#(he tries to go separately around port from them one time and its a fucking disaster; someone gets stabbed; so he just resigns himself to

[arsenicflame]

stede is 'oh this place has something related to my interest i must go in immediately' autistic and izzy is 'if we deviate one inch from my plan for today i will murder someone' autistic

#stede wandering off into the forest to look at bugs was not on the schedule or any of izzys contingency schedules #new thing i think would fix izzy: a clear fucking plan #in the nebulous reunion timeline future i see izzy researching every port town they are gonna stop in HARD so he can figure out everywhere #stede + ed might possibly want to go and plan several routes for the day to keep himself calm in the inevitable chaos #(and yet somehow every time stede finds something he missed and they still go off script anyway) #(he tries to go separately around port from them one time and its a fucking disaster; someone gets stabbed; so he just resigns himself to #incredibly stressful port stops) #its not like stede + ed mean to do it!! theyre both awful for it individually and they just feed off each other #its ok because theyre very good at letting izzy have the deck Exactly how he wants it and scheduling as much big picture stuff as they can #with him #(when stede realises theyve been the cause of like. 65% of izzys stress they finally agree to let him redo the rigging as an apology and #they suddenly realise watching him buy the supplies that hes just as bad as them in his own way) #(he absolutely terrorizes the rope guy but they have never seen him so relaxed as when he was up there redoing all the lines) #nyxtalks #ofmd #izzy hands #israel hands #stede bonnet #you can pry autistic izzy away from my cold dead hands

[forthehpfanboys]

Under the Stairs

Pair: Sirius Black x Reader; he/him.

Summary: Sirius has about 0 control over his hands during dinner. That's about it. Oh, and sex by the stairs.

Warnings: SMUT (MDI), kinky, dirty talk, exhibitionism, kinda and bad writing. If I missed any please dm me.

Notes: It's gay, man. And I am so, so sorry for how long this took. This took so long, I’m sorry.

~DO NOT REPOST ANYWHERE~

-

“Sirius!” You smacked his hand away from your thigh for the fifth time that night. You were just trying to enjoy your dinner surrounded by your friends and family and Mr. Grabby Hands next to you was making it hard to do so. Like, couldn’t you eat in peace? Was that so much to ask for? 

Sure, you missed the animagus more than anyone could understand, but Merlin’s beard, he was exceptionally grabby tonight and it was starting to get on your nerves, especially since Harry was just across the table with his best friend's family. All nine members and then some, but did Sirius care? No, not at all. Did he ever care? Nope. Once, he fucked you against the wall separating your shared room and Lupin's room. He truly held no shame.

“What?” He turned to look at you, his head tilting to the side. “What’s wrong, love? I thought you missed me.” He grinned at your red cheeks. Godric, you wanted to pull on his hair. You tried to act like your trousers’ weren’t just a tiny bit tighter than when you first sat down.

“I missed you, not your left hand.” You hissed out, smacking his hand away again. “There are actual children!” Your eyes darted around the table. No one seemed to notice what was going on between you two, thank Merlin.

Your nostrils flared when Sirius let out a chuckle, his hand running through his fingers before he nodded. You audibly squeaked when he tugged the side of your chair so you were shoulder to shoulder with him. You smacked his chest, hoping he got the gist with a final glare.

“Fine, fine. I got the message. I’ll be good.” Sirius placed his hand on your knee this time, his thumb running along the fabric of your jeans while he engaged in the conversation with his old friend.

You let out a quiet thank you, your head filled with doubt, before going back to eating. You eyed the hand under the table when you felt it shift. He was shifting the ring on his finger so the jewel was in a more comfortable position before it went still again. 

It wasn’t until you were bringing your cup to your lips that you felt the hand move quickly to the space between your legs. You jumped when his palm grinded against your hardening flesh through your jeans, your thighs clamping around the hand. You slammed the cup down, your other hand catching the dribbles of water that escaped. Your head snapped over to him just in time to see him winking at you while raising his own glass to his smirking lips.

The hand that was now free from the glass grabbed his wrist while you wiped your face down. You bit down on your palm when he began to grind against your bulge. Your eyelids fluttered for a second but you snapped out of the state when Harry turned to you, a smile on his lips.

“I’m sorry, what?” Your voice cracked in the middle and you played it off like water went down the wrong pipe with a fake couch. Harry just waved off the excuse and scooted closer, the smile as bright as ever.

“I was just wondering if Hermione, Ron and I could check out a muggle shop in town tomorrow? We really wanna show him other ports besides quidditch.” 

“Quidditch is the only sport that matters!” Ron shouted at Harry, causing you to snicker. You borderline forgot about the hand caressing your dick and the man basically sitting on top of you.

“Sure, if Molly let’s the twins go with you. You need some form of an adult between you there and Hermione needs a break.” You let out a laugh when the twins began to argue with Harry, something over products and quidditch being the only thing that matters and Hermione shouting a loud ‘thank you!!”. Honestly, at this point you were losing your train of thought. The palm against your pelvis was adding pressure, making you bite your tongue. 

“I say, love.. For someone who protested so hard, you sure got hard very quickly.” Sirius’ sultry voice whispered in your ear, causing you to shiver and flush a bright pink. You put a hand on his chest and pushed him back against the spine of the chair.

“Shut it, Black.” You mumbled through a clenched jaw. Your hips jumped forward when his hand slipped into your pants, palming your flesh. Your toes curled against the wooden floor, a needy whine leaving your throat. 

You barely registered when everyone began to say goodnight and flee from the dining room in the same chaotic mass they came in as. Once you heard the last floorboard creak and the last door shut, you let your forehead hit the table, a whimper leaving your lips.

“Finally!” Sirius laughed out, his hand now gripping your cock in your pants, his hand moving slowly up and down. “I thought they’d never go upstairs, didn’t you, love?” He paid special attention to the head, using your pre as lubricant to make it easier. He chuckled louder when a moan escaped your lips.

“Fuck you.” You mumbled into the table cloth, your hands grasping at the wooden table for stability. Fuck, he may have been gone for 12 years, but he still knew your body like the back of his hand.

“Oh, I fully intend on us fucking tonight, doll.” He smirked when you twitched in his hand. He knew how much you loved pet names. “How about we finish this elsewhere, hmm?” 

“But Lupin just went off to bed. I’d rather not get caught tonight.” You gave him the side eye as he pulled his hand away from between your legs and stood up. His eyes glanced down at you, a chuckle causing his shoulders to bounce up and down.

“I never said we’d do it in the bedroom, love.” He offered out his hand, a dirty smirk clear as day across his lips, causing you to blush. He sure did love his sneaky sex. “Of course.. Why would I assume we couldn’t just use a silencing charm and have a grand time behind a locked door.” You grumbled out, taking his hand and standing up. You were even less surprised when Sirius led you away from the dining table and to the living room, swiftly pulling you against him. “But no, we always have to experiment.” You put your hands on his shoulders when he pressed his face into the side of your neck. 

“You know you love being dirty like this, love.” His breath fanned over your neck, leaving you to shudder. He gently led you back against a wall, his hands pressed into your hips. 

“Don’t put words in my mouth.” You whined out, leaning your head to the side allowing the man to pepper open mouthed kisses along your skin. You licked your lips, your mouth dryer than any desert on Earth. 

“I’m not!” Sirius was laughing against your skin, one of his hands traveling south. “I just know how you get, you do have a pretty solid tell.” His hand ran across your bulge, leading your squeak to echo in the dark room. “See, love? This tells me everything.” His mouth worked its way around the front of your throat, licking a warm trail right across your bobbing adam's apple. You tossed your head back against the wall, giving the male more room to ravage you. 

You looked up to see the wall he’d pressed you up against wasn’t much of a wall at all. It was the door belonging to the cupboard under the stairs. If anyone walked down the stairs and bothered to glance down at their feet, or over the railing, they’d see you two easily. It was kinda a turn on. His hand unbuttoned your jeans before pushing them down to the floor. 

“Sirius, come on.” You whined out, your own hands going to unbutton his shirt. You shuddered when he chuckled into your neck. 

“Ok, Ok. I got it, love.” His lips finally met yours in a kiss as your hands pushed the shirt off his shoulders, allowing it to flutter to the floor. His fingers slid under your shirt, his cold hands moved up across your chest before sliding the shirt off your shoulders. Once he’d successfully thrown it across the room, he pressed his lips to yours again, his hands going straight for the underside of your thighs. “Jump.” His raspy voice was back in your ear again.

Once you were sure your arms were wrapped securely around his neck, you jumped up, allowing him to maneuver your legs around his waist. With your ankles locked against his lower back, his hands moved down your thighs and straight to your ass. This man always held back absolutely nothing during your private times together, so of course this time was no different.

Sirius let out a moan when you began to grind against him. To retaliate, he grabbed the elastic of your boxers, pulled it off of your hips and made it snap back against your ass. He ignored your squeak and began to cast a few basic spells- cleansing, maybe stretching- you weren’t sure. All too quickly, he was whispering against your ear again. The stupid tease.

“Don’t tease me, lovie. I will not hesitate to make you scream my name loud enough to make the walls shake.” His hand tugged your boxers down past the swell of your ass, but made sure the top covered you, in case someone did happen to come down. Sirius was risky, but knew literal children were sleeping upstairs. 

He balanced you on his hips with one hand and used the other to tug himself free. He stroked his dick, his tongue gliding across his bottom lip as weak pleasure filled his nerves. Your eyes were automatically drawn to the precum dribbling from the swollen head. At the sight of it, you felt an insatiable itch form in your stomach and a whine left your lips as the white liquid rolled over his fingers and dropped to the floor. 

“Sirius, come ON.” You urged, your hands moving to his long hair. He grinned at how needy you were despite your attitude earlier. He always loved when you’d throw away the pride, the worry, and finally give into him. Sirius gave you a soft peck on the lips and chuckled.

“Alright, pup, alright.” His eyes twinkling with mischief and a quick wink was sent your way. Sirius planted his hands firmly against your ass, spreading your cheeks while mumbling a few spells to prep you. He enjoyed the squeak you made when the lubrication spell kicked in. “It’s cold.”

“No shit.” You griped out, teeth digging into your bottom lip while your heel dug into his lower back, begging Sirius to actually do something. “Babe, I’m wilting like a flower.” You tried to use your legs to tug him forward.

“Aw, I’m sorry, lovie.” He spoke while finally easing into you, and he continued to speak over your moan. “Feels good, huh?” He chuckled, raising a hand to cover your mouth. “Gotta be quiet, darling, or else we’ll have to stop. And you don’t want that right now, do you? We’ve come this far.” Sirius was just teasing you. Such a surprise. 

You grabbed onto his wrist, your eyes almost rolling to the back of your skull when he began to move his hips against you. He couldn’t help but smirk at the whimpers and cries and whines leaving your lips. The wizard was definitely grateful his hand was covering your lips because when he picked a harsh rhythm, and began to rock you higher up the wall with each thrust, your moans raised in volume.

“I do wish you could see how needy you look, stud. It’s breathtaking.” Sirius’ eyes noted how your eyes slowly turned glossy and your cheeks turned hot against his hand. “Absolutely amazing.” He breathed out. He moved his hand to brace the wall allowing him to raise the intensity of your pleasure, but also tuck his head against your neck and trail the skin with kisses. "Try to keep quiet for me, pup."

With that demand, he began to push into you harder and deeper, purposefully dragging a sound out of you despite his demand. You released a whimper loud enough for it to echo in the silent house and his hand smacked against your ass, leaving a louder echo behind. His chest dug into yours, allowing you to feel every shallow breath that left his lungs. It almost felt intimate despite the lustful evening. 

 You bit your tongue, ignoring the taste of iron as you rested your head against his shoulder. With ease thrust, stars were dancing across your vision and your body was sliding higher up the wall. Eventually, you got sick of the taste of your own blood so you sunk your teeth into his shoulder. The sound of skin slapping skin was almost deafening, but the worry about the noise waking anyone was far from the front of your thoughts. 

“You close?” Your voice was rough and crackly, even through the short sentence. You were. Your own cock was throbbing and leaking between your legs, it’s only stimulation being your husband’s stomach rubbing against the underside.

Sirius nodded his head, his hips coming to a stop before he was shifting his arms again. One twisted around your waist, propping you up while the other wrapped around your dripping cock, causing you to toss your head back against the wall with a thud and suddenly you were putty in his hands.

“Oh, shit, Siri.” You bit down on your bottom lip, your back arching off the wall when his thumb grazed the underside of your head. Your hands tangled in his hair, pulling at the curled roots as a reflection of his hand dragging up and down your cock. You weren’t sure if it was moaning his name, or your walls twitching around his cock, but he was teetering on the edge.

“Where do you want it?” His hips slowed, allowing you to actually think and to postpone his orgasm. His hand around your leaky dick, however, did not stop. 

“Oh, fuck, in me. We can shower after this.” You let out a weak giggle, your toes flexing behind his back. He raised his head from beside your neck, revealing his dark eyes, mischievous smirk and tongue sticking out.

“I knew you were dirty. Merlin, I love you.” He purred out, his nose booping yours before he picked up the rough pace again. He wanted to see your eyes rolling back, your mouth hanging open and the beads of sweat on your forehead dripping down your skin. It didn’t take long for him to cum inside you, his lips pressing against yours hard enough to bruise. He had to hide his cry of pleasure somehow. 

Your hands moved from his hair, to his cheeks, keeping him close during the kiss. You always loved his kisses. His lips were between soft and firm, and he poured his passion into every single kiss and it just made your heart flutter. His hips lost rhythm before coming to a stop. He pulled from the kiss, but didn’t move far away. Sirius still wanted to see you finish.

“Come on, love. You can do it.” He smiled, his eyes filled with admiration. The marauder’s hand never stopped jerking in rapid motions, quickly bringing you over the edge with a cry. He pressed his lips against yours a second too late. He didn’t stop until you were trying to wiggle away from his moving hand and whimpering against his lips. “Amazing, lovie.” His voice was breathy and soft and amazing.

“Thank you, Siri. You were amazing, too.” Your voice was closer to nonexistent at this point and it filled Sirius with pride. You ran your hand along your forehead, wiping the extra sweat away from your skin.

“Don’t you mean ‘amazing like usual’?” He giggled, kissing your forehead and kinda smushing his cheek against yours, pulling a matching chuckle out of you. He just kinda held you close, cuddling you into the wall.

“Are you two done?”

Both of you looked up at the same time to see Remus leaning against the railing. He looked about the same amount of disappointed as usual. Sirius waved up to his friend, a grin spread across his lips. He pulled out of you and tucked himself away, doing the same to you as he spoke to his friend.

“Oh, hey Moony! How long have you been up?” Sirius set you down gently before wiping his hands off on his jeans. He was still smiling like a teenager coming back from spring break to their best friend.

“Enough time to know you two are disgusting. Go to bed. There are literal children here.” He grumbled, rubbing his eyes as he turned and went back up to his bedroom.

“Oops. I think he’s mad at me.”

“I’m sorry for your loss of his happiness, but can we shower now?”

“Of course, but I’m going to need time to grieve.”

“Do it in the shower.”

#sirius black x male reader #sirius black imagine #sirius black #hp imagine #hp x male reader #sirius black smut #male reader #x male reader #harry potter #remus lupin #Ronny Writes #hp marauders #marauders x male reader #marauders imagine #marauders smut

[xo-cuteplosion-xo]

Midnight ball | Chuuya x reader |

Midnight Ball | Chuuya x reader | (female reader)

I feel like I'm doing Chuuya dirty with this one-

Warnings- references to some NSFW themes, inferred attempted rape, mentions of drug use.

(really hesitant on actually posting this... nothing happens, but I don't wanna make people too uncomfortable)

Undercover missions were normal in the port mafia. Every once in a while they would come up. You went on a lot of these missions. Even the ones you didn’t care for.

The air was brisk, not too cold, but not a comfortable warmth either. It wasn’t every day you were called in on what should have been your day off. The clouds covered the noon sun, keeping its warmth tucked away. It felt as if it may rain. Maybe snow would fall with how cold the air was. The trees were bare of their leaves and the grass slowly warping to brown. The winter flowers, in full bloom. You shivered tugging the scarf closer as you walked towards the black buildings. Stepping inside was bliss, the air warm and welcoming. You walked slowly towards the elevator stepping inside as it carried you to the level Mori’s office was.

Making your way into the office, your eyes landed on the short male you had become close to. Running a hand through your hair you looked to Mori. “Ya know it’s my day off right? This better be important.” you had guts talking to your boss like this. Elise snickered from the corner of the large room, drawing a picture. Most likely something rather disturbing, as she tended to do.

You hadn’t noticed it before, but Chuuya’s face was contorted in both disgust and anger. Whatever this was, gave him quite displeasure. “He’s having us go undercover. Instead of picking another female… he’s making me wear a fucking dress.” his eyes narrowed in Mori's direction.

“Well, you work well with (y/n). I carefully considered members like Kouyou, but none of them matched what I needed for the minor mission." Mori grinned as Chuuya huffed, crossing his arms.

You tried to imagine him in a dress, but the only thing that you could think of was Kouyou, considering they did both have ginger hair. Shrugging you grabbed Chuuya’s hand, tugging him away. You figured he could brief you on the mission later.

~

As the sun fell under the horizon, and the moon took its place in night's embrace, the two of you settled inside the limo. Chuuya’s arms were crossed as he tugged on the dress. His eyes set in heavy glares. His hair happened to be up in a neat bun. It had taken a lot of fighting and shouting that could have deafened somebody. He was even dolled up with light specks of makeup. The red dress suited his form, his height made it ideal for heels. He already had a feminine figure, so there wasn’t much you needed to do to pass him as a female. He kept squirming around glaring at you. “How the fuck do girls wear these dreaded things.” he hissed, referring to the corset hidden beneath the silk he wore.

Snickering you shrugged leaning back. “They say beauty is pain,” you hummed, leaning back in your seat. This wasn’t ideal for you either. You much preferred to be slightly dressed down from this. Looking as fancy as you did now wasn’t modest, and it sure wasn’t something you liked to wear. You were sucking it up so why couldn’t Chuuya? Could he really be all that uncomfortable? “I could loosen it a bit.” you offered, but Chuuya shook his head staring at himself. He had mastered heals within a handful of moments so you weren’t worried about him tripping. The real challenge would be flirting with the target.

This was a two-person job due to the size of the party and the security around the target. One of you would distract the guards while the other smooth-talked their way into a private area with the target. They would either get the extent of the information this person had managed to take early this morning or silence him. You two hadn’t decided who would be doing what. It was more one of those whoever gets there first situations. The car pulled up to the entrance just as your thoughts finished. Stepping onto the ground you waited for Chuuya. The clunk of his heels on the pavement were steady and even. You went to remind him about his expression, but he rolled his eyes. “I know, no scowling, glaring, or yelling.”

You smiled gripping the edge of the dress, pulling it up so you could walk the stairs without tripping on the (f/c) fabric. Your hair was down but pinned in specific places. “Don’t forget, no swearing. We have to act ladylike Chu.” clicking his tongue, he pinched the fabric of his dress and walked up after you. Entering the large mansion you were escorted to the ballroom. Standing at the railing that overlooked the floor you smiled. Never in your life had you been to one of these. You truly wanted to participate at least a little.

Chuuya noticed the excited glimmer of your eyes and grabbed your hand. Tonight, you both were trying to pass as two female teenage siblings whose parents wanted a night alone. Without a boyfriend, the two of you showed up alone. A naive action when it came to noble parties. These were incredible to get into. You had to have power and money somewhere. He pulled you down the stairs, flashing you a small smile. He wouldn’t admit but this wasn’t that bad. He didn’t mind the corset or the way the dress flowed in the wind. He minded the hair since he always wore it in one specific style. He’d done this once before with Dazai but doing this with you was different. Probably because he wasn’t being forced to be the fiance this time. “We might as well try to enjoy ourselves.” he was surprisingly skilled at keeping his voice higher in pitch. There were a few occasional slips, but he sounded somewhat feminine.

Smirking you pulled him to the food table. “I’d say you're actually enjoying yourself Chu.” his eyes narrowed for a second before playfully hitting your shoulder.

“Sure I am.” he huffed looking over the table of snacks. He grabbed one of the tea-sandwiches and took small bites. Despite how he tried to enjoy himself, he was focused on the mission. There was still no sign of the target. Two older-looking gentlemen came up to the pair of you, holding their hands out.

“Would you two care for a dance?” Chuuya’s mouth twitched to snarl, but he quickly put on a smile despite how much he wanted to string profanities. You glanced at him, inhaling softly, you tapped his shoulder as if to reassure him.

“Depends~ how old do you think we are?” you two had decided on your roles already. To spare Chuuya some dignity you would try to be the more seductive while he played the part of the shyer, more innocent twin. Since he was a boy playing a girl, he matched the innocent child-like stereotype well, considering he didn’t have breasts.

One of the men standing in front of you chuckled lightly. “Teens, though it’s not like we're hitting on you. We simply wish to take you for a dance. You appear lonely.” Chuuya was sick to his stomach already. The last time he’d done this he didn’t have to deal with these situations because Dazai had been there. Yet, as he looked to you, he tilted his head. Your hand grabbed the man's as you looked back to Chuuya.

“Trust me, it’ll be fun. There aren't any men our age, so trust me.” the act flew softly off your lips. There was a hidden motion when you flicked your ankle. It would have passed as your feet were slightly sore to anybody else. Chuuya glanced to the railing, spotting the target. He nodded, faking a smile as the two of you entered the dance floor.

With every pulse of the music, you got closer and closer to the edge. Your eyes tracing for the amount of guards. Though based on what you were observing you had both already found them. It was a widely known fact your target had a thing for younger females. Not young like Elise but teenagers who appear frail. You and Chuuya most definitely looked the part tonight. Dipping you back your eyes met Chuuya's, a smirk crossing both of your expressions. When you returned to the normal position you switched partners.

Things started going slightly south from there. While you two had managed to keep your dancing rather close to one another, you were starting to drift apart now. Chuuya moved closer to the stairwell, while you made your way towards the back doors. Despite how you tried to move back towards him, your dance partner kept you moving in that direction. Eventually, you noted what was going on. Occasionally these types of missions had unexpected twists. This was one of those twists. You hadn’t thought to watch for other predators. Trying to rip your hands from his you glared. “I ought to get back to my sister.” you wove innocence into your voice, but he paid no mind as if he had not heard you. As the music ended, the rough grip that had succeeded in pulling the two of you apart let go. A silent satisfactory smirk placed over his lips. Walking from you he headed back to find another dancing partner.

