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#I posted this this morning but it didn't appear in the tags
Note
Sorry to keep throwing Miscellaneous Asks your way, but I finally had a moment to get my thoughts in order on one of the points on your Venn diagram I wanted to talk about! I always kind of debate whether or not to send other, semi-unrelated long asks like this when we've already got a chain going, but oh well. I'll try and address anything brought up in response here in the main one and hopefully it doesn't get confusing lol.
So I was thinking about the extent of Jo and Arakawa's relationship. It is completely true there's not much you can say that's concrete, especially since most of what we see is from Jo's perspective. Although his perspective is crucial to forming an understanding of their relationship, it's not sufficient. This is particularly the case because, coming back to giri-ninjo for a moment, Jo is largely bound by giri; it's clear his loyalty runs deep, but it's not a choice for him.
Arakawa, on the other hand, can choose who he places his trust in, especially early on. And I think it's incredibly important that, despite having men who've already been with him from day 1, men who've already been helping him with his son, Arakawa chooses to "place every confidence" in Jo (per an old Famitsu profile, one of the first official ones) and chooses to make Jo his captain.
Similarly, he kind of chooses Jo "over" Ichi in sending Ichi to prison "instead of" Jo. Perhaps the family really would collapse without Jo's talents, but… does it have to collapse entirely? Didn't Arakawa make it pretty far on his own? I guess it's neither here nor there, but I've always wondered if things would've really played out as feared if Jo went to prison instead. Not to understate Jo's role in the family, of course.
Anyway, I think that trust shows not only in overt gestures such as entrusting Masato and the family's finances to Jo, but also in more subtle behind-the-scenes ways, such as what we were talking about before with regard to New Year's 2001. There's also the fact that leaking information to Aoki was Jo's idea; for that to be the case, Arakawa would have to discuss Aoki's threats at length with Jo. (Unrelated, but come to think of it, "complying with him [to] make him see value in keeping us around" is very often the strategy of victims of abuse and neglect…)
And this one's an underrated detail many people miss, but after Arakawa shot Ichi, while he was able to come up to Ichi to tell him he's counting on him and sneak in the fake bill, if the goal was to not arouse suspicion, I don't think he would exactly have been able to excuse himself from the dinner to drive Ichi to Yokohama. Time was of the essence in terms of Ichi's survival, so that leaves Jo, who was conveniently already at the scene and who was certainly in on the "secret rule" that constitutes part of the Arakawa Family's agreement with the homeless camp. Overall, there is a pattern of Arakawa approaching Jo before anyone else, isn't there?
Sort of branching off of that, I would personally feel comfortable saying that Jo knows Arakawa better than anyone else. He seems to know details about Akane and New Year's 1976 no one else does, details Arakawa would have had to volunteer himself, and that plus his own experiences are what allow him alone to have the most complete picture of that night.
I also get the impression Jo understands Arakawa better as a person than anyone else--certainly better than Aoki, but perhaps even better than Ichi in some cases. There are multiple instances where he defends Arakawa and challenges their perceptions of him--that he's "betrayed" the Tojo Clan, that he's betrayed Aoki, that he's the type to scheme and make power-plays behind Aoki's back. He hasn't. And, despite how little Jo's "allowed" to say, he turns out to be right every time. Also worth noting Arakawa does something similar in asking Ichi to try and understand Jo's frustrations, though he's more or less enabling Jo's abuse in doing so.
Lastly, The Smallest Detail that drives me kind of insane. Them arriving at the office in the back seat of the same car in one of Ichi's flashbacks. I wouldn't think too much of it if it were any other time of day, but the first-thing-in-the-morning quality and the fact Jo isn't driving (thus it's not as an act of service but as an equal) is like… Okay. You're carpooling to work. And if you're not carpooling, you're honest-to-god living together. What the hell.
So a lot of it is this web of inferences--it has to be, at least currently--but I really do think there's a lot to chew on. More than meets the eye, anyway. I've also been stewing in all of this for years, especially since drafting Jo's relationships section, so I might just have inhaled the fumes for too long lol
Thank you for coming to me about the nature of their relationship! Although I did put it down as being more-or-less 'uncertain' on my chart, I do agree that their relationship isn't as cut-and-dry as other relationships might be (it's going back to appreciating the complexities of RGG relationships, especially in the case of the Arakawa's where for every party involved it really IS complicated)
I wanted to exclude making any definitive statements on things that couldn't be verified without making a detour on the original post (I know I already mentioned frequently that Arakawa is able to joke about Jo being 'softer' on Masato, but I do think about their relationship often and the implied depth of Jo's loyalty if- as you said- he was able to climb through the ranks of the Arakawa family much quicker than preexisting members), but there are clear points in the game that due allude to a great trust between the two (and I also note that carpooling detail during Ichi's flashback- or at the very least I know I'd find myself noticing Jo sitting in the back opposed to the front/driving). It's definitely not hard to assert that Jo knows Arakawa well either, it's hard not to come to that conclusion when we have evidence from the game to infer that.
#long post#fave#i should prob come up with an actual tag for these asks so i can easily find them and not sift through my other fave'd posts#ill do it in the morning im right about to go to bed but i just saw this pop up on my notifications#and well. we know me i've been presented an itch i have to scratch LMAO#snap chats#i feel a bit silly now- i know that their relationship isn't exactly. 'uncertain' but i didnt want to put that so i didn't appear#hmm.. i dont know the word for it.#i guess because it's not AS blatant as daigo and mine's relationship was#i didnt want to make it appear as though i was saying theres more when there isnt?? tho there definitely is..#its a little evident i Am interested in the depths of their relationship so i promise ive thought about it#maybe i just wasnt sure how to exactly word it.. though in review the way i worded it on my chart#wasn't HORRIBLE. to most standards anyway i think however it definitely undermines the bond they have and for that#'ashamed' is hyperbolic i feel like someone would say so we'll go with 'embarrassed' to meet in the middle#but thats the benefit of peer review isnt it- just to help catch your mistakes or to help reaffirm ideas so im grateful!#but x2 again in review im a silly coward for doubting my gut on that#tho i sort of do want to torch that post- i wont tho. it's not supposed to be SUPER deep just very quick notes#so i guess i'll save the Deep Dive on jo and masumi's relationship for a future post. is what ill tell myself to keep myself sane#thank you for compiling- i suppose i'll call- their moments together !#it's a great way to keep track of every important note on their relationship that i hope people will take note of if they havent
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hedgehog-moss · 8 months
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I've been worried this week about birds of prey attacking my chickens—well, one bird of prey. I heard a hen make her very characteristic INTRUDER cry the other day and ran out of the house and there was a hawk flying in circles high above. I half-heartedly threw some sticks in its direction and told my hen not to be so dramatic (the hawk looked like it was minding its own business frankly), but the next day it happened again, and I thought, I've been unfair to the hens, the hawk from yesterday was actually reconnoitering and they could tell. Then there was another alert the next day. I was starting to get a bit alarmed about the fact that I was dealing with the world's most determined hawk—though I didn't see it again past the first time, I figured I arrived too late and Pandolf had already deterred it.
I ended up setting up a pen for the hens very near my house, under the hazel tree so they'd be sheltered, and spying from the kitchen window the next day, to see if it was still the same bird or what. It tended to attack at the same time every day, which was extra baffling.
And what I saw was Pandolf returning from his daily morning patrol around the pasture, faff around looking a bit bored, circle my house looking for me, and when he didn't find me, go to the chickens' pen and pretend to pounce on them like a fox, which startled them and made them cry out. Pandolf didn't touch them, he clearly just wanted them to make their magical Make Human Appear noise. Immediately after they yelped he turned to look at the front door expectantly, waiting for me to run out. He knows that when I get distracted from what I was doing indoors I often end up being like, well, now that I'm outside I might as well go do [outdoor chore of the day] and he gets to tag along, so he concocted this devious plan...
So. I must turn this post into a callout post for Pandolf. This is the face of a problematic dog, who tried to frame a hawk and use innocent hens for his own ends after he realised their person-summoning noises work while his do not.
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dilemmaontwolegs · 23 days
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The Perfect Life || CL16 {1}
Summary: On the outside it appeared you had the perfect life but Charles didn't know the secrets that had been kept from him. In order for him to succeed deals were made with your family and no price was too much to pay. Warnings: nsfw, swearing, fighting, mentions of character death, arranged marriage, enemies to lovers, horrible parents, Arthur Leclerc being the best friend ever WC: 2.5k
One || Two || Three
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“What have you got yourself into now?”
There was no simple answer to that question and it was the very reason you had specifically not called the man waiting for an answer in the corridor. You dragged your eyes away from the chipped grey walls of the cell and stopped reading the tagging that littered the bricks - you didn’t really care that P & H were 2getha 4eva - and sat up from the concrete bed you had attempted to sleep on. 
Stretching your tired muscles, you ignored his question and asked one of your own. “What are you doing here, Charles?”
“Arthur called.” Charles grabbed the bars that separated you, his knuckles turning white as he scanned the other vagrants you had been locked in with. “Did you have to get him involved?”
“What makes you think it was my idea?” It was your idea, but it was rude of him to assume so. 
“My brother wouldn’t know how to find an underground fight club, let alone join one.”
“Maybe you don’t know your brother as well as you think.”
“Maybe, but I know you.” He looked at your cheeks that were still shiny from the Vaseline that helped the blows glance off, then he looked at your busted knuckles that not even tape could stop from splitting. “Why?”
You shrugged, but it tweaked your shoulder that had taken quite the punch and you winced at the spike of pain. “For a bit of fun, let off some steam.”
“Yeah, you look like you are really enjoying yourself,” he muttered sarcastically before walking away.
“Wait, Charles, where are you going?”
“Home, it’s late and Arthur is waiting in the car.”
“You’re just going to leave me here?”
“You didn’t call me,” he stated coldly. “Bail yourself out this time.”
Your clenched fist hit the metal bar and he briefly paused as the ringing sound followed him down the hall. “Dammit, Charles. Please?”
He continued walking away and you dropped back onto the hard slab of concrete wondering why you bothered. Charles never cared for you and the friendship you had with his younger brother, in fact merely breathing around him seemed to be an offence. It had been that way ever since your family sponsored his career, it was like he resented you for your family’s money. 
“Y/L/N,” a burly bailiff called out, interrupting your ranting inner monologue. “You’ve been posted.” 
A frown pinched your brows together as the door opened and you saw Charles standing in the shadows behind the officer. “Now would be the time for a thank you,” he muttered. 
You were tempted to throw a ‘fuck off’ his way but bit your tongue and accepted the thick hoodie he had draped over his arm. While the sex workers you had shared a cell with wore just as little clothing, yours was for an entirely different reason. The sports bra and bike shorts were perfect for fighting in but left you cold in the early hours of the morning, so you quickly pulled the hoodie over your body. “Thank you. I’ll pay you back.”
“I don’t want your money,” he sighed, rubbing his temple and leaving you with the impression that you were the headache he had.
“That’s not what you said to my father 10 years ago.”
“Is it too late to lock her back up?”
The bailiff looked awkwardly between the two of you and if you were in Monaco the officer would have probably marched you back to the cell, but Charles was in Nice now, he was in your city. 
You quickly signed the release form for your belongings and slipped the family signet ring back onto your finger before turning your phone on. A flood of messages from your father, his assistant and his lawyer, appeared in the flurry of vibrations that made Charles scoff and shake his head. “Worried about his little princess, huh?”
It was your turn to scoff. If only he knew how utterly wrong he was, but you weren’t one to air the dirty laundry of your family - even if it would shut the pretentious twat up for one minute. “Same time next week, boys,” you said with a nod to the officers behind the Perspex wall. 
“You’re seriously messed up,” Charles commented as he followed your quick descent down the front steps and aimed for the dark blue Porsche. 
“Keep sweet talking, you flirt,” you shot back sarcastically. “I thought you had a girlfriend.” 
Arthur had opened his door the moment he spotted you and he knew from the pained look on his brother’s face, and the smile on yours, that the interaction had gone as well as expected. He couldn’t understand why two people he loved dearly had to fight like cats and dogs every time they were in the same room. He had tried to get you to talk to Charles, to tell him the truth about your situation, but it had been hard enough talking to Arthur about it and you trusted him with your life. You weren’t going to go through that again for someone that would be more likely to spit in your face. 
“How’s your nose?” Arthur asked as he gently cupped your face and inspected it.
“Relax, I already reset it.” You took comfort in the warmth of his palms but the fuzzy feeling that came with knowing someone in the world cared about your wellbeing was gone in an instant.
“Daddy can always buy you a new one.”
“Charles!”
“Forget about it, Tur,” you murmured as you stepped back and started to make your way home on foot. “Text me when you get home safe.”
“If you care about him you will leave him alone,” Charles called out as he opened the driver's door. “You’re just going to drag him down with you.”
“Shut the fuck up,” Arthur growled at his brother before he started to follow you down the street. “Wait, please.”
“You should listen to your brother,” you said over your shoulder. “I’m a sinking ship.”
Arthur’s footsteps quickened as he jogged to your side and pulled you to a stop. “You’re not a sinking ship, but if you are then I will be your lifeboat.”
“That’s stupid analogy,” you scoffed as he pulled you into his arms. “I’m sorry I got you arrested.”
“I could have run when they raided but what kind of best friend would that make me?”
“One with a clean record,” you pointed out, feeling his chest bounce with a silent laugh.
“It’s overrated. I’m thinking about getting a tattoo now, one to remember my incarceration by. Maybe a tear, just here,” he said as he touched his cheek. “Think it would make me look cool.”
You rolled your eyes and laughed. “Oh yeah, the ladies would love that.”
“Please don’t give my brother any more bad ideas,” Charles muttered as he rolled by slowly in his car with the window down. “Get in, both of you.”
Arthur opened the door and pulled you down with him, tugging you into place on his lap before you could escape. He wasn’t going to let you walk home at 3am, no matter how safe Nice was, but it was annoying that his brother only bought a two seater sports car when he knew that the two of you had been arrested. 
You guided Charles away from the waterfront mansions and into the industrial area that was abandoned at the late hour. Arthur had been to your place plenty of times but it was a first for Charles to see the concrete building with a chipped tile roof at the end of the rundown street.
“What are we doing here?” Charles asked as he parked in front of a rusted metal door.
“Thanks for the ride,” you said, kissing Arthur’s cheek before opening the door. 
“What is this place?” Charles asked again as he followed you out, frowning at the key to the door you found under a shattered pot plant.
“I can’t exactly go home like this, can I? Genius.”
Arthur’s door shut as he got out to referee the second round of verbal sparring for the evening.  
“I’m surprised they even let you home after the crap you put them through.”
“Yeah, well, I'm still useful to them so they can’t get rid of me yet. Trust me, I’ve tried.”
“It must be so hard living your perfect little life,” Charles drawled sarcastically and Arthur inhaled sharply at the insult.
“You think my life is perfect?” You laughed bitterly and Arthur looked down at his feet. “Do you know why I fight in that shitty underground cage? The only freedom I have is when I get in that ring. It is the only choice I get to make for myself. For five minutes, I am in control of my own life, Charles, I get to fight for myself.”
“In control? You have always done and gotten everything you wanted,” he argued. “You wanted a pony, you got a fucking pony.”
Your vision narrowed as anger exploded in your chest. “There was a price, you fucking idiot! I am paying that price now. You don’t know what it’s like to have your entire life planned out for you, to find out those gifts came with terms and conditions, so do me a favour and shut the fuck up for once in your life please.”
Charles took a step closer but Arthur placed himself between you, his palms pushing his brother back as your breath quickened to uncontrollable pants. “You don’t understand, just let it go.”
“Damn right I don’t understand. I don’t understand why you listen to her bullshit, Tur. Jules couldn’t stand to be in the same room as her, and I can’t either.”
The whomping of blood rushing around your head echoed in your ears as time slowed and Arthur’s arm pulled back. You watched him close his fist like you had taught him, keeping his thumb on the outside to avoid breaking it. You watched the veins on his hand grow thicker as he threw the punch at his own brother and the shock barely registered before Charles fell down on his ass.
“Jules couldn’t be in the same room with her because he knew the truth and he felt guilty!” Arthur screamed down at his brother. “You were too young to understand then, but we aren’t kids anymore.”
Charles broke free of his state of shock and scrambled to his feet, spitting out a mouthful of blood. “What truth? Huh? Is it worth ruining our brotherhood?”
“Jules was engaged.”
“Bullshit.” Charles shook his head violently and you sank to the ground, leaning back against the cold bricks for the second time that night. “He would have told me.”
“Ask Enzo.” Arthur knew Charles would believe him. Lorenzo was Jules’ best friend, it was why Charles met Jules in the first place. Jules already had ties to your family and he used them to broker the deal that funded Charles’ career. 
“Okay, so what if he was engaged?” Charles snapped as his agitation grew. He was suddenly questioning everything he knew about his godfather and it showed on his shaking hands.
“Because he was engaged to me,” you whispered, a shadow falling across your face as Arthur crouched down beside you and wiped away the tears you hadn’t even felt fall. You couldn’t tell if they were tears of anger or sadness, the two seemed to blur when it came to Jules. He was always there, even in your earliest memories. He was like an older brother to you, he even taught you to ride your bike without trainer wheels. He was always there, until he wasn’t. 
Charles was right, he couldn’t stand to be in the same room as you once the deal was made. You couldn’t blame him for that. 
“No, no fucking way,” Charles laughed, raking a hand through his hair. “Arthur, are you listening to this shit?”
“I’ve seen the contract, Cha.”
“You’ve always been gullible but this is actually stupid. She was 16. Jules wouldn’t have married a girl. He was 25 for fucks sake.”
“We didn’t have a choice,” you admitted quietly. “It was the price for the deal he made, and you are right, Jules was too noble for that. It took a lot of convincing on his part to wait until I turned 21. My father resented that fact, I think he was hoping to sell me off to someone sooner.”
Charles stumbled back to the hood of his car, watching as Arthur took a seat beside you and draped his arm protectively over your shoulders. The brothers stared at each other but you stared at the gravel between your legs while the truth lingered in the air. 
You could feel the pieces connecting in Charles’ head as if they were being screamed aloud and you flinched at the moment they all came together. Arthur’s arm tightened, Charles' throat bobbed and nausea roiled in your stomach.
“It was me,” Charles choked. “Wasn’t it?”
You didn’t bother looking up as you nodded. “My father never cared about your career. He wanted a union with the Bianchi family and he finally got the opportunity when Jules asked to sponsor you.”
“Why the hell would he agree to that?”
“Because he believed in you, obviously, and I like to think that maybe he thought he could get out of the agreement before I turned 21.” You shrugged because you would never know the complete truth now. It made you sick to think that maybe he did find a way out of it, in the worst way possible.
“Your father…”
“Is a real asshole? Yeah, I know.”
“I was going to say sick bastard.” 
You chuckled in agreement and tipped your head back. “Perfect life, am I right?”
Charles had the decency to winch at the reminder. “You’re an adult now, why don’t you leave?”
“I wish it were that easy. All my bank accounts are under his control. They didn’t let me go to college. I don’t know anyone that isn’t indebted or loyal to him,” you sighed. “I got this place with my fight winnings. It’s not much but it’s mine, at least until he arranges another marriage for me, then I suppose the poor bastard gets it too.”
“Marry me.”
You barked a laugh and looked at Arthur, his lips still parted like they were shocked the words had passed by. “Now you are being stupid. I love you, Tur, and that is precisely why I wouldn’t wish this shit on you.”
“Then marry me,” Charles offered. “You hate me already, and I owe Jules everything. You can come to Monaco and study, or get a job, or whatever you want to do.”
“No, thank you,” you said as you pulled yourself to your feet and opened the door. “Drive safe.”
“I’m serious,” Charles growled as caught the door before it closed. “I am offering you a lifeline, why won’t you take it?”
“My father taught me many important life lessons but the first one was if it seems too good to be true, it probably is. Good night, Charles.”
Part Two
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vashtijoy · 8 days
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jose's star: a love token??
So I was on reddit this morning for my sins, which are many, and someone asked why they didn't get the 2/13 scene where Jose's star shows up faded and dead. This scene:
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Most people thought this was something to do with Akechi's confidant, so obviously I datamined it at once:
The Star fading has, ostensibly, nothing to do with Akechi at all. But, it is conditional—and on something you might not expect: The Star will only fade if you have established one or more romance routes.
[tech]
This scene is called from the scheduler, on the evening of 2/13, in sdl02_13_PM_D_RE(). For every romanceable confidant, it checks two things:
Is their romance route active? (that is, is the flag set?)
Are they at confidant rank 10?
If these conditions are met, the game increments a counter. And if that counter is greater than zero, this star event will play.
wtf??
Obviously this raises a boatload of questions.
Why does the star only fade if you are in love with one of the girls? What is it about that that causes the star to fade? Or, conversely, what is it about not being in love with one of the girls that might mean you still need the star?...
The immediate Doylian explanation for this is that the text you get from your girlfriend(s), asking you to meet up on 2/14, is tagged onto the end of this scene. But that itself is strange. The game splits scenes into "minor events" for far less than this; I can't think offhand of another text chat or phone call I've seen which hasn't been its own little event, though I'm sure there must be some.
You can check the star on 3/19 and see that it still "emits a mysterious light"—though this appears to be the case even if the star faded. There's no alternate scene where you never get the text, which is de rigueur for texts like this. As an example, that short nothing little text you get during Sae's Palace before going to the courthouse has at least four variations. This is standard.
No, this discussion with Morgana about the star, and your plans to hang out on Valentine's Day, should have been at a minimum two different minor events. And they are not.
