#Elle is just quietly seething | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

ch0c0-cake · 2 years

Text

Catch

five hargreeves x gn!reader

requested by the most amazing @ells-graveyard <3

summary/request - can i request a little something where five and his s/o are fighting and the reader gets injured in battle but it goes unnoticed and they just kind of pull it off like nothing happened until it comes up later? (also as very squeamish person who can’t handle gore could that be a trait the reader has?) so when it finally is brought up bc they are clearly not okay five is like “?!!!?” and has to help them tend to it??

tysm for the request! you’re my fav to get asks from for sure ilyyyyy <33 (and im definitely gonna use this as a reference for when i get to this scene in Let Go)

warnings - cursing, killing, blood, gore, fainting, mention of vomit

“Y’know, that really isn’t my first choice of weapons.” You looked over to Five holding the axe in his hand, inspecting it with a look like it was gum on the bottom of your shoe.

“Good thing you aren’t using it then!” He hissed out, starting to walk off without you.

“Well you don’t have to be mean about it.” You pouted, following him down the hallway. You were from the Commission, like Five. You didn’t have any crazy powers like the others, but you’d be damned if you couldn’t kill anyone just as well.

Before Five came along, you were the best assassin on the force, making your kills quickly and quietly. You hated Five for a long time after he stole your title, but you kinda had to make ends meet when The Handler went and put you two together on a mission to kill quite a bunch of people.

Five Hargreeves was the first person to learn that the once greatest assassin on the force had a bit of a case of hemophobia. After the job had been done, he was just about to go back using the briefcase until he heard retching sounds from the other side of the room. After you were done puking, you promptly fainted and he had to bring you back to the Commission himself. Luckily he simply told a lie and said that you’d hit your head, figuring you didn’t want people to know you couldn’t handle a bit of blood.

The both of you came to an open doorway to see a long table with multiple people sitting on each side. At the very end of the table sat AJ. You’d met him a few times, you were gonna feel bad killing him.

He stood up and the others stared when the two of you entered the room. “You!” He seethed. “Call security!” He demanded as you pulled out your knife.

A woman pushed out her seat quickly and went to grab the phone, but Five took care of it and swung his axe down on her arm, neatly severing her forearm from the rest of her. Cries erupted from the room, and in a flash, Five was on the other side of the room and had murdered two men and left them laying against the wall.

“Five- ew!” You could feel your palms getting sweaty and your stomach almost churning at the sight. You tried to shake it off the best you could and jumped on the table, grabbing a man by his suit and pulling him towed you, then you quickly drove your knife into his neck. You didn’t let yourself see the blood start to drain and moved right on to the next person, effectively killing them. The screams of the board echoed throughout the whole room.

Five did most of the work very quickly, but you imagined he was more driven than you considering this was for his family. The both of you stood in front of AJ, who was cowering beneath the table. The little goldfish looked at the pair of you fearfully while you rested your arms on Five’s shoulder and smiled.

“She sent you, didn’t she?” AJ gasped, body trembling. “(Y/n)! How could you do this to a place that’s done so much for you?”

“Does it really matter now?” Five didn’t let you answer, tilting his head almost mockingly while you just shrugged and let him handle it. Five was kinda in a pissy mood, you wanted to let him blow off some steam.

“Whatever she offered you, I will double it, triple it!” AJ bargained, looking between the both of you.

“I’m not doing this for money.” Five was about to drive the axe into AJ’s glass head but was tackled. Your eyes widened and you watched him fall to the ground with an attendant that was not pleased Five wrecked the vending machine outside over a fuckin’ Fudge Nutter.

It was almost comical watching them both roll around on the ground, the lady screeching like a banshee about how he was gonna pay for the vending machine. You glanced to AJ.

“Don’t go anywhere, ‘kay?” You hopped off the table and watched with your knife as Five elbowed the woman. “Get AJ, I’ll handle her.”

“Fine.” He hissed, before looking back. This fucker was already gone.

“I told you to not go anywhere!” You shouted, watching as AJ fled the room. “Shit.”

Five looked around with slight panic and grabbed some kind of wooden paddle from the wall and took off.

A sudden tug on your leg pulled you to the ground, your nose making contact with the floor. You groaned as your knife skidded away toward the woman, and she just went ahead and grabbed it. She was about to try and kill you over a damn vending machine you didn’t even break!

“I didn’t break that stupid thing!” You snapped, rolling to the side as she plunged your knife down into the ground instead of your heart. You rolled away once more before you tackled her, pretty much wrestling with this stupid attendant who was treating one of your favorite knives like a toy. She thrust the blade toward you and you did a pretty good job at dodging. You grabbed the knife finally and stuck it in her chest.

“Goddamn.” You breathed, pulling the knife out and cleaning it on your suit. As you used your blazer, you suddenly realized where you had pulled the knife away from. A crimson stain was present in the side of your clothes, a rip in the shape of a hole going through your dress shirt…and flesh.

You had pulled the knife from your own body.

When had she stabbed you? Was the adrenaline too much to where it just overpowered your senses? That really didn’t matter, as the loud shattering of glass alerted you that Five had gotten AJ. The sound of footsteps was the next alert. Five was coming.

You quickly buttoned up your blazer and a very bloody Five walked into the room.

“You done? Come on before you vomit.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~��️~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Well?” The Handler’s smooth voice came from behind you and Five. You stared at the ground, not even bothering to look at the woman, but you did see Five hand her AJ in a bag to her from the corner of your eye. She gasped in pure delight. “AJ!” She cackled, holding him up to her face. “You’re finally starting to fill out those tight little shorts of yours.” She hummed to Five. Although she got no response from Five or you.

All she got was a glare from you.

“Why so quiet, lovebirds?” She questioned, turning her gaze to you both. “I figured you’d be buzzing after this morning’s slaughter, especially you!” She held up a finger and tapped your nose. Still, no response from you, but Five did smack her arm away.

“Don’t touch them. And besides, all this killing…” Five grimaced and then looked to her. “I’m done with it.”

“What?” She pulled out a handkerchief.

“What I did today I did for my family and the love of my life. I did it to save the world.”

You were the love of his life? That was sweet.

“Oh please, spare me your little assassin with the heart of gold routine, will you? Even (Y/n) didn’t bother with any of that. Besides, the so-called love of your life doesn’t seem very joyful.” She gestured to you, and you still hadn’t said anything. You just stared and hugged yourself while she attempted wiping the blood off Five’s face. Five looked over and frowned but didn’t have time to say much as The Handler held out the suitcase. “Here. Per our agreement. This will get you two and your siblings back to 2019. You have 90 minutes.”

“90 minutes?” You voiced, eyes wide.

You could practically feel the scoff coming from Five as he walked after The Handler. “You said nothing about a time limit!”

“Actually,” she checked her wristwatch. “You have 89 minutes and 30 seconds. Better hurry.”

“This is impossible, okay?!” Five continued walking after her, you quickly following. “My siblings are scattered across the city!”

“Nothing’s impossible. You two lovebirds proved that this morning when you killed the board.”

“Look,” you coughed into your sleeve. “Two trained assassins killing a small group of people is not the same as playing Where’s Waldo with five people in a huge city! We need more time!”

“Any more time, and people will start asking questions. The sooner you get home and out of this time period, the better off we’ll all be.” She turned to face you and suddenly placed a hand on your shoulder and leaned toward to whisper in your ear so that Five couldn’t hear.

“Especially you. You better hurry before all that blood drains right out of you.”

“Get your hands off them!” Five ordered, and she did so.

“Tick tock, tick tock.” She smiled and walked off.

Five looked appalled, but he grabbed your hand and teleported off while The Handler’s words were imprinted like a burn in your mind.

You were suddenly where Elliott lived, and you about doubled over at the sight of the bloody writing on the ground.

ÖGA FÖR ÖGA

“Oh- come on.” You groaned, trying to ignore the burning pain in your side just a little longer. You held onto Five’s arm as he practically dragged you up the stairs.

“Don’t look.” He said briskly before he pulled off the cover on the figure on the chair at the top. You shut your eyes just in time, hearing Five’s soft whisper. “Damn.” You heard the ruffling of the sheet and you opened your eyes.

“Who?” You quietly asked.

“Elliott.”

“Shit.”

You made your way over to the voices coming from where the phone was. Luther and Diego stood there, Diego seething some threatening words into the phone.

“Are they…calling someone?” You whispered and face palmed as Five went over to them.

“Hey! It’s Öga För Öga, idiots.” Five rolled his eyes.

“What?”

“Swedish.” You added with a soft grunt, sitting down in a nearby chair. Maybe it would ease the pain of the hole in your side. “Eye for an eye.”

Five nodded in agreement. “Exactly right, my dear. It means the Swedes killed Elliott.” He explained, taking off his bloodstained blazer and sweater vest while Diego made some bullshit excuse and hung up. They started saying something more as Five left the room, but you couldn’t make out what they were saying.

Yours ears were ringing, and your head was pounding. The world around you was spinning. Your side was burning like a wildfire.

“Hey!” A sudden tap on your shoulder pulled you out of if. Five stood above you, now in clean clothes. “We gotta go find Viktor. Luther’s getting Allison and Diego is getting Klaus. Come on.” He held out his hand for you to take.

“Right.” You cleared your throat, the flaming pain in your side only worsening as you stood up with Five’s help. Your legs gave out and you would have tumbled to the ground if Five hadn’t quickly caught you.

“Hey, woah. Careful.” He said with his eyes just a little wider than before. You weren’t usually a clumsy person. Your breath was caught in your throat, unable to respond to him.

His left hand had landed right on your wound.

“Is everything okay?” He lowered his voice. “You’ve been acting strange.”

You had to build up your voice to respond. “Y-Yeah…’m okay. Blood, y’know?” You lied. Five didn’t seem to buy it, but he let it go.

“If you say so. Let’s go.” He set you up straight and let go. He started heading down the stairs, his left hand on the rail. But then you noticed his eyes darting to some bits of red at his fingers.

“Huh. I thought I got everywhere.” He pulled his hand up to his face in order to inspect it, his breath hitching. His entire hand was stained with blood. Where he’d grabbed you.

He whipped around and saw you leaning against the railing at the top of the stairs. Your black blazer was no longer being pressed against your body by your arms. He could now see the large amount of blood that stained your shirt, a knife-sized hole where the blood was darkest. Your body trembled, trying to hide the wound even when you both knew it was pointless.

“That’s not good.” Five breathed, frozen.

“Oh, I’m…” your breathing was harsh and ragged. “I’m fine.”

“No, you are not fine.” He said cautiously, starting to walk back up the stairs.

“F-Five…I think I’m gonna…”

It was like your legs just gave up. Five watched as your eyes rolled back into your head before crumpling like a rag doll.

“Shit!!”

You slammed into the railing as you fell forward, attempting to catch yourself but only pushing yourself down the stairs. In a flash, Five was scrambling to catch you. You crashed into his arms, starting to send him down the stairs, however he teleported and sat on the ground with you instead.

“Shit, shit! Fuck!” Five’s words came out in panicked shouts, drawing back your blazer to inspect the stab wound. “You dumbass!” He exclaimed with wide eyes, even though you were no longer awake to hear him. He slid his hand under your neck to hold up your head and checked your pulse with his other hand. Faint, but it was there.

“Five?” Luther leaned over the banister from the top. “Oh shit-!”

“Get medical supplies now before I come up there and stab you myself!!” Five demanded, cradling your unconscious body tenderly. “Shit, sweetheart…” he whispered, pressing a hand to your wound as hard as he could. “Why didn’t you say something?” He closed his eyes and pressed his forehead to yours.

Luther came back to the banister, holding up a plethora of supplies. “Is this enough?!”

“Yes, just throw it down! Don’t hit them!” Five snapped, catching the materials Luther threw down. Five carefully held you in his lap, sighing. “I’m sorry about this.” He quietly apologized, tenderly unbuttoning your dress shirt enough from the bottom to reveal the wound. He tried his hardest to prevent his hands from shaking as he began to clean the wound. Part of him was pretty pissed that he was forced to waste time, but he couldn’t let you bleed out or get any kind of infection.

“Hnn…F-Five..?” Your words were slurred together, eyes opening just a little. You instantly hissed in pain at the touch of your wound.

“Shh, hey, it’s okay.” Five rubbed your arm just a little. “Stay still.”

You tilted your head up and Five cursed when he saw your eyes widen at the sight of your wound. “O-Oh my god-! Five-!” Your voice came out panic-stricken and you started squirming, making this much more difficult for him.

“Hey!” He raised his voice to try and grab your attention. “Hey, listen to me! You need to stay still!” He said, but you only panicked more. He slipped his hand to the back of your neck and gently brought your head up. Without another word, he kissed you deeply. Just as he expected, you slowed down and stopped squirming.

Five took this opportunity and tried to look down to your injury the best he could while staying in the kiss. As soon as he started cleaning it again, your breathing increased and you began to shuffle.

“Hey, hey, no.” Five kept you close to him, looking back to your eyes. “I gotta tend to your wound, understand? That means you need to stay still, or it’ll just hurt more. That’s why you’re gonna focus on kissing me, alright? You’re gonna be just fine.”

You hesitated, but eventually complied with a nod and shakily pressed your lips to his.

“That’s it.” He said against your lips calmly, keeping his eyes open and treating the stab wound the best he could. It took quite a few minutes, but he was able to clean it up and wrap a bandage around it.

“There. Was that hard?” He asked after pulling away.

“Yes…” you muttered, glancing to the patched up wound.

“Do you feel okay?”

“Yeah…”

“Then what the hell were you thinking?!” Five exclaimed, grabbing your shoulders. “You should have told me right away before you just collapsed like that! Don’t you understand you could have died?! Don’t ever scare me like that again! Do you have any idea how mortifying it is to have to tend to your partner’s stab wound?!”

You stared at him with wide eyes, not expecting this burst of anger. “Five, I’m so-”

“You better be sorry!” He cut you off, and that’s when you realized he was quaking. He let out a sigh and brought you in for a hug. “You pull some shit like this again and I’ll kill you, understand?”

“I understand, Five.” You chuckled quietly, returning the hug and leaning on him.

“Good. Now let’s hustle! We gotta find Viktor and get the hell home!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~☂️~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

tags 🏷 - @ay4kshalatus @vennythearsonist

#five hargreeves x reader #the umbrella academy #umbrella academy x reader #five hargreeves #gn reader #luther hargreeves #diego hargreeves #umbrella academy season 2

1K notes · View notes

ssshhwhatelse · 1 year

Text

David Lynch friday

It's November 4th. I watched Working Girls (1986, Lizzie Borden) it was great i recommend jt

I tried to once again get through Je, Tu, Il Elle but couldn't do it. Mad eit longer this time. She does what i did. Sits in her room all day, eating sugar. Comments, observations, patience.

Woke up sore and tight this morning, more than usu. Had horrible dream. Been thinking about separating but it's not his fault i just didn't let myself breathe before jumping back in. I'm a pretty horrible.eprosn which is why I can't take compliments or believe when someone says they like me. A s**** k***** would love that, to be seen on the surface as polite and kind and funny but be absolutely disgusting on the inside. Quietly seething. No redeemable qualities.

I renounced therapy bc i can't stay consistent with it. And it's boring. These therapists are boring. There is nothing personal involved ... But it is a PROFESSION not a friendship so I'll leave.

Went to California for a weekend, did little tokyo and universal studios. Realized Houston will never be home will never even feel like it a little. I don't like it even after 2 years here. But living back home is impossible so I'll sit on my hands !

I have so much anxiety here. It's not comfortable. I'll die in ******

That feels unfair to say but it is how i feel, it's ugly feelings weighing me down but I've never gotten up

0 notes

blackswaneuroparedux · 4 years

Text

Isabelle Huppert: The Most Dangerous Actress in European Cinema

Etre actrice, c’est avant tout faire l’apprentissage de sa liberté.

- Isabelle Huppert

At 66 years old, Isabelle Huppert has had a long, celebrated career and is regarded in the highest echelon of French actors. Among actresses, Isabelle Huppert holds the record for César Award nominations (France’s Oscar award), with a whopping sixteen. She has also had twenty of her films in competition at Cannes, more than any other actress. And she is among just four actresses who have won the Best Actress prize at Cannes twice.

Not a bad track record.

Though she has appeared in a few American productions over the years, including “Heaven’s Gate” (1980), “The Bedroom Window” (1987) and “I Heart Huckabees” (2004), her best films have all been European.

Extraordinary women marked by tragedy and surrounded by mystery — these are Huppert's trademark cinematic roles. The films of Isabelle Huppert tend to be filled with sociopaths, self-mutilators, and murderers.

There was the jealous postmaster in “La Cérémonie,” the gun-toting young bride in “Coup de Torchon,” and the prostitute who poisons her family in “Violette Nozière. “The Piano Teacher,” “Elle” and “Greta” would make a crazy triple feature. Overall Isabelle Huppert, one of the iconic dames of French cinema, has garnered a reputation for being cold and steely. The French actress, now in her mid-60s, consistently chooses roles that are morally complex and sometimes hard to watch. And yet we can’t bring ourselves to look away.

Susan Sontag, who once called Huppert “a total artist,” said she had never met “an actor more intelligent, or a person more intelligent among actors.”

Huppert has been called France’s Meryl Streep for her technical skill, but for all her shape-shifting, Streep’s strongest women have never gone so dark as the roles Huppert has played.

Huppert expresses the moods and mental state of her characters with precision and great sensitivity. Her seemingly expressionless face and sparing facial expressions have become something of a trademark.

Fiction has a tendency to inflate things, she said once in an interview with The Financial Times in July 2017. "But when I look at people on the street, I find that most of them are pretty empty in their eyes. I have to do even less." To observe, she has been taught, you have to take away, not add something.

Isabelle was the youngest of five children, born in Paris to an engineer father and a mother who taught English. Her mother is credited with spotting her talent early on, and encouraging her to develop it. She was already well on her way as a teenager, getting acting jobs while studying at the National Conservatory of Dramatic Art in Paris.

Huppert’s résumé is remarkable over five decades: Just over 140 films since her debut in 1972, for many of cinema’s most audacious visionaries, including Claude Chabrol, Claire Denis, Curtis Hanson, Hal Hartley and François Ozon.

In “Things to Come,” a wistful, funny drama by the French director Mia Hansen-Love. She plays Nathalie, a Parisian philosophy teacher whose husband leaves her for a younger woman, whose mother dies, whose publisher won’t reissue her book — and yet, who finds unexpected freedom in all of these losses. Nathalie heads toward the light and Michèle toward the dark, but both roles showcase Huppert’s great ability to derive power from vulnerability.

What directors loved about Huppert — and she prides herself on being an auteur’s actor — was her ability to convey moral complexity in the most unique ways.

Working with such auteur directors, Huppert can inhabit extreme characters — "survivors who can be victims and rebels simultaneously," says the actress. "My films give these women a voice. Because even though they live on the edges of society, they are there: women who live brutal lives. It's a brutality that they themselves never sought out," Huppert told Zeit Magazine.

Paul Verhoeven who directed her in “Elle” described Huppert as a “pure Brechtian actor,” in that she puts distance between herself and the audience, without trying to seduce it or seek its sympathy.

The actress is notorious for her illegibility - her almost Bressonian lack of expression, and the profound unrest she’s able to convey from behind the stillness of her freckled resting face. Pauline Kael, the famous film critic, once complained that “when [Huppert] has an orgasm, it barely ruffles her blank surface.” If Kael had lived to see “Abuse of Weakness,” “Elle,” or “I Heart Huckabees,” perhaps she would have come to appreciate how the stillness of Huppert’s unbeatable poker face allows her to normalize even the strangest and most perverse of characters; to make it seem as though any of their behaviors, no matter how unusual or demented, are as natural to them as we are to ourselves.

It’s a quality that European directors and audiences have embraced, but which can seem more foreign to Americans. Huppert loves American cinema, but she also knows her sensibility is distinctly French.

Huppert is known for her privacy and reserve - she generally doesn’t talk to the press about anything other than her films - and if there’s a connection between her autobiography and the roles she chooses, that’s something that only she knows.

Aware of her own enigmatic appeal, she has no qualms about exploiting it. She has even less desire to charm, although her formidable impassivity sometimes betrays a hint of vulnerability. Not that she will let the viewer get too close, however, as she is forever intent on remaining “more like a question mark than a statement”.

Isabelle Huppert is not just courageous when it comes to choosing film roles and artistic collaborators. She is fearless, and such is her integrity that we trust her instincts and follow wherever she leads. That’s what makes her the most dangerous actress of our time.

Below is a top ten list of Isabelle Huppert films. They are not in order nor are they her very best. There are simply too many films in her body of work that would deserve equal consideration. Instead the list is made up of films that given an introduction to her wide ranging talents.

1. The Lace Maker 1977

Isabelle Huppert won the most promising newcomer award for her graceful, guileless performance as Pomme in Claude Goretta’s masterly adaptation of a Pascal Lainé novel, which took its title from a Vermeer painting. Whether doing her chores at a Parisian beauty salon, playing blindman’s buff on a Cabourg clifftop with dashing Sorbonne student Yves Beneyton, trying to eat an apple without disturbing his reading or choking over dinner with his snooty parents, Huppert is mesmerising.

2. Violette Nozière 1978

The first of her seven collaborations with Claude Chabrol earned Huppert the best actress prize at Cannes. She was 25 when she played the demure schoolgirl who shocked 1930s Paris when details of her double life as a prostitute emerged following the poisoning of her father. Violette claimed he had abused her, but Chabrol thinks otherwise and exploits Huppert’s genius for switching between fragility and cruelty to counter the surrealist myth that the teenage parricide was an anti-bourgeois icon.

Huppert embodies this character that’s chiefly concerned with finding love. She walks the streets at night, characteristically promiscuous, but don’t call her a prostitute. She’d refute. Throughout the film, she gives more money to the men then vice versa. At night, when she leaves her quiet bourgeois home, and finds a man to accompany her, she looks unusually bothered. The film is sometimes maddeningly ambiguous but perhaps that’s the point - Chabrol and Huppert want us to feel mixed about her.

Violette is a woman with an air of mystery around her. She’s precocious but not as clever as she thinks. Huppert gazes and kisses her own mirror reflection. She writes fictional love letters to herself as well. Huppert quietly stresses the motivation behind the character: desperate to find someone to love, or else she’ll have to love herself. Except, she can’t even love herself because she feels stifled by her home life. And as ever with narcissism, there are dangerous consequences.

3. La Cérémonie 1995

“Chabrol only ever cast me as fairly ordinary characters,” Huppert once revealed. “They just have rather particular destinies.” While she would go on to embody Chabrolian womanhood (“not victims, not fighters, somewhere in between”) in Rien ne va plus (1997), Merci pour le chocolat (2000) and Comedy of Power (2006), she gave her finest performance for him in this seething adaptation of Ruth Rendell’s A Judgement in Stone.

An upper-class family warns their meek maid (Sandrine Bonnaire) about the local mail lady, Jeanne (Isabelle Huppert). They become friends regardless. Huppert plays Jeanne as kooky, comic, and rebellious. We gradually find out more cryptic background on her character, which gives her spirited attitude a darker edge. She’s either heartbroken or heartless. Huppert portrays a character with so many contradictory traits without ever making it feel false.

Huppert performs the role cunningly. Jeanne is energised like a child, but she’s smart enough to know how to win over the maid. She’s a little silly - when she enters the family’s home while they’re away, she touches everything. Huppert balances all of this next to the near-mute Bonnaire, both slowly exacting their revenge against the upper class. Chabrol’s trademark: clash of the classes.

Huppert thoroughly deserved her first César.

In 2014, Huppert performed Jean Genet’s play The Maids with Cate Blanchett. The play was inspired, as was La Cérémonie, on the same true-story about the Papin sisters.

4. The Piano Teacher 2001

The Piano Teacher is an elegantly made film about the deranged endeavors of love. Huppert plays a buttoned-up music instructor, Erika, who attracts the eyes of an unassuming man half her age. She still lives with her mother and there’s a danger that lurks behind her carefully placed gaze. She’s been sexually repressed for such a long time; her repression and self-hatred has slowly evolved into masochism. It drives her to haunt peep shows, spy on copulating couples and mutilate her own genitals. This disturbing film really made an impact world wide.

Nobody said this film was an easy watch!

Haneke gives the spectator all the intricacies of the concept of perversion inserted in Huppert’s character of Erika, a successful piano teacher and an apparently impeccable social life. Well, that’s what Erika keeps on the surface.

Huppert declared the second of her four collaborations with Haneke to be the film she had long been searching for.

5. 8 Women 2002

There’s no validity in the truism that Huppert doesn’t do comedy. In fact she proved she could both dance and sing (the plaintive ‘Message personnel’ is a career highlight) in François Ozon’s chic 1950s musical whodunit. Sporting a tight bun, a buttoned-up twin-set, pursed red lips and butterfly spectacles, Huppert invokes the spirit of legendary farceur Louis de Funès as Catherine Deneuve’s argumentative sister. She gives an indelible display of neurotic, spinsterly bitchiness that is simultaneously piteous and hilarious.

6. Elle 2016

A successful woman enters a real ordeal after being raped by a stranger in her home. Powerful, ‘Elle’ unravels all the nuances of a character’s life inserted into a completely incongruous personal, social and psychological reality. Here, the character will demonstrate how her attitude towards the world follows a sociopathic pattern of acting, despising any form of emotional attachment and using other individuals solely to satisfy her most primitive instincts. The film earned her an Oscar nod for Best Actress, which was fabulous but also made me wonder what took so long. Certainly she’s turned out enough superb performances over her nearly five decade career to have earned this recognition sooner.

7. Coup de Torchon 1981

Having survived a seven-month stint in Montana for Michael Cimino’s Heaven’s Gate(1980), Huppert ventured to Saint-Louis in Senegal for Bertrand Tavernier’s Oscar-nominated transposition of Jim Thompson’s pulp novel, Pop. 1280, from a small Texan town in the 1910s to west Africa on the eve of the Second World War. Although Pierre-William Glenn’s sun-scorched Steadicam imagery seems antithetical, this is a darkly droll noir that sees Huppert in an unusually skittish mood, as the abused colonial wife who forges an unlikely alliance with Philippe Noiret’s pathetic rogue police chief, who is humiliated by everyone around him, and suddenly wants a clean slate in life - but resorts to drastic means to do so.

8. Merci pour le chocolat 2000

The film follows the nuances of a French upper class family, exploring the destructive ways in which each member acts on the world. Directed by Claude Chabrol, ‘Merci pour le Chocolat’ is an interesting film, bringing a more cadenced plot that values studying each meander of the behavior of its central characters.

