and Alisa tried to introduce him to other girls but they weren’t you.

Lev probably thought of you as his first and only love.

as for you. you rekindled your relationship with Kenma out of genuine accidents. you would end up at the same stores Kenma would be at and the two of you exchanged numbers. one thing led to another and he added you onto his team.

the two of you tried to hide the relationship for a while and it worked for a bit but you knew that the relationship was going to get more serious and it was best to rip the bandaid off before it became too late.

the fans of Kenma loved the two of you together. even if you weren’t together, you would end up on his streams every so often and just watch him play whatever game it was while answering questions, giving him playing advice, or even trying to learn how to the play the game he was playing.

one day out of pure curiosity, Lev checked out one of Kenma’s streams. he had a bit of down time and wanted to see how successful his former teammate was.

for a while, the stream was normal. Kenma was playing Minecraft and Lev was engrossed in the stream until he noticed the door opened. the stream went mute until a baby pink gamer chair was pulled up and you sat down next to him.

Lev’s eyes widened as you gave Kenma a kiss and offered him advice on his Minecraft word (I’ve never played it before so ignore my ignorance). Alisa was able to see Lev’s sudden change in mood and looked over to see what caused it. when she made the connection, she sighed knowing her brother was probably going to be upset for a few hours now.

she called off the rest of the photoshoot they were doing and told Lev to head home. all Lev could think of was how you would hold him the way you were holding Kenma. you ran your fingers through his long hair while answering questions from the fans.

Lev knew you weren’t a gamer. he tried to get you to play video games with him but you always denied but as he watched the stream, you would grab the controller from Lev and do something every so often.

fate was a dumb thing, Lev thought. the love of his life was happy in another relationship and there was not a single thing he could do. he knew he could always find another girl but none of them amounted to you.

Kuroo Testurou: you end up with Yaku

this man was a WHORE in college. am I wrong? No. I don’t take criticism. he probably dated you during your time in college and during that time, he thought of you as another fling but that wasn’t exactly your thought on the relationship.

the cause of the break up was probably because he cheated on you. you were done with him and you absolutely disgusted by his actions during your relationship.

the way you dealt with that was by you going over seas to teach. under some odd circumstances, you happened to land a teaching gig in Russia and there you met Yaku. you didn’t have the slightest clue that those two were friends nor did Yaku ever bring it up.

you found it odd how you ended up in another relationship with someone in the volleyball world but maybe that was your type. a relationship with Yaku was completely different than being with Kuroo. he prioritized your relationship and even offered to have you hold some position with the Cheegle’s so the two of you wouldn’t be apart for so long.

you admittedly accepted it and taught the kids of the players who happened to travel along with him. Yaku was over the moon because of it and not even a year and a half in, the two of you married. it was super sudden but you said yes and held the ceremony back home.

because of the ceremony, it was like an unsanctioned Nekoma reunion. Lev, Kenma, Yamamoto, Taketora, and of course, Kuroo attended the marriage. Kuroo hadn’t gotten the fancy wedding invitation with your photo on it but he texted Yaku a few days before for the venue address.

the ceremony was huge but the thing that stopped Kuroo dead in the tracks was the huge photo of the two of you in the front of the venue. it was from your engagement photoshoot and it was like Kuroo’s life had turned upside down. the two of you being together, nevertheless married, was not what he seen coming.

Nekoma players had a table separated for just them and their partners and when you both finally made rounds to thank everyone for coming, your eyes widened at the sight of your ex boyfriend sitting next to Lev. the two of you stare at each other, you with mild disgust and Kuroo with genuine surprise.

the both of you figured it was best not to mention the past between the two of you to Yaku being that it was your wedding and the mention of a past relationship at this point was useless. you put your pride aside and quickly thanked Kuroo for coming to the wedding.

what didn’t stop you was basically showing off your happiness with Yaku. this was your last hoorah before you completely shut Kuroo out of your life for good and made sure to kiss Yaku in the most civilized yet slightly sexual way.

Kuroo was happy for the two of you because he knew Yaku was giving you the life you craved with him at some point. Kuroo was not ready to settle down yet however seeing you happily married kind of kicked him into gear. his bachelor days would have to end eventually and in the back of his mind, he thought that maybe he made a mistake by fully pushing you away.

Oikawa Tooru: you end up with Kageyama

oh how fate worked in such weird ways, right? the two of you went to Seijoh together and when he left for Argentina, the two of you had to break it off. neither of you wanted to do distance and as much as that hurt, you were the one who made the first move and broke it up with him.

Oikawa was BIG HURT but knew this was the right choice. the two of you tried to keep contact with each other but considering he lived and played in another part of the fucking world, the time never worked out and eventually, you both just gave up.

okay so you met Kageyama when played with Schweiden. you were a reporter who happened to oh so catch the eye of Kageyama and he personally seeked you out after every game. what Kageyama thought would be a small fling was actually more of a crush.

Kageyama finally grew a pair and asked you out. the two of you dated for about the time he played for the Adlers and up until he went to play in Italy. he asked you to come with him knowing that you were probably the only one he could ever see himself with and you agreed.

the move to Italy was odd but you and Kageyama made it work. you got to know who his friends were in high school and that’s when Oikawa came up. when you broke the news that you used to attend Seijoh and actually dated Oikawa during your three years. he was admittedly surprised and even though there wasn’t any animosity, a pang of jealousy and hatred was still there and in the end, Kageyama snagged his girl and with that, he was hella proud.

again under weird circumstances, the two of you ended up in Japan for a a volleyball thingy and with that, Oikawa had to be in attendance.

you weren’t harboring feelings for Oikawa anymore and although you were 100% in love with Kageyama, seeing Oikawa made your heart race out of nervousness. you ended up dating his former enemy and you had no idea how he would take that.

after Kageyama introduced you to his former teammates and his best friend, all of you sat down to talk amongst each other. you heard stories on top of stories of how Kageyama was like at Karasuno but what you weren’t prepared for was when you finally met up with Oikawa again.

you and Kageyama were secretly making out in the parking lot after the dinner thingy. he had you pinned up against the car and literally initiating sex right there but what stopped the two of you was the familiar voice to the two of you. Oikawa had sang Kageyama’s name and when Kageyama looked to see his former enemy, Oikawa’s eyes immediately shot at you.

“are you the two of you?” Oikawa asked you as you nodded, “Kageyama and I? yeah, we are,” you replied extremely flustered, “how?” Oikawa asked again.

“we met when I played for Schweiden,” was all Kageyama said before he whispered to you to get in the car. you did what he asked and waved Oikawa off as the two men stared each other down.

no matter how much those two grew up, there would still be that small animosity between them and like Kageyama had previously mentioned, he won Oikawa’s girl and for the moment, Kageyama finally one upped him.

neither of them thought of you as some competition but Oikawa was still kinda in love with you so seeing you nearly having sex with Kageyama so openly, it triggered that small high school feeling.

tsukishima kei: you end up with Nishinoya

an odd pairing?? I know but when I was looking for gifs, those two oddly came up a lot together so I ran with it. okay back to what I was saying, you must’ve dated Tsukki in college, homeboy was not dating during his Karasuno years.

the two of you were probably going really strong together but when an opportunity arose for you to go to Italy to do some interning there, you accepted and Tsukki was less than pleased. he thought it was irresponsible of you to make such a huge decision without his mild input.

that decision caused for the two of you to fight like there was no tomorrow and broke up because of it. Tsukki thought what you did was irresponsible and you didn’t think it was that big of a deal. with that, you left for Italy and had no intention of paying mind to Tsukki or the argument.

you met Nishinoya at a market. the two of you were in the same city as you interned in the same place Noya was fishing for Marlins at. you were picking up a few things for your apartment and your roommate at the time wanted you to get her a fish for her to cook later in the day. when that happened, you caught Noya’s eye and the two of you got to talking.

his vibrant attitude was a complete 360 from Tsukki and even though he wasn’t exactly your type, you gave Noya a chance and managed to actually fall in love with him rather quickly. because of that, Noya managed to keep in contact with Tanaka and he found out. during that time, Karasuno was holding a get together for former players, brought to you by Daichi and Suga.

you thought of the reunion as a way to visit everyone back home while Noya just wanted to see Tanaka and a few others again so the two of you went. again, you had no idea that Tsukki and Noya knew each other and when the day of the reunion came up, the three of you were S H O O K. the entire team was tbh.

Tsukki probably never lost his smart mouth and when he seen that you were with Noya, you were ready to fight the 6′0 man without any consequences when he made a comment in passing. Noya had the mediate the entire interaction and said that the past was the past and you were with him now and Tsukki had no business in something that no longer included him.

in the back of his mind, Tsukki knew what Noya was saying was right but his insecurities and ego wouldn’t let him back down. Noya loved you and although Tsukki was technically his friend, he was going to pick you over Tsukki any day of the week and the three of you probably had to end up being separate tables.

because everyone was of age and there was alcohol being provided, you and Noya def got drunk along with Tanaka and admittedly Yachi and Hinata. the lot of you drank like there was no tomorrow and while Tsukki wanted nothing more than to continue his smart comments, he knew it was best to drop it and watched as you and Noya drank and danced together.

Yamaguchi was able to tell that his best friend was hurting in the inside but he knew if he said anything, he would earn a smart comment. every time you and Noya kissed, Tsukki would make a disgusted face or straight up gag but anyone could tell that Tsukki was HELLA jealous.

finally when the reunion ended, everyone who got drunk got sent to their hotels in cabs as you and Noya were basically blacked out and not even in the right stage to be driving home. you were hanging onto Noya as he placed kisses all over your face while you waited for the cab to arrive.

Tsukki wanted to apologize for his actions but by the time he got to you and Noya, the two of you were already in the cab, probably making out and trying to get home as fast as possible. his mind wandered to the nights where you and him would go home drunk and do exactly what you and Noya were probably planning on doing.

in the end, Tsukki knew there was no chance that you and him would ever become friends and in a way, he liked that. he was glad that you and Noya were living in another part of the world because it gave him enough time to get over you and find someone else. overall, the break up was rough but Tsukki knew that shit happens for a reason and maybe you weren’t meant to end up with him.

Akaashi Keiji: you end up with Konoha

oh boy, this relationship was odd from the start. when you were dating Akaashi, you knew his teammate held feelings for you but at the time, you didn’t pay any mind to him and stuck with Akaashi as you were basically enthralled with him.

the reason for the break up was probably college. both of you went to different ones and you figured it was just more beneficial for the two of you just to end it before anymore feelings got hurt in that process. it sucked but that was just the way life worked.

you ended up meeting Konoha in Tokyo. you both were in the pharma business and worked in the same building, just different departments. you knew that Konoha would befriend you the minute he found out you worked at the same place he did so when you found his office, Konoha fucking ASCENDED when you told him.

that day the two of you went out for drinks and that was assumedly the first date for the two of you. you found it odd how you ended up finding Konoha again but this time, there was nothing stopping from the two of you dating and Konoha made sure that he asked you out as soon as possible.

Konoha and yourself made enough money by working in medicine that the two of you lived lavishly once you moved with each other. the house was placed a few minutes out of Tokyo and the house was big enough to hold a house warming party when it was done getting remodeled and furnished.

you had pushed him to invite a few former Fukurodani members to attend the party and that included Bokuto, Akaashi, and Haruki to which they all came. Akaashi had heard from word of mouth that the two of you ended up together but he wanted to see it to believe it.

when the party came up, you were wearing a dress, pretty tight fitting in the areas you wanted to flaunt and you knew that Konoha was going to have a ball taking the dress off of you when the party was over. plus, Konoha knew how to wear a suit well and you were planning on doing the same thing to him.

as soon as the three Fukurodani members arrived, you sat them at the main two tables and made sure that you and Konoha would sit with them for the dinner. you wanted to catch up with your former friends but you were still a bit awkward around Akaashi.

the awkward atmosphere wasn’t really felt around Konoha nor Haruki or Bokuto but you knew you wanted to get Akaashi alone to thank him for coming and making sure that there was no hard feelings between you, him, and Konoha.

once you were able to get him alone, the two of you talked for a while and chatted about how work life was until Konoha found the two of you. while he trusted you completely, he didn’t have as much trust in Akaashi and decided to stay for the rest of the conversation.

Akaashi understood where Konoha was coming from as he did the same thing with Konoha back in high school but he was already kind of over you and had no intentions of stealing you back. in a way, he liked you and Konoha together. he had no idea why but he did like it.

he watched as you and Konoha would give each other pecks here and there but while he felt a pang of jealousy, ultimately, he wished the next time he seen either of you, he had that special someone in his life. just to show that he had moved on and that the three of you could start becoming friends again.

ALITA

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cutesuki--bakugou · 4 years

Text

What I Needed

@bnha-christmas2019 | Day 27: Company Party, “I thought you said you weren’t going to come>” | Bakugou x Fem!Reader | Explicit | Cursing, Sex, Oral Sex, Alcohol Consumption, Soft Baku, Comfort, Confessions

Words: 7228 Genre: Romance / Angst / Humor

Please blacklist the tag cutesuki-lemons if you do not want to see this content from my blog. I will no longer be tagging with specific keywords for this type of content.Thank you~

Due to the nature of this post, the characters are 18+

Having his own hero agency was everything Bakugou had ever wanted. He had power, fame, popularity, influence and the high social status that came with being one of the top heroes in the county, just like he had always dreamed. In his late twenties, his life was exactly how he had wanted it, but there were some… responsibilities that he, in all honesty, despised. Fame came with the need to socialize, to have a decent relationship with not only his fans, but the people he worked with. Sure, this wasn’t the first time he had to throw a company party, nor was it the biggest he had ever done, but that didn’t make it any less irritating.

A party to celebrate the holiday and new year weren’t anything to bat an eye at, especially not when it was open to any hero from any agency that wanted to participate. For less successful heroes or those still growing their reputation, who wouldn’t jump on the chance to party with the greatest heroes in the country? It wasn’t just Bakugou mingling around in the giant ballroom in the basement floor of his agency. Midoriya Izuku was here somewhere, as was Todoroki Shoto and others whom had grown the ranks with Bakugou from high school. There were even some older heroes present, old mentors and teaches. Friends and rivals alike were invited.

And that included you.

What were you to Bakugou, really? Were you a friend? A rival? Competition? His crush? All the above, if he were honest with himself, but calling you his ‘crush’ made him feel like a child. His feelings for you being just a ‘crush’ were a huge understatement. No, he had more than just a crush. In truth, he was head over heels for you, even surprising himself with how deeply he felt.

It had been like this since high school. He hated you at first, as he did everyone, but there was something about you that called to him. Did he ever act on it? Of course not. All his focus was on school, on training, internships and pushing himself to the highest degree he could manage. He had no time for girls, even if you were nearly irresistible. It didn’t help that it had been obvious you were into him, too. Still, all your advances were ignored, until a barrier had grown between you and nothing was achieved outside of a mildly awkward friendship.

It changed after you both graduated. For nearly two years, neither of you paid any attention to each other, until you ended up interning in the same agency. As adults, the spark was unmistakable. But Bakugou still couldn’t find it within himself to commit to a relationship, not when he was still working so hard for his goals.

That didn’t mean that he couldn’t resist you, however. Whatever relationship the two of you had was a physical one and nothing more. Fucking your brains out in the men’s locker room of the agency became almost a weekly occurrence, with many nights spent at each other’s apartments. Though, you could both admit, silently to yourselves, that there was something else there. The late nights watching stupid movies, stuffing yourselves with pizza and other shitty food, laughing and telling stories was proof enough. It was something Bakugou never wanted to lose.

Until you both became independent heroes. Bakugou left you in the dust at first, refusing to show you even an ounce of mercy when it came to bringing in villains or numbers of rescues. Being in the same region didn’t exactly help that, as his goals to be at the top wouldn’t be derailed, not even by a woman he adored. At one point, he was positive that you hated him. Your tenacity and perseverance pushed through in the end, and you climbed the ranks just as he had. The entire world saw you as rivals, and so Bakugou figured that is what you should both stay. Rivals with a past and nothing else.

Years pass with only business talk between you both, but lately, Bakugou could have sworn that spark was beginning to return. The way you looked at him and the sweet flow of your voice reminded him so much of your time together that he couldn’t resist falling for you all over again. All this time, no other woman he had slept with could compare to you, and it only grew worse the more you began to interact.

Bakugou knew that he may have everything he ever wanted in a career. But in his personal life, there was something missing. A partner, someone to spend his life with and have a family. Out of all the women he had met in his life, who had tried to woo him and gain his affection, not a single one had come as close to the level of adoration he felt for you. Even still, there was the itch in the back of his mind that he had already burned that bridge long ago. How could you possibly still care or want him after all this time and all the grief he put you through?

It was a shock to see you suddenly in the crowd of people, casually making your way to the bar with an already empty glass of champagne. That was enough to tell him that you had been here a while, so either you hadn’t seen him yet or you were just straight up avoiding him. If you were, then that bothered him quite a bit. He wanted to talk to you, to try and fix that he had broken between you. But if you didn’t want to see him, then was it really worth the effort?

“Mr. Bakugou? Did you hear my question?”

“Eh?” His attention on you broken, Bakugou’s gaze was pulled down to the woman in front of him, who was peering up at him curiously. She had been blabbering off to him for the past half hour, doing everything she possibly could to keep his focus and conversation. What she was really trying to do was obvious, with her low-cut dress and flirtatious body language. From what he had gathered, she was brand new to the hero scene, and she wanted to climb up the ladder based off networking and… sleeping with the big boys. He had considered going along with it, even though he barely remembered anything she had told him, but now he just didn’t give a shit. He just wanted to get away before he lost you in the crowd again.

“I asked if you were planning on taking in any new interns. If so, I… wanted to get my name out there. Maybe we can talk about it in private?”

“Uh, no. I’m not. Excuse me.” The way he pardoned himself was more like a demand to move, not bothering to pay attention to her whining as he squeezed himself out of the group he had been standing in. Thankfully, when he was finally free, he saw you still waiting at the bar, eyes on the bartender as they mixed up a drink. Sitting on a stool, you looked exceptionally elegant in your glittering dress, which hugged your figure. It came to a stop right above your knees, though the fabric was hiked up to your mid-thigh from your legs being crossed. The black hose you wore only hinted at the soft skin beneath, and how badly he wanted to touch you was almost suffocating.

“Thank you!” You spoke with a smile as the bartender handed your drink to you, still not having even noticed Bakugou. “Getting a lot of business, are you?”

“Ah, yeah!” The young man spoke with a pleasant grin, beginning to dry out some glasses with a rag. “These parties are always a riot! And they pay well.”

After taking a healthy sip from your drink, you leaned back a bit to sit up straighter. “I bet you’re getting amazing tips. You have to be at least a little tipsy at these parties. Especially if you’re dealing face to face with the host!”

It was then that Bakugou decided to step in, clearing his throat as he came to sit beside you. “Excuse me?”

“Oooh, well, speak of the devil.” A sly smile crossed your lips as if you had known he was there the entire time. Of course you had known, why else would you say such a teasing and rude thing to the little bartender? After two hours at this ridiculously rowdy party, you had finally found and gotten Bakugou’s attention.

Finally.

“I thought you said you weren’t going to come.” With a snap of his fingers towards the bartender, he got his attention. “Whisky.”

Ignoring his command for alcohol, you stirred your own drink with the straw. “I wasn’t at first. But everyone was talking about how big this party was going to be and how it would look good for me to show up… I decided the networking and positive publicity was worth having to suffer through your presence.”

Even though he felt a twinge of annoyance at your snarky attitude, Bakugou gave an amused scoffed, taking a hefty swig from his drink once it was placed in front of him. “You can bullshit other people, [Name], but not me. Don’t fuck around.”

“You’ve done enough fucking around for both of us, Kacchan.” Your words were tinted with ice, even though there was still a flirty heat behind them. “How does it feel? To have so much fame that all these people come just to get a chance to introduce themselves to you. Or to have women on their knees in seconds. That poor little blonde you left over there; she must be very dejected.”

“You know damn well networking irritates the shit out of me. And you’re no better. If I wasn’t sitting next to you, there would be men lining up just to be rejected by you. Why the fuck do you have to bring that shit up, anyway? Can’t we just have a normal conversation without you throwing that in my face?”

“It’s all I was to you,” Your gaze left your drink to look up at him, the man that you adored more than anything. Yet, here you were, pushing him away again with your bitterness. You had already forgiven him, for pushing you aside and abandoning what life you could have had together for his career. He seemed to be making an effort… why couldn’t you? “What else would you want to talk about? Work? Ratings? Money? That’s all you care about, so if you want to boast, then go for it. I’ll pretend to listen like you do to those girls.”

“In the past year that we’ve had more than a five-minute conversation, I’m pretty fucking sure I hadn’t said a word about myself. That’s you. You bring it up.”

With his accusation, Bakugou could see your cheeks begin to flush, your frustrations with yourself showing themselves even so slightly. He knew that forced blank expression, that stiff posture as you tried to stay strong to not let your tough front crumble. More than anything, he wished that wall you had built around yourself would crack, even just slightly, to allow him in.

“You’re the one that told me all those years ago that you only care about building your career and you wouldn’t let anything get in the way of that. So why are you even trying to talk to me right now, Kacchan? You have everything you ever wanted.”

“That’s not true. Come with me.” Bakugou stood, picking up his glass as he did. “I can’t talk to you over this fucking shit music.”

For a moment, you hesitated. You knew that if you were alone with him, you would break. All this time, you had refused to give him any more than a few minutes of your time, but it wasn’t because you hated him. You were scared that your feelings for him would explode the instant you were alone, that the craving to feel that happiness from all those years back would cause you to make a mistake.

Would it be a mistake? Or would you finally feel complete again?

With a sigh, you stood, fixing your dress back into place before snatching up your own drink and following him towards one of the many exits. Much to your annoyance, many people tried to stop you both to chit chat, or to keep Bakugou's attention as long as they could. Over and over, he either ignored or dismissed them, even people you recognized to be CEOs of huge corporations. Each time, your heart fluttered, softening your resolve until you were blushing fiercely.

Out in the hallway, Bakugou gave a heavy sigh, relieved for the music to be muffled after the door shut behind you. “Finally… I hate that shit.” Taking a few steps forward, he pushed a button on the elevator, prompting you to glance up as the number began to descend.

“Where are you taking me?”

“To my office. No one but me has a key to get in. We can be alone…”

“Don’t you think it will seem suspicious for us to go up there? People will talk.”

“People talk anyway. People were talking the instant I sat down next to you.” Bakugou’s crimson glare set off that familiar fire within you, making you clutch onto your dress with your free hand. “You think people don’t know how we used to be? We weren’t exactly subtle…”

“That was a long time ago…”

“Five years isn’t a long time. Not to forget things like that between such high-profile people.”