From an IC/Watsonian perspective, this has to mean that the star only fades if you are dating a girl. If you aren't, it seems the star has something left undone, something that requires its wishing power, and does not fade....
I'll leave the implications of that one as an exercise for all of you. Incidentally, a shoutout to the innocent redditor who hit on this theory by himself and proceeded to get downvoted to hell. smh
revision history
Click here for the latest version.
v1.0 (2024/04/16)—first posted.
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runningfrom2am · 5 months
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leveling the playing field X
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summary: with nowhere else to go after getting caught cheating to help lucy gray, you both make some desperately stupid decisions.
pairing: coriolanus snow x fem!reader
wc: 3.1k
tags/warnings: capitol brat!reader, maybe slightly ooc coryo, idk i tried my best. do they love each other or hate each other? who knows (we do, kind of). implications and mentions of abuse, so read with caution!! also a little bit of swearing but that's neither here nor there
masterlists // nav // requests
a/n: hi all!! i have some slightly annoying news (I'm so sorry) but i think i have to close my taglist for this fic and for other coryo stuff (which i am working on bc I've seen the requests!!) bc its gone up almost 150 people and i can only tag 50 people per post and it is SO much work to tag everyone individually even after i paste them in and i don't want to have to reblog it 2 or 3 times to tag everyone :(. I'm so sorry like i said ik its annoying but if you'd like to be the first to know ab new parts and you're not already in my taglist, feel free to turn on my post notifs!! that way you'll also see everything else including my asks ab the fic where i answer more questions and we talk theories and all that fun stuff :)
next part
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Coriolanus was having a hard time adjusting to the life of a peacekeeper, but he was getting there. He sent off that letter for you almost as soon as he arrived, but was yet to receive a response so that seemed like an answer enough. He had to forget you, especially if he wasn't going back to the Capitol anytime soon.
He was homesick, to say the very least. Both of his bunkmates were out, likely working, but he didn't care much to know exactly where. He was just relieved to have a moment to himself to wallow in his self-pity, chest constricting tighter and tighter with every breath.
A door slammed shut down the hall, followed quickly by his own door opening- at which he held his breath. He had to get it together.
"Is this bunk taken?" Someone asks, a voice not belonging to either of his bunkmates, but he recognizes it nonetheless.
He shot up straight, taking in the appearance of the boy in front of him. "Sejanus!" He had never been happier to see his classmate, hopping out of his top bunk to quickly give him a hug.
"This is a surprisingly warm welcome for someone who almost got you killed." Sejanus chuckled, hugging him back.
Coryo laughs slightly, pulling away and grabbing his shoulders. "Oh, no. Quite the opposite. What are you doing here?"
"About the same as you." He shrugs, sliding his things under the bed below Coryo's. "They were going to expel me, but my dad paid them for my grad certificate and let them send me here. They got a new gym on the condition that they let us both graduate."
Coryo should be relieved, but a graduation certificate doesn't matter much if he's stuck here for the next twenty years. "And Y/N/N?" He asks.
"Y/N?" Sejanus asks, lifting his head back in confusion. "What about her?"
"Did she graduate too?"
"I... I don't know, I didn't know she was in trouble. We were told she was sick."
Coriolanus's stomach drops. That's a story he'd certainly heard before, and he didn't like at all how that ended. He swallows, nodding a little bit as he looks at the floor. "So you didn't see her at all?"
"No... Not since the last time I saw you." Sejanus states. It had been a few weeks now. "But, her mother came to our door a week or so ago, real early in the morning. Ma shooed me away but I heard them talking, it seemed like she didn't know where Y/N was either. She was looking for her, wondering if any of us had seen her."
Again, this is what Coryo had seen before with what happened to Clemensia. Her parents weren't allowed to see her at all while she was in the hospital. "I think she's dead." He admits.
"What? What makes you say that?" His friend gasps.
"I... I heard her screaming when I left our meeting with Highbottom." Coriolanus explains. "At first it was normal Y/N screaming, you know, but then it got worse and worse until it just... stopped." He hoped Sejanus would change his story, that he would remember seeing you at school or on the streets or at one of your parent's obnoxious parties, having a good time, and being yourself. That maybe he had just forgotten, but the look on Sejanus's face tells him that didn't happen.
It was Sejanus's turn to look down now, giving a solemn nod. "I mean, no." He laughs suddenly, shaking his head. "They wouldn't kill her on campus- if you could hear it, she's not dead. They wouldn't kill her just like that, right?" He says, trying to convince himself of that truth. "Surely she's just sick. Maybe grounded, or something."
"Yeah, yeah. Probably..." Coriolanus concedes, hoping that somehow Sejanus was right.
Simultaneously, you were adjusting beautifully to life in District Twelve. You got in the habit of borrowing Lucy Gray and Barb Azure's clothes, and they let you sleep on the floor between their beds. For the first time in your life, you were free. No one knew you, no one had a single expectation of you besides Tam Amber appreciating your help with the goats and occasionally going to the market with Lucy Gray and Maude Ivory to get food. It was refreshing, to say the very least. Everyday you felt yourself unwinding more and more.
"Do you play any instruments, Y/N?" Maude Ivory asks you, skipping to catch up to you as you hike down a trail out to the lake with the rest of the covey.
"I do, actually." You nod at her, a small smile on your face. "Try three."
"Three!" She claps excitedly. "What do you play? You'll have to perform with us! Do they have different instruments where you're from?"
"Not really." You giggle, putting your hands in the pockets of your bright red skirt. "I play the piano, and the violin, which is just like Clerk Carmine's fiddle, but much more boring, and a harp, if you've ever heard of that."
"You play the fiddle?" The young girl smiles.
"Not like he does." You smile at the boy as he walks ahead of you, not paying any attention.
"I'm sure you're just as well." Lucy Gray interjects, bumping her shoulder with yours as she walks next to you. "Maude Ivory, you should hear her projection. I'm yet to hear her sing, but boy, can she yell."
"I can't sing." You laugh, shaking your head. "Back home you don't sing unless you're training for the opera, and you have to start that around the same time you learn to walk. My parents would rather me learn the piano."
"Then why am I the one yellin' at all our shows? You should step up." Maude Ivory giggles, and you just shake your head, ruffling her hair.
"I definitely couldn't do it nearly as well as you." You insist. "Besides, I have stage fright." You joke, mostly to get her off your back.
She laughs as she fixes her hair, running to catch up with the kids in front of her.
"She just adores you." Lucy Gray smiles. "It's nice to have a new face around."
You smile, watching Maude Ivory collect flowers from the side of the road. "She reminds me of my brother. They're about the same age."
"Right, you lent me his guitar." Lucy Gray says, a particular sadness in her tone tipping you off that she believes you should be upset about leaving him. You miss him, sure, but he's better off now with you gone. Besides, he couldn't be any worse than you. Your parents have always doted over him, and there's no doubt in your mind that now that you are gone, it's multiplied.
"Yes. That's him." You reply, accompanying a moment of silence between the two of you.
"Do you miss him?"
"Sure." You nod, kicking a small stone down the path in front of you. "But he's better off without me there. That brings me enough peace to sleep at night."
"Hey, can I ask you something?"
"Shoot." You smile at her, grateful for the change of topic.
"What happened to Coriolanus?" For the first time in weeks, you feel a pinch of discontent in your gut at her question.
"I don't know." You lie, shrugging your shoulders. You don't even know why you felt the urge to lie at all, you knew he was here somewhere but you hadn't seen him once. Out of sight, out of mind is what you have been trying to convince yourself. "He's alive, I'm sure. Peacekeeping in one of the districts probably."
"Oh, I was hoping you would know more."
"It would be nice." You agree. "But he's not exactly in my good graces at the moment."
"It feels so out of character for him to betray you like that, doesn't it?" Lucy Gray asks.
You laugh, shaking your head. "It was unusual. That's what I thought, anyway." You sigh, giving a slight shrug. "I haven't told anyone, but we had... I don't know, a moment, a few weeks ago. During the games. Just a couple of days later and he's throwing me under the bus like I meant nothing to him. We've been friends for years- I thought everything was about to change for the better, and then..."
"That's cruel." She says disapprovingly. "I bet he's sorry now that you're gone with the wind. He's regretting it. I promise you that much."
You smile slightly at the thought, allowing yourself to entertain it, if only for a moment. "He better be."
"Is that for me? Oh, c'mon y'all, you know that I gave up drinkin' when I was twelve..." Lucy Gray says, taking a sip out of the clear liquor bottle someone in the audience handed to her. "Oh, It's to clear my pipes, just to clear my pipes." She clarifies, tossing the bottle back into the audience.
Coriolanus watches leaning against the side wall of The Hob. He's happy to see that Lucy Gray is back to doing what she loved, and she made it home alive and well. He's also more than pleased to finally get off the barracks for something other than work. "Now, who's ready for a song, huh?" She smiles, looking down off the stage to her right. "Okay, comin' right up. First, I'd like to introduce to the stage with a big welcome, a grand ole friend of mine, The lovely Sage!" She says, giggling at her rhyme as another girl climbs up on stage, giving Maude Ivory and Lucy Gray a quick hug each.
Coriolanus looks away as the crowd cheers, scanning the crowd for Sejanus who had just excused himself to grab a drink a couple minutes ago. He's wondering where his roommate could have disappeared to when Lucy Gray's friend starts speaking.
"Well hello, everyone, so lovely to meet you all! I have never felt so welcome anywhere." His head snaps back to the stage. He'd know that Capitol accent anywhere, even as you pause to allow any cheers to quiet down. "I mean that." You grin, hands clutched to your chest. "And that feels so good, considering Lucy Gray all but forced me up here." You laugh, draping an arm over her shoulder, letting her take back over. How could this be real? Coryo is tempted to rub his eyes or pinch himself to make sure he's even awake. He was so sure you were dead, but despite the different name and completely different clothes, he was positive it was you. The pang in his chest made that obvious, along with the wave of surrealism that suddenly surrounded him so all he could see was you.
"Now, my beautiful girl Sage here will be taking over for our friend on the fiddle, we'll give the band a quick break, and we're gonna have a bit of a change of pace while she's lending us her talents." Lucy Gray says, and Coriolanus watches as you take the beat-up violin from the young boy gratefully. He knew you played, but he hadn't heard it for years. You looked so calm, something he wasn't sure he had seen in public since you were young. He can't pull his eyes from your figure as it graces the stage with your presence, lighting up the room even if it was only for him.
A small smile grows on his face as you start to play, several whistles echoing through the room before Lucy Gray even joins in with her singing. He wants to scream, to cheer and clap and yell and tell everyone in this dark, rundown building that this 'Sage' was his. Inarguably and undoubtedly his. Coryo's pride is only curtailed when he recognizes the song; it was the ballad Lucy Gray played in her interview on your brother's guitar.
The sophistication your violin playing brought to the piece almost made it sadder and infinitely more haunting. It's beautiful. Now with your classical touch, the song sets a pit of guilt in his stomach. That somehow, even without you singing, it's now a ballad from you to him.
"Just let me remind you what I am to you..."
He makes eye contact with Lucy Gray as he shifts his gaze away from you. She pauses for only a moment, hands still moving rhythmically over the strings of her guitar. She smiles and nods at him, jaw slightly agape as she glances back at you to see if you noticed him. When it's clear you haven't, she gets back on track with the words within only a moment.
"'Cause I am the one who looks out when you're leaping. I am the one who knows how you were brave..."  Your lips turn up in a small smile as she sings, eyes still shut while you focus. Even though he's sure you're thinking of him, it doesn't bring him much consolation. Well, at least you were thinking of him. He would take it.
The song ends as quickly as it starts, and despite the slower tone, the audience is still excited. More so as the band returns to the stage and you return the violin to Clerk Carmine before turning back around to give a bow. You wave out to the audience, reveling in the whistles and praise before reaching out for an extended hand, accepting it as its owner helps you down. "That was stunnin', where'd you learn to play like that? I've never heard anything quite like it." The man asks, still holding your hand out in between you.
"Oh, thank you. I've been playing my whole life." You grin as the music picks up again.
"Can you dance like you can play?" He asks, lifting your arm to spin you.
"I can certainly try." You laugh, going along with it as he pulls you into a more open space of the crowd, and to Coriolanus, it seems like you're taunting him. You're dancing like you don't have a care in the world, dressed in a skirt that looked like it was made out of a red bed sheet cut up and stitched back together in half-hazard squares, and what looked like one of your t-shirts cut up into a tank top that exposes most of your stomach and back. Appallingly too, a smile present on your face that he had dreamt of seeing again one day but was certain he never would. The only problem is that you're dancing with someone else. Not that he was much of a dancer, but he could try if he had known that's what you wanted.
He's planning his method of attack. He can't leave without speaking to you, because he doesn't even know if you'll be back here the next time he gets a day off. Though, based on your appearance and newfound carelessness, it's likely.
His urge is just to kiss you, but the only thing holding him back is that it could set you off. If you hadn't heard his apology from miles away, would you still be angry at him? But actions speak louder than words. He knows that physicality works with you, and it was hard to deny that he hadn't dreamt of how soft your lips felt on his for weeks. One time was just simply not enough for Coryo.
Coriolanus scowls as the man you're dancing with spins you again, making you laugh as he drapes an arm around your waist.
Maybe he should get Sejanus, see if he's seen you yet.
Another spin, and a hand sliding lower down your bare back as the man pulls you closer, his fingers landing on the waistband of your skirt. When was the last time that scumbag had so much as washed his hands? Coryo wonders to himself, rage boiling up under his skin.
Kiss her. Definitely kiss her.
But if the song choice was any indicator, you definitely weren't pleased with him. It couldn't be, though, because how would you know he would be in attendance? Coryo finds his feet carrying him through the crowd, pushing past a dozen carelessly drunk people in his effort to get to you before he's even thought it all through.
Your brow furrows as a body forces itself between you and your dancing partner. "Hey! What are you-" You cut yourself off, hypnotized by the cold blue eyes staring down at you.
That's my girl. Even though you're angry, Coriolanus is grateful to be the object of your gaze once more.
"'Scuse me, man, do you mind?" The man says, making an effort to push Coryo away. He turns, and before you can intervene he's swinging his fist right at the other guy's face, finding its target in a fraction of a second.
He stumbles back, grabbing his face as it immediately drips blood from his nose onto the floor. There are gasps in the crowd as it disperses around you.
"Hey, settle down, settle down now." You hear Lucy Gray call out amidst the music playing in the background while you grab the back of Coryo's shirt, pulling him back before he continues to beat up your dancing partner.
"Coriolanus, what are you doing here?" You shout over the music. He shakes out his fist, turning back to you now and grabbing your face, pulling you closer to kiss you instead of dignifying you with a response. His actions would certainly speak louder.
You want to be angry, but that falters as you feel his lips on yours again, his hands planted firmly on either side of your waist as he holds onto you so tight you weren't sure breathing was an option- even if you could. You followed him here, of course you wanted to see him, but how could he betray you so easily and expect forgiveness in a kiss?
It takes you longer than it probably should to build up the courage to place your hands on his chest, shoving him back. "What is wrong with you?" You spit, looking him up and down in the blue uniform signified of a peacekeeper off duty.
"What's wrong with me?" He asks, looking around and gauging how many people were even taking notice. "What do you mean, Y/N/N, I wanted to-" Clearly you hadn't heard his silent apology, or it just wasn't enough.
"Hey!" You hiss, jumping at him and attempting to cover his mouth at the use of your nickname, and he quickly swats away your hand. "Let's go. Outside, now." You shove him back by his chest, pointing towards the exit.
You look up at Lucy Gray on stage, still singing as she watches you nervously. You give her a nod and a small reassuring smile before linking arms with Coryo and guiding him toward the door. Just like old times.
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taglist: @keziahcore, @kitscutie, @annaelise, @serrendiipty, @fratboyharrysgf0201, @totallynotkaibiased, @stelleduarte, @klplynn, @secretsicanthideanymore, @bejeweledreverie, @gloryekaterina, @andrewgarfieldsbitch, @queenofspades6, @pepperonipastas, @ladybug0095, @lunamothwrites, @sbrewer21, @mus-tbe-a-weasley, @splxtscreen, @unclecrunkle, @karmaswitch, @coconut-dreamz, @nekee-lilac02, @ooooglymoooogly, @riddlerloveb0t, @lovedbalances, @notyourwildestdream, @snowlandson-top, @too-lit-for-fanfic, @utopiakys, @deafeningballoonnacho, @roosterschanelslut, @chmpgneprblem, @cosmoetik, @lauravanderbooben20, @dry0campa, @luclue, @lokidala, @urvampgfsworld, @carolanns-world @nan-nie, @shakespearseclipse, @iovemoonyy, @notyoursweetheart-honey,  @xyzstar, @eatpizzasass, @slytherinholland, @queenofshinigamis, @elodiebeau, @soulessjourney
i've closed my taglist for coryo now!! sorry to everyone who wanted to be added, but unfortunately there was significantly more demand than i expected and i sadly just cant tag everyone. BUT! if you still want notifications when i post for this fic, please turn on my post notifs!!
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himegureisu · 2 months
Note
Can you please write a fic where reader sends Snape a plush (which she crocheted)of a cat which looks like her(or her favourite breed) and she send him a picture of her with a black cat plush(also made by her) which looks like him to keep eachother company
Bonus If he opens it infront of the students in the great hall😄
A Momentary Lapse in Judgement
A/N: I think I was blushing the whole time I was writing this. I did it in a single go, didn't even need to edit it much my brain was in a continuous💡. Everything is there plus a bit more.
——————————— 🪄———————————
In the Great Hall, lively chatter from students’ conversations echoed throughout as the warm light filtered through its’ windows on this fine morning of the school year. On the other hand, at the High Table, only a few words were spoken between the staff.
It wasn’t long until the owls arrived to deliver the morning post.
One amongst them, your tawny barn owl landed gracefully in front of the Potions’ Master. In front of his plate, a beautifully wrapped gift in deep green and silver ribbon. Their students’ attention caught by the shiny display and the whisper of who would send that smarmy git a present was briefly heard.
His dark eyes flickered in curiosity, the sight of your stationery attached on top eased his frayed nerves. His fingers delicately opened the parchment to see an enchanted candid postcard of you smiling, holding a black crocheted cat plush that eerily resembled him. On the back, in your neat handwriting, a short message.
I miss you always. I hope this is sufficient company until I come home. Counting down the days.
His hands tugged on the silver ribbon, and neatly unwrapped the package that contained a single crocheted cat plush very similar to you. Its’ fur, the color of your skin, bright eyes the hue of yours, a pout on its’ tiny lips, and flushed cheeks reminded him of you whenever you didn’t get your way. There was a tag that said “Hug Me,” and so he did.
Boy, was that the wrong move.
Your voice echoed throughout the hall, a soft I love you came from the cat. His stern features softened, cheeks flushed, the tips of his ears a tinge of crimson, and a soft smile appeared on his lips from the pronouncement. His students and the professors agape at the sight of their strict professor undone.
On the edge of the table, he gently banged his head and quietly wished for the ground to swallow him up whole. His eyes locked on the cat plush that resembled you, an internal debate of whether to burn or not to burn the blasted toy came across his mind until he was reminded that it carries your voice.
You.
The woman he loves, who chose and chooses him every day. The one person he couldn't bear to lose. He couldn’t. He would never. It was a very thoughtful gift from you and truly, he did miss you.
His composure returned. His face was its’ normal color by the time he raised his head from the edge of the table to see the intrigued gazes of students and teachers alike.
“If you’ll excuse me,” he packed up the plush, “This needs to be in safekeeping,”
On your side of the bed, by his side until you return.
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jadeysjasmine · 2 months
Note
YOU HAVE TO POST NEGLECTED PART II RIGHT NOW. JUST THAT ONE PLEASE 🙏🙏🙏🙏
Neglected part 2 - Mapi Leon x Ingrid Engen x Reader
A/N: this is a repost! 2473 words
Tags: angst, hurt/comfort
Summary: it all gets too much and you break, spilling all the details to alexia who is furious and defends your honour.
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Waking up the following morning having gotten barely any sleep, head pounding and an overwhelming feeling of heartbreak. Your head is plagued by two things people, Maria and Ingrid.
You begrudgingly dragged yourself out of bed and into your bathroom, looking in the mirror you get a sense of deja vu to a couple of week ago when you were in the exact same position, eyes just as red and swollen and tear stained cheeks, If you could feel anything you might even find this kind of amusing.
You're now fully dressed for training, standing in your bathroom mirror applying concealer to try hide the bags under your eyes, as you grab your things and leave your apartment, dreading going to training.
You're not even sure how you got to training, mind switched off, but pulling up to the training centre you become more aware, anxiety spiking as you begin to get very nervous.
Parking your car in your usual spot and turning off the engine you take a few moments to breathe and compose yourself.
Head down and trudging into the training centre, so in your own head you don't hear Alexia's voice greeting your when you walk past, nor do you see the worried glances shared between her and Irene.
Training was awful and to top it off you hit your head and got a concussion so now you are alone in the medics room with an ice pack, waiting on the Medic and Alexia to come back into the room, you are on concussion watch and need supervision so Alexia volunteered and now they are discussing what to do over the next 24 hours.
You are staring out the window at a now empty training pitch, mind constantly wandering to Maria and Ingrid, so many questions flooded your mind, wondering if they ever truly loved or if maybe there was a reason for them abandoning you for your anniversary.
You couldn't bare to look at them so you avoided doing so the whole training session, avoiding looking at them or even any of your teammates unless mandatory.