The movie is set in Lausanne, and that Swiss location, having an ambient sense of buttoned-up severity and menace, is an appropriate setting with a Nabokovian mien for this horrid tale of sociopathy.

Huppert dominates the film with the slightly frigid poise of a great dancer who has retired to become an exacting teacher. She plays Mika, a woman who presides wearily and almost negligently over the prosperous chocolate business built up by her late father. But however disengaged she is in the boardroom, in the kitchen she loves chocolate with a passion - concocting various types of drinking chocolate, using subtly differing recipes, with fanatical and murderous care.

There is something fascinating about Huppert's face here. In repose, it has a kind of unsettling serenity, the serenity of a cunning and covert predator who has already decided on an unspeakable course of action.

9. La Séparation 1994

Isabelle Huppert and Daniel Auteuil play a couple on the verge of a separation. The relationship’s mainstay is their child, one-year-old Loulou. Autueil gets most of the film’s focus, but he’s essentially a sitting duck, nervously shifting between passive-aggressive contempt and hopeful endearment, as he prepares for the outcome of his girlfriend’s infidelity. He says, “Never two without three.” This could be the quote-totem of the film.

The director smartly leaves the interloping lover out of the film (he’s never seen or even named). Instead, we study Auteuil’s growing impatience and Huppert’s pivotal decision. She adds a lot of depth to a character that could’ve just been the unsympathetic partner of the cuckold.

Huppert gives her character integrity and even though she’s ostensibly guilty, she never comes off as purely selfish. She’s troubled, as well, by their situation - we sense her detachment not due to ego but because she’s boggled in trying to assess the right mode of conduct. Huppert and Auteuil have great chemistry, changing gears effortlessly between vitriol and affection.

Huppert’s distinctive talent for suppressing suffering is readily evident in her slowly disintegrating relationship with Daniel Auteuil, as Huppert imparts chilling intimacy to a withdrawn hand, an unanswering gaze, a treacherous silence and a careless word in conveying the pain of falling out of love.

10. Madame Bovary 1991

Not her greatest film but certainly one of the most accessible for anyone not familiar with the talents of Huppert. Based on Gustave Flaubert’s fabulous novel, the film brings the exacerbated trajectory of a young girl who has a highly romanticised view of the world and craves beauty, wealth, passion, as well as high society. It is the disparity between these romantic ideals and the realities of her country life that drive most of the novel, leading her into two affairs and to accrue an insurmountable amount of debt that eventually leads to her suicide.

This adaptation of ‘Madame Bovary’ is perhaps the best of any adaptation to date. Claude Chabrol manages to capture even the most emblematic nuances of Flaubert’s book, elevating a unique atmosphere for the unfolding of scenes.

However, the main point of distinction between this work and the others is the presence of Isabelle Huppert as protagonist, delivering a powerful and visceral performance from the first to the last scene.

#isabelle huppert #film #cinema #french #france #culture #art #actress #acting #artist #icon #femme #huppert #french cinema

152 notes · View notes

tarisilmarwen · 4 years

Text

Crumbling

I want you all to know that this is entirely @burr-ell's fault and you can direct your complaints for emotional damage at her.

TW: Implied torture

---

When Starfire's first scream went up Robin flinched, but after a momentary pause, shook himself and kept working, concentrating on the lines of code scrolling across Cyborg's arm display.

The pale blue light from it was all that illuminated the cell, splashing across the thick reinforced steel walls. Blast-proof, electro-saw proof, an impressive feat of construction really, that he might have appreciated in a circumstance where it wasn't severely limiting their options for escape.

Robin's belt had been confiscated, along with the lockpicks he kept hidden on his person--they had been very thorough--further limiting their choices. Cyborg's hands had been removed at the wrists, his biointerface messed with so that he couldn't access any of his inbuilt weapons or tools, and with Raven and Beast Boy both locked in power nullification collars and Starfire in the next room having who knew what being done to her, this was their last idea left.

Cyborg sat calmly in place, checking their progress. Metal tubes from the stumps of his wrists trailed across the floor in both directions, hotwired into Beast Boy and Raven's collars. As Robin slowly restored his programming line by line, he was hacking into them, working through the simple encryption that protected the collars from outside signal interruption.

The half-robot felt Robin stiffen again, as another scream went up from behind the wall, the boy's hands on his metal arm fisting tightly. Cyborg glanced up, seeing Robin's face twisting, as though he were the one being tortured.

He touched Robin's shoulder. "Hey," he called. "She'll be all right," he said, encouragingly. "Our girl's really strong, you know."

Robin exhaled slowly, relaxing his hands. "I know, I just..." His voice was shaky, a trembling note in it. "I hate hearing her in pain."

He kept his words quiet, low, a nervous crawling awareness in the back of his head of the eyes watching him. Or, single eye rather.

Slade sat in the shadows against the far wall, observing silently. The reason he was here--the only reason, he'd emphasized repeatedly--was lying prone across the man's lap. Jericho was unconscious and pale, electric burns all across his face and body, his uniform ripped and dirty.

Robin tried not to think about the fact that whatever had been done to him was probably being done to Starfire, right that moment.

Despite his cautious whisper, Slade apparently overheard him. "Then you had better work quickly," he commented, witheringly flat.

The Boy Wonder resisted the urge to snap back at the villain.

"I'm trying, it's--" He let out a frustrated exhale. "--it's complicated."

"That's an encouraging assessment," Slade said.

"Look, if you don't have anything productive to say just shut up," Beast Boy piped up, snapping, crossing his arms and glaring at the man. "Seriously dude."

Slade turned his head and held up a hand, backing off.

Robin paid Beast Boy a grateful look, to which the changeling replied with a nod, and then got back to work, fixing another line of code.

He tried not to think about what was happening in the next room. What Starfire had offered herself up for, to save the rest of them.

He still hated it every time it replayed in his head.

***

The heavy door clicked open, spilling blinding light into the dark cell. The Titans tensed, Robin and Beast Boy and Raven all standing at once to their feet, glaring across at the white-coated villain and his armed entourage.

The guards raised their firearms immediately to discourage any funny business as their boss stepped forward.

"Finding your accommodations comfortable?" he asked, a veneer of politeness over his slimy cadence.

"Oh yeah," Beast Boy snarked. "Pitch black room with no seats or TV, just five-star stuff there."

The man--a mad scientist who went by the name Dr. Agony--shifted to face Slade's corner, sneering. "I must say, Deathstroke," he said, "I was never expecting you to bring so many young heroes with you. I always thought you worked alone. I suppose I should thank you." A creepy grin spread his face. "Now I have plenty of test subjects for my experiments!" he crowed.

Slade's glare had been ice cold, seething with withheld anger. "I hope you realize you're dead when I get out of here," he said calmly.

Dr. Agony backed off with a bit of a nervous laugh, turning his attention instead to the Titans. He looked them over one by one, considering them, scrutinizing them.

"Let's see... who to try my device on next?" he mused. A hand pinched his chin in contemplation as he paced before them. "The youngest?" he suggested, stopping briefly in front of Beast Boy, who glared right back. Dr. Agony glanced aside at Robin thoughtfully. "Or perhaps the one without powers?"

There was a stirring next to the Boy Wonder, and an orange hand inserted itself between him and the doctor.

"I will do it," Starfire said firmly.

Dr. Agony clapped his hands together and rubbed them. "A volunteer! Oh how exciting! This has never happened!" he gushed.

Robin turned aside to Starfire, his expression agonized. "Star, don't," he begged. "Let me do it."

She shook her head.

"I am more resilient than the rest of you and... I have faced torture before," she told him, hesitating on the last part. She turned her face up to him with a sad smile. "I will be okay," she promised in a whisper.

Robin bit his lip, but stepped back with a nod.

Starfire steeled herself, facing the villain.

"Right this way, my dear!" he said, extending a hand past himself towards the door.

Straightening her chin, Starfire walked past him. The guards flanked her on the way out, hiding her from view before Dr. Agony followed behind and the door snapped shut plunging them into pitch blackness once again.

***

The minutes ticked on inside the cell. Cyborg tested his biointerface every so often, slowly regaining functionality. Raven sat in a meditative position, eyes closed, concentrating on the vague sensations she could feel past the collar's dampening. Beast Boy fidgeted, bouncing his foot and tapping his hands on his knee.

Occasional yells came from behind the door, but they were brief. Aside from making the Titans flinch, they weren't a distraction.

Until suddenly... the screaming didn't stop.

A shriek went up, louder than before, long and agonized. Robin gasped sharply, head whipping towards the door. The shriek went on, and on, and on.

Beast Boy stopped fidgeting. Raven's face pinched, her eyes tightening, and Cyborg looked towards the wall worriedly. Even Slade cast a concerned look that direction.

Shaking, Robin forced his attention back down on Cyborg's arm, fingers sliding across the display keys. Starfire's scream finally died down, and Robin almost sighed in relief, but then a new wail started. And then another, and then another, and then another after that.

Robin's fingers fumbled and he frantically backtracked several lines of code to correct several errors he'd made, only to make new ones. He tapped agitatedly at the keyboard display before his hands dropped off Cyborg's arm, covering his face.

"Oh god..." he breathed.

"Don't give up," Cyborg encouraged, eyes earnest. "You've almost got it."

Robin inhaled deeply, trying again.

Raven's eyes were open now, fixed on the wall, her face paling as Starfire's screaming continued in an uninterrupted streak. Beast Boy gave a little whimper, bringing his hand up and biting his thumb.

They didn't need to say anything for Robin to understand what they were all thinking. The sooner Cyborg was fixed, the quicker they could help Starfire. It was all up to him. It was all up--

Starfire screeched, a shrill high-pitched cry that rang like alarm bells in their heads.

Robin rocked back, his hands clamping over his ears, fingers clawing against his scalp, squeezing his eyes closed tightly.

"Stop..." he whispered. "Stop it..." His voice trembled as he begged the open air. "...please..."

"Robin," Cyborg called.

No response.

"Robin, hey!" Cyborg said, a little louder, lifting his arm and sharply slapping the boy's shoulder with the stub of his wrist. "Snap out of it! I need to you focus!" he admonished, eyes and expression firm.

Robin shook his head weakly. "I can't... I--I can't, Cyborg, she..." he stammered.

"We can't help her unless we finish this," Cyborg reminded him with emphasis.

It was no use. Robin was already curling up with his knees to his chest, mumbling incoherently, hands still squeezing his ears.

"...my fault, s'all my fault, I shouldn't have let her..."

Cyborg glanced about in aggravation and frustration. "C'mon man, don't do this now," he pleaded, an edge of desperation creeping into his face.

He glanced briefly towards Slade--no help there, he knew. He looked to the other Titans. Raven had her gaze on Robin now, looking pained. Beast Boy's eyes were wide as saucers, the blood drained from his face as he looked on, horrified.

Cyborg gave a growl. "B, you're up. Get over here," he ordered.

"Me?!" Beast Boy squeaked. He gawped indignantly. "What am I supposed to do?"

"Finish fixing my code, now come on," Cyborg said, urging him over with his head.

Beast Boy picked up the wire leading into his collar and dragged it over with him as he came over, stepping around Robin as the Boy Wonder trembled in place.

He leaned down and took a quick look at the text in Cyborg's arm. He blanched again.

"Dude, what is this? Is this Python?! I'm not qualified for this!" the changeling protested.

"You hack computers all the time!" Cyborg argued, his voice rising.

"Yeah but that's different! I can't just mess around in your systems!"

"Well someone has to do it!" Cyborg snapped loudly.

His shout echoed in the room a moment, then left the room completely silent save for Robin's whimpering gibberish.

Cyborg noticed the stressed glimmer hugging the edges of Beast Boy's eyes, and sighed, lowering his voice again.

"Look, it's easy," he said quietly. "Just read out the code to me, and I'll tell you exactly what to do."

Beast Boy's pinched eyes flicked towards Robin, but Robin's head was buried in his knees and shaking, so with extreme reluctance he knelt down by Cyborg, accepting that--for the moment--the Titans' fearless leader was useless to them.

"Okay..." Beast Boy breathed, trying to calm his nerves. His sensitive ears could pick out every decibel of Starfire's screaming and that forced him to remember what was at stake. "Okay... So, the first line is--"

The two of them worked quickly, Beast Boy reading out the lines of code and programming and Cyborg quickly identifying which part was wrong and instructing the changeling how to change it.

Sharp electric crackling could now be heard, punctuating the spaces between Starfire's screams. Robin squished himself smaller and smaller, his arms like vices around his leg, whispering, "Stopitstopitstopistopit..." in a long blended stream.

Slade was silent in the corner, watching with an unreadable expression, but Cyborg thought he caught a glimpse of the man's grip tightening protectively on Jericho.

The half-robot sent signals to Raven's collar again.

"Ngh!" she grunted, giving a harsh jolt and a flinch behind her closed eyes.

Beast Boy paused a moment, glancing over in concern. "Raven?" he asked. "What is it?"

Raven's face was grimacing in discomfort. "It's working," she relayed. She opened her eyes, expression grim. "I can feel her."

Beast Boy's eyes widened. He glanced first at Robin--who had finally pulled his face from his knees, a tormented look on his haggard features--and then at Cyborg, who nodded.

The changeling's voice grew a little tighter and higher-pitched as he read out the next part.

"Okay, so I close the brackets right?"

"Yeah, and make sure those quotation marks are inside the parenthesis," Cyborg confirmed.

Starfire's next scream was louder than ever, ending in a horrible pained sobbing.

"Azar..." Raven breathed.

Robin uncurled with a cry, surging to his feet, flinging himself against the door.

"STOP IT! STOP IT! LEAVE HER ALONE!" he shouted, pounding on the metal with his fists. "LEAVE HER ALONE!"

"Oh man..." Beast Boy whimpered, his attention already drawing away from Cyborg's arm towards the awful display.

"Keep going," Cyborg urged.

Beast Boy kept reading aloud the lines, following Cyborg's instructions to fix them, trying to ignore the slams and crashing coming from in front of them as Robin threw himself bodily into the thick cell wall.

Bang! BANG!

Robin couldn't think, half-feral with fear and desperation. He screamed his lungs out furiously, scratching, clawing at the door, smashing his fists into it over and over.

"BASTARD!" he shrieked. "I'LL KILL YOU! I SWEAR I'LL KILL YOU!"

There was nothing in his head but panic and anger. Starfire was out there, she was in pain, and he couldn't make it stop.

There was a low voice from beyond the door--Dr. Agony maybe?--and a breath in-between a surge of electric humming and Starfire's awful, awful scream-filled cries of agony.

"STOP!" he yelled in response. "Starfire! Starfire!" His vision was blurring, his knuckles were bruised and his head spun but he didn't care, he just wanted to smash through the wall and pull her from that stupid device and hold her and bury his face in her hair and know she was okay, tell her she was okay, tell it it had all stopped. He reeled back with a dry sob. "Take me instead!" he called. "Take me, please, I'll do anything!" Wet heat was welling up in his eyes but he was beyond the point of noticing anymore. "Please just stop! Please!"

He drew back and slammed himself into the door again.

"Stop hurting her!"

"Robin--" Raven began to say, worried gaze fixed on him mutely.

Another slam.

"I'll kill you, you bastard. I'LL KILL YOU! STOP IT!"

"Robin stop, she can hear you!" Raven cried.

A hand clutched at her temple. Cyborg and Beast Boy's work was evident in the fading numbness, the ever-loudening echoes she could feel through her empathic senses, which rang with feedback from her bond with Robin. Starfire's pain fed into Robin's distress, which fed back into Starfire's, cyclical and building and stumbling over each other in her head and she almost didn't want her powers back if this hellish loop of pain and fear and hopelessness was what waited for her.

Robin just charged headlong into the door again with a snarling cry.

Raven shifted, moving to get up, but Slade was already beating her to the punch. Jericho was laid down carefully on the floor and the man stood to his feet, walking calmly over to the frenzied Robin.

The Boy Wonder smashed into the door once more, reeling back with a pained groan and clutching at his shoulder. He was moving back to try again, but just as he lurched forward Slade's hand caught his arm and stopped him, turning the boy to face him.

"That's enough, Robin," he said sternly.

Robin rounded on him, shouting shrilly. "This is all your fault!" he yelled. His arm drew back for a swing. "We wouldn't even be here if you hadn't--"

Slade caught the punch he threw, gripping Robin's wrist tightly, harshly.

"This. Won't. Help her," he hissed, the words pinching through his teeth.

Robin inhaled shakily, the tears in his eyes welling up and finally spilling down his cheeks. He leaned forward, choking back a sob, resting his forehead on Slade's chestplate.

Slade stiffened, dropping Robin's wrist and giving an aggravated hiss. His hands hovered awkwardly in the air. The Titans gaped openly, wearing matching expressions of shock. Robin sniffled pitifully, his shoulders shaking.

After a long uncomfortable moment, Slade finally pushed at Robin's shoulders, and Robin seemed to come to himself, pulling quickly back and wiping at his eyes.

"'m sorry. I'm sorry," he mumbled.

Cyborg shook his head, nudging Beast Boy with his knee to keep working. They could process how weird all this was later. "All right, BB, I think one more signal disruption should do it."

Beast Boy nodded, returning to the lines of code and entering in another cipher.

As soon as he finished, Cyborg tested the inner mechanism of his sonic cannon, sending a surge of electricity through his arm, up the wire, and into Raven's collar.

It shorted, sparking and then popping open and Raven snapped up her hands in a flash.

"Azarath Metrion Zinthos!" she yelled.

Black energy poured out from her, extinguishing the dim computer display, and a chill surrounded them. Sounded muted out for a moment before becoming horribly clear, light and open air hitting their faces.

Their feet were barely back on solid ground before Robin launched himself forward, screaming wretchedly. He body-checked one of Dr. Agony's technicians, slamming the man into the ground, his fist uppercutting the man's jaw. A couple more brutal punches smashed into the technician's face before the guards were finally reacting, rushing forward, pulling the Boy Wonder off. He twisted around, his arms flailing, legs sweeping out for kicks and he soon became a blur to the other Titans' eyes.

Raven let her powers lash around the room, slicing through rifles, smacking men into the walls. The wires rolled up into Cyborg's wrist stubs and he shoulder-slammed a technician aside to retrieve one of his hands from a metal table. Beast Boy tossed him his other one and Cyborg's sonic cannon ratcheted up, adding its noise to the chaos and din.

At some point Beast Boy's collar came off and his roars sounded as he towered over the room in T-Rex form, sweeping his tail across a row of equipment and tables and splintering the rack they had Starfire attached to. She collapsed across the rubble, crimson hair splaying across the ground.

Raven shoved out walls of black matter, pushing obstacles aside so she could clear a path to the Tamaranian. The empathic waves she could sense from Starfire were finally calming, but Robin was blaring louder than ever. She cast her eyes about, looking for him.

There was a swoosh of air, a dull thud, and a wet gargle from her right, and her empathic senses felt a rush of fear blossoming; her head whipped that direction in time to see a quick flash of Slade, Jericho over his shoulder, pulling a knife from Dr. Agony's gut. The man toppled over, out of sight, and she had turn away to sidestep the blow a guard was swinging at her.

She looked forward again. Beast Boy and Cyborg were making their way to Starfire's side. Robin had another guard pinned underneath him; the man's nose was broken--possibly his jaw too--and blood streamed freely down his face and Robin was still punching, each blow harder and harder, screaming with every breath.

Raven reached out as he was lifting his fist again, snagging his wrist.

"Enough!" she shouted. She pulled him backwards off the guard, yanking him to his feet, grabbing his arms near the shoulders. "It's okay, it's okay Robin, we've got her now," she assured him. "Calm down."

He gasped heavily, catching his breath, every limb shaking and vibrating, the rage within him quivering. With enormous effort, he forced himself to take deeper and slower breaths.

A soft groan sounded.

Robin shoved Raven aside with his arm, running and stumbling towards the fallen princess. Cyborg had turned her over, was busy examining her, checking her pulse, her breathing, but Robin couldn't wait for him to be finished, throwing himself down and scooping her up in his arms, squeezing her tightly.

"Star..." he sobbed, tear tracks streaking down his face again. "Star I'm so, so sorry! I'm sorry... I'm sorry..." he breathed over and over again.

She moaned quietly, her eyelids fluttering open, eyes still vibrantly green in spite of the pallor of her skin and the burn marks marring her clothes and extremities.

Her mouth twitched with a smile.

"Robin..." she whispered, and the relief in her voice made the floodgates open and Robin cried openly, wheezing, shuddering, sobbing until he hiccuped, unable to make himself move or do anything but hold her tighter and tighter, feel her heartbeat against his chest.

She was warm...

The other Titans hovered, keeping careful watch over the fallen guards and technicians. Raven glanced over and grimaced at the growing pool of blood underneath the twisted body of the doctor. Slade and Jericho had vanished. She couldn't sense them anywhere near.

Feeling the consciousnesses of several men beginning to return, she tugged lightly on Robin's cape.

"We can't stay here," she told him.

Pulling his head up, Robin inhaled and nodded. He didn't move for several long seconds though, and finally Beast Boy just nosed his way under them, becoming an elephant to carry them out of there.

Raven lifted Cyborg and the Titans made their escape, turning down hallways and corridors until they emerged into the open air.

Robin cradled Starfire tightly the whole way, slowly growing numb to the world.

***

Sunlight streamed into the room, bright to match the cadence of her voice as she sat up, eating and talking.

Robin hovered outside the door to the medbay, holding his elbows. Hesitating.

Starfire picked food from her tray as she chatted, dressed in a light hospital gown, her arms wrapped with white bandages. The other Titans--plus Jericho--were arranged around her in a supportive circle. She sounded okay, but Robin had heard crying from the room in the middle of the night, and he wasn't sure if it was his nightmares bleeding into reality or reality bleeding into his nightmares.

He was almost afraid to ask.

"You know I can sense you standing out there."

Robin startled at Raven's voice from inside the room. The conversation had gone quiet without him noticing. With a grimace, he stepped around the doorframe.

Cyborg leaned back from Starfire's hospital bed, sending him a grin.

"Look who decided to finally join us," he quipped.

His grin faded as he and Beast Boy separated from the rest and came over to speak with him privately.

"Real talk, are you okay man?" Cyborg asked, voice low. "You took everything pretty hard."

The concern with which they were looking at him was scalding and he hated it. "I'm not the one who got..." He paid an uncomfortable glance at Starfire and Jericho. "...experimented on."

"Yeah but you, like... completely fell apart," Beast Boy pointed out, whispering. "You practically wanted a hug from Slade."

"Don't remind me," Robin muttered.

"Robin?" Starfire called from behind them.

"We'll talk later," Robin decided, pushing past the other boys.

Starfire beamed broadly upon seeing him. She extended a hand, motioning for him to sit next to her. Jericho got up from the spot she indicated, nodding at Robin.

Should we let you two have a minute? he signed.

"Yes. Thanks," he said gratefully.

Jericho grabbed the stand his IV was hanging from and rolled it along with him, motioning for the others to follow.

Raven cast a look at him that promised they would be talking later before she followed the boys out of the room, Beast Boy and Cyborg sharing matching expressions of reluctance.

Their footsteps faded from hearing.

Unable to contain himself any longer, Robin flung himself across the room to her side, his arms wrapping tight around her, a choked sound coming from him.

Starfire let out a grunt of surprise at first, but quickly wound her arms across his back. Her face tucked into the crook of his neck and she felt his shoulders shaking.

"I'm sorry," he sobbed. "I'm so sorry, Starfire, when I heard you I just--I couldn't--"

"I know," she told him. "I understand." She squeezed him tighter, her fingers curling into his tunic. "But it was... difficult... hearing you and knowing you could not help me."

"I'm sorry," he repeated.

They stayed there, embracing each other, Robin's tears dripping down his chin.

Eventually he pulled back, mashing his hands across his cheeks. He inhaled shakily, leveling his eyes at her in concern. "Are... you okay now?" he asked anxiously.

She hesitated to answer, glancing down. "I am... not sleeping well," she admitted softly. "Sounds startle me. I had an awful nightmare last night." She traced the blanket across her legs with her fingers. "Jericho says he is feeling much the same." Her eyes lifted again, bright and soft, and a sad smile touched her lips. "But we are healing quickly from the physical damage." She shook her head. "In time, the emotional will fade as well."

His hand crept across the bed for hers, interlacing their fingers. "I'll be here if... if you need to talk. About anything."

Her smile edged wider. "Thank you." She squeezed his hand. "Now please," she told him, "I know you have not slept either, so go and get some rest. For me."

"In a bit," he promised. "I need to... look at you for a while."

She let him, her thumb brushing over the back of his hand as the sunlight framed their heads and a sense of quiet peace settled over them.

#robstar #robin #starfire #slade #raven #beast boy #cyborg #Teen Titans #fanfiction #i take zero responsibility for this i was goaded #HAPPY EASTER HAVE SOME ANGST #prompt fics

78 notes · View notes

manythingsoflittlesignificance · 5 years

Text

the one where the pack is a #fail

Ok so AU where the pack is all alive, in their mid-20s, done with college. Scott, no longer wanting the responsibility of being Alpha, figured out with Stiles’ help how to magically transfer his status to Derek and joined his pack. Most of the group have moved back to Beacon Hills after graduating and have local jobs while the remaining members (Lydia, Danny, Kira, and Isaac) stay in contact and try to come home a couple of times a year. It’s during one of the super rare times everyone is home and they’re having a pack barbeque and movie night in the rebuilt Hale house and they’ve all been drinking a little so they’re loose and happy and having fun, when Danny innocently asks Stiles and Derek to stick out their hands because he wants to see something. The two, confused but unsuspecting of any mischief from Danny (maybe he’s taking a crack at palm-reading?), immediately put out their hands and before they know it, they’re shackled together with handcuffs. Danny crows in victory and Jackson is just sitting there grumbling “I can’t believe it was actually that easy what the hell.” Everyone is laughing and Stiles and Derek are just stunned and have no idea what’s happening.

Stiles is the first one to say something. “I don’t understand… was this some type of dare? Am I being punk’d?”

And Scott responds, “you two are going to stay like that until you get your shit together because We the Pack are collectively sick of you guys.”

Instead of looking surprised or annoyed, both Stiles and Derek just look even more confused.

“What do you mean? Stiles and I are fine, nothing’s wrong.” says Derek and now Erica has just about had it with this bullshit.

“GOOD LORD, just admit you’ve been pining for each other FOR YEARS and this will all finally be over and the rest of us can go back to watching Boyd and Jackson cry about Elle Woods while you two make out.”

