#I probably don't need to keep the chapter announcements around right? | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

tangledinink · 10 months

Text

New chapter of I'm Sorry, Teenage Mutant What Now? is up! The Hamatos are finally back home, but things still don't feel quite normal. Eventually, emotions, tension, and conflict come to a head. Leo dies in a glue trap. Sexy pigeons will be discussed. Read it on ao3 or below the cut!

[ prev ]

They had been back home for twelve days now. And every day that they had been home, they waited for their dad to explain things to them. At first, they were patient. Then they prodded gently. Then they asked. Then they demanded. But every time, there was no real answer.

I mean, he did answer, technically, every time, but not… really. He’d always sort of freeze up and get this far-off look in his eyes and nervously pick around the topic, explaining but not actually explaining at all, and then at the end of it all they’d discover that none of their questions had been answered. They’d ask him to tell them about the Hamato destiny, and he’d tell them that he had ceased contact with the Hamato Clan a long time ago. They’d ask him why he wore a bracelet, and he’d tell them that the existence of yokai was meant to be kept a secret. They’d ask him about the deal with Big Mama and his relationship with her, and he’d clam up and tell them that they had known each other a very long time and it was difficult to talk about. In the end, they’d always only be told things they already knew. And Leo got that it was hard and that he was stressed, and he understood-- he did. But didn’t they deserve to know at this point?

Mikey, of course, was the most patient with him. But, to his surprise, Raph was by far the least.

“Pops. We gotta talk about this.”

“Red, now is not a good time…”

“That’s the fifth time you’ve said that, Dad! When is a good time?! You can’t just keep doing this!”

“Raphael, please…”

“No, Dad! This isn’t fair! We need to talk about this! You can’t keep just dodging all of this, we deserve to know--”

This was their third day going back to school now, slowly attempting to get back into the swing of ‘normal,’ and Raph and their father had had this conversation every morning over breakfast since they started. And it wasn’t like Leo wasn’t on Raph’s side or anything-- he was. And typically, he’d be right in there with him, getting on their dad’s case and making an argument, but, lately, he was just…

Exhausted.

He shoveled mouthfuls of cereal into his mouth, scowling slightly and slumping over the table as he listened to his dad and his oldest brother do their usual back-and-forth, with Mikey occasionally jumping to play referee. He found it annoyingly ironic how much their morning routine had changed, and yet, at the same time, stayed the same. It was still chaotic and loud, with voices overlapping over each other, and a slight air of frenzy overlaid over everything… but for entirely different reasons now.

Thank god that April still showed up every morning. Though with a bit less mojo than she usually did.

“Oh, look, April is here,” Leo announced loudly as soon as she slipped her way into the apartment, getting up to his feet with a purposefully dramatic scrape of his chair against the floor. “We should probably get going, or else we’re gonna be late, or whatever. You guys ready?”

The conversation stuttered for a minute before Raph huffed, getting to his feet as well. The rest of his brothers followed suit, with everyone beginning to clean up and gather their things so they could make their leave. Leo grabbed his backpack off the back of his chair, pausing for just a moment to double-check its contents and wrinkling up his nose.

“Hang on. I need my laptop. You guys go ahead, I’ll catch up,” Leo muttered, getting a chorus of vague acknowledgments in return as he looped his way out of the kitchen, jogging up the stairs.

Right, laptop, laptop-- exactly where he had stupidly left it the night before, charging on his desk, rather than in his backpack like it was supposed to be. He yanked the charging cord out so he could tuck it into his bag, rushing slightly, not wanting to get left behind, and the whole trip wouldn’t have taken more than thirty seconds, tops, if he hadn’t made a critical mistake.

Looking slightly to the left and catching his own eyes in the mirror.

His hurried steps immediately ground to a halt. It felt like getting caught in a glue trap, and he just… stopped. A little voice in his head told him that he was in a hurry, remember? But the voice was ignored.

He stopped and stayed, and examined his reflection.

Even as he was doing it, he felt stupid. But he did it anyway-- very slowly swaying from one side to the other. Turning himself to the right, and then to the left, his gaze roaming up and down himself. Taking silent inventory. Making quiet critiques.

He hated this new habit he had formed. He hated hating himself. He had never hated himself before. Even when things had been awful and frustrating, he had never hated before.

He couldn’t even understand why things had changed like this. Just because it wasn’t real? Because it had been worse two weeks ago? Because he wasn’t sure what the future would look like anymore?

He had had better reasons to hate himself before now.

[ April: leo youve been typing at me for ten minutes now.

April: whatever it is just tell me already ]

Leo whined loudly, laying his head back down flat on the cold tile floor, burying his face in his hands. Okay. This was it. The worst moment of his life. Literally the epitome of misery and humiliation. His life would never get worse than this! He had peaked at twelve-- could you believe it? That had to be a new record. He would call the Guinness people if the circumstances were different, and it wouldn’t just immediately make his head explode from mortification.

He stayed just like that, laying flat on his back in the bathroom, his phone providing a steady weight on his sternum as he considered the cruel joke that was his life for just a bit longer. It took about three more minutes before he finally got up the nerve to text her back.

[ Leo: ok look

Leo: i need ur help

Leo: but if you tell anyone else abt it ever then ill immediately die and also kill you. got it?

April: i know youre not threatening me right now leonardo

Leo: OK SO YOU KNOW HOW SERIOUS I AM

Leo: PLZ?????

April: fine. what??? ]

Leo groaned loudly, pressing his phone up against his forehead, and, for the millionth time, considered just figuring this out on his own somehow. But he had been attempting that for a while now, and it was not going near as well as he had hoped. There was a decent chance that these jeans were beyond saving.

[ Leo: can you bring me pads or tampons or whatever the fuck. please. ]

April’s response was near immediate.

[ April: omw. are you home?

Leo: yeah. 3rd floor bathroom.

April: ill be there in like five minutes. ]

Leo sighed softly, rolling over onto his front to shove his face against the floor. He had a hard time feeling any sense of accomplishment because this just meant that April was gonna show up. This sucked. This wasn’t fair. Why did he have to deal with this?

He marinated in his misery until he eventually heard a very soft knock on the door. He willed the universe to end his life but was ignored, so he kind of mumbled gibberish in response, and after a moment, April poked her head in. She scoffed at the sight of him, rolling her eyes as she slipped her way into the room, closing the door behind her.

“Leo, why are you on the floor?”

“Because my life sucks,” he grumbled in response, not picking up his head.

“Dude, you’re gonna be fine,” she sighed, kneeling down next to him and slinging her backpack off. “Look, I’ve got you! I just kind of grabbed some of everything ‘cause I wasn’t really sure what you needed? Do you guys not have anything in the house?”

“I don’t know!” He sighed. “I mean. Maybe? I think there’s some emergency stuff tucked away, like… somewhere. But I don’t know where. And there’s no way I’m asking Dad!” He hissed. “... This is so unfair. The people at the clinic said I wasn’t gonna have one!”

April frowned. “Are the blockers not working…? Leo, if something is wrong, then we gotta tell someone--”

“Nooooo,” Leo groaned, picking his head up just enough to scowl, his face scrunched up. “Technically, they said that… I probably wasn’t gonna have any. But that I might have… like… one, ish, before the blockers kicked in all the way.”

He whined softly, letting his head drop back down.

“... I was just really hoping that I wouldn’t. This sucks. I think I’m dying from blood loss, by the way. How much blood can you lose before you die? I think I’m approaching whatever that limit is!”

April scoffed as she settled down to sit next to him, leaning over so she could rub his shoulders a few times.

“Well, then, you just gotta do this once! And then you’re all done! That’s not too bad of a deal! I’ve gotta deal with it all the time.”

“Yeah, but you’re a girl!”

April sighed deeply.

“Yeah, I know,” she said. “But there are guys who deal with periods all the time, too! You’ll be okay. You just gotta get over this hump and you’re home free.”

“This is so unfair,” Leo grumbled bitterly.

“I know,” April relented.

“I hate this.”

“I don’t blame you.”

“I’m gonna lay here and wait until I die.”

“No you’re not.”

“It hurts.”

“Well, here. I brought you some Midol. And I can go make you some tea, too, if you want. That usually helps.”

“... Okay.”

“Alright,” April sighed, getting back to her feet, leaving the backpack behind. “I’ll go grab some new clothes for you and start the tea. I’ll be back in, like, five minutes, okay? Don’t die on the floor while I’m gone.”

“No promises...”

“Seriously, Leo,” she sighed, her hands on her hips. “Chill. I know this, like, super sucks. And it’s not fun. You’re allowed to hate it. But you’re gonna be fine, okay? I promise.”

He had been alright, actually. It had sucked, but then after a few days, it was over, and it hadn’t happened again since. And he had hated every minute of it.

But even then, he hadn’t hated himself. It wasn’t like this.

Distantly, he heard Raph yelling for him from downstairs. Frowning, he spared a final glance at his own self in the mirror before he shoved his laptop into his bag and left the room.

---

That first day they had been back after everyone went back to their rooms and pretended to be able to fall asleep, their dad had eventually tempted them all out with breakfast. And once they had eaten, Dad migrated to the living room, putting on a movie, and they had all followed after him. Usually, Dad always sat in his easy chair-- an old, but beloved and reliable pillar of the home, the fabric worn away from years of use. But that day, he hadn’t.

He had sat on the couch. And Mikey had sat on the couch, too, tucking himself up against his side and laying his head down against his shoulder, and their dad had wrapped his arm around him. Leo had ended up on his other side, likewise held close by their father’s arms, and then Raph had piled in, too, and even Donnie joined them, all five of them squished onto the couch together, not really watching the movie playing on the TV, but really just… taking comfort in each other’s presence. Allowing themselves to feel that, yes, beyond a shadow of a doubt, they all had made it. Everyone was here and accounted for. They had made it back home. Everyone who was supposed to be here was.

After several days of hounding their father for answers and receiving no reply, however, Raph had stopped joining them on the couch. Leo stopped a bit after that, too, and then so did Donnie, until it was just Mikey and his dad, curled up in silence in the living room each day, watching old Lou Jitsu films play, the soundtrack filling the space with white noise.

“Dad,” Mikey had said one day while the credits rolled, his voice soft, just barely above a whisper. “You have to talk to us. We can’t… we can’t just keep pretending like things didn’t happen.”

“I know,” their father had sighed, his voice drooping with exhaustion. “We… will. I just… I am trying…”

“Okay,” Mikey had replied, and they hadn’t said anything after that.

That had been almost four days ago. And Mikey was still waiting.

He knew his brothers were having a harder time, though. He couldn’t blame them, either. That was the worst part.

“Raph, we need to be patient with him. He’s really trying…!”

“We’ve been patient!” Raph hissed. “We’ve been patient our entire lives! How much longer do we gotta be patient with him? Mikey, come on! This isn’t okay! I mean, he could have-- Leo could have--” his protests died out, and he grit his teeth, turning to glare out the subway window instead. “We can only wait so long, Mikey. You gotta be reasonable.”

“I know, but…”

“It’s like nothing has changed,” Leo muttered, his lips curved into a frown.

“That’s not true!” Mikey insisted. “He wants to tell us! He does! I just think this is really hard for him, okay?”

“And it’s not hard for us!?” Raph huffed.

“Look, I know that it didn’t exactly go that well last time, but… maybe if you guys talk to him together?” April suggested weakly, gesturing to the group, looking hopefully between them all. “Like, if you sat him down, and all of you tried to talk to him… I mean, like, everyone this time…”

April didn’t even touch Donnie, but as soon as she so much as turned towards him, he pulled away sharply, curling his lips and signing very definitively ‘NO TOUCH.’

“Okay! Okay, that’s fine, I wasn’t--”

‘NO TOUCH.’

“I got it, Dee, chill! I’m not gonna touch you!” April huffed. Donnie all but glared at her, absolutely bristling, before he curled back up on himself, staring out the window again. April glowered, rolling her eyes as she slumped down in her own seat, arms crossed over her chest.

Mikey frowned a bit. Okay… Note to self. Check on that later.

“If we corner him, it’s just gonna freak him out more,” Mikey insisted. “And us arguing with him every morning isn’t helping! If we wanna sit down and talk with him, we have to be cool about it. Can you guys please just let me lead on this?”

“Mikey, it’s not your job--”

“It’s not your job, either!” Mikey immediately snapped. “I can handle this, okay? And you guys are just making it worse! Can you please just trust me, for once, and let me handle something on my own instead of trying to take over!?”

There was a long beat of silence, and Mikey winced a bit. Ooh, had he said all of that out loud?...

“I just… I think I can do this better on my own,” he said after a moment, forcing his voice down into something more level, more calm. There had to be something he was capable of doing on his own-- something helpful. Anything. Surely this was it? “I really can. Please?”

Raph frowned. And he sighed very softly.

“Okay. Fine. Whatever you say, Mikey.”

---

It had only been, like… two weeks. Just two weeks away from his locker, his own damn locker. That was hardly any time at all. He had been doing this multiple times a day for two semesters now. Even just two weeks ago, with everything he had going on, he knew the combination right off the top of his head, no problem. Yesterday, even, he had known the combination.

And now his mind was completely blank.

Raph hissed in frustration, spinning the lock around for the fifth time, resetting the damn thing so he could try again. Okay, so, it was 12-18, and then… What? 03? Was that right? That felt out of order. How could he not remember this? It was just three numbers. It was his locker combination, for god’s sake, he couldn’t have just forgotten.

He yanked at the lock, and it didn’t give. He groaned, his head falling forward to smack against the cold metal surface with a solid thud.

“... You good?” April questioned from his left, leaning over slightly to give him a curious look.

“Leo and Donnie were right,” he grumbled, his face set in an absolute scowl. April paused, raising a brow slightly.

“Right about what?”

“I beefed it.”

“Raph, I’m gonna need you to elaborate a little.”

“With Dad!” He hissed, pulling back, lifting his head from the locker just so that he could scrub his palms over his eyes angrily. “When we talked, that time, on the train-- I knew somethin’ was wrong! I knew that there was somethin’ goin’ on, and I just… I just let him not tell us! I just let him keep his damn secrets and deal with everything on his own instead of steppin’ up! I choked!”

“Raph, come on, that’s not--”

“Yeah, it is!” He insisted angrily. “If I had done somethin’ then, if I had actually pushed and gotten him to talk to us, maybe none of this would have happened in the first place! I knew there was somethin’ wrong, and I just ignored it and let it go instead of mannin’ up and dealin’ with it head on, and now everyone is completely miserable, and I can’t figure out how to fix any of it, now everythin’ is just-- it’s all completely--”

“Raph!” April hissed, cutting him off. “Dude, stop it. You’re spiraling.”

Raph bristled, turning to scowl at her, thinking about arguing for a moment. But eventually, he just grumbled, looking back down at his feet and stiffening slightly.

“So what if I am?”

“You and I both know that if you pushed Yoshi then, he just would have pushed you back. I mean, jesus, dude, we were all literally held hostage by a spider, and he still doesn’t wanna talk to you guys! You think if you had just played your cards a little differently during one conversation, things would have actually changed?”

Raph frowned, shrugging a bit. “They might have,” he finally said. “At least then I would have tried.”

Maybe if he had pushed then, at least now, he wouldn’t have to see his baby brother plummeting through the air every time he closed his eyes.

“Raph, you did try! You all tried! You’re still trying! But it doesn’t all fall on you, okay? I mean-- you’re sixteen, for god’s sake!” April hissed, her voice cracking slightly, this small, unspoken pressure pushing up the edge of it-- wobbling in such a way that had Raph’s head picking up, his brows furrowing. “You can’t be expected to deal with all of this! I mean, this is all-- this is all-- a lot, and, and a lot happened, and things could have gone really badly, and everyone is scared, including your dad, and us, and--”

“Okay. Okay, I know. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry, idiot! Just-- just stop blaming yourself--”

“April.”

“This is all--”

“Hey. April.”

She didn’t respond right away, hunching her shoulders and gritting her teeth. He could see her jaw tense from here.

“You’re spiralin’,” he said, but she didn’t laugh the way he was hoping she might. Well, it had been a long shot. He sighed a little bit, leaning over slightly, his eyes roaming over her face while she glared off to the side.

“Apes, are you… okay?”

---

[ Raph: sound off

Mikey: yo

Leo: wut

Donnie: Present.

Raph: me and april are over in the north stairwell on the second floor. forget classes. let’s get outta here

Leo: im sorry are u telling us to skip class rn

Raph: yes

Leo: who are u and what have u done with our brother

Raph: cut the sass or we’re never doin this again

Mikey: okay!!! :D

Donnie: Why are we skipping class, praytell?

Raph: we’re gettin manicures

Mikey: OHMIGOSH YES

Donnie: I would like to request we go to the establishment on 83rd.

Leo: dude duh thats where we always go

Raph: were goin to the place you like dont worry

Leo: say no more, omw ]

---

“What color are you gettin’?”

“Blue,” Leo hummed.

Raph had honestly been a little bit worried it would be difficult to get them out of the school and make it over here without any trouble, given how recently they had pulled almost the exact same move (he was pretty sure the only reason they hadn’t gotten in massive trouble was because, you know, their whole situation,) but it had been just as easy as the first time. Damn, maybe their school needed better security.

Once he had gathered up all of their siblings, they made a beeline for their preferred nail salon. They had all been coming here since they were still new in the city. It was comforting. Familiar. Not much had changed over the years, with the same dim neon advertising out front and the same worn, padded chairs and tables inside, the same wall of nail polishes on display by the front for them all to peruse at their leisure.

Even just the air of this place held comfort, oddly enough.

“Of course you are,” Raph chuckled.

“That’s his life color,” Mikey chirped, and that made Raph smile a tiny bit.

“Yeah, Raph. It’s my life color,” Leo said, turning just enough to give Raph this absolutely shit-eating grin, to which Raph rolled his eyes in response.

“You always get blue!”

“Yeah, and you always get red.”

“No, I don’t!”

“Red or black.”

“I look good in red!” Raph defended.

“And I look good in blue!” Leo said, shooting him a look and a cocky sort of smile. But there was something about it that kind of made Raph squint a little. There was just sort of this corner of his eyes where the smile didn’t quite touch, like a shadow, almost--

“What about you, April?” Mikey questioned, turning to glance at their sister with a curious look. She hesitated for a second, looking sort of thoughtful.

“What’s my life color again?”

“Green,” Mikey reported proudly, absolutely beaming at the question, more than a little excited at the chance to share. Raph quietly thought that he’d have to make a point to ask more about it later, just so he could get that look on his face again.

“What kind?”

“Like, uh…” Mikey paused a moment, examining the wall of nail polish bottles, looking from the selection to April and back again a few times before he settled on a bright shade of chartreuse that reminded Raph of new spring leaves. “Like this!”

“I’ll go with this, then,” she said, smiling the tiniest bit as she took the little bottle in her hands. Raph thought to himself that she still looked… tired. But a lot less spiral-y than before.

He felt less spiral-y, too.

“This way we’ll all match,” she explained. “We’ll all have life color fingers.”

“You gettin’ purple, Donnie?” Raph questioned, leaning over slightly to glance at his brother, who stood off to the side. The question was really just a formality. He knew Donnie would get purple. He always got purple, and, just as expected, Donnie nodded, holding up a little bottle of vibrant violet varnish in reply.

They always went to this place on the rare occasion that they did this because this place didn’t mind if Donnie just used their supplies and did their own nails instead of being touched by any of the nail techs. Whatever made his little brother happy-- Raph didn’t mind.

So long as they were all happy.

And safe.

He clenched his jaw for a moment, glancing over at Leo from the corner of his eyes, where he was debating between a neon cyan and a glittery cerulean with April and Mikey, trying to gather votes as he weighed the pros and cons.

So long as he was safe.

“Leo, didn’t you get the glittery one last time we came here?”

“You remember that?” He muttered, not even looking up. “I mean, yeah, probably, but Mikey said it matches my life colors…”

“Of course, I remember!” Raph scoffed, leaning over slightly to look. “... Well, the glitter is very you.”

“Is it?”

“Yeah. ‘Cause you’re, like… you know! Sparkly!” Mikey teased, grinning a bit, nudging the other, and Leo laughed, but in this way that felt ever-so-slightly left of normal, hip-checking Mikey in return before placing the two bottles back on the shelf.

“Well, if I got that one last time, I should probably get something different,” he said, picking through the selections for a moment before settling on a more understated navy. Raph didn’t think he had ever seen Leo pick out a color so dark before.

“That one?”

“Yeah. It’s classy,” Leo insisted. “You know. Elegant and all that.”

“Psh. Who needs class when you can have razzmatazz?!” Mikey argued, gesturing to the absolute collection of bottles he had bundled up in his arms, ranging from neon magenta to metallic orange. “Variety is the spice of life, baby!” He did this every time.

“You’re lucky all the nail techs always like you,” April remarked with a scoff.

“For some reason,” Leo added.

“Remember that time he tried to do a cartwheel and he nearly knocked over the entire acrylic display?” April laughed. Mikey flushed.

“That was one time!” He argued. “And I was only ten! Plus, nothing got broken!”

“Nothin’ got broken?” Raph echoed.

“Well, not many things!”

“Aw, come on, guys, he felt bad!” Leo defended, even though he was smirking, slinging an arm over his baby brother. “And it was an accident! It wasn’t as bad as the first time we came here--”

“Hey--”

“-- and Raph drank one of the nail polishes.”

April cackled.

“He what!? How have I never heard this before!”

“It was our first time! I was only, like, six!” He cried. “It was bright red! Like candy! I thought it would taste good!”

“So you drank the entire thing!?”

“Everyone freaked out,” Leo laughed. “We had to call poison control.”

“I was fine.”

“And that was our first time here,” Leo clucked his tongue. “What an impression we made… Remember?”

“Dad was so embarrassed,” Mikey giggled. “He had made it this whole thing, too, us ‘going out’ in the city and having a family day to see all the things in New York.”

“And we went up to the zoo beforehand, right? And then Mikey got lost when we were looking at the cheetahs, and Dad was freaking out because that place was packed and we couldn’t find him anywhere,” Leo remarked.

Raph scoffed loudly. “I remember! It was so busy, no one even realized he was lost or anything! Everyone just assumed he was with someone else,” Raph sighed deeply, shaking his head. “Mikey always wandered off, and then he never freaked out when he got lost. At least when Donnie wandered off and got lost he’d cry about it so someone would notice and help,” he tsked. “Mikey would have gone ‘round that whole zoo by himself for the entire day and not even cared,” Raph said, and Mikey snorted.

“I don’t remember that!”

“I do!” Raph huffed. “No one even realized you were some sad little lost kid ‘til you tripped and fell down eventually and started cryin’. And then that finally clued some people in and they found one ‘a the employees to help you out, and that’s how we found ya’. And I remember when we finally did go and get you, they gave you this little flower clip from one of the gift shops for your hair to make you stop cryin’ and you were happy as a clam! You didn’t even care you had been lost, you were just happy you got a flower. And Donnie and Leo were so jealous. Dad had to buy us all hair clips before we could go home because you guys carried on so much.”

“Okay, that I remember,” Leo snickered. “I think we still have those. Or I have mine, at least, somewhere in my room… And we went to get lunch at that one place up in Manhattan after that, didn’t we?”

“Yeah. Uhhh… Rakken Ramen!” Mikey said, his eyes lighting up with the memory. “I remember because Leo kept making puns about rock-and-roll and stuff.”

“And we had edamame for the first time. And mochi,” Leo hummed.

“That place was so good,” Mikey sighed deeply. “We haven’t been there in forever… we should go back…”

“We should,” Leo agreed. “And maybe this time Raph won’t eat anything that’s not food.”

“You kinda had a habit for a while, huh?” April remarked with a grin, giving the other a look. Raph scoffed.

“Right, like I was the only one. We all put shit in our mouths.”

“Yeah, but you were the worst,” Leo challenged.

“You’re still the worst,” April laughed.

“I am not!” He protested. “If anything, Mikey’s the worst. Remember that time he swallowed a penny?”

“Lots of kids swallow pennies!” Mikey whined. “It’s common!”

“Five different times, Angelo!? Why did you keep eatin’ pennies?!”

“I dunno! They looked good!”

“Y’all are menaces,” April laughed softly, shaking her head. “Can’t take you anywhere…”

“Okay, but what about the time at the craft fair when April--”

“Not another word, Leonardo!”

---

“DONNIE!”