With a ding, the elevator opened in front of you, and with a vague gesture from Bakugou, you walked inside first. He stood beside you, and the instant the elevator door closed, the tension was almost palpable. But it wasn’t an uncomfortable tension, which you slowly came to realize as the elevator rose up to the top floor. It was a mutual wanting, some type of magnetic force that you were both fighting against with all your strength. He was so close to you, within your grasp and yet so far away.

Could you really let him back in?

Bakugou once again allowed you to exit first before following, sipping from his glass as he headed straight for his office entrance. This wasn’t the first time you had been up to this floor of his agency, but it was the first time you were going to visit his private office. Corporate meetings were held up here, just down the hall, and you had always wondered what was behind those double doors to the left.

Pulling out his ID from his pocket, he held it up in front of a sensor, which went off with a beep and the click of the doors unlocking followed. Pulling the door open, Bakugou nodded for you to go in, silent and cautious. At first, you only watched him for any signs of regret or reconsideration, but you saw none. Even your own second thoughts were hidden in the back of your mind, so you entered, a bit surprised at the perfect and professional order of his office. It wasn’t quite what you expected, but then again, there were a lot of things about Bakugou that were unexpected.

Most people would see him and instantly think ‘that man is a brute’ or ‘he’s absolutely vile’. Was he? Yes, absolutely. But there were things that only you had seen, that he would not dare share with another living soul. He had told you about his insecurities, his worries and his regrets. You had held him when he awoke in a panic, brought on by nightmares he couldn’t control. He had laughed with you about teenage memories, smiling with such sincerity that you were sure he must have been another person entirely. Even more special, the way he would caress you and kiss you with such a sweet tenderness you would just melt in his hands. He was gentle and loving behind all that explosive anger.

Loving… Were we in love? I… never really thought it would have been possible… For him to love another person. Feeling your emotions swell a bit at the thought, you struggled to restrain the burning in your eyes, refusing to cry in front of him already. How could you possibly become that weak willed just because you were alone together? Had you really put on such a strong facade for the public that you didn’t even feel like yourself anymore?

“People always assume I have everything just from what they can see.” Bakugou spoke after the door shut, gaining your attention and momentary distraction from your emotions. “This office. That’s all you see. Awards. Certificates. Success. Or at least, all what people assume success to be. And I’ve reached it faster than most… Because I worked so hard for it.” After finishing off his drink, he sat the empty glass down on the edge of his desk.

At the moment, your sharp tongue was dulled, finding that you wanted to hear what he had to say. He was speaking so calmly, as if this was something that he had been waiting for, like his speech had been rehearsed in his mind over and over. That, or he was tired of hiding his emotions.

Little did you know that both were true. Bakugou had thought about what he would say to you in a situation like this, how he would get his point across that he had made a mistake pushing you so far away. How he was going to tell you that he wanted you in his life desperately? With these desires, he knew that he couldn’t hide a single ounce of himself from you. If he did, he would lose you, and he refused to let that happen. So, no matter how embarrassing it was, how frustrated he was at trying to find the right words, he would fumble until he caught his footing.

“I wanted this.” Bakugou gestured to their surroundings. “I wanted it more than anything. I wanted it so badly that I lost sight of something that I needed. That time with you made me happier than any of this shit that I have now. And I was stupid to not realize that back then.” He came up to stand in front of you, and by now, the burning in your eyes was uncontrollable. The instant is hands came up to caress your upper arms, you lost the slim control you had, the hot tears rolling down your cheeks.

“I think about it all the time. How we could have spent all these years growing together. I was selfish back then… You were right to hate me for the things I did to you. For treating you like… just an obstacle in my path. Then, and now, I don’t deserve you. But I want you. And before you snap at me, it’s not just your body. I want your laugh, your smile, your support and happiness. And I want to give you mine.”

Sniffling, you felt strangled as you tried to process his words. You could tell by the softness of his tone and his touch that he was being genuine. Bakugou, out of all people in the world, couldn’t lie without becoming a flustered mess. The truth was often even harder for him to admit, so the fact that it was coming out of his mouth so smoothly made your heart and stomach flutter. It was your turn, to tell him that you wanted all the same, but the words were lost to you. How could he admit his feelings so easily, while you were completely useless? Had you really built your wall that strong, that not even the person you loved with all your heart could get through?

“Katsuki…” You finally got through with a hiccup, only able to manage a quick glance up at him. “Did you ever love me?”

“Are you shitting me? Do you think I’d tell you all this if I didn’t? And what happened to ‘Kacchan’? Hm?” The snarky smirk that crossed his lips brought a more intense fire to your cheeks, giving a playful click of your tongue as he wiped your tears away with rough thumbs.

“I only call you Kacchan when I’m pretending to be mad at you.” After setting your drink down on the nearby desk, you placed your hands on his chest, tenderly adjusting the collar of his nice dress shirt. “After all this time you still refuse to wear ties. Even to your own company parties.”

“I hate them. I need to breathe.”

“I think you just like looking like the bad boy.” You couldn’t resist stepping in closer as his hands fell to grip your hips, the heat of his body so irresistible. “You and your tough guy facade.”

“Whatever. We both know you fucking love it.”

“I do, Katsuki.” You caressed his cheeks softly, entire body tingling with the feeling of his hands sliding up your sides. “I never hated you. Never. Maybe that makes me stupid, too… But I always knew it…”

“Knew what?” His lips were dangerously close to yours now, brushing softly as he spoke. Even his gaze was nearly crippling, already feeling your legs growing weak. He was so dangerous, so absolutely irresistible to you that there wasn’t anything you could do to control your wanting for him. Not anymore.

“That you would come back to me.”

With that, any restraint the two of you may have had was broken, lips immediately crashing into each other with a fierce and familiar passion. How long it had been didn’t matter in that moment. Bakugou knew exactly how to kiss you, how to hold your body against his and make your legs weak. The hot taste of whisky on his tongue made your entire body feel warm, starting from your core and spreading through each nerve. It was like every inch of you was on fire, the heat pooling between your legs as you couldn’t resist your arousal. Everything about him was exactly like you remembered, only… there was more.

It was obvious to you that he had grown in experience and practice, even just from this short time together. Although you couldn’t help but feel a twinge of jealousy towards the other women whom he had relations with, you knew that from this moment on, if you accepted him, it would be only you. There would never be another woman or man between you, nor any career or goals. It would be you and him together, to be everything you ever wanted. And needed.

“A-ah, Katsu--” You couldn’t resist a soft moan as his hands eagerly gripped onto your ass, even though it was immediately smothered by the kiss. His palms were so hot that you could already feel them through the fabric of your dress, only further reminding you of the things you loved about him. You didn’t know if it was because of his quirk or if it was just how his body was, but any time he got all hot and bothered, his palms would become unbelievably warm. It was never to the point that you couldn’t bare it, but it was just enough to melt you and make you crave to feel it against your bare skin. Tugging him backwards with a simple step and yank to the front of his shirt, you stumbled back until your legs hit his desk, the rattling of the ice in your drink barely registering in your feverish mind.

The loud crashing and clanking of other miscellaneous belongings falling to the floor was just as ignored by the both of you, pushed aside with a single sweep of Bakugou’s arm. In nearly the same instant, you were turned, upper body forced down onto the desk from a strong pressure between your shoulder blades. One hand firmly on your back to keep you in place, Bakugou let the other travel down your side and to your hips.

“Five years have done you a lot of favors, [Name]. Your body is fucking irresistible.”

Unable to really move, you could only support yourself on trembling legs, entire being racked with excitement and anticipation at what he would do to you next. You could feel his cock pressing into your ass from beneath his pants, and you knew damn well he was doing that on purpose. It was just another way to tease you at what you had been missing all this time and what you desperately wanted. “Are you saying it hasn’t always been?”

“Don’t be a smart ass with me. I’ve craved every inch of you…” With that, you felt the cool air of the office on your backside as your dress was pushed up to your lower back. Both strong hands moved to grope you and spread you open, an amused chuckle following. “Fuck, I can see how wet you are already. And no underwear? Were you expecting something?”

The feeling of his thumb stroking against your sex made you shudder, nibbling at your bottom lip. Even through your hose, the pleasure of his touch was irresistible, softly gasping with each stroke to your clit. “Any time I see you, I always hope that you’ll want me again. It was an impulse… not to wear underwear. I thought that… maybe ton-- a-ah!” You were cut off by a moan, surprised by the sudden hot and wet pressure against your clit. Unable to see him well, you didn’t notice that he had knelt down until he made his presence known, running his tongue along your sex with the hose still in place.

The sensation was odd at first to the both of you, but you couldn’t deny how good it felt. Even if he wasn’t on your clit directly, the cloth still grew taught against it with his movements, teasing you with just a hint of pressure. You wanted more so badly, but you knew begging wasn’t going to get you anywhere just yet. He was going to do whatever he wanted with you, and there wasn’t any point in trying to stop him, not with how badly you wanted this.

Suddenly, there was a new sensation and sound. With a firm tug and the ripping of cloth, you felt your hose loosen from your body, splitting right down the middle seam to fully expose you. Bakugou had done it with his teeth, you knew his antics well, but that didn’t mean you were any less annoyed that he just ripped your favorite hose. “Hey, Katsuki! These are my-- ooh, fuck!” You dug your nails into the wood of his desk as he began to eat your out mercilessly, gripping onto your hips to keep you still.

Turning your face more into the desk, you moaned and panted against the wood, the pleasure tingling through your body like hot sparks. Within minutes, you were brought to a leg shaking orgasm, your knees buckling. The only reason you stayed up on the desk was your upper body and Bakugou’s hands on your hips.

“Fucking hell… I’ve missed seeing you cum like that. You always cum so hard for me.” Slipping his fingers beneath the hole he had made in your hose, he ripped them just a bit more, giving him full and easier access to your wet and twitching pussy. He could have just stared at the heavenly sight for hours, watching your juices drip down your thighs and onto the floor. Never had a woman get so wet for him the way that you did, always so hot and ready to be fucked from something as simple as a kiss. While he used one hand to stroke your folds and tease your swollen clit, his other moved down to his pants, loosening his belt. “Such a good little bitch. Tell me who you belong to.”

“Y-you, Katsuki.” Body still recovering, you couldn’t resist the slight jerking of your body with his teasing of your clit.

Once his pants were unbuttoned and unzipped, Bakugou began to stroke himself to the sight of you, spreading your pussy open with his fingers. “Have you ever had someone fuck you as good as I do?”

“No, only you can make me feel so good. No other man can ever c-come close.”

“No other man will ever come close.” Standing, Bakugou pressed his tip against your waiting hole, teasingly pressing into you until you were squirming beneath him. “Now tell me what you want.”

“I-I want your cock!”

“Beg.”

“P-please, Katsuki! Please, fill me up and fuck me!”

Leaning forward, Bakugou allowed himself to slip in just slightly. He pressed his lips against your flushed cheek, smirking against your skin. He loved seeing you like this, already completely smitten and hopelessly aroused. You’d do or say anything he wanted, and he knew that being treated like this was what turned you on more than anything else. “Harder.”

His low voice in your ear made your head swim, becoming increasingly frustrated with the teasing. “I’m begging you! Please hurry up and fuck me, Katsu! My pussy is yours, please do whatever you want to me, until I’m ruined with your cum dripping down my legs! Katsu, please!” That sweet nickname flowing from your lips again after five years instantly flushed Bakugou’s chest full of a raging and familiar fire, both of his hands moving to grip tightly onto your hips.

“That’s it, babygirl.” Slowly, his cock began to fill you up, forcing a gasp from your lips as you arched your hips up into him. The soft grunt he let slip near your ear instantly almost had you cumming again, looking up at him from the corner of your eye. Vision blurry with pleasured tears, you could barely make out the furrow of his brow, though the passion in his glare was perfectly clear. You were about to be absolutely ravaged, and you couldn’t wait a second longer. But you did, soaking in the feeling of each inch vanishing within you, filling you to the brim. “You want it so bad, then take it.”

You were already trembling by the time he hissed the demand into your ear, knowing that if you weren’t lying down on the desk, your legs would have given out by now and you’d be sprawled useless on the floor. Already you could feel how full you were, his cock pulsing against your constricting walls and just itching to move. Unable to resist the urge himself, Bakugou sat up from you, hands gripping your hips tightly as he began to slowly and roughly thrust his hips. The first few thrusts of his cock inside you felt foreign, like you had almost forgotten what it was like to be fucked by him. But, very quickly, he found his rhythm, bringing back all those things you were familiar with.

The hot slapping of skin. Burning palms. Fingers with a grip so tight you knew they would bruise. Sticky liquid coating your body, from sweat to your own juices as it rolled down your legs with each aggressive thrust. Bakugou’s grunts of pleasure, mixed in with your own uncontrollable moans. A deep presence within your womb, enough to make your stomach feel full every time he sunk his cock into you. The teasing words and name calling, forcing his dominance upon you in a way that made you completely swoon.

In no time at all, you were cumming again, arching your hips up into his as you screamed and begged for the release you had so desperately missed. And then, in typical Bakugou fashion, he removed his cock from you, right on the edge of your orgasm. It faded away in a rush of tingles, and with some ounce of strength, you pushed yourself up onto your elbows to glare at him over your shoulder.

“Seriously, Katsuki? You’re still into that edging shit?!”

“Into it?” Bakugou smirked, grabbing you by both arms and forcing you back up onto your feet. His cock settled between your legs, pressing into your sex as he held your body back against his. With soft, slow thrusts, you watched as his tip vanished and reappeared again, stroking against your clit. Releasing one of your arms, the other came up to grip your neck, resting his lips at your ear. “I’ve mastered it, babygirl. And don’t try to pretend that you don’t love it.”

Putting some pressure on your neck, Bakugou kissed and nibbled at the exposed skin of your shoulder. “I’ve missed seeing your expressions when you cum so hard after being edged over and over. The way your eyes roll back in your head… That crazed and satisfied smile on your lips. Your body trembling and jerking. Fuck, you’re just so damn sexy.” He used his free hand to pull the already low-cut neckline of your dress down, allowing your breasts to fall free. He increased the speed of his thrusting, giving a sigh of pleasure in your ear as he groped and massaged your breasts.

Although the thigh fucking was a much slower pace than what he had been taking just a moment before, you couldn’t resist how good it felt just to be played with. There was no effort on your part, except for somehow finding the strength to stay standing. His lips on your skin. His teeth in your flesh. His hands on your breasts. His cock between your legs. All of it was sending you into a whole new round of bliss and almost the feeling of being… worshiped. Yes, it was for his enjoyment too, but each movement he made and shifting of his hips was to bring you pleasure.

“K-Katsu,” you moaned out sweetly, reaching up to run your fingers through his hair. “I can’t believe you still remember how to play with me. What my body wants and begs for.”

“I could never forget your body, [Name].” He paused for just a moment to allow his cock to slip back into your waiting pussy, watching your face as it contorted with pleasure. “Everything about it drives me fucking crazy. Not just your body, but you. All of you. I can’t stand the thought of being without you a second longer.” With a slight push from his thumb, you turned your head to meet his lips in a passionate kiss, which spurred his thrusts to go faster. He held your body back against him, one arm around your waist with the other across your chest, caressing your neck and playing with your breasts as he wished.

You felt so close to him, so wanted and adored for the first time in so many years. In that moment, you decided it wasn’t enough. You wanted him closer.

“Stop, wait--” With a slight push of your hand to his stomach, he stopped as instructed, even though confusion flashed across his face. Turning, you hopped up to sit on his desk, immediately pulling him closer and wrapping your legs around his waist. “I want to hold you, Katsu.”

Another passionate kiss was shared as he picked back up on where he had left off fucking you, but his movements became rougher and more excited. Having you in this more intimate position must have spurred on his excitement, and that wasn’t anything for you to complain about. But, for you, there was a twinge of sudden reconsideration that you hadn’t expected. It came with a sudden rush of pure emotion, a raging storm that you had tried to keep at bay.

Disbelief. Excitement. Remorse. Anger. Wanting. Fear. Passion. Love.

Love.

That’s what it was.

As you began to feel another orgasm building rapidly within you, you released your grip of your arms around his neck to instead caress his cheeks. “Katsu,” With the soft mention of his name, his gaze caught yours, though he never lost his rhythm or pace in the way he was fucking you. You knew you had to get it out before you lost control of yourself again, barely able to speak against the pleasure that was only growing. “Katsuki. I love you. I-I’ve loved you since the beginning. I w-want to do this together. To be together.”

Bakugou let his hand fall to your lower back, shifting your body closer to him to allow him in deeper. Leaning back a bit with his movement, you kept yourself propped up with one arm while the other was around his neck, clutching on tightly to the back of his shirt. At first, your eyes were drawn down to watch how he fucked you, until his words brought your eyes back up. Behind the haze of lust and pleasure, you could see it, the genuine adoration and love for you that he had been hiding all this time in fear. There was no more fear between you. Only hope and the prospect of true happiness.

“I love you, [Name]. And from now on, I won’t ever let your stupid ass forget it.” With one more kiss shared between you, he immediately increased his efforts, fucking you so hard and rough that the already abused desk began to creak. The sound of your drink falling and glass breaking across the pristine tile floor was ignored; all focus the two of you could muster only on each other.

You could feel it, building up within your core, and you couldn’t stop it from showing on your face. “F-Fuck, Katsu, I’m going to cum! Please! Please let me!”

“It’s okay, babygirl. Cum for me.” With his words whispered in ragged breath against your lips, you couldn’t hold back another moment. As the ball that had grown within you exploded, you collapsed back against the desk, your voice squeaking with the powerful onslaught of pleasure. With full access to your hips, now, Bakugou held onto them tightly, fucking you through your orgasm. To him, it was a beautiful sight, your sweaty and ravaged body completely broken and at his mercy. Bakugou never wanted to stop, but before he realized it, his need to cum was suffocating.

“[Name]...-”

Gaining a moment of lucidity from hearing your name, you peered up at him, smiling as you rested your arms up above your head. “Come inside me, Katsu--” With your permission, Bakugou immediately grew more aggressive and erratic, your moans edging him on. “Please cum inside me! Fill me up with your hot cum, Katsuki!”

Within moments, Bakugou did just that, tugging your hips against his tightly as he released inside you. It was so hot you could feel it, filling your womb and coating your still contracting walls. With his release, Bakugou let out a satisfied grunt, before sighing in absolute pleasure. From your view, he looked so worn out, sweaty with clothing and hair completely disheveled. You were sure that you looked exactly the same, but in Bakugou’s eyes, you were nothing but absolute perfection.

With his cock still pulsing inside you, he leaned himself forward, propping himself up on his elbows on either side of your body. Softly, he moved some hair out of your face before his lips met yours. It was different now, a tender kiss that made your stomach flutter like you were a little girl in love for the first time. You wrapped your arms around him, running your fingers through his hair and softly stroking his back as he showered your lips, cheeks and neck with sweet affections.

“This is what I’ve missed…” He spoke near your ear, low and calm. “This… gentle intimacy. You’re the only person I can experience it with- who I’d want to experience it with.”

“My Katsuki… Me, too.” Now, the tears began to return to your eyes, so overcome with bubbly happiness and pure love. “I never want to lose you again.”

“You won’t, [Name]. Never again.”

With another sweet kiss, you were both suddenly startled by a loud buzzing in Bakugou’s back pocket, which reverberated through your still connected bodies. With an annoyed huff, Bakugou removed himself from you and allowed you to sit up and adjust your dress back over your breasts as he grabbed his phone to check the message. “Ah fuck.”

“What is it?”

“My assistant… I’m almost thirty minutes late for my speech before the gift raffle. Well shit.”

Giggling softly, you looked down at the mess you had both made. Broken glasses, scattered office supplies, papers and even his name plaque littered the floor. “Well, at least we still kept all our clothes on.”

With a click of his tongue, Bakugou headed over towards a door, walking inside. “I still have to fucking change, I’m sweaty as fuck.” His voice echoed, so you grew curious, following him in to see that it was a whole bathroom with a shower, tub and everything else that came standard. You followed him around a corner to see that he also had a full walk in closet, making you gasp in shock.

“Damn, Katsu! Think you have enough space? Do you live here?!”

“Of fucking course I don’t.” Bakugou glowered at you, stripping off his shirt before stepping out of his pants. “I just have extra clothes.”

“Won’t people be suspicious if you come down in new cloths- oh. You have the same exact ones.”

“Always have to be prepared, [Name]. I just… don’t have an extra dress for you. Or hose. Sorry.” He smirked at you as you looked down at your legs, the hose you wore soaked with liquid and torn all the way down to your thighs. Huffing, you pushed them down before plopping yourself onto the toilet, relieving yourself as you took off your shoes.

“My dress is fine, it’s my hose that I’m upset about! These were my favorite ones!”

“I’ll buy you more. Are you taking a piss?!”

“You’re lucky I didn’t piss all over your desk, I’ve had to pee for like an hour.”

“And I still wouldn’t want you to leave.”

Smiling, you rolled the ruined hose into a ball and put them in the trash, cleaning yourself up with toilet paper. Once done, you put your shoes back on, flushed and went to wash your hands. While you were doing so, Bakugou emerged back from the closet, back dressed just as spiffy as he had been before. Coming to stand behind you, he wrapped his arms around your waist, giving your cheek a soft kiss. “I’m happy you’ve forgiven me, [Name]. That you want me back…”

“Of course I do, Katsuki. These few years just made me realize that… I can’t be happy without you.”

“Me, too.” After another kiss, he went to the other sink, grabbing a toothbrush and squeezing some toothpaste onto it.

Confused, you wiped your hand on a towel, before attempting to fix the mess your hair had become. “What are you doing?”

“Brushing my teeth. I can’t exactly go back to a party with my breath smelling like whisky and pussy, now can I?”

“Nah, you should. It’ll keep all those girls away.”

“You being on my arm will keep them away enough.”

“Touché. Going public already… Bring it on.”

“You got it, babygirl.”

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azuchifairy · 4 years

Text

The Corpse Bride

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13672392/2/The-Corpse-Bride

“If you seek happiness, your heart knows what your mind can’t understand.”

Chapter Two: True to Yourself

Levy’s heart felt warm and she strolled down the hall with a spring in her step knowing Lucy was happy with her surprise. Levy McGarden was one of the Heartfilia's magic advisors. She had been studying magic and scripts since she was a child and grew up to be a very successful mage. When she moved to town she made friends with Lucy in the village and since then the two had become very close. Lucy invited her personally to meet her parents who were very impressed by her resume. She came around often to spend time with Lucy, and also Layla who was a magic user.