There’s a beat of awkward silence. Derek and Stiles and exchange a brief look and then Stiles says “Erica… Derek and I are going to admit no such thing. Because it’s not true. I mean what we have is definitely one of the most important relationships in my life but—”

“—we’re pack. Of coursewe have love for each other. We work well together and we understand each other’s priorities. It’s significant, obviously, but we certainly have not been pininglike characters in some cheap harlequin novel.” Derek looks annoyed.

“You do spend an awful lot of time staring at each other when the other isn’t looking,” observes Boyd.

“I mean come on, you guys can’t really be this clueless!” Allison explodes. “You basically run this pack together. You go grocery shopping together, you cuddle.”

“Yeah, so? I cuddle with everyone! I’m a tactile guy, don’t judge me! If you’re going to follow that logic, the why doesn’t anyone think Scott and I have unresolved feelings?” He turns to Scott and waggles his eyebrows.

Scott is unperturbed. “Nothing unresolved about us, bro. But don’t deflect. I know you, ok? You haven’t dated or hooked up with anyone new in ages! You’ve been too busy obsessing over taking care of this pack and hanging out with Derek all. the. freaking. time!”

“Yeah and it’s been ages since Derek’s last been with someone, too, and you both always smell sickeningly happy around each other” Malia pitches in.

“Watch it, Malia, unless you want everyone to know how your last fling really ended,” Derek snaps back.

“Derek do NOT bring that shit up again, it’s been more than two years!”

“So you’ve been single for two years and yet nobody seems to think you’repining after another pack member?”

“Yeah! Malia and Isaac have been single even longer than us! So how come it isn’t Isaac who’s cuffed to Derek right now, huh?” Stiles tries. But at this, both Derek and Isaac experience a full-body shudder and Jackson grimaces. “That’s just wrong, Stilinski.”

“Yeah ok, bad example, I take it back.”

Kira pitches in more gently. “But Stiles, you spend 70% of your time here in this house. You make everyone food and you send us care packages with cute little notes. You made sure to schedule each of us individual training time with Derek. You made us follow a chore chartand you tell us to ‘be nice to Daddy’ whenever you leave for Emissarys-related business. I mean, to the rest of us it seems like you’ve been wife-ing Derek up pretty hard.”

“WIFE-ING? This is blatant pigeon-holing! I didn’t realize caringfor the packmeant I’d be strapped to this…this narrow-ass label. I may have mother-hen tendencies but I am nobody’s wifey.”

It’s at this point that the lupine members of the pack begin to realize that neither Derek nor Stiles have had a single errant heartbeat throughout the entire conversation. No elevated pulses, no betraying smells. They’ve just been calmly and comfortably sitting next to each other on the couch, like they always do. The pack starts feeling awkward and wrong-footed. Were they wrong, after all? Maybe Stiles and Derek really were just good friends. Really, weirdly close, platonic friends.

“Listen, everyone, I think you’ve just been reading this all wrong. Stiles and I are not mad, but can you please just uncuff us so we can forget about this and continue having a good night?” Derek tries again.

But Lydia doesn’t want to accept defeat so easily.

“There’s just one more thing we haven’t addressed. You guys are clearly attracted to one another. Stiles, you’ve even told me as much.”

“Well, sure. Derek is a handsome man, I think that’s just an objective fact.”

“You once told me you wanted to rip off his shirt and lick his nipples at least once before you died.”

“LYDIA oh my god! I was drunk! Ugh. Fine, ok, so I think Derek is sexy, what of it.”

“So? You’re best friends…” she ignores Scott’s indignant shout, “…you have domestic routines, you find each other sexually appealing, why not explore the potential? Give it an honest attempt, test the waters.”

“And how do you expect us to test it out, exactly? What, are we supposed to make out or something?” asks Derek.

“Hmm, or something,” Lydia murmurs.

She’s met with complete silence in the room. She tries to stare down Stiles, implicitly challenging him, and is surprised to see that he looks... smug? He has a faint glint in his eyes and she can’t quite place what it means. Something along the lines of “challenge fucking accepted.” She supposes that will work in her favor. The idiot wouldn’t understand romance if it bit him in the ass, and it was her job as his best friend to force him to view his relationship with Derek under a different light.

It’s Erica who breaks the silence. “I mean, it’s not a bad idea. I certainly wouldn’t mind watching,” she says, leering.

“This is not what I was expecting to happen, but I fully endorse the proceedings,” Danny chimes in.

“Are you telling me, if I make out with Derek right now, we can put an end to all this nonsense?”

The pack all seem to be convinced, all of them shrugging and nodding their heads as if this idea makes complete sense.

“You’re all fucking bonkers.” Having expressed his indignation, Stiles turns to face Derek. “Let’s get this over with?”

“You don’t have to act like it’s torture, Stiles, we’ve done scarier things.” Derek turns to the pack. “What, are you all just going to watch?”

He’s just met with impatient glares.

“I’m going to incrementally add 5 suicides to your workouts every day for the rest of the year.” And before anyone can respond he turns around—and carefully maneuvering their positions because of the handcuffs—he picks Stiles up, deposits him on his lap, and kisses him.

They kiss. And they keep kissing. After a few seconds, the pack realizes there hasn’t been any elevation in either of their heart rates, and neither of them seem particularly aroused. There’s no tell-tale blip of excitement. In fact, their pulses are weirdly sedate, almost calm. The two are somehow…completely unbothered.

The pack slowly feels awkwardness creep back in. Isaac looks away first. Lydia looks absolutely bewildered and defeated. Allison looks like someone kicked her puppy. Even Boyd looks somewhat disappointed. They’d all hoped…

Jackson’s the first one to break. “Ok! God, stop, you’ve proven your point. So you guys have not secretly been lusting after each other. We were wrong.”

Stiles turns back around to face the pack and he looks fucking victorious. Lydia was right, his wide-grinned expression is as smug as she’s ever seen it, like he just won some game. She just doesn’t understand, if this was all just a stupid misunderstanding, why was proving them wrong such a big deal to him? He’s practically vibrating with his success and frankly, it’s unfitting to the situation at hand. He climbs off Derek’s lap and looks expectantly at Danny. “Unlock us now, please?”

Danny quietly obliges, and Stiles and Derek breathe out simultaneous sighs of relief and go back to sitting with their arms around each other on the couch. Everyone else kind of lingers awkwardly for a few seconds, nobody making eye-contact until Derek says, “All right guys, sorry your little experiment didn’t work out but more importantly, we just missed the entire Bend-and-Snap routine.” And with that, everyone settles back into their positions and turns back to the movie.

A few minutes pass before Lydia hears Stiles stifling giggles behind her. She turns around to glare at him, only to see that now Derek is also straining to fight back his laughter. At seeing her bemused face, Derek loses it. His loud bark of laughter disrupts the just-settled atmosphere.

“What is so funny?” Erica seethes, “please share with the class.”

“I can’t! I just can’t—believe—” Stiles is gasping, struggling to get out words. “—I can’t believe you all honestly thought—we’ve been pining for years. To be honest, I am severely disappointed in your skills of observation and deduction.” He turns to Derek who is clutching his stomach and trying to calm himself down. “Derek, you really do have to up the game with their training. I mean, to have all the pieces and arrive at the completely wrong conclusion, I just don’t understand.”

Everyone is watching them, completely confused. Here it comes, Lydia thinks. She can’t believe that there was something she had missed. Derek, his laughter finally dying out, grins at his pack.

“I honestly don’t know how you all failed this badly. Guys, Stiles and I have been boning on the regular since he graduated.”

“Yeah and I especially don’t understand how you missed this fucking RING that I have been sporting for the last WEEK. complete failwolves, iswtg”

the pack’s reaction:

***If you liked this ficlet please go to my page and read the new Sterek story I wrote! And feel free to like, comment, reblog! Much love <3

#teen wolf #sterek fic #sterek au #sterek #stiles stilinski #derek hale #hale pack #fluff #crack fic #good omens #ineffable #secret husbands

975 notes · View notes

meflemming · 4 years

Text

The dEtEcTiVe and the vAmPiRe || Agatha and Miriam

TIMING: Current

LOCATION: Flemming’s Leather

PARTIES: @detective-keen & @meflemming

SUMMARY: Miriam’s store gets robbed. Agatha’s on the case.

The store had been broken into. The store had been broken into, and Miriam was seething. No one, not once, had ever broken into her family's store in all their years of owning it. Yet she comes back from the dead for only a few months, and a break in happens. She arrived at the store a little before daw, planning on spending her day inside to do paperwork, when she found the door cracked open. The cash register had been broken into, but, more importantly, some of the handcrafted pieces that she’d made were stolen. Miriam spent hours at least once a month counting her inventory and keeping track of prices. She knew each piece that had been stolen as well as its value. Which is why she called the police department immediately, requesting an officer on the scene to take her statement and begin hunting down the criminal that had stolen from her to the fullest extent of the law. She leaned against the cashier’s counter, angling herself away from the rising sun as she waited. The bell on the door rang, and her head shot up. “I do hope you’re an officer?” she asked, quinting towards the door.

“Mrs. Flemming?” Agatha gestured at a policeman to get closer and have a look at the inside of the store while she spoke to the owner. “I’m Detective Keen,” she took out a notepad from her jacket and flipped it open. Had she spent hours and hours practicing that move ever since she was a child ? You bet she did. Was it worth it ? You bet it was. Her eyes wandered toward the busted register. She had taken notes of the state of the front door as she got in, and the more she looked around, the more she saw the damage inflicted to this shop owner’s finances. “If you have any sort of surveillance footage, we’re going to have to have a look at it,” otherwise, the bank on the other side of the street had an ATM that might have caught something. There were ways to get an idea of who was responsible for this. “Can you give me a rough idea of when this could have happened?” She looked up from her notes and paused, to have a look at her face. “Would you like to discuss it elsewhere?”

“It’s Miss, actually,” Miriam said, her smile a bit tight. “I haven’t been Mrs for quite some time.” She looked the young woman, Detective Keen, over. She was young. It was hard for Miriam to believe that she was a detective, being someone so young, but she’d take what she was given. “Thank you for coming out, Detective, especially at such an,” she looked outside at the sun barely coming up, “early hour.” She looked around the store, the damages, the loss of property. She was furious. She hoped they found the bastard that had the audacity to rob from her, and soon. She had some words for them, among other things. “Surveillance?” Miriam pinched the bridge of her nose. “I’ve been meaning to get something installed but haven’t gotten around to it. One doesn’t expect this kind of thing to happen in such a small town.” She sighed. The sun was steadily rising. “We can go back to my office.” She started walking down the hallway, assuming the detective would follow. “It would have had to happen between midnight and 5:30 this morning. Probably earlier than that.”

If Agatha’s eyebrow raised, she did not say a thing. One of the reasons why she called women Mrs was because she did not like how they made a difference for them depending on their marital status, when the same could not be said about men. It felt archaic, and she did not care for this. She unbuttoned her blazer and started pacing around the shop, having a look at the mess the thieves had made. “There’s nothing more cowardly and lazy than theft,” she commented. She was mostly speaking to herself, as she doubted anyone cared about her stream of consciousness. She hated this. B&E was terrible, because it left people living in fear for a long, long time. Fear that it will happen again, fear that they won’t be safe anywhere. “I’m sorry that you have to go through this,” the detective turned on her heels to face Ms.Flemming. The look in her eyes had not soften. She had not come here to make friends, after all. Still, you could see that her apology was genuine. Following the woman behind, she took a seat in her office, glancing around the room. It was nicely decorated, and it certainly looked more tidy and comfortable than hers. “I’ll get the surveillance footage from the street. The cameras out there might have caught something,” she explained, writing down the approximate time given to her. “That’s actually quite precise. It will save us a lot of time, thank you,” she couldn’t help but think that this was quite a short time for someone to leave and come back to work. The woman must have been quite hardworking. “Everything here is handmade?”

Allowing the woman to look around the room, Miriam herself took it in, wondering if her superior vision could pick out something that the detective might have missed. She’d already scanned the place over first, but the thief had left nothing around the shop that could help with identification. Just a mess and a distinct lack in some of her more expensive merchandise. “Thank you, Detective.” Though it didn’t do anything to help the situation, Miriam could, at least, appreciate the detective’s apology. She sat at her desk chair, drumming her fingers against her knee. The surveillance would help, certainly. She wondered if she could convince someone from the bank to give her the information. Part of her wanted to take matters into her own hands. She could. She should. Revenge was kind of what she lived for. “I like to come by the shop sometimes at night, even when I’m not working, just to check on things.” She was out and about anyway. “All handmade, yes. Mostly by myself and two other employees, though I also sell products from other crafters. My family kept up a lot of contacts. But I have a hand in most of what’s been stolen. I should be able to get you a comprehensible list soon, should you need it.” Or even if she didn’t.

“This place is your baby,” Agatha absentmindedly said, sitting done on the other side of the desk. Her elbows on her thighs, she wrote done a few things in her notebook again, mentioning among other things, that Ms.Flemming spent a lot of time here. Clearly whoever had broken in here had been watching her for a while. Fucking creep, she thought to herself. She decided not to tell her that. Clearly, if whoever had done this wanted to hurt Miriam, they wouldn’t have picked a time where she was absent. “Have you noticed anything lately? Seeing the same person in the street quite often?” Hard to notice, but she couldn’t leave this question unanswered. “I will obviously need the name of your employees, but if there are perhaps people you know that might want to harm your business, I will need their names too,” she nodded, “I will need that list. You will have to contact your insurance company, you can copy me on this email, I’ll be able to confirm the robbery directly.” She sat up, and looked Miriam in the eyes. She could not quite get a read of her, and that bugged him more than she let show. “Since when have you been owning this shop?”

“It is,” Miriam said quietly. She put almost all of her time and effort and energy into this store. That and hunting was what kept her going. The store was a service to people that they could see and appreciate. She made art. She made things she could be proud of. She tried to think back to her week, to anyone being overly suspicious around her store, but she was drawing a blank. She couldn’t be on the main floor all day, and when she came by to check on the place at night, she hadn’t noticed anyone. “I haven’t noticed anything,” she said, feeling frustrated, “and I tend to be quite aware of my environment.” Came with being a hunter (a predator, really) she supposed. “I would have noticed someone if they’d attempted to stalk my business with me around.” She sighed, running a hand over her eyes. God, she felt tired. She wished she could sleep, really sleep, like a normal person. Instead, she jotted down a list of her employees, only six names total. “I have three clerks, two other leatherworkers besides myself, and my assistant, Elle.” There were plenty of people that wanted to harm her, the witch hunter. They wouldn’t target her business, though. At least, she didn’t think so. She handed the list over. “As soon as she gets in contact with the insurance company, I’ll make sure she gets you the information you need. I’m terrible with computers, I fear.” In fact, most of what the detective said about email went right over her head. She leaned back in her chair, her hands folded in her lap. This was a story she knew. “It’s been in my family for as long as I can remember. My cousins owned it before me. They had a tragedy in the family about thirty years ago, never really recovered. It’s always been a dream of mine to own the place and, well, here we are.”

I tend to be quite aware of my environment. Agatha wouldn’t have been able to tell why, but those words sent a shiver down her spine. Maybe it was how Ms.Flemming had enunciated them, but she found it quite a weird thing to say for a shop owner who sold jackets and shoes. She tried not to show it, and cleared her throat. Her pen still in hand, she wrote down the number of her employees, and took the list handed to her with a polite smile. Another thing bothered him. That woman looked about the same age as Agatha, she must have grown up around computers, just like herself, and yet, she claimed to be so bad with computers, she could not send an email. Now Agatha, she knew people bad with computers, but they were her mother’s age. In fact, she had to do most of her paperwork these days, as everything was informatized. And so, she wondered why the hell someone like Miriam could not just do it herself. It took her a lot not to comment on it, but she managed. Instead, she listened to the shop owner as she went on, explaining that this was a family business, and that her family had gone through a tragedy. Obviously, this couldn’t have been the woman’s plan, but stories like that could only remind Agatha of her own family, and her father’s tragic death. “You should always try to pursue your dreams, no matter what hardships are on your path,” she commented with a sigh. It seemed like she would not learn a lot more here. “I’ll see what they found,” she stood up from her chair and put away her notepad. “Maybe you could go for a walk, it’s such a nice day today,” she offered, referring to the fantastic sunny day they had been blessed with.

As the detective wrote everything down, Miriam watched the other woman. She was about the age Miriam had been when she was turned, though it was hard for Miriam to tell. She’d never been good with ages. For all she knew, the detective could be years older or years younger, though she had a sort of youthfulness to her that Miriam hadn’t recognized in herself in a very long time. Far before she was turned, maybe even before she married. Miriam could not remember the last time she felt young. “I agree completely,” she told the detective. “Dreams are meant to be followed.” She believed that wholeheartedly. And owning the leather shop had always been her dream, though perhaps the company had been forced upon her when she was little. It became her dream, and she’d grown to love it more than anything else in the world. Miriam stood up along with the detective, giving her a bright smile. “Thank you so much for all of your help, and do keep me updated on what you find.” She walked Detective Keen as far as the main floor to the shop, but stayed in the hallway to the back rooms, avoiding the sunlight. “I’d love nothing more than to take a walk, but, unfortunately, I told my assistant I’d wait her in my office once you all were finished. My work doesn’t stop, I’m afraid, even for crime.”

“Mmm,” she hummed in response. It was not often that you saw people so passionate about their jobs. Some didn’t get to pick, and some others picked it for the money. “Thank you for your time and your answers,” she replied, courteous but curt. If she had not expected that the woman would stop in her tracks, she expected her to stay in here instead of enjoying the sun. Agatha would have never said this to her face, but this woman looked as if she did not see much of the sun, although, considering how good her skin looked, she could not blame her for that. Damn porcelain. However, the detective wondered why she couldn’t at least go get some fresh air, change her mind, instead of staying stuck in her office to work. Clearly she could have used a break. Agatha held back her frown, and instead smiled at Miriam. “Then I suppose I’ll see you in a few.” And with those words, she walked away from the woman, and up to the officer in charge of evidence, who looked as if he was almost done.

#chatzy: agatha keen

13 notes · View notes

umccall71 · 5 years

Text

Chapter 18

Characters: Prince Liam and MC Lady Saige

Rating:Mature content includes profanity, sexual content,talks about depression.

Word Count:3471

Disclaimer:All characters are property of Pixelberry except my OC Lady Saige. The use of these characters are for entertainment only and i am only borrowing them.

Summary:After a summer of a lifetime,Prince Liam thought he could have it all.He was carefree, free, and sharing time with the woman of his dreams.When life was easy, a balancing act between love and duty, he realizes his truths are lies, wrong is right, and decisions do have consequences. Lady Saige never imagined she would be one of his consequences.When an utter act horror throws her world into a tailspin.

Warning: This series contains subject matter of depression,pregnancy, violence, and sensitive sexual content.The story may trigger certain individuals. Please be advised. If you are reading this series you are acknowledging you are 18+.

A/N:Sorry for the long delay.Things have been hectic in my life for a bit.I had to take some time to focus on my health. Thanks for your understanding and support.

Song inspiration for this chapter is Adele, “To make you feel my Love”

@eadanga @ao719 @silviasutton1989 @rainbowsinthestorm @the-soot-sprite @jared2612 @sashatrr @jovialyouthmusic @smalltalk88 @custaroonie @kuladekiwi @whenyourheartskipsabeat @marietrinmimi @furiousherringoperatortoad @gibbles82 @choices97 @fantasy-of-fiction @romanticatheart-posts @drakesensworld @simsvetements @blackcoffee85 @3pawandme @indiacater @hopefulmoonobject @elles-choices @carabethpow

*********

LIam sat vigil by her bedside as she laid unconscious...connected to monitors… beeping in the background. Hours ticked on as his friends tried to convince him to rest , or eat, or to stretch his legs...the answer was always, “no, I'm not going anywhere.”

Olivia and Drake felt helpless in this time of need, watching what should be the happiest time in their friend’s lives, married, in love, expecting… they had a bright future ahead of them . THey had Cordonia eager to meet the queen and anticipating the royal heir.The couple spent the night curled up with Liv in Drake’s arms . They were so wrapped up in the moment that they had fallen asleep ,no thought to being discovered.This was the most at peace Olivia had been … in years. She allowed herself to lean on Drake in this time of need.

Liam was jolted from his spot early the next morning when the doctor had crept into check on the queen and to give an update. He carefully avoided giving a full prognosis upon liam's arrival. He had to be certain to give any hope, in what would be the first in many devastating days.

The doctor bowed when he noticed liam's weary ocean blue eyes meet his own chocolate specs. “Your majesty, I am sorry to disturb you. May I speak to you once again in private? I need to be sure that you are aware of where we stand and the next hours for the queen.``he seemed nervous as liam gestured toward the door leading to the hall.

King Liam, Liam Rys… who would best receive this news ? Would the solemn,stoic king allow the severity to pierce his armor? Would it be LIam, husband to Saige , an emotional being… listening to the fate of his family that up unto several months ago he never realized how badly he wanted it?

Liam nodded to acknowledge to the doctor to proceed with the news of what was expected. The doctor let out a deep breath, considering his words carefully, “sir, when your wife was bought in , she had swelling, bruising, and blood around her face and… down between her legs. WE ...we found that she had severe tearing around the entrance of her vagina , and traumatic rectal hematoma after she was.. Raped.”, he paused watching the king’s eyes stretch in horror.

“Sir… do you need a moment?”,he wanted to make sure that liam was open to hear everything that needed to be shared. “We can take a moment if needed.”

Liam shook his head as he fought to hide his heartbreak as he advised, “no… go on.”

“Your majesty, the trauma from the violent way she was entered and the act , caused her body to shut down. Upon her ultrasound we discovered that your wife had an empty amniotic sac and a viable embryo. Meaning that the queen was pregnant with twins, but for whatever reason the body rejected the second embryo. She is still carrying a single child.”,he breathed deeply.

Liam paused,wiped his face filled with shock and pain, “Are you telling me that we conceived twins, but only one child survived?”he felt a lump growing in his throat and his mind racing trying to process what he had just been told.

The doctor interjected, “sir, the next 48 hours after the ordeal your wife has been through are crucial...critical to her pregnancy. She lost a lot of blood and there’s the internal tear near her uterus and the area between her vaginal area and her rectum. She will need around the clock monitoring and care until we are certain… that she has made it over the hump.”

Liam bit his inner cheek trying to hold back the overwhelming emotions that were flooding his mind . He briskly shook his head in the direction of the doctor tapped to care for his queen, and learning there was a greater loss than he had imagined. The doctor offered a sympathetic smile as he patted the king on his shoulder and left him to deal with his inner turmoil.Liam leaned forward ,resting his hands on his knees trying to hold himself and accept that this was no dream, or nightmare. He internally tried to prepare himself, “I need to be strong for them, I cannot let her see me ...in any other state, than composed. He was interrupted from his thoughts by Bastien clearing his throat, making his presence known.

“Your majesty, I am trying to locate Travis to determine where he was during the attack and how he could allow anyone to enter the royal quarters. I have a locator out find him and have him deliver answers.”

Liam barked in a loud, kingly manner, “ I need more than answers! I trusted him to care for my wife, my family, and he failed on both fronts, “he seethed.” Bastien, no one gets any sleep until the animal that did this to my wife… is in my custody”,his nostrils flared and he clenched his jaw as he tried to pull himself together. ``there is no if, it had better be when we get this monster in custody… just go … handle it… now!” Bastien promptly bowed and took off toward the exit. Within mere moments, the door to the private waiting room flew open from observing the raised voice of the king.

“Li… what is going on?… we can hear you throughout this floor.``Drake walked over standing eye to eye with his best friend, eyes pleading for liam to open up… let him help. “What is it brother? I have rarely seen you get upset, let alone raise your voice.``Drake just stared allowing him time to share what was angering him.

Liam’s blue eyes became clouded with tearing on the brink of breaking free.Drake and Olivia ushered Liam into Saige’s room to speak in private. He shook his no to the location, when they turned and led him across the hall to the private waiting room. The room was colored in a sage green paint, faux greenery on the coffee tables, an off white lamp struggling to emit light, and a polyester couch. Drake closed the blinds to the hall to provide a sanctuary for his friend that was struggling to make sense of the events of the last 48 hours. Liam exhaled a labored breath that seemed to open pandora’s box. The tears slowly tracked down his face. “How… how do I help make sense of what happened , when I have no clue myself?”he spoke through broken sobs and a whisper. “I was just joking and laughing with her the night before she was found in … in our home.”,he became dizzy from the thoughts battling within. “Saige is my life, she is everything I never knew I needed. She epitomizes every possible dream. So why.. Why would someone hurt her so savagely?! We were counting the days until I got home.. Until I got back to them. She shared how she was exhausted and had an early dinner to turn in. She just needed to rest… she was looking forward to her appointment the next morning. She laughed about meeting you, and how you would never leave alone, ``he forced a small smile. “I had even mentioned asking if you would stay with her until I got home… she didn't want you to feel like you were babysitting. She told me you had a life of your own, a home of your own to take care of. She .. she didn't want anyone to feel that she was a burden.Guys she even turned me down from traveling to Italy so she could be a good mom from the start and keep her appointment, `` he rambled on. “Doesn't she know I could have had an army of doctors to travel with us. What is the use of being a king, if you can't protect your own damn family?!”, he turned and punched a hole in the sheetrock wall.

Olivia covered her mouth and turned away from Liam as she too fought back tears for her friend’s loss and expected pain.Drake subtly reached out to touch Olivia’s softly. That tender moment meant so much to her, she turned around, flashing a grateful smile before kneeling down in front of Liam. “Oh Liam… I'm so sorry for you both. You lost a child too, but you can be there for the other baby .”,she quietly spoke gaging his reaction.

“Thanks Liv… thank you both for being here . THis has shown me that you have to hold on tightly to the people that are important in your life. Once we weather this storm, Saige will not go a day without knowing how important she is in my life”,he sniffled. “ You two.. You need to cherish each other.” Olivia and Drake’s eyes both stretched and they launched into a denial . Liam cut them off , “I know that you two are involved… I have known for a few weeks, accidentally of course. I'm happy for you both, just enjoy whatever this is that developing between you.”, liam forced a smile and left the room to return to the bedside of the love of his life.

When liam re-entered he quietly approached the bed, studying the injuries of her face. Each mark telling a story of an abomination that no one should ever have to endure, especially in their home.He softly traced her porcelain skin, darkened by the pigment of the bruises and swelling. He took her left in his own, running his thumb over the set of diamond rings. He grimaced as his red rimmed eyes and heavy heart sat by silently chiding himself for ever subjecting her to this kind of pain. “My love… all I ever wanted was your happiness… hopefully that was with me. I wish that I can away all of your pain, all of the heartaches, all of feelings that I know you will take on. A soul as pure as yours , should never have to face the kind of….torment that you have. I know that what you did… you did for me Saige. If you had your way...you would have remained in the states. You are here...because of me. I want you to feel my love… feel everything we experienced on our wedding day.I don't want these impending nightmares to creep into the corners of your mind.”