Leo rarely actually knocked and waited for his twin brother to allow him access to his room, instead just preferring to throw himself through the door with wild abandon and panache for extra dramatic entrances. He definitely wasn’t gonna knock and wait today. Donnie looked up from whatever he was working on at his desk, huffing loudly and rolling his eyes.

“Leo, I said to--”

“Guess what!!!” Leo did not have time to listen to Donnie’s lecture about ‘privacy’ and ‘boundaries’ and ‘basic manners’ right now. He was way too excited. Donnie sighed, his brows furrowed as he glared at the other.

“... What?”

Leo paused, looking his brother up and down, and then scowled, placing his hands on his hips.

“Well, if I tell you, are you going to be actually excited?”

“What?”

“I’m not gonna tell you if you’re just gonna be all…” He gestured to the other. “Donnie about it. It’s really cool. So you’ve gotta be excited. Got it?”

Donnie blinked slowly, staring his twin down with an unamused expression.

“Yes, dear brother. I promise to express sincere joy and excitement at whatever news you’re about to impart upon me,” he deadpanned, glaring at the other all the while.

“Okay okay okay,” Leo backed up a bit in order to pose. “Me and Dad just talked. And he said!... That I can start taking puberty blockers!”

Donnie blinked in surprise.

“Oh. That actually is cool. Like… genuinely. Congrats, Nardo”

“I KNOW!!! I’m so excited!” Leo cried, moving to flop down on his brother’s bed in sheer delight, kicking his legs. “This is so freaking cool! Eat it, puberty! Good luck ruining my life now!!! I’m not gonna have to do any of that stupid nasty girl stuff!!!”

Donnie frowned just the tiniest bit, rolling his eyes.

“What’s wrong with girls?”

“Nothing! But their girl stuff is gross,” Leo responded with a huff.

“No, it’s not.”

“It is too. We went to the same health class. I know you think that stuff was nasty!”

Donnie visibly shivered, but huffed a bit, holding his ground.

“I dunno,” Donnie mumbled, shrugging a tiny bit, his eyes still glued on his phone. “Being a girl doesn’t seem that bad.”

“What?!” Leo scoffed loudly, sitting up to give his twin an incredulous work. “Yeah, it does! Being a girl is the worst!”

“Well, how would you know?” Donnie challenged. “You’re not a girl.”

Leo opened his mouth and then closed it again. Huh. He supposed he had a point.

“Yeah… Well. You’re not a girl either,” Leo huffed in rebuttal.

When Donnie didn’t respond right away, and Leo paused, his brows knitted together. Oh, hey. Wait a minute. He narrowed his eyes.

“... Why?” He pressed, leaning forward a bit, trying to get a glance of his twin’s face, though they remained firmly facing away from him. “... Do you wanna be?”

“No!” Donnie scowled, and then hesitated, leaning their head back. “No. Not… really.”

“What does that mean?”

“What?”

“Not really. That’s not the same as not wanting to be a girl.”

“Well. I don’t--”

“If you wanna be a girl you can just be a girl.”

“I don’t want to be a girl!”

“Then what’s the issue, dude?”

“I don’t wanna be a girl… all the time. Just. Kind of. Some of the time? Ugh. Nevermind. This is stupid--”

“Well, just do that, then,” Leo said. “Just do the some of the time. What’s stopping you?”

Donnie paused for a moment, frowning a bit and sort of examining his feet.

“I don’t know,” he finally admitted.

“Well, then, we should just do it,” Leo announced, crossing his legs. “If you don’t like it, we can just stop and go back. It’s easy.”

“I don’t even know how I would accomplish that!” Donnie protested.

“Well,” Leo said, tilting his head to the side, considering for a moment. He supposed he wasn’t completely sure either, since he had come out at the ripe age of five, but he had certainly picked up a pretty good idea over the years from friends, peers, books, and of course, the internet. “Do you wanna change your name?”

“No. My name is fine.”

“Okay,” Leo said. “... Do you wanna be. Like… my sister?”

“Not really,” Donnie said. “I mean. I still want to be your brother. You guys can still call me your brother. I don’t…” He frowned. “I don’t want to be not your brother.”

“Oh, okay.”

“And I still want to be Dad’s son.”

“That’s fine. Uh. Is there anything you do wanna change, then?”

Donnie shrugged a little, picking at the edges of their sweatshirt thoughtfully. “No. Not right now,” he finally said. “I guess just… you knowing is sufficient. For now.”

“Oh. Yeah, okay. Cool.”

Donnie sighed very softly, letting out a long breath, and Leo watched as his brother’s frame slowly untensed and relaxed.

“Okay. Cool.”

---

“You already chipped it,” Raph remarked, leaning over his shoulder gently to look at his nails. Leo resisted a sigh, leaning away in turn, pulling back from the contact.

“Yeah. Bummer. I’ll probably just take it off later,” he said with a hum, looking back down at his phone-- trying to act casual.

“Take it off? But we just got ‘em done!” Raph protested.

“Yeah, but it’s chipped,” Leo said, shrugging. “I dunno what you want me to do. I must have done it while skateboarding or something.”

“When did you go skateboarding?”

“The other day,” Leo said, noncommittal, leaning back in the seat of the train slightly, glancing out the window. “Hey, do you think pigeons are gonna evolve to be, like, sexy?”

“What.”

“Well, like. Half the pigeons you see are boring, right? Just… Regular pigeons with the boring, standard pigeon affair,” he quickly launched into an explanation, gesturing out the window as he spoke. “But then some of them are, like, crazy. Like, white with black spots or brown or whatever. Like. Some of them look super cool. Do you think New Yorkers will develop a preference for the cooler pigeons, and give them more bird seed, and therefore effectively breed out the normal ones? Like. Artificial natural selection? But for birds looking cool?”

“... What?” Raph repeated.

“That would be so horrible!” Mikey protested. “You can’t just feed birds based on who’s the prettiest!”

“Plus, like, would it even work? ‘Cause, I mean, maybe the regular ones are, like, scrappier, so even if people were givin’ the other ones more food…”

And off they went. Leo sighed quietly in relief as his brothers easily took the bait, spiraling off into a pigeon debate and leaving him in peace. Thank god.

He settled into his seat, shifting just enough so he could watch the world fly by in a blur. If he didn’t focus his eyes on everything, it all just blended together, as though someone had taken a palette knife over reality. The train hummed and rocked as they went, and the corners of his lips twitched slightly as he watched.

It had been, what-- a month since they had last attended a martial arts tournament? But it felt like a goddamn lifetime. The world was so different now, and, once again, no one even seemed to realize it.

There had been several long arguments about whether or not they would attend, just as there had been several long arguments about whether or not they would go back to school or whether or not they would return to sports and other after-school activities. Long, lengthy debates about whether or not it was safe, whether or not it was too soon, or if just sitting at home and waiting was doing more harm than good, etc etc, with no one on any one clear side, everyone just worried and anxious and upset each time, all smeared together into sludge. Leo still wasn’t sure if it was the right move, but he didn’t think that sitting at home, with everyone locked away in their own rooms or arguing with each other, was a good idea, either.

Back when their dad was still missing, he had thought, pretending like everything is normal is so stupid. Why are we doing it? But now it was all he wanted to do. He wanted so desperately to pretend like everything was normal. He wanted so badly to act as though the problem wasn’t there. If he didn’t look at it, maybe he wouldn’t have to feel it. If he didn’t look at it, maybe no one else would, either.

The rest of the train ride was pretty quiet, aside from Mikey and Raph chatting about pigeons. It was odd. Usually, they would all talk. Their dad would chat with them, Donnie would chat with them… Usually, Leo had things to say, too.

But not today. The train ride seemed long.

And yet, no time had passed at all before they were there. Leo liked the familiar buzz-- the bustle and shuffle of the people, the hum of excitement in the air, the promise of competition. At least this hadn’t changed. His family stuck close as they went through the usual routine, getting signed in and finding a spot in the bleachers, just like always, and they all played their usual parts-- Mikey thinking he forgot something before their dad revealed that, no, he had remembered, and it was in the bag, their dad taking the time to try to hype them all up, and Leo informing Donnie that he was gonna wipe the floor with him, (now that he no longer had any kind of head injury… He found that some of the usual joy of threatening his brother with bodily harm was gone now that he had watched them be beaten into unconsciousness by a stranger.) However, he did not receive the return banter he would usually expect, bringing the sense of familiarity coming to a grinding halt. Leo frowned a bit, trying not to sulk as the group made their way to the locker rooms. He hated the way things felt… wrong. Would it really kill Donnie to just play along?

“Hey,” Raph leaned over slightly as they walked, shifting the pace slightly so they were just a few steps behind Donnie and Mikey. Already, Leo didn’t like the look in his eyes. “Are you good?”

Leo’s brow twitched a bit, and he resisted the urge to huff. Oh, great, now Raph, too? He had already gotten the exact same question from Mikey at least eighty times over the past week. He swore his baby brother must have a timer on his phone for how often he came sidling up with those big eyes, trying to see if he was ‘okay.’

“Yeah, Raph. Why wouldn’t I be?”

“Just checkin’!” Raph immediately said, looking a bit nervous, rubbing the back of his neck. “You just. Uh. I dunno. You seem a little… off. That’s all.”

“I’m fine, Raph,” Leo dismissed, rolling his eyes.

“You sure? Because lately, I know, uh, things have been a little…”

“Raph. Seriously,” Leo cut off, bristling a bit. “I just said I was fine. I’m fine, okay?”

And he was! Seriously. He was… fine. It wasn’t a big deal. None of this shit was anything he couldn’t handle on his own. He scowled at the way his brother was looking at him, hunching his shoulders slightly and picking up his pace, following Mikey and Donnie into the locker room with a tiny grumble. Ever since the Battle Nexus thing, everyone just looked at him all the time like they thought he was gonna break, and Leo didn’t even get why. He was fine, wasn’t he!? Everything had worked out, so what was the big deal? They were all home now.

Whatever happened, happened. Leo, for one, was keen to get over it and move on. It wasn’t like anything had changed.

He already couldn’t sleep at night before all this. So it’s not like anything was really different.

He could tell that Raph had more he wanted to say, but thankfully, he didn’t, and the group busied themselves with getting changed into their gi, shoving bags into lockers and making sure everything was all prepped and ready. Leo fell quickly into the familiar routine, a soft sigh escaping him at the blissful relief of it, letting himself sink down inside. It was like ice water on sore, hot muscles, and he thought, god, didn’t they think this was better?

Wasn’t it so much easier to just go back to what they knew instead of lingering over everything that went wrong? Everything that hurt?

And he, himself, hadn’t been intending to linger. He had planned to head out into the main tournament area with the rest of his brothers, once they all had their shit ready and were making their way.

But they had walked past the long row of sinks in front of the bathroom stalls, and he had seen himself.

And goddammit. He was stuck again.

His breath kind of stuttered for a second and then stopped, staying nestled up in the middle of his chest for a moment. He paused, stopping, staring, examining for a moment and scrutinizing. His hand moved on its own, brushing against his own jawline, tilting his head ever so slightly to the side. But every angle looked the same to him.

He felt stupid doing this. Bobbing his head from side to side, expecting that to be enough to change anything.

It wouldn’t.

He already knew.

He finally tore his gaze away from himself, feeling grateful that he was alone in the locker room until he realized that he, in fact, wasn’t. Mikey and Raph had gone on ahead, not noticing him stop and stay behind.

But Donnie hadn’t.

For one long, heavy moment, the two of them stood there in silence, staring at one another. It wasn’t until Donnie began to move that Leo did, too, immediately and knee-jerkingly reacting to the threat of his brother signing to him-- or worse, speaking to him-- and potentially saying the same shit that he had heard a hundred times before over the past week-- the past four weeks-- and did not want to hear again.

“Don’t,” Leo spat, his reaction time leaping to the forefront to show itself off, shutting Donnie down before he had a chance to do anything. “I’m fine, got it? It’s not a fucking crime to look in the mirror. I am fine. I don’t wanna hear it. I don’t want you to ask, I don’t wanna hear any of this stupid emotional bullshit right now over nothing. Especially not from you.”

Donnie didn’t really respond, at least not right away, and Leo was bothered by the fact that his twin brother’s expression was unreadable. Donnie wasn’t always especially expressive, and he tended to wear his ‘resting bitch face’ more often than he didn’t, but it was never unreadable to him. Leo had long ago mastered the art of being inside his brother’s head. He had always been able to catch on to what Donnie was feeling if he looked long enough.

He couldn’t right now. Had something changed with Donnie? Or had something changed with him?

Both of you. Neither of you, something cold and stinging hissed dramatic prose inside his ear. All that’s changed is that you know the fact of the matter now.

You didn’t come into the world together. That connection you’ve always touted is fabricated. There’s no special bond. There’s no unbreakable link.

That is not your twin.

(And he had known this for a while, hadn’t he? He wasn’t stupid. He had realized long before now that they could not possibly be biological twins. But the identity had still stayed on his person up until this moment, and now he felt it falling out of his hands. It only made him angrier.)

Rolling his eyes, though he wasn’t even sure at who, Leo brushed past the other, making a beeline for the exit. “I’m in the first match,” he said, roughly, as if that were a good explanation, as if that was a good excuse for him to take his leave, shouldering his way through the door and leaving Donnie behind.

His throat felt tight. He couldn’t have this conversation right now.

The gap had grown so wide.

He didn’t dare to reach out an arm to check, but he wasn’t sure Donnie was within his reach anymore.

That sucked.

He ached for the familiar to come back.

Reaching his legs out long to build a hurried stride, he focused on pushing everything back down into his stomach and catching up with Mikey and Raph, entering the tournament space and feeling all the chatter and cheers of the fray creep up quickly and crawl into his spine. He hadn’t been lying before. He really was in the first match.

“Yo! Leo. There you are,” Raph turned to face him when he approached, joining the other two at their little corner of the meet. Some of the other kids from the Lou Jitsu School of Ninjutsu dojo were there, too, and Leo made it a point to ignore all of them. “You g--”

“I’m fine,” he snapped, giving his brother an absolutely dangerous glare. Raph and Mikey exchanged looks, just for a second, but thankfully dropped it.

“... Alright. Where’s Donnie?”

“I dunno,” he dismissed, tossing his stuff down into a heap, kicking his shoes off and beginning to pull his hair back properly, wrinkling up his nose as a few clumps of curls brushed against his cheeks, escaping his grip and falling back down into his face. Goddammit.

He had always loved his hair. He spent hours on his hair. He lovingly bleached it, never allowing his roots to creep up too far, and religiously maintained the red streak framing his face. He adored showing off the coily ringlets, tossing them around and flipping his hair dramatically whenever he got the chance. But lately, it was getting on his nerves. He was thinking about chopping it all off.

Raph knelt down next to him, silently taking over, pulling his hair back in an easy, practiced swipe of his large hand, untying the baby blue ribbon from his half-up topknot and calmly beginning to wrap it all into a ponytail instead. Leo frowned, but he let him.

He tore off a long piece of sports tape with his teeth, wrapping it around his wrist with one hand. He had done this a million times, but now his heart clenched anxiously as he wound the tape over the silver bracelet on his wrist, the tiny blue crystal tucked away out of sight and out of reach. His brothers helped him shrug on any required padding, wriggling into sparring gloves and boots.

This was a larger meet, and usually, Leo preferred those, because there was stiffer competition and more events to partake in, but today it made his nerves tremble, squirming up and down his body, pressing against his muscles. Across the mat, Leo saw his opponent doing the same as him, preparing for the coming fight, some of their teammates hyping them up. A man who Leo assumed to be the coach bent over him, speaking fervently, likely giving some last-minute instructions and pointers. For some reason, it made Leo’s stomach turn, even though he knew his Dad was nearby, tucked into the front row of the bleachers amongst the many other parents and spectators and watching. Though their Dad was the one who, truly, taught them martial arts, he had long since retired from ‘officially’ coaching at the dojos, making way for other senseis to take his place. And Leo really liked their coach. But right now, he wished that it was their dad instead.

It wasn’t, though.

“You got this, Leo!” Raph encouraged as he stepped up to the mat, rolling his shoulders a few times, getting in a few more last-minute stretches as he approached.

“Yeah! Kick his butt!” Mikey cheered from the sidelines, and the rest of the team was following suit, rallying behind him as the event began, just like they all did for every match, just like the other kid’s team was doing for him.

Leo didn’t really know the kid on the other side of the mat, though he recognized him vaguely. He knew the opposing dojo, having crossed paths with them at these events before, and it wasn’t uncommon for him to be able to recognize other competitors in he and Donnie’s weight class. He didn’t know his name or anything-- didn’t know a damn thing about him, just had vague recollections of facing him before in the past and taking him down with ease.

He breathed in slow and deep, and then he let it out again.

He would do it again today.

He had done this a million times before. He zeroed in on just this little pocket of the world; just this other kid and him. Everything else faded off as he closed the curtains on it all, coaxing his brain and body together and into focus, stringing them together and aligning his head, his torso, his limbs, and his will.

The boy across from him bowed, and Leo did too, bobbing his head forward stiffly.

“Stance!” The referee’s voice rang out.

Leo’s left foot slid forward, twisting slightly to find a firm hold on the ground. His right foot, in turn, moved back, and he shifted ever so slightly, allowing his center of gravity to sink just a bit lower, holding parallel to the ground. And though he took care to keep his body loose and fluid, all his muscles tensed, bunched up ever so slightly in preparation.

The boy across from him did the same.

“Fight!”

Leo had always relied, to some degree, on his speed. He had a balance-- of course he did, their dad had taught them himself. He had strength behind his blows. He had dexterity and agility, he could think on his feet. But his greatest merit had always been that he was fast. He could endure a hit, but he didn’t have to if he could get out of the way first, and hit back. He was good at it. It was what he did.

He had done this a million times.

The other boy-- his stance was solid, Leo noted in the back of his mind. He was fast, too. He clearly knew what he was doing, was clearly good. He always had been. Why was he just noticing now--?

He was fast, too, but not faster than Leo. At the ref’s wave, the boy leaped forward, taking the offensive, rushing his opponent with an aggressive lead. And it should have been easy for Leo to dodge.

Leo was faster than him. He knew he was faster than him.

But for some reason, he didn’t move. His legs knew what they needed to do, and he knew what he wanted his legs to do.

But it didn’t happen.

Leo hadn’t been expecting a collision.

He hadn’t expected pain. He knew, even as it was happening, that he could dodge this and counter. He was in the middle of a tournament. It was familiar. He had done this a million times.

What was wrong with him?

His legs didn’t listen. He didn’t move… and he was fully expecting to be punished for it.

The impact came and he went down hard.

---

“Leo, honey…”

Inwardly, Leo cringed, suspicion crawling up through his spine as he braced himself for an unpleasant conversation. He already knew what that tone of voice meant. Grown-up’s don’t just go, “Leo, honey…” for nothing.

He reluctantly turned to face the camp counselor who was addressing him, folded at the knees and leaning over slightly, as if she were talking to some little kid, which he was not, thank you very much. He was going to be starting the fourth grade in the fall, as a matter of fact, which was quite relevant, as it would so happen, to his current situation.

This milestone meant he was finally old enough to participate in the day camps overnight event. He and Donnie had long anticipated this occasion, looking forward to this day for months now-- especially since Raph and April had gotten to do the sleepover last year and told them all about it. He and his siblings had been coming here during the summers for nearly as long as Leo could remember. Yeah, sure, they did other stuff, too. Donnie did his space camp, Mikey did his art camp, etc. etc.… But they always wrapped the season up with Camp Laurelwood during the month of August, all attending together. And Leo always had a good time, but he had been especially eager to attend this year. Not just because he was finally deemed old enough to sleep overnight. But because he and Donnie were and Mikey still wasn’t, which brought a whole other unique sense of joy and accomplishment to the entire situation. They hadn’t even technically started the overnight yet, and Leo was already so excited to brag and tell his little brother all about it tomorrow.

But suddenly, he was feeling a little less excited.

“Don’t you think maybe you’d like to set your stuff up with April? In her tent?” Rosie suggested, gesturing slightly across the way, where April and a few other girls were getting settled, sorting through backpacks and playing rock-paper-scissors over who got which cot. Leo glanced over at his sister and scowled, hugging his sleeping bag to his chest.

“No,” Leo immediately responded, his face scrunched up into a prickly glare. Typically, he was all for hanging out with April. He liked April! But how dumb did this counselor think he was?

Did she really think she could trick him that easily?

The corner of Rosie’s lip twitched slightly. “Are you sure? I bet April and her friends would be really excited to have you join them,” she pressed, and Leo bristled. He knew full well that his Dad had already talked to the camp director about this. He already knew he was allowed in whatever tent he wanted. And he knew that every other camp counselor that he had worked with this year so far-- they were all really cool! He never had any issues with anyone else up until now.

He had thought Rosie was cool, too. Up until now.

He was confident that if he put up a fuss, he could resolve this pretty quickly. He was really good at putting up a fuss. He had long ago learned how to fend off the occasional dumb adult who tried to nudge him in the wrong direction like this. He had found some time ago, under his father’s guidance, that he could shut down most situations like this by simply declaring (as loudly as he possibly could,) that no, he didn’t want to talk about his private parts with them, can you please stop asking? to whichever random adult was pestering him. They’d usually back off pretty quick after that.

And it was almost always adults, too. It used to baffle him when he was little, but now it just got on his nerves.

He could kick up a fuss, yeah.

He just really wished he didn’t have to.

“I don’t--”

“No, Leo has to be in my tent. With me.”

Leo glanced over in surprise as Donnie planted himself firmly by his side.

“If he’s not in my tent with me, then I’ll cry,” Donnie reported, quite calmly, pursing his lips slightly as he glared up at Rosie. “And scream. The whole entire night long.”

Rosie floundered, just for a moment, before she forced a tiny laugh. “I’m sure you’d be fine in separate tents for one night. Plus, don’t you think it’d be more fun if you both got to hang out with some other kids for a change--?”

“I assure you I would not,” Donnie responded immediately, barely even letting the words leave her mouth, crossing his arms over his chest. “You see, I’m only nine, and this is my first time ever sleeping out in the woods. And Leo is my twin brother,” he added, pressing just a bit harder than he had to on the last word. “So there’s obviously a lot of potential for tonight to be very scary for me. And different. I’m sure you have notes on the clipboard you carry around all the time about me. So if you make me and my twin brother sleep in different tents, I’m gonna freak out. I’ll stay awake the entire night. And I’ll come into your tent to scream,” he said, very-matter-of-fact like he was making a promise. “I might even throw up, that’s how hard I’ll cry. And then I bet other kids will get scared and start crying, too. They definitely won’t be able to sleep, at any rate. So then the whole entire camp will be up. I bet they’ll have to make the camp director come down, eventually, ‘cause I’m gonna freak out so bad, and she’s gonna ask why you made us sleep apart from each other in different tents, and why you’re making Leo sleep in the girls’ tent, ‘cause I know your clipboard says--”

“Okay!” Rosie hissed, her face flushed slightly as she got back up to her feet-- rising up to her full height. “Alright, Donnie. That’s enough. It was just a suggestion. You and Leo can be in the same tent.”

Leo gaped slightly. Donnie grinned the teeniest, tiniest bit. And they both watched as Rosie walked off, suddenly finding something on the other side of the clearing that desperately needed her attention right away. And then Leo grinned, too, whipping around to face Donnie and laugh.

“Dude, that was cool!”

“I know,” Donnie said.

“Did you see her face!?”

“Yes, I did,” Donnie confirmed, and his grin grew a little wider. “... what a dum-dum.”

“Seriously,” Leo muttered, rolling his eyes, sighing a bit. “... Thanks, Dee.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Donnie said, though he seemed quite pleased with himself. “Obviously, I can’t just sit idly by and allow people to pick on my little brother.”

“We’re the same age!”

“Yes, but I was born first,” Donnie insisted, grinning widely, and Leo scoffed, shoving him gently. Donnie shoved him right back, but not hard.

Yeah, Leo could have handled Rosie by himself. He knew how to. But it felt… really good to not have to. And that was the cool part about Donnie, Leo thought to himself. He always kind of seemed to know when Leo didn’t want to. He even knew when Leo couldn’t handle it himself, even when Leo himself hadn’t realized yet, and he’d step in then, too.

They had always done that. The back and forth. When Donnie was struggling, Leo would jump in and he’d fix it. And when Leo needed help, Donnie would put himself between Leo and the problem, and he’d fix it, too. That was just how it worked. Of course, Raph, April, and Mikey would do the same for either of them and had, in fact, done so plenty of times. They’d all gladly jump to each other’s aid whenever they needed it.