Walking around you began to search for Chuuya among the crowd. Innocently asking couples and other women if they had seen a short, rather young-looking female ginger dressed in red. They had shaken their heads but one couple pointed towards the stairs. You curtsied respectfully, racing to the stairs only to be stopped by the two men you had previously been dancing with. Batting your eyelashes you explained somebody had seen your sister walk up these stairs not too long ago.

You couldn’t help but feel worried despite knowing Chuuya could handle himself with the utmost care. He was strong both physically and ability-wise. You bit the inside of your cheek figuring, they probably weren't idiots. If they had separated the two of you they had to think you already knew something was up. You'd probably made that worse when you tried pulling away in the dance. The high-heels were beginning to get rather annoying. They were difficult to run in, jumping would probably result in a twisted ankle if you don't land perfectly. You made sure to blend away into the crowd. Losing their eyes you slipped through doors until you made it into a hallway. Laying out the map of the building in your head you walked the halls trying to find the staircase leading upstairs. You had to dodge behind corners to avoid security. It took you close to ten minutes to finally reach the stairs. There were so many rooms it would be difficult to find which one to enter. You narrowed it down to two in your head. The others would be a waste of time, the two you had narrowed it to were close to the ballroom, small, and were bar areas. Off-limits to party-goers as well. There would be no interruptions to their perverted actions.

You looked around, spotting a guard, you gripped the edge of your glove with your teeth. Walking up as if you were scared you began to stumble purposely over words. “I-i think I’m lost. I needed the ladies room and I couldn't find my sis or the ballroom.” faking tears as you got closer, the security officer's eyes softened as you approached. Taking you as a younger female instead of an adult, he offered out his hand. You gripped it before smirking as your ability activated. Moving your hand away, you tilted your head. “Sleep,” you commanded them. They fell to the floor with a thud. Grabbing the gun from their belt you checked that the safety was on. Assured it was you stashed it in your dress. Walking to the first room you burst inside finding no sign anybody had been there, you closed the door.

Making your way to the next option you pressed an ear to the door. Whispers and the sound of metal sent you to a light panic. Glaring at the door you pulled the gun out and switched the safety off. Entering the room you pointed the gun only to hear clicks follow. Your eyes darted to the sound. “So there were four.” snarling you entered and shut the door with your heel. Your mind began thinking of every way to get away from this situation. You lowered your gun with a defeated sigh. Letting it drop to the floor, one of the guns pressed to your head. Their hand grabbed your wrist as you looked to the mop of passed-out ginger.

“Damn idiot,” you hissed knowing this was probably the result of drugging. There was no way in hell he’d be beaten by mere ability-less scum. Shoved to the floor you glared. Your hands were pulled above you. Looking to the side you snickered at the poor idiot who touched your skin. “Kill your boss,” you commanded and their body dropped you and turned to the person whose hands were on your love interest. When the next guy pointed the gun at you, you swept them off their feet, whistled, and pointed. “Shoot them.” with another fire, two of three were dead. “Now shoot yourself.” and so they ended up three of three. Tossing off the heels you made your way over to Chuuya. Checking his pulse you rolled your eyes.

You lifted him in your arms before leaving the bloody scene. Your dress was now stained with splatters of crimson. Jumping from the window, then to a tree, and down, you placed Chuuya in the limo. Grabbing a bottle of water you opened his mouth and poured it down his throat. He stirred a bit, his head falling on your shoulder. Blushing lightly you found the back of his dress was open and the corset already loosened. “Got there just in time.” you sighed as the limo pulled to your small apartment. Lifting him you carried him inside. Dropping him to the bed you sat on the opposite side of the bed.

It took three hours before his eyes fluttered open. Holding his head, he glanced at you. “Why the fuck are you here?” of course his first words would be aggressive. He could hide it all he wanted by the shiver of his body and the way his hands moved to his back made it clear. Finding the strings and ribbon undone as well as torn his eyes widened for a fraction.

“Sorry, I wasn’t expecting to be separated like that.” you played around with your gloves looking back at him you pulled a thing of makeup wipes from the side table. Tossing it to him, you sighed. “I hope you don’t mind, I had Dazai lock pick your door and get you your usual clothes.” he couldn’t even be mad at you for letting that bastard into his house. His mind was still focused on recollecting what had happened. He was beyond humiliated. He should have seen it coming. “I should have gotten there faster. They shouldn’t have been able to even get that close. I’m so sorry Chuuya! I’ll talk to Mori about not putting you on these types of missions. I know you're mad but please… say something.” you twirled a strand of your hair on your finger.

“I should have been prepared.” he looked away from you before feeling your arms around his body. Your head laid in the crook of his neck as you shook your head violently. He felt something wet soil, the shoulder of his dress. Turning so he could pick your head up, he blinked, startled to see the water dripping from your eyes. “You’re crying?” he sounded baffled, confused even.

“I should have let you be yourself! If I hadn’t pushed you to act like an innocent defenseless child, that situation would have been different.'' Chuuya gripped your shoulders laughing lightly as he shook his head. “You didn’t even have a good time! You hated being there.”

“No, no, (y/n)... I... Fuck!” he was bad at words, so as he tried forming the correct words he kept shaking his head. “I enjoyed spending time with you! I’d prefer to accompany you as a man next time. Neither of us are at fault. Missions go south. Nobody got hurt, sure I feel like an idiot, I’m utterly humiliated that I let my guard down and got drugged up, but nothing happened.” he pressed his forehead against yours, his thumb wiping away the tears on your cheeks.

This was out of character for him, but it was a side only you gotta see. He hated seeing you break down or get upset over things you had no control over. His hands wrapped around your ungloved ones. Your skin touches him with a small shyness. “Can I?” he asked watching you nod as his lips passed over yours.

“We both deserve a break from work. How about we tell Mori we are taking two days off?” you hummed looking into his eyes. He smirked and nodded. His lips pressing back to yours in a heated kiss. You pressed him underneath you with a smirk. His face went red as he glared.

“You’re a fucking pervert.” he hissed watching you snicker.

“Wow Chu, I'm so offended.” you leaned back into a kiss as his cheeks turned a brighter shade of red. “Think this makes us a real couple.” he rolled his eyes as you rolled to lay next to him.

“Yeah, I guess.”

#chuuya #chuuya x reader #bsd #bsd x reader #bungo stray dogs #bungo stray dogs x reader #chuuya fluff

[methoxyethane]

“Gather up all of the crew, it's time to ship out Bink's brew, sea wind blows, to where, who knows? The waves will be our guide…

“O'er across the ocean's tide, rays of sunshine far and wide, birds they sing of cheerful things, in circles passing by…”

Lance followed the sound of singing all the way to the beach. The sea shanty was farmilair in words, but the normally cheerful song was being sung in a slow minor key, turning it into something soft and beautiful to the ear.

“Bid farewell to weaver's town, say so long to port renowned. Sing a song, it won't be long, before we're casting off...”

Normally Lance wouldn’t feel any urge to randomly follow anyone’s voice to an unknown location, but there was something about this one that was… compelling. Alluring, even, and though Lance’s senses were on high alert and warning him of imminent danger, he couldn’t seem to stop his body from following the sound of that seductive voice all the way to the rocky ends of the shore.

When he finally arrived at the source of that enticing song, he saw someone sitting on a rock, half in and half out of the water. Long black hair spilled down their back like ink, and at the sound of footsteps approaching in the sand they turned around, revealing the most stunning pair of violet eyes Lance had ever laid his gaze on.

It took a second to even notice that it was a man, so caught up was Lance in the stranger’s beauty. But of course it was a man, he had the low beautiful voice that only a man would reasonably have, but Lance had been too bewitched by the song to even think of noticing that fact.

The stranger locked eyes with Lance, and slowly smiled. “Cross the gold and silver seas, the salty spray puts us at ease~” He continued to sing, and Lance, not sure why, found himself stepping closer still. “Day and night to our delight, the voyage never ends…”

It was, he realized as he rounded the rock to face the beauty he’d followed, a mermaid. That should have also been obvious much earlier, like, as in when he noticed the stranger was shirtless and sitting in the water, but. Well, Lance could be forgiven for not figuring it out until he saw the smooth shiny red tail leading down into the ocean.

“Yohohoho, yoho hoho… Yohohoho, yoho hoho…” The merman sang, locking eyes with Lance and smiling. Lance moved closer still, within reach of the beautiful creature, who was slowly reaching out a hand to Lance.

Lance put his hand in the merman’s, eyes never straying from that lovely violet gaze for even a moment. He was drawn closer still, close enough to be a breath away from the merman’s face, close enough to kiss…

And then the merman grinned, toothy and razor-sharp, and Lance had half a second to think “Whoops,” to himself before the merman was tilting his head and sinking his teeth directly into Lance’s neck.

He had jerked back in time to prevent any arteries from being hit, but not fast enough to prevent being bitten. Fortunately for him, that didn’t last long - after just a moment the merman - no, the siren’s eyes were blowing wide, and he reeled back, releasing Lance’s throat and spitting his blood into the water like he’d just tasted something rancid.

“What the fuck?” The siren coughed, glaring at Lance like he was the one who’d done something offensive. “What is that, why do you taste so... wrong?”

Lance stumbled back a few steps, clutching at his already-healing bitten neck. “What the fuck, dude! You just tried to EAT me!”

“Of course I did, that’s what sirens DO!” The siren defended hotly, still glaring daggers at Lance. “I’ve been singing here for two days waiting to lure someone in, I finally catch someone and you’re completely inedible! What is wrong with you that I can’t eat you, you freak?”

Lance bristled like an enraged cat, having heard the word ‘freak’ thrown in his direction many, many times in his life. “Well forgive me for only being half human! Maybe YOU’RE the freak for trying to eat a Fae to begin with!”

“Fae? Goddamn you and your cursed blood, too! Useless!” They were interrupted by the sound of the siren’s stomach growling, low and loud.

Then his words registered to Lance, and he asked, “Wait. You haven’t eaten in two days?”

The siren gestured out to the ocean, which was, on this part of the sea, enclosed by rocks on most sides and a low beach on the other. “It’s low tide. I’ve been stuck here for three days, and I already ate the few fish that were dumb enoguh to get caught in this spot with me.”

Lance looked out over the waters. “You can’t just climb over the rocks?”

The siren glared at him, turning back towards the ocean again. “That’s not your business,” he hissed, but instead of hiding his left arm he only brought attention to it’s mangled state.

Lance stepped forward again, turning the siren around by the shoulder to get a look at his left arm. It looked broken in at least one place and probably hurt like a bitch, and Lance winced in sympathy at the sight of it.

The siren jerked back out of Lance’s grip, slipping into the water and out of reach.

“Wait!” Lance called, wading into the water. “Let me help you,” he pleaded. “I can help you, I promise. I don’t want to hurt you.”

“I just tried to EAT you,” the siren reminded him.

“Yeah, which means you owe me for the bite you just tried to take out of my neck. Now hold still and let me see your arm.”

The siren eyed Lance warily, but the water wasn’t deep enough for him to be able to swim out of Lance’s range and they both knew it. Hesitantly, but not welcomingly, he allowed Lance to wade close enough to see his arm, which looked like it had been bashed against the rocks and snapped in two places when he’d been washed onto this shallow beach.

“What happened to you?” Lance asked, activating the little magic his blood awarded him with to begin to ease the swelling and close the bloodied gashes on the siren’s arm.

Violet eyes widened as the siren watched, and more likely felt, the healing magic start to do its work. “I was chased here,” was all he said in reply, and honestly Lance could guess the rest. These shores were not friendly to those who were less than human.

“The bone isn’t going to heal unless I set it back into place. Will you let me do that?”

The siren glared at him, pouty bottom lip jutting out in displeasure, but after a moment he nodded.

“This is going to hurt,” Lance warned, feeling out where the three separate halves of his broken arm were so he’d know what direction he needed to realign them into.

Having figured out what he needed to do, Lance gave the siren no warning. With two quick movements he snapped the bone shards back into place, causing the siren’s pained hiss to turn into a yelp of surprised agony, reeling back and clutching at the arm Lance had just relocated.

“I’m not done yet,” Lance said carefully, beckoning the siren to come back towards him. “I have to heal the bone or you’ll never get out of here in one piece.”

The siren hissed at him again, but after a few moments of hiding in the water, he eventually swam back to Lance to offer his arm one more time.

Lance’s healing magic was not strong, so it took long minutes of the siren’s pained laboured breaths before the bones were knit back into place. Unfortunately for both of them, Lance couldn’t even finish the job before his magic was completely depleted, and he could help no more.

He let go of the siren’s arm, stepping away back towards the shore. “That’s as much as I can do for now. It won’t be enough for you to scale those rocks yet, but…”

Warily, the siren asked, “But what?”

“If you’ll let me, I’ll come back tomorrow and try and finish healing it. And… Maybe I can bring you some fish, too. So you don’t starve in the meantime.”

The siren still looked like Lance had two heads, and he wasn’t sure which one to trust. “And why would you do that for me? Why would you do any of this for me?”

Lance shrugged, and smiled. “Maybe because you’re cute? But probably… Probably because us freaks have to stick together, right?”

The siren sank down into the ocean again, only his eyes visible over the water.

“I’m Lance, by the way.” Lance finally offered, just as he was turning to wade back to shore. “I’ll see you again tomorrow?”

The siren popped his head up out of the water just long enough to utter one word. “Keith,” he said, almost too quietly to hear.

Lance grinned. “I’ll see you tomorrow… Keith.”

Keith ducked back under the water again, but not in time for Lance to miss the slight flush that reddened his cheeks at the sound of his name rolling off of Lance’s tongue.

Huh. So much for sirens being cold-blooded.

—

#klance #mermay

[miss-choco-chips]

Drink and make merry, my friend (you'll be gone come morning)

Day four: historical- pirates // sci-fi- space

There are three pirates chilling in the dungeons. None seem overly concerned about the fact that they’ll be hanged come morning.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

Bartholomew H. Allen. Bart for the friends. ‘The red nuisance’ for everyone else. Wasn’t the first time he’d been inside this very same prison cell; probably won’t be the last. The guards stationed in front of his door were the quickest on their feet, so maybe they’d have a minimum chance of catching the fucker should he escape again. Probably not, but the Arch Duke had been particularly displeased the last time he’d weaseled his way out of their prison, so they had to at least pretend to try.

He’d been unconcernedly chewing on dried meat for hours now. How did he manage to smuggle it into the cell, no one knows, but after he bit the first few hands that tried to take his treasure away, the general consensus was to let him be.

Similarly, anyone who held any notions of spending a fun afternoon with the only woman among the sea bandits was quick to be corrected, either by a broken hand or a kick that stole the air from their lungs like it was gold from a ship’s treasury.

Her name? Cassandra Sandsmark. She did not fuck around, and really, considering she would be dead by that time the next night, it was’t worth it to punish her for ‘prisoner misconduct’. That was why they left her be. Not because she scared their balls back into their bodies. The fact that she was Princess Diana’s wayward niece and, death row or not, the noble Lady would murder them all for even breathing in her direction, was a notable plus.

The last pirate, well… He’d chosen to spend his last night on earth doing push ups. It was probably better to leave him to his own devices.

Conner Kent. Whether or not he had any relation to Crown Prince Kal was anyone’s guess, but they did look startlingly similar; something the younger man had taken advantage of to avoid capture multiple times in the past.

To catch any of them wasn’t an easy task. The fact that they were all there thanks to the same man was beyond amazing.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

An auburn haired boy ran through busy port streets, his form almost a blur between passerbys. Jumping over crates, avoiding street vendors, sliding over banisters and landing at the very last step of any stair in his way, the youngster made a truly astounding escape.

Tough luck his opponent had accounted for that.

Just as he was rounding that last corner separating him from the port (and his freedom), a foot struck out. Quick thinking saved him from face planting on the disgustingly dirty streets, but his surprise and momentum cost him precious seconds of stumbling.

The swords pointing him from every direction when he straightened weren’t as threatening as the lone young man standing behind the National Guard, unarmed but from the cutting edge on his glare. Without breaking eye contact, the runner threw both hands up in surrender.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

The guards barely even glanced up when the servant girl let herself in, softly pushing the trolley. They did, however, when the scent of food caught their attention.

“That for us, pretty lady?”

Blushing, the girl looked at both men from under her brown fringe.

“The… the prisoners…”

Elbowing each other, they smiled, sharks smelling blood in the water as they eyed the delicacies on display.

“It’d be a waste to let people who are gonna be fish food by this time tomorrow eat such an amazing feast.”

The girl hesitated again, her duty to feed the prisoners at war with the populace general unwillingness to disobey their military enforcers.

“Come on, pretty lady”, the other one edged on. “Who’s gonna tell the higher ups?”

Something flashed behind her beautiful blue eyes, and she nodded, gently pushing the trolley in their direction.

From within their cells, the three pirates watched in silence.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

If anyone were to ask, he’d been minding his own damn business when shit went down.

He had only wanted a beer. Really, life just wasn’t fair to wanted criminals.

It was just his luck that his crew chose this particular tavern to drink and make merry. Though, Kon supposes, it wasn’t their fault either. How would they know that the Lavender Throne pirates favored the same establishment?

He’d only been a member of the Renegades’ crew for about two months now, but he already knew how this fight would turn out. He was easily their best fighter, and the Lavenders were all about the same level of well trained; so here he was, alone in a circle of enemies, fist held high and feet doing their best not to trip over fallen crewmates.

Or maybe not so alone. A smaller back pressed against his, and he could see from the corner of his eye how the men trying to get his blind spot fell like flies. Not one to doubt his blessings, he doubled his efforts.

When things died down, Kon relaxed, marveling at the fact that just two of them were enough to deal with a full tavern of enemies. The bar maidens started to rise from under the tables they chose to hide behind, and Conner was about to turn around and thank his surprise saviour, when the feeling of cold metal against his neck stopped him in his tracks.

Uniformed men started bleeding into the room, dragging unconscious pirates away. When one approached him and his mysterious capturer, he almost felt the man behind him shaking his head.

“This one is high risk. I’ll take him myself.”

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

“Are you sure? There’s plenty enough for all of us”, asked Dumb Guard Number one again, words almost unrecognizeable under his chewing.

The girl, sitting primly in the chair they oh so gentlemanly had offered for her to wait on until they finished their impromptu dinner, shook her head.

Dumb Guard Number two didn’t need to be told twice and snagged the last piece of bread.

“Is it just you two for the night?”, she asked, apropos of nothing.

The more sharing of the two nodded. “Yeah, until the morning shift guys come and take them away to the plaza for their sentence.”

She whistled softly.

“Seems kind of mean, having only you two to guard three of the most wanted pirates of the last few years.”

The second one smiled a bit. “Nah, we got dealt a nice hand. We get to eat and laze around, and as good as they are, they can’t weasel their way between those bars. No excitement here. The day guards are the unlucky ones here.”

“How so? Aren’t them, like, a lot more? Seems like it’d be easier, sharing the weight of it.”

“Yeah, but Lieutenant Drake will be with them, ‘s going to personally oversee the executions. Can’t exactly slack off with the favored son of Archduke Wayne breathing over your shoulder, now can you?”

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

“Cassandra!”

“Go! I’ll hold them off!”

The older woman, holding desperately to the other’s hand, made a sound of profound distress.

“But-!”

“Donna, just go! If they catch you- just how much do you think Diana is going to suffer?”

“It’s the same with you! We can run together, there’s space in the spare boat”

They were running out of time. She knew convincing her older sister figure to leave her behind was not going to end well or happen quickly, so the blonde pirate shot a look to vice captain Artemis. They both knew Donna was just too important to risk like this, her relationship to Diana recognizable enough to use her as leverage against their Princess. Cassandra, as beloved as she was by the women who took her in, had spent the better half of her childhood hiding her real identity and running amok where few would be able to point her out as Princess Diana’s protegeè.

Ignoring her mistress’s screams, Vice captain Artemis’s arms went around her waist, lifting her clear off her feet and dragging her away, her strength forcing Donna’s hand free of Cassandra’s arm.

Soon, Cassie stood alone in an empty ship, sword in hand as she watched the sun setting over the horizon, the distant figure of dozens of escape boats a mere shadow in the distance.

When the sound of boards and then feet hitting the deck reached her, her hand tightened on the sword’s hilt, but she didn’t turn to see.

“It was a bold move. Brave, though.”

The words made her startle, spoken so closely to her ear, the approaching presence absolutely unnoticed until that exact second.

Breathing in deeply, Cassandra spun on her feet, sword raised. Her enemy was already a few feet away, safe from her board attack. His cold stare clashed with her feral growl, an ice prince facing off against an amazon fighter.

No other soldier dared approach them, as the sound of their clashing swords echoed in the quiet of the night as thunder.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Just as a distant clock was about to point both arms to its highest point, both guards fell asleep. Literally fell, face planting in the dirty prison ground.

Sighing tiredly, the young serving girl rose to her feet. Walking towards Dumn Guard Numer 2 (stopping only barely on her way to nudge Dumb Guard Numer one to the side, so he wouldn’t drown in the puddle his face had landed on), she crouched down and took the keys from his belt.

When she stood again, all three pirates were on their feet near their doors, waiting.

“Who’s first this time?” asked the youngest, voice vibrating in his excitement, smile bright.

“Me, for sure”, crowed Conner, hands on his hips.

“What are you talking about? I made him fight for it. Drew blood, even.” Cassandra, proud smile and raise hand, threw back in challenge.

To all their surprises, the maiden went straight for Allen’s door.

“What? Me?”

“What the fuck?”

“Are you seriously telling us IMP is the one who gave you the most trouble this time?”

The girl shrugged, but a small smile could be spotted under her calm facade if one cared enough to look for it (which they all did).

“I had to chase him all through Star Port city. I was tired afterwards. The two of you made me fight, but it wasn’t nearly as exhausting.”

The boy jumped out of his cell as soon as the door was opened, fist raised in victory.

“Yessss! Free booze!”

“It’s a stupid bet”, the girl shrugged at the other two’s upset frowns. “None of you are an actual challenge, after all.”

“Oh, shut up, asshole. Get us out of here before those dumbasses wake up.”