Luckily or unluckily alexia sensed something was wrong so Jonatan went easy on you and alexia partnered up with you for all drills.
You didn't hear the door opening or the footsteps approaching, only breaking out of your trance when you felt the soft touch of alexia's hand on your shoulder, slightly jumping at the scare you turned to face her, worried gaze on you as she softly spoke, "Ready to go carino, you can stay at mine for the night so I can monitor the concussion."
Nodding wordlessly you got off the bed in the medic room, trudging behind alexia you follow her out to her car, leaving your car behind in the parking lot.
The drive home was silent but you knew your captain better than that to assume she would not ask you what is up so you were mentally preparing yourself the best you could for the confrontation that was about to ensue.
Arriving at alexia's apartment you followed behind her in, taking your shoes off and leaving them at the door along with you training bag, alexia disappearing off somewhere.
Her dog, Nala, came barrelling at you, jumping up and licking you cause you to finally smile.
Your moment was broken when alexia appeared holding spare clothes, a glass of water and some pain killers.
She spoke up, "I'll make dinner, how about you take these and change so you can a nap?"
You nodded, taking the stuff off her and wandering to the guest bedroom, making quick work of changing and taking the pain killers.
Crawling into bed, suddenly hit with exhaustion you fall asleep almost immediately.
Your awoken which feels like minutes later, but realistically its been a few hours, by alexia softly shaking you.
"Dinner is ready Chiqui." She softly spoke.
You groaned, causing alexia to laugh softly before pulling the covers down.
"Vamos, dinner will be getting cold."
You threw the covers off dramatically before making your way to the kitchen.
If you were being completely honest it smelled amazing, you kissed alexia on the cheek and mumbled a thank you before sitting down.
Dinner was silent, your eyes glued to your plates, you knew alexia wanted to give you space but from your peripheral vision you saw alexia deep in thought and occasionally glancing your way, probably contemplating the best way to bring something up.
Once you were finished you finally looked up, meeting alexia's worried eyes, this must have given her the confidence to finally speak up and see if she can find out what has been bothering you.
"I've noticed that you have not been yourself in training, I do not want to push you carino but I just want you to know you can speak to me whenever"
You do not know if it was her words or the tone of voice that she used than was like you were a piece of glass and she was scared to shatter you but whatever it was had the flood gates opening.
Through sobs you told alexia about your relationship with maria and ingrid, telling her about the time when they ignored you over a joke made by patri, how you never felt like a girlfriend and more of a burden and how you made up but then they ditched you on your anniversary and it has been complete radio silence since.
You were struggling to breath so alexia sat next to you and held you, whispering reassurances and coaching your breathing.
Unsure how long you actually cried in alexia's arm but you woke up the next morning in the guest bedroom with a pounding headache, you turned to the bedside table to see a glass of water, some pain killers and a note.
You took the pain killers before downing the water, having not drank much and also cried a lot you were thirsty to say the least. You picked up the note next,
"Good morning Cari,
There is breakfast on the table and I will bring lunch home from training, please get some rest and If you don't feel like talking more we can have a move night.
Te Amo
Ale"
You smiled at the note, eyes welling with fresh tears, you knew alexia was kind and caring but this just emphasise it and you couldn't be more grateful to call her your teammate, captain and most importantly friend.
You got out of bed and went to the kitchen to eat breakfast, again you could've cried when you saw what it was, alexia made blueberry pancakes, sausage, scrambled eggs and there's a glass of fresh orange with a empty coffee mug and fresh coffee brewing on the coffee machine. You sat and ate, grateful for your friend.
Meanwhile at training alexia was on a warpath, sure Maria and Ingrid were her friends but they also seriously hurt one of her friends, anytime they tried to speak with her, her gaze hardened and she was short and blunt, if you had not begged her to not mention it she would have done it as soon as she saw them.
She was out for revenge and unfortunately the other member of the team were caught in the cross fire. alexia requesting Jonatan repeat drill multiple times, claiming they were not done good enough.
By the end of training everyone was exhausted and moody but alexia didn't care, she wanted Maria and Ingrid to feel even part of the hurt they had caused you.
Maria and Ingrid noticed the hostility heavily directed them so thought confronting their captain to see what the issue is was the best idea.
They are in the changing room, the last 2 people there as they wait for alexia to be finished her captain duties and return to get her stuff and go home. Eventually alexia returns and her features turn stone like and she heads straight for her cubby to pack her things and leave as quickly as possible.
Maria was the first to confront alexia, at first alexia ignored her but when Ingrid joined in she saw red and snapped. She was berating and shouting about how they were not who she though they were, asking how the could treat you like this and just how hurt you truly were.
Alexia grabbed her stuff and stormed out, cussing them out under her breath in Spanish, Maria and Ingrid were stunned to silence, just looking at each other in complete shock.
They had not realised the extent in which their words effected you, they had been plagued with guilt over missing your anniversary and even seeing you the next morning in training, how awful you looked, they assumed you wanted space so they left you alone but they realised what has to be done.
It's grovelling time.
Meanwhile back at alexia's apartment you were cuddled up on the couch with Nala, scrolling on tik tok with some reality tv mindlessly playing in the background.
Your interrupted when you hear the door open then a bang and an annoyed "Joder," you giggled and went to go investigate, Nala closely behind, reaching the door you see alexia looking ready to explode and a smoothie spilled all over the entrance.
Alexia's annoyed expression didn't last when she noticed you smiling and soon couldn't hide a grin of her own.
Once the mess had been cleaned you both ate the remainder of the lunch she brought on the couch, watching the show you had on as you both occasionally made little comments that had you both laughing.
She soon looked at you, guilt plastered all over her face as she spoke up, "I am so sorry carino but I could not hold my temper and i shouted at them"
She let out a gasp of shock when she felt your arm wrap around her shoulders in a hug, when she realised what was happening she wrapped her arms around your torso, sighing in relief when she realised you weren't mad.
"It's ok ale, thank you for having my back. I really do appreciate you."
You stayed like that for a while longer, enjoying the warmth and comfort your friend brings you.
You two don't do much else, just order Chinese food and watch comedy movies all night on the couch while enjoying each others company.
Meanwhile the air at Maria and Ingrid apartment is tense, barely 2 words spoken as they are both lost in thought about ways to get your forgiveness, they know it is not going to be an easy task and even though they haven't showed it, they feel a piece of them is missing when you are not around.
They are plagued with emotions ranging from guilt from how the have been treating you, anger at themselves for letting insecurities get in the way on your relationship and determination to prove to you just how much they love you.
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You woke up the next morning on the couch to the buzzing of an alarm, you felt a body wrapped around you and you could hear light snores falling from alexia's parted mouth.
You both had spend all night watching movies and snacking, honestly you could not appreciate your captain more for helping take your mind off recent event and instead helping you focus on other stuff.
You both had a travel day today, it was the upcoming copa de la Reina final against Real Madrid and even though you couldn't play due to your concussion, you were tagging along with all the other injured players to support the team and hopefully win another trophy.
Your mind started to drift off to your girlfriends (ex?) but before your mind could truly spiral you heard a groan and felt alexia's arm move to shut off her alarm.
"Good morning Chiqui, how did you sleep?" She said, voice rough as she had just woken up.
"Morning Ale, I slept well. How did you sleep?" You questioned, rolling over to face the Spaniard.
"I slept well too minus your snoring next to me" she grinned cheekily, your face heating up with embarrassment.
You both got up, got dressed and had breakfast before setting off to the bus that would take you to your hotel for tonight before tomorrows final.
The closer you got the more alexia could tell your were anxious about seeing Maria and Ingrid, your leg was bouncing and you were biting your nails. She placed a hand on your leg causing you to turn and face her, "You know you do not have to speak to them if you do not want to, I will make sure of it." She assured you and you felt your nerves relax slightly.
You pulled into the meeting spot where the bus was, noticing you were one of the first to arrive, feeling relieved that you and alexia could sit together.
Finding a seat in the middle of the bus, you sat near the window while alexia took the aisle, you both started chatting about the upcoming final and how you both with you could play the derby.
You were so engrossed in your conversation with alexia you missed most of the team entering the bus, only looking up when you heard Patri and Pina being loud, as usual.
It was like some weird coincidence as when you looked up you locked eyes with Ingrid, she looked awful, like she had barely slept and you hated how even after all the pain she caused you that you wanted nothing more than to make sure she was ok.
Alexia noticed your sudden tense posture, her eyes followed yours, gaze hardening when she realised who you were looking at.
She places an arm protectively around your shoulder which causes Ingrid to look away and find her seat a few rows in front next to Maria.
The coach trip was uneventful, you slept most of way and the rest you played games on your phone or watched movies with alexia.
You got to the hotel at around 8:30pm after driving for hours so the whole team was sleepy and hungry. You got to the hotel and were kind of relieved that everyone got their own room so you grabbed your key and took the elevator up to your room, not really hungry so deciding to skip dinner. Quickly showering, you brushed your teeth and changed for bed.
You abruptly woke up to loud banging at your door, heart racing as you questioned who was at the door.
All questions were answered when you heard alexia, "Sorry to wake you carino, I was going to breakfast and wanted to know if you would like to join me?"
You didn't want to keep her waiting so you advised you would meet her there in 10 minutes, with an ok you heard her walk away.
You were showered, dressed and on your way to breakfast in record time, you had just made your way into the elevator and the door were just about to close when a hand stopped it and your heart stopped when you saw the two people you had been purposely avoiding enter.
Maria and Ingrid.  
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ethanmorales · 11 months
Text
Misconceptions
All Parts Now Posted - Masterlist
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Part 1 - Ablaze
Pairing: Ethan Morales x reader 1.3k words Tags: make out, angst Warning: swearing
My fingers grazed against his chest and as I let my hand wander down his torso, I felt every muscle under twitch in anticipation. I looked up at his face and he was already looking at me with a mixture of lust and longing.
“I missed you,” he whispered.
Oh and I missed him. For what other reason would I have climbed through his window at 2:12 in the morning?
But I didn’t say it back. That’s what got us into this mess in the first place. Me caring. Me wanting him so bad it hurt. Me falling while he was always just having a good time.
“Babe?”
I looked up at him, pulled out of my thoughts by his inquiring tone.
“Just kiss me,” I demanded.
He only hesitated for two seconds, just briefly enough for his brown eyes to send a silent question, “everything okay?” But his mouth never asked; it was too busy connecting with mine in a blazing kiss that threatened to consume me, him, both of us together.
Everything was on fire. Everywhere he touched. Everywhere he kissed. My skin burned with his touch and for it. We barely paused for breath as he laid me down on his bed. He unlinked our mouths long enough to grab the hem of my shirt and help me out of it. Then we lit up again.
I glided my fingers in the soft waves of his hair as his mouth found the spot where my neck meets my shoulder. His teeth gently grazed against the skin, just enough for me to feel the pressure but not enough to cause pain and then his tongue followed. He started trailing downward to my chest with that same technique.
"Ethan." It was a half-whispered moan. I say half whispered because it was not as quiet as I intended it to be.
At his name, he looked up at me, smiling that damning adorable smile of his and placed a finger over my lips.
"My parents' sleep next door."
He was better at whispering than I was. Probably had more experience at this kind of clandestine middle of the night type of encounter. Before the bitter thought took full effect in my head, his mouth clashed against mine in another fiery kiss. Almost like he wanted to distract me from my own thoughts.
It was working.
The kiss that started like a flame scorching through us with intensity and desperation, simmered down into a heart wrenching slower tempo. Our mouths molded together, his tongue slow danced with mine in perfect unison... and I was lost.
Lost to the sweet taste of his lips. Lost to the movement of his pelvis against mine and the calculated motions building up the fire that he had awoken in me. Though we still had enough clothing separating us from the fusing of our bodies, it didn't dampen the ever-present ache within me.
With the way he touched me, you would think he felt the same.
So, I was lost. Lost in the depths of longing. Longing for this guy that could never ever reciprocate such feeling in return.
I pushed away from him as abruptly as I had the thought. I was met by a look that someone that didn't know him would think is concern. But I knew better.
"I have to go." My words practically a mumble.
"What?" he seemed disoriented in a way, his eyes searching for something in mine that I didn't want him to find.
"It's late," I said, "If we wake up your parents, they'll disown you for real this time."
Ethan's eyes though still confused, hid partially away by the appearance of his mischievous smile, "So what? They've disowned me like 50 times already. Just this year."
I rolled my eyes.
"You say that with so much pride," I whispered, simultaneously pulling myself out of his grasping hands. I heard him groan in protest behind me as I pulled my shirt over my head.
"Because the shit they say doesn't mean anything. They think that by acting like they're disappointed in me, I'll just magically turn into the son they always wanted. It's bullshit."
I shook my head at this rant and turned to face him. He had gotten up from the bed as well and was less than two feet away from me.
"If you really didn't care, you wouldn't' have shushed me earlier. But God knows you're too cool to admit to caring about anything so I'm not having this argument with you." I sounded defeated. He noticed the change in my tone immediately, his eyes narrowed.
"Why do we have to argue at all? There are way more fun things that we could be doing right now." Even as he said it, I could see that he didn't mean it. Something in his expression closed off at my previous comment.
"I have to be up early anyways," I said gently.
"Sure. Whatever." He walked towards his window. I followed behind until we were in front of it.
I looked up at him. He didn't seem to want to look me in the eye as he avoided my gaze. I gave up.
"Okay. I'll see you around then."
My voice was small, and I hated myself for it. This is where we end up every time. I understand that he has never claimed to be anything but who I've always known him to be, but can you blame me for wanting more? I'm only human. And I know... that's it's wrong that I want him to change for me. I should be accepting him as he is or staying away from him, but I can't. The harder I try, the easier it is for me to end up here with him. Stuck in this goddamn tragic loop of ours.
I shake my head to myself and throw a leg over the windowsill. As I push myself out and my feet touch the freshly cut grass of his backyard, I thank God he lives in a one-story home.
When I turn to close his bedroom window, he stops me with a hand over mine. I move mine away and he frowns. He proceeds to climb out of his window.
"What?" I ask, unable to keep the edge out of my voice. I was already too emotionally drained to hide my upset.
He blinks with confusion. "What am I doing wrong?"
I huff but say nothing.
He sighs, "How do I stop upsetting you if you won't tell me what it is that you're upset about?"
I snap. "You. You are the reason I'm upset!"
His eyes widen, "What about me? "
I want to tell him. I want to tell him everything. All the things he makes me feel; good and bad. My fears. My thoughts. But I can't. Because I know what he will say.
"I didn't sign up for this".
"We had a deal."
"Don't start getting clingy."
I've heard it all come out of his mouth before. Not with me. With the many girls I've seen him with. But still. I refuse to make the mistakes the rest of them did. I will never admit that I had fallen for him. Not now. Not ever.
I held his gaze for a second, but his beautiful brown eyes made my poor heart flutter uncomfortably in my chest. I look away.
"Nothing, sorry. I really gotta go. I get cranky when I don't sleep."
I start turning around to leave, but then feel his arm snake around my waist and pull me in against him, leaving no space between us.
I look up at him in a question. His eyes scanned my face for something, though I'm not sure what.
"Liar."
That's all he says before his mouth crashes over mine.
I didn't want it. The rational part of me knew that I should back off and walk away. But as soon as his tongue invades my mouth, the heat of our flame sears through my whole being... and we're back to where we started.
To be continued...
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A/N: Haven't written in ages. But after watching season 4 of Never Have I Ever.... I had to. My goodness, Ethan got me feeling all kinds of things lol. Made a new blog just to write this without judgement. Let me know if you want a part 2. I feel like this might deserve another part. Or maybe I can turn it into a series? Let me know if you liked it and I'll write more :)
Update: will be doing a part two! Maybe 3... we shall see :D
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aequorin-fr · 3 months
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About Account Closures, Banxiety, etc
Good morning, Flight Rising Tumblr!
I posted a reblog not that long ago (this morning) responding to banxiety concerns. It appears to have been eaten by Tumblr, which happens; but I know a lot of you are concerned and there's a lot of misinformation and misunderstandings flying about. So I'm going to go ahead and repost this directly to the tags so anyone with concerns or anxiety can see this <3 (06:47 Flight Rising server time: Title edited to be clearer.)
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Oh dear, there's been quite a misunderstanding. What you've described here isn't true and likely to send our players into a banxiety panic. I'm sure that's not what you meant to do and I'm happy to clarify where I can!
We're fully aware people can change physical locations throughout the day which means their IPs will change. Some folks play or check in from home, school, work, a friend's house, etc. That means their account will log multiple IP addresses on any given day, sometimes within a thirty minute period.
Example: Player accesses on their school network —> School lets out —> They access via mobile data on transit —> Player then logs in on their home network
Closing accounts for having multiple IP addresses associated with them—especially in the mobile era!—would be wrong. And, frankly, absurd.
Account closures are based on activity data and reviewed by staff. Do we always get it 100% right? No, of course not. We're human. We make mistakes. Sometimes we do close an account in error and upon review, reopen the account. And sometimes it even means an account we're almost certain is cheating stays open a bit longer, because of that chance we're wrong.
Unless by "moving stuff over" you mean funneling to a new account, because our Terms of Use are clear that players agree to register only one account per individual. Multiple accounts provide a player not only with multiple opportunities for dailies and Roundsey, but access to various Flight Forums (including private Flight Dominance planning!) not just their original Flight, ways around our block feature, and the means to scam players during trades, giveaways, etc. The above ranges from cheating and gaining an advantage over others to outright harassment.
Now, there is also friend and family member funneling, where someone stops playing for themselves and just starts sending the earnings from their dailies or festivals to their friend or family member. That's still cheating and we've been clear about that for some time now.
Finally, we don't discuss account actions with third-parties and we don't discuss them publicly for privacy, security, and safety reasons. Even when the player who lost their account takes to the forums or social media with claims that are untrue, exaggerated, or minimize/downplay the violation that lead to the closure of their account. Unless they've taken the extra step to alter a screenshot as "proof" we said or did something we didn't do, we can't engage with their claims. This means the community will only see one side of the story, one version of events.
And as a note for anyone following along and concerned about their account, we do have an article in our Knowledge Base that explains account penalties: Account Penalties Explained.
I hope this helps clarify the confusion and concerns surrounding account closures! You don't have to worry about logging multiple IPs, moving, playing with your friends or family, etc. <3
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joekeeryswife · 1 year
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pedro pascal is so daddy like… i genuinely dont know why this man doesnt have kids yet but I VOLUNTEER 🙋‍♀️
anywayss, i cant help but think about the domesticity of being married and expecting with pedro like we all know that man is old and is already daddy status but just imagining him coming home to you and your swollen belly after a day running around the city… to kiss on you and hold you like!!! you cant tell me that wouldn’t be the cutest shit ever
then you got the early mornings and late nights of him and you talking, watching movies together, laying on the couch in your spacious new york apartment, looking over on the city!!! and i just know no matter what, that man would just adore you. would always want to have you around, inviting you to come out with him while he’s working, always wanting to take you on dates, and events. i mean just utterly infatuated with you (especially if youre having his baby!?! like that man wouldnt know what to do with himself)
he would just take the best care of you… when he wakes up making sure your vitamins are all set up for you to take (so cant say you forgot!) and maybe writing little love notes incase you arent awake to bid him away for the few hours he’ll be gone. and he’d shoot you just random texts and pictures whether that be on set, in a meeting, driving/walking around, anything to let you know that youre on his mind… and when he comes home, oh lord. i wholeheartedly believe, after an extremely long day, he’d always come home with a little treat for you…
you’d be in the kitchen, getting dinner ready for the night, anticipating his arrival, as you hear the door open, and a loud and cheesy, “honey, im home!” to which he walks into your shared kitchen with a small little bag, holding a pastry he picked up for you on his way home just because he knows how much you love that bakery. you’d welcome him into your warm embrace and as you continue cooking for the two of you, nothing would make more sense than for him to rub that belly of yours…whispering all the praise you’d been aching to hear. telling you how beautiful you look, how strong you are, how grateful he is to have you, to hold you… and then ofcourse you’d enjoy the dinner you had made for the two of you. ending the night with the pastry pedro had picked up for you and a glass of wine for him…
ahhh! i totally rambled so much but i love pedro like UGH
Baby- p.p
hello loves! when i tell you i screamed when i saw this i’m not even lying. i tried my best with this one and if i’m being honest i don’t think i like it at all😭! first pedro pascal imagine (btw dad! imagines are my fave to write) dms are always open if you wanna chat loves! i’m like nervous to post this idk why. anyways enjoy 🤍 ⚠️age gap couple!⚠️
taglist (add yourselves loves🤍)(if there is a line through your name i cannot tag you for some reason x) @1-john-4-19
"baby, im home" you heard Pedro voice echo through your New York apartment. you had moved in with Pedro two years ago after a year of dating and now you were pregnant with your first child together. you were in the kitchen making a sandwich which you had been craving for the past thirty minutes but you were too tired to even get up off the sofa to make it.
you were 7 months pregnant and even walking made you out of breath, it was like the baby was purposely kicking your rib cage just to make you more uncomfortable than you already were. you heard his footsteps walking toward the kitchen and smiled at him when he finally appeared.
he had been out in New York with Bella, doing random interviews which obviously didn't take long so they also went for lunch then here he was back home with you. he walked up to you and opened his arms wide for you to hug him. his left hand fell so he could gently place it on your stomach hoping that the baby would kick for him, which it almost always did.
a huge smile formed on his face when he held the strong kicks coming from the baby. he placed little kisses on your head as you cuddled yourself more into him. "how was your day sweetheart?" you snuggled into him further and sighed in contentment. "boring, couldn't move for ages because i was so tired. i was gonna start packing the hospital bag and do laundry but i couldn't get off the sofa"
"don't worry about the laundry baby, i'll do it later" he kissed your forehead again and tried to hold you as close as possible. "wanna go watch tv? i'll even let you pick" he said making you smile up at him. with a small nod of your head he lent in to kiss you for the first time that day he let go of you. you picked up the sandwich which had been forgotten on the kitchen counter and waddled your way back to the sofa.
after a few minutes of you scrolling through the different channels you felt the sofa dip beside you and Pedro's arm go around your shoulders pulling you carefully into his side. you felt his hand stroking your arms softly as you finally picked "Bridgerton" and finally let yourself relax in Pedro's hold, feeling the small pecks on your head throughout the show.