But it was just a tiny bit different when it was him and Donnie. They were twins. The world was just set up in such a way that they tended to traverse it in tandem… which meant he always had someone to lean back into if he needed it. Steady. Reliable. Comforting. And it had just always been that way. They had always done this.

“Whatever. Come on, let’s go put our stuff in the tent before all the good spots are taken!” Leo encouraged, grabbing his bag and shoving Donnie’s into his arms.

“There are good spots?”

“I dunno. Maybe!”

---

Of course, he had seen Leo get hit before. He had seen Leo get hit lots of times. I mean, it’s martial arts, of course people are gonna occasionally land hits on him. Quite frankly, it was usually one of them-- either Donnie snagging him during an event, which was not at all uncommon, or him and Raph getting him during training. Or, you know, just good old-fashioned brotherly banter.

But Mikey hadn’t ever seen him get hit like this before.

He just fucking crumpled.

And it was horrifying to watch, not just because of the sight of his brother slamming down onto the mat, his feet splayed out beneath him, and not just because of the sound, seeming to echo through the stadium over everything else-- but because he watching it happen and he felt so guilty, and he wasn’t even sure why. He wasn’t the one who took him down. It had nothing to do with him. But still, this bright, fidgeting lump rose up into his chest and lodged itself into his throat, pulsing dangerously there like a spark to kindling. Mikey quickly shoved it back down, forcing himself to settle.

Not now.

He watched Raph jerk next to him, and he reached out to grab his arm, because he wanted so desperately to run over to Leo’s side right now and check to make sure he was okay, and he knew Raph did too, but they both knew better. Out of the corner of his eyes, he could see their dad getting to his feet.

Being here suddenly seemed like a really bad idea, actually.

It took him a second, but Leo began to sit back up after a moment, seeming dazed. Relief flooded through Mikey’s entire body. Logically, he knew that Leo couldn’t be injured that badly in a high school tournament, they were both wearing safety gear, the floor was padded, but it just-- it just felt--

He clenched his jaw, tamping it down again.

The referee and their coach alike moved to check on his brother, and Mikey couldn’t hear from here, but one of them waved down one of the medics that always lingered around at the events. He could see from here that Leo was shaking, but trying to get to his feet anyway, his body moving in this stiff, painful way that looked out of place on him. It wasn’t what he usually wore. And after a bit of fussing, some examining, and what looked like some arguing, Leo was up again, testing each leg, taking a few steps, as if to prove to the adults clustered around him he could, in fact, walk.

There was a bit more debate, and he was allowed off the mat (or perhaps dismissed from it.) Mikey felt like he was a caged animal waiting to be fed for how he was pacing, bunched up and quivering with anxious energy, wanting to throw himself at his brother as soon as he got back to them and see if he was okay, check on him, help him, just be near him--

But Leo walked right past them, all but pushing Mikey away when he reached out to him.

And. Okay. That… hurt, a little. Mikey swallowed, trying to dismiss the sting. He was sure Leo was embarrassed, and probably in pain after taking a fall like that. Plus, clearly something was wrong, for him to get taken down in the first place. Maybe he was sick? Maybe something happened?... Don’t take it personally, don’t take it personally…

He chased. He knew that Raph was, too, and their dad was no doubt right behind them, and the Hamatos returned to the locker room that they had just come from not too long ago.

“Leo!” Mikey cried, hurrying to catch up. Leo didn’t respond.

“Leo, are you--”

“I’m fine, Mikey. Can you just give me a minute?”

Raph scoffed, bristling behind him. “Uh, clearly you’re not fine! What happened back there? Are you hurt--”

“If I was hurt, then the medic wouldn’t let me walk away, obviously,” Leo spat in return, but Mikey could see from here that now that they had retreated to the locker room, away from the prying eyes of officials, a limp that hadn’t been there before had begun to color Leo’s gait.

He heard the door open and close, and he was right. Their dad was right behind them.

“Blue!” Dad fret, moving to join them as Leo plopped down on the nearest bench, wincing slightly at his own harsh, careless movements, beginning to yank off his gear and toss it to the side. “Are you--”

“If anyone,” Leo hissed, his shoulders tensing up sharply, “Asks me one more time if I’m okay, then I’m going to lose my mind! How many times do I have to say it!? I’m fine, okay!? I’m fine! I just got hit in a fight, alright!? It’s a fight! It happens! It’s not the end of the world! Can all of you please find something else to fuss over?! I’m fine and I don’t want to talk about it!!!”

Mikey blinked in surprise with the venom in his brother’s voice. This was so… unlike him. Yeah, he knew that Leo didn’t like attention, at least, not attention like this. He didn’t like people to worry about him. He was independent. He wanted to be the caretaker, Mikey had noticed long ago, even if Leo hadn’t yet, rather than the one taken care of. He was too proud to always accept help when he needed it. But he didn’t act like this. He distracted, he made jokes, he dodged questions and, yes, okay, he acted like a brat sometimes.

But he didn’t treat people like this.

Mikey narrowed his eyes, and he set his jaw.

“No.”

Leo groaned loudly, tipping his head back slightly. “Mikey--”

“No. Leo, stop it! Just stop, okay?!” He hissed, his own hackles rising to meet him. “Do you think we’re stupid!? You’re not fine! You’re clearly not fine! Obviously, none of us are fine, okay!? Can we please just admit that things are bad right now so that we can try to fix it and make it better instead of just… pretending like nothing happened?!” He seethed. “I have tried so hard to be patient with all of you, but this sucks and it’s not fine. We need to talk about this! About-- everything! This clearly isn’t working! I’m-- I’m trying to be patient, and I can’t--”

Some tears rose up in his throat, pricking the edges of his eyes, and he grit his teeth with frustration, trying to will them away but finding very little success.

“It’s not gonna get better unless we do the work and fix it, okay? Just admit that things suck right now, Leo! Please. I know it’s not fine and I don��t know why you’re trying to trick us i-instead of, of t-trusting us! I trust you! Why don’t you guys--”

He hiccuped a bit, squeezing his eyes shut and balling his hands into fists, setting his jaw slightly. He shifted ever so slightly, edging his feet apart to try to stabilize himself and fight against his shaking knees. Raph sighed softly, resting a hand on his shoulder.

“Leo, come on. We’re just worried about you…”

Leo drew his arms around himself, looking sharply to the side. “I’m not--”

“Blue.”

It was their dad who spoke up this time.

He moved to Leo’s side, sitting down next to him, a hand resting on his shoulder. It was quiet for a moment.

“Do not take this out on your brothers. This is my fault,” he said. “If you’re going to be angry at someone, be angry with me. I-- I know I have let you all down.”

Mikey could see Leo swallow from here. And he could see Dad swallow, too, his brows furrowing together as his fingers traced a slow, gentle back-and-forth trail across Leo’s shoulder.

“I’m sorry,” Dad continued, and Mikey could hear this little pinch to his words like he was trying not to cry, but refusing to let himself do so. “I know that… I know that things are difficult right now. And they have been for a while. And I know it’s… it’s because of me and my actions. And I-- I have not been there for you the way you need me to.”

He stopped and Mikey suspected it was to get a handle on himself again, to get control of his voice.

“I’m sorry. I am… afraid. But that is… That is not a good excuse. I-- I don’t want--”

He broke off again, and this time a tear escaped, making a break for it, tracking its way down his father’s face. Their whole life, Mikey could count the amount of times they had seen their dad cry on one hand. But lately, the number was climbing rapidly, and though Mikey had already tried and failed to keep tears off his own face quite some time ago, now they only came faster. He swallowed a sob.

He was almost surprised to hear Leo sob, too, shifting just enough to hide his face against their dad’s shoulder. And in a second, their dad’s arms were around him, and Mikey couldn’t stand to be so far away from them anymore-- a whole foot away. Their dad opened an arm to make room for him right away when he approached, and then for Raphael. There wasn’t enough room for them on the dumb little locker room bench, but they made it work. It wasn’t about settling in and getting comfortable. It was just about hanging on.

“I’m so fucking mad at you,” Leo wept, his voice muffled by their father’s robe.

“I know. You deserve to be,” Dad whispered.

“You-- you’ve sucked since we got home.”

“You’re right. I have sucked,” he murmured softly.

“How could you leave us alone like that?” Raph said, his voice wrenching its way from his throat like a gasp. “We worked-- we worked so hard to find you. And everyone was so scared. I worked so hard. And you were just-- you were just gonna leave. How could you do that?!”

“I’m sorry,” Dad bit out. “I’m so sorry, my sons. I thought-- I thought I was doing the right thing. I’m sorry.”

Mikey hiccuped softly.

“You have to talk to us.”

“I promise I will.”

“We can’t-- we c-can’t do this if you don’t trust us and, and explain, this is... Dad, this is so scary.”

“Everything really sucks right now,” Leo added in, his voice absolutely shaking. “Everything sucks and you won’t h-help us. Y-you’re not--”

“I know. I know. I’m sorry. I’ve… I’ve made a lot of mistakes,” Dad said, his grip on them tightening slightly, pulling them even closer like he was afraid to let them go. “I’ve made a lot of mistakes. I’m sorry. I will-- I will do better. You don’t have to-- to forgive me. But I will do better. I swear I will do better.”

Mikey sobbed, absolutely burrowing his way into his father’s embrace as deeply as he could. His back and his knees hurt from the position he was in, and the posts of his earrings were digging uncomfortably into his neck, but he didn’t care. The entire world felt so cold and right here felt so warm. And so for a while, they all just stayed like that, quiet and close, until Mikey finally began to run out of tears, all wrung out and exhausted.

Having emotions was so goddamn difficult sometimes. He never realized how heavy they all were until he started trying to hold them all down. He thought to himself, jesus, is this what Donnie feels like all the time?

… Wait.

Mikey pulled away just the tiniest bit, his eyes doing a quick sweep of the locker room for something that he already knew wasn’t here.

“Where… where did Donnie go?...”

---

It was dark here. There was no moon or sun here. No stars or sky above.

Donnie supposed that, logically, that made sense. The Hidden City was underground. He supposed he was aware, but it hadn’t sunk in properly until now, examining the skyline off in the distance. He could feel the echoed thrum of the city even from all the way out here, but it felt removed, as though it were secondhand.

Everything was painted in this soft, barely-there blue glow of the towering mushrooms that grew in abundance here, providing the only lighting for him to see by. He had thought about taking out his cell phone to use the flashlight, but he didn’t want to see the missed calls and texts that he was sure were there by now. Under different circumstances, he imagined that he would be excited by the foreign fungi, thrilled for the chance to study them, to take samples and field notes… but he wasn’t now.

For a long time, he had relied on facts and reason. They had always held him up, providing a reliable and steady basis for his life. But now, all of a sudden, they weren’t there anymore. He didn’t know where they had gone, but he knew he had been left behind.

It had taken him a long time to get here-- wherever the hell he was. He didn’t really know, actually, and he wasn’t exactly sure why he had come here. It was an obnoxious labor to retrace their steps from back when they had first attempted to find the secret door Sunita had told them of, operating purely off of memory and uncovering it on his own. He was sure that at least a few hours must have passed, and for all this time and effort, he was now simply in the middle of nowhere. He just didn’t know where else to go.

They didn’t recognize the plants that brushed up against the edges of their hands, but they thought quietly to themself that they reminded them of ryegrass. Perhaps if ryegrass were taller and bluer.

They wished they could feel excited about that.

They didn’t.

Their steps faltered, slowed, and stopped. For a second, they stood still, listening to the deafening quiet of this place. Standing alone in an empty field, staring off at nothing. And as soon as he stopped moving, it all caught up to him.

An unbidden, furious sob clawed its way painfully up his throat. And then a second, and a third, and his skin crawled at the unpleasant sensation of tacky tears dripping down his cheeks, which only worsened this already horrible moment. Why did people always say crying was cathartic? Crying was horrendous. Crying was tortuous. He swiped desperately at his face, trying to remove the offending liquid, but they kept coming, and the more frustrated he became, the more tears fell.

Gritting his teeth, a short, resentful shriek escaped from his mouth, and his hands were shaking bad enough that he was almost unable to tear his bracelet from his wrist, clawing the jewelry off of his body with frenzied yanks of his trembling hands. But he still managed.

The sensation associated with the complete transmutation of his body was still just as awful as before, and he gagged several times, bent over and heaving for a moment as dizziness briefly overtook him. But there was nothing in his stomach to bring up to begin with. He sobbed angrily, steeling himself and forcing himself upright again.

He reared back and threw the bracelet as hard as he possibly could.

Logically, they knew that this was foolish. The cloaking crystal was highly valuable. This was a rash decision based entirely on emotion, and there was a chance he may regret it, given enough time. But logic had failed them. Logic wasn’t here. They had held onto it so desperately, but their steady presence was gone, and the comfortable cloak of numbness that they had worn as a shield for the past week was suddenly gone, too.

It was an emotional decision. And these were emotional thoughts, he knew. But they were all he had right now.

[ next ]

#tw dysphoria #tw transphobia #tw menstruation #sorrywhatnowau #tmnt #rottmnt #rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles #rottmnt fanfic #rottmnt au #rise of the tmnt #disaster twins #rottmnt disaster twins #rottmnt human au #rise tmnt #tmnt 2018 #fidgetwing #writing

194 notes · View notes

sakuraryomen01 · 2 years

Text

Valentino.. /Sukuna Ryomen x Female Reader/ .o2

warnings: asshole sukuna, college prep. school (aka bitch u at an expensive ass school), former friends to lovers, slow burned love, yuji is sukuna's little brother,

reader: female reader; 23 years of age, college prep.

plot: It's been years since you've moved from country life, since you've forgotten about all the things you used to love about your hometown and where you grew up from... you didn't think it'd chase you to college in the city after almost a decade..

words: 1.413k

fanfic masterlist: .o1 .o2 .o3 .o4 .o5 .o6 .o7 .o8 .o9 .10 (will be updated..)

a/n:: dear lord, i didn't know a new fanfic would have this kind of attention so soon! i love it, but it's really unexpected ^^ anyways, here's chapter two, and i hope i can keep the pacing of chapters the same~

Thank you for reading this bit! Enjoy~

. . .

Should I?

It had felt like a few hours by now since you had first seen Sukuna at your class, when in fact, it's been days. You had been too scared to actually try and talk to him, to see if you could make things right.

What would he say? How would he act?

You didn't know, it was just a matter of time till you worked up the guts to speak to him. Constantly glancing over at his spot where he sat, simply trying to gain a glance from him.

He knew you were here, so why didn't he come say hello to you himself?

"That's all for today, class," Toji announced, running a hand through his hair and making a few students gush in the background. "You may leave a little ahead of time so have some fun before going to your next classes. Be sure to do your homework this evening too, it's twenty-five percent of your grade."

As the commotion of students standing and gathering their things buzzed around the room, your eyes fell onto the back of Sukuna's head again. He was currently packing his things in his bag as yet another suitor waddled over and began talking to him.

He seemed uninterested in the girl's tactics, as he simply stared and shook his head when they asked for a date and number. Sukuna didn't say anything as he put on his jacket and bag and then left.

This would be your only chance, you told yourself as you quickly grabbed your things and tossing your bag over your shoulder.

Rushing out of the room, you headed into the direction Sukuna left and stood confused in the middle of the hall, students and other teachers walking past you as you looked around. Sukuna had simply disappeared into thin air.

Damn, you sighed, fixing your bag up and heading towards your next class. Maybe next time.

. . .

One whole month. Still hadn't talked to Sukuna.

"You mean that little punk-ass kid you liked when you were little?" Getou asked, his weekly visit to your roomies being interrupted by your ranting.

"He wasn't a punk," You said, your cheeks flushed pink. "And it was just a little crush, get over it."

"That's my line."

Getou took a sip from his soda can, clicking to another channel on the T.V. as he waited for your roommate. "Shouldn't you just say hi?"

"I can't," You let out a groan, laying down on the couch next to Getou. "I'm nervous. I haven't seen him in over a decade.. it's insane he's here anyway!"

Getou gave a low chuckle to your little rants, listening calmly until your roommate called on him for her sexual needs. Sighing, Getou crushed his empty drink and stood, petting your head as he walked away.

"Hey, just go talk to him," He said as he tossed his can away, already undressing his torso and undoing his hair pin. "He probably misses you as much as you miss him.. or whatever cheesy romance movie you think you're in."

"I don't think I'm in a cheesy romance movie, asshole," You grunted, turning on your side and pulling up the couches decorative blanket.

Getou soon disappearing into your roomie's room and the sounds of a creaking bed soon echoing throughout the dorm rang loud as you grab the paper with Sukuna's dorm number on it. You quickly grabbed a few other things like your phone and a necktie and exited the, now noisy, dorm.

Quickly tying the tie to the doorknob, you looked up directions for your campus on your phone as you went down the dormitory hall. There wasn't much noise this week, most of your neighbors had practice or were nursing hangovers from their previous party the night before. It was a Friday. Normal behavior for them.

Not you though.

You weren't the average party goer, but you have been to a few with Gojo and Getou, and didn't really enjoy your time shared on scene. Most girls were hooking up with the closest thing they could grab, Gojo being one of the obvious targets and leaving the party with at least two women strapped to each arm.

You understood his charm, though it never worked for you.

"Why don't you just let me?" Gojo would often ask the moment he was drunk enough, his lips a pretty pink as usual with some type of alcoholic beverage tainting his normally minty breath.

"Bet I'd make that pussy cream so hard too~.."

And around then he'd earn a one-way ticket to getting his ass kicked. You were always reminded of how much of a man whore Gojo was during the weekends and breaks for school. Playing with more than one persons heart and ending up with another phone number under his belt.

Though, in your mind, Sukuna's behavior seemed different from Gojo's.

He was quiet and rather harsh to any girls that had wanted to "date" him during his younger years. If you'd even consider dating at such a young age.

Anyways, you had finally made your way into the men's dormitory. A weird smell hitting your nostrils that you assumed was a 'man's smell', though you choose to ignore it as you make your way to the second floor and try to find Sukuna's dorm. It wasn't long until you were stopped by some drunken boys that made you sigh and explain your situation. Though, it fell on deaf ears and you pushed past them to the next floor.

Third floor: No luck.

Fourth: No luck.

You were about to give up when you saw the long awaited number of Sukuna's dorm. With a relieved and nervous sigh, you gave yourself a proud smile and slowly walked up to the door. You didn't hear anything from inside, but you knocked all the more and waited patiently.

After a few agonizing minutes, the door clicked open and you saw a messy haired and sleepy Sukuna. His eyes were dazed and droopy, some indents of the bed sheets he was probably sleeping on imprinted on his face and arms. His shirt was messy and his sweats were not really much different except for their grey color.

It had been so long since you saw him, and it was strange to see such a difference in him.

He didn't have any bandages on him that'd signify that he was just in a fight, minus a band-aid that was on his finger. Sukuna also appeared more mature, and grown. Nothing like the boy that you left behind in the Sticks.

"Ah- H-Hello, Sukuna.." You mumbled to yourself, unable to take in the cute sight of Sukuna being tired. Maybe he just woke up?

"Hmmph.." He responded, rubbing his eye and trying to take in who you were. What was your name again?

"Wait.. Y/n?"

Sukuna's voice let out a croak, coughing as his eyes began to focus on you. There was little hesitation before you smiled even brighter and blushed a little, waiting for a hug from him, even if it was brief.

But what you expected wasn't what you got.

"What are you doing here?" Sukuna asked, his eyes narrowing and his posture changing. He went from tired and leaning against his door frame to arms folded and full attention on you.

It wasn't in a friendly manner either.

"I-I was asked by our Economics professor to come see you!" You stuttered out, feeling a small pit of sadness well inside you at what little recognition he had towards you.

Didn't he miss you? Not even a little bit?

"Well, you can go now," Sukuna huffed, his eyes more red than when he was little. "I'm doing fine."

Such harsh words. Not even a hello?

"Wait, don't you miss me?" You asked, your voice strained, that childish flutter in your heart. "It's been so long, don't you want to get to know each other again?"

"Not really."

Why were you so persistent? It was strange, you've never wanted to see someone this badly. And it had been years since you've even had a thought about Sukuna.

Were you coming down with something?

"Is that all?" Sukuna asked, his voice weak and tired, rubbing the tiredness from his eyes once again. "I want to get some sleep before classes."

"Um.. y-yeah," You mumbled, your heart aching as Sukuna closed to door on your face and left you confused.

Why didn't he miss you?

a/n: already so much attention?! i love it but wow, i was expecting it after a few days not this fast! anyways, idk when i'll be posting the next chapter but i thought i'd tag a few extra ppl that i thought would want to read this fanfiction, but if you wish to not be tagged, tell me. i don't want anyone uncomfortable ^^ i cannot believe it took so long to make this chapter! i'm sorry, i've been working on my Kinktober things! (i plan on posting ten drabbles for the last 10 days of kinktober so i hope i get those out soon><)

Chapter Song Theme: — bei maejor - lights down low // slowed + reverb

taglist: @mageyboo, @mzladyd, @mysticwonderlandangel, @sukunaspersonalfleshlight, @kawaiipenguin20, @k-indie, @okkotsufav, @cafeinthemoon93, @pulchritxde, @bontenbunny, @deepinballs, @kleeboomed, @fallenfeversstuff, @fiierytearzx, @wo-ming-bai, @ririkaxbz, @instantgalaxysheep, @watyousayin, @z3r0art, @sukunaobsessed, @lik0, @sukunasfirstlove, @princesstiti14, @nemoyr, @ladywolf44005, @cat-mak20, @coffee-on-a-rainyautumn, @hxlalokidottir

last chapter || next chapter

502 notes · View notes

v-era-18 · 8 months

Text

HoneyBee

Chapter Six: Thin Patience

‘You’re on thin ice with me. Thin. Fucking. Ice’- (Y/n) (L/n)

youtube

“Alright, here's the situation. You've all had direct contact with the NBEs,” Simmons started. They had been walking for a bit now, coming into contact with a few soldiers along the way. From what (Y/n) had gathered, they had a near death experience with the decepticons-they were lucky to even be alive.

“NBEs?” the brown skinned soldier questioned.

“Non-Biological Extraterrestrials,” Simmons quipped, “Try and keep up with the acronyms.”

(Y/n) and Sam locked eyes, minds in sync as to what was going on. They had no clue about what they were dealing with all these years. From what the other man with Simmons had declared her deceased uncle had worked with them closely. Just how much did he keep secret about their true nature?

“What you're about to see is totally classified.”

They proceeded through the long dark tunnel, and to say they were all shocked was an understatement. The adults stared up at the large cybertronian in front of them, silver jagged plating was seen along with metal claws big enough to wrap around two statues on a college campus. The optics were black-unlit-but the girl couldn't look away from their faceplate. This was the monster she hid underneath her bed each night from; Megatronus-otherwise known as Megatron.

“Dear God. What is this?” The general had spoken.

Banachek looked over to (Y/n) the two making eye contact as he started to move forward, “We think when he made his approach over the north pole, our gravitational field screwed up his telemetry. He crashed in the ice-probably a few thousand years ago. We shipped him here to this facility in 1934.”

“We call him NBE One.” Simmons announced proudly.

Sam looked at his dear friend, “Uh, (Y/n) I think it's time to correct them don't you think?”

The crowd looked towards the girl, she wasn't paying attention to them, simply staring at the war terrorist her grandfather warned her about. When's the last time she read about this monster? Was it three years? She was pretty sure it was longer. It was funny, every last detail in the book was true about his stature-his looks-his gaze-.

“Correct us?” Simmons questioned in disbelief.

The girl scoffed, finally tuning in, “Yea, no offense. But I think my uncle let this limited information go far too long,” She looked over at Banachek, sympathy lacing her eyes,” You got everything wrong. He is not NBE One, he's Megatron. Cyberons most fiercest war terrorist and leader of the Decepticons; you see-it was him that led to the fall of their own planet. Killing millions of his own kind to achieve one thing,”

She looked at them venom lacing her tone, “Power,”

Simmons stepped towards her, the two having a non verbal conversation. The man's eyes scream one thing, ‘continue’.

“ In fact he wasn't even the fist one here, there have been other ‘NBEs’ actually known as Cybertronians-”

“(Y/n),” Sam whispered hastily, “Let's not give them a proper history lesson right now alright-!”

“No,” The general stepped forward. “Let the girl talk, she seems to know a lot more than we do.”

(Y/n) turned to Banachek, “How long has he been like that?”