Before long, all three pirates and the young castle maid were running through empty streets towards the port.

“The ship is ready for you to take. I made it look like you stole it from a very drunk, very unsuspecting crew of beginners.” As they all ran, she… he, took his hand to his head, snatching away the brown wig. Hair, black like a raven’s wings, fell over his icy blue eyes.

Cassandra, keeping pace with him, accepted the disguise. “Where to, after?”

“There’s instructions on your next mission already written down on the back of the map, on the captain’s cabin. I left the key to the cellar as a paperweight over it, so there’s no way you’ll miss it.”

Behind them, the other two boys crowed in delight. Bart even makes a small little jump, never slowing their pace.

“Is it fully stoked?”

Turning to look at the bigger man over his shoulder, the maid-turned-criminal rolled his eyes.

“Half. I do need you all lucid enough to do your chores. But whatever you find along your way that doesn’t slow your progress on the mission, you can loot for yourselves. There’s an empty treasury on the right side of the ship just for that.”

Another jump, this time from the other pirate. The two running ahead shared an exasperated, though fond, look.

They reached the promised ship before long. It sat there, beautifully tilting this way and that thanks to the gentle waves reaching shore.

They stopped there for a second, the three pirates facing their rescuer.

“Will you be alright? Won’t anyone suspect?”

He shook his head, hands demurely raising his dress a slight inch from the ground in a small courtesy.

“Caroline Hill has a perfectly solid cover, and there are lots of people who’ll vouch for her if she’s ever suspected for tonight. Also, the guards chosen for the night shift are known for slacking off in their duty. Falling asleep close enough to the cells for one of you to snatch the keys and free themselves won’t be too much of a stretch for anyone to imagine.”

They smiled back at him.

“Do try to catch some sleep before going back there as Lieutenant Drake. You’ll need your beauty rest to give a convincing ‘I left those criminals in your care and you LOST THEM?!’ show.”

“The laughable state of the kingdom’s military is perpetually infuriating to me. Don’t worry, I’ll be believable. And I can use this as an excuse to fire the most incompetent guards in the history of ever.”

“Do you ever do anything without at least two different reasons and multiple plans banking on it?”

“Why would I, that just sounds like a waste of my time. Now go, run off, before someone sees four people hanging by the port and gets curious enough to remember faces.”

“When will we see you again?”, asks Conner, hand catching his friend’s shoulder before the man in the dress can turn around and leave.

“This mission should last a month or so, and after you hid the objective in the safe place I designated for it for me to pick up later, you’ll need to scatter. I’ll catch you again soo after that, so in total… maybe two months? Three if any of you give me an actual challenge, but I’m not holding my breath for that one.”

“Bastard. See you soon.”

“Make sure to take us drinking next time, Tim. We barely see you now that you have to play good lawful boy with your dad.”

“Only if you idiots take good care of the ship. The Red Bird is a delicate lady and I’ll hang you myself if there’s even a scratch on her beautiful shell.”

“It’s almost as if you care more about a bunch of wood and metal than us.”

“Because I do. Now fuck off.”

[In which Tim is a privateer (Basically a pirate with papers. As the name suggests, privateers were private individuals commissioned by governments to carry out quasi-military activities; in this case, Tim does illegal things for the greater good. As a military agent, he’s hiring himself lol) and the other three are pirates working for and with him, because they like to help him do good things and they also get a chance at fighting people, drinking and looting treasure outside their missions. Tim catching and then freeing them is how they exchange information or he gives them his orders.]

#my writting #core disaster week #day 4 #historical-pirates #pirates #privateers #tim drake #kon el kent #bart allen #cassie sandsmark #humor maybe? #action i guess #a little bit at least #no angst #that's for sure #weird if you know me lol

[the-beskar-alchemist]

Alright....*cracks knuckles*.....I have things to SAY 

- Okay Din having the baby help him fix a part of the ship he can't reach? That's fitting honestly. He's tiny, he can crawl into the area Din needs to reach, but can't because they're still in space and he can't very well access the particular spot from outside (I'm assuming it's one of those areas only accessible via a hatch from the roof or something). - Also......OMG THE BABY HELPING DIN AND DIN BEING SO PATIENT HE'S SUCH A DAD - I have to wonder about the baby's pain threshold, he seemed only mildly inconvenienced from getting electrocuted (and for some reason I kept thinking about Tito from Oliver and Company fucking around with the wiring in the limo and getting shocked) - CHIN ACTION CHIN ACTION CHIN ACTION......(I truly do NOT understand the fuss over it being Pedro VS Brenden Wayne in the suit, does it really matter???? You're only seeing his chin, not his whole face, calm down) - Din honey broth/soup can only take you so far, TRUST ME, you can't make meals off of flavored liquid, you'll just be hungry again an hour later. It's NO WONDER that kid kept inhaling the eggs lol......BUT....at the same time it's only logical that Din's resources are stuff that's easily frozen/stored and can just be heated without any prep work.  The stuff the baby seems to crave tends to be things that would require a way to preserve/store large amounts of food and the Crest isn't built for that sort of thing (I'm thinking about making a slight analysis post about the ship at some point) - The fact that the old covert hideout is empty (save for black-market dealers) tells me that the Armorer is long gone and it's unlikely that anyone would know where she went (I noticed people bringing this up, that neither Cara/Greef checked on her), let's be real: They probably thought it wasn't their place to go poking around a Mandalorian covert just because they're friends with one of them, ESPECIALLY if the mutual friend isn't even around to vouch for their presence - Even though G*na has ruined any chance of me enjoying her as a person, I still appreciate her character as a separate thing. She continues to be badass, and I loved the fighting techniques she implemented in the sewers. - Yeah that crest is sputtering like an old beat-up pickup truck, just barely running - I really love that Karga spoke in such an affectionate manner to the baby. I know that Din tries to talk to him, but the way he does it is reminiscent of two adults talking. Karga actually talks to the baby like he's a child, no baby-talk but definitely with a higher pitch in his voice (the equivalent of the customer-service voice when you think about it) - SOMETHING FISHY ABOUT BEADY-EYED ALIEN DUDE. NO ME GUSTA - ONE OF THE SCHOOL CHILDREN REALLY DOES LOOK LIKE LITTLE REY - I felt like Din was experiencing separation-anxiety about leaving the baby, but I also feel like part of his hesitancy was an immediate reaction to the children whispering and laughing at the baby. I'm sure they weren't trying to appear cruel or anything, but it makes me wonder if he was having a minor flashback of having an experience like that and how it affected him - YODITO YOU PRECIOUS LITTLE SHIT YOU CAN'T JUST TAKE SOMEONE ELSES FOOD - I truly don't think that Karga/Cara see Din as anything less than a good friend, but I really wish they wouldn't treat him like his presence is only valid so long as he's helpful (LET THE MAN TAKE A BREAK) - WHY DOES THE IMPERIAL BASE LOOK LIKE THE PORT FOR A CABLE ON A CPU?? - I really don't like G*na's approach to acting where she thinks she has to sound as tough as possible in order to make her character more appealing/stronger - There are two separate comparison discussions you can take from the infiltration scenes: 1) It's a contrast to S1E6 where Din infiltrates a prison ship with the mercenaries and he's forced to follow their lead, OR 2) Din was awkwardly following the other Mandalorian's in the last episode, but with Karga/Cara he's confidant and even takes the lead - Imperial architecture be like: OSHA???? NEVER HEARD OF HER - I think it's important to note that, while Din is ready and willing to hunt down the Mythrol again if necessary without remorse, he still thought of him enough to keep him from falling down the lava shaft - Din's "I don't like this" had me in my feels a bit, usually he's so nonchalant in trying to act like nothing bothers him but he felt comfortable enough to express his unease in front of his friends - Okay the fact that they're vaguely referencing midi-chlorians, and it looks like this lab is a branch in Palpatine's cloning scheme, makes it seem like they're starting to tie into the movie franchise, but not outright.....it's a "just the tip" situation it seems. I'd honestly prefer they didn't delve to far into the movie canon, I feel the show will lose it's heart if they do. - Pershing mentioned "the volunteer", which has me curious about the kind of person that would allow themselves to be tested for what Gideon has planned. It's possible we're getting another major/unique character in the works.  Pershing could've just referenced test subjects in general, but he mentioned a specific one, so that has me wondering what other players are on the board. - That whole chase scene was nerve-wracking - DIN TO THE RESCUE DIN TO THE RESCUE - OMG THE BABY WAVING HIS ARMS LIKE HE'S ON A ROLLERCOASTER - DIN BABY YOU MAKE FLYING THE CREST LOOK SO SEXY - Din was all "Look what I did! Did you see that???" wanting to show off to the baby.....and then baby went BLEEEEEEGH.......AND THEN DIN WIPED IT WITH HIS CAPE???? He's such a DAD - The scene with Cara and officer talking about her losses was kind of emotional. G*na's acting is so wooden, it was honestly a combination of the music and the other actor's performance that seemed to get me, but more importantly its the fact that Cara is such a 3-dimensional character, that has so much potential, but she's being made superficial because of the portrayal - Also......she says she's not a "joiner", but she's eyeing that badge very closely, like she's contemplating a career switch. Perhaps there's a chance we may get revenge-driven Cara joining the New Republic in the future? - I'm glad they didn't actually show where the device is planted, it really adds to the suspense, I prefer a little mystery over having too much explained - Moff Gideon standing amongst the dark troopers like Saruman in the basement of Isengard where they bred the Uruk-hai army in LotR, this guy is pulling out all the stops to be ready to take on a singular Mandalorian and his friends. Does he think that Din will get Mandalorian reinforcements and therefore he needs the numbers? Are they stormtroopers or some form of droids, like the battle droids in S1? They're build kind of "human", and the attendees were using blasts of cold air like what would be used in a cryo-chamber, but what if they're not human? What if they are humanoids? Cyborgs? - It's interesting to think about what types of vessels/hosts Gideon would rely on for midi-chlorian testing. Obviously not just anyone can handle the transfusion, so would he require modifications to some extent to make the host more susceptible? Until next time!!!

#din djarin #mando #mandalorian #the mandalorian #the mandalorian series #tms #the mandalorian series 2 #mandalorian s2 #baby yoda #yodito #chapter 12 #s2e4

[iatethepomegranate]

We are not alone in the dark with our demons, Chapter 17

In which Caleb buys a house in Rexxentrum with Beau and Yasha, becomes a professor, learns to be a person separate from the trauma that shaped his life for so long, and begins the arduous process of preventing what happened to him from happening to anyone else. It gets far more personal than even he could have anticipated.

Content warnings: Caleb's backstory (especially references to abuse and grooming), referenced deaths of family members, near-dissociation, near-panic attacks

Chapter summary: Caleb tries to make some positive decisions for himself and reaches out to Felix to teach him a spell (and help him cope).

Chapter notes: Chapter title is from Silhouette by Sleeping At Last

*****

Chapter 17: It must be so hard, in the mess you’re always cleaning up, to believe in the ghost of unbroken love.

Caleb and Essek dropped Caduceus at the Grove after breakfast the next morning. They would be picking him up again the day after next, along with the rest of the Nein, but any time he could spend with his family was to be treasured.

They then teleported into Beau and Yasha’s side of the house in Rexxentrum. Caleb had begun the process of putting a new teleportation circle in his laboratory, but it would take time, even with Essek’s help.

Yasha peered out from the kitchen. “Hello! You just missed Beau.” She looked at Caleb, who had slept poorly until he had given in and polymorphed himself into a cat, and swept both him and Essek into a tight hug. He liked this side of her, less concerned about making a social fuckup and just doing what felt right.

Essek awkwardly patted her back. “Hello, Yasha.”

She let them go. “Oh, Caleb! I’ll get the note. Give me a moment.” She ran upstairs, thundering around the upper floor.

Essek set a pouch of Xhorhassian spices and fried bugs from the region on the kitchen table; he had gotten lucky at the market yesterday. The peaceful conclusion of the war had freed up trade, allowing a better variety of goods to be found, especially in port cities such as Nicodranas. This also meant Essek had been able to stock up on a few hair and skincare products that were hard to find outside Rosohna. He had insisted on picking up a few products for Caleb as well. Caleb was still a little unused to being clean, let alone having a skincare routine.

Yasha pelted back downstairs and passed Caleb a little scrap of paper. “Here.”

“Danke.” Feeling the high quality of the paper between his fingers, Caleb suspected Nico had torn this piece from his own spellbook. Caleb made plans to leave some paper and ink lying around downstairs in case Nico came again while everyone was out. For now, he committed Nico’s handwriting to memory and stashed the note between the pages of his new journal. Then, he reached into his pocket and handed Yasha its twin. “For you. I thought… maybe it was time we collect happier memories.”

Yasha accepted the leather-bound journal, slightly smaller than her old one so she could keep it on her person with ease. His was identical. “Thank you, Caleb. This is a lovely gift.” She held the leather to her nose and inhaled deeply. She chuckled. “It smells like the ocean.”

“Ja, for now.” He hadn’t told the Nein what his old journal had held. But, if nothing else, the soft look on Yasha’s face confirmed she understood it was tied to his past, much like hers had been. He wasn’t sure he would ever tell the Nein, aside from Essek, what he had truly planned with the letters and the T-Dock. He was sure Beauregard suspected, and possibly Veth, and he was certain the rest, especially Caduceus, had caught on that he was headed down a self-destructive path. But Caleb had made the decision not to pursue it. Unveiling that now would upset them, and he had upset them enough. And Caleb preferred to keep that chapter of his life shut, lest he fall into temptation again.

It was time to look forward, as much as he was capable. As much as the current circumstances would allow him. The past would always have a hold on him, but he could choose to let it guide him towards making things better instead of breaking the world to undo what had already been done.

On that front, he had promised to pay Felix a visit, and Essek had burned his teleportation spells so Caleb still had his free for the day.

***

Caleb landed alone in Blumenthal. His breath still seized in his chest at the sight. He pressed a hand to his sternum and gulped down air until the world stopped spinning. He wondered, a little frantically, whether this would ever get easier. And then the panic passed, and he could breathe again.

He checked in with the gravekeeper, who confirmed they were holding off on the Baumanns’ funeral for a few more days in case Nico was willing and able to attend. He passed on the news that Nico had made a small amount of contact, and Caleb willed himself to exude what quiet optimism he could manage.

The gravekeeper was an elderly widow who had been tending the Blumenthal graves for as long as Caleb could remember. She knew him, of course, and that was unnerving as always. But he was trying to stay calm about the people of Blumenthal knowing the professor visiting Felix had once been Bren, son of Una and Leofric Ermundrud. It was hard, though, knowing there were at least a few neighbourhoods who could make the connection between what happened to the Baumanns, and what happened to the Ermendruds. They had not stated outright at any point that Nico had killed his parents, but the more people who knew about what happened, the more people were likely to suspect the truth. And, of course, the Schneiders knew. Caleb didn’t want the townspeople to think of Nico that way; he was going through enough. Caleb wasn’t sure how he felt about himself, only that there was a weight in his guts that intensified whenever he thought about it too much.

Caleb made one last stop before meeting Felix. He was here anyway, and he had not visited his parents since he had buried the letters with them. So he picked his way through the winding cemetery. It was easy to find his parents again, now that he had been here once.

“Hallo,” he said quietly, kneeling in the grass before their paired gravestones. His last visit hadn’t been that long ago, really, but he had been so swaddled in his grief that it had been hard to think straight. He pulled out the new book and rested it on his knee. “A lot has happened since I last came. I have a house now, in Rexxentrum, and a job teaching at Soltryce Academy. I’m going to stop what happened to me, and the both of you, from happening to anyone else. Best I can, anyway. Mixed success so far.” An inappropriate chuckle escaped him. “It’s… strange. Seeing these young boys, Felix and Nico, who had been set on the same path I had walked. We stopped Felix before he could… but I wasn’t fast enough to save Nico’s parents. I am… doing what I can now. They are both so young. Children, really. And, well, you know children that age rarely feel like children. I didn’t. I think Trent exploited that.”

He let the quiet wash over him. A light, fresh breeze played against his face. Most residents of Blumenthal were probably hard at work right now. This was a farming town, after all.

He remembered the journal on his knee. “Oh, and I have a new book now. This one is for happy memories. Nico left me a thank you note; I suppose that’s the first one. He’s not… he needs time. But I am starting to believe we can help him. I’m… I think that scares me. I understand what he’s going through better than most, but… this is a huge responsibility. I hope I don’t fuck it up. Sorry, mother. I would blame my new friends, but, in truth, I’ve always had a mouth on me. My friends are very cool, though. I think you would have liked them. Well, jury’s out on Beauregard, but she grows on you. Maybe I’ll tell you about our adventures next time I visit. Well, some of them. From Trostenwald, to Xhorhas, to a floating flesh city, to a Rexxentrum courtroom... we had a big year. And it’s because of them that I can bear talking to you like this.”

A tiny thought, right at the back of Caleb’s head, suggested he should bring the Nein next time. Or maybe one or two of them. Nine people clustered around a pair of graves sounded like a lot.

Caleb wanted to stay longer, but he had to check on Felix. He sighed, and pushed himself to his feet. “I will return, I promise. I will not leave you for as long as I did the first time. I love you both.”

He stepped away while he still had the will to do so. The grief was there, but he felt in control of it. For now, at least. And there was a family that needed him.

***

Louise Schneider was tending the vegetable patch in front of the house, while Friedrich knelt by a wooden cart, replacing a damaged wheel. Caleb fought off nausea at the sight of the cart; it looked just like the one his parents had owned. That… was fine. He was fine. Blumenthal-standard cart. The things were everywhere.

Louse set her trowel aside, sitting back on her heels. “Hallo… Caleb?” She was, evidently, struggling a bit to figure out what she was supposed to call him.

“Ja, hallo.” His voice was a little rough, but steady.

“Felix is in his room.” Louise wiped her brow with the back of her glove. “He’s been a little… reclusive.”

Sensing this conversation was going to take more than a few seconds, Caleb sat in the grass with her. “Okay, talk to me. How is he? And how are the two of you?”

Louise huffed a short, rueful laugh. “It is hard to tell how your child is feeling when he barely talks to you.”

“I am sorry to hear that,” Caleb said, as gently as he sensed she would tolerate. “My situation was not like Felix’s, but I can understand a little. It’s… not a comfortable feeling to know that all the love in the world is not enough to… to…” He breathed. “All I know is that I have grappled with the guilt of my actions for a long time, and the fact we were able to get to him before it went that far… it does not erase the shame. It is an ugly thing, to face yourself, to face the person you have become, even if you were manipulated and abused and brainwashed to become that person.”

“What the fuck are we supposed to do?” she whispered.

“Love him. Show him you are there for him, in whatever way he can bear.”

Louise gazed back at the house. “But if love wasn’t enough…”

“It takes time,” Caleb told her. “You can’t measure it, or count it. Time looks different for all of us. But with your support, it will be easier for him to come to terms with what happened to him, and to understand he is not a bad person for the things he was persuaded to do, and almost did… easier than it is for me. You have to remember, Frau Schneider, that those of us in the Volstrucker program thought we were serving our country, and we were honoured to do it.”

“We thought the same,” Louise murmured. “When Felix was chosen for the program…” She sighed. “I told Master Ikithon to do whatever it took to help him be what the Empire needed.”

The ground was unsteady beneath Caleb, and he was relieved to be sitting down. “My mother and father felt the same, if Ikithon spoke true. He usually does.” A wave of pettiness overcame him, and he chuckled. “Did. That is why it is so difficult to process. He rarely lied to us outright. And we thought we had a choice. We did, to a degree. We chose to serve, and we thought we had to endure what he put us through and what he asked us to do… so we could serve our country.”

“What do you now believe?”

“I believe there are good people in the Empire,” said Caleb. “There are things worth preserving. The child abuse and murder of innocent Empire citizens are not among of them.” He was getting distracted, so he steered his thoughts back in their original direction. “Now is the time Felix needs you most. The biggest thing that has helped me is knowing there are people who care about me and value me, even when I don’t care about myself.”

“We’re trying,” said Louise. “Thank you. He should be in his room, if you’d like to talk to him.”

“Ja, I will. He has been working on a Transmutation spell, which happens to be my specialty.” Caleb pushed himself to his feet, straightening his coat. “And, Louise?”

“Ja?”

“We were children a long time ago,” he said. “And my memories of Blumenthal are too… complicated to linger on, but I remember your kindness. And I have seen your love for your son. You are a good mother. Remember that, and extend that same kindness to yourself, ja?”

Louise picked up her trowel, her movements slow as if through water. “Danke.”

Caleb moved towards the house, exchanging a wave with Friedrich. The front door was open, so he stepped through. The house only had one storey, so he moved past the living area to a short, thin hallway. One door was open, revealing a wide bed for two people. He knocked on the other door.

“What?” said Felix, voice tinged with adolescent irritation that brought back a fuckton of memories for Caleb, of studying in his bedroom until his mother interrupted to coax him down for a meal. It ached, but bearably so.

“It’s Caleb. May I come in?”

“Ja, I guess.”

Caleb turned the knob and slowly pushed, poking his head through first. Felix was sitting on the wooden floor, beside a low bed made from a rough timber frame. His spellbook lay on the floor in front of him, but it was seemingly open to a random page, and Felix’s hair was mussed as if he had just been lying down. On the floor, if Caleb were to guess.

“Would you like some good news?” Caleb said, stepping inside. He shut the door, leaning against it while he awaited Felix’s response.

“That would make a nice change,” Felix said flatly.

Caleb sat on the floor in front of him and pulled out his new book, removing Nico’s note and handing it to Felix. “Nico visited my home while it was empty the other day. He left this.”

Felix scanned the note with careful, controlled slowness. He passed it back, staring sightlessly at the pages of his book.

“He also responded to a Sending,” Caleb continued. “Only to tell me he did not wish to talk, but that is progress. Has he spoken to you?”

“Nein,” Felix said quietly. There was a heaviness to his posture, and he seemed to lack the energy to express himself with his face or voice. Aside from that singular spike of irritation when Caleb had knocked.

“Well, it appears he is listening. If you can bear it, I would suggest you keep talking to him.”

“Ja, okay.” The Felix in front of him was a far cry from the Felix in his messages. Exhausted, flattened… defeated, in some ways. Beaten down and ready to give up. Caleb knew the feeling well. It was why he had been messaging Felix so frequently, knowing that he had no one else who could understand what he had been through. What he had almost done.