-
"what do you think the baby is?" you asked as the comforting silence between the two of you filled the bedroom, the only thing that could be heard was the tv which you both weren't paying attention too. you had decided to keep the gender a secret until he/she was born and now you were growing closer and closer to them being here the nerves were growing and so was your curiosity.
Pedro looked down at you and smiled softly, he had thought about the baby every day and what it was going to look like, what the gender was, what it's first word would be, all the normal things a parent thought about. "i don't know but i hope it's a girl and i hope she looks exactly like you because you're beautiful" you smiled brightly and felt your cheeks heat up at the compliment.
"what if it's a boy?" you questioned, feeling Pedro's hand on your bump and the strong kicks coming from your baby who was still wide awake at this late hour for some reason. "then it's a boy, i'm still gonna love them whatever they are. but i do really hope that it's a girl. she'd be so cute. also all the names we have picked out are for girls so" you laughed, it was true, every single name you had were all girl names.
comfortable silence filled the room again and Pedro let his eyes fall onto the bed covers where your bump was. he just couldn't believe his baby was in there, growing beautifully. it was just the most perfect thing. "you are the most beautiful person i've ever seen." you looked up at him and saw him staring right at you, his eyes filled with adoration. your heart swelled as you listened to him.
"stop it" you said, turning your head so you could hide your blush which covered your cheeks. "i'm not kidding, you are so perfect. i love you" he said moving his head so he could place a few kisses on your cheek making you giggle as his beard tickled you. "can you come out with me tomorrow? want you to be at work with me. don't want you to be stuck in here all day by yourself" he let his head rest in your neck with his body just off to the side with his hand resting on your bump, again.
"i'll see how i am, they might keep me up all night and you know how i am when i'm tired" you kissed his head and felt kisses being placed on your neck. before you got pregnant you and tired just didn't mix well and it got even worse ever since you did get pregnant. you didn't mean to be mean but if you were tired you'd become snappy and annoyed very easily.
"god don't remind me" Pedro joked remembering how you snapped at him yesterday because he was just there, he didn't do anything wrong you were just tired and annoyed because the baby didn't let you sleep. "even though you snap at me i still love you so much. my favourite girl" he said, pulling his head out of your neck so he could kiss you. "yeah okay, i love you too" you said smiling at him.
-
Pedro got up before you every single morning just so he knew you'd have your vitamins ready for when you did wake up. it was rare for him to be there when you woke up unless it was a quiet day and he didn't have to work until the afternoon which was when you'd usually go to work with him. it put his mind at ease when he knew you had all your parental vitamins next to you so you wouldn't forget to take them.
he would leave little love notes next to them just letting you know he loved you and that he was proud of you, even if you didn't do anything but sit around all day he was still proud, you were carrying a whole child inside of you and you were coping so well. if it took the stress of you remembering every morning and it made your life a little bit easier he would do it.
as well as love notes he'd send you messages throughout the day just checking in to see if you were alright and if you needed anything. he always made sure he wasn't too far away from the apartment just incase something did happen. today in particular you were in a lot of pain, your back was killing you and so was your legs, just walking around was hurting you.
you had decided to start packing the baby bag just in case something happened you'd be prepared. the baby was kicking constantly and you'd gotten hardly any sleep that night because of the kicking and you just wanted them to be here so you could have a somewhat decent sleep. Pedro always woke up if you shook him, he was the one who could sort of calm the baby down with his talking but sometimes nothing worked.
he would always help you get comfortable before he would rest his head just above your bump so he could whisper to the baby. "need to stop giving your mama a hard time, she needs sleep baby" he would leave little kisses on your bump which made his heart swell with love just because he knew his baby was in there 'responding' to him. "we love you angel but give your mama a break"
it wasn't very often he had to do that but the nights you'd be overly tired from the baby kicking you he would do anything to make you as comfortable as possible. carrying the baby was hard, it felt like you were lugging around a watermelon and it was sometimes so painful you couldn’t even get up to brush your hair. Pedro saw how difficult it was for you when he was home and when he wasn’t there he’d always send you texts saying ‘he was so proud of you’ and that ‘you were doing so well’, the messages, somehow, always made you feel better.
-
it was late and Pedro was on his way home from filming. you were making dinner for the two of you and you were waiting for him to finally come home after a long day doing interviews. you had been craving your favourite pastry from the bakery which wasn’t too far away from your apartment all day. you had tried to get yourself ready but your feet were killing you and so was your back so getting there didn’t happen.
"y/n? i'm home love" you heard Pedro shout and then the door closing behind him. you turned to face the kitchen door and your heart melted once you saw the small bag with the bakery's logo on it. "i got this for you on the way home. i got there just in time, they were about to close" he said as he walked to you.
once he got to you, you wrapped your arms around his waist and placed a small kiss on his chest "how did you know i was craving something from there" you smiled, feeling his arms around you tighten slightly. "i guess i'm a psychic. i had a feeling" he kissed your forehead and rubbed your back before you pulled away, almost forgetting that you were cooking.
"how was today?" you said, your back facing Pedro as you focused on the food. "it was alright, wanted to be here with you though" he replied wrapping his arms around you from behind, making you smile and lean your head back against his shoulder.
"you look so beautiful, so so pretty" he whispered, kissing your cheek which was now a bright red shade. his hand was on your belly, rubbing it gently as your baby kicked. "you're so strong, carrying our baby. you're doing so well sweetheart. so perfect. i'm so lucky to have you" anytime Pedro saw you his heart swelled with love, you were carrying his baby and you looked so beautiful doing so. he couldn't wait for these last two months to pass because it meant he could finally meet your beautiful baby and he was so excited.
"you look so beautiful, so so pretty" he whispered, kissing your cheek which was now a bright red shade. his hand was on your belly, rubbing it gently as your baby kicked. "you're so strong, carrying our baby. you're doing so well sweetheart. so perfect. i'm so lucky to have you" anytime Pedro saw you his heart swelled with love, you were carrying his baby and you looked so beautiful doing so. he couldn't wait for these last two months to pass because it meant he could finally meet your beautiful baby and he was so excited.
"you look so beautiful, so so pretty" he whispered, kissing your cheek which was now a bright red shade. his hand was on your belly, rubbing it gently as your baby kicked. "you're so strong, carrying our baby. you're doing so well sweetheart. so perfect. i'm so lucky to have you" anytime Pedro saw you his heart swelled with love, you were carrying his baby and you looked so beautiful doing so. he couldn't wait for these last two months to pass because it meant he could finally meet your beautiful baby and he was so excited.
“y/n? i’m home love” you heard Pedro shout and then the door closing behind him. you turned to face the kitchen door and your heart melted once you saw the small bag with the bakery’s logo on it. “i got this for you on the way home. i got there just in time, they were about to close” he said as he walked to you.
once he got to you, you wrapped your arms around his waist and placed a small kiss on his chest “how did you know i was craving something from there” you smiled, feeling his arms around you tighten slightly. “i guess i’m a psychic. i had a feeling” he kissed your forehead and rubbed your back before you pulled away, almost forgetting that you were cooking.
“how was today?” you said, your back facing Pedro as you focused on the food. “it was alright, wanted to be here with you though” he replied wrapping his arms around you from behind, making you smile and lean your head back against his shoulder.
“you look so beautiful, so so pretty” he whispered, kissing your cheek which was now a bright red shade. his hand was on your belly, rubbing it gently as your baby kicked. “you’re so strong, carrying our baby. you’re doing so well sweetheart. so perfect. i’m so lucky to have you” anytime Pedro saw you his heart swelled with love, you were carrying his baby and you looked so beautiful doing so. he couldn’t wait for these last two months to pass because it meant he could finally meet your beautiful baby and he was so excited.
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everlastlady · 6 months
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Bloody Legend: Mammon X Reader 3
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✰- Author's Note: Day 3 of getting back into writing and writing part 3 of Bloody Legend. I still have to make icons from the new episode which I'll probably do today or tomorrow since I make icons on polarr because better filter options and I make my own filters. Happy November 1st, I hope everyone had a good Halloween yesterday and that last month was kind to you. I hope that this month is kind and gentle with you. Remember to eat a meal or a snack, drink some water, get some fresh air, take your medicine, and remember that you are loved. If you loved this story remember to comment, click or tap that heart button, reblog with tags, and blaze if you can. Always remember to support your local writers. ♡♡♡
✰- Story Contains: Mammon, Striker, Verosika Mayday, Angst, Tad Bit Romance, Sick Reader, Mammon Trying To Be Decent/Caring, & Scheming.
✰- Posted: 11/1/2023
✰- Series Parts: Part One | Part Two
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After finishing up autographs and getting pictures with fans. It was time to go home. Now you would think that you had your own place. But you don't! You live in Mammon's palace he thought it was a good idea because he was protecting you and it was easy to reach you. Also because he didn't want anyone at your place if you had your own place. You sat in the bath soaking up and enjoying the warm water and bath salts that smelled like honey and roses. You felt tired and sore. You eyes and muscle ached. After the bath you stepped out and threw on your robe. You stepped towards the mirror and looked at your reflection; still seeing nothing. You thought about your life and that you been through to have this lifestyle. But something about this didn't feel right... You ran towards the toilet and threw up. Breathing heavily you sat down on the cold bathroom floor. You didn't feel mentally or physically well. " (Y/N)! Guess who booked you spot on Beelzebub's morning cooking show! " Mammon yelled out bursting into the bathroom. But his gleeful expression dropped when he saw you on the floor. " Why are you on the floor? " Mammon looked concerned and knelt down.
Without your makeup that decorated your face. You truly did look sick and pale. Mammon placed his hand on your forehead. Now Mammon was a greedy man, he never cared about the well-being of others. He only cared about money and himself. Others well-being didn't matter to him. But seeing how you burned up and looked sick made Mammon's heart feel like it was cracking, he felt fear and panic. " C-Come on, let's get you into bed. I'll have the servants make you something to eat and bring you some medicine can't have my star all sick and looking like they are dressing up to see death. " Mammon picked you up and carried you out of the bathroom. He laid you down in the large soft bed. " Are you cold or hot? " He asked holding up the blanket. " Both. " You said in a tired voice. Mammon nodded and decided to go with a blanket that wouldn't make you too hot or cold. " I'm going to cancelle your appearances until you feel better. I'll find another way to make money, your new gig is to rest and feel better. " Mammon sat down on the bed tucking you in. Mammon felt like this was his fault. " I'll check on you in the morning. " Mammon did the unthinkable and placed a kiss on your head before getting up and leaving the room. You could hear him yelling at the servants to make you soup and get some medicine or throw them out the window.
You were surprised that Mammon had dropped what you had to do to make him and you money. You were surprised to see this side of him and especially the kiss. You pinched yourself to see if you were dreaming but you weren't this was 100% real. You laid there in bed and looked up at the ceiling. You weren't sure how long you would be sick but you hoped that it would be for a while because you truly wanted a break. The door opened as one of the imp servants brought you soup, water, tea, and medicine. You thanked them; you turned on the TV to watch your favorite show while you took the medicine and ate the soup. Eventually you finished and had falling asleep. Mammon walked in and saw your sleeping form. He crassed your cheek and sighed. " You need to feel better soon (Y/N) not because I need you for money. Because I'm worried, I never really felt this way but I care about you. So feel better so I can stop worrying and feeling scared... I think I love you... " Mammon said, looking down at you while you sleep. He saw how peaceful and comfortable you looked. You deserved a peaceful and comfortable life, soon he had a thought... He would give you that comfortable and peaceful life, I think it's time for another clown off.
Meanwhile back at Verosika's home she had sat at her mirror doing her skin care routine while Striker talked about what happened. " Ver, I can tell that (Y/N) isn't happy working for Mammon. They aren't doing this for themselves, they are doing it for that dumbass royal and their mom. All this working and pushing themselves if going to kill them. " Striker sighed. Verosika turned around and looked at Striker. " I know, I've seen that look they had because I had that look before, also that whole diet thing isn't healthy. But what can we do to help. Mammon has gold chains on them, would (Y/N) even listen to me to us? " Verosika said with worry in her voice. Striker sat there thinking and he remembered how you had bodyguards and how he gave you his card, Striker grinned and looked at Verosika. " Hey Ver, remember how you said I should give up on the whole assassin thing. " Striker smirked. Verosika knew that smirk all to well, so she also smirked. " Yes~ " She said walking over to him. " I'm going to see if Mammon has any openings for a bodyguard for (Y/N) and I'm going to make sure he has an opening. " Striker pulled out his gun and kissed it.
That night Verosika and Striker schemed on how they would help you escape from the puppeteer strings of Mammon. They also banged so yeah. Anyway next morning Striker was able to track down your body guards and make their deaths look like accidents. While you laid in bed eating breakfast and watching a Studio Ghibli movie. Mammon busted in and looked pissed. " (Y/N)! All your fucking bodyguards are dead, I knew spending money on those muts would be a waste now I have to find a way to get you a better one. " He muttered. You set aside your tray of food. You remembered Striker. You reached into your drawer and pulled out his card and walked over handing it to Mammon. Now this was a secret between you and Mammon but this bitch wears glasses. So when you handed him the card with a snap of his fingers, his glasses appeared. " Striker? Hmm, he doesn't pay a lot and he'll kill anyone. An assassin does sound more skillful and more reliable than a hellhound. I guess I'll hire him, go back to bed and rest. " Mammon patted your head with one of his hands as the other pinched your cheek. As he left the room, you smiled. You really enjoyed your conversation with Striker so having him as a bodyguard would be nice; like Mammon said, you went back to bed to rest.
With things going as planned. Striker stood in the kitchen making himself some breakfast. Verosika was out shopping while Striker was cooking his phone rang. He pulled it out and heard Mammon's voice. It took a while but Striker finally striked a good payment with Mammon, they don't call Striker, Striker for nothing. " Don't you worry your lordship, I'll be sure no one especially those creeps lay one finger ot breathe on your precious (Y/N), once she feels better I'll be sure to show up and protect them. " Striker hung up the phone and dropped the scrambled eggs onto his plate. He leaned against the counter and text Verosika know that everything was going as planned. They hoped this plan would work.
" That imp sounds more greedy for money than me. Paying him to protect (Y/N) better be worth it. " Mammon set down the phone. As he looked at the different posters that his assistants showed for the clown off. " I like the right one, it makes me look handsome. " Mammon snatched up the right one and looked at the large light green text that said clown off. He didn't want to do this so soon or replace you. You did make him a lot of money but just like Fizzarolli, you could be replaced. But this would be for a good reason. He wanted to give you a peaceful and comfortable life. He would ask you out or even marry you. So that he could forever give you a peaceful, comfortable life, and also spoil you. Because he would buy you anything you wanted and let everyone know that you are his. It would also make a cute love story. Mammon's mascot became his partner. Mammon looked at the picture of you on his desk. " Don't you worry (Y/N), you'll still be a bloody legend~ " Mammon said looking at the picture.
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Waaaa!!! I'm going to make a tag list for this series so if you want to be in the tag list just comment down belong I'll be calling y'all in the tag list Bloody Legends or Mammon's Clowns. So if you want updates for this series just comment down below <3
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leftperfectionmoon · 1 year
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“getting to know sirius black and him having a crush on you”
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[warning]: mention of substance (for humor)
[a/n]: i'm trying to find time and get back into posting so here's some headcanons! hope you enjoy <3
sirius black masterlist taglist
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Sirius is a morning person. Like a very, very early morning person. He and James wake up at five in the morning for their Quidditch practice, and everyone else has to suffer for their life choices.
Early morning Howlers in the girls' dormitories.
“RISE AND SHINE, (L/N)! NO REST FOR THE—” “PISS OFF, SIRIUS! “NO! YOU SAID YOU'D GO RUNNING WITH ME!” “Get rid of your boy-alarm, (Y/N). We can't put up with this every morning!”
He is high maintenance. Not because his family is rich but because he has very sensitive skin. You will catch him scratching his cheek, and in seconds a red spot will appear in that place.
The boy's a clean freak and James keeps a record of how many times he washes his hands in a day. His highest score so far is eleven. And then he starts emptying your moisturizers while complaining that his hands are starting to feel dry.
Prefers coffee to tea.
He's a great singer and as a kid he wanted to join a wizard band. He walks around the boys' dorms singing loudly and then gets various objects thrown at him. Most of those objects would come from Remus because his reading would get interrupted by the singing.
He's really, and I mean, a really dorky dancer. He'll put on 70s hits and force you to dance with him, but half the time you'll be making fun of his moves.
The boys love teasing him about you because they see right through his cool guy demeanor.
“You need to give her a little space if you want to convince her to go out with you, Pads.” “Wh-what?! Why? What are you talking about, Moony?” “Oi Black, if you're being subtle, try not following her around like a lovesick puppy.” “Shut it, Prongs! You don't get to talk about being lovesick!”
The boys try their best not to burst out laughing every time they have to watch Sirius talking to you.
“Have any of you seen—Sirius! There you are! I've been waiting for you in the library. C'mon, quick!” And Sirius will be leaping out of his seat with a grin.
Followed by Peter's comment: “Yeah, he doesn't need pot to look like that.” Cue all the marauders laughing and Sirius hurling a giant book at Peter.
HAS A SWEET TOOTH. You know when Remus loses his chocolates? Yeah, his first instinct is to chase Sirius.
Despite his cleanliness he's not very neat. His uniform for the next day would be all clean and pressed but if someone were to open his clothes drawer they'd have bundles of clothes tumbling down on them.
He's obsessed with braiding people's hair (mainly because he struggles braiding his own hair). It started when he and Lily were the only ones who didn't have class one day, and so Lily taught him how to braid.
One afternoon, toward the end of a long study session, you woke up from a nap to find tiny wildflowers braided in your hair. Your hair still looked messy, but it certainly made you smile fondly.
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sirius black tags: @black-rose-29 @mystic-writings @j-cat @chcrryrots @teenwolfbitches28 @meimeihershey
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ezrathing · 13 days
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An original idea inspired by other ideas!
Alastor has cat-like behavior, and Vox is scared.
Alastor keeps randomly appearing next to Vox for seemingly no reason, and brings so called "gifts" to Vox each morning. A normal cat may bring you a mouse, rabbit, or bird; but Alastor is no basic bitch of a cat. No, Alastor keeps bringing him the limbs of sinners and whatnot.
Vox, not knowing if this is a sign that Alastor is going to finally kill him, becomes very persistent that the V's stay together at all times. At first, Vel and Val think Vox has finally lost it, but quickly learn that Vox has every right to be scared.
I'm fully aware that Alastor is a cannibalistic deer hybrid, but I thought that this may be a fun idea.
This idea was inspired by a fanfiction where Vox panics because it's "that time of the year again", and the V's become concerned about his mental health. Vox didn't know that male deer go into rut once a year, and Alastor was showing the signs.
This was also inspired by a fanfiction series where Alastor bites Vox, Vox decides to keep it, and ends up throwing an angel's head into Alastor's mouth. Alastor was just happy that Vox reciprocated his courting.
Just let me know if you want the links to these things, and I'll find them again. Update: links are now in the comments. Have fun reading!
Reminder: you don't have to credit me if any of my posts inspire you, but please do remember to tag your work properly to make easier to find!
It doesn't matter how hard you try to hide it. I will find it, and I will eat it... :3
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torukmaktoskxawng · 6 months
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tsamsiyu ta'em - nothing is lost
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Masterlist - part twelve
Summary: The Sky People make their move. The Metkayina rise up against the threat of their home.
Pairing: Ronal/Tonowari/Original Female Character
Tag: #tsamsiyu ta'em fic
posted on ao3
Word Count: 14k+
Warnings: canon-compliant, mature language, slow burn, polyamory, found family, cool aunt agenda, rushed, time skips, fluff, angst, major character death, child endangerment, etc.
Taglist (bold indicates "could not tag"): @motheroffae @undeniableadrenaline @mooniequeen @shit-i-say-shit-i-think @heart-an0n @amiets2 @slutforsmut4ever @yeosxxx​ @im-in-a-pansexual-panik @sucker4angstt @inolaphoenix @ilovechickenwings @tojisleftarm @andyfromku @ivysully
A/N: Thank you for your patience! At the very least, I'm not George R.R. Martin, who is 12 years late on the new book 🤣
This... is a very long chapter. Strap in. You guys deserve a treat for waiting for me 💕
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The village was eerily quiet. Yes, it was raining and gloomy again, but something smelled off in the air when Kayla took a deep breath, her avatar nose smelling more than her human one could even dream of. It was an odd hour of the day for the Metkayina to be completely absent as she walked down the slippery pathways, her dog tags cold from the weather and clicking softly from where they dangled around her neck, the safari jacket she had thrown on that morning soaking through to her skin as the rain pressed on. Kayla scoffed to herself and wanted nothing more than to peel the useless piece of clothing off since it was now uncomfortable, but the rifle in her arms kept her from doing so. She intended to walk to the Sully marui that morning to ask Jake to borrow his cleaning supplies for his weapons, wishing to run maintenance on her own AK, but upon walking into her brother's home, she is surprised and confused to find all her nieces and nephews keeping warm inside but neither Jake nor Neytiri was around.