The time that she wasn’t at the Heartfilia estate she was working with the infamous Erza Scarlet, the town’s well renowned mage known for dealing with the dark magic as well as other forms. To keep her shop hidden from mage rebels it was disguised as an armory, that being Erza’s other passion, and placed at the edge of the forest. Levy worked with her to continue her studies and lived above the shop in it’s cozy loft while Erza and her husband Jellal lived in the house connected.

Levy was an admirable asset to Erza as the mage was slightly blind to things up close giving her a difficulty in reading. Levy, who adored reading more than anyone, was the perfect match to read the books to Erza and she could decipher ancient magic scripts. Jellal was a great teacher when it came to learning of ancient scripts, but even a great mage like him had trouble from time to time. When they weren’t experimenting with spells or taking care of their magical clientele, Levy worked in the armory for the human travellers that stopped by to have their weapons looked at or purchase new ones.

She knew that the day ahead of Lucy was going to be difficult so she made the journey across town on foot to be with her, despite feeling bad about leaving Erza. It was hard to see her going through so much with little Levy could do to help, so even the least bit of happiness she could bring would lift her conscience.

As she walked she was met by Layla, who looked as stunning as ever. She wore a fuschia gown with roses of lighter hues in the pattern. It had lace frills and her hair was pulled into an elegant high bun as always with a frilled headband and choker to match. Lucy’s mother dripped in the essence of elegance that it was enough to take someone’s breath away, and Levy was no exception.

“L-Layla-sama!” Levy curtseyed in front of her, “That’s such a beautiful dress.”

The blonde woman grinned at her with her hands resting together at her waist, “Why, thank you. Where are you off to, Levy-chan?”

“I was about to go home for the day. I figured since it was a formal meeting it would be best I leave.” Levy said with a soft chuckle scratching the back of her head.

“Nonsense, I actually had a favor to ask if you didn’t mind staying.”

“Of course Layla-sama, what did you need?” Levy responded eagerly.

***

When they entered the Heartfilia foyer they were met with all kinds of grand decor and artwork from the finest painters. There were vases and wall hangers filled with flowers wherever you looked. Gray stood next to his parents as they waited when he felt his dad nudge him with his elbow. He looked to him and saw he held his hang out containing a silver banded ring. “Forgot to give that to you, in case you need it.” His dad winked at him and dropped it in Gray’s hand.

His son glared at him, “And why would I want this?”

Silver nudged him again but this time it was to quiet him as the servants opened the doors for Jude and Layla. Gray rolled his eyes heavily but stuck the ring in his pocket knowing that he definitely wouldn’t need it. The Heartfilia couple entered the large foyer with Layla outshining Jude from the moment they stepped in. It looked like she had floated while she walked and radiated glamour.

“Mr. and Mrs. Fullbuster, it’s so lovely to have you here in our home.” Layla smiled, a true woman of elegance.

Silver bowed to both her and Jude, “Thank you for having us as your guests, we are truly honored.”

Ur curtseyed lifting her pale blue dress, “It is my pleasure to meet you both.”

Jude looked to both of them yet all he said was, “Likewise.”

This was Gray’s least favorite part of meeting any wealthy family, the smiling, the acting like he cared while he watched his parents take part in the bowing formalities. The couple came to Gray and he bowed trying not to wince from the tightness in his jacket, “Mr. and Mrs. Heartfilia, thank you for having us and giving me the chance to meet your daughter.”

Layla was smiling at him while Jude remained the same and they both turned back to Gray’s parents.

“What a handsome young man. I’m sure Lucy will be delighted to meet him.” Layla said and she seemed to mean her words. Gray noticed that Jude was giving him a glare almost as icy as his father’s. He knew he was trying to be intimidating, trying to see if Gray could handle it. He tried not to roll his eyes, how childish.

“Oh, Lucy, my dearest.” Layla said looking at the doorway, “Please come in, meet the Fullbusters. Silver, Ur, and their son Gray.”

The girl who came through the door looked just like her mother, a spitting image. Her blonde hair was over her shoulder in a long braid and her dress was the color of cherry blossoms. Gray didn’t deny she was pretty, but pink happened to be his least favorite color.

She curtseyed to his parents, “It’s my pleasure to meet you, thank you for visiting our home.”

Then she turned to him and gave a less enthusiastic curtsey compared to the bright smile she gave his parents, “Pleased to make your acquaintance.” Gray tried his best not to laugh at how he could clearly see how much she didn’t want to be there. Instead he bowed and cleared his throat before he spoke, “Pleased to make your acquaintance.”

Clearly both sets of parents could sense the awkwardness between them, even if they tried to keep it hidden. Layla piped up, “Shall we go be seated in the parlor for tea?”

“Yes, of course. Please lead the way.” Silver replied.

Layla turned to her daughter, “Why don’t you show Gray around the estate and come meet us a bit later on? Levy has agreed to accompany you. How does that sound?”

Levy approached behind them with a smile on her face winking to Lucy. She left a respectable distance between them.

“Lovely. We can start in the gardens.” Lucy said and began walking as soon as she finished her sentence. Gray picked up his feet to follow feeling like a child for a moment wanting to stay with his parents. He wasn’t good with social interactions with people he didn’t know, and most people who knew him labeled him as awkward.

As soon as they got outside there was a vast garden divided into different sections. There were white fences and arches with vines of flowers wrapped around them. In the middle of the trimmed hedges and rose bushes was a magnificent marble fountain that extended into a pond through a waterfall. There were so many different flowers in an array of colors including, violets, peonies, lilies, hydrangeas, and chrysanthemums. Marble benches were spread throughout the garden and the path was made with a white type of gravel that crunched underneath their shoes. Gray was amazed at how fantastic the garden looked and it definitely matched the estate itself. He noticed how Lucy still hadn’t spoken to him even though they were away from their parents and took it as a good sign that she didn’t want to be there.

Levy granted them space as they walked just keeping an eye on their surroundings and whatnot. She didn’t think that this Fullbuster boy was a match for Lucy at all and she thought it was easy to see from the beginning. They were both tense, like they’d rather be anywhere else, and that energy filled the air.

Gray tried at least to break the ice a bit, “Um, this is a nice estate. Did your family design it?”

“Really? That’s how you’re going to start a conversation?” She scoffed, rolling her eyes. Gray was taken aback by her unpleasant tone and in turn fired back with an attitude without thinking.

“Well it’s not like you were going to start the conversation, I tried to make an effort.” He said irritatedly.

“Your effort was insufficient.” She fired back in a snotty voice.

“I’m really not trying to impress you anyways.”

“Like that matters to me! You’re so not my type.” She said crossing her arms over her chest. While Gray was irritated he wanted to laugh at how immature this girl was.

“Yeah well I don’t see how you could be anyone’s type with bratty behavior like that.” Gray said, trying to entertain himself with her reaction.

Her eyes opened wide as she turned around with her fists clenched, “Bratty?! I’ll have you know I already have a man that considers me his type, a man that isn’t so brainless!”

Gray stifled his laughter, “Actually wouldn’t he be the brainless one to be interested in you?”

Lucy gasped in offense, “That’s it! You’re really trying to screw this up aren’t you?! Because congratulations, you succeeded!”

Gray chuckled, “This was already screwed up before it started.”

Lucy grimaced, “Well at least you are right about one thing. Just leave me alone.”

Levy thought she was going to have to stop them during their disagreement but left it to Lucy since she had seen her do it countless times before. It was best to stay out of the way and let things settle the way they were supposed to. So far it had started going like all the other times her friend had talked about, Lucy would insult them and usually the man would try to make up for it by being excessively polite. Gray had thrown it all back at her from his own frustrations and gave her a bit of a run for her money.

She observed as he followed her still even though she had stomped off down the center path. It didn’t seem like he was trying to hurt her feelings, but at the same time Levy was already positive their match in a romantic sense did not exist. She did however, think Lucy may find a friend in him.

Once they reached the fountain Lucy stopped and sat on one of the marble benches to which Gray sat next to her on the edge. The sky was dark and there were no birds singing, only the gentle breeze rustling the bushes. Gray could tell she felt bad and decided that apologizing may be his best bet to potentially get them on the same side.

“Look I’m sorry, okay? I really don’t want to get married. I’m sure you’re a very nice person but this is all being forced on me by my dad.” Gray explained slouching over a bit since his parents weren’t around to scold him. “Now that you both know where I stand can we stop arguing? It’s immature.”

She thought to herself for a moment about how infuriating he had been only minutes ago and realized he had no reason to lie, that he had to be telling the truth. Lucy sighed, “You're right, I’m sorry too,” she turned to him and explained, “You see, I’m already in love with someone. I wish to marry him but..my father doesn’t approve.”

Gray watched her clench her fists and even someone with an icy heart like his, felt sympathy for her. “That’s pretty awful. I’m sorry to hear that. Did he give him a chance?”

“No! He didn’t even give him a chance before he rejected him! So I made this stupid arragement with him, I promised I would meet anyone he brought to me and only if I rejected all of them could I be with Natsu. Somehow he just won’t stop! I thought he would give up, I thought he would know by now that I don’t want anyone else.” Lucy sniffled looking to Gray, “So I’m rather glad you didn’t have plans of marrying me.”

Gray shook his head, “Natsu? Natsu Dragneel? I know him, he’s a close friend of my family. We visit them every so often. He’s a complete idiot sometimes, but he is my friend.” He paused for a moment, “There’s definitely no way I could ever do that to him.” Now he knew he needed to come up with a plan so they wouldn't have to go any further into making arrangements.

She was able to let out a sigh of relief, “You know Natsu? I had no idea.” Levy noticed her whole demeanor changed the moment she started talking about him. “You know, there have been so many times that I snuck out with Natsu to spend time with him at his father’s bar. We had so many great times there drinking, telling stories, and that’s where I met the real Natsu.”

“Seriously?” Gray questioned, “How did you not get caught? The bar isn’t exactly close to your estate.”

Lucy shrugged, “Honestly I have no clue, but I was good at picking the right nights to go out. Most of the time Natsu would just sneak into my bedroom to spend time with me..” She blushed looking away bashfully, “Y-You know! We’d watch the stars, or he’d bring along his familiar Happy to play with!”

Gray decided not to tease her and chuckled thinking of the cat, “That silly thing? I forgot he had him. Gee, it’s been awhile since I visited him.”

Lucy nodded, “Now that I think about it I think he did mention your name maybe once, he usually referred to you as ‘ice brain’.”

Gray glared in exhaustion, “I’m going to kill him next time I see him. How did you not know it was me coming today then? I could’ve avoided that argument with you.”

“Sorry about that I didn’t know you were a Fullbuster, Natsu never mentioned that part. Like I said, I didn’t put it together that you were Gray. I just know about the families in the area, not exactly who is who, or who’s acquainted with who unless they partner in business. My father says it isn’t necessary to know because I won’t be inheriting the Heartfilia estate anyways.” Lucy explained.

“Consider yourself lucky, that's one thing you can forget about.” Gray pointed out.

Lucy sighed looking down, “Yes, you’re right about that. But, I think it would be harder if I had to forget about Natsu. I want to be with him more than anything, he’s the only person I’ve ever met that only wants me to be myself. On top of everything good about him and his heart of gold, he offers me the one thing my family has never given me.”

“What’s that?” Gray asked, although he had an idea of what she would say.

“Freedom,” she laughed, “as trivial as it is, it’s the one thing I truly want. That ability to be my own person and decide what I want to do with my life, it’s priceless.” Lucy looked up towards the sky as if deep in her mind she was in her own world leaving Gray to himself. He could see how Natsu could give her that. His family had no expectations, they lived happily compared to everyone else because they did what they wanted. It seemed to Gray that Lucy would fit right in.

The only thing he could think of was a bit outrageous. It was not his typical go to plan, but it might be enough to cause both of their parents to reconsider. Plus, if it worked it would result in a solution for both him and Lucy. At least they wouldn’t have to continue making plans for a wedding.

“So, what if we could create some chaos in front of our parents? One could start a fight with the other and draw it out. Essentially people like our folks hate dealing with chaos so they’ll have to stop us.” Gray concluded.

Lucy hesitated, “I mean it doesn’t sound like a bad idea, but we’d have to really sell it to them.”

Gray nodded, “So that’ll be up to you. With that bratty attitude I’m sure you’ll be able to convince them you hate me.”

Lucy started to chuckle, “You really don’t hold back,” she shook her head with a light grin, “How are you certain it’ll work?”

“Well, I’m sure they saw how much we dislike each other, they will have no choice but to call it off.” Gray explained, “I’m not sure it’ll guarantee that you and Natsu could be together but, it's a start.”

“You would go through the trouble to do all that? ” Lucy asked in surprise. Gray shrugged in response, “It benefits us both.”

“But you don’t even know me and I was rather rude to you..” Lucy said, “I’m sorry for that.”

“No need to be sorry, I think I was just as rude.” Gray chuckled, “I’m doing it for Natsu too. This way I know that he’ll be happy in the end too.”

Lucy’s smile widened as she thought of Natsu again and how it wouldn’t be too long until she was in his arms again.

Gray stuck his hand out, “Truce?”

Lucy smiled, taking his hand and giving it a small shake, “Truce.”

Levy grinned and thought that maybe the Fullbuster boy wasn’t so bad after all. She did doubt that their plan would work, but he even if he didn’t want to say it out loud, he empathized Lucy’s struggle. She was nervous at the same time, because there was about to be utter chaos at the Heartfilia household.

***

After carefully devising a plan Lucy and Gray went back to the estate ready to put their plan into action. Lucy stormed ahead in front of Gray and as the servants noticed her nearing the room they stepped aside to open the doors quickly.

“Father! Mother!” Lucy barked with her clenched fists at her sides. She cleared the doorway first and Gray stepped up his pace to follow.

Both couples looked up in worry as Lucy steamed, “There is no possible way I could ever marry this man!” She turned to Gray as he passed the threshold and put her hands on her hips, “He’s an absolute brute! He’s ill-mannered, full of attitude, and on top of that he doesn’t value me!”

Gray played his part to perfection addressing his parents, “I did nothing to her! She’s spoiled, arrogant and rude! I can’t get along with someone who’s so egotistical, it would be even worse to marry her!”

Layla stood up with urgency but still as graceful as a swan, “Now Lucy dear, I’m sure we can work this out-”

Lucy stomped her foot like a toddler much to her parent’s shock,“Absolutely not! I want nothing more to do with him!”

Gray admired her commitment to the act and decided to up his game. He crossed his arms over his chest and pointed his nose to the air as he turned away, “I want nothing less. The sooner I get to be free of her presence the better.”

Silver got up with a suppressed look of anger on his face, “Gray,” he hissed, “your manners. As Layla said, I’m sure there’s a solution to this problem.”

Ur stood next to him, “What happened between you two that caused this?”

Lucy looked to Gray again pointing her gloved finger at him, “He couldn’t say a single word of sincerity! I tried to show him some of our family’s prized flowers and he stood there with no emotion!”

Gray rolled his eyes, “It’s not my fault you came off a carriage straight out of brat town.”

Ur gasped at his behavior while Silver began to rage, “Gray! That's enough.”

Gray turned his attention to his father, “No. I won’t just bite my tongue. I’d rather marry any other girl than her and she feels the same. What’s so difficult about calling this off?”

Jude finally stood with his composure intact, like he wasn’t phased by anything they were saying. His calm demeanor was a red flag for Gray, something wasn’t getting through. Then, Jude finally spoke.

“I apologize for this foolishness on behalf of my daughter, Silver, Ur. You see, she’s trying to play a game.”

Lucy’s eyes widened as she tried to stay on her feet, “No I’m not! I meant every word I said-”

“You will be silent while your father speaks. Know your place, and step down.” Jude asserted glaring at her with his eyes full of a fiery rage. Lucy felt the fear in her at that moment, she saw the man she had been afriad of since she was a child, and allowed herself to go silent.

Silver interjected, “I’m sorry I don’t know what you mean. What game?”

“My daughter has supposedly fallen in love with someone different. The son of the Dragneels, who I’m most certain you know. She thinks she will accept no other than him, yet I do not approve of the boy. But still she has made countless attempts to foil her mother and I into arranging her with someone else. This, I’m afraid, is one of her plots. Your son seemed to have gotten himself involved this time however, which is new.” Jude explained.

Gray was in a bit of shock that he had seen right through them. He was under the impression they could be persuasive enough to get the job done, but he didn’t know who they were playing against. Jude was not only a business tycoon, but a mastermind of whatever mental games his daughter had tried to play with him. Every strategy, every move, nothing could be hidden from his analysis.

Silver understood then, “I see.”

The fury building in her was enough to give her strength. Although Lucy had tears pricking in her eyes she spoke up again, “Why do you think I have to do this! You won’t just listen to what I have to say! You won’t even give Natsu a chance? So what if Gray wanted to help, at least someone in this damn house listened!”

Jude was growing irritated with her, “Silence this outburst at once. This is not how you were raised, you will do as I say. You have no choice!”

Lucy felt herself boil over with every pent up emotion she had tucked away, “I will not just stay silent! I’ve spent every day being quiet, and that ends today! All my life, I never got to choose what I wanted and I was fine with it. This is the first time I want something with all my heart and you just want to shatter it! Well I’m not just going to lay down and marry whoever you want. I have dreams, dreams that things like money and status could never buy. And Natsu..” she paused thinking of his smile in her mind, “He’s one of those dreams, whether you like it or not.”

“Your disrespect will not be tolerated any longer! You think you know what you want, when really you know nothing at all! You’re way out of line and it’s time you learned where it is you should be.” Jude said and got ready to approach Lucy when Gray stepped in his path.

“Gray-” Silver started.

“Look, you clearly don’t know what you’re talking about. Not only are you being completely unfair to your own daughter, but you’re not even willing to listen to reason. You’ve never even met Natsu before so you have no idea of his character. He may be eccentric, but he’s exceptionally loyal and honest. He’s one of the most genuine people I know and you can’t even consider him for your daughter over all the other fakes she’s met? If you ask me, all your doing is hurting Lucy. It’s true, I don’t want to marry your daughter and I have no intention to and regardless I’m a man of integrity. I won’t betray Natsu over something like status. You’ll have to find a different sucker to swindle into that.”

Jude set his glare at him pointedly, “Young man, I suggest you stop here if you want any future with the Heartfilia family.”

“Father, please, just listen to him. He’s the only one who’s supported-”

“Lucy!!” Jude bellowed, “Shut that ungrateful mouth! I’m tired of hearing your silly little sob stories and your even more idiotic fantasies with that Dragneel boy! I’m done hearing what either of you have to say, you’ve both brought shame on your families with this ploy!”

Gray stepped forward with his anger increasing by the second, “Now just you wait a second Mr. Footuphisass, don’t talk to her like that. This is the kind of thanks she gets for following every order, every wish, you’ve ever wanted? What kind of sick man are you? Parents are supposed to love their kids, not treat them like mindless pawns in their games.” Gray shouted with his fists clenched.

“Alright, that’s quite enough from you-” Silver began towards Gray, who hadn’t finished his rant yet.

“No, you know what Dad I’m also fed up with hearing all this marriage bullshit too. Lucy and I may be different but we’re a lot alike in the sense that I’ve done nothing but what you’ve asked since I was a child! This ‘marriage’ was your idea and I’m putting my foot down.”

Silver’s eyes were dark with rage, “You better remember who you’re speaking to, boy. You’re a Fullbuster, you’re my son. You have responsibilities, expectations, you can’t just revoke everything I’ve worked so hard to do because you don’t want to.”

Everyone could feel the iciness in the room as the father and son duo glared at each other.

“Actually, dad, I can. If being a ‘Fullbuster’ means I’m going to hate myself for the rest of my life, I’ll fucking pass.”

Everyone in the room gasped and before Silver could lunge at his son, Ur stepped forward in front of him, “Out of this room, this instant!” She turned back to the Heartfilia’s laughing in embarrassment, “If you’ll excuse us for just a moment, we’ll talk to-”

“No, mom. I’m done talking. I’ve said everything you needed to hear.” Gray said with his eyes never leaving his father’s death stare. He turned around abruptly and almost bumped into Levy in the hall as he passed. Gray mumbled an apology to her and bursted out the front door to see the downpour of rain. Everyone in the room was left speechless and immobilized, the only sound being the slam of the door. He steamed with anger while he went straight past the carriage and out to the road. He didn’t want a single thing to do with his parents at the moment, even if that included riding in their carriage.

Then from the corner of his eye he saw something quite peculiar. To see if it was just a trick of the rain he turned his head to see the butterfly from before, the same colors and all, perched on the branch next to an opening in the woods. Soon it lifted from its perch and fluttered into the woods, leaving him compelled to follow it.

“Gray!” His father’s angry voice echoed in the distance. Gray snorted and stepped through the entrance to the woods. It would delay him going home at least, to clear his head from all the unwanted excitement of the day. The dark skies only grew darker above as thunder rumbled and soon it would be night. Gray did not look back as he crossed the stone bridge deeper into the forest, but if he did he would’ve seen the entrance he had come in through was no longer there.

#gruvia #gray fullbuster #gray x juvia #juvia lockser #fairy tail #Nalu #natsu dragneel #lucy heartfilia #natsu x lucy #corpse bride #otp #anime otp #anime #fanfic #azuchifairy #fanfiction

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mithrilwren · 4 years

Text

Carillon

For @essek-week day 6: tower/possibilities. This was a VERY last minute fill, and it was an absolute miracle I got it done before the clock struck midnight, but woohoo, here we are! It’s mostly for ‘tower’, but I think it has shades of ‘possibilities’ as well.

[Also on Ao3!]

“I really do appreciate that you were willing to come all this way.”

“Yes, well,” Essek said, inclining his head slightly. “It isn’t so far to travel for people such as us, is it?”

The blonde-haired woman smiled serenely. Lady Allura Vysoren, member of the Arcana Pansophical, senior member of the Council of Tal’Dorei, a talented and accomplished wizard - all facts he’d committed carefully to memory the night before, after a series of hasty messages to his more worldly contacts. She ushered him from the teleportation circle through an oaken door, into a hallway of fine wooden supports and demure beige paint. “Have you been to Tal’Dorei before, Essek?”

“No, I’m afraid I haven’t. My duties rarely take me outside my home country.” He gazed up at the high ceiling, wondering vaguely which government building she’d transported them to. He knew they were bound for Emon, but he hadn’t had time to collect any information about the layout of the city before Allura arrived to collect him.

“That’s a shame. I do love to travel, when I can.” Her pleasant niceties, far from putting Essek at ease, only amplified his confusion as to why he was chosen for this assignment. The role of ‘Shadowhand’ was exactly as unobtrusive as the name implied - he was no diplomat. His work was best done through intermediaries, if any social interaction was required at all.