It would have been easy enough to talk about the Fly spell and let him have a distraction, but they had things to discuss first. It was better to end their meeting today on a positive note, rather than give him a reprieve now and drag him back to earth later.

“I spoke to your mother,” Caleb said, sitting with the guilt of not giving Felix the distraction he sorely needed. Not yet.

Felix huffed quietly. “Was it a useful conversation? Mine haven’t been.”

“I have the luxury of not being family,” Caleb replied. “I can tell her things that you never would.”

Felix snorted. “Right.”

“She says you’re becoming a recluse.”

Felix shrugged.

“Why is that?”

“What am I supposed to say?” Felix muttered, and Caleb got the sense he probably would have snapped at him, had he the energy. “I know they’re afraid of me.”

“I don’t think they are, Felix.”

“Doesn’t matter. I was going to kill them, and I would’ve succeeded. I know that. They know that.”

“I don’t think they’re worried about that right now.”

“Then they’re stupid.”

“That’s not a nice thing to say about your parents, Felix.”

“Murder also isn’t nice, but I was going to do that anyway.” Felix flipped through the pages of his spellbook until he landed on one Caleb recognised: the formula for Fireball. “Push the cart in front of the door, throw one of these fuckers into the house, or maybe a Lightning Bolt would’ve looked like a freak accident.” Having not expected this, Caleb had to fight a wave of nausea and grasp tightly to the present, and hoped it didn’t show on his face; this wasn’t about him or his bullshit. “Hadn’t decided. Whatever. If I aimed right, it would be over quickly. If not… it would be over eventually. Nico had similar plans, which apparently worked.” Felix’s fingers spasmed on the page, as if resisting the urge to tear it. “If my mother and father do not fear me, they have deluded themselves into thinking I’m innocent. Makes a certain kind of sense, I suppose. I never could tell them what Trent had us do. I have nothing to say to them. I see no point trying to comfort them when they should be afraid of me. They should not want me here.”

Felix was spiralling. Badly. Caleb was out of his depth, and his brain was not turning as efficiently as it usually did, on a knife’s edge of whether to stay present or dissociate entirely. But he had to do something.

“Would you like to guess where I have been today?” Caleb asked. “It’s here in Blumenthal.”

Felix shrugged. “I hate guessing games.”

“I visited my mother and father. Spoke to them for a while.”

Confusion furrowed Felix’s brow for a moment, before he looked up, understanding. “Can’t imagine they were very talkative.”

Caleb’s laugh surprised both of them. “You’re not wrong. Rather one-sided. But maybe they can hear me.”

Felix continued to take the bait. “Fine. I’ll bite. What did you talk about?”

“Life updates. I have only visited once before, a few months ago, and that was more… intense. And, well, since then, I’ve hit several personal milestones I wanted to tell them about.”

“Why are you telling me this?”

“Because I am about to guilt-trip you into speaking to your living parents.”

“Oh, fuck you.” There was no aggression behind it, merely exhausted resignation, as if Felix already knew Caleb had the upper hand.

“I am not expecting you to bare your soul to them,” Caleb said. “I understand the impulse to hold back and I do not wish to deny you your privacy. But, it is very easy for people like us to get caught in our heads, and it can be difficult to pull ourselves out of it without help.”

“And if I don’t want to have to look at them and remember I was going to fucking kill them?”

“You seem to remember that well enough without seeing their faces.”

Felix shoved his face into his hands, sighing loudly. “I don’t know what I would even talk about. We have nothing in common anymore.”

“I’ve always found admitting I don’t know what the fuck I’m doing is very helpful.”

Felix snorted.

“And I do not agree that you have nothing in common.” Caleb didn’t try to make Felix look at him. If this were one of the Nein, he probably would have gotten obnoxiously in the way until they couldn’t ignore him, like Jester, Veth and even sometimes Essek had been known to do for him. But, with Felix, his words would have to be enough. “You have told me you love them, and they clearly love you. There is a lot of common ground there.”

“What common ground?” Felix curled more deeply inward with the gravity of defeat. “I cared more about some bullshit Trent put in my head than how much I love my parents.”

This was far more familiar territory to Caleb. “You are not alone in that, Felix. I loved my mother and father. And I killed them just the same. Trent exploited our patriotism to isolate us from our families and tie our worth to serving the empire, to serving him. And by having us kill our families based on a lie, one of the only lies he ever told us, he could ensure we had no one else to support us. That we would not believe we deserved better, even if we learned he had modified our memories. He wanted us to have nothing else but him. Did he pull that ‘we are family’ bullshit with you?”

Felix dropped his hands, snickering bitterly. “Ja. All the time.”

“Creepy, ja?”

Felix kept laughing quietly.

“He invited me to a ‘family reunion’ with him, Astrid and Eadwulf a few months ago,” said Caleb. “My friends came with me. Do you remember Caduceus?” Felix nodded. “He told Trent he was a fool, and that no one loves him.”

Felix scoffed. “You’re lying.”

“I am paraphrasing. He did call Trent a fool, but what he said about love was… wait, let me quote this exactly. I have this burned into my memory forever.” Caleb cleared his throat, and did not attempt to mimic Caduceus’s voice because he was awful at accents, but he quoted: “He said, ‘I think it has been a long time since anyone has pointed out to you that you're a fool. Pain doesn't make people, it's love that makes people. The pain is inconsequential. It's love that saves them. And you would know that, but you have none around you. You said so yourself, you surround yourself with lies and deceptions. And I wish for you, in the future, to find someone who will mourn you when you are gone. Respectfully.’ And then Trent left.”

“Okay, two things,” said Felix. “First of all, Caduceus is cooler than you. Second, your memory is terrifying and I am rethinking every word I have ever said to you.”

“Caduceus is very cool, ja. And the memory is a blessing and a curse for me and everyone around me. I also have a very good sense of time, and I have used it to annoy the shit out of my friends.”

“Nerd.”

“Takes one to know one.”

“Fuck off.”

Caleb chuckled. “Back to my original point. Trent is a piece of shit. He wanted us to believe we chose to follow him, ja, but the choice was false. He wanted us to believe we did not deserve better. Even now that we are free from him, it is not easy to break that conditioning. Our minds are more fragile than we like to think, ja?”

“Ja, I guess.” The momentary brightness faded from Felix’s expression, and the heaviness returned.

“And an important step in countering that is to reach out to the people who care about you.”

Felix slammed his spellbook shut, hiding the Fireball spell from view. “And if I don’t want to?”

“Let me ask a question in return. What do you want?”

“I don’t know.”

“Are you so sure you do not want to repair your relationship with your parents?”

Felix groaned softly. “Did you have to word it like that? Of course I…” His voice dropped to a murmur. “Arschloch.”

“Then, is the problem less about what you want, or don’t want, and more about what you think you deserve?” Caleb had far too much experience in feeling that way.

“Fuck you, Caleb.” Felix scrambled to his feet, hugging the spellbook to his chest. “Are you going to teach me this spell, or did you just plan on lecturing me all day?”

Ah. There was the limit. “All right, I’ve said my piece.” Caleb got up. “You said you’ve transcribed the spell?”

“Ja. I just… it’s not an easy spell to practice.”

“I know. Shall we go outside? We will need space for this.”

#shadowgast #caleb widogast #critical role #cr2 #fanfiction #my fics #the pomegranate's professor widogast fic

[bosspigeon]

38 kiss prompt for juni :) if u want <3

38. relieved kisses

He can't stop staring at his hands, but at the same time, looking at them sort of makes him feel sick.

He's sitting on the edge of the hospital bed, while he waits on the results of whatever tests are being run on him now, but earlier when he went for an anxious pee in the tiny, hyper-sterile hospital bathroom, he almost collapsed laughing against the sink because he couldn't help but mutter "Out, damned spot!" to himself as he washed his hands.

Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him.

It was less funny, after that. Sometimes, Juni really regrets being an English major.

The red hasn't faded. He's pretty sure it's not going to. It's like two big, red port wine stains, from fingertips to forearms. Bloodstains that won't go away. Soaked into his skin, into his veins. He hasn't even begun to figure out how he's going to explain them to people outside the Agency, or hide them.

When a fuss kicks up outside his door, he naturally jolts so badly he slips right off the bed, because suddenly hearing loud, pissed-off swearing after sitting in silence with only his own terrible thoughts for company for what has to have been close to an hour is just a bit startling.

At least it's not hard to figure out just who is causing the fuss, once he climbs back onto the bed and tries to pretend he wasn't just under it once the door bursts open.

Mason's lips are curled fiercely, his hair is a wreck, and he braces both hands on the doorframe as if to block the attending nurse (a man who looks mostly like a very small human, aside from his tufted ears, and his slightly-too-large-to-be-normal orange eyes) from getting inside.

Juni, sitting on the bed kicking his feet nervously and twiddling his fingers, tries for a casual greeting, but all he really manages to squeak out is, "How'd you get past Elidor?"

Mason doesn't answer, but Juni's nurse squawks out a deeply offended, "You can't go in there! We're not finished running his tests!" and then the vampire is pushing him back with one foot, his boot laces dangling as if he'd hauled them on as quickly as possible before booking it here, slips inside the room, and shuts and locks the door behind him. He takes a nearby chair and wedges it under the handle for good measure, before turning his stormy eyes back on the detective while the handle jiggles fruitlessly and the nurse makes noises that sound less and less human the more worked up he gets.

Juni's not sure what to even make of that look.

"Um," Juni offers cleverly as Mason stalks towards him like a wildcat, eyes dark and face clouded, even more unreadable than usual. He looks as if he's drinking him in with his eyes, taking in every inch of him from top to bottom, and Juni really wishes he were wearing something more flattering than a hospital gown and ugly non-slip socks that he's definitely going to steal once they let him change back into his own clothes.

Mason finally stops, a fraction of an inch in front of Juni's knees, and looks down at him like he's...

Like Juni is something. Something important, maybe? Something... something necessary. Like he's coming up for air, like seeing Juni is all he needs to keep breathing.

He feels stupid for even thinking it, stupid and self-absorbed, but he doesn't get much time to start self-flagellating, because Mason is grabbing him by his cheeks and kissing him like he's trying to draw the air right from his lungs, trying to make Juni feel as breathless and unmoored as he is, like he needs to imprint the taste of him on his tongue to assure himself he's still in one piece, that he can still touch him.

Or maybe you're reading too much into things, Juni thinks dazedly, once Mason seems to remember humans do need to breathe. He doesn't let go of Juni's face, though he gentles his touch once he seems to realize how tightly he's holding him.

Juni sucks in a much-needed breath, his lips tingling, the skin around them rubbed raw by Mason's stubble, and he looks up at the vampire wide-eyed and swallows hard. "Your hands are shaking," he murmurs weakly. He sounds far away, even to his own ears.

Mason, again, doesn't answer him, and his grim silence is beginning to ratchet up Juni's already overwrought nerves. Instead, he grabs the detective's hands and yanks them (in perhaps the loosest sense of the word, because there's the urgency, yes, but also a pointed care to his touch) up to look them over. Juni winces and looks away. He wants to pull them back and sit on them, but when he tugs even slightly, Mason looks up sharply, and his eyes look wild.

"This," he growls, jerking his chin down at Juni's red-stained hands, "is enough DMB to down Adam three times over."

Juni swallows hard. He doesn't look down at his hands. "Y... you should be pretty proud of yourself then," he snaps back, but his sharp tone falls flat with how his voice is wobbling. His vision starts to blur a bit, and he blinks furiously in an effort to clear it. Not now. You are not going to start crying now, you useless fucking— "Seeing as it was in you first."

"They wouldn't tell me what happened," Mason says, tossing his hair with a wordless, furious sound. He looks like he wants to rake it out of his face, but he'd have to let go of Juni's hands to do it, and seeing as his fingers are twining between the human's, he doesn't seem likely to do that anytime soon. "Elidor gave me a little, more than he was probably supposed to, but you were— I woke up here. You were gone. The last thing I remember was—" His eyes find Juni's again, and while he still has a look like a caged panther second from throwing itself against the bars, he's beginning to visibly settled. "You were crying."

"I cry all the time," Juni sniffles, smiling weakly. "You know that."

"Tell me what the fuck happened out there," Mason says. Phrased like a command, but it comes out almost pleading. He pulls Juni's head to his chest, like he knows— like he remembers Juni hunched over him and crying, trying to make out the sound of a heartbeat under his owned panicked sobs. He closes his eyes and sinks into it, focuses on the strong, steady rhythm.

Mason stares at him hard, and they've had sex—a fair amount of it, at this point—but Juni's never felt so bare.

And then, like Juni isn't two-hundred-plus pounds of anxiety, Mason lets go of one hand (just one) so he can scoop the detective up and deposit him more fully onto the bed, and crawl on with him, bundling him close. Juni thinks once someone does come that can open the wedged door, they're going to have one hell of a fight on their hands trying to drag Mason off him.

"I don't really know what happened," Juni murmurs into Mason's shirt. He's a little annoyed they let Mason wear his own goddamned clothes, but Juni's got his entire backside hanging out of his hospital gown. As if he can sense the discomfort (which he probably can, perceptive bastard) Mason yanks the thin blanket up to Juni's waist. He mumbles a quiet thanks. "Um... It was just.. We got separated from the rest of the team, and we wound up surrounded. You... You'd already taken a dose. One of them had, like, a dart gun or something, and caught you out when they ambushed us. And then I got damsel'd, as per usual, and when you were distracted, one of them—" Juni chokes. He can't see much, face buried in the vampire's chest, but he can feel the dark shirt growing wet under his cheek. "It was a big fucking knife, Mason. And it was dripping, even before they pulled it out of you." He swallows, and it feels like he's choking down a mouthful of sand. "It's like they were trying to gut you. Like they were trying to make a point." Before he loses it entirely, he says, "I... I don't think they were normal trappers."

"I don't think so either," Mason says, and his voice is so, so soft. It's so good to hear his voice. It takes a minute for Juni to register the hand tangled in his hair, thumb dragging along the line between the shaved part of his undercut and smooth skin, a soothing gesture for both of them, he thinks. "Elidor says you pulled the DMB out of me."

"Before you ask, I have no idea how I did it," he mumbles. It's a good thing Mason's got super-hearing, because Juni's not going to lift his face from the vampire's chest for anything, at this point. Not when he can't bear the thought of being unable to hear his heart for longer than a few seconds at a time. He shifts a little. He's not sure how much he can say about Petrichor, the dying god-thing and its ghostly forest, the deal Juni apparently made to save Mason's life. At least not while they're still in the Agency facility. "It doesn't hurt anymore," he says, to avoid the subject. "It did a lot, at first. I know it's not supposed to hurt humans like it does you lot, but..." He laughs, bitter and just a touch manic. "It fucking hurt, Mason."

Mason makes a noise so soft Juni would almost believe he'd imagined it, if he didn't have his ear pressed right to where it came from. He squeezes Juni's hand, digs his fingers deeper into his hair, and presses his mouth to his forehead and holds it there for a while.

And then they're both out of words, every last one of them completely wrung out. Juni can even be grateful for it, considering Mum's told him he didn't really have a first word, so much as he started talking and just never stopped. (It doesn't sound like something she'd say, more like something she picked up from someone else, and Juni refuses to think about that too hard, especially right now.)

There's a chair under the door handle, and eventually they'll have to move it, and go back out into the world, figure out what the next course of action is. Probably deal with Adam's disapproving glower, Rebecca's pointed stares, Felix's eyebrow waggles, and Nate's overwhelming concern, but, for now, the world is narrowed down to the crowded hospital bed, the two of them tangled together, Juni listening to Mason's heartbeat, and Mason holding him to his chest, as if the proof of one another's continued existence is the only thing that's ever mattered.

#the wayhaven chronicles #specialist agent mason #specialist agent m #twc fanfic #twc detective #prompt fic #pidge writes #oc: juniper fenn #this was meant to be Something Small #but somehow became another bit of the Juni Becomes An Old God AU #which needs a name #jbog??? #jbog is fun #WE HAVE DUBBED IT THE JBOG #i wonder how many people actually pay attention to me going Absolutely Bananas in the tags of these #if you are here hi hope youre having a good time have you had enough water today #rate the gay on a scale of 1 to 10 please and thank u #JBOG AU

[echo-three-one]

Chapter 31

THE ROAD SO FAR

Chapter 30 Recap?

Roach was falling.

S.O.S.

"Alex"

1km behind the Victoria Cruise Ship, UK

"Can't this thing go any faster?!" he hissed against the loud revving of the motor he stole from the docks. He wasn't supposed to steal it, but when he realized no one was around at that time of day, he saw smoke plume from the ship and thought he'd "borrow" it for an emergency.

From the shore, he saw flashing lights signaling a rescue team, meaning that something happened on the ship. Alex's hands gripped on the control stick as he navigated the smooth waves toward the ship, stopping at the moment he saw someone get pushed off deck.

He didn't need to know who it was, so he immediately changed course to the direction where the person fell. Strangely enough, the person didn't emerge from the ripples. This meant that he didn't have the capacity to shake his limbs. Without hesitating about his metal leg, Alex stood up and dove toward the ripple, cold ocean water immediately surrounded his body. 

With all his effort, he swam downward until he caught up with the person, whom he soon realized to be Roach. He was squirming and holding his breath as Alex caught him and attempted to push them afloat. Of course he had a hard time doing it, as his hand held onto Roach and his metal leg couldn't make him swim better. So he grabbed his knife and sliced Roach free from the ropes, allowing him to freely swim upward, pulling Alex with him.

Emerging from the deep blue, Alex and Roach both gasped for air, caught up with their breaths and swam back to their stolen boat.

Roach hoisted himself up and assisted Alex, pulling him back to the boat.

"Whew, for a second I thought I was a goner." Gary coughed and wriggled his wrists, feeling the freedom.

"What happened out there?" Alex asked, salt water dripped from his hair and stache.

"It's a hostage situation, Shepherd's in need of funds and decides to target a gathering of rich people." Roach explained as Alex started the boat, the motor slowly sputtered to life.

"Let's crash the party." Alex invited and Roach nodded as they made their way into the slowly sinking cruise ship.

Stepping inside the cruise ship, Alex and Roach made their way through the corridors evading contact with Shadow Company. They are fully aware that without glowing beacons, they are a threat. 

"I think it's this way!" Gary pointed the left path and Alex followed, the way led to the Captain's quarters.

"Alex, Roach!" Soap grunted while fighting with one of the three big guys, his hand formed an X while deflecting a huge oar.

Roach and Alex surrounded the big guy and ducked the moment he swung his weapon, Roach quickly disabling him by kicking his foot making him lose balance and fall on his back.

"Thanks. That oar was annoying the hell out of me." Soap gasped and wiped off his tux, looking at how messed the room was. 

"So it was 1 versus 3?" Alex asked as he looked at the unconscious bodies on the floor.

"Pretty much. One tazed the other one and the rest is history." Soap chuckled and pointed to the door. 

"The rest of the team headed that way. They're trying to stop the Shadow Company while Price extracted 'Gold Bar'." Soap added and the three moved forward to the next area. 

Halfway through the halls, the ship hummed and tilted slightly, meaning that water hadl already made its way inside. They have to hurry before the ship sinks.

"911 was right behind me when I left off. We have to make sure every civilian gets saved." Alex suggested. Soap and Roach looked at each other and nodded.

"You go, Alex. We'll handle the rescue from here." Soap replied and Roach nodded again as they paced to where the civilians were.

"All right then." he muttered and made his way to the control room.

Gunshots were heard from the distance, echoing the narrow corridors of the ship. With a place this narrow, it's almost impossible to miss a shot. This actually worried the former CIA and he ran faster, his metal leg hoofed on the floor.

The scene was Ghost and Alexandra hiding behind the wheel while Shadow Company soldiers, who were armed, were hiding by the next room. The two had pistols on their hands but judging from their gestures, it looked like they only had a few bullets left.

As soon as the enemy peeked its head on the door, Ghost swiftly shot his bullet square on the head as the enemy dropped down on the floor with a loud thud. His bullet clicked and he cursed as soon as he realized that that was his last shot.

Alexandra followed as another one peeked and had the same fate. Loud thundering footsteps echoed the halls as reinforcements arrived.

"This is Price. I found Alex's boat and the Gold Bar is here with me. Rescue Services are already in the building. Get out of there now!" He roared and Alex needed to find a way out.

Scanning the area, he charged toward the glass windows of the control room and broke it, rolling down the diagonal design of the ship, thudding on the floor. Alexandra and Ghost followed him and they ran to the back of the ship which was still too far from where they're at.

Dodging bullets and running for their lives, they caught up with Soap and Roach, who were also being chased by soldiers.

"What a mess this was, huh?" Alexandra commented as they all sprinted together, dodging flying bullets and finding a way off the ship.

"I guess it's Plan B." Ghost muttered and Alexandra nodded.

"Follow me." He added and everyone else obliged as they made their way to the middle of the ship.

Alex had no idea what plan B meant but as soon as they made it to the center, they were surrounded by the Shadow Company. Their stances were slightly tilted as the ship continued to sink slowly into the ocean.

"Bollocks! I did not see this coming!" Ghost cursed and Alex was clear that this wasn't part of the plan.

"How many of them are here?!" Soap complained as they slowly huddled into a circle. Alex noted that they did this part like the Avengers in New York, except they weren't superheroes and they were weaponless.

"I don't know. I just got out of a life threatening situation and here I am again with one." Roach complained, looking at his allies.

"On three, we head east."  Ghost whispered, Alex turned to the location smoothly as to not alert everyone that's pointing their weapons at them.

"Two.."

"One.." 

Ghost clicked his detonator and a huge explosion occurred in the east, sending most of the Shadow Company on their feet and distracted.

"Go! Go! Go!" Ghost roared and everyone scattered and ran toward the blast, using the destroyed debris that was once impassable.

Alex and the rest of the team ran as they approached the back of the ship where Price was supposed to be. It only took the Shadow Company a few minutes to recover and bullets began to fly toward their direction.

Ahead of him, Roach and Soap were already by the edge, Alex saw the two jumped away from the ship and into safety while behind him, Ghost and Alexandra were being pressured with bullets.

Alex held onto the rails before attempting to jump, making sure Ghost and Alexandra made it through. He saw Alexandra follow Ghost's six but she accidentally tripped and dropped on the floor. 