Tuk got up to greet her aunt with a hug around her waist, and as Kayla pat her back, Neteyam helpfully took the gun out of Kayla's arms while the older woman looked around, squinting her eyes, "Neteyam, where's your parents?"
"The tulkun returned again and they were afraid of something," the teenage boy lowered his head, ears drooping and voice laced with concern, "Mom and Dad went out with the clan leaders and a party to see what was wrong."
Kayla's eyes widen while looking around, now easily seeing the concern on all of the children's faces. Instinctively, she didn't want to assume any danger and immediately sought out to comfort her nieces and nephews, "Alright, well, maybe we should get some food going for when they get back. I'm sure it's nothing."
No one spoke as they got to work strengthening the embers of the hearth and preparing a meal. Kayla sat down with the teenagers while gathering Tuk in her lap, watching Kiri prepare some fish over the fire. Something hung heavy in the air. Perhaps it was the moisture or the thunder off in the distance, but no one bothered to speak up and question it. The mood was sour as the Sullys patiently waited for the patriarch and matriarch of the family to return. Kayla noticed that Lo'ak was the only one unable to look his aunt in the eyes as they all sat around, worried about whatever might be waiting for the party of Na'vi warriors, but she decided not to ask about it. She had a feeling that since this situation was tulkun-related, her youngest nephew was likely glum about yesterday's events involving Payakan. 
Unaware of how much time had passed, all Sullys perked their heads up at the sound of crows and yips, indicating the Na'vi conversing with one another from a distance. The village began to stir with life once more, and before anyone could breathe a sigh of relief, Tsireya had run into the Sully marui, out of breath and hair drenched from the rain.
She looked frightened, appearing far younger than a thirteen-year-old girl, "The party has returned-- Your sa'sem are alright," she's quick to reassure Lo'ak and his siblings before her eyes darted back to Kayla, "But my father has just declared war on the Sky People!"
"What?" Kayla hastily stood up, dumping Tuk into Neteyam's lap when he wasn't as quick to stand. Kayla's heart had plummeted into her stomach, dread beginning to rise the little hairs running up and down her back, neck, and arms.
"They are gathering for a meeting right now!"
"Show me," Kayla ordered lowly, voice full of authority and determination setting in her gaze. Tsireya nods and runs back out of the pod. Kayla doesn't hesitate to follow.
Neteyam set his baby sister down in front of the fire as he and his other siblings stood to follow their aunt, "Tuk, stay here until someone comes back and gets you."
"But--"
"Stay here!"
Kayla could hear her older niece and nephews run out of the marui to join her, but her feet didn't slow as she walked with a destination in mind, unwilling to stop for anything. She followed Tsireya through the village. As they got closer to the communal canopy, more and more Metkayina emerged from their homes, and a growing crowd formed. It quickly became dense, the area full of Na'vi as Tsireya and Kayla drew closer, lightly scooting past other men and women to get to the center. Kayla spots something in the crowd and reaches out to grab Tsireya's shoulder, stopping both of them in their tracks. Kayla's eyes had narrowed in on the sight of Neytiri and Jake, standing at the front of the crowd and looking as though they had both seen ghosts. By the time Neteyam and his siblings joined Kayla, she already had a goal for them in mind.
"Get to your parents," she sternly told the teenagers, nodding in Jake and Neytiri's direction, "Tsireya, let's see if we can get closer. Break."
The small group scatters, going separate ways and weaving through the crowd. Tsireya and Kayla stick together until they find themselves standing at the very front of the gathering, apart from Rotxo and Ao'nung, who stand in front of them. The two young warriors didn't look very happy and while Kayla looked around, she finally spotted Tonowari and Ronal. They stood at the center of the crowd, standing over the rest. The tsahik appeared distraught and torn, streaks of rain and tears mixing while a hidden rage swam in her eyes. The olo'eyktan stood beside her, enraged, barely keeping in his anger while furiously gripping the spear in his hand. Jake has moved into Kayla's line of sight, right in front of Ronal. When the avatar woman looked around for the rest of her family, she spotted Kiri silently comforting Neytiri, the Na'vi woman looking distressed and welcoming her daughter's hand. Neteyam was off to the side of them, holding onto a device that drove Kayla's blood to freeze. She recognized the design of humans from anywhere, a long and large spear-like contraption with red, metal encasings to shield the mechanics inside from saltwater. A tracking device.
Ronal confirmed Kayla's suspicions while crying out in anger so that the entire village could hear, "My Spirit Sister and her baby have been murdered by the Sky People!"
A small sob can be heard off to the side of Kayla and when she looked down, she was quick to throw her arm around Tsireya while the girl wept for her mother's tulkun. Meanwhile, cries of anguish and rage emerged from the crowd, snarling and cursing the humans at the top of their lungs so they could be heard over the rain. 
Tonowari exclaims angrily over their cries, "This war has come to us. We knew about this hunting of our tulkun people. But it was over the horizon, far away. Now it is here!" 
They all respond to their chief with cries of war, snarling menacingly while baring their fangs and displaying their tongues as he did.  
The crowd continues to rile themselves up for battle while Jake is desperate to calm them down, "No, you don't-- You gotta understand how the Sky People think! They don't care about the Great Balance!"
"We do not answer to Sky People!" One warrior shouted menacingly to Jake from the back of the crowd, and an encore of agreeing, snarling Metkayina responded in kind. Kayla flinched, ears lowering as the familiar whispers, snarls, and stares suddenly overwhelmed her. Jake's eyes flick drastically over the head of Na'vi and quickly lock onto hers, to which she silently says what she had been saying all along by gritting her teeth behind a closed mouth and narrowing her eyes at him.
'I told you so. Demon Siblings.'
Neteyam was desperate to control the crowd in his father's favor, waving the large, red tracking device in his hand while pleading, "Listen! Listen to him!"
"The Sky People are not gonna stop. This is only the beginning," Jake continues to try negotiating, directing his attention back to the clan leaders standing before him, "You gotta tell your tulkun to leave! You gotta tell them to go far away!"
"Leave?" Ronal echoed the word with a resounding scoff of sorrow and disbelief, "You live among us, and you learn nothing!"
"We will fight to protect our brothers and sisters!" Another warrior behind her exclaims and the Metkayina begin another wave of snarls and hisses. 
"No, no, no, no... If you attack, if you fight, then they will destroy you!" Jake shouts over the crowd, "They will destroy everything that you love!" His voice cracks in desperation, angrily motioning to Ronal's baby bump while looking her dead in the eye. The tsahik instinctively placed a gentle hand on her stomach as all of her people began shouting angrily to Jake, all the while he kept trying to talk over them.
"We will fight!"
"No! You hear my words!"
"We will fight!"
"Hear my words!"
"Stay calm. Stay calm!" Neteyam pleads to those who stood closest to him. Meanwhile, over his shoulder, his mother remained eerily quiet. She glances around at all the angry Metkayina, all of them anxious for a fight, anxious to protect their home. It was all too familiar to Neytiri, overwhelmed with that familiar dread and grief for her Hometree. Her older son continues to try and negotiate alongside her husband, drowning out her thoughts as he shouts, "Listen to my father!"
"Damn it!" Jake was frantic when nothing he said appeared to slow the Na'vi down, desperate for leverage until his eyes zeroed in on the large tracking device in Neteyam's hands. Quickly, he dives forward.
"He speaks the truth!" Neteyam is unable to say more as his father snatches the device out of his hands, the fast movement driving Kayla to straighten in alarm as her brother races to the center of the crowd, stepping up over everyone and raising the device in the air, silencing the entire village with his act and grabbing their attention. The clambering died down and Kayla couldn't help but notice Ronal reach for Tonowari in the heavy silence, holding onto his arm out of fright until he opened his hand without looking back at his wife. Wordlessly, Ronal slips her hand in his, a perfect fit, their conjoined knuckles brushing against her baby bump as they stare at the device in Jake's hand with caution.
"You tell the tulkun that if they're hit by one of these, they're marked for death. And call for me or my sister, we'll silence it." 
Eyes look between Jake and Kayla, and it took a lot of willpower for the sister not to curl in her shoulders and try to hide. It helped that Tsireya looked up at Kayla with hope in her eyes as if the avatar woman was capable of grabbing the stars. Kayla faintly smiles down at the girl but it disappears just as fast while Jake continues, "Saving their lives, that's all that matters. Right? Saving your family."
Tonowari peers around at all his people, cautious, his anger beginning to fade as he's left with begrudging acceptance. Looking down at Ronal last, his mate briefly flicks her eyes up to him before they close and she gives a brief nod, clutching his hand tightly for a moment to silently share her opinion. 
Finally, the great olo'eyktan steps up to Jake, overlooking the crowd and raising his spear, speaking softer but with more weight in his words, "Tell the tulkun."
Ronal briefly lets go of his hand and turns to her people, "Go. Go!"
Shouts echo off one another as the chosen warriors leave the gathering and journey out into the reef, calling their respective ilu and tsurak. Tsireya turns to see where she had last seen Lo'ak in the crowd, only to find him already walking away. Neteyam also sees his brother exit and an all-knowing gaze washes over before he moves to stomp after Lo'ak. Tsireya had left Kayla's side amidst the chaos of people upon watching both Sully brothers disappear before she could get to them, sensing what was about to happen.
Kayla looks around as the crowd begins to disperse, and already her family has left her alone, moving in separate directions. Her head turns to each one, wondering which way to go first, and who to follow. Kiri had run off to get Tuk while Jake brought Neytiri away to talk privately. Her hesitance to choose where to go causes her to stall and she's suddenly aware of Tonowari and Ronal stepping down onto the pathway, beelining toward her. 
Tonowari's solemn gaze keeps Kayla still in her tracks, unable to move. He stared down at her with purpose, voice low so that only they could hear, "Now it is our war."
Dread takes over Kayla once more, adding to the cold of the rain on her skin. Ears lowered under the chief's scrutiny, her eyes briefly turned to Ronal. The tsahik was still clearly devastated by the loss of her Spirit Sister, ears drooping and frown trembling. Kayla opened and closed her mouth several times, trying to find the right words to say, the only thing ever coming out in a hushed whisper, "I'm so sorry..."
She regrettably pulls away, knowing that she would not be good company while Ronal mourns. Kayla isn't able to look away from the clan leaders until she's forced to watch where she's going, turning to look ahead and find her brother. Jake and Neytiri were outside the communal canopy, off to the side to avoid any traffic going in and out. When Kayla approached them, Jake held out the tracking device to her.
"You can disarm these things, right?"
Kayla grabbed the tracker and inspected it, going back into marine mode, "Looks simple enough if we run into more. What happened out there?"
"Bad things. I'll tell you later," Jake shook his head, defeated, "RDA is definitely closing in. I need you to either break your link tonight or radio Norm. Let him know what's going on."
"You got it."
He looks around, "Where are the kids?"
Both Kayla and Neytiri look around while the former answers, "I saw them leave. I know at least one of them went to check on Tuk. We left her at home."
Neytiri didn't appear convinced when she turned her head back to Kayla, "They left without saying anything?"
"I assumed you knew where they were going. Tsireya seemed to know. She went after them."
All three adults fall into silence before they agree to go and find the children. They stick together while looking throughout the village, asking around. At first, no one seemed willing to help them, and the small glances at Jake and Kayla were the only indicator as to why, much to Jake's annoyance and Kayla's inner smugness toward proving her brother right. Neytiri hissed at those who were openly unhelpful and went her own way, down to the ilu pens. Jake and Kayla are quick to follow her, staying behind her so as to not get in her way as they search for the kids.
Eventually, they found a boy who occasionally hangs out with Ao'nung. Neytiri doesn't hesitate to question him, "Have you seen my children?"
The teenage boy looks up and his eyes widen at the sight that was Neytiri te Tskaha Mo'at'ite. He's quick to answer her, stumbling over his words, "I saw Ao'nung and Rotxo with them just a minute ago. They took off."
"Dad, I-- I mean Devil Dog. Do you read me?"
Kayla and Jake quickly pick up the sound of Lo'ak's voice coming from their respective earpieces and quickly grow concerned as to why he would call them. Neytiri is unaware of their sudden alertness as she continues to interrogate Ao'nung's friend, "Did you see where they went?"
"-- It's Eagle Eye, do you copy?"
"They went outside the reef." The boy responds, only to be ignored by Neytiri when Jake taps her arm to get her attention, still focused on his son's voice while reaching up to his throat mic to respond.
"Yeah, Lo'ak?"
"Dad!" Neytiri is quick to understand what's happening and pulls her own listening device back in her ear to hear the conversation. Lo'ak's voice was frantic and scared, "We're with a tulkun that's under attack. Killer ship's inbound. It's about two klicks out."
"Shit," Kayla muttered while Neytiri grabs Jake's arms, eyes widening in terror.
Jake's voice is laced with that same terror, "Who's with you?"
"It's all of us! Ao'nung and Tsireya, too." Neytiri gasps silently, visibly wincing at the idea of all of her children in danger, "We're at Three Brothers Rocks."
Neytiri's hand covers her mouth while Jake spouts instructions, "You get to cover, and you do not engage. All right? You hear me? Do not engage, we're comin'."
"Yes, sir."
Jake sprints back into the center of the village, his wife and his sister hot on his heels. Other warriors run with them when they sense their fear and alarm, all racing to get to the olo'eyktan's marui. They yip and call out to Tonowari as they draw closer, the chief looking up from where he sat inspecting a fishing net at the lip of the pod. He's instantly alert to see Toruk Makto racing to him, Ronal soon appears at the entrance to see what the commotion is about.
"The kids are under attack!" The chief immediately rises to his feet as Jake explains, "The kids are under attack. They were defending a tulkun. It's your kids, too."
The weight of the news causes Ronal to spin back around and immediately grab her weapons from within the marui. Tonowari tilts his head to Jake for clarification, "The demon ship?"
"Yes! We gotta go!" Jake yells back as he, Neytiri, and Kayla race off toward their own home. 
"Weapons. Sound the alarm!"
The Metkayina warriors yip and runoff, spreading the news as they went, drawing more and more Na'vi to start yipping in unison, growing louder and louder in number. As they draw closer to the Sully marui, Neytiri and Kayla mimic bird sounds to call their respective ikran, seeing the familiar distant sight of wings flying toward them from the forest. They then follow Jake into the pod, gathering as many weapons as they can carry. Jake hands Kayla's rifle to her before grabbing his tomahawk and slipping it into the sheath on his back. He then grabs his arsenal vest and flings it over his shoulder, kneeling down and helping Kayla divide all the ammunition they have on them. 
Neytiri grabs her father's bow and holds it to her, breathing in deeply and willing for Eywa to protect her children through her. She then grabs her sheath of arrows and turns around, briefly pausing as Jake catches her eye. The parents share a knowing look and a nod before sprinting back outside with Kayla closely following them. The rest of the village is alive with alarm, dozens and dozens of Metkayina with spears diving into the water below, summoning their tsurak and following their clan leaders out beyond the reef. Jake follows them into the water to grab his own tsurak while two ikran land on the pathways for Neytiri and Kayla to mount. Gracefully, both women take to the air as the banshees squawk, holding onto their reins with one hand and clutching their weapons in the other. They quickly swoop down to fly just above the army of tsurak as the skimwing slowly rise out of the water and fan out their gliding wings, one by one. Neytiri raises her bow up and gives her best war cry to which Jake echos back from below. Ronal looks up and sees Neytiri and Kayla astride their banshees and ululates, adjusting the spear in her hand to which her whole village responds behind her as their army takes off, ready to defend their children and their home. 
"Kayla, Neytiri," both women focus on the voice in the earpiece. Jake gives them instructions when he has their attention, "I need you up top, using the clouds for cover. Be my eyes from above and wait for my signal."
"Copy that," Kayla presses her throat mic and then pulls up on her handlebar, making a demand in her head while Thena simply follows it. The ikran squawks and further rises into the sky, breaking away from the army of tsurak and Metkayina. Neytiri yips and pulls her ikran to follow them, the two women disappearing into the clouds until Jake is unable to see them.
They flew through the clouds for a while until they made it to their destination. Neither of them could see Three Brothers Rocks from this height, but they knew their whereabouts. Kayla had Thena slowly descend, just ever so slightly beneath the clouds so she could get a visual, looking through the scope of her rifle to look down toward the ocean with a bird's eye view. She saw the three large peaks of rocks sprouting out of the ocean that Lo'ak had described and once she got her bearings, she proceeded to look for anything else in the surrounding area.
It wasn't hard to spot the hunting ship, large enough for even larger prey, like whales, floating not too far away from where Lo'ak had pinged his location. Several speed boats armed to the teeth with harpoons and sound cannons lined up around the front of the ship, likely as the first line of defense, and it was hard to miss the submersibles diving down into the water, forming large splashes and ripples around the ship. Kayla recognized the two gunships sitting silently on the hunting ship's platform, and she silently thanked God that for now, the rotors didn't appear to be moving. What actually worried her, however, was the half a dozen ikran idly flying around or sitting idle on the ship, sporting modern-looking saddles and pouches. In her experience knowing the behavior behind these animals, they don't appear alert or battle-hungry for the time being. They were more or less bored looking and basking in the sun while waiting for their riders. 
She leaned away from her scope to press her fingers into her throat mic, "Devil Dog, do you read me?"
Jake's voice soon answered her, "Go ahead, Desert Fox."
"I got eyes on the target. One WIGE ship, and several boats lined up in front. They have idle subs and SeaWasps on board. Can't get a headcount of personnel. There's about five or six banshees decked out in military gear, riderless."
"Copy that. Stay hidden with Clever Arrow for the time being."
"Lima Charlie." 
"We're just approaching Eagle Eye's last location. Stand by."
Kayla doesn't respond, taking a deep breath instead and using the strap on her rifle to prop the weapon behind her back, letting it dangle. She looked over to Neytiri as the Na'vi woman and her ikran glided close beside her, "We stay up here."
"And what about my children?" Neytiri snapped, though Kayla didn't take it to heart, knowing the anger wasn't directed at her. She could only imagine what her sister-in-law was going through, stressed and worried sick for her babies. 
Before she could answer or provide Neytiri with a form of comfort, a strange voice, much different from any voice Kayla knew, came in through her earpiece, addressing her brother, "Jake, tell your friends to stand down."
Kayla quickly held up one hand to let Neytiri know she was getting something, then cupped her other hand over her earpiece, trying to pinpoint the strange southern drawl that had intercepted their radio chatter, "You want your kids back, you come out alone. You know better than to test my resolve."
Kayla's blood began to freeze, her heart hammering in her chest to keep it all pumping. The voice had to have been Quaritch to address Jake as if they knew each other, and even if it wasn't the colonel, whoever it was had Kayla's nieces and nephews. Whoever it was had Lo'ak captured at the very least, considering he was the only one out of the Sully children to have a mic and earpiece. The suspected Quaritch continued to speak, "I took you under my wing, Jake. You betrayed me. You killed your own. Good men. Good women. I will not hesitate to execute your kid."
"Just wait one!" Jake finally responded, his voice deeply disturbed and desperate.
Silence fell over the radio chatter, and Kayla could only wait with bated breath. Neytiri and her ikran were visibly growing distressed and irritated, flying in short, unpredictable turns from left to right as if trying to burn off their pent-up energy. Kayla gave the other woman a wider berth while trying not to appear anxious herself, her quiet pants and rapid heartbeat pounding in her ears, along with the wind. 
"Offer's fixin' to expire. What's it gonna be?" Quaritch asked after a short minute.
"Check your fire. I'm comin' out."
"Fuck," Kayla muttered, turning to Neytiri, "We should drop lower. Jake is approaching alone."
Neytiri barely gives Kayla enough time to finish her sentence as she leans forward and internally orders her banshee to dive. Kayla orders Thena to do the same, and together they lower through the clouds, trying to remain hidden while moving in for a closer look. 
They lower a significant amount, flying out from behind a small mountain peak sticking out of the water, soft gray clouds drifting apart to reveal the battlefield site below. From this distance, it appears everything is at a standstill, and there weren't any indicators to suggest otherwise. Neytiri quickly presses into her throat mic, "Ma Jake, what is happening? Ma Jake?"
Kayla shifts her feet in the footholds of her ikran, Thena jerking her head to share the tension she felt in their bond. Jake didn't answer Neytiri, which worried both women further, unsure of how to proceed. Both looked at one another, thinking the same thing. Do they stay or attack? Does Jake have a plan?
The wait felt like ages, but eventually, movement could be seen down below, and it was so large that Neytiri and Makayla could clearly see what was happening. A large form erupted from below the waters, rising up and leaping over the hull of the WIGE ship, slamming down with a large bellow and jostling the entire ship along with its passengers. A tulkun bull, young and smaller than ones Kayla has seen, but still large enough to give those idle gunships a run for their money. As the tulkun wiggled around on deck, flailing his fins and tail around to knock over or crush any Sky People or Recom, Kayla finally managed to spot a missing fin among the chaos. From listening to Lo'ak and Neteyam's stories, she was able to identify who this fearsome creature was. Payakan.