Liam fished out his smart phone and thumbed to the playlist that he and Saige found strength in when things were rough trying to move forward. His finger landed on one of their favorite songs. He nodded and locked his eyes on her still form pressing play. The sound of Adele quietly filling the room ,drowning out the beeps of the monitors.

When the rain is blowing in your face

And the whole world is on your case

I could offer you a warm embrace

To make you feel my love

When the evening shadows and the stars appear

And there is no one there to dry your tears

I could hold you for a million years

To make you feel my love

I know you haven't made your mind up yet

But I will never do you wrong

I've known it from the moment that we met

No doubt in my mind where you belong

I'd go hungry; I'd go black and blue

I'd go crawling down the avenue

No, there's nothing that I wouldn't do

To make you feel my love

The storms are raging on the rolling sea

And on the highway of regret

The winds of change are blowing wild and free

You ain't seen nothing like me yet

I could make you happy, make your dreams come true

Nothing that I wouldn't do

Go to the ends of the Earth for you

To make you feel my love

As the melody came to an end, Liam gently pressed his lips to her hand that wore his rings..the symbols of his love and commitment. “Baby, please open your eyes and come back to me. I love you… I miss you so much”,his eyes glossed over as heard a soft knock on the door.

“Come in”. He whispered never removing his glance from her face.

“Liam, we came to check if there is any change.Has she regained consciousness yet?”,Olivia questioned . “It’s been a long time without her waking up. I wish we knew who did this to her. We all know she never deserved something like this to happen.”The anger was bubbling to the surface in scarlett duchess’s voice.

Bastien tapped on the door to alert his king that he was back. “Sir, still no word from Travis. It’s not like him to abandon his post without a word.”

Liam furrowed his brow and ran his hand through his blonde hair, “someone has got to know who did this , and why. Travis has to have answers as to how this transpired in our home ...against my wife.”,his words were stern, but low.

The monitors were low and steady when the silence was interrupted by a barely audible whisper.”He not only knows, he was there ...helping.”,soft whimpers and pained breaths were heard in that hospital room. Saige slowly opened her eyes as she focused on the bodies in her room. “Ow”,she flinched at the sudden awareness of her pain.

Liam turned his gaze back to her and every set of eyes landed on her battered face. “Love...did I hear you right, he was there? Travis was there while you were attacked? God I have never been so relieved to see your gorgeous eyes opened. Was Travis hurt too?”,Liam couldn't stop asking question after question.

Saige stared up at the ceiling as her eyes began to water ,dampening her swollen cheeks and eyes. “No Liam, he was there holding me down as I was being …”she trailed off.

“Love, do you remember what happened? Any detail no matter how small would help us to find who did this to you.”Liam’s eyes darted around the room from Bastien,to Drake,to Olivia, back to Saige..eagerly listening to her gather the courage to share her harrowing experience.

“Liam...you don't have to look very far..the person, the people that did this are in your palace.”,she started to become agitated. “He came back to finish what he started...I tried to stop him Liam.. I tried to fight him,but they held me..they slammed me on the floor.Travis and … and another guard held me down while he did this to me”,she fought through her tears to explain how she lost control that night. “When I hung up with you I tried to go to sleep, but I heard a noise coming from the living area. I thought nothing of it at first since I had said good night to the guard before turning in for the night”,she slowly shook her head in denial as recounted her nightmare. “I walked down the hall and decided to get a snack while I was up”, her breathing became labored as she spoke.

“Saige...you don't have to do this right now,''he tried to calm her down.

“Liam, i never wanted anything like this to happen. I tried, I swear I tried to stop him, but he…``.her hand flew up to her neck instinctively to the very spot that bared the darkened laceration around her throat. “I felt a hand , grab me by my throat in the darkness. I couldn't breathe… Liam.. the baby.. I , I tried so hard to keep him safe, `` her body began to shake.

Liam tried to move closer to console her,to comfort her…”Nooooo, no don't touch me!” The nurse dashed into the room to observe why her vitals were elevated.

“Your majesty... there are too many people in the room and it is causing her distress.”,she advised respectfully. Liam shook his head. “Of course,'' he gestured for the others to leave the room. Bastien and Drake left heading to the hall, Olivia found a dark corner in the room and sat down, cringing as she listened to her dear friend relive this nightmare.

“He hit me Liam.. he hit me and I can't tell you how many times exactly. It hurt so badly. I just wanted him to stop, but he covered my mouth as the guards held me down and spread my legs...I tried to lock my legs,but they were so rough and pinned me to the floor in our residence. He told them to move the top from me… I was wearing your shirt and they tore it from me Liam”,she fought to make him understand that she was by no means a willing participant.He ripped underwear and shorts off of me. Al i could smell was scotch and stale cigars. He scoffed at me as he said that i would feel a real man now… he forced himself into me and I felt a fire, it hurt so bad. He blamed me for your anger..for the state of your relationship.”

Liam’s mind was running a hundred miles aware, thinking who “he” was. He felt his chest tighten as he wanted nothing more than to take her pain away. “Saige, love… please baby, if you remember, please tell me who he is,he pleaded quietly trying to tamper his rage in front of her.

Saige tried to lift her head to look at him , but she turned away ,embarrassed as if she somehow failed him, failed her child ...failed herself. There was not a dry eye in the room as they listened intently,her eyes trained on the window…”your father...it was Constantine”was all she could say.

Olivia watched as Liam encased a fiery glare as he chewed his inner cheek. She recognized the same feeling in herself. She subtly gestured to him that she felt his pain. Olivia knew the internal battle that liam felt after his father had tried to hurt her before. Now..to know that he had succeeded in stealing something precious from her..from them. He had robbed Saige of peaceful nights for months, now... there was no peace to be shared for a long time to come.She stood up and dismissed herself to meet with Drake. She felt as if she were suffocating trying to tamper down her screams, her cries, her fury to rid this kingdom of this animal. Olivia’s emerald green eyes , locked with Drake’s chocolate eyes. She needn't say a word, she leaned into him and stifled her cries until he led her into the private waiting room. The words escaped her ass she wanted so desperately to express the pain, the personal hell that Saige was going through...had went through. She had no doubt that she would relive that hell over and over again. She hasn't learned the worst of it yet. Saige had no idea that she had lost a twin.

Drake wrapped her in his arms and felt days of worry, frustration, and anger flowing from her body as she dropped to the floor crying inconsolably.

Liam dipped down to make eye contact with his wife, “love… I'm here ... we are going to get through this together. I love you and you are so very brave. Your not alone.”, he wiped his tear stained face with the back of his hand. “Give me one moment, I need to speak with Bastien..very briefly.”he was met with silence as she continued to stare at the window. He rose and walked out to the hallway.

“Bastien, I want every available royal guard on this. I need Travis and the other guard picked up immediately! You need to deliver my father to the palace cell personally. I also want you to summon Queen mother Regina to this hospital, this is not my request… this is my command. I don't give a damn if she feels slighted, she will come here ...now.”

Liam promptly turned and went to join his queen back in her room...back in her private hell.

39 notes · View notes

marvelmymarvel · 5 years

Text

You Aren't Supposed To Be Here

Part 2/2

Tommy x Nurse!Churchill!Reader

Synopsis: As Winston Churchill's daughter, you were not allowed to go into the fight as a nurse. But when you have to ell the love of your life, who happens to be at Dunkirk, a special surprise… Well, you never really listen, do you?

Catch Up: Part 1

Your eyes opened. Grabbing onto Tommy’s knee, you sat up. The sea foam was all over your legs as you rubbed your eyes sleepily. “Hungry” Tommy asked you while pecking your cheek sweetly. You nodded but instead of taking the can of beans they found, you stood up to stretch your legs. “We’re never getting out of here” Alex stated as you looked down at him plainly, “Not with that attitude” you grumbled before squatting and dragging your finger through the sand. “This place.” Alex began towards you as you looked up a little “This place is no place for you” he grumbled finally and you rolled your eyes. “And yet here I am Lad” you whispered before sitting back down next to Tommy. “Your girl is an idiot” Alex hollered over the wind and you just rolled your eyes while Tommy sent a glare his way. “Don’t talk about her like she isn’t even here” He fought back but you grabbed his arm, “Its not worth it” you whispered but then Alex chuckled “Shes a woman. I mean. What can she even do-” “Other than shoot you right between the eyebrows? A whole lot, so I’d watch your tongue” you snarled while cutting him off. You were always a fighter. That’s how you and Tommy met. Some bullies were chasing him and you stood up against them. After all, your father had you in self-defense classes ever since you could walk. You were born after the first war, and your father saw enough bloodshed to want to make you able to fight if need be. That meant that you knew how to fight. Whether it be with fists or a gun. You name it. You knew it. So the fact that this Alex kid was trying to taunt you was hysterical to you but worrisome to Tommy. Not because you’d be hurt by the words. But because the person spitting them would be. “I’d like to see you try” Alex teased and you lunged for him, Tommy wrapped an arm around you, pulling you back as you fell across Gibson. “Let me at him” You screamed as you tried to get out of his grasp but Tommy just held you close, “Let it go love” he whispered before wrangling you to sit in his crisscrossed legs. He held you close as you seethed, and that's when you saw other men heading for a beached boat.

“Any sign of her?” The commander called out as the Colonel came up to him. “No sir,” he said quietly while looking out at the water. “Churchill wants at least 30 thousand men.” the commander began as he approached the edge of the dock, “One of them needs to be her, or you can kiss our asses goodbye. Now. Keep. Looking”

You looked between Tommy and the retreating men. “Tommy” you whispered sadly as you dropped his hand, “Honey, I need to turn myself in. Or my father will have their heads on stakes.” you continued. Tommy shook his head while grabbing your arms “You aren't safe there, what if you get hurt-” “We” you corrected. It was no longer about you, and you felt selfish for even making it that way. “Tommy” you began as you put your hand on your stomach, “We need to get out of here before its too late” you whispered. His eyes widened in shock and anger as he looked up at you with a force that made you lose your breath. This was a mistake. You shouldn't be here. “Tell me you didn't know” he snarled coming closer and grabbing your arms “TELL ME” he shook you and you blubbered with tears at his anger. “I needed to tell you” you whispered through a sob. He shook his head and grabbed your face, “You get on that boat. And you get safely back to England. If I don't make it, no matter. But that child will live, do you hear me” he stated while shaking you a little. You nodded your head quickly, tears falling hard and fast. “You shouldn't have come here y/n” he started as he backed away towards the men who were calling for him, “But I hope you make it out.” The guilt you felt swirled in your stomach as you approached the Colonel who was turned away from you. Taking off Tommy’s helmet you cleared your throat as you let your hair fall out. The Colonel turned and looked at you wide-eyed, “Looking for me?” you asked boldly and he grabbed your wrist softly, pulling you to the dock. The Commander wasn't happy to see you here at Dunkirk, but he was happy to see you alive. In order to make sure you were safe and sound, you climbed onto one of the smaller boats. “Thank you Commander” you whispered sweetly before you climbed on board. “Be careful with her” The commander called out to the driver “She’s special cargo”

Once you got off the boat it was dark. Climbing onto the train you looked around for a familiar face. Your anxiety rose as you ran through the train, thinking you didn't see him, you cried out for him while grasping the seat next to you. “Y/n.” you whirled around and saw him as he entered the train car. Your face softened and a smile formed as you ran down the train and flew into his arms. “You're alive” you whispered while feeling his face roughly, making sure he was, in fact, real and alive. “I’m alive, I’m alive” he whispered as he grabbed your hands, pulling them from his face and kissing them. Guiding you to the seat you rested your head on his shoulder, finally feeling the peace, that you were looking for.

You walked through the bunker towards the war room. “And I want men here, here, and here” you heard your father call out and your heart fluttered as you gripped Tommy’s hand tightly. You entered the room and saw your fathers back to you, but once the others saw you they all stopped and stared. “Bloody hell men do you ever list-” Winston started as he turned to see who they were distracted by. Your hair was tangly and dirty. Your face was dirty and tired. But he still saw you as you, most importantly, a living and breathing you. “Hi daddy” you whispered out as you walked forward, he pulled out his cigar and looked you up and down as you still wore Tommy’s jacket and someone's pants. You looked like a soldier. He stepped forward, bringing you into his arms, “Don't you ever do that again” he whispered harshly as the men cleared out, leaving you three in the war room. He pulled you back, tears in his eyes as he looked at you, still not believing you made it out. “Dad” you whispered as you stepped out of his arms, “We have to talk about something.” He nodded at you “After we get you washed up-” “No Father. Now” you insisted. He nodded as you sat against the war map. Looking at him you exhaled, realizing you were about to be grounded for the rest of your adult life.“I’m pregnant”

#dunkirk imagines #tommy dunkirk imagines #tommy dunkirk #tommy dunkirk imagine

111 notes · View notes

sympathyfortheblinderdevil · 5 years

Text

Serious Things

Arthur Shelby x OC

Arthur, Tommy, and their driver are on a journey to Miami to meet Al Capone. On a stop in South Carolina, Arthur meets Mollie.

Arthur was hot and thirsty. He had climbed into a 1924 Duesenberg at the harbor a week ago wearing the lightest suit that he owned and bound for Florida. He had packed only necessities knowing that there was a long car trip ahead of him. He’d even read a few pamphlets about automobile travel in the United States, but nothing could have prepared him for the surreal and unnatural experience of traveling through the coastal plains of America on the long trip to meet Al Capone. The roads, if you could call them that, were oftentimes sandy, gritty paths. They would travel for hours scarcely seeing any signs of civilization other than weather-beaten shacks or the odd general store. As they traveled, the countryside had gradually morphed from lush green forest growth to swamps and scrubs. Arthur was determined to take the unfamiliar surroundings in stride. He saw it as a chance to better understand the American associates that they now did business with, and he liked to engage the locals in conversation.

Between visits to Capone’s southern associates, he had learned about the Venus flytrap, watermelon, and cheer-wine cola, down by the coast. He went on a hunt for fool’s gold and ate pecan pie in the Piedmont of North Carolina. He had sat in rocking chairs and on stools all down the line, talking to old men in overalls. Coon dogs lazed at their feet, their tails thumping the weathered wooden boards beneath them. He had even developed a taste for sweet tea— Iced sweet tea. Now they were somewhere in between the Inner Coastal Plain and the Tidewater regions of South Carolina, and he wondered what might lie in store for him there.

Thomas, on the other hand, remained on edge. Accustomed to being in control of every aspect of his life, he found that the variances in the landscape mirrored the unpredictable nature of the whole trip. He liked to plan every detail down to the letter, so stopping at unfamiliar roadside motels and cafes made Tommy bad company for the journey. Even the friendly hostesses that Capone had arranged for them did little to assuage Tommy’s black moods. Hours had gone by with no sign of civilization, so they had both become a bit tired, grouchy, hot, and thirsty. The driver followed his map to a roadside cafe that was frequented by Capone’s associates and hoped for the best. Thomas groaned as the car pulled into yet another sandy gravel lot beside yet another old shack which served as a cafe. “Where the fook are we?” he mumbled as he took the stool next to Arthur, who was as disoriented and travel dazed as he. “Yemassee, South Carolina” Arthur drowsily replied.

“Fookin ‘ell. The place names here are as mad as the ones in Wales.” His eyes were on the swinging doors that led to the kitchen, and he was growing perturbed that no one had been out to serve him yet.

Arthur put two fingers in his mouth and whistled loudly. From the back of the house, a woman’s voice called “I’ll be there directly!” Arthur and Tommy turned to each other and shared a look of weary surrender. The Shelby boys had made the city of Birmingham, Kimber, Solomons, and the entire Changretta crime family bend to their will, but the lackadaisical pace of life in the southern US had utterly broken them. Their chauffeur for the trip, a fast-talking Capone soldier named Nino shook a toothpick from the holder on the counter and grinned “You boys are getting used to it, I see. The first time I came through this way I nearly lost my mind. These people down here, they don’t get in a hurry for nobody or nothing. It’s the fucking heat. They have to move slowly to conserve energy.” Arthur slicked his hair back and blew out a lungful of air. He spun off of his stool and began to pace. Just as he was about to shout for the waitress, she came strolling out of the kitchen, smiling at the three men and wiping her hands on her apron. His aggravation was completely forgotten as his eyes were drawn to the swing of her hips. “Sorry to keep y’all waitin’. What can I get you boys to drink? I got sweet tea, co cola, and coffee.” After a week on the road, Tommy and Arthur knew the drill. They sat quietly while Nino produced a calling card with Capone’s insignia engraved on it. Prohibition was on in America, and alcohol was only on the menu for certain trusted customers. The waitress’s eyes sparkled as if she had been waiting her whole life for a little excitement and here it was, sitting at her lunch counter on a Thursday afternoon. She grinned mischievously and said, “We’ve got rye whiskey, gin, and homebrew.” Tommy ordered rye whiskey for himself and Nino, and Arthur, in his most gentlemanly voice, asked for a beer. She walked toward the back to fetch the drinks, and Arthur rubbed his chin as he watched her go. Tommy rolled his eyes and huffed, “Could you be any more obvious, brother? We don’t need any trouble. She could be the Sheriff’s daughter. They really do shotgun weddings down here, right, Nino?” Tommy was only half teasing. Before Arthur could reply, the waitress returned carrying a bottle of whiskey and two glasses in her hands, and a bottle of homebrew in the crook of her arm. She popped the top on the beer first. Foam rose over the lip of the bottle and spilled over her hand as she held it out to Arthur. With a lascivious smirk, he watched the suds drip down her fingers. “Well, shoot. Would you look at this sticky mess? Let me get a towel,” she fussed. She wiped the bottle, the countertop, and then held eye contact with Arthur as she slowly wiped each finger of her hand before giving the bottle to him. Tommy cleared his throat and Nino chucked his hat onto the bar in an effort to get her attention. She slid the whiskey and glasses down the bar in their direction and gave them a sweet smile. “Help yourself, boys. It’s on the house.” Tommy sat with an incredulous look on his face. He was not used to being ignored or playing second fiddle to Arthur. In a bit of a snit, he took the bottle and glasses to a table, and he and Nino settled in for a drinking session. They were scheduled to stay the night in Yemassee and alcohol was definitely a requirement in this endeavor. Arthur took a sip of the watery beer and leaned up on the bar. “So what’s your name...” he searched her left hand for a wedding ring, and finding none continued, “Miss...” “Mollie,” she said, and then offered her hand to him. Arthur took her still-sticky-with-beer hand and kissed it, tickling her knuckles with his mustache. “Pleased to meet you, Miss Mollie. I’m Arthur,” he gestured toward the table and continued, “that’s my brother, Tommy, and our associate, Nino.” As he introduced each man, they smiled and nodded in her directions. “I’m pleased to meet y’all,” Mollie beamed at her guests but put most of her attention on Arthur. She leaned on the bar and raised her eyebrows, “Y’all aren’t from around here, are ya?” Arthur laughed and shook his head, “That’s an understatement. My brother and I are from Birmingham, England, and our driver is from Chicago.” “May I ask what brings you boys down here?” The second that her words hit his ears, Tommy was on his feet and moving toward them. “What brings us down here is business of a personal nature. Now, you saw the card, you’ve given us our drinks, let’s leave it at that, sweetheart. You can go back to the kitchen and we will call for you if we need anything more, eh?” For a moment, the only sound in the room was the ticking of the clock on the wall above Mollie’s left shoulder. Tommy’s cold blue eyes bored a hole into Mollie, but she put her hand on her hip and looked at Arthur, who was seething with anger. “Arthur, honey, I’m going to excuse your brother’s poor manners because he has been on the road all day.” She cut her green eyes in Tommy’s direction then back to Arthur. “Same as you no doubt, but he does not seem to be blessed with the same demeanor as you.” She shifted her eyes back and forth between the brothers, who were having some kind of psychic showdown, and sighed. “I am going to the kitchen to finish icing some cakes. If you think you’d like a piece,” she looked Arthur up and down, “come on back.” As she turned to go, Arthur touched her arm and in a low, gritty voice said, “Please excuse my brother’s rudeness. I would love to join you. I’ll be there in a few minutes.” Mollie winked at him and tossed her auburn waves over her shoulder as she walked away. Tommy shoved Arthur on the shoulder. “What are you doing, eh?” “Give me some credit,” Arthur spat. “Don’t you believe that I can ‘ave a bit of fun without bringing the bloody law down on us. I wasn’t about to give anything away, but now you’ve gone and made it sound like we are up to no good. She’s seen the card. She knows who we do business with. Fookin ‘ell. Just take your bottle and you and Nino fuck off to the boardinghouse.” “Alright, brother,” Tommy spoke, barely above a whisper. “You be sure to bring us each a piece of cake when you are finished talking to Mollie.” Tommy’s words dripped with sarcasm, and Arthur wanted to knock the smirk off of Tommy’s face, but he thought the sooner he could get rid of him, the sooner he could get back to her. Three cakes on stands were cooled and ready for frosting. She had mixed powdered sugar, butter, heavy cream, and cream cheese in a batter bowl, and had just dipped a finger into the frosting and popped it in her mouth when Arthur came through the swinging doors. The sight of her sucking frosting off of her finger with her pretty red lips made him a little dizzy. “Ah, can I get another beer?” he smiled. She pulled her finger out of her mouth and walked toward the icebox. “Yes, sir.” She opened the bottle, without foam this time, handed Arthur the beer, and nodded toward a place where he could sit down. “I’m much obliged,” Arthur smiled and sat on a pickle barrel. “I really am sorry about my brother.” “It’s alright. I know what to expect when people flash that calling card in here. It’s usually some big shot from New York or Boston, making their way to Miami. Sometimes they are a little out of sorts and want to throw their weight around.” She smiled and shrugged on her way over to where Arthur sat. “But you...you’re different.” She tilted her head to the side and searched Arthur’s face. “You have kind eyes.” Arthur was dumbfounded. He was the most unpredictable and violent of the brothers. The one who was sent to injure, maim, and kill the Blinders’ enemies. Arthur’s mouth went dry and he swallowed, “You don’t know what these eyes have seen.” He held her gaze as he took another swig of his beer. “I’ve heard stories about Capone’s men, but I can’t imagine them being true.” “We’re not Capone’s men. We’re Peaky Blinders, from Birmingham, England. We do a bit of business with Capone, but we are our own men.”

“Yes. You seem like your own man,” she trailed off and her eyes swept over his hair, the creases around his eyes, and the freckles scattered across his cheekbones. Fading sunlight from the open back door danced across his knuckles and she could see the scars built up there. “You’ve not had an easy life, have you?”

“What makes you say that, love?”

“It’s okay. Neither have I.”

She stepped closer to him, and he noticed a bit of frosting on her wrist. He took her hand, pulling her closer and bent his head down to kiss it away all the while looking up with a mischievous sparkle in his eyes. “Let’s not talk of serious things. I’ve had enough of that from me brother today.”

Mollie felt a tingle down her spine from the contact, and Arthur, sensing her reaction, turned her hand over and kissed her wrist. This elicited an audible sigh from her, and he chuckled low in his throat.

“And you’ve come all the way from Birmingham, England just to steal my heart?” she whispered, taking another step closer and stopping between Arthur’s legs. She ran her free hand through his long hair, brushing it back as she leaned over his face.

He could feel her warm breath and her lips were inches from his own. He looked up at her, savoring the feeling of attention from a woman who wasn’t being paid to keep him company. It was a feeling that Arthur hadn’t enjoyed for a while. Her cheeks were flushed and her soft green eyes were dilated; she was real flesh and blood, not playing a part. Arthur knew that he must tread carefully and not hurt her. “Mollie,” his gravelly voice spoke, “you know that I will be moving on tomorrow, right? Whatever happens tonight is just for tonight.” He held his breath, hoping that she would understand.

She leaned down and kissed his waiting mouth, wisps of her hair tickling his cheeks, “I know,” She smiled against his lips, “Let’s not talk of serious things.”

To be continued...maybe. Let me know what you think.

It’s Continued**** Serious Things: Chapter 2 can be found on my masterlist because Tumblr hates links.

#Peaky Blinders #Arthur Shelby #arthur shelby x oc #peaky blinders fic #peaky blinders fiction #peaky blinders imagine

77 notes · View notes

grither55 · 3 years

Text

The Princess and the Peasant - (An Azula Epic) - Chapter 124 - Castle Zanoda

Joza was a somewhat heavy-set man.

As the head of Clan Zanoda, he wore the usual rich red and gold robes befitting of Fire Nation nobility.

He had curly graying hair that was considered long for a man, that hung down to his neck with his hair tied at the top in the traditional Fire Nation knot.

And he also had a thick beard and mustache.

He now knelt on his castle floor while his golden eyes stared up at the woman seated upon his throne in apprehension.

While blue fire lit the walls of the Clan Zanoda throne room.

And the air had even begun to take on a terrifying chill that served as a stark contrast to the heat from the intense flames.

While utterly tyrannical amber golden eyes now glared back down at the cowering Governor Zanoda from far above.

While the imposing princess now sat with her arms resting on the sides of the throne.

While the serving girl bowed on the floor before her master's boots with her head bent in a show of unrivaled reverence.

All the while as the two noblewomen stood off to the sides of the throne while they gazed back at the rightfully frightened man.

And the chancellor watched from the corner of the room with a malicious gleam in his eyes taking great delight in the other man's humiliation.

"What do you have to say for yourself?" Azula inquired with menace lacing her livid voice while her imperious amber golden eyes stared hard down at the older man's slightly sweating face.

"Forgive me princess! But…I nearly had the situation under control!" Joza protested with poorly hidden indignation in his voice.

While the princess's amber golden eyes narrowed into incensed slits as she glared down at the nobleman.

And not a moment later blue fire sparked to life throughout the chamber while the governor shrunk back under the royal woman's glare.

While Ty Lee and Mai just shook their heads over the man's poorly chosen response.

"Nearly under control? Upon my arrival I was greeted with a miniature insurrection! My own subjects tried to attack me! Is that what you call under control!" The princess boomed in a terrifyingly wrathful voice while she glared harshly down into the governor's embarrassed eyes.

While she sat seething in her cushioned seat with her fists clenching in her royal fury.

All the while as the teenager chewed on her lip as she peered up at her master's beautifully furious face.

Just before she reached out to gently touch her princess's robed leg while she started to massage the older woman's pant covered shin.

While the princess discreetly glanced down out of the corner of her callous amber golden eye as she watched her pet affectionately rub her leg.

And then she let out a foul tempered growl as she sunk back on her throne while she returned her displeased glare to the man below.