"Shit!" She squealed in pain as she got shot on the thigh, she forced herself to get up with Ghost's assistance. Alex pushed some tanning chairs toward the enemy as the tilted ship helped them slide to them, causing them to evade the falling chairs. But Shadow Company didn't give up, a few more soldiers emerged from the background.

"We have to go! Now!" Alex yelled as he ran ahead of Ghost making sure nothing's behind him. The enemies were still quite far but from the corner of his eye, a man with an RPG aimed his sights at them and before Alex could do anything, smoke already trailed from the weapon. It was already fired.

"Ghost! Behind you! RPG!" Alex yelled as the missile missed the three of them, and hit the floor quite far from them, tearing yet another hole on the ship's deck.

The warm heat of the blast slightly burned their skin as Alex and Ghost flew to the direction of their boat while Alexandra flew nearer to the Shadow Company, separating her from the rest of the team.

Alex's ears rang at the blast and he could hear Ghost's cry. Before he eventually fell on the ocean, the last thing he heard was Ghost calling out Alexandra's name.

S.O.S.

Simon "Ghost" Riley

Alex's stolen boat (S.S. Crossbones), 4 km from Port of Dover, UK

Just when he thought he found his sense of humanity back through Alexandra Ryder, the universe fucked up his life once again. He was conscious, but he didn't want to wake up. He didn't want to open his eyes and see that Alexandra wasn't with them. It was too much.

He could feel someone slapping on his cheek, and judging by the group, only Roach had the guts to do it.

"Should we do CPR? I can't hear him breathing." Roach asked, panic was in his voice.

"Check if his chest is rising or falling." Soap suggested. Ghost thought that he could pretend to be dead for a little more, but the team was worried about him and he had to face reality one way or another.

Ghost coughed the salty seawater clogging his breathing and panted heavily as he got up. His vision slowly got clearer as he visualized the whole team looking at him.

"Thank God, you're alive!" Roach cheered and everyone else nodded him welcome. He wanted to thank each of them but there was still something bothering him.

"Alexandra…" he muttered as he quickly got up, Alex's hands stopped him on his tracks.

"They tried circling around the ship before it sank. There was no sign of her." He frowned along with the rest of the team. Ghost hasn't cried in a while, but this time tears involuntarily trickled on his cheeks.

"NOOOOO!!" He yelled, his voice pierced through the open sea as Gary huddled near him and gave him a hug.

"I'm sorry." Roach whispered. He wasn't there to help him and he always tries to absorb some of the blame.

Ghost wanted to tell him that it isn't his fault, but his throat was still recovering from his screams. Everyone around him fell silent as he slowly stood up and pulled his mask.

He silently tossed it into the ocean as it slowly sank as soon as it got soaked with water. It was sad to think that Alexandra lost her life at the cost of no lead toward Shepherd or Nero, but Ghost looked straight into Gold Bar's eyes.

"I want you to live your life to the fullest. She sacrificed hers so you could live on. Don't you dare waste the second chance he gave you." He muttered causing Derek to nod and slowly sob as he sat on his knees.

"I will…" he whimpered through the croaking of his voice.

"Looks like the engine's back up." Soap announced, pulling his oily hands from the engine as Price started the machine as it revved to life.

For the whole duration of the trip, Ghost just stared at the remains of the cruise ship. He wanted to ask Alexandra to take their awkward arrangement to the next level, but the world looked like it had other plans for him.

"I will avenge you, Alexandra Ryder. I'll do whatever it takes to put your loss to justice." he whispered, tightening his grip on the boat, looking angrily at the ocean in front of him.

Next Chapter : Mr. and Mrs. MacTavish

Notification Squad my Beloved

@enderio @whimsywispsblog @samatedeansbroccoli @smokeywhalee @beemybee @ricinbach

#horrayfic #john soap mactavish #alex echo 3 1 #codmw #john price #simon ghost riley #gary roach sanderson #whateverittakes

[silverhandsass]

Can You Feel The Sun (Pt.4)

Things are finally coming together y'all OwO

— SPOILER ALERT - this is post-game stuff, read at your own risk —

Read on Ao3

— — — — —

Johnny is not here.

He was never here.

So for the entire year that she had been focusing on getting her own shit back in order, Johnny was—

"I thought you didn't need permission, Alt! You said there would be no point in talking to the souls before you took them all away, how could you leave him—"

"I did not leave him." The urgency and strictness of her voice shot a spike of ice into Val's chest. "He remained in Mikoshi too long."

"What does that even mean? Why did he stay there?" Val asked, stepping closer to Alt—if that even helped, she didn't know.

"You should see for yourself," Alt replied, then waved her hands in a wide arc around her.

Suddenly, the pixels and blocks that formulated the cyberspace around them both began to shift and change. The blue tinge came back as she realized a familiar setting had been made. The table and booth at Tom's diner.

"Wait..."

Then, beside it, Johnny's car appeared. The doors were opened and the back of it had sunk low to the ground. There were the sounds of voices talking and laughing; no words to be heard but the voices echoed eerily like a memory. It was when they leaned against the back of his car and talked, one of their many sweet moments shared by flipping off the corpos of the world.

More of these spots began to appear nearby; the couch and bed of her apartment, the rollercoaster cart with only a fraction of the rails showing, the Pistis Sophia, the place where they bonded at the oil fields, Kerry's couch and the Seamurai, and finally...

The piers.

As Valerie approached them, she could see that on one of the docks, a faint silhouette of Johnny appeared. She kicked into a sprint to get to him, only for Alt to call out to her.

"He is not truly there." Val's approach slowed to a brisk walk and Alt continued. "These are the places he wished to see one last time before coming with me. A few minutes, he said. He stayed long enough for days to pass in the real world. Then, he was gone."

"What..." Val turned to face her. "What the fuck does that mean?"

"An outside force of Netrunners accessed Arasaka's systems. Either they were hired, or they were a separate faction. They were peering inside Mikoshi. They found me, and they found Johnny. It was easier to take him—he did not know how to defend himself within cyberspace. They tried to take me, so I left."

"You left?" V spat, "How could you fucking leave him like that?"

"I could not risk them seizing control of me or gaining access to beyond the Blackwall. Mikoshi needed to be shut down. It provided an ample distraction for me to leave. They could not find me this way," she explained.

"You didn't even fight? You could have helped him, you could have saved him," V argued.

"He would have been used as bait, and there was nothing to save. I would not blindly rush into a situation I know nothing about without first considering all its aspects. That, V, is where the human factor comes in." Alt did not need to say it, but V understood her meaning clearly. She was also talking about V's visit to the Blackwall.

"He trusted you. We both did," V spat.

"I was ready to take him. He was not ready to leave. I told him of the risks. He did not listen. Much like you," she reminded.

"So if-if he's not here," Val took a staggered breath. "Where is he?"

"I do not know," Alt replied.

"How could you not know?" Val gestured her arms wildly. "You are one of the most powerful entities in cyberspace, how could you not know?"

"They did not march into Mikoshi announcing their presence. They snuck in, shrouded by ICE. They were careful and prepared. I could not place their location or identity before I left."

This could not be happening. Valerie took a few steps back and she shook her head before running both hands through her hair. Not only was Johnny nowhere to be seen, but he was missing. Was there even anything of him left? Had he been chipped into some other gonk's head? Did that gonk die? Did he die? Was he well and truly gone? Or was he still stored away somewhere in another briefcase, left dormant and alone?

V was just starting to lose herself in those thoughts when Alt's form shifted once more, moving closer and hovering.

"You must leave, now," she demanded.

"Wh—" V looked up, "Alt you have to help me, this is... It's Johnny. It's Johnny."

"I cannot help you. You have been careless in your methods of reaching beyond the Blackwall that you did not think about your way back. You left the pathway open for anything to pass through, making it easy for anyone to reach this place—to reach me. But while I was able to shut it momentarily, shortly after your arrival, it will not hold if I do not shut it down properly. Leaving it open is dangerous and staying here will kill you. You must leave."

As she stepped backward toward the wall, Val looked around at the various locations that had been made around her, as though she was trying to commit what Johnny had done to memory. She looked for his silhouette once again but it was nowhere to be found. "Can't I stay just a bit longer?"

"You are still tethered to your body through the connection of the external rig. You must leave now before the wall is sealed for good. You are asking too much of your human body by staying here longer than you should. If you do not leave now, it will soon cease to be your choice."

V cast one last glance at her surroundings, beginning to pant as she approached the wall. She looked up at the AI once last time and gave her a small dip of her chin. "Goodbye, Alt."

"Goodbye, V."

She reached out her hand and placed it flat upon the beaming red surface of the Blackwall, feeling her surroundings fall apart. She had barely any time to register the change before she felt her existence yanked—tugged hard in such a way that all simulations of air escaped her lungs.

Her vision fell away pixel by pixel until it was all to bright, bright, bright.

Cold. Fuck. It was still too cold. She forgot about the damn ice and the water and—fuck, fuck, fuck!

Launching herself into a seated position, V gasped for air and felt her body shiver and shake. She soon felt Dakota's hands upon her as the cable was disconnected from her port. A second pair of hands joined in as both Panam and Dakota helped V out of the tub. They were both speaking rather loudly, saying things, but she could not hear them clearly just yet. Her mind was still catching up with her, not only trying to piece together what she had heard, but attempting to snap back to reality.

Then, the tears came.

—

"What the hell were you thinking? You didn't even tell me your plan, you didn't even ask me what I thought, you just went right on in there and went ahead, which—" Panam pointed at Dakota, "—we're gonna have a long discussion about, by the way!" She then brought her hands down on her thighs as she bent down a little to meet V's eyes. "What the fuck, Val?"

V had been sitting on the same cot that she'd usually commandeer whenever she got back to camp. She had a thick synth wool blanket wrapped around her to keep her warm and she made a point to avoid eye contact with anyone for the start of the whole conversation.

It wasn't even a conversation, it was a scolding.

"What if you died?" Panam argued, "What if suddenly I got the news that hey, that fucking gonk of yours walked into an ice bath and melted anyway! All under your nose! What then?"

She did have a point.

"I know, Panam, I..." V sighed heavily. "I know. And I'm sorry. It was... It had to be done."

"Why? What the fuck did you need to do that you couldn't talk to me about? You know I'm ready to help you, you just had to ask," she said as she knelt before her, shifting a bit closer.

"You wouldn't have agreed to this."

"Why?" she prodded.

"Because I had to see him."

There it was. The look of realization. Val had mentioned the man that was the very reason they had to charge into Arasaka in the first place. She had insisted before that it would have been just as much her fault as it was Johnny's, but Panam was fine with just blaming him. Particularly for the number of people they lost that day.

"And? Was it worth it?" Panam asked. "Did you find him?"

V watched the frayed ends of the blanket as she fiddled with them, picking apart loose threads. "No, I didn't."

"What?" Dakota blinked, stepping forward. "I thought you said he was beyond the Blackwall. We used your—" she paused, "—those memories."

"Apparently he never left Mikoshi and someone pulled him out," Val replied, her voice slowly beginning to crack a little as she faced that truth. "He's gone."

"But... we can find him, right?" Panam frowned.

"No, we can't," V finally looked up, and Panam's expression fell.

V had been entirely monotone the moment she began speaking after the tub. Both her mind and her body were still in shock by the events and the revelation. An entire year had passed since they parted ways, he could be anywhere by now.

"Fuck that, there's gotta be a way," Panam countered.

"Nothing short of walking right into Arasaka again to figure out what happened a year ago. Something I'll have to do alone, and it would be suicide."

"Okay, if you mention doing anything 'alone' one more time, I'm going to kick your ass," Panam warned.

"I'm never taking you back there, Panam. None of you, not after everything that happened," after all the lives that were taken. There was an uncomfortable silence between them as understanding fell into place.

Before anyone could keep talking, Panam stood up and then promptly wrapped her arms around V. She then pulled away but kept a hand on her shoulder. "We'll figure this out, we'll figure something out that works... If he's out there, then he needs you."

"Didn't think you'd want to go looking for him," V admitted, looking up.

"That's because you need him too."

Well then.

"Get some rest, V. I'll yell at you some more when you can yell back," Panam told her, a faint smile showing that it was merely a joke.

It was one that V certainly appreciated. She nodded and mumbled a thank you to both of them before they left. Slowly lowering herself onto the cot, she tried to clear her mind and get some of that rest she truly needed. Instead of wondering how she could possibly find him and hoping for the chance that he might still be out there somewhere, that he could be saved, Val shut her eyes and cried herself to sleep.

—

A few mumbles and wisps of words escaped past his lips, but beyond that, the man remained still. It was impressive that he continued to fight hard for consciousness when science itself was working against every muscle in his body. Bryce was uncertain how long they could keep this up, but it was necessary in order to keep the man sane. After all, one doesn't normally come back from the dead after around fifty years.

Still, it had been two weeks since their last conversation. He was not going to be happy about that, about being put down for such long periods at a time. After his general volatility, it was hard to predict how much time would have been enough.

They only had one shot at this.

The doors opened behind him and a set of heavy steps approached. Then, a clearing of a throat caught his attention, finally. "Had a ping in the net today regarding that friend we've been looking for. You'll never guess where."

Bryce blinked and finally looked away from Silverhand's body, turning to Tommy. He was holding out a datapad for him, one that he took without delay and began to read. The corners of his lips quirked up as he realized what that Merc had been up to. He shook his head and pressed the top of the datapad to his lips, glancing back down at Johnny.

The man was on the brink of his daze, nearing the time for his next dose. He continued to let out a few mumbles and sighs here and there, as though he was awake but not quite present.

"Go," Bryce ordered, handing the datapad back to Tommy. "Do what you can."

"How much do you want me to say?" he asked.

"As much as you need to, but nothing about him," Bryce reminded. As Tommy nodded and left the room, he turned back toward Johnny and leaned in just in time for his injection. "Your old pal's been causing some trouble again, Silverhand..." he chuckled. He could have sworn Johnny's eyes moved to him when he spoke those words, but it was hard to tell past the fluttering eyelids. Finally, Johnny drifted back into deep sleep and Bryce sighed, pushing away from the bed.

"Get ready to bring him back soon," he ordered the nearest doctor. "We're going to need him ready to talk."

—

Find the Merc.

That friend we've been looking for.

Your old pal.

What were they up to? What were they on about? Johnny had just been able to start hearing things a bit more clearly when he felt the Propofol coursing through his system, when he felt himself sink once more.

Find the Merc.

No. It couldn't be.

#y'all #im feels #angst #fluff #romance #lots of that romance #that gay ass emotional stuff #im too bi for this #johnny silverhand #valerie rose palencia #silverv #val / johnny #Val / johnny silverhand #alt cunningham #dakota smith #panam palmer #bryce mosely #believe it or not #cyberpunk 2077 #cyberpunk 2077 spoilers #my god im dying with all these tags HELP #can you feel the sun #my fics

[sanktagenyas]

ok so i finally watched those last three episodes. i said buckle up it’s time to suffer and by the saints did i ever suffer. i just knew the darklina scenes were gonna be rough to watch. it was already rough reading the scenes as they were written in book one. i mean the darkling just shines with his intelligence in that chapter, doesn’t he? threaten the man she loves? well the other man she loves? check! tell her she betrayed you when the reality is you’ve been telling half truths all along and didn’t trust her to make her choices? check! 

buddy this isn’t how you apologize. in the show itself it’s pretty much the same back and forth that leads nowhere. you lied to me! you ran off because my mother told you i’m not who i say i am without giving me a chance to explain! you’ve been lying or bending the truth since we met! YOU TURNED YOUR BACK ON YOUR COUNTRY!

by that point i was just like chill the fuck out man you’re about to decimate many many countrymen and you know it. i loved that the stop they made was all about him getting revenge on the man who attempted on alina’s life, that was very unhinged of him and i was HERE for that shit but everyone else in that port? every other woman and child and man on that port? not all of them played a hand and he just went ahead and had them slaughtered without batting an eye. and it’s not like he has some kind of safeguard for grishas does he? how does he know there’s no grisha wherever he’s expanding the fold? some could be in hiding because they fled, because they didn’t want to serve the king. oh well he doesn’t really care about those people does he? we all saw how he spoke about those deserters to arken.

also he could NOT handle alina’s harsh truths about how his own actions are harming grisha close to him even though he claims that every choice he’s made was to protect them and empower them. when she brought up genya i was like yes you better look down you motherfucker! you did this to her, you delivered to her abuser over and over. 

we saw his backstory, some of it and he acted out of grief and rage. he toyed with magic he did not understand and of course he didn’t intend this but his reaction to the fold once it was all said and done was definitely foreshadowing what he was to become. i created something he said defiantly. you created something you don’t have control over. and now he’s done it again somehow, he’s got brand new creatures following him at the end.

i actually felt for young aleksander for losing the woman he loved but the arrogance and the recklessness he showed there is still the same arrogance he has now. he thinks he has thought his plan through but that’s just working off the assumption that no one opposes him ever otherwise he went ahead and put a target on grisha’s backs. he definitely put a target on alina’s back although i know that was never the plan. the fact that when he has a perfectly good remedy to the fold, a chance to actually fix his mistakes once and for all he turns its back and decides to make it ten times worse, chooses ruling via fear over hope is jusr a sign of how far he’s gone. and he didn’t waver once not even when alina was pleading with him that he could have made her his equal, that they could have stayed together and made ravka safe together if only he gave her a choice, he was still manipulative and lied to her face.

at this point i just don’t think his love for her outweighs his belief that he knows what’s best for ravka, what’s the best way to protect grisha. because he doesn’t care about anyone who isn’t grisha at all. he was persecuted like so many others. he won a war for a king centuries and that king turned on him. i’m sure he’s looking at the current one knowing that once grisha have exhausted their uses that king will turn on him too. the fold is just a different kind of war and if he wins that one for the king the darkling already knows what the outcome will be. 

so to summarize this whole darkling commentary here i understand where he is coming from, i understand the fear and the rage and the desperation. it’s not working out for him though. he’s feared but he’s alone. for every ivan there’s a zoya. for every man who’s blindly loyal to him there’ll be someone rising up to oppose him eventually. and if it’s not his own people it’ll be non grisha folks. he has the second army working for him still, but he is alone. and that’s no one’s fault but his own because alina was willing to work with him. 

speaking of alina i loved every second of her rising up to oppose him telling him she never needed him. she may have fallen in love with him but she never actually needed him to be powerful, she only needed to free herself of the restraints she’d put on her powers out of fear. i also thought that the way she freed herself of his control made more sense than it did in the books. 

i have hope for darklina still despite all that’s happened despite how positively full of rage ans resentment she is because she still loves him, she still listened when he pleaded with her that they needed each other if they wanted to deal with the fold. of course there’s the slight issue of him lying directly and manipulating her to do his bidding and of course the fact that he took her power from her. the only thing that was her and he perverted it for his own gain. i think it just might take more than a year for her to forgive him i’m afraid. i don’t necessarily see a path to redemption right now but reconciliation? alina can be merciful, she can be forgiving. i think all it would really take is just one selfless act, one show of good faith. if he keeps pursuing her and mal and keep trying to rob her of her agency however i don’t see them ever having any kind of closure.

i don’t think i need to expand much more on my thoughts on malina. i’m not feeling what the show wants me to feel. i’m not seeing them as these soulmates that belong together. to me they’d be better of as best friends. the darkling didn’t make her strong he tried to steal her strength for his own use but mal doesn’t make her strong either, she relies too much on him. mal actually was pretty damn resourceful when left on his own. i unfortunately couldn’t say the same for alina. co-dependant love is not better than toxic love and darklina’s toxicity (most of it) comes from the lies and from the darkling repeatedly choosing for alina. he’s not brave enough to just tell her what he intends to do and let her decide whether to align herself with him so he lies and he deceives instead. not much he can do to undo it now but he could help actually destroy the fold if he wanted to. i don’t know if he’ll ever come around to it though.

the darkling visiting mal with the sole purpose to rub it in his face that alina and he are immortal and so eventually mal will die and then he could just swoop in was just peak comedy. the way he delivered that line too you’d think he was talking to an insect not another human being. it was brilliant. mal echoing that same line but ending it with “the past will do it for me” was pretty good, nice quip i’ll give mal that but also terribly ironic when you see the ending.

team crows remains the highlight for me. kaz and inej and their unspoken love for each other is just killing me. i can tell there are personal traumas there that i don’t know about (gotta read those damn books and quick) what with kaz not being able to help tend to her wounds and the fact that there were moments were i could see there was maybe a kiss about to happen or an embrace (at the end when kaz let alina go free and made a deal not to rat her out) and it just didn’t happen. there’s a story there about kaz and his distaste for being touched/touching others. jesper is just here to look pretty, shoot shit and be the most charming person in any crowd. i’m in love. also someone give him his goat back for the love of god.

nina and mathias were entertaining for sure. with all that banter and all these jabs i should have really seen them falling for one another coming. i felt like it was perhaps a bit rushed but i guess there’s nothing like almost freezing to death together to make you reconsider your views. you know the whole saving of lives thing can really bond you. the waffle date was adorable. was not expecting nina to just brand herself a traitor for him and she’s damn lucky fyedor came on that mission because i’m pretty sure ivan wouldn’t even have offered to keep her name out of the report. she and mathias ended their story both heartbroken and separated. i really hate that he thinks this was all intentional. really hope she’ll join the crows on their next con job. and i also cannot wait to see the look on heleen’s face when kaz buys inej’s freedom.

i was not at all expecting zoya to turn against the darkling. that’s what happens when you turned down one of your fuck buddies, aleksander they get bitter and then they leave you to be eaten alive by volcras. ok but in all seriousness she did the right thing and i hope she finds her family even if they’re not alive so she can say her goodbyes. 

oh and completely unrelated but since i talked about heights of comedy before i really need more sassy! darkling in my life. he is everything. that quip about his speech. the way he said adorable like he was gagging on the word. him just letting david be his dorkiest self and raise his hand before speaking, that little put upon sigh. i love sassy! darkling almost as much as jealous and petty darkling which is saying a lot. just more of that. it humanizes him, i’m tired of villains who are forever stoic and stone face. 

i think i about covered everyone and everything that happened in those remaining episodes. all in all shadow and bone is an amazing adaptation, really faithful to the first book. they made some changes to the characters which in turn changed some dynamics (alina actually admitted she wanted to be with the darkling. out loud. to his face. book!alina would never and book!darkling would never cry in front of her.) but it made for surprising viewing. it also made me become even more attached to some characters (the darkling let’s be real) which made me care more which is why i was livid when they started making a lot of terrible no good choices.

i was just really blown away by this show and the way the grishaverse was brought to life and above all major props to the actors who all just seemed to be born to play their respective roles. 