For a moment, the Sky People and Recom avatars were distracted by the whale-like animal that had quite literally flopped up on deck, making the mistake of disengaging from the Na'vi as they turned their boats and guns around on the tulkun outcast. Rapid gunshots could be heard from all the way up in the sky, and Kayla and Neytiri could only look on in amazement. Payakan bellows again, louder, echoing in Kayla's ears even from this distance, startling the Recoms' idle ikran as they all spread their wings and took flight out of fear. 
As the humans were too busy trying to defend themselves and deal with Payakan, Jake was finally pinpointed in the chaos. Kayla had only managed to see him when he drove his tsurak forward and the skimwing took flight, spreading its wide, orange gliders, charging for battle by his lonesome across a dark blue ocean. Suddenly, several other tsuraks took flight, spreading their wings out one by one until the battlefield below Kayla and Neytiri looked like flying ants charging toward a toy boat in the bathtub. Amidst the charge, Payakan was seen diving back into the water, using his fins as leverage to push his weight off the ship. With the tulkun out of sight, the Sky People had turned back around and found themselves fumbling to meet up against the Na'vi as the Metkayina came up behind them using the element of surprise. Rapid gunfire sounded out, now aimed at the army of skimwings, who responded by folding their wings back up and diving down into the water to escape the bullets. 
With both sides now engaged in battle, Kayla turned to Neytiri and gestured with her arm, "Let's go!"
Neytiri screeches out a war cry and together they dive down to join the fight, their ikran crowing in response. The banshees fold in their wings to dive faster, the wind whipping wildly in Kayla's face and ears while she held on tight to Thena with one hand and gripped her AK in the other, primed and ready.
Two primary targets took to the sky around the same time Neytiri and Kayla reached the battle. The Recoms had mounted their ikran and were flying up to greet the enemy, with the gunships now following their example. Neytiri broke off from Kayla and flew to the gunship as it was shooting down into the water to get to the Metkayina, approaching fast on her target from above. She raised her bow and aimed, expertly shooting an arrow into the cockpit, shattering the glass while the arrow lodged into the pilot's chest. The gunship crashed into nearby rocks and blew up in a cloud of fire and smoke, Neytiri celebrating her small victory with chants of ululating as she flew by. 
By now, the Metkayina have finally begun their assault, their tsurak springing out of the water and leaping above the smaller boats, the Na'vi riders spearing any Sky People on board before dragging them down into the depths of the ocean below. The skimwings themselves have attacked alongside their riders, opening their rows of teeth to any unsuspecting humans when they lept out of the water. Jake flew around and opened fire, emptying rounds of ammunition into a patrol boat until it burst into flames before swiftly turning his tsurak away from the explosion. 
It was like the Sky People had finally woken up and begun to wreak havoc themselves, emptying bullets into any nearby Metkayina or tsurak and letting their bodies sink back into the waters. Rocket projectiles, machine guns, grenades, harpoons, and depth charges were used against spears and arrows, proven effective by the growing body count of Na'vi. It began to become an obstacle course for the tsurak as large plums of water sprang up all around them like erupting geysers, forcing the Na'vi to dodge and weave to avoid injury or worse. Jake managed to dodge the grenade launcher that formed these waves of geysers and took aim, shooting the driver of the patrol boat that the launcher was stationed on. With the driver dead, the boat sped into rocks and sent the rest of its crew flying before exploding. Jake took a minute to breathe and reload, grunting tiredly in his old age.
He was caught in a moment of weakness as a Recom dived down with their ikran from above, aiming their sights on his head, before a screech could be heard and the Recom avatar only managed to turn his head just in time to see Thena with her armed jaws spread wide before everything turned to black. Kayla grunts when her ikran makes an impact with the Recom's beast, holding tight as both banshees struggle and flap their wings against each other in the air. Kayla only heard the resounding crunch of the Recom's skull before Thena finally pushed away from the enemy ikran and disengaged. Jake had looked up just in time to see the Recom's headless body slide off its ikran's back and Kayla flew away above hers, a small smirk taking form on the proud brother's face. He looked away and brought his focus back into the fight, taking his tsurak and diving back down into the water.
Another gunship was about to take off from the platform of the hunting ship before Neytiri spotted it, swiftly taking it down and causing it to explode using only a single arrow. Out of the corner of her eye, she sees an enemy ikran pursuing her and she quickly turns her own banshee away. The Recom rider that followed her was none other than Quaritch, and like he had a score to settle, he began to open fire. Neytiri learned from past experience to have her ikran dodge and weave the bullets, but she would be lying if she said she wasn't scared. She knew she couldn't serpentine forever, and flashbacks of the last time she was shot out of the sky haunted the back of her mind, so she called out in short bursts of yips, yelping for assistance.
The backup came in the form of her husband, answering her distressed calls. Jake and his tsurak leap out of the water, flying right behind Quaritch, and roared as he began to open fire on the colonel. Quaritch takes evasive maneuvers, Neytiri forgotten, while he tries to avoid getting shot. He was only given a window of opportunity when Jake ran out of ammo and quickly had to stop and reload. Jake threw his empty clip over his shoulder and pats around his vest for more, only to come up empty aside from the dread now looming in his chest, "Oh, shit."
Meanwhile, Neytiri had flown back to aid Kayla in taking down the other Recoms flying around, the Forest woman using her ikran to make a large loop upside down as she aimed and fired an arrow into an enemy avatar. Kayla responded in kind by shooting down another Recom that was ready to go after Neytiri for killing his friend. Kayla looked around for more targets and saw another Recom shooting down into the water, presumable at a Metkayina and their tsurak. Kayla flew down to their aid, raining a hellfire of bullets into both the Recom and their ikran. The bodies of both banshee and avatar crashed into the water, and the Metkayina briefly turned around to glance at her pursuer's corpse. 
It was Ronal, her spear missing and her heart skipping in her chest to see the demon that was trying to shoot her while she was helpless was now dead. Peering up through the ocean's surface, the tsahik could make out an image of Kayla and her ikran flying away with the enemy dead, distorted by the movement of water and unaware of Ronal's gratitude. 
Kayla now turned to a particularly large shape forming in the water, deciding to finish off any survivors from the damage Payakan left in his wake. With the flick of his tail, he had sent a whole patrol boat into the propellor of the hunting ship, killing everyone on board the smaller boat as it burst into flames. Weirdly enough, the propellor fans began to kick into high gear, the flames of the explosion getting pulled through until the whole fan exploded as a result. Suddenly, the very large WIGE ship is pushed forward, going at high speed toward a scattering of rocks peeking out of the water as if the ship had been sabotaged from the inside. The vessel crashes, being thrown into the air while the rocks scrape along the underbelly, causing irreparable damage. The ship momentarily flies in the air before slowly crashing back down into the sea, worse for wear as it slows to a stop. Kayla noticed a surface boat with a harpoon holder welded into the bow of the vessel quickly picking up speed to avoid getting crushed by the large ship and decided to set her sights on its crewmembers. She leans forward as Thena picks up speed, flying toward the vessel at the same time Payakan appears to have noticed the small boat as well. 
Elsewhere, Jake had to dive back into the water to avoid getting shot by Quaritch now that the colonel had the upper hand. When The Recom leader managed to lose sight of his target, Jake took the moment of opportunity to leap his tsurak out of the water and have the skimwing latch its razor-sharp teeth into the neck of Quaritch's ikran. Quaritch yells out, surprised and enraged as both tsurak and ikran struggle together, entangled while their riders shout out grunts and war cries, pushing and pulling to gain the upper hand with all their stubborn might. Quaritch is flung from his banshee, crashing into the water while Jake's tsurak drags the ikran into the depths before finally unlatching its teeth and letting go. The ikran swims then fly away upon surfacing, abandoning its master as Quaritch swims to the surface, gasping for air with his rifle in hand. 
The harpoon vessel had begun to follow Payakan upon sighting him, and the tulkun swam alongside it until the harpoon was let loose. Payakan dove and shifted in the water, narrowly avoiding the harpoon before using the tusk-like structure on the bow of his head to spin and tangle the strong cable attached to the harpoon around him before further clamping his jaws around the cable for extra measure. He swims fast, faster than normal until he's dragging the whole boat behind him like an excited dog dragging his owner by the leash. The tulkun pulls the boat along for the ride until they get to another cluster of rocks poking out of the water, then swims around it until the boat is helplessly skimming toward its doom. The boat crashes and briefly floats in the air along with any crew member on board who had quickly grabbed a hold of something, before diving back into the water. The boat is miraculously still afloat, bobbing up and down in waves as the chaos subsides for now. The vessel looked as though it was floating dead in the water, with no engine or noise coming from its hull. The harpoon launcher was reloaded as they waited, looking around for any sight of the tulkun. 
Payakan repeated his maneuver and breached the water, cable still in his mouth, as he lept over the small boat. The cable now wrapped securely around the boat, Payakan gave a quick tug until the cable dug into the metal of the boat and then began to sink deeper and deeper. The crew scrambles to duck down just as the cable comes crashing through, cutting everything in its path until it catches onto the harpoon launcher, a crewmate's arm caught right in between them. 
Kayla was flying around Payakan's whereabouts and winced just as the cable cut through the man's arm and harpoon launcher, sending both flying and then crashing into the ocean below along with the severed arm. Kayla then dives down to finish off the survivors, aiming then firing at any humans that pose a threat. She spares one man among the wreckage, however, as he clearly appears to be a scientist, not a soldier. She could afford to spare one man to go crawling back to Ardmore and relay his horrific stories... but she wouldn't feel the loss if another Na'vi decided to finish him off instead. 
~~~~~~~~~
The sky slowly turned dark as eclipse rolled around, the fires from prior explosives the only thing lighting up the war zone that transpired, turning everything red and orange in its wake. It was like a waking nightmare, a sky full of smoke and pollution, taken out of a dystopian novel. The eery silence was only filled by flickering fire, with no signs of Na'vi or man in sight. Both had mysteriously disappeared.  
Kayla had looped around the battlefield several times already, trying to pinpoint any danger or sign of a familiar face. There were a lot of floating bodies and debris, empty boats with blood dripping down. It looked unnerving as they began to float away, with no sign of life on board. 
There's a distance splash and Kayla reflectively turned in the direction she heard it. There's an outline of a Na'vi jumping off the back of his tsurak and walking along a face of rocks, soft waves of water lapping over the surface and giving off the illusion that he was walking on water. Thena lowered from the sky until Kayla managed to depict certain characteristics and instantly recognized the Na'vi man, "Jake!"
Jake looked up at the sound of his name and noticed an ikran land on the rocks, huffing from exhaustion as its rider disengaged, running toward him. A small wave of relief encompasses Toruk Makto at the sight of his sister, "Kayla! Hey--"
"'You alright?" She immediately asked upon reaching him, her eyes briefly looking for any injuries.
"Yeah, you?"
"Yeah."
There's a distant splash resembling a breach in the water, causing the older Sully siblings to turn at the noise. Immediately, Kayla's stomach falls at the sight. It was like a waking nightmare for Jake, watching a small group of teenagers come rolling onto the shore of the rock face he and Kayla had landed on. Quickly, he noticed something was wrong, running over as Lo'ak waved him down.
"Dad! Dad, help! It's Neteyam!"
Tsireya briefly closes her eyes as a harsh wave smacks her in the face, ears drooping when listening to the sounds of Neteyam's rugged coughs. He was weak, and short of breath even though he had been an excellent student in her lessons on how to take large gulps of air for deep diving. It scared her, "Hurry!"
Lo'ak peers back at his brother before sinking into the water, dismounting his ilu and handing his brother to Tsireya, "Here, take him!"
Jake and Kayla proceed to rush over, eyes widening at the sight of the teens holding Neteyam above water as he sputters and coughs, one of which was not like the others and was the very same teenage boy Kayla had spent a long time searching for. The gasp she let out at the sight of a human boy among the Na'vi teens was from pure shock, "Spider?"
"Oh, no," Jake gasped as he took in the horrific sight of the half-drowned kids trying to pull his wounded firstborn to shore, blood pouring from his chest like the water he was floating in.
Lo'ak keeps repeating the same words through his fear, "It's Neteyam! He's hurt!"
Spider reaches out for Toruk Makto's arm as he grasps Neteyam's body, "Jake, come on! Come on!"
"Hurry, please!" Lo'ak begs.
Jake finally snaps out of his daze and grabs Spider's arm, trying to help drag all the connected teenagers to shore, "Pull!"
Kayla shakes herself from her shock and steps up to help, also grabbing onto Spider's arm and assisting her brother in pulling them all up out of the water.
"Bro, watch his head, watch his head!" Lo'ak instructs Spider, panic beginning to set in as he watches Neteyam's eyes begin to roll back, the older boy still coughing and otherwise unaware of his surroundings.
"Pull! Come on!" Jake grunts, finally getting all the kids out of the water. He grabs Neteyam's torso, lifting him in the air while Lo'ak and Spider have his sides and Tsireya has his legs, Kayla's hands hovering around the wounded boy's neck in case it rolls. Jake has them bring Neteyam to more solid ground before lowering him, "Just watch his head. Okay--"
Neteyam shallowly breathes as he feels the cold and wet rock surface underneath him, unable to suck in more air as Lo'ak grasps one of his hands, squeezing hard in comfort, "It's okay, bro. We got you."
Jake pushes Neteyam onto his side, immediately clocking the exit wound bleeding profusely with the help of Spider's flashlight, "Oh, no," looking around, frantic, he instead grabs Lo'ak's hands and presses it harshly against Neteyam's bleeding chest, "Put pressure-- put pressure on it!"
Neteyam stifles a grunt at the pressure against his chest, trying to get a word out, "Dad, I--"
"It's okay, I'm here!"
Kayla thinks quickly and rationally, stripping off her jacket, "Jake, the exit--"
"I know, I know!"
Without another word, Kayla has Lo'ak help her lift Neteyam until she has her rolled-up jacket pressed up against the exit wound behind him then lays him back down, helping Lo'ak continue putting pressure on the profusely bleeding hole in the older boy's chest. But she couldn't know how long Neteyam had been bleeding out. It was impossible to determine and her attempt to save him might be in vain. Kayla remains hovering over him, trying her best to conjure up a smile, "Hey, kiddo... it's alright, just take it easy. Remember to breathe..."
Neytiri lands her ikran when she spotted a few members of her family, barely pulling her braid from her mount before running over to the scene, muttering in fear and denial, "No, no, no, no, no!"
Kayla moves out of the way the moment Neteyam's mother arrives, surrendering her spot next to Lo'ak for Neytiri, and backs up, hovering over her brother's family and unable to look away.
"It's okay. It's okay, son, I gotcha." Jake comforted.
Lo'ak tries the same, "It's okay..."
Neteyam's eyes wildly looked around, unfocused and frightened, even when directed at Jake. It was like his son couldn't hear him, the shock setting Neteyam into panic mode as Jake tried to firmly reassure him.
Neteyam briefly looked relieved before tears started to gather in his eyes. Just this once, he allows himself to be a little boy again, tearful and sad, "I want to go home..." he grunts out his small plea before gasping rapidly, the words exhausting him.
Jake's voice quivers, holding his son's shoulder, "I know. I know. It's okay, we're goin' home. We're goin' home."
He softens his voice, pushing the desperation away to try and calm his son, as if he was still an infant he was soothing to sleep, "We're going home. It's okay, it's okay."
Neteyam gulps and tries to force the words out of his mouth, "Dad, I..."
His words are abruptly cut off, fading into the wind. The boy's eyes begin to unfocus and his body goes unnaturally stiff, rid of all muscle movement and heartbeat. Silence lingers over the Sully family as they wait for their son and brother to catch his breath, Neytiri gripping his hand tighter to get him to focus, "Neteyam..."
But there was no response. No breath, no words... nothing. Complete silence while Neteyam's eyes are permanently stuck watching the sky, unblinking and unfocused. Jake's heart plummets to his stomach, his breath escaping his lungs as he bows his head in distress. Neytiri's eyes flicker over her firstborn's face, over and over, frantic as she begins to rant, "No. No, no, no, Neteyam!" 
She begins to scream in anguish and denial, her voice shattering everyone's ears and hearts. Tsireya couldn't bear to look at her friend's body anymore and had to look away to cry, flinching at the sound of Neytiri's screams. Jake shushes his wife softly, reaching out to her but his touch goes unnoticed, as the mother desperately clings to any part of her dead son's body, trying to shake him awake. A single tear slips down Spider's face, collecting at the bottom of his mask, while Lo'ak begins to quietly sob, staring down at his hands, covered in his brother's blood. 
"Neteyam!" Neytiri sobs while leaning over her boy, holding his head close to hers as she wails, "Oh, Great Mother. No, Great Mother! Please! Oh, my son! My son... No!" 
Jake had gone completely numb, leaning back with his hands in his lap, eyes drifting off to somewhere distant while unable to comprehend the sight in front of him. Neytiri continues to sob and plead to anyone who will listen, her voice growing hoarse over time, "My son! No! No!"
Kayla silently stood over the Sully family, tears running down her face, but otherwise quiet to the world. Initially, she wanted to clench her hands into fists but immediately unfurled them again when she felt the squish and stick of her nephew's blood, to which she refused to look down and see for herself. She didn't want to see the color, nor what it represented... a young life taken from his family far too soon. 
"Can you hear me, Corporal?" Kayla's ears perk up to the southern drawl in her earpiece, and when her eyes flick to Jake, she notices his ears move to attention as well. Both Sully siblings felt cold as the voice dragged on, "Yeah, yeah, I think you can. I got your daughters. Same deal as before. You for them."
At the mention of the girls, Jake appears to wake out of his trance, turning his head to the direction of the hunting ship, then realization begins to creep in. His head slowly turns back to Lo'ak, his voice quiet as terror begins to settle in his chest, "Where are your sisters?"
His remaining son slowly peers up at him, eyes rimmed pink from crying, and his silence only angered Jake as he snapped his demands, "Your sisters. Where are they?"
"I don't know," Lo'ak whispered. 
"Where are they?!" Jake shouts.
"They're on the ship," Tsireya sobs quietly, her bottom lip quivering as Toruk Makto turns to her, "They are tied up on the ship."
"They're-- They're at the moon pool," whether it was out of grief, shock, or fear of Jake, Spider continued to stutter while the older man turned to him, holding onto the boy's arm as he spoke, "At-- A-At the well deck. Midships."
"What?" Jake asked, unable to make sense of the human boy's rambling. 
Spider sighs in defeat and then rises to his feet, grabbing onto Jake's arm and helping him stand up, "Come on. I'll show you. Come on. I'll show you."
Jake stumbled initially, the shock and adrenaline still coursing through him as Quaritch continued to speak through the radio, "Talk to me, Corporal. I need somethin', Jake or there's gonna be consequences."
"Yeah, I hear you," Jake responded as he pressed into the throat, sounding a little out of breath. He stumbles over to Kayla, ignoring the blood on her hands and gripping both of her arms as he speaks to her, his voice like gravel scrapping together, "Fly up ahead. Don't engage until I get into position. Lure the hostiles away while I grab the girls. Wait for my signal."
Kayla forced herself to nod, swallowing whatever broken cry threatened to come out as she whispered, "All right."
She forces herself to break out of Jake's hold, forcing herself to turn and walk away from the others, Neytiri's cries following her as she went. There's a small pool of water that collects on the rock surface and Kayla briefly kneels down to clean herself up, tears beginning to well up in her eyes again when she finally sees all the blood. She quickly stands back up, forming tsaheylu with Thena while hopping up onto her back, barely glancing back at what she assumes is the top of Neteyam's head of braids before rising into the sky and flying away.
Even though she could no longer hear Neytiri's cries from this distance, Kayla could still hear the horrific sounds in her head, following her as she rose higher into the sky. She uses the clouds and smoke for cover as she silently looms over what she knows is the location of the WIGE ship, using the scope of her rifle again to look down below to see what she is dealing with. The ship was slowly but surely beginning to sink, slightly tilted in the water, but the remaining Recoms and human soldiers on board were trying to balance out the weight but positioning themselves on one end, gathering their weapons and anxiously waiting for Jake's arrival. 
As she's waiting above, alone in her grieving silence, she's suddenly startled out of her daze when the earpiece kicks on again, and Quaritch's voice seeps through, "Talk to me, Corporal. This ship's going down and your girls with it... Your boy didn't have to die. You brought that on yourself. You thought you could keep your family safe, but you can't. Only one way to keep them safe. So let's get this over with before you lose another kid."
Thena mewls quietly when feeling the blood-boiling rage through her bond with Kayla, the avatar's grip tightening on the reins of her ikran. Flashes of the many ways she could kill Quaritch play in Kayla's head like a movie, deep and dark thoughts she would never voice out loud unless she'd risk scaring the people she loved around her. Back on Earth, she would've immediately been sent to a shrink or a psychiatric hospital for voicing her murderous thoughts and she didn't want to risk finding out what would happen if she did so here on Pandora. 
Her thoughts are abruptly cut off, however, by the loud sound of an explosion going off on the upper decks of the WIGE ship. While Kayla was waiting in her dark mind, Jake was below, sneaking onto the ship along with Spider. As Quaritch was monologuing, Jake had taken a grenade and lodged it into a gunship that Neytiri had shot down earlier, the wreckage now resting on the top of the WIGE ship. Jake quickly ran back to Spider and shouted for him to take cover, right before the gunship exploded into fire and debris.
Kayla watched the explosion bloom into smoke before she finally flew down, knowing that was the signal. She uses that smoke as cover, flying down through it to remain unseen to the RDA goons. The fires were blinding the humans, scrambling away from the flames or diving in to save anyone who survived the initial explosion. At the moment, everyone was distracted, and it was this perfect distraction that the Sully adults used to their advantage, striking the Sky People while they were down. Jake leaped in and immediately took out a human and a Recom by impaling them with a Metkayina spear. He wasn't able to take the weapon with him as it lodged completely through the body of the Recom, so Jake quickly took his AK out and began firing at nearby soldiers once they began to notice his presence. 