“He’s been in cryostasis since 1935.” He turned to Sam, a proud resolve, “Your great-great-great grandfather and your (GG/n) made one of the greatest discoveries in the history of mankind.”

“Second greatest,” (Y/n) corrected, “Of cybertronian knowledge perhaps. The first one you guys know of though. It's just not considered the first is it?”

Simmons turned to her in shock, “How did you-”

She simply pulled out the necklace, it had started to emit a glow of blue since she arrived, “I'm going to ask you this only once; Where is Estella? Aka NBE two.” The two men looked at each other in disbelief and concern, causing the girl to frown. “There's no need to hide it now I know you guys have her here.”

“That's the thing,” Simmons responded, “Your uncle used to have the password to her area, now it's gone-along with his memory.”

The necklace fell back on the girl's chest, her confidence crumbling, “ What? But my grandmother told me-,”

“The information was confidential, no one knows about the slip up, hence why we can only deeply apologize that there will be no closer that you're looking for.” said Banachek. The two looked at each other for a long moment until when no one was looking the man sent a quick wink her way-giving her everything she already needed to know. Her uncle wasn’t foolish, he made sure at least two or three people had that password.

“Fact is, you are looking at the source of modern age,” Simmons continued, “the microchip, lasers, spaceflight, cars, all reverse-engineered by studying him-NBE One. That's what we call it.”

“Him,” (Y/n) corrected once again, the agent turned to her agitated. It was clear as day he was clearly jealous of her family and the secrets they held, but she wouldn't put it past them-judging from their dead set ‘facts’ they came up with she wouldn't want to share important information with them either.

“And you didn't think the United States military might need to know that you're keeping a hostile alien robot frozen in the basement?” The general questioned.

“Until these events, we had no credible threat to national security.”

“Well you got one now!”

Lennox finally decided to speak, “So why earth?”

“It's the allspark,” (Y/n) answered his question.

“All spark? What is that?”

The girl wanted to throw her family book at their head in response. At this point they were using her as a damn dictionary rather than a well informed individual. Everyone seemed useless in this situation rather than Sam and Mikaela. She turned to her best friend, waving a hand saying he had the floor.

“Well, yeah, they came here looking for some sort of cube looking thing.” The teenage boy tried to explain.

God dammit Sam!

(Y/n) rolled her eyes, “How many times have I told you Sam, it's practically the most sacred thing on their planet and has the power to bring back life itself! Its the most important we get it before he does-”

“Anyway,” Sam held up his hand in sass, “Mr. NBE One here, aka Meagtron-that's what they call him, whos pretty much the harbinger of death-just like (Y/n) told you-wants to use the cube to transform human technology to take over the universe,” They turned back to his friend a cocky look on his face, “That's their plan.”

The girl pursed her lips, “I don't know if I want to slap you because you cut me off or give you a high five because you actually remembered everything I told you.”

Simmons paused for a moment, “And you two are sure about that?”

“Yeah,”

“Yep,” The two synced.

(Y/n) smirked immediately knowing where this is going to go, “You guys know where it is, don't you?”

Banacke looked between the two of them, “Follow me.”

The two teens looked at each other before following suit along with the soldiers behind them. (Y/n) continued to survey her surroundings as she took in the atmosphere of the place as they walked through the narrow hallways, she couldn't believe her own uncle-the one she didn't know she had-walked through these halls numerous times and still kept secrets from the government about a cybertronians true nature.

“You're about to see our crown jewel,” Simmons led them into a yellow bricked room with old pictures of seven men hung along the wall. She was surprised that her and Sam's grandfathers were not there. They did make history after all.

(Y/n)’s mouth dropped at the sight before her, a geeky smile tracing her plump lips as she gazed through the window. It was beyond what she had imagined of the cube to look like, the spare object was as tall as the large cavern of the building, nearly taking up the whole space of the room itself. Down below she could see scientists working diligently as they examined it, she found it a bit cruel her family hid its fully functioning nature-it would've saved them years of research.

Sam chuckled beside her, “Better than what you imagined?”

“Yeah,” His friend uttered breathlessly, “It is.”

The agent cut into their comfortable atmosphere, “Carbon dating puts the Cube here around ten thousand BC,” The man informed looking at (Y/n), “The first seven didn't find it until 1913.They knew it was alien because of the matching hieroglyphics on the Cube as well as NBE One. President Hoover had the dam built around it. Four football fields thick of concrete, a perfect way to hide its energy from being detected by anyone or alien species on the outside.”

The girl froze for a moment before slowly turning to him, “Sir, with all do respect I don't think everything was thought through,” The Agents and Soldiers looked at her confused, “You said that this was the perfect way of hiding its energy from aliens on the outside correct?”

“Yeah,” Simmons scoffed

She stepped up to him with her stance firm, “There's two whole aliens in this facility. And you didn't think that maybe one of them would wake up and take it away? Especially the bringer of death NBE One?”

This stunned the others in the room, Sam breathing faint “holy shit” as it dawned on him that they really messed up in regards to that calculation.

But Banachek didn't waver, only nodding at her instead , “I understand that concern but NBE One has shown no activity ever since he was found by Witwicky.”

(Y/n) only hummed but it didn't ease the pit rumbling at the bottom of her stomach. There were warning signs practically ringing in every direction for her in regards to this whole ordeal, with Megatron here and the Deceipticons looking for him it wasn't safe for the cube to be down here, nor was it safe for them to be down here when a potential bomb goes off. Did they honestly want her to believe that Megatron wasn't playing them all this time? Estel most definitely would have warned them if she hadn't been offlined, she loved the human race too much to do so-from what she gathered from her grandmother anyway.

“Wait back up,” The lady cut in, “You said the dam hides the Cubes energy. What kind exactly?” The question seemed to be for her, but she ignored it and waited for the agents to answer instead. Her mouth was getting dry from answering too many questions.

“Good question,”

It wasn't long before they were taken to another enclosed room, what stood out the most was the big blue transparent box with men surrounding it. The wires and small room could only tell her one thing that this was a form of an experiment room of some kind. “Please step inside. They have to lock us in.”

She stood beside Sam and Mikeala, the girl noticed their hands intertwined with one another's for a minute-just a glimpse-and decided to clasp her own hands together in reassurance. Although her mind did drift back to a certain soft big hand and sharp blue eyes-.

Fuck. Now wasn't the time for her mind to wander.

“Oh wow,” Epps uttered, looking at the scratches along the wall. They didn't seem too big but they were long and sharp enough to penetrate through metal, “What's that? Freddy Krueger done been up in here or something?”

“Oh, no, man,” The hacker argued, “Freddy Kruegar has four blades, man. That's only three. That's Wolverine!” The man laughed and (Y/n) did for a bit stopping when she saw Sam's done expression.

“That's very funny,” Simmons said with a straight face. The laughter was gone when they noticed his serious tone. “Anybody have any mechanical devices? BlackBerry? Key alarm? Cell Phone?”

The man went through his pockets, “I got a phone,” He tossed to Simmons.

They headed over to the blue box in the room each being handed a pair of goggles, (Y/n) stared anxiously as Simmons placed the phone inside the box shutting it tightly

“Okay,” Simmons whispered, “Nokias are real nasty. You gotta respect the Japanese, they know the way of the samurai.”

“Nokia is from Finland.” The woman might as well keep it to herself, there was no correcting the agent.

The afro haired girl grimaced, her grandmother had a Nokia.

“Were able to use the Cubes radiation and funnel it into that box,” Simmons started flipping the devices on to start up the machine

They watched the gadget hover over the phone before a blue laser contracted into the metal device below. The girl got goosebumps as she heard the familiar sound before the phone transformed right before their eyes. She couldn't believe it, the cube could actually give life!

“Bro what the-”

“Wow,” (Y/n) muttered in amazement. She leaned in closer to get a better look along with Micheala, the new cybertronian didn't like the attention and proceeded to ram itself in their direction. It was a good thing it only hit the glass, but the two girls did lean back when it proceeded to shoot at its barrier.

“Mean little sucker, huh?”

(Y/n) hummed, “Mean and confused.”

“Man that thing is freaky!”

It got worse from there, the bullets and shots were cracking the box. The little guys were close to its escape, Simmons wasn't going to allow it. The gasp the girl let out was involuntary as a large shock ran through the box killing the new life instantly. She immediately grabbed onto Sam, anxiety racking through her, as she thought about the black and yellow scout.

“S-Sam,” the girl whispered, “Bumblebee.”

As soon as the words left her lips the lights started to flicker overhead as well as an alarm sounding off. Her heart hammered in her chest, she knew that this would happen-that this facility wasn't the safest with the war terrorists here along with the cube. It was practically a suicide wish.

“They're here,” (Y/n) announced.

The general nodded to her in agreement, “Gentlemen, they know the cube is here”

“Along with their leader,”

“Banachek, what's going on?!”

“The NBE One hanger has lost power-”

“What?!”

“The backup generator is just not gonna cut it!”

“I told you so,” (Y/n) looked at Simmons, “Putting them both in the same place is a room for disaster-”

Sam sighed, “(Y/n)! Really?”

“I'm just making sure he knows their mistake!” Sure it wasn't the time to be petty, but she told them that it wasn't a good idea and they completely brushed her off. It felt good to show these smart asses she was right.

Lenoxx made his way over quickly, “Do you have an arms room?”

Oh. Guns against large robot aliens. How nice.

They were all flushed out of the room in haste, Sam made sure to have a good grip on the two girls as they followed behind the soldiers closely.

“Everyone into the NBE One Chamber now!”

The area was a mess, she watched so many people running all over the place in adrenaline. Anticipation and fear clouding their eyes at the situation at hand, she could only imagine the amount of scientists who did not sign up for the fighting part on the field, only the endless studying that would be conducted over the course of their lifetime.

That's why when they were running down the hall shye almost forgot the most important person she wanted to see, even though she tried to halt her movements Sam only strengthened his hold. The boy had his nerves on edge, making sure his best friend stayed by his side at all times; and she could understand that, it hasn't been the best twenty four hours.

“They're popping our generators!”

This only made the girl try to turn in the other direction once more, “Sam! We have to get to Bumblebee-”

“I know! Give me a second to get them to understand.”

Sam didn't mean to snap at her, she knew he didn't. From the way his eyes were blown open, face drenched in sweat to the distressed crease of his brows. It was a good thing they eventually made it to the room, the teens watched as the soldiers and men started to arm themselves. Of course (Y/n) tried to grab for one only for Epps to quickly take it away.

“Uh uh, until you're properly trained with this thing-you're not holding one,”

The lights started to go off again causing the room to still for a moment, everyone's breaths heightened-eyes wide with fear. (Y/n) has had enough and stormed up to Simmons.

“You gotta take us to see Bumblebee,”

The agent looked at her baffled, “Who-?”

“My car! She's talking about my car,” Sam butt in, “You have to take us to go see him. He knows exactly what to do with the cube!”

Simmons shook his head, “The car? It's confiscated.”

“Then un-confiscate it!”

“We don't know-”

A gun was held to the side of the agent's head, the room went still, “Listen here asshole! I’m frankly sick and tired of running in circles with you fucking government heads thinking you know everything when you dont,” There was guns drawn, some men aiming at the afro haired girl while others where aimed at the sector seven men as shouts started to fill the room. But she ignored them, along with Sam's pleas to put it down.

“Now that I have all of your attention, let me explain this to you quickly since we don't have enough time. Right now you have two options,” The girl turned her head to the other men in the room to make sure they were listening, “One, we can continue to have an autobot scout-the one trying to save our planet-still confiscated by your men and have the decepticon leader-Megatron the war terrorist- leave with the cube and terrorform this planet. Or Number Two, you un-confiscate Bumblebee-Sam's car- give him the cube getting to the other autobots to save this planet.”

The girl looked back at Simmons, cocking an eyebrow, “Which will it be?” The agent was taking too long to answer, so she added to her statement, “Or you can take too long to answer, and I take matters into my own hands and kill you and save the world myself.”

Simmons laughed nervously, “With what army?”

“The ones behind her,” Lennox chimed in, “I was going to take you down myself, but the little lady seems to have beat me to it.”

“Drop your weapon, Baby girl,” Epps uttered softly, “We got this.”

(Y/n) didn't listen, only staring at the man in front of her with anguish between her eyes. The gun felt foreign in her hand, it didn't feel like a toy; it was cold, heavy and deadly. Three things she used to be afraid of, the same thing she was so used to having pointed at her only for it to be placed in her hands.

The agent recognized the look in her eyes and his frown deepened, “That look is so familiar, your uncle used to have it all the time within the first years on me being here,” The girl did not smile or waver, simply held the gun to his head, “ Your not gonna give me the option are ya?”

“Listen to me closely,” The girl leaned in , her eyes slitted, “You're on thin ice with me. Thin. Fucking. Ice.”

“Agent Simmons,” The general spoke up.

The agent's eyes stayed locked on the girl, “Yes sir?”

“I'd do what she says,” He spoke clearly, “Losing isn't for any of these guys, and from what I've learned-neither is it for this girl.”

A moment of silence.

Simmons looked back and forth between (Y/n) and the general before nodding his head, silently agreeing, “Alright, alright, alright. You want to lay the fate of the world on these kids' camaro? That's cool.”

The girl retracted the gun with a heavy breath released, she looked back at Epps and tried handing the gun back over. (Y/n) felt like a little kid going behind her parents back and getting another toy after the first one was taken away, it was what she just did. She grabbed another gun when the lights were flickering when the soldier was distracted.

The soldier simply shook his head, “No you keep it. You're gonna need it later.”

“I don't want it. It feels wrong to hold it.” She admitted softly.

“Trust me,” Lennox placed a hand on her shoulder, “As a soldier who has fought as long as we have. Sometimes we don't like picking these things up, there's a huge responsibility behind it. And it's heavy. Trust me when I say this-that decision you just made was needed; and not everyone could have had the courage to do what you just did.”

~ ✯ ~

It was haunting, (Y/n) doesn't think she could ever get it out of her mind. The pained whirrs she heard coming from the cybertronian was heard all the way down the hall, causing the girl to run faster than the rest of the men. Sam and Mikeala were right behind her, their pace catching up with each foot leading them to the double doors.

The afro haired girl pushed through the doors screaming out for the scout, shoving past security, “Let him go! Bumblebee!”

“Stop!”

Sam grabbed a man stopping the icing process the best he could along with Mikeala doing the same on the other side. The three teens were quick with their pace, grabbing and disarming the men as Banachek and Simmons ordered everyone to stand down in the room. The pained whirrs slowly diminished but the girl could still hear the discomfort Bumblebee had, he was confused and upset.

“Bee!” (Y/n) watched as the scout sat up at the shout of her voice, his optics immediately locking on hers, “Are you okay? Can you move? Are you okay-”

“They didn't hurt you right?” Sam cut in.

Bumblebee grew annoyed, frustration building as he activated his helmet, rolling over and aiming his cannon and the previous offenders that had him strapped down to the table. Sometimes it was so hard for the scout to love humankind, the list just got longer with the many things they have done to him on this planet. He waved it around for a moment making sure no one else was going to hurt him before freezing, noticing movement in the corner of his optics.

(Y/n) had stepped forward, hands in the air with an anxious expression, “Easy, they won't hurt you anymore I promise. Not while I'm here.” The scout had frozen still looking at her before slowly lowering the cannon, then completely transforming it back into a servo once more. He pointed to her, catching her off guard-her expression was confused for a moment before a realization dawned on her. “M-me? Oh-oh I'm okay, see I'm in one piece.”

Bumblebee wasn't convinced. This only made him more upset.

“Listen the cube is here and the Decepticons are coming,” Sam cut to the chase. He noticed the bot's frustration with his friend's lie, and decided to move this along before something else would transpire.

The scout rolled off the tabel-if they would even call it that-and still proceeded to have his helmet on his head using his servo to cover (Y/n) as she was the closest charge next to him.

“D-don't worry about them, they wont do anything! Alright, they're not gonna hurt you” Sam turned back to the other men and crowd surrounding the frustrated Autobot in the room, “Just back up a little bit, he's friendly.” The boy turned to (Y/n) looking between her and the larger robot. She didn't get what he was trying to convey at first but quickly caught on.

Sam wanted her to calm Bumblebee down. At first she was confused, although they were both his charges the scout hadn't calmed down in the slightest from her friend's reassurance. What would make her attempts any different? The girl thought back to the moment the two had in front of that door, the turning of the handle together before going inside.

“Who said you have to do it alone?”

“Hey! Hey, hey,” (Y/n) stepped in front of the scout waving her arms around catching his heated gaze. She understood his frustration and the fear of being hurt-ti be put back in the position he just got out of. He was willing to be taken by the willingly so they wouldnt hurt anyone, only to go through so much torture. “C-can you just-can you just focus on me for a second?”

Bumblebee did, and to make sure she knew he was concentrating only on her he keeled to get closer to the female down below. Upon looking at her closely she had a bandage on her elbow along with a few bloody spots on her jeans and shirt. The cuts and spots were not big so he did not fret about it too much, but something moved within his spark from the girl who was looking up at him. Shere concern was laced across her features, eyebrows creased in nerves whereas her eyes scanned his face for emotions he was trained not to show.

It was a reflex of war. Never show your enemies your emotions-they'll use it against you. No human was to be trusted in the room until further notice.

“I know it must have hurt-what they did to you. But the actions of these people shouldn’t determine the fate of the rest of the human race,” (Y/n) spoke softly, “They hurt me, Sam, and Mikeala too-that's the thing about us humans we hurt each other and we make mistakes. And we need your help to fix a huge mistake.”

The afro haired girl took a few cautious steps forward before placing a soft hand against one of the mech's digits, “Can you do that for me Honeybee?”

Bumblebee stilled for a moment, his radio flaring to life as his whole form grew warm. The girl waited patiently, smiling softy up at him, understanding he was finding the words to say in this situation. However she hadn't expected that response.

“Anything you desire sweetheart,”

#bumblebee x black reader #bumblebee x reader #bumblebee #transformers x reader #transfromers #transformers bayverse #sam witwicky #mikaela banes #Youtube

49 notes · View notes

pricegouge · 6 days

Text

Fatted Rabbit, Part Six

Bearshifter!Price AU

Rated M for later chapters

Part one

Simon stands behind the bar like some sort of massive, brooding Aeacus. As if they were always bound to meet here, and John was always bound to spill his secrets, and wasn't John such a stupid little twat for not having ever realized that before?

It speaks volumes that not even Simon's shit eating grin puts a damper on John's mood.

"You're relieved, Riley."

"I'll say. Didn't even need to have a talk with 'er about curfews."

"Well, I know how you worry. It went well, by the way."

"Didn't ask. How'd you manage not to muck it up?"

"I got this excellent relationship coach that gave me some great ideas."

"You keep adding to my workload and I'm unionizing."

"Yeah?" John laughs, "You and who?"

"That new barkeep seems easily impressionable."

"Mm. That what got your stamp of approval?"

Oh, it's always a good day when John can pry a real reaction from his head brewer. Simon doesn't squint, but there's a tightening around his eyes that suggest he would do, if he suffered such banal things as 'automatic response disinhibition.'

"Am I gonna need to sit you down with the harassment video again, Riley?"

"Don't technically work at the bar, cap. One Four One pays my bills." He's aiming for a sarcastic 'so what if I am,' lands slightly off center.

"Good point. You been putting a lot of thought into it?"

The pause is a half a beat too long. "Too busy thinkin' about having to cover my boss's shifts while 'e flits about with some young bird like 'e's in uni again."

"Aye. Gonna need you to do it again on Sunday, too."

"Sunday?" Simon barks. "You're training on Sunday."

"No, you're training on Sunday. By the time I get here he'll probably be good to go."

Now he does squint. "And if I got plans?"

"You'd've mentioned them first. Thanks, Si. I owe you one."

"You owe me the business at this point."

"Already in my will and testament."

"Mm. Keep trying your luck and I'll take what's owed sooner'n later."

***

Simon stays on to cook, a blessing considering it ends up being a decent Friday turnout. The early spring seems to be pulling in more than just the locals. John resolutely does not put on the hockey match he knows his rabbit's interested in because he doesn't want to listen to Simon's opinion on that, but he does watch the ticker tape at the bottom of the basketball commentary to monitor the score when he can. He's not sure why; he can't exactly participate in any informed conversation on the subject, but it seems like it'll be a good anecdote to know when they're skating.

Fuck, skating. He'd been a few times in his life and it had all been perfectly fine, but he usually sleeps right through the season so it's not something he's practiced in a while. He doesn't want to make an ass of himself, even if the rabbit had the same concerns. It's embarrassing enough being as twiggy as he is currently, he couldn't stand to be uncoordinated or in any way less physical in her eyes. He remembers how raptly she'd watched that match, the ways her eyes had tracked the men on screen. He hadn't found it in any way threatening at the time, but he doesn't want to be compared negatively to them. The fact that they're professional doesn't matter, of course, at least not to the beast in his chest.

John shoots her a sympathetic text when the team she'd been following loses (again. He's going to have to figure out how playoffs work here, the basketball announcers are even talking about multiple games) but he doesn't get a response until quite late, when he's on the roof enjoying a cigar after closing.

Christ, another game?

John damn near preens

He'd rather buy her those panels but he doesn't think she'd let him. More than that he'd rather drive her car into Whitefish Lake, but he supposes she'd be a little cross about that, too.

John nearly bites through his cigar. It's an honest struggle to force his bear back under his skin, the animal not fully understanding that such a challenge could be issued through miles of suburban landscape and a thirty foot drop off a roof. Much as he wants her here (on her knees between his thighs, mouth hot and wet through the fabric of his trousers as he shoves a boot under her cunt, preferably), it's probably a good thing she isn't because he doesn't want her on all fours their first time, his jaws clamped on the nape of her neck as he leans his full weight on her, trapping her big soft body between the mass of himself and the cold hard ground, uncaring if the whole city heard her whining, or screaming, or begging, or moaning. He wants to see her face as he fucks her, learn what she likes or doesn't. He wants to eat her out as if she's the only food he'll need for winter - until she's crying about how she has nothing left to give and then he wants to lick her tears up, too.

But right now the only thing he wants from her is her round arse presented in apology, the feel of her flesh between his teeth.

It's a struggle to be witty when your body is trying to prime you for both a fight and a fuck at the same time and your circulatory system feels like the Magic Roundabout, so John doesn't bother.

And that's -. Fuckin' -.

Just like that, she's got him back to heel. More pup than predator, eager to beg for treats from her hands. A brat he can handle; even his bear seems greedy at the prospect. If her challenges aren't in earnest - if she's simply trying to get a rise out of him because she wants him to fuck her hard, he's more than happy to allow it. Happy to let his bear take over and give her what she wants.

Fuck, he's hard. A green cub, can't even distinguish rational thought and animalistic impulses. No, she's not asking for an actual bear in human skin to take her to task, Christ. He needs circulation back to his brain STAT. And to think this all started with a Viagra joke.

***

Saturday is a lesson in patience. He feels unmoored, confused. A bit like standing in a cold stream waiting for the salmon run to leap into his mouth, weeks before they're due to arrive. There is so much to do. His rut looms in the distance like a sundog: a beautiful, bad omen. He should be preparing. Securing his mate, improving his den, padding his own body, ensuring she's equipped to carry both herself and his cubs through the winter.

Instead he's lying to QuickBooks about where his head brewer worked this week and hosing off beer mats, listening to some old coot veer dangerously close to homophobic remarks about the lesbian couple who own the boot shop across the way. It sets John's teeth on edge, makes him snappy. He spills the man's third beer across his lap as he hands it off and gets even more irritated when it only garners benevolent absolution. He wants a fight. Wants a fuck even more. Is turning in circles knowing he won't get either any time soon. Simon doesn't stop by, doesn't offer himself as a verbal, pricker-covered punching bag. The rabbit never texts. John would give his left eye to eat a porcupine right now, feel the satisfaction of the kill and the anger of his prey, both.

He closes shop early, finds his way to the edge of town. He hardly even bothers to hide his clothes in a sparse, budding green thicket before he's on all fours, lumbering off into the woods. Her scent has been growing stronger for him. In his human form, he can usually smell her from across town but like this, snout high in the air as he sifts through the noxious scent of the other humans in town, he can track her clear up to Lake McDonald. It's soothing, usually: the sweetness of the simple foods she eats, the saltiness of her skin. Her cunt. But it's sour tonight, distressed and distressing. He sets off in a blind panic.