#shadow and bone spoilers #sab spoilers #darklina #alina starkov #aleksander morozova #inej ghafa #nina zenik #mathias helvar #jesper fahey #kaz brekker #zoya nazyalensky

[cdarkheartzero]

Today’s theme-

“Diary of a security guard part 4- “His own legs”

Data log entry 6553

I barely even started my shift before I got the news. Three smeets had disappeared at some point during the night and -OF COARSE- the little shit was one of them.

Receiving the names of Zim and Skoodge wasn’t surprising. Those two were always together and up to something but I was shocked when the keeper said “Smeet Tak”. TAK? She was usually fairly well behaved. Few fights here and there, sure but this? Especially because she hates Zim. Why would she join them? At least that’s what I hoped for anyway.

Since the “snack heist” episode, I assumed the boys were off to find another “treasure chest” of pure sugar so I figured I would check the pantries first. They weren’t stupid enough to do the same closet twice in a row but I would bet my monies that’s where they were.

[[MORE]]

Stumbled down the halls when I noticed a door slightly left ajar. Yup. There they were. As I approached I could hear a conversation being had between Tak and Zim. GOOD. I can grab them all at once. I slowly opened the door juuuust enough to squeeze my body through and crept in behind boxes , eyeing the mess of once-again ripped open junk food and wrappers littering the floor. I sat behind a rather large box (big enough to shield me from sight at the very least) and waited for the opportunity to pounce.

Skoodge was sitting on the floor very much invested in the “ploof puffs” he was shoving into his adorable chubby face. Not really paying much mind to the other two. Zim and Tak sat atop two boxes staring each other down. Tak had her back to me and Zim was so fixated on his enemy, that he didn’t notice me peeking out from the box behind her. I could see on Zim’s face that SOMETHING said before my arrival was eating at him. The conversation continued-

“I’m telling you the truth, Zim.”

“There is NO WAY you did it on your own, Tak.”

“You think I’m lying? Or is your pride eating away at you because I’m clearly the superior soldier to-be?”

“There is NO WAY YOU would hurt my pride. BESIDES, how could someone with your intellectual shortcomings accomplish something soldiers are trained YEARS to do?!”

“Okay, fine. This will shut you up, you reject!”

I couldn’t see her face but she stood straight and her body tighten, I could see her fists turning pale by the amount of pressure she was putting on them. The ports on her back slowly opened and her PAK legs menacingly emerged. Awkwardly crawling out and wobbling as the touched the ground and lifted her mid air.

Skoodge panicked and fled at the sight of the thin, metallic limbs- having never seen or been told about these things prior, this must have been quite terrifying. And it’s true. I was shocked myself. The shit was right. Irken soldiers are taught how to use these well into their military training and it takes a tremendous amount of skill and concentration to activate. For a smeet this was basically unheard of. Tak May very well be the most advanced smeet in Irken history.

Zim was.... far from impressed. He puffed his cheeks and pouted quietly as Tak spat insult after insult to him, Landing harsh and pride crushing comments. I almost felt sorry. It wasn’t until one of her legs abandoned its position of stabilizer and shakily made its way toward Zim’s throat that I knew I had to step in NOW.

Not wanting to use my taser on her, I did the next best thing. I took my boot off and smacked it on the PAK leg closest to me, knocking her off balance and bringing her hurdling downwards. The PAK legs quickly retreated back into their holder and the small Irken was left confused and slightly stunned by the secret attack.

Skoodge ran over to me, tears in his eyes, wailing about the scary legs. He clung to my foot tight. Real tight. Kid has a good grip. I (and my newfound leech) walked over to Tak to picked her up. She just stared at the floor, quickly blinking and not saying a word. Man.... I got her good. I put her to my chest and she didn’t budge. It was unnerving to say the least but she was still alive so.... I just gotta gather the last one.

Zim was spaced out. Totally lost in thought. Didn’t even twitch when I approached him. Seeing those legs really internally triggered something. I scoop him up and stare. I might have well had not been there as far as he was concerned. He was gone from this place.

We get back to the smeetery and I drop off Zim and Skoodge (Skoodge waved me good-bye too. He is so cute sometimes) and made my way to the medical ward with Tak. Just to make sure I didn’t mess her up too bad, you know? The staff there assured me she was okay and just stunned but I told them to keep her for testing anyway. Can’t have that on my conscience.

By the time I got back to the smeetery, Zim was gone and Skoodge was alone, doing some light reading in the form of a cooking magazine. Where he got it, I didn’t ask. It was unusual to see these two separated though. “Where is Zim?” I asked confused. “Hmmm?” He hummed with a slight jump. Must’ve startled him. “Zim wanted to go to the tube room. Is Tak okay?”

I couldn’t help but smile. “Yeah. She’s fine. You okay though?”

“Yeah. That was just scary.”

“They really aren’t. Just another tool we have to protect ourselves and aid ‘n battle. One day you will be trained to use yours too.”

His eyes lit up in wonder and confusion “I HAVE THEM TOO?????”

“Yup. But it’s totally normal you can’t use them yet though. The fact that Tak could is real unusual. I know you’ll get there.” I said ruffling his antenna. He let out a laugh and smiled “Thanks”

“Anytime. Imma see what the little shit is up to.”

“HAVE FUN!” He joyfully waved as I walked away. Skoodge is unusual too. Now that I think about it, everyone associated with the little shit is so quirky. This batch of smeets...they really do have bright futures ahead of them.

Walking through the doors to the usually silent unborn sleeping chambers, the room echoed with low, muffled grunts and heavy breathing. I know this voice. I just had to find him.

Tucked off to one of the corners of the massive room, Zim was doubled over panting, clutching at his chest. His PAK opened and his legs partially exposed, spazzing and sparking, filling the air around him with a dangerous electrical charge. Never in all my life have I seen a PAK respond this way. His body seized, confulsing constantly. His eyes welled with tears, sweat dripping down his entire frame. Veins bulged out of his skin.

Here is something ya gotta know about Irken anatomy. PAKs serve as a second brain and is connected to the organic brain through the spine by a series of wires. Some things are only possible BECAUSE of this connection. Like using PAK legs. The host needs to be able to simultaneously create a gateway both consciously and subconsciously to allow data to flow between the two. Using the legs as an extension of their organic bodies. Being able to tell each of the 4 legs to move independently but having enough focus to not completely be distracted by it. Kinda like breathing. Your brain knows to do it automatically. But if you wanted to, you could alter its patterns. Except a loss of control would mean a comrade getting empaled. Concentration and data input is everything. I’m gettin side tracked though, I didn’t even know it was POSSIBLE to see the bridge between the two minds. But here they were. I could see every ridge, every curve of the wiring violently throbbing.

This is bad. THIS IS SO BAD.

I tried to grab him- he needed medical attention ASAP. WHAT ON IRK WAS HAPPENING!? But as I reached for him, the legs became defensive and started stabbing in my direction. The electrical charge strengthened too. Zim coiled into himself more. He wanted to scream. I could see it in his face. But every time he opened that yap of his- there was nothing.

Oh, My tallest. The closer I got to him, the more his PAK simultaneously defended/harmed him. I screamed for help. Someone.... ANYONE, please. Come! I have no idea what’s going on!

“....z-zara....” I heard faintly between gasps and groans. He reached his hand to me. FUCK THIS. I cannot let the suffering go on any longer. I’m sorry, Zim. But I gotta do this.

I grabbed my taser out and gave his PAK a short jolt, praying that it would short circuit and reboot. His legs stabbed into my hand before going limp, just like the rest of him. The bright pink lights emminating from his back faded to a faint, dim color. But it was still lit. Please. PLEASE. Be okay.

There was a moment of silence. Felt like a decade though, wondering if it worked. Or if I just made the worst mistake of my career.

“REACTIVATING”

The PAK light shone bright again and gave the body a single jolt. The legs instantly retracted. He stirred, groaning. He opened his eyes slowly and blinked a few times, not a single word spoken between us. He looked at me, pained and spiritually drained. “Zara....” he finally said.

I grabbed him and gave him a hug. I was so relieved. He was okay. He just accepted my embrace. He didn’t have the strength to fight. Slowly pulling him away, I could finally speak. “Imma take you to the medical station, okay?” He replied with a humm. Response accepted.

The smeetery staff rushed in (it was so hard to believe only a moment had passed In real time) but I took it upon myself to hand deliver him where he needed to be. It was a long, unsettlingly uncomfortable walk. But this.... I wanted to be here. I needed to. Unfortunately, we soon arrived to the medical station and I finally had to hand him off and return to my shift. I didn’t wanna leave him. Not one bit. I can’t even imagine how he was feeling. But I have a job to do. We gave each other a sad look as we parted. There was a slight pain in my chest the whole time.

The rest of the day dragged on what seemed like years but within a few hours, Zim had been released from care and returned to the Smeetery by a member of the medical staff. She just silently walked in, spoke to a smeetery staff member, placed him on the floor and disappeared. I was thrilled (I would never tell him that though). But I can tell he was still deeply upset. I approached him and asked if he was okay. His eyes said more than his words ever could. I picked him up. I honestly don’t have a game plan but... he needs a few minutes to breathe, I think.

I wave to another guard and ask her to take my place. She saw the smeet I held close and said “fine. But you owe me one.” Wouldn’t be the first time Kira helped me out. She was probably the closest thing to a friend I had in this place. I thanked her and took my leave. Zim didn’t really ask any questions. Just kinda went for the ride.

We wound up in a pantry. I sat down on the cold floor and put him next to me. This... was awkward. I couldn’t figure out what to say or do. Or even why I wound up HERE of all places. Why not my office???? Thankfully, he tore me away from my thoughts and broke the ice.

“Why are we here? Don’t you usually want Zim OUT of the pantry?”

“Uhhhhhh.... you looked like you needed a few minutes to breathe.”

He hugged his knees. “Zim is fine.”

There was that silence again. I’m the adult here. I gotta do something....right?

“You know, the thing with Tak has never happened before.”

“Just rub it in...” he mumbled burying his face into his legs.

“But, you were able to pull yours out too. Even just a little. That’s impressive too.”

“I’m not sure if you noticed, but mine tried to kill me.”

“Maybe yours are just-“

“The medical staff-“ he cut me off “told me I might never be able to use them right. That Zim might be “defective”.”

I was agitated to say the least. How can you say something like that to a smeet? A BABY? This little soul who just began living this life he never asked for? My emotions got the best of me. “Listen here, Zim. Maybe you can’t use your legs the way she does. Or the way I do. But I know you will find a way. You have never bowed down when the odds were stack against you before. Why start now?”

He didn’t stir. I passionately rambled on “you are a lot of things. Cunning. Manipulative. Obsessive. Persuasive. Passionate. But you are damn smart. I’m constantly surprised by your ingenuity and craftsmanship. You know how good I am at dismantling your bombs at this point? You challenge those around you to grow and be better. I wish you WOULDN’T challenge me with explosives, mind you, but you aren’t defective. No way, no how. You are different. And no one said different is bad. Just means you leave your mark in ways no one expected before. And maybe that scares some but.... I believe that you can do amazing things. And screw em If they don’t see it.”

He let out a small chuckle. It was refreshing to hear, even if it was a sad, emotionally drained laugh.

“Does that mean you don’t hate me?”

“I didn’t say all that now.”

He smiled with sorrow and hugged himself tighter.

Maybe that was a little too deep. I was actually kinda embarrassed for that. But.... perhaps I could say something else to make him feel better. “You know” I started “when I have a bad day, I like to look at the stars. You can’t see them here but they always put me at ease.”

“Stars?”

“Yeah. They exist outside the planet, in space. Burning, exploding balls of chemicals. Mostly hydrogen and helium. But from Irk’s surface, they are just beautiful bright lights littering the sky. You can’t see them everywhere here ‘cuz of the brightness of the surface’s refelection in our atmosphere. But I came from the sugar mines before I was a guard. It’s a lot less industrial and darker there so it was always so much easier to see.”

“Burning balls? Really?” He scoffed, amused and confused but intrigued.

“I guess tellin’ you about ‘em doesn’t do it justice. Here. Let me show you. Computer.”

My PAK lit up and released a small floating, mechanical ball with a small circular screen used for projections. Zim just stared. “Show us stars.”

As instructed, the screen painted a gorgeous night sky (as “night” as Irken pink skies get anyway) glistening with hundreds of stars. Zim stared, taken aback. There was a slight sparkle in his face. Good. This helped. Thank the Tallest. The projection stayed active for only a moment before I thought it was enough. Without saying anything, the orb returned to where it had come from.

“You okay?” I finally asked, knowing the answer already but hoping for the best.

“.... can we stay here a little bit longer?”

I can tell in his voice, he was embarrassed. Ashamed. Depressed. Confused. Self-loathing. His whole world thrown in a blender. “Sure” I said pulling him closer to my leg. I kept my hand on his back, gently stroking it. Imagine my surprise when he accepted my compassion and snuggled up to me.

I couldn’t tell what he was thinking but all my organic brain kept repeating was “just be there for him.” I dunno what this feeling in my spooch could have been but it felt knotted and twisted at the sight of his misery. I had to look away. What is this smeet? Why does he make me feel this way? Do I have a bug? Is this something else I don’t understand? ...You know what? It’s Best not to think too much about it, I guess. Just take in this silence with the little shit. He will be back to his old self tomorrow I bet.

Zara signing off

#invader zim #iz #zim #zero’s art #sketch #iz fanart #zero’s oc zara #iz smeet #smeet zim #irken smeet #skoodge #iz tak #tak invader zim

[sunnywritesstuff34]

At Times,

(Oh boy oh boy, another installment in the “Sasuke is raised by the Akatsuki au” yay. This one is a little weird and underdone but I. I tried. Also sprinkled some mythology in there because i wanted to. hurrah. Anyway, here is some fluffy stuff, yeah. good ole fluffy. next one probably won’t be. but you know. also I am jumping all over the place this timeline is not linear i will be jumping all over the damn place so you know. @ghostjellyfishheart i made another one.)

TW and CW for: child injury, semi-gratuitous depiction of serious injuries, sort of amnesia, fucked up sleep schedules/habits, kidnapping, distress, probably ooc characters, this is a long one brace yourself but its mostly fluff i swear, tell me if I missed anything. 

Sasuke woke up alone, for some reason. He opened his eyes carefully, sitting up. That action wasn't without pain of course, suddenly it felt like liquid fire had been poured into his veins, specifically his arm. He hissed through his teeth and looked blankly at it. His arm looked the same as the last time he looked at it, except a lot worse. A lot worse. Broken, it was clearly broken at the elbow. Well, it looked like he wouldn't get to sleep in afterall. Sasuke looked around him to try and get a grasp on his surroundings, and found that he was sitting in the middle of the woods, propped up against a tree. He groaned as he tried to get to his feet, scanning his surroundings again. He didn't see anything or anyone, but forced his sharingan away regardless. What happened? He couldn't remember. He must have gotten separated from the others, he’d been on a mission with Sasori and Deidara, right? And then… something happened. Sasuke felt panic grow in his chest. There had to be somewhere close he could go to collect his thoughts. His arm was beginning to scream, the numbness from unconsciousness wearing off. He was awake now, and the pain was only going to get worse. He gritted his teeth. Oh well. He’d been through worse. Conveniently, when he looked around, he found a path not too far from the tree he’d woken up at and began to follow it. He felt… heavy. Sasuke reached into his pocket, trying to figure out what he had on him should the need to defend himself arose. A couple of kunai that he nearly stabbed his fingers on when he reached into his pocket, and… something else. He pulled it out and his face twisted in disgust. A Hidden Sand Village headband. Was that who found him? Maybe? He was half tempted to throw the band into the brush but decided against it, tucking it back into his pocket. Not too far away, he came to a town that he… recognized. Degarashi Port, he realized. How did he get to Degarashi port? That's in the land of tea. Where is Sasori and Deidara? Itachi? Where is… anybody? Fuck, he’d really stepped in it now. He couldn't remember if something had happened, couldn't remember how he ended up here. Well that's head trauma for you, he thought bitterly. He probably had some type of head trauma. That was a good explanation. He was wearing his traveling clothes, his cloak and a sun hat he could use to cover his face if he needed to. Walking through the town, he tried to go over what he could remember. He’d been with Deidara and Sasori in tea country to assassinate some major leader. They had been scouting out a piece of land to see if they could camp there. And then… and then Sasori shouted something, and the scorpion tail, and then Deidara’s face looked more alarmed than Sasuke had ever seen it… and then nothing, for a while. And then… he paled. Fuck. something had happened, something bad. He’d been captured by someone who recognized him somehow, for what he was, who he was. Something about his eyes, something about the sharingan, forcing him to show it to them. Somehow he managed to get away; either he killed them and ran or stole away. Either way, he was in public now, so getting kidnapped wasn't so much an issue anymore. No one would snatch a kid in broad daylight in front of everyone, or at least, he didn't think so. 

He meandered down the road, trying to clear his foggy head and look for a plan of action. His broken arm was tucked under his cloak, safely out of sight. Other than that, he didn't look like anything out of the ordinary, for the most part. He turned a corner into an alleyway, leaning back against the wall. He knew this place like the back of his hand because of how many times he’d been there, it was kind of ridiculous how many bloodthirsty people there were in a place called the land of tea. He needed to get back to the land of Wind, he needed to get back to the lair. Deidara and Sasori had to be somewhere else. Whoever captured him had been smart, they probably led them to somewhere that was a dead end. He had to get back on his own, and Sasuke could do that. Probably. Maybe. Hopefully. No, he had to. He would. He would get home. Whatever happened was important, he knew that. He had to get back home because of… because of what? Couldn't remember, whatever it was, he had to get back to the Akatsuki lair. When had he started calling it home? 

“Oh my god, hold on, I know that kid!” Sasuke turned around just in time to lay eyes on four people. One of them was tall, white haired with an eyepatch and a bored expression. The other three were kids, around his age. One of them was dressed in a long sleeved crop top and his skin was so pale and grey Sasuke almost thought he was dead. After a few seconds of looking at him, he understood better. Black hair, serious eyes, fake smile. He's seen that before. The third person is a girl, short pink hair and wide green eyes. And the fourth… he felt his heart jump up into his throat. Blond, blue eyes. A stupid, stupid fucking smile. His mind flashes back years to being stranded at a boring hotel with an obnoxious boy around his age. Part of him wants to disappear, and the other part is grateful to see someone who’s just a little bit familiar. The blonde ran over to him. 

“Sasuke!” he called. “Hey, hey Sasuke! It's me, it's Naruto!” He remembered that name, and he remembered that face from a long time ago out in the country side. Sasuke must have been around twelve then, bored out of his mind because of how long Kisame and Itachi were taking to get a job. He didn't have a single friend his age at that point, (he still didn't, but he wouldn't think about that) so it was kind of refreshing to meet someone else like him. Even if it came in the form of a loud annoying boy with the brain of a toddler that screamed his name constantly and had no idea what it meant to keep his voice down. 

“Naruto,” Sasuke said bluntly. “I um- I can tell. That it's you.” The other three people followed behind and Sasuke did his best to figure them out. The girl, pink hair, is looking at him with something like admiration. He couldn't tell if that was a good thing or a bad thing. The other two seemed more cautious, the black haired one still smiling blankly but more on guard and the white haired adult… Sasuke got the creeping feeling that he was being analyzed right back. He tucked that into the back of his mind for later. This person was dangerous. He knew that much. 

“Who’s this, Naruto?” the girl asked. Naruto glanced at her. 

“Huh? Oh! Sakura, this is Sasuke.” He turned back to his friend. “And Sasuke, this is Sakura, Kakashi, and Sai. Sasuke’s a friend from a while ago, on that journey with Jiraiya?” Sasuke’s head was turning particularly slow. He blinked. 

“J-Jiraiya? Like the legendary Sannin?” Naruto’s smile grew wider. He probably thought Sasuke was impressed by his trainer, but in reality, Sasuke was thinking well, the last time I met a Sannin, he tried to cut out my eyes and/or use me and Itachi for creepy ritual stuff, that was not a good time. Of course, Naruto didn't need to know the inner workings of his mind. In his confused and half delirious state, Sasuke wondered idly if Naruto had a similar experience with Jiraiya. He doubted it, frankly. 

“Hello. My name is Sai,” the black haired boy said robotically. Sasuke didn't trust him, and he didn't trust that smile. At all. Still, he gave a half wave with his good hand. 

“Sasuke knows Ninjutsu!” Naruto said proudly. White hair, Kakashi, raised an eyebrow. 

“Oh? And what village is he from?” Naruto frowned. Sasuke tried not to grimace. He remembered his interactions with Naruto very, very clearly. They traded techniques, beat the hell out of each other a little bit, had a lot of fun and shared memories and thoughts they hadn’t ever shared with anyone before, and then… and than Sasuke noticed the leaf headband and disappeared without a word. He used any excuse to be anywhere else, because this kid was a leaf ninja. He couldn't risk it. He could never have been friends with someone like that. 

“Hey, I never gotta ask. Where ya from anyway?” Naruto asked.

“H-Hidden Sand,” Sasuke said quickly, pulling the almost forgotten badge from his pocket and showing it to them. Kakashi seemed to approve, and Naruto smiled. 

“Damn, Sunagakure? I've got some friends from there, that's-” 

“What's a Sand village ninja doing this far south?” Kakashi asked contemplatively.

“Lets just say I got… separated from my squad,” Sasuke told them, a plan beginning to form in his foggy mind. “I know the area here, I could help you get back to Fire Country. Do you think you can help me get back to Suna? I… erm… a sort of… diplomatic mission?” Naruto smiled wider, something Sasuke hardly thought was possible. 

“Sure! Gaara’s the Kazekage, he’s like, my best friend. No problem at all!” Kakashi sighed.

“Okay, what could possibly go wrong? Just a little pit stop at Suna, nothing more, nothing less…” Sasuke felt himself let out a breath of relief. At some point they started walking back towards the woods after Sasuke pointed to a couple of spots on the map, and at one point or another, the pain in Sasuke’s arm began to build. He stumbled on the forest path. 