His work with the Mighty Nein was an aberration, but not wholly outside his purview: to gather information about illicit dealings within the Dynasty was quite within his usual set of duties, even if the method was… unusual. But he could not fathom why the Bright Queen would select him to play the role of ambassador, unless his seeming success with the Nein convinced her that he had some special pull with humans that other drow lacked.

Yet again, he found himself teetering on the knife’s edge of civility, trying to maintain his balance in an arena he did not understand. If he had little experience playing the host, he had less being the hosted, and he grasped one hand by the other in a vice grip behind his back as he floated after Allura, following her into a little parlor off the main corridor. She gestured to a chair, and he felt at once foolish to have taken the effort to resume his levitation spell, only to be forced to descend within a minute in order to sit.

“Please, make yourself comfortable,” Allura said as she walked to a little table and began pouring cups of tea from a delicate porcelain pot. Beside her, there was a glass door, partially ajar and seemingly leading to a balcony, but Essek could not see past the railing to guess any more about their location. Instead, Essek sank back into the armchair - plush, and upholstered with warm auburn velvetine that complemented the other splashes of autumnal colour within the room - and watched the light breeze from the balcony ripple within the blue folds of Allura’s dress as she finished pouring.

A receiving chamber, perhaps, for foreign officials? It seemed pleasant enough for it, though nowhere near as grand as the Bright Queen’s throne room. Every so often a shout or cheer drifted up from the street below, also very unlike the reverent silence that he knew so well. Perhaps those things mattered less for a government ruled by a collection of individuals, rather than a sovereign. He had no frame of reference to compare it against.

After handing him a cup, Allura sank into an armchair across from him and took a small sip, just enough to wet her lips, before speaking again. “I hope it’s alright. I tend to drink a lot of tea in the afternoon, but if you prefer something else, I’m sure I can muster it up.”

“This is fine,” he said, and took a sip to prove it. And it was - a pleasant, earthy aroma, subtled by a splash of cream and what he assumed must be sugar. He’d never met anyone besides Jester who preferred sweetness in herbal drinks (or any drinks, in her case), but he had to admit that the flavours melded well. “But- you’ll forgive me, but I wasn’t given much information on the nature of this meeting. What was it you wanted to discuss?”

Matters of politics he had at least a good understanding of, a better one than how to act friendly and convince others to enjoy your company, and Essek was eager to shift to more familiar ground as soon as possible. While he doubted his social graces could net Allura’s esteem, at least he might be able to engage her mind in discussion, and then perhaps the worst of his awkwardness could be overlooked.

And, for the most part, he believed he succeeded, in the ways that mattered. It turned out the Council of Tal’Dorei had simply wanted a check-in with the Dynasty after Allura’s involvement in the peace talks - a move which he now gathered was only loosely sanctioned by the council itself, though she had seemed quite confident when she arrived before the Bright Queen’s court all those months ago. She meant to shore up relations, and ensure that open communication would continue between their governments.

He agreed to what he could, proposed options for further engagements, and all in all, performed adequately in his function, but hadn’t quite shaken the feeling he was missing some important detail in all of this - something that might explain why he, of all people, was the one taking part in this conversation. Allura was clearly a skilled diplomat, in addition to her arcane prowess. She projected an air of competence, tempered by a warm, inviting demeanor, but he did not doubt that her demeanor would change were they in her personal tower, rather than within the public eye. Wizards were not known for their hospitality, after all, and the ones he’d met outside himself always guarded their isolation jealously, quick to drop all illusions of civility once they were within a domain of their control.

“Lady Allura,” he asked as she got up to refill their cups, unable to contain the pressing question any longer. “I’ve enjoyed our conversation today, and I think we’ve made good progress. But… if there is any skillset that I particularly may provide, please, do not hesitate to ask.” There. A way of proposing the question without betraying his own ignorance. The best he could do without surrendering ground in their back and forth. This was, after a negotiation, even if he couldn’t sense the parameters yet. One wizard did not call on another unless they desired something that the other could provide. Even Caleb primarily turned to Essek for help with spells or magic beyond his level, and they were friends - at least, they were.

(He pushed down any thoughts of dinner parties, or good conversation over wine, as the fancies of the past that they were. It was a bitter hope, to believe that there was a different sort of relationship they could have had, one not based on favours and needs. It did not serve him to dwell on it, when his own hand was what quashed that hope for good.)

Allura smiled, setting down the pot on the table. “Nothing of the sort. Truth be told, I actually asked for you personally.” Essek’s eyebrow raised.

“Really.” Though she made no threat, his hand itched towards his wrist, where his components were hidden. Weeks of warnings from Caleb and others in the Nein that an assassination attempt by the Cerberus Assembly might be coming, now that he had outlived his usefulness, had set him on edge. The thought of a powerful wizard with connections both in the Dynasty and the Empire asking to see him personally, and alone? It was worth every bit of caution in the world.

“You sound surprised.”

“Diplomacy is not my accustomed role.”

“Nor is peacemaking mine, but we find ourselves in strange times.” Allura turned away, looking towards the window and the afternoon sky. “I confess, I still don’t understand the whole of the conflict on Wildemount’s shores. There are shades of grey to every war, and I don’t trust myself to recognize them with an outsider’s perspective. Which is why I asked the Mighty Nein who they would trust to speak to me honestly, and fairly.” She turned back to Essek. “They named you.”

A jolt went through Essek. “When?” he asked, shocked to hear the state of his own voice, strained as it was.

They’d barely spoken in the weeks since the end of the peace talks, other than the warnings about Ikithon and Jester’s occasional messages at inconvenient hours. He’d assumed any ties of trust he’d had with the Nein had been irrevocably broken. Despite any protestations in the Balleater’s hold, he had a hard time believing that No- Veth, or Beau, or even Fjord would count him as someone to be recommended. And yet-

“A few nights ago, when I asked them. I’m glad you were available on such short notice.”

“I as well,” he answered faintly.

And yet-

“Oh no.”

Essek’s head whipped up at Allura’s sudden change in tone to something akin to horror.

“Is something the matter?”

He stood quickly and floated over to her, scanning the room for any sign of an intruder or threat, but instead he found her staring at a timepiece on the mantle, her eyes tracking the short hand with increasing distress.

“She’s going to kill me.”

“Who?” Essek insisted, but she was already striding away from him towards the door.

“How would you feel about a quick tour of the city?” Allura asked, her smile gone from welcoming to hurriedly apologetic in an instant.

“...Alright.” Strange, but he couldn’t sense an immediate threat. He followed her out the door and into the same hallway, which soon led to a winding spiral staircase leading downwards into a depth of stone.

“I’m very sorry for the abruptness,” she explained as she walked, “but I promised I would pick something up for someone, and I lost track of time. I’d like to send you off properly, but I also- I really did promise.”

“It’s alright,” he said. “I’m in no rush.” If anything, he was curious to see a bit more of Emon than whatever government building they were in - though, he thought as they continued to descend, it was a strange construction for one. If anything, the layout of the staircase reminded him more of a-

In what seemed like an instant, they were outside, and Essek’s suspicions were immediately proved unfounded. The moment they stepped out onto the street, they were surrounded by bustle - crowded houses, children playing in the street, dogs begging scraps from a food stall down the way. No wizard’s tower would be built so close to the rest of society. They were built for privacy, secluded and elevated above the world. His own house was a half-formed imitation of what he had someday hoped to achieve for himself: gated and lofty, and lonesome.

He didn’t have time to reflect further, or even glance back, lest he lose Allura in the crowd as she hurried away at a breakneck speed.

In the end, he caught up to her on the outskirts of a market, where sellers were just beginning to put away their wares for the coming evening. Essek found Allura at one particular stall, clutching a package of something smelling distinctly briny and looking triumphant.

“Lionfish,” she explained. “They only sell it one day a week, because it’s so hard to keep fresh on its journey from the coast. It’s also my wife’s favourite dish. I would not have heard the end of it, if I’d forgotten.”

“Your wife?” Essek asked, his understanding of Allura shifting in great bounds, like so many shifting cogs whirring into a new configuration. Had he ever met a wizard who was in a partnership, let alone married? It had always seemed to him that a relationship of that kind could only take time away from his work: an unsound investment. Or at least that was a convincing argument, on the days that the loneliness felt like it would suffocate him from within. He almost wanted to ask how she managed it, ambition and love both, but held his tongue.

“Kima,” Allura provided. “She’ll probably be home by the time we make it back. Maybe you’ll meet her.”

“I’d like that,” said Essek, and found he meant it, which was the most surprising thing of all.

Now that they weren’t in a rush, he was able to get more of a lay of the land. The city was a strange arrangement of highs and lows. It seemed that they were in the high portion, with many houses spread out on the plain below.

“This is the Cloudtop District,” Allura explained as they walked. Essek had decided to forgo his usual hovering, as his drow appearance was already garnering enough stares from passersby. “It used to be home to the most wealthy citizens of the city, but nowadays there’s a mix of all sorts here.”

“What changed?”

“A horde of dragons razed the city to the ground.” Allura shrugged. “The social divide seemed rather immaterial to most people after that.” She pointed forward at one singular spire, rising above the rest of the mostly one-or-two level dwellings. “Luckily, there was enough space left for me to rebuild the Ivory Tower, and the city’s come up around it.”

Essek stared. It was certainly the direction they had come from, and that they were now headed to.

So it was her tower then, that they had been in. Her tower, that she called ‘home’, that she used to entertain guests, and shared with her wife, and occasionally left to buy fish from a market three streets down.

“Does it ever feel... crowded?” Essek asked, his own skin already crawling at the proximity of the strangers around him.

“Sometimes,” Allura admitted. “But I like being able to say hello to my neighbours. I hid my nose in books for so much of my life that it’s a welcome change, for it to be as easy to meet new people as to walk outside my door. It takes some of the work out of it for me.”

That was… not a way that Essek had considered the problem before. He had wondered when he was younger why so many of his peers fell into relationships - platonic or otherwise - without any seeming effort, while he could not fathom how to make a single friend. But he had been separate from the start - isolated because of his mother’s position, and his own talent. Were relationships truly as simple as being in the right vicinity to stumble into them?

He pondered that thought all the rest of the way back to the tower, and up an unfamiliar staircase. “I just want to stick this in the icebox,” Allura explained, “and then I promise, I’ll see you home properly.” He followed her through a new door and into a little kitchen with an adjoining dining room, separated by a half-wall and banister.

The kitchen itself was fascinating. He got the sense of Allura as an organized individual, but most of the space was pure chaos. Mismatched mugs were haphazardly piled on top of bags of produce and sharp knives were stacked, uncovered, by the sink. Allura’s nose visibly wrinkled as she moved aside a few unopened boxes with her foot in order to open the icebox and shove the package inside.

“Who’s this?”

The new voice caught Essek off guard and he whirled, only to find the air empty at his eye level. He looked down, and found a halfling woman in improbably large plate armor staring up brazenly at him.

“Essek Thelyss,” Allura supplied from behind him, standing up and dusting her hands off on her skirt. “A guest of mine, from Wildemount.”

The woman didn’t extend her hand, but she gave Essek a good once-over before nodding, apparently satisfied by his look that he wasn’t a threat. He tried not to take it as a snub as the woman shouldered past him to get to Allura.

“Did you remember to get the lionfish?”

“Of course, darling,” Allura said, glancing over the woman’s head at Essek with a look that clearly read I told you so. “I wouldn’t have forgotten.”

Kima, then, and the swift kiss she planted on the back of Allura’s palm confirmed it. “Great, I’ll get started then. Go finish up with your friend, dinner’s in forty.” With that, she was off, pulling pots and pans out with reckless abandon, and utterly unconcerned with either of their presences. It was clear now to Essek that this place was Kima’s, which explained the incongruity with Allura’s neat parlor.

He thought of his own house, where half the rooms were empty for lack of things to fill them with. He had always wanted to live alone, had never questioned the idea that he would hate to share any part of his home with someone else.

And yet-

He could understand the appeal now, of sharing a space. Of seeing another person’s marks left over the places they frequent - the dishes in the sink, the paintings on the wall - or to be greeted by a kiss on the doorstep, from someone listening for your footsteps eagerly. It wasn’t a possibility for him, but he thought... he could see it. Why someone would want that.

Allura sent him back to Rosohna with a promise of future visits and cups of tea to come. By the time he arrived back at his house, it was nearly time to rest, but he headed to his laboratory, intending to check on one of his experiments before closing his eyes for the night.

The walkways between the different segments of his home were dark, as always, but they gave a good view of the streets stretching beyond his own empty one. From here, he could clearly see the light of Caduceus’s tree, the one beacon in the darkness that surrounded them all, guarding a house too small for seven occupants, but somehow functional, with enough space for all.

During the day, neighbouring drow still flocked like moths to the flame, walking by the house and trying to catch a glimpse of the strange goings-on inside. He’d never understood the purpose of the tree, when all it did was draw unnecessary attention to the group. He started to wonder now, if that was the goal all along.

His spire was not a tower, but it was removed, just the same. Meticulously organized, just as he liked it to be, but there were still traces of clay he hadn’t managed to scrub from the floorboards. Essek stood on the threshold and saw scattered images of the past: of Nott laying on the floor, of Caleb at the desk, of Jester hounding him for snacks from down the hall.

They flickered out, one by one, leaving only Caleb, trapped in a scene not from his memory, but from his mind all the same. He watched Caleb stand from the desk and move to the table, beckoning Essek forward.

“Did you find it?” the shadow Caleb asked, and Essek nodded, heart caught in his throat as he handed over the requested scroll. “Good. Then we can finish tonight.” Caleb leaned over and gave Essek a peck on the cheek, and his lips felt of fog, immaterial and crushing at the same time.

Then he blinked, and it was all gone. Caleb was nothing more than a memory again, and the only proof of his one-time presence were the stains of reddish dirt across the floor.

He stumbled off to his room, feeling unsettled, and deeply tired, with question after question flitting through his mind.

How far would his tower have to climb, so that he couldn’t see the light of that accursed tree from his window?

How long can he pretend that he wouldn’t rather be under that roof tonight, instead of his own?

#critical role #essek week #essek thelyss #allura vysoren #shadowgast #(though only implied/possibly unrequited)#my writing

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fanfictionaries · 4 years

Text

Where the Green Grass Grows - Part 1. A Real Fine Place to Start

@imanuglywombat credit for the moodboard/art!

Summary: After leaving town in 2001, Marianne Grace Barnes swore she’d never step foot in Texas again. She was happy with her life in San Francisco. She had great friends, a great job, and a loving boyfriend. But when her mother insists she come home after six long years away, Marianne comes face to face with someone she vowed to never lay eyes on again. Now the questions arise: Is he so different from the man who broke her heart? Is she so different from the girl she used to be?

And most importantly, is she as happy as she really thinks she is?

A story of love, heartache, and that special feeling of being home.

MASTERLIST

Pairing: AU Cowboy!Steve Rogers x OFC

Warnings: Swearing

Author’s note: This is my entry for @arrowsandmixtapes ‘s RomCom Writing Challenge! So sorry for the late entry, Covid has been a whirlwind of a time.

Prompt: Sweet Home Alabama (2002)

***

The streets of San Francisco were their normal, misty grey as Marianne Barnes rushed down the sidewalk. Scrubbing at the technicolor specks of paint that covered her arms, she wondered why that day of all days she had decided to introduce the splatter paint portion of her student’s curriculum. The current semester was focused on abstract and modern art. Slowly she’d been introducing them to all of the history and techniques behind the different styles before allowing them to try it out for themselves. While initially it seemed like a fantastic idea, she soon realized that allowing a group of middle schoolers the freedom to literally throw paint was a recipe for disaster. Luckily, she had her art smock to cover the entirety of her clothes, but that had not saved her arms and legs from the ricochet of paint as the over enthusiastic kids hurled globs of color as hard as they could at blank canvases. Continuing to rake her nails against the skin of her arms, she sighed in frustration. She really should have taken a few more minutes to wash up one more time.

It was important that she look nice tonight. Tony, her boyfriend, had invited her to dinner stating he had some “big news”. Marianne assumed that it probably had to do with the big business deal he’d been working on for his company. Tony was a visionary of sorts. Having come from family money, his future was always to be well off. However, he had taken the extra steps to truly make something of himself and slowly over the years of his career he had come to own the single leading company in clean energy technology. She was proud of him – even if his job did take up a large amount of his life. However, without his job she probably wouldn’t have met him. She thought back to the embarrassing moment in which they had met nearly a year ago.

Marianne pulled at the neckline of her dress, the Peter Pan collar currently feeling as though it was going to choke her as she shifted uncomfortably by the food and drink table. As much as she liked being there for her best friend, she really wished Natasha would stop inviting her to these kinds of events. While Nat insisted that she’d stay right by Marianne’s side, she always ended up alone at some point in the night, twiddling her thumbs in a room filled with strangers. Having met in art school, Marianne always found it incredibly interesting how drastically different her and Natasha’s careers were. While Marianne had opted for teaching the youths of America about Monet, Dali, van Gogh, and Matisse, Natasha had settled on the curation of art, a field that suited her much more appropriately. The rubbing of elbows with the hoity toity rich was a perfect fit for Nat’s easy, sophisticated, and, for lack of a better word, sexy personality. With her naturally fire-red hair, knockout curves, and perfect smile, Natasha was the type of woman that when she walked into a room, every person either wanted to be her or to fuck her. There was no in-between. Even for Marianne, who supposed in some ways, she’d like to be a bit more like Natasha.

That’s why she was so surprised to be approached as she clung to her glass of champagne and pretended to stare contemplatively at the same painting of a flat tire for the fifth time that night.

“What do you think?” asked a smooth and timbred voice from beside her.

Marianne chuckled slightly to herself continued to trace the thick brushstrokes of the painting with her eyes. “Well, considering the artist’s theme of stagnation, I think they’ve gone a bit too on the nose with this one. It’s…unimaginative,” she commented, before turning to see the handsome man beside her. If she’d actually been drinking the champagne in her hand, she might have choked on it. Luckily for her, she hadn’t.

The man continued to stare at the painting in front of them, a contemplative expression that brought his thick, dark brows together, before he turned his gaze to her, “So you don’t think it will sell tonight then?”

“Oh no, it will definitely sell. I’ve been to enough of these things to know that it’s not really about taste, so much as it is status. If the artist seems important enough, then so is their art,” smirked Marianne, this time actually taking a sip from her champagne flute to avoid focusing on the intriguing way in which the stranger was staring at her.

“Ah, yes. The snobbish elites’ inability to see past their own social status,” he commented dryly, taking a sip from his own flute.

“Hey, you said it, not me,” Marianne laughed, feeling as though she might have made a connection with a reasonable person just yet.

“And who do I have the pleasure of giving me all the inside critique?”

She extended her free hand out to the man, “Marianne Barnes—art teacher, friend of the curator, and overall critic of the snobbish elite.”

He took her hand in his own, his grasp soft, yet strong as he shook her hand and stared her directly in the eye, “Tony Stark – member of the snobbish elite.”

Marianne blanched at the words, the overwhelming feeling of embarrassment taking over her as she realized her mistake. She was just beginning to open her mouth to apologize when Tony held up a hand.

“No need to apologize—” he inhaled deeply, looking around the room and the people that inhabited it “—Truth be told, I don’t think I can stand a single person in here. You excluded of course, but who knows that may change.”

Marianne wrestled with the smile that fought to match Tony’s own wry grin. He was too charming for his own good. Taking a second to look over his expensive suit, Italian leather shoes, and $200 haircut, she reckoned he was much too handsome and successful for her own good. Still, she figured there was no harm in a little conversation.

“Say, I like your accent. Where’s that from? Georgia? Alabama?” asked Tony, stepping in to close the distance between them and making the interaction feel so much more intimate than it should.

Marianne gasped in mock offense, “Excuse you sir, but I am Texas born through and through.”

“My apologies ma’am,” Tony said, holding a hand to his heart in sincerity. “It’s never my intention to offend beautiful women. But for some reason, it just, well, happens.”

That comment made Marianne pause, “You think I’m beautiful?”

He took a moment to assess her, raking his eyes over her from head to toe. Not in a predatory way, but more like he was assessing another painting on the wall. Then he answered, voice heavy in sincerity, “Most beautiful piece of art I’ve seen tonight.”

The sharp tone of Marianne’s ringtone brought her out of her musing and back to the present as she waited at a crosswalk for the light to change. Digging into the deep contents of her purse, she cursed under her breath, pushing aside pens, pencils, scrunchies, lotions, and general clutter before her fingers closed around the buzzing device.

“Hello?”

“I just really don’t understand why Serena and Nate just don’t get together! I mean, he basically broke up with Blair for her, the least she could do is date him,” groaned Natasha from the other end, before Marianne heard the distinct crunch of popcorn being chewed.

“Hey! Spoilers, I haven’t watched last night’s episode yet! Besides, I really don’t have time to talk about Gossip Girl right now,” she huffed, glancing at the time on her watch and realizing she was even later than she thought.

“Well hurry up and watch it! I want to talk about what Chuck did. You’ll never believe it—”

“Seriously Nat, no spoilers!” Marianne exclaimed, now picking up her speed as she crossed the street, trying not to catch the heel of her stilettos on the cracks in the pavement. “And I meant it, I’m running late for my dinner with Tony. He’s taking me to my favorite restaurant to celebrate the contract with Pym Technologies.”

“Wow. I never would have expected Tony to slum it all the way to the Mission District,” Natasha snorted.

“What? No, I’m in SoMa right now. We’re going to Omakase,” Marianne said, jumping back when a bicyclist zoomed past her, nearly knocking her into a dirty puddle.

“Oh…”

“What?”

“Nothing, it’s just that I have a distinct memory of you saying you’d rather lick an L.A. sidewalk than eat raw fish, but I have seen you scarf down more burritos from Taqueria Cancun than I can count.”

Marianne bristled at the comment; she always did this. “My tastes are allowed to change Nat,” she bit back, seeing the sign for the sushi restaurant her and Tony frequented in sight.

Natasha was quiet for a moment on the other end of the line before she responded, “Yea, yea, you’re right. I’m sorry. Well, have fun at dinner and tell Tony I say congratulation.”

Sighing, Marianne immediately felt guilty for the harsh way in which she spoke, “Thanks Nat, I’ll tell him. And don’t worry, I’ve got the episode queued up first on Tony’s TiVo. I’ll watch it tonight and then I’ll call you tomorrow and we can gab all about why Serena needs to pull her head out.”

The comment earned Marianne a small laugh from Natasha, alleviating some of her guilt, “I’m holding you to that. Talk to you later hun, love you.”

“Love you too.”