He's nearing the Flathead when it hits him properly and he slows, relief and understanding washing over him. Poor rabbit, she's nearing her monthlies. He can smell it now, the stink of her discomfort and the impending blood. No wonder he was so off kilter all day. It speaks to the quality of their bond that he can already sense these things. Means when his rut comes around, she'll likely be impacted too, which sets his mouth watering. Although -.

If their bond was really that strong, she wouldn't be menstruating. Waste of bloody resources. A stupid fucking design flaw he could cure her of.

With a proper bond or a cub, whichever came first.

She's not parked in a proper camp tonight, just tucked away on a four wheel path safe from the main road. He considers not disturbing her for all of thirty seconds before he starts chuffing and sniffing like a hog around her wheel wells. He hears her shuffling about and then her little curtain moves and she beams at him.

"That you, big guy?"

John lowers at her and she pulls her screen down properly to get a better look. He doesn't raise himself half onto her roof this time, just remains on all fours and lifts his head enough to peer back at her.

"You know, we have to stop meeting like this. People will talk." For once, John doesn't think he'd mind. As if to test that theory, she shuffles around a bit and John sees her pull her phone out of the center console to power it up. She was supposed to get battery back ups today. Part of the reason he was so irritable; he'd wanted to speak with her. But if even he was feeling so completely out of it, he can't imagine she cared very much about a trip to the store herself. He waits patiently for her phone to power up. She keeps an eye on him, but he just continues to puff foggy breaths onto her window, unbothered. Eventually she tells him to say cheese and he makes a soft noise at her that makes her grin.

"I never knew bears could moo," she teases and John sneezes at her in annoyance which only makes her giggle. Christ, an honest giggle. She's so fucking cute he could squeeze her til she popped.

"I think that's my favorite noise you make. Though the huffs are pretty cute too." So John does it again, just to show off. "Yeah, that one! Gonna have to do some studying, figure out what those all mean. Just suppose I'm lucky you haven't roared at me yet."

Don't worry bunny, he'd never.

She putz around on her phone and John wonders how many people she's sending the picture to. He's being careless, he knows, but it's worth it to see her - to ensure she's thinking of him, even if she doesn't know it. She holds her stomach absently as she types and after a few moments her face scrunches and she winces, curling in on herself a bit more. When it passes, she eyes him with mock suspicion. "That why you're here, big guy? The bears can smell the menstruation!" That last bit is said in an affected voice, probably a reference to something he's too British to understand. "Thought that was a myth?"

It is, clever rabbit. For all but you.

She hasn't actually started yet, he doesn't think. Poor lamb will likely start right as they're due to meet at the rink. He wonders if she'll cancel. He's already making contingency plans, wondering if she'll let him take care of her or if she'll make excuses and leave him to figure out how to both pretend he doesn't know what's really going on and also make it clear she's allowed to ask him for help with it.

"Well, periods are a curse enough as it is. It's not fair that god sends his cuddliest looking creatures out to kill us, too. You look like an industrial size heating pad and the world's biggest spoon all rolled up in the fuzziest weighted blanket imaginable. You're a frickin' cure all come to kill me. Tease!"

Oh, he's the luckiest man to ever walk the earth. She's so perfect, already warmed up to his bear, no coaxing required. Soon, honey. You can cuddle up to his beast anytime you want. He can't help the constant chuffing noises her spiel has earned; or the way he presses against her car as if he can transfer some of his heat through the metal. He'd been struggling to keep his impulses in check all day, but in this form it's even harder. He's split between the elation of her accepting this form and the frustration that she won't let him help her. He wants to turn back right here, let her see, ferret her out of her den and let her use his body to cure her ails in whatever way she sees fit.

"You're so cute though, I guess I can forgive you," she continues, and it's a struggle to keep his grunting noises in check enough that he can still hear her. "You know, I told my friend about you. He said the bears around here can be pretty well socialized because it's such a high traffic area. You got other girls you're seeing on the side?"

Never, bunny, he snorts, never again.

"I promise I won't be offended. We can keep it casual." She puts on an overly breezy air, being silly. "I mean like, cause they're not like feeding or petting you either, right? Like, you're not… getting that from any girl at all, right?" A beat. John tries to play along by looking as contrite as a bear possibly can. "You whore!" she gasps, "Who is she?"

His response is to stand and lean against her car, ducking his head to nod at her.

"Mmm, nice recover. You know if you really wanted to make it up to me, you'd stop scraping my paint." Admonished, Price lowers himself back to the ground. The rabbit eyes him suspiciously. "I swear, sometimes it feels like you can understand me. Are you a circus escapee? Do you know any tricks?" She pauses, as if waiting. "Can you speak?"

Fuck it, John gives her a halfhearted, rumbling roar.

She laughs, delighted. "How about lay down? You know that one?"

And that sounds like a great idea so he does, makes himself comfortable with his belly on the muddy trail.

"What about roll over?" She asks, voice soft with apprehension; unfortunately, twice is a coincidence but three times is a pattern. John ignores her command in favor of chewing at the pads of his forepaw and after a moment, the rabbit breathes out a heavy, chuckling sigh.

"Might be going a bit batty, spending all my time alone," she mutters. Louder, she tells him, "I think you've got the right idea about getting comfy, though. I'm turning in. You staying there? You'd make some guard dog."

John just rolls his eyes to her and huffs.

"Right. Well, goodnight. Please be gone when I wake up so I can pee without fear." He snorts at her and she chuckles in response, shifting her weight around the car enough to make it rock a bit. She doesn't put her privacy screen back up, he notes with some frustration. He'll have to stay until the early hours just to be sure she's safe, but he doesn't mind. He's been tempted to spend every night exactly like this since he first spotted her rubbing herself raw in the early spring dawn. He's just happy to know she doesn't seem too freaked out by his presence.

***

Sunrise finds him fishing his damp clothes out of the bush he'd hastily tucked them into the night previous. They make for an unpleasant trip back, but he's warmed by a missed text from his bunny: a picture of himself captioned 'Think I made a new friend'.

She'd been asleep when he'd left her but even still, John cannot help replying right then and there.

***

John is leaning against his passenger door when he spots her big Wrangler pulling in and he makes his way to her with enough time to offer a hand as she slides out of the car. He maybe stands a bit too close, appreciating the way her thick, soft thighs rub briefly against his own as he helps guide her gracefully to the ground.

She's got on leggings and tall socks with converse and a thin henley under a worn denim jacket. She's so cute he wants to throw her in the back of her Jeep right then and give the suspension a run for its money. Compounding his dilemma is the strong scent of her monthlies evident through the thin material of her trousers. It's weak enough he doubts anyone else will notice, but the scent of the iron rich blood has his teeth itching.

Plus it's upsetting to be slapped in the face with such strong evidence that their bond isn't fully formed.

Despite his turmoil, John smiles at her warmly and kisses her on the cheek in greeting, making her blush.

"Good to see that bear didn't make off with you. Not sure I could win that particular fight."

She laughs as they make their way inside, "I don't know, he seems more of a lover than a fighter. You could probably win him over with some berries or something."

"So then I'd have to share both you and my food? I gotta run this bloke out of town." John can feel the rabbit eyeing him suspiciously, weighing the quality of his words. He, of course, doesn't flinch; simply holds the door open and guides her through with a palm on her lower back.

He's hoping she'll tell him he doesn't need to worry about sharing her, but it seems that's a bit much to expect from a casual second date. She motions to the door he's held for her instead. "See? And here you were worried about not being a gentleman."

John's laugh is a mean, hot puff of breath. "There's still time," he warns, standing too close.

He helps her into her cute little skates, lets her use his body to keep herself upright as they stand in the carpeted hallway waiting on the zamboni to finish up. He's maybe a little swept up in the domesticity of it, surrounded as they are by other couples and families with small kids. 'Stanley Cup hopefuls,' the rabbit calls them, and John nearly goes weak in the knees imagining her bringing his cubs back here one day, decked out in her team's colors. He stands too close but she doesn't seem to mind; and when he kisses her on the crown of her head and keeps his lips there, she just leans a little more into him and he sighs in contentment. And when the doors finally open, he is treated to the absolute delight of watching his rabbit trying to figure out how to keep her feet under herself, laughing all the while.

The crowd is a mix of old hats just trying to stay limber; pesky children who rocket by, trying hard as they can to get under feet and trip people up; and landlubbin' newbies like them. It's good, sweet. Gives John an excuse to keep his hands on his rabbit, and seems to take her mind off her cramps, if the way her sweat turns from acrid with stress to good clean salt is anything to go by. It would be perfect, John decides, if not for a pair of twenty-something boys that linger, skating big ambling circles around John and his girl. They're casual, keep their eyes mostly to themselves, but John is already on edge and something about their presence makes him want to stand his ground.

Of course, he can't quite do that when the whole point of free skate appears to be 'skate in a circle'.

"Might've had it wrong, bunny," John grins as he gets his hand around her thick waist for the dozenth time, catching her just as her right foot goes slipping out in a direction she didn't authorize. "Think you're more of a Bambi than a thumper."

"With these thighs?" she jokes, slapping her quad for effect.

John doesn't bother to hide the hunger that elicits in him. He's about to give her a tiny little smack of his own when -,

"Nice catch, man. Way to take one for the team."

"Yeah, they'll have to bring the zamboni back out if she goes down."

John is distantly aware of his rabbit going stiff and quiet, her gaze drifting somewhere down by her feet. He keeps hold of her arm but it's more an instinctual comfort than a conscious decision, as all his higher brain function is dedicated to not growing fangs between which to trap these boys.

"They'll have to bring it back out if I use your teeth like an auger, too." John's voice is low. Possibly too low to be strictly human. It gets the point across anyway. The twiggy twats who have been circling like sharks all morning take one look at him and decide they have severely misread the depth of his feelings for the soft girl they've targeted. Finding no easy prey here, they mumble an apology (to John, the gits, not his rabbit) and dart off to pester a gaggle of teenage girls. John draws himself even closer to his girl, waits until he's certain he can control his voice better. "Fucking bellends. Sorry about them. You okay, honey?"

"Yeah, it's fine. Thanks for that. Sorry I clammed up, I can usually fight my own battles."

John scoffs, unamused. "No need, sweetheart. Unless you'd rather, of course. Actually, sorry if I overstepped. Knee jerk reaction."

"Oh, no, trust me, you're fine. Not mad at all." Her breath is soft, nearly amused, and John can't help but feel a little proud at having turned her mood around so quickly.

"Do you want to go do something else?"

"And let them know they bothered me? Absolutely not."

John grins, hums appreciatively. "That's my girl." His grin only widens when she blushes at the term.

They talk about their hometowns when they're not busy stumbling. John tells her about Hereford and his mom, and she tells him how similar this area is to where she grew up. She deflects a bit when asked about her family and John doesn't pry. He wishes she would tell him everything, of course, but can't help being a tiny bit selfishly pleased at the knowledge there's no tight knit family waiting for her back home. He tries asking about Dallas instead but the answers she provides are stiff and rehearsed, and her body language locks up so much it negates the small progress she's made in her skating abilities. John quickly moves on to film preferences and she's quick to loosen back up (she likes period dramas and high fantasy and isn't immune to a night in with a kid's movie).

Eventually her discomfort seems to catch up with her and John thinks he has the unique experience of realizing she will need to make a sanitary run to the bathroom before she does. He debates how best to handle it for exactly thirty seconds before his mouth is moving.

"Do you want to go get lunch?"

The rabbit stops, turning to face him fully. Well, John stops. She grabs his coat sleeve and tries to convert her momentum into a quick u-turn. It's mostly successful in that John has to swing an arm around her back to keep her upright. It's extremely successful in that the momentum carries her right on through and into his chest, where he keeps her pinned tight just because she seems quite content there. "You don't have to work?"

John shrugs, knowing Simon may well quit. "What's the point in being the boss if I can't bang in late every now and again?"

"I guess, but you don't want to -?"

Whatever she's about to suggest is interrupted by the very loud sound of John's stomach growling.

"Oh so that was more a cry for help than a suggestion?" the rabbit laughs, cute little nose scrunching up.

"I may be bloody famished, yeah."

"Oh, poor pumpkin. What are you feeling, then?" she asks as she heads off toward the exit, confident as she skates out of his arm's reach.

"Burgers. Maybe steak. Or lamb." Really, he wants an entire barrel of fish and perhaps some apples, but he wants to feed his poor little mate a mouthful of iron supplements more.

"It's lunch time," she laughs at him.

"Burgers, then?"

"Yeah, alright." He helps lower her onto the hall carpet and squats to help her with her laces. "You don't have to do that," she tells him but he just shakes his head at her.

"Want to." She's quiet after that, perhaps a little contemplative. She excuses herself while he returns the skates and when she comes back she smells like the fake, perfumed chemical they coat feminine products in which always sticks to his nose.

Honestly, cunt is supposed to smell like cunt. Even when it smells like a bloody cunt. Humans are fucking ridiculous.

"Hope you know I'm driving you there," John informs as he holds the door for her yet again.

"That doesn't even make any sense," his rabbit laughs. "You're gonna drive me all the way back here before going into work?"

"Might do. Or: new bartender starting today. Might let you be his guinea pig all evening."

"Oh yeah? You trying to loosen my morals?" Her tone is light and airy but something has shuttered behind her eyes.

"No," John's voice is confident but quietly reassuring. "I'm trying to get you all lushed and cute tonight and then maybe try my hand tomorrow when you're charmed and impressed by the breakfast I make. How well you handle a hangover depending," he tacks on with a teasing little wink.

She blinks once, twice.

"That okay?"

"No. Well, yes, but uh -. It's not a good... time."

John just cocks his head at her, knowing full well what she means but needing to hear her say it so he has an excuse to spoil her.

The rabbi sighs, "It's just -. Christ this is embarrassing. If that's your end goal you should maybe know I'm on my period. Just so you don't get your hopes up tmuch."

"Oh, poor lamb." John's smile is wolfish, the cat that got the cream. "And here I've had you on your feet all morning. Do you want to get lunch? Or would you rather just curl up? I can make you something if you'd rather not stay out."

"No, that's - um. Lunch sounds good, thank you, but uh -. You're not… mad?"

A beat. John's smirk slides slowly off his face. "Mad?"

"I mean, if that was your plan and I'm… you're not upset?"

"No, honey…" John's not entirely sure how to handle this turn. Logistically he knows the first step should be reassurance, but there's a desperate, cloying, insightful little creature in his chest that wants to push all these niceties aside and demand why she would think he was mad. "A man can dream, but I had no expectations. There's nothing to be mad about." She gives him a wan smile and he can't help but continue, "In fact, I oughta give you my mum's number. I ever seem mad about that, you go ahead and tell her to sort me out."

It works, the quiet giggle she lets out has a touch too much relief for his taste, but he'd take that over whatever the hell misplaced anxiety she'd just been exhibiting.

"Can chastise you myself, you know. No mum's needed."

"Oh thank God. Would way rather you do it. She can be proper scary."

"And I can't?"

"Rabbits aren't scary. You ever yell at me, it won't be fear makes me change my ways."

"Not scary? They don't make kids sit on the Easter bunny's lap back home? I still gotta steer clear of malls this time of year."

John grins again, can't help the mental image she's conjured of him having to scare off a man in a pink bunny suit for her. "So I'll have to wait at least a month to spoil you with a shopping trip, noted."

She splutters. "You don't have to do that ever!"

He shrugs, "Told you, want to. Now get in, I'm hungry enough I'd eat you if you held still long enough." When she blanches, scandalized, he can't help but grin.

"Okay, yeah, let's go. But -."

John resolutely doesn't let his smile drop lest she thinks he's mad again, but he can't help the punched out feeling her continued protests elicit.

"- if I'm spending the night, I do definitely need to drive the Jeep to a more anonymous parking lot. That thing gets towed, I'm screwed."

Yes, it sure would be a shame if someone hobbled her speedy little den before she realized you belonged with him. Still, "I'll tell you what. You keep letting me treat you to lunches and dinners and whatever other little excursions we can come up with and I'll let you park at the bar whenever you'd like, hm?"

"What, so I can deal with the noisy neighbors?"

"Have it on good authority the second floor's pretty well sound proofed. You can hang your hat up there if it ever bugs you," he winks. "But fine, go get your bloody buggy. I'll send you the address, yeah?"

#bearshifter!price #captain john price x you #captain john price x reader #john price x you #john price x reader #bear!price #fatted rabbit

14 notes · View notes

juliette-cai-enthusiast · 2 months

Text

Ok Here's my Big Long Rant About Chloe Gong's Books

So I discovered These Violent Delights towards the end of 2021, just before Our Violent Ends came out. My ex-girlfriend recommended it (funny enough she also got me into Taylor Swift. She was super toxic and later cheated on me but she had pretty good taste all around) and I had heard of it before so I decided to give it a shot. I settled into bed that night, planning to read a chapter or two, and three hours later, I had finished the book and probably almost screeched at the cliffhanger, and then began the agonizing wait (it probably wasn't more than a month, but still) for OVE.

The entire time, I could not stop thinking about how much I loved these characters. The relationships seemed authentic and fleshed-out and every character was so unique, and it was just so well-written. I especially remember being completely obsessed with Juliette (hence the username) and loving Benedikt and Marshall, although I was so so worried it was going to be queerbait.

When OVE came out, I got it out of the library and once again read it one night. This time, I was in tears by the end. To this day, only 2 books have made me cry (the other being They Both Die at the End) and OVE is the only one that has made me cry every time. They became my new obsession almost instantaneously, and when Foul Lady Fortune was announced, I was completely ecstatic.

When FLF was released, I went to the book tour and actually got to meet Chloe Gong. I was fangirling out of my entire mind and was probably super embarassing, but she was super funny and down-to-earth. I cried (again) in the parking lot as soon as I stepped outside. A few months later, she announced Last Violent Call, and when I found out that Roma and Juliette were alive, I actually fell on the floor. I went to the Immortal Longings book tour, although I sadly couldn't go to the FHH one, and I'm currently scheming up ways to get tickets for Vilest Things (Miss Chloe, please come to Philly again, I don't know if I can drag my mom to New York twice).

There are so many reasons why this series is so unebelievably important to me. First of all, the queer representation is honestly unlike anything I've ever seen. The queer characters are fully fleshed out and have personalities and arcs outside of their queer identities, but their queerness is also not a footnote or shoved in for "diversity points." When Benmars became canon and got their "Because I love you!" moment I was in complete shock--I honestly hadn't allowed myself to hope for it to happen. As the queer representation carried over into FLF, I just grew more and more overjoyed with this series. These books also came to me right when I needed them. LVC particularly came out during a very difficult and stressful time in my life, where my mental health was very bad. I remember thinking to myself all week, "Just hold on until LVC comes out," and it really helped me push through that period of time.

Chloe Gong was also pretty much a realization of my dreams. I knew I wanted to be an author for a while, but I really had no idea how to get there. I always thought, "Go to college for something you don't entirely hate, get a real job for about 10 years, then you can start publishing books." Seeing someone only a few years older than me with the same dreams as mine succeed in bringing them to life has been almost a lifeline over the years. I'm no longer as scared of what my future holds, or whether or not I'll be happy with my life. I honestly read her blog posts about her publishing journey probably once a month, just to keep myself motivated, because if she can do it, so will I.

So thank you so much @chloegong for this amazing world you have created. These books really mean the world to me and have brought so many amazing people into my life, and I can't imagine who I would be without them. This is way too long and way too personal, but I just reread FHH and was deep in the SS feels, so I had to get it all out there.

#chloe gong #secret shanghai #these books mean the absolute world to me and are my entire personality so yeah #foul lady fortune #foul heart huntsman #these violent delights #our violent ends

16 notes · View notes

itsawhumpsideblog · 2 months

Text

The Safehouse, pt. 8

CW: for institutionalized slavery, mentions of abuse, treatment of people as things, description of injuries

Advice from the Box Boy Liberation Movement:

It is vital that you keep your assigned contact apprised of needs which may arise or significant changes affecting any resident of the safehouse, including house staff. Clear and proactive communication will allow network staff time to arrange any necessary support. Remember that we are always here to help; this is a team effort and you should not feel that you are required to handle a crisis on your own.

That afternoon, Tim read several chapters of his book and Angie played solitaire on her phone. Mikey rested on his pillow and as the day passed, he seemed to be less and less tense; the lines in his face smoothed out and the rocking was less frantic. Entirely without meaning to, Francis fell asleep.

Around the time the last of the light faded outdoors, Angie stretched and announced that she would make some dinner. Francis' eyes flew open at this and Mikey began to move like he was trying to get up, but she shook her head.

"I'll cook," she told them. "You two stay here and keep Tim company." She grinned at Tim who nodded in agreement and left the show playing, ignoring the nervous looks that Francis and Mikey kept shooting towards the kitchen.

They ate dinner in the family room, so that Francis could stay on the couch and Mikey didn't have to be up and down so much. Tim smiled in what he hoped was a reassuring way at Francis as he gave him the plate of pasta and garlic bread.

"We really don't mind you eating on the couch," he said. "We're going to do it, too, see?" And he took his own seat and began dinner, nodding at Francis from time to time to encourage him.

On the other side of the couch, Angie had set her own plate and Mikey's down on a TV tray.

"I can help you with yours," she offered. He gave her a worried, uncertain look. "No, of course I don't mind. It's fine. Here- I'll take a bite and then one for you." She demonstrated, holding the fork towards him, but he looked so uncomfortable that she put it back on the plate and tried not to sigh audibly. "You want to do it yourself?"

He didn't react, but she took his meaning regardless. "Okay, then. Here you go. But you know, I will help you if you need it." She ate very slowly, trying not to make it obvious that she was watching him as he took the bread carefully in his right hand and ate it as quickly as he could. The fork was a greater struggle and he winced when he had to bend his hand around it, but he seemed nervous whenever Angie offered to help, so she stopped offering and just patted his head occasionally, when she could no longer stop herself from showing sympathy.

Tim cleaned up the dishes and privately worried that one or both of the Pets would spontaneously combust from anxiety because he and Angie were doing the work instead of giving orders.

Bedtime followed not long after. For one thing, Francis kept startling awake when he remembered that he was on the couch, where he felt he was not supposed to be. For another, Tim thought that all four of them would benefit from some time to themselves without the overwhelming awareness of the Pet-Master dynamic putting them all on edge.

Angie helped Mikey to his feet and let him lean on her, while Tim scooped Francis bodily off the couch. Francis tried to protest, of course- "This Pet is able to walk upstairs. This Pet does not want to be difficult," he said desperately, and although Tim felt bad that Francis was upset, he shook his head.

"You need to let your feet heal," he pointed out. "And besides, wouldn't that hurt? We don't want you to hurt, if we can avoid it." He could tell that Francis was holding very still and probably wasn't comfortable with the situation, but that was unavoidable.

He carried Francis upstairs, moving faster than Angie and Mikey could, helped him in the bathroom, and then laid him down on the bottom of the bunk bed. Francis looked around in some amazement, his jaw falling open slightly as he took in the room around him. When Angie and Mikey entered, Mikey actually stopped, looking similarly amazed.

"This is going to be your room, to share," Angie said. She was trying to pretend that everything was normal, in case that would help make it true. "The bathroom is right next door. Tim's room is next to that, and my room is at the end of the hall." She helped Mikey shuffle across the room and sit down on the single bed. "The door to this room will not be locked, unless you want to lock it from the inside. But Tim and I are not locking you in, okay?" Angie looked at Mikey, then Francis. "Understand? You're not trapped here. You can leave this room any time, for any reason."

They nodded uncertainly, and Tim was unsure whether they really believed it.

"You should go to the bathroom whenever you need. You don't have to ask permission, but you can always ask for help. Understand?" Nods again.

"And if you need anything at all- a drink of water or just some company- you can come get either of us. We will never be angry with you for waking us up. Understand?" They were still nodding as if in agreement, but this time it was obvious that they didn't believe Angie meant what she said. Still, it would have to be good enough for now.

Tim helped Francis get comfortable under the blanket and put a cup of water by the bed in case he was thirsty in the night. Angie peeled the blanket back, helped Mikey lay back against the pillows and arrange his arms comfortably, and then tucked the blanket over him with a fond pat to the top of his head.

"Sleep well," Angie said as she pulled the door shut.

Back downstairs, she and Tim almost fell onto the couch. "I didn't expect to be this tired," Angie admitted. "I mean- I knew what was involved and everything but- it's like we didn't even do anything and I'm still ready to go to bed. And it's only 8:30."