At the sound of gunfire, Kayla and Neytiri swoop into action, flying down from opposite ends of the ship, and surrounding the Sky People. Neytiri lands in a front-ward roll before skilfully aiming and firing her bow and arrow, immediately lodging said arrow into the leg of a female Recom. While the enemy avatar is distracted, Neytiri picks off the two humans who were covering the Recom's six. Neytiri raises the last human male up and shoots an arrow through his body and into the female Recom's skull before she can further react. Neytiri scrambles to retrieve her arrows once all immediate enemies are dead just as Jake approaches with his gun in his arms, keeping an eye out while his wife collects her ammunition. 
"Clear," he announces to her, expertly looking around to spot more enemies.
Meanwhile, Kayla has landed on a different end of the ship, and Thena flies away. One Recom, bald and sporting tattoos with a patch on his vest that read L. WAINFLEET, immediately noticed her and shouted to the top of his lungs while aiming his gun in her direction, "We got another avatar!"
He and other humans begin to open fire, while Kayla immediately ducks for cover. Jake had climbed up onto the upper levels of the ship as this began to transpire and used the distraction to attack the RDA soldiers who were firing down at his sister from their high ground. He killed and flung their bodies down from the catwalk, the height surely killing their small and frail bodies. Wainfleet noticed the sky was raining bodies and briefly stopped firing to look up before his eyes widened and he immediately moved his gun sights onto Jake, "Eyes up!"
The human soldiers follow his order and begin to raise and fire up at Jake. Kayla uses this distraction to come back out of hiding and, with their backs turned, she immediately begins to open fire on the Sky People, expertly shooting most of them in the back of the head or top of the spine.
Neytiri throws herself into the fray, leaping down the flight of stairs leading down to the lower deck of the ship. She dives for cover as Quaritch and other Sky People take notice of her and open fire. Wainfleet and any Sky People that managed to escape Kayla's cascade of bullets try to surround Neytiri, moving up slowly to her hiding place as she continues through her murder spree. She manages to get above and behind the humans trying to get around and corner her, jumping down behind Wainfleet before disarming him and knocking him out when she swings her bow into his face. Out of arrows, Neytiri readies her bow to swing again and hides, waiting for the remaining soldiers to come find her. 
Jake continued to be her eyes from above, shooting down at the soldiers below once they got too close to Neytiri's hiding spot. She comes out of hiding once her husband kills her remaining pursuers and rushes to grab any nearby stray arrows. Meanwhile, Kayla is pushing the remaining soldiers forward, shooting her AK into the fray and drawing them back. Little did the humans realize that Kayla had pushed them toward Jake and Neytiri in their rush to fall back away from Kayla's barrage of attacks. Jake jumps down once Kayla has their prey clustered close together and begins picking them off one by one. He lifts humans into the air and throws them into Recoms. He chucks empty rifles into RDA masks, causing the masks to shatter and the humans to suffocate while he moves forward with his tomahawk in hand. Kayla appears on the other side of the surrounded Sky People, completely cornering them into the blood bath. Once her section was cleared of hostiles, she moved further up to the highest point of the ship to provide support for Jake and Neytiri from above.
Neytiri shoots arrows at those who manage to break off and run away from Jake. Once out of arrows once more, she dives for one that was lodged into a dead body nearby, struggling with it as it got stuck. Meanwhile, Wainfleet had woken up behind her, face bleeding as he scrambled to reload his rifle. Neytiri had managed to get her arrow loose of the body and was about to aim and finish the Recom off before Jake appeared out of nowhere, attacking Wainfleet head-on and obstructing a clear shot for Neytiri to take.
"Ma Jake!" 
While the two male avatars fight in close combat, more soldiers try to get around them. With her husband preoccupied, Neytiri covers him and fires her already-loaded arrow into one of the soldiers, killing him instantly. Behind the body was a clear view of Kiri and Tuk, cuffed to the center railing of the ship, just like what Spider had said. 
With their daughters close at hand, Jake and Neytiri move in, now acting like a frantic couple of animals as the threat of their young is further imminent. Kayla provides backup support, knowing better to stay out of the parents' way, and empties her AK onto anyone below who is trying to subdue Jake and Neytiri, but through the smoke and flashes of gunfire, Kayla quickly loses sight of Na'vi pair, and the ground level grows eerily silent once there are no more soldiers to kill. Deciding to get closer to Kiri and Tuk's position, Kayla slowly and quietly makes her way back down, not wanting to make her presence known. She climbs down onto some gunship wreckage, not yet on the ground level once she spots the back of Jake's head. Getting a closer look, she realized Jake was weaponless, hands open in defeat.
Little Tuk was standing behind her father, shivering in fear, while in front of them stood Quaritch, his knife pressed tightly against Kiri's throat. At least, Kayla could only assume it was Quaritch, faintly seeing his name on the patch of his vest. They were all at a standstill, and when Kayla immediately jumped down to help, Jake threw his arm out for her to stay back, "Don't move!" He begged.
Quaritch keeps Kiri in front of him, using the teenager as a shield as he bares his fangs at Kayla upon her arrival, "Weapons down, now!"
"Do what he says." Jake sternly tells his sister. Kayla hesitates, eyes flicking between him and Kiri, then at Quaritch's knife that had already made small red cuts into her older niece's neck. Slowly, the female avatar sets down her gun and kicks it away, tossing her remaining ammunition over her shoulder before raising her arms up where the colonel can see them.
Satisfied, Quaritch quickly digs into his vest pocket and pulls out orange slap cuffs, tossing them onto the ground at Jake's feet as he snarls, "Cuff yourself."
"No!" A voice from behind Quaritch begged just as Jake was kneeling down to grab the cuffs. Everyone looked up to notice that the voice belonged to Spider, the human teen running around to get into Quaritch's line of sight, "No, don't hurt her, okay? Don't--"
"Stand there!" Quaritch roared, pointing a threatening finger at the boy while he kept Kiri in place with the knife against her neck.
"Spider, stay back!" Kayla yells out of fear, surprising even herself when her voice sounds stern.
Tuk softly cried while leaning back into her aunt's legs when Kayla drew close to the child, Jake firmly keeping his sister and his youngest child behind him, "Don't..."
"Don't. Move. Not a step," Quaritch threatens Spider before turning back to Jake, "Cuffs. On. Now!"
"You son of a bitch." Jake forces out through his anger and fear, slapping one side of the cuffs onto his wrist.
"Please, don't hurt her." Spider continues to beg.
Out of nowhere, Neytiri creeps up behind the human boy and retrieves her knife, grabbing hold of Spider and pressing her knife against his own neck with a snarl. Quaritch is startled at the sight, proceeding to hold Kiri tighter while looking between the boy and Neytiri.
The Na'vi woman's voice sounded so unlike her, hoarse and breathless, "Release. Or I cut."
Quaritch paused before trying to play off the threat, shaking his head, "What, you think I care about some kid? He's not mine. We're not even the same species."
"Just please don't-- don't hurt her," Spider continues to beg, ignoring his own life in exchange for Kiri's as he continues to plead to the man who holds the memories of his father, "Just please let her go."
"Don't!" Tuk continues to cry quietly, while Kayla holds the little girl's head against her. Both hers and Jake's ears and eyes flicked to whoever talked during the whole hostage situation, unable to move and feeling helpless.
"Please!"
"Don't kill him--" Kiri had begun to beg as well.
"Listen to me! Let her go. Don't hurt her."
"Mom, don't kill him."
"A son for a son." Neytiri shakily growls, tilting her head in Quaritch's direction as if studying him. She looked completely unhinged, sweat and human blood scattered all around her face and body, shrunken yellow eyes staring only at Quaritch.
"Neytiri, don't!" Kayla begs, holding Tuk close for protection and comfort, "Please!"
"Please don't hurt her," Spider continues to ramble until Neytiri takes her knife and slices the blade tightly over his chest, drawing small beads of blood, "Ah!"
"I cut," Neytiri hissed, flashing the blood on her knife to let Quaritch know she meant business. 
Spider huffs in pain and grits his teeth, but he goes right back to begging, "Please just let her go, okay? Just let her go."
Quaritch and Neytiri stare down at one another, unblinking until Neytiri screams in rage and raises her knife up to cut down Spider. Barely anyone had time to react, apart from Quaritch, as he quickly pulled his knife away from Kiri, "NO!"
Kiri gasped only to realize that she wasn't in any more danger, calming her heartbeat as the relieved tears began to well up. A scream that threatened to climb out of Kayla's throat suddenly subsided, and she held her breath while waiting for Neytiri's reaction. The air is thick and tense, both knives raised in the air either to destroy or spare. Neytiri slowly looks back at Quaritch, breathing heavily as she waits, keeping her knife posed and her grip on Spider. Quaritch grunts in defeat, pushing Kiri away and stepping back. Kiri immediately gets to her feet as Jake, Kayla, and Tuk inch closer to her, the younger girl whispering reassurances for herself and her sister, "Kiri... Kiri. Kiri."
Neytiri watches her family reunite with one another before slowly lowering the knife back down, then pointedly shoves Spider behind her, away from Quaritch.
"Spider!" Kiri exclaims as she, Tuk, and Kayla run to him.
Jake slowly approaches Neytiri while they're occupied, taking the knife out of his wife's hand and keeping an eye on Quaritch, "Spider, get 'em outta here."
Without hesitation, Spider began to tug on Kiri's arm, pulling her toward the ocean that was slowly creeping onto the tilting ship, "Come on. Guys-- Tuk."
"I owe you a death," Quaritch points directly at Neytiri, who snarls ferociously back at him with pure hatred in her eyes. 
"Mom," Kiri calls out, while Tuk begins to tug on her mother's arm.
"Mama."
"Come."
"Come on. Please, Mama."
Neytiri finally relents with her daughters' pleading, slowly backing up, inching toward the water. Jake keeps himself between Quaritch and his family, Kayla standing dutifully at his side while the children and Neytiri sink into the water. Quaritch keeps his knife in front of him, at the ready, acting like a cornered tiger while trying to bait Jake into staying, "You're not leaving, are you, Jake?"
"It's okay--" Kiri reassures Tuk as she and Neytiri draw closer.
"Knowin' I'm out there?" Quaritch continues.
"Kayla, back up," Jake muttered warningly, and his sister slowly sank into the water to join the others behind him. 
"Knowin' that I'll never stop?" Quaritch seethed, his voice lowering now that it was only him and Jake still standing on the sinking deck of the ship, "I'm comin' for you. And when I do, I'll kill your whole family."
The water laps at Kiri's face as she sinks into the water, worry in her eyes while watching Jake stand still, no longer moving to join them, "Dad..."
Jake's body stiffens as if his mind had been made up about something, eyes focused only on Quaritch as he stands up straighter, "Then let's get it done."
"Jake, no!" Kayla yells just as Jake leaps for a nearby medkit at the same time Quaritch dives toward him. Jake swings the medkit and hits the Recom with it, momentarily stunning the colonel as he goes in for another attack, this time with the knife he took from Neytiri. He swings at Quaritch several times, closely missing his neck before finally getting a slice at his vest. As the ship continues to tilt and sink, crates and other debris slide down toward the fighting pair and both Jake and Quaritch have to move out of the way to avoid getting hit before moving back in for the kill. They grapple and wrestle for each other's knives, trying to shove the sharp tip into each other's skulls.
"Jake!" Neytiri calls out to her mate just as a burst of flame begins to spread over the water where coolant and oil had spilled into the ocean. The wall of flame grows and begins to inch closer toward the Na'vi and the human boy floating just above the water's surface.
"It's coming!" Tuk cries.
"Back. Back!" Spider orders to the girls, beginning to tread water back the way they came, "Get back to the ship! Go!"
"Tuk, swim. Swim!" Kiri instructs hurriedly. 
Kayla, who was the last to get into the water, was now the first one out, grabbing onto the others one by one and pulling them back up onto the deck, starting with Tuk and ending with Spider as he made sure the others made it on first. Kayla continued to push the whole group ahead of her, occasionally looking around to see if Jake and Quaritch were still nearby, but she had lost sight of them. 
And she wasn't the only one. Neytiri was also frantically looking around, fear in her eyes while clinging on tightly to Tuk's hand, "Jake--"
"I'll get him, go!" Kayla exclaims in a last-second decision, backing away from the group and breaking off while shouting at Neytiri from over her shoulder, "Get the kids outta here, we'll come find ya!"
Kayla then turns to look ahead of her as she runs, determination setting in as she goes over to where she last saw her brother. She hears grunts and growls in the distance and doesn't hesitate to sprint over just in time to see Quaritch kick Jake in the gut to disengage from their knife wrestle. Jake doesn't have time to react as a motor or a generator of some sort comes sliding down toward him and shoves him into the water. 
Quaritch stalks over to the place Jake disappeared, knife glinting off of the flames of destruction around him. The Recom's muscles flex as he pants heavily with adrenaline, and with his back turned to Kayla, she makes a split and reckless decision. Unarmed, she leaps over sliding debris and then uses that momentum to jump up onto Quaritch's back with a small war cry, the both of them grunting at the impact while Kayla doesn't waste time to reach for and grapple for the knife in the colonel's hand. Quaritch growls and pitches Kayla forward off of his back, only for his grip to loosen around his knife and fall right into her hand. The female avatar stands up straight, quickly repositioning the blade more securely in her grip before charging forward, swinging in the air in front of Quaritch as he continuously dodges and leans away from the knife.
Eventually, he sidesteps and grabs her swinging arm, stopping the blade in its tracks before twisting her arm into an uncomfortable position. She cries out, forced to drop the blade before taking her other arm and elbowing Quaritch in the face. He staggers back with a pained grunt, then reaches for her arm again. He slams her against the rigging, driving her to take a gasp of air and regain her footing. A feat that was proven useless when Quaritch quickly grabbed the knife on the ground and reached forward, grabbing Kayla's kuru braid at the very base, connected to her skull. He yanked, hard, driving Kayla to scream in pain, the action rendering her immobile. He keeps her braid tight in one hand while the other retrieves his knife and is sure to let her know he means business when he presses the sharp blade to her throat. Kayla reduced her struggle to a minimum as she felt a small trickle of blood run down her long neck along with her sweat.
Quaritch grits his teeth and through the struggle, manages a small, gritted smile, "You're a newer model. You must be the little missing guinea pig the General was talking about."
She hissed, baring her fangs to the best of her ability, making the intimidating sound from the back of her throat, only cutting the sound off when Quaritch tugged painfully against her braid. Kayla gulped back air and frantically reached back for her queue at the base, trying to relieve his grip on such a sensitive part, following the motion to be sure the kuru wasn't torn from her skull. The movement brings Quaritch's attention to a certain item dangling from her neck.
Her RDA military tags, clinked softly together, proudly bearing her rank and station. Quaritch sees the name, so familiar that causes both dread and rage to eat him up from the inside out. He snarls, the fangs forming a cold, threatening smile, "Well I'll be damned... betrayal must run in the family."
Kayla nearly lunged at him before she felt a twitch in the knife and her body immediately stiffened, the cold blade digging further into her skin. She could see the male avatar's whole form tightening, preparing to use his strength to give the killing the blow. Quaritch's grip on her braid and his knife tighten and he's ready to just end her with the flick of his wrist.
"NO!" Is the only gutwrenching warning Jake gives either of them before he tackles Quaritch, shoving his whole body into the colonel's torso like a football player. The impact drives the older man to grunt in pain and also let go of Kayla, but the force of the tackle sends her falling backward, stumbling over the railing. Kayla is thrown overboard and sent falling into the ocean, where her screams forming her brother's name are drowned out by the water consuming her.
Unable to take a breath in before she hit the water, Kayla struggled to get air. She quickly swims up to the surface and manages to gulp out a breath or two when she breaches, but the moment is cut short when she realizes that the tipping ship was throwing debris off the side of the hull down into the ocean and onto her. Kayla instinctively holds her breath, properly this time, and dives back down into the water in an attempt to avoid the collision. Heavy machinery and other objects from the ship are falling quickly through the water around her like a knife through butter, too heavy to stay afloat. She narrowly misses as much debris as possible, trying to swim away as fast as she can, but she gets caught but a large piece of shipwreck that had broken off from the initial boat. It's heavy enough to drag her down, deep into the dark depths until the bioluminescent lights of the coral reef below light her surroundings, the glow of the fire and eclipse above the ocean's surface faintly disappearing the deeper she got dragged down. Her arms burned in exhaustion as she tried her best to pull and swim herself out from under the debris, but it was too heavy and sinking too fast, and her foot and gotten caught in a shredded hole wedged inside the metal. 
Against all that she had learned, Kayla began to panic, her heart racing while she frantically looked around to the best of her ability. Because of this, the need for air came quicker, and her lungs began to burn and try to constrict. Pressure began to build in her skull and chest, and dark spots started to form in the corners of her vision. The creaking of metal fills her ears as Kayla's arms finally stop fighting, too tired and weak to continue to try. With her mind now foggy and devoid of logic due to lack of oxygen, Kayla opened her mouth and took in a breath.
Just as the water rushed through her mouth and entered her lungs, a sharp tug on her foot had wrenched her free. Whatever was wrapped around her ankle now rose to wrap around her waist, and distantly, Kayla felt herself being pulled against a solid form as they swam through the water. Barely gaining the strength to look up, she faintly realized she was quickly rising to the surface.
The moment her face is free from the water, she takes big gulps of air, coughing seaspray from her lungs as she's pulled up onto a tsurak without much of a struggle, laying across its strong back and part of its head as she catches her breath. The strong arm secure around her torso was heavily tattooed and clearly Metkayina, the limb letting her go once she remembered to hold herself up out of the water. Between breaths, she takes a moment to glance up and lets her body relax at the sight of Tonowari, sitting calmly on the saddle of the skimwing.
The olo'eyktan appeared grim at the sight of her, silently urging her to cough up the water with a hand gently placed on the back of her neck. Kayla winced when the initial touch was sore from where her queue braid had been tugged, and so Tonowari drew his hand away, instead tilting her chin up to inspect the cut on her neck, small trickles of blood flowing down her skin.
"Are you injured?"
"I'm fine." Kayla managed to spit out as she pulled her chin from his grasp, ignoring the sharp pain in her foot. She began wildly looking around and immediately spotted Ronal and her tsurak floating beside them. Closely watching Kayla, the tsahik's big eyes briefly glanced down at the neck wound her mate was inspecting on the avatar.
Satisfied by the answer, Tonowari instructs Kayla to lean against him so he can reach the handlebar of his tsurak, adjusting her until she's properly straddling the back of the powerful lungfish. Still a little dazed and recovering, Kayla doesn't fight being puppeteered as the tsurak begins to move in the direction its rider wanted to go. Kayla tiredly looked around, freezing in fear when she noticed the WIGE ship was barely peeking out of the water now, and she could do nothing but watch as it slowly disappeared, into the ocean, leaving nothing behind but large bubbles and ripples along with the groaning of metal.
It was only when Kayla realized that she was being led away from the location of the sunken ship did she begin to struggle, startling the skimwing and irritating the chieftain. Tonowari grips the handle of the tsurak with one hand but makes a point to restrain Kayla with the other, wrapping his whole arm around her torso again as she starts to protest loudly, "No! NO! My family's still in there! They're still down there, stop!"
"You will do them no good if you drown before you can get to them!" Tonowari snapped.
Ronal blocked the path of her husband's tsurak with her own, looking dead in Kayla's eyes with ferocious determination and fear, not willing to look away, "My daughter-- where is she?!"
Briefly stunned with the adrenaline slowly wearing off, Kayla sputtered for a moment, catching her breath while stuttering out, "On... On that rock face over there."
She points in the general direction where the dreading idea of Neteyam's body now lay, but neither Ronal nor Tonowari notice the look of defeat and grief on her face. Looking back at the ship, she couldn't help the tears falling down her face as she quietly whispered, "I'll take you to her."
They idly swam in silence, and it felt as though the world was ending. They swam past floating bodies and debris, empty boats, and life jackets. The sky was still red along with the scattering ocean of flames and smoke. The smell was almost unbearable. It was the longest silence in Kayla's life, her only thoughts on the whereabouts of her brother and his family. Had they gotten off the ship? Are they safe? Where was Quaritch? 
Tsireya had spotted them in the water before the three Na'vi adults spotted her, crying and waving them over to the stranded rock fixture she stood on, her knees covered in blood, but not her own, "Sa'nok! Sempul!"
Kayla was immediately forgotten as both Ronal and Tonowari hopped off their skimwings and scrambled up onto the rock fixture, rushing toward their daughter. Ronal instantly gathered the crying girl in her arms, a little difficult with her rounded belly, but she had managed while whispering into her hair with relief in her voice, "Tsireya... Thank you, Great Mother, thank you."
Tonowari joins the embrace, wrapping his long arms around his wife and child. A soft yip in the wind draws the olo'eyktan's attention away, and upon looking around, he catches sight of two reef boys astride ilu. The boys call out again before jumping up onto the rock face. It was Ao'nung and Rotxo, both unharmed and a little frazzled. Ao'nung raced to his family and his father pulled him into their group embrace, relief now fully flooding the family's veins. 
Rotxo stood just outside of the family, his eyes only set on one thing lying on the ground, dread seeping into his skin as his breath was taken from him, "Neteyam...?"