Marianne closed her phone just as she was approaching the front doors to Omakase. Throwing her phone back into her purse she pushed the glass door open, knowing that Tony was probably already waiting for her at their favorite table. The first thing she noticed upon entering the restaurant was the distinct lack of the normal bustling sounds of other people, the second thing was the presence of orchestral music, and the third were roses. Hundreds and hundreds of red roses. Stacked on every available surface, the flowers littered the restaurant in large arrangements placed in beautiful crystal vases.

Silently, her heeled feet padded across the rose petal covered floor as she tentatively stepped further into the building, wondering for a just a second if she was in the right place. However, as she rounded the corner to see Tony dressed impeccably, string quartet situation behind him as he stood next to the only table in the dining room, she knew this was exactly where she was supposed to be.

“Tony…” she approached him cautiously, unable to stop from looking around the room and all its grandeur.

“There she is. For a second, I thought you found something better to do,” joked Tony, closing the distance between them and kissing her lightly on the lips.

“Sorry, I got out of class a bit late and then Nat called. What’s going on?” Marianne asked, still unsure what the big romantic gesture was for.

“What? A man can’t treat his girlfriend to a romantic night?”

“Well yes, but I thought we were celebrating your deal.”

“Well, I mean that’s part of it, but we’ll get to that later. Here, why don’t you set your things down? I have something I want to ask you.” Tony slipped Marianne’s purse from her shoulder and placed it gently down onto her chair before turning to her and taking both of her hands in his. “So, a little precursor, I closed the deal with Pym Technologies.”

“Oh my god, Tony that’s amazing! I knew you were going to get it,” Marianne exclaimed, smiling widely at her boyfriend. She moved in to give him a congratulatory hug, but Tony stopped her, holding her away from him at arm’s length.

“Oh, hold on, let’s not celebrate too soon. At least let me finish my little speech and then we can jump up and down like teenage girls,” responded Tony. His tone, while its usual joking manner, held a tense and clipped edge to it that Marianne didn’t hear often. Nervously she shifted her weight, wondering what he could possibly have to ask her. Then slowly things started to click into place. Secluded restaurant. Red roses. String quartet. Tony’s favorite red wine on the table. Big important question. Oh.

“Well, once this deal goes through, I’m going to be spending a lot of time traveling internationally. Things are going to pick up at Stark Industries and I realized that life is about to get a lot more hectic and messier. Then of course, this brought on a whirlwind of existential questions about life and its meaning and purpose and what I really want out of it and…and I’m rambling aren’t I?”

“Yea, just a bit,” Marianne answered with a small smile.

“I had a point—”

“Did you?”

“I did—” Tony released his hold on her hands to dig into the pocket of his suit pants “—and I think it sounded a bit like this.” Marianne gasped lightly as Tony dropped to one knee. “Basically, to make a long, drawn-out story short, I realized that no matter how messy and crazy the future scenarios of my life, one thing remained a constant. You. You by my side as my wife. So…” Producing a small, black box from within his hands, he opened it slowly to reveal a large, sparkling engagement ring. “Would you do me the honor of marrying me?”

Marianne stood speechless for a moment, consumed by the surprise turn of events. For a second the musing thought that she would have definitely forgone splatter paint today if she had known she was getting proposed to, flashed through her mind before she nodded enthusiastically.

“Yes, yes I will marry you.”

That’s how one month later Marianne found herself entering Natasha’s apartment, arms completely stuffed with nothing but wedding magazines, samples, and binders. Dropping her things into a large pile on the carpet of Natasha’s living room floor, Marianne breathed in deep before turning her attention to an open portfolio on the coffee table. The bright splashes of reds and blues of oversized poppies amidst a large, open sky caught her attention, drawing her in.

“Hey Nat, are you looking to take in a new collection at the gallery?” she called towards the kitchen, unable to pull her eyes away from the beautiful and almost impressionistic take on the flowers.

“Yea, one of my boss’s associates is crazy about these giant oil paintings of poppies. He wants us to consider doing a whole show of them. We’re equally as enthusiastic, but I guess the artist is hesitant about selling their work,” answered Natasha from across the apartment.

“Don’t most artists want to sell their art?”

“You’d think, but judging from the California poppies, they’re probably some west coast artist that doesn’t want to ‘sell out’ and ruin the integrity of their work.” Marianne could almost hear Natasha rolling her eyes through the walls.

Staring even harder at the small collection of paintings as she flipped through the portfolio, Marianne asked, “Are you sure they’re California poppies?”

Just as she asked the question, Natasha came around the corner, two large glasses of prosecco in hand. “Of course. We’re in California. They’re poppies. California poppies,” Natasha shrugged, placing the glasses on the coffee table.

“Yea, I guess you’re right,” Marianne said, sharply closing the portfolio and shaking off the strange sense of melancholy that the paintings evoked.

“Jesus, when you said you wanted to come over and talk about wedding stuff while we watched Gossip Girl, I thought you meant something like looking at a couple of magazines, not planning the whole thing in one night!” Natasha said, eyes growing wide as she took in the sheer amount of materials Marianne had arrived with.

“Yea, well that’s pretty much all the time I actually have to plan this thing. Tony wants to get married soon so that we can go on our honeymoon before he has to start traveling for work. Once things pick up, we’re not really sure when he’ll get another free moment,” sighed Marianne, sitting down on the floor and beginning to organize her mess.

“I’m surprised he’s letting you plan this and it’s not him making all the decisions,” remarked Natasha, sitting down across from her, and picking up a magazine.

“What do you mean?” asked Marianne, looking up quizzically at her best friend.

“Well…” began Natasha, hesitating for a moment before continuing, “I just mean that Tony tends to have a habit of making decisions for you.”

“What? No, he doesn’t,” Marianne scoffed.

“Uhuh…okay. Well then, who decided shortly after meeting you that your car, your first car, your baby, wasn’t good enough and that you needed a new one?” Natasha asked challengingly.

“It was old Natasha. People get new cars every day. Tony was just kind enough to buy me a new one,” Marianne reasoned with her, picking up her glass of prosecco from the coffee table.

“Okay, what about your job? You were working at that cute little public, elementary school that you always said you loved so much. Next thing I know, you’ve got this new job at a private middle school.”

“Tony had some connections and there’s nothing wrong with moving up in your career. I’m pretty sure that’s the whole point of a career, Nat.”

“Your apartment then? A week after he saw your apartment for the first time, he insisted that you move in with him.”

“That apartment was a rat-infested shit-hole and you know it. Things were going well, and he had the space. I took a leap of faith and moved in with him. I think it went alright considering the fact that I’m marrying the man. Just- what are you getting at Nat?”

“I guess I’m just worried that these major life decisions aren’t what you want, but instead what Tony wants. I mean, you’ve been together barely a year and already you’re more like him than you are you. You dress posher, you act posher, your accent’s fading…I want you to be happy Marianne, but I don’t want you to lose yourself along the way,” Natasha ended her small rant by taking a large gulp of her drink.

Marianne placed a hand on her friends arm reassuringly, “Hey. It’s alright. I’m happy, I promise. And it’s still me! I’m still the same Marianne Barnes you met in art school – just a little fancier is all.” She laid her southern accent on thick near the end of her sentence, lifting up her left hand to waggle the large engagement ring in her friend’s face. Natasha laughed, knocking her hand out of the way, and rolling her eyes at Marianne’s blatant bragging.

“Shut up, now let’s work on your guest list and invitations first while we let the drama of Manhattan’s Upper East Side consume us,” said Natasha, exchanging the magazine for a binder as she turned her TV on with the press of a button.

Taglist:

@hidden-behind-the-fourth-wall

@caffiend-queen

@grincheveryday

#RomComWC #RCWC #steve x ofc #au!steve #cowboy!steve #steve rogers #sweet home alabama #romantic comedy #fanfiction #fanfic #tony stark x ofc #enemies to lovers

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yzssie · 5 years

Text

TOO MUCH CHAMPAGNE

This is for the lovely anon who made this request.❤ ❤ Thank you so much and hope you like it!❤

Also, I hope you’ll all let me know what you think about it, I always appreciate you and your likes, comments, reblogs, asks! I like to interact with my readers because you all show me so much support and that’s why I am still here, writing. So I would love to hear you out! Thank you for everything darlings T_T ! You’re the best!❤ ❤

Characters: Tom Hiddleston and Reader(Y/N)

Chapters: 1/1

Warnings: smut, dom Tom

Summary: Car and dominant Tom Hiddleston. Lol ok let me do something longer, but I think that was sufficient lmao. You’re the co-star of Tom Holland on the third Spider-Man movie and get invited to one of Robert’s famous dinners, where champagne gives you problems, again. (Too many Toms here btw, hope you won’t get confused)

Words: 4.5k

“Excuse me for a second,” Tom Holland takes out his vibrating cellphone and answers it.

“Hello!” his excited tone shows that the person on the other line is someone he likes a lot.

“Hi, kiddo! Heard you're in the US?”

“Yes, Robert! I'm doing a press tour with Y/N for the new Spider-Man movie.”

Robert?

“Nice to hear it's doing great. As expected.”

“Thanks!” he nervously strokes the back of his head and you suppose that the Robert he's talking to might actually be Robert Downey Jr.

“Hear me out. I saw that both you and Tom, the other Tom, got it? Ahahah, anyways, saw that both of you are in the US so I'm having a dinner or a party whatever you want to call it, tonight, with most of the cast from The Avengers and some staff from Marvel. Have any plans?”

“Well I was supposed to just hang out with Y/N in town,” he looks at you and you shake your head and show him an ok sign to tell that it won't bother you if he can't join you tonight.

“Are you close with her?

“Yea, yea? We are. Why?”

“Is she the one who plays the fire kiddo?”

“Yes, that's her.”

“Isn't she also friends with Sebastian?”

“That's right. You know, they ar,”

“Then she’s also invited!” Robert cuts Tom.

“Ok, Mr. Downey! I mean, Robert!” he chuckles from the excitement.

“Cool, see you at 8pm. Gonna text you my address in case,”

“I have it!”

“Oh, ok, bye!” a soft chuckle is heard from the other side of the phone.

“We’re gonna partyyy!” Tom ends the call and you look at him confused.

*AT THE SHOPPING MALL*

“No way Tom, I am not coming to a party full of famous people I admire, yet I don’t know and I am not wearing this!” you sigh when you get out from the fitting room in a black dress that accentuates your forms right where you need, hiding away some parts you weren’t that confident with.

“It’s a party, Y/N! And everyone is nice enough for you to feel comfortable.”

“Yea, me, the most social person on this planet. You do realize you all know each other? I’m just going to be like the third wheel…”

“You are friends with Seb.”

“Yea, you and Seb. Great!” you raise your hands in the air, sighing.

“And Tom,” he adds smirking.

“And Tom?”

“Yea, heard from Robert that he’s also here and he will come.”

“Then there’s another reason to don’t go,” you get back to the fitting room but Tom’s hand stops you.

“Didn’t you say you like him?”

“Shhhh,” you press your hand into his mouth as if a random Tom Hiddleston will appear from the fitting rooms.

“Yea, well, remember last time right? I spilled champagne all over his pants,” you facepalm yourself. “God, so embarrassing,” you mutter under your breath.

“IT’S FINE, you know he is nice and he wasn’t bothered,”

“I was! I made a fool of myself!”

“C’mon, imagine how rude it will be if you don’t accept Robert’s invitation! It’s the first time and he doesn’t even know you…”

You squint your eyes at him and stare to each other for like one minute before sighing and going back to the fitting room.

“But I am not wearing the dress!”

*LATER THAT DAY*

“I’m wearing the dress,” you whine when you exit the taxi you and Tom rode.

“It’s for the best, trust me,” Tom smiles at you and you can’t help but roll your eyes.

“I will die here, Tom, look at me! If you let me alone for more than 10 minutes I will melt to the floor and,”

“Y/N!” an unknown yet familiar voice startles you.

Oh my god, it’s Robert Downey Jr!

“Hello, uhm, Mr. Downey! Nice to meet you,” you shake his hand and he laughs.

“You can call me Robert. I am glad that you both made it. Kiddo?” he takes Tom in a hug and pats his back.

“I am happy to see you all again. It seems like ages!” Tom says and you are both led inside the house.

“Look Y/N, it might be a little bit overwhelming for you, but don’t worry! Some people are coming with their partners so you can just call yourself Tom’s girlfriend,”

“That would be awkward,” you say and Tom scoffs.

“Trust me Robert, that is going to look disastrous,” he laughs and you do the same. “Besides, I think she would prefer to be called like that for another certain Tom,” your eyes widen and you shut his mouth with your hand.

“Am I one of the Toms qualified for that?” a low chuckle is heard from behind and you just want to curse your existence and Holland’s when THE CERTAIN TOM joins your conversation.

“Tom!” Holland hugs Hiddleston and you’re sure your heart can be heard as it beats like crazy now.

“Y/N,” Tom leans to kiss your cheek and you do the same, trying to regain your composure.

“Hello, Tom,” you smile back at him and you gulp when you see his blue suit matching his eyes perfectly. How can someone look that good? Last time you met him he was looking like a teddy bear, but now you notice that he has shaved his beard and cut his hair, turning back from Tom Cuddleston to Tom Hottieston. You internally laugh at your own joke. Wow, you’re so fun Y/N, way to party, you mentally scold yourself. Though, the way that white shirt is wrapping around his torso makes your legs tremble.

“So you guys know each other, see, there’s nothing to worry about,” Robert states as he looks around. “Now, if you excuse me, I have guests to greet,” he spins around and heads for the door.

“So how have you both been? I have heard the new movie is a big success, I would love to see it soon!” Tom Hiddleston ask you and Tom Holland.

“Very nice actually! The press tours are fun as always, especially that I got stuck with Y/N,” he laughs and pats your back while you softly giggle, shyly rubbing your hands.

“Y/N?” Sebastian’s voice interrupts your conversation, well, more like the two Toms’ conversation as he takes you in a big hug.

“Seb!” you smile in his hug, instantly feeling safer.

“And who is this gorgeous lady?” Anthony Mackie joins you.

“This is Y/N. She’s a friend of mine,” Sebastian introduces you to him and you excitedly shakes his hand.

“Hi, big fan!” you say. You honestly love Anthony’s humor, you always wanted to meet him.

“Oh oh, thank you, I could have bet that you’re one of Sebastian’s fans by the way you guys hugged. 1-0 for me, Vanilla Ice!” he lightly punches Sebastian’s chest while Seb rolls his eyes.

“Trust me lady killer, she’s just being nice,” Seb adds and you shake your head.

“That’s not true!” you laugh and for a moment you could feel a certain stare set on you.

“That’s what she also told me when we first met, maybe you’re right,” Tom Hiddleston playfully answers to Sebastian’s remark and you blush.

A lady appears and offers all of you champagne. Oh no, not champagne. Pretty sure he will remember that embarrassing moment again…

“I should be careful with it,” you softly whisper and Hiddleston grins.

“It’s fine Y/N,” he takes a sip and sets the glass on the little table next to you. “It was only an accident, I didn’t mind it,” Tom reassures you.

All five of you start to talk about different topics and after more sips of the champagne, you feel more comfortable, especially when Anthony makes jokes most of your conversation.

“Holland man, did you shrink more or is Y/N too intimidatingly tall?” Mackie jokes and Tom’s sarcastically laughs. “C’mon man, let me introduce you to some shorter girls,” he takes Holland away and you all laugh at his lack of reply.

“Tom!” a lady’s voice is heard and you turn around to find an unknown face greeting Hiddleston. He excuses himself from both of you and goes to the lady, kissing her cheeks and starting to talk with her.

“So,” Sebastian says.

“So?”

“Nu ai de gând să faci nimic?”

(Aren’t you going to do something?)

“Să fac ce?”

(What?)

“Orice doar să nu te mai holbezi la el ca și cum ar fi un desert și tu ești la dietă de 10 ani.”

(Anything else than staring at him as if he is a dessert and you have been dieting for 10 years.)

“Seb, ai noroc că nu ne ințelege nimeni.”

(Seb, you’re lucky that nobody understands us)

“Astăzi ai șansa de a schimba ceva,” he winks.

(Today you have the chance to change something.)

“Nope. Data trecută am vărsat șampanie pe pantalonii lui și crede-mă, am vrut să intru în pamant. De abia duc o conversație cu el!”

(Nope. Last time I spilled champagne all over his pants and trust me, I wanted to become one with the ground. I can barely have a conversation with him)

Sebastian rolls his eyes.

“O să mori singură.”

(You’re going to die alone.)

“Uhum, mersi de încurajare.”

(Uhum, thank you for cheering me up)

The whole night went smoother than you thought, you met most of the old cast of Avengers and everyone was really nice. You drank a little bit more alcohol than you wanted, because of Anthony. You had some moments when you felt a little bit left out when they were talking about things during filming, but that also gave you a chance to join their conversation when they were explaining to you what happened.

You aren’t drunk, you couldn’t just do that there, but you became more easy-going after three or four glasses of champagne. You are thinking about having some fresh air and excuse yourself from the group. All you could see since one hour ago was Tom Hiddleston’s thighs as he was sitting with his long legs a little bit too spread for your dirty thoughts. Definitely, the alcohol influences you a little bit, you feel as if you could be blunter, more straight forward and you actually did flirt a little bit with him, only to laugh it away because you were afraid of ruining whatever relationship you have with him and it was also too dangerous because of Tom Holland who could spill out the fact that you like him.

Going out in the garden, you wander a little bit around the front entrance when a sudden pair of arms engulf you. Something is instantly wrapped around your eyes and when you open your mouth to say something, one of his hand covers it. You panic as you’re dragged somewhere and you crunch your nose at the smell of his cologne, recognizing it immediately. Or are you imagining things? Are you already drunk? A beep indicates you’re near a car which he unlocked.

“Get in and don’t move, pet” the husky British accented voice sends tingles to your core and you nod, relieved that your senses didn’t leave you. Or did they? You’re currently into a weird kinky situation with the man you crush on and you don’t question anything but just follow what he says. Your rational sense is certainly gone. He closes the door and gets inside the car, starting the engine.

“Hands,” he orders and you show them. Something wraps around them too, and by the feeling of it, you could guess they’re some silk strings, which you’re curious where he got that from. Your breath hitches as he hovers onto your body, putting your seatbelt on. “Now you’re going to be a good girl and listen to me, ok?” he whispers into your ear and you weakly nod. A sudden slap on your thigh makes you gasp. “Words baby girl, I want to hear words.”

“Yes, sir,” you inhale and you could imagine his smirk at the name you called him by. His hand on your thigh wraps around your flesh, making you squirm in the seat.

“Good girl,” he hums and strokes your burning flesh. You arch your back to meet his touch, a soft sigh escaping from your pouty lips as if begging him to taste them. He hisses at your reaction, bulge already painfully yearning for release. He dreamt of having you in this submissive position since last time you have spilled champagne on his lap while you were discussing something trivial.

Every time he had touched you, your chest would also stop for a moment to take in the needy sensation of contact. Biting lips, eyes avoiding his stare for so long, smiling eyes, all these betrayed your try to hide your feelings. He also became attracted to you in many ways. You were very quiet at first, a fact which made him want to know more about you. And so he did. He enjoyed your company even if you always met through Holland or social events. He did think of asking you out someday, but he never had the chance. Especially that you were both busy nowadays. You were always making sure to express your admiration every time he was sharing his interests in many things like literature, art. Then, he started to notice your physical appearance. Your curves started to catch his eyes and he was stealing glances at your long legs whenever you were crossing one over another. You were listening genuinely to his words, lips breaking into a shy smile and eyes searching for more.

And that night, that night you unleashed the dark part of him. A creeping blush after too much champagne to handle your conversation and stammering words gave away the attraction you felt for him. Tom Holland left you alone and you were stuck on the chair, uncomfortably alone in a room full of famous and unknown people. He decided to keep you company and sat next to you. You probably didn’t expect him to come over and as time was passing, you were drinking more and more champagne while conversing with him. The alcohol gave you more confidence and you were becoming blunter and more talkative. Until your hands knocked the glass of champagne right onto his lap. You let out a gasp and you started to apologize repeatedly while taking whatever was on the table to dry his pants. He reassured you that there’s no problem and he can take care of it, but you were already patting the champagne stains with a table napkin. That’s what triggered him. Your trembling hands were on his lap, rubbing his thighs, dangerously close to his crotch. You were slightly bent over, giving him a good angle of your breasts and ass tightly wrapped with the thin material of your dress. He imagined you between his legs and he stopped you from doing any more damage to his mind. He became so tense after, that he needed to take some fresh air outside. He then realized that you misinterpreted his reaction as annoyance and you tried to avoid him, which made him more frustrated.

But after what he found out today he will have you, ravish you in any way possible, until you’ll chant his name like a prayer.

“Tom, where’s Y/N?” Holland, obviously drunk, pats his back.

“I don’t know, I think she went out for some air one minute ago,” he answers, keeping a hold of his drunk friend. He couldn’t drink tonight as he came with his car. He probably took one or two sips of champagne comparing to most of the people there.

“Oh, I thought you, she, ya know,” his mouth is already starting to run “spoilers”.

“We what?”

“She’s mad after you man,” Tom finally confirms his suspicion. “I mean, didn’t you see her staring at you? Trust me, she would probably take you right here, right now,” Holland laughs.

“Would she now?” Hiddleston playfully answers but Holland failed to see his already darkened eyes.

“Yea man, she has some kinky shits inside her head, she might look innocent but,” Sebastian suddenly stops Holland from speaking.

“And she’s going to kill you if she finds out what you’re blabbering,” the Romanian man drags him away.

“Please,” you interrupt Tom’s thoughts as you wriggle your lower part, trying to get his hand moving. He slapped your thigh again and you moan.

“Did I allow you to move?” he growls and you bite your lips while you shake your head. He brings his fingers to release your lower lip from your teeth and he forces one in your mouth. You suck on his finger and lick it, gaining a throaty moan. You bite on his finger at the hungered sound of his voice and he grins: “Greedy now, aren’t we, darling?”

His draws out his fingers and they slip between your legs, right inside your panties. His slick fingers outline your clit and then presses down on it.

“Tom,” you cry out his name at the quivering feeling. His fingers draw circles on the swollen bundle of nerves and you wiggle in the seat. Your tied hands grip on his hand working between your legs.

“You’re dripping, lord,” he groans satisfied by your aroused state. His pointer slips easily into your pussy and his lips bury your moan into his mouth. His tongue darts on your lower lip before invading your sweet cave. You become dizzy from all the tantalizing sensations and before you know, your orgasm releases on his long fingers.

“Oh my God,” you sharply inhale and his tongue moves now on your neck, showering your neck with kisses to help your shivering body calm down.

“Did I allow you to cum though?” he whispers into your ear and your breath hitches as he bites on your shoulder.

“I’m sorry, sir,” you reply.

“Oh, you’ll be,” he bites on your cleavage this time and your chest raises up.