"It's from being on edge all day," Tim agreed. "They're nervous and we're putting a lot of energy into trying to help them relax. It'll take time, that's all. Why don't we make our check-in phone call and then go be in separate places for a while?"

Angie grinned. "That sounds like an excellent idea. You want this phone, or the one in the kitchen?"

"I'll go into the kitchen," Tim said. "If you dial, I'll just pick up in there."

They would use the landline again, allowing them to keep house business separate from their personal lives. It was a security measure that the network insisted upon.

Angie dialed, heard the click of Tim picking up the phone, and waited while the phone rang three times. Then someone on the other end picked up, their voice filtered through some masking software.

"Evening," Tim said. "This is House 17, checking in with our first day report."

"Good to hear from you, House 17!" Even mechanical, the voice on the other end managed to sound friendly and supportive and Angie and Tim exchanged a smile. "How's everything going so far?"

"Well..." Tim started with the biggest issue first. "We were told to expect three rescuees and only two arrived." He bit his lip.

"Hmmm..." came the mechanical voice. "Yes, that certainly is an issue. It's possible there was something wrong with the release paperwork and your third rescuee will be along in a day or two. But we'll look into that in case there was a mis-delivery or other holdup. In that case, we can probably use the WRU's own policies to demand they find your rescuee." They could almost hear the wry smile. "Sometimes you can make these bastards work against themselves. We'll let you know as soon as there's any news, but keep that bed open, okay?"

"We can do that," Angie agreed.

"Great. Anything else to report? Have you given them their names yet?"

"Yes," Angie said. "The one with serial TX8705 said he used to go by Francis, and that's what we've been calling him. He seemed to like that. The other one- serial GU2938- doesn't talk, but when we asked him if he had a name he shook his head, so we named him Mikey. He smiled when we said it, so we think he's fine with that."

"An excellent start!" The approval made Tim, who had chosen the name, feel warm inside.

"Mikey's going to need more medical care than we can provide here," Tim added. "His arm is really broken, possibly both of them, and his shoulder looks dislocated. He won't let us touch it, so we didn't get a close look, but it doesn't look right and I'd be surprised if he didn't need surgery at this stage."

"Okay. The sooner we can get that done the better, so we'll reach out to the network's medical allies and try to get something on the books this week. Be prepared to head for a hospital at any time- as you know, they may not give us a lot of warning when they have an opening and we can't afford to turn down any offers."

"We'll be ready," Tim agreed.

"And how about Francis- should we be looking into getting him some professional care at all?"

"No, I think I can take care of him myself. We'll start by keeping his injuries clean and bandaged and getting him enough food and water and rest, and I think it's possible that we can ride this one out with just over-the-counter stuff. If that changes, obviously we'll call."

"Perfect. And they're eating? How did they respond to furniture use?"

"They're eating fine." Angie took back over. "They seemed surprised that they're allowed to eat with us, but they ate everything we gave them. The furniture was a little harder. We have Francis on the couch, because he needs to lay down, and he didn't like that at all! He stayed, though. Mikey wouldn't sit on the couch but he took a pillow as a compromise. They were both willing enough to get in bed, so that was good."

"Very good," the voice agreed. "Anything else?"

They exchanged another look and said that there wasn't.

"Very good," said the voice again. "We'll hear from you in a couple days with your next update, please, and in the meantime we'll call you if we have any updates on a surgical appointment or the location of your third rescuee."

"Thanks."

"Good job, you two! Sleep well- I bet you need it."

"We do," Angie laughed. "Goodnight!"

They hung up.

"A good start," Tim said, sounding more confident than he felt as they turned off the lights and headed up the stairs.

"It really was." Impulsively, Angie turned and gave Tim a quick hug. He laughed, but squeezed her back before wishing her a good night and shutting the door.

Next time: The first night in a new home

Master Post

NB: This series appears to have breached containment (a good thing!) and upon request, I'm starting a tag list. Let me know if you'd like to be added to it!

Tag list: @pigeonwhumps, @cepheusgalaxy

#bbu #box boy universe #box boy whump #whump #whumpee

16 notes · View notes

empress-simps · 1 year

Text

Danger Meter [4]

》Guarded《

▪︎Pairings: Bradley "Rooster" Bradshaw x Reader

▪︎Pronouns: She/Her [Fem!Reader]

▪︎Warnings: Language and Hangman being a jerk.

▪︎Genre: Soulmate Au! Angst and fluff

▪︎Synopsis: Your soulmate rarely seems to be out of the High risk zone according to your mark, which makes you worry.Oh well— you already know the same goes for him.

Note: Bob is my comfort character. This chapter is also a long one!

》 Masterlist 》 Bradley's Masterlist

》 Previous 》Next

"Rooster and Crash, you'll be paired for today."

"Fuck me." You mumbled, as Maverick announced the partners for today's practice regarding the Uranium Mission.

Bob nearly choked at your choice of words.

It's not that you don't want to be paired with him, you just don't think ypu'll be able to focus with him being your partner because of the stupid butterflies in your stomach whenever you hear his voice or catch a glimpse of him.

The fact that he's also as cautious as can be which means you won't be able to do the normal speed you and Hangman fly at.

It's gonna be a challenge.

You walked alongside Bob on the Tarmac, about to get into your jets. Time is ticking and you needed to execute the manuevers and speed for the success of the uranium mission.

You didn't have to say it out loud for Bob to know you're beyond nervous. Given it has only been a day since you ejected from that bird stike accident, you knew you aren't in your best shape.

"You'll be just fine, y/n/n." Bob offered you a gentle smile. You let out a huff, "You sure put a hell lot of trust on me Robby, heck I don't even know if I could trust myself."

"Don't doubt yourself. I know you can do it."

You offered him a smile, "Thanks Robby, it means a lot. You always know how to make me feel better." You patted his head as he hummed.

"You're acting as if I didn't know you your whole life, y/n/n." He chuckled, your conversation was cut short as you saw something out of your pheriperal vision.

"Wait, what happened to statefarm?" You motioned over to Jake Seresin who was currently checking on his jet while sporting a bruised cheek.

Bob sighed, "A fight broke out on Hard Deck last night." You widened your eyes, "What? Last night?! Who did he fight?"

"Rooster." Bob stated, answering you and greeting the pilot as he walked closer to you and Bob. Bradley gave a small smile and a nod to the WSO in reply.

"Hey Roo– " You felt a gust of wind as he walked straight past, completely ignoring you. "What was up with him..?" Trying to shake off the hurt and embarassment, you jogged towards your jet and waving bye to Bob who only sighed and shaked his head before walking to his and pheonix's jet.

Did Bradley felt like an asshole as he purposely ignored you? Absolutely, he wants to go back and kneel as he begs you not to think he's just another jerk and apologize. He feels like a first grader who's being mean to his crush.

Why did he do that? He also doesn't fucking know. He's trying to sort put his thoughts. Well, one of the few reasons is probably for the fact that he knew Hangman was hellbent on keeping you away from him, recalling their incident last night at Hard Deck.

"You don't have the right to control her, Hangman." Rooster spat out, "She's not yours." Jake glared, "I'm just protecting her, Rooster."

"Protecting her from what?"

"From you, you think I don't know how many girls you've been with?"

Payback looked around before apologizing to Penny, seeing how many people are now staring at them, his friends causing a scene.

Coyote tried pulling Jake back, "Come on man, Penny will kick us out if you both won't stop." He shrugged off his friends grip on him.

"Oh I'm not finished."

"I should be saying the same to you, Hangman. You're acting like you're her fucking boyfriend."

"I just don't want her to end up in your bed and for you to discard her the next morning, I know your little crush on her Bradshaw. And I know you want to put her to bed-"

Something inside Rooster snapped as his fist made contact with Hangman's cheek. Jake laughed, knowing that he pushed Rooster's button as he striked back, resulting Bradley's busted lip.

"That's enough! Lieutenant Bradshaw! Lieutenant Seresin!" Maverick yelled as he stood and immediately went between them as Hangman and Rooster were pulled back buy Coyote, Payback, and Fanboy.

"We will discuss what happened early in the morning." Maverick looked at them sternly as he heard the grunts of agreement of the two.

"Rooster, you gotta speed up. We're half a minute late by the target." You informed, looking at the screen in your jet.

"We're good, we'll get there. Just maintain your speed."

You feel like you're going on a stroll or sight seeing with Bradley. You're used to the fast-paced Hangman.

"Increase to 500 knots!"

"Negative, Crash. Hold your speed."

"Rooster, we're late!"

"We're alive, we'll make up time in the straightaway."

You are beyond annoyed and shocked, talking to him feels like talking to a brick wall. Your words are just like white noise to him.

"We are not gonna make it!"

"Just trust me, maintain your speed. We can make it."

You scoffed, "By the time we'll get there we'll be a minute late!" 'This guy is unbelievable.' You thought to yourself as you continued to follow him, maintaning your speed as you've got no other choice.

"Why are you dead?" Maverick asked Rooster, "You're team leader up there, why are you, why is your team dead?"

"Sir, he's the only one that made it to the target." Pheonix interjected, as she looked at their instructor.

"A minute late. He gave the enemy aircraft time to shoot him down."

"That's what I was saying. If it was the real thing then we would've been dead." You mumbled, crossing your arms and letting out a sigh.

Apparently, you weren't silent enough since Rooster turned his head into your direction, hard eyes glancing your way. "You don't know that."

"You're not flying fast enough. You don't have a second to waste." Hangman said, agreeing with you.

Even though you always bicker and fight with Hangman, it was nothing but playful. Although you gotta admit, he's an ass and can get under people's skin, but you're sure to keep him in check. Needless to say, you almost broke his jaw when you two first met because of his habit of pushing people's buttons.

You both make the perfect pair, as soon as you're up in the sky you both worked like a well-oiled machine. Both of you are fast-paced pilots, you're the only one that can keep up with Hangman while simultaneuosly keeping him in check.

Rooster looked at Maverick, "We made it to the target."

"And superior enemy aircraft intercepted you on your way out." Maverick said. Rooster won't back down, "Then it is a dogfight."

You scrunched up your brows, you couldn't believe what you were hearing. "Against fifth generation fighters?" You asked him, clearly in disbelief by his overly optimistic views.

"Yeah, we'd still have a chance."

"In an F-18?" Maverck asks, clearly getting worked up. Bradley looked at him, "It's not the plane sir, it's the pilot."

"Exactly."

The small smile on Bradley's face fell, the room grew silent. Maverick seems to realize his words as he looked away, not meeting anyone's gaze.

Rooster looked at him, trying not to lose his composure, "There's more than one way to fly this mission."

"You really don't get it." Jake looks at Rooster, "On this mission, a man flies like maverick here, or a man does not come back."

Hangman looked at Phoenix and Bob, "No offense intended" You really wanna punch him right now. Pheonix gave him a look while Bob, who was sitting beside her, leaned over to look at him. "Yet somehow you always manage."

Hangman looked back to Rooster, "Look I don't mean to criticize, you're conservative. That's all."

"Lieutenant." Maverick warned.

"Look, we're going into combat, son. A level no living pilot has ever seen." He turned to look at Maverck. "Not even him."

"That's no time to be thinking about the past." He turned to look at Rooster's direction. Shit, you already know this won't be good. Hangman and his mouth is a great fucking combo for a disaster.

"Hangman." You looked at him, knowing he's got shit up at his sleeve. Rooster looks taken aback as he slowly looks at Hangman. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"I can't be the onky one that knows Maverick flew with his old man." Your eyes slowly widened, Maverick intervened. "Okay that's enough." Jake didn't listen.

"Or that Maverick was flying when his old man-"

Bradley went straight to him as everyone scrambled in their seats to prevent them being near each other. "Shit! Hangman that's enough!" You stood beside Hangman as you pulled him back. Rooster pushed him, the force knocking Hangman and you.

You winced, trying to hide it. Even though you weren't the one he pushed, you still got the receiving end of it, considering you got brusies littering your body, it did a number on you. Hangman immediately stands infront of you, glaring at Rooster.

"You son of a bitch!" Rooster yelled at Hangman, pointing at him angrily. He felt rage. Pure unadulterated rage consumed his body. As he stares at Hangman, his fellow aviators holding him back.

Hangman shrugged his fellow aviators off, "I'm cool, I'm cool."

Just as you think it's over, Hangman opened his mouth again. "He's not cut out for this mission." You seriously want to ductape it and only remove it when he has to eat or drink.

Everything that has happened is making your head hurt. Pinching the bridge of yoru nose, you took a step back and sighed.

"That's enough." Maverick told him. He just smiled to an agitated Rooster. "You know it." Hangman turned to look at the topgun instructor infront of them.

"You know I'm right."

Taglist [Closed]: @auszimbo @twsssmlmaa @looneylikesbooks

#soulmate au #rooster x y/n #bradley rooster x reader #rooster imagine #bradley bradshaw x female reader #top gun imagine #top gun au #top gun rooster

135 notes · View notes

ladycamillewrites · 1 year

Text

Against the Odds

Chapter 10 - Don't be sorry

warnings: pregnancy stuff, emotional scenes, cussing

masterlist

“Chris? Can you hear me?“

“Tom! G’day mate! I know I might’ve overstrained your nerves yesterday“ Chris sighed, suddenly feeling a bit guilty for throwing the overwhelming piece of information at his best friend on a random Thursday night. Wile he was out with Benedict.

“No, it’s- I… fuck, man“ Tom’s husky voice echoed through the Aussie’s phone, self-doubts were battling rays of hope for a brighter future in his voice. “I’m in Dubai right now“

Short silence.

“Erm, you are where?“

“Dubai. It’s a three hour layover but those guys have quite the comfortable business class lounge“ Tom replied, the rattling of cutlery adding to the background noises.

The gears in Chris’ head shifted fast, the realization of what his best friend was doing set in like a lightning. But honestly he didn’t expect anything else. Tom was a good man with a strong heart.

“Oh god, thank ya. Y/n is” he stopped for a second “Well, she needs you“, his voice vanishing in a whisper as he heard your high-pitched curse from upstairs. Perhaps the baby was giving his sister some thundering headaches again. A muffled giggle resounded from the actor’s vocal cords whereas Tom was on red alert.

“Is she alright? God, I should’ve come far earlier“ the Brit sighed, doing a desperate facepalm and his left forearm landed on the table with a dull smack. The Arabian specialties he ordered smelled tantalizing however, his hunger was gone.

“Bro, calm down. It’s probably just the baby doing it’s first moves. She always complains about how it tickles on the inside and she can’t do anything about it“ the Thor actor explained, trying to take the guilt from his friend. There was no real need to make him insecure by telling the first conjecture about the reason of your cry.

“Thank god. It sounds like her“ Tom chuckled lightly, freeing his forehead from the strong grip of his hand. Planes were taking off and pushing back behind the thick windows giving him hope to finally be reunited with the woman he loved more than anything else.

And his unborn child.

“So, If nothing gets in the way I’ll be arriving in Brisbane at 2pm“.

“I’ll pick you up, bro. Have a nice flight“ Chris hurried to say goodbye before his secret phone call would blow up.

You were bustling all around the house, finding something new to do every five minutes. The second trimester, despite of small movements of the baby and occasional migraine, was flooding you with energy and motivation to do the most random stuff at even more random times.

“Arielle? Where are you?“ Liam’s voice echoed from downstairs. “Bathroom. Thor tries to eat my bikini bottooooooms“ you yelled back, the panic in your voice amusingly audible. The fluffy Australian Shepherd was a sweetheart. Mostly. But sometimes he turned into Satan himself and tried to annoy the hell out of you.

“Thor tries to do what?“ Your youngest brother asked, the wicked entertainment obvious. Of course he found that funny. “When you finished laughing could you please get your pretty ass up here and put that dog away-ahhhhh!“.

Liam bit his hand to repress a roaring laughter while Chris fist banged on the counter top. Another desperate try to keep it in whereas your agitated curses echoed from above. Their gazes met and both knew they were absolutely defeated. Bursting out in crippling laughter the brothers bathed in your suffering.

“Liam and Chris fucking Hemsworth! I know y’all grinning like a shot fox. M’ gonna kill you by drowning in the sea“ you cried out before dull thuds announced you descending the stairs and approaching your brothers with the chewed string of wet fabric menacingly in your hand. “Nooo, don’t“ Liam cried out running away from you like a scared, giggling child. You were a mess with your brothers but hell, no one cared so it was just perfect.

“You’ll buy me a new crossie, friend“ you pointed at Chris who was still choking on a slice of mango. “Why should I?“ He threw his hands up in despair before the salivated fabric hit his naked torso with a wet smack. You weren’t to play games with right now but secretly you enjoyed the childish banter.

*ding-dong*

“Arielle, could you please accept the mail?“ Chris yelled from out of the garage. He just got back from grocery shopping and you were the only one dry and inside since your nephews were having quality time with their mother in the pool. Reluctantly, you got up, hasty legs carrying you towards the big, white door.

Lost in thoughts about Tom, the few months you relished in a perfect life with him London, you twisted the doorknob.

“Hello, my love“.

Your jaw dropped, hands flying up to cup your cheeks as the man you were thinking about nonstop stood in the doorframe, a pretty bouquet made out of lilies and roses in his hands. It felt like you were frozen, as if the person who played you as character just paused the game while Tom’s coy yet incredibly charming smile dazzled your widened eyes.

“May I come-“ he began, but the baritone voice you had missed so much died as your lips sealed with his. It was as if there had never been a second of pause, not even the slightest touch of difference. It was beautiful whereas you felt horrible inside. Hot tears teetered in the brink of your eyelids, ready to stain Tom’s notorious blue sweater.

“I missed you, darling“ he breathed as you parted for a second, causing the dam of your eyes to breake and gushes of salty tears streamed down you reddened cheeks.

You had basically abandoned him, left him without a trace and only a ludicrous excuse of a letter. Nevertheless, the man stood right here in front of you smiling thorough his own emotionality with the biggest doe eyes. He wasn’t angry, was he?

Honestly, you couldn’t even blame him if he was.

“Listen, Tom I- I am so fucking sorry” it blurted out of you, unable to meet his ocean blues and turning away from the door instead. Your step away allowed the Brit to enter, however, you were trying to get a safe distance. A few feet that would spare you from his beautiful face contorted in disappointment like a Bernini statue.

“Love, please”

“No, I can’t. There’s no adequate excuse for what I have done. I should have spoken to you before I left. I should’ve told you that I am…” your voice died in the sore passageway of your throat. Tom was unaware of your biggest secret, wasn’t he?

A whole damn child spending it’s thirteenth week of live in your belly was a hell of a secret. You felt like crumbling apart.

“Pregnant? I know, y/n” Tom’s soothing voice hoisted your gaze from the floor, rays of hope sparkling in your eyes and the broadly smiling man came closer. Was he alright with it? Would he possibly want to have a child with you? A thousand scenarios rumbled through your agitated mind, images of your happy family life fighting the idea of raising him or her alone.

“How do you-“ you began, your boyfriends sharp jawline pointing at your brother as he nodded agreeing wordlessly. Chris sat in the staircase grinning like a Cheshire Cat and holding both thumbs up in an affirmative gesture. Of course. How could you’ve been so stupid to tell him and not expecting him to tell his best friend who happened to be the father.

You scoffed, grabbing Tom’s hand and pulling him across the whole living room until you reached the terrace, elaborately peppered with exotic plants and a few loungers. Peaceful and peace was definitely what you desired the most. Inner peace with yourself and the man you were ready to lose everything else for.

“I found out the night of the London Awards but I was already in the tenth week. Remember when I stumbled and you dragged me to the ER?” you whispered, hands playing with vivid petals of the bouquet Tom had bought you. Oh, the scent was heavenly reminding you of the unique lilly-scented washing powder Tom used for his dress shirts.

Probably not a coincidence but a gentle innuendo.

“Oh god. Why- Why didn’t you tell me?” He panted, looking up from the glass table that separated you like bars of a mental prison. His question weighed heavy on your delicate shoulders, the tickle of your baby’s first tries of movements added oil to the fire that spread across every single sense. It felt shitty, as if you had committed a felony.

“Fuck“ you sighed, hiding your sensitive face in the last fortress of small hands. You had hurt him and blatantly so. Shifting uncomfortable on the soft leather, you stopped as his gentle fingertips brushed your bare knees, slowly pushing the hem of your dress upwards, calculated wave-like motions. “Thomas, I didn’t mean to fool you. I really didn’t. It was just… I-“ you began to stammer mid-sentence.

“Shhh“ he calmed your troubled mind, squatting from the leathery surface and reaching to grab your waist. A gentle flex of his exposed forearms lifted you upwards, coaxing you to straddle his lap. His scent invaded your nostrils like sedative gas, his touch melted your spent muscles like lava melts snow. It felt like the exact same home you left three weeks ago.

Guilt. That was what fueled your tears as soon as your face nuzzled in the crook of his neck. You had left him. Pregnant. You could never properly excuse this although your choice had been influenced heavily by the greedy, destructive voices that wanted nothing but drama and heartbreak.

“I know, darling. I could never reproach you for what you did“ he whispered, the big hand continuously tracing little circles and other swirling patterns on your back. “But I sincerely hope that you can give us a second chance“ the Brit purred carefully. “Please, love. I need you“ the last words flew silently in the Australian breeze like a heavy promise. A promise to your ears only before it got carried away.

“Would you want me back? After…well, I left you?“ You murmured barely audible against the drenched fabric of his signature sweater. Your tears had devoured his whole shoulder but the relentless sun would dry it in an instant anyway. A bit of wetness was Tom’s smallest problem at the moment.

“I’ve never not wanted you, y/n. Since the day Chris introduced me to you again I knew you would play the leading role my own, personal movie. God, I have thought about you since that day. Nonstop, not until this very second“

“Can we take a break from the world? Just us and the people who don’t judge for a little while? I need to get my life- we need to get our life sorted“ you paused for a little sigh, slightly hesitant to mention the ‘issue‘. “Especially since she’s with us“.

“So… you think it is a girl? Our baby?“ Tom breathed, the words sinking in like hot ash burning all his previous experiences and nurturing the new life he would be building with you. And with whoever little wonder was hiding in your womb. It was much to take in. “Our baby“ he repeated almost absent-mindedly, thoughts trailing off to how he would be a father in about… wait.

“How far along are you, love?“ The question dragged you out of the gleeful bliss of watching Tom’s gorgeous face contort in pure awe. “Fourteenth week so in the beginning of the second trimester“ you began to explain, your boyfriend’s lips twitching with every new piece of vulnerable information he got. You could almost smell his adorable excitement.

“Wow” his soft baritone cooed, almost in sync with your giggle. “With you wearing this loose dress I could never have guessed”.

“And yes, somehow I have the feeling it’s a girl. She’ll have your beautiful curls, Tommy“. You smiled so freely and happily for the first time in a long time. Your cheeks wandered up to give way to proud, curling lips and your pregnancy glow reflected the sun like a touch of divinity. He always wanted to have children once and with you being their mother, the actor couldn’t be any happier. He never had been to be exact, in none of his earlier relationships.

Tom hummed in approval, returning your smile before your delicate hand grabbed his, guiding it towards your stomach but he stopped, steel blue doe eyes searching for consent. He was a gentleman of the first waters. Always. Even if it was about his own flesh and blood growing like a wonderful flower.

“Go on“ you smiled coyly, gaze fixed on the Brit’s unique facial features scanning them for any sign of reaction as he touched your small bump. It wasn’t too big yet but clearly visible now that you brushed the fabric of the dress. “Christ“ he breathed, a sudden warmth spreading from his palms like a calming balm. You could feel how she was enjoying her dad’s touch.

For the first time knowingly.

“You’re gonna be a father, Thomas Hiddleston“ you snickered. The angelic sound of your words and their overwhelming meaning dragged the curly haired Brit out of his trance and back into the reality he would cherish and treasure like a guard dog.

“We- we’ll have a baby“ he eventually whimpered with a sniffy tone. The man had lost control over his words or expressions. “I thought it was impossible for me“ you mused, smiling to yourself at all the comments and bottomless accusations Nate had planted in your mind.

Bullshit. It had all been bullshit and Tom, the real love of your life, had proven it.

Nate could proudly go fuck himself because you had everything you wanted.

But deep down you knew this triumph wouldn’t be for too long. In a few months the premiere of ‘The Moralizer‘ would take place with compulsory attendance for you and Tom. Logically the world world would know if you came.

However, you wanted to keep this piece of heaven for as long as it lasted. In private.