All the while as the servant girl continued to lovingly massage her master's robed leg as the much taller woman sat glowering above her.

"No! It is not! And for that I offer you my apologies once more princess. But I would like to remind you that Clan Zanoda is only in possession of a small force of soldiers as most soldiers are currently stationed in the Earth Kingdom by the order of Fire Lord Ozai." The governor stated in an insistent voice while the imposing princess glared coldly down at him.

While the others watched from the sidelines as the princess continued to chew the man out.

"If you are so incompetent that you cannot oversee one of our our most densely populated provinces…then I can't help but question if you should be governor at all." Azula spoke in a smoothly authoritative voice as she reclined with her amber golden eyes still glaring down at the man's protesting face.

While Elle still bowed on the floor with her hands submissively massaging the princess's lower leg.

While a lovelorn smile graced her lips as she took her master's booted foot in hand.

And then she began to knead the princess's sole through the underside of her boot.

Only for the princess to gaze down once more when she felt her pet begin to delightfully massage the underside of her foot through the bottom of her boot.

And just like that she sat back authoritatively upon her throne with her amber golden eyes still forming a callous stare.

While she savored the sensation of her little girlfriend's affectionate caresses through the sole of her boot.

While the small girl happy sat with a content smile on her lips at the foot of the older woman's throne.

All the while as the governor and the chancellor paid no mind to the sight of the young girl so passionately worshipping the princess at her booted feet.

While the two noblewomen had since learned to take their adopted sister's worshipful behavior towards the princess in stride.

"I wish to also further add that it was the Crown's decision to double the wartime tax that set the peasants off in the first place." Joza informed as he steeled himself with a frown on his lips while Azula's amber golden eyes glared imperiously down at him.

And that was all it took for the flames to shoot to towering heights while the nobleman paled in fear once more.

While the serving girl's amber eyes took on a worried look when she heard that the tax on the peasants had been doubled.

All the while as she sat obediently at the foot of her master's throne unbothered by the older woman's flaring temper.

While the noblewomen and the chancellor wisely kept their mouths shut so as to avoid becoming a target of the princess's wrath.

"Governor Joza…are you blaming my father for your own inability to manage your subjects?" The princess pondered in an effortlessly intimidating voice with her frightening amber golden eyes staring oppressively back down at the man as he rapidly shook his head.

While she exhaled fire through her angrily pursed lips with her fists imposingly resting on the side of her throne.

Only for another low growl to escape her lipstick covered lips when she felt her handmaiden rub her robed ankle.

It went without saying that the girl's lovely little hands were the only thing keeping her lethal temper in check.

"Of course not! I am just saying that all I do is collect the amount that I am told to collect by the Royal Family." The governor explained in a hurried voice as he began to sweat when it felt as if the princess's merciless amber golden eyes were staring through his skull.

Just as the flames rose up on all sides once more while the blue fire accented Azula's unforgiving glaring countenance.

"This isn't a discussion about the tax rate or how many guards you have under your jurisdiction Governor Joza. This is about you not feeding your people…and if that large stomach of yours is anything to go by it would seem as if you have been eating rather abundantly." Azula remarked with a mocking edge to her cruel voice while she propped her elbow up on the side of the throne.

While she stared back at the man's reddening face with her amber golden eyes taking amusement in his shame.

All the while as the markswoman and the acrobat suppressed a snort of laughter as they stared accusingly back at the nobleman's embarrassed countenance.

"Princess you must understand that I do not have enough food in this castle to feed all of Shung Wu!" Joza exclaimed in an insistent voice while Azula stared imperiously down at him from where she sat behind her blue flames.

"Really? Because I would have thought otherwise…judging by how fat your family is." The princess commented in a ruthless voice with a sneer on her lips while the unfortunate man shrunk back even further under her glare.

While the two noblewomen once again exchange an amused look as they watched the terrorized nobleman squirm under their leader's interrogation.

While the chancellor stood off to the side of the castle chamber watching the exchange with entertainment in his golden eyes.

All the while as the serving girl still sat at her master's feet with her hands holding onto the older woman's pant leg.

"M-my stores may keep the peasants abated for maybe a week or two…but no longer than that. But perhaps if the Crown were to help…" The governor trailed off with a suggestive implication to his shaken voice.

Only for the flames in the throne room to burst upward to intimidating heights while he backed away with fright in his eyes.

All the while as Azula's amber golden eyes had now boiled over into an absolutely infuriated stare with all of the patience in her gaze having long since faded away.

"I grow tired of hearing your endless excuses for your incompetence! My servant girl took swifter action than you when she distributed our lunch to calm your hungry subjects!" Azula bellowed in a vastly intimidating tone while her blue flames rose up in unison with the volume of her raised voice.

While the governor in question swallowed quietly as he shook under the woman's frightening glare.

While the princess angrily sat back with the teenager still bowing faithfully before her on the floor before her throne.

All the while as Elle gazed on unafraid of the most recent display of the older woman's explosive temper.

"Perhaps upon my return I should speak to Father about appointing her governor. I am confident that she would deliver us better results than you and I am certain that she would not allow her princess to be assaulted by a mob of angry peasants upon her arrival." The princess hissed with fire spewing from her seething lips while she clenched her mighty fists on the arms of her throne.

While the serving girl now puffed out her chest with an innocent smile making its way onto her lips from where she sat at her master's feet.

All the while as the ashamed governor now began to glare up at the smiling servant girl with annoyance in his eyes.

Only to find himself sweating in terror not even a moment after his gaze had landed on the young girl when he found Azula's amber golden eyes burning a hole through his soul.

While the powerful princess remained seated on her throne with her murderously possessive amber golden eyes glaring down at the intimidated man.

All the while as the small girl still bowed with a devoted expression on her face while the light from her master's blue flames accented her gentle face.

While Ty Lee and Mai also stared down at the man in judgment just as soon as the nobleman had dared to glare at their little sister.

Only for everyone to find themselves turning towards the throne room doors not even a second later when the sound of the heavy doors being pushed open resounded into the already tense air.

And just like that the tension rose even higher when Zoi entered the throne room.

While the captain now swiftly strode in with an aura of unspeakable anger emanating off her body.

All the while as her golden eyes stared coldly ahead with a focused glare in her eyes that was not unlike the persona that she took on in battle.

It was evident to all of the noblewoman's companions that she was in no mood to be trifled with.

Even to the Fire Princess.

The only person who seemed oblivious to the captain's fury was the governor himself.

And then the warrior came to a stop with her back turned to the nobleman.

While she took a drink from a flask as she breathed angrily with the gaze of her golden eyes betraying her unimaginable fury.

While princess watched carefully as her strongest soldier attempted to contain her anger.

Just before the captain turned to gaze up at her princess while the younger woman stonily met her gaze.

"Princess…the situation has been contained…for the moment. However, if urgent action is not taken to remedy the problem then I imagine it will not be long before the people riot again." Zoi stated in a composed voice as she held her flask in hand while her princess scowled in the direction of the man behind her.

While Joza now turned to gaze at the captain's back as the woman drank from her flask once more.

"I heard that you hesitated out there. They were just peasant farmers. A warrior of your skill level with a royal force should have been able to put them down with ease." Joza remarked with something akin to accusation in his voice.

While the princess and her subordinates turned to stare back at the nobleman in disbelief over his gall.

While Ty Lee and Mai shared a stunned look as they glared back at the older man in annoyance over how he was placing blame on everyone but himself!

Only for the captain to seemingly pay the governor no mind when she swallowed down another drink from her flask.

All the while as she still stood with her back gracing the man while her golden eyes frigidly stared back at the nearest wall.

While the princess still stared down at the governor's foolhardy countenance with coldly narrowed amber golden eyes.

Only to find herself turning to gaze in her chancellor's direction when the conniving politician's voice rang out into the air.

"Just peasant farmers? In enough numbers those peasants have the power to tear the fabric of this nation apart. Only a fool would treat their anger lightly." Terak chastised with his robed hands folded before him while the princess listened with a curious look in her ruthless amber golden eyes.

While his cruel golden eyes watched the older man spin around to glare at him from over his shoulder

All the while as Azula turned to glance down at her serving girl through the corner of her amber golden eye as she contemplated the chancellor's words.

It was an almost laughable to her…

The concept of mere peasants being a force to be reckoned with was something that she would have previously scoffed at.

And yet the incident in this town told her otherwise.

It could prove problematic if they had to combat a growing peasant uprising while they were in the middle of a war with the Avatar and the Earth Kingdom resistance.

No.

It was clear to her that prompt action must be done to squash this little insurrection before it is allowed to grow any larger.

And with that the princess reclined with her head resting against her cushioned neck rest while her callous amber golden eyes glared down below once more at the inattentive governor.

All the while as she allowed her young girlfriend to hang onto her pant leg from where the teenager sat at the foot of her throne.

Only for the sound of Zoi laughing to resonate into the throne room air while all turned to gaze in confusion at the noblewoman's clothed back.

While the warrior wiped several droplets of drink from her lips with her fist as her bitter chuckles continued to flow into the ears of her bewildered audience.

"I don't take orders from you and I certainly don't appreciate having to come all the way here from the Forgetful Valley just to wipe your ass because you are too stupid to do it yourself." The captain commented with derision lacing her stony voice.

While an expression of profound rage now overcame the nobleman's outraged golden eyes.

All the while as the princess's amber golden eyes now flashed with a cruel amusement as she watched the proceedings from above.

While both the markswoman and the acrobat stared down in humor at the other noblewoman's back.

"How dare you Generalkiller! You are not Princess Azula! In my household you will speak to me with respect! You do not have the authority to talk down to me!" The governor exclaimed with sudden fury in his emboldened voice as his face turned red in anger.

While the Fire Princess turned to glare imperiously down at the man's back with an unforgiving glare in her harsh amber golden eyes.

Only for the captain to turn to face the red-faced nobleman with her focused golden eyes conveying a greatly furious gleam.

"I will talk to you however I please. I have no respect for people whose only notable trait is the wealth that they were born into." Zoi spoke in a scathing voice while her companions listened from their various places in the room in an astounded silence.

While the now enraged governor almost seemed to forget the princess's presence as he began to slowly stand up.

All the while as his golden eyes glared in outrage back at the captain's expressionless visage.

While the others stared on with trepidation in their eyes as they watched fire began to burn from the large man's fists.

"You…you take that back." Joza snarled with his teeth bared as he glared daggers back at the woman while icy golden eyes stared back at him.

"And what are you going to do about it if I don't? You fat fuck." The captain replied in a tone of dismissive contempt oozing from her infuriated voice while a stunning silence swept over the throne room.

While Azula now held an annoyed hand over her forehead as she let out an aggravated groan.

All the while as Ty Lee and Mai stared on with their mouths dropping open in surprise over the captain's brutal insult.

While Elle sat at her girlfriend's feet with her mouth agape in an expression of innocent shock.

And even the sadistic chancellor stared on with blinking golden eyes as he watched veins begin to burst forth from the governor's forehead.

And not an instant after that a shout of reckless anger resounded into the air.

And just like that the large governor broke out into a mindless run towards the unintimidated warrior.

While Zoi stood with her fists falling to her hips as she glared back at the man charging towards her.

Just as she easily side stepped the man's poorly aimed swing.

And not even seconds after that the sound of the nobleman keeling over in pain rang out into the ears of all present when the warrior's fist ruthlessly connected with the governor's belly.

All the while as spit now flew out from the nobleman's lips as he gasped in pain.

Only to find himself being seized by the collar of his shirt before he could even so much as have a chance to react.

And then he cried out in surprise when he found himself being launched across the distance of his throne room!

While Zoi's shouts of anger rumbled into the air as she pushed the stunned governor into the heavy castle chamber doors.

While the others still stared on with surprise in their widened eyes.

Only to find themselves watching the furious captain tackle the man right through the throne room doors!

And that was all it took for the two to disappear from their sight while the protesting yells of the humiliated governor echoed into the air.

All the while as the princess swiftly stood up from her seat with shocked handmaid still sitting at her feet.

Only for her annoyed amber golden eyes to glare ahead when she heard the sound of ceramic shattering echoing from down the castle hall.

Which was followed up with the sound of the governor's pained screams.

All the while as the sound of the footsteps of the guards rushing to aide their governor echoed throughout the castle halls.

"Zoi!" Azula called out in a disciplinary voice while she began to stomp down the staircase with her childhood friends following after her.

All the while as the serving girl sprung to her feet as she rushed after her highborn friends.

"Well, that went well." Mai snorted with a twinge of amusement in her otherwise bored voice.

While Ty Lee just smiled as she strode alongside her scampering little sister.

All the while as they listened to the sound of the gluttonous man's yells emanate from further down the hall.

While Terak still stood at the further end of the room as he watched his princess and her companions rapidly exit the throne room.

And not even a minute later…

Azula and her team came to a stop at the end of the hall.

Only to find their jaws dropping in astonishment at what they found.

A handful of guards stood gazing on with widened eyes at the sight before them.

While the terrified governor lay on his back panting in the remnants of a shattered antique table.

All the while as Zoi stood over the trembling man with her back turned to her shocked companions.

While her golden eyes now stared down at Joza with a monstrous glare that surpassed that of even the princess herself.

And then without so much as even speaking a single word she bent down to grasp the frightened man by the collar of his shirt.

While her eyes narrowed into a truly terrifying stare as she leaned in to gaze uncomfortably close back into Joza's intimidated golden eyes.

Until their foreheads were almost touching one another as her gaze penetrated the governor's petrified soul.

All the while as beads of sweat now dripped down the nobleman's cheek as he shook under the famous warrior's piercing death stare.

While the captain's teammates still stood behind her with their eyes gazing on in shock.

"If I should ever receive word of you neglecting the people of the Fire Nation again…I will come back here with the full military might of Clan Song and then it will be me that you will fear. Not the Fire Lord. Not Princess Azula. But me." Zoi spoke in a dangerously low voice with her breath brushing against the nobleman's terrified cheek.

All while as she raised the paralyzed man into the air with his back pressed against the wall.

While the others stood in a taken aback state of silence as they watched the man cower when he was savagely slammed into the wall.

While the warrior stooped over to glare eye to eye with the disgraced nobleman as he swallowed in terror under her stare.

"And when I do… I am going to hang you up from a rope like a sack of meat in the town square." The captain whispered in a voice of unfathomable wrath while she raised the petrified man up even higher.

All the while as everyone else in the castle hall stood speechless.

Just as the captain's eyes loomed in to stare back into the governor's terror-stricken golden eyes as a malicious snarl made its way onto her seething lips.

"And then…I am going to watch as they beat you to death. Understand?" Zoi declared in a stunningly brutal voice with her chilling golden eyes gazing back into Joza's paralyzed golden eyes.

While the princess and her subordinates still stared on with stunned looks in their eyes.

It was apparent that the warrior was more furious over the plight of the people of Shung Wu than they had ever imagined!

While the markswoman now stared at her fellow noblewoman's back with an expression of newfound respect in her widened tawny eyes.

The other woman's unwavering dedication to the people of their nation was just nothing short of stunning.

And it only served as even further confirmation that the woman wasn't anything like she had first thought.

While the acrobat stood staring on with a shuddering expression in her brown-gray eyes.

It was a striking reminder that if pushed to it…Zoi could be even more terrifying than even Azula!

"O-oneesan Zoi…" Elle stammered in a mousy voice as she gulped from where she stood behind her master.

While the princess's taken aback amber golden eyes watched the scene closely as the governor continued to pale under her strongest soldier's glare.

"I-I…understood Captain Song." The governor sputtered as he let out a cry as he was roughly dropped to the floor below.

And then he shrunk back with his eyes as wide as can be to find the renowned warrior's sword being thrust into his frightened face.

While Zoi now stood over the terrified nobleman with her katana in hand as she glared down into his panicked golden eyes.

"Now give the order to distribute the food stores…or I will do it myself after I open you up." The captain commanded in a merciless voice that was devoid of compassion while her sword pressed into the terrified man's neck.

While her golden gaze burned right back into the governor's scared golden eyes as he audibly swallowed down his fear.

"Dispense…dispense the food stores to the commoners." Joza ordered in a fearful voice as he sunk back against the wall while the warrior stared stonily down at him.

While the guards in the hall quickly nodded their heads as several rushed off to fulfill the order.

And then Zoi finally lowered her blade away from the governor's still startled neck.

Before she turned to walk away without saying another word while her companions turned to gaze after her.

All the while as her golden eyes still glared ahead as she stomped past her teammates.

What infuriated her more than anything was that the bastard had put her in a situation where she had to use force on fellow suffering country men and women.

It truly was a shameful display and it was one that she would not allow to happen again.

And with that the warrior strode down the hall while the princess watched her walk off with cold golden eyes.

Before she glanced out of the corner of her eye when she saw her handmaid scamper after the captain in the hopes of calming her down.

While the two noblewomen stared after their little sister as they watched the girl run after the warrior.

Only to find their attentions regained when they saw the princess step up to stand over the frightened governor.

All the while as Azula now loomed over the terrified nobleman while she stared down at him with utterly tyrannical amber golden eyes.

"For your abysmal failure you are hereby stripped of your title as governor." The princess announced in a callously imperial voice as she glared hard down at the older man's disgraced face.

While the now former governor slumped back against the wall with an expression of resignation in his ashamed golden eyes.

All the while as the two noblewomen gazed on with unsympathetic expressions in their eyes from behind their leader.

"Naturally, if you have any grievances with my ruling you can always file an appeal with my father. Perhaps he will be more forgiving." Azula spoke in a voice of casual cruelty as she watched in sadistic delight as the nobleman frantically shook his head.

And then she turned to stride away with her hands clasped behind her back while the sound of her footsteps echoed throughout the halls.

While the acrobat and the markswoman followed after their royal friend.

All the while as the chancellor soon followed suit as he quietly strode down the hall past the defeated nobleman.

While Joza still sat there in a shame so deep that he never even heard the sound of his daughter's footsteps coming his way.

"Father! Father! Are you alright?" A young girl of noble descent exclaimed as she approached her unmoving father.

Only for the nobleman to never reply.

It was all the head of Clan Zanoda could do to just stare dejectedly off into space while his daughter shook him by the shoulder.

Not too long afterward in the streets of Shung Wu.

A long line of townspeople stood in the town square.

While the captain knelt with her hand patting a young boy's head while she grinned down at the smiling child.

While Elle stood beside her as she eagerly assisted the older woman in handing out handfuls of a great many foods to the grateful mother.

Before the pair watched the mother and child walk away while another citizen stepped forward to the front of the line.

Just as the warrior stood up while she reached out to set her hand on the petite girl's shoulder.

While Zoi now turned to glance down at the teenager with a small smile on her lips as the younger girl smiled back up at her.

While Mai and Ty Lee also stood helping to distribute food to the townspeople with Nako, Saro and even Jiao.

All the while as Azula stood at the back supervising the scene with coldly assertive amber golden eyes.

Only to find herself turning to stare on with a hardened look in her eyes to see a little peasant girl of no more than four years of age was running towards her.

All the while as the small child ignored her mother's frantic calls to get her attention.

"Nai! Get back in line! Leave the princess be!" A mother's voice called out through the crowd while the little girl rushed up to the royal woman.

While the princess now turned to glance down with an authoritative stare in her amber golden eyes to see that the child was now smiling happily up at her.

"You're pretty!" The little girl greeted in an admiring voice while the woman stared down at her with slightly surprised amber golden eyes.

While the princess relaxed her posture after she realized that the child approached her to compliment her looks.

All the while as she gazed down at the smiling child with a stony countenance.

Only to watch as the mother apologetically pulled her daughter back by the shoulder of her shirt.

"Please forgive her princess! She doesn't know any better." The mother spoke in a hurried voice as she bowed her head while the young woman stared back with stoic amber golden eyes.

Only for the princess to let out a sigh as she waved a dismissive hand in the air.

"It's fine." The princess responded in a regal voice while her amber golden eyes stared back at the little girl now being led away by her mother.

"You can't just walk up to the princess like one of your friends at school." The woman scolded in a hushed voice as she held her daughter's hand in her own.

"But Mom I just wanted to tell her that she is pretty!" The child exclaimed in an innocent voice while her mother pulled her away.

While Azula watched the mother and child walk away with a flicker of something akin to a pleased gleam in her amber golden eyes.

Just before she turned her stern gaze back to overseeing the food line.

While was now Ty Lee smiling at her friend's back after having witnessed the princess's interaction with the child.

Several hours later after food had been distributed to the people of Shung Wu.

The chaos in the city had been abated at long last.

The princess and her subordinates were entering the royal carriage once more as they prepared to head back to the royal barge.

While the royal woman sat down in her seat as she glanced around in search of her strongest soldier.

"Where is Zoi?" Azula questioned in her usual commanding voice while her serving girl sat down beside her.

"Zoi said she would meet us back at the barge shortly. She went to go give her condolences to the mother of one of the soldiers that lunatic killed." Jiao announced in a calm voice from where she sat at the back of the carriage gazing out the window.

While the princess and the two noblewomen turned to gaze back at the seductress with surprise in their eyes.

All the while as the princess furrowed her brows in perplexity over the captain's inclination to honor those that have fallen in battle.

While the acrobat gazed on with a moved expression in her brown-gray eyes.

All while as the markswoman stared on with a grudging look of respect for the other woman's respect for the families of fallen soldiers.

While Elle now stared on with a sorrowful expression in her gentle eyes once more.

'So then…people really did die after all…' Elle thought while she grasped at the sleeves of her blouse in sadness.

While elsewhere on the other city of the city…

The captain now stood in the doorway of a modest Fire Nation house with a bouquet of flowers in hand.

While the noblewoman now held out her hand to offer the flowers to a tearful older woman.

The very same woman who had been asking about the fate of her son from just hours before.

Wordlessly the woman reached out to accept the bouquet in her shaky hand.

All the while as Zoi now gazed down at the floor with a solemn expression in her golden eyes as she listened to the older woman let out a heartbreaking cry.

"M-my son…did…did he…d-die an honorable death?" Nelise whispered in a barely perceivable voice.

While the captain raised her eyes from the floor without hesitation to meet the grieving woman's gaze.

"Shidan fought valiantly to protect the people of the Fire Nation against a dangerous rogue. He died Fire Nation strong and it is thanks to his sacrifice that we are now one stop closer to bringing down this killer for good." Zoi spoke in a somber voice with her golden eyes taking on an up most serious countenance.

While the older woman emotionally nodded her head as she stood rooted to her spot in her open doorway.

All the while as the remorseful younger woman gazed down at the sorrowful mother in sympathy.

"I am not going to pretend that there is anything that I can say that will erase your loss. But I…have arranged for you to be taken care of financially…and if you need anything else…please do not hesitate to ask." The captain remarked in an awkward voice as she swallowed down her regret while she shifted nervously in the doorway.

While the older woman stared up at the young woman's taller visage as tears of gratitude fell from her moved eyes.

Only for the heartbroken mother to fall into the captain's arms without any warning.

All the while as the warrior gingerly set her hands on the older woman's shoulders.

While she stood there patiently as she allowed the crying woman to cry in her arms.

"T-thank you!" The older woman sputtered in a nearly inaudible voice while strong hands steadied her shoulders.

'I should have been there.' Zoi thought with an expression of contrition taking over her face while she gazed over the woman's shoulder in lamentation.

"I promise you…I will avenge your son." The captain assured in a committed voice as she held the woman while she quietly cried in her arms.

All the while as she glared off into space with the fires of war burning in her determined golden eyes.

And some time after that…

While Zoi now walked through the street with her steely focused golden eyes gazing ahead.

"I make no excuses for myself. I have killed more people than I can count in service to my country. But you…. you don't kill for comrade and duty. You kill…because you enjoy it." Zoi commented in a low voice with her hand falling down over the hilt of her sheathed sword.

All the while as her golden eyes narrowed into a beyond wrathful stare as she envisioned the face of the masked puppeteer once more.

"No matter what it takes Silah. I swear upon my honor as a soldier of the Fire Nation that I will have your head." The captain stated in an unimaginably resolute voice with a glower adorning her enraged lips while she clenched her fists over her hips.

And that was a vow that she would see fulfilled.

Even if she must give her life to achieve it.

#Azula #Avatar The Last Airbender #avatar the last airbender fanfiction #ty lee avatar #mai avatar #femslash

0 notes

artificialqueens · 7 years

Text

Hey Stranger Part 1 (Biadore) - Houdini

A/N: come on part 1! Firstly, thank you all so much for your kind comments on this and Glow (I am shook). Secondly, originally Hey Stranger was supposed to be Biadore but it kind of became a monster, and I’ve hinted at a few side pairings here. Any feedback/comments/suggestions/bribes would be amazing, hit me up at @princess-banana-lady :) Here’s the official first part of Hey Stranger, enjoy! xoxo Houdini

Fuck. Adore rolled over once again, trying to will herself to sleep. She had to be up ridiculously early tomorrow for orientation and she had a feeling showing up with dark circles wouldn’t go over well at Charles’. One sheep, two sheep, three sheep- what if I don’t make friends? Ganj will be there, she’ll be outgoing, but I can’t just rely on her. What kind of weirdo has one friend that’s also their cousin?

Adore’s inner monologue was interrupted by the sound of her door creaking open. She held back a smile as she heard feet padding towards the bed. Obviously. Rolling over to make room for her cousin, she let out a groan. “Can’t sleep either?”

Laganja snorted. “Nah, I just felt like squeezing in your bed,” she replied drily, flicking on the bedside lamp and slipping her amazon-long legs into the sheets. The two faced each other silently. After years of living together, words weren’t needed. Adore blinked as she noticed a lilac streak running through Laganja’s long hair. “That’s dope,” she commented. Laganja smiled. “Gotta keep up the image, girl”.

Adore let out a laugh. Always one to march to the beat of her own drum, Laganja had gone through virtually every hairstyle on the planet. A few years and lifestyle choices after their move, she had ditched her plain-jane (literally) name and threw herself into more advanced dance classes. People at school saw Laganja as the loud, leggy blonde with a penchant for tongue pops, but Adore could see the same cousin who had come to live with them when Adore was 7. And right now, she was scared shitless.

Not that Adore was any different. Starting tomorrow, she couldn’t rely on her social butterfly of a cousin to make friends for the both of them. They had homeroom together, but other than that, Adore would be in the music stream and Laganja in the dance stream. “Adore?” Langanja whispered. “Yeah, Ganj?”

Laganja paused before continuing. “Can you do that purple eyeshadow thing on me tomorrow?” she asked quietly. Adore punched her playfully. “Yes, bitch. You do the cat eye on me.” Laganja nodded eagerly. “It’ll be okay I think. Plus, Bianca will be there and her mom says she’s got tons of friends,” she said before lowering her voice. “Are you ready to see your lesbian awakening again?” she teased.