“Can I see now please?” you beg, “Touch?”

“No, you didn’t quite listen to me, pet,” he mockingly sighs and you whine. His touch leaves now from everywhere and the car’s motor starts. However, he takes off his tie which he used it as a blindfold and you finally meet his hypnotizing blue eyes. You stare at each other for some seconds, the eye contact intensifying the tension between you two. A faint blush could be seen on his cheek also and your eyes wander on his torso, then down where his bulge is painfully big. You bite your lips and you glance at him again. He smirks seeing your reaction, “We’re going to get to that part too.”

He grabs the wheel and leaves the parking lot.

“I hope I didn’t pass out from the champagne and this is a dream,” you mutter and he chuckles.

“Let me show you how real it is again,” his hand travels to your legs but this time he grips the dress and raises it up till your waist, exposing your soaked panties from the last orgasm. The coldness of the leather seats makes your burning skin cool down a little bit. He tugs down your panties and takes a quick glance at your glistening pussy before returning his eyes on the road. “Shit,” he moans.

You close your eyes and sink into the seat as his fingers are rubbing your folds, teasing your entrance.

“Mmm,” you moan when he adds two fingers this time. “Please.”

“You haven’t been a good girl as I told you, love,” he steals another glance at you and the grip on the steering wheel tightens. He curls his fingers inside you, hitting a sweet spot in a matter of minutes. “Hold it in,” he orders and you bite your lips. How could you hold it in? Your body is already writhing from the oversensitivity and you scream when you come undone for the second time.

He sighs but he’s half proud of how easily he can pleasure you. He stops at the traffic lights and takes in your whole state. Few sweat drops could be seen on your temples while you are trying to breathe normally.

“This calls for a punishment,” he undoes his belt and pulls down a little bit his pants and boxers, revealing his rock hard erection, already precumming at your sight. He releases your seat belt and yanks your head by your hair in front of his lap. You struggle a little bit to find a good position because your hands are still tied and you finally stroke his whole shaft with one slow lick. His legs shudder to your wetness, grip tightening more on the wheel. Your tongue darts his tip, circling it before finally take him into your mouth. You both moan at the contact and you try to relax your neck muscles to take as much as you can. He grips a fist of your hair, trying to focus on the road when the lights go green. He wasn’t expecting this to be so distracting and after a few sucking, he stops you. You stubbornly go back to what you were doing, trying to get as much as you can from him.

“Fuck, Y/N, I’ve said stop,” he shouts, but you bob your head faster and the car suddenly makes a left turn and the engine stops. “Goodness,” this time his hand pushes you down further and you’re trying you’re best to don’t gag. Seconds after, his shaft pulsates into your mouth, releasing his seed. You swallow it and get up to see that he stopped into an empty parking lot on the highway. He roughly makes you straddle his lap and his lips ravish yours, hands squeezing your waist. He peels off your dress and you try to undo his shirt but end up ripping the buttons open. Your mouth lands on his torso, tracing your lips on his pecs, enticing a low sound from his throat. You lick his Adam’s apple next and you arrive at his jaw, feather-like kisses covering his skin. His heart might swirled at your actions because he cups your cheek and makes you look at him, the same deep staring of his blue crystals devouring your soul.

“I will ravage you, consume everything you have for me,” his eyes land on your black lacy bra, “Over and over again,” he groans into your ear and he suddenly plunges into you. You moan loudly and arch your back over the wheel. He starts slow and deep, making sure to fill you up until there’s no space between you two. He undoes your bra and takes one of your breasts into his mouth. He grazes his teeth over your nipple while the other hand massages and pinches the other one. You start to jump faster on his lap and he hisses.

No, he wants to make you beg, make you cry for not listening to his orders. You must be punished.

He ceases your movements, holding your waist down and you whine.

“Please move,”

“I think you forgot your position here, pet,” he slaps your ass and you moan.

“I’m sorry, sir, please, forgive me,” you look at him and he smirks.

“I am afraid I can’t do that so easily,” he sweetly smiles at you and licks the other breast, tongue flicking your bud. You try to move but he’s pinning you down quite strongly and you find yourself begging for him to move. You need him, you want to be completely engulfed, owned by him.

He takes you off him, throwing you on the backseat. He undresses himself completely and lunges forward you. He takes you into another messy kiss before he traces down a line from your jaw to the valley of your breasts, to your stomach and stops right between your legs. His hands bury under your ass, groping it. You feel his breath hitting your core and you moan when his tongue finally makes contact with your clit.

“Ahh,” you scream when he nibbles it. The pain mixes with the pleasure from his fast licks and you reach for roof handle to overcome the expecting orgasm, but he stops. “No,” you desperately beg.

He turns you over and takes your hands at the back, tying them with the previously used tie. Your ass is now higher than your upper body, exposing your drenched vagina. He hisses at the wetness waiting for him as you wiggle your butt a little bit but he slaps you again.

“Impatient, aren’t we?”

“Sir, I need you, please!”

“Do you now, pet?” he strokes your abused butt cheek and slaps the other one too.

You yelp and nod.

“Let me hear your pretty mouth begging, babygirl,“ he slaps you again and your breath hitches.

“Please, I beg you, I will obey to you from now on, just,” you don’t finish the sentence as his chest presses your back and he dips into you. Your face lays on the leather from the power he slams into you and he raises you up. He supports your frame by grabbing your breasts, playing with them as he hastily thrusts into you. Only slapping sounds and moans could be heard now inside his car. He starts to breathe heavily into your neck as he feels his dick clasped by your tight walls, indicating that you’ll cum soon.

“Cum now, pet, feel me inside you,” he groans and he gets rougher until you finally orgasm, encouraging him to do the same. He slows down his movements as he spills everything he kept in, inside you, few strokes needed to empty himself all the way.

You collapse onto the backseat and he does the same, however, he tries to support his weight a little bit with his arms.

“This, was, fantastic,” he breathes and tugs away your hair to kiss your back.

You moan as a reply, still trying to recover from everything. “So it isn’t a dream,” you smile and he chuckles.

“Luckily you have Holland to spoil everything,” he tries to get dressed.

“What?” you turn over, confused at his words, but he only kisses you. “That shit,” you mutter.

“Now, be a good girl and let me drive until my hotel,” he kisses your forehead and slides on your dress.

A/N: Who else had that interview with Tom Holland playing in mind while reading that line? =))))

Taglist opened! Please tell me which one you would like or if you want to be removed/changed. If you can’t see your tag please tell me and I am sorry!!!!! Thank you <3 (crossed usernames means that tag isn’t working T_T)

TOM/LOKI GENERAL TAGLIST: @drakesfiance, @cutiepotpie177 , @brokenthelovely , @heart-shaped-hell , @ultrailoveharrystylesblog , @mooncrow123 , @screw-real-life-i-pick-fandoms , @powerstrangerdacre , @abrunettefangirlnerd , @darkprincessloki92, @little-moonbeam-666 , @youreawizardjulie , @writingmi , @lokislilslut , @abelstnbhd, @januarycalendargirl , @yuna-belikova , @joyofbebbanburg , @timevortexheart , @captainrainbowpanda , @thesisterofthedevil , @spunky-89 , @unlikelytigerqueen , @loreleyfromouterspace , @bitchwhytho , @justafandomsuckup , @this-side-of-midnight5 , @gabealien12 , @asgardianfloozy , @lokissidehoe , @witchbitch-stuff , @dawnlaufeyson , @captainchedder , @bloominess , @yurio-plisetksy , @buckybarneslovesteve , @casuallyobsessivewitchcraft , @uhh-katie-griffiths , @belindak04 , @what-a-fantasy , @lotus-eyedindiangoddess , @marveloushiddleston

#tom hiddleston #tom hiddleston fanfic #tom hiddleston x you #tom hiddleston smut #tom hiddleston x reader #tom hiddleston fic #tom hiddleston fanfiction #tom hiddleston imagine #loki #loki fic #loki fanfic

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redfoxwritesstuff · 5 years

Text

Coffee and A Wedding? Chapter 1

Ello! This week’s Tuesday update is the start of a very long and very late birthday gift to @winterisakiller and @alexakeyloveloki. Ever wonder how many tropes Kit can fit in one series? Better get counting. Ever wonder what Kit uses her extensive coffee knowledge for? This.

We’re looking at weekly updates on most Tuesdays unless I fill the slot with a one shot. Please do enjoy.

This has made me nostalgic for a man I used to know. He was much older than Clint is in this series but he reminds me a lot about Clint. I think Clint would run a cafe the same way this man ran his. This man taught me everything I know about coffee and is the reason I can’t drink Starbucks and examine the machine before ordering a espresso drink. This man almost gave me his cafe when he retired. Here’s to you, Mr. Green.

Warnings: Fucking trope-tastic. Eventual smut. Some light angst toward the end.

Rating: M for eventual smut

Pairing: Clint x ofc, written first person.

Summary: Look, it’s perfectly normal to have a crush on your boss at some point in your life. You can’t tell me you hadn’t had it happen to you, can you? And Don’t tell me you haven’t made up an imaginary boyfriend to tell your family you had while you were away at college so they would stop nagging you, right? Perfectly normal. And surly you’ve based that imaginary boyfriend off your boss/crush, yeah? It’s normal, we’ve all done it once or twice. How was I to know that my sister would show up at the Arrowpoint Coffee to hand deliver our invitations to her wedding with our names printed in pretty swirly golden lettering right into the hand of my ‘boyfriend’. “Oh, I’m so pleased to meet the man treating my little sister so well.” Yeah, I bet you are. “I loved that date you took her on to a movie in the park! So thoughtful!” Yeah, I know you did. Thanks Sarah for letting the cat out of the bag but thank god Clint can roll with the punches. Now, we’ve got to go to a wedding together and pretend to be a couple and he won’t. Stop. Flirting. With. Me. Is this all a joke to you? I KNOW you just see me as a kid who works for you!

Tropes I’m hitting so far: Fake dating, weddings, age difference and so much more. Have a trope you want to see me try to work into this series? Let me know! Seriously, Let Me Know- I’m trying to hit as many as I can and sorry, the are not roommates.

Coffee and a Wedding

I thought of myself as forgettable and that was just all right by me. Even my name was forgettable, at least in my own opinion. It was easier to focus on your schoolwork when everyone sort of just forgot about you. I was lucky to get into a prestigious University and while uprooting my life was a logistic challenge, it didn’t feel like I was leaving a whole lot behind in order to chase the opportunity provided by a full Stark Scholarship.

The money covered all of my school expenses so long as I managed to keep my grades up so in the end, I did a lot of studying. School was expensive for anyone and this school- it was expensive no matter who you were. If Tony Stark and his company want to pay for me to go, I was going to keep it that way. When I wasn’t studying- I was working. The scholarship paid a portion of my rent after school expenses but that was it.

My family didn’t approve of my choice to study biology over medicine and so there was no help from them. It was the need for social interaction from someone not studying all the time like my classmates that drove me to choose a job working in a cafe. Well, that and the oddly decent pay. What can I say? I had quickly grown tired of eating cardboard noodles and beef flavored salt packets.

From where I stood behind the counter while working, I could see the rise of Stark Tower in the distance. It made me smile, seeing it. The Tower was a marvel of technology and Eco-efficiency, having been off the electric grid for over a month now and showing no signs of failure in it’s power system. While I had no passion for engineering- Biology was where my heart was, I still was fascinated by it.

While the socialization I got working at the cafe was enough to keep me happy, my family was still prone to worrying. They were old fashioned at best, viewing a woman as incomplete without a romantic attachment and I had none. It wasn’t that I wasn’t interested in anyone, just that I was forgettable and he was both older than me and far too handsome for me to catch his eye. He probably just saw me as one of the kids he hired anyway.

It seemed harmless enough when it first started. Mom would ask me if there was anyone and I’d talk about a man who had his shit together, who treated me right. He had bright blue eyes and soft brown hair that bleached in the sun, giving it a warm golden glow. At first he was just a guy I liked but my family pushed for more.

Ask him out. Are you flirting with him? Make sure you do your hair up nice. Don’t go to class frumpy. Have you kept with your diet? Have you been flaunting your assets? They would remind me again and again that you had to hook a man if you wanted him. Such was not my way, however. I was far too timid to make the first move. And while my family thought he was a classmate though he was older than me, in truth he was my boss.

It seemed harmless enough as I modeled this man who went from crush to camera shy boyfriend after the owner of the cafe I had been working at. It’s not as if anyone would ever find out. My family would never come out to the city to check up on me and he could be busy when I came home to visit. They could break up and I would be allowed peace while heartbroken. They never had to know and there was no way he would find out. My crush would stay private and they would be off my back for a while. Plus, I could live in the fantastic fantasy of being his girlfriend for a bit.

No one had to know it wasn’t real.

While I sat by the window in the cafe, sipping at a mocha with the phone pressed to my ear, I listened to mom as she went on and on. In truth, I was only paying partial attention to the words being spoken from halfway across the country.

He was in today, as he was every Saturday. He said he worked them because he had nothing better to do and wanted to allow the kids who worked for him to take turns enjoying their weekends. It was because he worked every weekend that I made a point to offer to work them as well.

“You’ll come to the wedding, won’t you?” My mother asked.

“Mhm” I really didn’t want to go, truth be told. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to see Sarah get married, it was just that I really didn’t want to go back home. Small town gossip would surely claim me as it’s victim yet again.

“You’ll bring that boy you’re seeing, won’t you? What was his name?”

“Clint Barton.” Instantly, I realized my mistake. I hadn’t been thinking. I couldn’t help it, I was too busy looking at him and just blurted out his name. That was how my family got the last name of the man I was secretly in love with.

Still, it was a big city. It’s not like my sister Sarah would hunt down the cafe I worked at by piecing together clues from what little she was able to see about where I worked from the few pictures she had access to in the next week, right?

I was tired. Somehow I thought it was a good idea to stay up all night studying and truth be told, I was pretty sure I had forgotten to eat all of the day before. I was so damn tired but it was Saturday and I wouldn’t be calling out though Clint wouldn’t have minded.

He had always made a point to tell all the students working for him that our health came first. Our grades came first. We were all trying to make something of ourselves and he respected that. He would say that we didn’t want to end up working in cafes all of our lives like him. He would say as if his cafe wasn’t successful enough to provide a decent enough life for him.

“Good Morning.” I was surprised to turn and see him jogging up behind me as I made my way toward the cafe. Normally he would have already been in the shop by four in the morning to open at five.

“Good Morning, Mr. Barton.” He rolled his eyes at me.

All of his employees called him ‘Mr. Barton’ regardless of his protests. We called him so out of respect for him and all the support he offered us. Many of his employees lacked support from their families for whatever reasons and so he took them in, called them his family. Some were turned out for their sexuality, others for how they wished to identify themselves. There was a girl who’s parents thought her too dumb to be a doctor yet she was starting medical school in the fall and Clint was eager to enrage her each step of the way.

“Clint. My name is Clint.” With a shake of his head, he tried to hide the smile on his face.

“You’re running late?”

“I can’t be late.” He protested, strong hand dramatically held to his chest. The flair for dramatics he often showed always made my heart flutter, though I’d never tell him that. “I own the place.”

“Right.” He smiled down at me as I laughed. The way he looked at me, if I indulged in just a moment of daydreaming while we walked, I could pretend we were on our way to an early morning coffee date.

The weight of his hand settled on my shoulder as we stopped in front of the cafe. He looked at me, studied me and for a moment I feared my crush was written on my face. “Alexis? You look...” Beautiful? Radiant? Like a fire pixie? A dream come true? His soulmate? A girl could hope. “Exhausted. Do you want the day off?”

That wasn’t what I wanted to hear but I wasn’t surprised at all.

“I’m fine, really.” I may just be an employee to him, too young for him to even notice I was sure but still, I didn’t want to miss out on a Saturday morning with him.

“Have you eaten?” As much as I wanted to believe it, I just knew he was asking as a boss, a big brother figure to all his employees and not because I was any more special than any other employee. I didn’t want him to see me as just another employee, a little sibling like he calls all of his employees.

Clint opened the door for me, keyed off the alarm and flipped the lights. “I’m fine. I was just going to grab something on my break.”

“What if…?” He hummed.

“What if what?” I set about taking the chairs off the tables, trying to pretend that I couldn’t feel his eyes on me.

“What if we call in a breakfast order at the diner?” He offered from where he was checking the display case’s temperature readings. “My treat.”

He was always doing things like this for his employees. While we had packaged sandwiches and snacks, he rarely let his employees eat the cafe’s food. I knew better than to try and argue out of it. Still, I didn’t want to leave him to open by himself when he had gotten in late. He wouldn’t hear any of it though and before I knew it, I was set off with a few twenties while Clint opened the cafe on his own.

Saturday mornings tended to be slow until around seven. The diner was open 24 hours and the early morning breakfast pick up orders were nothing new to them. I often wondered if Clint ever made his own food. He would have food delivered to the back door, if not for the whole staff, at least for himself.

I expected to come back to the cafe with a bag containing the two takeout containers like it was nothing. Admittedly, I was a bit excited about the prospect of maybe getting to sit down with Clint and eat. We’d likely have to take turns getting up and helping customers but it was something. Sure, still not a breakfast date but it was as close as I’d ever get.

The fall air was crisp and the leafs crunched under my feet. It was a good morning, really. The door was cool under my fingers. It opened smoothly, as it did any other time. Clint maintained every inch of the cafe almost obsessively. His employees would joke when he wasn’t around that he was single because of his love of coffee and his love of the cafe. It wasn’t anything he would argue. Clint himself had often said he was married to his shop and that he needed nothing but coffee to survive.

“Babe, you didn’t tell me your sister was going to be in town.” Clint’s voice called out as soon as I stepped through the door. “If I’d known, I would have ordered breakfast for three.”

Turning, I looked around the cafe. Surely I had stepped into some alternate reality. “Mr. Barton?” It took a moment longer for me to realize that Sarah was standing at the counter.

“Come on now, Babe- no one else is in yet.” The smile on his face was memorizing. He was giddy almost as he made his way around the counter. My heart stopped as I realized, Clint Barton called me ‘babe’ twice now. He was making a point. He knew my secrete, at least part of it.

“Sarah, I didn’t know you were coming…” It was a surprise to say the least. “Why didn’t you call? I could have taken the day off.”

“She brought us an invite to her wedding.” Clint held up the ivory colored paper, our names neatly printed in looping gold ink as if it were a prize.

“Of course she did.” I tried not to groan.

“I should let you two get to work. Seeing your boss, so sneaky! No wonder you didn’t want to tell mom more about him.” Sarah wiggled her fingers at us as I joined Clint behind the counter, setting the bag of takeout containers between us. I thought about breaking her fingers for a moment. I loved my sister but she had an amazing talent to grate on my nerves. “I look forward to seeing you at the wedding, Clint.”

“Wouldn’t miss it for the world.” With a wiggle of his fingers and a wide grin splitting his handsome face, Clint waved bye and Sarah turned and started walking out.

We stood in silence as we both watched Sarah walk away through the window. I wanted nothing more than to crawl into a hole and die. This was every one of my worst nightmares come true. It is time to wake up now. Any second now. Yeah no, sadly this was reality.

“Sooo…” Clint let the word hang for a moment. “Want to explain or should I start guessing why your sister thinks we’re dating?”

“I can explain.”

“Good,” He shrugs and I try to read him. Is he mad? Offended? Disgusted? Fucked if I could tell. “Then I can eat while you tell me why I’m going as your date to your sister’s wedding.”

“I swear, I didn’t mean for you to find out.” I sat down as he set our food out. He was acting as if it was nothing. This wasn’t nothing. This was an earth shattering secrete out in the open. Act like it, won’t you?

“Should I be offended by that or not?” Clint poured himself a cup of black coffee and put a steaming mocha down in front of me. He always knew everyone’s preferred drink and while we all knew how to make our own drinks, it seemed to bring him joy to be make them for us. It was just one of the ways he was too damn perfect.

“I mean- When I made up this fake relationship I didn’t think anyone would find out.” I shrugged, not really ready to meet his eyes yet. I prayed for customers to come in to save me.

“And how were you going to handle the wedding?” It may have been easier if he was angry with me.

“I…”

“You?” He taunted, though his voice lacked any real malice.

“I was going to say you were busy. That you couldn’t make it. I figured I’d say we got into a fight after and broke up.”

“Mhm.”

“You know, since you- fake you couldn’t put me first.”

“I guess you only gave them my name then. I thought maybe I was your dream man but I would never do that to you.” It sounded almost like he was dancing around saying something. Surely I was just reading too much into it.

“No, I didn’t- I don’t think you’d do that. I just- It’s hard to keep up the lie and if they think I’m heartbroken I’ve got peace for a bit.”

“Why did you do it?”

“What?” It took a moment for me to realize what he asked.

“It’s not like you can’t get a real boyfriend.” He shrugged, shoveling the rest of his food into his face.

“I just- It got them off my back.” He was just saying that, surely. I’ve had plenty of dating woes and had yet to find a decent man that wasn’t him.

I explained my family, their old fashioned ideas and constant pressure to find a man. That was the whole point of University to them. It was a place for young women to find men with promise to become their husbands. When I tried to play it off as my lack of creativity that resulted in my imaginary boyfriend having the same name as him, he almost deflated.

There wasn’t time for me to dwell on it however. People began to filter into the shop, keeping first him busy while I finished eating and then both of us. The incident was nearly forgotten by the time I had to grab milk and cream from the back cooler to restock the bar after the lunch rush.

“What are you doing after work?” I about jumped out of my skin when Clint’s voice filled the chilled air.

“Studying. Why? Do you need me to work late, Mr Barton?”

“If I’m your boyfriend, shouldn’t you start calling me ‘Clint’?” I cringed as he laughed.

It was as if he didn’t care if anyone overhead him. Spinning on my heel, gallons of milk in each hand I tried to hush him as threateningly as possible. All it really did was cause my hair to fall in my face from the force of my spin. With no hand free I had no choice but to try to blow the hair out of my eyes. It worked about as well as you can imagine until Clint’s warm fingers brushed the hair to the side, letting me see just how close he was.

“I figured we can plan our trip for Sarah’s wedding.”

“Excuse me?” I stuttered out the words. “Our trip?”

“Yeah. To the lovely Sarah’s wedding. I did tell her I wouldn’t miss it for the world. Now that they have a face and cafe to go with the name, I can’t let you paint me as the selfish boyfriend who can’t take time off for his girl’s sister’s wedding.”

“Can you even take time off for it? Hell, can I?” I motioned toward him halfheartedly with the three gallons of milk gripped in one hand that was starting to cramp up while he portioned out the coffee grounds for the first of the drip coffee machines, seemingly uncaring that he was blocking the way out of the cooler with a task that normally was done outside the chill room.