“God, y/n. You're growing a wonder. I can’t wait to meet him“ he chuckled pulling you in a gentle kiss and lavishly toying with your lower lip. He was devastatingly seductive as always but suave in his tender touch.

“Him? So you don’t think it’s a girl?“ You mused against his wet lips, both of your mouths curling in fond smiles and giggles.

“Hmmm“ he hummed, the dark timbre of his voice always remaining you of Loki, the Asgardian god you had a massive movie-crush on since the first Thor movie and naturally it got progressively worse. To your defense, you weren’t alone. “No. It’s gonna be a daddy’s boy“.

“Tommy! What even is my role then? You cannot just claim little Hiddles!“

“Excuse me? Little Hiddles?“ Tom chuckled, butterflies swirling in his belly at your face all scrunched up in mischievous laughter and of course the cute nickname you had given the baby. He would copy that most definitely. ‘Little Hiddles’ he repeated in his head, pride swelling in his chest, the thought of you as the mother of his child was simple in it’s nature but utterly beautiful.

“Y/n, Tom? Can we talk for a second?“ A shy Elsa peeked around the corner of the brick column. She had been an angel since your arrival, the second person to know of your pregnancy in general and the best source of productive help you got so far. She had three kids after all.

“Sure, and thank you for letting me stay, Elsa. Truly“ Tom unwrapped his charming, British smile making Elsa return it a mere blink of an eye. This man was a honeytrap for every breathing being, a fluffy looking predator that could lure anyone he wished. But it was you who owned his pure heart. You and baby-Tommy, of course.

“You’re something like my brother-in-law so how could I say no?“ She giggled, sitting down opposite of you. “Have you told him about the appointment and the little thing we’ve planned?“

You but your lower lips, sudden nervousness cursed your veins at the thought of today’s ultrasound appointment. The biggest one in a while and with a little luck, the doc would be able to determine the gender. Hopefully, everything was alright with your little wonder. You couldn’t bear any complications in this emotionally vulnerable state. Not with the newfound happiness Tom brought with him from London.

“Well, erm I thought you c- can“ you begun to stutter like a child, your gaze jumping from Tom’s right eyes to his left. “She has a big exam today and now that the daddy is here…“ Elsa tried to help you, nodding affirmatively until the words slipped from your tongue.

“Would you like to come with me?“

“If you would have me, dove“ Tom cooed with excitement tugging at his lips.

Chris’ wife was slowly melting but not from the Australian sun, no, from the utter cuteness of the whole scenario. It felt like the final, happy reunion in a rom-com with the best actors on the planet. To her you definitely were.

“And Elsa wants to organize a gender reveal party if that’s okay with you, baby“ you snickered against his muscular chest, the training for Skull Island and the Moralizer was still showing off so seductively. If everything was going well later, Tom would definitely not be allowed the leave the bedroom tonight.

You were touch starved and so was he, his hips subtly bucking as you leaned back, temptingly putting your cleavage on display for him.

Oh, the passion never died.

“I can hear it in your voice, dove. You would love this, wouldn’t you?“ He mocked playfully, long digits flying to hold you in place. “Maybe“. The giggle spoke volumes, making the handsome Brit set up the serotonin-boosting smile you loved so much about him. The shiny teeth reflected the sun like luxurious pearls while you drowned in the ocean and sky blue shades of his almond eyes.

A beautiful man and all yours. Hopefully, forever.

“Ready? It could feel a bit cold“ the doctor asked for consent before applying the ultrasound probe on your bump. It tickled, felt weird but Tom was sitting right next to you caressing your arm and smiling like an exited kid. You wouldn’t know whether it was a girl or a boy since Elsa planned the party for you.

The doc knew so everything that came out of his mouth were the standard affirmations. You smiled at Tom, watching him look at the monitor with an awe-struck expression painting his sharp facials.

Fuck Nate. This was exactly what you wanted. This man and this little family.

But his smile died, brows furrowed in confusion as the doctor mumbled incoherent phrases to himself, moving the probe across your belly as if he was searching something.

“Ehm, is everything alright?“ Your dry voice was shaking and Tom’s big hand grabbed your left hand. The tension was palpable and thousands of bad scenarios began to flash in your irritated mommy-mind.

“Oh, sorry! Yes, it is actually all good twice“ he explained, fingers moving on the monitor to make measurements or whatever this device was capable of.

Your confused gaze met your boyfriend’s equally puzzled ocean blues, both unable to process what the doctor was trying to imply.

“You didn’t know?“ The older man asked again, an exited grin on his thin lips. “Sorry, know what?“

“You’re expecting twins, Ms Hemsworth“

“I beg your pardon?“ It blurted out of Tom, disbelief written all over his gorgeous face like an emotional love letter. The shock turned into a sweet realization as the monitor got turned and you saw the two tiny beings sharing your belly like roommates.

“Well, the babies are a bit small for your stage of pregnancy but it's nothing to worry about. Both seem perfectly healthy“.

Two babies.

“Oh my god“ you breathed, mouth agape from feeling you couldn’t even describe properly. Of course, you were overwhelmed for more than just a blink of an eye and maybe would need some days to really process this. However, the main emotions were pure luck, happiness and pride swelling in your fast pounding heart when glassy eyes met Tom.

* beep beep *

“Oh, excuse me for a minute“ the friendly doctor nodded, the honest smile on his face silently congratulating the happy couple before the he left.

“Twins, darling! You’re a wonder“ Tom sobbed, sweet tears rolling down the sharp path of his cheekbones until they hit your naked belly. It felt so wholesome yet utterly distant as you sat up, back against Tom’s chest and both staring at the on-hold image the doctor captured.

At first you thought you would never have a baby and now… two little creatures sleeping safe and sound in your bump. The natural consequence of your love to the most perfect man on earth.

“I- I don’t… we have to buy twice as much clothes?!“ It blurted out of you, realization slowly setting like dawn. Tom just chuckled, the deep sound intertwining with happy sobs and vibrating against your neck. He held you tight, one hand sinking down to cup your belly in such loving manner, the twins would surely notice.

“Looks like I have to order two Loki jumpers then“. “Sorry, you ordered what?“ You bursted out in laughter swiftly turning your shoulders to face the grinning man. He was Loki, there was no doubt. But the stubble of his beard was kind of distracting to the image of the ethereal trickster nevertheless, you loved it as much.

“You will be an amazing father, Tom“ you snickered, the tip of your nose touching his before his pointer brushed your chin and coaxed you into a passionate kiss. Tongues were swirling around each other, tears were mingling at your touching cheeks. This moment was one to treasure, one that was burnt deep in your memory. One that you shared with Tom forever and maybe would think about again when your twins had kids of their own…

“I’m so sorry I left you. Is there any way I could-“ but Tom was quick to interrupt “Love, we talked about this. No more apologies because I am happier than ever“ he breathed in between the heated kiss. Perhaps it grew a bit out of control, his greedy hands melting in the curves of your hips.

“Guys, I’ve heard you’re-“ Elsa stumbled in the room, the handle of her bag getting caught on the doorknob. With heavy pants you parted, mentally thanking the door for distracting your sister-in-law. There was no need for her to see you almost making out in the examination room of the local hospital, right?

“Twins!“ You grinned like a Cheshire Cat while it was still dawning on you that this meant twice the work, twice the fatigue and twice the bustle.

But hell, as if you couldn’t manage it with Tom on your side. You were ready for this luck of a challenge and so was your boyfriend, agog to tell his mom. You’ve met her already, even visited her a few times and she was so adorable. The perfect grandmother, you were sure.

Elsa squeaked like an overly exited child, jumping around to pull both of you in a hug. “Congratulations, you two“ she chirped, suddenly pulling back to stare at you with eyes widened and a silent o on her lips. “Oh gosh! I have to double up all the decoration and stuff“ it blurted out of her bestowing you a good round of laughter.

Unbeknownst to you the doctor returned, your documents and files in his hands.

“Mister Hiddleston, do you know your blood type by any chance?“ He intervened, the smile in his voice audible as the sweet serotonin swirling in the air infiltrated him as well.

“A negative, sir“ his answer came like shot leaving Elsa and you startled, exchanging funny looks as the doc completed the entries in your maternity record. “Well, you could shoot me in the leg and I wouldn’t know“ your best friend quipped nudging Tom in the side to elicit some kind of explanation.

Tom’s amused chuckle warmed your heart as you smoothened your blouse again, turning on the medical couch, your legs dangling freely. “While filming Skull Island they needed to know in case anyone got injured in the backland of Vietnam“ he explained, smiling at all the interesting memories he made.

“Have you heard that mini-Hiddlestons? Your daddy is a pretty cool guy“ you cackled, caressing the small bump hidden by comfortable leggings.

“Twins? Are you kidding me mate?“ Chris’ deep voice echoed through the whole house as Tom proudly presented the ultrasound picture the doc gave you. “What?“ India squeaked running towards her daddy and swiftly grabbing the photo. Logically, it was just a weird black and white image of something she was far too young to realize but her youthful joy was unstoppable.

“Like Tristan and Sasha?“ She asked Tom, small eyebrows furrowed in concentration to process the gleeful situation. India had idolized her aunt y/n since the day she was born and finding out there would be more kids in her family soon was totally awesome to her.

“Exactly. Maybe this kind of luck runs in the Hemsworth-blood?“ Tom joked patting his bro’s shoulders; the man as hard as rock yet fighting happy tears like a toddler. “You have no idea what multiplying this kind of work means“ your big brother tried to detract from his emotionality but Tom just laughed it off.

There was no space for worries or fears right now. Just bliss.

“Chris, what the hell?“ Liam intervened crossing his arms in front of his chest defensively. The youngest brother sometimes actually was the most reasonable. “Are you really just terrifying him? Give this man a break“.

“Exactly, Chris. Listen to your brother“ you feigned seriousness while jumping on Liam’s back letting him carry you around the house like a human horse. “To the fridge“ you commanded strictly, extending one arm with your fingers pointing to the kitchen.

The mini-Hiddles were hungry so the mango in the fridge was destined to die.

The other mango you knew was certainly better suited for more private times…

“Lucky you. The last few days she wanted me to drive her to Macca’s“ Chris sighed, getting up to indulge his begging daughter’s wish to go play with Thor. Tom was left turning around on the couch, his right arm resting on the backrest so that he could watch his beautiful y/n bickering with her brother. She was perfect, curling the corners of lips upwards with ease.

After you were finished arguing with Liam on how to cut a mango the right way, you were huddled up in Tom’s strong arms, the two of you enjoying the privacy at the pool. Light blue pool lights were creating flickering and swaying rays with the tiny waves rippling across the water surface. It was so peaceful, and so was your heart. Almost.

“Tommy?“ “Hmm?“ He hummed, eyes closed and tired from the excruciatingly long day. A stop-over flight, a fateful talk and finding out he was gonna be the dad of twins had the Brit’s mind dizzy.

However, it was a good kind of dizzy, the way you would feel after a fun rollercoaster ride.

“What do you say about taking some time off? I want to to savor this with you before we have to face reality again“ you spoke, barely audible in the valley between his biceps and torso. You knew it was going to happen and the media outcry would be heavy. Needless to say you weren’t keen on Nate’s fucking stupid comments.

But they would meet your ears soon enough and you wanted to be prepared.

“Of course. I already told my manager about a break due to personal reasons. Are three weeks fine with you, darling?“ He cooed, dexterous digits toying with a strand of your hair sprawled across his bare chest. You could feel his defined pectorals flexing as his arm reached out to cradle your figure lovingly.

“More than fine, my love“ you grinned up at him. “We will be stronger than ever“ He added while his ocean blues wandered your bikini clad body greedily. Oh, how well you knew this look and what would follow.

“I hope so, Tommy. But let’s not waste time on those idiots, shall we?“ You chirped, his subtle beard tickling your delicate skin as your lips sealed agin.

a/n: twins guyssss 🎉 let's see if the newfound happiness lasts

tags: @crimson25 @kikster606 @huntress-artemiss @123forgottherest @lovingchoices14 @ozymdias @vbecker10 @coldnique @lokixryss @simplyholl @peaches1958 @lokibadguy @jennyggggrrr @stephenstrangeaddictions @holymultiplefandomsbatman @mischief2sarawr @mypsychoticlove @mochie85 @muddyorbs @ijuststareatstuffhereok89 @simping-for-marvel @lady-rose-moon @goblingirlsarah @kats72 @vickie5446 @buffyfan2833 @12-pm-510 @ladymischief11 @somewiseguy @woooonau @cabingrlandrandomcrap @alchemxx @honeyrydernot

#against the odds #Hiddleston fic #tom hiddelston x reader #tom hiddleston x reader #tom hiddleston fanfic #tom hiddleston x you #tom hiddleston fic

107 notes · View notes

mrs-santoss · 1 year

Text

Love at First Sight - Neymar Imagine - Chapter Six

Summary:

Y/N is scared to fall in love. She fell once, and it was a nightmare. She can't risk it again. But, this lucky boy manages to steal her heart, but unfortunately, manages to break it at the same time. What will Y/Ns decisions be?

Chapter 1 , Chapter 2 , Chapter 3 , Chapter 4 , Chapter 5

All the medical staff ran up to Neymar. I stood there in my place not being able to move an inch. Someone bumps my shoulder while running to him, bringing me back to my senses. I ran up to him. He was laying there in pain, tears falling from his eyes. It was a very heartbreaking view. I couldn't even examine him a just stood there looking at him, holding his hand. "Is it bad? Do I have to stop playing?" he kept asking, looking up at everyone. I felt a hand on my shoulder. I looked up to see Kylian, motioning for me to speak with Neymar.

"Ney? Are you in...are you in pain?" He looked at me for a second before answering, I could tell he was trying to say something else to me, but couldn't because of other people being around. "No, meu am--no, ma'am, I'm okay. Don't worry" Neymar couldn't continue his game, It would only make the injury worse. All the medical staff members looked at me, waiting for me to give my final verdict. I had to agree with them on this one. Neymar had to leave the game because of his own good. "Unfortunately, you have to leave the game, Ney....mar"

"No, no, no, no, I only need to rest for a few minutes, I'll be fine" "NO YOU WON'T, BEBÊ. IT'LL ONLY GET WORSE, I CAN'T LET YOU RISK NOT PLAYING ANYMORE BECAUSE I LOVE YOU" He looks taken back by my sudden outburst. I couldn't tell if he was mad at me or not, it looks like he forgot about the pain for a second. We put him on the stretcher and carry him inside. As soon as we were out of the camera's sight, I looked at him. "Ney, I'm sorry about that. I'm just really scared something will happen to you right now." "It's okay, amor. It just caught me by surprise. You do realize the whole STADIUM probably heard you calling me "bebê" and telling me you love me, right?" "I knoww, that was an intense moment, alright? I didn't think it all the way through. I'm sorry." "It's okay, bebê. People are going to find out at some point anyway" We reach the ambulance and place Neymar inside. I go with him as his girlfriend, since my part as a medical staff on the field is done. _____________________________

"Can I see him now?" "Yes, you can, ma'am." I knock on the door and open it slowly, Neymar is laying there looking at me smiling. He seemed okay. According to the doctor, he had a small knee injury that's supposed to heal in a week. While I was waiting for the doctor I went through my phone, scrolling on different social medias. Our team has won the game, I was happy about that. All the other news were about my interaction with Neymar on the field earlier. There were photos of me holding his hand, cupping his face. There was an actual video of me yelling "...because i love you" going viral. I guess our relationship has been discovered. "Hi, bebê. How are you feeling?" I kiss him on the cheek and sit on the chair next to him, holding his hand. "Hi, meu amor. I'm feeling much better now. Did you see whether they won the game or not?" "Yes, they did, Ney. Congratss!"

"Oh, thank god. I was worried about it." "There are also videos of us about our moment on the field earlier, I think they know." "That's okay, bebê. Honestly, It doesn't really make a difference for me, I love you the same either way. Besides, I can kiss you at work whenever I want now." he winks at me. "About that... I'm sure the coach will talk to me about it tomorrow. He will give me a list of things of how to keep our relationship professional at work." "Yeah, yeah, whatever. I'll still kiss you." "You're crazy." I chuckle at him. "Says the woman who accidentally announced our relationship to a whole crowd at a stadium while trying to yell at me." "Heyy!!! Not everyone heard it., that's physically impossible for me" I smack his arm lightly. He was messing with me.

Neymar gets discharged from the hospital after a few hours. I decide to stay over at his place for a couple of days so I can take care of him, so we drive straight to his place.

__________________________

Our relationship going public was the most stressful thing I've ever went through. I was already a part of social media for my close friendship with the guys. I was a part of a lot of Neymar's and Kylian's compilations of funny videos. Now, I'm also a part of Neymar's and Bruna's compilations of loving moments videos. Bruna is Neymar's ex-girlfriend. They were in a relationship for a very long time, so they were a very famous couple in Brazil especially. This never really bothered me at first, probably because we were still a secret at that time, but now, it's completely different. I get a lot of messages from people comparing me to her or asking me to break up with Neymar or telling me to kill myself. I only spoke about this to Neymar once. He assured me that he doesn't care what everyone thinks and that it will get better over time. It didn't though. It only got worse. Now, I'm photographed everyday at work or I'm chased by the press at every restaurant I go to with my friends. I was going through a hard time.

The worst part about all of this is how Neymar has been acting recently. He seems to always be in deep thoughts, he's not that flirtatious as he used to be, he rarely invites me to stay over at his place. Even our fun nights as a group with Kylian are completely forgotten. I'm pulled from my thoughts by a waving hand in front of my eyes. I look around me and I realize I'm sitting on the field with Kylian chatting. "Are you still here? Hello? Y/N?" "Yeah, yeah, yeah! Sorry" "Y/N, you should talk to him about this. You look more stressed each passing day. This is not good for you." "I know I should, but I'm just scared of what his answer will be. He's been completely different since our relationship went public. Has he said anything to you?" "No, not really. We don't hang out together, the three of us, like we used to anymore. I admit that there's something going on for sure, but you're the only one who can find out." "I know" I say as I lower my head looking at the artificial grass under me. I feel Kylian's arms around my shoulders, he kisses my head. "Hey, whatever happens, I'll always be your friend. I'm always there for you" "Thank you, Ky. I'm so grateful for you." "Awww, thank you, crazyy. I'm grateful for you too." ______________________________________ I knock on the door a couple times before Neymar opens it. He looks surprised to see me and not very excited. I decided to stop by his house after work, he left before me and I didn't have a chance to talk to him. "Hi, can I come in?" "Yea-yeah, of course, Y/N." he leads me to the living room where he was staying before I knocked on the door. He was watching a movie, it was on pause. I sit on the couch and motion for him to sit close to me. "Ney, you do admit there's something different about us these days, right?" He looks scared to answer, he scratches his neck constantly. He sighs before he answers. "Yes, there is." "Do you have any idea why?" "Yes, I do." "Do you think you're being fair and honest by not sharing it with me, because I personally don't think I'm doing anything different?" I speak in a soft voice, I always speak in a soft voice during these kind of intense conversation. I find raising my voice very unhelpful. "No, I'm not. I should talk to you about it."

"Why aren't you....are you unsure about your feelings?" I know if the answer to that question is "yes", that would totally break me. But, I need to know, I can't continue like this. "Y/N, you're an amazing person. I adore you as a person, okay? You're this soft and sweet person that I'm being a dick to like an idiot. I've been avoiding this conversation because I was afraid." I pause for a moment. I'm forcing myself not to cry. I can't cry in front him, I can't cry in front of anyone. I don't need to continue this conversation anymore to know where this is going, but I still want to ask him why. "What made you feel like this... is it something I did?" He looks at me defeated and cups my cheeks, looking straight into my eyes. "NO, no , no, god, no. You are an amazing person, you have the biggest heart, everything about is lovely, don't try to find the flaw in yourself, please, because you can't find a single one." he pauses for a moment before continuing. "Ever since our relationship went public, I've been seeing a lot of videos about my past relationship. She's become a part of my everyday life from all the videos and the long messages of people wanting us back together, I swear to you, I haven't spoken to her since the day I broke up with her, but, It's about my feelings. I realized I'm not over her yet, I can't be with someone as good as you and still have feelings for my ex girlfriend. All I'm asking from you is just time, can I have some time, can you please not hate me?" I was speechless. I could've been anything. Anything, but this. I swear to you, I heard a crack from inside of me. I studied medicine for almost a decade and I've never heard of this possibility. I could hear my trust, my love, my happiness, our innocence crack.

"I just... I just.. I never believed another guy when they told me that I'm the most beautiful woman they've ever seen, but...but I chose to believe you." "No, plea-" "I guess beauty isn't all it takes, love at first sight isn't a reliable theory to find your soul mate. I guess, it's my fault for...for jumping into it too quickly? I mean, we could've avoided this, we could've stayed friends." "We still can stay friend-" "No we can't, meu am-Neymar" I guess it's an instinct of mine to call him that. I need to get used to it. I hate this part. "Why not?" "I can't do that. I don't have the strength for that. Maybe, you can move on from this in a day, but, me, I'm not like that, it takes time for me to get used to your absence as my partner." "Y/N, I'm confused. I'm fucking confused. I'm not saying I don't love you. The way you make me feel is..is magical, but, I still have something left from what I've gone through for almost ten years with that other person. I can't just erase that in an instant." "You don't have to do that Neymar. I never asked you to do that. But, your way of coping with this was to avoid me. That's not a good sign." We pause and look into each other's eyes. I guess this will be the last time we will do that. I will miss this. I will miss this the most. A tear rolls down his cheek, as does mine. "I guess I'll see you at work...mr. Neymar" "Don't do this" "Please take care of yourself, okay?" I reached over to kiss him and stopped, this was an instinct move. I guess he wanted to do the same before he realized. I smiled at him, that's all I could give him. I got into my car and drove. I drove for four hours before I stopped in the middle of an empty road. How am I going to heal from this? This is worse than last time. Last time I was cheated on, I only had to work on my trust issues. But, now, I have to work on my whole being.

#neymar #neymar jr #neymar imagine #neymar imagines #neymar x reader #neymar jr imagine #neymar jr imagines #neymar jr x reader #neymar masterlist #neymar jr masterlist #mbappe imagine #mbappe x reader #masterlist #football masterlist #football imagine #neymar jr fanfiction #fanfiction #football imagines

96 notes · View notes

canirove · 1 year

Text

Bluebell | Chapter 22

Author’s note: And we’ve made it to the end! Thank you very much to everyone who has read this story, liked it, shared it with others or commented. It always means a lot 💜

For those of you who like Rúben, next Tuesday (Jan 31) I’ll start posting a new story with him (will probably share a characters introduction and maybe the summary on Sunday), and if everything goes as planned, I’ll start posting a new story with Mason the week of Valentine’s Day.

Hope you like this last chapter, and again, sorry to some of you for the previous one 😅

Previous chapter

Masterlist

"Thank you for coming, Mason. I didn't know who else to call."

"It's ok, don't worry. Do you know where the generator is?"

"I think it is this big thing next to the heating system."

"This big thing" he chuckles.

"You know what I mean" I say as a thunder sounds somewhere very close.

"We should check it before the storm arrives. C'mon" Mason says.

It was announced that a huge storm would be hitting Bluebell, and everyone in town had been urged to stay safe, but also to check if they had everything that may be needed in case of flooding, power cuts... And since Rúben was out of town and couldn't check it all for me, Mason was my next option.

Every time we've been alone during these past few months, things have been great, we’ve behaved like we've always had (minus the having sex part, of course). When Rúben is around, it is a bit more tense, but both of them are doing their part to keep improving their relationship, and hopefully one day have a normal and civilized one.

"Everything is fine over here" Mason says after checking the generator. "If the power goes out, it should start working on its own."

"Thank you."

"But shouldn't you be staying with Mrs. Smart? You are eight months pregnant, and I don't see any guests coming in with this weather" he says as the whole room gets lightened, a thunder sounding just seconds after.

"I'm going there later for dinner, I'll be alright. I'll..."

"What? What is it?"

"I need to go to the bathroom."

"Are you ok?"

"Yeah, yeah, I just need to pee. Wait upstairs in the living room."

━━━━━━❃━━━━━━

"Mason..." I say when I meet him, the storm already here. "I’m in labour."

"You are in what?"

"I... Fuck!"

"Fuck what?"

"The baby is coming, Mason" I say, trying to breath through my contraction.

"Now?"

"Yes, now. And fast."

━━━━━━❃━━━━━━

"This... We shouldn't be doing this. You should be at the hospital, not here."