Adore shrieked and slapped Laganja’s arm. “Don’t play that, girl!” she responded before letting out a huge yawn. Laganja giggled and turned off the lamp. “You didn’t answer,” she mumbled, already drifting off. But they both knew the answer. Hell no.

*****

Bianca checked her reflection in the mirror again, pursing her lips. She didn’t normally wear makeup to school, but Courtney’s excessive tirades about “The importance of senior year, B!”, had gotten to her. Dark brown eyeliner made her amber eyes pop, and her glossy lips looked downright kissable. Grabbing her bag, she made her way downstairs and out the door just as Courtney pulled up. The upbeat Aussie flashed her pearly whites as Bianca slid into shotgun. “You look stellar, lady killer!” she trilled, revving her engine. Bianca cackled. “You’re just excited for new meat, aren’t you?”

Courtney feigned shock before nodded. “I just want to find someone I can actually have a real thing with, you know?” she mused. Bianca nodded, trying to hide the look of disgust on her face. She failed. “Bianca! Not everyone can just fuck and leave like you do. Besides, there will definitely be some cute new girls” she teased. Bianca rolled her eyes as Courtney began singing along to the radio.

3 songs later, they pulled into the parking lot and were promptly greeted by Alaska and Jinx. The two theatre majors grinned as they greeted Bianca and Courtney with hugs. “Court, you’re never gonna guess who the new dance head is! It’s Alyssa–” “Edwards.” Courtney finished. “Her daughters are here too, apparently,” Jinx mused.

Alaska’s eyebrows shot up. “Girl, Adore Gelato’s back?” she exclaimed.

“Delano.” Bianca mumbled.

Alaska nodded before continuing. “Shit, if both her kids are here they must be talented as hell. We haven’t had siblings since Shangela and Gia last year.”

The foursome made their way through the front entrance. “Where’s Trixie?” Bianca questioned, searching the halls for the last member of their group. As if she had magically conjured her, a pink faced Trixie emerged from a classroom and lumbered her way towards them. “Move!” she snapped, practically pushing a new kid out of her path. “Shit.” Courtney muttered, staring at the angry pink tornado as she approached.

“Ican’tfuckingbelievethisfuckmrkressleyIamnotgoingto-” “Bitch, breathe!” Bianca barked. Trixie took a deep breath before speaking again. “You know how I applied to be the student director for the fall production, right?” she began, balling her fists. “Of course we know. We read through your application about 40 fucking times.” Bianca exasperatedly replied.

“Right, well Mr. Kressley emailed me to meet with him today, saying I got the position. But apparently, there’s going to be two directors this year,” she seethed. Courtney wrinkled her nose, staring at her fellow music major in confusion. “Why is that a bad thing?” she questioned.

“It’s not. It shouldn’t be.” Trixie retorted. The four girls waited for an answer. “Except the other director is KATYA ZAMOLODCHIKOVA!” she hissed.

Bianca bit back a smile as she eyed the other girls, each of them trying equally as hard not to crack. Finally, Jinx spoke. “You know, Ivy really likes Katya. Maybe you’ll finally get along,” she chuckled.

Trixie and Katya had been rivals since they began at Charles. Although to be fair, it was more of a one way rivalry. They were the top two students in the year, but Trixie never understood how the perpetually chilled out Russian did so well. The girl was constantly pulling all nighters and managed to show up in weird prints every single day, and to the driven Trixie, that was a reflection of her work ethic. However, Bianca had seen Katya’s work. The girl was fucking talented, and a gem to boot.

Trixie huffed as the group approached a table filled with fliers. “And she’s a design student. Since when has a design student qualified to help direct a musical? No offencee Bianca.”

Bianca smiled. “None taken,” she replied, picking up a flier and handing it to Courtney, who gasped. “Legally Blonde??? YES!!!” she exclaimed. “I’ve always wanted to play Elle,” she raved, raising her voice to be heard over two excited new girls.

One of the newbies, muscular with unruly blonde hair turned towards Courtney.

“I see that,” she remarked, unabashedly raking her eyes over Courtney’s body. “Yes gawd!” her friend sang, snapping her fingers at the now blushing Courtney. “Come on, Elle!”

Alaska and Jinx laughed at the blonde, who had legs up to her fucking ears and a light purple streak in her sleek hair. Bianca blinked as she stared at the girl’s blue eyes, framed by long lashes and shimmery purple eyeshadow. The girl looked weirdly familiar.

The muscular one grinned at them. “I’m Willam, and this giraffe is-” “

Holy shit!” the leggy girl exclaimed. “Bianca! Bianca Del Rio??” she cried, her haughty face splitting into a warm smile.

Bianca nodded, still not sure who this girl was. “That’s me,” she rasped. Willam’s eyebrow shot up. “Sexy voice,” she commented. Bianca rolled her eyes. “Nice try blondie, but I don’t do charity work,” she quipped.

Willam shrugged. “You’re not my type either,” she replied, eyeing Courtney, who was batting her annoyingly long lashes.

The tall girl stared at Bianca before raising her eyebrows. “Girl, it’s me!” she said, gesturing wildly. Bianca stared at her before shaking her head. “Sorry, I don’t remember-” “Jane!” , the tall girl whispered, looking around furtively. Willam let out a loud laugh. “Your actual name is-” she screeched, cutting off abruptly when she saw the glare coming from her new friend.

Bianca’s eyes widened. “Holy shit, you grew the fuck up!” she cackled, giving the girl in front of her a hug. “It’s Langanja now,” Laganja announced. Jinx laughed. “I can smell. I mean, tell.” she joked.

Bianca quietened. If Jane, or Laganja, or whatever is here, then Adore’s gotta be here already too. Why am I so invested in seeing that kid again? It’s not like-

“Where’s Adore?” Alaska asked, looking around the atrium and rousing Bianca from her train of though. “She’s helping Aunt Alyssa set up the studio. I would help but the school doesn’t want me hanging around Alyssa that much. Conflict of interest or some shit,” Laganja explained, rolling her eyes.

“She’s in dance. I’m music,” said Willam. Bianca nodded. “I’m design, these two bitches are theatre,” she suppled, turning to Courtney slyly. Courtney turned pink as she looked at Willam. “Trixie and I are music too,” she said feebly, as the other seniors tried not to laugh.

“What’s up Charles! This is Manila Luzon and Latrice Royale with your 5 minute warning!” blared a familiar voice over the P.A system.

“We should get going to homeroom, the bell’s gonna go,” warned Jinx. Trixie turned back to the two younger girls. “You guys should audition for the musical. It’s just one song and a monologue, and I’m the assistant director.”

“Co-assistant director,” Alaska teased. Trixie rolled her eyes. “But yeah, Court and Jinx normally do it and Bianca’s head of costuming. Auditions are in two days.”

Willam nodded. “Sounds good.” she decided, before turning to go. “It was nice meeting you girls. Bye Courtney,” said Willam, shooting the Australian a wink.

“Have you seen Adore yet?” Laganja questioned, her expression unreadable. “Nope,” Bianca responded, trying to ignore the weird feeling in her stomach. Laganja nodded before sauntering away with Willam.

“Who’s gonna tell them new meat always get the chorus?” Jinx chuckled. Bianca smiled. “They’ll learn.”

Trixie checked her watch. “Let’s go,” she suggested, turning to Jinx. The two headed down the east corridor while Alaska made her way to the south one. “I’ll say hi to Katya for you!” she yelled, laughing as Trixie flipped her off.

Courtney grabbed Bianca’s arm as the two headed to their own homeroom.

***

Laganja pulled out her phone as Willam led her to their first class. She grinned as Adore picked up on the first ring.

“We finally finished setting up that fucking barre, I never want to see a dance studio ever again,” Adore ranted. Laganja laughed at how out of breath Adore’s voice sounded.

“Adore?”

“Yeah Ganj?”

“What do you think of Legally Blonde?”

#hey stranger #houdini #cisgirl au #high school au #multiship #biadore #witney #trixya #bianca del rio #adore delano #trixie mattel #alaska thunderfuck #jinkx monsoon #willam belli #laganja estranja #rpdr fanfiction #lesbian au

71 notes · View notes

old-souldier · 6 years

Text

Entry 13: Wounded Animal.

It was late afternoon on Jordan's day off when she took for a scenic stroll around the neighborhood she lived in. Thanks to something of a "paperwork snafu", she had pruchased a lovely little cottage in a new development of houses, near the sea. It wasn't the same as her old farmhouse. But that had been destroyed in the Calamity and well one had to pick up the pieces and move on.

This scenic stroll was also a chance to indulge in one of her hobbies: her pets. She spent a lot of time with her steed Pipa and, on non-combat duty, she'd bring along her diligent tortoise Tortimer, long time pet and consumer of extra dark and bitter cabbage leaves. This time, she spent the day riding atop of her youngest and most active pet, Cuddles.

Cuddles was a large brown bear from the North Shroud. He acquired the name because Jordan wrestled the young bear into submission after he tried to ambush the lalafell and her picnic basket of goodies.

Jordan still bore some of the scars from the clawmarks, but what's another half a dozen scars, anyway?

Passing thorugh she came across a couple walking a black wolf pup. They were popular pets these days and Jordan agreed this one was particularly cute as it ambled along, chasing a butterly and getting a bit too far ahead on its lead.

"Evenin'" Jordan said, waving.

The couple stopped. They were middle-aged, though a little younger than Jordan. One of them, Elias Thompson, was a long lean man with graying brown hair nodded and smiled politely. "Evenin'," he said tersely. His wife, Ophelia Caraway, a somewhat short, squat woman didn't say anything, instead keeping her distance from Jordan and Cuddles.

"What a cute pup ye 'ave..." Jordan stopped for a moment, "Didn't ye 'ave another pup? A grey one?"

The couple stopped. The gentleman said, "Well, our son moved out recently n' he took it with 'im. We gre pretty lonely so we... we ended up adoptin' this little one."

Jordan nodded. "Aye, that's nice. Sami didn;t even bother ta taker 'er goldfish when she left 'ome. Little bastard still swimmin 'round ta spite me."

The couple nodded. "Yes, well... Evenin' ta ye, ma'am." The gentleman said as he and his partner walked off.

Jordan finished her ride a few hours later, just after dusk. She arrived at the stables where Pipa was already curled on herself asleep. She led Cuddles next to the chocobo and then placed some vegetables and fish in Cuddles's feeding dish.

"Okay lad, mind ye elder sister n' I'll see ye in the mornin'." Jordan smiled and went inside her home to wind down for the evening.

-----------------------------

It was early in the morning, hours before dawn, Jordan was trying to get back to sleep after being woken up by an overactive bladder.

"Mmm..." the Lalafell grumbled. "There's no cool side of the pillow fer me 'ead..."

There a sudden, but faint growling and gnashing sound, but Jordan turned in her bed.

"Must be me ruddy gut... gotta lay off the midnight sweets," she muttered to herslef before falling back asleep

---------------------------------------------

The next morning, Jordan woke up and, as she left her house to do some gardening, she found the neighborhood in a stir. Jordan wandered towards where the crowd was gathered and asked around.

"What in the Seven 'ells's goin' on?" she asked

"Oh it's simply dreadful," Drulala, an old Lalafellin woman said, "Marjorie Stimpson's prized chocobo Lacy was killed last night. They say it was a ferocious animal that did it, it was." Drulala pointed her cane towards the dead bird, red feathers strewen about. "They say it clawed at it afore it went and took a big bite outta it, it did."

Jordan blinked. "Who in blazes let a vicious animal run loose in this neighbor'ood?" Jordan asked aloud.

Seemingly at once, everyone in the neighborhood turned to her.

"Aye? What? I'm off-duty today." Jordan pointed at her housedress and apron.

"It was your... fiend that did this!" Ophelia said pointing down at Jordan. "I've always said it was a menace!"

Jordan was taken aback. "Menace? The lad's asleep. 'E doesn't even like chocobo meat. Pipa pecked that outta 'im months ago!"

"I dunno 'bout that," J'keena, a young Mi'qote man said, "he growled at my husband and our daughter just last week! You can't tame a wild animal like that."

"I already told ye ye shouldn't 'ave dressed the baby like a Marlin fer All Saints' Wake! Ye daft, boy."

The crowd was growing restless and all eyes were pointed on Jordan. Finally Jordan threw up her hands and said,

"All right! Let's go back ta me 'ouse and I'll prove Cuddles is innocent."

Back at her home, Pipa was calling out seeing so many angry people arrive. Jordan took a second to hug the excitable chocobo before going to Cuddles, who was lying placidly.

"First off, look at 'im, he's just relaxing. Bears aren;t much fer trouble long as they're kept well fed." She reached down and pulled up his front paw.

"Y'see he's inno-" Jordan paused as Cuddles's paw was stained reddish brown with somewhat dried blood. "Wha-" Cuddles then stood, and his muzzle was similarly stained.

"I knew it!" J'keena said, "I knew that thing was a menace. I've been on the homeowner's association for almost a year and nothing. But it needs to go, now!"

The crowd yelled an indistinct agreement.

"Now wait just a bleeding second 'ere! There 'as ta be a mistake! Maybe Marjorie Stimpson's bird attacked my Cuddles. Wasn't 'e one of 'em Dravanian breeds? Feisty and prone ta trouble they can be!"

Marjorie yelled out from the crowd, "Banjo was sick with bird flu, you monster!" She started sobbing, "Oh, Banjo... Banjooooo!"

Jordan let out a gulp.

"That's it!" J'keena said, "Get that animal out of here by tomorrow, or we'll be back with the authorities to put it down." The crowd yelled out "Yeah!"

Cuddles let out a growl of annoyance, cause some of the neighbors to panic and run away. The bear, confused, but unconcerned lay back down with a huff.

Jordan was now alone as the rest of the neighbors wandered away. She looked at Cuddles and began talking, concerned. "There's just no way ye did it did ye?" She pet the young bear." Ye coulda asked fer more fish or, 'ells, raided me garden. Ye wouldn't have trudged a quarter malm ta Stimpson's place just fer a snack..." Jordan stroked Cuddles's paws again and felt a patch of fur come off.

Examining it more closely, she realized it was different in texture and color from Cuddles. It was coarser and grey in color.

"Eh, what's this?" Jordan examined the fur. She told Cuddles to get up and the bear wandered into a sunny patch of lawn to sleep. Looking at the stables, Jordan found a few more patches of grey fur that had been hidden by the bear's bulk.

"This ain't right't all," Jordan remarked. The grey color stuck out to her. "Wait a tick," Jordan said aloud, "I think I know where I'd best go ta figger this out." Jordan took off her gardening apron, straightened out her housedress and went for a walk in the neighborhood.

After about half a malm, Jordan approached Elias and Ophelia's house. Jordan began looking about. She spied anything around the gate, walkway and such that could have been a clue, but she noticed nothing. The house itself had a closed off back yard that she couldn't make out from looking.

After a moment, Opehlia opened the door and stormed out of the house.

"Ye best get out of our property ye old spinster! Lollygagging won't 'elp ye n' yer beast."

"I know Cuddles didn;t kill that bird n' I think I know what did."

The woman, if she was surprised, didn;t show it. "I'd like ta see ye prove anythin', ye shrimp."

"Oh I'll prove it, ye right fat hellion!" Jordan yelled as she started walking away.

It was late autum and leaves had been falling from trees. She saw a small pile of leaves out by the yard of their house. Jordan stood there blankly starting at the leaves figuring ouut what to do when she noticed an oddly shaped leaf in the pile. Examining it further she realized it wasn;t a leaf at all but a mangled chocobo feather. In fact there were about half a dozen of those mixed in with the other colored leaves.

"Ah, hah. I knew summat thing was amiss." Jordan smiled. She had to find a way inside the house.

Looking at the area, Jordan noted the house abutted something of a cliff-face. While she could climb up the top of the cliff with only a bit of toruble, jumping down to the backyard would probably break more than a few bones. The house, however sported a rather ostentatious weather vane shaped like a rooster that was quite tall. Jordan did a bit of field calculation and started climbing the cliff.

At the top of the cliff, Jordan attempted to look down at t he backyard of the house. She could make out some sort of commotion, but Jordan cursed not having her spyglass on her person. She looked at the Weathervane. It wasn't as sturdy up close as she guessed as it swayed in the wind, creaking. .

"Well this'd be one of the dumber ways I could get meself killed and, after a silent three-count, she jumped.

Jordan grabbed onto the weathervane successfully, but then started to lean as the vane lost its structural intregrity. She quickly let go and dropped to the roof with a thud. Jordan seethed in pain trying not to make a sound. I'm gonna feel this in the morrow, Jordan thought.

Now though she stood up and had a closer view. She heard growling noises and Elias's voice.

"What're we gonna do... Oh Twelve 'elp me..."

Jordan quietly walked over to the edge of the roof. Sure enough, a young grey wolf, its mouth, paws and much of it's fur mottled with rust colored blood was growling in a cage. Elias, bottle of wine in his had, sat in a chair moaning. Jordan jumped down, causing the wolf to start barking and howling Elias dropped his bottle n' said, "Oh Keeper!"

"Ah, I *knew* there's was aught amiss 'ere! 'Twas yer animal that did it!"

Elias, still shocked seeing Jordan seemingly appear was stunned. From inside Ophela came out the back shiocked but angry.

"Oh, how dare ye! This is invasion of our property. I won't stand for this. I'll get the Yellowjackets!"

"Aye. Let's get them." She pointed at the caged wolf. "N' what d'ye think they're gonna care 'bout more?"

Ophelia pursed her lips and gave Jordan a mean face before running to the cage and opening it.

"Wait Ophelia! Don't, he'll kill again!"

"I knew this mutt was trouble from the start, Eli! But 't won't be our problem anymore!" Before Jordan could react, Ophelia opened the cage and the wolf bounded out, jumping over the fence which kept the backyard closed.

"Are ye mad woman!?" Jordan yelled.

"I'm gonna call the Yellowjackets. And I'll make sure you get yer due!"

Jordan shook her head, "Yer crazy. No wonder 'es drinkin'"

Jordan ran out of the property. She saw the wolf was heading back to th main row of houses.

Shite! Shite! Jordan thought as she ran as fast as she could. By the time she made it. She saw the wolf growl at surprised neighbors who tried to run off.

Grabbing at her shoe, Jordan pulled out her cheese knife and toss it at the wolf, grazing its shoulder.

"Shite! Ey Wolf! Over 'ere ye bastard!" Jordan yelled. The wolf's attention was caught and it pounced. Jordan tried to grab it, but she was slightly winded from the sprint and it fell on her.

Growling it opened its maw and Jordan braced for the injury. However she heard another roar and Cuddles leapt onto the wolf from the side.

Jordan sat up as the Yellowjackets came.

That night, after a round of apologies, Cuddles got extra fatty fish for dinner.

#FFxivWrite2017

5 notes · View notes

ilikebigbooks-and-icannotlie · 7 years

Text

lol so I finished this at 4:30 AM, and queued it for 1:30 PM, hoping that people would actually be awake to read it... apologies for any mistakes I’m so tired jesus christ ugh @highlady-casandra and @miladyaelin surpriissseeeee!!!!! @snaps7 this is the extra thing I was talking about :) I need to go to bed kill me. Have to start Part 3 tomorrow - or today, I guess? Ugh.

Based on the first prompt of this post.

Warning! Lots of vague smut coming your way, as well as vague mentions of drugs and abuse.

It was not quite Lysandra’s day. But what more could she expect from a day that began with her waking up incredibly late in a stranger’s bed.

Thank god that for her, late meant 7 AM, which was still significantly early for most people. She’d gently untangled herself from the gorgeous man’s arms as quickly as possible before throwing on whatever clothes she could find from the night before. Her bra and skirt were easy enough, having been the last clothing items to go. The latter of the two hadn’t even made it off the bed, still hanging off of the edge.

To be fair, it hadn’t even made it off her body when he’d skillfully brought her to her first orgasm, the tight pencil skirt roughly pushed to her hips as his fingers masterfully dragged long breathy moans out of her soft pink lips. His own lips had closed around one nipple though the soft lace of her bra – biting, sucking, tugging – and then the other, pinching the first between his thumb and forefinger.

It had been pushed even further up her hips later, when he’d lifted her against him, her legs crossed tightly against his ass, pulling him impossibly tighter against her as her nails dug into his scalp, moans echoing through the small room as he pounded into her against the wall. His strong arms were the only thing holding her up, as his lips left a trail of bruises along her collar bone. The skirt had made it to the bed about the same time they had, leading into round two of their sexcapades.

As she glanced around the messy bedroom in search of her underwear, flashes of rounds three and four flooded her memories, causing her face to flush as she glanced over at the sleeping sex god. He had rolled over, and the sheet had slid just enough to reveal the red lines her nails had left trailing down his broad perfectly-sculpted back. She quickly looked away, the red flush on her face crawling down to her neck. There was absolutely no way she could be in that room when he woke up. She could live without underwear, but she couldn’t live without dignity.

Her shirt should have been easy - the bright purple blouse kind of hard to miss. But that proved be false, and the search was far too time consuming for her to bother. She grabbed his white button down off the floor and slipped it on as she tiptoed out of the bedroom, softly closing the door behind her.

Still on her toes, she lightly ran to the door of the apartment, grabbing her strappy heels and her purse on the way, before quietly making her escape. After slamming the elevator button three times, she finally felt comfortable enough to stop and step into the designer heels. She didn’t really have time to let herself consider how disgusting the floor probably was, only how thankful she was that at least her daughter was at a sleepover.

God bless private schools who hold parent-teacher conferences in the mornings.

What felt like 5 hours later, the elevator doors finally dragged open, and Lysandra let out a sigh of relief as she quickly stepped on, a sudden gasp bursting out of her lungs as she caught sight of her reflection in the mirrored walls. She was a fashion designer for fuck’s sake, this was just a disaster.

Her wild sex hair proudly stuck out in every direction. The line of hickeys trailing along her collarbone was nicely showcased by the barely buttoned shirt. Last night’s perfect make up was well and truly smeared all across her face. Overall, she looked like a walking tragedy.

The elevator’s doors slid open on the first floor a minute later, and Lys smiled at the satisfying clack of her heels against the tile as she stepped out – the picture of cool perfection.

Her dark brown disaster had been pulled into a tight bun sitting neatly on top of her head. The oversized button-up was now buttoned as far up as was appropriate and neatly tucked into her pencil skirt, nicely accenting her curves. A few make up wipes had quickly taken care of her face – only leaving the smudged eyeshadow, which had somehow developed into a moderately passable smoky eye overnight. As she stepped through the revolving door of the apartment building, she quickly swiped some lip gloss across her lips, and slipped the tube back into her purse, completing her appearance. A small smirk grew on her lips as she peered over at herself in the reflection of the windows she passed as she quickly walked along the street.

If modeling had taught her nothing else, at least it gave her this. There was a lot to be said for the impressive ability to go from homeless chic to runway ready in under a minute.

The smirk quickly fell away as she recalled the rest of it, though. The bitchy girls, cutthroat atmosphere, harmful attitude – it wasn’t for her. And neither was her agent.

Arobynn Hammel had simultaneously been her saving grace – and also her worst nightmare.

As her agent, he’d been a blessing, efficiently thrusting her to the peak of her modeling career, as she did spread after spread, successfully funding her design school dreams. As a boyfriend – she didn’t like to think about those memories. The bruises in places no one would be likely to see – the pain, the tears, the rage – with no escape in sight. Until the day he’d overdosed in the room next to her.

Constantly going from one party to the next, Lys had definitely been used to drugs. But there was something about waking up to find a dead body with a face full of cocaine that really purges any desire to see them ever again.

Due to the circumstances of his death, the police took every dime of his that they knew of, and she’d willingly complied. But the eternally paranoid Arobynn had also had secret stashes of cash hidden throughout the city.

And it was from his cash, on the back of the name he’d built her, that she began her company. Busting her ass off, she clawed her way to the top from the ground up, and only 3 years later she quickly became known as one of the best break-through designers of her time. It was something about the feeling of it. After being forced into a certain image for years as a model, Lysandra now had freedom. She didn’t think she would ever get sick of sheer joy and beauty of being her own boss, and of building her own masks with which to face world.

However, it wasn’t long after that that she needed more. Not a husband – she’d had enough of overbearing men to last her a lifetime. Instead, she got herself a daughter. Evangeline was barely two and a half years old when Lysandra adopted her, and Lys would happily tell anyone that it was the best decision she’d ever made. Eva quickly became the most important thing in Lys’ life. Though fashion still stayed in her mind, she would have given it all up in a heartbeat for her daughter.

Now, five years later, Snow Leopard Designs were going to be on that month’s cover of both Vogue and InStyle, along with a special spread in Elle Magazine. On top of that, Lysandra was also about to be named of GQ’s “30 Most Influential Women Under 30.” To be fair, she was certainly toeing the line – but GQ didn’t need to be reminded of that.

But more important than all of that, was the fact that two weeks ago, Evangeline had finally started first grade. And today was the day Lysandra was supposed to go in and meet her new teacher. If she wasn’t late.

Throwing another quick glance at her watch, Lys clicked faster against the pavement as she desperately sped to the school. Her concern for her appearance began to waver as her bun loosened, and she slowly began to sweat. All that really mattered was reaching the meeting on time, though. The rest could be dealt with later.

When Lysandra finally reached the teacher’s classroom only one minute late and entirely out of breath, the first thing she noticed was that no teacher waited. Admittedly, she focused on this for a while, equal parts celebrating and irritated. Then again, it wasn’t as if she hadn’t had a rough morning too. The second thing that Lys couldn’t help but notice, was the sheer number of wolves around the classroom. Nothing extreme, but definitely more than she expected in a first-grade classroom.

Her back stiffened as she heard footsteps echoing down the hall. Reasonably, she knew it had to be him. Everyone else’s meetings had already started. Glancing down at her phone, she glared in annoyance. 7 minutes late. Was this the kind of schedule with which this teacher taught class, as well? She let out a deep sigh as she quickly glanced down to make sure her hickeys weren’t visible, her back still to the door of the classroom.

The footsteps finally entered, the sound only briefly cut out by the click of the closing door before quickly continuing towards what she assumed was the desk at the front of the room. “So sorry,” a soothing baritone breathed out, as the familiar sound of a coffee tray hit what she knew was an old wooden desk. Barely listening, Lysandra continued to walk along the back wall of the classroom, growing angrier by the second. So he’d had time to get himself coffee, she seethed as the tantalizing scent gently caressed her nose, but he couldn’t be bothered to arrive to the meeting on time.

The school committee would definite be receiving a strongly worded email about him.