Tsireya only cried harder at the sound of his name, and when her parents and brother turned to what Rotxo was looking at, they came across a horrific sight. Their joy and relief were shortly outlived and exchanged for sorrow as they observed Neteyam's corpse, unmoving and now cradled in Kayla's arms. She was kneeling before her nephew's body, holding his torso up on her lap with her arms wrapped protectively around his head. She was crying silently to herself, sobbing so softly that none of the Metkayina standing before her could hear it over the wind and waves. Kayla was short of breath for an entirely different reason, her body shaking as the shock wore off and the realization sunk in.
Her nephew was dead, and for all she knew, so was the rest of her family.
The sunlight finally reemerged beyond the eclipse, the fires no longer setting a dreadful horizon. Kayla didn't care for the sunlight, her stomach turning when Neteyam's blood only became more noticeable. She was cold, wet, and exhausted, the adrenaline turned to full-body shakes up and down her spine. She didn't want to move, keeping her eyes shut so she could pretend that she was simply hugging Neteyam, but it was hard to do so when Neteyam felt so cold and stiff.
A large bellow is heard from the water as something big swims up to the rock fixture. Kayla remembers Payakan and looks up, tear tracks marking down both of her cheeks. Another wave of emotions took over her when she noticed that the rest of the Sullys were all hanging onto Payakan's fin, climbing tiredly up the rock fixture once they got close enough. 
"Auntie!" Tuk cried when she first spotted Kayla, rushing over to her aunt. Kayla immediately set Neteyam down and tried her best to shield the girl from such a sight as she gathered the child up in her arms.
Kayla cried loudly, out of relief, holding onto Tuk tightly as if there was no tomorrow. Taking deep breaths through her sobs, she quickly looks around to take a headcount, quickly finding the remaining of the Sullys standing around her. Jake, Neytiri, Kiri, Lo'ak, and Tuk. All safe, all unharmed. Kiri runs up to join the group hug while Tsireya breaks away from her family to run into Lo'ak's arms. Jake and Neytiri pay no mind to anyone else, tired and distant both physically and emotionally. Neytiri simply walked back over to Neteyam, kneeling down and pulling her child into her arms as fresh tears began to cut down her face. Kayla finally lets her nieces go and gently leads them over to Neteyam, stepping away so the girls have their own time to grieve. After a while, Jake takes out a knife and goes around cutting away any remnants of orange slap cuffs still hanging off of anyone's arms and wrists. He cuts them off of himself, then Lo'ak, then Tsireya, and begins to cut the cuffs off both of Kiri's wrists. He doesn't want to take Tuk away from her big brother just yet, as the little girl cries into Neteyam's hand, holding the limb to her chest for just a little bit of comfort.
Another figure approaches, seemingly out of thin air, but only because he had just swam up to them. Kiri is the first to spot him, a relieved smile spreading over her face, "Monkey Boy!"
For the most part, everyone looks up to notice Spider, walking up to them unharmed apart from the long, thin cut across his chest. Jake stands up and puts his knife away, while Kayla watches the boy closely, looking for any signs of distress. But Spider was breathing perfectly through the mask, tired but otherwise intact.
Lo'ak gently breaks away from Tsireya to further observe his friend, likely also trying to see if he was injured, "Spider."
Ronal and Tonowari catch the name and glance at one another. So this was the sky demon boy affiliated with the Sullys. Kiri reached up to him from where she was sitting once he got close enough, placing her hand over Spider's heart. He looked down at her, equally solemn and relieved, reaching up to gently hold her hand. They smile faintly at one another before Jake interrupts to inspect the boy himself, placing his hands on Spider's shoulders.
"You all right?"
"Yeah."
Jake believes him and brings the human boy close in an embrace, looking around and then over to Lo'ak, seeing his son standing alone and looking ashamed. Immediately, Jake reaches an arm out and pulls Lo'ak into their group embrace, "Come here."
For the most part, Jake looked the worst out of all of them, bruised and slowly bleeding through small cuts and scrapes. They all stand or sit around, quietly taking in each other's presence and everything that just happened. Kayla finally felt as though she could sit down, slowly sinking to the ground until she was leaning back on her hands, properly regaining her breath, and trying to elevate her injured foot. Sighing now that pressure had been taken off her ankle, she looked around at everyone, the threat of danger still in the back of her mind, all the horror they had dealt with today now fully being comprehended in her mind. Looking over at Spider, she knows that she and Jake will have to question the boy and have him tell them everything that happened to him and how RDA had managed to find the Sullys. At the same time, they'll have to explain why they never went looking for him and offer their sincerest apologies. But for now, it'll have to wait. For now...
A son for a son.
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A/N: Kinda not sorry. I love angst... no matter how much it hurts to write it. I definitely cried while writing this, but I really needed it cuz I haven't had a good cry in a while.
THERE'S GONNA BE MORE CHAPTERS AFTER THIS. I REPEAT, THIS IS NOT THE END OF THE FIC. I have future chapters already written out so keep an eye out for an update! I intend to stretch this fic out until the next film, but let's see how it goes lol. Lemme know if you want a request or want to be added to the taglist!
Rip Matthew Perry
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toomuchracket · 11 months
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i'd rather jump in your bones (dad!matty x reader)
(hi! a lovely anon sent me an ask about sleeping with dilf-to-be matty on your babymoon before having baba 1, which a couple of other people have also asked for, so here it is, a really REALLY long fic! smut, with a little bit of fluff because i am a sappy bitch lol. anyway, hope you enjoy! <3)
(also if you're unfamiliar with my dad!matty/flatmate!matty tags, this might be a little jarring in places, so i'd recommend reading some of those posts first to get a handle on the lore)
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it's 8am when you're woken up by the baby kicking, her (as of last week's 20-week scan it's confirmed that, yes, she is a she) tiny little limbs bouncing off different parts of your stomach like the old dvd logo that would appear if you left the player on pause for too long. you snort quietly to yourself at that comparison, making a mental note to tell it to matty when he wakes up. actually, you're surprised he hasn't woken up yet; his arm is currently draped softly over the bump as he snores lightly behind you, so he should also be able to feel his daughter kicking.
although, in fairness, if you didn't have a developing human in your stomach operating on a different sleep schedule to yours, the things you and your husband got up to last night would have definitely kept you asleep at this time too.
but you don't mind being awake in circumstances like these: carrying your healthy (and presumably happy) baby; feeling the nearly-naked and gloriously handsome love of your life cosied up beside you; noticing the morning sun and various faint italian conversations creeping into the room via the patio door, left ajar in the scorching heat of last night. it's an early summer morning on the shores of lake garda, and there's nowhere else you'd rather be right now.
baba, though, would apparently rather you were somewhere else - almost on cue, she settles herself in such a way that your awareness of your own bladder becomes unavoidable. with a whispered "you like being a little bit mean to mummy, don't you? you're lucky i love you so much, my girl", you extract yourself from matty's hold without waking him - a feat you mastered a few weeks into sharing a bed with him post-movie nights in the flat back in the day - and pull yourself out of bed. feeling slightly exposed in your panty-clad state, you shrug on matty's black tank top from yesterday, carelessly tossed on the end of the bed, before wandering to the bathroom.
matty appears in the doorway maybe five minutes later, once you've appeased your daughter (so to speak) and brushed your teeth; he copies the latter act himself, after placing a soft kiss on the top of your head, holding his toothbrush in one hand and you in the other. you take these two minutes of matty preoccupation to ogle him, trailing your eyes down his abs and v-line to the waistband of his boxers, admiring the way his arm muscles flex and contract as he brushes his teeth, and just generally marvelling at the way your husband manages to make the most basic of tasks look so ridiculously attractive.
after matty spits out the last of the toothpaste - the sight of which, whorishly, sends a burst of heat between your legs - he turns to you and pulls you into a sweet, overwhelmingly minty kiss. "morning, my love," he smiles, after breaking the kiss and taking your hands in his. "i take it our girl woke you up?"
the obvious joy in matty's voice when he refers to your daughter makes you smile too. "only a few minutes ago, but yeah, she did - all quiet now, but she was kicking quite enthusiastically."
"really?" matty asks, crouching down so he's eye level with your cotton-covered stomach and sliding a warm hand under the fabric to rest there. "you gonna be a footballer one day, baba? that'd be cool. especially if you played for newcastle like daddy did when he was a kid. but pro. definitely pro."
you scoff. "our daughter in a career where she could be far better at her job than a man but would never get the same recognition as him? i don't want her to be that much like me, babe."
"fair point, sweetheart," matty says as he stands, kissing you on the forehead. "but you should still be proud of your work anyway, even though they gave that stupid dick the case over you. i think you're an incredible lawyer, regardless of the fact you're also a little thief when it comes to my wardrobe."
he looks pointedly at the tank top you're wearing, before smirking at you. you put your hands on your hips and stare back at matty. "it's the bump, isn't it?"
your husband's brow furrows. "what?"
"you used to love me wearing your clothes," you sigh faux-dramatically, sidling past matty back into the bedroom and standing in front of the full-length mirror. "you encouraged it, actually. and now, here i am, pregnant with your baby, and you call me a thief for stealing a top. must be the bump."
matty comes up behind you, snaking his arms around your middle and pressing kisses into your neck. "you know all too fucking well that that's not the case, darlin'."
you're having too much fun with this. you do know matty's arguably never found you sexier than he does right now, but you don't want him to tell you that - you need him to prove it. so you sigh, tilt your head and look at your reflection. "hmmm, i don't know, babe. kinda seems like the bump might be a problem for you."
"right, that's it," matty scoops you up bridal-style and carries you the short walk to the bed, setting you down gently and bringing himself to hover over you. he kisses you deeply, passionately, but languidly, dragging your bottom lip between his teeth as he pulls away to murmur against your mouth. "want a repeat of last night, sweetheart, so i can prove to you how much i love your body? yeah? want me to kiss all over those gorgeous tits, that perfect little bump, all down the insides of those fucking thighs of yours, before i eat you out? whatever you want, i'll do it."
interesting. you keep your eyes on matty's adorably eager, turned-on face, watching his eyes roll back ever so slightly when you rake your hand through his hair and tug slightly. "whatever i want? really?"
"if it gets through to you just how fucking hot you look carrying my baby, yeah," matty replies, kissing you again. his face softens as he pulls away, calloused fingers coming up to gently stroke your cheek. "my perfect, perfect wife, mother of my child, love of my life."
"you're so sweet, angel, and i loved how gentle you were with me last night. but," you smile, leaning into matty's hand. "you know what i really want, something that hasn't happened in a little while that i'd love right now?"
"tell me, darlin'."
you lean in to whisper in matty's ear, tugging his hoop earring lightly between your teeth before you do. "want you to fuck me like i'm still your little slut. can you do that for me, matty? please?"
the effect your words have on your husband is instantaneous (and extremely inflating to your ego) - matty's breaths become shallow and shaky, his hips begin to grind into yours, and those beautiful eyes of his flutter shut, presumably as he imagines obliging your request. when they reopen, the pupils are almost totally dilated, out of nothing more than sheer lust for you; they lock onto your own eyes as matty speaks. "that depends... d'you think you've been good enough, sweetheart?"
fuck yes. you look up at matty through your eyelashes, batting your lids a couple of times for good measure, and nod. "m'always good for you."
"even when you're stealing my clothes?" comes the reply, accompanied by a smirk. you smile back just as evilly, and quickly pull the offending tank top off and throw it to the side. "s'not stolen anymore."
for the second time in about a minute, matty's eyes darken with desire for you. "christ, you're so beautiful," he moans, before crashing his lips onto yours and his tongue into your mouth. "alright, darlin', i'll fuck you like the good little slut i know you really are. my good little slut."
"mmm, always, always for you," you smile against matty's lips, before meeting them with your own for another makeout. "thank you."
"you're welcome, angel. now," your husband's face turns slightly more serious. "how do you want to go about this? need to make sure you feel good before i can make you feel even better, yeah?"
nodding, you reach across to matty's side of the bed, grabbing one of the big silk-covered pillows - anticipating what you're about to do, matty takes it from you, quickly sliding it under your lower back and tailbone as you lift your hips. caressing them lightly, matty scans your face for any sign of discomfort. "you good?"
"perfect."
"too fucking right you are, babe," matty grins, kissing you passionately yet again. he bites your lower lip - which pulls a moan from within your chest - before releasing it slowly, dragging the soft cells between his teeth. "and now it's time for the fun bit."
matty's mouth is on your neck before you can reply, the feeling of his lips against your sweet spot turning your words to whines; they're closely followed by teeth and tongue and back to lips, as your husband - apparently not content with just decorating your body with the baby bump - adorns your neck with a hickey. as he begins to trail these scarlet marks of affection down the column of your throat, matty's hands come up to your tits, squeezing the sensitive swollen flesh and rolling and pinching your nipples between calloused fingers.
by the time matty's mouth replaces his fingers, alternating between each tit, you're soaked through your silky underwear. you tell him as much through a series of breathy moans, in the hope that he'll cease his ministrations on your tits and settle himself between your soft thighs, but it's in vain. matty simply continues to mouth his way down your body, kissing down your sternum and all over your bump (which, admittedly, you do find very sweet even in your horny state); only once he's done this does he pay any mind to the dark green fabric covering the place you want him most.
"fuck, sweetheart," matty sighs, rubbing your soft thighs and teasing his fingertips along the waistband of your underwear. "can see how fucking wet you are already. is it all for me, angel? tell me."
you nod furiously. "all for you, always all for you."
"good girl," matty smiles, placing a kiss to your inner thigh before peeling your panties down, throwing them somewhere in the sunlight-dappled room. he reattaches his lips to your thigh, leaving another hickey and you moaning his name, while his index finger glides up your slit to collect some of your wetness - suddenly, matty's leaning over you, bringing the same finger to your lips. "taste yourself for me, darlin'."
fuck. without breaking eye contact with your husband, you take his finger into your mouth, moaning at the tang of your own arousal on your tongue, hollowing your cheeks around the digit and swirling your tongue across the tip, before releasing matty's finger with a pop. you smile radiantly up at the love of your life, watching you with lust-heavy eyes, and you speak. "yummy."
"jesus christ, you're such a slut. i fucking love it," matty laughs in disbelief, before kissing you again. as he does, the finger that was just in your mouth makes its way between your legs again, ghosting over your clit before teasing your entrance. "and i love fucking you. can i, now, with my fingers?"
"please, please."
"so polite, even when you're so fucking desperate for me. alright, sweetheart, i'll give you what you want."
with that, matty settles himself between your thighs, and - without warning - thrusts two fingers into you, moving them at a rapid pace. you whine at the sudden pleasure coursing through your body, clenching around matty's fingers and clawing at the bedsheets beneath you. "fuck, please don't stop, want you to make me cum."
matty lets out a huff of laughter, eyes fixated on the fingers he's repeatedly ramming and curling inside you. "oh, you wanna cum, do you? that all you want?"
whimpering out a series of "no"s, you shake your head - although, you're not sure if your husband will see the motion over the writhing of your hips and subsequent movement of the bump. "want your tongue on my clit, too."
"beg for it, then."
jesus christ.
you do as you're told, though, aching for matty to eat you out like you know he's aching to do. "god, fuck... please, baby, please - oh, holy fuck - please, need you to go down on me, need your mouth on my clit, need it to make me cum- oh, yes!"
just as impatient as you, matty starts to suck on your clit before you've even finished your wanton pleas, his fingers still pounding into you. he moans into you at the taste, the hum reverberating through your body and bringing you closer to your quickly approaching orgasm, then flicks your clit with the tip of his tongue - deft, rhythmic strokes you soon recognise as letters, your husband spelling out his name on the most intimate part of your body. whether it's because of your realisation or the motion itself, you don't know, but you immediately feel the white-hot pleasure in your lower body begin to grow rapidly and make your legs jerk involuntarily. "shit, matty, m'close, m'so fucking close. can i cum? please?"
matty pulls his mouth from you to speak; his left hand replaces it on your clit, while his right continues thrusting into you. he looks like sex itself, cheeks red and glistening with your wetness, dark eyes hungry. "do it."
you don't need much more encouragement - even without your husband's hands deftly working on your core, the sheer sight of him and the rasp of his command could tip you over the edge into bliss. with a cry of his name, your body goes rigid and then shakes uncontrollably as your orgasm hits, matty moaning in harmony with you as he feels you clench and then cum on his fingers. he pulls them out of you and into his mouth, eyes closing in ecstasy as he does; when they reopen, they flick to make contact with yours in a wink. then, just as the aftershocks of your climax are beginning to peter out, matty ducks his head back down to your centre and licks into your entrance, turning the epicurean geiger counter in your body back up to an eleven in one fell swoop.
you gasp at the sensitivity, reaching down as best you can to grab a handful of greying curls, but your efforts are futile; matty locks his arms around your thighs in a vice grip and continues to essentially make out with your cunt, nose bumping beautifully against your clit as he tongue-fucks you to another rapidly approaching orgasm. because you're still recovering from the first one, this climax builds so quickly within you that you don't even have time to warn matty - he knows you're about to cum, though, from the way your legs go from shaking to clamping around his head (something he's told you on more than one occasion that he absolutely loves) and your moans become stuttered, shallower, sexier. so he keeps his motions up, only stopping once he feels your wetness soak his face and hears you scream his name, your legs loosening and trembling slightly on the silky sheets.
after wiping his mouth on the back of his hand and stretching his slightly-sore jaw, matty pulls himself up from between your legs and rests on one arm beside you, leaning over to kiss you deeply. "my good girl. how are you feeling? are you still comfy? do you need a little break?"
panting, you beam up at your husband, matching his lovestruck gaze with your own. "i'm feeling like i want you to fuck me now."
matty laughs, kissing your nose. "you're insatiable, missus."
"and you love it."
"i really do," matty smiles, shifting to hover on his knees above you. "position still good for you?"
"yeah, darlin'," you say, making a little kissy face at matty - he makes one in return, pressing his lips to yours in a little peck - and bringing your hands to pull down the waistband of his boxers; matty quickly takes over, yanking them off and leaving you both naked. "now fuck me hard, please."
"mmm, alright," matty smirks, running the head of his hard cock up and down your folds and teasing it at your entrance. "but remember - you asked for it."
his cock is inside you as soon as he finishes talking, both of you groaning as matty bottoms out - yours quickly turns to a whine as he begins to thrust into you, deep, hard strokes that have your eyes rolling back into your head. the sight of you so fucked out - tits bouncing with every thrust, hands clinging to the metal bars of the headboard, mouth agape and jaw quivering - makes matty moan too. "fuck, look at you, taking my cock so perfectly like the good little slut you are. you were fucking made for me, weren't you?"
you can't even answer, too caught up in how good your husband fucking you feels to remember how to talk. matty, who never misses an opportunity to be ever so slightly sadistic, isn't letting you get away with staying wordless. "answer me, baby."
"mhmm," you manage to croak out, whimpering as a particular thrust hits a particularly good spot inside you. "yours."
"gonna prove it and cum for me again, angel?" matty pants, grabbing your ankles and holding your legs in the air for leverage so he can continue to hit that one perfect spot inside you. "gonna cum all over my cock, and make me cum too? make me fill you up again?"
whining again, you nod furiously. the two previous climaxes have loosened your body up so much that you can feel your third hurtling towards you already - you just need matty to keep up his thrusts for a tiny little bit longer. "don't stop, please, keep fucking me. m'almost there."
"yeah? me too, sweetheart," matty breathes, his thrusts continuing, but getting slightly shallower. "fuck, i'm close. you wanna cum together?"
"please."
"ok, darlin', whatever you want," your husband smiles dazedly. leaning forward slightly again, his right hand leaves its place on your ankle to take up its original residence on your clit, circling in time with the thrusts. "let go for me, whenever you're ready. c'mon, sweetheart, come on my cock."
you're not sure what triggers it - matty's words, his hand on your clit, his relentless fucking, the way he looks at you like you hung the moon, or a combination of everything - but, as if on cue, your third orgasm of the morning hits you. and it hits hard, sending your eyes and head back and your back arching off the bed in sheer pleasure; so hard, in fact, that it triggers matty's orgasm, signified by a guttural cry of your name and a feeling of pure warmth in your core as he finishes inside you.
again, your husband pulls out of you quickly and licks a flat stripe up your core. this time, though, he's back hovering over you within seconds, tapping your lips with two fingers. instinctively, you open your mouth, and matty spits the mixture of your respective releases onto your tongue; you swallow obligingly without comment nor question, earning you a radiant smile, an affectionate "slut", and a soft, lazy kiss.
you pull away reluctantly from matty's lips, bringing a hand to caress his slightly stubbly jaw. "thank you. i love you."
"i love you too, darlin'," matty nuzzles into your hand cutely, a total contrast to the way he was fucking you mere minutes ago. "what a way to start the morning, yeah? proper workout, that."
"well, i did need a way to work off all that extra pasta the little nonnas in the restaurants keep force-feeding me," you giggle. "'for the bambino' my arse. they're just trying to get us not to leave!"
"i think i could stay here, you know," matty ponders, absentmindedly smoothing your hair. "you, me, baba, in this town, in this bed, just snuggling our days away."
"that sounds dreamy."
"yeah," matty sighs, pecking your lips again. "we don't have plans until dinner tonight - wanna practice staying here and snuggling for a few hours?"
"nah."
"what? why?"
"because," you sigh, rubbing your stomach. "baba's woken up and she'd decided it's time for me to piss again."
matty snorts. "impeccable timing. i think she gets that from me. remember that time i-"
"matty, i love you, i really do, but i do need you to shut up and help me to the bathroom now, please."
"alright, alright. whatever you need, wifey."
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