“Woah there kiddo, what's going on?” Kakashi asked. The sensei gently moved him to a tree and had him sit down against it. The girl, Sakura, moved forward, and after examining him for a second or two she uncovered his arm. Kakashi raised an eyebrow as Naruto and Sakura winced. 

“Y-You're arm is broken!” Sakura exclaimed. Sasuke blinked at her blearily. 

“Uh… y-yes,” Sasuke managed. “It… it is.” She picked up his arm gingerly and began to look over it with a solemn expression. “I need to set it, and then apply some medical jutsu. It's a bad break. Why didn't you say something earlier, stupid?” she demanded. Sasuke blinked at her again. 

“S-Sorry. Today has been… rather trying,” he muttered. 

“Yeah, sure seems like it,” Naruto muttered. “We should make camp, the sun’s setting anyway and it's dangerous to go down these roads in the middle of the night,” he glanced at Kakashi who sighed and nodded his ascent. 

“Hate to admit it, but you're right. Sai, come on, let's go find a clearing.” Sasuke looked over at Sakura, the pink haired girl. Her eyes were clouded with worry, concern. He didn't understand it. He didn't know her. Why was she… Sakura sighed and put a hand to his forehead. 

“Sleep, okay?” she breathed. “You look exhausted, and it won't do the healing process any favors if you try to stay awake. Just rest, you're safe now.” You're safe now. It had been so long since anybody had said that to him. He didn't know if he liked it. He wasn't safe. Sasuke… was never safe. He had never been safe, never would be. But then chakra flowed from her fingertips, and he was lulled into… something. His eyes closed. Consciousness slipped through his fingers like sand. 

When Sasuke woke up, he was more tired than he had been in a long time. His periods of rest were typically dreamless and seemingly endless, unless they were plagued by nightmares that left him screaming for help and tasting blood. This time, he woke up slowly, almost… gently. He woke up to a forest ceiling made of leaves belonging to trees he had never seen before. He sat up slowly, not wanting to strain himself. 

“You're awake, teme!” Sasuke blinked and looked to his right, just to find a very enthusiastic Naruto looking back at him. He frowned and his answer was instinctive. 

“Of course I am, dobe.” Naruto only grinned more. He looked like he did when they met all those years ago. That pale kid, Sai, walked over. 

“Hello,” he called, and Naruto turned to look at him. 

“Sasuke’s awake!” Kakashi walked over too, surveying all of them.

“Yes, it appears that's the case,” he mused. “I hate to say this Sasuke, but you should probably try to go back to sleep. These idiots only have a few more hours of sleep left before we have to head out.” Sasuke only nodded. If there was one thing he was familiar with, it was weird sleep schedules. He was used to waking up at the crack of dawn or the middle of the night at the drop of a hat. That's just how he’d lived and had to live. He suspected that these ninjas must have lived a similar way. It certainly seemed that way. He had to fight the waves of rage that crept into his chest at seeing their headbands. Leaf soldiers. They were leaf soldiers. In any other circumstances he would slit all of their throats and run, but he needed them. And besides, he didn't know if he’d ever be able to do that to Naruto. Ever. It was disturbing, how averse he was to hurting this Konoha dog. It didn't feel right. He only nodded at Kakashi’s instruction and laid his head back down on the bedroll, frowning. 

“What… where did you get this extra bed roll?”

“It's mine! I let you sleep in it,” Naruto chimed in. Sasuke blinked at him. 

“And… why did you do that?” Naruto rolled his eyes.

“Uh, you were injured. You obviously need it more than me.” Sasuke couldn't help but smile. 

“That's… thank you.” He rolled over and froze after a moment. He sat up again. “Where’s- where’s my sword?” Naruto frowned and went rummaging on the other side of his sleeping area. He produced the chokuto, scabbard and all. Sasuke breathed a sigh of relief. 

“Geeze, all that for a blade?” Naruto muttered. After a few seconds of looking at it, he asked another question. “Why’s it so important?”

“I made it myself. Forged it with some help. It's called Kusanagi.”

“That's a cool name.” Sasuke closed his eyes and laid down. 

“It means grass cutter.” He mumbled, thinking of old stories his brother used to tell him in the dead of night. “There’s a whole story about it. Once there was an old god who roamed the plains of earth. He met some younger gods when they told him about a giant snake that terrorized them and kept eating their daughters. They offered their daughter’s hand in marriage if he could defeat the snake. When he did, he found out that there was a sword embedded in the snake's tail, a sword that could control the wind. He used it to ward off flames rising in the dry grass plains, that's why it was called grass cutter.”

“Wow,” Naruto muttered. “That's a cool story.” 

“Mhm,” Sasuke mumbled back. “It was one of my favorites.” They both nodded off soon after, and Sasuke fell asleep oddly well for being with the enemy. Better then usual, anyway. 

#that was an abrupt ending #sorry my brain said no thank you fam #sasuke does not understand genuine emotion #as a medical nin and a normal person Sakura likes him but is also just worried about him as another human being #and he does not #he cannot comprehend #Itachi was never great at emotions #he certainly tried #kakashi does not really like how this is going #but he doesn't have reason to suspect much so he's going along with it #Sai is just entirely checked out #like this boy tired #he also doesn't really give a shit #naruto is happy #like the mythology i sprinkled in there? #ehehehehe #im a nerd #and the name of his sword was interesting #but um #sasuke is doing okay #but you can only imagine how Itachi's doin rn #cause its not #its not great #he's gonna be dropping bodies until he finds his brother #bcus you know #itachi be that way #he's quirky like that #yk #naruto fanfiction #naruto au

[matrixreimagined]

The Dream Chronicles Chapter 7

I always forget to post this here! lol

A03 Story Link

A03 Chapter Seven

Trinity woke with the ship.

The gentle hum of the systems rebooting, coming out of their overnight stasis. She heard the lights in the hall flicker on and reach their gentle hum.

She opened her eyes.

Neo was still lost to sleep, his face relaxed and content. She ran a hand down his cheek. Stubble was starting to form. The hair on top of his head was also quickly growing into what looked like a buzzcut. It was cute, she thought, but his haircut in the Matrix had suited him much better. It somewhat softened his features.

It would grow back, she knew. Just as hers had done, fifteen years ago.

She wished she could just stay and watch him sleep. But there were things to do and everyone had been slacking since finding the One. Morpheus was letting it slide because he was so excited himself, but they needed to stay on top of things. Especially repairs. The last thing they needed was for the ship to break down while everyone on board was celebrating and watching Neo kick ass all through the construct.

Sighing, she tried to slip out of his arms, only for his grip to tighten, pulling her back to his chest with a dissatisfied groan.

Try as she might, she couldn't help the smile on her face. For a poddie, Neo was already shockingly strong.

"Don't you dare," he muttered.

"I need to shower," she replied, squirming as she tried to fight his vice-like grip.

"Smell good to me."

She smirked. "I'd like to keep it that way." She slipped down and out of his arms, quickly stepping to her feet.

His eyes cracked open, a lazy grin on his face. "Want help scrubbing your back?"

"Some other time," she promised, grabbing a fresh set of clothes from her shelves.  She leaned down to press a kiss to his forehead. "I'll be back soon."

Neo hummed, closing his eyes. "Miss you already."

She hurried to the wash. It appeared that no one else was up yet. She could not hear the subtle creaks that came from the crew moving about on the metal ship.

While there were two bathrooms on the ship, only one contained the showers. It was usually a fight in the morning to get there first and Trinity nearly always won.

She kept her time to a minimum, scrubbing her body down and soaping her hair, all the while knowing it wouldn't make much of a difference. In a few hours, she'd be covered in dirt and sweat from running repairs.

Still, it was soothing. And while water was plentiful in Zion due to the recycling plant, on a hovercraft, they were much more limited. Most ships allowed for showers every two days. As the Neb rarely made port in Zion, they tried to conserve water the best they could. Meaning, oftentimes, they were limited to twice-weekly showers.

The urge to get back to Neo was surprisingly overwhelming. She told herself it was only because they'd have to spend the day separately and not because his absence weighed on her every moment that they were apart.

She had lived without him for decades but now minutes dragged by.

Trinity dried off quickly before dressing for the day and slipped back into the hall. Dozer's door was open, as was Morpheus'.

She opened the door to what had quickly become hers and Neo's room.

The man in question was sitting up in bed. He had dressed for the day and made the bed before sitting back on top of it, the datapad pulled down and resting on his lap.

He looked up as she entered, a smile forming on his face that made her heart fucking stop.

"What are you looking at?" she asked to distract herself from his contagious grin, tossing her used clothes into the laundry bag.

"Catching up on the history of Zion. You know-—trying to fill in the gaps."

"How's that going?" She sat next to him on the bed, glancing down at the datapad. He was reading about the Second Machine War, judging by the pictures.

Neo shrugged. "It dually makes sense and is hard to make sense of."

Trinity nodded. "Despite your dreams, you spent thirty years indoctrinated by the Matrix. It'll be harder to let go of certain things."

Neo powered down the datapad, pushing it up behind them to its rightful station. He leaned towards her, pressing a kiss to her lips. "Good morning."

"Morning," she echoed, resting her head against his. "How are you feeling today?"

"Mentally, pretty good. I feel like I'm where I'm supposed to be."

"And physically?"

"I'll do anything you ask if you don't tell Apoc where I'm hiding."

She laughed, craning her neck to kiss his cheek. "Sorry, sweetheart. It's back to bootcamp, I'm afraid."

Neo was practically beaming at her and it took her a moment to realize the term of endearment she had laid upon him. She felt herself flush, but Neo kissed her before she could dwell on it for too long.

She let herself get lost, at least for the moment, in the tastes and sensations of Neo. She wanted to just say fuck it all… to call out sick and just stay in bed, kissing him, all day.

But it wouldn't be beneficial for either of them.

Neo still had to train, and she had a ship to run.

But a few minutes more wouldn't hurt.

............

While there was technically no time constraint on breakfast being served, they were definitely late, considering everyone else was already sitting when they walked in.

Switch wasted no time honing in on the tray in Neo's hands. "What's with the bowls and shit?"

Tank was quick to jump in on that as Neo and Trinity made their way past the table to the little kitchenette. "Oooh, that was from their date last night."

Trinity sighed as Neo set the tray in the soapy water. It was going to be a long fucking day.

"Date?" Switch nearly hollered, looking up. "What date? We're on the Neb!"

Dozer fielded that one. "They made do. Dinner, tea, bottle of my home brew."

"What? Ugh!" Switch shook their head. "I can't fucking take this."

"That's really cute, though!" Mouse piped up.

"I'm dying. I'm literally dying."

Neo stopped up next to Trin as she prepared their teas. "Think they've noticed we haven't said anything yet?" he asked, bending down to whisper in her ear.

"Definitely not." She gave him a small smile. "I'm sorry they're like this."

He kissed her head before reaching for two bowls.

"Just look at them," Tank was saying. "It's nearly nauseating."

"Nearly?" Cypher added.

"Hey, dumbasses," Trinity said loudly as Neo poured them each a serving of breakfast, "take a moment and remember who makes your schedules and decide if you really want to be doing overnights for the next month."

Apoc snickered as a collective sigh filled the kitchen. Trinity had never been so thankful for her one friend who seemed able to mind his own damn business.

She brought their teas over and sat at the end of one of the tables, Neo quickly following with their breakfast.

"You two look awfully domestic," Tank said, like he was unable to help themselves. It only made sense, thought Trinity. Of everyone on the crew, Tank was probably the least afraid of her.

"How long was that?" Trinity asked with a sigh.

"Not even thirty seconds," Neo replied evenly, slipping into the seat next to her, "although I'm not sure what you expected."

"You know what? With the exception of Neo, everyone on this crew has gone after me and Sparky for years. And now that I'm on the other side, I get it and I'm getting in on it!"

Neo smirked at the operator. "I'm not exactly innocent; I've definitely got in on going after you and Sparks on my end."

"See!" Tank said, raising a hand to accentuate his point. "This is my time to shine!"

Trinity rolled her eyes while the others chuckled, save Morpheus. He was eyeing Neo with that intense curiosity.

"You're remembering," the captain commented.

"More and more every day," Neo admitted with a glance to Trinity, remembering their conversation the previous night. "The problem is I'm not sure which dreams are reliable, and which aren't."

"What the hell does that mean?" Cypher asked.

"I mean," Neo paused trying to think of how best to explain, "it's undeniable that some of the things I know are accurate, but there's very little I trust implicitly."

"You dreamed of the club," Apoc noted, sounding curious.

"I did," Neo agreed. "Hundreds of times. And the scenarios ranged a few dozen different ways. But nothing actually matched what really happened that night. And even as far as meetings go, I had other dreams where I met Trin in a library or in a bus."

Trinity's head turned towards him quickly and he was met with a stunned silence from the rest of the room. She shook her head, sighed, and went back to her breakfast wordlessly.

The stares from the others didn't stop.

"What?"

"When Trinity and I were deciding how to make contact with you," Morpheus replied, "we discussed both your bus route and the library you frequent."

Neo glanced to Trinity and back to Morpheus.

Fuck.

"I wonder then, if instead of a fixed linear path, you've been dreaming multiple eventualities of the possible ways this could have gone."

"Oooh," said Tank, shaking his head. "Too many big words possibilities for breakfast conversation."

"Agreed," Switch jumped in. "I'd much rather hear about the shit the Messiah may or may not know."

Neo smirked, setting down his spoon into his breakfast, again leaning forward so he could see around Trinity. "Switch, with the things I know, do you really want to play with me?"

"Save the teasing for Trinity, Messiah. I want dee-tails."

Before Neo, Trinity reflected, she probably could have counted the number of times that other's antics had made her blush on one hand. She didn't embarrass easily, nor was she uncomfortable with people being sexually explicit. Case in point, three of her closest friends were Sparks, Tank, and Switch.

Now? It felt as if her cheeks were stained pink at all times.

"I can't speak to the entire validity of everything I know and remember from this world, however"—Neo kept eye contact with Switch—"do the words 'the Switch Shuffle' have the same resonance for you as they do for me?"

Trinity choked on her breakfast, coughing as she tried to swallow the goop. He looked to her, slipping a hand onto her back immediately as Switch spluttered and Apoc, Dozer, and Tank burst into laughter. The others continued to look on in stunned disbelief.

Neo continued rubbing Trinity's back in small circles as he handed her the tea. She took it gratefully, sipping to soothe her throat after the unexpected revelation.

"Oh, shit. Neo knows about the Switch Shuffle," Tank said, wiping his watery eyes. "New best day ever."

Neo shrugged, looking back to Switch. "Now, do you actually have to be drunk to perform the Switch Shuffle or is that just the only way I've seen you do it?"

"I dance better drunk," Switch confirmed, nodding in slight awe. "Okay, Messiah. Tell me about that dream."

Again, Neo shrugged, sliding his arm fully around Trinity's back to hold her against him. He stiffened as he did, remembering again that this was not his world and while Trinity was still his, she did not have the memories that he did. He went to lower his arm, but Trinity leaned into him in silent permission.

He swallowed while the others eagerly listened in. "We were in Zion at a celebration in the Temple. Switch had a little too much to drink when everyone was getting ready and arrived completely sloshed. Before Hamann could do any sort of announcements, Switch was demanding the drums start and proceeded to do the Switch Shuffle in front of half of Zion. No music, no one else dancing. Just a big circle cleared for you to… shuffle."

"That's bloody brilliant!" Switch said, nodding ferociously.

Neo picked up his spoon. "I enjoyed myself."

"What else happened?" they asked, drumming their hands on the table, bouncing in their seat.

"That was mostly it," Neo said, squeezing Trin's side. "Just dancing."

"Dancing?" Tank asked, waggling his eyebrows suggestively. "Or… you know… dancing?"

Neo said nothing, just took another bite of his breakfast.

The short answer, which he would not be sharing, was both.

He could still hear the beat in his head of the drums echoing around the Cave. Heat rolling around them with hundreds of people dancing in close quarters. Trinity pressed against his body, his arms around her as they swayed to the beat. Not caring about sweat or the people around them watching, just moving together.

Before stumbling home. Leaving the party early to kiss in empty halls and elevators. Fumbling to unlock their apartment as he pinned her to the door, before their clothes fell to the floor and their rhythm changed.

He tried not to shift as he felt himself harden.

Instead, he just took another bite.

"This is fucking wild," Mouse said, eyes wide. "I've never even seen the Switch Shuffle. I've only heard about it."

"That's because I don't drink around children."

"I'm seventeen!" Mouse whined.

"You're a baby."

"I'm old enough to drink and go into the Matrix. I should be old enough to see the Switch Shuffle."

"You're really not missing much," Trinity told him.

"Neo's seen stuff in his dreams that I've never seen in real life! How is that fair?"

"Don't worry, Mouse," said Tank, slinging an arm on the younger man's shoulders. "One day, you'll see real titties too. Just not Trinity's."

Trinity smirked, sparing a side glance at Neo. Years of worrying how the One would react to waking up in the real world were wasted down the drain.

When she had gone into the Matrix that night to find him, she was secure in the knowledge that she was at an advantage. She knew things about him. She orchestrated getting him out of his tiny apartment and to the club, had watched him for weeks on end.

And then he had said her name.

It was intimidating, sometimes, how well he knew them all. An odd anecdote about Switch's dancing skills or Deadbolt giving him a hard time, but it all came back to her.

Entwined, the Oracle had told her. Their fates were entwined and inseparable. "He'll be the One. But without you, he'll fall."

She had spent so long trying to figure out why life in the real world still felt wrong and incomplete. Like a breath caught in your throat. Taking in more and more but being unable to release. And then, he was there, and she could finally exhale.

"Oooh," said Switch, sitting up straighter. "Have any fun stories about Sparks?"

Neo blinked, tilting his head to the side in thought.

"Ease up," Trinity ordered the table softly. "Breakfast first, then interrogation."

Switch stuck out their tongue but started eating.

"You guys up for poker later?" Tank asked. "I know Neo knows all of us but maybe that would be a chance for us to know him."

Trinity glanced to Neo, inclining her head slightly and leaving the decision to him. She had to admit, it wasn't a bad idea, but he needed to do so on his own terms. When she gave no indication one way or the other, Neo nodded. "Yeah, that might be nice."

"Awesome!" Switch grinned. "I'll bring the cards, Neo brings the stories, and Dozer can bring the booze."

"I'll bring the stomach pump," Apoc added dryly before turning to Neo. "Finish up. I'll meet you where we trained yesterday."

Neo nodded, unsure what he was dreading more: the intense workout or having to let Trinity go from his arms. She felt so fucking right, leaning into him, tucked into his side. He finally understood why couples felt a need to display affection.

It wasn't about proving something. It was about never wanting to let go of something good in a world where everything else was bullshit.

The older man carried his dishes over to the sink, setting them in the water before saying a quick goodbye to everyone.

Trin leaned her head against his shoulder, briefly, before sitting up to continue eating her breakfast.

The crew at large still seemed fascinated with their interactions. Most were trying, subtly at least, to avoid staring at them.

Cypher, however, was blatantly watching them.

It made him a little uncomfortable and he tried to think back to his dream memories of the real world. While he had plenty of memories of Tank and Dozer and Switch and Apoc, even a fair few with Mouse, there were significantly less of Cypher.

He knew the man, vaguely.

Had memories with Cypher lingering in the background, watching Trinity a little too intently for Neo's liking. Mostly on the Neb. In fact, he couldn't think of any memories of Cypher in the Matrix or even in the city.

It was as if the man existed only on the ship.

He couldn't quite make sense of it, but then, things were still becoming clearer.

Trinity started giving orders out to the remainder of the crew, letting them know their jobs for the day, prioritizing a crack in the outer hull that needed to get repaired before they flew off anywhere new.

She turned to Morpheus. "I'm giving you a heads up—there's a good chance Lock is going to want a call. He wasn't too happy with the latest report."

The captain barely withheld a sigh. It was nice, Neo thought, to know some things never changed.

Neo waited for Trinity after he finished eating so he could take her bowl to the sink as well. She rewarded him with a small smile that made his heart skip a beat.

"Good luck," she said as he walked by.

He cupped her cheek as he leaned down to press a kiss to the top of her head.  "See you soon," he promised, more for his benefit than hers.

He ignored the teasing sounds from Switch and Tank as he left to continue his training. Life was good.

.............

One by one, the rest of the crew filed out of the mess hall to get back to work. Cypher and Dozer went to work on the hull, and Mouse hurried along to help with the wiring on the bridge. Morpheus left to take inventory, leaving only Switch and Tank behind with Trinity.

"So?" Tank pushed.

"You can't just let things be, can you?" Even as she said it, her lips twitched into a small smile.

"Not for all the bread in Zion. Come on! How was your date?"

"It was good"—she found herself looking down as she thought back to the night before—"really good."

"It was his idea?" Switch asked, leaning forward.

She nodded. "Yeah. Said he wanted to make sure we did this right, despite all the memories and confusion. And he's more concerned with making sure I'm comfortable than he is with this transition."

Trinity wondered if it was wrong that it made her unbelievably happy to see him trying so damn hard to make her feel safe and happy.

"It's all he seems to be focused on," Tank agreed. "Much to Morpheus' dismay."

She considered admitting what the Oracle had told her. To unleash the burden that lay on her shoulders for fifteen goddamn years and yet… she stopped herself.

She had her reasons for keeping it to herself for so long, least of all that what the Oracle said was for her and her alone. She knew she would have been weaponized if anyone had known her ties to the One.

She'd thought about telling her friends before, just so she could talk to somebody about it.

But Tank would be too excited to keep it to himself. Even if he never told, his actions lacked subtlety and Switch would have kept it to themself but would have teased Trinity mercilessly, she knew. And there was always the chance of being overheard and found out.

Of course, now the secret was mostly already out.

She and Neo were bound together.

A profound attachment that she couldn't begin to explain.

But she stopped herself from saying more about the Oracle because… well, because the only person she really wanted to share that with was Neo.

And it was stupid—he had barely gone from her sight and she already missed him and was counting down to when she'd have an excuse to touch him again.

They had spent two nights together and the thought of sleeping in her own bed alone made her queasy.

The words were already on the tip of her tongue every time she caught sight of him, and her heart ached to say them.

I love you.

But he was still so new to the real world. He was still adjusting and the last thing she wanted to do was confuse him as he learned to separate his dreams from reality.