“-really sorry,” he clearly continued, not even noticing that she hadn’t been paying attention. “I just had a really late night, but I know that shouldn’t be an excuse.”

It was at this that she’d decided she’d had enough. She was not paying for this fancy private school only to have her daughter’s teacher to give “a really late night,” as his best excuse. Immediately, she snapped around, entirely prepared to give this idiot a piece of her mind. And then all words suddenly left her brain.

Before her stood an incredibly gorgeous blonde man with startling blue-gold eyes, and his forearms barely contained in a rolled-up button down which was a very similar style to the one she’d stolen that morning.

Probably because they were the same brand.

Standing in front her was the man from the bar last night.

The very same one whose bed she’d snuck out of earlier that morning.

He couldn’t help the smirk on his lips at the incredibly shocked expression on what he’d only witnessed as a perfectly composed face, except for when her carefully crafted mask fell apart at the mercy of his hands. “Well,” he drawled, sipping on one of the coffees he’d pulled out of the tray he’d brought as an apology to the parent he was supposed to be meeting. The parent that was apparently her. “You know all about late nights, I bet.” The smirk stretched as he eyed her, clearly impressed with what she managed to accomplish without heading home. “That, and shirt-stealing, it looks like.”

Her cheeks began to once again shift to a slight red as she stood there, unable to do anything but stare. Every time he opened his mouth, she wanted nothing but to hit him. But the other part of her wanted nothing more than for him to show the skirt another good time against his otherwise useless wooden desk. And as she watched his eyes darken when they met her own, it looked like he was starting to get the same idea. Her skin was crawling with the need to feel his hands on it again, as she watched his knuckles grip the desk tightly as though to balance himself, once he placed the coffee down on the plastic desk closest to his. Pure unadulterated desire flashed between them. The tension had almost immediately become a palpable thing as memories of their night together clearly played through both of their minds.

This she could work with. She felt herself comfortably slip into the mask as a small sensual smile slid onto her lips. She walked to him from across the room, the sound of her heels echoing through it with every step. “It was more of a trade,” she shrugged, finally stopping mere inches from him. She trailed a single finger down his firm chest, feeling row after row of muscle tense beneath her touch. Her voice was a soft purr when she finally spoke again. “In exchange, I left you my panties.”

He inhaled deeply as she slowly leaned toward him, clearly testing his resolve as she teased. But luckily, it didn’t take much for to snap. All it took was one of her breasts light brushing against his chest for his hand to go straight to her ass, jerking her whole body flush against him. The other hand reached up, tangling his fingers in her hair, and lightly tilting her head, granting him full access to her neck. His nose gently trailed upward, inhaling deeply. A small possessive part of him wanted to roar his pleasure at the smell of him on her skin.

“By the way, sweetheart,” he murmured pressing his lips just under her jaw as his hand reached down to meet the other. Both hands now lifted her against him as he leaned back against the desk, her legs easily maneuvering up and over it to wrap around his waist. She bit back a moan at the feel of him through his jeans, pressing against her once again as the same pencil skirt climbed to its familiar position high on her waist. “When you find yourself dreaming of detention with me late at night, Mr Ashryver will do.” His breath was hot as it blew across her ear, causing a shiver to run down her spine at his words. Her arms wrapped around the back of his neck pulling him tighter against her, and in turn brushing his lips against her ear. He bit down on it lightly, a light growl growing deep in his throat as he pulled back to look her in the eye. “But the next time I fuck you – the next time you come in my arms – I want to hear my name on your lips. I want you screaming – Aedion.”

#lysaedion #I guess I'm writing now #lysandra #lady lysandra #aedion #aedion ashryver #tog #throne of glass #queen of shadows #qos #eos #empire of storms #tog aus #tog au #aelin ashryver #aelin ashryver galathynius #oh look it's me #sassacas

225 notes · View notes

umccall71 · 5 years

Text

Chapter 6

Characters:Prince Liam x (mc) Lady Saige

Rating:Mature Content includes profanity, sexual content,talks about depression.

Word Count: 2167

Disclaimer: All characters used are sole property of Pixelberry. I am simply borrowing them for entertainment.

Summary:After a summer of a Lifetime Prince Liam thought he could have it all. He was carefree, free, and sharing time with the woman of his dreams. When life as easy a balancing act between love and duty, he realizes his truths are lies, wrong is right, and decisions do have consequences.Lady Saige never imagined she would be one of his consequences. When an act of utter horror throws her world into a tailspin.

Warning: This series contains subject matter of depression and hopelessness .The story may trigger certain individuals. Please be advised. If your reading this series you are acknowledging you are at least 18 +.

~~~~~

Tags

@elles-choices @ao719 @carabeth @lauradowning29 @hopefulmoonobject @indiacater @3pawandme @blackcoffee85 @simsvetements @wughhumans @drakesensworld @romanticatheart-posts @fantasy-of-fiction @choices97 @gibbles82 @furiousherringoperatortoad @marietrinmimi @whenyourheartskipsabeat @kuladekiwi @custaroonie @syphaxs @smalltalk88 @silviasutton1989 @the-soot-sprite @ownworldresident @mfackenthal

~~~~~~~~~~~

Liam spent the next few days inundating Saige with text, voicemails, and constant trill of the phone.He wasn’t getting much sleep, worry prominently displayed with his red tired eyes, and snapping mood. He wasn’t in the mood to socialize with anyone or talk for that matter.He didn’t know what to say to explain the absence of his angel. He found his dreams haunted him with the image of Saige’s dark auburn hair and soft blue eyes. He was fixated on her smile, she would cause a stir inside of him whenever her eyes would crinkle in the corners and her smile spread across her face. No matter what kind day Liam had experienced, Saige was a guaranteed pick me up. He missed the late night phone calls and text… just because. Her voice could soothe the savage beast into a comforting lull.

“Olivia, is Saige still upset? She not answering my calls… any of my calls.”, his voice sounded panic stricken and tired. Olivia felt horribly that he was stuck in limbo not knowing fully what was going on. “Liam.. you sound exhausted, have you slept at all?”, voice laced with worry. “Liam your one of my closest friends, I hate seeing you this way. She’s not answering… because she’s no longer here”, she waited for his mind to process what he had just learned. “What do mean she’s not here? Did she go out for awhile?please Liv, I need to see her.”, his eyes staring at his phone as if to will it to have a different response.

“ You don’t understand, she’s not just out… she has left Cordonia Liam.. I’m so sorry.”, her tone apologetic. He snapped, “why I am just learning this?Where did she go ?”, he felt his heart tightening. “ She made me promise not to say a word. I don’t even know why she left. She simply told me that that she couldn’t remain in our country. I found it odd since all she’d done was rave about the picturesque landscape.”, she explained. Olivia took a deep breath, “Liam, I have to go … I’ll let you know if I hear anything.”, he dropped the phone on the couch of the study. The phone bounced and hit the floor, it was then that he found something under the couch… her thong. “She … she didn’t take her underwear that night?”, confusion etched on his face.”That makes no sense, why would she leave these here?” Liam massaged his temples, a headache setting in.he stuffed the underwear in his pocket and exited the study , bumping into none other than the king.

“ Liam.. where are you off to so quickly? Where is the fire?”, he joked but it fell flat. “Are you okay son? You seem rather preoccupied as of late.”, Constantine firmly squeezed Liam’s shoulder.

“Lady Saige, she’s left Cordonia… it all happened so suddenly. She wasn’t due to leave for another month.”,Liam rambled, not caring if his father were truly paying attention. Constantine grinned, “Well buck up.. we are traveling to Paris in a few days. I need you to be front and center.. game on.”

“And Leo?”, he quirked his brow listening intently. “You know your brother, he can hardly bother to be present for a breakfast, let alone an official visit”, he brushed it off nonchalantly. “Forget that girl, if she’s gone… she’s gone. You can’t bother with such trivial matters.

Liam was seething hearing his father’s dismissal of the woman he had grown to care for deeply. He stuffed his emotions down, not allowing himself to react with the monarch. Liam nodded and turned to walk away. Liam found himself aimlessly wandering the grounds of the palace trying to get a sense of what happened to drive Saige to leave. “She was happy , we were happy… my god why would she leave me without so much as a goodbye?”, he asked himself .Liam considered how Saige had given him something he had never experienced… a shot at love and happiness.

“Saige…come back to me... I miss you so much… wherever you are… I love you.”,he spoke into the evening skies. The smell of roses, fresh cut grass , Jasmine, lingered in the air as he whispered a quiet hope into the evening. “I never got the chance to tell her that I feel like I’m falling in love with her.”, the tears began to free fall. Liam’s eyes were glistening as his heart released what he could no hold inside. He sat alone on the bench in the maze and gave in to a sense of hopelessness and hurt. He reflected back on the many times he intertwined his fingers with Saige’s...the nights he lost track of the countless kisses since there first date and kiss. He remembered how her kisses felt like his home, safe and warm. Liam pulled out his phone and tried once again to dial Saige’s number..only this time , the message had changed, this number is no longer in service. His heart sank, his one lifeline to the woman he had fallen for ...was gone. He shut his phone off, shoved it in his pocket and followed the same path out of the maze. Liam absentmindedly trudged up the stairs to his suite, opened the French doors, pulled a chair directly in front of it as the cool night air numbed his face as the scotch numbed his thoughts.

Over the next three months, Liam followed the same ritual only some nights Drake managed to convince him that he shouldn’t drink alone. Even the trip to Paris, he stared at the diplomats with vacant eyes, and a fleeting interest in the conversations. It became a source of concern for his family and friends. Liam was unresponsive outside of his basic duties. Drake had gone to Bastien asking him to cast a line out to locate Saige, his old friend was far from his jovial self. Bastien agreed to quietly search for Saige in hope of returning that glimmer into the eyes of the prince.

Leo, Olivia,Maxwell,Drake, Kiara, and Penelope got together to discuss a means to intervene with their broken hearted friend. “Liam has been in this funk for months now.. no one seems to be able to get through to him.”, Drake frustration shown. “I have tried to get in touch with Saige, but … radio silence. It’s like she’s dropped off the face of the earth”, Olivia shrugged in defeat. “My little brother had never seemed happier, he was going on dates, he was behaving like.. like…”, he trailed off. “Like a man in love”, Drake chimes in finishing his thought. Things were noticeably different not having Liam around like the early part of the last summer. They all thought how the tides had turned.

***********

Two weeks later Bastien had flagged down Drake to inform him of a recent development of the investigation. He had several feelers out in the states regarding Saige’s whereabouts. “Drake.. I believe we have tracked her down, but there is something that is troubling in our findings”,worry displayed in Bastien’s eyes. The normally reserved, business like, discreet guard was at a loss of what to do next. He handed Drake a tan piece of paper with an address written on it. “We should find her here.”, he lowered his gaze. “Bas… I can’t thank you enough… I’m sure Liam will appreciate this too.”, he clapped him on his back and walked out contemplating how to breathe life back into his best friend.

Drake touched base with Liv with the new development. He knew she had a vested interest since she was close friends with both Liam and Saige. “So Liv do we go looking for her ourselves, or let LI go to her and plead his case to her himself? Hell Liv… she brought out a side of Liam I have never seen before, he surrendered his heart to her that night on the beach.”, he sighed deeply. “Drake , they have to find their way back to each other. As much as I love my two dear friends, they need each other more than ever. Drake nodded slowly, “you are right… I know exactly what has to be done.”

Drake makes the slow stroll to Liam’s suite knowing he’d find him there ever since she left without a word. He reached the large mahogany doors, he paused before wrapping his knuckles against the door. He waited for Liam to call out to enter… silence. He knocked again, this time granted entrance. Liam looked up , his sullen blue eyes met Drake’s chestnut brown looking for explanation.Drake let’s out a breath he didn’t realize he was hiding from the moment he reached the door to his friend’s room. Liam tears his gaze away and trains his eyes on the horizon in front of him, facing the massive gardens. He lifted the tumbler of scotch to his lips, sipping slowly as he stared off into the sun beginning to set over the maze. “What do you need Drake?,he chided, “I’m sure your not here for the company. Hell, I hardly want my own company these days”, he laughed dryly. The absence of Liam’s sense of humor was not lost in Drake. “Liam… the only thing I want from you is my old friend back. Man I know that it stung to lose Saige so suddenly, but you’ve got to get out of this rut man. I’m sure she wouldn’t want you sitting around wallowing in self pity. You deserve better than that LI.”, he attempt to share some wisdom and encouragement. This was not the drake from his childhood , where the less words spoken, the better.Pain flashed in Liam’s eyes, “ she was better for me… she gave me hope that I could actually have someone to love, possibly someone to love me”, he leaned his head back , eyes darted back and forth across Drake’s face.

“Liam… here a glimmer of that hope.”, he hands him the folded , nondescript paper. He patted his friend on the shoulder and turned heading to the door. Liam stared at the paper and then to Drake , confused, “what is this?” Drake stopped in his tracks, “consider it a little sage advice.”, he smiled softly. Liam’s eyes widened at his meaning.in that moment he frantically opened the paper and carefully studied the words, the address, the possibility of getting to see her again. Liam stood and walked over to the door , he pulled Drake into a hug realizing what this paper could mean for him. “Thank you brother… I’ll never forget this.”, lips pulled into a thin before Drake saw a hint of a smile cross Liam’s lips. “I’ll leave you to it LI.. I’m sure you’ve got somethings to do.” Drake gripped the door knob and left his best friend to ponder his next step.

Liam walked over and picked up god phone… he glanced at the lock screen, it was a picture of he and Saige the night of their first date at the restaurant. He smiled, allowing himself to think back to a time when they both were happy. In that moment Liam went to closet,pulled out a travel bag and began tossing clothing and toiletries inside. He skimmed the travel site for the next flight to the states, suddenly he heard a light knock on the door to his personal quarters. “Come in “, he looked up to see Bastien standing before him, a small head nod in acknowledgement. “ Sir… when you are ready… a private plane has been arranged to take you to your destination. You may not be the crowned prince, but we cannot have you taking a commercial flight , that’s a risk I cannot accept.”, Bastien smiled. “Liam grabbed his bag and followed Bastien out of his room and the palace. Liam sat in the backseat of the waiting SUV as it made its way to the tarmac under the dark cover of night. Bastien handed Liam an envelope bearing a password under an assumed name, an ID, stacks of American currency, and the name and number of a hotel that had been booked for him. “I wish I could come with you, but my absence would be noticed. There are two discreet guards that will be looking after your well being and there in case you need any help along the way.”, Liam huffed Bastien and headed up the steps to the private plane. He got himself settled into the seat, fastening his seatbelt, and glancing out the window , mind racing with what if’s. Liam knew there was a lot at stake in going . A voice came over the speakers announcing that they were now cleared for take off. Liam thought to himself, in a matter of hours I could be coming face to face with my sweet angel again after all this time. Don’t worry my angel… I can’t wait to hold you in my arms again…. Liam settled in for the long night as the plane climbed into the inked sky.

36 notes · View notes

grither55 · 3 years

Text

The Princess and the Peasant - (An Azula Epic) - Chapter 100 - Supersoldier

The light from the overhead lamp blinded her eyes.

And the operating table had a distinct metallic chill against her skin.

Men and women adorned in hospital uniform stood above her with surgical masks covering their faces.

She tried with every fiber of her being to move, but it was futile.

Her body…it had been numbed.

All she could do was lay there in her hospital robes with her brown eyes gazing helplessly up at the team of researchers as they prepared a second injection.

Just as she locked eyes with him.

The head researcher.

And his eyes…they were an aberrant shade of red.

And his hair…it was a ghostly white.

And in contrast to the stoic demeanor of his fellow researchers that surrounded him.

He seemed…almost overjoyed.

"This is going to hurt. Try not to bite your tongue out." Nero announced in a sadistic voice as his lips pulled into a cruel smile from beneath his medical mask.

While he gazed into the scarlet-haired girl's widening brown eyes as he leaned down to begin.

And the prodigy found herself unable to say so much as one word as she lay there immobile on the table watching the researchers stoop down over her.

And then she felt agony beyond her wildest dreams.

And soon after that she faded into unconsciousness.

Most of the other children didn't make it through the procedure.

But she survived the surgery for her core implant, a device that served to artificially awaken one's inner potential.

At some point along the way.

She discovered that the cameras shut down for one whole hour on the twenty-fourth hour of every day for system maintenance.

And ever since that day she trained to hone her greatest power outside of the supervision of her captors.

All in preparation of her eventual escape.

And this technique….

She decided to name it Diminished Earth.

Back in the control room.

Senator Greely stood beside his aide Cynthia while he gazed down at the video feed that showed all of the prisoners being taken to the solitary observation tanks.

His brown eyes were rife with anxiety as he turned to cast a glare at Reynold's hardened face while the large man met his gaze.

"It took three platoons to detain her. But I got her. That and so much more." Reynolds stated with great satisfaction dripping from his voice while he smirked with his arms folded over his chest.

While Cynthia stood silent with her blue eyes trying to hide her feelings of displeasure as she turned to gaze away from the video feed.

All the while as the senator still wore a less than happy expression on his face.

"This is all your fault Reynolds! You were the one who let her escape in the first place!" Greely exclaimed as he threw his arms over his head while Reynolds coldly glared back at him.

"Calm yourself Greely. Number Three is subdued. And I would strongly advise you to watch how you speak to me." The colonel replied in a frigid voice while he glared down into the shorter man's recoiling eyes.

"Right…of course. And I can only hope so. If word of her existence gets out…" The senator trailed off in an apprehensive voice while his eyes lingered on the unconscious redhead's image.

"It won't. I have the situation under control." Reynolds spoke in an aggravated voice while the politician shifted nervously on his feet.

"And the others…is it true that those women are from a society beyond that gate?" Greely questioned with a trace of curiosity in his eyes while he gazed at Azula's face on the monitor.

"They are from a country that they call the Fire Nation. The one in ornate armor is their Crown Princess. We may be able to use her to gain leverage over her people." The colonel answered in a heartless voice while the senator listened warily.

"Their Crown Princess? Is that wise? Should we really be risking war with a nation whose war power is currently unknown to us?" The senator inquired with a worried edge to his voice while a frown momentarily graced his face.

Only for a look of fear to develop in his eyes when the imposing man turned to regard him with another piercing stare.

"I suggest you stick to your cover ups Greely. And leave the military affairs to me." Reynolds remarked in a brutal voice while he silently took pleasure in how the man paled under his gaze.

"Certainly. Just as long as everything is secure. We can't afford to lose her or the Turner siblings." Greely concluded with a concerned undertone to his voice while his eyes remained glued in the video once more.

Only for the colonel to pay little heed to his words as Reynolds pushed past him to return to his task at hand not even a second later.

While the aide still stood quietly behind her employer as they watched the military team work rapidly at their stations.

Meanwhile back in the halls.

The group remained gazed ahead in silence as they were carried through another set of heavily armored doors while the fleet of soldiers marched all around them.

Only for the girl's attentions to be regained when a soldier's voice shouted out through the hall.

"What does the commander want done with this shit?" The soldier called out only for Elle's amber eyes to instantly grow wide in panic.

While the Fire Nation women's eyes instantly burned with even greater anger to see that the man was holding their gear and their young friend's treasured bag!

"A-all that I have left of my parents is in that bag! Please don't get rid of it!" Elle pleaded in a borderline hysterical voice while her highborn friends seethed in her defense.

"Haven't you figured it out yet have you? You won't be needing it anymore. Not where you're going." Robert commented in a cruel voice while Elle's eyes widened in distress.

While the young girl's mouth was now ajar as her lips trembled in indescribable emotion.

All the while as her four friends' eyes narrowed into expressions of unfathomable rage as they clenched their teeth in their fury.

It couldn't be more obvious that they wouldn't be leaving this fortress alive if they didn't figure out how to escape their bonds soon!

While the princess's lips smashed into a boiling display of her royal wrath as she glared murderously back at the soldiers faces.

"I don't give a shit what you do with it. Trash it for all I care. The commander wants them separated and placed in individual solitary tanks for further observation." David spoke in a pitiless voice from where he stood at the front while the team listened with alarmed looks in their eyes.

Only for the teenager to soon find herself watching powerlessly as several soldiers then departed down an adjacent hall with her belongings.

But as much as the thought of parting with her parents treasured items tore at her heart.

The very thought of losing her newfound family broke her heart even more!

"N-no. P-please don't separate me from my friends!" The blonde-haired girl cried out in a greatly emotional voice while her companions glowered helplessly in their captor's unsympathetic helmet covered faces.

"Monsters!" Ty Lee exclaimed with fury overflowing from her voice while Azula bared her teeth as she stared mercilessly back at the soldiers.

"Mark my words. I am going to kill each and every one of you." Azula hissed with her callous eyes agape in boiling rage while the armed soldiers laughed raucously once more.

"You freaks always think so fucking highly of yourselves. Thinking that you can't die. But you die to a bullet just like everyone else." Robert mocked from behind the terrified teenager while he stared tauntingly back at Azula's ruthlessly glaring face.

While the noblewomen listened in a degree of surprise to hear benders being openly referred to as freaks.

"They'll be having a different attitude in a few minutes." The lieutenant stated in a smug voice while he gazed back at the older girl's increasingly disconcerted faces.

And yet once more the five females found themselves defenseless as they were led down yet another steel corridor.

While Azula trembled in her vengeful anger with her commanding golden eyes briefly catching her captain's equally furious gaze.

All the while as the two mighty firebenders desperately tried to devise a plan of retaliation.

Just as they heard Robert sneer in evident hatred once more while the armored soldier cruelly stared down over their young friend's traumatized shoulder.

"It's past time you dirty freaks were put in your place." The man spat out in a disdainful voice as Elle's shoulders slumped while the highborn women were forced to listen in ever rising anger.

While Elle gazed down at the floor with an unmistakable look of hurt in her amber eyes that her friends did not miss.

"S-sumimasen for being a freak." Elle mumbled in a shaken voice as she hung her head while her friends glowered at their captors.

"Don't apologize to them kid. You're not a freak." Mai stated with her teeth gritted in her fury while her tawny eyes glared at the cruel soldiers in disgust.

Only for the soldiers to laugh coldly once more while the Fire Nation women fought as hard as they could to avoid letting their tempers get the best of them.

Just before they approached yet another pair of reinforced armored doors that were drawing closer at the end of the hallway.

While they found themselves being shoved towards the set of doors with their eyes gazing at it in growing unease.

Before their eyes drifted to the unconscious redhead and the two soldiers that were carrying her by the arms waiting up ahead.

And then they came to another momentary stop before the armored doors with their increasingly distressed eyes urgently trying to conceive a way to escape their restraints.

All the while as the older females stared coldly back at David as he stepped ahead of them with his uncaring eyes disregarding their glares.

While Naoki's face still hung limply in the air with her motionless body being braced by the two men that stood over her.

Just as Robert stopped with his hand still heartlessly gripping Elle's hair while the small girl still trembled in fear.

All while the highborn women's rage continued to boil over with every demeaning act that the ruthless soldiers put their delicate young friend through.

Before they were yet again snapped out of their infuriated musings when the man let out a derisive snort as he gazed tauntingly back into the supersoldier's sleeping face.

"Not so invincible, now are you freak?" Robert questioned in a voice of great contempt while he sneered at the immobile Naoki from over Elle's quivering shoulder.

While Azula still gazed venomously from one soldier to another through the corner of her imposing golden eye.

Only for David's voice to snap Robert back to focus.

"Enough talk Robert. We got a job to do." David remarked in an apathetic voice as he pressed the doors open while he pushed the indignant princess forward.

And then the scowling Robert followed soon after.

And with that the team was marched through the opened doors by the fleet of soldiers.

While the callous princess and her stony-faced captain soon found themselves being shoved to the forefront.

All the while as the two soldiers escorting the unconscious girl ended up taking up at the rear of the group.

And right then in that very moment was when it happened.

The distinct sound of metal snapping in two resounded into the air while the soldiers froze up in their tracks.

And then the sound of steel rattling upon steel followed soon after.

While Team Azula's eyes collectively widened in curiosity as they tried to gaze behind them.

Only for their eyes to grow agape in surprise when they saw the broken chains rolling along the steel floor through the corner of their vision.

All while David's eyes widened as he gazed down at his booted feet as he watched a syringe roll past him.

While the princess's golden eyes gazed down at the syringe through the inside of her facial cage.

And Elle's amber eyes were now growing wide in realization as she tried her hardest to peer behind her.

Just as David and his soldiers spun around to gaze over their shoulders with their eyes as wide as can be.

And then not a moment later the Fire Nation women watched in silent disbelief as a soldier fell to the ground at their feet.

While the sound of the dying man's helmet clanging upon the floor echoed all throughout the hall.

And then a second man dropped to his knees with his neck bleeding profusely while the captain gazed on with awestruck hazel eyes.

And that was when all eyes were drawn to the end of the hallway.

While Team Azula's eyes grew even larger when their suspicions were proven correct.

Arising from a crouch was none other than Naoki with her machinelike brown eyes gazing back at the stunned faces of her captors.

"N-Naoki…how?" The blonde-haired girl asked in a disbelieving voice while her princess's eyes were wide in likewise fascination.

And then before the five females could even mouth another word, they were sent soaring to the metal floor.

While the team hit the floor with their widened eyes still gazing back at the redhead in shock.

All the while as the redhead's lips pulled into an ever-confident smile as her booted feet slid back on the floor.

"I told you that I would show you how to kill Elle." The scarlet-haired girl spoke in a chilling voice with her brown eyes momentarily passing over the younger girl's speechless face.

Just as David's roaring voice split through the air.

"Open fire!" The lieutenant bellowed as he rapidly withdrew his rifle while all of his fellow soldiers did the same.

Before the supersoldier pounced forward with utterly lightning speed that stunned her opponents.

And then seconds later the sound of deafening gunfire erupted thunderously into the hallway.

All the while as the Fire Nation women stared on from the floor beside their young friend with their eyes in marvelment over the power of the nonbending weaponry.

While the sound of bullets tearing through flesh quickly flowed into their ears amidst the cacophony of gunfire.

Only for the eyes of the soldiers to widen in realization as they swiftly halted their gunfire.

And then the highborn women found themselves unable to resist gazing on in satisfaction when they saw the cause for the soldier's hesitation.

On the floor of the hall Robert now lay with numerous bullet holes piercing his chest while he rasped for air with Naoki sheltered safely behind his back.

The girl had used the man as a flesh shield!

"That…fucking bitch." David snarled under his breath with his eyes glaring back at Naoki's smirking face from over his dying comrade's shoulder.

All the while as the princess's sadistic laugher now echoed into the air with her crimson lips curving into a cruel smirk.

And then just like that the heavily armored doors closed shut with one punch of David's fist.