"Mason, there is no time to go to the hospital, you heard what they... Fuck!" I scream as I feel another contraction.

"But I don't know what to do! I've never seen a woman actually give birth, just what they show on movies!"

"Welcome to your first time, then" I say, trying to smile now that the pain has eased a bit. "Check how much I've dilated."

"What?"

"You heard what the midwife said, Mason. We must check it to know when it is time."

"Are you sure you want me to do it?"

"You are very familiar with that part of my body."

"I am, but I'm sure it doesn't look the same right now."

"Mason. Do it" I say, my voice sounding more like a grunt as I feel another contraction coming.

━━━━━━❃━━━━━━

"Ok guys, it's time to push" my midwife says over the phone.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck" Mason says.

"It's gonna be fine, I'll guide you, ok?"

"Ok" he repeats, taking a deep breath.

"Push!" the midwife says.

"Oh, oh, I see something!"

"That's good, that's good. Remember to breath and... Push!"

"The head! I see hair!"

"We are almost there, probably just another push. Are you both ready?"

"Yes" Mason and I say at the same time, our gazes focused on each other.

"Ok... Breath and... Push!"

━━━━━━❃━━━━━━

"Where are they?" Rúben says, storming into Daisy's.

"Shh, quiet. They are sleeping."

"Where are they, Mount?"

"I already told you. Sleeping. She needs to rest, and Mrs. Smart is keeping an eye on both of them. Her, and Dixie. That cat hasn’t left her side since she went into labour."

"Ok" Rúben says, letting out a big sigh and sitting down on the sofa. "What happened?"

"The baby got tired of waiting, and decided that the day the biggest storm in the past decade was hitting Bluebelll, was the perfect day to come to the world."

"And you were here?"

"Yep. Since you were busy, she asked me if I could come check the generator downstairs just in case there were power cuts. And an hour later, I was bringing a baby to the world."

"Thank God you were here. If she had been alone..."

"Yeah..." Mason whispers.

"Thank you."

"Uh?"

"Thank you for helping her and the baby."

"Of course. You know I would do anything for her. Even if she chose you and all that."

"Friends?" Rúben asks, offering him a hand.

"Friends-ish" Mason says, shaking it. "Fancy a drink to celebrate that the little one is here and both of them are safe and sound?"

"That sounds like a great idea. Do you know where she keeps the nice stuff?" Rúben asks with a smile.

"Oh, I do" Mason replies, also smiling.

"What do we toast to?" Rúben asks once they both have their drink.

"To the little one, of course. And to that amazing woman you have as a girlfriend" Mason says, lifting his glass.

"To them... And to you. Thank you for what you did. Again."

"Cheers, bro."

"Cheers, Mason."

━━━━━━❃━━━━━━

"You won't believe what I just saw downstairs."

“Please tell me the basement isn’t flooded and that we have ducks swimming on it.”

“No, nothing like that” Mrs. Smart says. “This is something good. I think.”

“You think?”

“Mason and Rúben were together downstairs, having a drink, and laughing.”

“They were doing what?”

“What you heard” she says. “Rúben also asked if he could come see you both. Are you ready?”

“I’m ready.”

━━━━━━❃━━━━━━

“Can I come in?” Rúben asks, opening the door.

“Of course. There is someone who is dying to meet you.”

“Hello, little one” he says, sitting on the bed next to me, caressing the baby’s head. Our baby. Our son.

“What do you think?” I ask him.

“He’s perfect. And you are amazing.”

“Me? What for?” I chuckle.

“Giving birth at home? With no drugs? And just with the help of Mason, who knows nothing about these things.”

“I had my midwife on the phone. And this is nothing compared to what other women do and go through.”

“I know. But to me, you are amazing” he says, kissing my cheek. “Can I hold him?”

“Of course. Little one, meet your dad. Dad, meet your son, the one who still doesn’t have a name” I say while putting him on his arms. He looks so tiny on them...

“Now that he is here, it’ll be easier, you’ll see” Rúben says, his eyes focused on him.

“I hope so. What about Mason?”

“I’m not naming him Mason.”

“That’s not what I meant” I say, rolling my eyes. “What was happening with him downstairs?”

“Oh, that” he chuckles. “Nothing. Just that this little guy may be the thing that will put an end to almost a decade of hating each other.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

“You are a miracle baby, little one” I say, kissing his head.

“Daniel.”

“What?”

“Daniel. Daniel Dias, with the accent on the e. I like how that sounds” Rúben says.

“No middle name?”

“Nah.”

“Daniel Dias... I like it. What do you think, Dixie?” He is sleeping at the end of my bed and hasn’t left my side for the past couple of hours, kind of protecting me. I sometimes wonder if that’s why my dad left him with me. To protect me now that he was gone.

“Meow” he says before stretching his legs and curling on a different position.

“I think that’s a yes, I like it.”

“Thank you, Dixie” Rúben laughs. “I love you, you know? You and Daniel. Both of you.”

“I love you too. Both of you” I say, resting my head on his shoulder and not being able to stop smiling while I watch him caressing our son’s head in the most loving and caring way I have ever seen.

I thought that after my ex and my best friend broke my heart, I would never recover from it. That I would never fall in love again. Make new friends. Find people I could consider my family.

Yet here I am, having found all that and more, feeling the luckiest and happiest woman in the world.

#mason mount #ruben dias #mason mount x reader #ruben dias x reader #mason mount fanfic #ruben dias fanfic #mason mount imagine #ruben dias imagine #football fanfic #football imagine

105 notes · View notes

igigix · 2 years

Text

Made Of Steel

Chapter 1: Get Into It

- Clark Kent (Superman) x Female Reader/You -

-> 18+ readers only!

-> English is not my native language, so bear with me because there will probably be some grammatical mistakes.

Summary: Desperate times desperate measures. Until the bargain becomes too much for you to handle, can you survive superman?

Rating: Mature, Explicit.

A/N: Ahla Bikom! I’m very excited about this fic—shoutout to @lokisbxtches for her support. I’m very lucky to have such amazing readers. This is for you. Please let me know if you think I should keep going. ENJOY.

Before you and Agent Abdul reached his vehicle in the outdoor parking lot, the rain began to fall heavily. You would have brought your umbrella if you had known. To keep up with him, you extended your strides while holding your bag above your head. Raindrops stung your cheeks as they lashed across your face in the wind. Finally, the agent opened the door for you while your tunic and shoes were drenched. You squeezed the water out of your braids and shut the door, trying in vain to save the leather seats from becoming ruined. Great, your hair was going to frizz.

"Thank you again for coming , doctor," he declared, getting inside the car with you.

"You said you needed my help, so here I am."

He quickly buckled his seatbelt before launching the engine and accelerating out of the hospital parking lot. You sat in silence, trying your best to get acclimated to the cold AC inside. You shivered as the breeze brushed against your arms and legs. Your wet clothes clung to your body.

"Oh, sorry," he apologized, noticing you quivering. He turned the AC off and zipped up the vents to blow warm air inside.

"It's alright," you answered, rubbing your arms. After that, the car was silent except for the steady rain tapping against the outside of the windows.

The city of Metropolis was quickly left behind, replaced by a growing grassy slope and a robust variety of old-growth trees. You recognized them from the many trees walks you had attended and the many summer camps you went to when you were just a little girl. The whole area was a common place to hike. The view was soothing and relaxing.

The agent drove thirty minutes through the forest. He finally began to slow down as you reached a massive building. The thick cemented walls and dark gray color gave the impression that what was inside was highly classified. The high-rise tower had a dizzying number of floors. The structure was guarded by four armed guards who stood at attention at the entrance. Once agent Adbul identified himself and displayed his badge, they let you through.

What is this place? You asked yourself as he parked the car. The purpose of your visit was not fully disclosed. A strange feeling started bubbling in your chest. It almost felt like dread.

"Here we are," agent Abdul announced, stepping out of the vehicle.

— — — —

"You want me to do some tests on superman?" you frowned. "No, I want to make sure I heard you right," you cast a doubtful look at the men in front of you. "Superman? The one who flies around Metropolis and stops supervillains? You want me to conduct tests on him?"

"Yes," one of the men, who introduced himself as agent Richards, nodded. "We need to understand his DNA, how his system works, the toiling of his body, the limitations-"

"Absolutely not," you firmly protested, cutting him off.

A serious look came over Richards' face as he removed his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose. "We don't have time for this," he huffed. "If you don't comply, I'll have your medical license revoked."

"Excuse me?"

"We are aware of your prior drug addiction, doctor. You talk a lot in those NA meetings."

You froze, stunned by his threat. His words reverberated through your mind.

"You have been monitoring me?"

"Just call it safety precautions," he replied, shrugging. "Do as you're told. You are not permitted to discuss this matter with anyone. I'm sure you understand it is a confidential case. Governmental affairs. Otherwise, I'll be forced to use extreme measures and you don't want that doctor, right?"

───────── ∙ ~εïз~ ∙ ──────────

- Masterlist -

- Taglist -

#henry cavill #henry cavill x reader #clark kent #clark kent x reader #superman #superman x reader

229 notes · View notes

xxrainshadowsxx · 9 months

Text

Interpersonal Chapter 5

Fancy events, a brief introduction of the sister (who might be my favorite character), and an ending I think you'll be very happy with.

The next evening, you're in your hotel room putting the final touches on your makeup for the gala. You hadn't seen much of Mr. Onceler since the plane-you'd suffered a silent taxi ride to the hotel and he'd shown you to your room, but beyond that, you'd been left to your own devices.

And that suits you just fine. You have no idea what you could even say to Mr. Onceler now that you have two highly embarrassing moments between the two of you, and this second one was much, much worse than the first.

However, you were both going to truly have to pretend neither of those events had ever occurred tonight. You were far too nervous about the company you were going to be keeping to not have his support.

You were at least mostly satisfied with the way you looked though. You doubted you'd be the most glamorous person at the gala, but you were also a far cry from the business professional you wore to work (and an even farther cry from the sweats you wore at home).

At seven on the dot, there's a knock at your hotel door. Mr. Onceler is nothing if not punctual. You stand and walk over to answer, putting the last of your small but pretty diamond earrings in your lobes as you do so.

You open the door and blink a few times; you almost don't recognize him. He's traded his green suit for a smart black and white one, and he's even abandoned his usual sunglasses and hat. The oddest thing about him, however, is his expression.

His mouth is stuck open; he's totally slack-jawed. His eyes are roaming your body up and down like he can't find a place to land them. "Is this okay? Do I need to change?" you ask, suddenly self-conscious. You think you look okay-you're in a midnight blue sheath with a slit up your right leg and no back to speak of. It had been a gift from your sister for graduation, but you'd never had a reason to wear it until now.

"No," he chokes out, his voice rather higher-pitched than normal. He clears his throat. "No, no, you're good. More than good… you look great… I mean, you'll fit right in." His cheeks are dusted with a light pink, and you can't help but feel highly amused by how flustered he is. "Is it warm up here?" he asks suddenly. "It feels really warm up here."

"I feel fine… but you're wearing a jacket and I'm not," you shrug, deciding at the last minute to take pity on him and not tease him mercilessly. "I do need your opinion on something though. I was planning on wearing my thneed like a scarf. You think that'll work?"

"Um, yeah. Yeah, that should look good," he mumbles. You nod a thanks, and start putting on the purple thneed, wearing it in a long scarf like you'd often seen him wear himself. "Sorry I'm so out of sorts, I've just… never seen you with your hair down before," he attempts to explain.

Really? That was the excuse he was going to use? He wasn't technically wrong; you had always worn your hair in a ponytail around him before, and now it was curled and unbound, but that wasn't near enough to elicit that type of reaction from him.

"Anyway! We should go," he announces. "I have a car waiting for us downstairs." You take a deep breath, then follow him down the hall to the elevator. "Hey, chin up," he encourages as you step into the elevator shaft. "Don't worry. It can't be any worse than flying, can it?"

You let out a short, bark-like laugh. "No, it can't," you admit ruefully. "I'll still need a bit of help to make sure I don't embarrass myself or you though."

He waves his hand as the elevator opens to the ground floor. "I told you, just stick by me all night, you'll be fine. In no time, you'll be a pro at these." That wasn't as comforting as he probably meant it, but you don't say anything and allow him to lead you to the car, which thankfully isn't a limo this time.

The ride there is both agonizingly long and far too short. It's being held at a museum of some sort, but there's no room to park the car; the outside of the venue is littered with people and even paparazzi.

"You've got this," he murmurs before stepping out of the car and offers you his hand to help you out the door as well. With one more breath to steel yourself, you take his hand and are thrust into the limelight.

The first thing you're aware of is the flashing lights as the cameras go mad when they realize someone else has arrived. There's a cacophony of voices, though you're not able to make out any individual words.

Mr. Onceler tucks your arm firmly inside his own as he leads you over to the throng. "Just smile and bear it. This part will be over soon," he says directly into your ear as you turn toward the paparazzi. You do your best to fix a charming but reserved smile on your face, since you're sure some of these pictures are going to end up in the tabloids tomorrow, even if he releases a statement saying you aren't together.

But that might not even be enough. You see a few of the journalists put their heads together, and you're sure they're talking about you. Great. Just what you needed was a scandal to add to your not-so-appropriate behavior.

Thankfully, he keeps his promise. After a couple minutes, he steers the two of you away from the press. The cameras don't stop clicking, but he doesn't pay them any mind, and you force yourself to follow his example.

He starts introducing you to an impossibly large number of people. Their names flee your mind the second you hear them. There aren't too many questions asked-Mr. Onceler always makes sure to tell people you're his PA-but you do get a few odd looks here and there. You're beginning to wonder if it's an anomaly for people to bring their staff as their plus-ones.

"Mr. Onceler! Mr. Onceler!" A journalist plants herself in front of the two of you, looking like she has no intention of letting you leave until she gets at least a short interview in. Mr. Onceler obliges her, but gives very short answers as she asks about the company at first. Then she gets to the inevitable question, presumably the reason she wanted to talk to him in the first place. "And who's your date this evening?"

"This is my PA. She very graciously agreed to accompany me tonight," he replies. Out of everything this evening, this answer of his throws you off worse than anything else so far. Although he clarified your position, he didn't deny that you were his date. You almost question him, but decide at the last minute it's probably better to keep your mouth shut until you're out of earshot from the press; anything you say could easily be twisted and end up in the papers.

"Anyway, if you'll excuse us, I believe the doors have just been opened, so we really should be making our way inside," he says, expertly finagling you out of the situation. He's not even lying either; people are indeed beginning to move into the museum. "I hate it when they make me give interviews," he grumbles as you move along with the rest of the throng.

"You could have warned me about the amount of paparazzi that were going to be here," you whisper back. "You do realize that they all think we're dating, right? And that this is going to cause a huge scandal?"

He merely scoffs at that. "We're not doing anything wrong," he insists. "I've clarified you're my PA, and we're not doing anything indecent. If the tabloids want to try and make a mess of things, that'll be the easiest thing my PR team has ever had to clean up."

You're not completely convinced, but you don't really want to argue with him tonight. You wouldn't have time anyway; he seems to spot someone and starts steering you in the opposite direction. "I want you to meet Vivienne Woods. She's the lovely lady responsible for the wonderful party tonight," he says while leading you to a woman who looks to be in her forties and who's clearly had the money to age like a fine wine.

Vivienne Woods was a name you actually recognize. She's one of the most well known fashion designers in the world (which probably explained why Mr. Onceler was laying on the charm so thickly). Though she mostly worked in bridal, she did dabble in other areas of women's fashion as well.

"Oh, Oncie, stop, you're too nice," she laughs. You wonder if she noticed the slight wince your boss gave when she called him 'Oncie.' "Although I don't believe I've met your lovely companion here?"

You wait for him to introduce you again, but after a slight pause you realize that's not going to happen. You hastily give your name and explain your connection to Mr. Onceler. As you do so, Vivienne eyes your dress. "Is this one of mine?" she asks.

There's not a chance in hell your sister would have been able to afford a Vivienne Woods dress. But that probably isn't the best idea to point out. "I'm not sure," you say cautiously. "My sister bought it for me as a gift, so I'm afraid I didn't see any tags."

"Doesn't she look lovely though?" Mr. Onceler steps in. "Whoever designed it, you can't deny she wears it spectacularly."

"Oh… of course not," Vivienne says, clearly caught off guard.

"Well, we won't take up any more of your time. I'm certain you're a popular woman this evening," he laughs. "Hopefully we'll run into you later." He steers you away and finally his smile drops into a grimace. "Miserable old bat," he mumbles.

You look up at him in surprise. "Could've fooled me," you murmur. "I was convinced you actually liked her. You seemed sincere enough."

"Good, that means I'm doing my job well," he sighs. "The only reason I'm here at all is because she wants to use trufulla in one of her dress designs. Obviously the use of trufulla by anyone outside the company has to be heavily monitored, so I have to keep her happy so she'll only use it in ways we agreed on and I don't have to deal with another lawsuit on my hands." He sighs again. "And don't get fooled by this party either. The only reason she puts it on is so she can get complimented on how great she is."

You quirk an eyebrow at him. "Are you trying to pretend that flattery doesn't work on you, too?"

He finally gives you a smirk. "Okay, yes, but at least I admit that." He glances down at you with a curious look on his face. "You handled her well though. She doesn't respect anyone who doesn't speak for themselves."

"So that's why you had me talk to her. I was wondering," you say. "I'm glad you think I did well. Inside I was freaking out trying not to say the wrong thing."

"Don't worry, no one could tell," he grins. His eyes flicker to the side for a moment. "Come dance with me?" he asks abruptly.

"What?"

"Come dance with me," he repeats a little more forcefully this time. You're completely unperturbed, but you allow him to lead you to a small dance floor where a live band is playing classical music without complaint.

He takes one of your hands and snakes the other around you to place it on the small of your back, while you rest your free hand just above his elbow. He leads you in a slow waltz for a few moments before you pluck up the courage to ask him the question that's been bugging at you all night.

"So, why am I here?" you murmur very quietly so no one but him would hear it. "I mean, did you really need your PA to come with you to something this fancy? I feel like I'm more of a hindrance than a help."

He was silent for a long while. "Do you really want the truth?" he asks in a low tone.

"I wouldn't have posited the question if I didn't."

"I wanted you to come for purely selfish reasons. I hate going to these things… but more than anything, I hate going to them alone. I figured if you were here, you might make things a little less lonely," he admits.

You swallow heavily. "And have I managed to fulfill that particular request sir?" you whisper.

"Exceptionally well," he breathes. The room is still filled with people, but at that moment, you're only aware of just the two of you, lost in your own little world together.

You were so lost, in fact, you thought you just might let him kiss you if he tried. The mood was certainly there, the tension between you just about to snap…

And then all of the sudden, with zero warning, there's people in the room again. You're not sure how or why, but both of you look away from each other at the same time. "I think I owe you a drink, don't I?" he says to try and cover up the lost moment.

You take hold of the lifeline offered. "Yes, you do. As many drinks as I want, actually," you remind him. The two of you resume the party, perfectly poised for the rest of the evening, but you can't help but wish that the two of you were allowed that little bubble of perfection of being alone, even if it was only for a minute.

Right before you're set to leave, you get a call. You're in the middle of packing your makeup, but pause when you see it's from your sister. You can always make time for her. "Hey, Rora, what's up?" you ask as you answer.

"You tell me," she giggles. "I have to say, I was a little surprised when I went to the grocery store this morning and found an article in a magazine about how my baby sister of all people is dating her mega-billionaire boss. How come you didn't tell me?"

You groan and flop down on the bed. Great. That meant that along with your tarnished reputation, Mr. Onceler would have to deal with a lawsuit which was bound to put him in a bad mood, and you'd have to bear the brunt of it. "I'm not dating him!" you exclaim, already exasperated by the amount of people you'd have to say that to. "If I was dating him, which I'd never do because of my job, just putting that out there, you'd be the first to know. All the journalists just think things because they saw us at that stupid party together-"

"Relax, I'm just teasing," she says, and even over the phone you see her signature wicked grin. "I know you're the last person in the world to do anything remotely scandalous. And to be fair, the article did add the caveat that you never actually confirmed you were dating. It just said you never denied it either."

"I told him he should have," you grumble. "I told him people were going to think we were a couple. But getting that man to do anything sensible is like pulling teeth."

"Oh," Aurora says interestedly. "So if you had it your way, you would be a couple then."

"What? No!" you squeak. "Honestly, where could you possibly get that idea from anything I said about him?"

"You forget who you're talking to," she says smugly. "I know you better than anyone else, remember? But if I needed any further proof, your instant denial did the trick. You would've laughed at me if I was wrong."

You can't even refute her. She's got you nailed, and any further objections would just be more proof in her mind that you wanted to date your boss. You don't want to date him… you've just occasionally wanted him to kiss you. Totally different.

Fortunately, you're spared from answering. Unfortunately, it's because your boss has knocked on the door. "I have to go, Rora," you say with a huff as you open the door to let him in. "The rest of my day is doomed to be spent in a flying metal death machine."

"Okay… ooh! Maybe you can cuddle with him if you get scared-" You hang up quickly before Mr. Onceler can accidentally catch any of her words. He does give you an odd look, but you assume it's from the mess of your items still strewn over the bed.

"Sorry. That was my sister. She occasionally gets in these moods where she delights in being a menace, so she was teasing me about something and distracted me. I'll be done with packing in a moment," you mumble.

"Oh… must have been some teasing," he notes. "Your face is really red."

You curse your sister to the deepest depths of hell where she belongs.

The takeoff is predictably awful, but at least this time he doesn't blindfold you with his tie; he's found a plain white cloth somewhere that he uses instead. He also doesn't whisper in your fucking ear this time, and while you kind of miss it, at least it doesn't put confusing thoughts in your head that you shouldn't be having.

This trip is much more laid back. Instead of being stupid and agreeing to sleep in the same bed as him, you've simply agreed to watch a couple movies together. You'd even done the responsible and nixed any rom-coms. You're instead watching some popular superhero movie that's just come out. You don't really understand the plot, but the mindless action is good for turning your brain off.

You're existing in comfortable camaraderie when the plane suddenly hits a giant bout of turbulence. Turbulence that's so bad you literally fly out of your seat. There's nothing in the world that could've stopped the extremely loud shriek that comes out of your mouth. Not even landing in his lap a moment later.

He jumps when you land on him, but recovers quicker than you do. You're trembling like mad, but he wraps his arms around you comfortingly. "Hey, hey, we're safe. You're safe. I've got you," he murmurs as he strokes your hair slowly and methodically. Without meaning to, you lean into his touch. You know it's not the smartest thing to do, especially not with the article Aurora told you about floating around, but on the other hand, it's not like there's anyone up here to see you.

Whatever the reasons against it, you can't bring yourself to move off his lap, and he makes no attempt to have you move either. You're just staring into each other's eyes, creating a moment very much like the one you'd had a few nights ago at the gala. And unlike that time, there's no one around to break this moment. And it seems neither of you is all too keen on breaking it yourselves.

In fact, he's moved his hand now so that he's holding the back of your head instead of stroking your hair. His fingers are woven into your tresses, but he's definitely holding your head firmly in place.

And without giving you any chance to think yourself out of it, he lunges forward, pressing his lips firmly on yours. And you're kissing him back before you can remind yourself of the ramifications of doing so.

With a low groan, he moves his free hand to the back of your neck as his tongue impatiently swipes along your lower lip. You instantly grant him access to the wet cavern of your mouth.

You bring your own hand up to rest on the side of his face. He leans into your touch just as easily as you leaned into his. You crane your neck at a different angle, trying to get impossibly closer to him.

You only pull back when you're in need of air. He rests his forehead against yours as you both catch your breath. "I had to do that at least once," he confesses in a low tone before pulling away, gently prying you off his lap. Before you can protest, he stands up and announces, "It looks like we've landed. We're just pulling into the terminal now." You glance out the window, and to your amazement you find he's right. You were so lost in his kiss, you hadn't even noticed the plane landing.

You don't say anything as he gathers his suitcase together. You have no idea what to say. It shouldn't have happened? You wanted more? The two sides are at war within you.

Eventually, he decides for you. Right before he's allowed off the plane he turns towards you and says, "Another thing for our never speak of it again agreement?" Without waiting for an answer, he turns and disembarks, leaving you more confused than you've ever been in your entire life.

#fanfiction #onceler fanfiction #onceler x reader #the lorax #the onceler #onceler #also on ao3

26 notes · View notes