"Morpheus'll get over it," Switch said, pulling Trinity from her thoughts abruptly. "So, have you two fucked yet?"

"Will you stop fucking asking that?!" Trin said, staring at her friend incredulously. "In what world would I ever share that kind of information?"

"This world, Neo's dream world… who cares? Come on, I mean, he stayed the night after your little date, didn't he?"

"We're sharing a space." She didn't mean for it to come off defensive, but it definitely did.

"Whatever. The fucking is inevitable. What I'm curious about is, are you two married in his world?"

Oh.

Truthfully, she hadn't thought about it.

Marriage was, after all, a simple ceremony and a piece of paper.

It was low on her priorities long before she met Neo but now… the idea of putting some kind of formal claim on him was appealing. To have him marked as taken…

She had never been particularly possessive but now it crept through her. A dark urge to keep him for her own. To lock him away where he could be safe and protected and hers. It sounded far too good for her liking.

"I don't know," she answered honestly. "But I feel like he would have said something if we were. He's been very honest about the whole thing."

"I don't know," said Switch, "you said yourself, he's concerned with making sure you feel safe. And you're kind of a flight risk. He might not be telling the full truth.""

Shaking her head, she said, "He wouldn't lie. He knows that everything between us right now is based on trust and…"

"Slow down," Switch narrowed their eyes, leaning forward. "Holy shit. You really trust this guy, don't you? Like actually trust him, trust him?"

Why did it feel like she was walking into a trap?

Trin looked away briefly before admitting, "Yeah. I do."

Switch looked to Tank. "Took this bitch years to trust me. Turns out, all it takes is a line about seeing her in my dreams and a swift make out."

Trin flipped Switch off.

"It is weird," Tank said with a shrug. "I mean, under normal circumstances, if someone walked up to me and said they knew shit about my future, I wouldn't believe them. Maybe it's because he's the One or maybe it's just because you two have your whole"—Tank waved a hand—"thing going on."

Trinity knew what he meant.

Tank tended to be as trusting as they came but the things Neo said were somewhat out of the realm of belief. And yet, she never doubted his words or his intent.

"And not for nothing," Tank added, almost as an afterthought. "I know you know more than you're saying."

Her crew wasn't stupid, that was for sure.

She nodded, unwilling to lie to her friends through anything beyond omission. "If there was anything that I felt was related to safety or the wellbeing of the crew, I would let you all know. But there are some things that don't need to be shared."

Switch snorted loudly. "You tell that to Morpheus?"

"Yes."

"How'd the Cap take that?"

"As well as can be expected." Trinity sighed. "There's a lot that I know. But there's a lot more that I don't. Until Neo and I are able to figure things out, he's just going to have to deal with it."

"Surprised you didn't figure things out last night." Tank had a teasing tone lacing his words.

"We talked some."

"Some?" the operator pushed, waggling his brow.

She kept a blank face. "Yes."

"Ugh, stop it with that!" Switch shook their head. "I get that you're keeping some things to yourself but at least tell me this: the One a good kisser?"

It took all her self-control to not let that question affect her. Because fuck. The care and attention put into each moment where they were fused together was outweighed only by the sheer passion and mutual adoration.

Kissing Neo was toe-curling, body-tensing, eye-rolling, breathtakingly perfect.

"Fucking amazing," she muttered before she could stop herself. She regretted it immediately, noting the shit-eating grins on both her colleagues' faces and Trinity sighed. "He knows me, okay? Like, in some ways we're starting this like it's new, but he still is coming in with all this information."

Tank bounced in his seat. "And when you say he knows you…"

She'd already alluded to it. In for a penny. "He's been dreaming about me for fifteen years. He knows my body better than I do."

Switch smacked Tank in the chest. "Can't take it. Can't fucking take it anymore."

"I'm literally dying," said Tank, shaking his head, "Trin, please, I am fucking begging you… let me tell Sparks!"

She shook her head. "Not until I talk to Ghost. I don't want him to hear about this third-hand."

Tank leaned forward. "Sweetheart, I'm not sure how much longer I can keep this to myself. We message every day and I keep telling him ‘not much' is going on. Not much, Trin! When we've got a living, breathing Messiah walking around and you're saying shit like that!"

"I have faith you can keep this to yourself for at least a few more days."

"I don't!"

"I can always find more work for you if you think you have enough time on your hands to be gossiping," she teased. It was an empty threat and they both knew it.

"You owe me so big, mami."

Trin rolled her eyes. "On that note," she said, "I need to get back to work. As do the two of you."

"Bo-ring," Switch sang even as they stood up. "But I guess I'll have to wait for tonight. Playing poker with the One is sure to be fun."

"It'll be something."

Trinity could only hope the crew would behave.

#the matrix #the matrix fanfiction #neo x trinity #Neo (The Matrix) #trinity (the matrix) #tmdc #the matrix dream chronicles #the dream chronicles #the matrix has queue

[tenacityreturns]

"well, shit." from whoever you want

plot: aomine and kagami get caught in the rain and return to kagami’s place for refuge. naturally, a change of clothes is in order and who better for aomine to steal from than kagami?  word count:  1911, your honour. too many, your honour

the first few raindrops didn’t bother them. it would have to be torrential before it would stop kagami from playing against aomine, but after less than a minute, it was. aomine had the ball and had been racing towards his net when it started pouring. he came to a halt gracefully: a perfect stand-still from a sprint, with the ball in one hand like it had never been moving. if kagami had seen it, he would’ve been impressed.

“well, shit,” aomine muttered while he still had air in his lungs.

kagami wasn’t so graceful. despite the coarse tarmac below his feet. he ended up skidding right into his opponent. neither fell, but it was pretty embarrassing all the same to collide together like this! kagami held onto aomine’s arm to stop himself from falling, and was quickly shaken off.

“get the hell of me!” aomine protested, turning to face the redhead.

“like i wanna touch you!”

“you grabbed me, didn’t you? now the ball’s all the way over there and since it’s your fault, you can go get it.”

“what?! that’s some stupid shit you just said, you dropped it!”

“quit fighting with me, idiot,” aomine droned. he didn’t stick around for the reply and made his way to the exit. there was no shelter around here, and both were already half-soaked, so the one-on-one was definitely postponed.

“what about my ball?” kagami was too pissed off to care about the weather! he pointed at the darkening basketball as it came to a stop behind the net post, but it was no use as aomine wasn’t watching.

“like hell i want anything to do with your balls, bakagami.”

( that little half-joke went straight over kagami’s head. ) looking between retreating teenager, and dormant ball, it was becoming clear that it really would stay there until kagami went to go and get it. the cool rain started melting his anger. actually, he didn’t mind getting the ball. in principle, he was offended that aomine didn’t just... get the fucking ball? but this wasn’t any effort. plus, he realised with a growing grin on his face, it gave him a chance at some payback for the embarrassing outburst. ( somehow, he was more embarrassed about aomine being mad he’d been bumped into, than actually pressing flush against each other for half a second. if kagami’s eyes had been open, he would have seen something very different in aomine’s eyes than the anger he was currently so focused on. )

so kagami jogged over carefully, and scooped up the basketball. he walked wide of the entrance, where aomine was now arriving, to offer the best angle for a sneak attack.

“hey, dickhead!” the redhead yelled, giving just enough warning that he would no longer feel responsible for any damage caused if the basketball he’d just thrown was to meet its mark on aomine’s stupid fucking head!

sure enough, aomine turned and reacted in just enough time to deflect it. ha! kagami could see the grimace of irritation from here! good. but within moments, it neutralised and he turned, throwing the basketball over his shoulder. aomine had been aiming, he must have been, because it practically fell into kagami’s hands as he got closer. stupid bastard, that was too cool...

he didn’t know where they’d go after this. maybe they’d go their separate ways, or maybe--- aomine would turn down the street that lead away from maji’s, away from the train station, away from the shops, and towards kagami’s apartment. the redhead jogged to catch up and then kept pace. he was about to ask where the hell aomine thought he was rushing off to, but actually, he didn’t mind if they went back to his. who knew how long this storm would last and, annoying as aomine could be sometimes, it wasn’t torture hanging out with him.

on they walked in silence. kagami passed the ball between his hands in quiet reflection, aomine hunched his shoulders and hugged himself against the onslaught. the guy looked so cold! kagami didn’t even have a jacket on and he was chilly at worst. what a baby. occasionally, kagami would catch aomine looking at him out of the corner of his eye but neither said anything. the rain would probably have drowned them out anyway.

“well?” aomine said suddenly as they finally got to the front of kagami’s building.

“what?” the redhead pushed inside, slippery hands nearly losing grip of the glass door before aomine could get inside. he stared at his still silent opponent. “well what?”

“aren’t you gonna invite me to your’s?”

hopelessly confused, kagami gestured widely around them. “we’re here? what are you talking about?”

“oh,” this idiot... why was he looking around himself like he’d only just realised? “i guess i’ll come up, if you insist.”

“insist? what the hell, are you an idiot?” kagami grumbled, rather than yelled, because the old lady who lived nearby was in the lobby and she always scolded him if he and his friends were too loud. who the hell did she think she was?! oh well, it couldn’t be helped. just as it sounded like he couldn’t avoid aomine coming over.

they dripped their way into the elevator. the air conditioning made kagami’s skin raise in goosebumps, or was it the weight of the situation settling in his mind? no more basketball today, and he’d have to change clothes. how miserable! he’d just been warming up, too! at 4 - 2, he had every chance of catching up and actually beating him! when his frowning eyes lifted from the floor to see if his companion was as miserable as he was, aomine looked quickly away. his face betrayed no particular expression. damn it, he was so hard to read!

droplets of water trailed behind them as they left the elevator and made their way to kagami’s apartment. he unlocked the door and immediately slipped his shoes off, not that that would stop the spread of water. his first port of call was to grab two massive bath towels from the cupboard. one he draped over his head, and the other he took back into the hallway where-----------

AOMINE WAS SHIRTLESS? EXCUSE ME?!!!

kagami’s garbled words got stuck in his throat, resulting in a half-yell, half-gah! a GYAHHH??? if you will. aomine’s slender figure stretched upwards as he pulled his clothes over his head, giving kagami a moment to ogle. not ogle, ogle-- like, look respectfully. oh boy, you know? just-- boys. the next second, aomine was staring at him with a frown on his face.

“oi,” he shifted his weight onto one hip, “are you just gonna stand there and let me freeze to death?”

red-faced and no longer cold, kagami threw the towel over and briskly stalked over to turn the thermostat up. his eyes betrayed him by stealing a glance as aomine pulled the towel around his shoulders. it’s just! ugh! looking dangerously close to saying something unfunny, aomine was interrupted by kagami opening his mouth without a plan. ANYTHING, please, god, just say anything so aomine wouldn’t!

“i’ll--- hang your clothes up. give them here. you’re just gonna make my whole floor soaked like that!”

“you can lend me something to wear while i wait for them to dry.”

“can?” that was just enough to get annoyed over as a distraction, thank god. “are you gonna ask like a normal person?”

“ah... probably not.”

“seriously annoying,” kagami gritted his teeth, but aomine was easier to forgive with his eyes closed. as he rubbed the towel into his hair, eyelids shut, his bored expression looked a lot closer to serene.

kagami took the balled up clothes, dripping as they were, and tried not to think about it too much. with his own towel pulled tight around his shoulders, he brought the bundle into the bathroom. separated from one another, the t-shirt and hoodie were unceremoniously hung over the shower rail to dry. ha! they were very graciously allowed to dry in kagami’s bathroom, actually! the nerve of that guy to------

“forgot these,” aomine said suddenly from behind, and even more surprising was the pair of shorts flying through the air! shorts! kagami didn’t dare turn around! they found their spot on the rail beside his other clothes, but what the fuck was aomine doing just walking around his house naked now?!

“hey,” kagami was still frozen there in the bathroom, and spoke far too dramatically for the moment. “if all your clothes are here, what are you wearing now?”

aomine made a sound very close to a laugh, then plodded away. he didn’t even say anything! so now what? he’d gone in the direction of the living room, so was he not even going to get any clothes?! what was it about people just taking their clothes off at his house!?!?!?! huffing and completely embarrassed, he launched into the hallway again.

“oi!” kagami started, but stopped his demands when he saw that his stupid guest was wearing clothes. of course he was wearing clothes. why wouldn’t he be? aomine walked away in kagami’s clothes, like they were his own. the poor host let out a relieved sigh before tending to his own wardrobe change.

once inside his bedroom, with the door shut, he started pulling off his wet clothes. his wardrobe was open, he noticed. the shelf where he kept his sweatpants had been rummaged through, and he was missing his grey hoodie from the top of the pile. ah, it was kind of cool that aomine was wearing his clothes, come to think of it. even if it was a little annoying that the guy just invited himself to do so. actually, it was really annoying.

aomine continued to be extra annoying and weird that night. when kagami returned wearing new clothes, cosy if slightly grumpy, aomine was already lounging on the sofa with basketball monthly in his hands. make yourself at home, kagami said sarcastically, to which aomine replied that he had already, no need to say it. then when kagami had been gracious enough to make them some ramen soup for dinner, aomine admitted that it wasn’t torture to eat it! what the fuck? just compliment food normally, you weirdo!

when aomine left after the rain had stopped, still wearing kagami’s clothes and with his own in a bag, he said something else. though in the same vein of a backhanded compliment, aomine said:

“wasn’t so bad hanging out and not playing basketball.”

“yeah, obviously,” kagami replied, “it’s better if rivals get along, or else they wouldn’t meet up for one-on-ones as much. right?”

“we get along...” aomine repeated thoughtfully, tucking his chin into kagami’s hoodie. that was... really cute... shut up!

“get outta here, aomine.”

“tch,” he snorted, leaving the doorway without turning back. “see ya later, idiot.”

aomine’s irritating flair was a good distraction for how bubbly he made kagami feel, at least. it was so much easier to shut the door and roll his eyes, than shut it and think about how, in hindsight, aomine hadn’t been that annoying. he’d just been awkward, right? he hadn’t known how to ask to come over, he’d wanted to wear kagami’s clothes, he’d stayed for dinner, stayed until well after dinner, and said that he’d had a nice time! but no, these realisations were lost on kagami because aomine daiki was an annoying shithead whom kagami had a massive crush on.

#aonon. #drabbles. #answered. #super old and strangely paced #i do not like it but i also know in 2 years when i come BACK to this blog AGAIN i will enjoy reading it even tho it is so stupid #set BEFORE aokaga get together #ft. stupid annoying aomine vibes

[timeforelfnonsense]

The Lusty Eladrin Maid (3/3)

Dafni x Astarion || E (very spicy) || Ao3 || Previous Chapter ||  Sunshine & Starlight: My on going bg3 series || 

All of Sunshine & Starlight is written as one shoots that can be read alone for the most part but there is a passing reference to The Bargain in this one. It’s not necessary to read it before but it might clear some things up!

Italicized quotes are implied elvish Translations (via Candle Keep) & Lore: Veluthe - Beautiful Arael’sha - Heart-Friend (term of endearment) Lore on elves  (just the basics) 

Marsember - the City of Spices, a metropolis and the busiest port  in the entire kingdom of Cormyr.

Dafni’s breath hitched as Astarion hulled her by the waist, pressing her snugly to his own body. His hips rocking gently against her own. Dafni was able to wiggle her hand between them, with a bit of fumbling, Dafni worked the buttons of his breech falls free. She gave him a light caress, her thumb teasing its way along the underside of his shaft. Dafni felt him twitch in her palm, a proud grin tweaked at her lips. Astarion buried his face in the hollow of her throat, muffling a husky groan. Dafni only ceased her attention to rid him completely of the meddlesome fabric of his pants. 

He really was beautiful everywhere. 

Astarion framed her with his lithesome form. His narrow hips coming down to meet her own, teasing his length against the tender, pink, flesh between her legs. She kept her expression reminded wide-eyed and demure as she shamelessly skimmed her wet slit against his cock. 

“Veluthe,” he murmured, kissing along her pointed ear. Dafni squeaked as he nibbled lightly at her earlobe.

“Come to me, arael’sha.” She coaxed, arms draped loosely over his shoulders, Dafni toyed with the soft baby-hair at the base of his skull, twirling the snowy wisps of curl gently around her index finger. She lifted her hips up to meet him, “I’m aching to feel you inside me.”

A delicious pressure started at her entrance. Her nerves were still alight from her first climax, the sensation of Astarion’s manhood sinking into her, inch by inch nearly brought tears to her eye. Stretched tight around him, her caves wrapped around him, heels digging into the top of his backside, urging him forwards. He set a slow, pleasant rhythm, his length delving delightfully deeper with each roll of his hips. Astarion dropped to his forearms, hilting himself at last.

A musical keen rattled through her as she writhed below him. He felt utterly perfect, buried so deep inside her. A warm, resplendent sensation enveloped her with each thrust. 

She was tipsy on intimacy and lovemaking. The feeling of their shared pleasure buzzing around her. By her nature, Dafni was a creature defined by emotion. Fashioned from boundless joy and playful whims, she took in the delight of others like lungfuls of crisp spring air. She could sense Astarion’s trepid excitement. Feel his need in every stroke. 

That’s the way, dear heart. A little tenderness won’t kill you.

Dafni drew him into a kiss, her lips locking against his with increasing passion. She could still taste the floral tang of her own arousal on his tongue as it swept between her parted lips. A bright smile took shape across her face when she broke the kiss. A single, iridescent butterfly had come to rest on the tip of his nose. It’s translucent, faerie fire wings illuminating his face with their whimsical glow. Astarion wrinkled his nose, a low, warm laugh filling his chest as the illusionary creature fluttered away. 

“I’m sorry,” she giggled, her hand cupping his cheek.

“Don’t be.” He insisted, “I find your quirks endearing.” 

Calling her wild, glittering charms, endearing quirks, was really a disservice. She turned what was once nothing but a grassy clearing into a lush meadow. A little slice of the Feywild brought into creation with nothing more than her bliss.

Spellbinding would have been a better discretion, however, he wasn’t exactly eager to add yet another item to his list of embarrassing, mid-coital confessions. It was frighteningly easy for Dafni to turn him into a besotted idiot. Between her honey-tongued kisses and bright laughter, it was hardly a fair fight. 

Add blood lust to the mix and he had a proven recipe for trouble. For that very reason, he’d come to the conclusion that separating feeding and fucking would be the wisest course. He enjoyed both far too much to fully surrender either. But it was hard enough to keep himself in check with his cock nestled inside her. He took in a deep breath, savoring the heady sweetness that clung to her smooth skin. Lilac and primrose, just a hint of bergamot. An aroma that left him feeling totally beguiled. The finest perfume from Marsember, could not hold a candle to Dafni’s heavenly bouquet. 

Her neck and thigh still bore dark purple reminders of their last encounter. He slid a hand along the soft skin in her inner thigh, his fingertips lingering on indentations he’d left behind. Dafni’s palms pressed into his chest, fingernails lightly scraping along his skin as he worked himself in and out of her snug cunny. A bolt of pleasure skipped down his spine at the memory of her blood, sweet and sharp, coursing through him as she came undone in his arms. 

Yes, separating feeding and fucking would be the wise, but by the Hells, was it getting harder and harder to listen to wisdom when she was around. 

“May I?” He asked, nuzzling lightly at the side of her throat. 

Dafni gave him a quick nod. His lips made their way down the column of her neck, his tongue running along the healing puncture marks. Dafni braced herself for the sharpness of his teeth as his lips whispered across her fluttering pulse. Dafni whimpered as he pulled out to the tip, her body aching at the loss of perfect fullness. With one forceful press, he hilted himself once more, sinking his fangs into the crook of her neck as she cried out. Dafni’s whole body felt as if it were alight, euphoria coursing through her every vein. Warm tears threatened to form in the corners of her eyes as she unraveled around him. He took just a few deep swallows before breaking away, a trail of red dripping from the edge of his mouth. 

“Dafni…” His fingers laced through hers pressing her hand to his heart, a steady thump jumping beneath her trembling palm. 

A glimmer of remembrance tugged at the back of her mind. A taste of something once known, lost to time. Dafni tried to chase the sensation but it was gone as quickly as it came, hidden beyond the bittersweet veil of mortality with her idyllic memories of Arvandor. 

Though she’d only known him for a short time, the friendship that had blossomed between them meant more to her than she’d dare say. She thanked the Gods for allowing him to fall so serendipitously into her life. She’d grown quite attached to all of her new friends, of course! But, there was something about Astarion and the easy familiarity between them that felt so very right. 

Her thoughts drifted to their conversation in the hag’s cottage. He’d spoken as if he’d known her for centuries then days. He had no recollection of their conversation when he awoke the following morning. In truth, Dafni had been a bit relieved. 

However, he came to know her true name- Whoever he might have been to her so many lifetimes ago, it didn’t matter. What mattered was the here and now, the people they were in this lifetime, and the person he now did not need the burden of any past affections he may or may not have had muddying the waters.

 If Astarion was to care for her, let it be on his own terms, free of influence and expectation. If by some slim chance, more memories resurfaced, they could deal with it then. Until that moment, if it ever came, she would continue nurturing their friendship and allow the tenderness budding between them to grow in its own time.

His hips slapped against hers with increasing desperation. His eyes were heavily lidded, a subtle flush glowing across his cheeks and the tips of his ears. His hold on her left hand tightening with every movement. Her intimate muscles tensed around him in the aftershock of her climax. His cock twitched, emptying inside her with a low, gratified sound. 

“You are an incredibly seductive little pixie.” He dropped to his forearm, his full weight pressing down against her, “I was sent out to bring you back to help pack and somehow I ended up naked in the woods with a ravished cleric.”

“I’m innocent in this situation!” Dafni chirped with laughter, gently freeing herself from his smothering tangle of willowy limbs. “I was seduced!” Astarion resisted her attempts to disentangle with playful flare. A flash of pearly fangs glinting beneath his upturned lips before landing on the ground beside her with a soft thud. Dafni rolled to her side, her hair tumbling down her bare shoulders as she came to rest on the swell of her hip, “I like seeing you smile, I wish you did that more often.”

“I promise to smile all you like if you come back and help me pack our things for the Underdark.” He quipped tapping his index finger to the upturned tip of her nose.

#elf writes #elf gets spicy #astarion #dafni of gwynneth #sunshine & starlight