“I’ve trained y’all well enough to take off for a bit. I just don’t because I have no life.” Finally, he moved and we both made our way to the counter. In the back, Matt was washing dishes. The sound of metal clanking together and water sloshing around drowned out our conversation. Clint shrugged, slipping the filters into place and starting the coffee machine.

“And me?” I ask, slipping the jugs into the small refrigerator under the counter. “You can’t go to the wedding without me.”

“Duh. You’ve got PTO. Consider your request approved.”

“I didn’t request it yet.”

“But you were going to.” He countered and I hated that he was right.

The grinder kicked on as I rolled my eyes while pulling out pitchers and two small mugs. With lunch rush over and Matt having done most of the clean up, all I had left to do was watch Clint as he worked. It was one of my favorite things, though I would rather die than admit it to him.

He switched off the grinder, he flipped open the catcher and let grounds fall into the espresso pod before scraping it level with the flat end of the tamper, letting the excess fall back into the grounds container. I watched while he used the tamper to compact the grounds within the pod with a twist of his wrist only to pull the tamper out and knock the side of the pod, knocking grounds off the rim and press again.

It was a science, making coffee. One that he was proud of and had spent time teaching every one of his employees. Each knew how the grind should look, how to adjust the grind, how much force the grounds needed to be packed right, how long it should take for the water to pour through the pod and how the shot should look as it’s pouring. Pouring a bad shot of Arrow coffee simply wasn’t acceptable.

Clint clicked the pod into place in the machine, an old semi automatic that regulated the water temperature and how much water was forced through the pod and nothing more. If asked, Clint would lament endlessly about the death of the manual machine and how all the coffee from the large chains always ended up burnt because they simply trusted their machines and didn’t know what espresso should look like and the grind on those fully automated machines couldn’t be adjusted even if someone knew it was off.

He flipped the switch and set the timer. While the numbers ticked down, he leaned back against the counter and set his blue eyes on me. I hated how damned good he looked, bar rag hanging from his back pocket and sleeves pushed up just over his elbows.

“Pick the dates and I’ll arrange everything.”

“What?” I wasn’t sure I heard him right.

“Pick the dates and I’ll book shit.”

“you’ll book shit?”

“Are you a goddamn parrot?” He laughed and I snapped my mouth shut before stammering some sort of response that he simply talked over. “I’m not going to make you buy my plane ticket. Or my hotel room. And it’s cheaper if we book together so, I’ll book shit.”

“I’ll pay you back for-”

“No you won’t.” The timer beeped just as the machine switched off. “Perfect.”

“What?”

“The shot- it poured perfectly.” Clint poured it into the small ceramic cup I had set out for him and grabbed the cinnamon, adding a sprinkle to the top. “You may have gotten yourself into this mess with a dumb lie but I assure you babe, I’ve done dumber shit.”

I blushed and he gave a cocky smile as he raised his cup at me in toast before downing it as the first customer of evening came into the shop with a sprinkling of more hot on their heels. It was time for that weird midday afternoon rush that happened when it was too late to be called ‘lunch’ anymore. For a solid two hours the only time either of them had to chat was with customers while taking their orders. Still the rest of my shift passed with warm smiles and easy jokes passing between us as if he hadn’t just found out he was my imaginary boyfriend a few hours ago.

Tag List: @0-0-0-0-0-0-0-7, @theoneanna, @alexakeyloveloki, @winterisakiller, @toozmanykids, @j-u-s-t-4, @missaphrodite23, @nonsensicalobsessions, @bambamwolf87, @tinchentitri, @michelegurl

#clint x reader #clint x oc #clint x ofc #clint barton x oc #clint barton x reader #Clint Barton x Female Reader

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lilaclily00 · 5 years

Text

The Party That Went From Haunted to Worse: A Summerween Tale

Danny hates his life sometimes. And ghost portals. And his little sister. It’s a mistake going anywhere with her.

-_-_-_

I thought this was going to just... never see the light of day like most of my WIPs, but AU!Ghost August (Day 11: Crossover) gave me the drive to actually continue, finish, and post this monstrosity. Thanks for the excuse to put this out to the world!

This is the original post for the OC, and here’s the link to this story on AO3.

There's some Zalgo Text in here, so at the end I’ll have the... translations? Is that the right word? It looks better in AO3, though. :(

Thank you for helping me with this, @goinggoblin!!!

LET’S GOOO

-_-_-_ (I don’t think there’s horizontal lines anymore? Yikes)

Dani—known as Ellie around here—handed over the last of the fake spider-webbing. “There you go, Mabel.”

Mabel cheerfully thanked her from the ladder rungs, then turned back to stick it to the wall. “Now time for the paper stuff!”

“Are you sure it's okay to just...” Danny gestured around at the incomplete decorations strung around the designated party room.

Mabel waved him off over her shoulder, tacking up a cutesy paper skeleton onto the wall with her other hand, then a sheet ghost next to it. “Of course! We invited you!”

Ellie nudged Danny—well, it was much too hard of an elbowing to be classified as a nudge by most people, but not for them. “Lighten up, bro. It's not very often you get to go to parties, right?”

“Yeah. I know.” He knew she didn't mean his popularity—the fact it didn't exist—but that he just didn't have the time or energy for it most of the time. He wouldn't have gone to anything like this if she hadn't dragged him along as an excuse to take a break from ghost hunting.

Back in junior year, she’d sent him letters and photos from one of her longest stops in her travels, a dinky town called Gravity Falls, Oregon. She became good friends with a pair of twins around her age there, and they all stayed in touch afterwards. The twins invited her to hang out plenty since then, but this was the first time she told Danny to come along.

He had a complicated relationship with Halloween, considering the Fright Knight incident and all the kids and even adults that had started dressing up as Phantom (to varying levels of success and cringe). However, he had to admit he was intrigued with the idea of Summerween, especially when it was so far from Amity Park that its ghosts and fanbase would be very unlikely to interfere.

Even just thinking that, though, made him wonder if he just jinxed himself.

“Mabel,” they heard her twin call from the residential part of the Mystery Shack, “there's something wrong with the wig!”

Mabel shook her spiky, blue-haired head, hands on her red-uniformed hips. “No, there isn't! I would know!” She wagged her finger towards the visiting pair. “I'll go help him, so don't go anywhere!” She ran off, nearly tripping over her own costume.

“They really like to play up the twin thing, huh?” Danny asked his little sister in the silence. Someone had to acknowledge that the party's hosts were dressing up as Thing 1 and Thing 2. (He wasn’t sure what kinds of friends he suspected Ellie would make, but these two were a surprise.)

“At least they don't feel the need to be a walking pun at every opportunity,” she retorted, flipping back her Batman cape dramatically.

“I always am a walking pun. This is my truest self!” Danny gestured to his own costume, a classic zombie attire with green skin and fake blood everywhere.

“Har har.”

He looked over at the little pile of “spooky” images waiting on the top of the ladder, and took his pick of a large paper spider. He glanced back to the doorway where the twins disappeared off to, and quickly floated up to tape it to the ceiling with a grin.

“How are you going to explain how you got that there?” she giggled as he hovered back at her side.

“I won’t,” he replied smugly, touching ground. Just in time, too, as both Dipper and Mabel reappeared, now with their outfits and hair matching.

Mabel chirped, “If you guys help me with these last touches, this place will be perfect just in time for the party!”

Dipper fiddled with his sleeves, giving her a crooked smile. “At your orders, Mabes.”

-_-_-_

Danny was surprised by how many people actually showed up to what he expected to be a relatively small affair. Dipper had informed him that he and his sister lived in California for most of the year; despite that, it seemed the pair were very popular in their second home, Gravity Falls. Mabel introduced him to several of her friends, shouting over the loud pop music booming out the speakers, and he didn’t remember a single name.

Da—Ellie, he kept forgetting to call her that—was familiar with quite a few people, too. She stuck close to her big brother, though, until he ordered her to hang out with her friends instead. He appreciated the sentiment, but he could handle being by himself at a party.

Right?

He tried to dance for a few songs, but it wasn’t feeling natural. He then went to the refreshment tables for a jack-o-lantern cupcake. Maybe he needed to try to socialize after all. Hm, that one redheaded girl Mabel introduced to him seemed cool. He scanned the area for her face—

Wait.

His eyes narrowed, studying the long white hair halfway across the room. It wasn’t as glowy as usual, but he’d know that hair anywhere. He pocketed the cupcake wrapper and pushed his way through the crowd. Finally, his ghost sense said something as he crossed the dance floor.

"Hey, ghost girl!" he shouted over the music. Her head turned 180 like an owl, pigtails following slightly slower than physics demanded, then she calmly turned the rest of her body to him. Her ever-present blank, wide-eyed stare bored into him, and never strayed, as she easily swerved around the dancing kids toward him. He noticed that she made an effort of walking on the ground rather than floating.

"Hi, zombie," she replied, the slightest smile on her face showing she knew exactly who she was talking to. She was never really scared of him or angry at him. If anything, she seemed to like talking to him. He supposed it was because he was among the closest to her physical age in the Ghost Zone.

He was not going to be friendly, though, and showed it by crossing his arms at her. "What are you doing here?"

She clasped her hands behind her back. "I’d like to ask you that. You hardly ever leave your lair.”

Danny scrunched his eyebrows, then glanced around in case anyone heard her. “Do you mean Amity Park?”

“Yeah.”

He frowned warily. Considering their past interactions, it seemed like a genuinely curious question. She wasn’t the type to use his absence as a chance to cause chaos back home. (If only the other ghosts were the same way.) “I got invited to hang out here for the weekend. And I don’t think it counts as my lair.”

“I think it does,” she replied with the barest of shrugs, still staring at him, unblinking. “I’m here ‘cause a door opened up in the woods right by here," she added. "There was a flyer for this party taped up on a tree. It said there was gonna be cookies."

He scrunched his eyebrows. "You can't even eat human cookies." She finally blinked as that registered, and her gaze broke to look at the ground as she wilted under the weight of her disappointment. Drama queen. "And I know you're planning to scare the kids here, if you haven't already started. C'mon, let's go."

"What?" She flicked her eyes back up to him, igniting a small light in her irises, disrupting her otherwise unglowy appearance. Her entire face slowly, ever so slowly, began to twist clockwise on her head. "It's Summerween!"

He held up a hand; he knew exactly what she was going to argue. "I know it's like Halloween, but it's still the wrong date. We agreed on no mass hauntings outside of October 31st."

Her eyebrows just so slightly scrunched, about the closest she could get to looking angry. "This isn't a very big party."

He had to give her that; it was bigger than he expected, but still only a few dozen, which potentially wasn't enough to count as a mass of people. And everyone here was around their age, which was less worrying than her chasing down little kids just for a laugh.

Her big, empty eyes were unsettling, yet they nearly pleaded with him. He couldn't stand when she did that. He rubbed the side of his face in defeat, forgetting for a second about his zombie makeup. "Oh, fine! Only in this party. And nothing too scary. Otherwise, you go right into the thermos."

"Sounds good to me," she chirped, mouth curled into a small smile by her ear instead of her chin.

"Oh, do you guys know each other?" Danny glanced over to see the hosts themselves come from behind him. He turned back, tapping his cheek at the ghost. She knew the signal, and covered her face to recover its natural orientation.

"Kind of," he told Dipper.

The ghost girl uncovered her face, and smiled shyly at the twins. "I'm Lily. Nice to meet you." Danny raised his eyebrows at her; this whole time, she had an actual name?

"I'm Mabel! Lily, I love your costume!" Mabel squealed, hands smushing her own face. "You're so cute and creepy and ah!"

"Yeah, you did a great job," Dipper added, quiet admiration on his face as he quickly studied her appearance. Danny guessed he was wondering why the wig and body paint looked so realistic. Mabel did a fantastic job with their own costumes, but it was hard to make poofy, blue wigs not look like wigs. "I'm Dipper, by the way."

"You should totally enter the costume contest!" Mabel added, hands hovering, as if itching to reach out and inspect Lily's dress. "It’s later tonight!"

"Oh, maybe I will," she said, eyes flickering between the twins. They fixed onto Dipper when he had looked back up to her face. After a few seconds of an impromptu staring contest, Dipper turned his eyes away, blinking and glancing at Danny, unsure of himself.

Mabel seemed to not have noticed, as she continued rambling to Lily, who patiently listened, empty eyes directed back to Mabel and small smile held up.

"She takes Halloween——er, and Summerween costumes very seriously," Danny told Dipper. "Pretty sure she'll try to creep the crap out of everybody here."

"Well, seems like she's actually good at it," the boy admitted with an awkward chuckle. "But hey, that's what this holiday is for, right?"

-_-_-_

Lily was right there, right in plain sight, swaying to the music by herself, but Danny knew she wasn’t as innocent as she looked. Even now, she was beginning her haunting.

It was just little stuff. There were a few small spiders on the fake webs, real ones. The door opened automatically for newcomers. The jack-o-lantern cupcakes, once all smiling, now had one smiling evilly in the center of the platter while the rest wore a fearful frown. She was staring blankly at Dipper at every opportunity.

Danny had fetched his thermos soon after their conversation and clipped it to his belt. He tried to distract himself by talking to people, like the girl that turned out to be named Wendy, and bopping his head to the background beat. Nonetheless, he couldn’t help but keep his eye on her and her effects. Why did his problems from home have to follow him everywhere? Why did he have to jinx himself?

He felt his sister ram into his back. "Danny, I sensed a ghost!"

"Yeah, so did I. It’s the white-haired girl. I worked out a deal with her," he immediately replied, sigh heavy and beyond his years.

Da—Ellie slowly shifted into a suspicious frown. "Wait, what? What kind of deal?"

"She gets to haunt the party for the night, and will peacefully return to the Ghost Zone after." Danny wilted under her glare. "Look, sh-she's even less harmless than the Box Ghost. She's all about the scare factor, doesn't try to hurt anyone—well, maybe makes them lose their sleep if they can't handle horror movies, but still. If I don't compromise here, she'll go for much bigger plans later to spite me. I promise I know what I'm doing!"

"Since when have you known what you're doing?" She shook her head, surely knowing how very offended he was by her comment. "This just doesn't sound like you, bro."

He shrugged exaggeratedly. "She doesn't operate the same way as most ghosts."

“So that made it okay to let loose a prankster ghost on these people?”

“Well, geez, it sounds terrible if you put it like that.”

She shook her head at him again before turning away with a dramatic cape twirl. He suddenly realized she does that at him a lot.

-_-_-_

Something was off.

Dipper had made all the necessary precautions for a Summerween party he could think of. He had left anti-magic wards hidden around the house—not unicorn hair strong, but still effective against most of what could possibly threaten a gathering like this. He’d cleared out the trash cans so the gnomes would have no reason to stick around. He locked up Gompers in the attic (he never proved to be dangerous, but that goat was terrifying).

But then when he went to take a break by a cobwebbed corner, he found real spiders on it. A lot of real spiders. The party lights, which were supposed to change color every few seconds, got stuck on red when he passed by them. The doors creaked open ominously when anyone came near them. He went to pour out some fruit punch, and the dispenser screamed when he pressed on it.

Every time he noticed one of these things, he glanced around him and immediately found that ghost girl staring straight at him.

Dipper ran to check the nearest ward, but it was still intact. However, there was something written next to it on the wall, in red.

You think you can keep me out?

Well, that wasn’t good.

The only suspect so far was the girl—Lily, right? Perhaps she wasn’t just dressed up as a ghost after all. But she looked too solid to be a ghost, though he hadn’t seen anyone actually try to touch her yet, and these things that were happening just didn’t have the same MO as the ghosts described in the Journals or those he faced in the past. But what other kinds of supernatural creatures could do things like this? Which ones would?

Mabel poked his shoulder, startling him enough that he bumped against the wall. She didn’t laugh, however, her attention focused on his wig. Eyes narrowed, she slowly said, “Dipper, is there blood in your hair?”

He ripped the wig off his head. Red liquid seeped out of its roots, matting down the poofed hair. He hesitantly touched a finger to it and sniffed. It smelled like copper.

Mabel pulled her own off, and found the same result. Face scrunched up in disgust, she tossed it to him and ran off to the bathroom. He could hear the door creak much louder than normal even from here.

Lily was staring at him, a blank smile on her face.

A part of him chastised himself for coming to conclusions too fast, but what other conclusion was there? And performing an exorcism, if it came to that, wouldn’t hurt something that wasn’t a ghost, right?

Clearly, what he needed to do next was talk to this girl, find out her motives before her little act became big. Just in case, though, he’d need to pull out that new silver mirror first.

-_-_-_

Amity Park and Gravity Falls were not very similar, but Danny realized there was something in common between their townsfolk: they were somewhat clueless. Not that he eavesdropped that much into the different conversations on the edges of the dance floor, but it seemed hardly anyone had noticed the odd tension in the air, the invisible slimy feeling on their skin of the supernatural hiding in their midst. Something coming.

Or, well, that that paper spider he stuck to the ceiling had grown several times its original size and crawled over one of the ceiling lights.

Ellie was consoling Mabel, who stood by the refreshments without her wig on. She glanced over to him a couple times just to glare.

He was trying to not keep his focus on Lily too much for his own sanity, but his eyes didn’t listen to his brain. They kept roaming the crowd to keep track of her. She looked like she wasn’t doing anything, but…

The eyes of the various wall decorations followed him wherever he went. Distant screaming could barely be heard over the music, if he tried to listen, but it came from nowhere. More spiders poured out of abandoned plastic cups. (She really liked that aesthetic, apparently.)

He only caught her in the act once at the refreshments table: she studied one of the Halloween-colored M&M cookies in her hand and threw it into her mouth. After a second, she pulled it back out, staring at it like it was the cause of all her problems. She disintegrated the cookie she couldn’t eat. When she turned away, all the other cookies had turned into oatmeal raisin.

How evil.

“Hey, Danny?”

He blinked and turned to see Wendy. She quirked her eyebrow at him. “What’s got you making that constipated face?”

He blinked at her even harder and she laughed. He huffed, scratching at his hair. “There’s just weird stuff going on.”

“Oh, yeah,” she agreed, “this party’s totally haunted.”

“Actually—” He had enhanced hearing, and he still wasn’t sure he heard that right. “Yeah, it is. You noticed?”

“Well, it was kinda hard to ignore.” She nodded to herself. “I thought I heard creepy laughing coming from the bathroom and there was nobody there. ‘I’m here’ was written on the mirror in blood, though. Once I came back out, more stuff just kept popping up. There’s definitely a ghost.”

Danny frowned. “And… why aren’t you freaked out?”

“Well, same reason you aren’t. Dipper’s gonna take care of it.”

Alarm bells rang in his head, drowning out that distant screaming. “What do you mean ‘take care of it’?”

She tilted her head quizzically. “Don’t you already know him? This is totally Dipper’s thing, knowing about the supernatural and saving people from it. He already took down ghosts before. He’s probably getting everything ready for an exorcism or something right now.”

Exorcism. Exorcism. His skin crawled at that word. Ellie was friends with a kid that performed exorcisms in his spare time?

He remembered that Lily had been pulling that constant-stare thing on Dipper before. She had stopped at some point, which meant Dipper was out of sight, which meant maybe he really was planning something to get rid of her. Permanently.

Wendy said, “Hey, man, you okay?” just loud enough to bring him back out of his thoughts.

“Yeah, uh, just need to find Dipper,” he muttered, turning away and quickly searching the room for his face. Where was that kid, where was he, where was he—?

He hadn’t noticed that the music had slowly quieted down until Mabel was shouting by the DJ table. “Hey, everybody! We’re gonna start the costume contest in five minutes! Come over here if you wanna be in it!” The lights flickered for a couple seconds. “Oh, that’s new! We’ll get Soos to fix ‘em!”

Okay, there’s Mabel. Where there’s Mabel, there’s likely a Dipper. Or maybe an Ellie. He figured he should probably talk to her, too, even if she’ll give him that look again, wondering how she shared the exact same DNA with his doofus self.

-_-_-_

Mabel watched as the chatter grew louder with her hands on her hips. “There you go, Dipdop, I moved up the contest. The sacrifices I make to my carefully planned schedules for you!” She turned back to the playlist and rose the volume. The song sounded strangely distorted and screechy and demented, causing everyone to cover their ears. She quickly stopped the music. “But I guess you’re right that things are getting out of hand.”

Yes, he was. The freaky little instances seemed to have gotten worse in the few minutes he had spent grabbing the mirror and Journal 3 upstairs. The fastest way to find the ghost: have her come to him.

Grenda and Candy came running up in their matching “party animals” costumes, along with a couple other kids they barely knew. Danny rushed to the table, eyes wide and much more awake than any zombie had the right to be. Dipper opened his mouth, about to turn that into an actual joke, but Danny beat him.

“Do you know anything about ghosts?” The words practically tumbled out of Danny’s mouth.

Dipper raised his eyebrows. “Well, yeah.”

“And how to defeat them?”

“Yeah?”

“What’s your plan?”

Dipper considered Danny’s strangely serious face. Then, he said, “Make her come out, find out her motives and if there’s something we can do to make her leave. Trap her away if she doesn’t want to, and exorcise her as a last resort.”

Danny set his frown grimmer and grimmer as he spoke. The lights flickered. “I think you need to reconsider the severity of this haunting. I can’t let you—”

Click.

The lights all went out, and the room was an inkier black than it should’ve been on a warm summer Oregon night. Large objects screeched as they dragged across the floor, bumping into people. Dipper felt something crawl over his feet, heard the table in front of him slide away. Just over the random yelps and screams of the attendees, a dark laughter rang.

They flicked back on. The tables, speakers, and party lights were all randomly located throughout the room. The attendees were stunned to silence, taking some seconds before their chatter began anew as they inspected their new surroundings.

A girl with a white wig (it had to be her real hair) and painted blue skin (she didn’t have skin) slipped through the crowd, glancing between the three with that little smile gracing her face. “Can I join the costume contest?”

Dipper couldn’t stop himself from setting a glare on her, gripping tighter the silver mirror behind his back. Mabel, who had more tact, plastered a grin on and said, “Of course! I invited you to do it, didn’t I?”

Lily nodded and quietly took her place by Candy, who was not the only contestant staring at her warily. She ignored them all, eyes unfocused as she fiddled with one of her pigtails.

Dipper glanced back over to Danny from the corner of his eye. “I think you don’t know what you’re talking about,” he told him quietly. “Just let me do my job.”

“Your job?” Danny hissed in return, far more offended than Dipper expected him to be. “Just let me talk to her—”

“What, do I look like I haven’t done this before?”

Danny tugged at his hair. “Listen to me! You need to change your plan!”

All the paper decorations promptly dropped from the walls, fluttering to the floor, except for the cutesy ghosts.