"Farewell Robert." Azula purred with sadistic pleasure in her voice as she gazed cruelly at Robert's dying face before the doors slammed shut with a resounding thud.

And not a second after that the sound of glass shattering resounded into the panicked hallway.

And now the sound of a thunderous siren was now blaring in the ears of the still shocked Team Azula.

While the overhead lights now flashed with an urgent red that lit the frenzied hallway with an ominous red hue.

"They're dead. She…she killed them." A soldier stated in a shaken voice while his fellows recovered alongside him.

"How is she able to move? I thought she was disabled!" Another soldier exclaimed in a frustrated voice while Team Azula listened from where were laying immobile on the floor.

"Evidently not." The princess taunted in a pleased voice only to find herself hissing when David's boot impacted with her stomach.

"You shut the fuck up!" The lieutenant shouted as he stood over the enraged princess while his hardened eyes glared down at the woman's glowering countenance.

"What are we going to do David?" A third man inquired in a distraught voice while the lieutenant pulled the furious princess to her feet.

"Get them to solitary and seal up all the doors! There isn't a spec of earth in this entire fortress! It's only a matter of hunting her down with superior numbers!" David yelled snapped as he began hauling Azula down the hall by her neck.

While the princess clenched her jaw in anger over her powerless state.

And then just as quickly the other four members of Team Azula were being pulled down the winding hall with much greater urgency than before.

All the while as Elle's amber eyes were still agape with immeasurable distress as she watched door after door slam shut behind them.

'If Naoki makes it to us before my friends are able to defend themselves…she'll kill everyone but me!' The blonde-haired girl thought with her compassionate eyes fraught in concern for her friend's well-being.

The deafening siren blared all throughout the hallway while Robert's lifeless body now lay face first on the floor.

Just as Naoki's foot stomped down on the man's back while she let out an entertained laugh above him.

"All too easy Reynolds." Naoki spoke in a gratified voice with her brown eyes now glancing about the halls of the fortress.

While she heard the distant sounds of approaching guards that were coming in response to investigate the chaos.

Just before she turned to gaze tauntingly up at the camera while her eyes momentarily lingered on the screen.

All the while as the prisoners were still being ushered down the halls.

The soldiers that were leading Felix down the hall paused to gaze up in alarm when they heard the sounds of piercing gunfire in the distance.

Which was followed up not even seconds later by the sound of the siren that now blared in their now alert ears.

While Felix's amber eyes were now alight with glee as a wicked grin grew upon his lips.

"Ah. It seems as if things are slipping outside the realm of your control. That's the way chaos is you know…you can't control it forever." The brother stated in a joyous voice as he was rushed down the hall by the panicked soldiers.

And he found himself unable to resist laughing in amusement as he watched the soldier's anxiety begin to grow.

Meanwhile in the control room.

It had happened so quickly that Reynolds and Greely never had a chance to react.

The colonel's blue eyes were wide with disbelief as he watched the events unfold on the monitor.

And then just like that the doors closed shut while David and his soldiers hurriedly rushed the five female prisoners down the hall.

While the senator and his aide stared on with a newfound sense of terror in their eyes.

All the while as Naoki's eerie brown eyes now stared right back up at the camera with a scarily at ease smile gracing her lips.

"How! She was tranquilized! I saw it with my own eyes!" Reynolds roared as he pounded his fist down on the countertop while he ground his teeth together in his fury.

"You…you said that she was subdued!" Greely yelled out with fear in his brown eyes while the larger man still stood staring furiously down at the video feed.

"S-sir! It…it might be possible that she has…developed an immunity to the compound." A staff member spoke up in a terrified voice while the commander listened with an incensed look in his eyes.

"An immunity?" The colonel questioned in a seething voice as he clenched his gloved fists over the edge of the controls.

"We have been administering the drug to her since she was a child and I can only speculate…that it no longer works to neutralize her powers." The female staffer informed in a frightened voice while the politician shook in terror.

And then the commander straightened his back as he gazed back at the image of the redhead with his blue eyes now marginally widening in comprehension.

"She feigned capture…all so she could gain entry inside." Reynolds stated in a quiet voice with his fists balled up at his hips as he shook in his anger.

"You told me before I arrived that it was safe to come here to view the gate! So why don't you have this situation under control Reynolds!" The senator barked in a frenzied voice as he stared accusingly back at the other man's infuriated face.

And then not an instant after that a fist impacted with his cheek.

And his back soared into the wall while he once again paled in fear while the commander glared frigidly down at him.

All the while as Cynthia wisely held her tongue as she stood silent at the back of the room with her blue eyes gazing between the two men.

"Shut your mouth you spineless weakling or I will throw you out there as bait." The colonel remarked in a voice devoid of all compassion while the politician now frightfully trembled against the wall.

And then Greely soon found himself swallowing as he rapidly nodded in acquiescence.

Just as everyone turned their heads to the doors to see a group of soldiers seemingly awaiting the commander's order.

"Get out there. And bring Number Three in. I don't care what it takes. Just get her." Reynolds commanded in an increasingly obsessed voice as he rounded about to stare harshly back at his silent soldiers.

Only for his blue eyes to narrow in fury when several of the soldiers faces flashed with hesitation.

"But…but sir. I heard that she took out three platoons. What if the same fate awaits us if we go out in those halls?" A soldier questioned with apprehension in his eyes while his comrades stood silent behind him.

While the commander's eyes now burned with a deep sense of rage over being questioned by his subordinates.

And then before anyone else could so much as speak another word.

The sound of a gun going off echoed throughout the control room while the team of researchers sat in a terrified silence.

And now the politician and his aide gazed on with even greater terror than before while they watched the soldier drop to the ground at the feet of his shocked comrades.

All the while as Reynolds now stared back at the frightened soldiers with monstrously ruthless blue eyes.

"I said get out there." The colonel repeated in a savage voice with his teeth clenched together while his stunned soldiers numbly nodded their heads.

"Not…not a problem sir. We'll…do that." Another man responded in an intimidated voice before he hurriedly stepped over his dead comrade as he rushed out the doors.

And then soon enough his equally startled comrades departed after him.

While everyone else in the control was now gazing fearfully between the commander's brutal countenance and the executed soldier.

Yet not a single one of them dared so much as say a word in protest of the man's actions out of a growing fear that they would be next.

Team Azula now gazed on with shared distress in their eyes as they now found themselves entering a large open room.

All the while as the princess still gazed at her captors with sneering golden eyes that were still taking obvious satisfaction in their increasingly volatile situation.

While she pursed her lips into a regal glower as she met the gaze of the lieutenant once more.

"It's going to be a real pleasure wiping that smug expression off your face in a few short moments." David commented in a harsh voice while Azula glared defiantly back at him.

While the other four females remained in a powerless silence only for looks of uneasiness to develop in their eyes when the man gazed in the direction of Mai and Ty Lee.

"It has come to the commander's attention that we don't need all of you. And he had decided that we can part with two of you." The lieutenant spoke in an uncaring voice while he gazed back into the two noblewomen's frightfully widened eyes.

And that was all it took for a palpable sense of dread to consume the air.

A sensation that was only heightened by tenfold when the man waved his had in in the air.

And just like that the two nobles were being pushed away from the rest of their group while they gazed on with their eyes now wide in realization.

While Azula's crimson lips had parted in a rare display of panic with her eyes now staring on with a newfound sense of urgency.

All the while as Zoe listened with her stoic eyes widening in comprehension.

And Elle felt as if someone had just torn her heart out.

"It's time to streamline this shit. Take them to the gas chamber and put the other three in solitary." David announced in a casual voice while the two terrified women gazed helplessly back at their horrified companions.

And the princess's golden eyes widened with uncharacteristic emotion while her very breath died in her throat.

And for reasons that she couldn't explain.

The very thought of losing her two childhood friends made her frozen heart twist with a foreign pain.

"N-no! No! Not my oneesans! I beg of you no!" Elle screamed in a trauma filled voice that touched the hearts of her two distraught big sisters.

While the two noblewomen gazed back at her with emotional looks in their eyes.

Only for David to pay her pleas no heed.

While Azula shook with her teeth bared in her unbridled anger.

"A-Azula please do something! I don't want to die!" Ty Lee called out in a momentary loss of composure while a tear fell from her eye to the floor below.

All the while as the princess stared after her with her callous eyes wide in unusual distress as she futilely fought to regain control of her limbs.

"You…cancel that order! Now!" The princess bellowed with her hair hanging in her enraged eyes while she glared murderously back at the man's unmoved face.

Only to find herself soon being carried off in the other direction while her unusually panicked eyes stared after her terrified childhood friends.

While her young girlfriend's screams continued to ring into the air as the teenager's voice grew hysterical.

"Mai! Ty Lee! N-no!" The blonde-haired girl called out in an overwhelmed voice with her wet amber eyes growing as wide as can be.

All the while as she fought in vain to thrash in her captor's arms.

Only for the eyes of the highborn women to widen in surprise when they saw a faint spark of energy erupt from their young friend's body.

Just as the soldiers turned to gaze back at Elle's traumatized face with a look of shock in their eyes.

"Stifle that kid!" The lieutenant shouted in an uncaring voice while the sorrowful teenager desperately cried in a soldier's arms.

"I can't lose my family again! It can't happen again! Not like this! Please!" Elle yelled at the top of her lungs while all four of her friends listened with expressions of emotion in their eyes.

And just like that her two big sister's moved faces vanished around the corner.

While her voice still rang out into the air as she fought to get to her big sisters with every fiber of her being.

And then before she knew it a fist impacted with the back of her neck.

And soon after that her head slumped forward with her wet amber eyes closing shut as she faded into unconsciousness.

All the while as the princess and the captain's anger had now reached never before seen heights.

And then all three of them were carried into separate directions.

While Azula's golden eyes caught a last fleeting look of the younger female's emotional face before the girl disappeared from her line of vision.

'This isn't over! I'll get them for this!' The princess thought with her nostrils releasing vengeful snorts of air while she was hauled into a frigid chamber.

And yet somewhere deep down inside of her she couldn't help but ask herself if she would truly come up with a brilliant plan of counterattack in time to save her childhood friends.

In the past she always managed to do so.

Would she this time?

The siren blared throughout the fortress in unison with the sound of footsteps rushing down the halls.

While the foreboding red light lit the way as the soldiers rounded a narrow corridor.

Only for the soldiers to come to a stop when they saw their target standing at the end of the hallway.

Their eyes narrowed as they gazed out from underneath their helmets to find themselves gazing back at the prodigy's smirking face.

"Subdue the target!" A voice hollered with maddened urgency while a rain of bullets opened fire on the stationary supersoldier.

And then Naoki's tabi boot covered feet skidded backwards upon the steel floor while her scarlet hair shadowed her smiling face.

Just before she sprinted towards her opponents with frightening agility while a rain of bullets resounded into the air.

Only for the soldier's eyes to widen in shock when the girl effortlessly evaded their fire by leaping from wall to wall!

While Reynolds watched from the control room with his blue eyes growing even wider in incomprehension.

All the while as the researchers gazed on with equal shock in their widened eyes just as the redhead bounded above the startled soldiers.

"How…how is she this fast? This is far beyond what we recorded months ago!" Reynolds protested with immeasurable aggravation lacing his voice while he clenched his gloved fists on the counter.

While Greely still sat against the wall in a dumbfounded silence with his fearful eyes still gazing back at the monitor.

All the while as Cynthia stood in an increasingly distressed state with her blue eyes grimacing as she watched a soldier get cut down.

And just like that the man fell forward after being slashed in the jugular with a stolen military knife.

While the soldier's voices rang out into the air one after another as they grew more and more desperate to tag their target.

"Hit her goddammit!" A soldier yelled in a frantic voice as gunfire continued to spray off the walls while the girl sprinted over them once more.

"We're trying!" Another voice shouted in a frenzy as he spun about the hall with his manic eyes struggling to locate the agile supersoldier.

"She's a demon!" A man screamed in a frightened voice from the rear of the group.

While the occupants of the control room still stared on in indescribable disbelief.

"Do you like it Reynolds? This is my greatest ability. Speed that is imperceivable to the human eye…. speed so fast that it can only be called beyond godlike. I call it…Diminished Earth." The scarlet-haired girl spoke in a stunningly confident voice as she smiled up at the camera while the commander seethed in his boiling fury.

"Speed that is beyond godlike?! How is it that we have no record of this power! I was under the impression that her primary power was terraformation!" The colonel roared as his fists slammed upon the metal surface while the staffers swallowed in terror.

Both of the monstrous girl and their brutal commander.

"I…I don't know sir. Our files indeed state that her power is terraformation." An officer answered from where he frantically observed the video feed.

Only to find himself flinching in fear when the man's voice cut into the air like a whip once more.

"Then how! She couldn't have devised this new power in such a short period of time!" Reynolds shouted with his face turning red in his absolute anger.

While he continued to watch in incredulity as his soldier's gunfire peppered the walls of the fortress.

All the while as a red blur rapidly evaded their fire as the girl continued to circle in for another kill.

"The…the only chance that she would have had was when the cameras turned off for the daily system maintenance. But she couldn't have known…" A woman trailed off in a voice of sudden realization as her eyes grew wide in understanding.

While an unnerved silence came over the control room as all present stood or sat in a state of palatable shock.

And the commander now stood with his gloved fists falling to his sides while his blue eyes flashed in comprehension as it finally dawned on him.

"She knew. She was…hunting us all this time." Reynolds stated in a stunned voice while the others present listened in fright.

While the senator sat unmoving with his eyes now wide in dread as he too understood the implications of the other man's words.

"Her true power is not terraformation…it is inhuman speed. But we didn't know. Because she developed it when the cameras were off." The colonel remarked in a bitter voice while his blue eyes shook with humiliation as he stared back at the video feed.

All the while as everyone else remained dead silent with their eyes still expressing their horror and disbelief.

While the shouts of the soldiers grew more and more frantic as they began to back up.

All while they madly attempted to ward off their target with rapid successions of gunfire.

"She has two powers and terraformation…is just secondary! She deceived us into thinking that it was her sole power! Because she wanted to catch us off guard! We don't even know the true capabilities of our own lab subject! Damn her! She thinks that she can humiliate me again!" Reynolds bellowed as he clenched a gloved fist before his seething face while his increasingly maddened eyes glared back at the darting blur on the video feed.

The room was dead silent, save for the sound of the soldiers distressed cries from the observation monitors.

Before a staffer finally gained the courage to speak as she swallowed the lump that was in her throat.

"S-sir. I advise that you call in a retreat. Those soldiers are going to get slaughtered. We should evacuate while we still can." The female staffer advised in a rightfully terrified voice while the politician quickly nodded his head in agreement.

Only for all present to stare on in disbelief when the commander punched his gloved fist into the wall.

"There will be no retreat! Today I bring her in! At all costs!" The colonel insisted with his blue eyes practically popping out of their sockets while he ignored the stunned looks from his subordinates.

And then not a moment later the shouts from the screens grew louder and louder.

While the occupants of the control room gazed on in a shell shocked state.

Which was followed up shortly by the sound of ear-piercing screams that resounded into their terrified ears.

Before the camera in the hall exploded and their video feed went to an unsettling static.

While an eerie silence now overtook the very air that they breathed.

And then they watched in disquiet to see several stray soldiers fleeing the opposite way on an adjacent camera.

All the while as Reynolds now stood with his mouth ajar in a state of unfathomable disbelief.

"No. My unit." Reynolds spoke in a breathless voice with his eyes wide in an inability to accept that he was beaten.

'She…she took out the entire patrol in under a minute flat.' Cynthia thought with her face now turning pale in fear of what was to come.

She was just a government political agent assigned to assist the senator.

She has done her fair share of under the table dealings.

But she has had no part in the conception of these experiments.

She hadn't even known of their existence until a few months ago.

But it didn't matter.

If that girl got to her…she was dead.

"W-we created her to be the best. We constructed her to be better than all of those soldiers combined. There is no way that we can defeat her with what we have here." A male officer concluded in a barely perceivable voice while his commander still stood with his back turned to them.

While the commander gripped his fists tightly as they fall to his hips.

'If only Strados has not quit working for the military! If I had his manpower…or maybe Iwao…then I could defeat her!' The colonel thought with his eyes enraged eyes flickering in frustration while he stared broodingly back at the countless monitors.

If he lets her escape his grasp…

Then his entire plan was bound to fall apart.

And at this rate it was seeming like it would be a likely outcome.

'No! I will not let that happen! This is the day that I receive my due!' Reynolds thought with his blue eyes taking on a fixated stare.

While everyone else had begun to exchange unnerved looks only for the fear to build up in their eyes when they saw the girl's image appear on another camera.

All the while as she confidently came before a set of sealed armored doors.

"W-what…what are we supposed to do now Reynolds? She's heading right for us!" Greely questioned in a distraught voice as he stared back at Naoki's smirking face upon the video feed.

"It doesn't matter how strong she is. She cannot get through to us. Those doors are reinforced with tungsten." The colonel spoke in a low voice while the others listened in a discomforted silence.

Only for all eyes present to watch in bewilderment when the girl began to tap her left foot upon the floor.

And then the redhead dropped down into a crouch as if she was about to go for a long run.

While her hair hung in her emotionless brown eyes as her smile grew even larger upon her lips.

"What…what is she doing?" The aide pondered in an unsettled voice just as she watched in shock when the girl sprinted towards the doors with terrifying speed.

And then they all gazed on in fright when a scarlet blur impacted with the double doors.

Just before the supersoldier back flipped backwards onto the floor with a smirk still gracing her lips.

Before she darted at the door once more not a second later.

Slam!

The sound of the prodigy impacting with the doors echoed throughout the video feed while the staffers sprang to their feet in terror.

"S-she's…methodically striking the pressure points!" An officer shouted in a long past panicked voice while his commander still shook with his eyes agape in a stubborn fury.

And then finally…

Thoom!

And just like that the two double doors were ever so slightly pried open!

But it was all that the girl needed to push the doors open enough for her to slip through.

And then supersoldier was seen heading down the hall to the next set of doors.

All the while as the colonel stared on with his blue eyes still flickering in shock.

Reynolds was so absorbed in his reverie that he failed to notice the sound of the doors opening behind him with a mechanical hiss.

And before he even had a chance to react the staffers were fleeing past the terrified Greely and the panicking Cynthia.

And then even the officers bolted soon after.

"Reynolds!" The senator cried out in a fraught voice while the larger man shook with his back turned to him.

Only to find himself staring on in confusion when the commander swiftly brushed him aside.

"She will not defeat me!" Reynolds shouted in a voice that was long past reason as he strode towards the open doors while the politician and the aide observed him in bafflement.

And then he departed the control room and rushed towards the armory.

While he hurriedly equipped his belt with ammunition and then he threw several guns onto his back.

And he swiped a stockpile of grenades.

And then he tore off down the halls with his obsessed blue eyes glaring ruthlessly ahead as he carried a large machine gun over his shoulder.

Alive or dead.

He will get her.

Back in the control room.

The lone two occupants now stood staring in fright back at the image of the monitors as Naoki rapidly made her way down the halls.

Before Cynthia turned her eyes to the video of feed of the other prisoners.

Her eyes then momentarily lingered on the footage of the two frightened women sitting in a gas chamber that was about to begin pumping a lethal dose.

Just as her eyes turned to the image of the princess seated in her bonds with her beyond infuriated eyes gazing back at the door.

"Cynthia! I want you to…where are you going!" Greely exclaimed in a terror-stricken voice as he reached out to touch his aide's shoulder when he saw her step past him.

Before the woman turned to cast him a disgusted glance as she swatted his hand away.

"I don't get paid enough for this shit. You're on your own Greely." Cynthia stated in a repulsed voice while her boss's brown eyes now trembled with anger.

And then she swept past him while she ignored his calls of indignation.

"You can't speak to me like that! Cynthia! Get back here!" The senator ordered in a frenzied voice only to find himself gazing on helplessly as the woman paid him no mind.

And before he could say another word he could only watch as his aid rushed out of the control room just like those that had come before her.

Only for the sound of the supersoldier making her way through another set of armored doors to pull him back to focus.

While his brown eyes were now as wide as can be with anxiety as he ran towards the controls.

Before he frantically punched in a series of codes as the immense doors slammed shut.

Just as another layer of reinforced metal that had been built for an emergency just like this slid down over the heavy doors.

And then it concluded with the sound of multiple high security bolts clicking shut.

"I…I have to call for help! Someone will come! They can't just leave me to die here! I am a senator!" Greely screamed in a desperate voice as he began frantically dialing for help on the radio.

While his panic filled eyes were still wide with incomprehensible fright as he continued to listen to the sirens still blaring in the background.

"Omega level security breach. All personnel report to your stations immediately." A computerized voice announced over speak system while soldiers rushed down the halls from every corner of the fortress.

And with that David and his men too ran out from solitary with urgent looks overtaking their eyes.

While Cynthia watched from around the corner before she quickly snuck towards the way that the soldiers had come from.

Before she slipped inside with her wary eyes gazing about as she rapidly navigated her way.

Azula sat in her solitary cell with her golden eyes flashing with uncharacteristic inner conflict as she listened to the deafening siren go off in her eyes.

While her heartbeat continued to quicken in tempo as it pounded thunderously in her unusually worried chest.

All the while as her regal lips shook in a furious line as she repeatedly fought to no avail to move her limbs.

While her merciless golden eyes began to express a profound sensation of panic.

And for one of the first times in her life she was finding herself struggling to keep her composure.

"I still can't move!" The princess roared as she thrashed her face in her cage while she bared her teeth like a raging dragon.

Only for her tyrannical eyes to widen when she heard a familiar voice flow into her ears.

"You're not going to let your friends die…are you Azula?" Ursa asked from where she stood behind the trembling woman while Azula's golden eyes had grown wide with fury.

"Come to gloat, have you Mother? That's just like you. You have always enjoyed watching me suffer." Azula snarled in a ferocious voice as she glared up at her mother's solemn face through the corner of her cold eye.

"That isn't true and you know it Azula. You are my daughter and I cherish you." The mother spoke with her robed sleeves folded over her breasts while the princess seethed with her lips smashed into a glower.

"Don't pretend to care about me. I know how you really feel." The princess hissed in a refined voice with her golden eyes momentarily flashing in emotion.

"I love you Azula." Ursa assured in a tender voice with an expression of maternal warmth in her golden eyes while her daughter hung her head.

"Leave me alone. I don't need you. I never did. I have Elle now…and she…she loves me." Azula snapped out with venom lacing her every word while her bangs now hung over her sweating forehead.

While she squeezed her callous eyes shut for the briefest of moments with her lips still shaking in a rare expression of vulnerability.

And then she held her head as high as she possibly could.

Before she opened her ruthless eyes not a moment later only to find herself gazing on to discover that the older woman was gone.

Only for her callous eyes to be torn from her reverie when she heard footsteps approaching towards her cell.

And just like that her eyes took on a much colder tint as she stared back with a vengeance expecting to be greeted by David.

Just before her frigid eyes flickered with yet another spark of surprise when she found herself gazing back at the face of a woman around her captain's age.

"Omega level security breach. I repeat omega level security breach." The male voice droned without emotion while the princess narrowed her imposing eyes at the woman gazing through her cell window.

And just as quickly as the princess's composure had been shaken.

It had already returned in full force.

While she now hardened her intimidating eyes into a glare as she met the woman's gaze.

And within seconds of gazing into the other woman's eyes she saw something distinctly familiar.

Something that she had seen before in the eyes of the Dai Li so long ago.

Fear and disloyalty.

While Azula's imposing eyes now took on the gaze of a terrifying ruler as she gazed hard back into the agent's faintly unsettled eyes.

"Greetings. Foreign princess." The aide greeted in a businesslike voice while the princess's dominating eyes gazed right back into her soul.

And she found herself unable to deny that she felt uneasy under the woman's commanding stare.

"Release me commoner." The princess ordered in a tone of presumed absolute authority with her domineering eyes never leaving the woman's shaken gaze.

'I am a conqueror. And my rule is a divine right. I will not show weakness to these nothings. I will do what I was born to do…I will rule.' Azula thought with her harsh eyes staring directly into the other woman's hesitant blue eyes.

"Your two friends are going to die within ten minutes if I don't. I'll be blunt though. Why should I?" Cynthia pondered in return while she lingered before the massive door.

While she felt as if Azula's imposing eyes were peering into the depths of her mind itself.

"I can see it in your eyes. You aren't sure if you are going to make it out of here alive. You're afraid that Naoki is going to kill you." The princess remarked in a sophisticated voice while she sat back with her strict eyes gazing over the woman's mildly sweating face.

"I don't deny that. But how do I know that you won't if I set you free?" The aide retorted in a seemingly calm voice with her eyes scanning the other woman's now smiling face.

"You don't. However, I suggest you worry less about the person who has already made their mind up about killing you and more about the person who is currently mulling it over." Azula commented in a voice of effortless dominance while her stern eyes burned right back into Cynthia's crumbling gaze.

"And if I don't?" Cynthia inquired as she shifted on her feet with her intimidated eyes still meeting Azula's overpowering stare.

"The fact is regardless of what you do Naoki will be out to kill you. In one scenario, she is the only one that you have to worry about. In the other…when I escape and I assure you that I will. You will be dealing with Naoki and me." The princess spoke in a frightening voice with her controlling eyes gazing out at the aide's unsettled face.

"You speak as if you feel like you already know what I am going to do." The aide replied with her blue eyes almost shivering under the princess's unfathomably dominant golden gaze.

"That's because I do. I know that you are going to bow before me. And you know too." Azula commented in a regal voice with her oppressive golden eyes staring into the other woman's nervous eyes.

All the while her lips remained in a stonily strict scowl as she watched in satisfaction when the women seemed to falter under her gaze.

Before she watched with cold golden eyes when the aide wordlessly turned around to walk away.

While she sat back with her unbelievably authoritative eyes gazing after the woman's departing back.

"It's settled then. I'll be waiting for you to return with the keys." The princess called out in a taunting voice with her sanguine eyes staring after the retreating woman.

While her conquering golden eyes observed the woman vanish from her line of sight.

All the while as she held herself as high as she could with a dignified posture about her.

And she was almost certain that the woman was sure to return.

And yet as a cold scowl once again pulled on her beautiful crimson lips.

She couldn't help but express a sliver of internal doubt.

Would she be able to escape?

And above all.

Would she make it in time to save Mai and Ty Lee?

That was a question that made her stomach twist up in uncertainty.

And somewhere deep down inside her frozen heart she felt something akin to a stab of pain.

And try as she might she did not know the answer.

#Azula #Avatar The Last Airbender #femslash #ty lee avatar #mai avatar

0 notes