Mabel shouted over their quiet arguing, “Last call if you want to be in the contest!”

Ellie strode up, determination in her footsteps as she lined up beside Lily.

-_-_-_

Now that the music wasn’t playing, Danny could see people inspecting their surroundings a little more. Now that she wasn’t hidden among the crowd, Danny could see a few of those people second-guess Lily, watching her rock back and forth on her feet with a calculating eye. He wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not. If there was anyone else here like Dipper...

He had to give up on talking sense into the kid because the contest was starting. Mabel was doing it by applause, and he couldn’t hear anything else over it.

Mabel wrote down on a notepad (though he had no clue what she’d be writing down), nodding thoughtfully to herself. “Looks like it’s between Count Dracula,” she shouted, gesturing with her pen to a kid in an elaborate vampire costume then to Lily, “and the ghost! One more vote decides the winner!”

The other contestants moved aside, but not too far. Ellie glanced over to Danny as she stepped back a couple feet. She was planning something, he knew it. With how mad she was at him, he had the distinct feeling he should be running for what remained of his life.

Dipper pulled Danny’s arm back as the applause rang again. When it stopped, he spoke in a dangerously low voice. “You said you knew her. You said she would try to scare everyone.”

Danny bit his lip for a second. “I did say something like that, huh?”

Quiet fury grew in Dipper’s eyes. “Well, fine. If you’re not going to do anything—” The rest was drowned out by the applause roaring up again, startled shouts mixed in as the lights flickered again, but Danny could guess, and his heart dropped to his stomach as Dipper turned away without giving him a chance to reply.

“Dracula wins!” Mabel announced, and a cheer rose up once again. “But the rest of you were great, too!”

Ellie stepped back up to Lily when the claps died back down. “Sorry you lost,” she said.

“Oh, it’s okay,” she replied amicably. “It wouldn’t really be fair if I won, anyway. I’m not a̙͈ ͖̩̠̬c̯͔̼t͚̮̗̙u̟͖͕a̻͙ ̼ll͙̙͎y̹ ̬͔̣̻̣w̠e̞̤ͅ ̪̖̦̤͍ͅ ̥ar͙͈i͈̳̰̜n̪̼̮ ͈ ̟̫͍̰͍ͅg̱ͅ ̟ ̦͇͓̻̹͇̼ ̝̯̦ ̹̬̟̱ ̭͈̠͇̟͖ ̗̤̯̮̭ a̬̯̰̦̞̪ͅ ̣̜͖ͅ ̬͚̪̫͎̰ c̫̗ ̜͕͕͇̤ ̤o ̥̮̺s̹̜͕͇t̬̘̮̼ ̗̞̥̣̖̼ ͇ ̣͓̹ u̹͖̙͙͇̠ ̼͉͓̰͙ ̝̯͍͙͍͓ ̭ ̤ ̖̠̠̙͖̮͕ ̜͔͔̮ ̖ ͚̤ͅ ̤ ̪̤̖͓̘͉ͅ ̭̳̜m̦̼̲̫ ̲̫͔̳̮͎ ̖̩̝̙̦͇ ̲̯̠͙̬ ̝ ̠͔̼͈͖ ̰̹ ̘͎̺̗ ̳̠̫̳̻̥ ̥͚̙͈̠͙ ̪̖͎̳̻ ͔͉̰͈̳ ̠ ͇̺̫ ͚̲̻̥͚͎̣ ̖̫̖̭ͅͅ ̩ ̩e͙͍͎̙̺̜.͇͍̩”

Lily’s hair and dress floated, revealing blobs of ectoplasm instead of legs. The lights went out, then returned in a dim, red hue. She was already up in the air, eyes glowing, face twisting. She raised her arms, and objects began to float at her command. Attendees screamed, almost loud enough to not hear the unsettling laughter coming from all sides. A couple of them tried to leave, but the door wouldn’t budge.

“Hey!” Dipper shouted as he ran to her. He was holding a… small mirror? “What do you want, ghost?”

She abruptly turned her head to him, face upside-down. Her voice had a demonic overtone as she replied, “T͍̝o̗͙ͅ ̥m͈a͕̲k̶̼͙̻e̼̟̼ ̳̱y̨o҉͎̹u͔͇̬͟ ̼s̹̙cr͉̦͇̮̭͇͡e̺͓͖̱̤̗a̪͙͓̩̮͟m͢.͎̮̳̱̬̯”

“Come on, there has to be something else,” he insisted, hand gripping the mirror harder. Danny inched his way; that mirror had to be a trap of some kind, and he wasn’t going to let Dipper use it—not when Danny didn’t know if he could get her back out of it.

“I know what you don’t want,” Ellie shouted, holding out a Fenton Thermos. Wait—Danny felt for the thermos on his belt. It was gone. She stole his thermos. How did he not notice until now?!

Lily stared her down, but she didn’t look scared. “Y̘o̺͎͖̱u̖̜̳̭̺ ̸̣̭̥̦͉̙̭s̝͢h̨o͙̞u̠͓̰̙͉l̡͉̠̗̣̥̗d̯̩̮̦̯͎̗’̨v̰̘̹͞e̙͉̘̦̱ ̶̙us̻̩̪͎̝̯e̯̱̜̬̮̝̫d͕͢ ì̟t̗̻̬̯͕̪͘ ̝͉w̹̤̫h̞̼̫̹̘̲͍͢e̖ņ̦̹̬̣̫̱ ̗̟̺y̵̬̤͖͓̖o̰̯̪̟̼̥u̟̩̰̙͢ ̝̖͕̗́h̪̰͝a̖͍̲͉͡d͕̹ ͙͖̬͉͟t̻̗̠͈̝h͚͚̜̖͎̕ͅe̼̰͍ ̰̲̪̥c͏̟̞̝͓̫h̗̤͚̲͔̼a̯͎̳͇͙̝͈n̦̥̜̹͘ͅc̳̭ȩ,” she answered, holding her hand out at Ellie. She began to float off the ground, yelping as she flailed her arms and legs in the air. She lost her grip on the thermos as she suddenly began to spasm, as if fighting off a—no, she couldn’t be.

She stilled, eyes closed, then opened them. They were glowing ecto-green. She was dull and slack-jawed, staring off at nothing.

Danny couldn’t help the dread trickling into his chest. She wasn’t really...?

He stepped towards her, and she... glanced down at him? Oh, she didn’t.

She winked.

She did.

Danny felt a thrill of anger run through him—how could his own clone decide to act possessed and make all of this worse? (When did those two even get to plan this?!) It was clearly working, with how all the partygoers stared at her in horror, looking like they were about to pass out.

“A̛̫̙̮n͏y̗͇o̩̝͇̫n͖̜̬͇͖͖e̳ ̣̱̙̭͓e̤͚͉͉̮l̢̞̦̟s͎̱͍͍̩e̪̭͘ ͈͡w͖͚̩̹͉͢a͇͔̘ņ͎̟̣̫n͈͉̕a̷̟̝̯̬͚ ̭̱͉̟͔͘p̷̙̬̮̫̲͈̞̼͇̜͇̎̐͊ͨͅ l̜͖̲̀̇̚ ̼ ̤̄ a͙̻̲̰͂̋ͦ̎͌̏ ̬̘͍ͯ͝ ̙͎͚̊̆̆ͨ̚ ̝̟̎͑͐ͬ́ỵ̶͉͉̳ͨͥ̌͋̓ͅ ̖͉͓̙ͮ͌̑ͤ̽?̡͎̦̭̩̙̰͎”

Danny was about to dive for the thermos and suck both of them in (Ellie absolutely deserved it too, now), but he saw Dipper holding up the mirror and beginning a chant from a thick book. He had to take care of that first. He tackled the boy to the ground. The mirror slid away, unbroken, and both of them scrambled to get up and grab it first. Danny won, barely, and Dipper tackled him in return.

“Give me that!” Dipper growled, furiously trying to pull the mirror out of Danny’s hands.

Danny elbowed him away. “No, we need to use the thermos!”

“Why?!”

“Because—” he grunted as Dipper kicked him surprisingly hard— “it’ll work better!”

“And why should I believe you? You don’t care about stopping her!”

“I never said I didn’t!” Dipper paused his fighting. “I said to change your plan because she doesn’t deserve to be killed or trapped forever, and I already know that!” Danny pushed the other boy off of him and stood up, brushing himself off. “The longer we argue, the more she’ll make everyone pee their pants.”

“Okay, fine, we’ll use your thermos thing,” Dipper grumbled as he pushed himself back to standing. He sobered as he saw food flying around and Ellie still floating there, gawking into space. “You better be right.”

“Of course I am.”

Danny sprinted for the thermos. He turned it on the second his hand touched it. Lily and Ellie apparently heard its mechanical whine, as they both glanced at him, Lily wide-eyed in a different way than usual.

“I̙̻̺’̩͍m͇͔͢ ͅṋ̰̮̦͎͡ͅo̞̤t̩̯̰̖̱͖͖ ͞f͚̜̙͢ǐ̭͉͓͈̅͗ͥͅn̝̯̻͎̣̰̱̅i̮̹͔̲ͨͥ̋̆̕s̓̽ͤ͑̋҉̜͈̱̪h̤͉̫̭͍̒͆̉̈̊̐e̵͈̣͖dͧ͏͎͍̻ ̖͙́̇̒͛ẅ̘̠̤̤̭̒̾͟ḭ̩͈̥̬̅ͪt̰͇̟̹͖͂ͪͪ͋͟ḩ̝̯̖̤͉ͬ́͌—”

He gave her an apologetic look as he pulled the lid off. She let out a chilling, unnatural scream as she was sucked in, the finale to her entire performance.

Everything that had been floating crashed down, the lights flicked back to their usual white, and the laughing died off. Ellie fell to the floor, rubbing at her head and looking around as if dazed (that little liar).

“Are you okay?” Mabel cried as she ran to Ellie’s side, just as Dipper came up to him and asked, “Are you sure she can’t get out?”

“Yeah,” Danny replied, knocking his knuckles against it. “I’ll let her out in the Ghost Zone.”

“The Ghost Zone?”

He found himself explaining it halfmindedly, the rest of him focused on inspecting the party. It looked like everything really was back to normal, minus the rearranged room and food that fell to the floor.

“That’s amazing!” Dipper’s eyes sparkled, and Danny could finally see what Wendy meant about him wanting to know the supernatural, too. “I have so many questions!”

Danny suddenly suspected he’d be here a long time if those questions started now. “How about you write them down and I’ll tell you about it when the party’s over?”

He was surprised that Dipper agreed so easily, running off to grab Mabel’s pen. With that, he snuck out of the party, thermos in hand.

-_-_-_

Danny took the lid off again, watching as Lily reformed. She stretched her arms over her head with a sigh. He rubbed at his neck. “Sorry about trapping you, I didn’t really have a better choice.”

"That was still really fun!" She giggled, with the biggest smile Danny had ever witnessed her pulling. Her coloring shifted back to how she usually looked in the Ghost Zone, with purple hair, gray-black skin, and her dress bleached from black to bright white. She was officially out of her “scare-mode”, it seemed.

He huffed. "If you tone it down next time, and not include my sister in your schemes, I might not have to resort to it again.” He glanced around. “Well, time for you to go home. Is that portal still open?"

"Perhaps." Lily floated into the forest, and Danny warily followed.

Only a few minutes passed before they came across a long rip in the air, carved out in front of one of the many trees, shining ecto green like a bleeding wound. One of its neighbor trees wore a sparkly Summerween party flyer.

"See you later, Phantom!” Lily chirped. “Oh, and let Mabel know her cookies were good!" She paused to wave, her grin lingering on her face turned counterclockwise, then flew through.

Danny watched the portal until it closed; luckily, it only took a minute or two to stitch the fabric of reality back together, leaving no trace. Well, except for his nerves being fried for the night.

He was not looking forward to Ellie’s smug grin.

It’s a mistake going anywhere with her.

-_-_-_

Zalgo Text:

"I'm not actually wearing a costume."

"To make you scream."

"You should've used it when you had the chance."

"Anyone else wanna play?"

"I'm not finished with—"

#Danny Phantom #DP #ghostsona #AU!Ghost August #aughost #Lily? Lily.#Lily? Lily. Fic.#Gravity Falls #GF #DPxGF crossover #crossover #DP headcanons awaaaaay #and yay spooky times #Dani and Danny call each other siblings but otherwise this is basically post-canon (minus PP maybe?)

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lorentibbs-blog · 4 years

Text

Manic Depressive

Manic Depressive.

Every morning he makes me a cup of tea.

Once he even delivered a Harry Spesh- one-part espresso, one- part hot water and one- part steamed milk, to me in the shower. I wondered whether Espresso Cartel could offer this service during alert level 3 in the current pandemic.

“I do not want a relationship”. He looked at me with eyes verging on panic. Our conversation before that had also put me on edge. I had introduced myself and he said ‘I know who you are. We are friends on Facebook’. It had made me feel uncomfortable to have been connected on social media with someone who I did not recognize in real life. He had even come to my flat to collect a costume from my flatmate before the party we were at and I did not recognize him then or now.

A party on top of a mountain. Well because my life had become rather progressive and trendy from the outside looking in. My flatmates had introduced me into a world of polyamory, sophisticated and successful people who cared about the environment, radical self-acceptance ( I only understood it as a concept at this point), and drug use that took me to places I’d never imagined. Inside however, I was in absolute turmoil. I was very unwell and did not know how sick I was at that point.

We had laughed as he explained that we had matched on Tinder and I had insisted on communicating on Facebook. We had arranged to meet at Toad Hall for coffee but 10 minutes beforehand I had decided it was all too much for me. When I looked back on that conversation, Sebastian had responded eloquently to my crazed blow off message and even said that he had had a lovely morning at the market instead. He has this way of understanding and making you feel human for your flaws rather than an insane nut job. The jury is still out for me on that one

The party itself was too much for me. I had climbed a mountain on LSD with two amazing wahine and then stepped into the lodge which was full of equally astounding people. I was terrified. I made my way to a bunk and clung on to my safety duo, Clara, and Tess. We went through the motions, the costumes, dinner (more vegan options than not), excruciating anxiety, the drugs, the fashion show, and the sex pile. The fashion show had ended with my flatmate Ngairi, whose birthday it was, atop a human pyramid. I dropped some MDMA like most of the party goers had. I had hoped this would curb my anxiety and fatigue. It helped but I did find myself going back and forth between the main room and my bunk all night. At one stage I had been led onto another bunk by my other flatmate Ryan, who was Ngairi’s partner. They are polyamorous you see, and he had asked me if I had wanted to hook up.

I always feel so good the next day after MDMA. I should probably explore why this is. I guess when I am on the drug, I have all these revelations and then the next morning potentially I feel lighter?

So, after 12 hours of stepping into the lodge I was finally ready to introduce myself to someone.

Sebastian was by himself pretending to look busy with a broom. I enthusiastically (probably the most energetic and social I had felt the whole time) introduced myself and the conversation flowed around depression, anxiety, and Sebastian’s house build. I had suggested that we go for coffee at Toad Hall like we had initially planned to 2 years before. This is where I was taken back with his response of “I don’t want a relationship” it was like he had seen my brain ticking off all the characteristics I was valuing as we spoke. “sensitive, understanding of depression, attractive, a Colgate worthy smile, built his own house, older than me, mutual friends and blue eyes that saw right through me”. Later I would tease him about his panicked response as if I were ‘just’ asking him to go for coffee

Getting to know Sebastian has been a remarkably interesting journey since then and has been the catalyst for much introspection.

As I walked down the mountain that afternoon, I did a lot of self-reflection. I was thankful that one of our trio had left us early and I was left just walking down with Clara Keel. I found it so easy to talk to Clara. I think she found it easy to talk to me too. Even in a manic-depressive episode I was able to make beautiful connections with admirable people. Her girlfriend suffered from major depression and anxiety and was on Venlafaxine. It was very enlightening to hear from Clara as a partner with someone with depression. Clara invited me to go snowboarding with her and her friends over the winter and we promised to see each other very soon. I did not see her again for a long time. Turns out she is outrageously hard to pin down. I am stoked about that though because Clara keeps herself busy with a lot of incredible environmental and political work. We stopped and chatted to various people from the party down the mountain. Our ride Mikey Clementine was running down the mountain and said he was happy to wait for us at the carpark. We caught up with Sebastian and a crew he was walking with. We walked down with him and I was very aware of him positionally to me. I did not really talk too much. Id taken a mushroom and weed coconut concoction that my ex had made me and I was vibing with the trees and my surroundings. I was very appreciative of the conversation Sebastian and Clara were having and was happy just witnessing it

On the ride back, my mushroom trip was really kicking in. Mikey blew my mind when he described his interest in the dominant and submissive scene. He made a point I have never forgotten and in that moment a switch flicked in my head. He explained that with every sexual session all participants would sit down before hand and have a discussion around their expectations, wants, limits, and fetishes. If either party felt uncomfortable or did not feel like their sexual style matched, then nothing would go ahead. I felt like these conversations should be happening around any kind of sex. It would save so much miscommunication and boundaries being crossed. In the history of my sexual life these conversations were really lacking and had there been space for them that may have saved a lot of suffering. Interesting that this style of sex is viewed in quite a dark and risky light by most but could potentially be the safest kind in terms of discussion, boundaries and consent. Purely because a discussion is expected and is compulsory beforehand.

Ngairi was absolutely filled with joy after her birthday party. We chatted in the kitchen and she was fizzing about the weekend’s events. I began to tell her the story about Sam and I and our failed tinder meet up. She paused me mid-way through and vomited rainbows and unicorns over her experience of Sebastian that weekend. She described their rendezvous in the pile of costumed MDMA cuddle puddle participants. Ngairi was on top of Sebastian in the cuddle puddle. “Ryan bounced up to me in his bunny costume and I was so happy to see him” she described their embrace as she disclosed into Ryan’s ear “Sebastian has a boner!”. Ryan and Ngairi both giggled and shared a cheeky grin as he bounced away. Sebastian was fingering Ngairi the whole time the interaction took place. As it turned out, Ngairi and Sebastian had fooled around in the cuddle puddle and had intercourse before Ngairi returned to her bunk with Ryan. Later Sebastian would tell me he thought I had known that him and Ngairi had slept together the night before when I asked him if he wanted to go for a coffee. ‘yeah I thought you knew and were still asking me out. I thought wow this polyamory thing is real eye-opening stuff

Ryan in turn had hooked up with a large percentage of the party, me included. When Ryan and I had hooked up I was taken back when he stopped our encounter and told me he was going back to the party. It was interesting to initially feel rejected he did not want to take things further like I thought we were going to. I am thankful for the experience of having someone stop me in my tracks sexually. Anyone can stop any sexual encounter at any time. I guess I was just flabbergasted momentarily as I have never had any male stop me before. I stayed in the bunk and rested after this. Ryan came back to check if I was okay. I was so exhausted, and my brain was very fuzzy at this stage.

I will not deny that I was disappointed when Ngairi had told me about her encounter with Sebastian. In fact, I will go as far as to say I thought “fuck you Ngairi, you have the best boyfriend can’t you be happy with that”. I reflected on this thought process and by the end of the week I was disappointed in myself for thinking this way.

Ngairi Newton chose to live her life this way. She was in a committed polyamorous relationship with Ryan Mcgregor This relationship allowed her to explore any other relationship in any way she liked and vice versa. I had found her perspective on relationships so exciting initially. Polyamory was a new concept for me, and I had found myself in the household of the most exceptional and liberating relationship id ever heard of.

So how did I find myself in the position I was in? Unemployed, depressed, anxiety ridden and barely coping, living with two of the most inspirational and functional people I have ever met?

I was living with Ngairi and Ryan for the second time. The first time was only a three week stay while I was in between places. I am always in between places as you will find out. I am in between places right now as we speak. And will be 5 times over by the time this story is done.

Emilie my flatmate at the time had invited me to a Halloween party. Emilie was a very bizarre and unnerving woman but one that was difficult to say no to. I remember feeling instantly connected to her when I first viewed the room. We engaged in deep conversation incredibly early on, I mean I do not believe I was there longer than half an hour. We both identified our fathers as the cause of all the turmoil in our lives. She did not hear me when I first knocked on the door even though I was bang-on on time (sat outside in the car for 20 minutes because I was early). She was on her kitchen floor pulling all the contents out of the cupboard. Her current flatmate had told her about a book that was about de cluttering your life (literally). She had just flown back from a disastrous 3-month trip in France and was experiencing some severe jet lag. She had just cleaned out her wardrobe and I left in a state of glee with all the gorgeous garments this exciting woman no longer wanted. Two weeks into moving in with Emilie I knew I had made a mistake. We found ourselves in a very messy situation in the end that was further complicated by my close friends taking the room I was not quite ready to give up.

I had realized that I could not live with her. She had taken it to heart when I told her this and somehow my telling her I was thinking about looking for a new room turned into me giving her two weeks’ notice. I guess there may have been a miscommunication. Little did I know how scarce accommodation in Nelson was at this point. Anyway, through all of this we managed to stay civil and she invited me, like the Gemini she is, to a party the weekend before I was to move out. We found it difficult to find the party and when we did it was really humming. Turned out to be a party of a woman who I had met before. Again, on the path to finding the right accommodation. Chrissie and I had met at Claudia’s house. Claudia owned a house I had fallen in love with, the room available was Christie’s room. I did not get the room. This party was a housewarming for Chrissie’s new place. I had enquired about this place as well. Chrissie had told me over text that she was looking for a new house because she wanted to take drugs over the summer and have more of a party living environment. She then said that she thought it would not really suit me as at that point I had intense social anxiety. Since then I have befriended several people in a circle of friends that Chrissie and I now share. We have encountered each other a few times. Each of those times I have been unwell. She is beautiful, funny, Canadian and she is an engineer. Its hard not to be starstruck by her. I imagine Chrissie and I would get on like a house on fire if I were at my best when I ran into her, I always seem to be unwell though. Emilie is gone within moments of us entering the sea of costumed people. I make a bee line to the table of snacks. And I start munching on chips and dip as if my life depended on it. I am not sure how it happened but I found myself in a conversation with a woman in an amazing shiny pants suit, the blazer atop a sequined bikini top, her face was painted in a Mexican skull design and she had a platinum blonde bob. What a bad bitch. (id never actually say that in real life. Real hero behind a keyboard type stuff)

When Mel, a fellow volunteer from the Wellness Movement, suggested asking her if she would rent out her spare room, I was not picturing Ngairi as the woman in from of me.

I had imagined a 40 + year old slightly chubby Maori woman with a couple of cats. As it turned out Ngairi only had one cat named Espresso. I am fairly sure Espresso wouldn’t have had me if she had had a choice in the matter. Fair enough too as it turns out.

#polyamory #bi polar

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